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* MM '60 1900 * 
 
 X' 
 
 Division. 
 
 Section ,_,.. 
 No 
 
Christian Science 
 
 An Exposition of Mrs. Eddy's Wonderful Discov- 
 ery, including its Legal Aspects 
 
 A Plea for Children and other 
 H elpless S ick 
 
 BY. 
 
 WILLIAM A. PURRINGTON 
 
 Lecturer in the University and Bellevue Hospital Medical College^ and 
 
 in the A^eiu York College of Dentistry upon Lazv in Relation 
 
 to Medical Practice, one of the Authors of 
 
 " A System of Legal Medicine " 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 E. B. TREAT & COMPANY 
 
 341-243 West 23D Street 
 
 1900 
 
" Christian Science demonsti-ates that the patient who pays whatever he 
 i? able to pay for being healed is more apt to recover than he wlio with- 
 bolJs a slight equivalent for health." 
 
 — From Preface to Miseellafieous ITn'/iro^s of Mrs. EiUy. 
 
 Copyright 
 
 By E. B. Treat & Co 
 
 1900 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 It has seemed worth while to collect these papers, 
 expounding the dangerous teachings of our latter-day 
 delusion, Christian Science, and the theory and limita- 
 tions of medical legislation, if only for the sake of 
 children and helpless adults. Thanks are due to the 
 Proprietor and Editors of the North American lieciem 
 for permission to reprint the articles written for that 
 periodical at the instance of my friend David A. 
 Munro, Esq., and to the publisher and editor of the 
 Medical Record^ and the Xew York ^un for the use 
 of the matter copyrighted by them. They have 
 proved less tenacious of their copyrights than is the 
 discoverer of Christian Science of hers. 
 
 The papers have not been altered from their origi- 
 nal form in order to avoid in the bound volume 
 repetitions due to treating the same subject before 
 different audiences. When line upon line and precept 
 upon precept are needed repetitions are not vain. 
 
 Four of these papers deal with the exposition of 
 Mrs. Eddy's teachings, her own account of herself and 
 the status of her cult before the law. Another treats 
 of the educational effect and policy of medical legisla- 
 tion, and the last shows how by enforcement of medical 
 laws not consonant with public opinion the apothecary 
 in England became a general practitioner of medicine. 
 
 The best proof that the articles in the North Ameri- 
 can Beviev: are fair expositions of Mrs. Eddy's biogra- 
 phy and teachings is that their accuracy has not been 
 denied, so far as their author knows. How could it 
 be when they consist for the most part of her own 
 words quoted by book and page so that error might 
 
 3 
 
4 CHKISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 be easily corrected ? l^o willful misstatement has 
 been made, and none, it is believed, unwittingly. The 
 patient reader will see that there is here no denial, 
 but rather explicit and repeated admissions of the ex- 
 traordinary influence of suggestion, expectant atten- 
 tion and mental excitation however caused upon the 
 body. It is not denied that hysterical patients, the 
 morbidly introspective, the worriers, the malades ini- 
 aginaires, the victims of obscure nervous ailments 
 have been helped by Faith Cure, Christian Science, 
 Mental Healing, Mesmerism, Hypnotism, Yitapathy, 
 and the like. But it is denied that eyery jyost hoc is a 
 propter hoc, and that because, for instance, asthma, 
 which often yields to a change of residence, or wears 
 out by lapse of time, and childbirth, a normal func- 
 tion, sometimes run successful courses under such 
 methods, therefore gross ignorance and presumption 
 are to be substituted without restraint or liability in 
 daily life for demonstrably eflicient skill and science. 
 We know that a surgeon can staunch the gush of 
 blood from a severed artery, that the physician has 
 sweet oblivious antidotes for pain, and, if called in 
 time, can, often counteract the deadly work of poison. 
 Eddyism cannot do these things. Will Mrs. Eddy or 
 any of her disciples venture by personal experiment 
 under test conditions to prove that Christian Science 
 can counteract by its arguments the effects of mor- 
 phine, atropine or strj^chnine ? 
 
 AVhat must be obvious to any one who Avill think 
 but a moment is that suggestion, expectant attention 
 and such mental stimuli cannot operate upon babies 
 as they do upon adults ; and accordingly, as one would 
 
PREFACE. 5 
 
 naturally expect, we find some of the most horrible 
 instances of criminal wickedness on the part of Chris- 
 tian Scientists, Peculiar People and like faddist in 
 their treatment of children. One object lesson is 
 worth a wilderness of words, and the photograph 
 prefixed to these papers is a volume in itself. I am 
 indebted for its use to Charles H. Tag, M. D., of 
 Brooklyn. The case, referred to on page 113, was 
 one of gangrene of the left foot of a child twelve years 
 old ; the lower ends of tibia and fibula being exposed 
 and the foot attached to the leg only by the internal 
 lateral ligaments of the ankle. Physicians advised am- 
 putation ; but an ignorant woman was called in who 
 guaranteed by prayers, passes and salves to effect a 
 cure. She professed belief in Christian Science and 
 mental treatment, but- also in the efficacy of remedies, 
 the use of which made her conviction possible under 
 the law of JN'ew York. She was not a strict Eddyite, 
 but had a system and book of her own. Eventually 
 amputation was performed by Dr. Blaisdell assisted 
 by Drs. Tag and Caffrey. The operation was success- 
 ful and the child is now in good health. Is it not 
 horrible to think of cases of this sort, of contagious 
 diseases, of severed arteries and fractured limbs falling 
 into the hands of ignorant and audacious " Scientists " 
 even when patients are conscious and willing to accept 
 the treatment ? How much worse it is when the 
 patients are little children or unconscious adults 
 whose lives are put by misguided kin or friends into 
 the deadly keeping of those who lightly and boldly 
 assume with ignorance, what the learned attempt 
 with eare and miso^iving:. 
 
6 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 The questions submitted to Mr. Carol Norton as set 
 out in the appendix remain unanswered by him. 
 They are the crux of Eddyism. Would Mrs. Eddy 
 treat her own severed artery by arguing with it like 
 a congressman? Would Mr. Norton discuss a fish- 
 bone out of a child's throat ? If not, who will deny 
 that the pretensions of the cult are" humbug and sham 
 of the commonest, wickedest sort ? 
 
 It is by no means asserted that the disciples of Mrs. 
 Eddy are ignorant or unintelligent. On the contrary 
 their sincerity is willingly admitted, as well as that 
 among them are persons of unusual intelligence. But 
 persons of intelligence and honesty, ever since the 
 world began, have been deluded in amazing fashions 
 by vulgar and ignorant impostors in religion, medicine 
 and finance. Hope tells its flattering tale to rich and 
 poor, wise and foolish. All conditions of men blindly 
 follow false beacons of health and wealth, set for them 
 by fanaticism, greed and cunning. Fortunate are they 
 who find the true light before shipwreck. 
 
 If this exposition turns one Ephraim from his idols ; 
 if it saves one child, one woman in peril of childbirth, 
 one strong man in delirium from unnecessary suffering 
 and death at the hands of the ignorant and criminally 
 reckless, it will not have been written in vain. And 
 because it may happen that some reader might wish 
 to find again a droll absurdity of Christian Science's 
 discoverer wherewith to confound him who accepts 
 Mrs. Eddy's teaching on faith without knowledge, a 
 sufficiently copious index has been made, and a table 
 given of the cases cited from law reports. 
 
 W, A. PUBRINGTON. 
 
 59 PVall Street, New York City, 
 
 December ijth, i8gg. 
 
Contents 
 
 CHAPTER p^Qj, 
 
 Table of Cases Cited lo 
 
 I. Christian Science and its Legal Aspects 1 1 
 
 II. The Case Against Christian Science 37 
 
 III. Manslaughter, Christian Science and the Law 69 
 
 IV. Christian Science before the Law gr 
 
 V. How Far can Legislation Aid in Maintaining a Proper Stand- 
 ard of Medical Education 123 
 
 VL 
 
 The Evolution of the Apothecary i^e 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 A. The Claims of Christian Science 165- 
 
 B, Christian Science and the Law 17* 
 
 Index ig^ 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 Photograph of child treated by incantations and salves . . . Frontispiece 
 Copy of Charter of Massachusetts Metaphysical College . . & 
 
(COPY) 
 Mo. 1251 
 
 ComitioniDealtb of n)a$$acl)u$em. 
 
 !8Se it [?r\OWn That whereas Mary B. G. Eddy, Charles J. 
 Eastman, James C. Howard, Edgar S. Woodbury, James Wiley, 
 William F. Walker and Samuel P. Bancroft have associated 
 themselves with the intention of forming a corporation under 
 the name of the 
 
 /iDassacbusetts /lDetapbK?stcal College 
 
 for the purpose of teaching pathology, ontology, therapeutics, 
 moral science, metaphysics and their adaptation to the treat- 
 meht of disease, and have complied with the provisions of the 
 Statutes of this Commonwealth in such case made and provided, 
 as appears from the certificate of the President, Treasurer, and 
 Directors of said corporation, duly approved by the Commis- 
 sioner of Corporations, and recorded in this office: 
 
 IROW, XTberetore, I, Henry B. Peirce, Secretary of the 
 Commonwealth of Massachusetts, H)0 HDCrel)^ Gertit^ that 
 said Mary B. G. Eddy, Charles J. Eastman, James C. I^oward, 
 Edgar S. Woodbury, James Wiley, William F. Walker and 
 Samuel P. Bancroft, their associates and successors, are 
 
legally organiied and established as and are hereby made an 
 existing corporation under the name of the 
 
 Massachusetts Metaphysical College, 
 
 with the powers, rights, and privileges, and subject to the 
 limitations, duties, and restrictions which by law appertain 
 thereto. 
 
 "CdttUCSS my official sionature hereunto subscribed and 
 the seal of the Commonwealth of Massachu- 
 setts hereunto affixed this thuty-first day of 
 ^- ^- January in the year of our Lord one thousand 
 
 eight hundred and eighty-one. 
 
 HENRY B. PEIRCE, 
 
 Secretary of the Commonxveallh. 
 
 [A verbatim copy of the Charter or Certificate of In- 
 corporation of Mrs. Eddy's so-called Metaphysical College, 
 on file in the office of the secretary of the Commonwealth of 
 Massachusetts. See page 52.] 
 
Table of Reported Cases Cited in this Book 
 
 Apothecaries Co. v. Nottingham, 34 L. T. R 
 (N. S.) 76 . 
 
 Apothecaries Co. v. Lottinga, 2 M. & R. 500 
 " '* Harrison, 67 L. T. 232 
 
 Attorney-General ex rel. Apoth. Co. v. College 
 of Physicians, 30 L. J. (N. S.) Ch. 757 
 
 Bailey v. Mogg, 4 Den. 60 
 
 Bibber v. Simpson, 59 Me. 181 . 
 
 Commonwealth vs. Thomson, 6 Mass. 134 
 
 Corsi V. Maretzek, 4 E. D. Smith 1 
 
 Davison v. Bohlman, 37 Mo. App. 576 . 
 
 Dent V. U. S., 129 U. S. 114 
 
 Eastman v. State, 6 Ohio, Dec. 296 
 
 Eastman v. People, 71 111. App. 236 
 
 Eastman v. State, 10 N. E. Rep. 97 
 
 Handey v. Henson, 4 C. & P. 110 
 
 Marsh v. Davison, 9 Paige 580 
 
 Morgan v. Hallen, 8 Ad. & El. 119 
 
 Mormon Case, (Reynolds v. U. S.) 
 
 Nelson v. Harrington, 72 Wis. 591 
 
 Pierce v. Commonwealth, 138 Mass. 165 
 
 People V. Phippin, 70 Mich. 6 . 
 
 Regina v. Wagstaffe, 10 Cox. Cr. Cas. 530 
 
 *' Senior, L. T. & L. J.; Dec. 17, 1898 
 
 Rice V. State, 8 Mo. 561 . 
 
 Rex V. Long, 4 C. & P. 398 
 
 Reynolds v. U. S., 98 U. S. 145 . 
 
 Rose V. College of Physicians, 3 Salk 17 ; 6 Mod 
 
 44 ; 5 Bro. Pari 553. . . 133, 152, 154, 155 
 
 Smith V. Lane, 24 Hnn. 6-32 . . 79, 106, 110, 153, 177 
 
 State V. Biiswell, 40 Neb. 158 . . . 82 
 
 " " Mylod, 49 Atl. 753 . . 16,84,85,116 
 
 " " Schulz, 55 Iowa 628 . . . 75 
 
 Toune v. Lady Gresley, 3 C. & P. 581 . . 155 
 
 154-159 
 160 
 160 
 
 148, 158 
 
 75 
 
 81 
 
 31,71,112 
 
 134 
 
 81 
 
 14 
 
 81 
 
 82 
 
 80 
 
 155 
 
 74 
 
 155 
 
 30,86,173 
 
 81 
 
 31, 76 
 
 81 
 
 87 
 
 88 
 
 74 
 
 31,88 
 
 30,86 
 
 10 
 
Christian Science. 
 
 " CHRISTIAN SCIENCE " AND ITS LEGAL ASPECTS.^ 
 
 It is asked if existing laws impose any restraint 
 upon treatment of the sick by soi-disant " Christian 
 Scientists," and if further legislation in that regard is 
 desirable. 
 
 Mere charlatanism, unrelated to the general wel- 
 fare, is not a proper subject for legislation, but quack- 
 ery imperilling the public health is. Whether 
 Christian Science falls within either category, every 
 intelligent reader will readily determine when aware 
 of its pretences — charlatanism being false pretension 
 to knowledge, skill, power or achievement, and every 
 one being a charlatan who falsely advertises himself 
 as achieving greater results than his fellows, whether 
 he be a medical man boasting of mysterious and im- 
 possible cures, a religious teacher preaching what he 
 does not believe, or a lawyer proclaiming achieve- 
 ments that he has not accomplished or insuring re- 
 sults beyond his power. The term is not used offen- 
 sively, nor with any desire to impute insincerity to 
 honest believers in this new cult. 
 
 » From the North American Review, March 1S99. 
 11 
 
12 CHEISTIAlSr SCIENCE. 
 
 To answer the questions propounded, we must 
 clearly understand, (1) the true purpose and proper 
 scope of legislative control over medical practice and 
 matters affecting the public health ; (2) the methods 
 taught and adopted for the treatment of the sick by 
 Christian Scientists ; (3) the status of these people 
 under existing law. 
 
 For the argument's sake let these concessions be 
 made at the outset : (1) mental stimulus exercises, 
 and has been always known to exercise, enormous in- 
 fluence over the body, whether incited by such slight 
 causes as " a harmless, necessary cat," or " woollen bag- 
 pipe," or by such powerful emotions as hope, fear or 
 faith ; and not only malades imaginaires, but sick 
 persons, especially those afflicted with hysterical dis- 
 orders, have been and will be restored to normal 
 health by such stimulus ; (2) the wisest physicians, as 
 they will be first to admit, not having yet attained 
 the limits of medical or psychical knowledge, are 
 fallible, and often make errors of diagnosis ; (3) the 
 vis medicatrix naturae is great, and, if there should 
 be called to the treatment of a sick man two ignorant 
 and incompetent persons, one a gloomy believer in dos- 
 ing by rule, the other merely a cheerful prophet, the 
 latter Avould be, probably, the more helpful, or at least 
 the less dangerous ; (4) Socrates, Galileo, Jenner and 
 many other persons met with opposition in promulgat- 
 ing truth, just as Simon, the sorcerer. Jack Cade, 
 Cagliostro and other impostors eventually came to 
 grief in their propaganda of lies. 
 
 These concessions are made because, in the writer's 
 experience, no charlatan or enthusiast has yet appeared 
 
ITS LEGAL ASPECTS. 13 
 
 before a legislative committee to plead for the substi- 
 tution of ignorance in place of medical learning, whose 
 argument has not been, in substance, this : There are 
 mysterious powers not possessed or fully understood 
 by physicians, who frequently make grave mistakes ; 
 cures often follow the ministrations of clairvoyants, 
 mediums, mind and faith curers ; new truth is always 
 opposed; therefore, medical practice should be un- 
 trammelled, and every one, regardless of character, 
 intelligence, education or training, should be permitted 
 to engage in the business of treating the sick for hire. 
 A postulate must also be laid down, and he who denies 
 it need read no further ; the acceptance of new doc- 
 trines, or of old ideas revamped, by a large number of 
 persons, of whom some may be very intelligent, is not 
 of itself sufficient reason for general acceptance of 
 such doctrines or ideas, or for toleration of practices 
 founded upon them ; especially if the former be con- 
 trary to ordinary experience and observation, and the 
 latter be injurious to the public health, morals or 
 safety. It was happily said by Dr. Oliver Wendell 
 Holmes, of Bishop Berkeley's belief in tar water as a 
 specific for pretty nearly all the ills of man, that it 
 *' exhibits the entire insufficiency of exalted wisdom, 
 immaculate honesty, and vast general acquirements to 
 make a good physician of a great bishop ; " while, of 
 Berkeley himself, the wise and witty Doctor said: 
 " He was an illustrious man, but he held two very odd 
 opinions ; that tar water was everything and that the 
 material universe was nothing." 
 
 Public health laws, including therein statutes regu- 
 lating medical practice, should be and are framed 
 
14 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 solely to protect the public, by providing against such 
 harmful practices as adulterations of food and drugs, 
 the spread of contagious diseases, maintenance of un- 
 sanitary conditions and medical treatment of the sick 
 by unqualified persons. That the state may constitu- 
 tionally and justly exercise its police power to protect 
 health is by adjudication established beyond cavil, and 
 by common consent so thoroughly accepted that if a 
 pest-house or open cess-pool were established near the 
 residence of the founder of Christian Science, she 
 would doubtless apply, successfully, to the Courts or 
 the Health Board to abate the nuisance, notwithstand- 
 ing her teaching that a '' calm Christian state of mind 
 is a better preventive of contagion than a drug, or any 
 possible sanative method." ^ The justification of med- 
 ical licensing laws is that the overwhelming majority 
 of sensible men, at all times, have believed that knowl- 
 edge and training are essential to qualify a man to 
 cope with disease ; and, for this reason, the highest 
 courts of many States and the Supreme Court of the 
 United States, in Dent's case,^ have affirmed the con- 
 stitutional power of a State to enact laws forbidding 
 unqualified persons to practice medicine, and establish- 
 ing general tests of such qualification. 
 
 This is not the occasion to review the Medical Acts 
 of the several States. It is enough to say that none 
 of them prohibits or prescribes any special system of 
 therapeutics or practice. To do that would block 
 
 » Misc. Works, p. 229. Where in these foot notes only a page is cited 
 the reference is to " Science and Health, toith Key to the ScriJ>tures" the 
 text-book of the cult, edition of 18S7. 
 
 8 Dent V. West Virginia, 129 U. S, 114. 
 
ITS LEGAL ASPECTS. 15 
 
 scientific progress and discourage investigation. It is 
 not for legislatures to say how either bodies or souls 
 shall be cured, to enact pharmacopoeias into statutes 
 or crystallize theories, medical or religious, into law. 
 But it is entirely right and proper for them to declare 
 that no man shall enter upon the business of treating 
 the sick until he is of full age and has shown, upon 
 examination, that he has studied for a prescribed time, 
 and acquired competent knowledge of those branches 
 of true science, familiarity with which is, by universal 
 consent, necessary to equip one into whose hands life 
 and health are to be committed — physiology, anatomy, 
 surgery, obstetrics, hygiene, chemistry, pathology, di- 
 agnosis. The licensed medical practitioner may act 
 in any case upon any theory of therapeutics commend- 
 ing itself to his judgment ; allopathy— if there be such 
 a theory — homeopathy, hydropathy, electropathy, vi- 
 tapathy, venopathy, osteopathy, Baunscheidtismus, 
 magnetic healing, the Christian Science of Mrs. Eddy, 
 the pagan science of the Yoodoo Queen, or a general 
 Eclecticism. 
 
 In short, the law aims, and should aim, to require, 
 as the only prerequisite of a medical license, satisfac- 
 tory proof that the candidate is of good character and 
 average equipment through study and training. In 
 New York, for example, there are three Boards of 
 Medical Examiners, representing the regular practi- 
 tioners, and the Homeopathic and Eclectic Schools. 
 Examinations are uniform in physiology, anatomy, and 
 all the other branches of science above enumerated, 
 wherein there is no medical schism. In therapeutics, 
 where opinions diverge, candidates for license may de- 
 
16 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 mand examination according to their schools. Ehode 
 Island's Supreme Court said lately, in Mylod's case,^ 
 by way of reditctio ad ahsurdum^ that Christian Scien- 
 tists, were they held to be practitioners of medicine, 
 w^ould be entitled under the constitution of that State 
 to a separate Board of Examiners — offering this as one 
 argument for not holding them to be such practition- 
 ers. But why should not Christian Scientists, who 
 make a business of attempting to cure the sick, be re- 
 quired to submit to examination in general medical 
 science, quite as much as homeopaths from whose loins 
 they have sprung ; going, as do candidates from other 
 schools, before their own board in therapeutics ? It 
 is said that they give no drugs, but they must and do 
 make diagnosis,^ and their " Mother " says that they 
 often give medicine.^ Is it unreasonable to infer that 
 their actual objections to being classed as medical 
 practitioners subject to license are: (1) that to pre- 
 pare for examination requires years of study in real 
 science ; (2) that no one Avith a fair knowledge of the 
 human economy, and equipped to practice medicine 
 
 ' State V. Mylod, 40 Atl. 753. See the paper " Christian Science before 
 the Law," p. 91. 
 
 2 Although Christian Scientists deny, in order to escape prosecution un- 
 der medical laws, that they make diagnosis of disease, yet upon their own 
 theory they must do so ; for their teacher bids them mentally to address by 
 name the disease to be treated, and argue with it. They sometimes call 
 "diagnosis" "discernment," and Mrs. Eddy says of herself, "I have dis- 
 cerned disease in the human mind, and recognized the patient's fear of it 
 many weeks before the so-called disease made its appearance in the body. 
 . . . I a77i never mistake?! i7t Jtiy scientific diagnosis of diseased (P. 
 
 194.) 
 
 3 "Departing from my instruction, many learners commend diet and 
 hygiene, T/iey even administer medicine for certain diseases, thinking 
 thereby to initiate the cure which they think to complete with mind ! " 
 (P. 376.) 
 
ITS LEGAL ASPECTS. 17 
 
 intelligently, would adopt the vagaries of their pseudo 
 science ? 
 
 Such being the purpose and proper scope of medical 
 laws, the second inquiry is. What is so-called Chris- 
 tian Science ? 
 
 The answer may, best and most fairly, be given by 
 quoting the very words of the remarkable lady, Mrs. 
 Eddy, who, in 1866, made the somewhat belated dis- 
 covery of this branch of healing. This is the more 
 important because many who, without having read 
 the text-book, fancy they know, in a general way, 
 what it teaches, would be surprised, on looking into 
 the volume, at the vagueness of expression, hopeless 
 confusion of thought, vain boasting, complacent asser- 
 tion of impossible occurrences, virulent denunciation 
 of all other systems, and systematic, commonplace ad- 
 vertising that everywhere appear. The publications 
 to be quoted from are '' Science and Health, with Key 
 to the Scriptures" (Edition of 1887, published by the 
 author), and "Miscellaneous Writings, 1883-1896." 
 The former, being the text-book wherein the new dis- 
 covery is expounded, is read at the church service of 
 the Scientist alternately with the Bible, and, if its au- 
 thor is to be credited, the mere reading of it, under- 
 standingly, has cured and will cure the most malig- 
 nant diseases, even cancer, and indeed is the chief 
 factor in all treatment. 
 
 At the threshold of this magnum opus, we are told : 
 " The time for thinkers has come." ^ Hitherto, the 
 world has got along in a thoughtless fashion ; but 
 at last the thinkers are upon us— not only those who 
 
 >P.5. 
 
18 CHKISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 think they think, but real thinkers ; and it behooves 
 us to heed their thought. Perhaps it is this state- 
 ment, as much as any other in the book, that gives to 
 Christian Science what vogue it has. The more 
 ignorant the disciples, the more flattered he is to 
 esteem himself a thinker wiser than all who have 
 gone before. A cubit is added to his stature and he 
 glows with self-satisfaction. When the author wrote 
 of the Saviour : " Though Jesus is the impetus and 
 pulse of Christianity, yet Christianity is larger than 
 its human founder ;"^ and again of Bishop Berkeley : 
 " He was a great natural Scientist in his day, and held 
 opinions concerning ' absolute idealism ' which ad- 
 vance his memory near to the border-land of Christian 
 Science," ^ she, too, doubtless felt this gloAV, and failed 
 to apprehend in the words what was blasphemous to 
 the pious, humorous ^ to the merely instructed and of- 
 fensive to good taste. 
 
 Another reason why this text-book impresses the 
 
 J p. 229. 2 p, 230. 
 
 3 The poems of Mrs. Eddy, published in Miscellaneous Writings, Ch. 
 XI., afford evidence at once of her literary craftsmanship and of her en- 
 tire lack of humor. Two verses from one of them, " Isle of Wight," (p. 
 393), may serve to illustrate her pellucid thought and style: 
 " Soul, sublime 'mid human debris 
 Paints the limner's work, I ween, 
 Art and vScience, all unweary. 
 Lighting up the mortal dream." 
 
 " Students wise, he maketh now thus 
 Those who fish in waters deep. 
 When the buried Master hails us 
 From the shores afar, complete." 
 However trite or obscure her prose teachings, no one will deny the 
 novelty and originality of rhyming ^* debris^'' with "unweary," "ween" 
 with "dream," "now thus" with "hails us" and " deep " with " com- 
 plete," and, to quote Calverley's saying of other poetry, " As to its mean- 
 ing, it's what you please." 
 
ITS LEGAL ASPECTS. 19 
 
 superficial as containing oracles of wisdom is, that it 
 so often, like Dr. Holmes's katydid, says " an undis- 
 puted thing in such a solemn way ; " for example, 
 that those who are sick, or think themselves sick, 
 should be cheered up ; that fear strongly affects the 
 system and even predisposes the timid to the sickness 
 they stand in dread of ; that children should not be 
 coddled over-much, and that men ought to be good ; 
 trite sayings all, but to the thoughtless thinker reve- 
 lations. 
 
 Yet another reason that commends the book and its 
 disciples to the credulous is their boastful assurance 
 of impossible results. Eeputable practitioners of 
 medicine or law do not insure success. Undoubtedly, 
 however, such assurance inspires hope, especially in 
 credulous minds. Mrs. Eddy does not hesitate to say 
 that she cures the hundred cases where physicians 
 lose the ninety -and-nine ; ^ and her disciples have been 
 known to give equal assurances to a patient already 
 in the death agony. 
 
 A review of these books might be entertaining, and 
 even profitable, if it served to enlighten any who may 
 have accepted the " Science " without study of its 
 genesis, by showing how, out of the time-worn specu- 
 lation of idealism that matter does not exist apart 
 from mind, a lady of Lynn, Mass., has spun a web of 
 incoherent words ^ contradicting themselves on every 
 
 ' P- 387. 
 
 2 As if realizing how incoherent, vague and self-contradictory is her 
 writing, Mrs. Eddy says, somewhat in the manner of Mr. Bunsby, " In the 
 spiritual sense of my subject lies the elucidation of it, and this sense you 
 must gain in order to reach my meaning " (p. 391). And again, •' Mortal 
 mind does not at once catch my meaning, and can only do so as thought 
 is educated up to my spiritual apprehension " (p. 392). And finally to 
 
20 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 page, and yet so attractive to the credulous as to form 
 the nucleus of a cult and of an excellent source of rev- 
 enue for the writer, and for those of her disciples 
 who, in absolute ignorance ,of medical science, assume 
 to cure every human malady ; not only treating adults, 
 but even helpless children, preventing the attendance 
 of qualified medical men in critical cases, and even 
 condemning observance of the rules of cleanliness, 
 hygiene, diet and exercise. But with the metaphysics 
 of the book we have here to do only in so far as it af- 
 fects the practical system of treating the sick. 
 
 Originally, Mrs. Eddy seems to have been a home- 
 opathist of the " high potency " faction, and to have 
 been led by recognizing the medicinal inertness of high 
 attenuations to her present theories.^ She, herself, 
 says : " Homeopathic remedies, sometimes not contain- 
 ing a particle of medicine, are known to relieve the 
 symptoms of diseases. "What works the cure ? It is 
 the faith of mortal mind that changes its own self-in- 
 flicted suffering, and produces a new effect upon the 
 body." ^ This would be, at least, intelligible if she did 
 not also teach that " there is really no such thing as 
 mortal mind ; " ^ that " disease is an impression orig- 
 inating in the unconscious mortal mind, and becoming 
 at length a conscious belief that the body or matter 
 suffers, ... a growth of illusion springing from 
 a seed of thought, either your own thought or 
 
 her disciples and general readers she intimates that she can " explicate 
 spiritual meanings more fully " by " practical teaching," i. e., presumably 
 by attendance on her well paid lectures (p. 17). 
 
 1 " Homeopathy ; Its Friends and its Foes." Annual address by Dr. 
 H. M. Paine, President of the Homeopathic Medical Society of the State 
 of New York, 1888, Trans. Vol. XXIII. 
 
 2 P. 312. 3 P. 419- 
 
ITS LEGAL ASPECTS. 21 
 
 another's;"^ that body "is the seedling that starts 
 thought, and sends it to the brain for consciousness ; "^ 
 that "the entire mortal body is evolved from mortal 
 mind," so that a bunion would be insanity if mortal 
 mind would only call the foot the brain ; ^ that matter 
 " is another name for mortal mind " ^ and " disappears 
 under the miscroscope of spirit ; " ^ and that pain, which 
 is presumably suffering, is " a belief without an ade- 
 quate cause." ^ We are also taught that " disease has 
 no intelligence to move itself about or change itself 
 from one form to another." ^ Taking again the sen- 
 tence just quoted, and substituting these definitions 
 for words, we have this remarkable result : " It is the 
 faith of mortal mind (i. e., nothing) that changes its 
 own self-inflicted sufferings {i. e., beliefs without ade- 
 quate cause) and produces a new effect upon the body " 
 {i. e., an evolution of mortal mind, or nothing, which 
 therefore is itself nothing). 
 
 Before this jargon one may fancy the delighted new 
 thinker, like dear Alice after reading the Jabberwock, 
 gloriously filled with ideas, but entirely ignorant of 
 the meaning. The most that can be made of her 
 theory is that disease does not exist save as a false 
 belief to be treated with argument ; and the positive 
 treatment of it is as follows : First of all, buy Mrs. 
 Eddy's books and have the patient do so.^ This will 
 increase the circulation — of the book, if not of the 
 patient. Next, deny that there is any disease, and 
 make the patient agree with you. " Eemember that 
 all is mind and there is no matter. You are only 
 
 ip. 182. 2 p. 191. 3p, 300. "P. 542. 5 P. 15. ^P. 342. 'P. 301- 
 «I^-375- 
 
22 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 seeing or feeling a belief, whether it be cancer, de- 
 formity, consumption, or fracture that you deal with."^ 
 Having thus established that the disease does not ex- 
 ist, you next proceed to "meet the incipient stage of 
 disease with such powerful eloquence as a Congress- 
 man would employ to defeat the passage of an inhu- 
 man law."^ No disease can stand that. Still more 
 oddly, you are to call this disease, whose existence 
 you deny, by name, but mentally, lest if the patient 
 hear its name, his mortal mind will hold on to the dis- 
 ease ; for, apparently, the mortal mind, which itself 
 has no existence, although impressed by absent treat- 
 ment and the reading of Mrs. Eddy's book, cannot let 
 go any disease whose name is spoken out loud. But 
 if you only address the disease mentally and speak the 
 truth to it, " tumors, ulcers, tubercles, inflammation, 
 pains and deformed backs ... all dream shad- 
 ows, dark images of mortal thought, will flee before 
 the light." ^ To the practical mind it would seem that 
 the " healer " would need some medical knowledge to 
 make his differential diagnosis of " ulcers " and " tu- 
 mors," and to distinguish between abscess, aneurism, 
 and other abnormal conditions. And if disease does 
 not exist, and has no intelligence to move or change 
 itself, it does seem a bad waste of time to have any 
 discussion at all with it. 
 
 If this were all of Christian Science, it might do lit- 
 tle or no harm. No one would object to letting a 
 " Scientist " hold mental conversations with the patient's 
 disease, or give " absent treatments," or encourage the 
 sick to "look on the bri^^ht side." And a kindly soul 
 
 if. 297. 2 p. 222. 3 p. 301. 
 
ITS LEGAL ASPECTS. 23 
 
 Avould no more restrain a '^ Scientist " from playing 
 with bis metaphysics than he would interfere with a 
 hopeful kitten that whirls in happy pursuit of its own 
 elusive tail — always in sight, yet never quite attained. 
 But it is the negative teachings of the so-called Science 
 that render its disciples pestilent and dangerous to the 
 public health. Declaring the incantations of the Es- 
 quimaux to be " as effective in cure of the sick as the 
 modus operandi of civilized practitioners," Mrs. Eddy 
 goes on to teach that physiology is anti-Christian. *' It 
 teaches us to have other gods before Jehovah. It 
 is neither moral nor spiritual." ^ In its place she would 
 substitute harmony ; for " discord is the nothingness 
 of error, harmony is the soTnethingness of truth." ^ 
 " Sickness is inharmony." ^ This " new thought " is 
 even older than that famous little dinner given by 
 Agathon, where, notwithstanding the presence of Plato 
 and Socrates, Aristophanes got tipsy and asked Eryx- 
 imachus, the physician, why, if the latter really be- 
 lieved health to be only harmony and love among the 
 members, he should prescribe anything so inharmonious 
 as sneezing to cure hiccoughs. 
 
 ]^o physician is to be called in by the sick. " The 
 Scientist who understands and adheres strictly to the 
 rules of my system ... is the only one safe to 
 employ in difficult and dangerous cases." ^ 
 
 Every form of treatment. Homeopathy,^ Mind Cure,^ 
 Movement Cure,^ Animal Magnetism, Clairvoyance, 
 Mediumship and Mesmerism,^ is impartially con- 
 demned. Against animal magnetism Mrs. Eddy is 
 
 IP. 171. 2 p. 22. 3 P. 177. ■»??. 186, 324. 5 p. 183. 6 p. 376. 
 
 7 p. 364. 8 PP. 212, 213, 219, 302. 
 
24 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 particularly bitter, apparently because, having been 
 once " personally manipulated " by the late Mr. P. P. 
 Quimby, "an uneducated man, but a distinguished 
 mesmerist," it was thereafter stated that Mr. Quimby 
 was the " originator " of her writings.^ " It is morally 
 Avrong to examine the body in order to ascertain if 
 we are in health," and " to employ drugs for the cure 
 of disease shows a lack of faith in God.^ *' A Chris- 
 tian Scientist never recommends hygiene." ^ Dieting, 
 dosing and exercise are unscientific.^ It is foolish to 
 suppose that it is exercise that increases the muscles 
 of a blacksmith's arm ; for, if that were so the ham- 
 mer, which takes just as much exercise, would also 
 grow.^ This is one of the most powerful and char- 
 acteristic arguments of the new thinker. Bathing is 
 thus deprecated. " Bathing and rubbing, to alter the 
 secretions or remove unhealthy exhalations from the 
 cuticle, receive a useful rebuke from Christian Heal- 
 ing. We must beware of making clean the outside of 
 the platter only. A hint may be taken from the Irish 
 emigrant whose filth does not affect his happiness 
 when mind and body rest on the same basis." ^ " The 
 Scientist takes the best care of his body when he 
 leaves it most out of his thought, and like the Apostle 
 Paul is * willing rather to be absent from the body 
 and present Avith the Lord.' " ^ '' The daily ablutions 
 of an infant are no more natural and necessar}^ than 
 1 P. 6. 3 p. 38. 
 
 3 p. 374; Mrs, E. D. O., " at an early age learned hygiene (!) and 
 practiced it faithfully for over twenty years " with such poor results that 
 she •• had once been laid out for dead " and " did not want to come to." 
 A partial reading of " Science and Health " made her " a well and hearty 
 woman." (Misc. W., pp. 401-403.) 
 
 <P. 376. 6 p. 209. 6 p. 334, 7 p. 335. 
 
ITS LEGAL ASPECTS. 25 
 
 it would be to take a fish out of water once a day and 
 cover it with dirt, in order to make it thrive more 
 vigorously thereafter in its native element." ^ Medical 
 study is harmful. "Anatomy, physiology, treatises 
 on health — sustained by what is called material law — 
 are the husbandmen of sickness and disease."^ 
 Proper clothing is unnecessary ; for " you would never 
 conclude that flannel is better than controlling Mind 
 for warding off pulmonar}^ disease, if you understood 
 the Science of being." ^ If one be only a Christian 
 Scientist he " may expose himself in a state of perspi- 
 ration to draughts of air without experiencing the us- 
 ual ill effects;""* i. e., Christian Science is prophy- 
 lactic, and this is expressly asserted.^ 
 
 The foregoing is all bad enough as to adults ; but, 
 when it concerns them only, something may be said 
 in favor of the decision, cited by Puff end orf, in the 
 case of a patient who sued a horse-doctor for blinding 
 him by applying to his eyes the same ointment that 
 was used for horses. The Cadi decided against the 
 suitor, because: "If the Fellow," says he, "had not 
 been an Ass, he had never applied himself to a Horse- 
 doctor." ^ 
 
 But what is to be said of such advice as this to 
 mothers ? " Mind can regulate the condition of the 
 stomach, bowels, food, temperature of your child far 
 better than matter can do so. Your views and those 
 of other people on these subjects produce their good 
 or bad results in the health of your child." ^ " Your 
 child can have worms, if you say so, or whatever 
 
 ip. 159. 2 P. 183. 3p. i6o. "P. 314. 5P.348. 6 Puff. Book, v., Ch. 
 
 IV. Tp. 158. 
 
26 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 malady is timorously holclen in your mind relative to 
 the body. Thus you lay the foundation of disease and 
 death, and educate your child into discord ? ^ Even 
 if a child is attacked by contagious disease, Mrs. Eddy 
 attributes the cause to maternal fear.^ Thus the 
 mother is taught that her child's illness depends upon 
 her fancy, and that neither physicians, remedies nor 
 decent, cleanly care are necessary for its aid. And in 
 the record of deaths resulting from the treatment of 
 Christian Scientists, Faith Curers, Peculiar People, et 
 id genus omne, a large proportion are those of 
 neglected children suffering from acute inflammations 
 of the lungs, diphtheria, pneumonia and like com- 
 plaints. One horrible and typical case in Brooklyn 
 was brought to public notice by an undertaker called 
 in by a Faith Curer to bury the latter's child, six 
 years of age, dead from diphtheria. Two other chil- 
 dren, one about eight, the other less than two years 
 old, were found suffering from the same disease. The 
 father explained his failure to call in medical aid by 
 saying he did not believe in doctors since he believed 
 in Christ.^ Here his delusion caused not only the 
 death of his OAvn child, but put in peril the public 
 health. The same neglect would have occurred had 
 the case been smallpox or scarlet fever. 
 
 A number of even more harrowing cases might be 
 cited, did space or inclination serve ; but their recital 
 is needless. * 
 
 Contrary to ordinary belief, even prayer is es- 
 
 1 P. 159. 2p, 234. 3N. Y. papers, March i., 1890, 
 
 <The New York World of Aug. 12, 1899, prints a list of forty-one per- 
 sons alleged to have suffered from this delusion. It omits many to be 
 found in a scrap-book kept by the writer. 
 
