THE LOURDES MIRACLES

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 178, 23 April 1919, Page 3

THE LOURDES MIRACLES

AN INTERESTING ADDRESS In tho surgical amphitheatre of tho American Hospital, Boulogne, on Janury 22, Father Francis Woodlock, S.J., C.F., delivered an address to tho doctors of tho Boulogne base hospitals on "The Medical Aspect of the Lourdes Shrine," says the London ''Tablet." Between 60 and 70 doctors wore present, a gathering that testified to the increased interest taken by the profession in tho famous shrine. After a short introduction, in which the lecturer established the points that a genuino freethinker should be ready to examine the evidence for miracles, and that everyone who believed in tho existenco of God must recognise tho possibility of their occurrence, he quoted various medical authorities, defining limits to the power of hypnotism, auto-suggestion, and any psycho-thera-peutic treatment. Father Woodlock then turned to tho special cases of curejvhich he had selected ns conclusive evidence of the supernatural, quoting, as his authority for the cases, recently published books by doctors who had been convinced of tho supernatural chnraotev ;of the cures they were dealing with. Ho especially commended to the attention of his audience Dr. Boissaire's "Lourdes —Les Guerisons," published in 1911, tho last work of the distinguished president of that medical bureau at Lourdes which examines reported cures, and year by year keeps in touch with the miracules who return on pilgrimages of thanksgiving after their cures. "Vingt Guerisons a Lourdes," by Granmaison de Bruno, M.D., published in 1912; "Lo Cas de Pierre de Rudder," by A. Deschamps, M.D., D.Sc, published in 1913; and "Preuvcs Medicales du Miracle: Etude Clinique," the senior surgeon of a Paris hospital, D. le Bee, M.D., published iii 1917. This last-named book he recommended as the most scientific, and as absolutely convincing. * The cases taken successively by the lecturer were those of admittedly organic diseases of extreme gravity, and i tho medical evidence in each case proved an instantaneous or practically instantaneous euro resulting without any medical or surgical cause. ' As the lecturer continually, insisted, prayer was tho only common antecedent to the various cures, every other circumstance varying so that no common antecedent could be pointed to a,s a possible cause of~the marvellous effects. ' Two cases of cancer, two of advanced tuberculosis, two of lupus, one of compound fracture, and one of multiple pyostercoral fistulae, were severally dealt with, and the evidence on which the facts of the existence of the diseases and their instantaneous cures rested was laid before the audieuce. Tho lecture lasted an hour and a quarter, and it was listened to with deep interest. A public discussion followed, and it was evident that most of the members present were prepared to accept tho medical evidence of their confreres for the extraordinary facts related in their books. "Suggestion" did not appear sufficient to explain cures such as had been presented toV-tho meoting. Ono speaker spoke of the possibility of future discoveries of- science revealing the hidden mystery of these cures—quoth'.?"wireless telegrap'hy" as a modern practice which would have been regarded as clearly miraculous some centuries ago. In reply to this ' objection, Father Woodlock pointed out that the "wireless" discovory did not invalidate the certain laws'or mechanics or destroy the law of gravitation l . It was an extension of our knowledge, not a- correction of previously proved facts of science. Healing is essentially a process, and essentially it needs time for its natural accomplishment. This is a fundamental biological law, and it is unscientific to appeal in the name of science to au unknown, force ' which /would upset the very foundations of assured knowledge. That growth and' hoaling are processes is a universally observed fact, not a working hypothesis, like the undulatory theory of light or the existence of imponderable ether. Another speaker objected-'to'the action of a God who, having the -power to heal all, only exercised that power on behalf of "some chosen individuals, and declared his inability to believe in. such a God's existence. In "replying to him, the lecturer dealt shortly with tho mystery of pain, the problem of human and eternal reward, and claimed that God would in time "make good" in the eyes of all mankind as infinitely kind and merciful, though He permitted sorrow and suffer-; ing to exist on earth.