222 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[March 13, 1885. 



tioubt, very much to his astonishment, found he could walk after 

 all. There seems to have been notliinj; to prevent his doing so 

 'before, except his want of confidence in liimself. 



Then came a speech from the Major, which consisted chiefly of 

 a warm diatribe against sceptics, doctors, infidels, and hoc genus 

 omiie, in language strong enough to drive out any evil spirits there 

 might have been lurking in the midst of us. Following this we 

 heard from the father of a boy vvlio was present how he had been 

 " cured " of epileptic fits a fortnight ago. lie described the result 

 amid loud excitement and ejaculations from the audience, and thm 

 very naively added that " the boy had been sometimes two mouths, 

 •and once as long as three montlis without an attack!" But the 

 sequel forms the best commentary on this case, which, by the way, 

 is loudly proclaimed as one of the perfect cnres. The boy was 

 shortly after the "healing" bitten by his father's pony, but then 

 taken, not to the " Major," but to his own medical man. Surely a 

 man through whose instrumentality epile]>sy could be exorcised 

 conld heal a simple wound ! Well, after this had lasted abont two 

 iiours tlie real business began. A young man stepped forward who 

 said lie had " heart disease." He knelt at a table with about eight 

 or ten of the officials, a number of whom, women mostly, placed 

 their hands on his head. The " Major" crossed his forehead with 

 oil, and after speaking very earnestly to him for a time, asked him 

 if lie did not feel healed. He replied in the negative. The same 

 [irocess was repeated, some of them shouting to him that he was 

 healed; but etill he said nay, and was ignominiously dismissed 

 with the observation from the Major, " You don't understand 

 faith." 



Next came a deaf old man, but who could hear evidently if 

 spoken to in a loud voice. The same process was repeated amid a 

 very babel of noise, praying aloud, ejaculations of all sorts, earnest 

 entreaties shouted to the patient to hear, and at last it was an- 

 nounced, " The Lord be praised, he can hear," and he was told to 

 express his thanks. Unfortunately, however, for the success of 

 experiment, it required much louder speaking on the piart of the 

 Major before he could hear what they meant. It was perfectly 

 clear the man was not a whit the better. 



Then a young man who, when asked in an ordinary tone of voice 

 ■what was the matter, informed ns ho was deaf. He was said to 

 iiave come from the South of England, and gave an address, which 

 he afterwards said was not his address, and as a matter of fact 

 his real address was not ascertained. Before the hands had been 

 on liis head more than abont a minute, he jumped up, excitedly 

 esclainiing he could hear, when a perfect tumult ensued. But on 

 examining him afterwards we found ho was quite deaf in one ear, 

 and only slightly deaf in the other, as he was before. This was 

 stated to be a cure. I failed to see it, for I had observed him all 

 "the evening joining in every hymn, and evidently hearing what was 

 going on. 



The next and last case taken was another of deafness in a girl, 

 ivhofe mother stated she was very deaf. I noticed, however, that 

 ■when one of tlie officials went to her, and asked her what was the 

 matter, "Are you deaf ? " " Yes, I am deaf," she replied, which, 

 -of course, would not have been her answer unless she had heard the 

 question. This, after a time, was proclaimed to be a case of 

 ■"healed," but the Major could not get any reply from her until the 

 ■mother spoke, whose voice she kupw and replied to. There was no 

 difference whatever as far as I could make out. 



After this case, others requiring more privacy were taken into the 

 vestry ; but I was informed that those I saw were fair specimens of 

 Avhat liad been accomplished before. 



It is, of course, simply ridiculous to call any of these cured. With 

 regard to some of those which have been published in the daily 

 ■journals, I have made inquiry into some ot them classed as 

 " healed," and, as far as I have gone, am unable to find one which 

 will bear the interpretation which has been put upon tliem. 



One woman, a patient of my own, who was said to be cured of 

 deafness, and so proclaimed at one of the meetings, tells me that 

 "it is all nonsense," she "cannot hear a bit better." Y'et she is a 

 woman full of faith in the power to heal. Her son, who has 

 paralysis, they would not attempt to cure. 



The fame person tells me that near her was sitting a girl who 

 ■\v.as blind. She underwent the healing process, and the " Mnjor " 

 annonnced to the audience she was restored to sight, which was, 

 us usual, followed by loud exclamations ot thanksgiving and 

 exultation. But when he put his watch before the child and asked 

 her what she could see, she said : " Mammy, what is it ? 1 can't 

 see anything." This was, of course, drowned in the general hubbub, 

 ■but my informant vouches for its accuracy. 



