FALLACIES OF TESTIMONY. 583 



studied the action of mental states upon the bodily organism. And 

 that round a nucleus of truth there should have gathered a large ac- 

 cretion of error, under the influence of the mental preconception whose 

 modus operandi I have endeavored to elucidate, is accordant with the 

 teachings of our own recent experience, in such cases as that of Dr. 

 Newton and the Zouave Jacob. In these and similar phenomena, a 

 strong conviction of the possession of the power on the part of the 

 healer seems to be necessaiy for the excitement of the faith of those 

 operated on ; and the healer recognizes, by a kind of intuition, the ex- 

 istence of that faith on the part of the patient. Do not several phrases 

 in the gospel narratives point to the same relations as existing be- 

 tween Jesus and the sufferers who sought his aid ? The cure is con- 

 stantly attributed to the "faith" of the patient; while, on the other 

 hand, we are told that Jesus did not do many mighty works in his 

 own country "because of their unbelief" the very condition which, 

 if these mighty works had been performed by his own will alone, 

 would have been supposed to call forth its exertion, but which is per- 

 fectly conformable to our own experience of the wonders of mesmer- 

 ism, spiritualism, etc. So Paul is spoken of as " steadfastly behold- 

 ing " the cripple at Lystra, " and seeing that he had faith to be 

 healed." 



The potency of influences of the opposite kind upon minds predis- 

 posed to them, and through their minds upon their bodies, is shown 

 in the " Obeah practices " still lingering among the negroes of the 

 "West India colonies, in spite of most stringent legislation. A slow 

 pining away, ending in death, has been the not unfrequent result of 

 the fixed belief on the part of the victim that " Obi " has been put 

 upon him by some old man or old woman reputed to possess the inju- 

 rious power ; and I see no reason to doubt that the Obi men or women 

 were firm believers in the occult power attributed to them. 



Every medical man of large experience is well aware how strongly 

 the patient's undoubting faith in the efiicacy of a particular remedy 

 or mode of treatment assists its action ; and, where the doctor is him- 

 self animated by such a faith, he has the more power of exciting it in 

 others. A simple prediction, without any remedial measure, will 

 sometimes work its own fulfillment. Thus, Sir James Paget tells of a 

 case in which he strongly impressed a woman, having a sluggish, non- 

 malignant tumor in the breast, that this tumor would disperse within 

 a month or six weeks ; and so it did. He perceived the patient's na- 

 ture to be one on which the assurance would act favorably, and no one 

 could more earnestly and effectually enforce it. On the other hand, a 

 fixed belief on the part of the patient that a mortal disease has seized 

 upon the frame, or that a particular operation or system of treatment 

 will prove unsuccessful, seems in numerous instances to have been the 

 real occasion of the fatal result. 



Many of the so-called " miracles " of the Romish Church, such as 



