"An eruptive affection of this sort might not of itself have a very grave character, nor threaten serious danger or disastrous consequences. Still, that from which Marianne Garrot had suffered would indicate by its duration, by its resistance to the treatment which had been prescribed and faithfully followed, and by its continual and progressive spreading, a very decidedly malignant character, the inoculation, so to speak, of a deeply seated _virus_, to expel which would require long and persevering attention, with a patient continuance of the treatment already adopted or of some other more appropriate and effectual one.
"The rapid though not instantaneous disappearance of the white eruption from the face of the patient is very different from the usual effect of chemical preparations; for the first lotion produced a perceptible improvement or partial cure _instantaneously_, which was advanced by the second, made four days afterward; and without the aid of any other remedy, these two lotions accomplished a complete restoration in a few days by a gradual and rapid progress.
"Now, the liquid the employment of which produced this speedy effect was nothing but water, without any special properties, and without any relation or appropriateness to the disease which it overcame; and which, besides, if it had possessed any such qualities, would long before have produced the effect through the daily use which the patient made of it for drinking and washing.
"This cure cannot, then, be ascribed to the natural efficacy of the Massabielle water, and all the circumstances, as it would seem--namely, the tenacity and activity of the eruption, the rapidity of the cure, and the inappropriateness of the element which brought it about--concur to show in it a cause foreign and superior to natural agents."--_Extract from the 15th procès-verbal of the commission._
[14] Ninth procès-verbal of the commission.
In the adjustment of differences to which conflicting interests or a spirit of rivalry may give birth, governments, like individuals, are prone to satisfy themselves with conventions limited to matters immediately in dispute. They are like medical doctors, who treat symptoms as the malady to be cured, and, satisfied with alleviating present pain, leave its causes to war against mortal life, until disease becomes chronic and incurable.