The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1899-09-06
The Latest Victim of Faith Cure.

The problem as to how far the law
can interfere in protecting man
against himself has not been settled,
but it draw nearer 20 solution every
year We agree that gates shall be
placed on elevated trains and ferry
boats to prevent the wild charge of peo-
pie into the street and into the water,
experience having proved that IN his
anxiety to be first on board of car or
boat and get a seat, man will not
only push women and children aside
bu will endanger his life by jumping
and scramb ing. We make an attempt
to check wllfu suicide by enacting a
law against it and Furnishing the crimi-
nal, if he survives. We restrict the
sale Of poisons and may even become
40 civilized one day as to restrict the
sale of revolvers TO rowdies, as meas
ure OF public protection and protection
of the individual against himself. And
so public sentiment may in time be-
come sufficiently awakened TO the dan
gers possible in the so-called Christian
Science as to put firmer restraints upon
it than it has endured hitherto
Recent doiugs of the scientists are
such as to refute the claim that II is
either Christian or science. Chris.
tianity has as its essence, kindness and
mercy, while the scientists who have
driven away the physicians and sur
geOns who attempted to relieve the
victims of pneumonia, cancer, con-
sumption and broken bones have been
outrageous in their conduct, whatever
may have been their intentions. Aud
thor method is not science, because
science is based on positive laws and
deals with measurable facts and ma
terials, while this "school'' has Tor its
principal tenet the abrogation of laws
and the tliuking of facts. 1t puts the
possibility CT cure entirely upon belief,
which is TO be calculated only as per-
sonal equation, and not to be prescrib.
ed, as we order quinine or digital's.
Moreover, it has failed to justify itself
by performing the cures that it alleged
it could accomplish. And worst OF all,
it has interfered where its patients
were receiving the benefits Of regular
medical attendance and has ordered
the doctors away ana thrown their
medicines out at the window.
Within about three years the Chris
tian Scientists have killed nearly forty
persons, either by depriving them of
skilled physicians and nurses or by
driving the practitioners to despair and
suicide through remorse at the failure
of their schemes. When a school ac-
quires record like that it becomes a
question whether the law has not q
right to interfere in behalf Of the pub
lie; whether it has not right to pro-
tect the deluded individual against him
self. The latest instance of malprac
tice is that which resulted in the death
of John Allen Campbell, himself a
Christian Scientist and an employer of
healers of his kind. He was, in fact, a
teacher of the faith method and had
probably told that it was not necessary
10 employ physicians for the care of
the sick, but only to believe that moth
ing was the matter.
Campbell had stroke of apoplexy in
his home in M.nhattan and a physi-
clan was called, He had been i'll for
several days, it appears, but nothing
had been done for him beyond the fact
that a woman had knelt beside him and
prayed, now and then. The woman
and her father did not administer the
uItulClutS tudI WtIc lcil, Uul ndnueu
them back next day, with the informa-
ton that they could cure the patient
without drugs. When the physician
protested that they were disobeying
the law in refusing to allow the attend
snce of medical practitioner they said
that there was no law but Gods law
"a il the action of medicine might not
be as truly in accordance with divine
aw as the action of falkland the case
was submitted to the coroner. When
the police got around to it the man was
dead, and an undertaken was preparing
to remove the body. The whole con-
duct of the case denotes wretched
state of affairs in civilized commun.
Ivy. What happened to Campbell
might happen to any other person
whose friends or relatives believed in
Christian Science and resisted the eff
orts made on his behalf by real scien.
usts. The allegations Of the faith
healers have proved to be empty. They
a against reason, and this is in al
age of reason. Christian Science never
held place in science. 1t is in dis
repute Its failure to glbe its prom
ses with it's performances condemns il
| to legal suppression.-Brooklyn Eagle