New Theory of Sickness

Boston Post

A paper by Dr. Thomas F. Harrington of Lowell, which was read at a recent medical convention in the West, seems to have attracted an unusual amount of attention in the medical world.

Dr. Harrington's paper has been published in several of the medical journals, and he has received numerous congratulations from medical men. It has aroused special interest among the Harvard medical students and faculty, because Dr. Harrington has referred to the methods of teaching medicine employed at Harvard to demonstrate the truth of the position which he takes.

Dr. Harrington's paper is entitled, "The Philosophy of Sickness," and his theory, stated in brief, is that the physician should study the patient as well as the disease. He holds that each human being has a dual nature, and that no two persons are affected exactly alike, even by the same disease.

Thus, he says two children of the same age, and as nearly as possible alike in health and physical development, will be attacked by the same disease under the same conditions, yet one will die. Or, it may be that a strong, healthy child will die, while a weak, puny child attacked by the same disease will live. Dr. Harrington holds that in such cases there must be something more than the ordinary physical being which the eye beholds. There must be something in the mentality of the child—in the other nature which the eye cannot see—which exercises a powerful influence over the physical being. In this connection he cites the case of Pope Leo, who, at his remarkable age, underwent a dangerous operation a few weeks ago without the aid of anæsthetics.

Dr. Harrington then argues that the physician should study his patient, his mental attributes, his characteristics, his inner self, as it were, and that he will thus be better able successfully to cope with the disease.

Boston Post.

The Sunday School Times has the following: "There is no safer place than the path of duty, even when it seems surrounded by peril. No man can avoid dangers by refusing to brave them at the call of God."

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

A Chance for Fame

September 21, 1899

Contents

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit