American Medical Monthly gives the fol-
lowing which is worth taking :

A year or so ago somebody offered a piize
for the best essay on the training of hus-
bands, and it was won by a young girl of
eighteen ! It is barely possible, in view of
the above, that we may be able to give
some points to those starting on their med-
ical career, even if we ourselves have not
made a brilliant success or placed our names
high in the galaxy of medical greatness.

The first suggestion is the necessity of
laying a good foundation on which to build
the medical structure. It is a fine thing to
have a college education, and before many
years, so general will be the custom of at-
tending college, that it will be expected of



392



THE CHARLOTTE MEDICAL JOURNAL.



every physician to graduate at some literary
institution. There is a decided gain in
having so broad an education. It gives a
cast to the character and a training to the
mind, not to be had otherwise.

It has been said that one year of culture
is better than eighty years of a narrow,
ignorant life, and the College man is to be
the man of the future. One prominent
college requires the A. B. degree as pre-
liminary to the study of medicine, and
others will soon follow this initiative.
Even if one should expect to practice in the
country, perhaps all the more in that event,
should a young man or young woman strive
to take a college course.

Not to every individual, however, is such
a course possible, but, by taking advantage
of the opportunities for home study now
open to all, much of the real value of col-
lege work may be gained.

No thoughtful person will object to the
lengthened period of preparation for medi-
cal study or the four years of lectures and
laboratory work. As some one has re-
marked, it takes a hundred years to make
an oak, but only a few months to make a
squash. Don't be a squash !

Then, after the medical course has been
completed and the newly-fledged doctor is
ready to begin practice, in what way can
he best succeed.'' Not by means of show
and bragging, not by setting up a carriage
until one really needs it in his work, not by
advertising nor quackery, not by taking up
some outside work. The method of gaining
a successful career in medicine can be des-
cribed in one phrase, cure the sick.

If cases of illness are so managed by the
physician in charge that health is restored,
the gratitude of the patients leads them to
speak well of their healer and so reputation
grows and patients appear and ducats be-
come plentiful. To secure success, how-
ever, demands self-sacrifice on the part of
the young physician. It means devoted,
conscientious work among the poor as well
as the rich ; it demands persistent and intel-
ligent study, the relinquishment of manv
social pleasures, the holding of ourselves as
the ever-prompt servants of the sick.

More than this, the truest success will
never be attained unless the physician loves
his work and loves his fellow men, sympa-
thizes with them in their suffering, and en-
deavors to relieve their distress because of
this sympathy, rather than because of the
financial recompense.

It is an important element in medical
success that the private life of the physician
be consistent and moral. The religious ele-
ment should be cultivated and church rela-
tions maintained. Amidst the trials and



temptations of the physician's life such affil-
iations are not only pleasant, but helpful
and necessary.

So we come to the conclusion that the
best way to the best success is just to do
one's work well and keep at it.



The Claims of "Christian Science."

The Christian Scientists are on the South-
ern route. The Maryland Medical Journal
says that on Tuesday, February 20, a dele-
gation of about one hundred and fifty
Christian Scientists appeared before the
committee on hygiene of the Maryland
house of delegates to urge an amendment
to the practice act, exempting them from
the legal responsibilities of medical prac-
titioners. They were represented by three
attorneys, who made the most of their
cause. Opposed to them were half a dozen
medical men. Mr. Hammond, a "First
Reader" (not a primer) of a Christian
Science church in Baltimore, was asked :
"In a community of five hundred or a
thousand persons, all of whom were Chris-
tian Scientists, what precautions would you
take against infectious disease.?" The re-
ply, delivered in what we suppose was
"First Reader" style, was: "In a com-
munity of a thousand, aye. in a communi-
ty of five hundred souls, all Christian Sci-
entists, disease of any sort would be im-
possible."

Mrs. Linscott, of Washington, is certain-
ly no such rudimentary thing as a "First
Reader." She is an extremely advanced
text-book, and was able to fairly inundate
the minds of her hearers with her eloquence.
Being asked whether she employed the mi-
croscope in the diagnosis of diphtheria, she
replied: "Yes, but not a material micro-
scope. The microscope which we employ
is the microscope of spiritual discernment."
For a time it seemed doubtful if the modest
gentleman who propounded the question
would recover his speech.

