Article March 29, 1900 Issue

Paper on Christian Science

Woodlawn Times

At the Public Service Section of the Woodlawn Woman's Club, on Friday, February 16, Dr. Mary E. Frain read a paper on "Attitude of Christian Science toward Impure Water, Defective Sewerage, and Disinfectants." Vaccination was also added. In attempting to define the attitude Dr. Frain said she had consulted Mrs. Eddy's different publications and some of the leading Scientists of this city. Their position is an earnest desire to discourage and avert the spreading of fear. They argue that it is developed to such immense proportions that the average citizen is almost afraid to breathe the ordinary air of commerce until analyzed by a specialist, or take a drink from a hydrant through fear of the lively microbe.

And to look through the glasses furnished by the "up-to-date" specialist, it is amazing that our grandfathers and great-grandfathers managed to enjoy health and longevity in their stupid ignorance, greatly in excess of that which we enjoy to-day with our wonderful enlightenment and so-called knowledge of "how to live," "what to eat" and what to drink. These facts would justify the statement that "ignorance is bliss" and that "it is folly to be wise," if the fads, hobbies, and isms of to-day are wisdom; and we wonder how our poor progenitors ever struggled to maturity without pure food and disinfectants.

The power of thought as a governing influence is being acknowledged by the best thinkers of to-day, even in the medical profession, where conservatism is most natural in a line that encroaches upon its territory. From a Belgian hospital a case is reported of a patient who had been helpless for eight years from convulsions of the muscles of the arm and shoulder, and no cure had been effected. Mental therapeutics were tried and in a few days the patient left the hospital, cured. From a French medical journal I find that strong mental emotions may cause ulcerations and even abscesses so serious that amputation was necessary, and that similar lesions are often cured under favorable psychic conditions; that these emotions may lead to dilatation of the arteries and may even give rise to internal hemorrhages. Even infection may be produced by mental emotion. Professor Feren closes his article by saying one should guard against unfavorable psychic influence as strenuously as against physical injury from any other source.

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