little doubt that the great
majority of fountain and even shrine cures, such as they have been, have
resulted from a natural law, and that belief in them was based on honest
argument from Scripture. For the theological argument which thus stood
in the way of science was simply this: if the Almighty saw fit to raise
the dead man who touched the bones of Elisha, why should he not restore
to life the patient who touches at Cologne the bones of the Wise Men of
the East who followed the star of the Nativity? If Naaman was cured by
dipping himself in the waters of the Jordan, and so many others by
going down into the Pool of Siloam, why should not men still be cured by
bathing in pools which men equally holy with Elisha have consecrated?
If one sick man was restored by touching the garments of St. Paul, why
should not another sick man be restored by touching the seamless coat of
Christ at Treves, or the winding-sheet of Christ at Besancon? And out of
all these inquiries came inevitably that question whose logical answer
was especially injurious to the development of medical science: Why
should men seek to build up scientific medicine and surgery,
when relics, pilgrimages, and sacred observances, according to an
overwhelming mass of concurrent testimony, have cured and are curing
hosts of sick folk in all parts of Europe? (315)

(315) For sacred fountains in modern times, see Pettigrew, as above,
p. 42; also Dalyell, Darker Superstitions of Scotland, pp. 82 and
following; also Montalembert, Les Moines d'Occident, tome iii, p. 323,
note. For those in Ireland, with many curious details, see S. C. Hall,
Ireland, its Scenery and Character, London, 1841, vol. i, p. 282, and
passim. For the case in Flintshire, see Authentic Documents relative to
the Miraculous Cure of Winifred White, of the Town of Wolverhampton, at
Holywell, Flintshire, on the 28th of June, 1805, by John Milner, D. D.,
Vicar Apostolic, etc., London, 1805. For sacred wells in France, see
Chevart, Histoire de Chartres, vol. i, pp. 84-89, and French local
histories generally. For superstitions attaching to springs in Germany,
see Wuttke, Volksaberglaube, Sections 12 and 356. For one of the most
exquisitely wrought works of modern fiction, showing perfectly the
recent evolution of miraculous powers at a fashionable spring in France,
see Gustave Droz, Autour d'une Source. The reference to the old pious
machinery at Trondhjem is based upon personal observation by t