ITS LEGAL ASPECTS. 27 
 
 chewed. " The only beneficial effect of prayer is on 
 the human mind, making it act more powerfully on 
 the body through a stronger faith in God. This, 
 however, is one helief casting out another^ a belief in 
 the unknown casting out a belief in sickness." ^ And 
 when we remember that " belief can only bring on 
 disease, it can never relieve it," the inefficacy of 
 prayer becomes manifest; and we are expressly 
 taught that "if we pray to God as a person, this 
 will prevent us letting go the human doubts and fears 
 that attend all personalities."^ 
 
 The most ignorant persons set themselves up to 
 cure the sick under this system as a business and for 
 hire. Mrs. Eddy herself accumulates and publishes 
 certificates of cures by herself, by her disciples and 
 by the mere reading of her book, that are contrary to 
 all possibility in human experience and smack in 
 every line of the charlatan. Her volume of "Mis- 
 cellaneous Writings " is in part made up of certifi- 
 cates differing from those that usually accompany 
 quack nostrums, only in that they are more incredible 
 than those the ordinary charlatan ventures to put 
 forth. She cures cancers in one visit. A child of 
 eighteen months, suffering for months with ulceration 
 of the bowels, and given up by the " M. D.'s," is lifted 
 from his cradle and kissed, he at once begins to play 
 with his toys, and that night before retiring eats 
 heartily of cabbage ! ^ One Mrs. Armstrong writes, 
 
 1 p. 488. 2 p. 492, cf. 484 and 393. 
 
 3 P. 200. This certificate dated "Lynn, June, 1873," says "Mrs. 
 Eddy came in," etc., although Mrs. Glover-Patterson did not marry Mr. 
 Eddy until four years later, in 1877 — (See note to the case against Chris- 
 tian Science, p. 60.) 
 
28 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 without date or address, to enclose a check for $500, 
 in payment of an absent treatment by which heart 
 disease and dropsy, lasting from childhood, were 
 cured immediately upon Mrs. Eddy's receipt of a 
 letter from Mr. Armstrong. ^ Hood's case of " Mrs. 
 F., so exceedingly deaf," who purchased an ear 
 trumpet, "and very next day heard from her hus- 
 band in Botany Bay," becomes modest in comparison. 
 But, although Mrs. Eddy personally cures fractures — 
 did, in fact, by " absent treatment " cure the crushed 
 foot of Mr. R. O. Badgeley, of Cincinnati;^ and al- 
 though she expressly teaches that her Science cures 
 " acute and chronic forms of disease,^ and fractures " ^ 
 as well as other deformities — nay more, has "raised 
 the dying to life and health " ^ — she nevertheless says : 
 " Until the advancing age admits the efficacy and 
 supremacy of Mind, it is hetter to leave the adjustment 
 of broken bones and dislocations to the fingers of sur- 
 geons, while you confine yourself chiefly to mental 
 reconstruction and the prevention of inflammations or 
 protracted confinement." ^ 
 
 Here Mrs. Eddy confesses the sham of her theory. 
 Earth often covers the physicians' mistakes, but not 
 so frequently those of the surgeon. The vast major- 
 it}^ of suits for malpractice are in surgical cases. The 
 results of operations often demonstrate the malprac- 
 tice. And is it not fair thus to paraphrase this sly 
 advice ; " Take any risk with the sick. If the patient 
 die, who can prove that you caused the death ? But 
 be wary in surgical cases, for there ignorance and lack 
 of skill, being demonstrable, may cause you to pay 
 
 >P. 199. 2 p. 199. 3 p. 186. ■•?. 358. 5 p. 317. 6 p. 328. 
 
ITS LEGAL ASPECTS. 29 
 
 heavily for your persumption ? " The fitting climax 
 to this farrago of undigested metaphysics and vain 
 boasting ^ is, that hunger and thirst are also mental 
 impressions to be argued with,^ that food is not requi- 
 site to support life, although ^' it would he foolish to 
 stop eating until we gain more goodness / " ^ and, lastly, 
 that, as there is no mortal mind from which to make 
 a mortal body, immortality is already here.^ 
 
 The methods of this extraordinary system of cure 
 for the sick have been set out thus fully and, it is be- 
 lieved, fairly, because in no reported law case have 
 they been brought before the Court, and the author- 
 ity of any adjudicated case depends upon the facts in- 
 volved. Ohiter dicta are often as misleading as met- 
 aphysical speculation. Summed up, these methods 
 consist positively in reading Mrs. Eddy's book and 
 arguing with non-existent disease ; and negatively in 
 abstaining from everything that experience shows to 
 be of benefit to the sick, not only specific medication 
 and operative treatment, but diet, exercise and per- 
 sonal cleanliness. The evidence of the senses is not 
 to be heeded ; it is even forbidden to admit that a lit- 
 tle child needs medical care. Surely no well-balanced 
 mind will deny that this delusion is full of danger, no 
 matter how sincerely and honestly many believe in it. 
 
 Thus we are brought to our third inquiry : Do ex- 
 isting laws suffice us in dealing with this delusion and 
 its votaries, or is further legislation necessary in the 
 
 ' " There are certain self-evident facts. This is one of them that who- 
 ever practices the Science I teach, through wliich the Divine mind 
 pours light and healing upon this generation cannot pursue mal-practice, 
 or harm patient" (p. 219). 
 
 » PP. 329, 334- 2 P. 332. " PP- 316-327. 
 
30 CHRISTIAN SCIENCIi. 
 
 premises! With tlie metaphysical and religious as- 
 pects of the delusion, the law has no more concern 
 than with those of Mormonism, Yoodooism, Shaker- 
 ism, Oneidaism or any of the myriad forms of God or 
 Devil worship. Ephraim may join himself to all the 
 idols he desires, the law lets him alone. But neither 
 in this life nor the life to come is every one wlio cries, 
 *' Lord, Lord, have we not in Thy name done many won- 
 derful works ? " to escape just punishment for working 
 iniquity, or to be received among the saints upon his 
 own uncorroborated testimony. By the Mormon cases, 
 the Supreme Court of the United States has made it 
 plaiu, if it were ever in doubt, that no one under the 
 cloak of religion can violate law to gratify lust or 
 greed, or for any other motive. Thugs may not kill 
 because murder is their creed. And there is no rea- 
 son why ignorant persons ^ should be allowed to trifle 
 with human life to the public peril, even though they 
 wish to do well and have no worse motive than to re- 
 ceive a fee. 
 
 The right of the State to forbid the ignorant to en- 
 gage in the business of healing the sick by any system 
 
 1 In order to be satisfied of the ignorance, recklessness, credulity, and 
 assurance of the •• Scientists," one need only read the "certificates" pub- 
 lished in " Miscellaneous Works " along with Mrs. Eddy's " Poems." It 
 seems that the new gospel has been successfully preached in the Massa- 
 chusetts State Prison. One of Mrs. Eddy's correspondents, " J B. H." 
 whether a temporary sojourner in the prison or not is not quite clear, 
 writes that after reading " Science and Health " for some days he was 
 "affected by drowsiness followed by vomiting. This lasted several 
 hours." He then slept and "awoke healed." Thereafter in three treat- 
 ments he cured a r//?7</"that the .M. D.'s said was dying of lung fever." 
 In two treatments he cured a r7iptiired child ; and in one treatment he 
 healed an old lady of heart disease and chills. To top oft" with and keep 
 his hand in, he, in two weeks oi absent treatment, cured a lady of insanity 
 who never saw him, nor even suspected what he was up to. Misc. W., 
 pp. 405, 406. 
 
ITS LEGAL ASPECTS. 31 
 
 whatever, is established ; and therefore whether or 
 not such persons may practice Christian Science de- 
 pends entirely upon the phrasing of the statute. 
 Where, as in J^ebraska, the law defines a medical 
 practitioner as one who " professes to heal " the sick, 
 the practice of Christian Science by unlicensed per- 
 sons is a violation of law ; but in jurisdictions where 
 medical practice is forbidden, yet the use of drugs or 
 instruments is made the test of such practice, the 
 " Scientist " may pursue his business. So, too, the 
 liability of these people to penalties for their failure 
 to report contagious diseases or deaths of patients de- 
 pends on the phrasing of the law or ordinance, and 
 they certainly should be required, if allowed to prac- 
 tice, to make such reports, even though they believe 
 in neither disease nor death. 
 
 In England, unlicensed medical practice is not a 
 misdemeanor ; and, therefore, an illegal practitioner 
 cannot there, as with us, be found guilty, construct- 
 ively, of manslaughter, should his patients die. But 
 it is a general rule of law that a person undertaking a 
 duty must possess skill and knowledge competent for 
 its successful discharge. If a person engage in the 
 business of curing the sick without such competent 
 skill and knowledge, he becomes civilly liable in dam- 
 ages for injuries resulting from his incompetence; 
 and if, by reason of his gross negligence, ignorance or 
 carelessness, his patient die, then he is guilty of man- 
 slaughter at least, and may be guilty of murder. 
 Upon these principles the famous quack, St. John 
 Long, was convicted of manslaughter at the Old 
 Bailev in 1830. And, in 1884, one Fierce was simi- 
 
32 CHEISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 larly convicted in Massachusetts. This gross and 
 wicked negligence may manifest itself either posi- 
 tively, as when one administers recklessly or igno- 
 rantly a powerful drug, or negatively, as Avhen a Chris- 
 tian Scientist or other fanatic, thrusting himself into 
 the place of a competent person and assuming the 
 duty of care, deprives the patient of proper attention, 
 and permits or advises unsuitable diet, improper cloth- 
 ing or other harmful violation of hygienic laws. The 
 fact that Christian Scientists, Faith Curers, Mind 
 Curers, and practitioners of like sort, do not custom- 
 arily administer drugs or use instruments, is not suf- 
 ficient reason why they should escape liability for in- 
 juries resulting from their treatment. It is said in a 
 very recent case that a shipmaster may be liable in 
 damages for negligently losing his brig, although his 
 negligence was due to temporary insanity ; the gen- 
 eral rule of law being that, as the results of his mis- 
 fortune should be borne by him, not by the equally 
 innocent, an insane person is to be held civilly re- 
 sponsible for " what in sane persons would be willful 
 and negligent conduct." Thus, the best plea that 
 could be made for a Christian Scientist, religious in- 
 sanity, would be of no avail in an action against him 
 for damages proven to have resulted from his negli- 
 gence. 
 
 The sum of the matter, then, is this : Under existing 
 laws, wherever the statute forbids any one without 
 license to undertake to '' heal " the sick, or uses equiv- 
 alent words, and wherever the phrase "practice of 
 medicine " is not construed by the Courts as applying 
 exclusively to the administration of drugs and the use 
 
ITS LEGAL ASPECTS. 33 
 
 of instruments, Christian Scientists, undertaking the 
 cure of the sick without license to practice medicine, 
 become subject to the penalties of the law. They may 
 be also, according to the phrasing of the statute, pun- 
 ishable for failure to report contagious diseases, and 
 for other violations of health ordinances. They are 
 civilly liable in damages for their malfeasances and 
 misfeasance ; and, if death can be shown to have re- 
 sulted from their gross ignorance or neglect, they may 
 be indicted for manslaughter. English cases appar- 
 ently to the contrary seem to proceed upon a theory 
 that the negligent persons owed no duty to the de- 
 ceased. The recent case, for example, of the news- 
 paper correspondent who died while in care of Chris- 
 tian Scientists establishes nothing. It was not prose- 
 cuted — for what reason does not satisfactorily appear, 
 but presumably because the fanatics in attendance on 
 decedent were only rendering friendly services and 
 did not owe deceased a duty. I may laAvfully believe 
 in suicide and discuss the examples of Socrates and 
 Cato without being liable for the death of a friend 
 who imitates them, but I may not lawfully partici- 
 pate in the suicidal act. And Mr. Justice Hawkins is 
 said by the Law Journal to have carefully guarded 
 himself against appearing to sanction the course 
 adopted in Frederic's case. 
 
 Kew legislation in the premises is not called for, 
 except, perhaps, to define "practice of medicine" 
 more broadly in some jurisdictions. Such a definition 
 was stricken from the :N'ew York Medical Act of 1887 
 by a Senator who feared it would operate against a 
 friend of his who kept a bathing house. Last year a 
 
34 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 bill of somewhat the same purport seems to have been 
 abandoned by the Senator having it in charge, for no 
 other reason, so far as can be learned, than that more 
 than the usual number of ladies appeared to oppose it. 
 Children are now very generally protected by special 
 laws. No statute can cure an adult of folly. Laws 
 specifically forbidding the practice of Christian Science 
 Avould only provide that cheap martyrdom which 
 would be Avelcomed by an advertising business, and 
 would be Avrong, both in principle and policy. The 
 delusion itself is bound to die, as did that of John of 
 Leyden and many another before and since that 
 prophet's time ; and it is quite certain to be succeeded 
 by others. 
 
 In New York city about 1832, a period of "great 
 awakening " that begat Mormonism and many other 
 sects — among them one in Kentucky, whose members, 
 in order to Avin Heaven by making themselves as little 
 children, used to crawl on their hands and knees in 
 church, play marbles, trundle hoops and otherwise 
 manifest their infantile madness — one Matthews,^ a 
 carpenter, having assumed the name Matthias, pro- 
 claimed himself to be God, the Father. He found be- 
 lievers, most of them ignorant but some intelligent, 
 procured much money and ruined many persons. He 
 and his disciples claimed to heal the sick quite as suc- 
 cessfully as the Scientists now do. One of them, a 
 Mr. Pierson, a victim of religious delusion, even before 
 the coming of ^Eatthias, had endeavored under most 
 distressing and pathetic circumstances publicly to raise 
 his wife from the dead, accepting literally the verse 
 
 1 Matthias and his Impostures, Harpers, 1836. 
 
ITS LEGAL ASPECTS. 35 
 
 of the General Epistle of St. James directing the elders 
 to anoint and pray over the sick, and promising that 
 " the Lord shall raise him up." Matthias, being even- 
 tually indicted for procuring $630 from a Mr. Folger 
 under the false pretence that he was God, able to re- 
 mit sins, and would communicate the Holy Ghost to 
 said Folger, the District Attorney entered a nolle 
 jprosequi for these reasons: To maintain the indict- 
 ment, he said, I must prove that defendant's pretences 
 were false and would deceive a man of ordinary intel- 
 ligence and prudence, but no sane person would believe 
 that Matthias is God, nor can I establish the falsity of 
 his statement by legal evidence. Matthias was, how- 
 ever, convicted on lesser charges. 
 
 The memory of the adventuress. Diss de Bar, is 
 fresh. In 1888 she was convicted by a ]^ew York 
 jury of fraud in obtaining money from a lawyer of 
 admittedly large attainments, and a former associate 
 of Mr. Webster. She, too, sought to cloud the real 
 issue by claiming that the right to believe in Spiritual- 
 ism was involved. During her trial, the usual train 
 of "ladies" and "intelligent persons " attended her, 
 one of her satellites being a former diplomat and an 
 ex-Eegent of the University of the State. Since her 
 imprisonment her star has waned. These cases illus- 
 trate at once the difficulty and possibilities of dealing 
 with religious fanatics through existing laws, when 
 wrong theory is reduced to harmful practice. 
 
 That Christian Scientists frequently oifend against 
 the criminal law seems to be clear, and their prosecu- 
 tion in such cases would be of value if it enlightened 
 the public as to their real teaching; for it seems 
 
36 CHKISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 scarcely possible that an intelligent person, becoming 
 fully acquainted with " Science and Health " and its 
 teachings, could fail to visit Mrs. Eddy's cult with 
 condemnation as strong as that Avhich she unsparingly 
 lays upon the competing cults of Faith Curers, Mind 
 Curers, Animal Magnetists and Clairvoyants ; or that 
 any one of taste or humor, after reading the 
 "Poems" and quack advertisements of the "Miscella- 
 neous Writings," would not blush to confess himself a 
 disciple of the new " thought." Publicity will destroy 
 the cult far more quickly than legislation. 
 
11. 
 
 THE CASE AGAINST CHRISTIATT SCIENCE^ 
 
 In the March number of the North American Re- 
 mew, it was essayed in the article, " Christian Science 
 and its Legal Aspects," to state clearly, as far as that 
 is possible, the teachings of Mrs. Eddy ; using, in order 
 to be scrupulously fair, her own words, and referring 
 each citation to its page in her text-book, " Science 
 and Health, with Key to the Scriptures." 
 
 It Avas there said : " Publicity will destroy the cult 
 far more quickly than legislation." In that belief it is 
 proposed here, with equal fairness, by quotations from 
 her books, " Miscellaneous Writings " and " Ketrospec- 
 tion and Introspection," the latter being autobiograph- 
 ical in character, to show something of the life, pre- 
 tensions, methods and literary output of this remarkable 
 woman, leaving the reader to judge from her own 
 words whether she is, as her partisans assert, learned, 
 modest, truthful and generous, or, as her adversaries 
 declare, ignorant, irreverent, boastful, and greedy. 
 We assume that candid, intelligent persons, interested 
 in her teachings and alleged marvellous cures, are 
 willing to learn the truth and try the teacher upon 
 her utterances in the forum of common sense. If 
 Mrs. Eddy did nothing more than teach a philosophic 
 or religious theory we should waste no time in aca- 
 demic discussion of it. But she teaches a practice 
 that daily puts the lives of adults and, more horrible 
 
 1 From the Nori/t American Review. 
 
 37 
 
38 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 still, of little children at the mercy of persons ignorant 
 both of medical and mental science. 
 
 Some of her quondam friends and disciples have 
 published matter denouncing Mrs. Eddy and attribut- 
 ing her theories and her cure of a severe illness to a 
 Mr. P. P. Quimby/ deceased, whom she disparages as 
 "an uneducated man." To our apprehension, a fair 
 representation of the woman and her works will be 
 more profitable than heated controversy or labored 
 argument. We concede to her, for what it is worth, 
 the discovery of Christian Science, and ask no more 
 than that the reader, friendly or hostile, examine 
 judicially these gleanings from her works and form 
 his own conclusions. 
 
 It has been said that the best corrective of judg- 
 ment is the sense of humor, the faculty of appreciat- 
 ing one's own absurdities. Mrs. Eddy and her disciples 
 take themselves very seriously. But that Mrs. Eddy 
 considers the rival system of Faith Cure ridiculous, 
 appears from this merry jest of hers : 
 
 "When looking deeply into the effects of faith 
 based on corporeal personality instead of the Divine 
 Principle, the following colloquy is suggested : 
 
 " ' Have you ever tried the faith-cure ? ' asked a 
 solemn looking stranger of a gentleman in a street 
 car. ' I have," was the answer. * Do you believe in 
 it ? ' ^ I do.' * May I ask of what you were cured ? ' 
 ' Certainly ; I was cured of my faith.' " ^ 
 
 Thus, by example, she invites a display of her own 
 drolleries. 
 
 1 See two articles in the Arena for May, 1899, by Horatio W. Dresser 
 and Josephine C. Woodbury. 
 
 ? " Retrospection and Introspection," p. 68. 
 
THE CASE AGAINST CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 39 
 
 Who, then, and what is Mrs. Mary Moss Baker 
 Glover Patterson Eddy, who in 1866, threw light 
 upon the Gospels for lack of which saints, sages and 
 poets, stumbling in darkness through the ages, have 
 failed to apprehend the Saviour's teaching ; who has 
 written a book the mere reading of which cures 
 cancer ; to whom churches are built wherein is read 
 the Lord's Prayer expanded and improved by her 
 interpolations ? 
 
 One of her foremost apostles, Mr. Carol I^orton, a 
 young gentleman belonging to " The International 
 Board of Lectureship of the Mother Church of Chris- 
 tian Science in Boston, Mass.," in a lecture copyrighted 
 in 1898,^ presumably with her approval, thus describes 
 her — he uses the past tense, but the lady still lives as 
 mortal mind understands the term : 
 
 " A quiet dignity and a divine perseverance were 
 her conspicuous characteristics. Her life motives were 
 essentially unselfish^ philanthropic and idealistic. As 
 a student she was penetrating, inquiring, progressive. 
 Perhaps her strongest point was that she always 
 worked in a direct line. One of her most marked 
 characteristics was that, if she had loorlced mentally in 
 a wrong direction, she coiold turn about with intelli- 
 gent ease. . . . While from the human standpoint 
 she inherited the refinement that goes with culture of 
 family and moral rectitude, yet there was a marked 
 degree of spiritual grace, delicacy and elegance which 
 comes not from human ancestry, neither from commun- 
 ion with nature. It was the exquisite coloring of the 
 touch of the hands of divine Mind which opens the 
 petals of thought, as it does of the opening rose, and 
 evolves a symmetry of disposition, temperament and 
 
 » Printed in the Troy Record, February 28, 1899. 
 
40 CHRISTIAN SClENCJe. 
 
 poise ivhich is at once recognized as of Divine not 
 human origin. . . . She spent no time in intellec- 
 tual drifting. Intuition and logic she united in her 
 mental processes of reasoning. . . . Adherence 
 to the imrpersonal and scientific deductions of the phil- 
 osophical teachings of Mary Baker Eddy represents 
 nothing different from the loycdty of a mathematician 
 to the unchanging rule of mathematics.'''' 
 
 The italics are ours. If the description seems per- 
 fervid, it should be remembered that Mrs. Eddy calls 
 herself and is called by her disciples " Mother," ^ and 
 Mr. Norton's words are little stronger than those 
 addressed by pius ^neas to his dam, ^'Haud tihi 
 voltus 77107'talis, nee vox hominem sonat : 0, dea 
 certe ! " 
 
 Any reader of Mrs. Eddy's books will admit the 
 ease with which she turns about ; whether it be intel- 
 ligent or consistent with logic and loyalty to unchang- 
 ing rules is another matter. 
 
 An apostle worthy of the name should have a some- 
 Avhat extraordinary childhood, and Mrs. Eddy writes : 
 
 " For some twelve months, when I was about eight 
 years old, I repeatedly heard a voice calling me dis- 
 tinctly by name, three times in an ascending scale." 
 
 Her mother persistently ignored this occurrence, 
 until one day a cousin, Mehitable Huntoon, also heard 
 the voice. Then Mrs. Baker told Mary of little Sam- 
 
 'Thus an alleged disciple writes: "Dear Mother: The most blessed 
 of women ! Oh, how I long to sit within range of your voice and hear 
 the Truth that comes to you from on High ! for none could speak such 
 wondrous thoughts as have come from your pen, except it be < the Spirit 
 that speaketh in you.' " •' Miscellaneous Writings," p. 415. 
 
 Mrs. Eddy constantly applies the title to herself, for example : " I, for 
 one, would be pleased to have the Christian Science Board of Directors 
 itemize a bill of this church's gifts to Mother." " Miscellaneous Writ- 
 ings," p. 131. 
 
THE CASE AGAINST CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 41 
 
 nel and bade her answer when next she heard the 
 voice, " Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth." The 
 child obeyed ; but the result was disappointing : 
 
 " When the call came again I did answer, in the 
 words of Samuel, but never again to material senses 
 was that mysterious call audibly repeated." ^ 
 
 Apparently the voice had nothing particular to say. 
 
 At the age of twelve, Mary was admitted to the 
 Congregationalist Church, after much perturbation 
 over the doctrine of unconditional election or predes- 
 tination, due to very creditable unwillingness to be 
 saved if her brothers and sisters were to be damned. 
 Her mental distress brought on fever, so the physician 
 said; and her mother bade her seek God in prayer. 
 Obedience this time brought an excellent result : 
 
 " A soft glow of ineffable joy came over me, the 
 fever was gone, and I arose and dressed myself in a 
 normal condition of health. Mother saw this and 
 was glad. The physician marvelled ; and the ' horri- 
 ble decree ' of Predestination — as John Calvin rightly 
 called his own tenet — forever lost its power over 
 me."' 
 
 Notwithstanding her refusal to accept Calvin's doc- 
 trine, the good pastor insisted that she had been 
 " truly regenerated ; " and she was received into the 
 communion, of which she says : 
 
 "My connection with this religious body was re- 
 tained till I founded a chitrch of my own^ hidlt on 
 the basis of Christian Science, Jesus Christ himself 
 heing the chief corner stoned ^ 
 
 ' Under the caption, " Voices not our own " (" Retrospection and Intro- 
 spection," pp. 1 6-1 8). 
 
 2" Theological Reminiscences," " Retrospection and Introspection," pp. 
 20-24. 
 
42 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 In telling of her Early Studies/ Mrs. Eddy accounts 
 for her constant disregard of the once respected shade 
 of Lindley Murray : 
 
 " My father was taught that my brain was too large 
 for my body, and so kept me much out of school, but 
 I gained book-knowledge Avith far less labor than is 
 usually requisite. At ten years of age I was as 
 familiar with Lindley Murray's Grammar as I was 
 with the Westminster Catechism ; and the latter I had 
 to repeat every Sunday. My favorite studies were 
 Katural Philosophy, Logic and Moral Science. To 
 my brother Albert I was indebted for lessons in the 
 ancient tongues, Hebrew, Greek and Latin. 3Iy 
 brother studied Hebrew during his college vacations. 
 After my discovery of Christian Science, most of the 
 knowledge I had gleaned from school hooks vanished 
 like a dream.^'* 
 
 This unfortunate effect of Mrs. Eddy's discovery, 
 apparent on almost every page of her writings, ac- 
 counts for her early defence of her system against 
 the charge of Pantheism upon the assumption that 
 "the word Pantheism was derived from the sylvan 
 God Pan," and also for her confusion of Gnosticism 
 with Agnosticism.^ These errors of mortal mind are 
 quite understandable when we consider that the 
 teacher, if she ever knew anything of history, reli- 
 gion, or philosophy, had forgotten all that she had 
 learned from books. 
 
 Miss Mary Moss Baker in 1843 married Col. George 
 "Washington Glover, of South Carolina,^ of whom she 
 says : 
 
 1 " Retrospection and Introspection," p. 19. 
 
 ' May " Areua,^^ p, 561. 
 
 * '« Retrospection and Introspection," p. 24. 
 
THE CASE AGAINST CHKlSTIAN SCIENCE. 43 
 
 " He was spared to me for only one brief year. He 
 was in Wilmington, North Carolina, ivhen the yellow 
 fever imaged in that city, and was suddenly attacked by 
 this hisidious disease, which in his case proved fatal." ^ 
 
 This admission that '' insidious disease " exists and 
 can rage must be a slip of the pen. We are all 
 aware now that Disease and Death are only errors 
 of mortal mind. 
 
 Upon Col. Glover's death, his widow returned to 
 E"ew England, where a child was born who, at the 
 age of four years, was sent away and not seen by her 
 again until, at the age of thirty-four, he visited her in 
 Boston. Upon their separation she wrote the poem 
 "Mother's Darling," of which she gives us only one 
 verse : 
 
 *' Thy smile through tears, as sunshine o'er the sea, 
 Awoke new beauty in the surge's roll ! 
 Oh, life is dead, bereft of all, with thee, — 
 Star of my earthly hope, babe of my soul." ^ 
 
 Mrs. Mary Moss Baker Glover contracted second 
 nuptials with a gentleman whose name does not ap- 
 pear in " Ketrospection and Introspection," although 
 the event is thus referred to : 
 
 "My second marriage was very unfortunate, and 
 from it I was compelled to ask for a bill of divorce, 
 which was granted me in the city of Salem, Massachu- 
 setts. My dominant thought in marrying again was 
 to get back my child. The disappointment which fol- 
 lowed was terrible. His stepfather was envious ; and 
 although George was a tender-hearted and manly boy, 
 he hated him as much as I loved him." ^ 
 
 Adherence to Mr. Murray's forgotten rules might 
 
 1 " Retrospection and Introspection," p, 24. 
 2 " Retrospection and Introspection," p. 26. 
 3 " Retrospection and Introspection," p. 27. 
 
44 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 have made clearer who hated whom ; and it is cer- 
 tainly unfortunate that anybody hated any one; for 
 hate, we are taught, is, like fear, a cause or form of 
 disease. It appears, however, from a letter of the 
 lady who is now Mrs. Eddy, written on March Y, 
 1883, to the Boston Post and quoted by Mr. Dresser^ 
 that this second consort was Dr. Patterson, " a distin- 
 guished dentist " who, while his wife Avas away from 
 home, undergoing Mr. Quimby's treatment, eloped 
 " with a married woman from one of the wealthiest 
 families." The distinction of the doctor and the 
 wealth of the erring lady might seem to have been 
 mentioned as softening the blow, were it not that, in 
 reality, there was no blow to soften, as transpires 
 from these words of the apparently deserted wife : 
 
 " It is well to know, dear reader, that this bit of 
 material history is but the record of dreams, 7iot of 
 real existence, and the dream has no place in Chris- 
 tian Science. It is as ' a tale that is told,' and as ' the 
 shadow when it declineth.' "^ 
 
 IS'otwithstanding — perhaps, indeed on account of — 
 this unreality of marriage, Mrs. Mary Moss Baker 
 Glover-Patterson, thirty-four years after her first al- 
 liance, and when somewhere about sixty years of age, 
 as nearly as we can compute, entered upon a third, of 
 which she says under the caption, " A True Man : " ^ 
 
 *' My last marriage was with Asa Gilbert Eddy, and 
 was a blessed and spiritual union, solemnized at Lynn, 
 Massachusetts, by the Kev. Samuel Barrett Stewart, in 
 the year 1877. Dr. Eddy was the first student to 
 
 1 May " Arena,'' p. 545. 
 
 2" Retrospection and Introspection," p. 27. 
 
 3 " Retrospection and Introspection," p. 54. 
 
THE CASE AGAINST CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 45 
 
 publicly announce himself a Christian Scientist, and 
 place these symbolic words on his office sign. He 
 forsook all to follow in this line of light. He was the 
 first organizer of a Christian Science Sunday-school, 
 which he superintended. He also taught a special 
 Bible-class; and he lectured so ably on Scriptural 
 topics that even ministers listened to him with mingled 
 surprise and approbation. He was remarkably suc- 
 cessful in Mind-healing, and untiring in his chosen 
 work. In 1882 he passed away, with a smile of peace 
 and love resting on his serene countenance." ^ 
 
 To our natural instinct, this dealing with a lady's re- 
 peated dreams is distasteful. We lack sympathy with 
 the common desire to pry into love affairs of the great. 
 But when philosophers like Jean Jacques and Mrs. 
 Eddy insist on taking us behind the veil, there is nothing 
 for it but to drop our sandals and trot along. Indeed, 
 unless we yielded our scruples in the present case, we 
 should by excess of delicacy lose the " nexus " and be 
 plunged into obscurity. This is Mrs. Eddy's avowed 
 reason for relating these three " dreams " and shadows 
 that declined : 
 
 lit is said in the May ^r<?;/a (p. 563): '<Tlie physician who con- 
 ducted the autopsy says that the death was the result of distinctly de- 
 veloped heart disease ; but Mrs. Eddy declared that it was the result of 
 arsenical poisoning- mentally administered''/ However that may be, it is 
 true that Christian Science did not save Mr. Eddy, although, if we may 
 believe these words of his wife, it would have saved her. " When the 
 mental malpractice of poisoning people was first undertaken by a mesmer- 
 ist, to test that malpractice, I experimented by taking some large doses of 
 morphine, to see if Christian Science could not obviate its effect; and I 
 say with tearful thanks, <The drug has no effect upon me whatever.' The 
 hour has struck, « If they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them.' " 
 " Miscellaneous Writings," topic " Falsehood," p. 249. This surpasses 
 Cagliostro's challenge to the Empress Catherine's physician, who de- 
 nounced him as a quack and his elixir as a humbug. Prepare, said 
 Cagliostro, the most deadly poisons of which you know and I will do the 
 same. I will take your poison and then swallow a dose of my antidote. 
 You shall take mine and save yourself as best you can. 
 
46 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 "Mere historic incidents and personal events are 
 frivolons and of no moment, unless they illustrate the 
 ethics of Truth. To this end, but only to this end, 
 such narrations may be admissible and advisable ; but 
 if spiritual conclusions are separated from their prem- 
 ises, the nexus is lost, and the argument, with its 
 rightful conclusions, becomes correspondingly ob- 
 scure."^ 
 
 In view of her concrete experiences, Mrs. Eddy's 
 opinions upon marriage in the abstract become inter- 
 esting. In reply to the question, " What do you think 
 of marriage ? " she answers : 
 
 "That it is often convenient, sometimes pleasant, 
 and occasionally a love affair. Marriage is susceptible 
 of many definitions. It sometimes presents the most 
 wretched condition of human existence. To be nor- 
 mal it must be a union of the affections that tends to 
 lift mortals higher." ^ 
 
 That her so-called " science " does not fully accord 
 with the prevalent views of decent men she admits by 
 replying in this manner to the question : " Is marriage 
 nearer right than celibacy ? " 
 
 ''Hitman knowledge inculcates that it is, while Sci- 
 ence indicates that it is not. But to force the con- 
 sciousness of scientific being before it is understood is 
 impossible, and believing otherwise would prevent 
 scientific demonstration. . . . 
 
 "Eights that are bargained away must not be re- 
 taken by the contractors, except by mutual consent. 
 Human nature has lestowed on a wife the right to he- 
 come a mother ; hict if the wife esteem.s not this jpriv- 
 ilege, hy mutual consent, exalted and increased affec- 
 tions, she may win a higher. Science touches' the 
 
 ' " Retrospection and Introspection," p. 28. 
 '"Miscellaneous Writings," p. 52. 
 
THE CASE AGAINST CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 47 
 
 conjugal question on the basis of a bill of rights. Can 
 the bill of Conjugal Eights be fairly stated by a magis- 
 trate or by a minister ? " ^ 
 
 The abolition of marriage she seems to consider pos- 
 sible, if not desirable, although not now practicable. 
 
 " To abolish marriage at this period, and maintain 
 morality and generation, would put ingenuity to 
 ludicrous ^ shifts^ yet this is jpossille in Science^ al- 
 though it is to-day prohlematic.'^^^ 
 
 Quitting gladly these recitals of '' personal events," 
 that have given us '' the nexus,'''' we may turn to Mrs. 
 Eddy's account of her priceless discovery that the 
 study of Anatomy, Physiology and every branch of 
 Medical Science, the practice of Medicine, according to 
 any School, or of Animal Magnetism, Movement Cure, 
 Clairvoyance, Mind Cure and Faith Cure, even the 
 taking of exercise and observance of hygienic rules, 
 are all wrong and harmful, Christian Science being the 
 sole curative.^ She says : 
 
 "This discovery was so new, — the basis it laid 
 down for physical and moral health was so hopelessly 
 original, and men were so unfamiliar with the sub- 
 ject, that I did not venture upon its publication until 
 later." 
 
 But eventually she published her first book, " The 
 Science of Man,'" and she tells us that when " people 
 were healed by simply reading it, the copyright was 
 infringed. I entered a suit at law and my copyright 
 was protected." ^ 
 
 Here we see that Mrs. Eddy's " Key to the Scrip- 
 
 ' " Miscellaneous Writings," pp. 288, 289. 
 
 2 " Miscellaneous Writings," p. 286. 
 
 3 See p. 23 for citations upon this point. 
 
 <•« First Publications," " Retrospection and Introspection," p. 47. 
 
48 CHEISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 tures " does not interpret literally the command, 
 " Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that 
 would borrow of thee turn not thou away ; " or the 
 other, "And if any man will sue thee at the law and 
 take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also." 
 She vociferously cries "copyright, copyright," lest 
 her students or the Quimbyites nest, Bathylluslike, 
 where she has builded. Fear is disease ; yet in terror 
 lest her own disciples filch her discovery, she sets up 
 this scarecroAV on her literary domain. 
 
 " If you should jprint and publish your copy of my 
 worlxs you woidd he liahle to arrest for infringement of 
 copyrigld^ ichich the law defines^ and punishes as theft ! 
 . . . Your manuscript copy is liable, in some way, 
 to be printed as your original writings, thus incurring 
 the penalty of the law, and increasing the record of 
 theft in the United States Circuit Court." ^ 
 
 Thus, while claiming supernatural knowledge of 
 God's laws, Mrs. Eddy, to protect her pocketboj)k, 
 grossly misstates the laAv of the land, under which in- 
 fringement of copyright is not theft or punishable as 
 crime. 
 
 It was high time for some one to discover Mrs. 
 Eddy's discovery ; for she says with that modesty of 
 Avhich we are in quest : 
 
 " Even the Scripture gave no direct interpretation 
 of the Scientific basis for demonstrating the spiritual 
 Principle of healing, until our Heavenly Father saw 
 fit, through the ' Key to the Scriptures,' in * Science 
 and Health,' to unlock this 'mystery of godliness.'"^ 
 
 1 •' Miscellaneous Writings," p, 300. See also " Retrospection and In- 
 trospection," under the titles "The Precious Volume," pp. 49-51, and 
 ''Plagiarism," p. 93. 
 
 2 •' Retrospection and Introspection," p. 51. 
 
THE CASE AGAINST CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 49 
 
 This fear lest her copyright be infringed constantly 
 haunts Mrs. Eddy. As late as June 4, 1899, in her 
 address to the First Church at its annual communion, 
 she says : " All published quotations from my works 
 must have the author's name added to them ; quota- 
 tion marks are not sufficient. Borrowing from my 
 copyrighted works without credit is inadmissible." ^ 
 
 Unless she had found the key to this mystery no one 
 else could have done so : 
 
 " It is often asked why Christian Science was re- 
 vealed to me as one Intelligence analyzing^ tmcover- 
 ing^ and annihilating the false testimoiiy of the phys- 
 ical senses. . . . Wo one else can drain the cup 
 which I have drunh to the dregs, as the discoverer and 
 teacher of Christian Science / neither can its inspira- 
 tion be gained without tasting the ciipy^ 
 
 P. P. Quimby in particular, Mrs. Eddy says, could 
 not have originated her system because : 
 
 " 1^0 mortal could first have informed the human 
 mind of what the mortal and carnal cannot discern."^ 
 
 That is to say, Mr. Quimby being mortal and carnal 
 never could have discovered what Mrs. Eddy found 
 out because of her immortality and uncarnality. But 
 from this position, when it suits her purpose, she turns 
 with " intelligent ease," and claims for herself health 
 and other carnal attributes. Thus answering allega- 
 tions that she was " sick, and unable to speak a loud 
 word," Mrs. Eddy says : 
 
 "Lecturing, writing, preaching, teaching, etc., give 
 
 J <'New York Times, June 5, 1899, and other journals of the time. 
 2 " Retrospection and Introspection," pp. 38, 39. 
 3" Retrospection and Introspection," p. 44. 
 
50 CHEISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 fair pi'oof that my shadow is not growing less and siib- 
 stance is taking larger lyro^ortions.'''' ^ 
 
 This boast puts her in a " parlous state " under her 
 own definitions : 
 
 " The physical senses or sensuous nature I called 
 error and shadow. Soul I denominated substance be- 
 cause soul alone is truly substantial." ^ 
 
 Having discovered Christian Science, it next became 
 necessary to exploit the discovery and Mrs. Eddy went 
 about the task systematically. 
 
 " In 1867 I introduced the first purely metaphysical 
 system of healing since the Apostolic days. I begun 
 by teaching one student Christian Science Mind-heal- 
 ing. From this seed grew the Massachusetts Meta- 
 physical College in Boston, chartered in 1881. No 
 charter was granted for similar purj^oses after 1^^^. 
 It is the only College hitherto for teaching the pa- 
 thology of spiritual power, alias the Science of Mind- 
 healing."^ 
 
 She does not recite her charter or its purpose ; and 
 what she omits to say is often more significant than 
 what she says. But the records of the Commonwealth 
 contain the instrument, which does not mention either 
 Christian Science or any new discovery, but simply 
 incorporates a College for the purpose of " teaching 
 pathology, ontology, therapeutics, moral science, meta- 
 physics and their adaptation to the treatment of dis- 
 ease." This charter Mvas granted under an Act con- 
 cerning Associations for Keligious, Charitable, Educa- 
 
 1 " Miscellaneous Writings," p. 238. 
 
