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 m» 
 
 ^§^mmm an)r Wht|trafit. 
 
 BY JOSEPH WORKMAN, M. D. 
 
 [Read before the ABSOciation of Medical Superintendents of Hos- 
 pitals for the Insane, at the Annual Meeting, in Toronto, June, 
 1871, and piiUiB? ed^ the American Jowmal of Insanity ytor 
 October, 1871, J 
 
 • r 
 
 ; 133.4 
 
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 ummy 
 
 Social ScSm~"^^ 
 
 kmnmrnk anJj Mitc|aaft. 
 
 -•-^'^ > I 
 
 I presume there is hardly a member of this Associa- 
 tion who has had the good fortune to be unacquainted 
 with that distressing form of insanity, which is known 
 under the designation Demonomania; and I am sure 
 none who have had to encounter it in some of its in- 
 tense forms, will deny that it is one of the greatest dif- 
 ficulties presented to our specialty. I fear that in its 
 treatment we seldom derive much valuable aid from 
 the quarter to which we have some right to look for it ; 
 yet we should feel most thankful for even the most 
 trifling assistance in our arduous work. 
 
 Belief in diabolic possession as an existing fact of 
 the present day, may, I think, be said to be extinct, un- 
 less among the least educated portions of society. It 
 is not to be expected, that a doctrine, which, less th..n 
 two centuries ago, pervaded the whole of Christendom, 
 and was preached from every pulpit, and proclaimed 
 from every bench of justice, could utterly die out among 
 the uncultured masses in Any very short lapse of time. 
 I have myself met with persons, not insane, who have 
 avowed their belief in its present existence. I well 
 remember one instance in the institution under my 
 charge, when I requested a clergyman to see, and, with 
 a view to her mental relief, to converse with a poor 
 woman who v/as suftering under that strange form of 
 insanity known as Lyccmthvovia. She believed herself 
 to be a wolf, or a dog, and she declared she was labor- 
 
 *:'. 
 
 I 
 
 
 
.-■Si'MKi-/, «5,>,: 
 
 S. 
 i 
 
 ing under liydropliobia. She used to spit, and grin, 
 and snap her teeth, as if anxious to bite, and would 
 teil us to stand off, or she would destroy us. My sim- 
 ple minded clerical friend went to her bedside, and 
 spoke to her very soothir.gly. She responded to his 
 address in a series of lupine, or canine demonstrations, 
 which utterly horrified him. He fled from the room, 
 and when he recovered his mental equilibrium, said 
 to me, "01 Doctor! that woman is possessed!" I re- 
 plied, she certainly was, but not of the devil ; for I had 
 opened too many bodies of deceased maniacs, to believe 
 that there was any necessity for ascribing their delu- 
 sional extravagances to any supernatural agency. The 
 ascription of insanity, and other maladies which involve 
 a pathological condition of the brain and nervous sys- 
 tem, to demoniacal influences, was, with our ancestors, 
 a very easy mode of solving the great question of caus- 
 ation, which even now so much perplexes the cultiva- 
 tors of psycho-pathology. Across the long and deeply 
 indented peninsula which we are now endeavoring to 
 explore and to fathom, inch by inch, they made a very 
 convenient short cut, which certainly saved them a 
 great deal of time and laborious investigation; but 
 their conclusion did not tend to the alleviation of human 
 misery. 
 
 Of all the departments of diabolic sovereignty, none 
 was so prolific in the literature of divinity and juris- 
 prudence of the 15th, 16th, and l7th centuries, as sor- 
 cery and witchcraft. Bodin, one of the most brilliant 
 and profound jurisconsults and historians that France 
 ever produced, left a work upon each subject, which the 
 most able writers of later times, have characterized as 
 masterpieces of erudition; for Bodin renounces all 
 claims to originality. He gives us the "opinions of a 
 multitude of the greatest writers of pagan antiquity, 
 
 and 
 
)it, and grin, 
 I, and would 
 us. My sim- 
 bedside, and 
 onded to Ms 
 monstrations, 
 >m the room, 
 librium, said 
 ssedl" I re- 
 ivil ; for I bad 
 ics, to believe 
 ig their delu- 
 agency. The 
 which involve 
 L nervous sys- 
 our ancestors, 
 3stion of caus- 
 s the cultiva- 
 ig and deeply 
 adeavoring to 
 f made a very 
 javed them a 
 itigation; but 
 btion of human 
 
 ereignty, none 
 lity and juris- 
 ituries, as sor- 
 most brilliant 
 18 that France 
 ject, which the 
 laracterized as 
 renounces all 
 ' opinions of a 
 jan antiquity, 
 
 8 
 
 and of the most illustrious of the fathers." In short he 
 rests his whole argument on "aw^^o?**^;" the last re- 
 source, as all men in the present day know, of all 
 writers who fail to convince their readers by force of 
 reason, and an appeal to the ordeal of common sense. 
 Shortly after the publication of Bodin's work on Sor- 
 cery, Wier, a physician of Cloves, in the middle of the 
 16th century, wrote a book, entitled, "i?d Prestigiis 
 ^ DcBmonum.^'' He, as a doctor, (of medicine be it noted,) 
 declared his conviction that many of the so-called vic- 
 cims of diabolic possession were simply hinatics ; a ver- 
 <\ict which, I am sure every member of this association, 
 living and moving, as we do, among the same class of 
 unfortunates in the present day, will most unreservedly 
 indorse. 
 
