ut is patiently traced back, stage by stage, until if
possible the primary "strangulated emotion" which caused it is
discovered; and where this can be found the whole morbid tendency can
often be relieved and reversed almost as if by magic.

To sum up: My contention is, that the direct influence of emotional
states upon bodily organs and functions has been greatly exaggerated;
that it is exceedingly doubtful whether, for instance, any individual in
a reasonable condition of health was ever killed by an imaginary or even
an emotional shock; that there is surprisingly little valid evidence
that the hair of any human being turned white in a single night, or was
completely shed within a few hours, under the influence of fright,
terror, or grief; that the effects upon bodily functions and secretions,
digestion, etc., produced by emotion, are due to secondary effects of
the latter, diverting the energy of the body into other channels and
disturbing the general balance of its forces and blood-supply; that the
actual percentage of cases in which the imagination plays the chief, or
even a dominant part, is small, probably not to exceed five or ten per
cent; that a very considerable share of the influence of mental
impressions in the cure of disease is due to the relief of mental panic,
permitting the rallying of the recuperative powers of the body, and to
the extent to which they produce the reform of bad physical habits or
surroundings or conditions.

The most important element in the cure of disease by mental
impression is _time_ plus the _vis medicatrix naturae_. The mental
impression--suggestion, scolding, securing of confidence--diverts the
attention of the patient until his own recuperative power and the
intelligent correction of bad physical habits remedy his defect. Pure
mental impression, however vivid, which is not followed up by
improvement of the environment, or correction of bad physical habits,
will be almost absolutely sterile. Faith without works is as dead in
medicine as in religion. Mental influence is little more than an
introduction committee to real treatment. Even the means used for
producing mental impressions are physical,--impressions made upon some
one of the five senses of the individual. In short, as Barker aptly puts
it, "Every psychotherapy is also a physical therapy."

Furthermore, even mental worry, distress, or depression, in nine cases
out of ten has a physical cause. To remedy conditions of m