In the fall of 1897, 24-year-old Everett Hall of Providence went to the home of Walter Everett Mylod and asked if he could be cured of malaria.

Mylod sat down and shielded his eyes as he stared down at the floor silently for about 10 minutes. He then looked back up at Hall.

“I guess you’ll feel better now,” he said.

Hall handed Mylod one dollar and Mylod gifted him with a book called “A Defense of Christian Science.”

Twice that same fall, Clarence Vaughn also visited Mylod’s home, explaining that he had the shivers and asking to be cured of the flu. Both times, Mylod sat in silent prayer and Vaughn paid him a dollar. Mylod gifted him with a copy of “A Historical Sketch of Metaphysical Healing” and told him to refrain from looking on the dark side of things – to look on the bright side instead and to think of God, as thought governs all things.

Mylod was pastor of the Providence Church of Christian Science. Hall and Vaughn were undercover police officers.

The philosophy of Christian Science and its church was founded in Boston in 1879 by Mary Baker Eddy, who was seeking to restore the Christian belief of healing through prayer. The 35-year-old Mylod was living on Wilson Street in Providence with his wife, Marietta (Rollins), and his three young daughters when, following the visits by Hall and Vaughn, he was arrested for practicing medicine in Rhode Island without a lawful license.

Mylod pleaded not guilty and unleashed a nationwide argument concerning whether or not Christian Science was indeed a practice of medicine or a religion.

In his defense, Mylod testified that he never claimed to be capable of curing disease. His only ability, he admitted, was to attempt to turn the thoughts of those who came to him toward God, and to pray for them.

He explained that he had no knowledge of medicine and never advertised that he did. Nor, he added, did he ever claim he had the power to cure anyone or recommend any courses of actual medical treatment.

The courts had a mess to sort out where the laws were concerned. Did praying for people to get well, for money, constitute a practice of medicine? Laws needed to be tweaked to ensure that, in the future, there was a clear line between science and religion; between what was considered legal and what was not.

It was eventually decided that “the acts of the defendant do not constitute a violation.”

In later years, Mylod relocated to Nansauket Avenue in Warwick with his family. By this time, he had become the manager of an electric station. He died on May 16, 1927 and was buried in Warwick’s Brayton Cemetery.

Kelly Sullivan is a Rhode Island columnist, lecturer and author.