Of the imagination, as a cause and as a cure of disorders of the body; exemplified by fictitious tractors, and epidemical convulsions. Read to the Literary and Philosophical Society of Bath / by John Haygarth.

Date:
1800
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Of the imagination, as a cause and as a cure of disorders of the body; exemplified by fictitious tractors, and epidemical convulsions. Read to the Literary and Philosophical Society of Bath / by John Haygarth. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    to be preferred. This rule of medical condu£l. derives ample confirmation from the fa£ls above related. I have long been aware of the great importance of medical faith. Daily experience has co-nfiantly con- firmed and increafed my opinion of its efficacy. On numerous occafions I have declared^ that I never wiffied to have a patient who did not polTefs a fuffi- cient portion of it. Thefe trials place its efficacy in a very confpicuous point of view, and mufl even aftoniffi perfons who have particularly attended to this fubje^l; they clearly prove what wonderful ef- fefts the paffions of hope and faith, excited by mere Imagination, can produce upon difeafes. On this principle we may account for the mar- vellous recoveries frequently aferibed to empirical remedies, which are commonly inert drugs, and generally applied by the ignorant patient in difor- ders totally different from what the quack himfelf pretends that they can cure. Magnificent and un_ qualified promifes infpire weak minds with implicit confidence. I have fometimes obferved that the adminifiration of a new medicine, even when its compofition was known, if recommended to the publick with exalted praife, has been attended with great fuccefs—much greater than what was confirmed by future expe- rience. Hence