p. 2 | Christian Science Treatments Given to a Burned Child

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 18, 1915

Christian Science Treatments Given to a Burned Child

The lengths to which the theory of the Christian Scientists may lead them is shown by the following clipping:—

With the flesh burned from his chest and arms, five-year-old Millard K. Atkinson, Jr., lay for ten days without medical attention, at the home of his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Millard Atkinson, at 515 West Sixth Street [Palmyra, N.J.]. Because they are Christian Scientists they refused to summon a physician. Only after the boy's death was a doctor called in, and then only that he might issue a death certificate.

These facts, which have set Palmyra and near-by towns in Burlington County afire with indignation, were established by Coroner James Gallagher, to whom Dr. E. H. Bauer, after his refusal to issue a death certificate, referred the case. The truth of the charges were admitted in every detail tonight by the father and mother of the dead boy at their home in Sixth Street. The father told how the boy had fallen into a bonfire, and with his clothes ablaze had run from door to door of the house, seeking admission and crying for his mother. When he finally got in the house to where his mother was working, the clothes had been burned from the upper part of his body. Instead of sending for a physician, the parents telephoned for a Christian Science practitioner.—New York Times, November 7.