Cure by a Spirit.

We have received several letters that attest to the excellent application of the remedy indicated in the Spiritist Review of November 1862, (see also the Errata of the month of December), whose recipe was given by a Spirit. A cavalry officer told us that the pharmacist of his regiment took care to prepare it for the very frequent cases of accidents caused by the kicks given by the horses. We know that other pharmacists did the same in certain cities.

Concerning the origin of the remedy, one of our subscribers from the Eure-et-Loir transmits to us the following fact, of his personal knowledge.

Autheusel, 6 November 1862.

“A porter named Paquine, who resides in a neighboring commune, came to see me, a month ago, walking on crutches. Astonished to see him thus, I inquired about the accident. He replied that, for some time, his legs had been very swollen and covered with ulcers, and that no remedy had any effect. This man is a Spiritist and has some mediumship. I told him that it was necessary to address himself to good Spirits and to do so with ardor. On All Saints’ Day I saw him at mass, with a simple cane. The following day he came to see me and recounted what follows: “Sir, he said, since you recommended that I make use of the good Spirits to obtain my cure, I have not let a single night pass, and often during the day, without invoking them and showing them how much my ailment hindered me from earning a living. It had been only five or six days that I had been praying thus when one night, being half asleep, I saw a man all in white appear in the middle of the room. He advanced toward my cupboard, took a small pot in which there was the ointment I used to soothe the pains in my legs. He showed me the container and then, taking some tobacco that I kept in a paper, showed it to me also. Next he went to fetch a little bottle of extract of Saturn [the alchemical name for lead], then a bottle of essence of turpentine and, showing everything, gestured that it was necessary to make a mixture. He indicated the dose to me and poured it into the pot. After making signs of friendship, he disappeared. The following day I did what the Spirit had prescribed and from then on my legs entered into a clear process of healing. Today there remains only an inflammation in the foot, which, thanks to the efficacy of the medication, is little by little disappearing. Soon I hope to be free of all the ailment. “Here, gentlemen, is a fact that could almost be classified among the number of miraculous cures, and I believe it would be carrying the spirit of party too far to see in it merely a demoniacal fact.

“Examining the vulgarity and, almost always, the simplicity of the remedies indicated by the Spirits in general, I ask myself whether one might not conclude from this that the remedy in itself is nothing but a simple formula and that it is the fluidic influence of the Spirit that operates the cure. I think this question could be studied.”

“L. de Tarragon.

The last question does not seem doubtful to us, especially when one knows the properties that magnetic action can give to the most benign substances, to water, for example. Now, since the Spirits also magnetize, they can certainly give, according to circumstances, curative properties to certain substances. If Spiritism reveals to us a whole world of beings who think and act, it reveals to us also unknown material forces, which Science will one day turn to account.