Greatrakes and Gassner, and their many followers and imitators, cured thousands, and amassed fortunes in so doing. Perkins devised rods of zinc and copper that he called "tractors," which were supposed to produce electricity and draw any disease from the body. He had genuine certificates from over 5,000 persons stating that they had been cured of diseases of every imaginable kind, including cancer, by the use of the tractors. He had a factory in New England, and later a hospital in London, but could not supply the demand for tractors at $25.00 apiece. But Perkins was the victim of cannibalistic quacks, who made tractors of wood and sold them at great profit at a time when the demand exceeded the supply. The wooden tractors did as well as the genuine, and, when this fact leaked out, the force of suggestion was gone and Perkinism collapsed. The Oxydonor is a modern revival of Perkins's tractors and thousands of them are being sold. Metalo-therapy is now known to depend upon suggestion for its efficacy, and yet so efficacious has it been that some scientific men of no mean attainments, have believed in it.

Electropoise, electric belts, magnetic brushes and waters, and shoe soles, are variations of Perkinism only in name.

Mind Cure, Faith Cure, Animal Magnetism, Christian Science, and Osteopathy, to say nothing of the thousands of nameless "pathies," quacks and quackeries that infest the land are all forms of employing suggestion. And each and every sect and "path" not only claims its thousands of cures, but can produce thousands of honest persons who will testify that they have been cured by one or the other of these means. And not only so; but every known disease is included in the cures. At first glance this seems amazing, but the explanation is simple.

Patients of such quacks and combinations of quackery, may be divided for convenience into five classes:

I. Those having self-limited diseases that will get well under any treatment that does not interfere with nature.

II. Cases that receive, in addition to suggestion, some appropriate medical treatment.

III. Cases of imaginary disease, having no real existence.

IV. Cases suitable for suggestive treatment, that are really cured.

V. Failures. A large class of which we hear little.

The first class (self-limited diseases) comprises most acute, and some chronic maladies, and includes more than half of all the diseases known to man.

The second class is not uncommon in the practice of Osteopathy, Hydrotherapy, Botanic Medicine, etc., as the followers of such sects have frequently some knowledge of medicine.

Imaginary diseases are much more common than is generally supposed, and are usually of a very serious nature. Patients frequently imagine heart disease, Bright's Disease or cancer; but seldom imagine mild or trivial affections. It is also easy to produce imaginary diseases by suggestion, when there is some slight ailment or pain to work upon. The skilful quack, who gains the confidence of his patient, may easily make him believe he has cancer of the liver, aneurism of the aorta, or in fact any disease from infantile convulsions to senile debility; and may then proceed leisurely to cure him. The cure is usually as long as the patient's pocketbook; but if he be needed for advertising purposes it may be remarkably short. There are few healthy men who do not occasionally get a pain in the chest, back or abdomen, due to some trivial cause. The sickly man would pay no attention to such a thing. He is used to pain. But to the healthy man it is unusual and alarming. The assurance of a doctor may easily turn this pain into a pleurisy, nephritis or appendicitis.

What an opportunity for the quack and how skilfully he uses it! How skilfully he disseminates his circulars and newspaper advertisements with this end in view! How many men can read the advertisement of a genius in this line, without getting at least an uncomfortable feeling, and a suspicion of some insidious, lurking disease? The imaginary disease is common, easy to produce, and often hard to cure.

The fourth class, or cases suitable for suggestive treatment, will be considered later.

The fifth class - failures - is a large and silent one of which little is heard by the public. Yet every man knows of one or two, and the aggregate is very large. These cases stray off to other quack?, after a time; and usually come to a physician at last. Sometimes they come in time to be cured, and sometime? not. Usually they come when turned off for lack of funds, and the real physician does what he can for charity's sake.

Thus, from the earliest days, suggestion has been used indiscriminately, unscientifically, and in a manner that savored always so strongly of quackery as to bring it into very bad re~ pute. That it has done good cannot be denied. While its bad repute has prevented reputable physicians from using suggestion openly as a therapeutic means; yet, under other names, and often unconsciously, it has been used by them with great advantage. Every physician has sometime given a placebo with good effect,, though he may not have thought of it as suggestive treatment. Every physician of repute knows that his reputation is a great aid to him in curing disease, and that his personal influence or personal magnetism is of great value. He is often unconscious of the fact that these things are of value because they make his patients believe in him, and believe his suggestions.

But the time has come when the true value of suggestion should be known, and its use placed upon a scientific and honest basis. We must know what diseases it may cure, what diseases it may aid in curing or alleviating, and how to use it. There are few classes of diseases that suggestion alone can cure; but they are common diseases, and the number of cases is large. It may be said that only imaginary diseases, and functional diseases,* are amenable to this treatment alone; but in nearly all diseases suggestion is a valuable aid to other treatment. As I have already said, imaginary diseases are very common, and often have a real foundation in dyspepsia, anaemia, rheumatism, or some less serious real disease. For example, a dyspeptic usually has intercostal neuralgia, or palpitation of the heart, or both. The pain and discomfort in what he considers the region of his heart, suggests heart disease. The heart disease finally becomes to him a fixed reality. He may even go from one physician to another, receiving from each an assurance that his heart is sound, without being convinced or relieved. He will be questioned as to the symptoms of heart diseases, or angina. He learns them and then he feels them.

He finally describes them so accurately that his suspicions are confirmed by a diagnosis of angina pectoris, a painful and fatal disease. He becomes miserable, wastes away, and may even die of his imaginary complaint.

* The general reader must not Infer that functional diseases are in any sense imaginary diseases. Diseases which show no well-defined lesions or change of structure in the organ are considered functional. Such diseases comprise the majority of complaints that the general practitioner is called upon to treat. Many diseases that once were considered functional are now known to be organic - that Is, their anatomical changes have been discovered. Many of our very best physicians contend that hypnotic suggestion will cure diseases of all classes. Bernheim has used it efficaciously In both organic and functional disturbances. Moll, Tuckey, Bramwell and Liebault have had similar experiences. Medicine, however, is a good thing to use with hypnotic suggestion, even in treating imaginary diseases, as usually a desirable mental effect Is produced by the medicine itself. - Editor.