New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-01-19
4 NATURAL SURGEON

An ACCOUNT OF TIE WONDERFUL CURES SAID To
HAVE BEEN EFFECTED BY AN ITALIAN WOMAN.
There is now living In Brooklyn III the family Of
well known Government official. an Italian woman
who has remarkable skill in curing lameness and
setting old d,slocations which the best surgeons
have failed 20 relieve The gentleman whose guest
she is has a daughter who has been a sufferer from
childhood with what seemed to be an ineurabie
complaint OF the hip aad spine. some years 20 ne
read in an American magazine an account, written
by an officer of the United States Navy, OF the ex-
traordiuary cures performed us a woman ilNlue ln
small town IN Northern Italy. and last Summer,
after having tried all means at his command here
for relieving the girls distress he took her TO Eu-
rope and visited the physician whose fame had
He fonnd a woman Of about sixty, belonging 20
the peasant class. She lived in u comfortable mousse
OF her own, and had modest fortune, afcuAuattu
bv hey practice. People came 10 her from All the
country Troublesome ID carts ana some on cIulches;
II they had money she took pay iOi ncr services u
they had none 10 was all right. Nobody was iuFheu
away on account OF poverty. She could not be per-
euancd. however, 10 undertake case unless she
felt sure she could AFFORD IelleI. ana she iaue up
her mind and pronounced her Judgment aIter very
slight examination. The peasants DeheVed het 10 De
possessed OF supernatural power once she was ar
rested for practlciug without dPoma' but lhe
1.ov,rumenf caused an Investigation TO he made
and ordered license 10 be gwen her 10 treat cases
OF fracture, disiocatl0n aud lalneness
I
fat her persuaded the SlgnOTa TO come with the pa
tieut u America iu order that the treatment might
il, prolonged for a few months. Sac consented TO
tins ON the condition that she shonid be allowed 10
practice here. She has effected q number of cures
since her arrival and the house OF the gentleman
with vs. nOm she lives has been converted, he says
laualnrlv into q hospital and his wife and daugh-
ter INTO nurses. tor the bencnt OF patients who are
eager 10 avail themselves OF the ltallHns skill.
Sbe is "a dcvout Catholic. and goes twice day 10
a church 10 pray. She does not, however, claim 10
have anv miraculous gft Her host thinks her fire.
qucnt dcyotlons have the eject Of keeping up
certain mental tension and lively faith IN her own
powers which contribute 10 her success. lie re-
gatds her skill rs phenomenal but entirely natural;
au instance On short ot the extraordinary develop
lncnt oi a faculty which most surgeons possess III
only "A small degree. IL at all. Her peculiar power
he saws is in setting fractures with very little pam
10 the patient and ~ setting old dslocauons.
There rs an instance on record he says. OF TINS Pc
cular aptitude existing 40 Rhode Island family,
and hring transmitted FROM generation to genera
zion The Sign0ra succeeds also IN curing recent
cases of rheumatism and neuralgia but here, he
ia nts her power i, magnetic. sac speaks no COM
preheusibc language her dialect beng patoIs OF
the Italian Alps; but Che daughter OF her host has
devised a curously mixed iargon IN winch the TWO
can make each other understood, and by the ana OF
which She acts as interpreter Tor other patients.