ems to me then that the doctor should always prescribe
medicines to his patient, and, as much as possible, medicines made
up by himself rather than the standard remedies so much advertised
and which owe their only value to the advertisement. The doctor's
own prescriptions will inspire infinitely more confidence than So
and So's pills which anyone can procure easily at the nearest drug
store without any need of a prescription.

HOW SUGGESTION WORKS

In order to understand properly the part played by suggestion or
rather by autosuggestion, it is enough to know that the _unconscious
self is the grand director of all our functions_. Make this believed,
as I said above, that a certain organ which does not function well
must perform its function, and instantly the order is transmitted. The
organ obeys with docility, and either at once or little by little
performs its functions in a normal manner. This explains simply and
clearly how by means of suggestion one can stop haemorrhages,
cure constipation, cause fibrous tumours to disappear, cure paralysis,
tubercular lesions, varicose, ulcers, etc.

Let us take for example, a case of dental haemorrhage which I had
the opportunity of observing in the consulting room of M. Gauthe, a
dentist at Troyes. A young lady whom I had helped to cure herself
of asthma from which she had suffered for eight years, told me one
day that she wanted to have a tooth out. As I knew her to be very
sensitive, I offered to make her feel nothing of the operation. She
naturally accepted with pleasure and we made an appointment with
the dentist. On the day we had arranged we presented ourselves at
the dentist's and, standing opposite my patient, I looked fixedly at
her, saying: "You feel nothing, you feel nothing, etc., etc." and then
while still continuing the suggestion I made a sign to the dentist. In
an instant the tooth was out without Mlle. D---- turning a hair. As
fairly often happens, a haemorrhage followed, but I told the dentist
that I would try suggestion without his using a haemostatic, without
knowing beforehand what would happen. I then asked Mlle. D---- to
look at me fixedly, and I suggested to her that in two minutes the
haemorrhage would cease of its own accord, and we waited. The
patient spat blood again once or twice, and then ceased. I told her to
open her mouth, and we both looked and found that a clot of blood
had formed in the dental cavity.

How is this phenomenon to be explai