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"Not at all times is everything equally ripe for inquiry. There is a phase, or it may be a fashion, even in science. I spoke of geographical exploration as the feature of Elizabeth's time. Astronomical inquiry succeeded it. Optics and Chemistry were the dominating sciences of the early part of the nineteenth century, Heat and Geology of the middle, Electricity and Biology of the latter portion. Not yet has our branch of Psychology had its phase of popularity; nor am I anxious that it should be universally fashionable. It is a subject of special interest and therefore perhaps of special danger. In that respect it is like other studies of the operations of mind, like a scientific enumeration of the phenomena of religion, for instance, like the study of anything which in its early stages looks mysterious and incomprehensible. Training and some admixture of other studies are necessary for its healthy investigation. The day will come when the science will put off its foggy aspect, bewildering to the novice, and become easier for the less well-balanced and more ordinarily-equipped explorer. At present it is like a mountain shrouded in mist whose sides offer but little secure foothold, where climbing, though possible, is difficult and dangerous."-Sir Oliver Lodge.

'Old beliefs, while they have a right to good standing, have no right to exemption from investigation. Nor have they a right to deny the value of new concepts without adequate inquiry and experiment."--Leavitt.

CHAPTER V.

NEW METHODS.

Upward and Onward Trend.

The trend of events is continually onwards. Every experience that comes into an individual life should be looked upon as the bearer of some message to that individual soul. It is a harbinger of peace. Likewise every event is but a link in the chain of divine purpose that binds humanity to higher ideals and more elaborate unfoldment.

The course is onward, ever onward.

Look at the marvelous discoveries being made in physics and the equally wonderful adaptation of forces to the accomplishment of the world's work. Notice also, if you will, that man is continually moving into what was once regarded as the terra incognita, the vast undiscovered, the deeply mysterious phenomena of nature which at one time, to the undeveloped mind, appeared to be the very mantle of Deity,

Movement Too Slow.

As already pointed out, there has been an equal advance toward an appreciation of the meaning of phenomena pertaining to medical science and a moderate utilization of such knowledge by therapeutics. But, somehow, regular medicine appears to have been slower to avail itself of the discoveries and adaptations made in collateral sciences than it should have

been. Wrapped in its robes of pride and selfsufficiency it has said, in effect, if not in precise terms: "I ask no extrinsic aid. I can differentiate and prognosticate even if I cannot cure. And meanwhile people have been dying who might have been saved and a wail of woe has risen to the ears of Heaven.

I quote from an editorial which appeared in a popular and well-conducted medical journal of the dominant school a few months ago:

"Herbert Spencer says that 'Life is adjustment, and as is the degree of life so is the degree of adjustment.' We cease to live as soon as we cease to be able to adjust ourselves to the destructive forces that constantly surround us. The physician's function is to direct the internal adjustment of the body so as to overcome, or pass safely, dangers to life that occur in the course of disease. Disease is a battle between the living cells of the body and various destructive agencies. The want of adjustment may mean the death of the patient. On the doctor's skill and knowledge often depends the issue of life or death. It is a most agonizing sight to see people of all ages and stations in life die around us in multitudes every day and no one able to save them. If we could only assist the body to make the proper degree of adjustment, all these precious lives might be saved. All so-called incurable diseases are only so because human knowledge has not advanced far enough to see how to make the proper adjustment. Every death of child or adult that occurs from disease, where the usual lines of treatment have been pursued, is evidence of the woeful ignorance of our age. If enough were known to be able to make the proper adjustment at the proper time such deaths could not occur. When the doctor sits helplessly by and day by day sees the life of his patient steadily losing its grip upon the various functions of the body, knowing full well that it is only the matter of a few days or a few hours when all will be over, how often will he ponder as to whom to blame for the condition of impotence in which he finds himself? The ignorant masses blame him whenever such scenes occur. The more in

INCENTIVE TO ADOPT NEW METHODS.

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telligent, feeling that he has done his best, exonerate him from all blame and seldom ask themselves whether or not blame should be attached somewhere."

Old

The possibilities of cure of cure are undoubtedly great. But the physician and the scientist find the door of achievement wide open before them and the wail of humanity bids them enter. methods have certainly shown themselves to be inadequate. Then why not, in the name of all that is good, tack to them, or substitute for them, other methods which bear the credentials of reason and experience, and make tentative use of them?

Abundant Incentives to Study and Adopt New Methods.

"If we could only assist the body to make the proper degree of adjustment all these precious lives might be saved," very truthfully says our editor. Not only could disease thus be cured, but thus, pre-eminently, could disease be prevented.

One disease prevented is worth ten cured.

The great English barrister, Erskine, at an early stage of his splendid career, struggling with poverty but cherishing a towering ambition, took a most audacious stand before the court in the trial of an important case in which he was engaged as a mere assistant, outranking his associates in the force and ardor of his plea and winning in the face of stout opposition. On being subsequently questioned by a friend as to the tremendous incentive that must have been behind his action he declared that he felt the clutch of his children's hands at the tails of his coat as he plead, and heard their piteous cry for bread.

A similar incentive should move the physician to provide the means of relief for suffering humanity. He cannot afford to stand complacently on his dignity, saying to those who point out possible aid:

"I do not like its source and I do not believe the testimony concerning its virtues.

Let him make a systematic investigation and a test of the claims, for only in this way can the value of a method be determined.

Principles of the New Methods.

The new methods involve certain principles that may be expressed in the propositions which follow.

First: That man is endowed with a dual mind, termed objective and subjective, conscious and unconscious (or subconscious).

Second: That the objective mind is under control of the volition and gives conscious direction to human energies.

Third: That the subjective mind has control of the organic functions, regulates the vital action, is the storehouse of energy, has comprehensive and accurate memory, is the repository of all habits and of automatic action in general. It is understood also to possess powers peculiar to itself, such as thought-transferrence and clairvoyance and is supposed to be the side of mind. which lies open toward the Universal or Infinite.

Fourth: That the subjective mind is amenable to instruction and direction by the objective mind, not only of the subject but of others. This effect is supposed to be wrought through the power of conscious will. The method of conveying the impression is commonly termed

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