from the point of view of logic or consistency, but
by a study of the written testimonials and of my own experience gained
in the attempt to verify the claims of those who pronounce themselves
cured.

Some years ago I followed up, so far as was possible through personal
interviews and through letters, all the Christian Science "cures" of
which I could hear any details in or near Boston. Within a short time
I have returned to the subject and studied one hundred of the cases
recorded in the recent volumes of the _Christian Science Journal_
under the caption, "Testimonies from the Field." Putting together this
evidence and comparing it with my experience regarding the accuracy of
my own patients' statements about their own diseases, past and
present, my conclusions are, first, that most Christian Science cures
are probably genuine; but, second, that they are not the cures of
organic diseases.

In my own personal researches into Christian Science "cures," I have
never found one in which there was any good evidence that cancer,
consumption, or any other organic disease had been arrested or
banished. The diagnosis was usually either made by the patient himself
or was an interpretation at second or third hand of what a doctor was
supposed to have said.

As I have followed up the reported cures of "cancer" and other
malignant tumors, I have found either that they were not tumors at
all, or that they were assumed to be malignant without any microscopic
examination. In other words, the diagnosis was never based upon any
proper evidence.

I have never seen any reason to believe that lies were told by the
persons concerned. Their claims were the result of mistake or
intellectual mistiness, and not of intentional deception. The cures no
doubt took place as they asserted, but they were not cures of organic
disease.

Now, before going further, something must be said in explanation of
the terms "organic" and "functional" which I shall use throughout this
paper. By organic disease is meant one that causes serious, perhaps
permanent deterioration of the tissues of the body; by functional
disease is meant one due to a perverted action of approximately normal
organs. Functional diseases are no more imaginary than an ungovernable
temper or a balky horse is imaginary. They are often the source of
acute and long-continued suffering; indeed, I believe that there is no
class of diseases that gives rise to so much keen suffering; but sti