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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8615242 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #63938 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/63938) diff --git a/old/63938-0.txt b/old/63938-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 8e8b607..0000000 --- a/old/63938-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,8865 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook, Medicine in the Middle Ages, by Edmond -Dupouy, Translated by Thomas C. Minor - - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - - -Title: Medicine in the Middle Ages - Extracts from "Le Moyen Age Medical" by Dr. Edmond Dupouy - - -Author: Edmond Dupouy - - - -Release Date: December 2, 2020 [eBook #63938] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - - -***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEDICINE IN THE MIDDLE AGES*** - - -E-text prepared by Turgut Dincer, Les Galloway, and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made -available by Internet Archive (https://archive.org) - - - -Note: Images of the original pages are available through - Internet Archive. See - https://archive.org/details/b29007720 - - -Transcriber’s note: - - It should be noted that almost all of the French in the book is - unaccented. No attempt has been made to correct this. - - The footnotes are located at the end of the book. - - Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). - - - - - -MEDICINE IN THE MIDDLE AGES. - -Extracts from “Le Moyen Age Medical” - -of - -DR. EDMOND DUPOUY. - -Translated by T. C. Minor, M.D. - - - - - - -Reprinted from the Cincinnati Lancet-Clinic, Dec. 1, 1888, -to Feb. 16, 1889. - -Cincinnati: -Cincinnati Lancet Press Print, -1889. - - - - -THE PHYSICIANS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. - -THE GREAT EPIDEMICS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. - -THE DEMONOMANIA OF THE MIDDLE AGES. - -MEDICINE IN THE LITERATURE OF THE MIDDLE AGES. - - - - - MEDICINE IN THE MIDDLE AGES. - - EXTRACTS FROM “LE MOYEN AGE MEDICAL” OF DR. EDMOND DUPOUY. - - TRANSLATED BY T. C. MINOR, M.D. - - THE PHYSICIANS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. - - -In the fourth century of the Christian era Roman civilization expired; -Western Europe was invaded by the barbarians; letters and science -sought a last refuge at Alexandria; the Middle Age commenced. - -Greek medicine strove to survive the revolution in the city of the -Ptolemies, and even produced a few celebrated physicians, _i.e._, -Alexander Ætius, Alexander Trallian, and Paulus Ægineta, but at the -end of the seventh century the school of Alexandria also fell and -disappeared in the clouds of a false philosophy, bequeathing all -Hippocratic traditions to the Arabs, who advanced as conquerors to the -Occident. - -The Arabian schools of Dschondisabur, Bagdad, Damascus, and Cordova -were founded and became flourishing institutions of learning, thanks -to a few Nestorian Greeks and Jews who were attracted to these centers -of learning; such men as Aaron, Rhazes, Haly-Abas, Avicenna, Avenzoar, -Averrhoes, Albucasis, and other writers, who continued the work left -by the Greeks, leaving remarkable books on medicine and surgery. -Unfortunately the ordinance of Islamism prevented these scientists from -following anatomical work too closely, and consequently limited the -progress they might otherwise have made in medicine.[1] - -What occurred in Western Europe during this period of transition? -The torch of science was extinguished; the sacred fire on the altar -of learning only remained a flickering emblem whose pale light was -carefully guarded in the chapel of monasteries. Medicine was abandoned -to the priests, and all practice naturally fell into an empirical and -blind routine. “The physician-clergy,” says Sprengel, “resorted in the -majority of cases to prayers and holy water, to the invocations of -saints and martyrs, and inunction with sacred ointments. These monks -were unworthy of the name of doctor—they were, in fact, nothing else -than fanatical hospital attendants.” - -An ephemeral ray of light broke from the clouds in the _renaissance_ -of 805, when Charlemagne ordered the cathedral schools to add medicine -to their studies as a part of the _quadrivium_. Some of the monks -now commenced to study the works of Celsus and Cœlius Aurelianus, -but, ever as with the Mussulmen, the Catholic religion forbade the -dissection of the human body, and the monks made no more progress -than the barbarians; so that the masses of the people had little or -no confidence in clerical medical skill. We find the proof of a lack -of confidence in the Gothic laws promulgated by Theodoric about this -period—laws kept even into the eleventh century in the greater portion -of Western Europe. These ordinances, among other things, proclaim as -follows: - -“No physician must open a vein of a woman or a daughter of the -nobility without being assisted by a relative or body-servant; _quia -difficillium non est, ut sub tali occasione ludibrium interdum -adhærescat_.” (Their morality was then a subject for caution.) - -“When a physician is called to dress a wound or treat a disease, he -must take the precaution to settle on his fee, for he cannot claim any -in case the patient’s life is endangered. - -“He shall be entitled to five sous for operating on hard cataract. - -“If a physician wound a gentleman by bleeding, he shall be condemned to -pay a fine of one hundred sous; and should the gentleman die following -the operation, the physician must be delivered into the hands of the -dead man’s relatives, who may deal with the doctor as they see fit. - -“When a physician has a student he shall be allowed twelve sous for his -services as tutor.” - -Towards the tenth century, however, progress in medicine is at last -noticeable. We see some monks going to make their studies at Salerno -and at Mount Cassin, where the Benedictine friars had established a -medical college in the previous century. Constantine had given these -friars Arabian manuscripts, which had been translated into Latin, with -commentaries. Also the works of the early Greek physicians and the -treatises of Aristotle on “Natural Science.” It was at Salerno that -Ægidius de Corbeil studied physic before becoming physician to Philip -Augustus. Nevertheless, medicine remained in darkness with clerical -ignorance, the superstition and despotism of the church offering an -insurmountable barrier to all science. Finally a reform was instituted -in 1206 by the foundation of the University of Paris, which included -among its school of learning a college of medicine, wherein many -students matriculated. The _physicus_ Hugo, and Obiso, physician to -Louis the Great, were the first professors in the institution. Degrees -were accorded indiscriminately to the clergy or to the laity, the -condition of celibacy being imposed on the latter likewise. - -A medical and surgical service was organized at the Hotel Dieu, which -hospital was erected before the entrance of Notre Dame, under the -direction of the clergy. On certain days the priests would assemble -around the holy water font of the cathedral, _supra cupam_, in order to -discuss questions in medicine or the connection of scholastic learning -with the healing art. - -The University only recognized as students of medicine persons who held -the degree of master-in-arts. They absolutely separated the _meges_ and -_mires_, surgeons, bonesetters, and barbers, who had made no classical -studies, and to whom was abandoned as unworthy of the real physicians -all that concerned minor surgery. These officers of health, so-called, -of the Middle Ages were unimportant and little respected persons; they -kept shops and never went out without carrying one or two dressing -cases; they were only comparable to drug peddlers; and the University -imposed no vows of celibacy in their case. - -In many literary works in Latin it is often a question whether to call -in a physician or _mire_, and certain passages admirably serve to prove -this historical fact. In the _Roman de Dolopatos_,[2] for example, the -poet tells how to prevent the poisoning of wounds, as they are easy to -cure when the injury is recent: - - - You have heard it told - To dress a wound while new; - ’Tis hard to heal when old. - You’ll find this statement true.