THE MOODS OF MR ROSS.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLVII, Issue 2776, 18 October 1923, Page 7

THE MOODS OF MR ROSS.

(To the Editor)

Sir, —The weakness of your position is that you evidently believe as facts certain alleged cures which have not been proved to b facts. The procedure adopted in Courts of Law is the result of many years of experience. What you assert as facts would not be considered such by any judge on such evidence, as seemingly convinces you. Loose statements, such as “the doctors said that the man had been suffering from tuberculosis of the spine, etc.,” would not be considered as reliable evidence, until the doctors Jiad been placed on their oath and been subjected to skilled crossexamination, and so on through all the processes of evidence which experience has taught our dispensers of justice are absolutely necessary even in the ordinary affairs of every day life. How much more necessary is such careful investigation when we are dealing with an alleged happening, which is contrary to natural law, and savours of the miraculous. You accept as facts statements which have not been tested or Investigated on those lines which experience has found to be essential in order that the truth may be arrived at. You will thus grasp that my attitude is a commonsonse one. Your attitude on the contrary is a defiance and disregard of all the rules pertaining to evidence. If the facts of any case, and particularly of such a vital and important matter as the one we are discussing can be arrived on the simple, and may I add, credulous lines that you accept then all the exhaustive methods adopted by our law courts are superfluous and unnecessary. You are, in fact, placing your layman’s judgment in opposition to that of all experts and specialists on the question of what is evidence. This, I submit, si not a coramonsenso attitude. Let mo submit the following suppositious case for your opinion: Supposing a farmer came to you and declared that on the previous day he had sown down a field of oats and the following day had reaped crops of oats. Supposing further a number of other men had supported the statement, supposing oven a lady, ilko the Miss Lammas, you refer to, who was well-known, was not neurotic, but was a quiet, gentle, commonscnsc ladylike personality, had also supported the farmer’s statement. Would you, without further investigation believe such an amazing statement? As a commonsense man you would not, because your reason would toll you that such an alleged happening was* contrary to all natural law. Well, to me, the instantaneous cure of a organism is just as unthinkable as this miraculous crop of oats would appear to you. First grasp this fact, that everything in nature is subject to natural law, and you are 'immediately armed, mentally, against all such unnatural assertions. Dr. Izard in his address to the New Zealand Bed Cross Society makes the following stertement: —“It has been known for a considerable time, that all conditions of the human body that are caused by suggestion are curable by suggestion. Disease may be divided into two main classes, organic and functional organic disease which has a definite pathology, such as cancer, tubercle, rheumatism, the fevers, etc., while functional disease is merely a simulation of oVganic disease. There is no known form of disease which cannot be simulated. Thus we have functional blindness, functional deafness, functional lameness, and so forth. Now it is precisely those functional diseases which are curable by suggestion.” You will thus observe that on the authority of one of our loading specialists no organic disease can be cured by suggestion. What may be cured is purely a simulation of a disease. This is the best answer that

can be given to your question. “Why accuse the poor unfortunate sufferer of being a malingerer?" The sufferer is unconsciously a malingerer. This fact is well-known to all members of the medical profession, a fact of which you arc evidently completely oblivious otherwise you would have hesitated before taking up the very credulous attitude you have done. —J am, etc. ’ R. ROSS.

[The moods of Mr Ross are a study in themselves. Yesterday he assumed the role of martyr, suffering the intolerable insult of being accused of wearing blinkers, but resenting it in very unmartyr-llko language. Today he appears in calm, reasoned, judicial mood) —a very Daniel come to judgment. Certainly this calm after storm is the more welcome. But why assume the composite role of prosecuting counsel, judge and jury all in one. Surely, if Mr Ross takes up the pose of prosecutor and accuses all who have claimed benefit at the hands of the healer of being frauds —either consciously or unconsciously—it is his place to lead evidence in support of his allegations. But, no! Without a tittle of evidence he hurls the accusation as prosecutor, brings in the verdict as jury &,nd passes sentence as judge. Why? Because, to him ( such things are "unthinkable!” Now, for the suppositious case! If farmer number one had bi ought in the good news, and it had been corroborated by all his neighbours, and further corroborated by a lady of such repute, we should, as careful journalists, come to the conclusion that something very unusual had happened and that there was a good story on the horizon! Result our best story-getter would have been hot on the trail of the truth. Not so Mr Ross. Being “mentally armed,” he would not need to investigate. If tiie story did not fit in with his little “four by two” conception of the universe he would without further investigation let loose the vials of his scorn on story and teller alike. Howi prone is your reddest of radicals to become the most hidebound of conservatives when it suits him; Mr Ross swallows the pronouncement of a medical specialist In one gulp. It Is the last and final word on the sub-

