‘It is to be hoped’ (they remark) ‘that English good sense will learn how to avoid the abuse of centralization, for it is just as illogical to wait for the intervention of the Central Government in the sanitation of a parish or the prevention of a local epidemic as to refuse such intervention when public danger arises from negligence or stupidity.’
These observations of hygienists, coming from France, a country which we are accustomed to consider (and which in some respects really is) much more over-ridden by officialism than England, are extremely valuable. They serve to warn us of the grave danger of depending upon centralized legislation or arbitrary authority withdrawn from popular influence, and from that growth of individual enlightenment which arises through the sense of responsibility.
Our friendly foreign critics justly ask: How is it that England, first in the field of sanitary science, with a rigorous system of compulsory legislation, with administration, laws, regulations, agents, and also a gradual development of private hygiene, has still to deplore the unhealthiness of such a large number of towns, quarters, and habitations, and sees no diminution in her annual rate of mortality?
They advance towards the root of the matter when they observe in this same report that laws are one thing, their application quite another thing! ‘So true it is that public hygiene depends upon general education as well as on the education of specialists, that no laws or regulations will suffice when the habits of the people generally do not promote their application.’
In other words, mind as well as matter must be considered in the subject of sanitation.
The student of science who has learned the great principle of creative Unity knows that no manifestation of existence can be absolutely separated from the rest of creation. As we investigate phenomena it is seen that the laws governing separate phenomena become more comprehensive as knowledge increases, because more widely embracing separate facts; varieties are seen to be linked together by relationships, and apparently different phenomena can be transmuted into one greater force.
In the plan of an International Congress, designed to gather together the advanced knowledge of many nations on the whole science of health, the omission of any section which should bring into prominence this powerful fact in life—the influence of mind on body—is a very grave defect. It is an error which affects both the investigation of facts and the application of results, the two indispensable factors to the progress of sanitation. Their neglect in an International Congress on Health was the more unfortunate because mental influence is a fact which is forcing itself upon the attention of investigators with increasing urgency.
Increasing Importance of the Mental Problem.—Under the modern title of hypnotism facts of the most remarkable character are now acknowledged and studied. The cure of disease by suggestion, carefully and humanely applied, has been proved beyond the possibility of rational denial. The reality and practical effects of mental epidemics is a positive fact. The effect of fear in predisposing to cholera, hydrophobia, and other diseases cannot be denied.[4]
The contagion of religious enthusiasm or religious fanaticism are facts; whether the effects are seen in the devotion of the Salvation Army, or in pilgrimages to Lourdes or Trèves with their so-called miracles of faith-healing, they are equally facts requiring consideration. Wild business speculations in the craze for riches become contagious, and lure multitudes to ruin.