The "Church By-Laws" on medical
education were read to the committee, show-
ing that the whole art of obstetrics may be
imparted in four lessons, in as many days,
and that the course in "mental practice
and malpractice" occupied twelve lessons.
It would be interesting to know how much
of this curriculum treats of practice and
how much of malpractice.

An instance was quoted, from the official
organ of the cult, of a little girl who over-
came the difficulties of fractions by repeat-
ing a religionistic formula ; another story
of a woman who subdued a conflagration
in her house by "realizing" the ninety-first
psalm. Still another case was that of a



THE CHARLOTTE MEDICAL JOURNAL,



woman having a carious tooth and a riot-
ous ache, who in twelve hours obtained a
sound and perfect set of teeth.

Most remarkable of all was the healing
of a dumb child in Ohio by a Christian
Sctentist in Kansas, neither the healer nor
the healed being aware that any treatment
had been either sought or given. The Sci-
entist, however, immediately her attention
was called to the miracle, realized that vir-
ture had gone out of her. The Scientist
applauded vigorously each of these "demon-
strations," and asserted that the misguided
physician who cited these "cures" was an
effective advocate of their cause.

No inventory of teeth was made at the
hearing, but among the delegation one
noticed at least one case of phthsis, one
choreic, and one man with a misfit glass
eye.



Medical Matters in the Lay Press.

The International Journal of Surgery
says that when the "Daily Howler" or the
"Morning Cormorant" reports medical
matters, some of us are inclined to laugh,
while others, whose bump of facetiousness
is not so well developed, feel as if their milk
of human kindness had been exposed to a
thunderstorm and had turned sour. As
long as these praiseworthy sheets have none
but descriptions of how Dr. Jake, of Calf-
town Four Corners, peeled the butcher's
eye like an onion and put it back in place,
just as good as new, we don't mind, for we
know that if we investigate the matter we
will find that there is not a word of truth
about it. The things we really object to
are the reports, more or less garbled, that
are occasionally published of the actual do-
ings of some of our surgeons. We are apt,
quite naturally, to think that these men are
at fault, and seek, in an undignified way,
personal notoriety and advertisement. Yet
this view is often wrong, and we firmly dis-
believe the existence of any such tendency
among men of the slightest real merit. As
a matter of fact, it is quite natural that the
more prominent practitioners should most
frequently be called to attend people of
some importance, any information in regard
to whom the ubiquitous reporter pounces
upon like a jackal upon his prey. Hence
the appearance of the names of Drs. A. B.
and C. at fairly frequent intervals in the
papers. We sincerely believe that the doc-
tors themselves are very seldom at fault,
and that they would avoid such mention if
they could, and we have personal knowledge
to the effect that many of them have suffered
much annoyance and distress owing to this
state of things.



An Important Factor in Producing Good Re-
sults from the Cold Bath.

A cold bath is generally supposed to be a
very simple thing to give a patient and that
it may be administered by anyone. But we
are beginning to see that more is involved
than a mere feeling or reduction of tem-
perature.

The Theraputic Gazette says that the pro-
fession is gradually coming to understand
that the value of cold applications in fevers,
while it is to a certain extent dependent
upon reduction of temperature, is much
more dependent upon the reaction which
the application of cold to the surface of the
body produces. This reaction equalizes the
circulation of the blood in the various por-
tions of the body, stimulates the nervous
system, which may be benumbed by the
toxic materials circulating in the blood, and
probably increases the activity of the liver
and kidneys so that the toxic materials are
destroyed or eliminated.

While it is true that the modified appli-
cation of cold may produce good results in
certain instances, we are convinced that any
attempt to gradually decrease the tempera-
ture of the water, or to expose the patient
to its influence without friction, prevents
the patient from receiving much of the good
which can be obtained by hydrotherapeutic
measures. We are constantly seeing phy-
sicians who are timid about employing cold
to the surface of the body, and who recom-
mend that tepid applications should
be made, or that the patient shall be placed
in a tepid bath which shall be gradually
cooled by the addition of ice. As a matter
of fact this process is much more disagree-
able to the patient, in our experience, than
is the more rapid way ; and it certainly fails
to produce therapeutic results which can in
any way be compared to those caused by
cold sponging or plunging.

