In the last number of the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, Dr. Albert Day publishes an article on medical delusion.
Dr. Day has written this article for the purpose of demonstrating how much human credulity has to do with the professed miraculous cures, either by means of patent medicines, by magnetism, or by the so-called faith process. These are classed all under one head as medical delusions— that is to say, the cures, when they are effected, are made, not in consequence of exterior forces, but by the mysterious working of the imagination upon the body. While we heartily agree with what Dr. Day has set forth, we cannot help thinking that the medical profession has been made much more zealous in exposing the fallacies of the pretensions made than in investigating into the laws by means of which these surprising results are produced. It may be set down as an incontrovertible fact that very many curious, and on the whole desirable, results have been attained through this mysterious mental power . . . . . . . . . . . In each case, cures have been effected which might not, and probably would not, have been brought about in any other way. That there is any supernatural ism in all this is an idea much too absurd for any reasonable person to entertain for a moment. But, none the less, this mass of evidence is sufficient to show the existence of certain forces in nature which have not yet been discovered and gauged. Two hundred years ago the world knew nothing practically of electricity, and even now its substance is so subtle that it is only known by its effects in light, heat and power. This much has only been discovered after the patient and laborious research of years, and it is not unlikely that if those who first set themselves to the work of electrical investigations had been sneered at for their credulity, electrical knowledge would still be in its infancy. What we maintain is that medical science will remain only in a partially developed state so long as its psychological side is ignored. If it can be demonstrated that cures can be effected by purely mental force, then the sooner the laws governing this force and the methods necessary to produce the desired result, are known, the better it will be for mankind.
