The San Francisco call., 1908-12-20

understands that God is the only real
power.
DISCRIMINATION AGAINST
ORGANIC DISEASES

organic as any others, and at the bot
tom of all the rest there is the best of
reasons for strongly suspecting the
existence of a physical lesion as real,
though of course not as obvious. as
that in a broken leg
And one cannot help wondering just
what is DIR. Worcester's position as to
miracles, ancient and modern He
makes no claims to performing them
explicitly denies it, indeed, and allows
to medical science at least as much
power as it possesses-but neverthe-
less he ascribes his cures to an influ
ence which, in theory, ought to deal
with one malady as easily as with
another. 1T is all very bewildering.
The founders of great religions
have never Disseminated between the
| functional and the organic in healing
the sick, and for the follower of one
of them to do so involves, in some
opinions. a curious inconsistency. If
DR.. Worcester told us that he used
only suggestion as it is known to
science, we could understand the care
with which he selects his cases; as
it is, the thing is quite beyond COM
prehension."
Commenting upon the above editorial
a correspondent in the Times of Feb
ruary 14th declares: "The Times places
its finger with singular precision upon
the weak spot in the system of church
psychopathy to which the editorial re-
fers. Either divine healing is a fact
or it is not. If it is, then setting Sc
lective limitations to omnipotence by
restricting its operation to a short
list picked from the myriad ills that
flesh is heir to constitutes such con-
tradiction of logic and of Bible history
that it IS surprising to see pious and
learned ecclesiasts advocate it,"
To illustrate the present attitude of
some of the medical periodicals on this
subject we quote the following from
the Medical Record" published in New
York City: cit is time, therefore, to
ask what the movement means, and
why physicians, even trained neurolo-
gists. are to be found lending them
selves to the movement and supporting
it by voice and PEN
THE first question raised by pc
rusal of the official book of the
Emmanuel Movement is. Why clerical
healing, and why the limitation of
clerical healing to functional diseases?
We do not find either question an
swered satisfactorily in this book. and
we do not see how they can be an
swered. AS physicians we should
regret indeed to lose the powerful
therapeutic force that resides in re-
lligion, but 1t does not follow from this
that we are ready to welcome the priest
as a fellow practitioner of medicine, or
even to acknowledge that he can exer-
else that function in the public and
wholesale way of the Emmanuel rec
tors without the danger of doing far
more harm than good.
FUNCTIONAL DISEASE
CATCH WORD
AT present the catch word of the
Emmanuel movement is functional
disease. We are told repeatedly that
the clerical healers will have nothing
to 90 with any sufferer from organic
disease, and they use their medically
trained allies to separate the functional
sheep from the organic goats. the lat
ter being thrust back into the outer
darkness of legitimate medical practice
But what do these people mean by
functional nervous disorders? Do they
really believe that there are two dis
tinct kinds of disease--functional and
organic? II they do not know, their
medical advisers should tell them, that
every day we are shifting so called
functional diseases into the class Of
organic diseases. Will these clerical
healers abandon a functional disease
to the medical healers when it is dis
covered to be dependent upon an or
ganic lesion. or will they simply deny
it's organic basis and continue to treat
it? And once they find themselves
treating one disease called organic, why
not others? Why not all? Every physi-
clan knows that 'cheerfulness, hope
courage and religious faith and prayer.
which constitute the pharmacopoeia OF
the New York school of clerical heal
ing. are just as necessary in the treat
ment of tuberculosis as in that of con-
stipation, and indeed that they are
often distinctly curative in various or
ganic diseases. If the clergy have a
divine commission to heal the sick they
are recreant to their trust and cruel to
the suffering to deprive any of the
benefit of their healing words, and it
will not be long before they recognize
that fact and act accordingly. That
the law forbids them to practice medi-
cine is, of course. detail of no i'm
portance."
We do not pretend to be well yersed
in diagnosis. but we understand that
with the exception of those which arc
produced by accidents, organic LESSONS
are the outcome of functional disorders,
and that in large number of cases
when the functions of the body are
rendered normal the organic diseases
disappear with greater or less rapidity
Therefore we are at a loss to know
why those who believe that Christian
Science can heal functional disorders go
TO the length of insisting that it is
impossible to heal a case of organic
disease by mental treatment. There is