8o2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and has no time for medical consultation." As president of 

 the " Massacliusetts Metaphysical College," she doubtless feels 

 that her time is more profitably used, and her luxurious home 

 on Boston's finest avenue testifies to the magnitude of the 

 profits. 



If Mrs. Eddy can claim that failures are sufiicient proof that 

 the healer does not practice the right method, she must likewise 

 accept success as sufiicient proof that the healer does practice the 

 right method. Now there are several different methods. Although 

 she denounces as heresy any deviation from her doctrine, yet some 

 of her former disciples, who do not hold that every person's mind 

 is a part of the Divine Being, have success in healing that will 

 compare favorably with that of the faithful. Hence this part of 

 Mrs. Eddy's doctrine is of no consequence in healing. These 

 heretics prefer to be called " mental healers." Then there is the 

 faith-cure, with its "Beth-shan," in London, its conventions at 

 Old Orchard, Maine, and its sanctuary in Jersey City. It has also 

 been used somewhat in England by the Salvation Army. The 

 theory of the faith-curers is simply an extension of the Chris- 

 tian's belief in the eflicacy of prayer for the sick. They do not 

 assert that matter is unreal, and that nothing exists but mind, 

 yet they perform enough cures to show that this part also of 

 Mrs. Eddy's doctrine is of no consequence in the practice of 

 healing. 



A variety of faith-healing has been practiced in the Roman 

 Catholic Church for hundreds of years. There is plenty of testi- 

 mony, as good as the Christian Scientists can furnish, that per- 

 sons have been healed by the aid of the prayers of priests and 

 bishops, by touching the bones or other relics of saints, or by 

 bathing in the water of sacred springs. A noted locality for such 

 cures at the present time is the grotto of Lourdes in France. The 

 Mormons are not behind the Catholics or Protestants in making 

 cures. One of the chief methods employed by their missionaries 

 in gaining converts is to pray with the sick, who often recover 

 and join the sect. The cures credited to the wonderful Dr. New- 

 ton, who flourished twenty-five to thirty years ago, as well as 

 those which gained Dr. Perkins's " tractors " their fame at the 

 close of the last century, must be counted as mental healing. 

 Hence, there have been successful mind-curers before Mrs, Eddy, 

 although their theories agreed in little or nothing with hers. In 

 fact, from the teachings of one of the irregular healers who pre- 

 ceded her, Mr. P. P. Quimby, Mrs. Eddy is charged with appro- 

 priating everything of importance in her system. This charge 

 she indignantly denies. 



Moreover, cures have been effected when healer and patient 

 held a belief that was demonstrably false. Prince Radzivil, of 