[3] - When the doctor cometh late - The wound may poisoned be; - The sore may irritate - And most sad results we see. - - -In another troubadour song, _The Wicked Surgeon_ (_Vilain Mire_), from -which Moliere purloined his play “A Doctor in Spite of Himself,” we -see the wife of the bone-setter assure every one that her husband is -not only a good surgeon, but likewise knows as much of medicine and -uroscopy as Hippocrates himself. (We must not forget that a knowledge -of urine was claimed by _mires_ and _meges_.) Thus the bone setter’s -wife says: - - - “My husband is, as I have said, - A surgeon who can raise the dead. - He sees disease in urine hid, - Knows more than e’en Ypocras did.” - - -The _Roman de la Rose_ shows us a poor devil who complains of not being -able to find a surgeon (_mire_) to dress his wounds, _i.e._: - - - “Ne sceus que faire, ne que dire, - Ne pour ma playe trover mire, - Ne par herbe, ne par racine - Je ne peus trover medecine.” - - -Some years after the founding of the University of Paris, a great -scientific movement occurred in the Occident. The Faculty of -Montpellier had already acquired much celebrity. The College of -Surgeons of Paris was established in 1271. Medical circles counted a -brilliant galaxy of remarkable men, _i.e._ Richard de Wendmere, Jean -de Saint Amand, Guillaume Saliceto, the great Albert, Bernard Gordon, -Arnauld de Villeneuve, Lanfranc, and Roger Bacon. The school of Paris -now wished to direct its own affairs, and accordingly, in 1280 A.D., -separated from the University and assumed the title _Physicorum -Facultas_, and its members became physicians. Sustained by Royal edict, -they obtained rich grants from the church and from public taxes, but -these marks of favor aroused bitter jealousies; criticism rained down -on the healing art on every hand, and medicine was lampooned; these -physicians of the thirteenth century were ridiculed so bitterly as to -make the age historical, and thus inspire the comedy writers of future -generations. This is more than evidenced in the wicked satires of Guyot -de Provins (_Bible Guiot_), who cruelly assails the doctors; it was he -who wrote the poem that said: - - - “Young doctors just come from Salern(o) - Sell blown-up bladders for lantern.” - - -As we see, from perusing these numerous lampoons, physicians were not -held in high esteem, notwithstanding the sacerdotal character in which -the profession was invested. Meantime, in the _Roman du Noveau Renard_, -we find a passage[4] that permits the supposition that physicians -already possessed a certain amount of medical erudition; that they -were acquainted with the works of Galen, and had full knowledge of all -writers of the Arabian school, as well as that of the school of Salerno. - - - “Je faisoie le physicien - Et allegoie Galien, - Et montrois oeuvre ancienne - Et de Rasis et d’Avicenne, - Et a tous les faisoie entendre - In’estoie drois physiciens - Et maistre des practiciens.” - - -In revenge, the author of the “Romance of Renard” accords but little -confidence to medical art, for he adds very maliciously: - - - “All belief in medicine is folly, - Trust it and you lose your life; - For it is a fact most melancholy— - Where one is cured two perish in the strife.” - - -Why the poet of the _Roman du Renard_ was so full of rancor against -the doctors of his time is a problem too difficult to solve; yet, -while he considered them no better than criminals and dangerous men to -society, he did not fail to call a doctor before dying. Physicians, -for some strange and unknown reason, have always been criticised by -French literary men in modern as well as ancient times. Our French -authors have never, as did the masters of Greek poesy, recognized us as -brothers in Apollo. Permit me here to call their attention to one of -the writers of Greek anthology, who said of physicians: - -“The son of Phœbus himself, Æsculapius, has instilled into thy mind, -O Praxagorus, the knowledge of that divine art which makes care to be -forgotten. He has given into thy hands the balm that cures all evils. -Thou, too, hast learned from the sweet Epion what pains accompany long -fevers, and the remedies to be applied to divided flesh; if mortals -possessed medicines such as thine, the ferry of Charon would not be -overloaded in crossing the Styx.” - -Notwithstanding sarcasm, in spite of epigrams and calumny, medicine has -always been a source of sublime consolation to the sick and afflicted, -the sufferer—rich and poor. At all ages the priest has been inclined -to indulge in the practice of physic, and it was at their instigation -that those nuns known as Sisters of Charity practiced medicine to a -certain extent in the Middle Ages. In the twelfth century we see the -nuns of the Convent of Paraclet, in Champagne, following the advice of -Abelard, essaying the surgical treatment of the sick. It is true the -first abbess of this nunnery was Heloise, in whose history conservative -surgery is not even mentioned. The nuns who dressed wounds were called -_medeciennes_ or _miresses_. Gaulthier de Conisi has left a history of -their good works: - - - “And the world wondered when it did learn - That woman had found a new mission; - When the doctors of Montpellier and Salern(o) - Saw each nun to be a physician. - A fever they knew, a pulse they could feel, - And best of it all is, _they managed to heal_.” - - -This tendency of women to care for the sick now became general. “In -our ancient poets and romancers,” says Roquefort, “we often notice -how young girls[5] were employed to cure certain wounds, because they -were more tender-hearted and gentle-handed; as, for example, Gerard -de Nevers, having been wounded, was carried into a chapel, where “a -beautiful maiden took him in hand to effect a cure, and he thought so -much of her that in brief space of time he commenced to mend; and was -so much better that he could eat and drink; and he had such confidence -in the skill of the maiden that, before a month passed, he was most -perfectly cured.” - -As early as the sixth century, we note in the recital, _Des Temps -Merovingiens_, by Augustin Thierry, that Queen Radegond, wife of -Clotaire I., transformed her royal mansion into a hospital for indigent -women. “One of the Queen’s pastimes was to go thither not simply to -visit, but to perform all the most repulsive duties of nurse.” - -In Feudal times it was the custom to educate the girls belonging to -the nobility in practical medicine; also in surgery, especially that -variety of surgery applied to wounds. This was immensely useful, -inasmuch as their fathers, brothers, husbands or lovers were gallant -“Knights,” who ofttimes returned from combat or tourney mutilated or -crippled. It was the delicate hand of titled ladies that rendered -similar service to strange foreign knights who might be brought wounded -to the castle gates. This is why the knights of old rendered such -devout homage to the gentler sex—knowing their kindness and love in -time of distress, when bleeding wounds were to be staunched and fever -allayed. In a Troubadour song, _Ancassin et Nicolette_, we find this -passage: - - - “Nicolette, in great alarm, - Asked about his pain; - Found out of joint his arm, - Put it in again; - Dressed with herbs the aching bone— - Plants to her had virtues known.” - - -Although the church was hostile to the philosophy of Aristotle, whose -works were publicly burned in 1209 A.D. by order of the Council, -Pierre de Vernon published, in the same thirteenth century, a short -poem by the title _Les Enseignements d’Aristote_, the object of which -was to vulgarize the scientific portion of the great Greek author’s -Encyclopedia. This treatise commenced as follows: - - - “Primes saciez ke icest tretiez - Est le secre de secrez numez, - Ke Aristotle le Philosophe y doine, - La fiz Nichomache de Macedoine - A sun deciple Alisandre en bone fei, - Le grant, le fiz, a Philippe le Rei, - Le fist en sa graunt vielesce.” - - -Which, translated from old French, reads: “From whence learn that this -treatise is the secret of secrets, that Aristotle the philosopher, son -of Nichomachus, gave to his pupil, Alexander the Great, son of King -Philip, and which was composed in his old age.” - -In recalling the fact that Aristotle was the son of Nichomachus, Pierre -de Vernon probably desired to call the attention of his readers more to -the knowledge of medicine that the author derived from his father, the -celebrated physician, than to the brilliant pupil of Plato. - -Among the interesting passages in this poem we distinguish some that -advise abstinence to persons whose maladies are engendered by excesses -at table: - - - “One man cannot live without wine, - While another without it should dine; - For the latter, ’tis clear, - All grape juice and beer - For his own stomach’s sake should decline.” - - -The author claims drinking at meals induces gastralgia from acidity of -the stomach: - - - “The signs of bad stomach thus trace: - Poor digestion, a red bloated face, - With out-popping eyes, - Palpitation, and sighs. - With