rash, and after two attempts
succeeded in making her caress her (imaginary) bedfellow. The sight of
the left eye returned, and Marie awoke--cured!

The saint of Denver could not, of course, make use of methods adopted
by doctors in the hospitals, but he had something much stronger and
more effective in his mysterious origin, his prophet-like appearance,
and his airs as of one illuminated by the spirit. Suggestion, when
acting upon those who are awake, spreads from one to another like an
attack of yawning or of infectious laughter. Crowds are credulous,
like children who look no further than their surface impressions.

The case of W. C. Dillon, who had been bent and crippled for years, but
was able to straighten his limbs at once under Schlatter's influence,
recalls that of the young sailor in the household of Dr. Pillet, who
for several weeks was bent forward in a most painful position. He had
received a severe blow at the base of the chest, after which he seemed
unable to stand upright again. He was put into a hypnotic sleep, and
asked if he could raise himself.

"Why not?" he replied.

"Then do so," said the doctor--and he rose from his bed completely
cured.

A remarkable thing with regard to Schlatter's cures is that they were
so frequently concerned with cases of paralysis. Now Charcot has
proved that such cases are usually found in hysterical subjects
suffering from amnesia or anaesthesia (general or partial loss of
sensation), and according to modern medical research paralysis and
anaesthesia are almost identical. We know, further, with what ease
hypnotic suggestion can either provoke or dispel partial or general
anaesthesia, and this applies equally to partial or general paralysis.

Paralysis is often, if not always, due to a simple
amnesia--forgetfulness to make use of certain muscles--which can be
overcome by suggestion. Schlatter, with his undeniable hypnotic power,
had consequently small difficulty in accomplishing "miracles"--that is
to say, in producing incomprehensible and inexplicable phenomena.

His custom of dealing with people in crowds gave him greater chances of
success than if he had merely treated individual cases. "Faith is the
only thing that cures," he declared--and, as if by magic, his hearers
became possessed of faith and intoxicated by the benefits obtained from
his divine intervention.

Truly the life of this impulse-ridden vagabond, so lacking in
self-interest, so devote