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THE QUIMBY-EDDY CONTROVERSY
AFTER Dr. Quimby's death, Mrs. Eddy continued to teach the new ideas and methods, as one of his followers until the period of her more public work. She lived in Stoughton, Mass., 1868-70, where she left a manuscript known as "Extracts from P. P. Quimby's Writings," on which she based her teachings. (A part of the Ms., with a facsimile showing emendations in Mrs. Eddy's hand, was published in the New York Times, July 10, 1904, with a "deadly parallel" showing Quimby's teachings and those of Mrs. Eddy in "Science and Health") In 1872, while teaching in Lynn, Mass., Mrs. Eddy claimed this Ms. as her own, and in this and other writings she gradually changed the terminology so that it bore less resemblance to Quimby's. After publishing "Science and Health," in 1875, she put forward progressive claims as discoverer and founder. In her "Metaphysical College," in Boston, Mrs. Eddy began in 1882 to have trouble with her students, who criticized her teaching and disputed her claims.
One of these students, Mr. E. J. Arens, learned from Mr. J. A. Dresser, October, 1882, that the methods and ideas claimed as hers by right of "revelation" were derived from Dr. Quimby. Arens gave full credit to Quimby and claimed the right to publish the new ideas without giving credit to Christian Science, but was sued by Mrs. Eddy for plagiarism. The suit was won, Sept. 24, 1883, by Mrs. Eddy, because Arens could not persuade George Quimby to let him take the Quimby Mss. into court. Meanwhile, the controversy in the press was begun, Feb., 1883, by "A. 0.," in a letter to the editor of the Boston Post, entitled "The Founder of the Mental Method of Treating Disease," in which the facts, acquired from Mr. Dresser, were accurately stated.
1883. Feb. 19. "E. G.," ostensibly a sometime patient of Dr. Quimby's but in reality a publicist for Mrs. Eddy, writes a letter to the Post, representing Quimby as a mere "mesmerist" and trickster.
1883. Feb. 23. Mr. Dresser refutes these statements and puts Quimby's work in its true light.
1883. March 7. Mrs. Eddy writes to the Post over her own signature, trying to meet Mr. Dresser's reply by introducing irrelevant subjects.
