Editorial May 5, 1906 Issue

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ANNIE M. KNOTT

IN our text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy calls attention to the case of a lady who was forced to submit to etherization for a surgical operation, despite her protest that it would kill her. It is further stated that the lady died in consequence, and that a trial was held which resulted in a verdict to the effect that her death was due to her fear of inhaling the ether. In citing this case our Leader asks, "Is it skilful or scientific surgery to take no heed of mental conditions, and to treat the patient as if she were so much mindless matter, and as if matter were the only factor to be consulted?" (Science and Health, p. 159).

That this question should be asked by every conscientious physician before he subjects any patient to the risk of an operation, is evidenced by a case recently reported in the papers of one of the large cities of the middle West. A man, supposedly suffering from appendicitis, was taken to a hospital to be operated upon. As the time for the dreaded ordeal approached he managed, in the absence of the nurse, to slip out by the window of his second-story room, and reached the ground in safety. He was, however, caught and brought back, with the result, as stated in the newspapers, that he died "of shock following the operation which he had tried to avoid.

This was clearly another case in which the mental condition was wholly ignored, as if matter were all, and embodied within itself the disease and the remedy, a belief which is being proved incorrect by hundreds of so-called surgical cases that are healed in Christian Science when the despairing patients refuse to submit to operations, although told by reputable physicians and surgeons that these offer the only chance of recovery, and in some instances of life. In many of these cases the entire recovery of the patient is quickly brought about through the operation of God's law as made known in Christian Science, and these cases all prove that our heavenly Father is not limited in His resources, so that humanity has nothing but an uncertain choice of danger and suffering between the remedy and the disease. On the contrary, Christ Jesus showed that God's remedy is the truth which removes fear while healing both sin and sickness; and Christian Science is proving this to be the only scientific method of dealing with the ills of suffering humanity.

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