Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, Vol. 8

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Excerpt from Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, Vol. 8: Session 1914-15, Part I, Occasional Lectures, Notes on New Books, Section of Anæsthetics, Balneological and Climatological Section, Section for the Study of Disease in Children, Clinical Section, Dermatological Section, Electro-Therapeutical SectionIT was not till recently that we realized how numerous are the difficulties that confront an investigator into the action Of drugs upon the human subject. The medical faculty is amazed at the claims made by another body professing faith in science, who are reported to have made astounding cures without the aid Of medicine. This body, hailing from the New World, even counts among its votaries citizens of this country. Sceptics explain away these alleged cures by a theory of auto-suggestion. But in the practice Of medicine itself auto-suggestion is not excluded for among the curative factors we have the personality of the physician, the inherited memory of the medicine man and his magical practices, and the pure effect of drugs as such. This will give us some idea Of the great intricacy of the problem, and the only way in which we can evade the almost insuperable difficulties that confront us, is by taking for our experimental subject an organism whose psychic power is so undeveloped as to be incapable of reacting to a suggestion. Such a rigorous condition is amply fulfilled by the plant, for no one will impute an emotional exuberance to a turnip. Results Of experiments carried out with plants will therefore give us the pure effect of the chemical agent. Therefore, we shall be on somewhat safer ground if before hazarding a new drug on a patient we examine its potency on an inarticulate and uncomplaining piece of vegetable.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.