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168 any more than the possible abuse of opiates and stimulants preclude their use. The danger should be clearly understood, and all "must know that there is no patent outward means that can be a substitute for sanity of will; that sooner or later they must exert themselves, and waken from their delusions, and that every dose of their mesmeric opium over and above what was required, is a vehicle of weakness which will cost them a fresh struggle to conquer, whenever the time when they must arise shall come." The normal exercise of mind upon mind, of the healthy will and thought upon the morbid, but still consciously responsive will and intellect of the patient, is not open to the same dangers, nor need it therefore be so strictly confined to professional practitioners.

It may be said in general, that the more immediately spiritual the means used for relieving abnormal conditions, the more directly they are exerted upon the mind of the patient, the greater the possibilities of injury to the mind while relieving the body. Errors may be impressed, superstitions confirmed, false persuasions and insanities induced and fixed, by the very manifold processes of mental induction which through