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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63736	A true relation of the wonderful cure of Mary Maillard, lame almost ever since she was born, on Sunday the 26th of Nov. 1693 with the affidavits and certificates of the girl, and several other credible and worthy persons, who knew her both before and since her being cured : to which is added, a letter from Dr. Welwood to the Right Honourable the Lady Mayoress, upon that subject.	Welwood, James, 1652-1727.	1694 (1694)	Wing T3073; ESTC R13174	22,424	50

not all the weight of that side of the Body which the Thigh-bone should have done if it had been in its proper place It s to me beyond all question that in the Case of this poor Refugee there was a luxation or dislocation of the Thigh-bone such as I have explain'd And of the four kinds of it reckoned up by Anatomists it must necessarily have been that they call a Dislocation outwards A hollowness on the place of the Ioynt a considerable Tumour a little above it the Thigh-bone of that side being both higher and shorter than the other a constant pain attending with a turning inwards of the Knee and Ankle and a turning upwards of the Sole of the Foot are all of them agreed to by Anatomists and Surgeons to be undoubted signs as well as necessary consequents of this kind of dislocation The place of the Joynt must needs have appear'd hollow partly for want of the Cavity its being fill'd up with the round head of the Thigh-bone and partly from the rising turnour above it The tumour it self has been nothing else but the round head turn'd outward with the Muscles and fleshy parts around it The pain was owing to the stretching of the Ligaments and nervous parts and to their supplying the Office of the Thigh-bone in sustaining that side of the Body The Bone must needs appear shorter from the thrusting of its head higher than the Cavity for which it was naturally design'd The distortion of the Knee proceeds partly from the relaxation of these Muscles and Tendons that serve to move the Thigh outwards and partly to the relaxation more on one side than the other of that Ligament I mention'd which ●●compasses the brim of the Cavity of the Hipp-bone The like contorsion of the Ankle is owing to the former and to the stress the poor Girl was oblig'd to lay upon the dislocated Thigh by walking occasion'd through the narrowness of her Circumstances This much Madam for the Manner Causes and Consequents of the Girls Distemper Neither has it any weight to object against its being a Dislocation that her Parents remember not the precise Time nor Manner how she came by it for we see every day examples of Children Dislocated in the same manner without their Parents being able to tell when and how they became so the Bones of young Children being much more easily put out than those come to Age and they being more obnoxious to Accidents thro' Errours of People about them To trouble your Ladyship with the ordinary Manner and Method of Cure in this Case would seem altogether needless since every body of common sense will tell you it 's done by putting the Thigh-bone in its proper place that is by bringing back the Head of it into the Cavity of the Hip-bone and keeping it there This is done with no small difficulty even when the Dislocation is recent where many times both the Surgeon and his Assistant are forc'd to imploy their utmost strength and the best of their dexterity and skill But when the Dislocation is of a long standing as it was with this Maid most Surgeons and Anatomists look upon the Case as deplorable if not desperate Among a great many others these following reasons may be given for it 1. The Cavity of the Hip-bone for want of the head of the other Bone to play in it must needs in process of time be fill'd up with that Mucilaginous Matter which the Gland situated in the bottom of it does constantly furnish for the Lubrication of the Joint Being once thus fill'd up either in whole or in a considerable part it becomes unfit to re-admit the head of the Bone dislocated for want of room And this the rather that of all the Mucilaginous Glands situated upon the Joints of Humane Bodies this Gland by the Wise Providence of Nature is the largest and discharges the most Matter If it were not for this constant supply the greatest torture that could be inflicted on a Criminal were but to oblige him to walk 2. The constant afflux of Humours even in the ordinary course of nutriment upon the Head of the Bone dislocated must render it in a little time too big to re-enter its proper Cavity the constant attrition of the parts having prevented that inconvenience while it stay'd in its natural situation 3. Nature having once accustom'd it self to a posture out of its ordinary road it makes the best it can of necessity and seldom or never of it self changes a tollerable evil for a hazardous good Lastly Tho' the Bone should be got set again even when recent it 's yet easily put out again by the least motion or accident because by the Dislocation the Muscles and Ligaments are either render'd feeble or relax'd or broken and consequently very unable to fix the Thigh-bone in its place so firm as it ought to be Now Madam upon the whole matter I do not see it good Manners ' to question the Fact since the present state of the Person is visible to all the World and her former condition was so well known to such numbers that do attest it And tho' the extraordinary suddenness of the Change cannot be maintain'd by so many Witnesses there being but one other person present yet as other Witnesses saw it in a very little time afterwards so there are very many that know how she was the Day before and the Day afterwards which do reasonably enough support the want of variety of proof for the Instantaneous Change that was made Therefore I cannot see what is possible to be said as to the Fact I would not pretend to be Philosopher Physician or Anatomist enough to say what Nature can do but there having been no applications us'd either outward or inward and no operation of Surgery even of the slightest kind interpos'd I confess I cannot imagine what probable or possible Colour there is for ascribing this to any Natural or Second Cause that yet occurs to me And therefore am not asham'd to own that there is something in it which I cannot well comprehend and shall not be angry with any body that shall ascribe it to something above or out of the Road of Nature The only objection against this is that a little Lameness a small and scarce discernable halting still remains From which some may think it reasonable to infer since God does not work Miracles by halves this is not to be ascribed to him It 's true the one Leg is a little shorter than the other which may arise from a shrinking of the Nerves or want of Nutriment that do naturally flow from so long and great a Dislocation If the halting did proceed from a loosness or feebleness of what 's now put in Joint the objection would indeed be stronger for the thing this poor Creature wanted was the firmness of the Union between the upper and lower parts of her Body This depriv'd her of the Use of her Limbs and put her to perpetual pains

