The Bellefontaine Republican. [volume] (Bellefontaine, Logan County, Ohio) 1855-1905, 1904-07-19
ILL FLOCKYTO MINER.
MARVELLOUS CURES EFFECTED
BY A scoTcHMAN.
his Lowly Home Near Glasgow the
Mecca of Halt and Maimed-IsI Ig-
norant of Medicine and His
Surgery Causes Surprise.

London has been recently flooded
with highly colored reports of mar
velous cures effected by William Rae,
Scotch miner, living at Blantyre, .
little village near Glasgow.
Special correspondents have written
columns telling how the halt were
| cured and the deformed made straight
by an old man whose medical know
ledge was limited to a few notions of
anatomy obtained by a cursory study
of a handbook. Some of them went 30
far as to suggest that Rae's power was
superhuman- His cottage, it is said,
| presented a remarkable sight daily.
Crowds Of people, some on crutches,
others hobbling along with walking
sticks, but all filled with hope Of being
, cured, besieged the former miner, who
is devoting IL hours a day to treating
his patients.
One instance of Rae's methods was
given by a highly veracious correspon-
dent as follows:
THE patient was a little boy who
! could not walk here. Said Rae: "This
is a case of a dislocated hip; the doc
tors call 1t disease, but it is not He
made the boy lie down; then suddenly
seizing the limb he gave it a jerk
There was sharp crack, sharper
! cry from the boy, and before the lat
ter's mother, who was present, could
recover from her astonishment, her
child was walking about the room de-
| lightedly waving his discarded weight
ed boot in the air."
Another case termed typical was de-
scribed as that Of a girl who was .
hunchback. In this instance the mother
| was not permitted to be with the child,
but a quarter of an hour later the child
came out Of the cottage straight as .
die" and sobbed out her happiness ON
her mothers shoulder.
There were dozens of stories such as
these detailed at length in the London
newspapers. Photographs Of Rae have
been published, showing him to be q
somewhat uncouth-looking man, with
a badly trimmed beard and heavy fea-
lures. His fee never varies. To al
alike he charges half a guinea
| From every part of England and
Scotland, If one is to believe the ac-
counts one reads, people have travelled
to seek Rae's assistance and pay their
half-guineas. Still, Rae is not wealthy,
although it appears he has been carry
ing on his ''bloodless surgery" for
years.
Rae's doctrine appears to be that
bone disease is an invention of the
doctors. To him conclusive proof Of
this is that neither he nor anyone else
has ever seen a diseased bone in . liv-
ing person
The secret of spinal curvature and
every other condition causing deformi-
ty or lameness is contained in the
single word 'Bluid," for Roe's Scotch
accent is one of his special charms.
Where that's wrang," says thiz
pathological oracle, "a the rests
wrang"
The British Medical Journal, COM
menting on the affair, says there LIS
nothing of this wondrous talk of the
collier surgeon that will surprise those
who know how little education has
done to dissipate the clouds Of ignor-
ance and credulity which darken the
public mind. The really interesting
point to know would be how so foolish
a thing was made subject of sue
cessful boom.