THE MEDICAL POINT OF VIEW.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 887, 5 August 1910, Page 5

THE MEDICAL POINT OF VIEW.

A great deal of attention has, been drawn of late years to thoiclfect of mind on body from tho health point of view, and there has been a great development of what is known as spiritual healing from different points of view. .From some forms of ...faith healing, medical science is banished altogether, while in others the sphero of mental healing is confined to a certain class of disease which is treated with tho assistance of qualified medical' men. A remarkable article on tho whole subject of mental healing appeared quite recently in the "British Medical Journal," which states: "For a considerable time there has been a-growing reaction against the dogmatic materialism which hold sway over tho minds nf scion Kite men thirty or forty years ago. One of tho most remarkable results of this recognition of the limits of science, is tho present attitude of the,medical profession towards what may foi the sake of 'convenience bo genericully described as faith-healing. The change is so great that it seemed to us thai; tho linn, uiul uouui to invito some of those who could speak with tho highest authority on the relritions between mind ami body as exhibited in tho ph'nuomena of diseaso to state the results of their observations and cxperioau.. . "Sir Clifford Allbutt reviews the history of faith-healing from antiquity to the present day: null he well snys that probably no limb, no viscus is so far a vessel of dishonour as to lio wholly outside tho renewals of the spirit. On this conviction the hopes . and methods of faith-healing depend. Ho draws a clear lino of demarcation between tho function of the physician and that of the clergyman, but he shows that they should not bo enemies, but allies. In' sickness tho mind is always more or loss diseased as well a, the body, and hero tho spiritual healer may most usefully co-operate with the doctor. "The le9son of Professor Osier's paper is contained in the concluding words, in which ho urges that our attitude as a profession should not lie hostile to faithhealing. He has seen much of tho curative effects of faith made operative either by the personality of tho physician or by tho attractions of a new gospel which offered to peoplo a new way of life.

Dr. Clayo Shaw tells.us that hypnosis and suggestion are everyday facts. The power of suggestion goes largely to the mnking of tho successful practitioner; without tho faculty of inspiring faith in tho patient, learning counts for little. In suggestion, then, lies tho secret of faith-healing. But it must bo applied by the right person, and a physician may be able to inlluenco ono person and be powerless with another. The difficulty is to discover how it is to bo applied and how its exercise Is to be safeguarded. For it can work for evil as well as for good. It is outside our province to discuss prayer from the theological point of view. But it is unquestionable that prayer, inspired by n living faith, lb u l'orca acting within the patient which places him in the most favourablo condition for tho stirring of the pool of hopo that lies, still and hidden, it may bo, in tho depths of human nature. "As for miracles, it is an otiose solution of tho problem to dismiss them as impossible, and that on a priori ground to reject them, like David Hume, without investigation. Wo do not know enough to say that anything, however outside experience it may seem to lie, is impossible. "Whatever exorcises tho demon of Fear and brings to the sick man's bed the Angel of Hope is a powerful aid to medical treatment. It. is, therefore, as unscientific as it is inhuman to pu* aside faith-healing as ntero . superstition."