Introduction ALREADY translated into several European languages, Dr. E. Le Becs Preuves MPdicaL du Miracle is now presented for the perusal of those who desire the work in English. Although all may not assent to certain of the biological and pathological statements made by the author, his work offers precise scientific evidence of some marvellous ores which have occurred at Lourdes and elsewhere, together with clinical histories of the atients concerned. It must be remembered that if in some instances clinical details are sparse, records as kept in hospitals do not obtain in ordinary practice, from which many of these cases are culled. The paramount importance of the time is well elucidated. Its brevity must be acknowledged by all those who practise medicine and surgery as something unknown in ordinary working experience. The case of De Rudder, which occurred many years ago, is valuable in that it affords port mortem evidence of the existence of a fracture and its cure, and for this reason it is singular in the series. In conditions of such chronicity, it will be acknowledged that surgical consultations are often few and far between consequently the evidence of the existence of the fracture immediately before the cure is given by witnesses who hold no surgical qualification, but to whom credence can nevertheless be given. In certain cases which are studied the author gives adequate reasons for the absence of immediate medical evidence, but in all cases scientific testimony is proximate, and the immediate evidence is given by observant witnesses who had every reason to be truthful. ERNEST E. WARE, M.D.Lon, . The translator desires to thank the Rev. Dom Ethelbert Arnold, of St. Augustines Abbey, Ramsgate, and Dr. George Cox, K.S.G., of the Medical Bureau of Lourdes. for much help and assistance in the preparation of the MSS He has also to acknowledge the great kindness of E. F. S. and M. M. S., whose generosity made possible a long stay at Lourdes, where a considerable part of this translation was made. SCEPTICISM with regard to supernatural cures is the normal state of mind of most medical men. Some declare that they are not given serious medical proof others that the observations are biassed, that the accounts of the symptoms of the illness are distorted, and that the natural processes of the cure in question are concealed. Neither can the criticisms of Catholic doctors be neglected. Their contention is that in some instances, when the alleged course of events has been so diametrically opposed to pathological laws, the cases have not been studied with sufficient scientific exactitude. It is to reply to these grave objections that this study has been undertaken. I have not desired to report upon and examine a large number of cases those dealt with are limited to typical examples, and whoever examines these with scientific care will be forced to admit the positive intervention of the supernatural. I decided that it would be more profitable to choose types of illness affecting different anatomical systems, in order to show that the repair of the organic lesion has been effected in a manner absolutely contrary to the course of events which lve encounter in medical practice. From the study of supernatural cures it will be seen that the principal sign of the intervention of a force superior to nature consists in the rapidity or instantancousncss of the cure. We are therefore entitled to atmeal to the absernce of a factor normally present, namely, the TIME FACTOR. a..............