44 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIX. No. 468 



It is most emphatically true, and to be recognized by 

 every thoughtful mind abreast with the currents of modern 

 life, that, underneath all the enormous quackery and folly 

 of the healers, there are certain tendencies in the movement 

 which are true and which have given to it power and influ- 

 ence. An influence early seen among us, and which, we 

 trust, will be perpetuated as a final boon to the sick, was the 

 leading of popular thought, in a hard and sceptical time, 

 into a more spiritual conception of disease. Eightly applied, 

 and by educated persons, such forces in nature as mesmerism 

 (hitherto misapplied), and the still questionable hypnotism, 

 seem destined to be of inestimable service in the treatment 

 of all sickness, most obviously in disturbances of the nervous 

 systemi. 



Happily, 



' ' The qualities that soothe and heal and bless 

 Are scattered at the feet of men like flowers." 



There are men and women everywhere who forget fear 

 and self and give out their beautiful life to the sick. No in- 

 telligent physician now neglects the mental, even the psychic 

 states of his patients. Subtle gifts and powers are seen in 

 the highest, or philanthropic, type of the medical man ; for- 

 tunate is the patient whose doctor adds all noble ways and 

 works to his professional acquirements. Abercrombie, Big- 

 elow, and Clark were, temperamentally, sunshine, faith, 

 patience, and hope. 



Such ministrations are, however, but accessory to medical 

 treatment, and should not arrogate the powers and functions 

 of science, 



" For who shall change, by prayers or thanksgivings. 

 The mystery of the cruelty of things ? ' ' 



When the son of Mr. Moody, the revivalist, lay sick of 

 scarlet fever, Mr. Moody's daily xsrayer, thousands helping 

 him in the great tabernacle, was for the doctor's guidance. 

 " May my boy's doctor be directed, and may he save my 

 child ! " That doctor's attitude toward revivals was so ques- 

 tionable that the boy's cure by prayer in this partnership 

 was one among numerous modern miracles. ButtheM.D.'s 

 chosen by D.D.'s are quite apt to be unbelievers. Even 

 missionaries are shockingly delinquent in this matter, and 

 waste no time by employing the mongrel attaches who fol- 

 low the fathers, if only a scoffer full of knowledge be at 

 hand. How often has the writer seen this wise prudence 

 exercised by the mission leaders of the Sandwich Islands. 



Perchance, to aid us all, a class of honest healers or help- 

 ers will at last arise whose representatives may not call 

 themselves divine, and may not assume to cure all conta- 

 gious and organic disease. 



I venture, finally, to apply to the mental healers(?) words 

 of an eloquent writer directed against others accused of like 

 delinquency: '' They trust to nature, which cannot, like an 

 intelligent surgeon, bring together the gaping lips of a 

 wound, and by their union effect a cure; which, not know- 

 ing how to tie a wounded artery, suffers a man in full health 

 and energy to bleed to death; which, in order to remove a 

 splinter from the cornea, destroys the whole eye by suppu- 

 ration. In an affair so important as that of healing, a pro- 

 fession requiring such intelligence, judgment, and skill, how 

 could they blindly take the vital power for their best in- 

 structor and guide, whilst reflective reason and unfettered 

 judgment, those magnificent gifts of the Deity, have been 

 granted to man to enable him inSnitely to surpass its per- 

 formances for the benefit of mankind? " 



C. F. Nichols, M.D. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



The Illustrated American says: "It has been decided that 

 it is necessary to send an expedition to Greenland this year to 

 rescue Mr. Peary and his party. The necessity being admitted no 

 one will object to the relief expedition. But it does seem proper 

 to recall some of the conditions under which the original party 

 started. Mr. Peary sought, before bis departure, to inspire the 

 belief that the dilEoulties encountered by previous Arctic explorers 

 would be avoided In a large measure. In this position he was 

 sustained to some extent by the wonderful journey across Green- 

 land performed by Dr. Fridjof Nansen. After passing the bar- 

 riers of snow and ice on the coast, he hoped to travel over the 

 snow plains of the interior without difiSculty on the skier that 

 served Dr. Nansen so well. After the expedition started it was 

 discovered that he had taken too rosy a view of the prospect. 

