Valid Objections to So-called Christian Science/Chapter 6
From the contemplation of its manifestations as a practice of the art of healing, what results do we see awaiting us, if the ignorance of Christian Scientists should obtain the ascendency? In the first place, it will be well to understand how well qualified the professors of this cult are for practice in the cure of disease. This will give us an idea: In the New York Herald not long ago, an account was given by a woman who had attended a series of lectures delivered by one of the well known exponents of this "Science" in a neighboring city. The series consisted of eight discourses, and was attended by some forty students, each of whom received a diploma, after having paid one hundred dollars. This diploma entitled them to practice in the cure of all disease. The writer of the article I here refer to said, that at the end of the eight lessons she knew no more than she did at the beginning; for no clear instructions as to how to heal were given: yet she is now a graduate in the art.
Knowing these facts, need we wonder at the cases of manslaughter that continually confront us in the columns of the daily press, from the malpractice of Christian Scientists? A reputable physician must study four years in a medical school, and serve, if possible, two years in a hospital, before he is deemed competent even to begin to practice; and, frequently, he has four years of college training before taking up the study of medicine. Are such patient, dutiful men as these to be relied upon, or shall we think it wiser to place our lives in the hands of individuals who do not even know the names and location of the bones and muscles of the human body, nay, whose philosophy practically denies that there really is any body?
We see in isolated cases the havoc wrought by the practice of Christian Scientists. What would be the aggregate of fatalities, provided they were our only human helps in time of sickness? The thought is almost appalling! The few cures they now make, in cases whose origin and source are in some emotional or hysterical condition, would be swallowed up in the multitude of failures, and the memory of them drowned in the wails and cries of anguish arising from an afflicted humanity despairing of relief. The discoveries made to alleviate pain would be cast back into oblivion. The death bed of many, which now is peaceful, alleviated by the aids which modern medicine has afforded, would too often be a scene of horror; and the final struggle a spectacle of heart-rending agony. The simple operations of surgery, which now so often save, would entirely be discarded, and the anesthetics which make them painless would be flung away. The lame, the halt, and the blind would crowd upon us, and the cry of their suffering fill the open spaces of the world.
It is hardly possible for us who have lived in this enlightened age to realize what the giving up of the benefits we have attained to, through the progress of modern science, would mean. The substitution of the processes of Christian Science healing would throw us back to the conditions which exist among the lowest and most depraved of savage tribes, whose method of treating disease is exactly similar in theory to that of these modern fanatics. The practice of exorcism is common to all primitive peoples. When a man is sick, they fancy this is due to the presence of some evil spirit—or, as the Christian Scientist would put it, some error of mind—and the charms and hideous noises of the witch doctor are deemed more potent than any intelligent method of treatment.
Among the Indians of the West, a common method of treating the severely ill is to chant monotonous songs and to make a great din, by beating drums and rattling gourds filled with stones, during the long hours of the day and night. This is supposed to frighten away the powers of error and to soothe the mind of the patient by taking his attention away from the thought of his malady.
But to perceive more clearly the unhappiness we would entail upon our generation by following the lead of Christian Science teaching, it will be well to consider the facts which show what our present system has done in the alleviation of suffering and the prolongation of life.
Under modern hygienic conditions, the average length of existence for an individual in England has increased to an appreciable degree in this last half century. And, among all the enlightened and advanced nations, the expectation of the individual for long survival is greater; since the appearance of uncheckable and epidemic disorders is less frequent, and the percentage of cures is greater.
Since the general establishment of the system of quarantine, and the requirement of an efficient sewage system in towns and large cities, and the enforcement of sanitary plumbing laws in houses, the death rate has enormously decreased. The Plague, cholera, typhus and yellow fever, diphtheria, typhoid, consumption, and other maladies are not now the awful menace to life they were of old. The Plague, which in the past centuries devastated Europe, handing over the populations of whole cities to death and destruction, has been banished further and further East, until now it makes no serious lodgment where the proper precautions have been taken.
The virulence of this disease may be realized from the following figures: In Toulon, France, in 1721, out of a population of 250,000, 87,659 persons died. In the city of Marseilles, the year previous, forty to sixty thousand were victims. London's great plague of 1665 carried off human beings to the number of 68,596, in a population of 460,000, out of whom two-thirds are supposed to have fled to escape the contagion. The absence of Plague has been contemporaneous with better sanitary conditions maintained in various localities, and now it is only found where lack of knowledge of modern methods is prevalent among the people. But, even in the last outbreak in India, thanks to the physicians employed by the British Government, its ravages were much less serious than heretofore.
