The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-08-14
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE.
IT'S ADVOCATES PRESENT THEIR
SIDE OF THE CASE.
The Death of RostrOn Once More
Discussed-MedicaI Authorities on
the Practice of Medicine.

To the Editor of The Herald:
The physician who writes of the
Rostron case certainly has a faculty
for freeing himself from unpleasant
situations. He informs the public
that the case, which had been treated
by medicine for year, was hopeless.
but that being the case, he feels justi-
fled in ascribing the death to thirty
four hours treatment from Christian
Science. To what cause had he in
tended attributing it if the Christian
Scientists had not given that thirty
four hours treatment? Knowing 1t to
be hopeless, he had doubtless thought
out the certificate. Was it to be
death from one years skilful treat
ment? For the rest of the article let
the gentleman's own fraternity an
swer him. What would he say to such
expressions as these:
Dr. Mason Good, a learned professor
in London, says:
THE effects of medicine on the hu-
man system are in the highest degree
uncertain; except, indeed, that 1t has
already destroyed more lives than
war pestilence and famine, all COM
bined."
DR.. Chapman, professor of the in
stitutes and practice of physic in the
University of Pennsylvania, IN pup
lished essay says:
Consulting the records of our science,
we cannot help being Disguised with
the multitude of hypothesis obtruded
upon US at different times. Nowhere
is the imagination displayed TO a
greater extent; and perhaps SO ample
an exhibition Of human invention
might crafty our vanity, If 1t were
not more than compensated by the
humiliating view of so much absurd
ity. contradiction and falsehood. 10
harmonic the contrarities of medical
doctrines is indeed a, task as 1mprac-
ticable as to arrange the meeting va
pors around us, or to reconcile the
fixed and repulsive antipathles OF ma
ture. Dark and perplexed, our devious
career resembles the cropping OF Ho-
mer's Cyclops around his cave"
Dr. John Forbes, M. D., f. X. s.
Fellow of the Royal College of Ply
sicians, London, says:
mo systematic or theoretical classlIl-
cation of diseases or of therapeutic
agents, ever yet promulgated, is true
or anything like the truth, and none
can he adopted as a safe guidance III
practice. .,.-.,
Iowa, in an article published recently
in the New York Medical Examiner
on the influence of mind as cause
and cure of disease has the following:
Should some self-styled retormer,
well versed in the history of medicine
and able to point out the mistakes or
medicines and medical men In past
ages, and show the results OF these mis-
takes upon the human family, would II
not bring ridicule upon medical pre-
tensions? Nay, more, would 1t not
oh n horror.
the people as they stood aghast look
ing down into the dark abyss into
which so many millions of their fell
low men had been plunged through
the ignorance and recklessness Of
those who had led them to believe in
their knowledge and ability to treat
their diseases successfully? Koch sup
posed he had found the cause OF tuber-
cles and a certain remedy for con-
sumption. Does the remedy cause a
certain cure? Is the germ theory en-
tirely satisfactory, and are we sure
that future Investigations will not
send confusion into the ranks of those
who now so strenuouSly advocate. that
theory? AS we delve into the hitherto
unknown and seek to unraYel the
mysteries of life and creation, what a
feeling of insignificance comes over US
as we realize how little we really
know. Is it the part of true wisdom,
or integrity, or real devotion to scien-
tific investigations, to deride or scott
at and prosecute new ideas, until by
careful and honest personal investiga-
ton such new ideas are proven to be
erroneous? No honest or intelligent
medical man can afford to deny, dis
parage or ridicule and prosecute a new
idea until by an honest and rigid per-
sonal investigation he has proved that
idea to be erroneous and false