Article July 25, 1914 Issue

A well-known medical critic, in a recent public address,...

Frederick Dixon

Leytonstone (England) Press and Independent

A well-known medical critic, in a recent public address, made a great point of what he called the works of Christian Science, and he told of an elderly lady whom he saw in the street with a broken thigh, and whose one wish was for Christian Science treatment. He said he heard afterward that she had been taken by her Christian Science friends to a neighboring doctor's house to have the limb set. That is the sort of airy way in which this critic usually leaves his evidence, and this evidence generally takes the form of something he has been told, rather than of something he knows. The facts of the case are these: The lady to whom the accident occurred was not a member of the Christian Science church, although she asked for Christian Sceicne help. She was removed to her lodgings, with the result that the keeper of the lodgings declined to take her in unless a doctor was in attendance. Under these circumstances, there was nothing for it but to remove her to a hospital, and this was done.

Now, may I tell your readers a story, for which, if necessary, I can produce chapter and verse, and which I shall not be compelled to wind up with hearsay evidence. Just about the time the critic saw the accident in Notting Hill, another motor accident occurred in South London. A boy was knocked down and his arm fractured. He was immediately treated by a doctor, with the result that the bone refused to set. A specialist was called in, with no better results. At the end of a fortnight or so, the doctors declared that nothing remained to be done but to operate on the arm and unite the fracture by wiring the bone. The boy and his mother both objected to this, with the result that the limb was X-rayed, and the doctors declared that it would be rendered useless unless the operation were performed. They were very emphatic in their declarations, and told the mother that she was simply sacrificing the boy's future, and that his arm would remain useless for the rest of his life. The boy was then treated in Christian Science. The arm set rapidly and naturally. So far from being useless, it is absolutely sound and perfect today. Here is a case of surgery which is positively indisputable, and which may explain why Dr. Saleeby, recently lecturing, after giving a case of healing, through Christian Science, in his own experience, of locomotor ataxia, declared that he looked forward to the time when "medical science of today, partly under Christian Science, ... could be improved and made more complete."

Then our critic went on to say the usual foolish and untrue things about Christian Scientists doing nothing for their patients. He said that doctors watched their patients day and night, while Christian Scientists did nothing and saw them bleed to death. This, of course, is absolutely untrue. A Christian Scientist works mentally for a patient, while a doctor gives him drugs. But that does not mean that the Christian Scientist does nothing. To take such a case as this critic mentions, some time ago a lady applied to Christian Science for treatment for internal hemorrhage, which the doctors could not stop. She was treated and healed, and has remained perfectly well ever since. Her healing was so remarkable that the doctor who had been in charge of the case specially requested to be introduced to the Christian Science practitioner in order to ask him about the treatment.

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