Article July 2, 1910 Issue

In your issue of the 21st a county judge in Colorado is...

Herbert M. Beck

Little Rock (Ark.) Gazette

In your issue of the 21st a county judge in Colorado is reported to have held that failure to call a physician for sick children was "neglect." This case is reported to be in opposition to the Christian Scientists.

John Neeley, a Well-known citizen of Fayetteville, Ark., and secretary of the board of trustees of the University of Arkansas, and who, by the way, is not a Christian Scientist, is authority for the report of a case in which the life of a man was saved by Christian Science after two doctors had exhausted their skill and had openly announced the case as positively hopeless.

Investigation reveals, in brief, the following facts: John B. Evans, on Feb. 13, 1910, took three grains of strychnine for the purpose of self-destruction. Two doctors, called immediately after the discovery of Evans' act, proceeded to care for him according to the usual methods employed in such cases; but Evans rapidly sank under the treatment, and by the time that his wife, who is a Christian Scientist, could be notified and had arrived from the Christian Science services then being held, the doctors had reached the conclusion that death was inevitable and so expressed themselves to those present, including Mrs. Evans and the Christian Science practitioner, who also had been called. The doctors, who had faithfully done all they could for the case, remained a short time and saw the principal part of the recovery. No further medical treatment of any sort has been administered to Evans, and he is today and has been ever since an entirely well man. By no common understanding of things can it be said that Christian Science did not save this man's life. Should this case be taken as a reason for compelling people to call the Christian Scientists in case of sickness, or be adjudged guilty of "negligence"?

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