2i2 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



should grant this at the start, it would not alter the situation much, 

 for imaginary diseases are often as " afflictive " to the sufferer, and 

 more annoying and expensive to the family, than actual ailments, and 

 a debt of gratitude is due to any method of removing them. 



The next objection is that the patients would have recovered any- 

 way if let alone. Suppose this is also conceded; the position is un- 

 changed, for the chances are that the disorder would not have been 

 left to the curative processes of nature, but would have been dosed 

 with various poisonous patent medicines, with dangerous results. Here 

 christian science is beneficial by preventing interference. But, after 

 all, is this true, especially of chronic cases? We may well ask why, 

 if nature alone was able to cure the case, it remained unbenefited for 

 years, but quickly recovered as soon as mental healing gave its assist- 

 ance. 



The unexplained instances are jauntily disposed of by attributing 

 them to " suggestion," but giving a thing a name is not solving the 

 problem, and, while there are reams in the text-books upon the effects 

 of suggestion, few seem to attempt to say exactly what it is or how it 

 acts. 



The whole subject of mental therapeutics is so discredited that 

 the medical profession hesitates to treat it, but, really, few fields will 

 more quickly repay the application of modern scientific methods. 

 Light even appears in the dark maze as soon as we begin to classify 

 the more reliable cures, as distinguished from those not sufficiently 

 verified. The great majority are disorders of the nervous system, in- 

 cluding under this head certain functional affections, and many more 

 are dependent, directly or indirectly, upon morbid conditions of the 

 circulatory system. 



Mental healing has not 3 r et demonstrated its power to cure diseases 

 caused by microorganisms, like malaria, pneumonia, diphtheria, yellow 

 fever and many others, and its adherents admit that it is not effective 

 in surgical cases or those where there has been an actual destruction 

 of the tissues. Christian scientists are often taunted by their friends 

 with being unable to cure common colds (caused by bacteria), and 

 with going to the dentist, and with reason, for both these are beyond 

 their powers. They would lose nothing, and would allay much hos- 

 tility, if they would frankly admit that, for the present at least, these 

 complaints are beyond their scope, and would confine themselves to 

 more successful fields, instead of claiming that they are able to " dem- 

 onstrate " over cancer and smallpox. 



The community has a right to protect itself, and should take 

 measures to prevent individuals from endangering themselves and 

 their neighbors by refusing medical aid in even the minor contagious 

 and infectious maladies. It is somewhat surprising that the able 



