Faith-healing and Christian Science / by Alice Feilding.

  • Feilding, Alice.
Date:
1899
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Faith-healing and Christian Science / by Alice Feilding. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    not infrequently mistakenly diagnosed by • them.1 Before, however, discussing this particular kind of testimony, a few remarks on the subject generally will not be irrelevant. It is almost a truism to say that in our recollec- tions those circumstances usually only adhere whereon our attention is particularly directed, or which, for some reason or other, make a strong impression upon us. Now such facts 1 Remarks on the subject of mistakes in expert diagnosis, and an instance of such by Dr. Milne Bramwell: 4 In reference to the alleged miraculous cure of disease, two questions might fairly be asked—Have all possible errors of diagnosis been excluded ? and could the cures have resulted from means other than mira- culous ? Some years ago, one of my patients had his eyes injured. One had to be removed, while the sight of the other was con- sidered entirely lost, and a certificate to this effect given by a skilled ophthalmic surgeon. He considered the loss of sight due to complete detachment of the retina, and was so convinced of this that, previous to an operation on the other eye, he proposed to remove this one as useless, and a possible source of danger to the success of the operation. After twelve months of blindness, the patient commenced to see a little, and speedily recovered complete power of vision. At this time he was having no treat- ment $ but had the cure occurred during a visit to Lourdes it would have been deemed miraculous, and, to disprove this, in the face of the medical evidence, would have been almost im- possible. An effusion of lymph into the vitreous humour had been mistaken for detached retina.’—Journal of the S.P.R., No. Cl. vol. vi. June 1893, p. 97.