oppression, as though one did lace.” - - -He mentions eructations and sour belching as indicating frigidity of -the stomach, and advises the drinking of very hot water before meals. -Aside from this, he gives good counsel relative to all the advantages -of a sober and peaceful life: - - - “If passion within you wax hot, - Pray don’t eat and drink like a sot. - Give wine no license; - From rich food abstinence; - And luxurious peace is your lot.” - - -The author then advises that the mouth and gums be well taken care of, -that the teeth be neatly cleaned after each meal, and the entire buccal -cavity be rinsed out with an infusion of bitter-sweet plants or leaves. - - - “Puis apres si froterez - Vos dents et gencives assez, - Od les escorces tut en tur - D’ arbre chaud, sec. amer de savur - Kar iceo les dents ennientit,” etc. - - -Notwithstanding their want of scientific form, these precepts still -strongly contrast with the superstitious practices employed by the -monks in the treatment of disease. When holy relics failed the -priesthood had resource to supernatural power; they believed in the -faith cure; the touch of a Royal hand could heal disease. They took all -their scrofulous and goitre patients to Phillip I. and to Saint Louis. -These sovereigns had not always an excessive faith in the miraculous -gifts they were desired to bestow, but reasons of State policy forced -them to accept this monkish deceit, which was regularly practiced by -the clergy every Pentecost Day. - -The _mise en scene_ was easily arranged: the King of France, after holy -communion at Saint Francis Convent, left the building surrounded by -men at arms and Benedictine friars; then he touched the spots on his -people, saying to each of his afflicted subjects: “_Rex tangit te, Deus -sanat te, in nomine Patris et filii et Spiritus sancti._”[6] - -Block pretends that the King of England also enjoyed the power of -curing epilepsy, and remarks _apropos_ to this fact that the invention -is not new, since Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, possessed the power of -curing individuals attacked by enlarged spleen by simply pressing his -right foot on that viscera. - -But this is no longer a superstition to-day, since the age of miracles -is past and the divinity of kings a belief almost without a disciple. -However, Gilbert and Daniel Turner, physicians of the thirteenth -century, give it credence in their writings, but they are fully -entitled to express their independent opinion. - -The priests of the Middle Ages could not employ themselves as -obstetricians, neither could they treat uterine diseases. The -_ventrieres_ were the only midwives of the period; these women were -allowed to testify as experts in the courts of justice, but the burden -of proof rested on the testimony of at least three _sage femmes_ when a -newly-married woman was accused of pregnancy by a husband, as witness -the following: - -“Should a man declare his wife just wedded be pregnant and she deny the -charge, it is well to conduct the accused woman to the house of some -prudent female friend, and then that three _ventrieres_ be summoned who -may regard the suspect. If they declare her to be in a family way, the -provost shall call the midwives as witnesses as before stated; but if -the _sage femmes_ declare the accused is not pregnant, then shall the -wife have cause against her husband; but better is it when the husband, -seeing the wrong wrought, shall humble himself and beg pardon.” - -Midwives were sworn, according to statutes and ordinances, which -contained formulæ reports to be presented to the judges, to visit -girls who complained of having been raped; fourteen signs of such -deflowerment were admitted in testimony. Laurent Joubert has -transcribed three of such reports, of which we will reproduce only one -that was addressed to the Governor of Paris on October 23d, 1672: - -“We, Marie Miran, Christophlette Reine, and Jeannie Porte, licensed -midwives of Paris, certify to whom it may concern, that on the 22d day -of October in the present year, by order of the Provost of Paris, of -date 15th of aforesaid month, we visited a house in Rue Pompierre and -there examined a girl aged thirty years, named Olive Tisserand, who had -made complaint against one Jaques Mudont Bourgeois, whom she insisted -deflowered her by violence. We examined the plaintiff by sight and the -finger, and found as follows: - -“Her breasts relaxed from below the neck downwards; _mammaæ marcidæ -et flaccidæ_; her vulva chafed; _os pubis collisum_; the hair on the -os pubis curled; _pubes in orbem finuata_; the perineum wrinkled; -_perinæum corrugatum_; the nature of the woman lost; _vulva dissoluta -et mercessans_; the lips of private pendant; _labia pendenta_; the -lesser lips slightly peeled; _labiorum oræ pilis defectæ_; the nymphæ -depressed; _nymphæ depressæ_; the caroncles softened; _carunculæ -dissolutæ_; the membrane connecting the caroncles retracted; _membrana -connecteus inversa_; the clitoris was excoriated; _clitoris excoriata_; -the uterine neck turned; _collum uteri_; the vagina distended; _finus -pudoris_; in fact, the lady’s hymen is missing; _hymen deductum_; -finally, the internal orifice of the womb is open; _os internum -matricis_. Having viewed this sad state of affairs, sign by sign, we -have found traces _omnibus figillatum perspectis et perforutatis_, -etc., and the above-named midwives certify to the before-mentioned -Provost that the aforesaid statement under oath is true.” - -Physicians were not obliged by the magistrates to determine the -nature of rapes on women; all gynecological questions were remanded -to midwives. In truth, among all the physicians of antiquity only -Hippocrates discussed uterine complaints and Ætius studied obstetrics. -It was only in the sixteenth century that midwifery took its place -among the medical sciences, thanks to Rhodion, Ambroise Parè, -Reif, Rousset, and Guillemeau. Shortly before this time, that is -to say, in the fifteenth century, Jacques de Foril published his -“Commentaires” on generation, his ideas being derived from Avicenna; -his notions, however, were absurd, being wholly based on astrological -considerations. He pretended that an infant is not viable in the eighth -month, because in the first month the pregnant woman is protected by -Jupiter, from whom comes life; and in the seventh month by the moon, -which favorizes life by its humidity and light; while in the eighth -month or reign of Saturn, who eats children, the influence is hostile. -But on the ninth month the benevolent influence of Jupiter is again -experienced, and for this reason the infant is more apt to be alive at -this period of gestation. - -To the scholastic philosophy of the Middle Ages we must attribute the -prejudice that, the human body being in direct connection with the -universe, especially the planets, it was impossible for physical -change to occur without the influence of the constellations. Thus -astrology came to be considered as an essential part of medicine. This -belief in the influence of the stars came from the Orient, and was -carried through Europe after the crusades. - -As to the treatise on “Diseases of Women,” attributed to Trotula, a -midwife of the school of Salerno, it is only a formulary of receipts -for the use of women—baths in the sea-sands under a hot sun to thin -ladies suffering from overfat; signs by which a good wet-nurse may be -recognized: a method of kneading the head, the nose, and the limbs of -new-born children before placing them in swaddling clothes; the use of -virgin wine mixed with honey as a remedy for removing the wrinkles of -old age. - -“The _Commentaires_ of Bernard de Provincial informs us,” says -Daremberg, “that certain practices, not only superstitious but -disgusting, were common among the doctrines of Salerno; one, for -instance, was to eat themselves, and also oblige their husbands to eat, -the excrement of an ass fried in a stove in order to prevent sterility; -likewise, to eat the stuffed heart of a diseased sow in order to forget -dead friends,” etc. - -We can form some judgment, from such observations, as to the -_therapeutic_ wisdom of these doctrines of the school of Salerno. It -is true, however, that at this epoch but little medicine save that of -an unique and fantastic order was prescribed. Gilbert, the Englishman, -advised, with the greatest British _sang froid_, tying a pig to the bed -of a patient attacked by lethargy; he ordered lion’s flesh in case of -apoplexy, also scorpion’s oil and angle-worm eggs; to dissolve stone in -the bladder, he prescribed the blood of a young billy-goat nourished on -diuretic herbs. - -Peter of Spain, who was archbishop, and afterwards Pope, under