94 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. X. No. 237 



alleged disease, or, if actually sick, are fully cured. Tfie best an- 

 swer that mental healers can make to this charge is, that, whether 

 right or wrong in their judgments of what ails their patients, they 

 act precisely as any sensible physician would under like circum- 

 stances, and tr)- to relieve the disease. In a chapter on the creeds 

 of mental healers, we find that these differ to a considerable degree 

 among the different schools or sects : for these points of difference 

 we shall have to refer our readers to the book itself. Mr. Barrows 

 states that it would not be putting the case too strongly to say that 

 the theory of the mental healers, carried to the highest point, traces 

 e\-ery form of disease, as well as sin, to mental causes, which may 

 be removed and the effects destroyed. Even death itself they hold 

 to be an illusion, that may be dispelled by a full reception of the 

 truth and consequent right thinking. Thought creates a world for 

 each one of us ; thought makes the body ; and all physical phe- 

 nomena, whether of disease or health, are due to thought. In com- 

 menting on this view of the subject, the author says, that, if utter- 

 ances like these seem extravagant, it should not be forgotten that a 

 new truth — and ever)' truth we grasp is new to 2is, though old to 

 all the world beside — is apt to intoxicate its possessor, and become 

 to his infatuated sense the universal solvent of the enigmas of life. 

 Time and experience may safely be left to adjust the value of these 

 claims ; but meanwhile it is not the mark of wisdom to fear or ridi- 

 cule them. We must confess, that, after a very careful reading of 

 Mr. Barrows's book, we are as much in ignorance of just what is the 

 basis of the mental healer's claim as we were before. They 

 seem, indeed, to be divided into more sects or schools than 

 those usually called physicians. Some of their claims, as quoted 

 by Mr. Barrows, are simply absurd. Take this one, for exam- 

 ple. It is an extract from one of the text-books of mental 

 healing prepared for the guidance of students who intend to 

 practise that method. If the case to be treated is a consumptive, 

 begin your argument by taking up the leading points that this 

 disease includes, according to belief, showing it is not inherited, 

 that inflammation, tubercles, hemorrhage, and decomposition are 

 but thoughts, beliefs, mental images before mortal mind, not the 

 immortal Mind : hence they are not the truth of man, and should be 

 treated as error, put out of mind, and then they will disappear from 

 the body. That Mr. Barrows is a firm believer in mental healing is 

 apparent from his writings ; and that he himself believes that some 

 of its teachers and practitioners make ridiculous claims for it, also 

 seems to be clear. We are inclined to agree with some of the 

 writers to whom he refers, — with Dr. Buckley, for instance, who 

 acknowledges that most extraordinary reco^'eries have been pro- 

 duced, some of them instantaneously, from disease in some cases 

 generally considered to be incurable by ordinary treatment, in 

 others known to be curable in the ordinary process of medicine 

 and in surgery only by slow degrees, — but can hardly be convinced 

 that the case quoted from ' Nature and the Supernatural,' by Rev. 

 Horace Bushnell, ever occurred, certainly not under just the cir- 

 cumstances as given, where a child ill with scarlet-fever was, im- 

 mediately after a prayer made by his father, completely cured, so as 

 to pronounce himself quite well and ask for his dinner. Mr. Bar- 

 rows refers to the late Dr. Austin Flint with great respect for his 

 opinions ; and if mental healing, as he states, simply emphasizes the 

 highest doctrines of the medical schools as announced by Dr. Flint, 

 then we willingly acknowledge that there is much in it to demand 

 consideration and recognition. Dr. Flint, in one of his addresses, 

 said, " Let it be popularly known that most medicinal agents are 

 curative, not directly but indirectly, by the removal of obstacles in 

 the way of recovery ; that Nature is always the efficient curative 

 agent, and therefore that the physician is Nature's servant, not her 

 master." We confess to a feeling of disappointment when we 

 finished reading this book of Mr. Barrows. His preface seemed 

 so fair and unprejudiced, that we expected to get a plain statement 

 of the facts, particularly as he had stated that he had enjoyed ex- 

 ceptional facilities for study and investigation. If mental healing 

 " is to get and retain a hold upon the popular attention," and if 

 " the subject needs only to be presented to educated, thoughtful 

 persons in the right way, to appeal to their intelligence and con- 

 vince their reason," we fear it must be done in a much simpler, 

 more matter-of-fact, and less metaphysical manner than has hieen 

 done by the author of ' Facts and Fictions of Mental Healing.' 



