A MEDICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE CURES BY THE LOURDES WATER.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 43, 13 February 1885, Page 21

A MEDICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE CURES BY THE LOURDES WATER.

By * S^?™? ll^-' R - C ' S - En ßl**d, Fellow of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society of London • formerly President of the Medical Board%f Trinidad V authTr of n^Vff ifiSF?* <O %, Secretary of State ** the OduJ mes, The Pathology and Treatment of Small-p6x,» etc., etc., [copyright reserved.] INTRODUCTORY. But on glancing his eyes over the list of cures he noticed first most igoorant could make no misiake, formed a large proportion ot hrn £!£ f y ' H """r 11 """ ln tMs one pape? there were wme f?JJ?™¥ d ? 0I !! t *° bf-hb f- h ? Ye ln ' thaa the cures were, that in a country like Ireland, where religious differences were so strung, and reHeious amimosities so bitter, a newspaper should venture to nut forward the names and addresses of lite»fi/hiiiirtnrf.oll^ O^hSSSLsS ™£h ¥"T °l 103I 03 " 1 " 7 ° f Which ifc was Verted they had been P%L!L* the statements were all frauds, or all invention The Protestant papers would certainly take the case ud and the disproof of such false allegations would be so eafv That ft was totally cut of the question to suppose that anything like a coabiderable number were either false, fmndnleat ot even I n°d fit wa° BDern8 De rnf T ?, eße - P e °P le c a°i all parts of IreS k w fCo 8 f x*& sr^^sajx^Tti^ !f &TSP.S 1 of ceS%££ JM~.-S c3SSir P TH' c tha * Ba ? h statements should be made without suchf iTun^l h SP K OO i' II 1 ** 110 editor would venture to insert SnuU.Jandctect' 6 *" P^ il >le belief that it was sner.&^rr™'^ 11 .^ sam - e P a Per to™ was an account by a the visions h a P dh Wh ° had eea Bent t0 deßcribe the P la <* where J n?it irZ m , Ibe1 be ! n , Been ' t nd v who na «»tad wnat he had heard liom the mouths of those who had seen them. It was clear from this account that the people, whatever delusion they might be labouring under, were m good faith, and really thought that they had %een some appantwn. Thafc they were utterly and completely Snt 8 who dfdTf Q ! ™ te ' had no do «*>t. The Jpee.l co?res P oX dent, who did not strike him at the time as being a very pious Catholic (even if a Catholic at all, of which he had some doubts) showed conclusively that there was no possibility of the TsL having ueea produced by any machinery like that used in the Koyal l'olytechuic or elsewhere to produce optical illusions. * Here, then, it seemed was a highly interesting subject for calm Surlbll wh P rlCalr ICal ?, qU J ry \ Givea a number ofdiseases repu ed «?S ? 2.7 # W °? ld - be * he p hysi(wl effecfc ou them of a highly benrodn^fi * « th ™^«° «Uth and hope ? Could won > chingS be produced in the nerves, blood-vessels And lymphatics, as would St nn b c o? IH-".vl H -".v Atfil ' 8t itßeemftd I«rfWeikt£^"iS£ O,?J hJU cnTe *} n nt, th '8 way-time enough being given-even though ihonfrnrtL^ 18 *? «very known method of treatment. But how « ? »™ ,° WoUldW ° oUld an y amount of mental emotion get rid HowcrS 1% h tumoar ' ?r? r h alia afew hour d a diseased bone? How could such various diseases be subject to any one law ? How h?l abS Wi ° T rbid pr ° CeBS yield t0 one remed y ' And then «?r£^£ children too youug to experience any mental emotion, he tfoulhr lt U?ed *w by hUDg6r arld thi "t? Altogether the more . ie thought about h, the more he was perolexed and puzzled. At Z;Z?J UW V°^ mitlha ««P«™»f£»i; he determined "S . defer r»mJ m? >on about the case until he had an opportunity of seem* peisonally some of these miraculous cures occm a of H>??« al m ° nthS afterwar f s ' the w "ter was personally a witness who VI P ?' ai ', y re ? over y. of a P^ent by the us« of Lourdea water, wXp£ * y** arti ° t wl ° imHis - Jhis event, leading to the « nter a conversion, naturally led him to investigate more fully the "l c KLSi 1 TSTa CU T a * or of Lourdes water. thtSSiT P*- 4 *"" 1 ? <%Zovrde S from the commencement, and S «lmftt ?i^r tt !! n M ' He T nri Lasserre, who was himself cured of almost total blindness by the Lourdes water, as will be described m the sequel. Jiom these sources the following work hsa bet-n