 2 «* Retrospection and Introspection," p, 90. 
 8 " Retrospection and Introspection," p, 55. 
 * See frontispiece. 
 
THE CASE AGAINST ClIKISTIAN SCIENCE. 51 
 
 tional and other purposes/ under which were organ- 
 ized four other colleges mentioned in the Fifth Annual 
 Eeport of the Illinois Board of Health ^ as fraudulent. 
 This Act was subsequently merged into Chapter 115 
 of the Public Statutes. Owing to the shameless 
 manufacture and sale of diplomas, the so-called " anti- 
 diploma law" was enacted in 1883,^ prohibiting so- 
 cieties organized for medical purposes under that stat- 
 ute from conferring degrees or issuing diplomas, unless 
 specially authorized by the Legislature so to do. Con- 
 ferment of degrees in violation of this law was made 
 punishable by a fine of not less than $500 nor more 
 than $1,000 ; and here would seem to be sufficient ex- 
 planation of the facts that " no charter was granted 
 for similar purposes after 1883," and that Mrs. Eddy 
 came in the end, as we shall see presently, to enter- 
 tain "conscientious scruples about diplomas." 
 
 Mrs. Eddy's institution, if we may believe her, 
 prospered marvellously. Its course was short, its 
 faculty small, its tuition fees greater than those of 
 Harvard, Yale or Columbia. Its instruction was con- 
 tained in one text-book. Its classes were only three 
 in number, the primary, the normal and the obstetric. 
 Mrs. Eddy seems to have taught them all ; and why 
 not, since one principle applies to all cases, whether 
 of fevers, wounds, difficult labors or any other forms 
 of error in mortal mind? So far as appears from 
 " Ketrospection and Introspection," the only other 
 
 1 Ch. 375, Acts 1874; embodied later in Ch. 115, Public Statutes. 
 
 2 Excelsior, Bellevue, Medical Department of American University of 
 Boston, First Medical College of American Health Society. 
 
 3 Act June 30, 1883.— Dr. Booth in 1893 was sent to prison for selling 
 in New York the Excelsior's diplomas. 
 
52 CHKISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 teachers were her last husband, Asa G. Eddy, who 
 taught two terms, her adopted son, Ebenezer J. Foster 
 Eddy,^ who taught one term, and a military gentle- 
 man, of whom she says : 
 
 '' General Erastus N. Bates taught one primary 
 class in 1889, after which I judged it best to close the 
 institution." ^ 
 
 It made no particular difference in what class stu- 
 dents studied. The primary instruction Avas all saffi- 
 cient, and even that was unnecessary ; for Mrs. Eddy 
 expressly says : 
 
 " A Primary class student richly imbued with the 
 spirit of Christ, is a better healer and teacher than a 
 JN^ormal class student who partakes less of his love. 
 Having received my instructions in the Primary class 
 and afterward studied thoroughly ' Science and Health,^ 
 the student should not hesitate to enter upon this priv- 
 ileged Gospel work, and so fulfil the command of 
 Christ. Yea, an apt Bible scholar and a consecrated 
 Christian by deeply diioping into my last revised 
 ^Science and Health^'' may even enter this field of 
 labor without any personal instruction, — heneficially 
 to himself sj\& the race."^ 
 
 The curriculum consisted of only twelve lessons, 
 lasting half a day each and extending over three 
 weeks. The tuition fee was three hundred dollars. 
 Mrs. Eddy admits that she was staggered when this 
 sum suggested itself to her. But God, notwithstand- 
 ing her unselfishness, led her to try the experiment 
 and it succeeded. We are not burlesquing; that is 
 
 * This gentleman, according to the Areua, has renounced both Mrs. 
 Eddy's name and lier nonsense. 
 
 2" College and Church," " Retrospection and Introspection," p. 55. 
 3" College Closed," " Retrospection and Introspection," p. 60, 61, 
 
THE CASE AGAINST CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 53 
 
 impossible; her own Avords fairly travesty bur- 
 lesque. 
 
 " Whe7i God impelled me to set a price on my in- 
 struction in Christian Science Mind-healing, I coiold 
 think of no financial eqidvalent for an impartation of 
 a knowledge of that divine power which heals ; hut I 
 toas led to name three hundred dollars as the price for 
 each pupil in one course of lessons at my college, — a 
 startli7ig stem for tuition lasting harely three weeks. 
 This amount greatly troubled me. I shrank from 
 asking it, hut was finally led, hy a strange Providence^ 
 to accept this fee. 
 
 " God has since shown me, in multitudinous ways, 
 the wisdom of this decision ; and I beg disinterested 
 people to ask my loyal students if they consider three 
 hundred dollars any real equivalent for my instruc- 
 tion during twelve half days or even in half as many 
 lessons. Nevertheless, my list of indigent charity 
 scholars is very large, and I have had as many as 
 seventeen in one class." ^ 
 
 Why should her " students " have grumbled at the 
 price ? Eeputable medical colleges require their stu- 
 dents to study for years before conferring degrees 
 upon them. They also require of them, before ad- 
 mission, preliminary education. Most of the States 
 forbid unlicensed persons to practice medicine, and 
 some exact a State examination of medical graduates 
 as prerequisite to license. But here was a school pre- 
 tending to teach, under the guise of religion, an in- 
 fallible method of cure to any one able to read a 
 single book of nonsense. The head of the college, 
 having avowed that, by the very operation of her new 
 discovery, she had forgotten what little she had 
 
 1" Retrospection and Introspection," p. 64. 
 
54 CHKISTIAT^ SCIENCE. 
 
 learned from books, naturally required no preliminary 
 education of her disciples. On the contrary, she ex- 
 pressly discouraged it, as appears from this question 
 and answer : 
 
 " What can prospective students of the College take 
 for preliminary studies ? Do you regard the study of 
 literature and languages as objectionable ? 
 
 ^' Persons contemplating a course at the Massachu- 
 setts Metaphysical College, can prepare for it through 
 no books except the Bible and ' Science and Health 
 with Key to the Scriptures.' Man-made theories are 
 narrow, else extravagant, and always materialistic." ^ 
 
 Again she says : 
 
 " I recommend students not to read so-called scien- 
 tific works, antagonistic to Christian Science, which 
 advocate materialistic systems ; because such works 
 and words becloud the right sense of Metaphj^sical 
 Science." ^ 
 
 Having thus impressed the duty of ignorance upon 
 her disciples, she dubbed them, within three Aveeks or 
 less, in consideration of the fee of $300, doctors of 
 Christian Science, and bade them treat all diseases. 
 The price was cheap enough. Buchanan's notorious 
 college offered no easier terms ; and it was not strange if 
 her institution prospered ; but Mrs. Eddy probabl}^ does 
 not underestimate its prosperity when she says that 
 just before its dissolution, 300 students were clamor- 
 ing for admission. Assume this to be true, then, at 
 S300 each, these "students " would have paid $90,000 
 for twelve half-days' instruction, or $7,500 a half-day ! 
 Why Avas this Golconda closed ? From unselfishness 
 and conscientious scruples about diplomas! 
 
 1 " Miscellaneous Writings," p, 64. 
 
 8" Admonition," "Retrospection and Introspection," p, 96, 
 
THE CASE AGAINST CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 55 
 
 " The apprehension of what has been, and must be, 
 the final outcome of material organization, which 
 Avars with Love's spiritual compact, caused me to 
 dread the unprecedented jpopularity of my College. 
 Students from all over our Continent and from Eu- 
 rope were flooding the school. At this thne there 
 were over three hundred applications from students 
 desiring to enter the college, and applicants were rap- 
 idly increasing. Example had shown the dangers 
 arising from being placed on earthly pinnacles. Even 
 goodness shuns whatever involves material means for 
 the promotion of spiritual ends. 
 
 "In view of all this, a meeting was called of the 
 Board of Directors of my college, who, being informed 
 of my intention, unanimously voted that the school be 
 discontinued. . . . 
 
 " The Massachusetts Metaphysical College drew its 
 breath from me, but I was yearning for retirement. 
 The question was. Who else could sustain this institute, 
 under all that was aimed at its mtcd purpose^ the 
 establishment of genuine Christian Science Healing. 
 My conscientious scruples about diplomas^ the recent 
 experience of the church fresh in m.y thoughts; and 
 the growing conviction that every one should build 
 on his own foundation, subject to Ihe one builder and 
 maker, God, — all these considerations moved me to 
 close my flourishing school."^ 
 
 Does not this explanation over-tax credulity ? Was 
 any other college ever closed because of its " unprec- 
 edented popularity " ? Was it the anti-diploma law 
 that was '^ aimed at its vital purpose " ? Why is it, 
 too, that notwithstanding these " conscientious scruples 
 about diplomas " a great number of persons, male and 
 female, still tack to their names the s^nnbolic letters 
 " C. S." and " C. S. D." recently acquired upon what 
 
 » " Retrospection and Introspection," pp. 60, 6i, 
 
56 CHRiSTlAT^ SCIENCE. 
 
 authority it is hard to say, unless it be the right of any 
 free-born citizen, in the absence of prohibitory legisla- 
 tion, to assume any title that strikes the fancy and 
 appropriate all the " symbolic letters " of the alpha- 
 bet ? Having thus fully equipped her pupils, Mrs. 
 Eddy encouraged them to settle down in great cities, 
 not alone for the glory of God, but for this practical 
 reason : 
 
 " The population of our principal cities is ample to 
 supply many practitioners, teachers and preachers 
 with work." ^ 
 
 And in order that they might " enter this field of 
 labor beneficially to themselves," the shrewd Mother 
 thus taught : 
 
 " Christian Science demonstrates that ^ the patient 
 who pays ivhatever he is aUe to pay for heing^ healed is 
 more apt to recover than he who withholds a slight equiv- 
 alent for healthy'^ 
 
 And yet these people deny in Court, when arraigned 
 for unlawful practice of medicine and manslaughter, 
 that they demand fees for their services ! 
 
 When was so sordid a doctrine ever preached by 
 medical men? AVhat standing would a physician 
 have who should teach that the cure depends upon 
 the fee? Is this preachment inspired by God or 
 Mammon, by Unselfishness or Greed ? Whatever its 
 inspiration, it has been so well lived up to that its 
 " discoverer " proudly exclaims : 
 
 " In the early history of Christian Science, among 
 my thousands of students few were wealthy. Now 
 
 1 " Admonition," " Retrospection and Introspection," p, 102. 
 8 «« Miscellaneous Writings," pp. 300, 301. 
 
THE CASE AGAiXSt CHUtSTIAlS^ SCIENCE. 57 
 
 Christian Scientists are not indigent ; and their com- 
 fortaUe fortunes are acquired hy healing mankind, 
 morally , 2)hysically , sjnritually !''' ^ 
 
 With one or two more quotations to illustrate the 
 divine elegance and grace, of ^Yhich Mr. Norton 
 speaks, and the method by which the new system of 
 healing is advertised, we may leave behind us very 
 cheerfully Mrs. Eddy and all her works. The " Mis- 
 cellaneous Writings " are made up in about equal pro- 
 portions of answers to questions, letters and essays, 
 doggerel rhymes and advertising certificates ; one or 
 two excerpts will illustrate the author's facility in 
 each department of her work. To one who asks : 
 " Has Mrs. Eddy lost her power to heal ? " she replies 
 modestly : 
 
 *' Has the sun forgotten to shine and the planets to 
 revolve around it? Who is it that discovered, dem- 
 onstrated and teaches Christian Science ? That one, 
 whoever it be, does understand something of what 
 cannot be lost." ^ 
 
 To the pertinent question : ^' How does Mrs. Eddy 
 knoAv that she has read and studied correctly if one 
 must deny the evidences of the senses ; she had to use 
 her eyes to read ? " She answers : 
 
 " Having eyes ye see not ! I read the inspired page 
 through a higher than mortal sense. As matter, the 
 eye cannot see; and as mortal mind it is a helief that 
 sees. ^ I may read the Scriptures through a helief of 
 eyesight, but I must spiritually understand them to 
 interpret their science."^ 
 
 ' Preface to " Miscellaneous Writings," p. vii. 
 2" Miscellaneous Writings," p. 54. 
 ' " Miscellaneous Writings," p. 58. 
 
58 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 Comment upon this would gild refined gold. 
 
 Another answer we quote with hesitation, and only 
 because it is thoroughly typical. We fear that ordi- 
 nary mortal minds will find it not divinely graceful 
 and elegant but rather vulgar and grossly irreverent, 
 offensive to good taste and shocking to piety. 
 
 " Are hoth prayer and drugs necessary to heal f " 
 says the interlocutor^ and Mrs. Eddy rejMes : '' It is 
 difficult to say how much one can do for himself^ 
 lohose faith is divided between Catnip and Christ i hut 
 not so difficult to know that if he were to serve one 
 master he coxdd do vastly more.'^^^ 
 
 Mrs. Eddy's rhetorical flowers are of the gayest, 
 and would have delighted Mrs. Malaprop. One of 
 the most " hopelessly original " occurs in a Avarning 
 against Animal Magnetism, the specialty of P. P. 
 Quimby, but now considered by Mrs. Eddy, his late 
 patient, to be the ''chief delusion," of which the 
 " honest Christian Scientist " must rid himself before 
 he can heal : 
 
 ''For it is a Delilah loho would lead him into the 
 toils of the enemy, where Cerherus {the apt symhol of 
 Animal Magnetism) waits to devour the self-deceived^'^ 
 
 Against Delilah and Cerberus thus conspiring, one 
 would be justified in combining with " an allegory 
 from the banks of the Kile." She delights in original 
 martial similes, possibly from association with Gen. 
 Erastus N. Bates. Thus she says : 
 
 " As the pioneer of Christian Science I stood alone 
 in this conflict, endeavoring to smite error with the 
 
 1 •' Miscellaneous Writings," pp. 51, 52. 
 8 " Retrospection and Introspection," p. 73. 
 
THE CASE AGAINST CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 59 
 
 falchion of Truth. The rare bequests of Christian 
 Science are costly, and they have won fields of battle 
 from Avhich the dainty borrower would have lled."^ 
 
 This enlistment of " bequests " in active service is 
 more novel than Christian Science itself. In view of 
 their cost and courage they seem to be a sort of Hes- 
 sians. Again she writes : 
 
 ''With armor on, I continue the march, command 
 and counter-command, meanwhile interluding with 
 loving thought this afterpiece of battle. Supported, 
 cheered, I take my pen and pruning-book, to ' learn 
 war no more,' and with strong wing to lift my readers 
 above the smoke of conflict into light and liberty." ' 
 
 Why should she persist in marching, fully armed, 
 commanding and counter-commanding " with intelli- 
 gent ease," if the battle is over ? If it is still on, why 
 interlude its afterpiece, grasp pen and pruning-hook 
 and, at the same time, lift readers on a strong wing ? 
 It is all sadly puzzling. 
 
 Criticism of Mrs. Eddy's poetry we shall not again 
 venture upon. The March Bevieio timidly suggested 
 that, in rhyming " debris " with " unweary," " ween " 
 with "dream," "now thus" with "hails us," and 
 " deep " with " complete," ^ the gifted author, while 
 showing great boldness and originality, had departed 
 from ordinary rhyming conventions. But this posi- 
 tion was demolished by a shot from the Christian 
 Science Sentinel, of April 20th, 1899. 
 
 "His condemnations are exactly like those usually 
 applied to Browning in regard to rhyme and meanmg, 
 
 1 '« Retrospection and Introspection," p. 38. 
 
 2 Preface to " Miscellaneous Writings," p. x, 
 
 3 See page 18. 
 
60 CHKISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 but no mother will find fault with the following coup- 
 let from ' The Mother's Evening Prayer ' : 
 
 «* *Thou love that guards the nestling's faltering flight ! 
 Keep thou my child on upward wing to-night.' " 
 
 We frankly admit that no mother ^vould find fault 
 with that couplet — unless she knew^ how to parse sim- 
 ple English sentences ; and we despair of answering 
 the argument that because Browning nods doggerel is 
 poetry. 
 
 But however obscure Mrs. Edd}^ may be in her 
 poetry and controversial writings, she adopts, in that 
 part of " Miscellaneous Writings " devoted to adver- 
 tising her business, a clear stjde so remarkably like 
 that of another famous lady of Lynn that it has caused 
 her to be called " the Lydia Pinkham of the Soul." 
 The certificates of cures about to be quoted are in- 
 cluded in Mrs. Eddy's " copyrighted " works ; and we 
 assume this to indicate authorship, for one as scrupu- 
 lous as she on this point would scarcely copyright the 
 productions of others. ^ 
 
 J. B. H. writes : 
 
 "I am glad to tell you how I was healed. Beliefs 
 of consumption, dyspepsia, neuralgia, piles, tobacco, 
 
 ' Since this paper's first appearance, Mr, F. W. Peabody of Boston, has 
 called attention to certain dates, as evidence that Mrs. Eddy's testimonials 
 are not always written by their ostensible signers at tlie times alleged. 
 The March Revie^v mentioned the cure by that lady, one afternoon, of a 
 long-standing bowel comjilaint, in a baby eighteen months old, which ate 
 heartily of cabbage that night before retiring. The certificate of this feat 
 appears on page 200 of Science and Health, edition of 1887, (See page 
 27.) It is signed L. C, Edgecomb, is dated " Lynn, June, 1873," and 
 attributes the cure to " Mrs. Eddy " eo nomine. But in 1873 Mother was, 
 presumably, named Patterson, She does not pretend to have married 
 Mr. Eddy until 1877. Is this discrepancy of dates due to lapse of memory 
 on the part of the person in charge of the certificate department, or was 
 L. C, Edgecomb's gift of prophecy as remarkable as the Edgecomb baby's 
 digestive apparatus ? 
 
THE CASE AGAINST CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 61 
 
 and bad language held me in bondage for many years. 
 Doctors that were consulted did nothing to relieve me, 
 and 1 constantly grew worse. Nearly two years ago 
 a lady told me that if I would read a book called 
 'Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,' I 
 would be healed. I told her I w^ould 'go into it for 
 all it was worth,' and I have found that it is worth 
 all. I got the book, and read day and night : I saw 
 that it must be true, and believed that what I could 
 not then understand would be made clear later. 
 
 "After some days' reading I was affected with 
 drowsiness followed by vomiting. This lasted several 
 hours; when I fell into a sleep, and awoke healed." ' 
 
 Here is a letter bubbling with unconscious humor. 
 It purports to come from a gentleman who owes his 
 life to Mrs. Eddy's book, yet fears to imperil his health 
 by visiting the author. 
 
 " Dear Madam .-—May I thank you for your book, « Science and Health 
 with Key to the Scriptures,' and say how much I owe to it— almost iny 
 very life — at a most critical time. . . . 
 
 " If k were not for the heat of your American summers (I had nine at- 
 tacks of dysentery in the last one), and the expense, I should dearly like 
 to learn from you personally ; but I must forego this,— at any rate, for the 
 present. If you would write me what the cost would be for a course on 
 Divine Metaphysics, I would try to manage it later on, 
 
 " Meanwhile, I should be grateful if you would refer me to any one in 
 this country who is interested similarly, for I get more kicks than half- 
 pence in discussing it. 
 
 " Your obliged friend, 
 
 " (Rev.) I. G. W. Bishop. 
 " Bovington Vicarage, 
 
 "Hemel Hempstead, Herts, England." 2 
 
 K. L. H. recites this remarkable and instantaneous 
 cure of a child by a few pages of "Science and 
 Health." 
 
 " A dear little six-year-old boy of mv acquaintance 
 was invited by his teacher, w4th the rest of his class 
 
 ^ " Miscellaneous Writings," p. 405. 
 8 «« Miscellaneous Writings," p. 408. 
 
62 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 in Kindergarten School, to attend a picnic one after- 
 noon. He did not feel that he wanted to go ; seemed 
 dumpish, and, according to mortal belief, was not 
 well ; at noon, he said he wanted to go to sleep. 
 
 " His mother took him in her lap and began to read 
 to him from ' Science and Health, with Key to the 
 Scriptures.' Very soon he exjyressed a wish to go to 
 the picnic and did go.''"' ^ 
 
 We have thus given overabundantly and tediously, 
 perhaps, sufficient citations in Mrs. Eddy's own words 
 to enable any intelligent person to judge whether he 
 is willing to accept her intellectual and spiritual lead- 
 ership, and to believe that God waited nineteen hun- 
 dred years for her to illuminate, by such jargon as 
 " Science and Health," the teachings of Christ, which, 
 she bluntly says, could not have been apprehended 
 from the Scriptures alone prior to the publication of 
 her '' Key." It is with a sense of intellectual humilia- 
 tion that we have dealt with these dreary and vulgar 
 banalities. The excuse for so doing is found, however, 
 in such incidents as occurred in the City of [New York 
 on Sunday, the 28th day of May of this year, 1899, 
 when the Metropolitan Opera House was filled Avith 
 an audience, certainly of average intelligence, to hear 
 the lecturer already referred to, Mr. Carol Norton, in- 
 troduced by a gentleman holding judicial office in the 
 State, who declared that legislation directed against 
 Christian Science would infringe upon the constitu- 
 tional right to religious liberty. While a great num- 
 ber in that audience were animated by mere curiosity, 
 undoubtedly many accepted in good faith Mrs. Eddy's 
 claim to have discovered a new religious truth capable 
 
 I '« Miscellaneous Writings," p. 444. 
 
THE CASE AGAINST CHRISTIAIS' SCIENCE. 63 
 
 of healing disease in marvellous fashion. It is because 
 we cannot bring ourselves to believe that such per- 
 sons appreciate the character of their teacher or the 
 nature of her pretences that we have been willing 
 to reproduce her own account of her life and her 
 methods. 
 
 AYith those who can accept as divinely inspired the 
 absurdities, solecisms and incoherencies of Mrs. Eddy, 
 and who think to explain them by saying that ob- 
 scurities and errors are to be found in works of the 
 great writers, there can be no argument. ^' Intelligent 
 ease " in shifting premises precludes discussion. How 
 could the Bishop argue with the genial madman who, 
 after introducing himself as George Washington, said 
 a few moments later that he was Napoleon Bonaparte ? 
 " But," said the Bishop, " a moment ago you were Wash- 
 ington." " So I was," said the bedlamite with " in- 
 telligent ease," " but by another mother." It is en- 
 tirely possible, however, to state the case against this 
 pseudo philosophy convincingly to those who are in- 
 terested in it because of its alleged miraculous cures. 
 
 First. As a mere religious or philosophic theory, 
 Christian Science never would have had any vogue. 
 Its fascination lies in its pretended cures. Xo one 
 suggests taking action to restrain it as a form of wor- 
 ship. The most that has been suggested in regard to 
 it has been that its ignorant votaries should not be al- 
 lowed to trifle with the life and health of adults, chil- 
 dren and the entire community, by assuming the treat- 
 ment of all classes of disease, including surgical cases 
 and contagious and infectious maladies. To say it is in- 
 fringement of religious liberty to require the same skill 
 
64 CHKISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 and knowledge of Christian Scientists, engaging in the 
 business of curing the sick for hire, as is required of 
 Presbyterians or Catholics in the same business shows 
 ignorance of the constitutional doctrine of the Mor- 
 mon cases, or carelessness of statement, or such wil- 
 ful misstatement as Mrs. Eddy personally was guilty 
 of when she said that infringement of copyright is 
 theft, punishable criminally. 
 
 Second. Christian Science has no healing power 
 peculiar to itself, as distinguished from faith cure or 
 any other method of diverting the mind from the ills 
 of the body. If it had such divine power, its applica- 
 tion would be universal ; it would be effective in sur- 
 gery as in physic. Mrs. Eddy pretends that this uni- 
 versal applicability exists ; but, in admitting that for 
 the present " it is better to leave the adjustment, of 
 broken bones and dislocations to the fingers of sur- 
 geons," ^ she confesses the falsity of her treatment and 
 the impotence of her method. Mr. Norton has re- 
 cently shown the same lack of faith and of ability to 
 match promise with performance. Having offered to 
 give medical proof of cures of cancer, locomotor 
 ataxia, etc., he was asked to name the diagnostician 
 and describe the treatment, the precautions to exclude 
 other factors of cure, and the patients' present condi- 
 tion. He produced in fact no testimony of evidential 
 force to trained minds, but only certificates of Christian 
 Scientists similar in kind and value to the " puffs " 
 above quoted from " Miscellaneous Writings." He 
 was asked how he would treat these cases of emer- 
 gency : a cranial wound caused by a falling brick ; 
 
 1 Page 28. 
 
THE CASE AGAINST CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 65 
 
 strangulation of a child from swallowing a fish bone ; 
 exposure of a child to confluent smallpox ; severing 
 of a child's artery by a cable car accident ; fracture 
 of a baby's skull by a fall. He was also asked if in 
 curing cancers he made differential diagnosis between 
 them, boils, carbuncles, etc. Lest he be misquoted 
 his written words are given : 
 
 " I make no diagnosis except along the lines of con- 
 sistent mental ihera^eiitics. An expert in mental 
 therapeutics will naturally know the character of this 
 diagnosis. Discord is discord. Pain is pain. Dis- 
 ease is disease. The principle that cures one if rightly 
 applied, will citre all. This is the beginning and end 
 of rational mental healing. In relation to mental 
 treatment for a severed artery, I said simply that / he- 
 lieved- \)ii^ proper application of Mind power would do 
 the same work, if not better, than any other method. 
 I beg that you quote me correctly, if you ever quote 
 me, and I most thoroughly disagree with the under- 
 standing you got about diagnosis. In reply to the 
 list of questions that you wrote to me in a recent let- 
 ter, I have but to repeat my recent utterances in a 
 letter to you, that I prefer to shelve them, because to 
 answer them would bring about wholly indiiferent re- 
 sults." 
 
 The italics are his and ours. To say that Christian 
 Science is efficacious if rightly or jproperly applied 
 leaves open a wide door. To shelve the other ques- 
 tions confesses inability to answer them without mak- 
 ing fatal admissions. To say " Fain is pain. Disease 
 is disease " flatly contradicts Mrs. Eddy.^ 
 
 ' The correspondence is more fully set out in a letter to the New York 
 Sun published on June 9, 1899, ^r^<^ appearing here in the appendix, 
 (pps. 165, 182), Mr. Norton has never, to the writer's knowledge, denied 
 the fairness or traversed the accuracy of its statements. 
 
66 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 Third. Why is it then that Christian Science is 
 credited with these marvellous cures, if its foremost 
 professors cannot adduce any better proofs of them 
 than are afforded by certificates no better in manner 
 and degree than those accompanying every quack 
 nostrum that is advertised. The explanation is 
 simple. In perhaps the majority of cases to which 
 physicians are called, nothing more is needed than 
 resrimen and the mental stimulus that comes to the 
 patient Avith knowledge that he is under skilled care. 
 If a physician falls ill, he calls another to attend him, 
 chiefly for the sake of this mental stimulus and to 
 eliminate the personal factor. Drugs and surgical 
 appliances may be needed in only a small proportion of 
 cases ; but, like a revolver in Texas, they are needed 
 greatly when the occasion arises. Many diseases are 
 self limited, many are feigned, or due to a fixed idea 
 which may operate even in surgery, as when a pa- 
 tient, under the erroneous impression that his leg is 
 broken, unconsciously inhibits muscular action and is 
 unable to put foot to the ground, until dispossessed of 
 the inhibitory idea by mechanical devices or any 
 method, even Christian Science, changing the mental 
 attitude. In all such cases, whatever removes the 
 mental tension may be beneficial. Many patients 
 w^ould get well without any attendance at all. To 
 take an illustration: Child-birth, in which Christian 
 Scientists profess great success, is not a disease, but 
 the operation of a normal function. In the absence 
 of complications, attendance is not necessary although 
 it may be desirable. But in the presence of certain 
 complications, the very highest skill is necessary to 
 
THE CASE AGAINST CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 67 
 
 save life. "Will any sane person say that, because in 
 the vast majority of cases children may be brought 
 into the world safely under the attendance of a Chris- 
 tian Scientist, such a person is to be pardoned who 
 undertakes such a complication as that of placenta 
 praevia with neither medical skill nor knowledge? 
 Will any parent be willing, in case a child's artery is 
 severed, to call a Christian Scientist rather than a sur- 
 geon ? Upon the answers to these questions depends 
 the acceptance by reasoning persons of Mrs. Eddy's 
 theory and claim that her followers can cure all forms 
 of human maladies and injuries, and that they should 
 be allowed to treat medical and surgical cases without 
 the responsibility for malpractice that rests upon 
 medical men. 
 
 We devoutly believe that Mrs. Eddy is an instru- 
 ment in the hands of God, not for the healing of the 
 nations, but to humble us intellectually by showing 
 that, at the end of the nineteenth century, professedly 
 intelligent persons can be as easily duped by her as 
 their forebears were by Cagliostro at the close of the 
 eighteenth. 
 
Ill 
 
 MANSLAUGHTER, CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND THE 
 LAW^ 
 
 The recent death of Mr. Harold Frederic under the 
 treatment of a Christian Scientist, and the latter's in- 
 dictment by an English jury, have renewed the dis- 
 cussion by professional and lay journals of what is 
 and what should be the bearing of the law upon such 
 cases. 
 
 The N^ew York Times ^ of which he was correspond- 
 ent, writes editorially of " Faith-Cure Murders ; " the 
 Sun of "Manslaughter by Christian Science." The 
 current law journals comment upon the case. Un- 
 fortunately such happenings are neither modern nor 
 rare. 
 
 Coincidently with Mr. Frederic's death from pneu- 
 monia in England, the newspapers also report the 
 deaths of Messrs. Kershaw in Tacoma, and McDowell 
 in Cincinnati, and Mrs. BroAvn of Washington; the 
 first of pneumonia, the second of typhoid fever, the 
 last of an unnamed malady — all the diseases being 
 complicated with Christian Science. It is only Fred- 
 eric's prominence as a journalist and fiction writer 
 that brings his case nearer home to the multitude. 
 
 The ordinary quack is content to lay claim to some 
 
 J New York Medical Record, Nov. 26, 1898. 
 
 69 
 
YO CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 special skill or knowledge in the use of natural methods 
 or remedies. Thus in February, 18U6, one John M. 
 Crous induced the same Legislature of New York that 
 in the following April chartered the existing county 
 and State medical societies to authorize by special act 
 the purchase for $1,000 and publication in the State 
 papers of his " perfect and infallible remedy and cure 
 for hydrophobia or canine madness." And a wonder- 
 ful remedy it was. ^ 
 
 In the following year an act (ch. 10-i, 11. 1807) was 
 passed prohibiting unlicensed practice of medicine ; 
 W' ith the proviso, however, that it should not be con- 
 
 1 Here is the prescription, and it certainly seems adequate to put an end 
 to hydrophobia or any other malady : 
 
 '« First : Take one ounce of the jawbone of a dog, burned and pulver- 
 ized, or pounded to fine dust. 
 
 " Secondly: Take the false tongue of a newly foaled colt; let that be 
 also dried and pulverized ; and, 
 
 " Thirdly : Take one scruple of verdigris, which is raised on the sur- 
 face of old copper by lying in the moist earth ; the coppers of George I. 
 or II. are the purest and best. Mix these ingredients together, and if the 
 person be an adult or full grown, take one common teaspoonful a day, 
 and so in proportion for a child according to its age. In one hour after 
 take the filings of the one-half of a copper of the above kind, if to be 
 had ; if not, then a small increased quantity of any baser metal of the 
 kind ; this to be taken in a small quantity of water. 
 
 "The next morning, fasting (or before eating), repeat the same as be- 
 fore. This, if complied with after the biting of a dog, and before the 
 symptoms of madness, will effectually prevent any appearance of disorder; 
 but after the symptoms shall appear a physician must immediately be ap- 
 plied to, to administer the following, viz: 
 
 " Three drachms of the verdigris of the kind before mentioned, mixed 
 with half an ounce of calomel, to be taken at one dose. This quantity 
 the physician need not fear to administer, as the reaction of the venom 
 will then diffuse through the whole system of the patient, neutralize con- 
 siderably the powerful quality of the medicine ; and, 
 
 " Secondly : If in four hours thereafter the patient is not completely 
 relieved, administer four grains of pure opium or one hundred and twenty 
 drops of liquid laudanum. 
 
 " N. B. — The patient must be careful to avoid the use of milk for sev- 
 eral days after taking any of the foregoing medicine. 
 
 «* John M. Crous." 
 
MANSLAUGHTER AND THE LAW. Tl 
 
 strued to debar any one from using, or applying for 
 the benefit of the sick, roots or herbs the growth 
 or product of the United States. This exception fa- 
 vored at once the principle of protection to the indus- 
 try of home herbs and the teachings of the Thomso- 
 nian or botanic school of medicine, founded upon the 
 simple, obvious theory that mineral remedies are in- 
 jurious because, their nature being to remain in the 
 earth, they tend to drag man down to the grave; 
 while herbs, having by nature an upward, skyward 
 thrust, tend, on the contrary, to the advancement of 
 those whose midst they penetrate. 
 
 This system, once as popular as Christian Science, 
 furnished the leading American case on manslaughter 
 by medical malpractice, that of Commonwealth v. 
 Thomson (6 Mass. 134). It there appeared that Sam- 
 uel Thomson, founder of the system, undertook to 
 cure " all fevers, whether black, grey, green, or yel- 
 low." His staple remedies were " coffee," so-called, 
 " well my gristle," and " ram-cats." Being summoned 
 on Jan. 2, 1809, to attend Ezra Lovett, ill of " a cold," 
 he ordered a fire built, put Lovett's feet on a stove of 
 hot coals, wrapped him in a blanket, and, with a 
 powder given in water, " puked " him — to use the 
 simple language of the day — violently thrice within 
 half an hour, meantime administering copiously the 
 warm "coffee." He then put Lovett to bed, and 
 sweated and " puked " him pretty steadily for three 
 days, the patient growing weaker and weaker, until, 
 poor soul ! he could puke no more. Then Thomson 
 asked "how far down the medicine had got," and, 
 Lovett indicating his chest, the quack said that the 
 
72 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 medicine " would soon get down and unscrew his 
 navel." On the third day the patient " lost his mind 
 and went into convulsions," which condition lasted 
 until the eighth day, Jan. 10, when he died. The 
 " coffee " proved to be a decoction of marshrosemary 
 and the bark of the bay berry bush ; the powder was 
 Indian tobacco or Lobelia infiata. There was no evi- 
 dence that defendant had killed any one else ; on the 
 contrary, there was testimony of benefit in one case 
 from his treatment. The court, therefore, did not put 
 him to his defence, but, ruling that the commonwealth 
 had failed to make out a case even of manslaughter, 
 charged the jury to this effect : Deceased, beyond 
 reasonable doubt, lost his life by defendant's unskil- 
 ful treatment. But there could be no murder, unless 
 the prisoner was wilfully regardless of his social duty 
 and determined on mischief, of which there was no 
 proof ; on the contrary, his intent was to cure. Nei- 
 ther could there be manslaughter ; for, although de- 
 fendant's ignorance was very apparent, nevertheless, 
 if he honestly intended to cure, he could not be guilty 
 of that crime on account of death unexpectedly ensu- 
 ing from his treatment, unless he was engaged in an 
 unlawful act ; and there was no law in Massachusetts 
 forbidding any man, honestly intending to cure, from 
 prescribing for a sick man with the latter's consent. 
 The court cited Lord Hale as authorit}^ for the propo- 
 sition that, " if a physician, whether licensed or not, 
 gives a person a potion, without any intent of doing 
 him any bodily hurt, but with intent to cure or pre- 
 vent a disease, and, contrary to the expectation of the 
 physician, it kills him, he is not guilty of murder or 
 
MANSLAUGHTEK AKD THE LAW. T3 
 
 manslaughter ; " and, accordingly, laid down this law 
 for the case : 
 
 " The death of a man, killed by voluntarily follow- 
 ing a medical prescription, cannot be adjudged a 
 felony in the party prescribing, unless he, however 
 ignorant of medical science in general, had so much 
 knowledge or probable information of the fatal tend- 
 ency of the prescription that it may be reasonably 
 presumed by the jury to be the effect of obstinate, 
 wilful rashness, at the least, and not of an honest in- 
 tention and expectation to cure." 
 
 The court further said that if the solicitor-general 
 had proved, as he promised to do in his opening, that 
 Thomson had killed others by his treatment, it would 
 have been left to the jury to say whether on the 
 whole evidence they would sustain the charge of man- 
 slaughter ; which they might justly have done if they 
 had found that defendant acted from " obstinate rash- 
 ness and foolhardy presumption, although without in- 
 tent to do Lovett bodily harm ; " for it would not 
 have been lawful for him again to administer a 
 medicine of which he had such fatal experience." 
 Upon this reasoning Thomson was acquitted ; and his 
 case having proved, as a precedent, a strong shield for 
 manslaughtering charlatans, by establishing what has 
 been called the humane American rule as contrasted 
 with the strict rule of common law, it is well to state 
 succinctly the reasons why he escaped conviction, 
 viz : (1) because there was no statute in Massachu- 
 setts prohibiting medical practice by the ignorant 
 and unlicensed ; (2) because there was no proof that 
 Thomson (a) knew his treatment to be dangerous or 
 (b) had any other intent than to cure in good faith. 
 
T4 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 In 18tl:2 the question arose in Xew York, upon an 
 application for a bill of discovery, in Marsh v. Davison 
 (9 Paige 580), whether it was slanderous to have said 
 of complainant that he was guilty of malpractice as a 
 cancer doctor and had killed a woman in Schoharie. 
 Davison not being licensed to practice, the court held 
 that — inasmuch as he might be guilty of man- 
 slaughter, for that reason, if the patient died under 
 his treatment — the words might be slanderous. 
 
 It thus appears that — even accepting the benign 
 rule of Thomson's case, which, as we shall see pres- 
 ently, was ill stated — wherever a statute makes the 
 unlicensed practice of medicine a misdemeanor, if 
 death result from the treatment of a non-licentiate he 
 is guilty of manslaughter at least, no matter how 
 honest his intent. This is the rule of common law 
 and of the JS^ew York penal code, which defines as 
 manslaughter the killing of one human being by the 
 act, procurement, or omission of another, Avithout de- 
 sign to effect death, by a person engaged in commit- 
 ting or attempting to commit a misdemeanor affecting 
 the person or property, either of the person killed or 
 of another. 
 
 In 1844 the case of Eice v. The State (8 Mo. 561) 
 was decided in Missouri. Eice, a Thomsonian, under- 
 took by the same methods used on Lovett to cure Mrs. 
 Keithley of sciatica. She had not been so well for 
 years as when he began to treat her, and was within 
 six weeks of giving birth to her fourth child. Under 
 his system she fell into premature labor and died 
 within about ten days. He was convicted of man- 
 slaughter ; but the appellate court, adopting the rule 
 
Manslaughter and the law. Y5 
 
 in Thomson's case, the facts being substantially the 
 same, reversed the judgment. 
 