the -name of John XXI., was a man whom historians claim was more celebrated -as a physician than as Pope; it was this Peter who adapted the -curious medical formulary known by the title of _Circa Instans_, and, -had improved on the invention. Those who wore on their bodies the -words “Balthazar,” “Gaspar” and “Melchior” need never fear attacks -of epilepsy; in order to produce a flux in the belly, it was only -necessary to put a patient’s excrement in a human bone and throw it -into a stream of water. - -Hugo de Lucgnes, in fractures of the bone, employed a powder composed -of ginger and cannella, which he used in connection with the “Lord’s -Prayer,” in the meantime also invoking the aid of the Trinity. He -treated hernia by cauterization, and leprosy by inunctions of mercurial -ointment. - -If therapeutics made only slight progress in the thirteenth century, -we cannot say as much for other branches of the medical and natural -sciences. - -Arnauld de Villeneuve, physician, chemist and astrologer, particularly -distinguished himself by discovering sulphuric, nitric and hydrochloric -acids, and also made the first essence of turpentine. - -Lanfranc attracted large numbers of students to the College of Saint -Come, and exhibited his skill as an anatomist and surgeon. In one of -his publications he gives a very remarkable description of chancres and -other venereal symptoms. - -At the Faculty of Montpellier, which was founded in 1220 A.D., we see -as the Dean Roger of Parma, and as professor Bernard de Gordon, who -left a very accurate account of leprosy and a number of observations on -chancres following impure connection; these observations are valuable, -inasmuch as they are corroborated by Lanfranc and his contemporary, -Guillaume de Saliceto, of Italy, _two centuries before the discovery of -America_. - -Albert the Great (Albertus Magnus) and Roger Bacon also belonged to the -thirteenth century. - -Albert de Ballstatt, issue of a noble family of Swabia, monk of the -order of St. Dominicus, after studying in the principal schools of -Italy and Germany, arrived at Paris in 1222 A.D., and soon had numerous -auditors, among whom may be mentioned Saint Augustin, Roger Bacon, -Villeneuve, and other distinguished men. His lectures attracted such -crowds of students from the University that he was obliged to speak -from a public place in the Latin Quarter, which, in commemoration of -his success, was called _Place Maitre Albert_, afterwards corrupted to -Place Maubert. - -His writings were encyclopedic, their principal merit being -commentaries on the works of Aristotle, of whom but little was known -at that period; he studied also the Latin translations of the Arabian -school, and reviewed Avicenna and Averrhoes, adding to such works some -original observations. - -Albert the Great, or Albertus Magnus, the name posterity has bestowed -on this genius, was also much occupied with alchemy, and passed for a -magician. He was considered a sorcerer by many, as he was said to evoke -the spirits of the departed, and produced wonderful phenomena. - -Albert’s works on natural history, his botany and mineralogy are, in -reality, taken from the works of Aristotle, as well as his _parva -naturalis_, which is only a reproduction of the _Organon_ of the Greek -philosopher; nevertheless, Albert deserves credit for his good work in -relighting the torch of science in the Occident. - -His disciple, Roger Bacon, was also a monk; he studied in Paris and -afterwards removed to Oxford, England, where he actively devoted -himself to natural science, especially physics. He left behind him -remarkable observations on the refraction of light; explanation of the -formation of rainbows, inventing the magnifying glass and telescope. -His investigations in alchemy led him to discover a combustible body -similar to phosphorus, while his work on “Old Age” (_De retardtandus -senectutis occidentibus_) entitled him to a high position among the -physicians of the thirteenth century. Although one of the founders -of experimental science, one of the initiators—if the expression -may be used—of scientific positivism, he also devoted much time to -astrology. Denounced as a magician and sorcerer by his own _confreres_ -in religion, he was condemned to perpetual imprisonment, and was only -released a few years before his death, leaving many writings on almost -every branch of science. - -It was more than a century after these two great men died that medical -science commenced its upward flight. - -Anatomy, proscribed by the Catholic Church, had an instant’s toleration -in the middle of the thirteenth century, thanks to the protection of -Frederick II., King of the Two Sicilies. But an edict of Pope Boniface -VIII., published in 1300, forbid dissections once more, not only in -Italy, but in all countries under Papal rule. Nevertheless, in 1316, -Mondinus, called the restorer of anatomy, being professor at the -University of Bologna, had the courage to dissect the cadavers of two -patients in public; he then published an account of the same, which -Springer declares had “the advantage of having been made after nature, -and which is preferable to all works on anatomy published since Galen’s -time.” - -Some years later the prejudice against human dissection disappeared -in France, and anatomy was allowed to be taught by the Faculties of -Paris and Montpellier. Henri de Hermondaville, Pierre de Cerlata, and -Nicholas Bertrucci were particularly distinguished anatomists during -the fourteenth century, and traced the scientific path followed by -Vesalius, Fallopius, Eustachius, Fabrica de Aguapendente, Sylvius, -Plater, Varola de Torre, Charles Etienne, Ingrassias, and Arantius in -the sixteenth century. - -From this time dates the escape of medicine from ecclesiastical -authority. - -In 1452, Cardinal d’Estouteville, charged by the Pope with the -reorganization of the University of Paris, obtained a revocation of the -order obliging celibacy, claiming it to be “impious and senseless” in -the case of doctors. - -It was at this moment that the Faculty of Physicians renounced the -hospitality of the University and installed themselves in a house on -the _Rue de la Bucherie_, the same being graciously tendered them -by Jacques Desparts, physician to the King. This faculty now opened -a register of its acts, which later became the _Commentaries of the -Society_, and, already confident of a brilliant future and its own -strength, the college engraved on its escutcheon these words: “_Urbi -et Orbi Salus_,” and declared itself the guardian of antique morality; -_veteris disciplinæ retinentissima_. Soon the dean of the faculty -obtained from royalty the right to coin medals, the same being bestowed -on physicians who rendered valuable public services; these bore the -imprint of the college coat of arms, and Guy Patin went so far as to -issue his own coined effigy in 1632 A.D. - -The royal authority still further aided the medical profession and -the faculty in gathering students: for instance, an order was issued -granting physicians titles of nobility and coats of arms in cases of -great merit; they were also exempted from taxes and other contributions -to the crown, for, says Louis XIV., who speaks, “We cannot withhold -such marks of honor to men of learning and others who by their -devotion to a noble profession and personal merit are entitled to a -rank of high distinction.” Besides, some of the greatest names in -France were inscribed on the registers of the faculty; let us cite, for -instance, Prader, Mersenne, Saint Yon, Montigny, Mauvillain, Sartes, -Revelois, Montrose, Farcy, Jurency, and others. Can it be astonishing -that the Faculty of Medicine, considering such high favors, was so -deeply attached to the royalty that gave liberty and reputation to the -great thinkers of the age? - -The dean, who before the thirteenth century only had the title -_Magister Scolarum_, administered the affairs of the faculty without -control, and was recognized as the chief hierarch of the corporation; -but he was elected by all the professors, and often chosen outside the -professors of the Faculty. This high office was thus duly dignified, -and it was only justice. - -Above the dean, however, was the first Physician to the King, who was -a high officer of the crown, having the same rights and privileges -as the nobility, securing on his appointment the title of Count with -hereditary transmission of same to his family; he was also a Councillor -of State and wore the costume and decorations of this order. When he -came to the faculty meetings he was received by the dean and bachelors, -for he was also grand master of hygiene and legal medicine in the -realm; he named all the salaried