CHAPTER III. The Modern Miracle

THE MODERN MIRACLE

It has been said that the medical practice of the future will have to provide for the interference in ordinary therapeutic methods of an x-factor, which is amenable to hypnotic suggestion and to auto-suggestion, but which on rare occasions assumes a more positive and extraordinary form, and acts spontaneously. Indeed, we may have to admit the possibility of an extraneous healing power acting independently of medical skill and contrary to all recognized therapeutic agents, medicinal or clinical.

An instance of this is to be seen in what is called the Modern Miracle. A miracle, it should be understood, is not supernatural. We have no reason for prescribing limits to Nature’s powers. A miracle is simply an abnormal manifestation of those powers, and hence something to be wondered at. The case in point is that of Miss Dorothy Kerin, who on the night of Sunday, the 18th February, 1912, being bedridden with advanced tuberculosis, concomitant disease of the kidneys, and finally suffering from loss of sight and speech, together with some signs of aphasia, was suddenly and miraculously cured entirely of all ailments, and when medically examined was pronounced to be absolutely free from tubercle bacillus, or any other form of morbid disease, and to be in complete possession of all her faculties and normal bodily functions. The evidence is unassailable and the facts beyond dispute. We have to arrange our thought and modify our therapy to accommodate these facts.

Dorothy Kerin was born on the 28th November, 1890, in London, her father being Irish. She received an ordinary middle-class education in a private school, and would have gone on the stage, where her sister, Norah Kerin, has achieved considerable success, but for the break in her health.

At the time of her wonderful recovery she had not stood up for five years, and latterly had suffered from partial loss of memory, sight, hearing and speech. Yet she was always bright and cheerful, and her invariable sweetness of disposition, her patience and gentleness, endeared her to all her friends and relatives, and made her greatly beloved by those who came in contact with her. She was one of those who “suffered all things gladly,” and was by nature of a religious disposition. The following account of her recovery is extracted from the Daily Mirror report of the 19th February—

“Dorothy Kerin is convinced that her remarkable recovery of apparent health is literally ‘a miracle.’

“Her account of the angelic vision, which on Sunday night restored her sight, hearing and strength and left her painless, happy and ‘feeling better than I ever felt in my life before,’ may be ascribed to hysteria by sceptics, but, whatever the cause, the facts of her recovery are beyond dispute.

“Dr. Frederick Norman, of Brixton, her physician, is, of course, deterred by professional etiquette from public discussion of her case.

“‘But it is no secret that my husband was incredulous,’ said Mrs. Norman to the Daily Mirror yesterday, ‘when he was informed that Dorothy was “quite well.”’

“‘He did not consider on Saturday that she could possibly remain alive more than a day or two. The girl had been in St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, St. Peter’s Home for Incurables at Kilburn, and other institutions, but was sent home finally as a hopeless case two years ago.

“‘She has not stood up for five years, and latterly was blind and deaf and utterly weak, taking only occasional doses of brandy and other stimulants.’

“Dr. Norman has been compelled to safeguard his patient. No fewer than sixty people saw her yesterday, but such a reception has now been stopped. A perfectly healthy girl could not stand the constant excitement of receiving visitors eager to interrogate her. Three days ago, it must be remembered, she was in an advanced stage of consumption.

“For breakfast yesterday Miss Kerin ate wheat-meal porridge, bacon and tomatoes, and drank two cups of coffee. A beefsteak was cooked for her lunch.

“‘I slept last night more soundly than I ever remember doing,’ Miss Kerin told the Daily Mirror yesterday. She read the Ten Commandments printed on the base of a minute toy magnifying glass with perfect ease. Another doctor who was present said he could not read such tiny print.

“‘A fortnight ago,’ said her mother, ‘Dolly could not call things by their proper names, and often did not know us. Bread was “soft, white stuff,” fish was “white stuff with needles in it,” nut-milk chocolate she asked for as “lumpy sweet.”

“‘Now she can bath herself and is not an invalid at all. Often during her long illness her temperature went up to 105.’

“Miss Kerin shakes hands firmly, and her palm has a touch that is quite normal. Scores of doctors have already sought permission to see her. The history of her case is well known to the profession.

“The Rev. A. J. Waldron, vicar of the adjoining parish of St. Matthew’s, Brixton, visited her yesterday and is making arrangements to have her moved at once to a nursing home, where she can have privacy and quiet, with country air.

