Article November 14, 1908 Issue

It has probably been the experience of almost every...

J. Miles Chambers, M.R.C.S. Eng., L.R.C.P. Lond.,

The Onlooker

It has probably been the experience of almost every doctor of to-day to be asked by his patients for his opinion of Christian Science as a healing agency, and one would not be far wrong in saying that the fact that Christian Science practitioners do not consider it necessary to use the stethoscope and thermometer and other means of ascertaining the actual physical condition which they propose to relieve, is considered by the majority of doctors to be a full and sufficient reason for declaring that the cures cannot be genuine. A patient inquiring about a reported cure of, say, cancer, is told, "If it was cancer, it wasn't cured; if it was cured, it wasn't cancer;" and the inquirer, in a spirit of resignation to the (supposed) will of God, has had to remain content with the knowledge — and fear — that should he at any time become a victim to any disease pronounced by medical science to be incurable, there is nothing for him to do but to bear it patiently, and pray for a speedy death.

This attitude towards Christian Science was, perhaps, excusable in the early days of its practice, but now that the results of the operation of its methods over a period of forty years have given, and continue to give, increasingly convincing evidence that diseases, call them by what medical name you will, which had been pronounced, after the employment of all known physical aids to diagnosis and prognosis to be incurable, have been cured by Christian Science, this position is no longer tenable, and many medical men, both here and in America, have been led to consider what is the understanding which enables men and women, without any previous knowledge of the various branches of medical science, to bring about a cure where they themselves have failed to do so, in spite of all the new remedies and improved methods of treatment which recent scientific discoveries have placed at their disposal.

It is not within the limits of this short article to consider the methods by which Christian Science performs its cures, —that is fully explained in the text-book, — and any scientific discussion by the medical profession on the merits or demerits of Christian Science may be regarded as premature until doctors are prepared to admit that such diseases as cancer and leprosy can be cured. I recently had the opportunity of questioning closely a patient who had been suffering from an attack of acute Bright's disease. There had been a consultation and the doctors had told his friends that nothing more could be done for him, and that he could not live more than a few days. All medical treatment was then stopped and Christian Science treatment begun, and in less than a fortnight he was quite well again. This single case is not in itself a proof that Christian Science is a panacea for all the ailments to which mankind is subject, but it is sufficiently convincing to prompt a further study of the methods by which the result was obtained.

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