ntest symptom--so
faint as to be negligible--in the right lung. It appeared to be true
also that she had had hip disease, since there were upon her body
certain marks of treatment by burning; and that her legs were now of an
exactly equal length. But, firstly, the certificate was five months old,
secondly, it made no mention of hip disease; thirdly, seven centimetres
was almost too large a measure to be believed. The case then was
referred back for further investigation; and there it stood when I left
Lourdes. The doctors shook their heads considerably over the seven
centimetres.

There followed next one of the most curious instances of all. It was an
old _miraculee_ who came back to report; her case is reported at length
in Dr. Boissarie's _OEuvre de Lourdes_, on pages 299-308.[5] Her name
was Marie Cools, and she came from Anvers, suffering apparently from
_mal de Pott_, and paralysis and anaesthesia of the legs. This state had
lasted for about three years. The doctors consulted differed as to her
case: two diagnosing it as mentioned above, two as hysteria. For ten
months she had suffered, moreover, from constant feverishness; she was
continually sick, and the work of digestion was painful and difficult.
There was a marked lateral deviation of the spinal column, with atrophy
of the leg muscles. At the second bath she began to improve, and the
pains in the back ceased; at the fourth bath the paralysis vanished, her
appetite came steadily back, and the sickness ceased. Now she came in to
announce her continued good health.

There are a number of interesting facts as to this case; and the first
is the witness of the infidel doctor who sent her to Lourdes, since it
seemed to him that "religious suggestion," was the only hope left. He,
by the way, had diagnosed her case as one of hysteria. "It had a
result," he writes, "which I, though an unbeliever, can characterize
only as marvellous. Marie Cools returned completely, absolutely cured.
No trace of paralysis or anaesthesia. She is actually on her feet; and,
two hospital servants having been stricken by typhoid, she is taking the
place of one of them." Another interesting fact is that a positive storm
raged at Anvers over her cure, and that Dr. Van de Vorst was at the
ensuing election dismissed from the hospital, with at least a suspicion
that the cause of his dismissal lay in his having advised the girl to go
to Lourdes at all.

Dr. Boissarie makes an interesting commen