A Critique of the Book Prophetess of Health

Counsel Regarding Employing X-ray

In Prophetess of Health, on page 187, Mrs. White’s attitude toward X-ray is distorted. She is represented as advising avoidance of “such new-fangled (and expensive) electrical devices as the X-ray machine.” Had Prophetess of Health quoted the second sentence of Ellen G. White’s statement on the X-ray, the picture would be quite different. The full statement as published at Loma Linda in Medical Evangelistic Library # 5, pp. 18-19. CBPH 86.8

When we were at the [Paradise Valley] Sanitarium we were conducted through the new treatment rooms. One room was elaborately fitted up with electrical appliances for giving the patients treatment. That night I was instructed that some connected with the institution were introducing things for the treatment of the sick that were not safe. The application of these electrical treatments would involve the patient in serious difficulties imperiling life.... I have been instructed that the X-ray is not the great blessing that some suppose it to be. If used unwisely it may do much harm. The results of some of the electrical treatments are similar to the results of using stimulants. There is a weakness that follows. CBPH 86.9

Ellen White did not oppose the use of appropriate electrical treatment equipment or the use of the X-ray. She did not call on Adventist medical institutions to avoid its use. Nor did she discount the blessing which the X-ray may be, but she did sound a warning. “If used unwisely it may do much harm.” How true this is! The peril widely recognized today of an overuse of X-ray is so clear in the minds of everyone that no supporting evidence is called for. The truth of the matter is that the accuracy of her statement, taking into account the time it was written, is truly remarkable. The long-range damaging effects of excessive use of X-ray were not comprehended at the time, nor were they for some years after. CBPH 86.10

To show that Ellen White was not opposed to the proper use of X-rays, we point out that there is documented evidence that five years after this statement was written, she underwent treatment with X-ray at Loma Linda for what was diagnosed as Skin cancer. She wrote: “For several weeks I took treatment with the X-ray for the black spot that was on my forehead. In all I took twenty-three treatments, and these succeeded in entirely removing the marks. For this I am very grateful” (Selected Messages 2:303). CBPH 86.11

It was not only in the recognition of the value of X-ray that Ellen White shows that she kept pace with sound developments in medical science. It is interesting to observe that as early as 1901 she recommended a blood transfusion, even though in those days it was little used and fraught with risks. CBPH 86.12

To a physician who was dying of pernicious anemia, she wrote: “There is one thing that has saved life,—an infusion of blood from one person to another; but this would be difficult and perhaps impossible for you to do. I merely suggest it” (Selected Messages 2:303). CBPH 87.1