258 INFLUENCE OF THE BRAIN ON HEALTH. 



tion of Sir Humphry Davy, when, early in life, he 

 was assisting Dr. Beddoes in his experiments on 

 the inhalation of nitrous oxide. Dr. Beddoes having 

 inferred that the oxide must be a specific for palsy, 

 a patient was selected for trial, and placed under the 

 care of Davy. Previously to administering the gas, 

 Davy inserted a small thermometer under the tongue 

 Of the patient to ascertain the temperature. The 

 paralytic man, wholly ignorant of the process to 

 which he was to submit, but deeply impressed by 

 Dr. Beddoes with the certainty of its success, no 

 sooner felt the thermometer between his teeth than 

 he concluded the talisman was in operation, and in 

 a burst of enthusiasm declared that he had already 

 experienced the effects of its benign influence 

 throughout his whole body. The opportunity was 

 too tempting to be lost. Davy did nothing more, 

 but .desired his patient to return on the following 

 day. The same ceremony was repeated, the same 

 result followed ; and at the end of a fortnight he was 

 dismissed cured, no remedy of any kind, except the 

 thermometer, having ever been used.* Quacks 

 profit largely by taking advantage of this principle 

 of our nature ; and regular practitioners would do 

 well to bestow more pains than they do in assisting 

 their treatment by well-directed moral influence. 

 Baglivi was deeply impressed with this sentiment 

 when he said, " I can scarcely express how much 

 the conversation of the physician influences even 

 the life of his patient, and modifies his complaints. 

 For a physician powerful in speech, and skilled in 

 addressing the feelings of a patient, adds so much 

 to the power of his remedies, and excites so much 

 confidence in his treatment, as frequently to over- 

 come dangerous diseases with very feeble remedies, 

 which more learned doctors, languid and indifferent 



* Paris's Life of Daw. p. 51 



