The miracles of Bois-d’Haine.

— The Progrès thérapeutique, a journal of Medicine, in its issue of March 1, 1869, gives an account of a bizarre phenomenon, become an object of public curiosity in the town of Bois-d’Haine, in Belgium. It concerns a young woman of 18 years, who every Friday, from 1:30 to 4:30, falls into a state of cataleptic ecstasy; in that state she remains lying down, arms outstretched, one foot over the other, in the position of Jesus on the cross. The insensibility and rigidity of the limbs were verified by several physicians. During the crisis, five wounds open in the same places where those of Christ were located, and let true blood drip. After the crisis, the blood stops flowing, the wounds close and are healed within twenty-four hours. During the attacks, says Dr. Beaucourt, author of the article, the reverend Father Seraphim, present at the sessions, thanks to the ascendancy he has over the patient, has the power to wake her from her ecstasy. He adds: “Every man who is not an atheist must, in order to be logical, admit that He who established the admirable laws, both physical and physiological, which govern Nature, can also, at will, suspend or momentarily change one or several of those laws.” As may be seen, it is a miracle in all its rules, and a repetition of that of the stigmatized women. As miracles, according to the Church, are not within the province of Spiritism, we judge it superfluous to carry further the research into the causes of the phenomenon, and this all the more as another journal said, afterward, that the bishop of the diocese had forbidden any exhibition. [June Review.]

THE MIRACLES OF BOIS-D’HAINE.

(Second article. – See the Review of April 1869.)

Under this title we published in the preceding issue the analysis of an article from the Progrès thérapeutique, a journal of Medicine, giving an account of a singular phenomenon which excited to the highest degree public curiosity in Bois d’Haine (Belgium). As may be recalled, it concerned a young woman of 18 years, named Louise Lateau, who, every Friday, from half past one to half past four, fell into a state of cataleptic ecstasy. During the crisis she reproduces, by the position of the limbs, the crucifixion of Jesus, the five wounds opening in the precise places where those of Christ were located.

Various physicians attentively examined this curious phenomenon, of which, moreover, several examples are found in the annals of Medicine. One of them, Dr. Huguet, sent to the Petit Moniteur the following letter, which we reproduce without comment, only adding that we share without reservation the opinion of Dr. Huguet on the probable causes of these manifestations. “The explanation of the curious phenomena observed in Louise Lateau and reported in your esteemed journal (the Petit Moniteur universel du soir, of Saturday, April 10, 1869), requires complete knowledge of the human component.

“All these elements, as you very judiciously remark, are due to imagination.

“But, what is to be understood by this, if not the faculty of retaining imagined impressions with the aid of memory?

“How are the impressions received, and how, these being received, is the physiological representation of the crucifixion to be explained?

“Here, sir, are the explanations that I take the liberty of submitting to you.

“The human substance is a ternary unity, composed of three elements or, rather, of three substantial modalities: the spirit, the nervous fluid, and organized matter; or, if one wishes, of two interdependent phenomenal manifestations: the soul and the body.

“The body is a serious and harmoniously arranged aggregation of the elements of the globe.

“The nervous fluid is the action in common of all the cosmic forces and of the vital force, received with existence.

“These forces, raised to the highest degree, constitute the human soul, which is of the same nature as all the other souls of the world.

“This succinct analysis of man being thus presented, let us seek to explain the facts.

“A serious study of catalepsy and of ecstasy confirmed us in this theory and permitted us to put forth the following propositions:

“1st The human soul, spread throughout the whole economy [throughout the whole organism], has its greatest tension in the brain, the point of arrival of impressions of every sort and the point of departure of all ordered movements.

“2nd The nervous fluid, result of the organization of all the cosmic and native forces gathered together, is the lever of which the soul makes use to establish its relations with the organs and with the external world.

“3rd Matter is the case, the multiple and enlarged cell, which is molded upon the fluidic form determined and specified by the very nature of man.

“4th The organs are nothing but mediators between the organic forces and those of the surrounding environment.

“5th The organs are under the influence of the soul, which can modify them in diverse ways, according to its diverse states, through the intermediary of the nervous system.

“6th The soul is mobile, can come and go, conduct itself with more or less force upon this or that point of the economy [of the organism], according to circumstances and need.

“The migrations of the soul in its body determine the migrations of the nervous fluid, which, in turn, determine those of the blood.

“Now, when the soul of the young Lateau was in similar consonance, through her faith, with the passion of Christ imagined in her feeling, that soul cast itself, by similar irradiation, upon all the points of her body which, in her memory, corresponded to those of the body of Christ, by which the blood had come out. “The nervous fluid, faithful minister of the soul, followed the direction of its guide, and the blood, charged with a dynamism of the same nature as that of the nervous fluid, took the same direction.

“There was, then:

“a) A drawing of the nervous fluid by the expansive, centrifugal, and specialized radiation of the soul;

“b) A drawing of the blood by the similar, centrifugal, and specialized radiation of the nervous fluid.

“7th The soul, the nervous fluid, and the blood then set themselves in motion consecutively to a fact of imagination, becoming the point of departure of their centrifugal expansion.

“In the same way are explained the cruciform posture of the body and its diverse attitudes.

“Let us now approach the contradictory facts relating to the experiment of the crucifix of wood or of copper and of the key.

“For us, catalepsy is, whatever its cause may be, a retraction of the vital forces toward the centers, just as ecstasy is an expansion of these same forces far from those centers.

“When a crucifix was put in the hand of the young woman, she centralized her forces in order to retain an affective sensation in relation with her faith, with her love for Christ.

“The forces being withdrawn toward the centers, the limbs no longer had the flexibility which the forces gave them in the state of centrifugal expansion; hence the catalepsy or stiffening of the limbs.

“When the cross was replaced by another object less symbolic of the Christian idea, the forces returned to the limbs and the flexibility returned.

“The facts relating to the twisting of the arms have the same explanation.

“As for the fruitless attempts to wake her by means of cries, by the movement of the arms, by needles piercing the skin, or by putting ammonia under the nose, it is nothing but experimental physiology relating to sensations.

“The insensibility is due to a solution of continuity more or less pronounced, more or less durable between the perceptive centers and the impressed organs of the body: a solution of continuity due to an exaggerated centripetal retraction of the vital forces, or to a too strong centrifugal dispersion of these forces. “Here, sir, is the rational explanation of these strange facts. It will be, I hope, favorably received by you and by all those who seek to understand the play of life in the transcendent phenomena of biology.

“Nevertheless, there is a notable fact, which one must admire, and it is with it that I shall end this very long communication. I wish to speak of the functioning of memory, despite the state of absolute insensibility resulting from catalepsy, from ecstasy, and from the presumable abolition, by that very fact, of all the mental faculties. “Here, I believe, is the only possible explanation of this strange phenomenon. There are cases, in truth very rare, and the one that occupies us is among this number, in which the exercise of certain faculties persists, in spite of catalepsy, especially when it concerns vivid impressions received. Now, here, the drama of the cross had, without any doubt, produced an impression so profound upon the soul of the young woman, that this impression had survived the loss of sensibility.” Dr. H. Huguet, d.m.p.

(Petit Moniteur universel du soir, April 13, 1869.)