 In 1881 another case arose, in Iowa, State v. Schulz 
 (55 la. 628). Schulz treated a sick woman by acu- 
 puncture and an irritating oil, according to the sys- 
 tem of Herr Baunscheidt, who, having been much 
 benefited by the bitings of small insects, sought to 
 give the world, for a consideration, a simulacrum of 
 his experience. Defendant admitted that he did not 
 know the composition of the oil, that being Baun- 
 scheidt's secret. The patient died. Schulz claimed 
 that if he had not been interfered with he could have 
 helped her, and produced twenty -three witnesses to 
 testify that Baunscheidtismus, as administered by him, 
 had benefited them. Schulz was convicted, but the 
 appellate court reversed the judgment, following the 
 cases of Thomson and Eice, and expressed this con- 
 clusion : " The interests of society will be subserved 
 by holding a physician civilly liable in damages for 
 the consequences of his ignorance, without imposing 
 upon him criminal liabilities when he acts with good 
 motives and honest intentions." The adoption of this 
 theory by the 'New York statute of 1841: enabled 
 quackery, in the words of Beardesley, J., to " boast its 
 triumphant and complete establishment by law" 
 (Bailey v. Mogg, 4 Den. 60). And the people of 
 Iowa, instead of adhering to it, have passed, since the 
 Schulz case, a law forbidding medical practice to the 
 unlicensed. 
 
 N'otwithstanding these acceptances of the rule in 
 Thomson's case by other jurisdictions as sound law, 
 the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, wherein it 
 
76 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 ^"originated, has since held, in Commonwealth v. Pierce 
 ] (138 Mass. 165, A. D. 1881), that the accuracy of its 
 report was doubtful and its law open to criticism. 
 The facts in Pierce's case were these : Defendant held 
 himself out as a physician. There was no more law in 
 Massachusetts to prevent him from so doing in 1881 
 than there had been to prevent Thomson's like preten- 
 sion in 1809. Being called to a sick woman, Mary 
 Berais, he caused her, she consenting, to be kept for some 
 three days swathed in flannel underclothing, saturated 
 with kerosene. Under this treatment she died in great 
 misery. There was evidence in the case that in some 
 instances similar treatment by defendant had resulted 
 favorably, but also that in one it had burned and 
 blistered the flesh, as in the case of deceased. De- 
 fendant's counsel at trial asked the court to charge, 
 following the rule in Thomson's case, that defendant 
 could not be convicted unless it were proven beyond 
 reasonable doubt that death resulted from his treat- 
 ment and that he had such knowledge or probable in- 
 formation of the fatal tendency of his prescription as 
 to justify the jury in presuming that death was the 
 effect of his obstinate or Avilful recklessness, and not 
 of an honest intent and expectation to cure. This re- 
 quest was refused, defendant was convicted, and his 
 conviction affirmed by the appellate court, who, by 
 Holmes, J., said that the language of Thomson's case 
 relied upon by defendant — viz, that " to constitute 
 manslaughter the killing must have been a conse- 
 quence of some unlawful act. Now there is no law 
 which prohibits any man from prescribing for a sick 
 person, with his consent, if he honestly intends to cure 
 
MAKSLAUaHTER AKD THE LAW. YT 
 
 him by his prescription " — was ambiguous and wrong, 
 if it meant that the killing must be the consequence 
 of an act which is unlawful for independent reasons 
 apart from its likelihood to kill." " Such," continued 
 the court, " may once have been the law ; but for a 
 long time it has been just as fully, and latterly, we 
 may add, much more willingly, recognized that a man 
 may commit murder or manslaughter by doing other- 
 wise lawful acts recklessly, as that he may by doing 
 acts unlaAvful for independent reasons, from which 
 death accidentally ensues." Thomson's case, it was 
 said, did not intend to lay down new law, but cited 
 and meant to follow Lord Hale, whom it had taken 
 too literally, since his lordship admitted that other 
 persons might make themselves liable by reckless con- 
 duct (I. P. C. 472) ; and why not a physician as well ? 
 As to what constitutes criminal recklessness in such 
 cases, the court said substantially that the standard is 
 not gauged by the actor's belief or idea of danger, but 
 by common experience. If the thing done " is gen- 
 erally supposed to be universally harmless and only a 
 specialist would foresee that in a given case it would 
 do damage, a person who did not foresee it and 
 who had no warning would not be held liable for 
 the harm. . . . The use of the thing must be 
 dangerous according to common experience, at least 
 to the extent that there is a manifest and appre- 
 ciable chance of harm from what is done, in 
 view either of the actor's knowledge or of his con- 
 scious ignorance. . . . Common experience is 
 necessary to the man of ordinary prudence, and a 
 man who assumes to act as the defendant did must 
 
YS CHElSTlAN SCIENCE. 
 
 have it at his peril. . . . The defendant knew he 
 was using kerosene. The jury have found that it was 
 applied as the result of foolhardy presumption or gross 
 negligence, and that is enough. . . . Indeed, if the 
 defendant had known the fatal tendency of the pre- 
 scription, he would have been perillously near the line 
 of murder." The rule laid down in this carefully 
 reasoned case must commend itself to prudent men ; 
 for it really amounts only to this — that if one unversed 
 and unskilled in medical science and practice under- 
 takes, nevertheless, the cure of a patient, and in so 
 doing uses remedies or adopts a treatment — whether 
 positive or negative ought to make no difference — 
 from which there is a manifest and appreciable chance 
 of harm according to common experience, he shall be 
 held liable for his recklessness and shall not be excused 
 by the innocence of his intention. And certainly when 
 part of the treatment adopted is the exclusion of proper 
 treatment, this is just as harmful as if positivel}^ in- 
 jurious methods were adopted. It is just as much 
 homicide to cause death by starvation by keeping 
 food from the victim as to use an active poison. 
 
 How does this principle apply to " Christian 
 Science," ''faith cure," or any eccentric treatment 
 of the sick — not excluding voudoo or the " scandal 
 cure " ^ — that by operating strongly on the mind may 
 restore the lost equilibrium ? Is the pursuit of any of 
 these methods " practice of medicine " ? 
 
 1 I knew once of a nialade hriaginaire who for years had drifted 
 feebly from bed to lounge and back again. Physicians were in vain. 
 One day a friend called and said that the newspapers had gotten hold of a 
 bit of history that would interest the nation on the following Sunday. The 
 patient leaj^ed from the lounge, took a cab to the steamer office, and by 
 Sunday was on the ocean. This is the " scandal cure." 
 
MANSLAUGHTER AND THE LAW. 79 
 
 While the ordinary quack, who, as has been said, 
 pretends only to extraordinary human skill or knowl- 
 edge, is, therefore, generally held to be a practitioner 
 of medicine. Christian Scientists, who go further and 
 pretend to procure for lucre divine intervention by 
 their prayers, contend that in thus offering to heal the 
 sick, although for hire, they are not practicing medi- 
 cine, but observing religious rites, and are therefore 
 protected in their practices by constitutional safe- 
 guards. We are thus brought to consider what is the 
 "practice of medicine." The answer to this query 
 must depend in most instances upon the words of the 
 statute and the peculiar circumstances of the case. In 
 the 'New York case of Smith v. Lane (24 Hun, 632, A. 
 D. 1881), plaintiff, apparently a masseur, sued for 
 agreed fees which defendant refused to pay on the 
 ground that plaintiff, not being licensed to practice 
 medicine, could not recover compensation for his treat- 
 ment, which, as the opinion of the court recites, " con- 
 sisted entirely of manipulation with the hand. It was 
 performed by rubbing, kneading, and pressure." The 
 court said : 
 
 " The practice of medicine is a pursuit very generally 
 known and understood, and so also is that of surgery. 
 The former includes the application and use of medi- 
 cines and drugs for the purpose of curing, mitigating 
 or alleviating bodily diseases ; while the functions of 
 the latter are limited to manual operations, usually 
 performed by surgical instruments or appliances. 
 . . . To allow incompetent or unqualified persons 
 to administer or apply medical agents, or to perfonp 
 surgical operations, would be highly dangerous to the 
 health as well as the lives of the persons who might 
 
80 CHEISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 be operated upon, and there is reason to believe that 
 lasting and serious injuries as well as the loss of life 
 have been produced by the improper use of medical 
 agents and surgical instruments or appliances. It was 
 the purpose and object of the Legislature by this act 
 to prevent a continuance of deleterious practices of 
 this nature, and to confine the uses of medicine and 
 the operations of surgery to a class of persons who, 
 upon examination, should be found competent and 
 qualified to follow these professional pursuits. No 
 such danger could possibly arise from the treatTnent to 
 which the plaintiff'' s occupation was confined. While 
 it might he no benefit^ it could hardly he possible that 
 it could result in harm or injtiry. 
 
 " And for that reason no necessity existed for inter- 
 fering Avith this pursuit by any action on the part of 
 the Legislature. It may be that credulous persons 
 would be deceived into the employment of the 
 plaintiff, and in that manner subjected to imposition. 
 But it was no part of the purposes of this act to pre- 
 vent persons from being made the subjects of mere 
 imposition." 
 
 Either the italicized words are superfluous or they 
 contain an implication that if the treatment, in the 
 court's opinion, had been capable of causing injury 
 like improper medical treatment, the judges would 
 have classified it in the same category. 
 
 In Eastman v. State (10 jN". E. 97), an Indiana case, 
 the court said, on the other hand : " It is the purpose 
 of the statute to prevent persons who do not possess 
 the necessary qualifications to practice medicine or 
 surgery from inflicting injury upon the citizens by 
 undertaking to treat diseases, wounds and injuries." 
 And again : " The State has an interest in the life and 
 health of all its citizens, and the law under examina- 
 
MANSLAUGHTER AND THE LAW. 81 
 
 tion was framed, not to bestow favors upon a par- 
 ticular profession, but to discharge one of the highest 
 duties of the State— that of protecting its citizens from 
 injury and harm." In People v. Phippin (70 Mich. 
 6), the defendant was held to have practiced medicine, 
 on proof that he held himself out as ''Dr. W. W. 
 Phippin, magnetic healer," had attempted to cure the 
 sick, and in the case of a child's death had certified 
 the cause to be " canker, sore mouth. Duration of 
 disease: June 3 to July 22, 1887." In Bibber v. 
 Simpson (59 Maine 181), a clairvoyant who gave 
 remedies was said to be practicing medicine. So also 
 in E'elson v. Harrington (72 Wis. 591). And in New 
 York, De Leon, who prescribed for a child, drawing 
 its horoscope and giving some rhubarb, was convicted 
 of illegal practice of medicine. The administration 
 of electricity has also been held to constitute medical 
 practice— Davison v. Bohlman (37 Mo. App. 576). 
 
 The Ohio statute provides that " Any person shall 
 be regarded as practicing medicine or surgery, within 
 the meaning of this act, Avho shall append the letters 
 M. D. or M. B. to his name, or for a fee prescribe, 
 direct or recommend for the use of any person any 
 drug or medicine or other agency for the treatment, 
 cure or relief of any wound, fracture, or bodily injury, 
 infirmity or disease." That seems very broad ; but in 
 case of Eastman v. State (6 Ohio Dec. 296), it was 
 held, in January, 1897, that a "graduate of the school 
 of osteopathy of Kirkville, Mo.," was not practicing 
 medicine by kneading and manipulations, using only 
 his hands and no medicines. The court cited Smith 
 V. Lane, and held that the words, " any other agency," 
 
82 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 were too vague and were limited by the particular 
 words, "drug or medicine." ^ 
 
 The New York statute does not define medical prac- 
 tice. Such a definition was framed in the draft of the 
 act of 1887, but stricken out because a certain Senator, 
 who died shortly afterward, declared that it would in- 
 clude an eccentric healer who had saved him from the 
 grave. The definition was yielded to save the bill. 
 
 The Nebraska Medical Act defines as a practitioner 
 any one " who shall operate on, or profess to heal, or 
 prescribe for, or otherwise treat any physical or men- 
 tal ailment of another." 
 
 Under this statute arose, in 1894, the case of State 
 V. Bus well (40 Neb. 158). The defendant, charged 
 with unlawful practice of medicine, claimed to be a 
 Christian Scientist, graduated from the Metaphysical 
 College of Mrs. Mary B. G. Eddy, of Boston. De- 
 fendant offered testimony to cures wrought by him in 
 cases of rheumatism, rattlesnake bite, pneumonia and 
 scarlet fever— the last in the case of a child, four years 
 old. He testified that in eighteen months he had 
 treated about one hundred persons, of whom only two 
 had died. The accuracy of his diagnosis was not in 
 issue. He testified that the text-books of the Christian 
 Science Church are the Bible and Mrs. Eddy's work, 
 " Science and Health." He denied that in a medical 
 sense he treated physical or mental ailments, saying : 
 " I understand with God's laws, and not mortal man's." 
 
 ' As the book goes to press it is reported that the Ohio Supreme Court 
 has approved this ruling. (Alb. Law Journal, Nov. i8, 1899, p. 317.) 
 The Illinois Supreme Courts held otherwise, (Eastman v. People, 71 111. 
 App. 236), but since this article was written the law of that state has been 
 amended to give immunity to Christian senators. 
 
MANSLAUGHTER AND THE LAW. 83 
 
 Questioned as to the privilege of patients or parents to 
 call in medical aid, he said : " We believe that every 
 one has a right to express their wish, and it is always 
 understood that if they prefer some other treatment, 
 or some other mode, or some one else to aid them, it 
 is their privilege. We always do that. It is taught 
 in our text-books. We never give any medicine ; that 
 is entirely contrary to the teaching of Christian 
 Science." And this counsel said: "The defendant, 
 and those of the same faith with him, believe as a 
 matter of conscience that the giving of medicine is a 
 sin ; that it is placing faith in the power of material 
 things, which belongs alone to Omnipotence. To the 
 Christian Scientist, it is as much a violation of the 
 laws of God to take drugs for the alleviation of suffer- 
 ing or the cure of disease, as for a Methodist clergy- 
 man to take the name of his God in vain to relieve his 
 overwrought feelings." 
 
 Being asked if he took pay from his patients, he 
 said : " As a rule I do not. We tell them we leave 
 the question to them and God. . . . Jesus says 
 the laborer is worthy of his meat, and we expect that 
 those whom we spend our lives for to remunerate us 
 for it. If they are not willing to part with the sacri- 
 fice themselves, it is not expected that those should 
 reap the benefit." ^ Considering that defendant de- 
 scribed his treatment as one of prayer, this intimation 
 that the answer to prayer would be contingent on 
 the payment of the Scientist's fee apparently seemed 
 rather blasphemous to the court, who very aptly cited 
 
 > Cf. Mrs. Eddy's express teaching that patients who pay a good fee, 
 p. 56, 
 
84 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 two cases from one of the science's text-books, the 
 Bible — the former, that of Simon the sorcerer (re- 
 ported in Acts viii. 18-23), to Avhom Peter said, " Thy 
 money perish with thee, because thou hast thought 
 that the gift of God may be purchased with money ; " 
 the second, that of Gehazi (II. Kings v. 20-27), servant 
 of Elisha, who, finding that his master had gratui- 
 tously cured of leprosy Naaman, the rich Sj^rian, thus 
 establishing a precedent for dispensary abuses, re- 
 marked, " as the Lord liveth, I Avill run after him, and 
 take somewhat of him," and in the end took not only 
 a fee but the disease. Upon these precedents the 
 Nebraska court ruled thus : 
 
 " The exercise of the art of healing for compensa- 
 tion, whether exacted as a fee or expected as a gratu- 
 ity, cannot be classed as an act of worship. JS^either 
 is it the performance of a religious duty, as was 
 claimed in the District Court." They further said: 
 " The object of the statute is to protect the afflicted 
 from the pretensions of the ignorant and avaricious, 
 and its provisions are not limited to those wdio at- 
 tempt to follow beaten paths and established usages." 
 This, it will be noticed, is very different from the 
 view of the JSTew York law taken in the 'New York 
 case of Smith v. Lane and the Ohio case of Eastman 
 V. State (supra), as well as from the latest case of the 
 kind. State v. Mylod (40 At. Y53), decided in Khode 
 Island last July upon these facts : Defendant under- 
 took to cure one Hale of malaria and one Yaughan of 
 grip, by apparently engaging in silent prayer and giv- 
 ing them pamphlets on Christian Science. He received 
 a fee of one dollar, but gave no medicines, made no 
 
MANSLAUGHTER AND THE LAW. 85 
 
 examination or diagnosis. He testified that he did 
 not attempt to cure disease, had no knowledge of 
 medicine or surgery, and that his only method was 
 "prayer and effort to encourage hopefulness for all 
 who come to him in public or private, and whatever 
 diseases they imagine they have." The court held, 
 citing Smith v. Lane, that in the absence of diagnosis, 
 prescription of remedies, or surgical methods there 
 was no medical practice. They suggested that if 
 Christian Science is practice of medicine, then as a 
 school it is entitled to recognition by the State Board, 
 and that it would be absurd to hold, under the Khode 
 Island statute which forbids discrimination against 
 medical schools, that requirements could be prescribed 
 which members of a particular school could not com- 
 ply with, since that would be not to discriminate only, 
 but to prohibit.^ And the court distinguished the 
 cases of clairvoyant physicians upon the ground that 
 therein the defendants had prescribed medicine and 
 professed to cure diseases. There seems to be fallacy 
 in the implication by the court that any educational 
 requirements as a condition of medical license are pro- 
 hibitory upon any persons except those who are un- 
 able to acquire an education ; and it is quite proper to 
 exclude such persons from the ranks of physicians. 
 
 The question is full of difficulty. Every one admits 
 the power of mental impulses in nervous diseases ; ad- 
 mits nature's healing force that so often cures without 
 any attendance at all ; and admits that it would be 
 wrong to forbid all recourse to any aid. But this 
 much being conceded, are we to admit also that any 
 
 1 See the paper «« Christian Science before the Law." Page 91. 
 
86 CHRISTIAN Science. 
 
 person should be entitled to take charge of the sick 
 merely because he pretends to act under religious be- 
 liefs and to abstain from using those remedies and 
 methods arrived at by study and investigation ? Are 
 we to punish the physician Avho fails to report yellow 
 and scarlet fevers, diphtheria, and other contagious 
 disorders, and allow a person who boasts his ignorance 
 of medical and s^anitary science to treat and conceal 
 such cases ? The Christian Scientist, in his madness 
 or worse, says that there is no disease but only fear or 
 loss of relation to God, which he in his blasphemy 
 undertakes to restore, providing he is paid for his 
 services. AYhat, then, would liis death certificate be ? 
 AYould it be that Jones was permanently scared ? 
 AYhat would his report of a contagious disease be? 
 That Brown has a panic, which is likely to spread ? ^ 
 
 In the case of Keynolds v. United States (98 U. S. 
 145, A. D. 1878), the Supreme Court of the nation ap- 
 plied common sense to the proposition, that the name 
 of religion may be used to cloak either lust or impos- 
 ture. Defendant, a member of the so-called Church 
 of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, being indicted 
 for bigamy, pleaded in defence that the penalty im- 
 posed by his church upon its male members who failed 
 to practice polygamy " when circumstances woukl ad- 
 mit " was " damnation in the life to come." No such 
 dreadful penalty hangs over a Christian Scientist who 
 abstains from his lucrative practices. The Supreme 
 Court said in Reynolds' case : " Laws are made for 
 
 1 As we go to press an entire church of Christian Scientists in Georgia 
 has been fined for disobedience of the vaccination law, from which action 
 appeal has been taken, 
 
MANSLAUGHTER AND THE LAW. 87 
 
 the government of actions, and while they cannot in- 
 terfere with mere religious belief and opinions they 
 may with practices." Can it be seriously contended, 
 asked the court, that a civilized nation may not law- 
 fully suppress human sacrifices and the Indian custom 
 of suttee, because their votaries claim religious sanc- 
 tion therefor ; or polygamy for the same reason ? To 
 suffer such things, it was answered, " would be to 
 make the professed doctrine of religious belief superior 
 to the law of the land and in effect to permit every 
 citizen to become a law unto himself." Government 
 could exist only in name under such circumstances. 
 These wise words of the court apply even to honest 
 believers, whom we may respect, or, at least, sympa- 
 thize with, even in their delusions. But if the defence 
 of religion were allowed to the extent that the eccen- 
 trics claim, the deadly sin of lying would become 
 even more prevalent than it is, and the dangerous 
 classes Avould go over in a body to soi-disant religion. 
 There was an English case in 1868, Keg. v. AYag- 
 staffe (10 Cox's Cr. Cas. 530), wherein parents were 
 charged with manslaughter of a child because, pur- 
 suant to their religion as members of the " Peculiar 
 People," they neglected to provide medical attend- 
 ance for it, in a case of acute inflammation of the 
 lungs ; instead they anointed and prayed over it. 
 The court charged that if they had let the child 
 starve for want of food, the case would have been 
 different ; for every one recognizes the need of food. 
 But it was not the same when the question was one 
 of medical attendance, for as to that opinions differed, 
 and he read to the jury from the general Epistle of 
 
88 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 St. James (v. 14, 15) those words upon which the Ro- 
 man Church rests the doctrine of extreme unction, 
 and the Mormons and " Peculiar People " rest their 
 doctrine of healing the sick by anointing and prayer 
 only ; words which the learned and sensible commen- 
 tator, Adam Clark, forcibly argues to be an exhorta- 
 tion by the apostle to use the ordinary Eastern rem- 
 edy, oil, as well as prayer, in treating the sick. The 
 jury acquitted. Recently in a like case, Reg. v. Sen- 
 ior, they disagreed.^ 
 
 Beyond doubt there are very honest, intelligent, 
 cultivated persons who believe in the efficacy of Chris- 
 tian Science and faith cure. Among some twenty 
 cases of death under such treatment, including cases 
 of contagious diseases, the writer has noted the names 
 of such persons. It is equally true that some " intel- 
 ligent persons " find no " fad " too extraordinary for 
 adoption. The writer knew of a most shrewd and 
 cultivated Avoman Avho consulted in Sing Sing prison 
 as to investment in stocks an " astrologer" convicted 
 not only of illegal medical practice, but of abhorrent 
 crime. It is said that where voudooism prevails, cul- 
 tivated people consult its priestesses, after the fashion 
 of Xicodemus. And when St. John Long, prince of 
 quacks, was convicted of manslaughter at the Old 
 
 1 This case seems to have turned upon the Act for prevention of cruelty 
 to children [(1894) 57 and 58 Victoria] which makes it misdemeanor 
 for one in charge of a child under sixteen years of age willfully to neglect it 
 so as to cause death. In imposing sentence Mr. Justice Wills said that he 
 did not think the punishment would have any eflect upon the prisoner or 
 his co-believers, and certainly it would not with regard to the prisoner, 
 because it was the second child in respect of whose death he had been 
 convicted. 
 
 See Law Times and La7v Jotirval g{ Dec. 17, 1898, also Law Journal^ 
 Pec. 14, 1898; and Medical Record, Jan. 21, 1899. 
 
MANSLAUGHTER AND THE LAW. 89 
 
 Bailey (4 Car. and P. 398) among the twenty-nine pa- 
 tients who testified to the excellence of his treatment 
 were divers '' ladies of quality," headed by the Mar- 
 chioness of Ormond, than whom, save royalty, only a 
 duchess could be better able to form a sound opinion 
 in such case. 
 
 But nothing is more false than to say that medical 
 laws forbid the practice of Christian Science, faith 
 cure, voudoo, vitapathy, or any other " pathy " or 
 cult. Those laws provide only, at most, that no per- 
 son shall practice medicine who has not pursued a 
 course in medical study. There is nothing in them to 
 prevent any licentiate from practicing as he pleases. 
 There is nothing to prevent a masseur Avithout license 
 from washing and rubbing a man, if he confines him- 
 self to that. But there is no reason why unqualified 
 persons should be allowed to pretend to cure disease, 
 by their pretences deprive the sick of the benefits of 
 science, and yet escape the just consequences of their 
 imposture. The whole case of these people who de- 
 sire to earn a livelihood by treating the sick without 
 any adequate preparation therefor through study and 
 investigation was summed up in the grotesque false- 
 hood, circulated by way of petition to the New York 
 Legislature of 1885 for the repeal of the medical law, 
 which said : 
 
 "The law deprives from practicing in this State 
 persons who are gifted with the power of healing by 
 the laying of hands, through the presence and impart- 
 ing of vital magnetic force, and otherwise. Some of 
 these powers are natural to the practitioner and can- 
 not be imparted by the course of study required by 
 
90 CHRISTIAIf SCIENCE. 
 
 medical colleges." Could anything be more absurd ? 
 The natural power to heal disease impaired by the 
 acquisition of knowledge concerning disease ! And 
 yet there were those prepared to believe even that, so 
 true is it to-day, as of old, that the wonderful is the 
 unknown and the credible that which is impossible of 
 belief. 
 
 It may be a question of policy whether Christian 
 Scientists should be prosecuted ; whether cheap mar- 
 tyrdom might not strengthen them. But there seems 
 no good reason, as matter of law, Avhy they should 
 not be punished for the evil they actually do, prohib- 
 ited, if the policy seem wise, from treating the sick 
 without adequate preparation by study of medical 
 science, and convicted of manslaughter if death re- 
 sults from interference. 
 
TV 
 
 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE BEFORE THE LAW ^ 
 
 About a hundred years ago at the close of the 
 eighteenth century, when as now men were proud and 
 boastful of their enlightened times, when from mis- 
 rule and free thought, the Age of Keason and the red 
 harvest of Dr. Guillotin were about to come into 
 being, a man passed through Europe, captivating the 
 fancy of the great Catherine and the small Louis, the 
 reason of courtiers, the adoration of the mob. Bead- 
 ing of Cagliostro, the mountebank, bedizened like a 
 stage wizard, Avonderfully curing the sick, revealing 
 the past, foretelling the future and protected by royal 
 power from the prosecutions that the faculty and men 
 learned in the science of the day were eager to direct 
 against him, we are disposed from the height of our 
 greater attainments to smile at what we consider the 
 gullibility of the last Jin cle siede. But charlatan, im- 
 postor and robber as he was, the vogue of Cagliostro, 
 or Balsamo, is understandable. Beside his natural 
 shrewdness he had, at least, the education that comes 
 to the observant from travel and association with the 
 intelligent, and seems to have possessed as well, a share 
 of the medical learning of the time. JN'ot only were 
 his cures gratuitous save when the rich rewarded him 
 
 1 Read by request of the Medical Society of this County of Westchester, 
 New York, at its annual meeting Se]-)tember 19th, 1899. 
 
 91 
 
92 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 richly, but he distributed largesse among the crowd 
 with lavish hand. Presumptuous as his assumption 
 of superhuman knowledge and skill was, it Avas still 
 only the claim of the astrologer, the pretended adept 
 in Eastern lore, the master of Masonic mysteries. 
 He did not assume to be in the secret councils of the 
 most High, to supplement the work of Christ or to 
 found a religious cult. At the end of our wonder- 
 ful century of material progress that has covered the 
 world with iron roads for the steam monster and al- 
 ready harnessed his swifter successor, the lightning ; 
 that has enabled us to speak in a moment with the 
 antipodes and in medicine and surgery has wrought 
 wonders undreamed of in Cagliostro's day, lengthen- 
 ing the average span of life, dispelling pain from the 
 chamber where the knife works calmly, in vital re- 
 gions, undisturbed by the patient's agony, finding with 
 microscopic eye the causes of sickness, banishing, Avith 
 antiseptic magic, putrifying germs that so lately de- 
 feated the surgeon's skill, and checking once dreaded 
 plagues by wise sanitation ; — at the end of this cen- 
 tury of ours, surpassing all others in the progress of 
 medical science and art, we have a more puzzling 
 phenomenon. A sickly New England woman, twice 
 widowed, once divorced and so without the vestal 
 sanctity usually claimed by those of her sex who as- 
 pire to lead religious thought, un travelled, unlearned, 
 and uncultivated, even in the use of the mother tongue, 
 has been able to impose upon many persons at home 
 and abroad, not only a flatulent, incoherent theory of 
 religion and metaphysics, which, as religion and meta- 
 physics, would concern us little, but also a system of 
 
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE BEFORE THE LAW. 93 
 
 treating, or rather neglecting, the sick, that, founded 
 upon bold denial of obvious facts, and of conclusions, 
 harvested by the wise and learned from ages of obser- 
 vation, fattens the greedy coffers of herself and her 
 disciples, who follow it as a business, while leading 
 down to dusty death many credulous adults and de- 
 fenceless children. What is especially hard to under- 
 stand is that among Mrs. Eddy's honest followers are 
 persons of literary cultivation, Avho, we should sup- 
 pose, might guage at once her ignorance and preten- 
 tiousness by the ungrammatical ill-rhymed doggerel 
 which she puts forth as poetry ; men of the law who, 
 presumably, should be able to detect the contradiction 
 and lack of logical coherence in her soi-disant system ; 
 pious and refined souls, whom we would expect to find 
 disgusted with the blasphemy and vulgarity of much 
 that she has written. Pilgrimages are made to her 
 Concord home. Churches are built in which her book 
 of ineffable nonsense is solemnly read and her jargon, 
 interpolated into the Lord's prayer, is recited. Men 
 of judicial position have introduced her apostles to 
 large audiences, and legislators seriously inclined to 
 their tales of wonder. But although her followers 
 are many, being estimated by her disciples between 
 the rather wide limits of 60,000 and 600,000, it is 
 comforting to reflect that those not under her spell 
 are numbered by the millions. And although any 
 delusion that controls the minds and actions of a con- 
 siderable part of the community to its possible detri- 
 ment is a proper subject for careful examination, we 
 should not fall into the error of giving factitious im- 
 portance to what is intrinsically ridiculous, by over- 
 
94 CHKISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 serious treatment of it. Examples of this mistaken 
 course are not far to seek. It is probably true tliat if 
 the ultra metaphysical theories of Hahneman, which 
 Mrs. Eddy accepted before launching her own non- 
 sense, had been consistently laughed at, homeopathy 
 as a system would not now exist. How many intel- 
 ligent homeopathists of our day believe in the efficacy 
 of the thirtieth,— not to mention the 200th— potency 
 of even the powerful drugs, leaving out of considera- 
 tion the inert substances that Hahnemanites have 
 proposed as curatives, dilutions expressed in figures 
 that the human mind is incapable of grasping ? ^Yho 
 now believes that the power of these infinite dilutions 
 can be increased or diminished by the number and 
 direct-ion of the shakes given to the vial containing 
 them ? In thus suggesting that strict liahnemanism 
 is a delusion of the past, I but echo gentlemen of the 
 homeopathic school for whose ability and skill I have 
 great respect. Turn to the files of New York City 
 journals ^ when some years ago the homeopathic pro- 
 fession in that city was agitated over the ever vital 
 question of patronage, and you will find one of its 
 leaders, if not the leader, reported as saying, that 
 since Dr. Bayard's death there had not been one 
 practitioner of true liahnemanism in that great city ; 
 while his opponent, at the head of the professedly 
 strict sect when taunted with the use in his practice 
 of morphine, antipyrine, quinine and like drugs in 
 large doses, retorted that he used them only as pal- 
 liatives, not as curatives, as forerunners of the homeo- 
 
 iSee New York Times, Sun, IVorld, Dec. 12; Dec. 13, 20, 1889; Jan. 
 10, 14 J Feb. 23; Herald, Feb. 24, 1890, and about those dates. 
 
CHRISTIAN- SCIENCE BEFORE THE LAW. 95 
 
 pathio remedies by which alone he effected his cures. 
 Again when in 1887 it was my duty to urge before 
 the New York Legislature the medical act of that 
 year, the passage of which it is but just to say was 
 largely aided by the hearty cooperation of the Homeo- 
 pathic Society, one gentleman of that body whose 
 friendship and confidence it was my pleasure and 
 privilege to gain, said to me, if you people,— mean- 
 ing the regular school I represented,— had good sense, 
 you could destroy us. If you would only establish 
 chairs in your colleges to teach what homeopathy is, 
 or even do what was lately done at Harvard, let 
 students formulate questions to be answered by a 
 homeopath, there would be no place for our colleges ; 
 but until you admit that we have done something for 
 medicine, and so long as you denounce us, we will 
 oppose you. 
 
 These things need to be said because they bear upon 
 the policy of legislation ; but this is neither the time 
 nor the place to discuss that thesis from its strictly med- 
 ical standpoint ; nor am I the person to espouse either 
 side of such a discussion ; and certainly neither you 
 nor I are here to deal intemperately or flippantly Avith 
 any honest belief or to belittle what good may lie in 
 any theory or system, even Christian science, — how- 
 ever nonsensical some of its tenets may seem to us,— 
 nor yet to be so foolish or discourteous as to deny the 
 general intelligence and mental vigor of any one 
 merely because he may accept some proposition that 
 to us seems bizarre and fantastic. Had I the honor 
 and privilege of being a physician— as fortunately for 
 my possible patients, perhaps, I have not,— it seems to 
 
96 CHEISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 me that, so far as time and occasion served, I should 
 examine carefully every new thing that promised well 
 for poor humanity and be patient and long-suffering 
 Avith even the erratic thinker, if satisfied that he was 
 honestly striving to benefit his fellow-man, and not 
 merely to fill his purse by obtruding recklessly, and 
 with conscious ignorance, where only the learned 
 should be allowed. That I apprehend to be the stand- 
 point of the true physician, who above other men per- 
 haps, should prove all things, and hold fast that which 
 is true. 
 
 Now some of you may be thinking what has all this 
 to do with Christian science before the law ? The an- 
 swer is simple : in discussing actual law, or proposed 
 legislation it must be borne in mind that the aims of 
 the law are above all things practical. It has no 
 function to operate upon folly as folly ; and, pro- 
 verbially, it does not concern itself with trifles. It is 
 necessarily tolerant of widely divergent ideas and of 
 much that to many seems wrong. Keligious beliefs, 
 in so far as they are merely beliefs not reduced to 
 criminal or dangerous practices, are not proper objects 
 of its control, — at least not in our country. We are 
 free, with a constitutional right of freedom, to work 
 out our own salvation without legislative aid. Over- 
 legislation to which, of late, there is an unfortunate 
 tendency, is itself, in our theory of government, a dis- 
 tinct evil, a disease of the body politic. Legislative 
 regulation of the minor actions of men, their beliefs, 
 their merely ethical conduct is intolerable. To legis- 
 late for the benefit of any scientific theory to the det- 
 riment of another would be, save perhaps in very 
 
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE BEFORE THE LAW. 97 
 
 exceptional circumstances, a great wrong, unwise and 
 most harmful to the cause of true science and the ad- 
 vancement of human knowledge. A statute for ex- 
 ample ordaining that no person should worship except 
 according to the Eoman Catholic or Presbyterian 
 scheme, or treat the sick except secumdiim artem, 
 whether by regular homeopathic or any other rule, 
 would be an abomination, unwise and, God be thanked, 
 unconstitutional. 
 
 Because no well informed person disputes these 
 truisms, charlatanism, religious and medical, seeks to 
 make of them its refuge and strong bulwark. The 
 Mormon for his polygamy, the Oneida Communist for 
 his promiscuity, the Christian Scientist for his slaughter 
 of credulous adults and helpless babes, alike claims 
 protection from the law upon a theory that the free 
 right to worship according to conscience implies the 
 right to commit any act under the pretext of religion 
 which an evil or erratic mind may inspire. The osteo- 
 path, the venopath, the vitapath, the Kickapoo In- 
 dians and all the rabble of ignorant quacks, in like 
 fashion, seek exemption of their impostures from legal 
 regulation in the contention, that because the last 
 word has not been uttered in medical science, it is 
 therefore class legislation to enact any law prohibiting 
 the ignorant to assume, as a business, the entire charge 
 and cure, of the sick. At first blush this superficial 
 argument is plausible and influences many. When 
 ^sop's ass masqueraded under the lion's skin, all the 
 other animals, intelligent man included, stood for 
 awhile in awe of him ; but when his tuneful note vi- 
 brated on the air, they tore off his disguise, and dis- 
 
98 CIIKISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 closed him once more an obvious ass. In the long 
 run the disguise must fall from pseudo — religious and 
 medical imposture. Christian Science will not be an 
 exception to the rule. Its mask of religion is very 
 thin but the animal below it is rather the cunning 
 fox than the honest useful ass. In tearing off its dis- 
 guise the law may play a part ; but the unmasking 
 will best be done by turning on the light and showing 
 what an amusing misfit the garb of religion is, and 
 what a greedy unscrupulous fox it covers. 
 
 The questions then present themselves whether Chris- 
 tian Science is such a phase of genuine religious belief, 
 or so trifling in its evil results that its daily practices 
 should be unrestrained by law ; and if not, whether 
 the present condition of the law is adequate to deal 
 with those practices or whether further legislation is 
 necessary. 
 
 Others as well as myself, have dealt so fully else- 
 where with this delusion that these questions may be 
 here answered in general terms without citation of 
 specific authority. We may consider general princi- 
 ples rather than particular cases. 
 
 That many intelligent persons accept Mrs. Eddy's 
 lucubrations as a religious and therapeutic system, has 
 been already admitted to be a puzzling fact, its most 
 probable explanation being that such persons accept 
 as true, without investigation, all the marvellous tales 
 of the Eddyites or generalize from particular cases 
 known to themselves Avithout reading the farrago of 
 nonsense constituting the so-called system, and with- 
 out time or inclination, even if they have ability, to 
 investigate in true scientific spirit the causes of what 
 
CHRISTIAN SCIET^CE BEFORE THE LAW. 99 
 
 arouses their astonishment. Having examined with 
 care her fundamental books, I am at a loss to know 
 what she has contributed to religious thought, meta- 
 physical speculation or therapeutical knowledge, or yet 
 what she says that is new. Even her doctrine that 
 cleanliness and hygienic life are detrimental, has long 
 been acted upon by the dirty fakirs of the Orient, and 
 the great unwashed of Christendom. Her magnum- 
 opus " Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," 
 that costly and most lucrative text- book of innumera- 
 ble editions, pretends, as its name indicates, to be 
 founded upon and to interpret the Bible, but not to be 
 a new evangel. Mrs. Eddy's modest pretence is that 
 while the Bible is God's word, its, and therefore his, 
 meaning, utterly escaped the apprehension both of the 
 simple, and the learned, during the long ages, only to 
 be revealed to her in the year of grace, 1866. Pre- 
 sumably it is the version of King James that she in- 
 terprets, for she knows no Hebrew,^ no Greek, no 
 Latin and precious little English. She is not in the 
 babe or suckling class, from which, we are told, wis- 
 dom sometimes emanates to confound the wise, but is 
 said to be a mature dame of about eighty, having 
 nearly completed her first half century when it pleased 
 God, in his mysterious providence, to vouchsafe to her 
 that key to his meaning which he had theretofore 
 denied to saints and scholars. As nearly as one can 
 spell it out, this key, which, for purposes of lucre, Mrs. 
 Eddy has copyrighted, is the stale theory, as old as 
 philosophic speculation, familiar to Sophomores but 
 new to her, that everything is mind. Her corollary 
 
 > Jier brother Albert however studied Hebrew in vacations. See p. 42, 
 
100 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 is that health is right thought, and disease, sickness 
 and every other evil only wrong thought. Upon this 
 theme, she rings her changes ; and it is safe to say, 
 that had she confined herself to this peculiar exposi- 
 tion of Scripture, her congregations would have been 
 small, and she Avould have remained an obscure eccen- 
 tric New England woman, confessedly feeble in health 
 and poor in pocket. Her trifling interpretation of 
 Scripture would no more have been suggested as mat- 
 ter for legal control, than the wit and satire of Colonel 
 Ingersoll or the broad learning of Dr. Briggs. Her 
 religious views would concern us no more than those 
 of the forgotten Matthias, John of Leyden, or Noyes, 
 and far less than the still somewhat prevalent doc- 
 trines of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. 
 
