I have recently become so indebted to divine Providence through the instrumentality of Christian Science, that I feel it my duty to express my gratitude for the benefit of all those who may be wavering between doubt and confidence in it as a remedy for illness and severe injury.
I am informed that it is the prevailing opinion among the medical profession generally, that within twenty-four hours from the time a man sustains the injury known as a broken back, paralysis or death will ensue; but such was not my experience. On the evening of Aug. 23, 1912, I fell backward from the top of a fifteen-foot elevation to a hard-wood floor, striking upon my back. For some minutes I lay unconscious, and on recovering consciousness I had the sense of being borne down under tons of weight over every portion of my body. The pain in my legs was dreadful, and I felt that unless relief from it came soon, I would lose my reason. I at once called for a Christian Science practitioner, but before she had time to arrive a hypodermic had been administered to me, though without effect.
Within half an hour after the practitioner had reached my side and had taken up the work of healing, I began to realize a comforting sense of restoration, in proof of which I, unaided, turned over from my position on my back to my left side. Being in the hands of friends who were not in full sympathy with Christian Science, and upon whom I seemed forced to depend in my emergency, I suffered myself to be taken to a hospital. At the hospital I was turned over to the care of an eminent, and able surgeon, who had an X-ray picture of my spine taken (a front and side view), and this, to use his words, "disclosed the fact that the body of the second lumbar vertebra was crushed." I was then taken to a room where, at my request, I was placed upon a rigid bed. The next morning I overheard conversations between doctors and nurses in which the words "broken back," and, "It is a question of twenty-four hours," were used. This I interrupted with the assertion, "Whatever material evidence there is to support that statement, I assure you my back is not broken; I am past that belief now." Then to a question upon this subject I answered, "I am a Christian Scientist in religion and wish my treatment to conform thereto."
