CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 755 



The reduction and regulation of appropriations as outlined can 

 not be classed as a radical reform, and will work no hardship upon 

 any dependent person who is a proper charge upon the city. The 

 saving to the taxpayers, if the plan I have suggested is adopted, 

 will approximate one million dollars in 1900, and a steady reduc- 

 tion of expenditures for charitable work should continue for sev- 

 eral years to come. 



CHRISTIAN SCIENCE FROM A PHYSICIAN'S POINT 



OF VIEW. 



BY JOHN B. HUBEE, A. M., M. D. 



/CHRISTIAN SCIENCE is stated to be a religious system which 

 V-^ was " discovered," in 1866, by Mrs. Mary Baker Gr. Eddy, a 

 lady now living in the vicinity of Boston, Mass., who has passed 

 her eightieth year, and who is called by her followers the " Moth- 

 er of the Christian Science Church," or " Mother Mary." Mrs. 

 Eddy has formulated Christian Science in a book entitled Science 

 and Health, with Key to the Scriptures, in which book are to be 

 found the principles upon which this system rests. We are told 

 that to him who studies this book reverently and conscientiously 

 there will be revealed " the Truth," for which man has been search- 

 ing without avail since the beginning of his existence; that the 

 faithful student will find in Christian Science an infallible guide 

 for the conduct of life in all its phases; and that the Christian 

 Scientist has the power to heal without any therapeutic means, 

 other than that of the influence of mind upon mind, all imaginable 

 ills, surgical or medical, which afflict mankind and the lower ani- 

 mals. Mrs. Eddy tells us that she and her followers have had 

 this power transmitted to them from Jesus Christ, and that they 

 are able to heal the sick and to perform miracles as He is said to 

 have done. In Science and Health all religious systems other than 

 " Christian Science " are held to have been erroneous and per- 

 nicious in their influence upon mankind, and the practice of medi- 

 cine, as it is taught in the medical colleges, is considered to be 

 hurtful rather than helpful to humanity, and to have increased 

 disease rather than ameliorated human suffering. 



It is said that in 1898 there were in the Greater City of New 

 York three thousand Christian Scientists and seven Christian Sci- 

 ence churches. The whole number of Christian Scientists is de- 

 clared to be one million, of whom one hundred thousand, it is said, 

 are engaged in the business of " healing," and are called " healers." 

 The movement has been and is spreading day by day. 



