The Mitchell Capital

The Mind or Faith Cure.

We must admit that there are cases well authenticated where the so called mind or faith cure does what medicine could not accomplish. These are certain nervous troubles that the mind directly influences. For instance, a woman will sometimes become bedridden, entirely devoid of the power of motion, when the action of her heart, liver and vital organs is normal. Drugs will do her no good. The faith doctor will come along, give her a nervous shock, and she is cured. Then everybody will be told of the miraculous event, and the faith doctor will pretend to cure everything, from rheumatism to colic. But, outside of a few nervous phenomena, the mind doctor is powerless. He is out of his element when he tries a physical cure. Faith cannot cure a fever any more than medicine would cure a wound. Charlatanism flourishes because ignorant people fail to distinguish between nervous and physical disorders. There is a famous physician who treats these purely nervous cases in a peculiar and successful way. He shuts them in a dark room for some weeks, and, as their digestion is good, overfeeds them, and by a fattening process entirely overcomes nervousness. Doctor In Globe-Democrat.