Very recentlv our attention has again
been called to this matter by an original
article published in one of our contempo-
raries, in which it is suggested that the pa-
tient's body should be wrapped in one thick-
ness of ordinary cheese-cloth, and then that
this cheese-cloth shall be kept continually
moist, so that by the process of evaporation
the surface of the patient will become cooled.
While no doubt such a method of treatment
does reduce fever, it must very materially
increase internal congestion, and it certain-
ly cannot produce reaction. Neither will
the blood come to the surface from the in-
ternal organs under such a method of treat-
ment, but rather will remain in those or-
gans which are overheated.

It does not seem to be generally recog-



394



THE CHARLOTTE MEDICAL JOURNAL.



nized that physiologists and hydrothera-
peutists have proved beyond all doubt that
under the application of cold to the surface
of the body the heat of the internal organs
actually rises, but that this undesirable con-
dition is remedied by the profuse flow of
blood to the surface of the body after reac-
tion takes place, whereby interr.al heat is
materially decreased by extraordinary radi-
ation. A patient wrapped in cheese-cloth
which is cooled by evaporation has simply
a cool surface and a hot interior. While
the bodily temperature may fall, we believe
that the condition which is produced in the
internal organs is distinctly disadvantage-
ous.



Pagan Practices Paralleled in Christian
Lands.'

Christian scientists are more than harm-
less fanatics and should be muzzled in some
vigorous way.

The Cleveland Medical Gazette preaches
a good sermon on the recent history of the
Mortsolf family in New Brighton, Pa.

On the evening of Jan. 3rd, Mr Frank S.
Martsolf, a well known citizen of that town,
a carpenter by trade and in good circumstan-
ces, entered an undertaker's establishment
to arrange for the burial of a dead child.
The undertaker asked for the physician's
certificate, when Mr. Martsolf replied that
he had none, as no physician had been cal-
led, and that the child Nancy Irene, aged 6
years, 2 months and seven days, had died of
diphtheria. The coroner, J. H. White, be-
ing informed of the circumstances, made an
investigation. He found that the child had
been sick five days of malignant diphtheria,
but the parents believing in Divine healing,
had not called a physician, the Health au-
thorities had not been notified, the house
had not been quarrantined, but persons had
been permitted to come in and go out without
precaution, many having no suspicion of the
nature of the malady.

The coroner made out a certificate on
which he wrote: "The parents of this
child through there belief in Divine healing
neglected to call a physician to attend the
child while it suffered, and it died from ma-
lignant diphtheria."

A permit was issued and the child was
buried.

The following week it was rumored that
another child, Roy L., a boy of five years,
was sick with the same disease and the ru-
mer proved to be true. J. D. Martsolf and
District Attorney H. R. Calhoun had a talk
with the parents, but they refused to con-
sent to have the child attended by a physi-
cian. They said they are Free Presby-



terians and a part of their belief is the cur-
ing of diseases by faith. They acknow-
ledged that the disease was diphtheria, but
they would not have a doctor. They said if
it was the Lord's will to take the boy as He
had the girl. He might do so ; neither would
they stop anyone from entering or leaving
the house. That night Dr. J. S. Boyd, who
had been the family physician before the
Martsolfs got the faith cure craze, visited
them and tried for two hours to reason or
persuade them out of their delusion, but to
no avail. However, the doctor examined
the boy and made sure he had diphtheria.
The secretary of the Health Committee and
Oflicer Winters also tried their powers, but
in vain. A police officer was placed on
guard in front of the residence. Soon the
Rev Mr. Rader, a Free Presbyterian minis-
ter, and with him an elder of the same per-
suarion, arrived from New Sewickley town-
ship, and sought to enter the house. They
I insisted so strongly that the officer was
obliged to take them into custody and bring
them before the Burgess. At the Burgess'
office the pastor declared that he had come
in obedience to the Lord's command to
anoint the sick child, end also that it was
necessary that he have an elder of the church
with him. The Burgess asked him if he
was not afraid to expose his own children
by visiting such a case. He sa'd that if
they were aftiicted with the disease the Lord
would care for them. He was asked why
the faith treatment had not availed anything
in the case of Nancy Irsne. The Rev.
Rader said that he had not anointed the
child, the disease had acted so quickly and
he had not been summoned till the child was
dead.

