steps to be taken. We are subject to prosecution for manslaughter
or for criminal neglect if the patient dies without the
consolations of the medical profession. This menace is kept before
the public by the Peculiar People. The Peculiars, as they are
called, have gained their name by believing that the Bible is
infallible, and taking their belief quite seriously. The Bible is
very clear as to the treatment of illness. The Epistle of James;
chapter v., contains the following explicit directions:

14. Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of
the Church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with
oil in the name of the Lord:

15. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the
Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they
shall be forgiven him.

The Peculiars obey these instructions and dispense with doctors.
They are therefore prosecuted for manslaughter when their children
die.

When I was a young man, the Peculiars were usually acquitted. The
prosecution broke down when the doctor in the witness box was
asked whether, if the child had had medical attendance, it would
have lived. It was, of course, impossible for any man of sense and
honor to assume divine omniscience by answering this in the
affirmative, or indeed pretending to be able to answer it at all.
And on this the judge had to instruct the jury that they must
acquit the prisoner. Thus a judge with a keen sense of law (a very
rare phenomenon on the Bench, by the way) was spared the