612 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



dition, and is of immediate public interest. The man who conquers 

 a dangerous disease or who performs a difficult surgical operation needs 

 no other endorsement. Unless he allows avarice to draw him into a 

 practise more extensive than his constitution will bear, he will have 

 a fair degree of leisure for liberalizing his mind by the study of sub- 

 jects outside of bis particular sphere. The history of modern times 

 no less than that of antiquity offers many examples of medical men 

 whose interests were almost coextensive with those of mankind. That 

 the physician, the investigator, the philosopher and the litterateur may 

 be happily blended in one person is finely illustrated by the latest, 

 though it is to be hoped not the last, volume either of the man or of 

 his kind, the ' Aequanimitas ' of Dr. Osier. 



No one who is acquainted with human nature will be surprised 

 when he learns that the class of medical practitioners known as ' quacks ' 

 flourished among the comparatively enlightened Greeks of ancient 

 times. Often, however, the quack is one who strives after results by 

 a method that has been tabooed by the corporation to whose regulations 

 it is assumed that he ought to have subscribed. Though he is an out- 

 law, before the tribunal of mortals he may be just as good as if he 

 were an in-law. That mysterious and apparently inscrutable part of 

 our being known as the nervous system has always presented problems 

 which medical practitioners have been unable to solve. Why should 

 not a faith-cure be as legitimate as any other cure, provided it is 

 genuine? And there have been faith-cures time out of mind. When 

 persons can not control their own imaginations, the task would seem to 

 be doubly difficult for any one else. Often the most important part 

 of the physician's business is to arouse in his patient the will to get 

 well, and whatever will accomplish this can not be stigmatized as fraud. 

 When hope is lost all is lost. I have known not a few persons who 

 died because they did not want to live or were at least indifferent ; and 

 probably an equal number who materially lengthened their lives by the 

 mere determination not to die. My attention was drawn to this 

 phase of pathology many years ago by a curious incident that came 

 under my observation when I was a mere lad. I did not hit upon the 

 explanation until long afterwards. I have seen the same thing re- 

 peated many times since then. A vender of medicaments of his own 

 concoction used to visit our neighborhood about twice a year. One 

 day as he was driving along he began to feel unwell, and, contrary to 

 the proverb that doctors never take their own medicines, picked from 

 his chest a vial containing what he believed would afford him relief, 

 and drank some of its contents without looking at the label. Having 

 occasion shortly afterward to leave his wagon to visit one of his cus- 

 tomers, it occurred to him that he had drunk from a bottle containing 

 a strong poison. He at once began to feel very sick. A sort of stupor 



