Article May 29, 1915 Issue

In justice to Christian Science and a misinformed public,...

Robert S. Ross

Rochester (N. Y.) Express

In justice to Christian Science and a misinformed public, permit me to state that the attack on the Christian Science bill, referred to in a recent issue, was wholly unwarranted, for the reason that not once in the forty years during which Christian Science has been practised in New York state has a Christian Scientist been found guilty of contributing to an epidemic of disease, Assemblyman Hinman's charges notwithstanding.

It is well known that Christian Scientists are more careful than any other class of people to observe all reasonable sanitary and quarantine regulations. Not long ago Dr. Ernest Lederle of New York, in a published statement, said: "Violations are promptly and quickly prosecuted, but I have yet to find an instance where the lawbreaker was a member of the Christian Science church." Dr. Frank E. Allard of Boston writes: "From an experience of twenty years of active practice in the city of Boston I do not recall a single case, nor has any been brought to my attention by a colleague, in which a Christian Science practitioner has failed to report promptly contagious diseases to the board of health; in fact, of late years I have found them rather more conscientious in this matter than some of the physicians themselves."

On the other hand, the records of the department of health of the city of New York show, according to Doctor Emerson, that no fewer than one hundred and twenty regular physicians have in recent years violated those sections of the sanitary code which refer to quarantine and isolation. Reference to these violations is made, however, not to attack or ridicule the medical profession, but merely to show that Christian Scientists are, to say the least, as law-abiding as some of the physicians who opposed the bill.

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