 It was hardly to be expected that this writer would, 
 at a bound, overleap the boundaries of popular error, 
 and set at defiance that reverence for authority, which 
 was then regarded as the cardinal virtue of all literature 
 and all philosophy. He believed, (or affected to be- 
 lieve,) that the world was peopled by crowds of demons, 
 who were constantly doing misciiief ; but he endeav<w«d 
 to reconcile their ubiquitous manifestations with the 
 simple phenomena of corporeal disease; exactly that 
 which we now do. He did not believe that the pos- 
 sessed ones had entered, as was then the universal be- 
 lief, into any unholy compact with Satan, but that they 
 were merely his passive subjects ; nor that they were 
 guilty of those evil deeds, of which many of them ac- 
 cused themselves; but rather that Satan had villain- 
 ously persuaded them that they had actually, of their 
 own free will and motion, so done. 
 
 If we should inquire what has been, among a moiety 
 of the learned of the present day, the advance made 
 by them on the theory of Wier, what might be the 
 
 
 
 
 

 response to our question ? Wier did not, as James VI. 
 of Scotland did, believe that witches raised terrific sea- 
 storms, and wrecked noble argosies, nor ride through 
 the air on broomsticks, to participate in the horrid 
 orgies of their WitchSahhath^ nor become, as James 
 and other not less erudite authorities have told us, the 
 concubines of Satan ; yet he did believe that these poor 
 demented beings were still the vassals of the Arch- 
 Fiend. 
 
 Three editions of Wier's book were published in a 
 short time, and it was translated into French in 1569. 
 Its appearance in this language aroused the indignation 
 of Bodin, who declared he coidd not find words meet 
 to express his astonishment, that a puny doctor of 
 physic should have dared to oppose himself to the 
 authority of all ages ; and to question the existence of 
 the most notorious of all facts. He declared Wier's 
 impiety to be even greater than his audacity, for he 
 " had armed himself against God." He declared Wier^s 
 attempt to save from fire, those whom Scripture and 
 the voice of the church had branded as the worst of 
 criminals, the very climax of treason against the Al- 
 mighty. 
 
 Bodin's second work was provoked by Wier's heresy, 
 and it must certainly be one of the richest depoaitories 
 of demoniacal erudition, and of Satanic inspiration, to 
 be found in the whole domain of bibliography. Take 
 as an example, the following deliverance, with respect 
 to the best means of extorting from the accused, confes- 
 sions of their guilt. " Sharp pincers should be inserted 
 between the nails and flesh, such as are in use in Tur- 
 key." We shall see, by and by, that James VI., was 
 not unskilled in this witch art. " Some magistrates are 
 in the habit, Bodin tells us, "of employing counter- 
 charms," which he declares to be a perilous course. He 
 
ae 
 
 as James VI. 
 id terrific sea- 
 ride througli 
 the horrid 
 , as James 
 e told us, the 
 at these poor 
 of the Arch- 
 
 iblished in a 
 ench in 1569. 
 e indignation 
 d words meet 
 ny doctor of 
 mself to the 
 ? existence of 
 slared Wier's 
 iacity. for he 
 3clared Wier's 
 Scripture and 
 the worst of 
 ;ain8t the Al- 
 
 Wier's heresy, 
 t depositories 
 inspiration, to 
 raphy. Take 
 , with respect 
 3cused, confes- 
 Id be inserted 
 in use in Tur- 
 ames VI., was 
 lagistrates are 
 ►ying counter- 
 is course. He 
 
 would have torture in ordinary cases only after failure 
 of other means. He would first try terror, by letting 
 them see the implements of torture, and hearing fright- 
 ful cries, as if from one under the infliction. He tells 
 of one functionary who had a countenance so terrific as 
 to frighten all courage out of the guilty. This sort of 
 experiment, he naively lets us know, is more jjroper to- 
 wards timid than towards impudent persons. Spies 
 who should feign being themselves accused of similar 
 crime, he says, were most valuable witnesses. 
 
 The law of evidence, as laid down by Bodin, is so 
 grotesquely ludicrous, that it would be impossible to 
 restrain our laughter, did we not know that this famous 
 jurisconsult's deliverances, on this subject, became a text 
 authority, even more abiding than the commentaries of 
 Blackstone, Coke, or Littleton, and that thousands were 
 under its dictation consigned to the flames. 
 
 First and strongest among the proofs of diabolic pos- 
 session, he places the notarial document between Satan 
 and his witch disciple, which, as it appears, needed not 
 the sign manual of the former, but only that of the 
 latter. The great German poet Goethe, in the prelim- 
 inary arrangement between Faust and Mephistopheles, 
 shows us that the signature of the endowed must be 
 written with blood, for, says his high-commissioners hip, 
 
 " JBlut iat ein gam besondres Saft.^^ 
 
 Bodin does not seem to insist upon red ink. Indeed 
 it is probable that in the days of Bodin not many of 
 the witches were competent in the art of penmanship, 
 and therefore their signatures, in full, could hardly be 
 insisted upon. They could not, however, have signed 
 by the mark of the cross, for so orthodox a catholic as 
 Bodin was, would well know, that this form of subscrip. 
 tion would have upset the whole arrangement. 
 
