Page:Medicine and the church.djvu/218

 Acts iii. 4, 5) this concentration of the thought of the patient upon the healer is reciprocal ([Greek: atenisas epeichen]).

The tonic influence of a healthy personality upon the hysterical, neurotic, and mentally diseased, not to speak of minds depressed in a normal way, is familiar to everyone. In Dinah Morris's visit of comfort to the widowed Lisbeth, we have a sample of that subtlest perception and 'subduing influence of the spirit' which we may call inspiration. In the New Testament it appears at its highest in treatment of those strong cases of dual personality, mental disorder, or hysteria, which we know as demoniacal possession. We cannot here discuss the question, whether the sufferer was the victim of the lower elements in his own nature or of a malignant outside influence (known in the language of the day as a 'demon'). On the other hand, it has to be remembered that the Jews personified ordinary diseases; and our Lord conformed to popular ideas when 'He rebuked the fever' of Simon's wife's mother, unless we hold that the evangelist has coloured the record of His action by his own mentality. On the other hand, we know little as yet of the psycho-*