Automatic Stop
any system of operthe setting of danger signals, without dependence on human intervention. The perfecting of the automatic block signaling system on one hand and of the automatic air-brake on the other leaves but one gap to be filled in order to make the whole safety system automatic, and the Interstate Commerce Commission now requires that some automatic connection be made between danger signals and automatic brakes on all the congested railtems have already been devised, all the roads of the country. A number of sysnewer types being electrically operated. Electro-magnets connected with the trackside signals control the train brakes when the signals are at danger and when the engineer has failed to comply with them. Contacts are effected between engines and signals by means of third approved systems all contacts are disrails or ramps in some cases, but in more pensed with, magnetic induction completing the connections. The automatic stop does not as a rule deprive the engineer of full control so long as the signals are being heeded. In the Sprague system, for instance, the wayside signals are first repeated by lights in the cab, and only when these are not obeyed is the train slowed down or brought to a stop according to the needs of the situation. AUTOSUGGESTION OR SELF-SUG- GESTION, sometimes loosely described as self-hypnotism, the practice upon or within one's self of psychological suggestion (q. v.), commonly with the object of curing physical illness. This theory and its practice were popularized in the United States in 1922-23 through the in 1922-23 through throug the teachings and visit of M. Emile Coué; but it is not new. Self-suggestion forms a part of practically every school of mental healing and its importance has long been recognized and put to use by the medical profession. The suggestibility of human beings is a matter of common observation, while, as for the influence of the mind in disease, its importance is universally admitted, even apart from the well-known fact that BELGIUM much human sickness exists or originates largely or altogether in the mind. Autosuggestion may be conscious or unconscious, direct or indirect, voluntary or involuntary. The whole mental attitude of the individual is at all times affecting beliefs. Thus, a general attitude of hope on one hand or of fear on the other unconsciously suggests its own determination of the value or meaning of any particular occurrence or feeling. As consciously practiced, selfsuggestion is an effort to set the mind in a certain direction, commonly by means of some regularly repeated for- 59 BIOGRAPHICAL CONTINUATIONS mula, used to fix the thought or, in certain conditions, to tain conditions, to exert by its monotony influence. There is no pretension that the formula cures diseases.
This can only be effected by the patient's self-suggestion , although some external suggestion may be needed to establish right autosuggestions in the first place. mind, according to Coué, controls all the fundamental funcand sickness are dependent upon it. It tions of the body , and therefore health in turn may be influenced by the conabove all else, by the imagination.
B BELGIUM, 1922. Up to the end of 1922, Belgium had received from Ger- , Belgium had received from Germany $375,000,000 many $375,000,000 on account of repara- Minister of Finance and Premier since November, 1921, by enforcing a system of strict economy, was able to report that government repractically balance expenditures for 1923. Great progress had been made in industrial restoration.
Railroads destroyed by the Germans in the World War had been completely restored at large expense, while such industries as steel, the textiles, and glass were operating up to about 75 per cent of normal.
Unemployment had practically disappeared. The League of Nations in July, 1922, formally confirmed the Belgian mandates over Ruanda and adjoining the Belgian Congo.
The discovery of radium in the latter region was one of the great discoveries of the year. By the terms of a convention which tion which went into effect May 1, 1922, of Luxemburg was united for economic purposes with Belgium. (See gium. (See LUXEMBURG.) BIOGRAPHICAL CONTINUATIONS.
ABBAS HILMI PASHA, ex-Khedive of Egypt, excluded from succession to Egyptian throne and deprived of every right in Egypt under a decree of July 18, 1922. His return, however, continued to be agitated by a combination of Zaghloulists and Nationalists. ALLENBY, LORD EDMUND. As British High Commisioner in Egypt, he urged and obtained from the British government (February , 1922) the abolition of the protectorate over Egypt and the re- Egypian independence. polar basin scientific expedition which AMUNDSEN, ROALD, leader of a new sailed from Nome , Alaska, June 28, 1922, with the object of making investigations important in meteorology and oceanpower schooner "Maud" was fully equipped with the most modern radio apparatus ern radio apparatus to enable communi-- with the world, and two airplanes were also included in the outfit.
S. Senator from Arizona, November, 1922.
ASHURST, HENRY F., again elected U.
World War, he was attached to the