 But it seems that feeble health led the lady to 
 dabble in medical theories, to accept at one time the 
 views of Hahneman and later the doctrine of animal 
 magnetism as expounded by one P. P. Quimby, whose 
 patient she was in his life, whose memory after death 
 she apparently execrates with all the hate of a jealous, 
 envious, covetous woman. It seems too, that in a 
 small way, she practiced homeopathy until becoming 
 convinced that there was no medicinal virtue in its 
 high potencies, and finding that their administration 
 was followed, nevertheless, by cures, she arrived at 
 her great discovery that health is Mind in capitals, 
 and disease, mortal mind in small letters ; for not the 
 least amusing part of her book is its use of different 
 fonts of type to differentiate Truth from error, 
 Health, or Ease, from Dis-ease ; a play of words that 
 appeals strongly to her. Here, of course, is the grain' 
 
CHKISTIAN SCIENCE BEFORE THE LAW. 101 
 
 of truth in her system. Perceiving that suggestion 
 plays an important part in the cure of certain dis- 
 eases, being probably ignorant or possibly advised 
 that this was no new thing, and, generalizing from 
 the particular as the rash, the ignorant and the im- 
 postor all do, she concluded and announced that be- 
 cause striking cures often follow an access of faith or 
 other strong mental excitation, therefore all diseases 
 and bodily injuries are merely false beliefs to be 
 treated by mental processes, and that all drugs, ma- 
 terial remedies and even hygienic measures are not 
 only ineffectual, but harmful. Her system of thera- 
 peutics, then, amounts to this : disease, sickness, bodily 
 injury of any kind do not exist except as mistaken be- 
 liefs to be removed by argument with them, which 
 argument is to be addressed to the disease silently, 
 lest, haply, the patient overhearing the discussion be 
 confirmed in his error. Diagnosis, as physicians and 
 ordinary laymen understand the term, does not exist 
 in her scheme. Under this principle it is quite unnec- 
 essary for the healer to come in contact with the pa- 
 tient. The one may be in Hong Kong, the other in 
 Terra del Fuego. The effect will be just as great as 
 if they were in conjunction. Now while as a theory, 
 this arrant nonsense is merely comical, a moment's re- 
 flection shows that its practice is obviously dangerous 
 in a high degree, not only to the particular victim but 
 to the community at large. That its promulgator is 
 either dishonest in advancing it or doubtful of its full 
 efficacy, seems apparent from her advice to disciples 
 to '' leave the adjustment of broken bones and dislo- 
 cations to the fingers of surgeons," "until the ad- 
 
102 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 vancing age admits the efficacy and supremacy of 
 Mind," a precept that suggests her conviction of the 
 truth of what worthy Quarles quaintly said : " Phy- 
 sicians of all men, are most happy ; w^iatever good 
 success soever, they have, the world proclaimeth ; and 
 what faults they commit, the earth covereth." Is not 
 this advice of hers the cunning of the fox rather than 
 a delusion of the other animal ? Is it not manifestly 
 a warning that while it is comparatively safe for her 
 ignorant followers to treat the sick for rich reward, 
 under the guise of religious aid, in cases of ordinary 
 ailments, yet surgery is to be shunned by them, only 
 because in that department of medicine malpractice 
 is more demonstrable to a lay jury than in physic, 
 w^here the healing force of nature may be relied upon 
 to give the Christianly scientific practitioner success 
 in many cases, while his failures are more likely to 
 escape detection. 
 
 It would seem to be perfectly clear from this sum- 
 mary of her doctrine — which is I believe and certainly 
 hope, entirely fair, and not travesty — travesty indeed, 
 being impossible — that while from the standpoint of 
 religion and philosophy, Mrs. Eddy's so-called science 
 is beneath contempt, a banality Avith which the law 
 should not concern itself ; it is on the other hand 
 from the standpoint of the public health, a serious mat- 
 ter, since it puts in peril not only credulous adults 
 and their innocent children, but in cases of contagious 
 and infectious diseases, great numbers of persons who 
 repudiate its nonsense, thus menacing the whole com- 
 munity. Let us concede, for argument sake, what the 
 Eddj^ites vehemently declare, that if a man be willing 
 
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE BEFORE THE LAAV. 103 
 
 to subject himself to the treatment of Christian 
 Science for any sickness, even smallpox, he should be 
 allowed to do so ; are we also to concede that he 
 should be allowed to subject his infant children af- 
 flicted with that malady or scarlet fever, or malignant 
 diphtheria to the same and no other treatment ? Is 
 he to be suffered to sacrifice his own offspring and 
 also spread contagion? Common sense affords the 
 answer. 
 
 What is dangerous and pestilential in Christian 
 Science is its absolute denial in specific terms that dis- 
 ease or bodily injury exists except as a perverted 
 phase of thought ; its denial that any material remedy 
 appliances or hygienic measures are of any use in the 
 treatment of the sick, and its positive assertion that 
 the whole materia medica is harmful. A consistent 
 Christian Scientist must logically be opposed to vacci- 
 nation, to antiseptic methods, to bandages, to cauter- 
 ies, to prophylactics, to anaesthetics — in short, to every 
 approved method of relieving pain, curing the sick 
 and protecting the public from contagion or infection. 
 Let us concede to the power of suggestion all that is 
 established and far more. Let us admit for the argu- 
 ment's sake, if not in fact, that even cancer may be 
 cured, by convincing the patient that there is no such 
 disease and that he is not afflicted with it ; still we 
 are not up with Mrs. Eddy. For that astounding 
 person distinctly says that the healer must not name 
 the disease, but must argue with it mentally ; that her 
 methods are as efficacious for infants, in whose minds 
 such suggestion cannot be planted, as for adults ; that 
 oceans may roll between healer and patient cutting 
 
104 CHKISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 off communication and therefore suggestion b}^ any 
 means that human science as yet admits to be pos- 
 sible. Thus she seems to eliminate from her theory 
 the only grain of truth we have found in it and deny 
 the very cause that produces what results follow its 
 application in the restoration of the sick to the 
 normal. 
 
 I cannot better illustrate in passing the disingenu- 
 ousness of the professional healer, the hypersensitive- 
 ness of the healed and the difficulties in the way of 
 investigating reported marvellous cures than by t^vo 
 examples in my recent experience. Mr. Carol Norton 
 is one of the Board of Lecturers of the First Church 
 of Christ Scientist, "the mother church" so-called. 
 He delivers with some variations, a copyrighted 
 lecture, offering to give medical proof of the cure of 
 cancer, locomotor ataxia and other obstinate maladies. 
 I wrote some time ago for such proofs and also asked 
 specifically if Mr. Norton himself would venture to 
 substitute Christian Science for medical aid in the case 
 of a fractured skull, a severed artery or confluent 
 smallpox. After some correspondence he produced 
 so-called medical proof, consisting of brief statements 
 of conclusion, signed by Christian Scientists but of 
 little or no evidential value from either a medical or 
 legal standpoint ; not differing in kind from the cer- 
 tificates with which nostrum venders have made us 
 familiar. To my questions he replied that he " pre- 
 ferred to shelve them." Having written an account 
 of this effort at investigation to the New York Siin,^ 
 a gentleman wrote in reference to it, asking if I had 
 
 1 See these letters in the appendix, pps. 165-182; also pps. 64, 65, 113. 
 
christia:n" science before the law. 105 
 
 seriously examined Christian Science and saying, in 
 j^erfectiy good faith, as I believe, that while he was 
 ignorant of its methods, he felt bound to testify to its 
 marvellous results in his own family upon a patient 
 " turned out to die " by a great hospital, and given up 
 by three physicians, whom he named, two being well- 
 known and one eminent. He expressed a desire to 
 put the facts before me. I replied courteously, as I 
 thought, expressing entire readiness to believe in the 
 existence of the disease and its cure, under the treat- 
 ment of Christian Science, but saying with perfect 
 frankness, inasmuch as my correspondent professed 
 ignorance of that cult's methods, that I should be dis- 
 posed to explain the cure by suggestion and not by 
 the theories of Mrs. Eddy, which it seemed to me im- 
 possible for a sane mind to accept ; and I also asked 
 that he would let me know all the facts. This gentle- 
 man was, I regret to say, so offended at my unfortu- 
 nate remark, that it did not seem to me any sane mind 
 could accept those theories of which he professed 
 to be ignorant, that he did not give me the informa- 
 tion which he had volunteered. And it appeared that 
 of the physicians he named, the eminent specialist had 
 been consulted only once and then had incurred odium 
 by charging an office fee of $10, while the other more 
 prominent physician told me that he knew of no such 
 person as the i>atient, although his brother might per- 
 haps have a patient of that name ; to my further in- 
 quiries I have had no answer.^ 
 
 I Since this paper was read I have had accurate information from the 
 attending physicians showing my correspondent to have been absolutely 
 misinformed in the premises, however honest in belief. 
 
106 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 We are now at a point where we may consider 
 whether the law, as it is, can deal adequately with the 
 practices of Eddyism or whether further legislation is 
 desirable in the premises. 
 
 We have a statute in this state making it a misde- 
 meanor for any one not a licensed physician to prac- 
 tice medicine. There are also requirements as to re- 
 porting contagious diseases, deaths, etc., with all of 
 which you are familiar. Under the medical law, the 
 only puzzling question is, in a given case, whether the 
 acts proved constitute practice of medicine. A clever 
 saying I have had occasion to quote before, in this 
 connection is, that it is one thing to renounce the 
 devil and all his works, and a very different and more 
 difficult matter to recognize the devil and his works 
 when you encounter them. No effort has been made, 
 so far as I know to punish in our state's courts the 
 practice of Christian Science as an offence under the 
 Public Health Law, which contains no definition of 
 medical practice as do the statutes of some other 
 states. It is true that the daily press reported re- 
 cently the conviction of a Christian Scientist in 
 Brooklyn. The defendant in that case, however, was 
 not an Eddyite but some other species of divine or 
 mental healer, and moreover, had administered ma- 
 terial remedies, upon which fact a conviction was pro- 
 cured.^ On the other hand in a civil case. Smith v. 
 Lane, our Supreme Court held, some years ago, that a 
 masseur was not a practitioner of medicine and made 
 the test of such practice to consist in the prescription 
 
 1 This was the case in which tlie photograph fornnng the frontispiece 
 was taken. See preface. About the time this paper was read a similar 
 case decided in like manner was reported in Chicago. — People v. Bratseh, 
 Chic. Law Journal, Sept. 15, 1899, Vol. IV., N. O. 397. 
 
CHRISTIAIN* SCIENCE BEFOUE THE LAW. l07 
 
 or administration of drugs or remedies or the use of 
 instruments. This is manifestly an imperfect defini- 
 tion ; and it would have been better perhaps, had the 
 court confined itself to deciding that the facts proven 
 in the particular case, did not constitute such practice, 
 without essaying to make a general definition, which 
 is a more difficult task than on its face it appears to 
 be. In the matter of business fraud courts have been 
 wiser and contented themselves in each case with de- 
 ciding whether the proven facts constitute a fraud, 
 avoiding a general definition of fraud itself ; with full 
 knowledge that to define that protean malfeasance 
 w^ould only make easy the way of the transgressor. 
 So, then, although the point has not been specifically 
 decided in a criminal action under the medical law it 
 is probable that in such a prosecution our courts would 
 hold that the attempt to treat the sick by mental or 
 pseudo-religious methods alone does not constitute the 
 practice of medicine. In Rhode Island and Ohio, the 
 case of Smith v. Lane has been followed. In Ne- 
 braska and Illinois, it has been repudiated as incon- 
 sistent with the statutes of those states, but under the 
 new medical law of Illinois, it would seem that Chris- 
 tian Scientists have been influential enough to secure 
 exemption for their business. 
 
 We may assert then, that Eddyism is not punishable 
 under the medical law- of this state unless the defini- 
 tion of Smith V. Lane shall be repudiated. 
 
 So far as the reporting of contagious diseases, in- 
 flamed eyes of babies, births and deaths by medical 
 attendants in charge, the law is as you know substan- 
 tially as follows : 
 
108 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 There are first the general laws authorizing the 
 creation of local boards of health with certain 
 powers, among them that of making and enforcing 
 proper ordinances, and providing a penalty for dis- 
 obedience. 
 
 § 397 of the Penal Code provides that a fine not 
 exceeding S2,000 or imprisonment not exceeding one 
 year or both may be inflicted upon any one violating 
 a provision of the health law not otherwise punished, 
 or violating or refusing or omitting to obey, a lawful 
 order or regulation of such a board. 
 
 § 288 of that code provides for the reporting of 
 inflamed eyes of an infant within the age of two 
 weeks by the medical attendant, midwife or person 
 having the child in charge. It also requires a person 
 having by law the duty of furnishing medical at- 
 tention to a child, so to do under the penalty of mis- 
 demeanor. 
 
 § 1172 of the Greater New York charter authorizes 
 the Board of Health to make ordinances, violation of 
 which shall be a misdemeanor. 
 
 §§ 145 to 158 of the New York City Sanitary Code, 
 and I presume of other codes, provide for reports of 
 contagious diseases by physicians, lodging housekeep- 
 ers, masters of vessels, undertakers and others, and 
 § 5 defines the term Physician to include •" dentists and 
 every other person who practices about the cure of 
 the sick or injured, or who has the charge of, or pro- 
 fessionally prescribes for any person sick, injured or 
 diseased and any person who pursues the business of 
 or acts as a midwife;" a definition as 3^ou see very 
 different from and much wider than that of Smith v. 
 
CHKISTIAN SCIENCE BEFORE THE LAW. 109 
 
 Lane, and quite broad enough to include Christian 
 Scientists. 
 
 We may now consider first what, if any, is the civil 
 liability of Christian Scientists for injuries resulting 
 from their ignorance and lack of skill, to their pa- 
 tients. Second, is a Christian Scientist guilty of man- 
 slaughter or murder in case his patient dies, as a result 
 of his neglect to use, or his prevention of, means that 
 demonstrably would have saved life ? 
 
 The rule of law is well established, that one who 
 with culpable ignorance or recklessness, undertakes a 
 duty requiring for its proper performance, special 
 knowledge, skill or care, is answerable for the ill 
 effects of his malfeasance. In the law of bailments 
 the degree of care required of the bailee has been 
 said to depend in some measure upon the compensa- 
 tion. Thus if A give to B, a warehouse man, valu- 
 ables for storage and pay therefor, more care is re- 
 quired of A than where B gives the goods to a friend 
 to be cared for gratuitously, — although even in the 
 latter case, the friend would not be absolved from all 
 care. It has been often sought to appl}^ this doctrine 
 in cases of medical malpractice, the argument being 
 made that one who undertakes the cure of the sick 
 without fee should be held to a less degree of skill and 
 care than where compensation is given or promised. 
 But against this view the courts have set their faces ; 
 rightly holding to be barbarous the doctrine that a 
 medical man may be careless with the afflicted poor 
 but must be careful with the rich ; and although the 
 laws of some states only forbid unlicensed medical 
 practice in cases where fees are taken, still the re- 
 
110 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 ceipt of fee is not an essential element of such practice, 
 as a rule, and does not affect the liability for mal- 
 practice. It has been said also, that although the rule 
 is, that a physician's duty to his patient implies the 
 possession by the former of at least the average 
 knowledge and skill of his profession, — regard being 
 had to the state of medical science, — and the applica- 
 tion by him of that skill and knowledge with at least 
 the ordinary and usual care of his fellow-practitioners, 
 still where one professes to folloAV a certain school or 
 system of medicine, he is to be held to its standards 
 and not to those of another school; that a homeopath, 
 for instance, is to be judged by the standards of his 
 own system. The ancient judgment of the Cadi, 
 cited by Puffdendorf , is ordinarily given as an illustra- 
 tion of this point. A man having demanded damages 
 of a veterinary for blinding him with an ointment 
 used on the eyes of horses, the Cadi found for de- 
 fendant saying that if plaintiff had not been an ass, he 
 Avould not have gone to a horse doctor. This was 
 very much the line of thought taken by the court in 
 Smith V. Lane above alluded to as defining medical 
 practice in this state. It there appeared that the de- 
 fendant Lane had contracted for the services of Smith, 
 a rubber and manipulator, induced by the latter's pre- 
 tension that his treatment relieved the ills of life 
 marvellously, and almost robbed death of its terrors. 
 After taking the treatment, Lane refused to pay the 
 agreed price and Smith brought his action to recover 
 it. Our General Term held that the masseur was en- 
 titled to his pay, even though his pretences were pre- 
 posterous, since the patient had received the treat- 
 
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE BEFORE THE LAW. Ill 
 
 ment he bargained for, while the fact that he was fool 
 enough to believe the plaintiff's vain boasting was no 
 defence, and not the court's affair.^ The law merchant 
 recognizes a seller's right to praise his wares and to 
 utter any opinion of them, no matter how extravagant, 
 provided he does not mislead the purchaser of average 
 intelligence, by false statements or fraudulent conceal- 
 ment of facts as contrasted with conclusions. If he 
 has a broken down old horse for sale, the defects of 
 which are patent to any man of horse sense, he may 
 praise the brute to the skies as a beautiful creature. 
 And, in like manner, the law does not prohibit that 
 self-laudation known in medicine as quacking, which 
 may be unethical, but is not illegal. It is to be noted 
 however, that, in Smith's case, there was no conten- 
 tion that the patient had suffered from the treat- 
 ment any injury, damages for which he might have 
 offset against the bill ; and it might well be that a 
 Christian Scientist, although allowed to collect fees 
 under the doctrine of that case, might still be held 
 liable for injury resulting from his recklessness in 
 undertaking a duty without skill or knowledge to per- 
 form it. 
 
 It is, however, with the criminal or penal, not the 
 civil side of the law, that we are here concerned : and 
 in this domain of the law, the Cadi's judgment is 
 without authority ; for if a veterinary should assume 
 recklessly to prescribe an equine dose of cathartic for 
 a man, as in the merry tale we all have heard, it would 
 not be a defence in a criminal prosecution growing 
 out of the patient's death that the latter had assented 
 
 I See pages 79 and 80 for a further statement of the Court's opinion. 
 
112 CHKISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 to the treatment. In cases of manslaughter it is the 
 state, not the individual, that is offended against ; and 
 it is not to be presumed, even in the absence of specific 
 legislation, that the state assents to the taking of life 
 by gross recklessness or ignorance. In our own state 
 an attempt at suicide is felony. To aid or abet the 
 attempt is also felony, and to aid, abet, advise or en- 
 courage the suicide is manslaughter in the first degree 
 under the penal code, and has been held to be murder. 
 If A says to B, " I will give you $50 to kill me," and B 
 obligingly does so, the latter's felonious act is not the 
 less murder because of A's request or his payment of 
 the fee. And so if A is fool enough to submit to reck- 
 less and ignorant practice for the cure of his actual 
 or imagined maladies, his assent should not absolve an 
 ignorant or reckless practitioner from criminal liability 
 for the fatal result of his malpractice. Even if the rule 
 be sound that each practitioner is to be judged by the 
 system he professes, it should be at least established 
 that he follows a system based upon, or at least not 
 contrary to, ordinary observation and experience. He 
 cannot call his whims and vagaries a system. Ac- 
 cordingly in Massachusetts not long ago, when there 
 was no medical law in that state, a quack was held by 
 the Supreme Court, in a carefully reasoned opinion by 
 Mr. Justice Holmes, now its Chief Justice, to have 
 been properly convicted of manslaughter for causing 
 the death of a woman by keeping her swathed in 
 flannels, saturated with kerosene; and that learned 
 court, — repudiating as unsound, or ill-reported, the 
 earlier Massachusetts case, acquitting Thomson, 
 founder of the Botanic or Thomsonian School, a case 
 
CHEISTIAJN- SCIENCE BEFORE THE LAW. 113 
 
 extensively followed in other states, — intimated that 
 the kerosene practitioner might have been properly 
 convicted of murder/ 
 
 In a case occurring in your own county, last 
 spring, the Grand Jury refused to indict, as I under- 
 stand, because, upon the evidence before it, the ac- 
 cused was not shown to have done more than render 
 the religious offices of the cult to the deceased, tiie 
 former testifying in her own behalf, that she received 
 no fee, did not assume care of the case, medically, and 
 had even suggested to the deceased, the propriety of 
 calling in medical aid. While tried by the ordinary 
 teaching and customs of the Christian Scientists, — 
 who do assume full charge of such cases, and not only 
 receive fees but teach that the patient gets well quicker 
 if he pays a fat one, — this statement of the accused 
 lacked veri-similitude, yet, if believed, it of course, ex- 
 culpated her. But, in the hypothetical case put to 
 Mr. Carol Norton, as to which he refused to commit 
 himself, there can be no doubt that a Christian Scien- 
 tist would be guilty of manslaughter if not murder. I 
 said to that gentleman, if a lad should accidentally 
 sever an artery and surgical aid were accessible, would 
 you presume to set that aid aside, and essay to staunch 
 the gush of arterial blood by your mental processes 
 alone? The question presented a dilemma; to say 
 that he would not do so, implied lack of faith in the 
 doctrine he teaches and practices for a livelihood ; to 
 admit that he would do so, w^ould confess willingness 
 to commit felony. Is it any wonder that he preferred 
 " to shelve " the question ? 
 
 1 See contents for paper on Manslaughter, pp. 73 to 77. 
 
114 CHKISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 On this point, then, we mcay feel assured that the 
 malpractice of a Christian Scientist resulting in death 
 would be a criminal offence under the law, and a ver- 
 dict by a jury finding one guilty thereof, would be up- 
 held; by malpractice I mean the substitution with 
 gross recklessness or ignorance, or both, of mental proc- 
 esses obviously inefficacious, for medical or surgical 
 processes demonstrably efficacious, resulting in the 
 death of the patient. 
 
 It remains to consider the desirability of further 
 legislation in the premises. 
 
 Personally, as already indicated, I am not and 
 never have been a zealous advocate of too much legis- 
 lation. Our statute book has already upon it many 
 laws that might be judiciously obliterated. A statute 
 to be effective should be enforceable, and enforced 
 w^ith moderation, with wisdom, and without any sus- 
 picion of oppression, gain, or blackmail, upon the part 
 of those charged with its administration. It is safe to 
 say that the medical laws have been so enforced, oth- 
 erwise there would be a strong popular movement for 
 their repeal, such as has arisen and been successfully 
 carried out heretofore. There is no use in shutting 
 one's eye to facts. Many of the laws that are gotten 
 through ostensibly for the public welfare, are really 
 for the private good of individuals or organizations, 
 and they are intrinsically selfish rather than public 
 spirited. Medical legislation is in a sense, — a very 
 limited sense, — inderogation of the right of every man 
 to employ his knowledge and talents in winning his 
 bread freely ; obviously, therefore, there is a point be- 
 yond which it cannot go, and that point is, the limit 
 
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE BEFORE THE LAW. 115 
 
 of Avliat is necessary to protect the public health and 
 individual citizens against the evil effects of ignorance 
 and unskilfulness in the perfoi-mance of a duty re- 
 quiring knowledge and skill of the highest standard. 
 To say that no one should practice Christian Science 
 or any other method of curing the sick, would not be 
 desirable, politic, or just. To require, as has been sug- 
 gested, that all sick men should call in physicians, is 
 too absurd a proposition for serious consideration. 
 The utmost that can be properly enacted as law is that 
 no one shall be allowed to engage in the business of 
 healing the sick and the injured, except those who 
 have procured licenses by demonstrating that they are 
 possessed of a fair knowledge of those branches of 
 general and special knowledge which the general opin- 
 ion of mankind agrees are requisite to fit them for the 
 proper discharge of the duty Avhich they seek to assume. 
 All men whose opinions are worthy of consideration, 
 agree that to fit one to deal with human infirmities, a 
 course of study in, and knowledge of, certain branches 
 of science is necessary. One should know something 
 of anatomy, of physiology, of diet, of the action of 
 drugs and poisons, of remedies and antidotes, of the 
 mechanism of labor,— in short, of what is generally 
 known as medical science. By demonstrating such 
 knowledge he procures his license. He is not called 
 upon, and should not be called upon, to follow any 
 cut and dried system, but should be left to the exer- 
 cise of his judgment, being responsible to his patient, 
 and also to the community, for his abuse of that judg- 
 ment. He would be a very foolish man who did not 
 vary his treatment in different cases, who did not seek 
 
116 CHEISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 to widen his knoAvleclge, who would belittle the great 
 force of suggestion, or refuse to save his patient by 
 some method that Avas not strictly secundum artem. 
 A person so licensed might practice Christian Science 
 regularly if he saw fit to do so, but, if I may be par- 
 doned borrowing the language of our sporting friends, 
 the odds are heavy, that he would not do so. This 
 then is the sum of the whole matter. The state has a 
 perfect right to require of persons practicing medi- 
 cine, essaying the cure and care of the sick as a busi- 
 ness, a requisite degree of knowledge. Of this princi- 
 ple the Supreme Court of the nation, and those of 
 most of our states, have expressed approval The gen- 
 eral opinion of mankind approves of it. 
 
 But, the Christian Scientists say, no education 
 should be required of us because we do not practice 
 medicine. The Supreme Court of Khode Island took 
 this view of the matter in the Mylod case, and even 
 went so far as gravely to suggest that if Christian 
 Scientists are to be considered as practitioners of 
 medicine, then they should be entitled to a State 
 Board of their own, as are homeopaths and eclectics. 
 A lawyer instinctively professes, or expresses the 
 highest respect for the court ; but in reading this 
 opinion one cannot help recalling the opening of a 
 distinguished Massachusetts lawyer, who began his ar- 
 gument by saying, " Your Honors, I have the highest 
 respect for the Court — except in a few gross cases." 
 It seems to me, and this is said with all due deference, 
 that the learned Rhode Island Court in making this 
 obiter suggestion missed the whole point of the mat- 
 ter. The Christian Scientists are not in the same 
 
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE BEFORE THE LAW. 117 
 
 category with homeopaths, eclectics, or any body of 
 men who, whatever their scientific opinions— call them 
 whims and vagaries if you will,— nevertheless profess 
 to found their systems upon human knowledge, ex- 
 perience, and belief in the laws of what we call mat- 
 ter, and to accept as a rule the fundamental knowledge 
 of mankind and the evidence of the senses. Why 
 should not the Christian Scientists have a State Board 
 of Examiners upon the same terms as other schools or 
 systems professing to cure the sick ? We have three 
 Medical Boards in this state, representing the regular 
 physicians and what are called the schools of home- 
 opathy and eclectism. These schools profess to differ 
 from the regular profession only or chiefly in their 
 methods of treatment. As a matter of fact Ave lay- 
 men believe, rightly or wrongly, that the learned 
 among them are in substantial accord. However that 
 may be, there is no pretence that there is any home- 
 opathic anatomy, or eclectic physiology, or that chil- 
 dren are born by different methods ; in short, these 
 differing schools are agreed upon the same funda- 
 mentals of what has been exactly achieved in medical 
 learning. They all recognize that no man can be 
 equipped for medical practice under any system, who 
 ignores the basic facts of life; and our examining 
 boards subject all candidates for license to the same 
 examinations in every department of medicine except' 
 in therapeutics. Now what objection would there be 
 to letting Christian Scientists have a state board under 
 these conditions, greater than the objection the Chris- 
 tian Scientists themselves would raise ? If Mrs. Eddy 
 or Mr. Norton, or any of the cult could demonstrate 
 
118 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 the possession of that knowledge of anatomy, physi- 
 ology, hygiene, the action of drugs and poisons, ob- 
 stetrics and other matters which all men, worthy to 
 be called scientific, agree are necessary to lit one to 
 care for the sick, why should he and she not be allowed 
 to practice Mrs. Eddy's system, if, having attained to 
 such knowledge, they still believed that system to 
 contain the true therapeutic ? Of course I do not 
 wish to be understood as favoring any such a proposi- 
 tion, or believing it practicable. I do not believe it 
 possible that persons conversant with the human 
 economy w^ould be content to practice Eddyism ; but 
 on the contrary, believe that if such a board as the 
 Ehode Island Court suggested were established, it 
 would result in the practice of medicine by Christian 
 Scientists, even if they still kept to their name for the 
 sake of the clientelage it would bring. 
 
 But how can a State Board be constituted to ex- 
 amine in scientific matters a class of persons who deny 
 the existence of scientific knowledge as do the Eddy- 
 ites, who deny the existence of matter, of disease or 
 injury, of everything that is recognized throughout 
 Christendom as a material fact ? How that wise Pa- 
 gan Socrates would have laughed over the proposition 
 that man is fitted to cure sickness in proportion to 
 his denial of its existence ! How he would have rev- 
 elled in putting Mrs. Eddy and her board of lecturers 
 through such a cross examination as he gave to Eu- 
 thydemus ! Socrates, whose sane mind preached con- 
 stantly one gospel, that man must be trained and 
 fitted for his work in order to do it well, that a pilot 
 must know all about vessels and steering; a tailor 
 
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE BEFORE TllE LAW. Ill) 
 
 about fabrics and cutting* ; a statesman about govern- 
 ment and law ; and a physician about tlie human 
 economy. The solemn nonsense uttered by intelli- 
 gent men in support of this cunning and ignorant old 
 lady's money-making scheme would be enough to 
 make the gods shake with Olympian laughter, except 
 that tears and wrath chase away the smiles when we 
 contemplate how horrible it is to subject even the 
 willing and credulous to the treatment of these mad 
 people. It is bad enough to realize the mistakes of 
 diagnosis and treatment made by men of skill and 
 learning. Ko one but a fool believes that physicians 
 are infallible, or that medicine is a perfect science ; 
 no one with an atom of sense would consent to have 
 the present medical practice established by law and 
 the wheels of progress stopped. It is tiresome but 
 necessary to say this a thousand times, in answer to 
 the wearisome iteration of the quack fraternity, that 
 medical law is only designed to maintain the present. 
 How can we keep patience with the ever-recurring 
 argument that because the learned and skilful make 
 some mistakes, the ignorant and inept should have 
 free hand to make errors innumerable ? Why must 
 we forever answer seriously the argument, or rather 
 the asseveration, that there is something solemnly 
 precious in ignorance and something suspicious in 
 knowledge ? A schoolboy who has once read Cicero's 
 oration for Archias has the answer to this dismal pat- 
 ter forever on his lips. 
 
 Let us illustrate, with a few examples, just what 
 Christian Science demands the right to do ignorantly, 
 and Avhat its opponents say should only be attempted 
 
120 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 with knowledge and skill. Childbirth is not a dis- 
 ease or a sickness but the healthy operation of a 
 normal function. Without any attendance at all, or 
 with the attendance of a Christian Scientist,— it is the 
 same thing, — children are constantly brought into the 
 world with labor and great pain. But, in our modern 
 life especially, there are complications demanding the 
 highest skill for their safe treatment ; and pain, if not 
 banished, may be minimized. How horrible it is to 
 imagine a case of jplacenta praevia^ or an abnormal 
 presentation in the hands of these mad people who 
 pretend that the mere reading of Mrs. Eddy's book of 
 jargon fits the reader to take care of any case of sick- 
 ness or obstetrics ! Is it much if anything short of 
 murder for an Eddyite, taught only by the contents 
 of that dreary book to attend such cases as those sup- 
 posed ? Again, a child swallows poison ; then there 
 is a possibility,— a probability,— it may be a certainty, 
 — that competent medical aid seasonably called in, will 
 save the child ; what is to be thought of the parent 
 who calls in the ignorant Christian Scientist, what of 
 the latter who mentally argues with the symptoms of 
 poisoning that he cannot recognize and excludes the 
 necessary and efficient aid ? Is he not a man slaugh- 
 terer, nay a murderer ? Once more, a case of small- 
 pox, malignant diphtheria, or scarlet fever breaks out 
 in a tenement house full of children; medical aid being 
 called may cure it, or, at all events, recognizing the 
 disease, may isolate the patient, disinfect the premises 
 and stop the spread of contagion. The Christian 
 Scientist comes, in his crass ignorance denies that there 
 is any disease present and sits down in solemn mad- 
 
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE BEFORE THE LAW. 121 
 
 ness to argue with what he calls an erroneous belief 
 of mortal mind — the contagion spreads and there is a 
 new slaughter of innocents. Is not the so-called 
 scientist a pest, and should he not be incarcerated in a 
 prison or a madhouse where the community may be 
 safe from him in the future ? 
 
 There is no further provision of law needed to deal 
 with these people than to widen the definition of 
 medical practice sufficiently to correspond with that 
 of the sanitary code — require of them before they are 
 permitted to take charge of the sick, the same degree 
 of knowledge that is required of a Eoman Catholic, a 
 Protestant or a Mohammedan. Is it too much to ask 
 that the legislature do this, or shall we accept the 
 argument — and it is the only one that is made in be- 
 half of these people, that any scoundrel or sincere 
 fanatic may commit any wicked act for reward and 
 shelter himself under the plea that he considered it 
 his religious duty to commit the offence. 
 
 If all men were wise, if fallacies did not have a 
 fascination for intelligent minds, if in our own day as 
 ever since the world began, every unknown thing 
 were not for some minds a wonderful thing, if an age 
 of scepticism were not also notoriously an age of 
 credulity, there would not be need even of this much 
 legislation. It is for you and for other men of your 
 profession and for laymen as well to turn the light 
 into this reeking corner of superstition, strip the dis- 
 guise away and show what is below it and you will 
 not have need even of this much law, for after all the 
 law has never been able to protect a fool against the 
 consequence of his folly. 
 
HOW FAE CAN LEGISLATION AID IN MAINTAINING 
 
 A PKOPEK STANDARD OF MEDICAL 
 
 EDUCATION?^ 
 
 Mr. President^ Ladies and Gentlemen : — I desire, 
 first of all, to express my indebtedness to those gentle- 
 men in the different States and Territories of this coun- 
 try and in the British Provinces to whose courteous 
 replies to a circular letter of inquiry upon the general 
 topic of Medical Legislation, sent to them in the 
 early part of the summer, it is due that the conclusions 
 of this paper may be said with fairness, I think, to rep- 
 resent not only the opinion of others besides myself, 
 but prevailing opinions among those whose chief in- 
 terest in medical legislation is that it shall confine the 
 practice of medicine to educated persons, regardless of 
 any particular views they may entertain as to ques- 
 tions of therapeutics. 
 
 It is not intended to present statistics here. My 
 correspondence has not yielded any from which I 
 should care to deduce conclusions, nor are they needed 
 to substantiate what I hope may prove fair reasoning 
 and sound deduction. 
 
 This paper must be, therefore, a statement of what 
 I conceive to be general principles and fair inferences 
 from an experience of some years, as counsel of the 
 
 » Read before the American Social Science Association, Sept. 5, 1888. 
 
 123 
 
124 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 medical societies of the State and of the county of 
 New York, in drafting and securing the enactment of 
 the present by no means perfect medical statute of 
 that State, and enforcing in the county of New York 
 obedience to its provisions. 
 
 It may be said, however, as the general result of the 
 inquiries, which were made in every State and Terri- 
 tory of this country, and also in the British Provinces, 
 that almost every reply to the circulars expressed ap- 
 proval of some system of regulating by statute the 
 practice of medicine ; and the opinion was also strongly 
 expressed that such legislation as has been already en- 
 acted crude and imperfect though it be, has perceptibly 
 improved the standard of medical education. 
 
 At the threshold of this inquiry, it is worth while 
 to lay down certain postulates. 
 
 First of all, let it be said distinctly that such legisla- 
 tion as we are about to consider is regarded by the 
 courts both as constitutional and as highly desirable. 
 It ought to be scarcely necessary to have to say this. 
 But the opponents of statutory regulation of medical 
 practice so constantly declare it to be an infringe- 
 ment of the liberties of the citizen, and therefore un- 
 constitutional, that one may well preface any remarks 
 of this nature with the assurance that, so far as any 
 principle can be considered as settled and approved by 
 judicial authority, the principle involved in this sort of 
 legislation stands settled and approved by the Su- 
 preme Court of the United States, and that of every 
 lesser commonwealth before which it has been 
 brought. 
 
 In the second place, it is necessary to state the only 
 
LEGISLATION AND MEDICAL EDUCATION. 125 
 
 principle upon which such legislation can be justified. 
 That principle is salus popuU,— the iprmci^le of secu- 
 rity, of self-protection against fraud and ignorance. It 
 is a vulgar and frequent assertion of foolish persons, 
 who really believe in the ^'z^^^i-supernatural powers 
 of the ignorant and depraved, and of knaves who, 
 professing to have such powers, prey upon the credu- 
 lity of their suffering fellow-creatures that the only 
 purpose of medical legislation is to increase the emolu- 
 ments of a favored class by obstructing entrance into 
 it with such barriers as will exclude many honest but 
 ignorant voters from the right to practice physic, and 
 so, by limiting the number of its practitioners to the 
 educated, lessen competition. It is not necessary to 
 demonstrate to you the falsity of this slander, or to 
 argue in favor of the propriety and justice in princi- 
 ple of throwing safeguards about a profession intrusted 
 more than any other with the health, honor, and life 
 of the citizen. Surely the State has a right to protect 
 the lives, health, and bodily welfare of its members 
 against the assault of the charlatan quite as much as 
 against the assault of a more courageous homicide. 
 JSTor is it altogether an answer to this argument to say 
 that, inasmuch as a man voluntarily selects the char- 
 latan as his medical attendant, w^hile he exercises no 
 choice as to the homicide, there is no analogy between 
 the two cases. It is quite impossible for me to see in 
 what regard, except cowardice, a man who, with ab- 
 solutely no knowledge of the human economy or the 
 effect upon it of drugs, attempts to practice medicine 
 for fee or reward differs, when his practice proves 
 fatal, from the less crafty murderer who for reward, 
 
126 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 if not for fee, knocks his victim on the head. There 
 is this difference also between the two offences,— the 
 quack's is chronic, the homicide's sporadic. But, as 
 between the courageous homicide and the venders of 
 quack remedies compounded with morphia and like 
 poisons, the former seems admirable. It is said, in- 
 deed, that the patient having his choice of medical 
 advisers will exercise it wisely ; and, if he does not, 
 the civil remedy for malpractice, accruing to himself 
 or his representatives, is a sufficient remedy for one 
 foolish enough to seek such advice. But civil remedies 
 are expensive luxuries of doubtful result, and, besides 
 that, the interest of the community does not centre in 
 punishing an offence committed on one of its mem- 
 bers, but in preventing its repetition against others. 
 I am not aware that it is recognized as a defence to a 
 charge of homicide occurring, say, in the prize-ring, 
 that the deceased invited his antagonist to fight with 
 him in an amiable contention for a purse, which should 
 be the fee or reward of the victor; and, indeed, it 
 seems to me that the prize-fighter, unlucky enough to 
 kill his opponent, deserves more sympathy than the 
 charlatan ; for his antagonist had a chance to win the 
 fee and perhaps do the killing himself, whereas be- 
 tween quack and patient the former stands to win the 
 fee, while the latter will never compel his adviser to 
 swallow his own prescription. 
 
 In considering what legislation can do in bettering 
 any social condition, we must never forget that the 
 best law which can be framed is but an exceedingly 
 clumsy instrument for the enforcement of even the 
 elementary moral obligations that are clear to all of 
 
LEGISLATION AND MEDICAL EDUCATION. 127 
 
 US. Almost everybody of cultivation can see a reason 
 for prohibiting — not for the sake of those directly 
 interested, but as harmful to the community — prize- 
 fights, duels, bull-fights, bridge jumpings, and all other 
 performances, including suicide, whereby foolish men 
 not only risk their own lives, which might be no great 
 loss to us, but set a pernicious and demoralizing ex- 
 ample. The offence against society by such precedents 
 is so palpable and gross that a very crude mind will 
 assent to the justice of their punishment when com- 
 mitted and the forbidding of their occurrence. But 
 the transgression of the charlatan is somewhat more 
 subtle and a thousandfold more dangerous ; yet, be- 
 cause his services are sought by his victim in the 
 belief that they are a prevention, not a source of 
 danger, many consider his acts as matter of private 
 interest, and overlook the public wrong. From the 
 standpoint of morals alone, the quack, from whose 
 ignorance, and worse than ignorance, a patient's death 
 results, stands in the same relation to one who has 
 committed murder while engaged in robbery that the 
 subtle wrecker of a great corporation does to the un- 
 lucky scamp who has stolen the wherewithal to get 
 his daily bread or rum, as the case might be. The 
 difficulty of tracing the effect to its cause is the safety 
 of the former offender, and it is not unfair to say that 
 the chief wrongdoing punishable by law is clumsiness 
 in execution. To succeed in crime, one must be an 
 artist. 
 
