358 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



THE EMMANUEL MOVEMENT FEOM A MEDICAL 



VIEW-POINT 



By Dr. HOMER GAGE 



WOECESTEE, MASS. 



IN matters pertaining to the preservation of health, and the cure of 

 disease, it is a fact of common observation that people in general, 

 and educated people in particular, are very apt to seize eagerly upon 

 every new theory or practise that is confidently announced as able to 

 dispel their ills; and all the more eagerly if, in disregard of science 

 and experience, it is strongly flavored with the mystical and miraculous. 



The most remarkable modern instance is the extraordinary growth 

 and acceptance of Eddyism, or so-called christian science, and so confi- 

 dent are its claims and so long its list of undisputed victories that they 

 overshadow, and actually seem to make us forget, the real progress of 

 medical science, which continues uninterruptedly, but without any 

 such flourish of trumpets and beating of drums. 



Let us remind ourselves for the moment that scientific investiga- 

 tion has established the presence in the world of certain poisons, whose 

 effects on man have been carefully studied and can be confidently pre- 

 dicted, like strychnia, prussic acid, arsenic and opium; that it has 

 furthermore discovered certain other poisons in the animal world, like 

 the bacillus of tuberculosis, of anthrax, of cholera, of diphtheria, the 

 Plasmodium of malaria and the spirochete of syphilis, equally poison- 

 ous to man with the mineral and vegetable poisons, and capable of 

 producing equally definite and specific effects. 



It may not have been part of the intent of creation that man 

 should be harassed by the latter any more than by the former; but 

 the conditions of life and of civilization have made us very vulnerable 

 through our appetites. Intended or not, these specific causes of disease 

 are here ; and medical science has not only demonstrated their existence, 

 but has further proved beyond cavil that by their isolation and exclu- 

 sion the diseases which they cause may be limited, and even be pre- 

 vented from spreading from person to person. 



Scientific medicine has further shown that the vital parts of our 

 bodies' are subject to certain degenerative changes induced by exposure, 

 by imprudent habits of eating and drinking, by unnatural modes of liv- 

 ing, by inheritance, or simply by age itself. Such are the degenera- 

 tions of the brain, the heart and blood vessels, the liver, pancreas and 

 kidneys; conditions which are accompanied by demonstrable changes 