:»ii«< ^|i ill f t i i "" IT" ' " -■ 
 
 He tells us tliat a second indisputable proof is, if the 
 accused speak to the devil, and he, though invisible, an- 
 swers. How many asylum physicians, were the juris- 
 prudence of to-day the same as in the time of Bodin, 
 would be found most valuable corroborative witnesses, 
 in this direction I Could we not tell very marvellous 
 tales of the interviews and colloquies which some of 
 our patients assure us they have had with Satan, or his 
 emissaries? 
 
 It is also, says Bodin, a valid proof, if the witch has 
 been found absent from her bed, when all the doors 
 were locked. In this case she must have gone out 
 through the key-hole, which, unless she really was a 
 witch, she certainly could not do. 
 
 Bodin describes fifteen detestable species of crime 
 prepetrated by sorcerers, or witches, some of which 
 must, in the age of credulity in which he wrote, have 
 appeared atrocious beyond all measure of punitional 
 retribution. One of these was doing homage and sac- 
 rifice to the devil ; and of this an unobliteratable proof 
 remained in the mark of the " osculum in tergo^^ which 
 I may be excused from rendering into plain English. 
 All readers of witch history are well aware of the abom- 
 inable indecencies involved in this judicial tenet. 
 
 The last of Bodin- s fifteen diabolic crimes, and the 
 most tremendous of all, was that of sexual intercourse 
 with demons, and the procreation of juniors, who, if we 
 may believe all that has been recorded of them, were by 
 no means unworthy of their illustrious sires : some indeed 
 of the writers on the subject of demonology, seem to 
 think the stock was enriched by this crossing-out pro- 
 cess. 
 
 In support of this theory of multliplication of the 
 race of demons, Bodin, who never wrote unauthorizedly, 
 quotes freely from the early fathers, especially from 
 Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Lactantius, and St. Augustine* 
 
 ■t}^' 
 
r 
 
 oof is, if the 
 invisible, an- 
 re the juris- 
 ne of Bodin, 
 ve witnesses, 
 y marvellous 
 lich some of 
 Satan, or his 
 
 he witch has 
 II the doors 
 ve gone out 
 •eally was a 
 
 ies of crime 
 le of which 
 wrote, have 
 f punitional 
 lage and sac- 
 ratable proof 
 !^^o," which 
 lain English, 
 of the abom- 
 tenet. 
 
 nes, and the 
 1 intercourse 
 3, who, if we 
 em, were by 
 some indeed 
 >gy, seem to 
 ling-out pro- 
 
 ition of the 
 uthorizedly, 
 jcially from 
 . Augustine, 
 
 The publication of Bodin's treatise gave a new and 
 tremendous stimulus to public zeal in the discovery and 
 eirtirpation of witches, and as he strongly advocated 
 the punishment by burning, the result was an incalcula- 
 ble amount of human agony from this terrible infliction. 
 
 The most illustrious demonologist in our mother coun- 
 try was the British Solomon, James VI., of Scotland, and 
 I. of England. He published his brochure on witches at 
 Edinburgh in 1597, and shortly after his accession to 
 the throne of England, he deemed it expedient, by a 
 second edition in London, to enlighten his new subjects 
 on the recondite science of which he was so profound a 
 master. In hi& introduction he tells his readers that 
 " the fearful abounding at this time, in this country, of 
 those detestable slaves of the devil, the witches, or en- 
 chanters, has moved him of conscience to resolve the 
 doubting hearts of many, both that such assaults of Satan 
 are most certainly practiced, and that the instrument* 
 deserve most severely to be punished." He was not 
 slow in following up his philanthropic purpose, for in 
 the very first year of his English reign, he secured from 
 a parliament overpowered by the forcible logic of his 
 treatise, the enactment of the celebrated Witch Act, — 
 a law more bloody and more lasting than was the code 
 of Draco, for it remained unrepealed until the middle 
 of the last century. James had received from the 
 witches of his native country much provocation. His 
 conjugal alliance with the house of Denmark came very 
 near frustration, in consequence of a terrific storm raised 
 by the witches, during the voyage of James and his 
 bride, to Scotland. 
 
