009 



♦ KNOA^LEDGE ♦ 



[May 1, 1886. 



can kill or spare ; if lie kills, how should he escape reproba- 

 tion ? And might he not be so situated that libeity to 

 choose oneorotherconrseiuight be abused if he told the truth? 

 His fatal veracity might not be the offspring of a tender 

 conscience, but of greed or some other evil passion. The 

 doctor in the cases considered by Todd is somewhat 

 similarly circumstanced. He is satisfied that there is 

 a chance, at any I'ate, of saving life, if his patient is 

 assured that certain substances are medicines potent to 

 cure. Is he justified in refusing to his patient this chance 

 of life ? Doctois might unquestionably use for a wrong 

 purpose the right of misleading a patient for his good ; but 

 they might ;ise for a worse purpose the right (if they 

 posses.sed it) of killing him with the blunt truth. 



A singular case, bearing in .some degree on the right to 

 mislead a patient, was described a few months ago in a 

 public address by a well-known American doctor. A j'oung 

 lady in one of the Western States was convinced that a 

 bristle of her tooth-brush had become imbedded in her 

 throat, and was causing mischief there, which would ter- 

 minate fatally if the foreign body were not removed. The 

 family doctor, and after him several physicians of repute, 

 examined her throat, and all agreed in assuring her (which 

 really was the case) that there was no bristle there at all. 

 She continued to grow worse, the imaginary bristle causing 

 all the effects which a real bristle might perhaps have 

 caused — at any rate, all the effects which she imagined that 

 a I'eal bristle would cause. At last a young surgeon was 

 consulted, who followed a different line of treatment. Look- 

 ing long and carefully at her throat, and examining the 

 afflicted pai-t with several instruments, he at last gravely 

 assured her that she was quite right ; a bristle was there, 

 and the inflammation she experienced was undoubtedly due 

 to it. He could not, he said, remove the bristle at once, as 

 the only instrument which would effectually reach it was at 

 home. He went home for it, as he said, but really to inclose 

 in an instrument of suitable form a bi-istle from a tooth-lirush. 

 Eeturning, he carefully uip|ied the skin of the throat where 

 the young lady felt the pricking of the non-exLstent liristle, 

 and, after causing her enough discomfort to satisfy her that 

 this time the operation of extracting the biistle was certainly 

 in progress, he withdrew the instrument in triumph, and 

 along with it the bristle, which had indeed first entered her 

 mouth in that instrument's company. From that time she 

 recovered rapidly. For it will be understood that, though 

 there was no real cause for her feais, a i-eal initation had 

 been excited by them, and organic mischief had i-esulted. 

 The stoi-y ends here so far as our present subject is con- 

 cerned, though as a tale it may seem to many incomplete 

 without a few words more. The young surgeon, we are told, 

 was highly in favour thenceforth. He had not only saved 

 her life, as she supposed, but had shown her to have been 

 right, and all her friends, as well as the other doctors, wrong. 

 She would have accepted his hand but for the circumstance 

 that, having already a wife, he omitted to offer it. She 

 blazoned abroail his fame, however, until he had become 

 fomous "throughout the whole State." All would have 

 ended pleasantly had he not in a moment of weakness con- 

 fided the true explanation of the young lady's cure to his 

 wife — of course, under ]ii'omise of strict secresy — which, 

 however, did not prevent the story from reaching the young 

 lady's ears in a few hours. It is hardly necessary to say 

 that thenceforth her feelings towards the doctor were the 

 reverse of those she had entertained before. True, she 

 owed her cure to him, but the cure was worse than the 

 illness. 



In the case last considered, which, be it remembered, 

 actually occurred, though jirobably some of the surroundings 

 were a little altered by the narrator, the truth, supported 



though it was by the weight of authority, not of one doctor 

 only, but of several, was found ineffective to arouse the will 

 of the jiatienteven against a disease which had had its origin 

 in her imagination only. We may well doubt then -ix-hether, 

 if the influence of the mind on bodily jirocesses were 

 thoroughly recognised and admitted, it will befoimd possible 

 to produce the same effect by a direct and truthful appeal to 

 the will as by misleading the patient. That some few per- 

 sons of strong will could by a resolute effort check the pro- 

 gress of actual disease in their internal organs, or excite 

 processes of organic change resulting in cure, mav be ad- 

 mitted,* but it must at the same time be admitted that in 

 the large majority of cases this would not happen, even if 

 the patient could be persuaded to make the attempt. It is 

 only when unconscious of control that the ordinary mind is 

 capable of directing the attention fixedly in the way recpiired. 

 And of course, in the great majority of cases, the doctor has 

 to deal with men of ordinary mind, not with those possessing 

 strong powei' of fixing the attention, and resolute will to 

 exert that power. 



(7'o he continued.) 



INTRODUCTORY STUDIES IN GREEK ART.t 



ISS HARRISON'S new book is one which 

 may be read with interest by many classes 

 of i-eaders. It is a u.seful addition to the 

 library of the art student, and it throws a 

 light on art matters which the general 

 reader will be glad to find. The authoress 

 is no superficial dabbler, nor does she lose 

 iscir in dry technicalities, but she endeavours to explore 

 the causes and motives of artistic developments, and to 

 grasp the spirit while not neglecting the letter. Thus she 

 shows the influence exerci.sed on the Greeks by the art of 

 Egypt, Assyria, and Phoenicia, and deals with the early 

 artists in a masterly fashion. She points out how the 

 apparent monotony and conventionality of Egyptian art 

 mainly arose from the conservative character of the people, 

 as influenced by the physical peculiarities of their country, 

 by the despotism of their kings, who, in the longing for 

 immortality and the love of self-glorification, commanded 

 the vast size of their monuments, and by the hard material 

 employed for the sake of durability by a preference charac- 

 teristic of the Egyptians, who preserved their mummies in 

 the belief that the soul would in some far distant time 

 return to its disused body. The want of ideality in Egyptian 

 statues may be traced to the fact that they were not jirimarily 

 intended as ohjets d'arf, but were actual I'epresentations of 

 the individual rendered as lifelike as possible, so that, if 

 when the soul returned it should find its mummy in an 

 imperfect condition, it should take up its abode in the 

 statue, and tu this end they were buried with the mummy 

 to lie hidden from the world until discovered by the pick 



* I offer the following experience with some diffidence, because 

 the effects supposed to have resulted from an effort of the mind may 

 be otherwise -explained — possibly were due to mere coincidence. 

 Still, such effects have been noticed in so many cases, that I am 

 disposed to explain them in the way suggested. It has frequently 

 happened to me that during a busy week, fortnight, or month of 

 lecturing I have noticed signs of an incipient cold— such signs as 

 under ordinary conditions have been nearly always followed by a 

 severe cold with loss of voice. Now I have observed that in the 

 majority of instances of this kind no such sequel has followed, 

 although no greater care has been taken to check the progress of 

 the cold than at other times. It is as though the strong feeling 

 that I must not take cold prevented me from doing so. 



f "Introductory Studies in Greek Art." By J. E. Harrison. 

 T. Fisher Unwin, London. 1885. 



