t something sends the
messages and it is something that has a remarkable likeness to mind as
we usually think of mind,--something which takes advantage of the past
and gages means to an end with a nicety that excites our wonder.

=Take no Anxious Thought.= We take food into our stomachs and forget
about it, if we are wise; and this subconscious overseer who through
millions of years of experience has learned how to digest food does
the rest. As with digestion, so with our heart-action; we lie down at
night fairly sure that there will be no break in the regular rhythm of
its beat. The subconscious overseer is "on the job" and he never
rests. No matter how hard we sleep, he never lets us forget to take a
breath; and if we trust him, he is very likely to wake us up at the
appointed time in the morning. Also, if we trust him, he carries us
off to sleep as though we were babies. Has he not had long practice in
the days before insomnia was invented?

=First Aid to the Injured.= In times of infection or injury, this
subconscious manager is better than any doctor. The doctors say with
truth that they only assist nature. If the infection is internal,
antitoxins are produced within the body. If the injury is external,
like a cut, the messages fly, and white blood-corpuscles are marshaled
to take care of poisons and build up the tissue. If the injury is of
the kind that needs rest, the subconscious doctor knows it. He
therefore causes pain and rigidity, in order to induce us to hold the
injured part still until it is restored.

Crile reminds us of a fact that is often noticed by surgeons. If
patients under ether are handled roughly, especially in the intestinal
region, respiration quickens and there are tremors and even convulsive
efforts which interfere with the surgeon's work. The conscious mind
cannot feel. It is asleep. But the subconscious mind, whose business
it is to protect the body, is trying to get away from injury. The body
uses up as much energy as though it had run for miles, and when the
patient wakes up, we say that he is suffering from shock. The
subconscious mind which is not affected by ether, has been exhausting
itself in a vain attempt to get the body away from harm.

=A Tireless Servant.= When the conscious mind undertakes a job, it is
always more or less subject to fatigue. But the subconscious after its
long practice seems never to tire. We say that its activities have
become automatic. With all its inhe