An address delivered before the Medical Society of the State of New-York, and the members of the legislature : at the capitol in the city of Albany, the 2d. of February, 1820, on the influence of the mind upon the body in the production and cure of diseases / by John Stearns, M.D. president of the society.

  • Stearns, John, 1770-1848.
Date:
1820
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An address delivered before the Medical Society of the State of New-York, and the members of the legislature : at the capitol in the city of Albany, the 2d. of February, 1820, on the influence of the mind upon the body in the production and cure of diseases / by John Stearns, M.D. president of the society. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

    19/26
    expression, « their spirits kept them alive. By a judicious excitement of joy, thousands have been sa- ved from the tomb, on whom the skill of the physi- cian had been exhausted in vain. 6th. Faith. If joy has cured its thousands, faith has rescued its ten thousands from the grasp of death. Nothing but the credulity of patients could render successful the operation of metallic tractors, the in- ert prescriptions of the ignorant empiric, magic in- cantations, and the oracular responses of the Delphic impostors. The success of a physician is proportioned to the confidence reposed in him by his patients. Avicen- na prefers it to art, precept and all other remedies. Hippocrates says, he does most cures in whom most trust. Cardan says, opinion alone mars or makes the physician. Paracelsus asserts, that the suc- cess of Hippocrates arose more from the conceit the people had of his worth, than from his own skill. Faith imparts a peculiar energy and tone to the system, and often performs half of the cure, before the physician prescribes for the disease. If the want of faith in the Nazarenes prevented the successful operation of the miracles of Christ, how ill must be the success of that physician who neglects to acquire the confidence of his patients.—Without this excite- ment, the will of the hypochondriac will remain for ever torpid, and incapable of being roused to any active exertion ; and the physician will prescribe in vain for one, who contemns his want of skill.—To di- rect exercise to such a patient, would be equally absurd, as to say to one sick of the palsy, arise and walk.