The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, January 24, 1897, Page 17

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, JANUARY 24, 189%. 17 RGAN Rock at eventide! Here and there a homelight dim. By the black bay’s sobbing side g s the tall and time-worn stone. O’er its rough and rugged feet Wash the waves with cadence sweet, Making their melodious moan By the western doors of day, Dallies yet the sun’s last ray, Tints the clouds with colors seven, Till they scem, in glory dight, NOTE—Organ Rock is a high and rugged mass of stone standing upon the southern coast of Monterey Bay. It was known to the Indians | S i To the moon which moves afar, Followed by a sing le star. Seaward sails a shadowy ship Where On the ocean’s Landward loom the the billows rise and dip misty brim. somber pines, pening darkness, save where shines Creatures of the wor Guardians of d of light, the gates of heaven. Over Nature twilight creeps, Stealing down from infinite deeps, Comes and whispers “MYSTERY!” Unto him who dreams beside Organ Rock at eventide 1) f JEECR: as Point Aulon, but bears the modern name of Organ Rock by reason of the local tradition that there is a on the bay below high-water mark, vast cave beneath it, which opens and that when tides rise high or stormy billows dash upon the rock a listener at its base can catch the hollow and muffled roar of the surges beating within the cavern below, How the Drink ot Morphine Habit Is Treated by Hypnotism Over at Angel Island (CCASIONALLY a medi D 4 employment of will re Y hypnoticm experiment nsome h the commentary | ysician upon a case nis ob: tion in 1t few persons in San Fran- | that hypnotism asa regu- of therapeutics is dai racticed in one of the Govern- n this department, and practiced with varying han three years. on Angel Island, and | notism into the £ atment there is due to the e spirit and wide learning of its Major Pope. The | y read in hypnotic does not himself hyp- re done under his keeps careful watch the period of his | is not practiced service alone on | perations ch 50 few sually removad situations of these cara- ries, whereby they are generally out he ken of the daily prints. In this pect it might be said that the military | hospitals are leading like establishments of the ctvil sort, for the surgeon-general of the army has reported on it time and again, always professing the fullest faith | 1d speaking interestedly of the | 1 its use in the hospitals of the | d seem that the army presented eld the most suggestive of the employ- f bypnotism in treating the cas commonest to rise within it. liers afflicted with the liquor e proverbially drinkers ; e hard drinkers, and, as obtainable at the post ex- , called the ‘‘canteen,” | ity to drink to excess vation, Itisaftera pro- tracted spree, and perhaps a sobering up in the guardhouse, that Johnny, the sol- dier, is sent to the hospital, to be there dealt with according 1o this recent schiool of application of the mysterious and but shightly understood forces in animal life which our ignorance terms odic, and rele- gates to the occult. That pale and insidious destroyer, the cigarette, contributes its annual quota of | ms to the' candidature for hypnotic | atment, for the callow, smooth-faced ike his counterpart in civilian | s the sallow skin and bronze | r stains of the creature succumbed to mon Nicotine, and who has become 1d of his family. perience at the hospital has shown all persous are not susceptible to onotic influence, neither are all persons capable of becoming operators. Maj Pope himself frankly admits that he i organized to davelop into an opera. He finds those persons make the t subjects who are nervously bros- the fellow so “jagged’’ that he| s snakes when he shuts his eyes, the aretie victim whose nervousness occa- sions extreme diffidence, s¢ that his hands tremble and his speech falters, the suffer- ers from bad habits which render them wrecks and prostrates—these are the be. ings who, presenting the opposite extreme e -is oppor on the res | when he was called away. | Keely cure, and though itis In vogue at | disease, the major draws a distinction be- | in the elements essential to the agldier, jon sentry duty up and down a graveled passes made over their faces and their | eves closed in hypnotic sleep by the fin- gers of the operator. Although Major Fope does not himself hypnotize he is sagacious in the selection of an operator. During the years thatthis force has been employed at the hospital there have beer two men connected with | the institution who possessed singular | ability in the exercise of the poweranda ! third was developing into an operator The last and the strongest dynamo of this influence is | the present operator at the hospital, | Charies von Radesky, an Austrian physi- | cian about 40 years old, who, preferring | the certainty of corgenial employment, | even at low wages, in the Government ser- | vice to the precariousness of a medical practice upon the outside, has accepted | the cffice of senior steward of the hospital. | Major Pope uses Dr. von Rades| very much as he would employ an elec- | tric battery. He does not believé in the some places in the Government servic it is not resorted to on the island. Hyp- notism he applies in treatment along with | | treatment of the regular medicinal char- acter, good nursing and close attention to | the patient. | Invariabiy the major endeavors to excite | in the patient a desire to be cured of his habit. Generally the poor victim is glad ugh to aid the physician in this regard | so far as his shattered will affords, and he | is usually anxious to be iree from the ap- petite which often throughout bis life has | been his besetting pitfall and the cause of | tlie most fatal of his misfortunes. In this bringing of the mind to bear against the tween desire and resolve. He gives no | heed