Psychotherapy And Modern Medicine
Paracelsus.--Paracelsus, the great physician of the first half of the
sixteenth century, who may well be considered the father of modern
pharmaceutics, had no illusions with regard to the exclusive power of
drugs over disease. He recognized that mental influence was extremely
important, and often lent a power not otherwise possessed to many
remedies. He said:
Imagination and faith can cause and remove d
the virtue of amulets is the whole secret of their efficacy. It is
from faith that imagination draws its power. Anyone who believes in
the secret resources of Nature receives from Nature according to his
own faith; let the object of your faith be real or imaginary, you
will in an equal degree obtain the same results.
Personal magnetism, in the sense in which we now use it, a
transference of the idea from the science of magnetics as related to
the phenomena of the magnet, seems to have originated with Paracelsus.
He was sure that the influence exerted over certain patients by
certain physicians was due to a force very like that exerted by the
magnet over iron. He was even inclined to think that magnets
themselves might exert a strong potency over diseased conditions, and
he found them to be useful in epilepsy. Doubtless in many cases of
supposed epilepsy successfully treated the ailment was really of an
hysterical nature. In these cases the strong suggestion which the use
of the magnets gave for many centuries acted favorably.
Agrippa.--The writings of Cornelius Agrippa, a contemporary of
Paracelsus, and, like him, a student of alchemy and of the secrets of
nature, contain corresponding passages which serve to show how much of
interest there was in mental influence during the Renaissance. All of
these men were, of course, a little outside of the ordinary medical
tradition, intent on getting to realities, not being satisfied either
with words or assumptions, refusing to accept many thing that the
physicians of their time completely credited. Agrippa in a
characteristic passage said:
Our mind doth effect divers things by faith (which is a firm
adhesion, a fixed intention, and a vehement application of the
worker or receiver) in him that cooperates in anything, and gives
power to the work which we intend to do. So that there is made in
us, as it were, the image of the virtue to be received, and the
thing to be done in us, or by us. We must, therefore, in every work
and application of things, affect vehemently, imagine, hope and
believe strongly, for that will be a great help.
Van Helmont.--At the end of the sixteenth century Van Helmont, who
carried on the work in pharmaceutics begun by Paracelsus, and to whom
we owe the discovery of a number of substances commonly used, as well
as the invention of the word "gas," was a thorough believer in the
influence of mind over body and, indeed, in the existence in human
beings of storehouses of latent energy ordinarily unemployed, but
that might under special circumstances be tapped to produce wonderful
effects. Indeed, some passages remind us of Prof. James' expressions
in his discussion of the law of human energy. Van Helmont said:
All magical power lies dormant in man, and requires to be excited.
(Compare Prof. James's "Law of Mental Energy" in the chapter on
Mental Influence). This (need for excitation) is particularly the
case if the subject upon whom we wish to operate is not in the
most favorable disposition; if his internal imagination does not
abandon itself entirely to the impression we wish to make upon him;
or if he towards whom the action is directed possesses more energy
than he who operates. But when the patient is well disposed or
weak, he readily yields to the magnetic influence of him who
operates upon him through the medium of his imagination. In order to
operate powerfully, it is necessary to employ some medium; but this
medium is nothing unless accompanied by internal action.
Sydenham.--In the more modern period the deliberate use of the
influence of the mind on the body is quite as clear. Undoubtedly the
greatest of modern physicians, who well deserves the name of the
English Hippocrates, is Sydenham. How much Sydenham realized that many
of his patients' ailments could only be cured by occupying their minds
with other things is seen in his writings. There is a characteristic
story told by Dr. Paris in his "Pharmacologia" which illustrates this
well and is a striking anticipation of what we are prone to think of
as very modern views in these matters:
This great physician, Sydenham, having long attended a gentleman of
fortune with little or no advantage, frankly avowed his inability to
render him any further service, at the same time adding, that there
was a physician of the name of Robertson, at Inverness, who had
distinguished himself by the performance of many remarkable cures of
the same complaint as that under which his patient labored, and
expressing a conviction that, if he applied to him, he would come
back cured. This was too encouraging a proposal to be rejected; the
gentleman received from Sydenham a statement of his case, with the
necessary letter of introduction, and proceeded without delay to the
place in question. On arriving at Inverness, and anxiously inquiring
for the residence of Dr. Robertson, he found, to his utter dismay
and disappointment, that there was no physician of that name, nor
ever had been in the memory of any person there. The gentleman
returned, vowing eternal hostility to the peace of Sydenham, and on
his arrival, at home indignantly expressed his indignation at having
been sent on a journey of so many hundred miles for no purpose.
