lose sight of its significance. In mechanical therapeutics the suggestive element is less conspicuous, but frequent examples have occurred in the practise of the writer.

A patient came with well-marked symptoms of eye-strain, glasses were prescribed, and the symptoms entirely disappeared. Leaving off the glasses would cause a return of symptoms, again wearing them the pain ceased. The case was one of astigmia, and the lenses for the two eyes were quite different. At a subsequent visit, there having been no return of the symptoms, it was discovered that, in repairing the frames, the optician had carelessly transposed the lenses, and yet the patient felt sure that she could not get along without her glasses. They were a positive detriment to vision when in the wrong positions.

Probably no physician who has used electricity has failed to note the suggestive element. Undoubtedly the buzzing of the faradic current and the sparking of the high frequency make these forms especially potent.

Massage calls the patient's attention to the part rubbed. Is it unreasonable, in the light of Doctor Anderson's experiments, previously mentioned, to assume that the subliminal can be thus roused to greater therapeutic power?

When we come to the realm of materia medica we find such a confusion of " post hoc " and " propter hoc " that there is the greatest diversity of opinion

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among the profession concerning the value of drugs as a whole, and what drugs are indicated in certain conditions or diseases, and by what rule this shall be determined, instead of depending on the empiricism which has led so many into sloughs of despair in the past.

Of the various sects, homeopathy has grown to be a respectable minority of the body medical. Here too, as with the other school, is a recognition of this misleading principle. Dr. William C. Goodno, professor of medicine in Hahnemann Medical College, Philadelphia, is quoted as saying: "There is a serious weakness of many of our workers in materia medica in the way of credulity. The greed for provings leads many able men to accept too readily symptoms having a most doubtful relationship to the drug supposed to cause them."

This does not mean that drugs are not curative, but it does imply that, in this department, medicine is still more of an art than a science.

We have a few specifics, and a growing list of drugs scientifically adapted to cure certain morbid conditions. A very commendable effort has been made to put the homeopathic materia medica on the same basis.

Under the auspices of the American Homeopathic Ophthalmological, Otological, and Laryngological Society, with the coöperation of the national and several State societies, the effect of belladonna on 'Medical Visitor.

the human system and on animals has been exhaustively studied by a method originated by Prof. H. P. Bellows of Boston.1

In order that the suggestive element might be entirely eliminated, only one person in each of the eleven cities where the experiments were made knew what drug was being administered. The subjects experimented upon were examined by specialists in each department before, during, and after the tests. The most approved scientific methods were used to determine the objective symptoms, and only such subjective symptoms were accepted as trustworthy as were experienced by a majority of the provers.

The chapter on "The Effects of Belladonna upon Animal Tissues" is contributed by Dr. Solomon C. Fuller, pathologist of the Westboro (Mass.) Insane Hospital.

The experiments were carried out in a thoroly scientific manner, and the work is a valuable contribution to toxicology. In this department suggestion was certainly eliminated.

THE HIDDEN SUGGESTION

Since the days of Galen the race has been more and more imbued with the idea of the efficacy of drugs, till to-day a little sugar pill is loaded with the suggested efficacy of generations. This it is which gives the successes of the quack "cure-alls." Given 'Test Proving of the O. O. and L. Society.

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sufficient advertisement, and a pungent taste or smell, and the testimonials are soon forthcoming.

To cure "speedily, gently, and permanently, is the desideratum of the medicine. Having obtained this result, we are all of us prone to rest content, and have little interest in studying our cases critically to determine if the particular means employed were the effective agent. Most diseases are self-limited, and we all admit in the vis medicatrix naturæ a powerful ally. We are also thankful for any psychic element which may have contributed to the happy result.

So long as the average physician exhibits this frame of mind, can we wonder that Christian Science and mental healing are gathering adherents from the most intelligent class of the laity?

It is this principle of post hoc ergo propter hoc which has established (?) so many misconceptions and false theories as truths. Most Christian Scientists whom I have met are sure of their science because they have been cured. The theory has been accepted because "it cured me."

Some one has facetiously remarked that there are "three kinds of lies: white lies, black lies, and statistics," and to a certain extent this is undoubtedly true. Statistics often fail to tell the "whole truth," altho they may tell "nothing but the

truth."

In order to add to the sun of human knowledge, the statistician must possess a judicial mind, and

must never allow his preconceptions or his inclinations to influence him "to make up a case."

Dr. Austin Flint was one of the first to enunciate a principle which is truly scientific. He advocated a more careful study of the natural history of disease, the average duration of a large number of cases of a given malady when no medicine was given. Then he compared with this the average of an equal number of cases of the same disease, where medical treatment was had, contending that unless the duration or severity or mortality was less under treatment than without, one was not warranted in concluding that his interference had been beneficial.

Happily this inference is generally justifiable. Granting this to be true, a second question is presented to the candid truth-seeker, viz.: What was the curative agent?

Dr. F. B. Percy, professor of materia medica, Boston University School of Medicine, says: "Let

us admit from the beginning that in the cure of the sick many influences must be considered.

"(a) Natural history of morbid processes.

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(b) The recuperative energies of the organism.

(c) The favorable agencies of hygiene.

(d) The power of personal magnetism in the practitioner.

(e) Suggestion and auto-suggestion.