My first knowledge of Christian Science came to me on New Year day, 1907, through a friend to whom it had been proven of materia medica, as we read in the book of Job, "Ye are all physicians of no value." I had been a sufferer for fourteen years from a very peculiar skin trouble, known to the physicians as a form of leprosy. Were I to detail all the different stages in my case I would have to write a book, and then it would be only error and not the truth of being.
The first severe attack came in 1901, and then a very prolonged one in 1903, from which the eruptions that covered the greater portion of the body did not heal. During the attack of 1903, the entire head, face, neck, and part of the chest, back, hands, and limbs were covered closely, and only by heroic efforts it seems my ears were saved from being severed from the head. During this attack I was confined to bed for many months, and most of the time even the face was bound and covered.
In time, I received some relief, but the eruption on the neck, face, and back remained the same, and my general health was not improved. The physicians told me I would have more attacks, and that each would be more severe. In the fall of 1906 and 1907, the eruptions appeared once more and in a worse form than ever. For this attack the physician treated me through a specialist in New York, who pronounced it a very extreme case. After they had done for me all they could, the home physician put me under the care of another, as he was planning to leave, and this physician told me in a short time that he knew he could not help me. By this time I had ceased to look like a human being, and then he suggested I had better go to some specialist in the city who probably might help me.
