SOME EELATIONS OF MIND AXD BODY. 151) 



If the iinconscions mind be stimulated at such times it can 

 exert extraordinary and apparently unlimited powers over 

 the body. An actual blister can thus be produced upon the 

 forehead by its powers, without an}'' external application. 

 Reveries and dreams, unconsciously fixing this mind on any 

 part of the body, have produced the forms of letters and 

 other marks. 



Once more the unconscious mind is ever writing the record 

 of the conscious mind on the body, in gait, in gesture, and in 

 the lines on the face. This alone is a great subject, but we 

 can only just name it in passing. 



The bearing of all this on mental therapeutics is suffi- 

 ciently obvious. Our field of action while embracing the 

 whole mind is mainly the sub-conscious region, which not 

 only can be treated without knoAvledge of the ego, but which 

 can aftect through its wonderful powers of nutrition and 

 health of the body to an illimitable extent, and indeed is the 

 real agent in most cures. 



Bearing this somewhat lengthy preface therefore in mind, 

 which will throw a light on all we yet have to say, let us 

 proceed to consider longo intcrvallo, how the body affects the 

 mind. 



A great many manifestations that are classed as mental 

 are really physical. If a piano produce discord, the cause 

 may be mental or physical — it may be the result of the dis- 

 cordant mind of the bad player, or of the discordant tones 

 of the untuned strings. In the same way, we often blame 

 the player (or the mind), when it is the instrument (or the 

 brain) that is at fault. 



This instrument can only perfectly respond to tlie mind 

 when it is in health itself, and this health depends mainly 

 on the quantity and the quahty of the blood that is supplied 

 to it ; on the proper working of the system that carries off the 

 drahiage, or refuse, from it ; and on the amount of exercise 

 and rest the cells themselves get. 



We need not say more on this head in the present learned 

 audience, but only ask them to remember, that if the mind 

 can profoundly affect the body, the body can profoundly 

 affect the mind through the brain which is its organ, which 

 is dependent on physical conditions for its proper use. 



In disease the mind has special power over the body. The 

 very word dis-ease is coined to express a mental idea " ease " 

 and not a physical change. 



The cortex, or surfcvce of the brain — the seat of conscious 



