1 am convinced that the time is fast approaching when physicians will place as much confidence in hypnotic suggestion as in medicine, if not more.

The changes that have taken place in the practice of medicine are numerous. Medicine never has been an exact science, nor indeed anything approaching such a state. Hypnotic suggestion is rapidly transforming it into an exact science, and the time is not far distant when there will be as much certainty in the healing art as there is in the science of mechanics. Had the medical profession been progressive, it would have carefully and thoroughly investigated hypnotism, mesmerism, mind cure, and Christian Science, long ago.

In this article, I cannot enter into any extended discussion of the subject. I shall, however, give a working outline that will enable any one of average intelligence to investigate all the kindred and related facts.

Every human being is composed of matter and force. The matter is organized; so are the forces. I will not discuss whether the matter causes the forces to act, or whether the forces form the matter into living organisms. I will leave that to the theologians and mystics.

To be in perfect health a person must have healthy organs and pure forces operating on them. Anything that vitiates these forces, or changes the proportions of the chemical constituents of the matter forming the organs, will produce a diseased condition. Disease, then, may be either a change in the forces or in the material make up. Such being the case, a cure can be effected by readjusting the forces or by restoring the natural equilibrium of the chemical parts. It, therefore, follows that a derangement of either may produce a bad condition of both. The mind and the body act upon each other.

A diseased condition of the body, caused by a chemical change in the material of the body, ought to be cured by supplying a drug that restores the balance, or a drug that acts on the vital forces and causes them, by increased action, to replace the lost material. I have been of the opinion that all, or nearly all drugs act in this manner.

Such being the case, it follows that the vital healing force is in the patient's system, and that drugs at the best only set it in operation. Vital force is produced by digestion, and the inhalation of air loaded with oxygen. The amount of such vital force is regulated by the capacity of the lungs, and the quantity and quality of the food. In many diseases this force can be influenced more powerfully by hypnotic suggestion than by drugs. Of course the whims of the patient must be taken into consideration, as his auto-suggestions will have a powerful influence on the case. If he believes in medicines he should have them, even if only bread pills.

A London hospital physician tried the following experiment on his typhoid patients: He gave them all the same care and nursing. To one class he gave the medical treatment; the second class he gave only colored water; to the third class he gave no medicine at all. The result is not very flattering to medical treatment, for the least number died in the class that got only colored water. This shows that the idea that they are being treated cured more than were cured where they actually received medicine. Of course, medicinal treatment has been vastly improved since then; so also has hypnotic suggestion. Were the same experiment tried to-day, I believe those who received the colored water and suggestion would show a larger percentage of cures than those who received the medicine without the suggestion. All doctors use suggestion when they tell the patient how the medicine will act, and when they give their positive assurance that they can cure the disease. They may not know that this is suggestion, but it is, and without it their practice would be a long experience of failures.

A patient who has confidence in a doctor of only poor attainments and but little experience, will derive more benefit from his treatment than from that of an educated skilled specialist in whom he has no confidence.

Hypnotic suggestion, then, stands easily at the head as an aid in medicine. It helps to inspire confidence. It helps to cultivate and liberate the vital forces so that they cure the diseased conditions. It plays a more important part than medicines. It is never poisonous or harmful and can always be used, even if bread pills are used to disguise its administration. Such suggestion is given in the normal state. Where the patient will submit to hypnotic treatment, suggestion may take the place of all medicine, and in many cases supplants even the knife. A case, unless surgical, that cannot be cured by suggestion in the hypnotic state, is hopeless.

Thoughts are mental impulses that have a definite effect on the body; either good or bad, according to the thought. Suggestion intensifies these impulses and increases the effects.

No progressive physician can afford longer to delay the study of the effects of suggestion. He must use suggestion, either consciously or unconsciously, and ought to know how to use it to the best advantage, that he may have at his command one of the most powerful curative agents known. Suggestions in the waking state are rapidly becoming more certain in their curative effects than drugs. The sick wish to be cured; and he who can cure them by means that will not leave any bad after effects, as many drugs do, is a public benefactor.

Contemplate a person who has been salivated or made nervous by quinine. Had he been cured by suggestion, there would have been no evil after effects. Use it all the time. Be confident. Act confidently. Talk with confidence and try to inspire confidence in those whom you wish to heal. Learn the best methods of giving suggestion in both the waking and the hypnotic states, and you have learned something of more value than a course at a medical college. Other writers have covered this field very fully. Let each one who reads this do something toward helping along the true aid to medicine - suggestion.