 One Dr. Fian, was accused as the ringleader of a 
 witch-circle comprising some 40 or 50, who were all duly 
 disposed of, according to the jurisprudence of the time. 
 He confessed, under the torture, as did many a wretched 
 
 :it\ 
 
 ''^:mm;fimi^^W^2_^ 
 
 \M^ 
 
<''Hti*M»t4livmt*tfmf»tn>.smti*t->''*^^t* 
 
 8 
 
 witch, to his guilt, but he, immediately after, retracted 
 his confessioD. "Ev^ery form of torture was then in 
 vain employed to vanquish his obduracy. The bones 
 of his legs were broken into small pieces in the iron 
 boot. All the tortures that Scottish law knew of were 
 successively, but wonderful to say, not successfully ap- 
 plied. At last the King, (that " most dread sovereign^'') 
 who presided in person over the tortures, arising likfe 
 ** the sun in his strength^'' suggested, (hj^ving no doubt 
 read Bodin's treatise,) a new and more horrible device. 
 "The prisoner who had been removed during the delib- 
 -eratiou, was brought in, and, in the Avords of the record 
 of the trial, "his nails upon all his iii.gers were riven and 
 pulled off with an instrument called in Scottish a tur- 
 kas, which in England we call a pair of pincers, and 
 under every nail there was thrust in two needles over, 
 even up to the heads ; but so deeply had the devil en- 
 tered into his heart, that he utterly denied all that 
 which he before avouched, and he was burnt uncon- 
 fessed.'' 
 
 Scotland has done due honor to many of her gifted 
 sons; but I am not aware that she has yet erected a 
 monument in commemoration of this noblest of her 
 martyrs. 
 
 It is hardly to be supposed that a monarch who was 
 so highly eulogized by the most eminent and learned 
 divines of his time, would fail to impress all classes 
 with a strong conviction of the necessity of a vigilant 
 enforcement of his Witch Act. It assuredly ,did not 
 remain a dead letter on the statute book. Witch drown- 
 ing, hanging, and burning soon became familiar facts 
 in the land ruled by his " Dread Majesty : " and yet 
 witches did not decrease in number. On the contrary 
 they seemed to spring up, phoenix like, from the ashes 
 of the destroyed ones. It is a fact well known to 
 
9 
 
 er, retracted 
 was then in 
 The bones 
 in the iron 
 new of were 
 cessfiilly ap- 
 sovereign^'') 
 arising likfe 
 g no doubt 
 rible device, 
 ig the delib- 
 )f the record 
 Te riven and 
 ottish a tur- 
 pincers, and 
 leedles over, 
 ;he devil en- 
 led all that 
 umt uncon- 
 
 >f her gifted 
 et erected a 
 )lest of her 
 
 ch who was 
 md learned 
 \ all classes 
 f a vigilant 
 Uy did not 
 itch drown- 
 miliar facts 
 .' " and yet 
 he contrary 
 11 the ashes 
 known to 
 
 British sportsmer, that hares are always most numer- 
 ous in those parts where they are hunted. I remember 
 once spending a considerable time, constantly out of 
 doors, in a district where there was no hunting. I 
 never saw a single hare there ; but when my field duty 
 brought me nearer to the hound kennels, then I would 
 see one in almost every field. Indeed I knew of two 
 sagacious old ones who resided in a meadow close to a 
 kennel. It was said by skilled persons that these 
 creatures, knowing that the hounds were never cast off 
 so near home, had concluded that they would have 
 quieter lodging here than further away from their per- 
 secutors. Whether a similar state of matters obtained 
 in the days of witchdom, I am unable to state. It is 
 however an unquestionable fact, that wherever and 
 whenever witches were most actively hunted after, they 
 were most abundant. In the short period of Cromwell's 
 usurpation, (and in justice to the illustrious house of 
 the Stewarts, the fact should not be withheld,) more 
 ^vitches were destroyed in England, than in all the rest 
 of the period during which the witch mania prevailed. 
 It has been calculated that from 1603 to 1680, the 
 total put to death by regular legal process alone, was 
 about 70,000, and if in the ten years of eiiclusion of 
 the Stewarts from the throne, over 35,000 witches were 
 destroyed, the annual number must have been over 
 35,000, or nearly 10 per day, Sundays not excluded. 
 in those days the office of witch-finder was one of no 
 small distinction. In the county of Suffolk, one of this 
 c^ass of public functionaries, seems to have done keen 
 service. His name was Matthew Hopkins. Butler in 
 that imperishable depiction of Puritanical hypocrisy, 
 ignorance, and superstition, his Hudibras, alludes to the 
 efficiency with which this gifted personage performed 
 his task {See Canto HI., of part 2, line 139 etpostea.) 
 
 ''*?■ 
 
 m 
 
 ' '»^m*mmmm^ 
 
10 
 
 " Hath not this present parliament 
 A ledger to the devil sent 
 Fully empowered to treat about 
 Finding revolted witches out ? 
 And has not he within a year 
 Hanged three score of them in one shire ? 
 Some only for not being drowned, 
 And some for sitting above ground 
 Whole days and nights upon their breeches, 
 And feeling pain, were hanged for witches. 
 And some for putting knavish tricks 
 Upon green greese and turkey chicks." 
 
 But " transient is the smile of fate," for Butler a little 
 farther on tells us, this adept witch-finder 
 
 " After proved himself to be a witch 
 And made a rod for his own breech." 
 
 Even the most zealous opponent of capital punishment 
 might hesitate to say it was here inadmissible. 
 
