Article February 25, 1905 Issue

An Important Issue

John Carveth

Detroit (Mich.) Free Press

In your issue of Sunday, January 29, appeared an article concerning the death of a little boy under Christian Science treatment, in which it is stated that the doctors claimed that his life might have been saved if a physician had been called, and anti-toxine used. Where death occurs under Christian Science treatment, this claim is almost invariably put forth, that life could have been saved if a physician had been timely summoned. Your many readers will certainly find difficulty in reconciling the above claim of the doctors with the following item in the same issue of your paper: "At the present time there are only three cases of small-pox, eighteen of scarlet fever, and eight of diphtheria, in the city. Last week there were one hundred and one deaths, of which thirty-nine were children under the age of five years." This is presumably an average record. Of this thirty-nine, only one died under Christian Science treatment. All the others died presumably under treatment by regular physicians. Why should the single death provoke so much comment, and the thirty-eight none at all? If failure in a single case is cause for preventing the Christian Scientist from practising among the sick, what should be done with the system that loses thirty-eight children and sixty-two adults in a single week, especially when among the children of Christian Scientists, where spiritual healing is the sole reliance, death is a very rare event?

It is confidently stated on the best authority, that among those in Detroit, numbering about one thousand, who have relied solely on Christian Science treatment, only two deaths have occurred during the past year, a record that speaks for itself.

In Grand Rapids there is only one Christian Science church. Its Sunday School numbers eighty-three, and the adult membership of the church is one hundred and eighty-three. There have been no deaths in this city among children of any age in the families of Christian Scientists during the past year or more, nor among children of non-Scientists who had no other than Christian Science treatment. This statement is not made in the spirit of exultation, but in grateful thanksgiving for what God does for humanity when it understandingly turns to Him as the sole reliance.

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