Transcriber's Notes:
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[iii]
[iv]
[v]
They have observed but little, who have not remarked how muchImagination contributes to give success to the curative powerof a medicine.
Winter Evenings, i, p. 154.
The mind has the same command over the body, as the masterover the slave.
[vi]
[vii]
Certain historic modes of healing, including the use of medical amuletsand charms, which have been regarded from early times as magicalremedies, belong properly to the domain of Psychical Medicine. For thetherapeutic virtues of medical amulets are not inherent in theseobjects, but are due to the influence exerted by them upon theimaginative faculties of the individuals who employ them. They affordpowerful suggestions of healing. In this volume the writer has sought toemphasize the fact that the efficiency of many primitive therapeuticmethods, and the success of charlatanry, are to be attributed to mentalinfluence. The use of spells and incantations, the practice of laying-onof hands, the cult of relics, mesmerism, and metallo-therapy, have beenimportant factors in the evolution of modern mental healing. The methodof their operation, a mystery for ages, is revealed by the wordsuggestion. Thus may be traced some of the steps in the development ofpsycho-therapy. One ruling force, [viii]namely, th