The inhabitant shall not say, I am sick.—Isaiah.
In evidence of the great change which is coming over popular opinion with respect to disease, we have some very startling statements from the celebrated English physician and surgeon, Sir Frederick Treves, at the opening of a new hospital at Preston, Lancashire. Among other things, he said he could "only wish the hospital one thing, and that is that it may remain always empty." He went on to say that he was certain the time would come when hospitals for infectious diseases "will be empty and not wanted." He also said that the obliteration of disease would not be brought about by what he called people's "extraordinary habit of taking medicine when they are sick." He proposed to prevent disease by "simple living, suitable diet, plenty of sun, and plenty of fresh air." Sir Frederick reminded his hearers that primitive man had to protect himself against wild beasts and also against his fellow-men, — enemies which could be counted by tens and by hundreds,—but that men are now menaced by "an enemy which can be reckoned in many millions, and that is the microbe of disease." He went on, "The tubercle is killing fifty thousand people per annum. Not one of those persons need die."
It is noteworthy that in this entire speech and the other speeches made on the same occasion, there is no hint of the mental factor, much less the spiritual, in the cause and cure of disease,—no hint that moral conditions have to be reckoned with in dealing with so-called physical ills. We do not urge this point in any critical spirit, but because we rejoice in everything which makes for real progress, and we would not have the vital element ignored in dealing with a question which concerns the welfare of all mankind. The contention of Christian Science is, that man is a spiritual being, spiritual in his origin and ultimate (Science and Health, p. 63), and that his needs can never be provided for while this fact, with all it implies, is ignored.