medical appointments, notably those of -experts in medical jurisprudence. - -Under Charles VIII., Adam Fumee and Jean Michel, sitting in Parliament -as Councillors; Jacques Coictier, physician to Louis XI., was the -President of the Tax Commission; while Fernel, no less celebrated as -a mathematician than as a physician, was the intimate friend of Henri -II. at the same time that Ambroise Pare was surgeon to the latter King -and his two successors; F. Miron, too, afterwards became Embassador to -Henri III. - -Later we see Vautier, physician to _Marie de Medecis_, one of the -malcontents sent to the Bastile for political reasons. Valot, Daquin -and Fagon, all physicians to Louis XIV., were politicians, but were -also great dispensers of Royal favor. Medical politicians figured -largely in the time of Louis XIV. Among the independents, we may -cite Guy Patin, the intimate friend and adviser of Lamoignan and -Gabriel Naude, who was one of the most erudite men of the age. Under -such conditions, no wonder that medicine entered into a new phase of -progress. The time of study was now fixed at six years; after this -there were examinations, from which, unfortunately, however, clinical -medicine was excluded; examinations corresponded with the grades of -Bachelor and doctor; finally—triumphant act of culmination—came the -thesis with the obligation of the solemn Hippocratic oath. - -The degree of Bachelor had existed since the foundation of the -University of Paris. The Bacchalauri, or Bachalarrii,[7] were always -students for the doctoral title. After numerous other tests, they -signed the following obligation: - -1. I swear to faithfully observe all secrets with honor, to follow the -code and statutes laid down by the Faculty, and to do all in my power -to assist them. - -2. I swear to always obey and respect the Dean of the Faculty. - -3. I swear to aid the Faculty in resisting any undertaking against -their honor or ordinances, especially against those so-called doctors -who practice illicitly; and also submit to any punishment inflicted for -a proscribed action. - -4. I swear to assist in full robes, at all meetings, when ordered by -the Faculty. - -5. I swear to assist at the exercises of the Academy of Medicine -and the school for the space of two years, and sustain any question -assigned me, in medicine or hygiene, by a thesis. Finally, I swear to -be a good citizen, loving peace and order, and observe a decent manner -in discussion on all questions laid down by the Faculty. - -This oath was read in Latin by the Dean, and, as enumerated, each -candidate for a degree solemnly answered “I swear” after each article. - -Ranged with physicians at this period, although on a lower plane, -came the surgeons and barbers; these had been created under the title -of _mires_ and _meges_, by medical monks, who could not, under the -canons, resort to surgical operations, as it is written _Ecclesia -abhorrhet a sanguine_. - -Let us continue their history. When the College of Physicians was added -to the University of Paris, in the twelfth century, it was specified by -the other Faculties of the institution that surgeons formed no portion -of the medical Faculty, and were not entitled to any consideration. -These surgeons kept shops and wandered through the streets with -instrument cases on their backs, seeking clients, and were assisted -in their work by the barbers, who were even more illiterate than the -surgeons; but, thanks to the exertions of Jean Pitard, surgeon to Saint -Louis, these surgeons succeeded in forming a corporation in 1271. Their -meetings were held in the dead-house of the Cordeliers’ church, and -they were allowed the same privileges as the _magistri in physica_. -They were the surgeons wearing a long robe. - -It was only at the end of the century that Lanfranc obtained from -Phillip the Beautiful an order to reorganize and bestow degrees for the -exercise of surgical art. The studies were extremely practical; they -required several years’ attendance at the Hotel Dieu or in the service -of some city surgeon, likewise a certain amount of literary education. -Like the doctors, these surgeons were permitted to wear a robe and hat. -They were a great success. - -Unfortunately, the barbers of the fourteenth century obtained, in their -turn, an edict from Charles V., who recognized their corporation and -authorized the knights of the razor to practice bleeding, and also all -manner of minor surgery. - -The Faculty of Medicine, jealous of the Surgeons’ College, encouraged -the barbers with all their influence. They founded for the face -scrapers a special course in anatomy on condition that the barber -would always acknowledge the physician as superior to the surgeon. -The barbers made this promise, but the time arrived when they thought -themselves stronger than the Faculty of Medicine; this was in 1593; -but this same year, an order passed by Parliament, at the instigation -of the doctors, deprived the barbers of all the power granted them by -Charles V. - -The barbers thus had their punishment for defying the Faculty of -Medicine. - -The College of Surgeons, relieved from the competition of the barber -surgeons, now claimed the right to become part of the Medical Faculty, -and an ordinance of Francois I. gave them this privilege. Letters -patent were issued that read: - -“It is ordained that the before-mentioned, professors, bachelors, -licentiates or masters, be they married or single, shall enjoy all the -privileges, franchises, liberties, immunities and exemptions accorded -to the other medical graduates of the University.” - -Notwithstanding this Royal edict and confirmation of privileges -accorded to surgeons by Henri II., Charles IX., and Henri III., the -Faculty of Medicine positively refused to open their doors to their -mortal enemies, the much despised barber-surgeons, as they were termed. - -Even Louis XIV. gave up the idea of making the doctors associate -socially with the surgeons; the latter, then, continued to keep shops, -with a sign of three sacrament boxes supported by a golden lily, -and were only allowed the cadavers of malefactors for purposes of -dissection; these bodies were stolen from the Faculty of Medicine. -In the meantime, the regular barber-surgeons renewed their ancient -allegiance to the doctors, who had vainly attempted to substitute -students in their places. - -To put an end to the struggle, the College of Surgeons took the -desperate but injurious resolve to admit all barbers to their -institution and recognize their rights to a surgical degree. A year -later, 1660, the Faculty of Medicine demanded that, inasmuch as the -College of Surgeons admitted ignorant barbers to their school, the -right of surgeons to wear a medical robe and hat and bestow degrees be -denied. The Faculty of medicine gained their suit. - -As an indispensable adjunct to the doctor at this period, let us now -mention the apothecary and the bath-keeper. - -The patron of the apothecaries was Saint Nicholas; they belonged to the -corporation of grocers, where they were represented by three members. -Their central bureau was at the Cloister Saint Opportune. - -The inspection of drug stores and apothecary shops in Paris occurred -once a year, and was made by three members elected from the central -bureau and two doctors in medicine. A druggist in Paris served four -years as an apprentice and six years as an under-dispenser; then -the applicant was obliged to pass two examinations, and, finally, -five extra examinations, the latter in the presence of the master -apothecaries and two doctors. Notwithstanding their oath[8] to not -prescribe medicine for the sick and not to sell drugs without a -doctor’s written order, druggists then, as now, had frequent conflicts -with physicians, as the latter are ever jealous of non professional -interference and always asserting supremacy. - -However, it is well to say that druggists never violated the rule -relative to strict inspection of all drugs before using such articles. -All medicines were passed at the central bureau before any apothecary -would purchase for dispensing purposes. - -As to bath-keepers, they belonged in antique times, as now, more to the -order of empirics; their history dates far back to the period when the -Romans introduced their bathing system into Gaul—a system which was -perpetuated up to as late as the sixteenth century. - -The baths constructed by the ancients and destroyed by the barbarians, -reappeared again in the Middle Ages, under the names of vapor baths and -furnace baths. These baths were shops, usually kept by barbers, where -one could be sheared, sweated or leeched by a tonsorial artist. All the -world then took baths—even the monks washed