DURING WAKING.

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Suggestion During Wak

ing from the Anesthesia.

As soon as the patient has been returned to his bed it is well to renew suggestive dosing. He cannot swallow drugs, but he can swallow assurances and affirmations. Let consciousness dawn upon his mind in a flood of bright expectancy rather than of gloomy forebodings.

None but an optimistic and cheerful nurse should be allowed with the patient. I have sometimes thought that selected nurses ought to be detailed for this particular service. Let the sufferer's eyes, when they first open, fall upon a face filled with radiant hope and strong good

nature.

We give altogether too little attention, in our training of nurses, to inculcating the importance of these psychic considerations. They mean much to one who has taken upon herself the care of the sick and suffering, and far more to her patients. There is abroad too much pessimistic thought and feeling. It is too commonly conceded that

The world has so much of sorrow-
So much that is hard and bad.

This is the superficial view. Look deeper and you will find that a large part of the appearance is due to illusion. I often repeat to myself a little verse learned in childhood:

8

This world is not so bad a world
As some would like to make it,
And whether good, or whether bad,
Depends on how we take it.

Suggestion in After Management.

There is small occasion for me to say much under this head. The principles of management have been already clearly indicated. The whole atmosphere must be impregnated with confidence and good cheer. There should not be frivolity, but there should be good humor and plenty of it.

The stage of recovery from an operation is peculiarly suited to the implantation of wholesome concepts and helpful ideas. The reader will recall what has elsewhere been said concerning the need among all who are ill of a better conception of the important relations between mind and body. You can make it a period of schooling that shall prove of inestimable value. The surgeon has a reputation for obduracy which he is here given an opportunity greatly to modify by becoming to his convalescent patients a teacher of truths of far more practical utility and worth than those attempted to be inculcated by the average religious instructor.

The Practice of Psycho-Therapy

(CONCLUDED)

"There are innumerable perceptions of which we do not become conscious, on which all actions performed without deliberation, as well as habits and passions, depend."

-Leibnitz.

"The threshold of consciousness may be compared to the surface of a lake and subconsciousness to the depths beneath it."-James Ward.

"You can never tell what your thoughts will do

In bringing you hate or love;

For thoughts are things, and their airy wings
Are swift as a carrier dove.

They follow the law of the universe

Each thing must create its kind,

And they speed o'er the track to bring you back
Whatever went out from your mind.'

--W. V. Nicum.

The subconscious guides me by suggestions which seem spontaneous, but which really arise from convictions of my subconsciousness as to my best course. An analogous action is noted in the subject acting under the force of a long-distance suggestion. He is not conscious that such a power is moving him to action. It seems to be wholly spontaneous." -Leavitt.

"Admiral Farragut wrote his wife on the eve of battle: 'As to being prepared for defeat, I certainly am not. Any man who is prepared for defeat would be half-defeated before he commenced.""

"There is a continual play of forces on our mind, only a few of which ever reach conscious recognition."

CHAPTER VIII.

THE PRACTICE OF PSYCHO-THERAPY-CONCLUDED.

THE QUESTION OF ABSENT TREATMENT.

There is no feature of "Christian Science' that has attracted so much ridicule as that of socalled "Absent Treatment.' It is easy enough to understand that the encouragement afforded one under the power of disease, by another who may pose as a healer, is capable of doing much good so long as the one is near the other; but to expect mere thought to travel great distances to effect its purpose is quite another thing. Can curative concepts be established in the mind of one whom we have seen, but who is now at a distance, by the action of our volition?

Should the response to this question be in the affirmative, let us then ask:

"Can curative thought find lodgment in the mind of one whom we have never seen, but who seeks absent aid?"

Those who do not believe that suggestion has curative power under proximate relations will, of course, at once deny that it has power at a distance.

But what about those who do accept the value of suggestive treatment? Will they deny the possibility of curative action at a distance?

Doubtless many will, and it is chiefly to such that I address my observations. Those not already convinced of the value of psycho-therapy