NOTES AND NEWS. 

 The officers for the next meeting of the American Association 

 were nominated as follows : president, J. W. Powell of Washing- 

 ton ; vice-presidents, Ormond Stone of the University of Virginia 

 (Mathematics and Astronomy), A. A. Michelson of Cleveland 

 (Physics), C. E. Munroe of Newport (Chemistry), Calvin M. 

 Woodward of St. Louis (Mechanical Science), George H. Cook of 

 New Brunswick (Geology and Geography), C. V. Riley of Wash- 

 ington (Biology), C. C. Abbott of Trenton (Anthropology), C. W. 

 Smiley of Washington (Economic Science and Statistics) ; per- 

 manent secretary, F. W. Putnam of Cambridge (office Salem, 

 Mass.) ; general secretary-, J. C. Arthur of La Fayette ; secretary 

 of the council, C. Leo Alees of Athens ; secretaries of the sections, 

 C. L. Doolittle of Bethlehem (Mathematics and Astronomy), A. L. 

 Kimball of Baltimore (Physics), William L. Dudley of Nashville 

 (Chemistr}'), Arthur Beardsley of Swarthmore (Mechanical 

 Science), George H. Williams of Baltimore (Geology and Geog- 

 raphy), N. L. Britton of New York (Biology), Frank Baker of 

 Washington (Anthropology), Charles S. Hill of Washington 

 (Economic Science and Statistics). 



— The arrangements for the tenth annual meeting of the 

 American Society of Microscopists are now definitely made. The 

 society convenes in Pittburgh, Penn., Aug. 30, 1887, and will prob- 

 ably continue its sessions four or five days. There will be a field- 

 excursion to Chartiers, and the society will be invited to visit the 

 extensive steel-works of Carnegie, Phipps, & Co., at Braddock. 

 The party will go by steamer up the historic Monongahela : a field- 

 excursion has been planned in connection with this pleasure-trip. 

 There will be collected a temporary library of rare books and 

 manuals. A considerable number of volumes have been promised. 

 These will be under the constant care of a librarian. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



*.* The attention of scientific men is called to the advantages o/the correspondence 

 columns ofiScizncK fior J>lacin° projnptly on record brief preli77iinary notices of 

 their investigations. Twenty copies of the nujiiber contaiiiing his communication 

 ■will be furnished free to any correspo?ident on request. 



The editor will be glad to publish any queries consonant with the character of 

 the journal. 



Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. The "writer's name is 

 in all cases required as proof of good faith. 



An Insect-Fight. 



An observation quoted by Professor Morse in his address before 

 the American Association last night is so exactly confirmed by a 

 recent obser\'ation of my own, that it seems worth while to put it 

 on record. 



While sitting in a hammock slung between two large maple- 

 trees on the lawn, I heard a loud buzzing and fall of something 

 behind me, and, looking around, I saw on the grass a locust 

 (cicada) in the grasp of a large insect, evidently of the wasp family, 

 but which I am not sufficiently well posted in entomology to name. 

 It had brown wings, and large abdomen colored black or dark 

 brown with white spots. The whole length of the insect was about 

 thirty-five or forty millimetres. When first seen, the struggling 

 locust was on its back ; the wasp extended above it head to head, 

 and industriously plying its sting between the abdominal wings of 

 the locust. The locust quickly became quiet, and then the wasp, 

 maintaining its former position, which it did not at any time 

 abandon, grasped the head of the locust by the middle pair of legs, 

 and, using the other four legs for locomotion, started to drag it 

 through the short grass toward one of the trees. There was no 

 hesitation or uncertainty, but the wasp started at once in a straight 

 line for the foot of the tree. On reaching the tree, the wasp 

 began without pause to carrj- its burden up the trunk, using its 

 four legs for walking, as before, and assisting itself to sustain the 

 weight of the locust by putting its wings in operation. In this 

 way, with a few brief pauses as if to rest and get better hold, in one 

 of which it hung for a moment apparently by one leg, the locust 

 was carried up among the branches of the maple, some twenty feet 

 or so, where it became difficult for me to follow its motions. After 

 reaching such a height, the wasp flew off in a straight line through 

 the branches, and went out of sight. I think it carried the locust 

 with it, but the height was so great that I could not be positive. 

 At any rate, the locust did not fall to the ground, although, as the 