 Among the sixty Suffolk victims of that fearful year, 
 was an unfortunate episcopalian clergyman of eighty 
 years old. The pious Baxter calls him an " old reading 
 parson^'' and informs us that he confessed to being pos- 
 sessed of two imps, a good and a bad one ; a circum- 
 stance in which I imagine he pretty much resembled 
 ourselves. The one was always prompting him to evil 
 deeds; but the other faithfully restrained him from 
 them, until one unlucky day as he was walking on 
 the sea-shore, he saw a ship at a distance. The evil 
 imp urged him to sink the ship, and he did so, too 
 promptly for the good imp to interpose. Have you, 
 gentlemen, not met with men quite as potent in sinking 
 ships as was this old doting "reading parson?" Verily 
 you have, many such. I have under my care a man 
 who built our asylum at Boston, and transported it to 
 Toronto by means of a huge balloon, and this feat was 
 but ft trifle compared with hundreds of others done by 
 
? 
 
 hes, 
 es. 
 
 utler a little 
 
 punishment 
 ble. 
 
 fearfiil year, 
 an of eighty 
 " old reading 
 bo being pos- 
 le ; a circum- 
 h resembled 
 I him to evil 
 d him from 
 
 walking on 
 e. The evil 
 
 did so, too 
 
 Have you, 
 it in sinking 
 on?" Verily 
 
 care a man 
 ported it to 
 this feat was 
 lers done by 
 
 II 
 
 him. Poor old Parson Lewis saw the ship, and he be- 
 lieved he could sink her, though many miles from him. 
 She at once disappeared, therefore he had sunk her. It 
 is too probable that when some of us reach four score 
 years, we may have similar visual experience, but it is 
 to be hoped we may not be similarly deceived ; and it 
 surely is no trivial blessing that we live in an age when 
 natural phenomena are more rationally interpreted than 
 they were in that of Cromwell. 
 
 The poor "old reading parson," was, to the entire 
 satisfaction of Baxter, subjected to the ordeal of water • 
 in which he was more expert than he believed the ship 
 had been, which he said he had sunk ; but to escape 
 drowning was but the most certain step to hanging, and 
 he was hanged accordingly. It booted not that he had 
 been for fifty years, an exemplary minister of religion. 
 Poor man ! he shared in the superstition of the times ; 
 he confessed to his own demoniac possession ; and in 
 those days this was enough. Who knows but that he 
 may himself, ere while, have lent a hearty cooperation 
 in the destruction of witches ? It would be an almost 
 wondrous fact that he had not. I have not given in 
 full the details of this poor man's sufferings. It is 
 almost impossible to restrain one's risible proclivities, 
 in the perusal of the worse than lunatic records of 
 the judicial proceedings of our sapient ancestors, in 
 witch cases, yet the subject is certainly not one at 
 all harmonizing with merriment. Would that we 
 could erase from our history the entire record! but 
 we cannot; perhaps it is best so, for who can say 
 how nearly now we approach the domain of mental 
 darkness, and puerile credulity ? Until we shall have 
 outlived the marvels of table-jumping, spiritualistic 
 telegraphs between living experts and departed disci- 
 ples, the inscrutable untyings of Davenport knots, and 
 
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 ^^ffpswlpiii^^Pw^ 
 
I^**^^*fl^*f**'-; 
 
 12 
 
 i '1 
 
 Ml 
 
 the hundred and one other supematuralities which fol- 
 low one another in a succession which threatens to be 
 as interminable as human gullibility, we shall do well 
 not to laugh at the follies and faults of our forefathers. 
 At the close of the 17th century the belief in witch- 
 craft had, partially at least, died out. A few trials and 
 executions took place in the first 20 years of the 18th 
 ' century, but unless among the very ignorant and a 
 small section of the clergy, the doctrine seemed to 
 have become obsolete. Though Chief Justice, Sir Mat- 
 thew Hale, sentenced witches to death without com- 
 punction, and took advantage of the occasions for 
 delivering to his audiences very learned and lengthened 
 expositions of i;he reality of witchcraft and diabolism 
 generally ; and though Blackstone was a believer, and 
 has told us that Addison also was of the number ; yet, 
 the superstition had to die, and to leave the poor 
 witches to live. A judge of assize at the trial of one 
 Jane Wenham, about the time last mentioned, had 
 the hardihood to charge the jury strongly in the 
 poor woman's favor; but he was a little in advance 
 of the men whom he addressed, for despite his charge 
 they brought in a verdict of guilty. The judge, how- 
 ever, readily obtained from government a reversal 
 of the sentence which he had been reluctantly obliged 
 to pass. But, poor man I now came Ids terrible trial — 
 one of the witnesses for the prosecution had been the 
 parson of Jane Wenham's parish; and he swore "on 
 his faith as a clergyman he believed the woman to be a 
 witch." The judge laid the birch on his parsonship 
 rather smartingly ; and he felt it. His brethren took 
 up the cudgels, and waged a tremendous pamphlet war. 
 They finally drew up a declaration of their unabated 
 faith in witchcraft, which they closed with the porten- 
 tous words, " libemvimus animas noatrasy Thus did 
 
 ,:;«a^?te»sn. 
 
