M. ZOLA AT LOURDES.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 3, 4 November 1892, Page 31

M. ZOLA AT LOURDES.

Mi Zola's visit to Lourdes (writes the Paris correspondent of the London Standard, September 2) has drawn particular attention to the so-called miraculous cures effected at that place. As stated in the Standard, he expressed some incredulity as to the miracle-working power of the shrine and pool. He demanded absolute proof, and for that insisted on the necessity of producing a person who had been cured of an outward malady. He urged, that if immersion in the Lonides waters could cure internal diseases, {they must have an equal power to heal external wounds, and said that ha would be quite convinced if he saw that even an only skin-deep cut were healed in the few moments that the immersion lasts. With the ohject of demonstrating the reality of the miraculous oures, a girl, named | Clementine Trouve, was presented to the novelist. M. Zola's description of this case has already been published, but Dr Boissairie. corresponding member of the Surgeons' Association and Chief of the Lonrdes Medical Cabinet, where those who declare themselves cured are subjected to a medical examination, was not satisfied -with it, and has given his version of the story. Dr Boissarie says M. Zola paid two visits to the Lonrdes Medical Cabinet. The first was on the 20th of August. There were on that occasion some fifteen doctors in the room studying the cures which had Just been effected. Among them were a member of the Academy of Medicine and some representatives of foreign medical faculties. The first person questioned was Clementine Trouve, who had been cured hut yeas of caries of the bone of her heel. In his certificate, the medical man who had attended her during three years declared nothing but an operation would cure his patient. The girl, who came to Lourdes with her foot bandaged with lint, consequent on suppuration, undid her bandages while she was in the pool. On leaving it there were no traces of the malady, and her heel, which was, it is affirmed, swollen and deformed before the immersion, had resumed its healthy aspect. She walked without htr crutch, and felt no more pain. Bight days after this cure, Olementine Trouve's medical attendant acknowledged that there was nothing left of her former disease but the scars. The following conversation then took place :— M. Sola.— What you tell me is a miracle. Dr Boissarie.— We never make use of that word, but we must acknowledge this fact canoot be scientifically and rationally explained. M. Zola.— But, with such an example, I should, in your place, like to throw light on the subject and bring conviction to all. I regret I have not Paris medical professors around me. Dr Boissarie,— Wa regret it also. The doors of our clinical establishment are open to all. We court open discussion. However, in the present case, everyone can see whether a wound exists, or whether it is closed. It is scarcely necessary to be a doctor for that. It suffices to have eyes and to look. M. Zola. — Did you see the sore before the cure ? Dr Boissarie.— Her doctor had seen it. What would my testimony be worth ? It would be suspected. That of the patient's doctor is a sure guarantee, and especially in the present instance, as the doctor in question is a sceptic, and does not believe in supernatural cures. M. Zola.— But I should have demanded a searching inquiry, leav« ing no sort of doubt. Have you acy other witnesses 1 Dr Boissarie.— This child lives at Rouilla, in the Department of the Vienne. The inhabitants of her village are for the most part Protißtanta. All of them can bear witness to her illness and to her cure. A grotto on the model of that of Lourdes has been constructed there. Duriog her jonrney to Lourdes, the ladies who accompanied her in the train Baw the sore, and the directress of the hospital ward under whose care the child had been placed can describe to you what it was like before the cure, and her foot after immersion in the pool. Moreover, the ladies presiding at the pool told us how the bandages and lint fell to the bottom of the water, and how the cure was effected before their eyeß. M. Zola.— But I should want an official inquiry and a photograph of the heel on the arrival of the patient. Dr. Boissarie.— A photograph is a bad criterion. It doeß not give the tints and does not penetrate into the tissues, And after all what guarantee would the Commissary's scarf or the Gendarme's cocked hat give us ? But this cure is not new, and I should like to be able to show you a cure jnst effected. It so happened, said Dr Boissarie, that the second person who presented herself while M. Zola was in his cabinet was Marie Lebranchu, living at 172, Bue Ohampionnet, Paris. She had been suffering from consumption, had long been a patient of the Hotel Dien, and had just left the Franco-Dutch Hospital. Dr Marquez stated in his certificate that she was suffering from tuberculosis of the lungs, in which there were cavities. Moreover, at the Hotel Dieu Koch's bacilli had been detected in her expectorations. She had been bed-ridden for several months, and had lost forty-eight pounds in weight. After her first immersion, she went to Dr Boissarie'a cabinet to have her cure officially noted. The most careful auaculta-

tion by the doctors of that cabinet failed to detect any of the symptoms of tuberculosis. An instantaneous and complete modification of the lungs had taken place. M. Zola expressed considerable incredulity with regard to this case, which was presented to him. He found the lady's eyes particularly bright. But Dr Boissarie says that the cure of a ooaramptive patient can be supported with almost the same evidence as the cure of an outward wound. M. Zola was also present in th« medical cabinet when two other striking oases of cure were verified. They were those of a dtaf and dumb person, who afterwards heard and spoke, and that of a person suffering from neurosis.)