LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
MIRACLES.
[To THZ EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] Sin,--Dr. Abbott's argument, in the Spectator of October 7th, would prove too much. If we are to reject the healing of the man's ear because only one out of the four Evangelists record it, why not reject the order to return the sword to its sheath because only two out of the four record it P Besides, neither of these two uses the words that Dr. Abbott quotes from Jeremiah, xxix.
But what is the special objection to this miracle ? I can understand an objection to all miracles. Why pick out a miracle that almost verges on a natural process. In Sister Dora's Life it is related that a man came to her in the hospital with half a finger chopped off, Finding that he had kept the missing part, she sent him home for it. And when he re turned with it, she tied it in its place. It adhered, and the mutilation was cured. A still more remarkable case was once related to me by a physician who had been a pupil of Sir Charles Bell, the eminent author of " The Bridgewater Treatise on the Hand." Sir Charles used to tell the following story to his class :—A surgeon who went over the field of Waterloo after the battle, found a man lying with his scalp cut off by a sabre-stroke. He picked up the scalp, and finding the man breathing, though unconscious, be ordered him to be placed among the wounded, clapping at the same time the severed scalp on his head, in order that it might be buried with him, for he did not expect that the poor man would recover. The following day, however, he found the man con- scious, and his scalp adhering to his head, but with the ends reversed ; for the surgeon, thinking the man was dying, took no pains to fix the scalp properly. The man recovered, but had to wear his scalp the wrong end forward.
Is it not certain, then, that the servant's ear, on being immediately restored to its place, would heal very rapidly, and would almost adhere at once, especially in the case of a temperate man? At all events, the miracle would be no more than the acceleration of a natural process. And would not the fact of St. Luke being a physician account for his mentioning this miracle P—I am, Sir, &c., MALCOLX M.A.00IOLL. The Residence, Ripon, October 11th.
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