670 EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 



where these affect the cerebro-spinal system. In nervous diseases 

 diagnosis proceeds largely upon a psychological study of abnor- 

 malities in sensation, idea, and utterance. It is not necessary to 

 complicate the matter by any discussion of the relations of mind 

 and body, nor to take sides in the debate between interaction and 

 parallelism. Stated in purely physical terms, it is but recalling to 

 mind the necessity of taking into account the intimate and pecul- 

 iar influence which conditions of excitement in the central nerv- 

 ous system exert upon the general metabolism of the body, and 

 the question is solely as to the variety of indications of which the 

 neurologist or alienist may avail himself and the range of alterna- 

 tives from which his treatment is to be selected. In the cases under 

 discussion the determination does not rest solely upon anatomical 

 dissection or physiological measurements or chemical analysis, but 

 involves constantly an interpretative discernment of conditions 

 inaccessible to direct examination through an observation of the 

 whole system of mental attitudes and expressions which the patient 

 manifests. Temperament, mental habits, resiliency of will, the 

 very creed and philosophical point of view of a patient, must be 

 included in the system of factors which indicate or influence the 

 history of his disease. May it not be said that into every persist- 

 ent functional trouble these factors enter deeply, and that the 

 treatment of hysteria and insanity and the hundred and one ail- 

 ments which cluster about unstable nervous function achieves 

 success in proportion to the adequacy of the neurologist's acquaint- 

 ance with medical psychology? A thorough course in the general 

 science of mind is desirable in the preparation of every practi- 

 tioner; but for the nerve specialist a knowledge of the results of 

 experimental research on normal function, as well as its variations, 

 is absolutely indispensable. For it must be remembered that in 

 his work practice as well as diagnosis is largely mental in its na- 

 ture. Drugs take a secondary place. The patient must be soothed, 

 encouraged, and guided into new mental habits by a process of 

 suggestion, stimulation, and restraint. The establishment through 

 mental therapeutics of a more normal central condition, supple- 

 mented by food, air, and exercise, is trusted to bring about a restora- 

 tion of equilibrium among the secondarily disturbed processes of 

 the body. 



Psycho-physical investigation has transformed our views as to the 

 nature and origin of idiocy and epilepsy, of hysteria and insanity, 

 and all the troubles of that misused and afflicted class, the men- 

 tally deranged; and has made over the whole system of treatment 

 to which they are subjected. It is affecting more and more widely 

 the general practice of the physician, by emphasizing the signi- 

 ficant part which mental attitudes play in the history of disease. 



