Article September 13, 1913 Issue

After reading in the Journal and Republican the report...

H. Cornell Wilson—Lowville, N. Y.

Journal and Republican

After reading in the Journal and Republican the report from the Watertown Times concerning a recent death, one might conclude, if the coroner's views in the matter could be accepted, that death was due to failure to have medical treatment, instead of to the disease named by the physicians who performed the autopsy. The coroner seems to imply a wellnigh unfailing medical system, while at the same time denouncing Christian Science in unmeasured terms, although it is evident that he knows nothing about it.

The contention for medical treatment as being in any sense a guarantee against death, or even in favor of continued health, is wholly unjustifiable. This fact becomes apparent the moment the results of medical practise are investigated. The state department of health makes known in its reports, for instance, that eighty-eight persons died during April in Watertown and the rest of the county. In the year 1912, there were 1,039 deaths in the same territory. Since the coroner failed to notify the papers that any of these were Christian Scientists, it may be assumed that they all died under medical treatment. Nor were all these fatalities the result of so-called incurable diseases. The most simple ailments were given many times as the cause. It is noticed, moreover, that 328 persons of the 1,039 who died last year in Watertown, were under forty years of age.

With these figures in mind, but slight credit can be given to the statement that medical treatment would have proved salutary. The conclusion is untrustworthy, and is not supported by general results. The constantly growing list of disappointments and mistakes, both medical and surgical, does not warrant advocates of these systems in giving a guarantee either of life or health. There are many people, thousands of them, who take the position that their chance for continued life and health is quite as safe when trusted to different hands. The Christian Scientists, to cite a concrete instance, have proved beyond all question, to themselves at least, that a consistent trust in God, based upon the spiritual understanding which Christian Science inculcates, will do more for them in their need than anything else can do. They know, both individually and collectively, that their condition, physical as well as moral and spiritual, has been greatly improved since Christian Science became an active influence in their lives. This is a fact universally remarked by others. It accounts in large measure for the rapid and steady growth of the Christian Science movement.

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