In October, 1891, she was persuaded to take treatment from a lady who claimed to cure through Christian Science (a mind healer). The treatment commenced on a Thursday afternoon. The lady impressed on her that the morphine, of which she now consumed, hypodermically, the enormous quantity of ninety grains a week, was injurious, and that if she made up her mind that there was no disease the asthma would leave her. Friday night the patient was in great agony, both from the withdrawal of the drug and the asthmatic attack, and this double pressure weakened the faith of both patient and healer, but the husband stood firm and insisted that she have no morphine. The struggle for breath and the narcotic continued until four o’clock Sunday morning, when she began to get easier; the improvement continued, and in ten days she had “outgrown” both. I saw her two months later, entirely recovered, and the most brilliant specimen of the efficiency of mind cure that one could wish to see.
CHAPTER IV.
GENERAL CAUSES OF UTERINE AND PELVIC DISEASES OF WOMEN.
Why are womb diseases so prevalent? is a question which we are not infrequently called upon to answer. At first sight this would strike one as a casual or commonplace remark, but a moment’s reflection makes it one of vital interest, for a truthful and intelligent reply lays bare the causes which undermine the health, strength and character of the mothers of our citizens, and when a disease of this sort becomes common, it threatens the morality, health and life of our nation.
The causes which operate in producing these diseases of the female differ widely in their origin; some are due to ordinary imprudence, while others are deeply rooted in moral depravity and marital abuses and for this reason I consider it convenient to arrange them into three distinct classes or groups.
The first class is characterized by comprising those causes which are for the most part accidental. They are peculiar to confinement and motherhood, and may be in a great degree controlled or averted by the skillful and competent accoucheur. They have principally a scientific interest, and do not fall within the scope of the non-professional reader.
The second class is entirely beyond anyone’s control. The causes belonging to this category are innate to the human organism; they induce those numerous afflictions which here and there sprout up in previously healthy persons, and are, in all probability, due to some specific hereditary taint. They are to be attributed to the natural imperfections of humanity, and are a constant reminder that the body is simply the transient abode of the soul, or spiritual man, and as such only perfect in its imperfections. Like the causes of the first class, these, too, have principally a scientific interest.
The third class of causes of uterine diseases constitutes a very large group, and has a popular or general interest. For this reason it should be freely discussed, because the causes of this class are avoidable.