It is known, that in tetanus or lockjaw, and hydrophobia, the employment of a specific lymph, through inoculation, has made cures possible where formerly nearly all cases proved fatal. By means of the antitoxin treatment, the mortality in that dread disease, diphtheria, has been reduced more than one-half. Antiseptic precautions in surgical cases, first introduced by the famous surgeon, Lord Lister, have almost revolutionized the statistics, making possible and successful operations that formerly could not be dreamed of—thus broadening the whole scope of surgery as a science. In the war with Spain, and in the Transvaal, this fact has been most plainly demonstrated.
From recent experiments in preventive inoculation for typhoid fever in the British Army, it has been found, that, while those who had not been inoculated showed an enormous death rate, due to the conditions of campaigning; on the other hand, those who had been inoculated were practically immune, the percentage of deaths being next to nothing.
The scourge of smallpox, which a hundred years ago swept whole communities, gave enormous numbers over to death, and disfigured the faces of nearly all who survived, has become almost a thing of past history, where vaccination is thoroughly and systematically enforced. For years, until the recent outbreak, which at no time was beyond control, and which subsided after the health authorities had put into operation their repressive measures, it has been a curiosity in Greater New York.
In cases of child-birth, by the use of anesthetics and antiseptics, the mortality is but one-fifth of what it used to be, or almost nothing. The care in preparation, and the standardizing of drugs, the inspection of milk and its sterilization, the scientific supervision of the making and distribution of foods for infants and children—have all contributed to the checking and prevention of disease, and thus to the longer life of the individuals of the community.
These are facts which can be proved by the most competent testimony of trained minds. Into what an abyss would we be plunged, if we were to give up these hard-earned boons of years of patient investigation and labor, for the doubtful offerings of an uninformed and misguided sect of ultra-emotionalists? Can we afford to lose the priceless benefits we have attained, and are still attaining? Can we ever permit such substitution? Can we sit still and allow the profession of medicine, which contains some of the brightest intellects, the most devoted and unselfish characters, the noblest and most steadfast souls, to be assailed, to have its means of well-doing threatened; when we know it should be protected, for the sake of all it has procured for humanity? And, finally, can we continue to allow the health of the community to be menaced by the ridiculous incompetency which would overthrow these our benefactors?
Thousands and millions of bereavements would ensue, if we were to be engulfed by this insanity of Christian Science; and the headstones of those who are dear to us, and whom we now keep, would whiten thick the hillsides of our cemeteries, and stand in mute appeal against the inhumanity of its miserable practice. This insufferable movement, in its manifestation as a healing art or profession, is a menace to the community; it is a menace, reader, to you and to me, and to all who are dear to us; and the same law which maintains quarantine and municipal health precautions and cleanliness, because, without these, human life is sacrificed, should put down with ruthless hand the practice of this pseudo "Science" which, under a religious guise, has already committed so many shocking murders.
We can, perhaps, pass over the fact that a man is acting the part of a delusionist, if his delusion concerns no one but himself. But it becomes a more serious matter, when his aberration of mind affects the lives and happiness of others in the community, and when he is bent on hypnotizing his fellow-men to follow in his footsteps. We can, therefore, afford merely to pity the individual Christian Scientist who fondly believes he can banish all his own ailments by "silent treatment" without the aid of a physician. But when suchanone fanatically attempts to infect others with his delusion; when he recklessly becomes the instrument of spreading contagious diseases; and, especially, when he subjects innocent and defenseless children to the horrors of neglect, and to the miseries of pain and sickness, without attempt at intelligent alleviation—the time for pity is past; we should hold him up to the scorn and execration of all who think aright, and visit him with the penalty his wickedness deserves.
About Christian Science, like all emotional phenomena, there seems to be a mental contagion; and, before it runs its course, it will do an incalculable amount of harm. The best we who understand its real meaning and purport can accomplish is, to instruct and warn those who have not as yet been infected with its delusions, and to arouse public sentiment and the authorities against its malpractice. Then we can, perhaps, hope and believe that wisdom and common sense will prevail on the part of the majority of the community; that proselytes will cease to be obtained; and that the thing will at last die like other spasmodic and abortive frenzies.