 It is when we come to seek a legal remedy against 
 the immoralities of quackery that the difficulty of 
 reaching them without making laws themselves ob- 
 
128 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 jectionable becomes apparent. Bentham lias very 
 well pointed out that moral and statutory law have 
 identical purposes and are governed by the same 
 principles, differing only in this : that, although both 
 are circumferences in the same plane, they are con- 
 centric and of unequal radii. Each circumference has 
 the same centre, — namely, the greatest happiness of 
 each and of all; but the circumference of morals 
 bounds the entire plane of human action, whereas that 
 of law, of which the radius may be said to be prac- 
 ticability of enforcement, has a much narrower scope. 
 Whatever is legal is, or certainly should be, moral. 
 But there are a thousand moralities the attempt to 
 enforce which by law Avould lead to evils far greater 
 than those sought to be obviated. In one sense, law 
 itself may be almost called an evil, since it is not only 
 a restriction of freedom in action, but a restriction 
 which unfortunately can often be enforced only at the 
 cost of inflicting lesser evils than it is designed to 
 prevent : thus, for example, the existing medical stat- 
 utes of most of our States recognize, as the sole 
 license for the practice of medicine, the possession by 
 the licentiate of a diploma from a chartered college 
 conferring the degree of doctor of medicine. And, 
 while it may be perfectly true that the probabilities 
 are greatly in favor of a beneficial result from these 
 laws in limiting the number of uneducated practition- 
 ers of physic, it is also quite as true that a factitious 
 value is given by such legislation to a mere parchment, 
 and a standard set which cannot be higher than that 
 of the poorest college the diploma of which is recog- 
 nized as a license ; and it is quite possible that in many 
 
LEGISLATION AND MEDICAL EDUCATION. 129 
 
 cases persons of fair attainments acquired through 
 extra collegiate study may be debarred, temporarily 
 at all events, from a right possessed by a far more 
 ignorant graduate of some contemptible school incor- 
 porated by a too complaisant legislature. These inci- 
 dental hardships under existing laws are more than 
 offset by the increased security of society against 
 ignorant pretenders ; but they show how necessary it 
 is to keep it in mind that a statute must be not only 
 right in its purpose, but must neither work greater 
 evil than it prevents nor be impracticable of enforce- 
 ment. 
 
 Of course, no penal or restrictive law can be effect- 
 ively enforced if its purpose does not commend itself 
 to the moral sense of the community ; and every en- 
 actment that cannot be vigorously enforced is an en- 
 cumbrance to the statute book", useless lumber, like 
 the purchases of Mrs. Toodles at auction-rooms of 
 coffins and door-plates that might be handy some day, 
 — nay, worse than useless, for, like lumber in a dark 
 garret, such statutes are stumbling-blocks for the un- 
 wary. 
 
 The law is a schoolmaster over and above all thing's. 
 Its chief value lies in the fact that its daily enforce- 
 ment is a constant voice crying in the wilderness 
 against the evils that it prohibits and punishes. Any 
 one so unfortunate, or perhaps I should say fortunate, 
 as to be called often to a police court must at times 
 feel that the attempt by legislation to check even the 
 gross and palpable crimes against person and property 
 is a never-ending toil of Sisyphus. The stone seems 
 to roll back every night as far as it is rolled up every 
 
130 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 morning. The same faces turn up, the same crimes 
 are committed over and over by the same persons. 
 We grow disheartened when we seek the good effect 
 of a penal statute among the individuals who have 
 felt its heavy hand, — and this is most sincerely to be 
 regretted, — but we pluck up heart when we see the 
 number of individuals who are deterred from crime 
 and educated to an appreciation of the common rights 
 by the law's enforcement. 
 
 The chief purpose of legislators in times past was 
 the punishment and remedy of evil committed. The 
 tendency of modern law is toward prevention. We 
 are seeing more and more the wisdom of the clever 
 Irishman who " hollered before he was hurt," because 
 he could see little use in hallooing afterward. 
 
 What has been said up to this point may seem, per- 
 haps, if not irrelevant to the topic, nevertheless such 
 a statement of general principles as it is not necessary 
 to make before an audience of students of social 
 science. And, if the words uttered here found no 
 audience beyond these walls, it might have been well 
 to consider only the desirable features of a good 
 medical act. But I owe the honor of being asked to 
 address you to the fact that it has been my profes- 
 sional privilege for some years to advise those medical 
 societies that have been striving to protect both the 
 public and the medical profession of the State of New 
 York against pretenders. What is said here is carried 
 to many beyond reach of our voices. What to you 
 may be truisms are to many intelligent men theorems 
 to be demonstrated. Medical legislation is never 
 asked for, but a cloud of misunderstanding and mis- 
 
LEGISLATIO]^- AND MEDICAL EDUCATION. 131 
 
 statement at once arises, and the proposed measure is 
 attacked as unsound in principle and unfair in practice. 
 
 It has therefore seemed proper both to clear away 
 all such mistiness before ansAvering in the most gen- 
 eral terms the question at the head of this paper, and 
 to make plain to every one who may hear or read these 
 words the spirit in which the medical societies of 'New 
 York are acting in this matter, — a spirit that must 
 commend itself to men of fair minds and common sense. 
 
 Starting, then, with these general principles, — that 
 under its police power the State has authority to reg- 
 ulate the practice of medicine, and that no law can be 
 of real utility that cannot be enforced actively, — we 
 may examine within what limits it is wise to exercise 
 that authority, and how far its exercise can aid in 
 maintaining a proper standard of medical education. 
 
 If no law can be effectively enforced that arouses 
 strong antagonism in the community at large, it is 
 manifest that a medical law enacted to favor any 
 special class of practitioners of medicine, to uphold or 
 suppress any theory of medical practice, to establish 
 any set of regulations as to fees, or that is otherwise 
 obnoxious to the great body of citizens would prob- 
 ably soon become a dead letter and positively harmful 
 to the whole medical profession. In the Medical Rec- 
 ord of September 11, 1886, I endeavored, in an article 
 entitled the " Evolution of the Apothecary," ^ to illus- 
 trate this point by tracing the struggle of the College 
 of Physicians to reserve to its licentiates the exclu- 
 sive right under its charter to prescribe medicine. 
 After some two hundred years of successful prosegu- 
 
 » See page 145, 
 
132 CHKISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 tions of apothecaries and others, the college met its 
 Waterloo in 1703, when Apothecary Eose, on his ap- 
 peal to the House of Lords from the judgment of the 
 courts in favor of the college, succeeded in having his 
 appeal sustained, not on points of law, but because the 
 system in vogue seemed to the Peers absurd, as neces- 
 sitating the employment in trifling cases of two or 
 three persons at large fees, — a physician to prescribe, 
 an apothecary to dispense, and perhaps a surgeon to 
 operate, — a state of things that a Peer would not sub- 
 mit to in the case of his sick servant, and would not 
 require a poor man to submit to in his own case. The 
 physicians had their fee system and their professional 
 pride to thank for their defeat in this as in some other 
 instances. This decision having made it possible for 
 every ignoramus to tinker with the health of John 
 Bull, it happened in time that the apothecaries, w^ho had 
 routed the physicians on the point of fees and acquired 
 a right to prescribe as well as dispense their own 
 drugs, after a hundred years' experience of the results 
 of their freedom, during which period general medical 
 education had sunk to a dismal condition and quackery 
 had flowered abundantly, procured from Parliament 
 the amendment to their charter known as the Apoth- 
 ecaries Act, whereby their Hall was empowered to ex- 
 amine and license apothecaries. The enactment of 
 this statute according to Sir Henry Halforcl, who had 
 opposed its passage, "raised the standard of that 
 branch of the profession amazingly." 
 
 In other words, the very men who procured the ex- 
 tension to themselves of the right to prescribe, because 
 of the burdensome regulations of the physician, solic- 
 
LEGISLATION AND MEDICAL EDUCATION. 133 
 
 ited a restriction of that right when they found that 
 charlatanry and ignorance were rapidly getting con- 
 trol of general practice. In this page of history, we 
 find evidence that a law prescribing, with a view to 
 the general good, educational qualifications for practi- 
 tioners of physic will obtain favor where statutes par- 
 taking of a trades-union spirit, using that word not in 
 its better sense, will fail. I use the term " trades- 
 union " here for lack of a better, and not as one neces- 
 sarily conveying an objectionable idea. In the sense 
 that a trades-union is a combination of artificers to im- 
 prove their moral, physical, and mental condition by 
 all lawful means consistent with a due regard to the 
 rights of the community at large, it is a perfectly 
 proper organization, and much to be commended as an 
 element in the common welfare. In so far as such 
 a combination, however, seeks to carry out a plan for 
 procuring high wages by violently obstructing others 
 in their rights to earn a livelihood in legitimate ways, 
 it is an intolerable evil in society. What is true of 
 the trades-union of artificers is equally true of organi- 
 zations of capital similarly designed ; but, both in 
 handicrafts and trade, — the ostensible objects of which 
 are avowedly selfish, being the pursuit of wealth or 
 the earning of livelihood, — such combinations as these 
 are more understandable, if not more defensible, than 
 like combinations among men engaged in the quest of 
 scientific truth. The avowed object of incorporating 
 medical societies is stated in their charters, in JSTew 
 York at least, to be "to contribute to the diffusion of 
 true science and particularly the knowledge of the 
 healing art." When they transgress these limits, and 
 
134 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 seek to establish burdensome fee systems or to forcibly 
 check what they consider schismatic opinions, the law 
 interferes to restrain them within their proper bounds. 
 The courts have wisely, in most instances, declined to 
 pronounce upon any questions of opinion or to inter- 
 pret the word " physician " in acts regulating medical 
 practice so as to favor the therapeutical systems of any 
 body of practitioners. It is all one to the law whether 
 the doctrine of similia or the doctrine of contraria 
 prevail, whether the patient be dosed with the highest 
 potency or the most heroic bolus ; and this point was 
 settled finally and wisely in the State of New York 
 by the case of Corsi vs. Maretzek (4 E. D. Smith, 1), 
 where the court refused to accept the contention that 
 a homeopathist was not a physician in the legal sense 
 of the term because he followed a system of healing 
 disapproved of by the majority of practitioners of 
 medicine. No statute can be effective that is even 
 suspected of the design to shackle or suppress opinion. 
 Free thought is the breath, the life, of the scientific 
 search for truth, as humility is its badge. AVhen a 
 man or a profession reaches the point where intoler- 
 ance and self-satisfaction take the place of humility 
 and fair inquiry, paresis of the soul has commenced. 
 It is the law of our existence that 
 
 " The old order changeth, yielding place to new; 
 And God fulfils himself in many ways, 
 Lest one good custom should corrupt the world." 
 
 I dwell upon this point because the reason that we 
 do not have in New York to-day a State Board of 
 Medical Examiners, such as we find in Illinois and 
 European countries, and such as is requisite to any ef- 
 
LEGISLATION AND MEDICAL EDUCATION. 135 
 
 fective scheme for securing a fair average of education 
 among medical licentiates, is due to the fact that it 
 has proved impossible up to this time to bring into ac- 
 cord as to the organization of such a board regular 
 physicians, homeopaths, and eclectics. About three- 
 quarters of the entire number of medical practitioners 
 in the State are regular physicians ; that is, practition- 
 ers calling themselves by the name of no " school " or 
 " sect." They number something like six thousand. 
 The homeopaths and eclectics number about twenty- 
 one hundred. Bills to create one or more central 
 boards of medical examiners have been introduced 
 into the legislature during the last four years at the 
 instance of each of these parties. These bills have 
 agreed substantially in all points save two : first, the 
 examination in therapeutics ; and, second, the organ- 
 ization of the board. The physicians have insisted 
 that their numerical ratio of three-fourths entitles them 
 to a representation in the board of at least two-thirds. 
 The two " schools " insist that, if this ratio should be 
 given, their candidates would be plucked and their 
 "schools" effaced, and that, when this was accom- 
 plished, the physicians would at once order new vials 
 of enormous size, larger boluses and nastier drugs than 
 ever before, that even the daughter of the horse-leech 
 would be silent from satiety, and the cup and lancet 
 would once more drench the land with gore. 
 
 In other words, we have this condition of things : 
 Three parties exist whose interests are at stake in the 
 proposed legislation. All declare that they favor re- 
 stricting the practice to men who have studied chemis- 
 try, botany, physics, anatomy, physiology, diagnosis, 
 
136 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 microscopy, etc. The homeopaths and eclectics hold 
 no sectarian views as to the atomic theory or the law 
 of gravitation, and agree with those whom they dub 
 allopaths as to which has the greater number of ribs 
 a man or a woman. But, when we come to materia 
 medica and therapeutics, we find a " state of things." 
 Col. Jones, having a severe pain in the vicinity of his 
 sword-belt, sends for his army surgeon, a regular 
 physician ; the baby has a sensation in its correspond- 
 ing region, and Mrs. Jones calls in her homeopathic 
 adviser, — for Jones indulges her in matters affecting 
 her own baby ; the nurse, experiencing a similar agita- 
 tion, tries an eclectic ; and the old " mammy " in the 
 kitchen, feeling a like distress, sticks a pin in the care- 
 fully concealed rag baby she keeps for such occasions. 
 All experience relief ; and each, like the pedler who 
 was kicked off four landings of a factory in quick suc- 
 cession, is lost in admiration of the beauty of the system. 
 Let us admit the truth that, while surgery has be- 
 come almost an exact science as compared to its sister, 
 — physic, — the latter is yet in the condition that un- 
 questioning faith in the efficacy of medication and a 
 willingness to break a lance for a system of therapeu- 
 tics is to be found rather at the bottom than at the top 
 of the profession. Therefore, whatever our beliefs or 
 prejudices, we may as well make up our minds that 
 no law will be tolerated that shall endeavor openly or 
 covertly to favor or obstruct any system of medical 
 practice as a system, regardless of the attainments of 
 its professors. AVhatever the facts may be, the law 
 considers that the true physician is no blind partisan of 
 any theory. He knows how feeble his best efforts are 
 
LEGISLATION AND MEDICAL EDUCATION. 137 
 
 to combat disease, how few the medicaments that can be 
 used with certain results. In proportion as he is learned 
 and wise, he pins his faith neither to a doctrine of 
 similia nor of contraria^ realizing that differences of 
 opinion arise not from knowledge, but from ignorance. 
 
 The stumbling-blocks in the way of every eifort to 
 achieve wise medical legislation are : first, the ig- 
 norance and greed of the believers in and practicers 
 of ^'i^a^^'-supernatural methods of treating disease ; 
 second, jealousies among the more intelligent adher- 
 ents to "isms" ; third, jealousies between the mother 
 church of medicine and those of her children that 
 wish to make of their specialties separate professions ; 
 fourth, the obstruction from vested interests that 
 consider themselves threatened, — the incorporated 
 schools that have some capital invested, and regard 
 their power to confer a diploma operating as a license 
 to practice medicine as their chief stock in trade. 
 
 The condition of our statute books to-day is this : 
 they contain (1) special acts incorporating medical, 
 pharmaceutical, and dental schools, with here and there 
 a general act for that purpose ; (2) acts incorporating 
 medical societies of physicians and of sectarian prac- 
 titioners of motley nomenclature ; (3) general acts regu- 
 lating the practice of physic and surgery ; (4) general 
 acts regulating the practice of dentistry ; (5) similar 
 acts regulating the practice of pharmacy ; (6) sanitary 
 regulations and laws creating health boards. 
 
 This jumble is itself an evil and an efficient cause 
 of the propagation of false ideas. A logical law, 
 which will of itself be an educator, will recognize that 
 the principle on which all these statutes are to be de- 
 
138 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 fended is that already indicated, — the right of the 
 State to protect the health as well as the life and the 
 property of the citizen. One health statute will then 
 be enacted, and a responsible board created that will 
 have in charge the arrangements of quarantine and 
 sanitation and also the licensing of medical practition- 
 ers of every sort ; and here I contend that the 
 dentist and the pharmacist, thoroughly accomplished 
 in their calling, are both medical men, and that, the 
 sooner they are so recognized, the sooner existing 
 jealousies as to them will die out, and the scientific 
 character of the profession and its specialties will be 
 raised. The student of medicine and pharmacy must 
 go hand in hand for a while at the outset of their 
 career. The former goes forward to the battle with 
 disease. The latter remains behind to provide suit- 
 able ammunition. They are both fighting in the same 
 cause, and will fight much better if each recognizes his 
 fellowship with the other. It is equally true that the 
 dentist is a specialist in medicine. To deny to these 
 men professional standing is to repeat the history of 
 the past and to create discord and jealousy among 
 those who are working in a common cause. 
 
 Legislation can aid in the education of all these fel- 
 low-workers chiefly by vesting the licensing power in 
 a central Board of Medical Examiners, and, to some 
 extent, under the diploma standard : (1) by fixing 
 a minimum age under which they Avill not be allowed 
 to practice their calling ; (2) by requiring of each of 
 them a fixed term of study of certainly not less than 
 tw^o graded years, leaving to the board, where created, 
 the care of details ; (3) by requiring proof by examina- 
 
lEGISLATlOlS- AND MEDICAL EDUCATION. 139 
 
 tion or certificate that each candidate for license had 
 studied before beginning his professional course at 
 least those branches of a general education in which 
 law students are examined in this State before they 
 commence their legal studies ; (4) by declaring that no 
 medical school — including in the terms schools of 
 dentistry, pharmacy, and midwifery — shall be in- 
 corporated by special act, and providing a general law 
 for the incorporation of such schools only upon proof 
 made of the possession by the incorporators of suf- 
 ficient capital — say not less than a hundred thousand 
 dollars — and teaching plant to justify the belief that 
 the school will be capable of exercising faithfully its 
 franchises. Such an act should contain stringent pro- 
 visions for its own enforcement and for the forfeiture 
 of abused charters. How useless the mere enactment 
 may be is shown by the fact that section six of chapter 
 114 of the ]^ew York Sessions Laws of 1853 contains a 
 general provision of this nature. Nevertheless, since 
 its passage, some six or more medical colleges have 
 been incorporated by special act of the legislature; 
 and had it not been for the vetoes of Governors Cleve- 
 land and Hill, when their attention was called to this 
 general statute by the medical societies, at least one col- 
 lege would have regained by special act its charter of 
 which the courts had deprived it. No greater service 
 can be rendered to the cause of medical education by 
 the State than the exercise of care in creating medical 
 schools, and holding them to strict responsibility 
 when created. The latter will never be done, I fear, 
 except when the laws are invoked by medical societies. 
 (5) A minimum course of medical study should be pre- 
 
140 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 scribed, in which a grade of at least seventy per cent, 
 should be attained on examination. The regulation of 
 all details of examination should be most wisely left 
 to the board of examiners. But the topics in which 
 examinations should be had might well be specified in 
 the statute ; and I incline strongly to think that it 
 would be most wise to omit any examination in those 
 obscure topics of therapeutics and materia medica, 
 upon which all medical heresies have been begotten 
 by unscientific minds. One who should creditably 
 pass his examinations in botany, chemistry, physics, 
 anatomy, surgery, physiology, hygiene, diagnosis, ob- 
 stetrics, and microscopies, especially if his clinical ex- 
 amination should show him to be educated in a true 
 sense to observe and draw sound deductions from ob- 
 servation, rather than crammed like a parrot, might 
 well be trusted to form his own conclusions and pursue 
 his own studies as judgment should dictate in the terra 
 incognita of therapeutics. 
 
 It has been already said, but it cannot be repeated 
 too often, that the law has nothing to do with medical 
 theories. The utmost it can do successfully is to pre- 
 scribe that none shall practice medicine except persons 
 educated in those branches of science that all admit 
 are essential to an understanding of morbid condi- 
 tions of our species, and possessed besides of a fair 
 general education. It cannot prohibit tlie practice of 
 sectarian medicine and such delusions as mind-cure 
 and Christian Science, for this would be an assumption 
 by the law to prescribe what system of healing shall 
 be followed ; and it might as reasonably command — 
 as, indeed, I believe it does in Mormondom — that all 
 
LEGISLATION AND MEDICAL EDUCATION. 141 
 
 the sick should be treated by anointing with oil in 
 conjunction with prayer by the elders. 
 
 If a man who has passed his examinations in such 
 branches as above indicated shall conclude to adhere 
 uniformly in practice to the doctrine of similia or of 
 contraria, or even to the profundities of Mumbo 
 Jumbo, or mind-cure, the law cannot prevent him. 
 For his errors, he will be liable always in damages, no 
 matter what system he adopts ; and, with that, we 
 must be content. If the education required of him 
 does not keep him to the faith, we may perhaps find 
 in some cases that his departure from it is the opening 
 of a new way to fresh truth. (6) Finally, the law 
 should not recognize any diploma as of itself conferring 
 a right to practice medicine. Even if the possession of 
 such a document should be required as an antecedent 
 to examination by the health board, it should not be 
 allowed to take the place of such examination. It is 
 to the interest not only of the public, but of every 
 medical college of high standard, that the diplomas of 
 what have become known as " diploma mills " shall be 
 deprived of the licensing power, which is their sole value. 
 
 Any scheme of medical legislation will hereafter, of 
 course, embrace that great safeguard against impos- 
 ture and efficient tracer of frauds, the system of regis- 
 tration, whereunder no one is allowed to practice 
 medicine who has not made a public record under 
 oath of his name, origin, and credentials for license. 
 
 Beyond the point here indicated, it would not be 
 wise for legislation to go. The chief desiderata in a 
 good law are brevity, simplicity, and lack of detail. 
 If a diploma standard is to be maintained, it would 
 
142 CHRISTIAN SCiENCi:. 
 
 certainly be desirable that the statute should provide 
 that only diplomas of colleges giving graded instruc- 
 tion and requiring preliminary examination of their 
 matriculants should be received as licenses. 
 
 But it may be well to say once more that the mere 
 enactment of a law against a vicious practice will be 
 no deterrent to the transgressor, and, therefore, of no 
 service to the cause of education. He must realize 
 that the law is enforced ; and, in order that it be en- 
 forced, somebody must be charged with carrying out 
 its provisions. In the State of ^N^ew York, the regular 
 medical societies have of late charged themselves with 
 the duty of executing the medical act. Such acts 
 have been upon the statute book for more than a hun- 
 dred years. But prior to 1880 they had fallen into 
 neglect, largely owing to the clumsiness with which 
 they were drafted. In that year, the State Medical 
 Society secured the passage of a new law, and in 1887 
 of a codification or revision of all the medical statutes ; 
 but the law in this State is yet far from perfect, and 
 chiefly for the reason that there is no central body 
 having control of its execution. The most that the 
 medical societies can do is to punish those who prac- 
 tice without diplomas. They are powerless to exercise 
 any supervision over those granting the license. In 
 this regard, the statute of the State of Illinois is far 
 more efficient than ours ; and the Health Board of 
 that State has entitled itself to the commendation of all 
 who are informed of its excellent and efficient work. 
 
 But the County Society of New York has done 
 enough to show that even a poor law can be of ad- 
 vantage to the cause of medical education. The ex- 
 
LEGISLATION AND MEDICAL EDUCATION. 143 
 
 ample of its prosecutions has stirred up allied societies 
 to action, and has constantly called public attention 
 to the fact that the practice of quackery is not safe 
 within its jurisdiction. Adopting the new code of 
 ethics, it has shown conclusively to all who have 
 watched its course that its members have not had in 
 mind the suppression of any system of healing the 
 sick only because they disapproved the methods of 
 that system. It has recognized that the utmost limit 
 to which the law can properly go is to provide that 
 nobody shall practice medicine at all, by which term 
 the courts understand the use of drugs and instru- 
 ments, unless he has the slender educational qualifica- 
 tion prescribed by the statute. If possessed of that 
 qualification, the society concede that the practitioner 
 has a right to use whatever system may commend 
 itself to his understanding or lack of understanding. 
 
 The prejudices and jealousies that prevented the 
 passage of the Examiners Bills have been already al- 
 luded to. But, although those bills failed to become 
 law, nevertheless, when the present statute incorpo- 
 rating their points of agreement was obtained by an 
 alliance of all parties, a distinct advance was made, in 
 that the homeopaths and eclectics were convinced 
 that, whether the other societies agreed or not with 
 them in matters of practice, they were willing to join 
 hands with them in securing, if not the best legisla- 
 tion, at least the best possible under the circumstances ; 
 and that they were quite capable of bringing forward 
 in good faith a bill actually what it appeared to be, 
 and not secretly designed for the destruction of 
 schismatics. And it is very safe to say that it is only 
 
144 CHEISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 a question now of agitation of public and professional 
 opinion that is necessary in the State of New York to 
 bring about such legislation as will obliterate all sects 
 in medicine, not indeed by harassing the individual 
 practitioner or legislating against any system of prac- 
 tice, but by educating the public mind to the fact that 
 no one should be intrusted with the practice of any 
 system who has not a fair attainment in those branches 
 of study which all admit must be necessary to any one 
 expecting to devote himself to the treatment of dis- 
 ease ; and that every one is entitled to the name of 
 physician who is learned in his science, skilled in his 
 art, and capable in his profession of trying all things, 
 holding fast what is true, facing bravely the errors of 
 others, and admitting candidly his own, and, above 
 all, recognizing the possibility of honest differences of 
 opinion, which can be settled only by honest investi- 
 gation and kindly exposition.^ 
 
 If the law will forbid the practice of medicine to 
 all but those who give proof of a fair general educa- 
 tion and reasonable attainments in the branches of 
 sciences and medical study as to which there are no 
 " schools," it will do all that can be asked. Its licen- 
 tiates will be too intelligent to indulge, as a class, in 
 vagaries, sectarian medicine will disappear or dwindle 
 to insignificance, and the physician will be free to fol- 
 low where the torch of Truth lights the way. 
 
 1 Shortly after this paper was read, a system of State Examination was 
 established and still remains in New York. In 1893 the practice of med- 
 icine, dentistry, pharmacy, etc., were regulated by one Public Health 
 Law. The suggestions of this paper have been adopted. The medical 
 schools require a graded course of three or four years, and preliminary 
 education. The standard of medical education and the value of the 
 diploma have been greatly advanced. 
 
YI. 
 
 THE EVOLUTIOIS^ OF THE APOTHECARY.^ 
 
 The expression by Mr. Fox in an after-dinner 
 speech, when on his special mission to St. Petersburg, 
 of a patriotic belief that the " American language " 
 was destined to become the universal speech, excited 
 comment and curiosity. Matter-of-fact Britons re- 
 sented this appropriation of their mother-tongue as an 
 application of cuckoo methods to linguistics. Polyglot 
 Kussians yearned to acquire a new dialect. 
 
 Apothecary is one of those words in the use of which 
 American differs from English and resembles Scotch ; 
 for with us, as in Scotland, prior to the passage of the 
 pharmaceutical acts, if not now — it denotes one whose 
 business, of a trading nature, consists strictly in sell- 
 ing, compounding, and dispensing drugs, chemicals, 
 and kindred wares. The introduction into the stock- 
 in-trade of soda-water, cigars, and confectionery, shows 
 a tendency of the business to revert, even in great 
 cities, to its type ; for grocers and poticaries were for- 
 merly a single brotherhood, and were first incorporated 
 into one worshipful society. Every grocer had an 
 hT.od-qKTi^ by virtue of which he was a poticary. 
 
 In the fourth year of his pedantic and witch-hating 
 reign, James I. granted a charter to " The Ward ours 
 and Fellowship of the Mystery of Grocers of the City 
 
 > New York Medical Record, Sept. Ii, 1886. 
 
 145 
 
146 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 of London," making of them a body corporate. But, 
 as often happens where a child of his works secures a 
 recognized social status for his family, the lesser, or 
 junior, portion of this Mystery soon felt itself finer 
 and more mysterious than the entire fellowship. 
 Moreover, the blending of trades had its own incon- 
 veniences, easily conceivable to one who has been in 
 rural districts where it still obtains. Our own Galen, 
 who is heroic, once prescribed a very drastic remedy, 
 and a combined haberdasher-grocer-apothecary of 
 Westchester essayed to supply it. But the unusual 
 dose, which " no one out here has ever took," drove 
 him to a dispensatory, where for fifteen minutes he 
 groped befogged, searching if a city man had anything 
 in common with the ostrich. Only fear of not selling 
 the drug decided him to risk decreasing the population.^ 
 
 Perhaps episodes of this kind as well as a realization 
 of the need of special care and training for the safe 
 dispensing of medicines induced the " well-beloved 
 Theodore de Mayerne and Henry Atkins," his " dis- 
 creet and faithful physicians," to make those represen- 
 tations to James that induced him, in the thirteenth 
 year of his reign, to separate the apothecaries from 
 the grocers after nine years of union, and grant the 
 former a separate charter under the corporate name of 
 " The Master, Wardens, and Society of the Art and 
 Mystery of Apothecaries of the City of London." 
 
 But although it was through the intercession of 
 physicians that the apothecary, thus freed from the 
 
 1 Thus Romeo argued with his apothecary, hesitating to sell poison con- 
 trary to law : " The world affords no law to make thee rich; then be not 
 poor, but break it and take this." — Act v., Scene I. 
 
THE EVOLUTION OF THE APOTHECARY. 147 
 
 environment of grocerdoin, was able to set up his own 
 m^^stery, Ave may be very sure that the said Theodore 
 and Henry never intended bis evolution to go on until 
 he should become, as he now is in England, a general 
 practitioner of medicine. On the contrar}^, the new 
 charter provided that the rights of the College of 
 Physicians should not be abridged, that the college 
 should exercise a certain supervision over the company, 
 and that the apothecaries should consult the physicians 
 on the use and properties of medicine.^ The exclusive 
 privilege granted to the apothecaries by their charter 
 was this : " J^o person, free of the Grocers', or any 
 other mystery in London, except those of the Apoth- 
 ecaries' Company, shall keep any apothecary's shop, 
 or make, compound, administer, sell, send out, adver- 
 tise, or offer for sale any medicines, distilled waters, 
 compounded chemical oils, decoctions, syrups, con- 
 serves, eclegmas, electuaries, medical condiments, pills, 
 powders, lozenges, oils, unguents, or plasters ; or oth- 
 erwise in any way practice the faculty of an apoth- 
 ecary," etc., under a penalty of £5. The only limita- 
 tions upon this power were the said provision pre- 
 serving the rights of the College of Physicians, whose 
 licentiates might, under the statute, dispense medicine 
 in their own practice, and the further provision that 
 "approved chirurgeons " might enjoy their art "as 
 much as belongeth and appertaineth to the composi- 
 tion and application of outer salves or medicines only, 
 
 1" Proviso semper quod pro tot et tal' ordinationibus qu£e medicamenta 
 aut compositiones et usum earundem concernent' advocabunt de tempore 
 in tempus Prsesidentem et quatuor censores, seu Gubernat', Colleg' & Com- 
 munital' Medicorum London, aut alios jNIedicos Preesidentem proedict, 
 jiominand' pro avisamento in hac parte." Charter, May 30, Jac. i. 
 
148 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 SO that they do not vend or expose to sale to others 
 such salves or remedies, according to the common man- 
 ner of the apothecaries of London." But these pro- 
 visions were not restrictions, in any proper sense, upon 
 the monopoly of the trade. Physicians and surgeons 
 could only dispense medicine in their own practice ; 
 they could not deal in it ; and it would seem that this 
 statement of the " Encyclopaedia Britannica," under 
 the title " Apothecary " : " The members of this society 
 do not possess and never have possessed any exclusive 
 power to deal in or sell drugs," is incorrect as a legal 
 proposition. 
 
 The broad charter obtained for the physicians from 
 Henry YIII. by Cardinal Wolsey, giving their college 
 the licensing power theretofore vested in the clergy 
 alone, which charter Mary confirmed, made the College 
 of Physicians supreme in the whole field of medicine. 
 It could license persons to examine and advise the sick, 
 write prescriptions, dispense drugs,^ and perform sur- 
 gical operations ; ^ whereas surgeons and apothecaries 
 were narrowly limited in their respective functions. 
 Whenever an apothecary or surgeon attempted to pre- 
 scribe for the sick he stood in the peril of the law, and 
 the college was not slow to punish him. Thus in 1602 
 one Jenkins, a member of the College of Surgeons, 
 did "give judgment on urines and undertake cures." 
 
 1 See the case of the Attorney-General ex rel Apoth. Co. v. The Royal 
 College of Physicians (L. J., N. S., Ch. 30, 757), infra. 
 
 2 32 Hen. VIII., C. 40, 3, enlarging the original charier of the college, 
 recites that the science of physic " cloth comprehend, include, and contain 
 the knowledge o.f surgery as a special member and part of the same," 
 with which statement Dr. Davies, in his pamphlet on medical legislation, 
 compares this saying of Celsus : ** Illiid ante oinnia scire convenit, quod 
 oinnes inedicin<E partes inexce sunt, tit ex toto separari non possint." 
 
THE EVOLUTION OF THE APOTHECARY. 149 
 
 The Censors of the College of Physicians did then 
 cause his arrest, and his counsel obtained, thereupon, 
 a Avrit of Habeas Corpus ; but on the return of the 
 writ it appeared, in answer to the questions of Sir 
 John Popham, Lord Chief Justice, that Jenkins could 
 not justify his practice by the college seal, but could 
 only plead : " I practiced as a surgeon, and in that art 
 the use of inward remedies is often necessary." 
 Whereupon Sir John sent him back to durance, saying 
 substantially, as Goodall sums him up in his history of 
 the college : " (1) There is no sufficient license without 
 the college seal. (2) No surgeon, as a surgeon, may 
 practice physic ; no, not for any disease, though it be 
 the great pox." And Sir John then further laid down 
 six other propositions most disagreeable to Jenkins and 
 like sinners, but of exceeding comfort to the college. 
 
 Before the incorporation of the College of Physi- 
 cians the clergy were the source of license to practice 
 physic. Successive bulls of the popes had failed to 
 toss the priesthood out of this pleasant field of science. 
 The college, as a corporate entity, seemed not only to 
 have inherited the pride that marked the ecclesiastical 
 body and caused the angels to fall, but also to have 
 manifested it by self -mutilation, after the fashion of 
 religious enthusiasts from the time of Atys to our own 
 day. It was astraddle the bladder of professional 
 pride that the apothecary floated on a silvery sea of 
 shillings, sixpences, and half-crowns, to the humble 
 but lucrative position of counter-prescriber and gen- 
 eral practitioner, while the physicians, by their own 
 acts, were impotent to stop him. 
 
 The surgeons had been originally barbers and smiths, 
 
150 CHEISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 i. e., artficers ; the apothecaries had been grocers, and 
 still were tradesmen ; ^ so that the physicians, not- 
 withstanding their charter contemplated that they 
 should dispense medicines and treat wounds and 
 sores, enacted by-laws forbidding admission to their 
 body to any who compounded or supplied medicine 
 for gain, *' surgeons, drug-compounders, or any other 
 artificers of that sort, lest, perchance, if such men be 
 admitted into the college we may seem not to have 
 sufficiently consulted our OAvn dignity or the honor of 
 our country's universities, w^hich, however, we ought, 
 and we always desire, to attend with the deepest 
 veneration." They decreed expulsion to any member 
 of their college so far forgetting himself as to join 
 the College of Surgeons or Company of Apothecaries,^ 
 and refused to license members of either body who 
 did not first renounce membership therein.^ The re- 
 fusal of physicians to dispense even their own medi- 
 cines ; thus necessitating a fee for advice only, and 
 the expense and inconvenience to patients, especially 
 in the country, of calling on the physician and apothe- 
 cary, and possibly the surgeon, for a single case, were 
 sufficient reasons why, in the course of time, the 
 vender of drugs came to be consulted as to their use. 
 Here was the apothecary's opportunity, especially if 
 he had, as was commonly the case, a surgeon's license 
 also. He was not bound to charge a specified fee, 
 
 • They are so rated to-day in the Bankrupt Act. 
 
 5 See By-Laws of College of Physicians, as recast in 1687. 
 
 3'*Antequam quispiam in permissorum numerum admittatur, si forte 
 chirurgorum aut phannacopolaruni sodalitio olim donatus fuerit, sodalitii 
 istius privilegiis omnibus renunciet," etc. By-laws College of Physicians 
 1828. See Attorney-General v. Royal College of Physicians, infra. 
 
T^HE EVOLtJTlOJS^ OF THE APOTHECARY. 151 
 
 and the average man, though unwilling to pay for 
 medical advice, is ready enough to purchase a nos- 
 trum. We love to be humbugged in gross ways. A 
 remedy is tangible value for money ; if the swallow- 
 ing of it is followed by considerable discomfort, the 
 buyer is all the surer that it is efficacious. Advice, 
 especially if consonant with common sense, seems less 
 valuable. If a wise physician should prescribe exer- 
 cise and abstinence from rum to a victim of one of 
 the commonest forms of " malaria," his fee would be 
 paid grudgingly by one willmg to spend cheerfully a 
 tenth of his income in Golden Preparations and Cer- 
 tain Ague Cures, while keeping up, at considerable 
 expense, the cause of his symptoms. So it came about 
 that the apothecaries, unmindful of any gratitude 
 they might owe to the memory of those faithful and 
 discreet physicians who assisted their society into the 
 world, and regardless of the limitations of their 
 charter, fell to prescribing over their counters, and 
 from that proceeded to visiting the sick. Let us hope 
 that one cause of their success in gaining patients, as 
 set out by one Doctor Murett, in 1669, in his lamenta- 
 tion over their encroachments on the privileges of 
 physicians, was less important than he seems to have 
 thought it, for he says that physicians unawares had 
 been instructing apothecaries in their science by 
 " sending them to visit their patients to give them the 
 best account they could of the state of their health 
 and effect of their medicines, and of late years taking 
 them with them on their visits," so that during the 
 plague of 1661, " most of the physicians leing out of 
 town^^^ the apothecaries were enabled to "take upon 
 
152 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 them the whole practice of medicine." ^ This would 
 imply that the physicians of the period were not only 
 negligent of their duty in fair times, but that they 
 fled their posts in time of danger, a charge savoring 
 more of dyspepsia than of truth. 
 
 Whatever the causes were, the encroachments were 
 made and punished during the period between the 
 chartering of the company and the year 1703, when 
 the House of Lords finally settled it in the case of 
 William Kose v. College of Physicians, that an 
 apothecary might prescribe his own remedies as well 
 as sell them. This case is worth considering, for it 
 was the last important step in the progress of the 
 apothecary toward his present status as a general 
 practitioner of medicine. The facts were these : Wil- 
 liam Rose being an apothecar}^, and John Scale, 
 butcher, a sick man, the said Scale did send for the 
 said Rose, w^ho thereupon coming, did shake his head 
 and look as wise as the whole Faculty, at Avhich being 
 much comforted, the thrifty butcher did ask the 
 apothecary to send him something for his cure ; 
 whereupon the said Rose, not taking advice of any 
 physician, did send some boluses to said Scale ; charg- 
 ing therefor, but not for advice. The case does not 
 state the effect of the boluses, nor is it important ; for 
 whether the patient was killed or cured was not 
 material to the proposition of law, that it was alike 
 contrary to the form of the statute for an apothecary 
 to cure or kill. There does not seem to have been 
 any doubt in the minds of the judges when the Col- 
 
 1 Cited from Dr. More's Outline of Pharmacy in Ireland, in West. Rev, 
 April, 1858. 
 
1:he evolution of the aIpothecary. 153 
 
 lege of Physicians brought Eose up with a round turn 
 for this his performance. The case was argued several 
 times— for Kose, as the result shows, was pertinacious 
 —but the court, having true legal respect for statutes, 
 said, unanimously, yet with a bit of sting in the tail 
 of their judgment: "The making up and compound- 
 ing medicines is the business of an apothecary, but the 
 judging what is proper for the cure, and advising what 
 to take for the purpose is the business of a physician ; 
 therefore, let the distemper be what it will, the pre- 
 scribing and advising what is fit for it is the business 
 of a physician, though without a fee ; but that rarely 
 happens," and it was unanimously agreed that the 
 practice of physic in the meaning of the statute con- 
 sisted : 
 
 " (1) In judging of the disease and its nature from 
 the constitution of the patient, and many other cir- 
 cumstances. 
 