"Well," replied Sydenham, "are you better in health?" "Yes, I am now
quite well; but no thanks to you." "No," says Sydenham, "but you may
thank Dr. Robertson for curing you. I wished to send you on a
journey with some object of interest in view; I knew it would be of
service to you: in going, you had Dr. Robertson and his wonderful
cures in contemplation; and in returning, you were equally engaged
in thinking of scolding me."
Morgagni.--In the century following Sydenham we have a number of
examples cited by Morgagni, the father of pathology, in which his
recognition of the value of the mind as a curative agent and of the
harm that may be done by over-occupation of the mind is set forth at
its proper value. Benjamin Ward Richardson in his "Disciples of
AEsculapius" [Footnote 2] tells of two incidents in which this phase
of Morgagni's very practical application of knowledge to medical
practice is exemplified:
[Footnote 2: London, 1901]
In other examples, where the symptoms are due to mental oppression,
he pursued a course of treatment that was of soothing nature. A
distinguished professor of physic at Bologna happened to discover
that his pulse was intermittent, and being extremely anxious about
it was incessantly feeling his pulse, to discover that the evil was
daily increasing. Morgagni's advice to his patient was to take his
finger off his wrist and not to inquire too anxiously about his
condition. The advice was followed, and the result was a complete
removal of the disturbance.
It is a very singular truth that in describing the action of the
nervous system on the circulation Morgagni shows that he was
cognizant of the fact that the circulation may be disturbed by two
sets of nervous irritations, one inflicted through the
pneumogastrics, the other "through those nerves which are
subservient to the arteries"--the vaso-motor system which is readily
disturbed by the mind. In one patient he observed great
perturbations of the pulse in both wrists as the result of mental
anxiety. But a day or two later the pulse derangement was confined
to the left side altogether. The pulse of the right arm was quite
regular, while that of the left arm still showed the inequality.
When the mental distress was relieved, this pulse also became equal.
Morgagni cites Sydenham's contemporary, Lancisi, the great Italian
physician, as recognizing the influence of the emotions on the heart.
Examples of similar convictions as to mental influence in medicine are
also found in the works of Morgagni's great contemporaries, Boerhaave
and Van Swieten, and the great physicians of the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries were closely imitated in their recognition of the
value of the influence of mind over body in medicine by their
successors in the profession.
John Hunter.--Wise old John Hunter recognized the influence of the
mind on the body very clearly. He said, for instance, "There is not a
natural action in the body, whether voluntary or involuntary, that may
not be influenced by the peculiar state of mind at the time." He lays
it down as a law that "every part of the body sympathizes with the
mind, for whatever affects the mind, the body is affected in
proportion." He said further, "as a state of the mind is capable of
producing a disease, another state of it may affect a cure." He called
attention to the fact that the touch of a corpse produced wonderful
effects upon the minds of patients. He said, "Even tumors have yielded
to the stroke of a dead man's hand." He observes that "while we should
naturally expect that diseases connected with the nerves--and those in
which their alteration is in the action of parts not in their
structure--would be most affected by the imagination, we find that
there are other diseases in which they appear to have little
connection that are much affected by the state of mind."
