Article June 15, 1899 Issue

Disease Induced by Mind

T. W. Topham

The fact that thought may affect the growth and functions of the body is coming to be regarded as a possibility by even the most conservative and material of Scientists. The more advanced and speculative members of the medical profession have experimented along that line for a number of years with very interesting results.

In speaking of the effect of thought on the body I am not exploiting Christian Science, faith cure, or anything of that kind; but am merely giving my individual opinion, which is based on a rather wide experience as a general practitioner of medicine.

In order to understand how a thought can influence the physical organs, it is necessary to have some conception of what is called the sub-conscious mind, which is that part of the mentality which carries on such involuntary actions as the circulation of the blood, the digestion of the food, etc. If these obscure functions were dependent upon the exercise of the conscious will, the very necessity of drawing the breath in and out several times a minute during one's lifetime would be such a stupendous effort as to appall the bravest and most energetic of creatures. But these matters have all been simplified by a beneficent Creator through the action of the sub-conscious mind. This mind, while distinct from the thought or intellectual faculties, may, however, be affected by them, and that sympathetic relationship is the foundation of all the phenomena of the faith curist and the mental healer.

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