|Mrs. Eddy devotes one hundred pages of her _Science and Health_ to
testimonials from people who have used her "nostrum," very much as
vendors of patent medicines are in the habit of doing. But while, as a
rule, testimonials in patent medicine books are signed in full, those
in _Science and Health_ give only initials. Rheumatism, hernia, fibroid
tumour, insanity and epilepsy, cancer and consumption, Bright's disease,
and many other diseases, according to these testimonials, have been
"quickly cured," often by the mere reading of Mrs. Eddy's book. But
there are equally numerous witnesses to prove that these same maladies
have been cured by other equally fantastic remedies. I do not feel
myself under obligation, however, to take notice of these claims, for
the excellent reason that I am not bound to explain alleged facts, but
only real facts. Let the healers first prove that their patients had
real cancer, and that Christian Science cured them permanently, and then
I will consider their claims. But some one might say: "I ought to be
an authority on my own case. Every doctor had given me up; I was told
nothing could save me. My disease was pronounced incurable, yet I am
now in the best of health through Christian Science." If a person may
be misinformed about others, he may be about himself. It is the most
natural thing to imagine one's self sick or cured. It is equally a
matter of experience that doctors often fail to diagnose the case of a
patient correctly. Their pronouncing any one incurable is not a final
or infallible judgment. Before a miracle is claimed in the case of any
patient it has to be shown, by expert and disinterested testimony, that
the disease in question really existed, that it was really incurable,
and that Christian Science really cured it. But is such testimony
forthcoming? Do healers invite investigation of their cures by
outsiders?
In 1898 Mrs. Eddy announced some miraculous performances. "I challenge
the world to disprove," she said, "what I hereby declare! I healed
malignant tubercular diphtheria and carious bones that could be dented
in by the fingers. I have healed at one visit a cancer that had so eaten
the flesh of the neck as to expose the jugular vein so that it stood
out like a cord." Who made the diagnosis? How could a novice tell
one disease from another? If it was a physician's report Mrs. Eddy
is quoting, who was the physician? Besides, for Mrs. Eddy to accept
a doctor's verdict would be to put faith in medical science, which,
according to her, is no science at all. Neither does this Divine
practitioner give the name and the address of her patients. Who
witnessed the treatment applied to the case she describes? Who
pronounced the patient cured? I hope Mrs. Eddy cured all her cancer
patients; but a hope is not a proof, nor is assertion an argument. The
only way to demonstrate a power is to submit to all the tests. Compare
Mrs. Eddy's story of how she cured an unnamed patient with the following
accomplishment by a man of real science: "A remarkable case of curvature
of the spine was announced at a Philadelphia hospital. The case was that
of Adele Weinberg, a young girl hunchback. The surgeon removed part of
one of the lumbar vertebræ, found it to be diseased, and in its place
used a section of leg bone. She is as erect as though her spine had
been normal from birth." That operation took place in a hospital
in Philadelphia, before nurses and assisting physicians, who may be
summoned as witnesses. But Mrs. Eddy mentions no witnesses whom we may
interview in connection with the cancer cure she describes.