German Mind Healing.--In his monograph on "Psychotherapy in Its
Scientific Aspects" [Footnote 3] Dr. Berthold Kern calls attention to
a forgotten book of the German physician Scheidemantel, published in
1787. Its title was "The Emotions as Remedies." It seems to be very
rare since even our Surgeon General's Library has no copy of it. The
author treated psychotherapy systematically. He insisted that man was
a unit in which body and soul mutually influenced each other.
Scheidemantel blamed the moralists for considering the soul
exclusively and the physicians for thinking only of the body. He
thought that this was a serious mistake for both sides and he seems to
have anticipated much of our recent discussion on the influence of the
body and of things physical generally in what is called crime and
various divagations from law. On the other hand, he thought that the
influence of the mind on the body was one of the most important
elements in therapeutics.
[Footnote 3: "Die Psychische Krankenbehandlung im Ihren
Wissenschaftlichen Grundlagen." Berlin 1910.]
Reil, after whom the Island of Reil is named, and who taught us much
with regard to brain anatomy, was also interested in the influence of
mind on body. He was the professor of anatomy at Berlin in the early
part of the nineteenth century and had great influence over the
medical science of the time. He insisted on the recognition and
development of psychotherapy and hoped to give it a place beside the
medical and surgical treatment of human ills. He did much to create a
current of thought in German medicine which culminated in Johann
Mueller's very definite expressions with regard to the power of the
mind over the body.
Very probably the most striking expression of the influence of mind
upon body is in that wonderful old book, Johann Mueller's text-book of
physiology, issued in an English edition (London, 1842) under the
title "Elements of Physiology." The subject, a favorite study, is set
forth very clearly, and evidently from personal knowledge. He
recognized that the mind might influence every organ and function of
the body. The influence of expectancy he emphasized particularly:
The influence of ideas upon the body gives rise to a very great
variety of phenomena which border on the marvelous. It may be stated
as a general fact that any state of the body, which is conceived to
be approaching and which is expected with perfect confidence and
certainty of its occurrence, will be very prone to ensue as the mere
result of that idea, if it do not lie without the bounds of
possibility. The case mentioned by Pictet, in his observations on
nitrous oxide, may be adduced as an illustration of such phenomena.
A young lady, Miss B., wished to inspire this intoxicating gas; but
in order to test the power of the imagination, common atmospheric
air was given to her, instead of the nitrous oxide. She had scarcely
taken two or three inspirations of it, when she fell into a state of
syncope, which she had never suffered previously; she soon
recovered. The influence of the ideas, when they are combined with a
state of emotion, generally extends in all directions, affecting the
senses, motions and secretions. But even simple ideas, unattended
with a disturbed state of the passions, produce most marked organic
effects in the body.
With regard to the influence of the mind over the body in the matter
of fatigue Mueller is especially emphatic. He states just as clearly
two generations ago the Law of Reserve Energy as James stated it in
recent years. Of course, Mueller was far beyond his time in everything,
but then men who really think always are, and even Mueller's accurate
expression only represents what had been in the minds of thinking men
in many previous generations. He says:
The idea of our own strength gives added strength to our movements.
A person who is confident of effecting anything by muscular efforts,
will do it more easily than one not so confident in his own power.
The idea that a change is certainly about to take place in the
actions of the nervous system, may produce such a change in the
nervous energy, that exertions hitherto impossible become possible.
This is still more likely to be the case, if the individual is at
the time in a state of mental emotion.
Even this necessarily fragmentary and rather disjointed sketch of the
main features of psychotherapeutics, as we see them recognized by the
great physicians of the past, serve to show that mental influence
has always been appreciated as an important element in the care of the
individual patient.
The times when special attention has been paid to psychotherapy have
certain special characteristics. Usually the periods have come just
after a signal advance in medicine made through devotion to physical
science. Great attention is given to the advances and for a time the
individual patient is forgotten in the hope that at last physical
science is going to solve the problems of the physical man. With the
disappointment that always follows there is a reversion of feeling and
men realize once more how important is the mental state of the
patient, even in physical diseases. Then there comes an emphatic
expression of the value of psychotherapy. We are at present in the
midst of one of these periods, hence the widespread interest in the
subject.
