The Irish standard., 1914-09-26


of those who quickly perceived the
profits to be reaped" for establishing
a holy reputation for their town and
while the matter hung in suspense,
the timely discovery of a spring in
the neighborhood of the grotto"
seem to be the principal incidents
and their manner of happening in his
narration; a fictitious assumption is
made as to how the first cures oc-
Cured: cit was a matter of course
that among the visitors to the mirac-
ulous spring should before long be
found one suffering from hysteria or
some other form of real or imaginary
disturbance readily susceptible to
suggestion. So or perhaps in a less
honest fashion originated the first
tale of marvellous cure wrought by
bare contact with the water of the
spring." Bernadette, too, according
to his story, "having served her pur-
pose, was induced or forced to enter
a convent, where she was rigidly ex-
cluded from the gaze of visitors. I"
The so-called scientific method of in
vestigatfon and expression is totally
absent from Mr.. Morton's remarks,
passion and bigotry marking every
sentence of his ridiculous TRADE. His
frank admission that my observa-
lions possess no scientific value" is
about the only truth he states in the
eleven pages of his labored attack.
1T would be easy to trace the rec
ord from the days of primitive man,
and to show every successive step in
medical progress has been compelled
to count on ecclesiastical opposition.
This statement at the opening of his
article shows that Mr.. Morton is very
INSCRIPTIONS or very ignorant. It is
a re-statement of the old falsehood
spread broadcast by Professor Drap-
er that the Church discouraged the
physician and his art" because che
interfered too much with the gifts
and profits of the shrines." In an
swering this statement, DR.. Walsh in
the September Catholic World re-
marks: Professor Draper apparently
know nothing of the great medical
and surgical schools attached to the
medieval universities, whose pro-
fessors wrote great medical and surg
ical text books which have come
down to us, and whose faculties re-
quired far higher standard of med
ical education than was demanded in
America in Professor Diapers own
cay"
The principal authority upon
whom Morton relies for his denial of
the miracles at Lourdes is the motor
ious Emile lola, who visited the
place in 1892, and who subsequently
wrote novel, "Lourdes." lola was
witness of the miraculous healing
of the frightful lupus of Marie Lam
archand and of the tuberculosis af-
lection of Marie Lebranchu, both of
which he describes in his book. But
the former he ascribes to suggestion,
which is ridiculous when the nature
of the disease is considered and when
it is known that the cure was perm
anent, continuing for sixteen years.
In the case of Marie Lebranchu, lola
most unscrupulously causes her to
relapse and die on the return from
Lourdes, when as a matter of fact
he himself visited her in Paris three
years after the cure, she herself
marrying later on, and becoming a
widow, in 1908 was servant in the
house of Sisters Of Charity in Paris.
(See works on Lourdes by the we'll
known converts, J. Jorgenson and
Robert Hugh Benson). And yet Mr..
Morton declares Zola's exposure
complete and merciless!" Evidently
he himself knew nothing Of the cures
of Gabriel Garam, an unbeliever
(Jorgensen, "Lourdes." p. 1880, of
Boothman, the son of an Anglican
clergyman, of Peter de Rudd. whose
cure was attested by over one hun
dred doctors in conference der Fels,
May 1914, p. 299). and of the thous-
ands of others in regard to which
testimony could be given.
Another authority mentioned is
DR.. Aigner of Munich, Germany, with
whose name the writer is not even
familiar, continually spelling it "Aig-
nier," and whose charges have been
repeatedly answered by German
Catholic scholars der Fels. issue cit
ed, p. 1881
Since 1893 a medical bureau has
been maintained at Lourdes to exam
inc into the cures on those which are
beyond natural explanation. and
which is visited by 500 doctors every
year. Mr.. Morton, of course, finds
the work of this Bureau very super
fetal. Suffice it to say that this is
like the other accusations which he
so readily makes. The work of the
Bureau is most thorough and no case