Sentenced to die by the unanimous vote of a council of physicians held Tuesday, March 11, 1913, my daughter, Mrs. Elden Lord Packard, is not only alive today, but is in normal health, and her restoration is due solely to the divine power manifested through Christian Science.

This is the story of a non-Scientist, but one who is, by reason of this marvelous demonstration, no longer a skeptic. On March 4 the physician, retained because of the law in maternity cases, told my daughter she could not live. "You are in the last stages of Bright's disease," he said, "and are apt to die any moment. You are apt to have convulsions and never come out of them, or to go to sleep and never wake up. You will have to flag your Christian Science, for positively your only chance is to go to a hospital and have your child taken away immediately." "If the case is as serious as you say it is," my daughter replied, "I need Science more than I ever needed it before." The physician insisted on seeing the husband, a non-Scientist, and he repeated to him what he had said to his wife, adding that the practitioner could be arrested if she took the case and it resulted as he predicted. He was keen to operate at once, but neither my daughter nor her husband would consent.

My daughter told her parents on the following Sunday, March 10, and the next day I went to see the doctor. He repeated to me what he had told his patient and her husband, and was unequivocably positive that nothing but an operation could save my daughter's life. I asked him, in case of an operation, what chance the child would have to live. "Well, we sometimes save them," was his reply. "If the child were sacrificed," was my next question, "what chance would the mother have?" "She would have more chance than the child," he answered, and this was the most encouragement he could give.

We asked for a consultation of physicians, and it was held the following morning, March 11. The physicians agreed, positively and without any qualifications, that my daughter's only chance for life was an operation within twenty-four hours. They urged with all the emphasis possible that she be sent to a hospital immediately, but even with an operation they would give no hope, or at least a hope so exceedingly fragile it was worse than none. A family consultation was held, at which strong pressure was exerted to have my daughter accept the doctor's advice. She resisted firmly, and though I felt I was signing her death-warrant, I advised that they let her decide the question for herself; and this was done.

Throughout the trying scenes of these two days, the Christian Science practitioner stood firm and was a tower of strength. From start to finish her faith never wavered, and this cheered and comforted all of us, besides aiding her patient perceptibly. At the time the decision to stick to Christian Science was reached by us, the patient's condition seemed most alarming. When I saw her the next morning, a marked change for the better was noticeable. Her mind was no longer torn with the doubts and fears of those who loved her and whom she loved, and from that moment her improvement continued until the time for the final trial came. Meantime, the doctor was becoming so worried about the case because the patient would not diet or carry out his other directions, that she offered to release him if he wished to give up the case. He replied that he would keep it, so she wrote a letter formally exonerating him from all responsibility and all blame in event of her death. He prescribed a diet, but she made no change whatever in her usual fare.

On April 2, I was told at my club that the doctor wanted me to call up my daughter's house at once. I did so, and the nurse who answered the telephone would not tell me what the trouble was, but sent for the doctor himself. "Your daughter has had two convulsions," the doctor told me, "and you had better come down as quickly as possible." As he had told us that her chances for surviving even one convulsion were practically nil, I jumped into a car and sped to the house. Upon my arrival I found two doctors there, and a nurse, who was a graduate nurse as well as a Scientist. They were gathered around my daughter, who lay white and still, without the slightest sign of life. Looking at her long and earnestly I feared the worst, and said to the doctor who stood near, "Is she dead?" She heard me and tried to open her eyes; then she smiled feebly and said, "I am not going to die." And she kept her word. An hour later she was the mother of a boy.

Only a minute or two before the birth, the doctor said to the patient's mother that he did not think her daughter could possibly live, and that he also thought the child had been dead for several days. The next day he told the Christian Science practitioner that poisoning would set in and that the patient could not survive; but the practitioner never wavered in her faith and understanding, which she imparted in full measure to her patient. Two other Scientist nurses were called in to help, and not a drop of medicine was taken. The swelling disappeared very quickly. As one of the nurses phrased it, "Under Christian Science treatment the poison disappeared like the gas escaping from a balloon." Mother and child gained steadily, and every condition became absolutely normal.

When I left my daughter the Friday following the birth of the baby, she seemed so low that I never hoped to see her alive again, although she had seen friends who called that day. The next morning her change for the better was marvelous, and after that we never had any cause for worry. She sat up the ninth day after the baby came, and was downstairs the seventeenth. Throughout the case, from start to finish, no medicines were used, and the entire treatment was Christian Science. Is it any wonder that one doubter is no longer unconvinced? After the patient's recovery was assured, even from the medical view-point, the attending physician told her that he had reviewed the case before a medical meeting and all but two of the doctors present agreed that she "had not the ghost of a chance." The two thought she "had a bad chance," and all agreed that they thought the doctors was "a fool for taking the case."

To say that we are grateful for the triumph of Science over asserted material laws, expresses but feebly our heartfelt thankfulness. My daughter and her son, now eighteen months old, are pictures of health, and splendid living examples of the truth of Christian Science.

Fred Arthur Mallery, Passaic, N. J.

We, the undersigned, having read the statement written by Fred Arthur Mallery of the Christian Science demonstration in the case of his daughter, Mrs. Elden Lord Packard of Rutherford, N. J., hereby certify that the facts as given are an exact and correct statement of the case.

Mrs. E. L. Packard.
Elden Lord Packard.
Mrs. Fred A. Mallery.
Mrs. Ida Kate Schultze.