Introduction
251
In each of her general presentations on health Mrs. White discussed
poisonous drugs and their use in the treatment of the sick. This phase
of the subject—prominent in the original health-reform vision—filled
eight of the thirty pages of her initial Spiritual Gifts presentation. She
devoted one entire article in the “Disease and its Causes” series to the
subject of drugs
.
Nor was Ellen White’s voice alone at the time. There were certain
physicians on both sides of the Atlantic who deplored the absence of
adequate diagnosis, and gravely questioned the use of many commonly
prescribed poisonous drugs. As a result gradual changes took place in
the treatment of the sick as regards the use of drugs. These changes
have been most rapid and striking in the years following the first
decade of the twentieth century, when modern medical education,
along scientific and experimental lines, developed
.
In her earlier writings, particularly, Mrs. White made singularly
strong statements concerning the physicians of the time and concern-
ing the use of drugs. In order rightly to evaluate these, one must know
something of the medical practices at the time the statements were
made. This knowledge can be gained by examining the medical litera-
ture of those times and from reading the opening chapter of The Story
of Our Health Message, by D. E. Robinson
.
In her books that deal specifically with the problems and work of
the church and its members, Mrs. White devotes more space to the
subject of health and the care of the sick than to any other single topic.
These counsels are spread before the general public in the more than
two thousand pages of The Ministry of Healing, Medical Ministry,
Counsels on Diet and Foods, Counsels on Health, and Temperance,
and in articles in the Testimonies for the Church. the reader is directed
to these sources for the full, balanced picture of the health-reform
message
.
This volume contains four chapters composed of statements drawn
from various sources—some published and some unpublished—
written mostly to medical personnel in connection with Adventist
institutions. These statements illustrate the way Mrs. White herself
applied the principles revealed to her in vision. In her various ut-
terances on the subject of the care of the sick, she ever held up the
ideal for which to strive. At the same time she recognized, as seen
by the terminology used, that there were times and circumstances in
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