ALCHEMY OF THE MIND

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 101, 14 September 1912, Page 1 (Supplement)

ALCHEMY OF THE MIND

London, July 26. An Alchemy more wonderful by far than that of the ancients w!ho searched for tJlve philosopher's stone was revealed before a section of the British Medical Association by Dr Willian Maule Smith. The title of his paper was remarkable enough—"On the use of extract of brain tissue in the treatment of various forms of insanity." In a paper bristling with technicalities be quoted actual cases in which he had obtained healthy brain tissue, extracted the cerebrin and eholesterin, and injected these substances into insane persons. This treatment, he declared, canned delusions to vanish and grave disorders were cleared up. It is difficult to put into words the sensation which this paper has made even in this scientific gathering. Dr Murk ■Taansen, the celebrated Dutch orthopaedist, declared that botJh curvature of the spine and our natural right-handed-ness. dated from that remote time when man began to walk upright instead of on all fours. He recommended that to avoid curvature cliidren should not be allowed to sit up until they could stand and walk. Mr Kellet Smith went even further, and exhibited lantern slides showing a young man crawling oil all fours to cure curvature. Sen-sickness and train-sickness came under the wide purview of the optlialmotologieal section, and Br Bvadborne attributed t'hem to the effort of the eyes to overcome the unaccustomed motion which they saw. He recommended that sufferers should sit with their kicks to the engine. Of course, children's sweets we.re attacked. No congress of the British Medical Association would be complete without a fierce onslaught 011 the brandyhall of boyhood, the puerile peppermint, and the adolescent acid drop. Dr Sim Wallace, lecturer in dental .surgery and pathology at the London Hospital, mentioned two great causes of dental disease—one the "pappy nature of the food 011 which verv young children are compelled to uiibsist." and the other sweets. He iiuoted the medical officer of health for 'Salon for the statement, that "the eating of sweets is responsible for 50 tier cent, of the disease in the teeth of chil-, dren of the present day." .......v.-