themselves sometimes; in -fact, almost every monastery had its bath-rooms, where the poor could -wash and be bled without pay. - -In those days gentlemen bathed before receiving the order of chivalry. -When one gave a ball it was customary and gallant to offer all the -guests, especially the ladies, a free bath. When Louis XI. went out -to sup with his loyal subjects, the honest tradespeople of Paris, he -always found a hot bath at his disposal. Finally, it was considered a -severe penance to forbid a person from bathing, as was done in the case -of Henry IV., who was excommunicated. - -Paris had many bath-houses. From early dawn until sunset the streets -were filled, with cryers for bath-houses, who invited all passers-by -to enter. In the time of Charles VI., bath-keepers introduced vapor -baths. Some of these latter were entirely given up to women; others -were reserved for the King and gentlemen of the court. The price of -vapor baths was fixed by Police ordinance at twenty centimes for a -vapor bath and forty centimes for those who washed afterwards. This -price was subject to revision only at the pleasure of the municipal -authorities. - -During times of epidemics vapor baths were discontinued. It was for -sanitary reasons, probably, that an order of the Mayor of Paris, named -Delamere, forbade all persons taking vapor baths until after Christmas -eve, “on penalty of a heavy fine.” This same proclamation was repeated -by act of Parliament on December 13th, 1553, “the penalty corporeal -punishment for offending bath-keepers.” - -Parisian vapor baths had such wide-spread reputations and success that -an Italian doctor of the sixteenth century by the name of Brixanius, -who arrived in Paris, wrote the following verses: - - - “Balnea si calidis queras sudantia thermis, - In claris intrabis aqua, ubi corpus inungit, - Callidus, et multo medicamine spargit aliptes’, - Mox ubi membra satis geminis mundata lacertis - Laverit et sparsos crines siccaverit, albo - Marcida subridens componit corpora lecto.” - - -Already, in the time of Saint Louis, the number of bath-keepers was so -great that they had a trades union; they were almost all barbers, too; -they washed the body, cut hair, trimmed corns and nails, shaved and -leeched. - -Bath houses more than multiplied from the twelfth century, imitations -of Oriental customs, due to the crusaders. Baths were run not only by -men, but by old harridans and fast girls. No respectable woman ever -entered a public bath-house; Christine de Pisan bears witness to that -fact in the following lines: “As to public baths and vapor baths, they -should be avoided by honest women except for good cause; they are -expensive and no good comes out of them, for many obvious reasons; no -woman, if she be wise, would trust her honor therein, if she desire to -keep it.” - -The establishments known as vapor baths, as early as the time of Saint -Louis, had already degenerated into houses of prostitution. The police, -in defense of public morality, were finally obliged to forbid fast -women and diseased men from frequenting such places. - -In Italy, vapor baths were recognized officially and tolerated as -places of public debauchery; this was also the case in Avignon. The -Synodal statutes of the Church of Avignon, in the year 1441, bear an -ordinance drawn by the civil magistrates and applicable to married men -and also to priests and clergy, forbidding access to the vapor baths -on the Troucat Bridge, which were set apart as a place of tolerated -debauchery by the municipal authorities. This ordinance contained a -provision that was very uncommon in the Middle Ages, _i.e._, a fine of -ten marks for a violation of the law during day time and twenty marks -fine for a violation occurring under cover of night. - -In 1448 the city council of Avignon again tried its hand at regulating -the vapor baths at the bridge; but the golden days of debauched women -had long before passed away, and the previous century had witnessed the -acme of the courtesans’ fortunes. The sojourn of the Popes at Avignon -had gathered together from all over the Globe a motley collection of -pilgrims and begotten a frightful condition of libertinage; we have -the authority of Petrarch in saying that it even surpassed that of the -Eternal City, and Bishop Guillaume Durand presented the Council of -Vienna with a graphic picture of this social evil. - -According to the proclamation of Etienne Boileau, Mayor of Paris in the -reign of Louis IX., barber bath keepers were forbidden to employ women -of bad reputation in their shops in order to carry on under cover, -as in the massage shops of the present day, an infamous commerce, on -penalty of losing their outfit—seats, basins, razors, etc.,—which were -to be sold at public auction for the profit of the public treasury and -the Crown. But we know full well that the Royal Ordinance of 1254, -which had for its object the reformation of public debauchery, was -only applied for the space of two years, and that the new law of 1256 -re-established and legalized public prostitution which offered less -objectionable features than clandestine prostitution. - -The use of public baths and hydrotherapy lasted until the sixteenth -century. At this epoch, and without any known reason, the public -suddenly discontinued all balneary practices, and this was noticeable -among the aristocratic class as among the common people. A contrary -evil was developed. “Honest women,” says Vernille, “took a pride in -claiming that they never permitted themselves certain ablutions.” -Nevertheless, Marie de Romien, (_Instruction pour les Jeunes Dames_) -in her classical work for the instruction of young women, remarks: -“They should keep clean, if it be only for the satisfaction of their -husbands; it is not necessary to do as some women of my acquaintance, -who have no care to wash until they be foul under their linen. But to -be a beautiful _damoyselle_ one may wash reasonably often in water -which has been previously boiled and scented with fragrants, for -nothing is more certain than that beauty flourishes best in that young -woman who not only looks but smells clean.” - -In an opuscle published in 1530, by one called De Drusæ, we observe -that “notwithstanding the natural laws of propriety, women use scents -more than clean water; and they thus only increase the bad smells -they endeavor to disguise. Some use greasy perfumed ointments, others -sponges saturated in fragrants” - - - “Entre leur cuisses et dessoubz les aisselles, - Pour ne sentir l’espaulle de mouton.” - - -This horror of water did not last long, however, and at the -commencement of the seventeenth century the false modesty of women -ended with the creation of river baths, such as exist to-day along the -banks of the Seine. - -Was this restoration of cleanly habits due to medical advice? This -question cannot be answered, but it may not be out of place to cite -that remarkable passage from the “Essays of Montaigne” on the hygiene -of bathing, which he recommends in certain maladies: - -“It is good to bathe in warm water, it softens and relaxes in ports -where it stagnates over sands and stones. Such application of external -heat, however, makes the kidneys leathery and hard and petrifies the -matter within. To those who bathe: it is best to eat little at night -to the end that the waters drank the next morning operate more easily, -meeting with an empty stomach. On the other hand, it is best to eat a -little dinner, in order not to trouble the action of the water, which -is not in perfect accord; nor should the stomach be filled too suddenly -after its other labor; leave the work of digestion to the night, which -is better than the day, when the body and mind are in perpetual -movement and activity. - -“I have noted, on the occasion of my voyages, all the famous baths of -Christendom, and for some years past have made use of waters, for as a -general rule I consider bathing healthy and deem it no risk to one’s -physical condition. The custom of ablution, so generally observed at -times past in all nations, is now only practiced in a few as a daily -habit. I cannot imagine why civilized people ever allow their bodies to -become encrusted with dirt and their pores filled with filth.”