Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 47.djvu/783

Rh may cause it to rise into the air; this upward movement is, however, no violation of the law of gravitation, but merely a counteraction of its usual workings through the intervention of a superior force; therefore, miracles are wrought without violating natural laws. We commend this palpable non sequitur to any writer who wishes to make a collection of peculiarly gross fallacies for a work on logic.

An admirable reply to Dr. Korum's book is a brochure of eighty-three pages written by Friedrich Jaskowski, and entitled Der Trierer Rock und seine Patienten vom Jahre 1891 (Saarbrücken: Carl Schmidtke, 1894). The author is a Catholic priest in the diocese of Trier, and therefore under the jurisdiction of the bishop, the absurdity of whose statements and the untenableness of whose arguments he so courageously exposes and so conclusively refutes. The holy coat, he says, has been in the custody of the cathedral since the twelfth century, and was exhibited and adored as a sacred relic probably a dozen times from 1512 to 1810, but during these three centuries no healing virtue or wonderworking power was ever ascribed to it. In 1810 some ignorant and superstitious devotees reported that miracles had been wrought by it, but these stories were not indorsed by the ecclesiastical authorities. Not until 1844 did the popular demand for miracles become so loud and persistent that Bishop Arnoldi finally yielded to it and announced officially that "bodily wonders" or miraculous cures had been performed. If the holy coat can restore the sick, Jaskowski thinks it rather odd that it should have no power of self-restoration; it gets moldy when shut up in a damp closet, wears out by use, and has to be cleaned, darned, and patched like any other garment. The miracles of healing cited by Dr. Korum are then subjected to a critical examination and shown to be utterly unworthy of credence. In several instances the persons said to have been cured died shortly afterward. Of the thirtyeight cases cited, thirteen were men and twenty-five women. "This predilection for the fair sex" is a rather suspicious circumstance, indicating that the maladies were mostly hysterical and nervous and might be easily ameliorated by any influence that would powerfully affect the imagination, without the aid of either medicine or miracles. Jaskowski quotes Prof. Charcot, Dr. Forel, and other neuropathologists to prove that hetero-suggestion emanating from a physician or priest, or auto-suggestion originating in the person's own mind, may often be the most effective remedy for disorders of this kind. In auto-suggestion the patient is possessed with the fixed idea that the doing of a certain thing, which may be in itself absolutely indifferent, will afford relief; as an example of this faith-cure Jaskowski refers to the woman who was diseased with an issue of blood, and approaching