CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 217 



horses which refuse to move until their attention is distracted by a 

 lump of sugar, blowing into the ear, or putting a pinching instrument 

 upon the lip, which succeed where a severe beating only increases the 

 obstinate immobility. Many cases of such fixed ideas are on record, 

 which have been cured by fright. One old doctor was in the habit 

 of curing bedridden patients by letting mice loose on their beds, until 

 they ran shrieking from the room, forgetting all about their ailments. 



In a recent case, the husband was sent for the physician, leaving 

 the patient alone in the house. The telephone rang so continuously 

 that she rose and answered it, and was so absorbed in scolding him for 

 not returning in time to receive the call that she forgot that she was 

 out of bed for the first time in years. One man who had a most severe 

 case of asthma, which had caused him the most serious discomfort, was 

 completely cured by the fright of the Kingston earthquake, and has 

 had no relapse, though forced to live under conditions of considerable 

 hardship. This is vouched for by the writer out of his own experience. 



Now, while cases of this nature are very refractory to drugs and 

 other medical treatment, they yield with surprising readiness to mental 

 therapeutics. The attention of the patient is distracted, a desire for 

 cure is firmly implanted, interest is excited, and all the conditions are 

 made favorable. The process is not dissimilar from that of stimulating 

 the motion of balky horses with lumps of sugar. The fact that there 

 is no real disease evidently accounts for the failure of the skilled 

 physician. 



The successes of Christian Science are largely in these cases, which 

 are principally found among women of the middle and upper classes, 

 who live luxurious, self-indulgent lives, are over-fed, under-exercised, 

 have no occupations or absorbing interests in life, and concentrate 

 their attention upon themselves and their ailments. We are not sur- 

 prised to find that converts belong very largely to this class, or to learn 

 that many relatives bless any belief that will turn a nervous, sickly, 

 complaining invalid into a cheerful, though perhaps a bit too superior 

 and self-complacent member of society. 



A very large percentage of all the cures of all systems of medical 

 treatment without the use of drugs may safely be classed under some of 

 the heads which we have already discussed. It is not unreasonable to 

 group with mental healing many methods more generally accepted 

 by the community, such as " high dilutionist " homeopathy, osteopathy, 

 massage, electricity, water and bath cures, and even allopathy, whieh, 

 as every physician knows, habitually employs " bread pills " and other 

 similar methods of influencing the minds of the patients. 



Making all allowances, however, there are a number of cases of 

 genuine cures, as the result of mental treatment, of serious diseases, 

 which have defied all regular medical processes. The discouragingly 