A case made much of is that of a manager at a manufactory, who 

 was taken in a bath. chair to one of the meetings, suffering from 

 )>ara!ysis, and who was said to have boon so far cured as to be able 

 to walk. But he has been to each meeting since, still in his chair, 

 'in which he remains the whole time. 



I could go on multiplying these cases, but those I have given 

 speak for the rest. One other, however, I ought to mention, as it 

 is that which excited so much attention at the first. It is that of a 

 young woman who was taken in a chair, said to be suffering from 

 paralysis for two years, and unable to move lierself. She is one of 

 those who may be said to have been cured, and a good type of what 

 might be expected. The medical man 'who attended her and the 

 nurse both state that it was a case of simple hysterical hemiplegia, 

 and the nurse had frequently told her that she could walk well 

 enough if she would only try. That, however, was just what she 

 would not do until, under the influence of the excitement and the 

 ]]hysical force used to drag her out of the chair at the meeting, her 

 will at last was made to overpower her emotional state, and she 

 walked. Bnt to say she was cured would seem a false assumption, 

 inasmuch ,as there was no physical disease to cure. Any other 

 shock of a mental character would probably have effected a similar 

 cure. 



This is, indeed, the whole secret of what little success these 

 people can lay claim to. They are generally sufficiently wide- 

 awake to decline to undertake any real physical affection, such as a 

 club-foot ; and yet, even with the selection of cases they make, the 

 only impression I h.avc been able to learn as having been made on 

 any is of a purely mcntul or ernotional character. 



My own conviction is that in this nineteenth century, a morbid 

 excitement of this kind will be very short-lived, and certainly, for 

 the sake of those whose minds are incapable of resisting such 

 ecstatic iuflnences, it is devoutly to be hoped it may prove so. 



itlisrfllnufa. 



We understand that Dr. Zerffi will to-morrow afternoon (the 

 llth), at 3.30, commence a course of thirty lectures in the Theatre 

 ot the Royal School of Mines, on "The Historical Genesis and 

 Evolution of Humanity," to be continued on succeeding Saturdays 

 until the completion of the series. They are delivered under the 

 auspices of the Society for the Promotion of the Study of General 

 History. 



On the first of this month that excellent little Belgian astrono- 

 mical serial, Cicl et Terre, entered on the sixth year of its existence. 

 For the future the editorial staff will be exclusively occupied with 

 tlio scientific conduct of the journal, the merely business details 

 being henceforth transferred to the National Institute of Geography. 

 The editors express a hope (in which their English confreres will 

 heartily join) that the public will aid them by their support in 

 their work of popularising science. 



H.4KLKIAN Society. — The Council have just issued to the members 

 the first volume of the "Christenings at St. James's, Clerkenwell, 

 from 1551 to 1700," and the continuation up to 175-1 will form 

 Vol. II., and is nearly all in the press. The " Visitations of Bed- 

 fordshire" in 1560, 1582, and 1631, are now being issued to 

 members, and that of " Dorsetshire," in 1623, is also nearly com- 

 ])leted. It is proposed to print the Weddings which have taken 

 ]ilaco at St. George's, Hanover-square, from the commencement ot 

 the registers, and G. Leveson Gower, Esq., F.S.A., will edit the 

 volume. The registers of Christ Church, Newgate-street, are 

 transcribed, and will shortly be put in the press. 



The number of gas-lighted buoys in nse is rapidly increasing. 

 Two have just been sent out to Canada for use on the St. Law- 

 rence, and three more have lately been added to the nine already in 

 use on the Clyde. The Garmoyle lightship, also OTi Pintsch's 

 system, is in course of being altered from an oil lightship with a 

 crew to a gas lightship without one, the light beirig of six weeks* 

 duration. Pln.ns are, moreover, being prepared for placing a gas 

 light on the Gantoch rocks, while the small gasworks on Pintsch's 

 system, put up for the Trinity House at the South Foreland, are 

 reported to have proved a great success, and to form a special 

 feature in the lighthouse experiments there. 



Ivory rules and scales may be cleaned well by scrubbing with a 

 new soft tooth-brush, soap, and tep)id water j then dry the ivory 

 and the brush, dip the latter in alcohol, and polish the ivory until 

 it has regained its former polish. If the water has given tho ivory 

 a yellowish tint, dry in a heated place. If the ivory has grown 

 yellow with age or careless handling, it can be bleached by placing 

 it under a gl.ass bell, with some chloride of lime and nun-iatic acid 

 in a small vessel, .and setting the whole thing in tho sunshine. Care 

 must bo taken not to inhale the fumes of the acid as it works on the 

 lime. The bleaching properties of the chlorine destroy the yellow 

 colouring matter in the surface of the ivoiy, and it resumes its 

 original white tint. 



