Why are initials used in “Fruitage”?

What is the story behind how testifiers were identified in the last chapter of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, titled “Fruitage”? Our research staff is often asked about this, and here’s what they have found.

In 1901 Mary Baker Eddy asked two of her students, Edward A. Kimball and William P. McKenzie, to compile accounts of Christian Science healing for publication in the final chapter of her textbook. While working on the project, they asked Eddy if they should use the testifier’s initials instead of printing their full names: “I agree with you about the testimonials and had thought of that myself but feared it would look ambiguous to not give their names,” she replied. “You may give the initials but give the city and state.”¹

Eddy updated “Fruitage” in 1906. That November she sent another student, Edward Norwood, a package of testimonials and asked him to select several to be included in a new edition of Science and Health.² After the package was sent, Eddy’s secretary Lewis C. Strang, wrote to Joseph Armstrong, the publisher of her writings:

The testimonies for the new edition of Science and Health left here so hastily that I did not examine, but I learn from Mrs. [Laura E.] Sargent that she did not strike out the names, leaving only the initials, which is the way that they should appear in the book.³

Receiving that package, Norwood gave the testimonies titles, made edits, and likely converted the names to initials himself.⁴

A current list of the testifiers in “Fruitage” can be found here.

To read further on this topic, see the website articles “What is the background to the chapter titled ‘Fruitage’ in Science and Health?”; “Have changes been made to Science and Health since 1910?”; and “How were the testimonies in Science and Health verified?”