Article November 17, 1906 Issue

It is worth nothing that since the...

Willard S. Mattox

The Orator-Outburst

It is worth nothing that since the appearance of the editorial in Outburst Dr. Adcock's case [in London, England] has been tried and the jury failed to sustain the charge, consequently the prediction that he will have a long term of imprisonment has no opportunity of fulfilment, nor has this case had a tendency to make Christian Science unpopular in England, where the facts were better known than here. On the contrary, there is every reason to believe that there is an augmented interest in this subject now manifest in England. It was brought out at the trial of Dr. Adcock that Major Whyte was a very strong-willed man and managed his own affairs up to the time of his death, so that it is hardly fair to say that he fell into anybody's clutches. Christian Scientists are not going about the country importuning people to take treatment. On the contrary, it is the general custom to insist that prospective patients make their own choice, without outside influence, and choice is usually made, as in the case of Major Whyte, after material remedies have failed to produce results. Dr. Adcock was a licensed physician who had retired from practice. The charge against him was based upon the assumption that he was called to treat the case medically, that as a medical man he knew the needs of the patient and neglected him from a medical standpoint. As a matter of fact, and as the evidence shows, Dr. Adcock was not employed either as a physician or as a Christian Science practitioner, but as a nurse to help Major Whyte's servant dress his wounds. Dr. Adcock professed an interest in Christian Science, but was not a Christian Science practitioner nor a member of a Christian Science church.

The facts show conclusively that Christian Science was not censurable for the part it played in this case. Major Whyte, the patient, was suffering from a broken back, a malady which medical science does not profess to be able to heal. Major Whyte told the first Christian Scientist who visited him in the army hospital at Osborne that the doctors could offer him no hope of improving his condition. In view of this, it seems strange that one of the specialists who testified at the trial, when asked if Major Whyte could have been saved if he had continued to resort to medical treatment, replied with assurance, "Oh, certainly."

Major Whyte had suffered agonies, and so intense was the pain that he had been given frequent injections of morphine and had openly expressed his wish to commit suicide. From the first Christian Science treatment he improved. All pain ceased and he began to sleep peacefully. Of the bed-sores, one healed completely in ten days and the other in six weeks; and the autopsy showed that a new bone had begun to form at the seat of the fracture. He became cheerful and hopeful and withdrew his resignation from the army. He continued to gain and finally thought he could care for himself and dismissed his practitioner. He was subsequently treated for short periods by two other practitioners, but he was not under Christian Science treatment when he died.

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