More
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Mental Influence In Dyspepsia And Indigestion
It is often said that this teaching as to the effect of the mind on digestion and its eminent usefulness for the treatment of dyspeptic conditions, is due to the attention that has been attracted to this subject as a consequence of the prominence of... Mental Relaxation
What is important for mental relaxation, apparently, is not that a man shall try to set his mind at absolute rest, for that seems to be impossible, if a man really has a mind; nor that he shall occupy it with trivial things (because his interest wil... Mental States Of Disappointment
Quite apart from these serious ailments, however, there are passing phases of depression that come to nearly everyone after adult life is reached that are likely to be somewhat more frequent as years go on, but that are not entirely unknown even i... Mind Healing In Greece
When Greece awoke to the great literary and scientific discussion of human thought that gave us such philosophic and scientific thinkers as Hippocrates, Plato and Aristotle, then psychotherapy, in the formal sense of caring for the mind of the patie... Muco-membranous Colitis
Probably the severest, certainly the most interesting of the neurotic conditions of the intestines, is muco-membranous colitis. The only lesions discovered are those which point to a functionally increased secretion of tenacious mucus from the lower... Muscular Pains And Aches
Whenever exposure to cold causes a period of discomfort in almost any organ, except the teeth and certain definite nerves (for neuralgia has been taken out of the rheumatism group in recent years) we are sure to hear the word rheumatism employed i... Nervous Weakness Neurasthenia
Neurasthenia, from the Greek roots, neur, meaning nerve, and sthenos, strength, joined by the negative particle a, turning strength into weakness, means nothing more than nervous weakness. To tell a patient that he or she is nervously weak, or is ... Neurotic Asthma And Cognate Conditions
For the consideration of its psychotherapy asthma may be divided into two forms--symptomatic and essential, or neurotic, asthma. Symptomatic asthma is a difficulty of breathing, the result of some interference with the circulation, as by heart dis... Neurotic Intestinal Affections
There is a whole series of intestinal affections dependent on nerve influence that get worse and better under stress of emotion or relief from it. Probably the commonest of these is constipation, which is dealt with in a separate chapter. Often th... Nostrums And The Healing Power Of Suggestion
A striking illustration of the power of the mind to bring about the cure of ailments and symptoms of every sort is found in the history of the many nostrums and remedies that have worked wonders for a time and later proved to be inert or even harmfu... Nursing
The attitude of mind of a woman toward her milk supply is important, as the flow of milk is closely subject to mental influence. The presence of the child and the consequent exercise of maternal instinct does more to bring about the prompt, healthy ... Obesity
Obesity, popularly considered to be an over-accumulation of fat, is sometimes thought to exist only when there is the large development of abdomen which is more properly designated corpulency. In its strictly scientific sense it represents excessive... Occupation Muscle And Joint Pains
There is one variety of painful conditions of muscles and joints, often spoken of as muscular rheumatism or as chronic rheumatism and frequently the source of so much discomfort that patients feel that occupations must be given up, even at a great... Occupation Of Mind
Two classes of patients frequently apply to physicians for relief from various discomforts. They are, first, people who have no regular occupation and who often are in what is supposed to be the happy position of being able to do just what they pl... Old Injuries And So-called Rheumatism
As people advance in years, it is a common experience that tissues injured years before are the source of no little discomfort and are particularly prone to be bothersome during changeable seasons and in rainy weather. A bone broken when the patie... Pain
Pain, while always a dreaded symptom of disease, seems, with the increase of comfort and the gradual abolition that has come in our time of many of the trials of existence, to have had its terrors increased. Even a slight pain or ache is dreaded, an... Painful Arm And Trunk Conditions
Cervical Ribs.--Some interesting cases with painful conditions of the arms develop as a consequence of the presence of cervical ribs. It would be more or less naturally expected that trouble of this kind would occur early in life, but, as a matter... Painful Joint Conditions Pseudo-rheumatism
[Footnote 33: The position here taken, that acute articular rheumatism never leaves a mark after it, is entirely due to the observation that whenever cases were seen in which sequelae were noted, there always seems to the writer to be questi... Painful Knee Conditions
