FORTY years ago, when Mrs. Eddy first announced that Mind was the only legitimate healer of the body, there arose a storm of ignorant opposition which has not entirely subsided at this day. Arguments were made by the advocates of materia medica, claiming, among other things, that God must have intended man to employ drugs for the healing of disease, otherwise He would not have provided them for human use. That wing of the press which simply reflects the opinions of mankind entered into the discussion, and lost no opportunity in charging Christian Scientists with criminal neglect whenever a failure could be laid at their door. In spite of this unreasonable opposition to her gospel of health, Mrs. Eddy continued to urge the supremacy of Mind over all the ills to which flesh is heir. She proved beyond peradventure the truths which she taught, and then trusted God to establish their verity. Instead of meeting the attacks of her opponents by fruitless discussion, Mrs. Eddy has patiently turned the other cheek, overcoming evil always with good. As the result of this Christlike forbearance the earth has continued to help the woman, and her wisdom is now bearing abundant fruition.
The leaven of Truth, which is constantly working in human affairs, has at length reached the ranks of materia medica. Recent revelations are showing the drugging system to be a house divided against itself,—a logical inconsistency which cannot stand. In a recently published report of the investigation of the wholesale drug business by Health Commissioner Darlington of the city of New York, according to the New York Herald, of the drugs sold in that city "seventy-two per cent are adulterated or in some other way fail to comply with the standard of the pharmacopoeia and are consequently unlawfully sold. Only twenty-eight per cent are absolutely or reasonably pure, and fifty-six per cent are so rank, so dishonestly compounded and labeled, so dangerous to life, that they call for the instant prosecution in a criminal court of the manufacturers and wholesale dealers. These figures are not the result of guesswork, but are founded upon analysis and assay of ten thousand specimens or samples procured from the wholesale drug establishments, either located here or represented by agents. In this list no account is taken of the thousands of cases of criminal substitution by the retailer, who for a trifling profit does not hesitate to employ entirely different drugs, because cheaper, for the component parts of prescriptions entrusted to him for compounding by physicians."
In view of the foregoing, though we were to assume that materia medica, is an exact science, and all doctors and retail druggists infallible in point of knowledge and integrity, there would still be left but twenty-eight per cent of a chance of getting a prescription correctly filled, even if it contains but a single drug. It is a fact, however, that the average prescription contains a number of drugs, and sometimes as many as forty. Over against the assumption that doctors seldom make mistakes, we have the published assertion of a retail druggist, who writes to the New York Herald as follows: "The public would be astonished if they could understand the absurdity of over eighty-five per cent of the prescriptions which are offered to cure them; chemical, therapeutical, and physical incompatibilities are happenings of every day. If some of these scientific prescriptions were published, it would certainly convince those who blame the druggist's dishonesty for the failure of the quick cure of their patients, that their absolute ignorance is more to blame for it than the druggist."
If the above statement is true, there remains but fifteen per cent of twenty-eight per cent, or slightly over four per cent of a chance of getting proper medical treatment under existing conditions when but one drug is used in a prescription. This figure must be reduced, however, as the number of drugs in a prescription increases, so that if forty drugs were compounded together the chance would be one-fortieth of four per cent, or approximately one chance in a thousand. By way of rejoinder a medical doctor replies that "when the question of adulteration and substitution comes up, druggists like the foregoing correspondent are treading on dangerous ground, if they agree with his statements. It is on account of dissatisfaction and fear of adulteration and substitution that doctors are commencing to dispense their own remedies." If this presents a fair estimate of the situation as it now is, we must conclude that there is very little evidence of infallibility to be found in the ranks of materia madica, and we may safely infer that the remaining percentage of chance of getting correct treatment according to the rules of the pharmacopoeia, must suffer still further loss had we all the inside information at hand.
Thus far we have proceeded on the assumption that materia madica is an exact science, and that the only difficulty to be overcome is in the existing methods of dispensing its treatment. Supposing, however, that materia medica is not a science at all, but only a "bundle of speculative human theories" (Science and Health, p. 149); if this is true, and there is much evidence (even from well-known physicians) to prove that it is, then we may justly conclude that the drug system as a whole is not only minus the unction of physical healing, but a positive menace to the public health.
In spite of this apparently hopeless conclusion, there remains the encouraging fact that the sick frequently do get well, even while under the care of the drug physicians. How then can this healing be explained, while admitting that drugs are injurious? Christian Science answers the question to our complete satisfaction when it declares upon Scriptural authority that God is the true and only preserver of man. "I am the Lord that healeth thee," was the declaration of Jehovah to the children of Israel, even in their murmurings and rebellion. Notwithstanding all their errors and shortcomings, mortals have never succeeded in quenching the love of our heavenly Father. "Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there?" was the plaintive lament of the prophet Jeremiah; and the psalmist sang with true inspiration, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies." It cannot be said that physicians of any school of materia medica are lacking in a humanitarian spirit, and it is through this mental channel that the healing Principle naturally operates. The hopeful expectancy inspired by a trusted physician is a potent force in allaying fear, and the thought thus freed from the demon of terror will act upon the body and restore it to health.
The superstructure of materia medica, built as it is upon the shifting sands of human hypotheses, can never withstand the storms of these latter days. If we are to be safely housed, we must build on the rock upon which Christ founded his church, knowing it is in Mind, not matter, that "we live, and move, and have our being." As to the time-worn argument that it is wrong to refuse material means for healing the sick, we must answer with Jesus, "No man can serve two masters [matter and Mind]: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon."
