The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1908-12-20

INTERIOR VIEW OF THE FIRST C
BOS
He makes no claims to performing
them-explcitly denies it, indeed, and
allows to medical science at least as
much power as it possesses-but new
ertheless he ascribes his cures to an
influence which, in theory, ought to
deal with one malady as easily as
with another. 1t is all very bewilder-
ing. The founders of great religions
have never Disseminated between the
functional and the organic in heal
ing the sick, and for the follower of
one of them to do so involves, in
some opinions, a curious inconsist-
ency. If DR.. Worcester told us that
he used only suggestion as it is
known to science, we could under
stand the care with which he selects
his cases; as it is, the thing is quite
beyond comprehension"
Commenting upon the above editor
ial a correspondent in the Times
of February 14th declares: THE
Times places its finger with singular
precision upon the weak spot in the
system of church psychopathy to
which the editorial refers. Either di-
vine healing is a fact or it is not. If
it is, then setting selective limitations
to omnipotence by restricting its OPP
Grafton to a short list picked from the
myriad ills that flesh is heir to con-
stitutes such a contradiction of logic
and of Bible history that it is surpris-
ing to see pious and learned eccles.
lasts 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: 1T is time. there
fore, to ask what the movement
means, and why physicians, even
trained neurologists, are to be found
lending themselves to the movement
and supporting it by voice and pen.
THE first question raised by a per-
usal Of the official book of the En-
manuel movement is, Why clerical
healing, and why the limitation of
clerical healing to functional disease?
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 pow
erful therapeutic force that resides in
religion, but it 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 exercise that function in the
public and wholesale way of the EN-
manuel rectors without the danger of
doing far more harm than good.
AT present the catch word of the
Emmanuel movement is functional
disease. We are told repeated that
the clerical healers will have nothing
to do with any sufferer from organic
disease, and they use their medi-
cally trained allies to separate the
functional sheep from the organic
goats, the latter 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 distinct kinds of
disease-functional and organic? If
they do not know, their medical adj
visors should tell them, that every
day We are shifting so-called function
al diseases into the class of organic
diseases. Will these clerical healers
abandon a functional disease to the
| medical healers when it is discovered
!, to be dependent upon an organic le-
sion, or will they simply deny it's or
ganic basis and continue to treat it ?
And once they find themselves treat
ing one disease called organic, why
not others? Why not all? Every
| physician knows that 'cheerfulness
| hope. courage and religious faith and
prayer which constitute the pharma
copoeia of the New York school OF
clerical healing are just as necessary
in the treatment of tuberculosis as in
that of constipation. and indeed that
they are often distinctly curative in
various organic 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 il will not be long before
they recognize that fact and act &C
cordingly. That the law forbids
them to practice medicine is, Of
course. detail of no Importance
/ We do not pretend to be well vers
ed in diagnosis but we understand
that with the exception of those
which are produced by accidents, or
ganic LESSONS are the outcome of func
tional disorders. and that in a large
number of cases when the functions
of the body are rendered normal the
organic diseases disappear with great
er or less rapidity Therefore we are
at loss to know why those who be