Most of the painful knee conditions of which patients complain are not directly due to true pathological conditions either of the knee joint itself or of its neighboring structures, but rather to affections of other portions of the leg that set a ... Paralysis Agitans
This is a chronic affection of the nervous system having for its most characteristic symptom a tremor, but with marked muscular rigidity and weakness. It is much more common in men than in women, in almost the reverse proportion of Graves' disease... Paresis
Paresis would seem to be one of the affections so inevitable in its course, so positively helpless as regards any medication, and so hopeless in its absolutely sure termination in idiocy and death, that nothing can possibly be done for it through ... Pathological Significance
Unconscious cerebration is not, then, a trivial matter, and not an unusual experience. It probably occurs in every individual to a much greater extent than he thinks, unless he is engaged in analyzing his mental processes and their ways rather caref... Periodical Depression
Fits of periodical depression, familiarly known as "the blues," occur in the experience of practically everyone. In some people they are only slight and passing. In others they last for hours and make the individual quite miserable. In still other... Physical Habits
Habit and Food.--Most of our likes and dislikes for food are neither physical nor physiological, but simply habitual. We have become accustomed to certain things, and so we like them. We are unaccustomed to them, and do not care for them. It is am... Position
There are many changes of position that relieve pain, lessen discomfort, aid in excretion, and in the evacuation of material from the body, yet it is often found that very little advantage is taken of this natural method of therapeutic aid. Traditio... Practice Of Hypnotism
In the ordinary practice of hypnotism now, the patient is placed sitting on a comfortable chair and the operator on one side facing prepares the mind of the subject by proper assurances. The patient must be brought into a thoroughly assured and comf... Pregnancy
Maintenance of Health.--Women must keep up their normal health and strength during pregnancy. By not taking sufficient exercise and by being too much indoors, many women develop a morbid mental state in which every discomfort is less bearable than... Preoccupation Of Mind
This is true, not only for ordinary sensations, but even for such as would ordinarily be presumed to be so insistent in their call that they could not be neglected. The concentration of mind necessary for this is not common to all mankind; it is pos... Present Day Methods Of Hypnotization
Though various methods of producing the hypnotic sleep are in use, the rule is now that, in the course of a hypnotizer's experience, less and less external auxiliaries of any kind are needed, and more and more dependence is placed on the bringing ab... Prevention And Correction
The important rule with regard to the mental attitude of the patient toward uncomfortable feelings due to digestion must be, first to correct all other possible sources of the trouble, and only after these have been proved not to be factors in the c... Prostatism
It may seem impossible to include prostatic hypertrophy, or the train of symptoms connected with it, among those affections likely to be benefited by mental treatment. The history of this affection, however, and especially of its treatment in rece... Pseudo-science And Mental Healing
An interesting phase of psychotherapy is found in the history of the applications of new scientific discoveries to medicine. The development of every physical science has been followed by an attempt to apply its new principles and discoveries to the... Psychic Contagion
The term psychic contagion is often thought of as merely figurative. It is, however, quite literal. Many minds are influenced by what they see happening round them and induced to imitate the activities of others. The term psychic contagion is so t... Psychic States In Menstruation
One does not need to be a physician to be familiar with the curious psychic states which develop or are accentuated during the menstrual period. Practically all the peculiarities of the individual are emphasized at this time and if there are any s... Psychic Treatment Of Digestive Conditions
If discouragement and solicitude make a healthy stomach digest imperfectly, the same mental factors will play an even more serious role with a diseased stomach. Certainly without the mind's aid, there can be little hope of such a reactive vital resi... Psycho-neuroses Hysteria
As the derivation of the name indicates, psycho-neuroses are functional nervous affections dependent on states of mind. They are not necessarily originated by the mind, though they may be. Their spontaneous occurrence as pure psychic phenomena, ho... Psychotherapy And Modern Medicine
