Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 84.djvu/237

Rh

The same Englishman recited, in order to stop a hemorrhage:

It is no longer possible, as was only recently the tendency, to deny all the miraculous cures ascribed to sarcredsacred [sic] relics and to the touch of saintly persons. Science formerly had no explanation to offer and dismissed all such claims with contempt. They must now be admitted to be at least of possible occurrence. Authentic cures by healers not of the most exalted character have taken place in our own day almost before our very eyes. Faith in the power of a supposedly sacred personality has made them possible. In the hey-dey of royalty the divinity that was believed to hedge a king produced the undisputed cure of many a wretched invalid. Between three and four hundrdhundred [sic] persons were said to have been cured by Queen Elizabeth annually of scrofula or the King's Evil. James the Second is reported to have cured three hundred and fifty at one time amid great pomp and ceremony—a circumstance that doubtless contributed materially to the success of the operation.

Religion after having been expelled by science from the field of therapeutics is now being invited back again. Science is obliged to admit that it was mistaken in its wholesale condemnation of appealing to religion in illness. And this change of attitude on the part of science has been brought about by the rise of two or three new concepts—suggestion, subconsciousness, multiple personality. That which formerly seemed absurd, now seems perfectly reasonable. It seems as reasonable that healers of the sick should make use of the immense suggestive reinforcement of religion as of the aid lent by the newer authority of science.

Unenlightened members of the medical profession in their desire to discount the achievements of psychotherapy declare that all that is of value in the new methods has long been known and used by regular practitioners. A large part of this claim is perfectly true. We all know that the success of many a prosperous physician is not due to his superior scientific equipment—in which he often is notoriously lacking—but to the faith inspired by his "personality." In some instances, gentle, soothing tones, in others, brusqueness and peremptoriness of manner, convey the very useful suggestion of great ability justified in its assumption of authority. The particular remedy prescribed after that is of no consequence.