18 
 
 8 which fol- 
 
 satens to be 
 
 lall do well 
 
 forefathers. 
 Bf in witch- 
 w trials and 
 
 of the 18th 
 rant and a 
 
 seemed to 
 ce, Sir Mat- 
 ithout com- 
 3casions for 
 
 lengthened 
 i diabolism 
 •eliever, and 
 limber; yet, 
 e the poor 
 trial of one 
 tioned, had 
 igly in the 
 
 in advance 
 3 his charge 
 judge, how- 
 
 a reversal 
 itly obliged 
 pible trial — 
 id been the 
 
 swore "on 
 man to be a 
 
 parsonship 
 ethren took 
 raphlet war. 
 ir unabated 
 the porten- 
 Thus did 
 
 they ease their consciences. Assuredly the doctrine 
 did not die in silence. From 1691 to 1718, when its 
 moribund condition had become manifest, immense 
 efforts were made to resuscitate it. Twenty-five books 
 of various bulk, were published in its support, in Eng- 
 land alone. One of these was written by the celebrated 
 Rithard Baxter. He was prompted to this labor of 
 love by reading Cotton Mather's narrativ e of the Mas- 
 sachussetts witch trials. Baxter was much edified by 
 the details, and did his best to stir up the English public 
 to an imitation of the efforts of Mather and his twin assas- 
 sin Parris, whom many of you, gentlemen, will recognize 
 as the grand centre of that sewing circle, by virtue of 
 whose hysterical and maniacal evolutions and revolu- 
 tions, the witches' hill at Salem was so fearfully en- 
 riched with victims. I may be allowed to yass over in 
 silence this afterpiece to the great European tragedy. 
 You are, no doubt, better read in its history than I am ; 
 and yet I can not help saying, I wish I knew less of it ; 
 for it exposes to view the weaknesses, and wickedness 
 of a few men belonging to a valuable class whom no 
 good Christian desires to lower in popular esteem ; yet 
 it is my honest conviction that parson Parris, of Salem, 
 was one of the greatest scoundrels that ever gave noto- 
 riety to the witch mania. But the very enormity of 
 this man's exploits, in all probability, brought the witch- 
 craft mania to a much earlier close on this continent 
 than otherwise it might have had. His victims were, 
 as an able writer in the Fdinhurgli Review for July, 
 1868, has truly said, " the wisest, gentlest, and 'purest 
 Christians his parish contained." Had they not been 
 such, who can say how long the murderous superstition 
 would have survived ; for the colony of Massachusetts 
 was founded in the time of James I., who had given his 
 royal patronage and exalted scriptorial support, in prop- 
 
 f >i 
 
 -•^^.•».v,*''l^■J>)>«-^;» 
 
 1 
 
^it^ 
 
 ■IMHI 
 
 14 
 
 agation of this article of Satanic faith. The Puritan 
 fathers who fled from the Devil, in the shape of bishops, 
 in England, still found his ubiquitous Highness in even 
 more multiform manifestation in the New World. 
 Every red Indian, who lurked and skulked around 
 their clearings through the day, and at night ruthlessly 
 fired their dwellings, and spared neither age nor «ex, 
 was surely to them no other than a missionary from 
 hell j and when they found suitable opportunity they 
 dealt with him as such. It was short logic, to ascribe 
 all their terrible trials and sufferings to Satan. Had 
 they continued to recognize his agency only in this rela- 
 tion, they would have escaped the honors of Salem 
 witch-hill ; but in those days no department of human 
 affairs was considered exempt from Satanic domination. 
 
 Mr. Parris unfortunately got into a little altercation 
 with some of his flock, on the delicate questions of sala- 
 ry, firewood, and the homestead title. All who op- 
 posed hira, or spoke of him irreverently, he speedily 
 catalogued, and by the aid of his little girl circle, and 
 his two servants, John, and Tituba his wife, he managed 
 to rid his congregation of not a few of these children 
 of iniquity. 
 
 It must have been a scene infinitely richer than any 
 of our modern spiritualistic circles can extemporize, 
 when Mr. Parris ass nnbled all the divines he could col- 
 lect at his parsonac e, and made his troop of girls go 
 through their performances ; for when they had ended 
 their farce, a general groan issued from the reverend 
 spectators, " over the manifest presence of the Evil 
 One, and a passionate intercession for the afflicted chil- 
 dren " was made. These children were suffering under 
 the evil practices of the witches ; that is to say, of those 
 naughty people who grudged Mr. Parris a good salary, 
 abundance of firewood, and his personal ownerskip of 
 the parsonage. 
 
 13 
 
16 
 
 The Puritan 
 pe of bishops, 
 ^hness in even 
 New World. 
 Iked around 
 ;ht ruthlessly 
 
 age nor «ex, 
 isionary from 
 )rtunity they 
 yic, to ascribe 
 
 Satan. Had 
 y in this rela- 
 [)rs of Salem 
 snt of human 
 c domination. 
 ;le altercation 
 stionsof sala- 
 All who op- 
 ', he speedily 
 irl circle, and 
 3, he managed 
 ;hese children 
 
 ;her than any 
 extemporize, 
 he could col- 
 p of girls go 
 iy had ended 
 the reverend 
 I of the Evil 
 afflicted chil- 
 iffering under 
 ) say, of those 
 I good salary, 
 ownership of 
 
 It was a fearful thing in those times to be called a 
 bad name by a parson. It is very unpleasant even in 
 the present day, to be met with harsh epithets, where 
 we might hope for calm discussion. We must not, 
 however, be over angry with those who have recourse 
 to such weapons; for they would not wield them had 
 they any better at command ; and the rational world 
 now regards all recourse to this sort of battle, as but 
 tantamount to an acknowledgment of utter defeat. 
 