Paracelsus.--Paracelsus, the great physician of the first half of the sixteenth century, who may well be considered the father of modern pharmaceutics, had no illusions with regard to the exclusive power of drugs over disease. He recognized that men... Psychotherapy And The Individual Patient
The most important element in Psychotherapy is the individual patient. Old Dr. Parry of Bath said a century ago, "It is much more important to know what sort of a patient has a disease, than what sort of a disease a patient has." Mental influence ... Psychotherapy At Rome
Galen.--Galen, whom we are prone to think of as a Latin because so much of his work was done at Rome, but whose works have come to us in Greek, and who was a disciple of the Greek school of medicine, brought up under Greek influence in his native to... Psychotherapy In Egypt
Among the Egyptians the first great development of medicine came among the priests. The two professions, the medical and priesthood, were one, and the temples were the hospitals of the time. We have stories of people traveling long distances to cert... Psychotherapy In Old-time Surgery
Surgery, a name derived from chirurgy--handwork--might seem to be dependent almost entirely on mechanical and technical skill, yet there has always been the conviction that the patient's attitude of mind towards an operation is almost as important... Psychotherapy In Skin Diseases
The place of mental influence in the treatment of skin diseases will be best realized from the role that we know the mind plays in the production of various skin manifestations. There is a whole series of skin affections which depend to a consider... Psychotherapy Of Organic Nervous Diseases
Since we know that the basis of many nervous diseases is an obliteration of certain cells of the brain or of the spinal cord, or certain tracts of the central nervous system through which impulses must pass if they are to be effective as motion, s... Quackery And Mind Cures
Not less interesting than the therapeutic results obtained by men who in good faith were using inert remedies that they thought effective, are the cures obtained by men who had good reason to know that the therapeutic methods they were using were qu... Radium And Radio-activity
When radium was discovered, though it came so soon after the discovery of the X-ray and our disappointment with it, the old story of another pseudo-scientific medical application was told. For a time it looked as though radium might accomplish all t... Remedial Measures
The most important general remedy for over-prolonged mental occupation with a single subject, is some outdoor sport or form of exercise that requires all the attention. Horseback exercise is particularly valuable; boating, especially where the man h... Remedies Plus Suggestion
Prof. Richet, the head of the department of physiology, University of Paris, quotes the expression of a French critic of medicine: "Hurry up and take the new remedy while it still cures. After a time it will lose its power." The power that is lost a... Responsibility And Will Power
The development of science (meaning by that term knowledge with regard to physical nature in contradistinction to philosophy or the relation of nature to man) in modern times has brought about in some minds a hesitant, if not frankly contradictor... Sciatica
Etiology.--What has been said of lumbago applies to a great extent also to sciatica. There are a number of different affections which have come to be grouped under the term sciatica. Here, much more frequently than in the lumbar region, the cause ... Secondary Personality
So much attention has recently been directed to the subject of secondary personality by the startling phenomena described in numerous books and articles on the subject, that a certain class of "nervous" patients have permitted themselves to be influ... Sexual Habits
As was emphasized in the preceding chapter, sexual symptoms are usually the subject of so much worry and disturbance of mind and become the center of so much unfavorable suggestion, that the only way to ameliorate the conditions which develop is b... Sexual Neuroses
Anything that disturbs the sexual sphere in either sex, no matter how trivial it may be, becomes a source of worry and depression quite beyond its real importance. It is not unusual for men and women to become so worried over some trifling affecti... Signatures And Psychotherapy
Similia similibus curantur, like is cured by like, is a very old idea. According to the doctrine of signatures nature had put an external natural marking or a symbolical appearance or characteristic upon a plant, mineral or other object, to indicate... Sleep Communications
Any one who has been thinking much for several days about a problem is likely to wake up with the thought that he has dreamed a solution of it, though unfortunately the solution has not remained in his memory. It seems as if a communication has been... Some Troubles Of Sleep