[9] - -If Montaigne made great use of mineral waters, he had in revenge -a formidable dread of physicians and their medicines, a sentiment -he inherited from his father, “who died,” says he, “at the age of -seventy-four years,” and his “grandfather and great-grandfather died at -eighty years without tasting a drop of physic.” - -Montaigne has justly criticized medicine in several essays on the -healing art. He knew well the _intividia medicorum_, and it was for -this reason that he remarked that a physician should always treat a -case without a consultant. “There never was a doctor,” says Montaigne, -“who, on accepting the services of a consultant, did not discontinue or -readjust something.” Is not the same criticism deserved at the present -day? How absurd are our medical consultations. The examples Montaigne -gives of disagreements of doctors in consultation as to doctrines are -equally applicable to modern times. The differences of Herophilus, -Erasistratus, and the Æsclepiadæ as to the original causation of -disease were no greater than those of the schools of Broussais and -Pasteur, which have both acquired a universal celebrity in less than -half a century. - -Montaigne insisted that medicine owed its existence only to mankind’s -fear of death and pain, an impatience at poor health and a furious and -indiscreet thirst for a speedy cure, but the author of the “Essays” -adds in concluding: “I honor physicians, not following the feeling of -necessity, but for the love of themselves, having seen many honest -doctors who were honorable and well worthy of being loved.” - -The reputation for disagreement among doctors so much insisted on by -Montaigne has served as a well-worn text for many other critics. - -In _Les Serres_ of Guillaume Bouchet, a contemporary of the author, we -find the same shaft of sarcasm directed at physicians. Where will you -find men in any other profession save that of medicine who envy and -hate each other so heartily? What other profession on earth is given -over to such bitter disagreements? How can common people be expected -to honor and respect experts and savants so-called when the professors -call each other ignoramusses and asses? Call these doctors into a case -and one after the other they will disagree as to the diagnosis as well -as to the method of cure. As Pellisson wrote: - - - “When an enemy you wish to kill - Don’t call assasins full of vice, - But call two doctors of great skill - To give contrary advice.” - - -Or in the verses of the original: - - - “D’un ennemi voulez vous defaire? - Ne cherchez pas d’assasins - Donnez lui deux medecins, - Et qui’ils soient d’avis contrarie.” - - -This professional jealousy is always more apparent than real. Aside -from the rivalry for public patronage physicians are a very social -class of men, as witness their many festive meetings. We banquet in -honor of St. Luke the physician, and St. Come, after each thesis, -at anniversaries, at the election of the Dean, and on many other -occasions. It is these co-fraternal meetings at which are reinagurated -the old feelings of good-fellowship; our little quarrels only serve -to discipline the medical body and to increase the grandeur of the -Faculty. It is the constant rubbing of surfaces that makes the true -professional metal glitter. - -When we hear new doctors, young graduates, swear the Hippocratic oath, -we do not forget that the principal articles of the statute prescribe -the cultivation of friendships, respect for the older members of the -profession, benevolence to the young beginners, and the preservation -of professional decency and kindness. It may be insisted that banquets -are not to be considered as medical assemblages, for there they laugh -long and loud, and drink many a bumper of rich Burgundy; making joyous -discourse; holding to the famous compliment of Moliere: - - - Salus, honor et argentum - Atque bonum appetitum. - - -We know to-day many of the truthful precepts of the School of Salerno -and their bearing on the medical records of the middle ages. Then as -now the doctor had the ever increasing ingratitude of the patient (_ad -proccarendam oegrorum ingratitudinem_). - - - “The disciple of Hippocrates meeteth often treatment rude, - The payment of his trouble is base ingratitude. - When the patient is in grievous pain the time is opportune - For a keen, sharp-witted doctor to make a good fortune. - Let him profit by the sufferer’s aches and gather in the money, - For the ant gets winter provender and the summer bee its honey.” - - -Our ancient friends had no pity for charlatans, however. They -rightfully abused all medical impostors, as we read in the precepts of -Salerno’s school: - - - “Il n’est par d’ignorant, de chartatan stupide, - D’histron imposteur, ou de Juif fourbe avide, - De sorciere crasseuse ou de barbier bavard, - De faussiare inpudent, ou de moine cafard, - De marchand de savon, ou de avengle oculiste, - De baigneur imbecile, ou d’absurde alchimiste, - Pas d’heretique impur qui ne se targue, enfin, - Du beau titre, du nom sacre de medecin.” - - -The investigation of medical science was far from being an honor to -the middle ages. The best of the profession was hidden in the doctoral -sanctuary, enveloped in those mysteries which are never penetrated by -the profane and only known to the initiated. - -The recommendations as to the secrets of our art are addressed to all -young doctors in that famous epilogue commencing: - - - “Gardez surtout, gardez qui’un profane vulgaire - De votre art respecte ne perce le mystere; - Son eclat devoile perdrait sa dignite - D’un mystere connu decroit la majeste,” - - -Let us invoke God, the Supreme physician, let us demand the -professional banishment of every doctor who reveals a professional -secret. - - “Exsul sit medicus physicius secreta revelans.”—Amen! - - - - - THE GREAT EPIDEMICS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. - - - THE PLAGUE - -Several great epidemics of the Plague had already devastated the world; -the plague of Athens in the fifth century, B. C.; the plague of the -second century, in the reign of Marcus Aurelius; the plague of the -third century, in the reign of Gallus; then came that most terrible -epidemic of the sixth century, known by the name of the inguinal -pestilence, which, after ravaging Constantinople spread into Liguria, -then into France and Spain. It was in 542, according to Procopius, -that an epidemic struck the world and consumed almost all the human -species.[10] - -“It attacked the entire earth,” says our author, “striking every race -of people, sparing neither age nor sex; differences in habitation, -diet, temperament or occupation of any nature did not stop its ravages; -it prevailed in summer and in winter, in fact, at every season of the -year. - -“It commenced at the town of Pelusa in Egypt, from whence it spread by -two routes, one through Alexandria and the rest of Egypt, the other -through Palestine. After this it covered the whole world, progressing -always by regular intervals of time and force. In the springtime of 543 -it broke out in Constantinople and announced itself in the following -manner: - -“Many victims believed they saw the spirits of the departed -rehabilitated in human form. It appeared as though these spirits -appeared before the subject about to be attacked and struck him on -certain portions of the body. These apparitions heralded the onset -of the malady. It is but fair to say that the commencement of the -disease was not the same in all cases. Some victims did not see the -apparitions, but only dreamed of them, but all believed they heard -a ghostly voice announcing their inscription on the list of those -who were going to die. Some claim that the greater number of victims -were not haunted either sleeping or waking by these ghosts and the -mysterious voice that made sinister predictions. - -“The fever at the onset of the attack came on suddenly,—some while -sleeping, some while waking, some while at work. Their bodies -exhibited no change of color, and the temperature was not very high. -Some indications of fever were perceptible, but no signs of acute -inflammation. In the morning and at night the fever was slight, and -indicated nothing severe either to the patient or to the physician who -counted the pulse. Most of those who presented such symptoms showed no -indications of approaching dissolution; but the first day among some, -the second day in others, and after several days in many cases, a bubo -was observed on the lower portion of the abdomen, in the groin, or -in the folds of the axilla, and sometimes back of the ears or on the -thighs. - -“The principal symptoms of the disease on its invasion were as I have -pointed out; for the remainder, nothing can be precisely indicated of -the variations of the type of the disease following temperament; these -other symptoms were only such as were imprinted by the Supreme Being at -his divine will. - -“Some patients were plunged into a condition of profound drowsiness; -others were victims to furious delirium. Those who were drowsy remained -in a passive state, seeming to have lost all memory of the things -of ordinary life. If they had any one to nurse them they