hristian era, where the
physicians were welcomed to the famous library by the emperors. The
state gave them their livelihood and their duties were to advance
medicine by study and research. Anatomy was studied and dissection was
allowed. With the coming of Christianity, the remnants of this library
were destroyed, and with them went all progress in that field. If such
had been the enlightened state in Egypt three hundred years before
Christianity appeared, then why had not science made the same progress
then as it does now? Because, to the knowledge stored in the library at
Alexandria had not been added a progression of learning, a continued
process of research; if this had not been halted by Christianity, how
much vaster would our achievements be today?

It was not necessary for all of those millions to have been the victims
of plagues, of inquisitions, of witchcraft burnings, of religious
persecutions and wars. The sorrow and pain brought to untold numbers
throughout the centuries could have been prevented; and would have been
if man had been interested in the welfare of his fellowmen instead of
the glorification of an almighty being. Future generations may well
declare religion to have been the curse of humanity. The Church had
cursed the human intellect by cursing the doubts which are the
necessary consequence of its exercise. She had cursed even the moral
faculty by asserting the guilt of honest error.

Medicine which has for its sole objects the alleviation of man's
sufferings, to cure them when possible, to relieve more often the pains
and ills which make this life a living hell, what might it not have
accomplished ages ago had religion not interfered with its progress?
Whatever cures are known, and preventions that are practiced now, could
have been common knowledge centuries ago. And what of the multitudes
that perished who might have been saved, and what of the misery which
might have been prevented, had not this curse fallen upon man?

Since 1906, there have been only five deaths from yellow fever in the
United States. Outbreaks of cholera and plague are unknown. In former
years, puerperal fever took the lives of from five to fifty of each one
hundred parturient mothers. At present, an average of one out of 1250
mothers dies of this infection following childbirth. Deaths from many
diseases are less than one-tenth of their former number. These include
wound infections, diphtheria, scarlet fever, malaria, dys