The Portland daily press., 1888-02-11
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CHRISTIAN SCIENCE.
An Ounce of Truth to n Pound of
Fraud.

An ounce of Truth to Pound of
Fraud.
IDr. Allan McLane Hamilton in New York Postl
Specialists in nervous diseases are, of
course, particularly likely to hear of these
wonderful cures effected by Christian scien-
lists, nind-healers. etc., for it is pretty well
established that they do nothing except in
nervous affections all the claims made by
such people to cures of organic disease are
groundless, and are based upon the pre-
sumption of the so called healer and the
credulity Of the healed. Naturally | have
| taken a great interest in the whole matter,
and have followed the spread of the craze
| pretty closely. IL Is no new matter. Books
| by the dozen may be found treating of the
| very same thing under different names and
IN different times. Within the last generation
we have had the Zouave Jacob, who treated
| thousands of sick and deformed people in
France; the halt and the blind t1ocked to him
| twenty five years ago. In this country not
| many years ago,we had the Perkins tractor
| and magnetic craze, in which magnets and
pieces Of wood applied to different parts of
| the body were said to produce wonderful eff
| fects; nesmefism iu its curative influence
was part Of the same thing, aud clairv0yants
have heen thriving, longer than the oldest in
habitant can remember, upon this very same
iliilitutc III iiliDQ DNtI DUuy. I6TldDS bu6
very worst error that can be made in dis
cussing the matter is to assume that there is
NJ SubStratum of truth underneath the
mountain of ignorance, superstition and
laundering that cover it,
Every competent physician, especially
every physician that has had to deal with
meatnal troubles, knows perfectly well that
the influence of the mind upon the body Is
something to be counted upon as OF the ut
must value as g therapeutical adjuvant, and
scores of men owe their eminence in the pro-
fession to their faculty of influencing the
minds of their patients for good. l need not
go over the Literature u this subject, which
is now ancient history. The cases in which
broad pills have acted as purgatiyes,i in which
hypodermic injections of warm water have
produced sleep, etc, are endless, and every
writer upon the subject has set forth facts
be arLIg upon this matter which cannot be
gainsad. The whole thing reduces itself to
the reality OF the effect Of expectant attention.
The patient believes that this or that will
happen, and without volitOn on his or her
part he causes it to happen. The naturally
healthy body acquires during years OF nor
NAL and healthy development certain phys
ical routine largely automatic. This activity
may go on indefinitely unless something hap
pens. We will say that an accident causes
break in this beauti full coordination of func-
tiOn. For suinc reason or other, the nlachin-
cry is stopped or 7erfered with for while,
and the mind conceiyes the notion that il Is
impossible for the body to resume its ordi-
nary functions. Suppose we consider the
case Of man who has been disabled for O
time in the use Of an arm or a leg. Especial
ly If he Is weak-miuded, or worn out by sick
ness, it will be very hard to convince him
that there exists no real reason why he
should not begin to walk again, although for
certain time walking may have been ex-
tremely painful, or even impossible, to him.
Now take this man and suddenly convince him
that he can walk, and he may start off, and,
without knowingly making the physical Ell
fort, the automatic action of the body will go
ON as before. The man is not aware that he
has made an involuntary motion; he attrib-
utes it to the prayers Of himself or his
friends,or the jargon with which some Chris
tian scientist has puzzled him.
Every specialist in nervous diseases will
tell you that one of the curious features of hy-
steria is the tendency OF the patient tC eoun-
terfeit organic troubles; an hysterical pa
tient will believe that she is subject to all
sorts of troubles which have no existence ex-
cept in her imagination. Evidently the pro-
per treatment Is to strengthen the mind that
these decisions win cease.
So far as organic troubles go, there is not,
in the whole system of medicine, or what
may be considered history, an instance of the
effect of mind npon body to the extent claim
ed a. everyday experience by these Chris
tian scientists | have been looking for
years for one case in which an organic trouble
has been cured by will power, call it Chris
tian science, or mind cure, or anything you
like. and am still waiting
With regard to the religious part of this
fraud, it is only natural that religion should
play large part in it. Take weak-minded
woman, probably historical, whose system
has become debilitated, and whose faith in
religion is about the only faith she has left;
certainly she has no faith in doctors.Some one
tells her that Christian science will cure her.
The Christian scientist appeals to the
only faith she has left, and as the
successful scientist, is usually a per-
of chr nil rbA
pletely dominates the weak patient, the
results may be surprising, and they frequent
ly are The religious faith is the last TO go
in very many of these historical women, and
in all times thequaeks who have allied them
selves with religious superstition have al
always had the best of it, | do not doubt
that the Christian scientists are more sue
cessful than the mind-curers who profess to
do without any religious sentiment. 1t may
surprise some people to know that even so
late as 1922 there was published book set
ting forth at length the wonderful cure OF a
boy in whom the devil had taken his abode.
1t would scarcely do to-day to revive the old
belief in demOniac possession, but our Chris
tian scientists are not very far from it. The
title Of the curious little work of which l
speak is The Extraordinary Affection and
Gracious Relief OF Little Boy Supposed to
be the Effects Of Spiritual Agency, Care
fully Examined and Faithfully Narrated;
with Observations on Demoniac Possession
and Animadversions on Superstitions By
James Heaton.' There are pages after pa
ges giyeu up to discussions between Mr..
Heaton and the demon who possessed the
boy. At last the demon yielded to the united
efforts of seven preachers of the Gospel,
who, in turn, powerfully and effectually re-
buked him.
Coming now to the dangers of this craze,
they are serious and very easily defined.
Take person OF not very strong mind, af-
1icted with organic disease. He tries Chris
tian science as a last resort, and Christian
science fails, the result is disappointment and
shock which may have the worst effects.
i am certain that insanity may be introduced
by just such process. Again, the practice
of most of such quacks in declaring any
treatment except mental or religious treat
ment to be superfiuous, exposes the patient
to neglect which may prove fatal We have
had within the last few months several in
stances of the kind which have been widely
announced in the newspapers. The most
curious ease Of harm through Christian
science or faith cure that / have recently
heard was that Of an old lady who was af-
ficted with some disease of the hip joint,
and who was prevailed upon by her friends
to present herself as a subject for prayer at
one of these seances. After the managers or
leaders Of the meeting had worked the fool
ish women present up to high state of emo
tional excitement, some of the people pres
ent told the victim that God had cured her.
Throw your crutcbes into the air. they
shouted, and the unfortunate woman did so,
but she tumbled down and broke both legs.
Perhaps some people would like TO know
who ought to pay for the damage done.
/ arr not sure that it is good policy to at
tempt to stop this craze by legislation. Pros
ecution,' is likely to make it thrive, and we
can only trust to the good sense of the COM
munity. Probably it will die out as quickly
as previous cases of the same type. A few
fragrant cases in which patients suffered and
perhaps died through the neglect of proper
treatment will probably come before the cor
oners, and when that happens the whole
thing will get into bad odor. Naturally it is
an attractive field for any INSCRIPTIONS per-
son with no reputation to lose, and the more
INSCRIPTIONS and the holder the Christian
scientist, the more likely is he to succeed.
Apdover Review for February.
More than half of This number is editorial hut