n, confidence, or excitement. The
wonderful power of the mind over the body is known to every observant
student. Mr. Herbert Spencer dwells upon the fact that intense feeling
or passion may bring out great muscular force. Dr. Berdoe reminds us
that "a gouty man who has long hobbled about on his crutch, finds his
legs and power to run with them if pursued by a wild bull"; and that
"the feeblest invalid, under the influence of delirium or other
strong excitement, will astonish her nurse by the sudden accession of
strength."(298)

(298) For the citation in the text, as well as for a brief but
remarkably valuable discussion of the power of the mind over the body
in disease, see Dr. Berdoe's Medical View of the Miracles at Lourdes, in
The Nineteenth Century for October, 1895.

But miraculous cures were not ascribed to persons merely. Another
growth, developed by the early Church mainly from germs in our sacred
books, took shape in miracles wrought by streams, by pools of water, and
especially by relics. Here, too, the old types persisted, and just as
we find holy and healing wells, pools, and streams in all other ancient
religions, so we find in the evolution of our own such examples as
Naaman the Syrian cured of leprosy by bathing in the river Jordan, the
blind man restored to sight by washing in the pool of Siloam, and the
healing of those who touched the bones of Elisha, the shadow of St.
Peter, or the handkerchief of St. Paul.

St. Cyril, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, and other great fathers of the
early Church, sanctioned the belief that similar efficacy was to be
found in the relics of the saints of their time; hence, St. Ambrose
declared that "the precepts of medicine are contrary to celestial
science, watching, and prayer," and we find this statement reiterated
from time to time throughout the Middle Ages. From this idea was evolved
that fetichism which we shall see for ages standing in the way of
medical science.

Theology, developed in accordance with this idea, threw about all cures,
even those which resulted from scientific effort, an atmosphere of
supernaturalism. The vividness with which the accounts of miracles in
the sacred books were realized in the early Church continued the idea of
miraculous intervention throughout the Middle Ages. The testimony of
the great fathers of the Church to the continuance of miracles is
overwhelming; but everything shows that they so fully expected miracles
on the sl