ject. And yet Dr. Izard's pronouncement, revolutionary yesterday, may be exploded to-morrow, so rapid is the march of medical science. Both the pronouncement and Mr Ross’s swallowing of it. are significant and there appears to be only one deduction, therefrom. It is that you cannot tell the difference between the real thing and the simulation thereof —except by one method. If the sufferer is cured by Mr Hickson he must have been a malingerer!! Perhaps, peering through a chink in his “mental armour,” Mr Ross will tell us whether the subjoined story is the story of another malingerer.—Ed. “M.D.T.”]

CRIPPLED MAN WALKS,

REMARKABLE AUCKLAND CASE,

A remarkable case of healing in connection with the Hickson Mission was brought to the attention of the Auckland “Herald” during the weekend by Mr Arthur Hobman, of Williamson Avenue, Grey Lynn. For over two years, Mr Hobman has been able to move only with the aid of crutches; he walked into the, office without any assistance whatever, and related one of the most interesting stories of healing that has yet been told in Auckland with regard to the Mission. “Ever since November, 1921, I have suffered from rheumatoid arthritic which followed an attack of rheumatic fever,” he said. “I spent si3 months in the Auckland Hospital, and since coming out have received x-ray treatment and massage, and the best medical treatment to be had here. But nothing came of it, I suffered excruciating pain, and could only drag myself along on crutches. Life has been a burden for two years, for 1 could do no work, and felt myself only a helpless wreck. “When I heard of the coming of the Hickson Mission. I decided to sec whether God could give me-any relief, and attended all the intercessory services at St. Matthew’s. Well, those services brought me back to the fact that men cannot get along without God in their lives, but it did not ease me of rriy pain or help me to walk without crutches. My faith began to waver on the Sunday before the mission opened—there seemed to be so much doubt whether it was going to do good, but I prayed hard that 1 might be strengthened in spirit and body, and on Tuesday I went to St. Matthew’s Church for treatment. It took mo half an hour to get from Queen Street to the top of Wellesley Street, with the assistance of a friend, and the exertion brought on great pain.” IMMEDIATE RELIEF GIVEN.

Mr Hobman was one of the first treated by Mr Hickson in the morning chapel of St. Matthew’s, being among the chair cases. “The moment Mr Hickson laid his hands on my head, I felt a tingling shock pass through my body and down into my legs,” continued Mr Hobman. “I do not know anything about magnestlsin or suggestion or any of those things, but I do know I felt that shock right through me, and it, loft me trembling. After Bishop Averill had given the blessing. I got out of the chair, and looked round for someone to hand me my crutches, but no one saw me, The pain had loft me, I felt I could walk if I tried, so I went over to whcho they stood against the wall, and walked out of the church with them under my arm. In the rest-room I had some tea, but then I collapsed and had to be helped home.

"Next morning', it seemed as though the spirits of evil were all let loose to do their worst. I was full of pain, and I could not stand, but I remembered what had happened the day before and I clung hard to the belief that God was really going to heal me. Next day I felt better, but I could not stand again without my crutches. On Friday night I had a hard battle with despair and doubt, and I prayed with all my might for stronger faith. PETITIONS ANSWERED. “On Saturday morning I got up from my bed feeling that my prayers had been answered, and walked across the room. From that moment I have never gone back. There is only one way to put it. I walked with faith, rejoicing. I cannot tell you how filled with joy I was; it seemed so absolutely wonderful to be walking again after all the pain, and the dragging around on crutches! In the afternoon I walked from Grey Lynn to the hospital to see a crippled friend there, and he could hardly believe his eyes. Any-, one in our district will vouch for my case. The tram conductors and the motormen all know me, and it is fine to see how they smile and wave when they see me walking about now instead of riding crippled in the trams! I feel that I want everyone to know how I have been cured, and to tell all those who have been to the mission to keep up their faith, and to believe that even if they do not get better at once, the healing will come.” Following are the heads of the various departments of workers: Hospitality: Mrs L. A. Abraham. Transport: Mr S. R. Lancaster. Stewards. Inside, Rev. G. Dent and Mr A. Skerman; outside, Messrs. F. Clark and Wollerman. Nurses: Sister Beswlck. V.A.D.’s: Mrs Aitchison. Intercessors; Sister Heni. Refreshments: Miss D. Wilson.