Editorial December 12, 1903 Issue

Why not Help rather than Hinder?

The genius of mortal mind is wont to express itself unconsciously in self-contradiction and self-defeat, and this is well illustrated in the attitude of the press respecting experiences of persons occupying exalted positions.

All intelligent people know that a state of fear and fore-boding upon the part of patient and surrounding friends is to the distinct disadvantage of a sick person, and most people would readily concede that the focusing of anxious thought upon an invalid could do him no good and would be likely to do harm, since it would certainly favor an increase of his own fear; and yet, despite the probable desire of all to help and not hinder the afflicted, about every possible thing is done in these cases to intensify public solicitude and beget the assurance that the trouble is of a type which is sure, sooner or later, to prove fatal. And this is true not only of the secular, but of the religious press as well.

There lies before us a Christian weekly which in successive issues enlarges upon the likelihood that the trouble in a certain case is malignant, despite the assurances of the operating surgeons to the contrary. The family history of the sufferer is dwelt upon, and the inevitableness of the transmission of the fatal malady is emphasized. Unfavorable tendencies, affiliations, and possibilities are all carefully enumerated and enlarged upon, and having thus done all he could to insure the death of the patient by affirming and supporting the condemnatory mortal law and exciting a morbid mentality in his readers, the editor says that, in spite of advances in medicine and surgery, we are quite as ignorant of abnormal conditions as we were years ago, and adds: "Patient observation for many months will be necessary to decide the momentous question, which we sincerely hope will be eventually favorable."

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