WCP3426

[1]

Lourdes

April 5th 1874

My dear Wallace

I was pleased & interested in receiving your kind letter & was especially interested in what you tell me about the forthcoming article in "the Fortnightly".¹ I must say I think you do very rightly in particularly advocating what you are convinced is truth & wise in making the Fortnightly your vehicle. I made use of it some time ago to oppose the nonsense Huxley² teaches about our knowledge of our own existence. No doubt your article will produce much effect but as to convincing certain individuals of the objective truth of any preternatural phenomena that is hopeless — they are have set their will determinedly against them & might fitly[?] reply in the words made use of to you[2] so naively by our friend Darwin³when speaking of other phenomena "I never can & never WILL believe them".

We are here in a charming country & quiet pleasant old town, as this season almost empty of visitors. We are here also as you are no doubt fully aware at the head quarters of a whole series of alledged modern miracles performed, as reported[?], through the water which suddenly began to flow when Bernadette Soubirous⁴ was in an ecstatic state in the presence of the [one word illeg.] of an apparition of the B[lessed] V[irgin] M[ary].

I have made such enquiries as I have been able & find that here on the spot the miracles are fully believed in. The clergy were for a long time opposed to the whole thing & the Bishop⁵ had to be virtually[?] forced to institute an enquiry he was little disposed to accept such alledged phenomena are facts. He ended however by being fully convinced & also the curé⁶ (a fine soldier like man of about[3] 65 — somewhat brusque in his manner) who is quite certain as to the marvellous[?] nature of many cures. I have had a long talk with the Doctor here (Dr Dozous⁷) and with two others at Toulouse (Dr. Roques⁸ N^o 8 Rue d'Aussargues & Dr Nogues⁹ Rue S^t Anne). I will just mention one or two cases for ^{for which} which I have had face to face testimony from one or other of these doctors.

A woman named Blaisette Soupenne^{10 of this place} about fifty had an affliction (blepharite) of the eyes for several years. Both eyelids were partially everted, lashless, while the lower lids had numerous fleshy excrescences. Dr Dozous attended the case himself, and also a Dr Vergez.¹¹ It was pronounced chronic and all idea of cure abandoned. She washed her eyes with the water on two successive days on the second her sight was complete[?] restored[?], her eyelids righted themselves and the excrescences vanished. Dr Dozous assures[?] me how he examined this carefully himself. On that day the eyelashes began to grow and she has never been so afflicted since.

Justin Bouhohort[?]¹² also of this place was a ricketty child two years old which had much atrophied limbs and had never been able to walk. It got worse and was thought to be near to its death. Dr Dozous told me he attended it & was present when the mother placed it under the stream of the Lourdes water. It was motionless while so hold & the bystanders therefore fancied it was dead already. The mother took it home placed it in its bed & noticed that it seemed to be in a tranquil sleep. Next day it woke with a quite different expression of face craved for food, fed fully & wanted to get up but its parents were afraid to let it. The following morning while they were out to work it got up & when they returned was[4] walking about the room. Walking quite well and has done ever since.

Louis Bouriette¹³ a stone quarryman had his face severely wounded and his eyes injured by an explosion in work [one word illeg.]. One eye lost pretty well the other remained so imperfect that with it alone he could not distinguish a man from any other similar sized object at a few paces distance & he was incapable of doing his given work as a stone mason. This continued for for twenty years. At the time of his case he was under Dr Dozous care and his eyes were then getting worse. He washed them and was completely cured in the time[?] of one day. Dr Dozous met him in the street & would not believe he was cured & tested him by writing with a pencil on a piece of paper that he had an incurable [one word illeg.] of the right eye & when he read the words to the doctor the latter was dumbfounded for Dr Dozous was a materialist & disbeliever in all things preternatural at that time. His case is also vouched for by Dr Vergez and Barjez[?].¹⁴

M. Lacassagne¹⁵ now of 6. Rue du chai dans [one word illeg.] Bordeaux (I shall go & see him) formerly of Toulouse had a son¹⁶ who had for three years been unable to swallow a morsel of solid food[.] Both the doctors of Toulouse told me of this case but Dr Nogues was his principal medical attendant. Dr Nogues is still an unbeliever but he told me he felt bound in justice to declare that his patient was a good obedient child of a sanguine temperament & not at all nervous or hysterical. When wasting to the extreme from imperfect nutrition he was instantaneously[?] cured at the fountain and has eaten freely solid food ever since & is quite well. This matter was a visitation and was attested by this fact in his family.[5]

Finally Dr Roques ^{of Toulouse} told me that his own daughter¹⁷ had recently had a most remarkable case & this was also told me by Dr Dozous of Lourdes. Dr Roques is shortsighted, his sons are shortsighted & his father is short sighted. he [one word illeg.] then that his daughter was also shortsighted. It was a case of heredity[?] congential shortsightedness. Her mother was exceedingly desirous as her daughter grew up that she might be able to see like ordinary people and took her to Lourdes when in an instant she became instantly ordinarily long sighted. On her return her father would not believe till he had tested her himself by making her read to him at distances which would have been quite impossible at any previous period of her life. The next morning he told me that being very anxious on the subject he called her as soon as possible to the window and pointing out a distant insc inscription told he to read it to him. She said " I can't Papa, it's Latin" he told her then[6] to read him the letters, which to his delight she did. This change had continued permanent up to my visit to him last Tuesday.

We all write in best regards[?] to you & Mrs Wallace & I remain| yours very sincerely S G Mivart¹⁷ [signature]

My address will be

Hotel de Lille et L'Albion Paris

From[?] the time you receive this till April 26th

After that it will be 24 Montague St Russell Square W.C. & Sussex where I hope to have you this year for a day or two. Adieu