The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-11-04

mind over matter, And here again, as we have seen that no Christian need be a so-called Christian Scientist in or der to know the spiritual and physical benefits of Christian love and joy, so we shall see that the cures that have been wrought by Eddyite mind-healers have been due to a principle in no wise peculiar to Mrs Eddy's teaching and in point of fact not intelligently undet- stood by her.
 To be sure for many of the recov- cries from illness with which Chris tian Science" has been credited, no credit has been due save for the fact that no drugs and hence no wrong drugs were administered and the re- cuperative forces of nature were given a free chance, under calming mental influences, to do their work. Dr. Buck ley in his work on Faith Healing" quotes Dr. John Forbes a distinguish ed English physician, as declaring, First that in a large proportion of the cases treated by allopathic phy- sicians, the disease is cured by nature, not by them. Second that in lesser but still not small proportion, the disease is cured by nature in spite of them; in other words, their ,interfer- ence retarding instead of assisting the cure. Third, that in consequently a considerable proportion of diseases it would fare better with patients if all remedies-at least all active remedies, especially drugs-were abandoned" Likewise the testimony of Sir John Marshall is cited "The wis medicatrix naturae is the agent to employ in the healing of an ulcer, or the union of a broken bone; and it is equally true that the physician and surgeon never cured disease; he only assists the natural, processes of cure" It is known to medical science that even con- siderable proportion of cases of tuber- culosis terminate favorably simply through tllle eelf-healing tendency of nature Undoubtedly Christian Sci- ence" healers have presided helpfully rather than otherwise over many such natural recoveries from various dis eases, and in passing let me say that if nothing else were to be recorded to their credit it would Tbe no small thing to have had a persistent and consis- tent part in resisting the modern pat ent medicine iniquity and the habit of self-drugging.
 Then again it is to be remembered that there are many people, especially women of the leisure class, who nunse more or less imaginary ailments and enjoy the luxury of hysterical inva- lidism. One such woman who, after the manner of her class, was wont to use the possessive pronoun in speaking of her favorite ills-"my headache, my backache"--as though these were in- alienable and priceless possessions, was one day surprised to find new pre- scription left by her physicians which read, Do something for somebody" Women of this class furnish many cases and many cures for the mind healer; there is nothing the matter with them and all they need is to say so and act so and they are well.
 And this brings us to the border ldHu or stranger pHeuOHlSHtt, LOT lLlS effects of hysteria sometimes simulate the most serious disorders. pr. Marvin R. Vincent of New York relates a case at St. Luke's hospital; a woman with a swelling which was pronounced by the physicians to be an ovarian tu- nor, but which disappeared on the ad- ministration of ether, and was dis covered to be merely the result of hysteria." Now unquestionably that swelling would have disappeared under Christian Science" treatment and a case of removal of tumor" would have been sincerely heralded and duly recorded in the Christian Science Journal" among the "Testimonies from the Field" This suggested difficulty in diagnosis should be borne in mind in estimating all reports of remarkable cures. Christian Science" headers are under peculiar embarrassment at this point, for besides having no train ing in diagnosis, their entire theory de-