Why had not a physician been summon-
ed? He said the Bible does not teach that
a physician be summoned. The Burgess in
quired whether the Bible teaches that people
should assist in spreading disease broadcast.
The pastor acknowledged that it does not,
and he and the elder promised to change
their clothes after they had visited the pa-
tient. As they had committed no offense,
they were released. They spent a half-hour
in the Martsolf house and then left town.

The second child, Roy L., died on Jan.
5. The baby, Lloyd K., and the father,
Mr. Martsolf, were found to be suffering
with the disease and the former family phy-
sician again offered his aid. To this the
Martsolfs finally consented. The doctor
found the baby's case far gone with grave
kidney and heart symptoms, to which it
succumbed. The father recovered. The
fact that no physician had been called to
attend the children, and that the nature of
the disease had not been made known, rais-



THE CHARLOTTE MEDICAL JOURNAL.



395



ed a great storm of indignation in the neigh-
borhood, and indeed nearly over the whole
town. Borough Attorney Calhoun was re-
quested to give an opinion as to what legal
course should be pursued ; and it is pretty
sure that something would have been done,
though perhaps not strictly in accordance
with either law or Gospel to bring those
parents to a sense of duty, if the children
had not all died so soon and thus ended the
sickness.

It is strange indeed if there is no law in
the land to prevent such crimes as that of
the Martsolf parents. It should be no diffi-
cult task to prove it a case of criminal neg-
lect. It could be plainly shown that medi-
cal attendance in time of injury or illness is
as much a necessity of life as food, clothing
or sheHer. If the police authorities could
not see their duty in the matter, it might
have been taken up by a Humane Society
and tried before the proper court. The
Health Deparement should certainly have
power to enforce quarantine and compliance
with other measures for preventing the
spreading of a contagious disease ; and, if
the Board of Health or Committee of Health
as it exists in New Brighton had carried
preventive measures so far as to compel iso-
lation of the sick or even enforced medical
attendance, it is probable that public opin-
ion would have sustained them.

Of course, there would have arisen a howl
about individual liberty, especially about
religious liberty — and here we come upon
the main difficulty of the whole question.
Negleci of the sick as practiced by the de-
votees of the faith cure, is only another form
of the many crimes committed in the name
of religion. The U. S. Senate has recently
engaged in a struggle upon a question which
has interested the whole country, regarding
a crime no more shocking than this one of
neglecting the sick, all under the name of a
religious belief. It is astounding that such
a practice as "faith healing" should be tol-
erated in this country for one hour. The
fact that it is, is not at all flattering to our
reasoning powers nor to our zeal as republi-
can citizens. It is amazing to see the haze
that gathers about a subject immediately
there is a religious factor in it. And the
peculiarity of the fogginess apparently sur-
rounding the subject of the faith cure is that
it steals a glamour from the Christian faith,
a faith which dominates the religious life of
our country and is held in high respect or
unconsciously influences many who do not
profess it. If the same conduct as that of
which the faith healers are guilty was per-
petrated in the name of some other than the
Christian religion, how different it would
at once appear. Suppose a Hindoo child is



attacked by a crocodile and its pagan moth-
er makes no effort to rescue it because the
reptile is sacred or represents a god. She
may pray and she may weep but she allows
the monster to devour her child and says
such is t'he god's will. The Christian world
is shocked at such practices and send mis-
sionaries to enlighten the heathen.

The child of a mother who calls herself a
Christian is attacked by diphtheria, and the
mother instead of making any effort with
tangible means to fight off the monster and
rescue her child, says the disease is a visita-
tion of the Lord, and if the Lord wills. He
can rescue the child, or if the disease destroys
him, it was the Lord's doing.

Are not these cases about as nearly paral-
lel as possible.? What is the essential diff-
erence in the conduct of the the two moth-
ers.? There is none.