Certain annoying incidents in connection with sleep annoy those affected by them so much as to arouse them very completely from sleep and make them wakeful for a time. Nothing disturbs most people so much as the thought that some passing incident,... Stuttering Ataxia In Talking Walking Writing Etc
The difficulty of speech called stuttering has usually been considered rather as an unfortunate lack of control over the organs of articulation, somewhat corresponding to muscular awkwardness of any other kind, than as a pathological condition des... Success In Healing
We have any number of examples, then, of this power of the healer in history. Over and over again we find that it was the personality of the man and the suggestive value of the means that he employed that enabled patients to cure themselves, that is... Suggestion
Under the head of Adjuvants and Disturbing Factors in the psychic treatment of patients come the various phases of life which make for and against such a favorable state of mind as predisposes to the continuance of good health, minimizes inhibition,... Suggestion And Pseudo-science
These applications of science, or rather of supposed science, illustrate the influence of suggestion. The succession of events in each case is about as follows: The definite attitude of mental expectancy is created in the popular mind. As a conseque... Suggestion As To Symptoms
Besides the value of suggestion for the general condition in tuberculosis many of its symptoms can be treated best by changing the mental attitude of the patient towards them and giving him a proper appreciation of their significance. Most symptoms ... Suggestion In Obstetrics
In no department of medicine is favorable or unfavorable mental influence more important than in obstetrics. Unfortunately, unfavorable suggestion has here played a serious role and must be controlled, modified, neutralized. Suggestion is valuable... Suggestion In Treatment Of So-called Rheumatisms
How much the treatment of these so-called chronic rheumatisms depends on suggestion, in spite of the apparent improbability of anything so materially discomforting being under the influence of the mind, is best appreciated from a consideration of th... Suicide
In spite of the gradual increase of comfort in life and its wide diffusion--far beyond what people enjoyed in the past--there has been a steady progressive increase in the number of suicides in recent years. It is as if people found life less wort... Tachycardia
Etymologically tachycardia means rapid heart. There are two forms of rapid heart, that which is constant and that which occurs in periodical attacks. It is for this latter that the term tachycardia has been more particularly used, though occasionall... The Day's Work
Probably even more important than details with regard to the early hours of the day, is detailed information as to the day's work, the kind and character of the occupation and the length of time spent at it, the interruptions that may occur, the hab... The Heart And Mental Influence
The heart is an organ so vitally important that we might expect it to be carefully protected by nature from any interference with its action through mental influence, emotional conditions, or voluntary or involuntary feelings. As a matter of fact,... The Influence Of Body On Mind
While trying to take advantage of the influence of the mind on the body for therapeutics, it is important to remember that the body has a great influence on the mind. There are many states of mind that are dependent on states of body, and that can b... The Leisure Hours
Then comes the return from business. Here once more the ordinary method of getting on a crowded train, standing up to be pushed and jammed, to have all sorts of unpleasant things happen, to have the pessimism of one's nature stirred to its depths by... The Mechanism Of The Influence Of Mind On Body
The question as to how mind influences body, and body mind, has always proved a riddle to all but those with a special theory in the matter. The facts of the mutual influence of mind on body are so obtruded on observation that they could never be mi... The Menopause
While the phase of feminine sexual life which involves the cessation of menstruation is physiological and not morbid, it is so commonly associated with physical and mental symptoms difficult to bear that, practically always, it sends the woman to ... The Middle Op The Day
Information regarding the mid-day meal will be of value to the physician in many cases. In cities, luncheon, likely to be rather an apology for a meal, is taken rapidly, and immediately there is a return to work. As a medical student in Vienna, I wa... The Morning Hours
In getting the history of patients for diagnostic purposes the safest way is to begin with the getting up in the morning and then to follow out the various actions of the day. The hour and mode of rising should be inquired into. Practically all ne...