The Oblate
Fathers, whose church was situated in the very heart of the
infected district, continued to denounce vaccination; the
faithful were exhorted to rely on devotional exercises of various
sorts; under the sanction of the hierarchy a great procession was
ordered with a solemn appeal to the Virgin, and the use of the
rosary was carefully specified.
Meantime, the disease, which had nearly died out among the
Protestants, raged with ever-increasing virulence among the
Catholics; and, the truth becoming more and more clear, even to
the most devout, proper measures were at last enforced and the
plague was stayed, though not until there had been a fearful
waste of life among these simple-hearted believers, and germs of
scepticism planted in the hearts of their children which will
bear fruit for generations to come.[[61]]
Another class of cases in which the theologic spirit has
allied itself with the retrograde party in medical science is
found in the history of certain remedial agents; and first may be
named cocaine.
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