so
long as they are substituted for the pernicious ones. It may be in the
common experiences of every-day life, through the pleading of a
friend, during sleep or trance, in some abnormal state of a hypnotic
character, or during religious ecstasy, and we cannot well say in any
given case that one form will be more efficacious than another. Mental
healing creates nothing new, but simply makes use of the normal
mechanism of the mind and body. The question then is, What method of
mental healing is most likely to stimulate the mental mechanism so
that physiological processes will be set up leading to a cure? The
great power of faith and expectancy may decide the question, and the
answer may be in favor of the form in which the patient has the most
faith, either on account of its reputation, or on account of some
prejudice on the part of the patient.

CHAPTER II

EARLY CIVILIZATIONS

"The office of the physician extends equally to the
purification of mind and body; to neglect the one is to
expose the other to evident peril. It is not only the
body that by its sound constitution strengthens the
soul, but the well-regulated soul by its authoritative
power maintains the body in perfect health."--PLATO.

"Aristotle mapped out philosophy and morals in lines the
world yet accepts in the main, but he did not know the
difference between the nerves and the tendons. Rome had
a sound system of jurisprudence before it had a
physician, using only priest-craft for healing. Cicero
was the greatest lawyer the world has seen, but there
was not a man in Rome who could have cured him of a
colic. The Greek was an expert dialectician when he was
using incantations for his diseases. As late as when the
Puritans were enunciating their lofty principles, it was
generally held that the king's touch would cure
scrofula. Governor Winthrop, of colonial days, treated
'small-pox and all fevers' by a powder made from 'live
toads baked in an earthen pot in the open
air.'"--MUNGER.

"There is nothing so absurd or ridiculous that has not
at some time been said by some philosopher. Fontenelle
says he would undertake to persuade the whole republic
of readers to believe that the sun was neither the cause
of light or heat, if he could only get six philosophers
on his side."--GOLDSMITH.

A glance at the history of medicine will show three fairly well
defined periods. The beginning of the fir