 " (2) In judging of the fittest and properest remedy 
 for the disease. 
 
 *' (3) In directing or ordering the application of the 
 remedy to the disease ; and that the proper business 
 of an apothecary is to make and compound or prepare 
 the prescriptions of the doctor pursuant to his direc- 
 tions ; and it was agreed that the defendant's taking 
 upon himself to send physic to a patient, as proper for 
 his distemper, without taking ought for his pains, is 
 plainly a taking upon himself to judge of the disease 
 and fitness of remedy, as also of the executive or di- 
 rectory part." ^ 
 
 I3 Salk, 17; 6 Mod., 44. Contrast this with the definition of the 
 modern New York case, Smith v. Lane, that makes the administration of 
 drugs and medicines, or the use of instruments the sole test of medical 
 practice. 
 
154 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 The appeal being taken to the House of Lords, it 
 was argued for Kose : ^ 
 
 " That the consequences of affirming the judgment 
 would be to ruin all apothecaries, for in that event 
 they could not follow their calling without the license 
 of a physician ; 
 
 " That constant usage and practice shows that sell- 
 ing a few lozenges or a small electuary to any person 
 asking a remedy for a cold, or in other ordinary or 
 common cases where the medicines had a known and 
 certain effect, where no fee was taken, could not be 
 deemed practice of physic ; ^ 
 
 " That such affirmance would give physicians a mo- 
 nopoly of practice to the great harm of the public ; 
 for it would lay a heavy tax on the nobility and gen- 
 try, who, in the slightest cases and even for their com- 
 mon servants^ could not have medicine without con- 
 sulting and feeing a member of the college ; it would 
 deprive the poor of any advice ; it would be prejudi- 
 cial to those suffering accident and taken sick in the 
 night who send for an apothecary, who would risk the 
 penalty if he applied the least remedy." 
 
 For the college it was argued that : 
 
 " By several orders of the college its members Avere 
 enjoined to treat the poor gratis, and to visit them at 
 their houses ; 
 
 " That when it was observed that these orders were 
 defeated partially by the high price charged by the 
 apothecaries for medicine, the college erected dispen- 
 saries in towns, where free patients could get medi- 
 cine at one-third less than apothecar3^-prices ; 
 
 "That in emergencies, not only apothecaries, but 
 any one else, might relieve his neighbor, but this was 
 no reason why apothecaries should practice at their 
 leisure ; 
 
 15 Bro. Pari. Rep., 553 (Tomlinson's ed.), 
 
 2 Compare Apothecaries' Co, v. Nottingham, infra. 
 
l^HE EVOLUTION OF THE APOTHECARY. 155 
 
 " That in light indispositions the patient generally 
 prescribed for himself, and the apothecary might law- 
 fully put up the medicine ; 
 
 *' That the most dangerous diseases begin with light 
 symptoms, and the apothecary is not bred to detect 
 tliem ; moreover, he is likely to sell his drugs plenti- 
 fully, and if he makes a mistake in diagnosis, to cause 
 great harm in what might have been remedied by 
 proper treatment." ^ 
 
 In spite of these arguments the Lords reversed the 
 unanimous judgment of the Queen's Bench. How the 
 vote sto.od does not appear, nor are the reasons from 
 which the conclusion was drawn given. Whether the 
 Lord Chancellor, sitting alone in solemn majesty, de- 
 cided the question, or whether the lay Lords were 
 affrighted at the prospect of having to employ a phy- 
 sician, as well as buy physic, for their common serv- 
 ants, we cannot know. What is certain is that the 
 judges were reversed ; and it was from that time on 
 settled in England that an apothecary may prescribe 
 as well as sell his own drugs. Two questions re- 
 mained open : Whether an apothecary could recover, 
 in an action at law, fees for medical advice,^ or write 
 a prescription for medicine not dispensed by him.^ 
 
 In 1815 the Apothecaries' Act (55 Geo. III., C. 194) 
 and in 1825 an act (6 Geo. lY., C. 133) amendatory of 
 
 1 The opticians of to day argue in like manner against the oculists. 
 
 2 A recovery may be had now for both medicine and advice ; but if the 
 jury think the charge for the former sufficiently great to include a fee for 
 the latter, they may so find. Toune v. Lady Gresley, 3 C. and P., 581 ; 
 Handey v. Henson, 4 C. and P., iio; Morgan v. Hallen, 8 Ad. and 
 
 E., 119- 
 
 3 This is still meat for lawyers. But it is certain that although under 
 the Apothecaries' Act, an apothecary must compound a qualified physi- 
 cian's prescription, he is not bound to compound one written by a fellow- 
 apothecary. 
 
156 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 it, were passed, revising and confirming the ancient 
 charter of the company. At this time the state of 
 general medical education in Great Britain was de- 
 plorable. The case of Kose had established the right 
 of an apothecary, Avith no other instruction than what 
 he might have picked up in his apprenticeship behind 
 the counter, to practice medicine. The powers of the 
 College of Physicians appear to have been exercised 
 rather too often against competent men, including 
 graduates of the Scotch and Irish universities, and 
 even of Oxford and Cambridge, as in Bonham's case, 
 and too infrequently against veritable quacks and im- 
 postors. It was no simple matter to get the license 
 of the college, and yet unlawful for the best-trained 
 man to practice in London without it. The physi- 
 cians seem to have forgotten that a charter, such as 
 theirs, has no other raison d'etre than the benefit to 
 accrue to the public from the creation of a class of 
 skilled medical men and the weeding out of the igno- 
 rant and inept. There was a little too much of the 
 spirit of trades-unionism in their enforcement of the 
 law, and a too feeble pursuance of the object of their 
 charter as recited in its preamble.^ The practice of 
 medicine had fallen to a very considerable extent into 
 the hands of quacks and incompetent apothecaries, 
 while competent men were hampered by artificial re- 
 
 1 " Cum regii officii nostri munus arbitremur ditionis nostroe hominum 
 felicitati onini ratione consulere ; id autem vel inipriniis fore, si iniprob- 
 orum conatibus tempestive occuramus, apprime necessarium duximus 
 improborum quoque hominum qui medicinam magro avaritios sure causa, 
 quam ullius bonre conscientioe fiducia, profitebuntur, unde rudi et cretuloe 
 plebi plurima oriantur, audaciam compescere," etc., of the charter of the 
 Apothecary Company; the act of 3 Hen. VIII., C. xi; of. the revisers' 
 notes to Ch. xviii. of the N. Y. Rev. Stats. 
 
THE EVOLUTION OF THE APOTHECARY. l57 
 
 strictions. The company, thus freshly reorganized, 
 set themselves about remedying this evil. The right 
 of apothecaries to prescribe being established, the 
 company licensing them now recognized that the right 
 to advise implied the duty of care and wisdom in ad- 
 vice to which medical training and instruction were 
 prerequisites. They accordingly required candidates 
 for their license to stand successfully examinations in 
 chemistry, materia medica and therapeutics, botany, 
 anatomy, and physiology, and the practice of medi- 
 cine. The effect was that great benefit accrued from 
 the act ; and this was frankly admitted by the physi- 
 cians who at first disapproved of it.^ Another effect 
 of the act was to increase greatly the number of 
 licentiates of Apothecaries' Hall as compared with 
 the college. In the decade from 1848 to 1858, the 
 year of the passage of the Medical Act, the licentiates 
 of the College of Surgeons numbered 4,915, many of 
 whom were, of course, apothecaries ; Apothecaries' 
 Hall licensed 2,823, and the College of Physicians only 
 242. These statistics appear to have opened some- 
 what the eyes of the physicians, and shown them that 
 the framers of their broad charter were wiser, per- 
 haps, in their generation, than were they who drafted 
 the by-laws. But it is a hard thing to admit errors ; 
 so that the college did not entirely relax its old rules 
 to meet the new crisis ; but in 1860, two years after 
 
 1 Thus Sir Henry Halford testified before a Parliamentary committee : 
 " I must do the apothecaries the justice to say that they have executed 
 that act extremely well, and that the character of that branch of the pro- 
 fession has been amazingly raised since they have had that authority. I 
 only do them justice when I state that, though I was very much against 
 it in the first instance." Cited in West. Rev. April, 1858. 
 
158 Christian science. 
 
 the passage of the Medical Act, while still preserving 
 in the by-laws the provisions prohibiting membership 
 or fellowship in the college to any one engaged in 
 trade, or the practice of physic or surgery in partner- 
 ship, or engaging to share profits on medicines with a 
 chemist or other person, they nevertheless resolved to 
 license a class of persons privileged to compound and 
 dispense medicine in their own practice. Thereupon 
 the apothecaries, who had come to believe themselves 
 alone entitled to this privilege, filed an information 
 and bill by the Attorney-General ^ against the college, 
 praying that defendants should be restrained from 
 thus amending their by-laws and granting such li- 
 censes. Mr. Roundell Palmer and others represented 
 the college, and the case coming on in April, 1861, 
 Wood, Y. C, in an exhaustive opinion, sustained the 
 right of the college under their charter to grant li- 
 censes in the entire field of physic. 
 
 ^Ye have thus seen the English apothecary not only 
 evolve from a grocer into a general practitioner, but 
 even acquire the assurance to attempt the curtailment 
 of the chartered rights of the physicians. But it is not 
 to be supposed that the apothecary, in our sense of 
 the word, that is to say, the chemist and druggist, or, 
 to use the English statutory term, the pharmaceutical 
 chemist,^ is entitled to prescribe his drugs in England. 
 The contrary has been held in two very recent prose- 
 cutions brought by the Apothecaries' Company con- 
 tending that what was very good reasoning in 1703 to 
 establish the right of Apothecary Rose to prescribe, 
 
 ^ Attorney-General v. Royal College of Physicians. L. J., N, S., Ch. 
 
 30. 757- 
 
 ■^ It is well settled in New York that an apothecary or druggist cannot 
 prescribe without a physician's license. 
 
THE EVOLUTION OF THE APOTHECARY. 159 
 
 was very poor logic in our day when applied to 
 Chemists Nottingham and Harrison. These two cases 
 show very clearly the law applicable to counter-pre- 
 scribing, as it has always been laid down by the law 
 courts, on both sides of the Atlantic. They merit, 
 therefore, full exposition. 
 
 In the Apothecaries' Company v. Nottingham,^ 
 tried in January 27, 1876, before Baron Bramwell, it 
 appeared that the defendant, although only a chemist 
 himself, was in partnership with a medical practitioner 
 duly qualified, to whom he always referred such pa- 
 tients as in his opinion were seriously ill. It did not 
 appear that he ever left his shop to prescribe, but it 
 was admitted that he was in the habit of giving ad- 
 vice over the counter in what he considered trivial 
 cases. In charging the jury the learned Baron said : 
 " You have to find a true verdict on the evidence, v)hether 
 you like the act or not? Perhaps you may think that 
 a person has a right to practice as he likes, whether 
 qualified or not ; or, on the other hand, you may think 
 that, whereas the poorer classes have no opportunity 
 of judging of or of ascertaining the qualifications of 
 the persons to whom they resort for medical advice, 
 the legislature should require such persons to possess 
 proper skill and knowledge, and to obtain a certificate 
 thereof. No doubt some people like to go to unquali- 
 fied practitioners so as to get advice cheap ; but there 
 is the law, and we have to observe it. If you think 
 this man has ' acted or practiced as an apothecary,' 
 
 1 .^4 L. T. R., N. S., 76. 
 
 2 bur italics. There are similar New York cases affecting persons 
 practicing medicine under the guise of selling drugs. 
 
IGO CHEISTIAN SCIE^^CE. 
 
 then you must find your verdict for the plaintiff. In- 
 deed, I feel some little difficulty in putting the case to 
 you, for on the defendant's own admission he says he 
 prescribed, and that if a person brought a child to him 
 suffering from, say diarrhoea, and asked what was 
 good for it, he gave the medicine ; if, however, the 
 case was serious, he sent the doctor. Surely that is 
 acting and practicing as an apothecary within the 
 meaning of the act ? " ^ Still more recently, in July, 
 18T9, this whole subject was carefully and learnedly 
 considered by Judge Matteran, Q. C, in the case of 
 the Apothecaries' Company v. Harrison.^ The facts 
 proved were that Julia Caddick went to the shop of 
 defendant, a chemist, said she was suffering from 
 weakness, and asked for something to relieve her. 
 Defendant asked the cause of her weakness ; she an- 
 swered that it was left on her after confinement. He 
 felt her pulse, looked at her tongue, and asked her to 
 describe how she felt. She did so. He made up a 
 medicine and charged only one shilling. Defendant's 
 council urged in his behalf every argument brought 
 forward for Kose, whose case, as we have seen, settled 
 the right of the apothecaries to prescribe. He also 
 tried to distinguish the chemist from the apothecary, 
 by the criterion that the former could only practice in 
 the shop, while the latter might visit ; but the court 
 said that the apothecary's right to visit was not clear 
 as a legal proposition. Judgment was given for the 
 company plaintiff, and the judge, citing the opinions 
 
 > See Mr. Justice Creswell's distinction between chemists, surgeons, and 
 apothecaries, in Apoth. Co. v. Lotinga, 2 M. and R., 500, 
 2 67 L. T., 232. 
 
THE EYOLTJTIOIS- OF THE APOTHECARY. 161 
 
 of Bramwell and Creswell, sujjra, concluded his own 
 opinion with these words, the applicability of which 
 in this State and County is obvious to one familiar 
 with their law and charities : 
 
 " I cannot, however, close this judgment without ex- 
 pressing my conviction that the act was intended 
 (which intention has, I think, been successfully carried 
 out) to have a beneficial action on the poorer classes. 
 The more scientific masters of medicine being other- 
 wise engaged, have no time to compound and dispense 
 their own prescriptions ; these, therefore, to save more 
 valuable labor, are relegated to the chemists and drug- 
 gists, who, if not a less highly educated class, are at 
 least a class who have not passed the necessary exami- 
 nation to entitle them to practice as apothecaries. 
 Now if the chemists were permitted to advise on the 
 ailments of the poor, as well as to make up their drugs 
 into medicines, the sick poor would lack the benefit of 
 that highest class of skill which the rich by their 
 purses can command. But this want has been pro- 
 vided for the necessitous at our public hospitals and 
 dispensaries, where the ablest physicians, surgeons, 
 and apothecaries in the land generously give their time 
 and best skill to all comers, on whom not only sick- 
 ness but poverty is pressing. The counsel for the de- 
 fendant argued that the poor would suffer by limiting 
 the action of the druggist according to the express 
 language of the act ; but to this argument the best an- 
 swer is given by the act itself, which protects, benefits, 
 and furthers the highest interests of the sick poor, by 
 pointing and directing them to our public medical in- 
 stitutions for advice with reference to their ailments, 
 and to the chemists for their medicines, when such 
 are required, and are not provided for by those noble 
 and charitable institutions." 
 
 Here, then, we leave for the moment our apothe- 
 
162 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 cary. Having triumphantly established, within less 
 than a hundred years from his abandonment of the 
 grocer, his own right to practice medicine, and having 
 as triumphantly blocked, for nearly two hundred 
 years, encroachments, exactly similar to his own, by 
 the chemist, we have seen him, within the last twenty- 
 five years, lay violent hands upon the venerable col- 
 lege whose members gave him his first start in life as 
 a tradesman of a distinct sort ; and we have seen him 
 beaten in this assault, planned in the interest of his 
 corporation as a trades-union, and not as the dutiful 
 public servant that every corporation should be. 
 
 The apothecary's history is profitable for instruc- 
 tion. Not its least obvious lesson is that so long as 
 the laws affecting the practice of medicine and the 
 incorporation of medical societies are exercised, in pur- 
 suance of their ostensible object — i.e.^ the furthering 
 of the public welfare by requiring of practitioners con- 
 formity to a reasonable standard of professional at- 
 tainment, those laws can be enforced ; but that, when- 
 ever such legislation is attempted to be exercised in a 
 selfish spirit of trades-unionism, for the benefit of 
 corporations and their members, and in disregard of 
 the public needs and convenience, the same laws will 
 be nullified by close technical constructions, and if not 
 repealed will fall into "innocuous desuetude." The 
 medical profession in this country has been free, 
 fortunately, from those arbitrary limitations which en- 
 abled the untrained apothecary partially to supplant 
 the physician in England, by making it unprofessional 
 for the latter to engage in the practice of medicine to the 
 full extent authorized by the charter of the college grant- 
 
THE EVOLUTION OF THE APOTHECARY. 163 
 
 ing his license. And there seems to be no adequate 
 reason why the apothecary with us should be suffered 
 to prescribe chalk-mixtures for "light cases of diar- 
 rhoea," bromides for " nervousness," and so forth. A 
 judge in ISTew York City said some time ago that the 
 court would take judicial notice of the fact that a lawyer 
 could be found in half an hour for any client. And 
 what with hospitals, infirmaries, dispensaries, night 
 medical service, and about twice as many well- 
 equipped physicians as lawyers in our cities, there is 
 certainly no crying need for laymen to render medical 
 assistance except in cases of emergency.^ 
 
 ' Such has been the spread of the hospital and dispensary system in New 
 York City of late years that many physicians have banded together to 
 correct what they allege is its abuse in furnishing free medical treatment 
 not to the poor only, but to those in moderate circumstances and even to 
 the rich. Some of these allegations if well founded are certainly startling. 
 
Appendix A. 
 
 THE CLAIMS OF CHEISTIAN" SCIEIS-CE/ 
 
 AS MADE BY ONE OF ITS EXPOUNDERS AND AC- 
 CEPTED BY A JUDGE. 
 
 To the Editor of the Sun : 
 
 Sir : — Last Sunday afternoon Mr. Carol N^orton lec- 
 tured upon Christian Science at the Metropolitan Opera 
 House. The building was thronged and the audience 
 fairly representative of the average intelligence and 
 education of this city. Although many present were 
 doubtless led thither by curiosity, a very large num- 
 ber, perhaps the majority, were honest believers in 
 the pretensions of Mrs. Eddy. 
 
 Mr. Justice JSTorton^ of Allegheny introduced the 
 lecturer as one of the foremost teachers of the new re- 
 ligion, as he undoubtedly is, and warmly upheld the 
 citizen's constitutional right to entertain any religious 
 belief, a right that it would be foolish for any one to 
 assail. 
 
 Unfortunately, no one alluded to that valid objec- 
 tion to Christian Science which would have com- 
 mended itself to so intelligent an audience, and may 
 be thus briefly stated : Mrs. Eddy and her adherents 
 
 1 From the New York Sun, June 9, 1899. 
 
 2 Judge Norton is not, as would seem from this title, a justice of the 
 Supreme Court, although thus entitled by other speakers at the meeting. 
 He is a county judge. 
 
 165 
 
166 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 pretend that without the use of those remedies or ap- 
 pliances shown by universal experience to be certainly, 
 probably or possibly adequate to relieve or cure sick- 
 ness and wounds, they can by vague mental processes 
 alone effect cures where medical aid is unavailing. 
 They even pretend that the mere reading of her book 
 cures all human infirmities, even cancer. If honest in 
 their belief, these people are willing to put, and do 
 put, all medical and surgical aid aside, substituting 
 therefor mental processes. If they have not this 
 Avillingness, they are dishonest accord.ing to their own 
 pretensions. If, on the other hand, they thrust aside 
 scientific aid, demonstrably adequate to save life, and 
 substitute therefor a treatment under which death 
 results, they are certainly guilty of homicide in some 
 degree, and this practice is dangerous to the public 
 health. From this dilemma there is no escape. It is 
 worth while, therefore, to ask every thoughtful and 
 candid person who has listened to or read the words 
 of Mr. Norton, Mrs. Eddy's foremost apostle, to 
 ponder carefully the manner in which that gentleman, 
 upon whom no imputation is cast, answers inquiries 
 that he himself solicits. Let him and his teacher be 
 judged, in all fairness, by their own words. 
 
 Mr. Norton offered medical proof that Christian 
 Science has cured locomotor ataxia, cancer and many 
 other diseases. This offer is not new. Mr. Norton 
 copyrighted a lecture in 1898, which he has been 
 delivering since with more or less variation. It was 
 printed in full by the Troy Record of February 28, 
 1899. On March 30, I wrote to him, apropos of that 
 publication, as follows : ~ 
 
THE CLAIMS OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 167 
 
 A copy of your lecture . . . has been sent to 
 me. You therein say that " regular medical confir- 
 mation of cases two, three, four, five and eight will be 
 furnished any honest skeptic." I am certainly a 
 skeptic, and, if I may say so, an honest one, and I 
 should be very much obliged to you if you will give 
 the names and addresses of reputable and competent 
 medical practitioners who will certify to the second 
 case, the cure of an incurable cancer; the third case, 
 the cure of a child suffering from epileptic fits from 
 birth, and having forty spasms a day at the commence- 
 ment of treatment ; the fourth case, a cure of '' con- 
 sumption of the lungs in the second stage of that dis- 
 ease ; " the fifth case, a cure of a patient ill with 
 typhoid fever in Paris and treated by a practitioner 
 in New York; the eighth case, the cure of a lady 
 forty years old unsuccessfully treated for thirty-five 
 years for " organic valvular diseases of the heart" by 
 physicians who pronounced the disease incurable. I 
 should like to know what persons made the diagnoses 
 in these cases, the course of treatment followed, the 
 method taken to exclude in the cure other factors 
 than treatment by Christian Science, and the present 
 condition of the person cured. 
 
 Mr. Norton replied courteously on April 3, promis- 
 ing the information. On April 18, politely explain- 
 ing his delay upon the ground of many engagements, 
 he wrote : " I will have the positive proof of my ut- 
 terances in the lecture that you read in the Troy 
 Record properly prepared for a lawyer's gaze within 
 a few days." On April 29, reminding Mr. Norton 
 that a month had elapsed since my request, I wrote : 
 
 "With the desire to be entirely fair in discussing 
 the theories of Mrs. Eddy and yourself I beg now to 
 ask that you kindly give me an early reply to the fol- 
 lowing questions for immediate use : 
 
168 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 "First— If Christian Science, as you say in your 
 Saratoga lecture of August 26, 1898, 'removes the 
 possibility of human and personal contention,' why 
 has Mrs. Eddy had so much contention concerning the 
 late P. P. Quimby and the copyright of her book that 
 she has threatened legal proceedings, and, I under- 
 stand, actually resorted to the courts ? 
 
 " Second — If ' matter ' is only erroneous thought in 
 'mortal mind,' and, therefore, non-existent in mind 
 illuminated by the right thought of Christian Science, 
 and if the material aids to the injured of drugs, band- 
 ages, splints, etc., are unnecessary and even harmful 
 for the proper treatment of physical injuries, will you 
 kindly tell me Avhat course you or Mrs. Eddy would 
 adopt in any of the following cases : 
 
 " (a) Walking along the street, a brick falls from 
 above and cuts your head, causing blood to flow ? 
 
 " (b) A child at table swallows a fishbone and is in 
 peril of strangulation ? 
 
 " (c) Your child is riding in a street car and a per- 
 son with confluent smallpox sits down beside it? 
 
 " (d) A child in the street is run down by a cable 
 car and bleeds from a severed artery ? 
 
 " (e) A baby falls from a window and fractures its 
 skull ? " 
 
 On May 4, Mr. Norton civilly replied, kindly prom- 
 ising to call upon me on May 8, with the promised 
 medical confirmation, and, as to the foregoing ques- 
 tions, said : ''The questio7is in your letter of April 29, 
 I will he obliged to shelve for the present^ desiring to 
 do one thing at a time. I think you will agree with 
 me that neither of us could expect to master the ideas 
 of Mr. Spencer or Mr. Darwin in a hurried or impetu- 
 ous way, no matter how honest our purpose." 
 
 Upon May 8, Mr. Norton did me the honor of call- 
 
 » The italics are mine.— W. A. P. 
 
THE CLAIMS OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE. 169 
 
 ing with the promised " medical confirmation," which 
 consisted in each case of a brief statement of conclu- 
 sions signed by a Christian Scientist. Of these sign- 
 ers one was said to have studied in a homeopathic, 
 and another in a regular medical college. No facts 
 were set forth upon which the conclusions were based, 
 no names were connected with the certificates that 
 would carry any weight with the general medical 
 profession or any body of trained investigators. Nor 
 would the evidence have been admissible in Judge 
 Norton's court. It is not meant by this to cast 
 the least reflection upon the honesty, sincerity and 
 good repute of the signers. Doubtless they are ex- 
 cellent persons, but their names are unknown in the 
 field of accurate investigation. In a very pleasant and 
 good-tempered conversation, Mr. Norton referred to 
 this actual case mentioned in my letter of April 28 : 
 A mother affected with Christian Science, but not 
 to the point of infanticide, called a physician to see 
 her child sick from eating stone-fruit. " Doctor," she 
 said, " I really do not know whether the stone is in 
 the child or in my mind." " Madame," he replied, " I 
 cannot undertake to prescribe for a stone in your 
 mind, but I can manage one in the boy." And this 
 he did very successfully with castor oil. Of this ma- 
 terial thought Mr. Norton, in flat contradiction of 
 Mrs. Eddy (" Science and Health," pp. 158, 159, edi- 
 tion of 1887), said : " How silly ! Of course, the stone 
 was in the boy. But there are fools among Christian 
 Scientists as well as among other classes." It was a 
 proposition upon which we unexpectedly found our- 
 selves in entire accord. He was understood also dis- 
 
ITO CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 tinctly to say that Christian Scientists made differ- 
 ential diagnoses, and would presume in the case of a 
 severed artery to put aside a surgeon and substitute 
 for his their own treatment. But in order that no 
 misapprehensions might arise on this score a letter 
 was written on the following day to his secretary, 
 saying : 
 
 I understood Mr. Norton yesterday to say that 
 Christian Scientists both make and accept differential 
 diagnoses of disease ; that if a patient came to him 
 complaining of a sore, he would make diagnosis to de- 
 termine whether it was cancer, abscess, ulcer, carbun- 
 cle, boil, or what not ; and so with diseases he would 
 make diagnosis between pneumonia, fever, appendi- 
 citis, etc. I further understood him distinctly to say 
 that if the clerk in my outer office should accidentally 
 sever an artery and there were a surgeon present with 
 adequate surgical appliances to stanch the flow of 
 blood, he, Mr. Norton, would assume the responsibility 
 of checking that arterial gush by the mental processes 
 of Christian Science, and would dispense with the 
 surgeon's aid and appliances. To my mind these are 
 very startling propositions, and I wish, in justice to 
 Mr. Norton and the cause he represents, to be entirely 
 sure that I apprehend him rightly, and I shall be 
 obliged to him or to you for a prompt reply on these 
 points. And I should also be glad to have replies to 
 the questions that I last submitted to Mr. Norton in 
 writing as to what he would himself do in the case of 
 certain accidents occurring in his presence, such as 
 the fracture of the skull by a falling brick, the sever- 
 ing of a leg by a cable car, etc. 
 
 To this Mr. Norton himself replied thus on May 29, 
 the italics being his : 
 
 You most thoroughly misunderstood me in relation 
 
THE CLAIMS OP CHRlSTlAK SCIENCE. 171 
 
 to what I said about deferential ' diagnosis of disease. 
 I make no diagnosis except along the lines of consist- 
 ent mental therapeutics. An expert in mental thera- 
 peutics will naturally know the character of this diag- 
 nosis. Discord is discord. Pain is pain. Disease is 
 disease. The principle that cures one, if rightly ap- 
 plied, will cure all. This is the beginning and end of 
 rational mental healing. In relation to mental treat- 
 ment for a severed artery, I said simply that I be- 
 lieved the proper application of mind power would do 
 the same work, if not better than any other method. 
 I beg that you quote me correctly, if you ever quote 
 me, and I most thoroughly disagree with the under- 
 standing you got about diagnosis. In reply to the 
 list of questions that you wrote to me in a recent let- 
 ter, I have but to repeat my recent utterances m a 
 letter to you, that I f refer to slieUe tkem^ because to 
 answer them would bring about wholly indifferent re- 
 sults. 
 
 Space forbids the publication of all the letters 
 verbatim, nor is that necessary. Mr. ISTorton has 
 been accurately quoted upon the point at issue. Every 
 one can decide for himself whether the questions were 
 fairly put and fairly answered. The learned Judge 
 who presided at Sunday's meeting should be eminently 
 competent to decide whether Mr. Norton would be 
 guilty of manslaughter under this hypothetical state 
 of facts : A child is bleeding to death from a severed 
 artery. A surgeon at hand with ligatures and all 
 proper appliances is demonstrably able to stop the flow 
 of blood. Mr. [N'orton thrusts him aside, saying: 
 " Here is only an error of mortal mind. My revered 
 mother, Mrs. Eddy, teaches, on pp. 158 and 159 ©f 
 
 1 ^i^^ 2 These italics are mine.— W. A. P. 
 
172 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 * Science and Health,' thus: *Mind can regulate the 
 condition of the stomach, bowels, food, temperature of 
 your child, far better than matter can do so. Your 
 child can have worms if you say so, or whatever 
 malady is timorously holden in your mind relative to 
 the body.' And at page 183 she says : ' Anatomy, 
 physiology, treatises on health — sustained by what is 
 called material law — are the husbandmen of sickness 
 and disease.' Accordingly, dismiss the surgeon while 
 I apply mind power. If I do it properly I will do the 
 same work, if not better than the surgeon." The 
 child dies. Would Judge ISTorton's belief in liberty 
 of conscience, which no sensible person wishes to 
 curtail, lead him to instruct a jury that a person 
 thus suffering a little child to bleed to death and 
 thrusting aside the aid that would have saved life is 
 guiltless of manslaughter ? 
 
 If it be said that Christian Scientists would not 
 attempt to treat such a case, it is admitted that the 
 whole solemn preachment of Mrs. Eddy, Mr. Norton 
 and their fellows is nonsense, a humbug, a snare and a 
 delusion ; that their alleged cures are due not to any 
 peculiar virtue of Christian Science, but to that action 
 upon the body of the mind in a certain class of cases 
 that has been known and acted upon both by phy- 
 sicians and intelligent laymen since before the time of 
 Ileraclitus : that operates for the voudoo priestess as 
 well as for Mrs. Eddy. 
 
 If it is depressing to see an intelligent audience 
 listening seriously to such teaching, it is equally 
 regrettable that a member of the Court should pre- 
 side at such a meeting, when it is considered that 
 
THE CLAIMS OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE. 173 
 
 cases may come before him involving violations of 
 the law-whether by homicide or failure to report 
 births, deaths and contagious diseases-under cover of 
 theories which he publicly defends, apparently, as 
 reducible with safety to common practice. Surely 
 this learned Judge knows that in the Mormon cases 
 the United States Supreme Court lucidly pointed out 
 the wide distinction between religious liberty and 
 license to commit, in the name of religion, acts for- 
 bidden by the law of the land enacted withm the 
 scope of the police power. 
 
 W. A. PUKEINGTON. 
 
 New York, May ig. 
 
Appendix B. 
 
 CHKISTIAN SCIENCE AND THE LAW.^ 
 
 To the Editor of the Sun : 
 
 Sir :— In a recent editorial quoting a number of the 
 excerpts from Mrs. Eddy's book lately appearing in the 
 reviews systematic effort was urged " to ferret out and 
 punish " Christian Scientists. The editorial omitted, 
 however, to show the state of the law and the diffi- 
 culties in the way of following its advice. It would 
 be unfortunate if the adverse sentiment toward Eddy- 
 ism aroused by exposure of its methods and the nu- 
 merous reported cases of its manslaughters should be 
 perverted or lessened by ill-considered action ; it seems, 
 therefore, worth while to make the situation clear. 
 
 No medical law of any State enjoins or prohibits 
 any system of medical practice. No law forbidding 
 the practice of Christian Science or any other system 
 of treating the sick, no matter how foolish, has been 
 proposed. Those who assert the contrary do so igno- 
 rantly or with intent to mislead. What medical laws 
 require, and in the opinion of the Supreme Court of 
 the nation and of almost every State properly require, 
 is that no person shall practice medicine before he has 
 pursued a proper course of study and furnished some 
 evidence that he has a fair knowledge of the human 
 
 » New York Sun, July 12, 1899. 
 
 175 
 
1T6 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 economy and the sciences relating thereto. This reg- 
 ulation applies to Eoman Catholics, Protestants and 
 Jews. It is objected to by Christian Scientists and 
 Spiritualists, who stoutly maintain that to require the 
 same education of them as of others engaging in the 
 same business is to infringe their liberty of conscience 
 and right to worship in their own way, although it 
 is undeniable that when a man has once obtained a 
 license to practice medicine upon proof of his scien- 
 tific attainments he may follow any system he chooses. 
 He may, if he see fit, rely solely upon mental proc- 
 esses. Every physician does largely take into account 
 and rely upon the effect of the mind upon the body, 
 especially in certain classes of cases. There are few 
 to-day who pretend that the high potencies of home- 
 opathy have any medicinal action, and it was a realiza- 
 tion that their effect was due to the patient's imagina- 
 tion that led Mrs. Eddy, as she says, into her own 
 extraordinary system. But homeopathists admit the 
 existence of disease. They often administer drugs as 
 heroically as regular practitioners — sometimes more 
 heroically. They use surgery skilfully. In fact, it 
 is often difficult to differentiate them from regular 
 physicians by their practice alone ; nor was there ever 
 a time when they did not claim to be called physi- 
 cians. The Eddyites, on the other hand, although 
 eager to dub themselves "doctors of Christian Sci- 
 ence," declare that they are not practitioners of medi- 
 cine. Mrs. Eddy, as was fully pointed out in the 
 North American Review for March, condemns not 
 only drugs, remedies and instruments, but even hy- 
 giene, exercise and bathing. Her method of curing 
 
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND THE LAW. 177 
 
 disease is first to deny its existence and then to argue 
 with it as one would argue with a Congressman. 
 Herein lies at once the danger of her crazy method 
 and the immunity of its practitioners from punish- 
 ment under the law of this and many other States. 
 A druggist who prescribes a proprietary nostrum or 
 so simple a remedy as rhubarb or chalk mixture may 
 be convicted of a misdemeanor. Our Supreme Court 
 has so held in several cases. But it also has laid 
 down in Smith v. Lane (24 Hun., 632) the narrow 
 rule that the use of drugs, medicines or instruments is 
 an essential element of medical practice, holding, in 
 substance, that the medical law was intended only to 
 protect those seeking treatment secundum artem from 
 false pretenders to skill in the use of dangerous drugs 
 or instruments, but not to protect from their mistake 
 or folly, persons who, lured by wonderful promises of 
 cure, submit themselves to the treatment of those 
 avowedly discarding ordinary medical methods. 
 
 This case, expressly approved of in Ohio, Ehode 
 Island and perhaps other States, is the joy and bul- 
 wark of Christian Scientists. It was held to be in- 
 applicable under the Nebraska and Illinois statutes ; 
 but from the last Legislature of the latter State the 
 Eddyites are said to have secured a proviso in the 
 new medical law adopting its rule. 
 
 It will be remembered that a letter in The Sun of 
 June 9, the accuracy of which has not been denied 
 to my knowledge, showed that when Mr. Carol Norton, 
 Mrs. Eddy's apostle hereabouts, was asked if he would 
 dare to exclude medical aid and treat severed arteries, 
 fractures, strangulations and contagious diseases by 
 
178 CHEISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 mental processes he twice wrote that he preferred 
 to shelve the questions. It must seem startling to a 
 layman that a druggist violates the medical law by 
 prescribing rhubarb, while a Christian Scientist who 
 *' thinks at " the severed artery of a child is exempt 
 from the operations of that statute. And perhaps it 
 may seem easy to rectify the anomaly by legislation. 
 Two recent experiments in this direction may be 
 profitable for instruction. 
 
 In 1898 a bill was introduced into the Massachusetts 
 Legislature defining the term " practicing medicine " 
 so as to include all methods of treating the sick and 
 wounded for hire, including, of course. Christian Sci- 
 entists and every sort of " healer." As was naturally 
 to be expected, Mr. "William Lloyd Garrison and Prof. 
 James — the latter of whom seems bent upon forcing 
 Harvard, ancient mother of scholars and conservative 
 men, to associate, in the public mind, with Mesdames 
 Eddy and Piper — lifted up their voices against the 
 bill. These gentlemen represent the best of the host 
 that rally to Mrs. Eddy's support ; sincere, educated, 
 intelligent, dearly loving to run a tilt with the ma- 
 jority, with Athenian fondness for new things and not 
 unwilling to fill the trump of Fame. Mr. Garrison, 
 therefore, who a short time ago — I think it is the same 
 Mr. Garrison — clamored at the top of his pen for aca- 
 demic rules to prevent the ingenuous youth of Har- 
 vard from inflicting or submitting to the cautery of a 
 boyish and rather silly initiation of a secret society — 
 Mr. Garrison, who has harrowed all our feelings by 
 pointing out the awful brutality of football, actually 
 obstructed the passage of the law requiring Christian 
 
CHEISTIAN SCIEKCE AND THE LAW. 179 
 
 Scientists in Massachusetts to have as a condition of 
 treating the sick the same education required of Prot- 
 estants, Catholics and Jews engaged in the same 
 business. And what was his delightful argument? 
 As reported bv the Christian Scientists, it seems to 
 have consisted" of two main premises: First, "John 
 P Kobinson, he, said they didn't know everything 
 down in Judee," or, in common English, "the physi- 
 cians don't know it all: therefore let all the ignorant 
 have free field." Second, homeopathy was formerly 
 ridiculed. The answer seems simple enough. Mr. 
 Robinson, whose dictum has been much over^Yorked 
 was ri^ht. In medical science we know a good deal 
 more than was known in Judee. Moreover, Mr. 
 Garrison himself doesn't practice all theories ema- 
 natino- from that district. He may surpass the rest ot 
 us but it may be doubted whether he gives to every 
 one that asks of him or turns away from none who 
 would borrow of him; and as for resisting what he 
 considers evil he has a perfect mania for it, using the 
 sonnet with deadly effect. It is true that the meta- 
 physical theory of Hahnemann that a drug has me- 
 dicinal properties when attenuated to a degree repre- 
 sented by figures that overwhelm the imagination, 
 and that such properties are further affected by the 
 number and direction of the shakes given to the phial 
 containing the potency, was ridiculed, and very justly 
 so as appears from the fact that few homeopathists 
 of to-day profess the theory, and fewer, if any, prac- 
 tice it, except, perhaps, as a form of mind cure. Prof. 
 James was not less convincing than Mr. Garrison. 
 With neat appreciation of the proprieties he pro- 
 
180 CHEISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 claimed his professorship at Harvard, thereby drag- 
 ging a reputable mother's name into company where 
 most of her offspring would blush to see her. Next 
 he took the bold, broad, not to say bad, ground that 
 the State should not regulate medicine at all, because 
 it is not a " finished science." This is the most de- 
 licious tid-bit of logic yet offered. If we are to legis- 
 late only about " finished sciences " our statute books 
 will soon be made up of enactments that straight lines 
 shall be the shortest distances betAveen points, and 
 that it shall be a misdemeanor for the square de- 
 scribed on the hypothenuse to exceed the sum of the 
 squares described on the other two sides. 
 