to a resolution of a patient not to drink any more; it is his desire, his yearn- | or immunity from the vice that is ef- fective; it is not a mere line arawn in the ct which he promises himself | and others not to cross, but it is a condi- | tion of mind which must be generated in the patient under which the doing of such | and such thine becomes something not to | be thought of, and the thoughts to be turned to something else whenever the doing of such thing is suggested from | without. [ With ‘all the medicine, therefore, and | with ‘the aid of hypnotism, the major does not hold that the drink or other habits can be cured where the patient willfully sets himself to resume his habit | after the treatment is concluded, or where he doesnot himself bring his mind against it. The fact seems to be that what is done at the hospital is to rid the patient of the physical craving of his habit, to put his body in a condition of health with regard to it, to place him in about the state he was 1n before he had taken his first drink or performed the first act of his habit. If having been thus restored he wishes to again resume his ancient as- suetude there are no bars, save the known consequences, upon his 80 doing. Gener- ally, however, the patient does not re- | lapse. In the seveniy-thiee cases which | have been treated by hypnotism at the | hospital only half a dozen have recurred | 10 the habits of their diseases. The methods which Dr. von Radesky employs in his bypnotic operations while they ure most effective do not appear to be appreciated or viewed with peculiar de- light by the rank and file. A soldier in his sky-blue surcoat and white cotton gloves was carrying a shouldered musket the pita hypuotic drink treatment at the hos- ut, it’s a fake,” he replied, his man- ner revealing the indifference and scorn with which he reviied it. But whatever it be assuredly its practice has produced a strengthening of the morale in the men of the command on the island. The officers are effusive in their present declarations that the men are of high type, sober, and that the guardhouse is rarely cccupied. It was not always so, else there could not have been seventy-three patients out of a body of 200 or sc men to be treated in three years. I have said that the ‘soldier at the hospital usually assists the operator in banishing his desire for drink, but it is in a spirit something after thatin which | the occupant of the electrocution chair aids his executioner. The fact is that the men dread hypnotism and lodk upon Dr. von Radesky as something that is loaded. To what extent this desirable awe has in- fluenced the tone of the command is, of | course, incomputable; but that it has so operated there is no doubt. | And well it might, for the operation of Dr. von Radesky upon a patient is not an | journal | come to the hospital to have the potential | walk. I asked him what'he thought of | experience through which one would wish to pass by reason of its agreeable sensa- tions. operations blends the curious with the humorous and the grim to a remarkable degree. long ward of the hospital, replete with I The exhibition of one of these | mide, but he continues restless. The treatment is given in the | 1ts beds, some of them occupied by other | patients. Private Smith has been ouse has left him with the jiggers, and his brain is full of smoke. His bair stands out in feather tufts, and his beard is matted with tobacco juice and sand. His flesh is soiled, his garments are dirty “‘boozy” for a week. A nightin theguard- | and his breath exhales a strength that | would float an egg. den, foul of speech and stench and vis- ibly miserable. If he were in civil life he would be a tramp when sober and in jail when drunk; but being in the service of the Government there are those who will see to it that his tortaous way of error is somewhat mended, that he bimself is tinetured up, that his hide is scraped and polished, the afflictions of his pastin some measure cleaned away and ciety. Private Smith is sod- | that he be | fitted again for reception into soldier so- | He has a bath and a clean shift, then he | on your stomach; you will puke it up— He 15 given a little bro- Dr. von Radesky 1emoves his glasses und views him. **Go to sleep,” says the doctor. “I can’t sleep,’” returns Smith, “But you can sleep,” says the doctor, waving his hands before his eyes. *‘You are very sleepy, you are going to sleep now; you will be asleep in a moment.” A few passes more, the doctor closes | Smith’s eyelids, holds his fingers for an instant on the balls, and the patient is fast asleep. In an hour the doctor again approaches | him and, while he is still sleeping, turns | him on his side and speaks in his ear: | “You don’t like beer or whisky or gin orany kind of drink,” says the doctor. “It makes you sick whenever you try to drink it. The reason it makes you sick is that it is not beer or whisky or gin, but it is sewer water. It looks like good drink, buat it isnot fit to drink. It smells like sewer water, for it stinks, and it tastes like sewer water and it makes you sick. When you swallow it you cannot keep it is put to bad. {not | his lips being just beneath his nose he is | carry in bis mind the sense that a_cigar- ugh—b-r-r: Smith does not rouse, but continues his | sleep: when he does awake he feels dizzy, | uncomfortable. He has no appetite, can- eat the broth brought him. The second steward asks him if he would like to have a little whisky. He thinks he | would. Whisky is brought in a glass; | the private takes it, puts it to his lips, but | forced to smell it. i “Phew! that stuff stinks! ugh, that | ain't whisky ! b-r-r-take it away! Where's the bucket?” He gags and gasps and sick at the stomach he flovs over in bed again until his nausea passes off. | That night Smith takes some more | medicine to soothe his nervous state and | tone up his stomach, which retains a little | food; he continues to be troubled with | bugs and serpents crawl across Lis vision; oceasionally in bis delirium he will cry | out, but presently when the drugs get well | at work the snakes will wiggle off and he | will sleep quietly. Then Dr. von Radesky will find his ear again and say: | “In the morning when you wake up you will go down to the canteen and buy a glass of beer. It will look like beer, bat it will be sewer water—all beer is sewer water—and it will taste like sewer water. | You will drink it, but you will not hold it on your stomach. You will vomit it up— you will vomit violently, you will retch and you will hurry back to the hospital | and go to bed.”’ Wher Smith wakes up he does not care to eat. Thedrink thirst has not yet left him and heis very miserable. He dresses himself and says nothing, but sneaks off. A few minutes after he bring up at the canteen. Nervously he fumbles among the dust of his pocket for a few nickels to pay for a bottle of beer. The keeper of the | canteen understanding the situation sells it to him. He lils the foaming glassto | his lips. “Whew! Somethfn’s th’ matter with that beer.”” He takes a swallow of it. “Ugh!l t me get to the door! Ob, heav- ens!” The beady sweat stands on the | cold brow of the sick man as he moves his way, speedily as his condition will allow, to the hospital, wiiere he quickly resumes | his bec. Clearly a “put-up job” on Private Smith; a hard ordeal on him to havea burniog-thirst and when refreshment is tendered to find it give off an effluvia| which renders it horrible, revolting, | which nauseates him, makes him loathe | it in disgust. Old Midas, with his goid | touch, starving for nutriment which his tongue tnrned to yellow wealth, was not worse sfflicted. But Smith is not more uncomfortable than that thin young man who sits over yonder by the table, dejected, looking wearily at the floor. To him every cigar- ette is a serpent’s tongue. It frightens bim when he sees one. Let bim forgeta moment, take one of the things and put it to his lips; it bites them—sets them afire; in horror he throws the thing away, yet he yearns to smoke them, but he can- not. Major Pope’s medicine, good nurs- ing, good food, will ere long relieve him of this appetite, but for months he will ette is the arrowhead tongue of a snake ; that it “biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder,’”” and by the time this no- tion has worn away he will have no desire to smoke again, and perhaps he will never resume the habit. The result is the same with Smith. His abused old stomach recovers its natural functions, the drink thirst wanes, then dis- appears; food is assimilated; he gains flesh. He cannot think of drink but that it seems offensive; a wave of sickness passes over him if he contemplates it. If he adds to his condition the desire to refrain from liquor he does not think of it. He soon forgets it and when he is restored to his duties it does not occur to him to take a drink. “What is my theory?” replied Dr. von Radesky 1n reply to my question. *IL have a very clearly defined one. T de- stroy the brain-cells which call for drink. Every babit, every wrong appetite, is the result of infinite numbers of impressions upon the brain. Men do not have abnor- mal appetites when they start in life. You hear of men who take a drink more readily than others, and because their fathers drank they say they inherited their appetites; but these men all had to drink first before they could acquire an appetite for drink, ana if they had not done so they would not known what such an appetite was. So, you see, for every drink a man takes a separate impression is made upon his mind, and that impres- sion means that a new cell is built up in the brain. I hold to the theory that all brain im- pressions produce cells and that accord- ing to the number of these cells 13 measured the strength of the propensity of the individual to verform such acts as bave produced those cells. Tell a child ‘this is sugar’; it will forget what you say; but tell it again and again, repeated on different occasions, ‘this is sugar, thisis sugar,’ and you have soon corresponding cells built up in its brain that such a thing is sugar that it would be hard to efface them. “Now,” continued the doctor, “what I do is to build up counter cells in the brain of the man who drinks. Ido this through impressing him with thoughts which are antagonistic to the thoughts which pro- duced bis cells, to the thoughts produced by those cells. 1 seccre this by impres- sions, always the same impressions, re- peated many times and at periods and under conditions so that his will cannot be brought to oppose or suppress them. 1 crush down his will, then his brainis mine and I impressitasIlike. Thisis the principle of hypnotism in the treat- ment of disease as I conceive.” ‘Whatever may be the theory the fact is that science has introduced at Angel Island an influence in behalf of sobriety more potential than all the temperance lectures and prohibition laws that have ever been uttered or written. Joux E. BENNETT. Thoughtlessness. A rosebud in a sunbeam’s arms In sweet repose was sieeping; Its tiny face, with cheek of pink, ¥rom hood of green was peep! g The sunbeam gazed upon the rose, And fondly he caressed it; But bruised its tender lips as he With kiss too ardent pressed it. And though he softly bathed the wound, Though night, with tears, him aided, In life, and e'en in death, the scar still never, never faded. Thus, thoughtless, we may bruise a heart And earnestly endeavor To heal the wound, but, as the rose, It wears the scar forever. New York Ledger. ————— It is estimated that there are in exist- ence 3000 different hkenesses of Christ, all more or less worthy of mention. Of these 150 are by hands that have been rated masters of art, ¥