The following are extracts from the Prize Essay of the Boylston Medical Society of Harvard University, , the subject of which was, "The Mental Element in the Treatment of Disease."
Mr. Taylor said:—"Never in the history of medicine has the subject of mental therapeutics assumed such proportions and excited so profound an interest as within the last few years. The mysticism and vagueness of former theorizing in this field have, in great measure, been laid aside, and the time if not yet here, is apparently coming when the same tests of truth and the same fairness of consideration will be applied to facts of the mental life as have heretofore with such brilliant results been applied to facts of the physical life. Progress has been slow and discouragements frequent. The natural tendency in most minds has been consistently to ignore the mental element, and lay stress solely upon its physical correlative. . .
In its practical aspect, however, on the side of results, the doctrine demands recognition. Cures have been and are being effected by those professing the principles of Christian Science. This, probably, no one will now deny. Physicians in regular practice can afford neither to deny the fact nor to neglect its investigation. We do not believe such cures are caused by adherence to unproved metaphysical notions. Certainly we must seek a more rational explanation, and one more in accord with the facts of experience. What this possible explanation is, and the general influence that these movements, of which Christian Science is a type, have had, will be more properly discussed later....
