Chicago that gave me a great deal of trouble night and day, and I find myself out of fix. . . .
Doctor, I often get your picture and I imagine I have regular sittings with you. They do me good, I do believe. But the picture is not equal to the live man. . . . You know the gratitude of my heart better than I can express it.
[Other letters written from time to time indicate that the cure was permanent, although there are slight matters requiring her healer's advice. Writing from her old New England home four years after she was cured, Miss X. says that everybody remarks how strange it is that she is so well. She also says:]
I have never lost a moment from sickness since I have been in school, nearly two years. I walk six and eight miles in a day, very often. . . . I feel so thankful I am well. If it had not been for you I would have been in my grave or much worse off long before now. I cannot tell you, Dr. Quimby, how much I think of you, and love you for what you have done for me. . . . When I went to school in Chicago my friends said in less than three months I should be sick. I wrote you and you said you would not let me, and I have not been. Now I want that knee of mine cured up. . .[1]
[Another series of letters, dating from 1860 to December 25, 1864, begins with the description of the patient's case, a fibrous tumor about to be operated upon and other conditions as diagnosed by competent physicians, and traces the results from time to time, as the patient reports her progress. She, too, experiences difficulty in avoiding the recurrence of old symptoms, for her case was well known, the doctors are sceptical, sometimes angry, and she must maintain her faith against opposition. At times she can hardly call herself well, and so writes to Dr. Quimby to express her difficulties and receive his advice or help. The following letter is typical of those written to express gratitude:]
- ↑ These letters indicate that the chief difficulty encountered by former patients who depended solely on the new Science was in avoiding old fears and other mental associations readily called up when meeting sceptical friends.