 His arrangements were not so complete as they should have been ; 

 so simple a matter as obtaining the co-operation of the Danish 

 Government, and the assistance of the officials in Greenland, had 

 been overlooked. When the party that accompanied him to 

 Greenland returned, grave apprehension for the safety of himself 

 and his companions was felt. And the feeling of apprehension 

 becomes intensified when it is remembered that one of the persons 

 thus subjected to unnecessary risks of suffering, starvation, and 

 perhaps death among Arctic snow wilderness is a woman, Mr. 

 Peary's brave wife." 



— We learn from Mind that the second session Of the Interna- , 

 tional Congress of Experimental Psychology will be held in Lon- 

 don, on Tuesday, Aug. 2, ]893, and the three following days, un- 

 der the presidency of Professor Henry Sidgwick. Arrange- 

 ments have already been made by which the main branches of 

 contemporary psychological research will be represented. In ad- 

 dition to the chief lines of investigation comprising the general 

 experimental study of psychical phenomena in the normal human 

 mind, it is intended to bring into prominence such kindred de- 

 partments of research as the neurological consideration of the 

 cerebral conditions of mental processes; the study of the lower 

 forms of mind in the infant, in the lower races of mankind, and 

 in animals, together with the connected laws of heredity ; also the 

 pathology of mind and criminology. Certain aspects of recent 

 hypnotic research will also be discussed, and reports will be given 

 in of the results of the census of hallucinations which it was de- 

 cided to carry out at the first session of the congress (Paris, 1839). 

 Among those who have already promised to take part in the pro- 

 ceedings of the congi-ess may be named the following: Professor 

 Beaunis, Monsieur A. Binet, Professor Pierre Janet, Professor Th. 

 Eibot, and Professor Richet (France); Professor Lombroso (Italy); 

 Dr. Qoldscheider, Dr. Hugo Mtmsterberg, Professor G. E. Miiller, 

 Professor W. Preyer, and Dr. Baron von Schrenk-Notzing (Ger- 

 many); Professor Alfred Lehmann (Denmark); Professor N. 

 Grote and Professor N. Lange (Russia); Dr. Donaldson, Professor 

 W. James, and Professor Stanley Hall (United States of America); 

 and Professor V. Horsley, Dr. Ch. Mercier, and Dr. G. J. Romanes 

 (England). It is also hoped that Dr. A. Bain, Professor E. Her- 

 ing, and others, may be able to take part in the proceedings; and 

 that some, as Professor W. Wundt, who will not be able to attend 

 the congress, may send papers. As a specimen of the work that 

 will be done it may be said that Professor Beaunis will deal with 

 Psychological Questioning; Monsieur Binet with some aspect of 

 The Psychology of Insects; Dr. Donaldson with Laura Bridgman; 

 Professor Stanley Hall with Recent Researches in the Psychology 

 of the Skin; Professor Horsley with The Degree of Localization of 

 Movements and Correlative Sensations ; Professor Pierre Janet 

 with Loss of Volitional Power; Professor N. Lange with Some 

 Experiments and Theories concerning the Association of Ideas ; 

 Professor Lombroso with The Sensibility of Women, Normal, In- 

 sane, and Criminal; Dr. Mtinsterberg with Complex Feelings of 

 Pleasure and Pain; and Professor Richet with The Future of Psy- 

 chology. A committee of reception has been formed, which in- 

 cludes, among others, the following names: Dr. A. Bain, Dr. D. 

 Ferrier, Mr. F. Galton, Dr. Shadworth Hodgson, Professor V. 

 Horsley, Dr. Hughlings Jackson, Dr. Charles Mercier, Professor 

 Croom Robertson, Dr. G. J. Romanes, Mr. Herbert Spencer, Mr. 