against the one and the other There are two extreams of Opinion that relate to these opposite Ranks of Men. Some are inclinable to believe every matter of Fact that 's told them which seems to serve their particular Opinions or Notions of Religion They do as easily believe the Fact in question as they are forward presently to ascribe it to a Supernatural Cause And conclude a man to be an impious person that shall dare to question either the one or the other that shall either doubt of the Fact or shall go about to shew from what Natural Causes it might have arisen Others again take up a form'd Resolution to disbelieve ev'ry thing they cannot account for or explain And let it bear never so many Signatures of Truth and of its being effected by a Supernatural Power they are resolv'd either to cry it down as an Imposture or otherwise if there be no place for denying it to ascribe it to some Natural Cause to the force of Imagination Accident and I know not what It is not easie to determine which of these two Extreams ought the most to be shunn'd or discovers the worst Temper The first arises out of a weakness of mind or a partiality to Opinions For the very same Person who does easily believe an extraordinary thing when it seems to favour his own Sect is as positively determin'd against believing it if it had happen'd out of that Communion to which he belongs The other discovers a prophane Arrogance of Temper and an impious aversion to ev'ry thing which may strengthen mens Persuasions about Religion which he hates of all sides reckoning that the Priests of all Religions are the same The mean betwixt these two is to resolve on believing nothing that is extraordinary but upon very great and full evidence In short men are apt even to lie or amplify which is a lying in some degree and therefore we have a right to suspend our belief and to examine well the Fact when any strange thing is told us and this is what every wise man ought to do But when the averment of the Fact is full then every Enquirer into Nature ought to consider how far the Powers of Nature may have co-operated to the Effect in question As for instance Imagination has certainly great force in giving a strong motion to the Blood and Animal Spirits which may clear Obstructions alter the mass of Blood and allay its fermentations There are also great Secrets in Nature and many wonderful Vertues in Plants and Minerals as well as in Animals which Observation as well as Lucky Accidents bring every day to our knowledge So that we cannot certainly define the Extent of Nature or the Compass of Second Causes yet from Theory and Observation we may come to frame a general Scheme of what lies in the road and course of Nature and what is so much out of it that we have reason to ascribe it to a Superior and Supernatural Power To be slow in believing and severe in inquiring after unusual things carries with it the Characters of a truly Inquisitive and Philosophical Mind Yet after all To reject a thing when the truth of it is apparent and to impute it to Second Causes when we do not see the least shadow of any one gives a strong presumption of a secret hatred of all Religion and Vertue that I had much rather fall under the Censures and even the Scorn of that Tribe than be corrupted by so Pestilential and spreading a Contagion To come to the Case of the French Girl your Ladyship has seen her as she is now and has heard it sworn by several persons whom you have no cause to disbelieve how she was before It 's certain she was monstrously Lame from her Childhood till the 26th of November last And it 's as certain since that time till now she goes streight How she came to be cur'd in an Instant is the Question and such a one as I am not able to determine But to give your Ladyship all the satisfaction I can in so difficult a matter and that you may be better enabled to judge of so surprizing an Effect I shall in as few words as possible set down the Manner Causes and Consequents of her Lameness so far as they occur to me from any thing I know in Anatomy and in the next place shall inquire how far the Cure of it as it 's sworn to can be ascrib'd to a natural Influence For the first It appears by the Affidavits you sent me That when she came to be about Thirteen Months old she was then first observ'd to be Lame and some time thereafter there appear'd a Hollowness in the place where one usually finds tht knitting of the Thigh-bone to the Hipp as also a considerable swelling a little above that place to give it in their own words In process of time she grew worse and worse and not onely the Thigh-bone became both higher up and shorter than it us'd to be but her Knee and the Ankle-bone of that Leg turn'd inwards so that she went upon the Ankle the Sole of her Foot turning upwards and all this attended with a great deal of pain Here Madam you have the History of the Disease and all these symptoms are the natural and some of them the necessary Effect of a dislocation of the Thigh-bone To render this the more intelligible give me leave Madam to lay down a short hint of the natural structure of the parts here affected The Thigh-bone has at the upper end a round head This is receiv'd by a large Cavity of the Hipp-bone and is detain'd and fix'd therein by two strong Ligaments one that encompasses the brim of the Cavity and another that springs out of the bottom of it and is inserted into the tip of the round head of the Thigh-bone in order to the movement of the Thigh and consequently of the whole Body Nature has wisely accompany'd these Bones with Cartilages Muscles Tendons and Ligaments which are all of them so variously plac'd and situated as to answer every beck of the sensitive Soul in moving either backwards or forwards to the inside to the outside or obliquely This being the natural structure of the parts a dislocation of the Thigh happens when the round the head of the Thigh-bone is by some violence displac'd out of that large Cavity of the Hpp bone This cannot happen but by some violent force because of the strength of the Muscles that help to keep the Bone in its proper place of the depth of the Cavity where it is lodg'd and the strength and shortness of the Ligaments I have nam'd The longer such a dislocation lasts the less it is curable seeing by it the Ligaments and Muscles must be greatly relax'd and so much the more if the Patient walk about as this Girl did For the more stress she puts on that Leg the more must these parts be relax'd they bearing in such a Case most if