Their conduct is the same and equally re-
prehensible. The cases are alike with the
exception that the Christian mother substi-
stutes a different deity. It will be argued
that that makes an immense difference.
Let us bring the illustration nearer home.
A negress in Louisiana sees her child wad-
ing in the bayou near an alligator. Instead
of making a practical effort to rescue the
child, the mother kneels down and prays to
the Lord to deliver it from danger. What
will be said of her conduct? Probably
some persons will consider this case vastly
different from the other and will admire her
sublime faith. But the great majority of
sane people will say that she ought to have
called the child away or brought it away
herself. What is the diflference in the re-
sult in this case — practically none — the alli-
gator gets the pickaninny. The negress is
a fanatic the same as the Hindoo woman,
and, if she voluntarily continued a practice
which resulted in a loss of life, she should
be promptly taken in hands by the legal au-
thorities.

Will any sensible person contend that
diphtheria bacilli or other disease germs are
more completely under the control of the
Deity or amenable to prayer than alligators
or other creatures?

They say it is all because of want of faith
that diseases afflict us and that if people
only would have faith enough diseases could
not harm us — they would disappear — there
would be no disease. Now, if faith can re-
move, or Divine power will, when called
upon, remove disease, for instance a germ
disease like diphtheria, surely the same
means might be trusted to remove or subdue
wild beasts. Is there any record to prove
that of the thousands of Christians who
were given to wild beasts in the Roman
amphitheatres, any were miraculously pre-



39



THE CHARLOTTE MEDICAL JOURNAL.



served ? Thousands of them were destroyed.
Are those saints and martyrs to be accused
of lack of faith?

In dealing by law with fanatics, not mere-
ly their motives should be judged, but the
results of their practices ; nor should the
particular form of their religious enthusiasm
blind us to the enormity of their crime or
misdemeanor. The Thugs of India worship
the Goddess Devi or Kali, by strangling
human beings according to certain prescrib-
ed methods, a portion of the victim's goods
being devoted to religious ceremonies, and
the body burned with peculiar and minutely
regulated rites. Now, if a religious belief
causes a sacrifice of human life, what is the
essential difference whether the murder is
done in the name of Devi or of the Lord
Jesus Christ? Would Thuggee— the prac-
tices of the Thugs, be tolerated in the Unit-
ed States? Not for an hour! Then neith-
er should the practice of faith healers be
tolerated even though it is carried on in the
name of religion. It is true that the latter
do not choose and actively attack their
prey ; no, but thay take Disease as a member
into their brotherhood and allow this grim
ally to select and destroy the victims, while
they stand by and perform the religious cere-
monies and prevent others from rendering
aid to the stricken ones. Stripped of the
gauzy garment thrown about it by our rev-
erence for the Christian religion, partly ob-
scuring its ugly features. "Christian Sci-
ence" of the "faith cure" is as horribly bar-
barous a practice as any that has disgraced
paganism since the days when mothers laid
their babes upon the brazen arms of Moloch
and left them there to burn. Picture to
yourself those children suffering in the ter-
rible and loathsome clutches of diphtheria,
and those parents standing idly by witness-
ing the sacrifice, and even preventing ef-
forts for their rescue. Suppose those child-
ren were attacked by a crocodile or other
reptile and the parents behaved thus. Sup-
pose they laid their helpless offspring upon
the arms of Moloch — what would be done
about it? They would have to stand trial
either as to their sanity or for criminality.
What shall be said of that pastor and that
elder and their complicity in this crime?
They are like the priests of Moloch, who
performed their ceremonies and made noises
upon various instruments to drown the cries
of the infants while they were burning.

Where did these deluded creatures get
their authority for the claim that God is bet-
ter pleased that any person should die of a
disease than use means well known to pre-
serve them in life and health and usefulness?
There is more religion and more common
sense in that old saying that "God helps



them that help themselves" than in all the
utterances of Mrs. Eddy and her fellow pa-,
gans. The sooner sane citizens of every
denomination or of no denomination brush
aside the thin veil of so-called religious be-
lief and see "Christian Science" as it really
is in all the ugliness of its criminality and
the fantastic horrors of its insane delusions,