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. CHAPTER IV THERAPY—ANCIENT AND MODERN