ich the friends of a robust young man made upon him. It was arranged
that, beginning in the morning, each one should tell him, when he came
to work, that he was not looking well, and ask him what the trouble
was. They were to say it in a way that would not arouse his
suspicions, and note the result. At one o'clock this vigorous young
man had been so influenced by the suggestion that he quit work and went
home, saying that he was sick.

There have been many interesting experiments in the Paris hospitals
upon patients in a hypnotic trance, wounds being inflicted by mental
suggestion. While a cold poker was laid across their limbs, for
example, the subjects were told that they were being seared with a
red-hot iron, and immediately the flesh would have the appearance of
being severely burned.

I have known patients to collapse completely at the sight of surgical
instruments in the operating room. I have heard them say that they
could actually feel the cutting of the knife long before they took the
anesthetic.

Patients are often put to sleep by the injection into their arms of a
weak solution of salt and water, which they are led to think is
morphia. Every physician of large experience knows that he can relieve
or produce pain simply by suggestion.

Many a physician sends patients to some famous resort not so much for
the waters or the air as for the miracle which the complete change of
thought effects.

Even quacks and charlatans are able, by stimulating the hope of those
who are sick, to produce marvelous cures.

The mental attitude of the nurse has much to do with the recovery of a
sick person. If she holds the constant suggestion that the patient
will recover; if she stoutly affirms it, it will be a wonderful
rallying help to the forces which make for life. If, on the other
hand, she holds the conviction that he is going to die, she will
communicate her belief, and this will consequently depress the patient.

We are under the influence of suggestion every moment of our waking
lives. Everything we see, hear, feel, is a suggestion which produces a
result corresponding to its own nature. Its subtle power seems to
reach and affect the very springs of life.

The power of suggestion on expectant minds is often little less than
miraculous. An invalid with a disappointed ambition, who thinks he has
been robbed of his chances in life and who has suffered for years,
becomes all wrought up over some new remedy