In September, 1894, the writer, after nearly a year's illness of what was diagnosed by two physicians, as nervous prostration, was attacked by "wry-neck" or torticollis, the effect of the same being, through the contraction of certain neck muscles, that my head was twisted towards my left shoulder about as far as one can voluntarily turn one's face in that direction, and I could turn my face front only by the use of my hands, and after the hands were removed, my head would turn at once back to the unnatural position.
Various drugs were experimented with in the effort to relax the contracted muscles, also electricity, and magnetic healing, so-called; finally it was decided by the physician in charge of my case, who was most devoted to my interest, that an operation might prove beneficial, and about an inch and a quarter of a nerve was removed.
Later, a physician in another city experimented with daily hypodermic injections of some drug into one of the muscles affected, which treatment was continued for some eighteen months, also an operation, "tenotomy," was performed on one of my eyes, with the idea, I believe, that a slight difference in the angle of vision between my two eyes might be responsible for the neck trouble: as before no good results followed. In the early summer of 1896, while en route from the Pacific to the Atlantic coast, I was prostrated in Chicago, and was prescribed for by an eminent specialist, who diagnosed my case as "interstitial nephritis;" one of some twenty odd forms of kidney disease. One year later I was discharged by that doctor as incurable, and sent to California, taking with me his final prescription and the cheerful information that I could not hope ever to be well, but that I might prolong my days by living in an equable climate. After about six months, I took to my bed; my stomach had given out, profuse night-sweats appeared, my feet were beginning to swell, and these were considered the last symptoms of the disease. Realizing that the medicines I had been taking were doing me no good, I consented to try Christian Science. While we were in California, treatment was requested of a Christian Science practitioner in Boston, Mass. I was astounded at my prompt improvement. In three days I was out of bed and able to eat anything I wanted. The night-sweats stopped at once, and I took off my glasses, which I had worn for two years, and have never put them on since.
