During the six or seven years prior to February, 1909, I had been rigidly dieting myself, trying to overcome a chronic intestinal trouble. One physician had said I was suffering from appendicitis, another that it was a diseased liver, and still another that there was a partial obstruction. It finally resulted in an acute attack of "gall-stones," which lasted from Sunday until Thursday. During this time I was unable to take food, had high fever, and was compelled to remain under the influence of an opiate, to allay the paroxysms of pain. The nausea from which I suffered caused a great loss of flesh, and I was all but prostrated.
Two of the most eminent physicians in this city attended me, one of them being my regular family physician and the other called in consultation. Both physicians concurred in the advice that an operation was necessary to give me permanent relief. My sister in Los Angeles had been telegraphed for, and was expected to arrive the next day. The physicians were so positive in their statements as to the necessity for the operation, and were so gentle in their bearing and so reassuring as to the outcome of the operation, that I agreed to submit to it as soon as my sister came, though I had entertained a fear for years that my life would be forfeited if I ever had to submit to the surgeon's knife. The physicians left a supply of the opiate for me to take until my sister's arrival, saying that this was all that could be done until the gallstones were removed by the proposed operation.
Just as the physicians left my home a good friend, who had not learned of my illness, telephoned to my wife an invitation to attend a social function at her home, and upon learning of my illness and the proposed operation, protested against it, and asked that she be permitted to send a Christian Science practitioner to give me treatment. I had never read anything of Christian Science and knew virtually nothing of it up to this time, but my extremity was such that I was ready to try anything which promised to save me from the operating-table, and so I consented to take treatment.
