LECTUEE XX. 

 VIS MEDICATRIX NATURE. 



§ 1. Biological Aspects of the Healing Power of Nature. § 2. 

 Psychological Aspects of the Healing Power of Nature. § A. 

 Correspondence in Animate Nature to our Ideals of the True, 

 the Beautiful, and the Good. § 4. Humanist Value of the 

 Study of Animate Evolution. § 5. Scientific Description of 

 Animate Nature Not Inconsistent with Religious Interpretation. 



§ 1. Biological Aspects of the Healing Power of Nature. 



In many different ways Man has realised the healing 

 power of l^ature — vis medicatrix Naturce — and all of them 

 are instructive. One might refer, for instance, to the hi^al- 

 ing virtues in many natural substances, both animal and 

 vegetable, some of which are extraordinarily quaint. It has 

 been re-discovered in modern times that more than one snake 

 carries in its gall-bladder a sure antidote to its own venom. 

 Is not the old advice that the coward should eat of the heart 

 of a lion, so that he might be brave, echoed in the modern 

 treatment of a cretinoid child with the thyroid gland of a 

 sheep? Is it not like a leaf out of an old book of magic 

 to read that an enlightened use of pituitary extract enabled 

 a successful examinee to add in a short time to his ht^ght 

 the couple of inches that were required in order to secure 

 a post for which he had proved himself otherwise eligible? 

 It looks as if by taking sufficient thought one might be able 

 to add a cubit to one's stature. 



Interesting too is the reparatory power exhibited by many 

 living creatures. One of the Big Trees or Sequoias which 



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