[The Portland Evening Courier also took to reporting instances of Dr. Quimby's cures and giving space to articles by patients. Some of the latter were by Mrs. Eddy, then Mrs. Patterson, and are reprinted in another chapter. Mrs. Patterson's sonnet, also quoted elsewhere, was called out by the striking cure of Capt. Deering. Commenting on this cure, a writer in the Courier says :]
Persons who know but little of the theory or practice of Dr. P. P. Quimby are constantly misrepresenting both. The Doctor has received hundreds of testimonials as to the permanency and wonderful nature of his cures. The following statement from Capt. John W. Deering, of Saco, written by himself, will have great weight with those who know Mr. Deering, and it is published as much to refute statements made by some interested persons to the effect that the Doctor acts as a spirit medium and mesmeriser, as for the testimony it offers in support of the healing power which the Doctor claims to exercise, even in cases called chronic, and given over by old-school physicians.
[The editor also takes pains to say that this wonderful cure, one of many equally remarkable and astonishing cures which have come to his knowledge, is evidence of Quimby's theory, as “original and entirely distinct from spirit mediums and mesmerisers. . . . Below will be found Capt. Deering's statement.”]
“Early in August, 1862, I was attacked with a slight pain in the small of my back, and immediately my right leg commenced drawing up, so that in ten days, while standing on my left foot, I could but just touch my right leg on the seat of a common chair. All this time I suffered great pain in my knee pan. I was attended by two of the best physicians in York County, who applied blisters, leaches, and cappings to my right thigh, with no effect except to increase the pain.
“I became entirely discouraged, when I heard of Dr. P. P. Quimby; and after many solicitations on the part of my friends I yielded to their entreaties and visited him. After an examination, he told me that the cause of my difficulty was a contraction of the muscles about the right side. Physicians that I had previously consulted had treated me for disease of the hip. Almost despairing of a cure, but willing to gratify the wishes of my friends, I remained in the Doctor's care.
