Extracts from a paper on Christian Science written by Dr. Hildegarde H. Lougsdorf, of Carlisle, Pa., and read by her before the Medical Society of the State of Pennsylvania, at the forty-fourth annual session of the Society held in Philadelphia.
"THE subject, which I shall briefly consider here is one of those not a purely medical subject, but rather one of those related subjects, which, though at first glance insignificant and even contemptible, yet, from the proneness of the uninformed to exaggerate and mystify disease and all remedial agencies, carry with them an overpowering influence, and to the younger practitioners especially are baffling and vexatious.
Such is Christian Science, probably the most pretentious, and certainly the most successful, of the outgrowths of our modern high-pressure civilization . . . In more accurately defining Christian Science I would observe that it must not be confounded with hypnotism, animal magnetism, faith or mind cure, spiritualism, clairvoyant or other trance, or the old-time powwowing processes, which the practitioner in country districts still frequently encounters. All of these it somewhat resembles, having apparently some family features of all, yet differing in essential particulars. Christian Science, pure and proper, disclaims or ignores these agencies and claims a Heaven-derived power of its own, and in this, probably, lies its greatest influence — for in all times a divine right, stoutly asserted and skilfully maintained, has held its own against reason, logic and the evidence of the unprejudiced senses. There is no instinct so universal as that which responds to the intimations of the supernatural, and the most realistic among us must acknowledge this influence as a factor in certain diseases. We see it exemplified in the history of the earliest nations, and there we attribute it to ignorance, but the candid student must admit that the advanced intelligence of later periods has changed the form, but not eradicated the inherent tendency.. . . Following the Renaissance of art and literature, knowledge grew, and it may be that, with a more general diffusion of the underlying principles of medical science, such as an uneducated mind can grasp, and a clearer apprehension of the import of recent discoveries in bacteriology and similar fields of investigation, the demonstrations which are now so constantly made to lead the masses back to. the twilight ages, in this respect will cease. But until this more general intelligence shall come to pass we will doubtless continue to witness the phenomenon of the blind gaining instant sight, the lame to walk and the suppurating sore healed by a word, such alleged cures being regular occurrences in the vicinity of a properly qualified Christian Scientist. From these centers of abnormal experiences ever widening influences diverge, and we shortly see vast numbers of enlightened and cultivated persons, of both sexes, and of every shade of religious belief, accepting and propagating the ideal that forms the basis of the popular manifestation.
