While trying to take advantage of the influence of the mind on the body for therapeutics, it is important to remember that the body has a great influence on the mind. There are many states of mind that are dependent on states of body, and that can be modified only by first modifying the body. Body changes can at least greatly help. In order to use the mind in the therapeutics of conditions in which it would help in the awakening of such vitality as is necessary for the cure, particularly of many of the chronic affections, it is necessary first to dispose the body so that it will not constantly be adding to, or at least emphasizing, an unfavorable state of mind. For this purpose it is important to study definitely and practically the influence that various attitudes, expressions and external manifestations may have in changing the internal feelings. This factor seems trivial when viewed from the standpoint of health, but it is one of the trifles that are very helpful in the predisposition of the patient to get better. Alteratives in medicine, while we have not been able to say just what their effect was, have done much for us, and the influence of body on mind is just such an alterative. Even those who have insisted most strenuously on the independence of mind from body have always recognized not only the influence of the mind on the body, but also of the body on the mind. Perhaps the most familiar example of this is the well-known liability to dream after eating things that disturb digestion and seem to interfere, probably by congestive tendencies, with the circulation of the brain during sleep. It has always been recognized that mental operations are sluggish for some time after eating, and that a period of depression is likely to follow any excess. The Romans feared the consequences of indigestion so much that, occasionally after they had surfeited themselves with rich food, they took such direct mechanical means as a feather or a finger in the throat to relieve their overloaded stomach, in order that they {101} might not suffer the after consequences, but especially the depression and irritability of mind.