 In the same year Senator Coggeshall introduced 
 into the Kew York Legislature, at whose instance I 
 do not know, a bill that would have affected Christian 
 Scientists. At its hearing in committee so many 
 Eddyites, most of them in skirts, were present that 
 adjournment was had to the Senate chamber. Ap- 
 parently no one spoke for the bill and no one of note 
 against it. After the usual platitudes concerning 
 liberty and the customary depreciation of medicine as 
 an unfinished science, the Senator is reported to have 
 smiled, bowed to the ladies, and abandoned the bant- 
 ling upon Mrs. Eddy's doorstep as cheerfully as he 
 took it from its parent, whoever that may have been. 
 It was another instance of an enthusiastic and organ- 
 ized few carrying their point, while the unorganized 
 multitude was indifferent and apathetic. It seems 
 obvious, therefore, that attempts at legislation in this 
 matter should not be made ill-advisedly or without 
 due organization. 
 
CHKISTIAN SCIENCE AND THE LAW. 181 
 
 But does it follow that we are without remedy 
 under existing law? It would seem not. If it can 
 be demonstrated that a Christian Scientist has caused 
 death by excluding proper medical or surgical treat- 
 ment and substituting his mental processes — in such 
 cases, for instance, as those submitted to Mr. Norton 
 and " shelved " by him— it ought not to be diflacult to 
 obtain a conviction of manslaughter, if not of murder. 
 The societies for prevention of cruelty to children can 
 act in the premises. English courts are extraordi- 
 narily lenient with fanatics, but although Wagstaffe 
 escaped punishment prior to the enactment of the 
 Prevention of Cruelty to Children statute, that law 
 seems to have been passed in consequence of his ac- 
 quittal ; and recently another member of the "Pe- 
 culiar People," whose child died under a similar treat- 
 ment by anointing with oil in Apostolic fashion, was 
 convicted of manslaughter. If memory serves, Mr. 
 Gerry, some years ago, took from a missionary a 
 child whose fractured arm the father was treating 
 solely by such anointing ; and the Bishop forbade the 
 parent to go back to his post. There is no reason 
 why Christian Scientists should not be compelled to 
 report births, deaths and contagious diseases under 
 the usual penalties for disobedience. If they say that 
 it is wrong to compel them, who do not believe in 
 disease, to report its existence, once more the answer 
 is simple: Mrs. Eddy herself has reported in print 
 that her first husband, Col. Glover, died of " yellow 
 fever," that " insidious disease." 
 
 But after all, that which will destroy Christian 
 Science is the true exposition in the reviews and daily 
 
182 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 press of its absurdities, its vulgarities, its false pre- 
 tences as well as its dangers. It does not seem possible 
 that a sane or reverent mind or one with any sense of 
 humor could accept seriously the preachment of the 
 exceedingly shrewd, but very ignorant and ungram- 
 matical old lady, once of Lynn but now of Concord. 
 And it is safe to say that unless Christian Scientists 
 can win some temporary advantage by cheap martyr- 
 dom the time will come very soon when sane and 
 reputable persons, many of whom now accept the 
 doctrine ignorantly, will blush with shame to think 
 they ever could have been disciples of Mary Moss 
 Baker Glover Patterson Eddy, whose name seems to 
 be legion. W. A. Purrington. 
 
 July 10. 
 
Index. 
 
 Absent Treatment, 22, 30", 
 
 lOI. 
 
 Advertising, methods, (see Mrs. 
 Eddy). 
 
 ^sop's fable, ass and lion's 
 skin, 97. 
 
 Agamo-genesis, possible in " Sci- 
 ence," 47. 
 
 Agathon's dinner, 23. 
 
 Agnosticism, confounded with 
 gnosticism, 42. 
 
 Anatomy, study of condemned, 
 25, 47; a cause of disease, 
 172. 
 
 Anecdotes, of Bishop and Luna- 
 tic, 63; of Faith Cure, 38. 
 
 Afiimai Magnetism, condemned, 
 23, 47, 58, (see Cerberus). 
 
 Anti-diploma Law of Massa- 
 chusetts, 51. 
 
 Apothecary, meaning of, 145; 
 and grocer, 146; originally 
 dispenser not prescriber, 
 147, 148, 151; wins right to 
 prescribe, 132, 151 to 155; 
 in America, 158", 163; in 
 England, 160; English 
 apothecaries act, 155; ex- 
 aminations, 157; try to en- 
 join college of physicians 
 from licensing general 
 practitioners, 158; differs 
 from chemist, 158; contrast 
 between his legal liability 
 
 and that of a " Scientist," 
 178. 
 
 Argument against Christian 
 Science, remedy for dis- 
 eases, 21, 22; summed up, 
 63. 
 
 Aristophanes ridicules harmony 
 cure, 23. 
 
 Artery, Christian Science tested 
 by, 65, 67, (see Norton). 
 
 Astrologer, consulted when in 
 prison, 88. 
 
 Babies, daily ablution of, 24, 
 
 (see Children). 
 Baker, maiden name of Mrs. 
 
 Eddy, 40. 
 Barbers, ancient surgeons, 149. 
 Bates, General Erastus N., 52, 
 
 58. 
 Bathing, condemned, 24. 
 Baimscheidtisnms, death from, 
 
 75- 
 
 Bayard, last strict Hahneman- 
 nist in N. Y., 94. 
 
 Bentham on legislation, 128. 
 
 Bequests of Ch7'istian Science, 
 costly and martial, 59. 
 
 Berkeley, Bishop, tar-water the- 
 ory, 13; almost discovered 
 Christian Science, 18. 
 
 Bible, (see Scriptures). 
 
 Bishop, anecdote of lunatic 
 and, 63. 
 
 183 
 
184 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Boards of Exaininers, (see Med- 
 ical Examiners). 
 
 Boastf Illness, badge of charla- 
 tan, II, (see Mrs. Eddy). 
 
 Body, evolved from mortal 
 mind, 21; not to be cared 
 for, 24; seedling that starts 
 thought, 21. 
 
 Botiuiical School, Thomson's, 
 
 71- 
 
 Browning, Robert, poetry com- 
 pared with Mrs. Eddy's, 
 59. 60. 
 
 Buchanan s. College, compared 
 with Mrs. Eddy's, 54. 
 
 Bunions may be insanity, 21. 
 
 C. S. D., symbolic letters, 55; 
 first displayed by Mrs. 
 Eddy, 45. 
 
 Cabbage, eaten heartily by a 
 baby under Mrs. Eddy's 
 care, 27. 
 
 Ca^z, judgment of a, 25, no, 
 III. 
 
 Cagliostro, 67, 91; offer to swal- 
 low poison, 45" . 
 
 Cancer, cured by Mrs. Eddy in 
 one visit, 27; by merely 
 reading her book, 17, 166; 
 Mr. Norton's statement as 
 to, 167. 
 
 " Catnip and Christ,'' Mrs. 
 Eddy's profane compari- 
 son, 58. 
 
 Cerberus, devours Delilah's vic- 
 tims, 58. 
 
 Certificates, Mrs, Eddy's, 27; 
 evidence of their fabrica- 
 tion, 60", (see Mrs. Eddy's 
 advertising methods, 
 Death). 
 
 Charlatanism, 1 1 ; homicide 
 and, 127. 
 
 Charter, (see College, Mrs. 
 Eddy). 
 
 Chemist, English equivalent of 
 American apothecary, 158. 
 
 Childbirth, normal operation of 
 function, not disease, 66,, 
 120 ; danger of Christian 
 Science in, 67. 
 
 Childreti, cured of bowel com- 
 plaint, 27; "dumpishness," 
 61; hayfever and rupture, 
 30"; diseases of, due to ma- 
 ternal ideas, 25, 169, 171; 
 danger to, of Eddyism, 25, 
 26, 37, 169, 171; medical 
 neglect of, 26, 87, 88, (see 
 Peculiar People); exposure 
 of to contagion, 26, 65, 103, 
 120; not amenable to force 
 of suggestion, 103; inflam- 
 mation of eyes, to be report- 
 ed, 108; severed artery, 64: 
 104; 113; 168; protection 
 from cruelty, 181, (see Nor- 
 ton). 
 
 Christ, corner-stone of Mrs. Ed- 
 dy's church, 41; and catnip, 
 58; less than Christianity, 18. 
 
 Christianity, larger than its 
 founder, 18. 
 
 Christian Science, alleged cures 
 due to suggestion, etc., 66, 
 loi; no peculiar efficacy in, 
 64; basis of Mrs. Eddy's 
 church, 41; causes of suc- 
 cess, 18, 19, 66 ; condemns 
 all other systems, 24; dan- 
 ger of, 23, 29, 37, 177; de- 
 stroys Mrs. Eddy's edu- 
 cation, 42; differs from 
 homeopathy and eclecti- 
 cism, 117; discovery of, 17, 
 48, 49; "hopelessly origi- 
 nal," 47; inefficacious and 
 sham in surgical cases, 28, 
 64, loi, 171; only means 
 of cure, 23, 24; originated 
 
INDEX. 
 
 185 
 
 in homeopathic idea, i6, 
 icx>; practice of should not 
 be absolutely forbidden, 34, 
 115,180; pretences summed 
 up, 166; publicity will de- 
 stroy, 36, 98, 182; suc- 
 cess dependent on fees, 56; 
 therapeutic methods, 21,82, 
 84, loi; unimportant as a 
 religious or metaphysical 
 theory, 22, 63, loo, 102, 
 (see Manslaughter, Medical 
 Boards, Mrs. Eddy). 
 Christian Scientists, disingenu- 
 ous, of 104 ; liability of for 
 malpractice, 32, 33, 109, 
 114, 181, (see manslaugh- 
 ter); reports of contagious 
 disease and death by, 86, 
 108, 120, 181; held to be 
 or not to be practitioners of 
 medicine according to law 
 of the particular jurisdic- 
 tion, 31, 79 seq., (see cita- 
 tions of Smith V. Lane) ; 
 Mrs. Eddy's advice to, 56; 
 their comfortable fortunes, 
 57; their fees, 56, 83, 84; 
 reasons of their objection to 
 classification with physi- 
 cians, 16. 
 Church, Mrs. Eddy's, 41; civil 
 liability of Christian Scien- 
 tists, (see Christian Scien- 
 tists). 
 Clairvoyance, is medical practice 
 if coupled with material 
 remedies, 81, 85; con- 
 demned by Mrs. Eddy, 23, 
 
 47. 
 
 Cleanliness, discouraged, 20, 24. 
 
 Clergy, formerly practiced physic 
 and licensed physicians, 149. 
 
 Clothing, unnecessary to Chris- 
 tian Scientists, 25. 
 
 *' Coffee,'' Thomsonian remedy, 
 
 Coggeshall, legislative bill of 
 senator, 180. 
 
 College, (Mrs. Eddy's), 50 to 
 57; course of instruction, 
 staff and fees, 51, 52; 
 closed on account of pros- 
 perity, 55; or anti-diploma 
 law, 51; enormous success, 
 
 54. 
 
 College, Royal of Physicians, 
 chartered, 148; by-laws, 
 157; right to license, 158. 
 
 Conjugal Rights, Mrs. Eddy's 
 ideas of, 46, 47. 
 
 Copyright, Mrs, Eddy's zeal for 
 her, 47, 48, 49, t68; in- 
 fringement of declared 
 theft, 48. 
 
 Constitutionality of health and 
 medical laws, 14, 124. 
 
 Contagious Diseases, duty to re- 
 port, 31, 33, 86, 108, 120, 
 181; exposure of children 
 to, 26, 65, 103, 120. 
 
 Crous, Jno. M., his hydro- 
 phobia cure, 70. 
 
 Cures, due to faith of mortal 
 mind, 20; scandal, 78"; 
 Mrs. Eddy's book, 47; of 
 hayfever, heart disease and 
 insanity, 30"; " dumpish- 
 ness," 61; dropsy and in- 
 fantile bowel complaint, 27; 
 crushed foot, etc., 28, (see 
 Cancer and Mrs. Eddy's ad- 
 vertising methods). 
 
 Damages, (see civil liability). 
 
 Danger of Eddy ism, (see Chris- 
 tian Science). 
 
 Darwin, comparison of Mrs. 
 Eddy with, 168. 
 
 Death, certificates of, 86, 108, 
 (see Manslaughter). 
 
 Deformity, a belief, 22, 
 
186 
 
 INDE^. 
 
 Delilah, leads victims to Cer- 
 berus, 58, 
 Denf s case, 14. 
 Veniistry, a branch of medicine, 
 
 138. 139. 
 
 Diagnosis, physicians err in, 12; 
 immorality of medical, 24; 
 Mrs. Eddy's certain, 16"; 
 by Christian Scientists, 16", 
 loi; Mr. Norton's explana- 
 tion of, 65, 170, (see Dis- 
 cernment); need of, 22. 
 
 Diet, care in, condemned 16", 
 20; unscientific, 24. 
 
 Diphtheria, exposure of children 
 to by Faith curer, 26. 
 
 Diplomas, poor standards of 
 medical qualification, 128, 
 141; Mrs. Eddy's scruples 
 as to hers, 51; medical, 139 
 seq. 
 
 "Discernment," equivalent of, 
 diagnosis, 16". 
 
 Discord, the nothingness of 
 error, 23; is discord, 171, 
 (see Norton). 
 
 Discovery, Mrs. Eddy's Avas 
 "hopelessly original," 47. 
 
 Disease, (see Norton). 
 
 Diseases, conscious beliefs of 
 unconscious mind, dream 
 shadows and growths of 
 illusion, 20, 22; feigned and 
 self-limited, 66; non-exist- 
 ent, 21; to be argued with, 
 21, 22; cured by Mrs. 
 Eddy's book, 21; mortal 
 mind, 100; unintelligent, 21. 
 
 Disingeniiousiiess, of Christian 
 Scientists, 104. 
 
 Diss de Bar, the adventuress, 35. 
 
 Draughts, " harmless to scien- 
 tists," 25. 
 
 Dreams, Mrs. Eddy's history a 
 record of, 43, 44, 45. 
 
 Dresser, H. W., Arena article on 
 Mrs. Eddy, 38. 
 
 Dropsy, cured by Mrs. Eddy, 
 
 28. 
 Drowsiness, caused by Mrs. 
 
 Eddy's book, 3on, 61, 
 Drugs, use of shows lack of 
 
 faith in God, 24, 58. 
 Druggist, (see Apothecary). 
 Dying, restored to life, 28. 
 
 E 
 
 Eating, unnecessary, 29. 
 
 Eclectics, (see Schools of Medi- 
 cine). 
 
 Eddy, Asa B., marriage to Mrs. 
 Patterson, 44; first pupil of 
 Mrs. Eddy to display sign 
 of Christian Scientist, 45; 
 death of from poison men- 
 tally administered, 45". 
 
 Eddy, Ebenezer J. Foster, 52. 
 
 Eddy, Mrs. Mary Baker Glover 
 Patterson, autobiography, 
 37; advertising methods, 
 27, 28, 36, 6on, 61, 62; 
 admitted to church, 41; 
 advises disciples to charge 
 fees, etc., 56; admits that her 
 disciples are not fit to treat 
 surgical cases, 28, 64, 172; 
 boastfulness, 17, 18, 19,48, 
 49. 5O' 57 '• certainty of 
 diagnosis, i6n, 99; child- 
 hood early studies, 40, 41, 
 42, 99; compared with 
 Cagliostro, 67; with Lydia 
 Pinkham, 60; danger of her 
 teachings, 37; disparage- 
 ment and denunciation of 
 P. P. Ouimby and all sys- 
 tems of treating the sick, 
 23, 24, 38, 47; disdain of 
 Lindley Murray, 43; dis- 
 courages all study except 
 of her book and the Bible, 
 
IKDEX. 
 
 187 
 
 25, 54; Defines infringe- 
 ment of her copyright as 
 "theft," 48; experiments 
 on herself with poisons, 
 45"; forgets all she ever 
 learned from books, 42; 
 first person to interpret the 
 scriptures, 48, 49; gains in 
 substance, 50; forgets her 
 grammar, 42, 43, 60; high 
 potency homeopath, 16, 20, 
 IGO; " hopelessly original," 
 47; hears mystic voices, 40; 
 humorous sense, 38; "in- 
 telligent ease" in facing 
 about, 39, 40; ignorance, 42, 
 99; incoherence, 19; mar- 
 riage, her views of, 46; un- 
 necessary to procreation, 
 46, 47; to Col. Glover, 42; 
 to Mr. Eddy, 44; to Dr. 
 Patterson, 43; her mar- 
 riages were dreams and 
 shadows that declined, 44; 
 mathematical logic of her 
 teaching, 40; her methods, 
 21, 29, 82, 84, loi; 
 "mother," her title of, 40; 
 more than mortal, 40, 49; 
 her poetry, 18, 36, 43, 59; 
 her weird rhetoric, 58, 59; 
 her spiritual grace of divine 
 origin, 39; scriptures read 
 through belief in eyesight, 
 57 ; summary of her system, 
 100, 104; shadow not grow- 
 ing less, 50; separation of 
 years from her child, 43; 
 unselfishness in accepting 
 large fees divinely sug- 
 gested, 52, 53; teaches that 
 prayer to personal God is 
 injurious, 27; vagueness of 
 thought and vulgarity of 
 expression, 18, 19, 58; vin- 
 dictiveness toward P. P. 
 Quimby, 24, 38, (see 
 
 Agnosticism, Certificates, 
 Christian Science, College, 
 Pantheism). 
 
 Education, Mrs. Eddy's, lost 
 upon discovery of Chris- 
 tian Science, 42; unneces- 
 sary, harmful and distaste- 
 ful' to "Scientists," 54, 
 116; purpose of medical 
 laws to ensure, 115, 175; 
 (see medical laws and legis- 
 lation) in England prior to 
 apothecaries act, 156, (see 
 Medical Education; Health, 
 and Anatomy, Study). 
 
 Electricity, administration of as a 
 remedial agent is practice 
 of medicine, 81. 
 
 EryximachuSy cure of hic- 
 coughs, medical theory of 
 harmony, 23. 
 
 Exami7iations, (see Medical 
 Boards, etc.). 
 
 Exercise, disapproved, 20, 24, 
 47; does not increase mus- 
 cular power, 24. 
 
 Experience, medical treatment 
 should accord with, 13, 73. 
 
 Eyes, reading not done by, 57. 
 
 Faith, affects bodily con- 
 dition, 12, 20. 
 
 Faith Cure, ridiculed and con- 
 demned by Mrs. Eddy, 38, 
 
 47. 
 
 Fear, affects body, 12. 
 
 Fees, of Christian Scientists, 
 56, 81, 83, 113; aid cure of 
 the sick, 55; for Mrs. 
 Eddy's tuition divinely in- 
 spired, 52, 53; and un- 
 selfishly accepted, 43; as 
 element of medical prac- 
 tice, no. 
 
 Felo7iy, intent as element of, 'j^^ 
 
188 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 'J'], (see Manslaughter and 
 Suicide). 
 Fever, Mrs. Eddy's, 41; Col. 
 Glover's death from in- 
 sidious disease yellow fever, 
 
 43- 
 Fishbone, in child's throat as 
 
 test of •• Science," 65, (see 
 
 Norton). 
 Flannel, less protection than 
 
 mind, 25. 
 Food, not necessary to support 
 
 life, 29; depriving a child 
 
 of, criminal, 29. 
 Fractures, cured by Mrs. Eddy, 
 
 but to be avoided by her 
 
 disciples, 28. 
 Forgetfulness, Mrs. Eddy's, after 
 
 discovering her ' • Science," 
 
 42. 
 Frederic, Harold, case of, 33, 
 
 69. 
 
 G 
 
 Galileo, 12, 13. 
 
 Garrison, Wm. Lloyd, 178. 
 
 Gehazi, Christian Scientist, 
 compared to, 84. 
 
 Glover, Col. Geo. W., first hus- 
 band of Mrs. Eddy, 42, 43. 
 
 Godliness, mystery of unlocked, 
 by Mrs. Eddy, 48; no mor- 
 tal could have unlocked it, 
 49. 
 
 Gnosticism, confused with ag- 
 nosticism, 42. 
 
 Grammar, Mrs. Eddy's weak- 
 ness in English, 42, 43, 60. 
 
 Grocers, of same guild with 
 apothecaries, 146. 
 
 H 
 
 Hahnemannism, decadence of. 
 94, 176; differentiated from 
 Christian Science, 176; high 
 potency theory starting- 
 
 point of Mrs. Eddy, 16, 100; 
 properly ridiculed, 179. 
 
 Hale, Lord, (see Manslaughter). 
 
 Halford, Sir Henry, on apoth- 
 ecaries act, 132. 
 
 Harmony, Aristophanes and 
 Eryximachus discuss, the 
 somethingness of Truth, 
 substitute for physiology, 
 
 23. 
 
 Healing sick. Christian Science 
 has no distinct efficacy in, 
 64. 
 
 Health, treatises on cause sick- 
 ness, 25, 47, 172; is Mind, 
 100. 
 
 Health Laws, purpose of, 14, 
 (see Constitutionahty, Leg- 
 islation, Medical Laws). 
 
 History, useless except to illus- 
 trate truth, 46. 
 
 Holmes, Dr. Oliver Wendell, on 
 Berkeley, 13; Judge Oliver 
 Wendell, (see Manslaugh- 
 ter). 
 
 Hoineopathy, (see Hahneman- 
 nism, Medical Schools);Mrs. 
 Eddy's starting-point, 16, 
 20, 100; denounced by Mrs. 
 Eddy, 23; agrees with other 
 medical systems in accept- 
 ing the teachings of general 
 science and reality of sick- 
 ness, 176. 
 
 Homeopathists, aid passage of 
 N. Y. Medical Law, 95, 143; 
 not to be classed with 
 Christian Scientists, 117; 
 dissensions among, 94, (see 
 Schools of Medicine). 
 
 Homicide, (see Manslaughter); 
 compared with quack prac- 
 tices, 125. 
 
 Hope, aftects body, 12. 
 
 " Hopeless originality," of Mrs. 
 Eddy's discovery, 47. 
 
 Hmnor, Mrs. Eddy's, 38. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 189 
 
 Humbug, of Christian Science, 
 65, loi, 172. 
 
 Hunger, a mental impression, 
 29. 
 
 Hutitoon, Mehitable, hears mys- 
 tic voices call Mary Baker, 
 40. 
 
 Hydrophobia, Crous's cure for, 
 70. 
 
 Hygiene, denounced by Mrs. 
 Eddy, i6n, 20, 24, 47. 
 
 Ignorance, Mrs. Eddy's, exam- 
 ples of, 18, 42, 43, 48, 59, 
 60, 99. 
 
 Illinois, Medical Laws of, 82"^ 
 134. 142. 
 
 Immortality, already here, 29. 
 
 Incoherence, of Mrs. Eddy's 
 writings, 19". 
 
 Infants, folly of bathing, 24. 
 
 Insanity, no defence of Christian 
 Science, 32. 
 
 Iowa, (see Manslaughter). 
 
 Irish, happiness of emigrants in 
 filth, 24. 
 
 James, Professor, 178, 179. 
 Jenkins, case of, 148. 
 Jenner, 12, 13. 
 Jesus, (see Christ). 
 
 Keithley's case, 74. 
 
 Kerosene, malpractice by use 
 of, j6. 
 
 Kershaw's case, 69, (see Man- 
 slaughter). 
 
 Law, affects practices, not the- 
 ories and religious beliefs, 
 
 30, 34, 86, 96, (see Legisla- 
 tion and Medical Laws). 
 
 Laws, regulating medical prac- 
 tice, reports of contagious 
 diseases, etc., in New York, 
 106. 
 
 Legislation, Bentham on, 128; 
 favorable to Christian Sci- 
 ence, 33, 178 to 181; neces- 
 sarily imperfect, 128; need 
 of to control "Scientists" 
 doubtful, 33, 90, 114, 180; 
 not confined to exact sci- 
 ences, 180; obstacles to 
 medical, 137; purpose, 
 scope and limits of, (see 
 Law and Medical Laws). 
 
 Liberty, Religious, (see Reli- 
 gion). 
 
 Liability, of Christian Scien- 
 tists, (see. Penalties, Man- 
 slaughter, Christian Scien- 
 tists). 
 
 License, to practice medicine, 
 (see Medical Laws). 
 
 Lobelia inflata, Thomsonian 
 remedy, 72. 
 
 Long, St. John, quack convicted 
 of manslaughter, 31; ladies 
 of rank testify to his cures, 
 88. 
 
 Lovett, Ezra, death from Thom- 
 sonian treatment, 71, 72. 
 
 Lunatic, anecdote of Bishop 
 and, 63. 
 
 M 
 
 Malpractice, in medicine lia- 
 bility for, 30, 109, III, 181, 
 (see Manslaughter). 
 
 Manslaughter, American rule, 
 73; by Baunscheidtismus, 
 75; constructive, by un- 
 licensed medical practi- 
 tioner, 31, 72. 74, ']'j\ cases 
 of Keithley and Rice, 74 ; 
 
190 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 of Lovett and Thomson, 
 71, 72; Bemis and Pierce, 
 76; by recklessness, 32,72, 
 77, 114, 125; by substitut- 
 ing negations of Christian 
 Science for right practice, 
 32, 78, 114, 120, 166, 171, 
 181; duty to deceased ele- 
 ment of, 31, 33, 109, 112; 
 Enghsh rule, 33. 
 
 Hale, opinion of Lord, 72, 'j']\ 
 Holmes, opinion of judge, 
 73 to 78; intent to cure 
 consistent with criminality, 
 73' ll'y by negligence, 32; 
 offence against state gov- 
 erned by different rule from 
 that of civil liability, 112; 
 victim's willingness to die, 
 no' defence, 126, (see Sui- 
 cide). 
 
 Marshrosemary, "coffee " of the 
 Thomsonians, 72. 
 
 Marriage, Mrs. Eddy's to Col. 
 Glover a dream, 43, 44; to 
 Dr. Patterson a shadow 
 that declined, 44; to Mr. 
 Eddy a blessed spiritual 
 union, 44; unnecessary for 
 procreation, 47; celibacy 
 preferable, 46; convenient, 
 pleasant or a love affair, 
 46, (see Mrs. Eddy and 
 Conjugal Rights). 
 
 Martyrdom, cheap, a boon to the 
 Scientists, 34, 182. 
 
 Massachusetts Metaphysical 
 college, (see College). 
 
 Material History, only a dream, 
 44. 
 
 Matter, non-existent, another 
 name for mortal mind, 
 21. 
 
 Matteran, Q. C, on apothe- 
 caries act, 161. 
 
 Matthias, imposture and indict- 
 ment of, 34, 35. 
 
 Medical Boards of Examiners, 
 in New York, 14, 15, 135, 
 144" '. do not demand uni- 
 formity in practice, 14, 15; 
 suggested for Christian 
 Science, 16, 116, 117; why 
 not for Catholics and Prot- 
 estants, etc., 121. 
 
 Medical Education, (see Edu- 
 cation, Study, Diplomas). 
 
 Medical Laws, approval of by 
 courts, 14, 124; argument 
 against, 13; do not pre- 
 scribe one system of prac- 
 tice, 14, 15, 136, 140; en- 
 forcment of, 86, 114, 129, 
 130, 142, 162; petition for 
 repeal of, N. Y., 89; pur- 
 pose and scope of, 89, 114, 
 123 seq., 134, 137.144. 175; 
 widened by defining medi- 
 cal practice will include 
 Christian Scientists, 121; 
 obstacles to enacting, 137. 
 
 Medical Practice, (see Practice 
 of Medicine). 
 
 Medical Schools, (see Schools 
 of Medicine). 
 
 Medical Societies, function of, 
 
 133- 
 
 Medical Study, impairs natural 
 gifts of healers, 89; prereq- 
 uisite to license, 15, 85; 
 Mrs. Eddy's denunciation 
 of, 25, 54; legal regulation 
 of, 140, (see Education, 
 Study). 
 
 Medical Systems, (see Schools 
 of Medicine). 
 
 Medical Text-Books, cause dis- 
 ease, 25. 
 
 Medicine, administered by sci- 
 entists, 16"; practice of, 
 (see Practice); not an exact 
 science, 12, 119; right ot 
 physicians to dispense, dis- 
 puted, 147, 148; use of 
 
■■ 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 191 
 
 condemned by Mrs. Eddy, 
 (see Drugs). 
 
 •' Mediumship," denounced by 
 Mrs. Eddy, 23. 
 
 Mental stimulus, affects body, 
 12. 
 
 Mesmerism, denounced by Mrs. 
 Eddy, 23. 
 
 Midwifery, a branch of medi- 
 cine, 139. 
 
 Mind, (see Mortal Mind); regu- 
 lates your childs stomach, 
 25. 
 
 Mind cure, denounced by Mrs. 
 Eddy, 23, 47. 
 
 Misdemeanor, unlicensed prac- 
 tice of medicine may be in 
 U. S., 36; is in New York, 
 106; is not in England, 31; 
 practice of Christian Sci- 
 ence is not in N. Y., but is 
 in Nebraska, 106. 
 
 Missouri, (see Practice of Medi- 
 cine). 
 
 Mormon cases, 64, 86, 87. 
 
 Mortal Mind, does not exist, 
 29; another name for mat- 
 ter, 21; is disease, 100. 
 
 " Mother," title of Mrs. Eddy, 
 40. 
 
 Mothers, cause diseases of chil- 
 dren by their thoughts, 25, 
 169, 171. 
 
 Mother's Darling, and Evening 
 Prayer, poems of Mrs. 
 Eddy, 43, 60. 
 
 Movement cure, denounced, 
 
 23. 47- 
 Murder, malpractice may be, 
 
 31, 78, 120. 
 Murray, Lindley, grammar of, 
 
 42, 43, (see Grammar). 
 
 N 
 
 Nebraska, medical practice in 
 by " Scientists," 82, 
 
 Negligence t (see Manslaughter). 
 
 New York, Boards of medical 
 examiners, 14, 15, 133, 
 144"; legislature of, buys 
 hydrophobia cure, 70; 
 practice of medicine in, 31, 
 72, 82, (see Citations of 
 Smith V. Lane). 
 
 Nexus, importance of the, 46. 
 
 Norton, Mr. Carrol, eulogy of 
 Mrs. Eddy, 39; defines 
 disease as disease, pain as 
 pain, etc., 171; idea of 
 diagnosis, 65, 171; lack of 
 faith in his own teachings, 
 64; lecture in Metropoli- 
 tan Opera House, 64, 165; 
 offers medical proof of cer- 
 tain cures, 167; scouts idea 
 that a child's malady is in 
 the maternal mind, 169; 
 "shelves" test questions, 
 104, 113, 168, 169, 171; 
 suggests comparison of 
 Eddyism with philosophy 
 of Darwin and Spencer, 
 168. 
 
 Ohio, practice of medicine in, 
 82. 
 
 Onnonde, Marchioness of testi- 
 fies for St. John Long, 89. 
 
 Osteopathy, 81. 
 
 Pain, a belief without adequate 
 cause, 2t; is pain, 171. 
 
 Paijtd, Dr. H. M., reference to 
 Mrs. Eddy's homeopathy, 
 2on. 
 
 Pantheism, Mrs. Eddy's under- 
 standing of, 42. 
 
 Patterson, Dr., Mrs. Eddy's 
 second husband, 43, 44. 
 
192 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 "Peculiar People," deaths of 
 children under their neg- 
 lect, 87, 88. 
 
 Penalties, amenability of "Scien- 
 tists " malpracticing, etc., 
 to, 31, 33, 109, 114, 181, 
 (see Misdemeanor, and 
 Practice of Medicine). 
 
 Petition, for repeal of N, Y. 
 Medical Law, 89. 
 
 Pharmacy, a branch of medi- 
 cine, 138, 139. 
 
 Physical sejise, is error and 
 shadow, 50, 
 
 Physic, less exact than surgery, 
 136. 
 
 Physician, dispensing of drugs 
 by, 147 to 150; duty to ex- 
 amine theories candidly 
 without prejudice, 96, 137; 
 may follow any system, 15; 
 hability for malpractice, 31, 
 33, 109, III, (see Man- 
 slaughter); not infallible, 
 12, 13, 119; should not be 
 consulted by Christian 
 Scientists, 23; 
 
 Physiology, anti-Christian, 23; 
 a cause of disease, 172; 
 should be replaced by har- 
 mony, 23. 
 
 Pinkhain, Lydia, Mrs. Eddy 
 compared to, 60. 
 
 Placenta pravia, 67. 
 
 Poetry, Mrs. Eddy's 18", 36,43, 
 
 59- 
 Poison, mental administration of 
 
 to Mr. Eddy, Mrs. Eddy's 
 
 immunity to, Cagliostro's 
 
 offer to swallow, 45. 
 Police power, medical practice 
 
 regulated under, 14. 
 Policy of enacting laws against 
 
 Christian Science, 90. 
 Pop ham, Sir John, on medical 
 
 practice of apothecary, 149. 
 Practice of Medicine, by 
 
 apothecaries, 132, 148, 
 151, 155; defined in Eng- 
 land, 160; in general, 106, 
 108; Illinois, 82n; Indiana, 
 80; Maine, Michigan and 
 Missouri, 81; Nebraska, 
 82; New York, 79; Ohio, 
 82, 107; Rhode Island, 84, 
 107; Wisconsin, 81; Mrs. 
 Eddy's opinion of, 23. 
 
 Prayer, to a personal God is in- 
 jurious in science, 27. 
 
 Predestination, rejected by Mrs. 
 Eddy in childhood, 41. 
 
 Prevention of Medical aid, (see 
 Manslaughter). 
 
 Prophylaxis, of Christian Sci- 
 ence, 25. 
 
 Public Health Laws, (see Med- 
 ical Laws) in New York, 
 106, 108. 
 
 Publicity, will destroy Christian 
 Science, 36, 98, 121, 182. 
 
 Puffendorf, cites Cadis' judg- 
 ment, 25, no. 
 
 Quacks, their argument against 
 Medical Laws, 13; com- 
 pared with homicides, 125; 
 pretences to peculiar gifts, 
 85. 
 
 Quackery, (see Charlatan); not 
 forbidden by law, in; in- 
 crease of, in England, after 
 Rose's case, 132. 
 
 Quarles, on the good fortune of 
 physicians, 102. 
 
 Quimby, P. P., disparaged by 
 his former patient, Mrs. 
 Eddy, 24, 38. 
 
 Ram-cats, Thomsonian 
 edy, 71. 
 
 rem- 
 
INDEX. 
 
 193 
 
 Readi7ig, by belief in eyesight, 
 
 Recklessness, in treating the 
 sick, (see Manslaughter, 
 Malpractice.Civil Liability); 
 of " Scientists," 30". 
 
 Registration, of physicians, 141. 
 
 Religion, not to be used to cloak 
 crime, lust and greed, opin- 
 ion of U. S. Supreme Court, 
 30, 86, 87; of Nebraska 
 Court, 84; Mrs. Eddy's, 
 unimportant apart from its 
 dangerous practices, 22, 63, 
 100, 102; not a test of med- 
 ical skill, 13, 121; not as- 
 sailed by preventing the ig- 
 norant from treating the 
 sick, 63. 
 
 Retrospection ajid Introspection, 
 Mrs. Eddy's autobiography, 
 Z7- 
 
 Rhetoric, Mrs. Eddy's wonder- 
 ful, 58. 
 
 Rhymes, Mrs. Eddy's, (see 
 Poetry). 
 
 Rubbing, denounced, 24. 
 
 s 
 
 Scandal Cure, 78". 
 
 Science and Health with Key to 
 the Scriptures, deeply dip- 
 ping into last edition quali- 
 fies to cure disease, 52; 
 only text-book except Bible, 
 54; drowsiness and vomit- 
 ing caused by reading, 
 30", 61. 
 
 Science of Man, Mrs. Eddy's 
 first book, cures from read- 
 ing it, copyright infringed, 
 47. 
 
 «• Schools " of Medicine, disap- 
 pearance of differences with 
 growth of exact knowledge, 
 144; equality before the 
 
 law, 134; differ from Chris- 
 tian Science in accepting 
 results of learning and ex- 
 perience, 117, 136. 
 Scriptures, inadequate prior to 
 Mrs. Eddy's discovery, 48. 
 Scruples, Mrs. Eddy's as to 
 
 diplomas, 51. 
 Senior, twice convicted of man- 
 slaughter of his children by 
 refusing medical aid, 88". ' 
 Senses, their evidence not to be 
 heeded, 57; error and 
 shadow, 50. 
 Sham, of Christian Science con- 
 fessed by Mrs. Eddy, 28, 
 65, loi, 172. 
 Sickness is inharmony, 23, (see 
 
 Disease). 
 Simon, the sorcerer, Christian 
 Scientists compared to, 82. 
 Slander, to say a licensed prac- 
 titioner has killed a patient 
 by malpractice, 74. 
 Smallpox, as a test of Christian 
 Science, 65, 168, (see 
 Norton). 
 Socrates, 12, 13; ridicules pre- 
 sumption of ignorance, 118. 
 Soul, is substance, 50. 
 Spencer, Herbert, comparison 
 of Mrs. Eddy with, 168. 
 itualism, denounced, 23. 
 State Boards, of Medical Ex- 
 aminers, (see Medical 
 Boards); suggested for 
 "Scientists," 16. 116, 117. 
 Strangulation, of child a test of 
 "Science," 65, 168, (see 
 Norton). 
 Study, of medicine causes dis- 
 ease, 25; of general science 
 condemned, 54; of Bible 
 with science and health all 
 sufficient, 54. 
 Substance, is soul, 50. 
 Suggestion, effects "cures" of 
 
194 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Christian Science, loi, 104; 
 
 children not subject to, 103; 
 
 eHminated by Mrs. Eddy, 
 
 104. 
 Suicide, a felony to attempt, or 
 
 aid, or abet, 33, 1 12. 
 Surgeons, once barbers, 149. 
 Surgery, more exact than 
 
 physic, 136; to be avoided 
 
 by Christian Scientists, 28. 
 Systems, of medicine, (see 
 
 Schools). 
 
 TAR-water, Bishop Berkeley's, 
 
 Tenement house, children ex- 
 posed to contagion in, 26. 
 
 Test questions, in Christian 
 Science, (see Norton). 
 
 Theft, infringement of Mrs. 
 Eddy's copyright declared 
 to be, 48. 
 
 Therapeutics, no system favored 
 by law, 14, 15, 136; should 
 be based on experience, 
 112; Mrs. Eddy's system 
 of, 21, 22, 10 
 
 Thinkers, their time has come, 
 
 15- 
 
 Thirst, a mental impression, 29. 
 
 Thomson, Samuel, founder of 
 " Botanic School," 71. 
 
 Trades-union spirit, not scien- 
 tific, 133, 156. 
 
 Vagueness, of Eddyism, 19". 
 Vis medicatrix natures, force 
 
 of, 12, 66. 
 Vomiting, due to reading 
 
 Science and Health, 30, 
 
 61. 
 
 W 
 
 Well-my-gristle , Thomsonian 
 
 remedy, 71. 
 Woodbury, Mrs. J. C, article 
 
 in Arena, 38. 
 Worms, caused in children by 
 
 maternal thought, 25. 
 
 Yellow fever, an 
 ease," 41. 
 
 insidious dis- 
 

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