352 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



good, of Boston,* reports four cases of eczema and one of derma- 

 titis cured or improved by suggestion. One, for example, was 

 that of B, boy of eleven, who had suffered from eczema since he 

 was eighteen months old; his body was nearly covered by the 

 eruption and consequent scabs, and the itching was intolerable. 

 He had been treated by many dermatologists without the least 

 success. Dr. Osgood hypnotized him and told him the itching 

 would cease and the skin would become sound. The itching was 

 immediately relieved, and the eruption was nearly gone in a fort- 

 night and quite gone in a month. 



The most extraordinary case of the kind, however, that I have 

 yet seen comes from Moscow, and is vouched for by Prof. Koz- 

 hevnikoff, the most eminent neurologist of Russia. The account 

 which I transcribe is from the British Medical Journal, Novem- 

 ber 16, 1895.1 



" A * miraculous ' cure has recently occurred in Moscow, where 

 it has caused considerable excitement. It is perhaps a more than 

 usually interesting instance, and therefore deserving of the per- 

 manent record given to it by Prof. Kozhevnikoff, who gave the 

 details of the case at the last meeting of the Society of Neuro- 

 pathologists in Moscow. The professor had not had the patient 

 under his treatment, but had seen him more than once both before 



and after the ' cure.^ The patient, N D , was a lecturer in 



the Moscow University. He had suffered from a severe form of 

 sycosis menti since June, 1894, for which he underwent treatment 

 at the hands of various specialists — among others, of Profs. Kaposi, 

 of Vienna ; Schwimmer, of Buda-Pesth ; Lassar, of Berlin ; Pos- 

 pidlof, of Moscow ; and Stukovenkof, of Kief. In April last he re- 

 turned to Moscow. His chin was then covered with a freely sup- 

 purating eruption. He now sought the advice of a ' wise woman,* 

 an attendant at the baths, who was in the habit of giving herbs 

 and 'simples' to her clients. In this case no such remedy was 



employed. N D was told to meet the woman next morning 



at five o'clock in the Temple of the Saviour, the colossal church on 

 the Moskva River, which has been building all the century and 

 is yet incomplete, in memory of the famous events of 1812. He 

 came as told, and while he remained a passive onlooker, the 

 woman prayed for three or four minutes; the same thing was re- 

 peated that evening and again the following morning. But in the 

 meantime the eruption of N D 's face had begun to im- 

 prove ; the discharge ceased, the swelling subsided, and in twenty- 

 four hours scarcely a sign of disease was left. Such are the facts 

 as given by the patient himself, and confirmed by Prof. Kozhevni- 



* Revue dc rHypnotisme, ix, 300. 



•I" See a more complete account in the Revue de I'llypiiotisme, January, 1896. 



