Article December 18, 1902 Issue

Gross Ignorance

Putnam Journal

IN carrying a long ladder it is very important to remember that it has two ends, because if you don't the probability is, if you go very far, that somebody will be hit unexpectedly. So when one attempts to make fun of the religious or medical belief of any class of people, it is important that he who indulges in this silly practice understand, to some extent at least, what he is writing or talking about. Otherwise some one is liable to be unexpectedly hit, and sometimes the offender is the one.

It is better for speakers and writers to be always charitable toward those holding different opinions, and the better-informed Christian Scientists and medical practitioners are, each class admitting that there are many intelligent, honest, and conscientious people in the other class, laboring for the enlightenment and relief of humanity. In both classes there have been many cases of relief from disease recorded as well as quite a number of deaths. In six months in Greater New York 1,145 people are reported to have died of diphtheria while under the care of medical practitioners, but we have heard no complaint of that, and we are not going to make any, for the doctors doubtless did all they could; were honest, conscientious, and regretted very much indeed the loss of every patient. While this report is doubtless true there is another made by a critic of Christian Science which, strange as it may seem, gives the number lost under Christian Science treatment in six years as only thirty-five. In neither instance is the number treated given, so the two statements, if admitted to be correct, give no basis to judge as to the superiority of the two forms of treatment, but enough information is given to show to thinking people that the question is not an entirely one-sided affair.

In the beginning of all new forms of doctrine or any new science, the scoffer is always ready to ridicule and try to say something smart but, as a rule, in doing so discloses his gross ignorance of the subject under consideration.

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