It is with a deep sense of gratitude that I offer this testimony to the healing power of Christian Science. In July, 1908, when in a serious physical condition, I entered a local hospital. The physicians diagnosed my ailments as cirrhosis of the liver and alcoholic neuritis, and after a consultation prescribed for me two of the strongest remedies used in medical practice. The treatment was kept up for about a week, and while it seemed to meet the liver problem to some extent, the other condition changed into total paralysis, so that I could not move any portion of my body and could only turn my head about an inch to either side. My joints also became ankylosed, my toes pointing straight downward.
This condition continued until February, 1909, when one night after being prepared for rest, my arms crossed over my chest, I went to sleep under the influence of an opiate. When I awoke my muscles, which had been soft and flaccid, had contracted to such an extent that it was impossible to bend a joint in my body. The physical suffering was intense, and everything known or used in medical practice was done to alleviate the pain, but without any favorable results. The muscular contraction continued, the pain becoming more and more unbearable, until the attending physician found it necessary to break the joints loose by force. As the muscles were stretched and the joints loosened the pain ceased, but the limbs remained, as before, quite useless.
This process was continued until the knees were reached, when it was found necessary to discontinue on account of frequent attacks of heart failure during the manipulations, and as the pain continued from my knees to my toes it was decided that an operation was the only means left to get relief. An incision ten inches long from the heel up was therefore made on each leg, the tendons were cut, and then came freedom from pain, but there was not one chance in a million (according to the laws of anatomy and surgery) that I should ever walk or even stand up again. That was my condition when Christian Science found me.