“Miss Kerin has no hectic flush, and declared yesterday that she did not feel a bit tired. But there is little doubt she requires careful supervision to prevent any relapse.”

I am informed by her brother, Mr. G. Kerin, that during her illness, and especially during the later stages, when her normal faculties showed signs of decline, that Miss Kerin developed some super-normal powers. She was able, for instance, to give an accurate account of incidents happening in connection with her brother while at a distance from home. The greatest care had to be observed by those in the house when speaking of her, as she could always hear what was said in another room, although she appeared deaf to those who spoke aloud in her presence. There is, in fact, evidence that she developed the telesthesic sense during the later stages of her illness, but also that she lost this faculty just before her recovery.

Dr. Forbes Winslow was of opinion that the cure was due to auto-suggestion. It appears to me a singular conclusion. One can understand neurasthenia, paralysis and other nervous disorders being amenable to auto-suggestion, and in fact these are the cases which most readily respond to such action. But that a young girl whose mind is perfectly resigned to what she believes to be a mortal disease, and even suffering gladly the inscrutable ordinances of a beneficent Providence, should after five years of such suffering suddenly auto-suggest that there is no organic disease in her body and that she was never better in her life, seems to me to invest the term “auto-suggestion” with a meaning and significance it has never yet held. We have to remember that here there is the certified presence of a virulent organic disease with concomitant functional disorders. Can Dr. Winslow advance other instances of voluntary auto-suggestion which have instantly cured morbid diseases? Yet we are asked to believe that the girl auto-suggested an angelic presence, a voice that spoke to her, hands that touched her, and the surpassing miracle of instant destruction in her body of all disease germs, the restoration of all functional powers and the entire clearing of the system of effete tissues. Then why did she not do so five years earlier, before her forces had been undermined by a wasting disease, and when the will-to-be was stronger in her than it can possibly have been at the last hour? We shall soon be asked to believe that Miss Kerin auto-suggested the disease itself. Another instance of your scientific mind, which lacks the humility necessary to say: “I do not know,” and plunges into the most absurd speculations to explain what it does not understand. The mental attitude of that atheist who bowed his head and wept in the presence of the Unknown commands our instant respect and approval, but this foolish theorizing by reputable men of science is only pitiable. And theories in regard to this particular case are not lacking, for we have in turn hypnotic suggestion (the hypnotizer being unnamed because non-existent), collective mental therapeutic action, answer to prayer, and spirit-healing.

As to collective mental therapy, the same objection is raised as in the case of auto-suggestion. If operative at all in a case of organic disease, it would be more readily efficacious in the early stages, when supported by a reasonable expectancy, than at the last, when all hope had been abandoned. It is true that for some five years prayer had been consistently made on behalf of the patient, and we have certainly no means of proving that this sustained effort was not instrumental in the recovery. But we do know that no mention was made of it by the angelic visitor. The Presence did not say: “We have heard the prayers of the people,” or that it came in answer to prayer. The theory of spirit-healing is by far the most reasonable explanation. It accounts for the facts without, however, explaining the means by which the cure was effected.

That it is a perfect instance of organic metabolism everybody must admit. Exactly similar cases are difficult to find, and in effect Dr. Ash, who undertook the study of the case after the cure had been performed, is thereby able to give us a most interesting account of what he regards as a unique medical experience. The Lourdes miracles are, as far as I know, all of a nervous character. They pertain to cases where functional disorders arise from nervous corrosion without lesion. Even where there is lesion there may come a time when nervous contact is complete and an instantaneous cure is possible. But in the present case we have deep-seated organic disease of a chronic nature, the existence of morbid tissue and whole tracts of the lungs ruined by the action of noxious germs. So far as our experience goes it would seem that the term “miraculous intervention” fits this case as well as any other that can be offered, and certainly better than many that have been applied to it. It is an old and well-worn term, of a sort to vex the scoffer, but when it comes to a matter of sticking on labels to cover our ignorance of methods, we can at least count upon the willing aid of modern science.

For a categorical statement of this case by an independent medical observer I refer the reader to Faith and Suggestion, by Dr. E. L. Ash, and to the précis of that book by the editor of the Occult Review, July 1912.