 , The repeal of the witch laws in England, in 1738, 
 was an anomalous constitutional fact, which in the pres- 
 ent day could not occur there, nor in this country ; for 
 it was a measure in utter antagonism with popular sen- 
 timent. The mass of the people, and the almost entire 
 body of the clergy of all denominations, were opposed 
 to it ; and, for long years after, strenuous efforts for the 
 restoration of the former regime were put forth. In 
 1768 John Wesley lamented the shocking decadence 
 that had befallen "the belief in witches and appari- 
 tions." I shall not venture to quote his words, lest 
 they might sound offens^'vely; suffice it to say they 
 were more earnest than discreet. Five years after Wes- 
 ley's protest, " the divines of the associated PresbjKery 
 of Scotland passed resolutions, declaring their belief 
 in witchcraft, and deploring the skepticism that was 
 then general." (Macaulay ; Hist. VHI., p. 706.) 
 
 We surely should not be surprised to find that, even 
 now, only a century from the above declarations of men 
 who have left on the world abiding and deep marks of 
 their genius and influence, the belief in witchcraft and 
 diabolic possession still lingers among the uncultured 
 portions of society. In September, 1863, a man was 
 beaten to death, by a mob of 70 mechanics and small 
 tradesmen, in the county of Essex, England, because they 
 believed he was a witch. Some six months ago, at New- 
 
 m-mi>mm^'^0 
 
I 
 
 ■MMMi 
 
 16 
 
 market, England, a man who had agreed to expel a witch 
 or some such i^nearthly thing, from a haunted house, was 
 obliged to take legal process to recover the amount of 
 the contract — some £18 or £20. The Bench directed 
 that he should be paid ordinary laboring-man's wages. 
 How shameful ! The defendant did not deny that the 
 witch, or ghost, had been expelled. He must, there- 
 fore, have been benefited to the extent of the rent ; so 
 that if value was not given, it certainly was received. 
 Perhaps the Judge had some suspicion that the ghost 
 was of the Bryan O'Linn stamp. 
 
 " Bryan O'Linn had no watch to put on, 
 So h 3 scooped out a turnip, to make him a one ; 
 He slipped in a cricket, clane under the skin, 
 "They'll think it is tickin'," says Bryan O'Linn." 
 
 The world abounds in Bryan O'Linn crickets, and ?f 
 the Newmarket ghost was not one, I am sure it very 
 easily might have been. What, however, has become 
 of the great family of the witches ? One would reasona- 
 bly suppose that after they ceased to be exterminated, 
 they must have multiplied willi fearful rapidity. It is 
 not on record that, like the Kilkenny cats, they ate each 
 other up ; yet they died off as soon as they ceased to 
 be killed. Seventy thousand, we are informed by his- 
 tory, were destroyed in England in a little over seventy 
 years. At the present day there are in England, Ire- 
 land and Scotland about this number of insane persons 
 lodged in asylums. Is there one of you, gentlemen, who 
 live among this afflicted class in this country, who 
 doubts that in the time of witch hunting and burning 
 and hanging, at least one-half of t>e 70,000 lunatics 
 whose support costs so much to the already over-taxed 
 people of the United Kingdom, would have been far more 
 cheaply disposed of? We protect, and house, and feed, 
 and clothe, and soothe the poor witches,— yea, and by 
 
11 
 
 expel a witch 
 ed house, was 
 he amount of 
 mch directed 
 ■man'd wages, 
 eny that the 
 must, there- 
 the rent ; so 
 was received, 
 lat the ghost 
 
 n. 
 
 »» 
 
 icketSj and ?f 
 . sure it very 
 ', has become 
 '^ould reasona- 
 3xterminated, 
 pidity. It is 
 they ate each 
 ley ceased to 
 )rmed by his- 
 over seventy 
 England, Ire- 
 isane persons 
 ntlemen, who 
 ountry, who 
 and burning 
 ,000 lunatics 
 ly over-taxed 
 been far more 
 ase, and feed, 
 -yea, and by 
 
 these simple means, do we not expel the Devil out of 
 a great many ? We do ! and is it not r .irvellous that 
 kindness is so potent, even over this wretch? Unkind- 
 §ess had utterly failed to exorcise him; but since, the 
 true Gospel of Him who restored to a distracted father, 
 an epileptic lunatic son, sane in mind and sound in 
 body, has been, not merely preached in frothy words, 
 but acted out in heavenly deeds, what a change 
 has come over the dream of witchdora I Thousands 
 and thousands of unreal, innocent sorcerers and en- 
 chanters were burned and hanged, in foi-mer times; 
 but the greatest Ox all the modern tribe escaped — and 
 that man was Finel. He drove out Satan, by unchain- 
 ing him. The brute could not look Pinel in the face, 
 for heavenly charity beamed from Im bewitching eyes. 
 Wonderful yet to say, Pinel's head was saved from the 
 block, by one of the possessed whom he had loosed 
 from the bonds of Satan ! 
 
