360 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



But so thoroughly tainted with fraud was it found to be, in the 

 extravagant and unwarranted claims of its practitioners, that it soon 

 fell into the hands of charlatans and traveling showmen, and thus into 

 general discredit. 



It had, however, a great influence in the development of spiritual- 

 ism and also of hypnotism, although the latter did not obtain its first 

 scientific recognition until many years later, through the work of the 

 eminent French neurologist, Charcot. 



This same doctrine of the susceptibility of the individual will to the 

 influence of suggestion or authority is the very foundation of christian 

 science. It underlies the time-honored and well-nigh universal use of 

 the placebo by the medical profession, like the historical brown-bread 

 pill of Dr. Jacob Bigelow, and is the curative agent in most of the 

 well-known proprietary medicines. It is reflected in that old French 

 saying that medicine sometimes cures, often relieves and always 

 comforts. 



Physicians have always made use of it, and especially the now 

 much-neglected family doctor. His intimate knowledge of the hered- 

 ity, habits, social and domestic life of his patients gave him a peculiar 

 advantage in discriminating between their mental and their physical 

 ailments; while the confidence, nay, almost reverence with which his 

 families regarded him gave an authority to his counsel that was seldom 

 questioned. 



" His father was here before him," Mrs. Macfadyen used to ex- 

 plain, " atween them, they've had the countyside for weel on tae a cen- 

 tury; if MacLure disna understand oor constitutions, wha dis a'wud 

 like tae ask ?" 



And this simple faith has given the country doctor his one oppor- 

 tunity through all the world, and for many hundreds of years, to 

 practise what we now call psychotherapy. Perhaps he did it uncon- 

 sciously and in an amateurish sort of way, as Dr. Cabot says, but he did 

 it, is doing it and has done it with great success. 



The use of psychotherapy, or mind cure, in a purely scientific way, 

 in the practise of medicine has been tried with conspicuous success for 

 many years by Dubois, in Berne, and Bramwell, in England. " Our 

 endeavor," says the former, " is to raise up these patients, to give them 

 confidence in themselves, and to dissipate their fears and autosugges- 

 tions." They do this by making a direct appeal to the patient's reason, 

 by trying to train his will, by trying to make the dominating idea of 

 his ego one of health and strength, not of weakness. 



Another factor in the development of this new movement is the 

 renewed interest in the old command, to love thy neighbor as thyself; 

 the awakening of a sense of responsibility of the more fortunate for the 

 less fortunate, in the world they both live in. 



