Editorial July 16, 1910 Issue

"DIVINE MIND ALONE HEALS."*

Archibald McLellan

One of the most significant signs of the times is the effort, on the part of certain physicians who are recognized by their fellows as leading lights of their profession, to get away from the one-time utter dependence upon drugs and other material remedies which gave their practice the hallmark of regularity. This tendency is clearly set forth in the following editorial, which we quote from the Chicago Record-Herald of recent date:—

Does the profession of medicine enjoy less of public confidence and esteem than formerly? Dr. George F. Butler of Chicago, writing in the New York Medical Journal, seems to think so. He believes that doctors have been devoting too much attention to the study of disease and not enough to the suffering individual. He maintains that the present practice of medicine has too little regard for anything beyond men's physical being, whereas mental, moral, and spiritual diseases far outnumber those of the physical body.

These views will enjoy the distinguished backing of Dr. William Osler, who, in the latest issue of the British Medical Journal, comes out frankly in favor of the faith-cure. Faith, he says, is an essential factor in the practice of medicine. Mental healing, he declares, may have great value when carefully and scientifically applied in suitably cases. With the proper environment of faith, in an atmosphere of optimism and cheer, the hospital may perform the services of a pilgrimage-shrine, the infirmary may become a Lourdes. Dr. Osler seems even to take a step toward Christian Science. He says that the American people have prepared themselves, by a long orgy of drugging, to accept a "new way of life," a "new epicureanism" whose power lies "in the optimism which discounts the worries of the daily round."

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