886 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVIII. No. 729 



stitutions on page 692. Eegretting the over- 

 sight, this note is offered in correction. 



Philip P. Calvert 



QUOTATIONS 



clerical healing 



The announcement made a few vceeks ago 

 by the rector of an Episcopal church in this 

 city, that he was going to take up the prac- 

 tise of medicine as a part of his clerical work, 

 calls renevred attention to this curious move- 

 ment. While it was confined to the Em- 

 manuel Church people in Boston it v^as gen- 

 erally regarded as a sort of Neo-Eddyism, one 

 more of the many queer fads veith which the 

 citizens of that town are wont to amuse them- 

 selves, and little more was thought of it. 

 Now, however, two at least of the Episcopal 

 churches in New York are going to adopt 

 the Emmanuel plan of treating disease, and 

 doubtless some of the rectors of other churches 

 in that denomination will be ready to join 

 the ranks of irregular practitioners. It is 

 time therefore to ask what the movement 

 means, and why physicians, even trained neu- 

 rologists, are to be found lending themselves 

 to the movement and supporting it by voice 

 and pen. 



The first question raised by a perusal of the 

 official book of the Emmanuel movement, is, 

 why? Why clerical healing, and why the 

 limitation of clerical healing to functional 

 diseases? We do not find either question 

 answered satisfactorily in this book and we do 

 not see how they can be answered. If the 

 physician is to entrust the care of his patients 

 to the clergymen why not to the lawyer ? The 

 latter is as much the confidant of his clients 

 as the minister of his parishioners, and could 

 speak just as authoritatively to the subliminal 

 self of the sick. But the physician ought to 

 be able to speak with much greater effect. 

 When he can not, the explanation must be 

 found in that curious state of mind which 

 leads the ignorant to trust the confident ama- 

 teur rather than the professional, to pin 

 greater faith to quack remedies or grand- 

 mother's simples than to the prescription of 

 the physician. The skilful physician despises 

 no remedy which may benefit his patient, and 



if he believes a word from a sincere and tact- 

 ful minister of the gospel will help, he is glad 

 to send, and often does send, the sick man to 

 the clergyman. As physicians we should re- 

 gret indeed to lose the powerful therapeutic 

 force that resides in religion, but it does not 

 follow from this that we are ready to welcome 

 the priest as a fellow practitioner of medicine, 

 or even to acknowledge that he can exercise 

 that function in the public and wholesale way 

 of the Emmanuel rectors without the danger 

 of doing far more harm than good. — Medical 

 Record. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 

 Traits de Geologie: I. Les Phenomenes 

 geologiques. By Mons. Emile Haug, Pro- 

 fesseur a la Faculte des Sciences de I'Uni- 

 versite de Paris. Pp. 536. Libraire Ar- 

 mand Colin, 5 rue de Mezieres, Paris, 

 France. 1907. Price, 12 fr. 50. 

 Though primarily intended for the use of 

 French students, Mens. Hang's excellent vol- 

 ume, recently published, is worthy of study by 

 American geologists. A text-book or treatise 

 dealing with the whole subject of geology 

 should be a sort of clearing-house wherein is 

 struck the true balance of competing ideas, 

 suggestions and hypotheses, so far as that ia 

 possible in the progressive science. Only the 

 first part of this newest treatise, that relating 

 to the geological processes, has been issued, 

 but it is fair to suppose that the author's con- 

 ception of the principles of geology is rather 

 fuUy presented. At the very first one is 

 struck with the compactness of thought and 

 expression throughout the work; Mons. Haug 

 is to be congratulated on his success in pre- 

 serving a very readable style while packing 

 into his chapters a truly remarkable amount 

 of fundamental material. The author has not 

 followed the beaten track and the pages are 

 full of valuable new thoughts. 



The work is unusual in its order of treat- 

 ment. The complex is considered before the 

 relatively simple; geosynclinals, metamorph- 

 ism, orogeny, epeirogeny and igneous in- 

 trusion are discussed before underground 

 water, weathering, and river, glacial and 