 I am sure, gentlemen, you every one know how irre- 
 sistible is the charm by which Pinel subdued Satan; 
 for I know it is the one almost sole, curative agency by 
 which our statistics are enriched — and certainly the 
 statistics of Americai institutions for the treatment of 
 insanity, need not blush under comparison with those 
 of any other countrj-. 
 
 Should it be alleged by critics of the outside world, 
 less familiar than we are with the delusions of insanity, 
 and with the terrible mental sufferings attendant upon 
 some of them, that a brief exposition, such as this pa- 
 per, of an antiquated and exploded fallacy, is at this 
 day, before an association of alienistic physicians, unin- 
 structive and uncalled for, I would simply observe, that 
 very few of the delusions of the insane spring up indi- 
 genously. If we carefully and closely investigate the 
 early training, and the past domestic and social forma- 
 2 
 
r 
 
 18 
 
 tive influences, which have moulded the moral and in- 
 tellectual characters of our patients, and have implant- 
 ed in their minds those persistent habits of thought 
 which become the semi-instinctive leaders and directori 
 of maturer life, I think we shall not rashly conclude 
 that their ravings are all of spontaneous generation. 
 Certainly there is not one of us who would not be grat- 
 ified with the knowledge that the seed of these tares 
 had never been sown. To root them out, and avoid in- 
 juring the wheat, is our task, and it is truly an arduous 
 and a delicate one. I can think of no more distressing 
 position for a physician to be placed in, than that of 
 the responsible charge of an afflicted fellow-being, la- 
 boring under the delusion of having committed the un- 
 pardonable sin, because of his having become possessed 
 by Satan. You all know how commonly this mental 
 condition is associated with persistent suicidal propen- 
 sity. 
 
 I could, as you are well aware, exhibit a multitude of 
 details confirmative of this fact ; but such expositions 
 of the frailties and sufferings of our patients, though 
 attractive to the sen ational and empty-headed classes, 
 are by no means pleasant exercises to the writers ; and 
 lissuredly they must prove very painfril to those amongst 
 our hearers, or readers, who have stood in close relation 
 :!^th the unhappy ones alluded to. 
 
 That there may be, or are, fulminating pulpit orators, 
 who will not be admonished by anything short of the 
 esxyperimentam cruciSj — ^who will not believe, before they 
 have, as Thomas, thrust their fingers into the pierced 
 fflde, ftnd into the nail prints of their victims, I question 
 not ; for they are not unknown to me. 
 
 Is there not, gentlemen, a great lesson to the sane 
 #orld, to be learned among the insane ? If men require 
 to learn the omnipotence of kindness, do you know of 
 
moral and in- 
 lave implant- 
 8 of thought 
 and directopi 
 hly conclude 
 B generation. 
 I not be grat- 
 )f these tares 
 and avoid in- 
 [y an arduous 
 re distressing 
 than that of 
 low-being, la- 
 aitted the un- 
 >me possessed 
 Y this mental 
 icidal propen- 
 
 multitude of 
 h expositions 
 ients, though 
 eaded classes, 
 
 writers; and 
 ;hose amongst 
 
 close relation 
 
 )ulpit orators, 
 ; short of the 
 e, before they 
 the pierced 
 ns, 1 question 
 
 to the sane 
 f men require 
 you know of 
 
 19 
 
 a better school than the modem lunatic asylum? If 
 they require to be taught that unkindness, and cruelty, 
 and terror, eflfect no real change of conduct and charac- 
 %r, — ^but on the contrary always render the subjects of 
 them more obdurate and vicious than before, then let 
 them take up their abodes for a sufficient time, among 
 the inmates of our institutions. There they would be 
 the right men in right places, and both themselves 
 and the community at large would be immense gainers 
 by the probation. 
 
 I have abstained from details of the atrocities result- 
 ing from the witchcraft superstition in the continental 
 nations of Europe ; not because they were less horrid 
 than those perpetrated in our mother country, or be- 
 cause protestantism was more guilty, in this relation, 
 than the olden church; but simply because the limits 
 of a paper, for such an occasion as the present, pre- 
 clude a wider excursion ; and to tell the whole truth, 
 I do not think that the confession of our neighbor's 
 sins, instead of our own, is either a commendable, or a 
 useful virtue, though we all know it is a very preva- 
 lent one. 
 
 Whether any good may result from the remarks 
 which the experience of the members of this associa- 
 tion may enable them to offer on the general subject of 
 Demonomania, I dare not anticipate ; but I can see no 
 possibility of injury to the victims of this terrible form 
 c ^ mental alienation likely to proceed from them ; and 
 whithersoever duty calls us, thither unfalteringly we 
 are bound fearle&sly to advance. 
 
 
 d 
 
 I 
 
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