took food -when offered from time to time, and if they had no care soon died of -inanition. The delirious patients, deprived of sleep, were eternally -pursued by their hallucinations; they imagined themselves haunted by -men ready to slay them, and they sought flight from such fancied foes, -uttering dreadful screams. Persons who were attacked while nursing the -sick were in the most pitiable condition—not that they were more liable -to contract the disease by contact, however, for nurses and doctors -did not get the disease from actual contact with the sufferers, for -some who washed and laid out the dead never contracted the malady, but -enjoyed perfect health throughout the epidemic; some, however, died -suddenly without apparent cause. Many of the nurses were overworked -keeping patients from rolling out of bed and preventing the delirious -from jumping from high windows. Some patients endeavored to throw -themselves in running water, not to quench their thirst, but because -they had lost all reason. It was necessary to struggle with many of -the sick in order to make them swallow any nourishment, which they -would not accept without more or less resistance. The buboes enfeebled -certain patients who were neither drowsy nor delirious, but who finally -succumbed to their atrocious sufferings. - -“As nothing was known of this strange disease, certain physicians -thought its origin was due to some source of evil hidden in the buboes, -and they accordingly opened these glandular bodies. The dissection -of the bubo showed sub-adjacent carbuncles, whose rapid malignity -brought on sudden death or an illness of but few days’ duration. In -some instances the entire body was covered by black spots the size of -a bean. Such unfortunates rarely lived a day, and generally expired -in an hour. Many cases died suddenly, vomiting blood. One thing I can -solemnly affirm, that is, that the wisest physicians gave up all hope -in the case of many patients who afterwards recovered; on the contrary, -many persons perished at the very time their health was almost -re-established. For all these causes, the malady passed the confines -of human reasoning, and the outcome always deceived the most natural -predictions. - -“As to treatment, the effects were variable, following the condition -of the victim. I may state that, as a fact, no efficacious remedies -were discovered that could either prevent the onset of the disease -or shorten its duration. The victims could not tell why they were -attacked, nor how they were cured. - -“Pregnant women attacked inevitably aborted at death, some succumbing -while miscarrying; some going on to the end of gestation, dying in -labor along with their infants. Only three cases are known where women -recovered of plague after aborting; while only one instance is on -record where a newly-born child survived its mother in this epidemic. -Those in whom the buboes increased most rapidly in size, maturated -and suppurated, most often recovered, for the reason, no doubt, that -the malignant properties of the bubonic carbuncle were weakened or -destroyed. - -“Experience proved that such symptoms were an almost sure presage of -a return to health. Those, on the contrary, in whom the tumor did not -change its aspect from the time of its eruption, were attacked with all -the symptoms I have before described. In some cases the skin dried and -seemed thus to prevent the tumor, although it might be well developed, -from suppurating. Some were cured at the price of a loss of power in -the tongue, which reduced the victims to stammer and articulate words -in a confused and unintelligible manner for the rest of their days. - -“The epidemic at Constantinople lasted four months, three months of -which time it raged with great violence. As the epidemic progressed the -mortality-rate increased from day to day, until it reached the point -of 5,000 deaths per day, and on several occasions ran up to as high as -10,000 deaths in the twenty four hours.” - -Let us pass over this very important description that Procopius gives -of the moral effect of this epidemic on the people, of the scenes -of wild and heart-rending terror, of curious examples of egotism -and sublime devotion, of instances of blind superstition developed -in a great city under the influence of fear and the dread of a very -problematical contagion. - -Evagre, the scholastic, another Greek historian of the sixth century, -recounts in his works the story of the plague at Constantinople. He -states that he frequently observed that persons recovering from a -first and second attack subsequently died on a third attack; also that -persons flying from an infected locality were often taken sick after -many days of an incubating period, falling ill in their places of -refuge in the midst of populations free, up to that time, from the -pestilence. - -In following the progress of this epidemic from the Orient to the -Occident, it was noticed that it always commenced at the sea-ports -and then traveled inland. The disease was carried much more easily by -ships than it could be at the present time, inasmuch as there were -no quarantines and no pest-houses for isolating patients. It entered -France by the Mediterranean Sea. It was in 549 that the plague struck -Gaul. “During this time,” says Gregory of Tours, “the malady known as -the _inguinal disease_ ravaged many sections and the province of Arles -was cruelly depopulated.”[11] - -This illustrious historian wrote in another passage: “We learned this -year that the town of Narbonne was devastated by the _groin disease_, -of so deadly a type that when one was attacked he generally succumbed. -Felix, the Bishop of Nantes, was stricken down and appeared to be -desperately ill. The fever having ceased, the humor broke out on his -limbs, which were covered with pustules. It was after the application -of a plaster covered with cantharides that his limbs rotted off, and he -ceased to live in the seventieth year of his age. - -“Before the plague reached Auvergne it had involved most all the rest -of the country. Here the epidemic attacked the people in 567, and so -great was the mortality that it is utterly impossible to give even the -approximate number of deaths. Populations perished _en masse_. On a -single Sunday morning three hundred bodies were counted in St. Peter’s -chapel at Clermont awaiting funeral service. Death came suddenly; it -struck the axilla or groin, forming a sore like a serpent that bit so -cruelly that men rendered up their souls to God on the second or third -day of the attack, many being so violent as to lose their senses. At -this time Lyons, Bourges, Chalons, and Dijon were almost depopulated by -the pestilence.” - -In 590 the towns of Avignon and Viviers were cruelly ravaged by the -_inguinal disease_. - -The plague reached Marseilles, however, in 587, being carried there by -a merchant vessel from Spain which entered the port as a center of an -infection. Several persons who bought goods from this trading vessel, -all of whom lived in one house nevertheless, were carried off by the -plague to the number of eight. The spark of the epidemic did not burn -very rapidly at first, but after a certain time the baleful fire of -the pest, after smouldering slowly, burst out in a blaze that almost -consumed Marseilles. - -Bishop Theodorus isolated himself in a wing of the cloister Saint -Victor, with a small number of persons who remained with him during -the plague, and in the midst of their general desolation continued to -implore Almighty God for mercy, with fasting and prayer until the end -of the epidemic. After two months of calm the population of the city -commenced to drift back, but the plague reappeared anew and most of -those who returned died. The plague has devastated Marseilles many -times since the epoch just mentioned. - -Anglada[12] who, like the writer, derives most of his citations from -Gregory of Tours, thinks that the plague that devastated Strasbourg in -591 was only the same _inguinal disease_ that ravaged Christendom. He -cites, in support of his assertion, that passage from the historian -poet Kleinlande translated by Dr. Boersch: “In 591 there was a great -mortality throughout our country, so that men fell down dying in the -streets, expiring suddenly in their houses, or even at business. When a -person sneezed his soul was apt to fly the body; hence the expression -on sneezing, ‘God bless you!’ And when a person yawned they made the -sign of the cross before their mouths.” - -Such are the documents we possess on the great epidemic of inguinal -plague of the fourth century, documents furnished by historians, to -whom medical history is indebted, and not from medical authors, who -left no marks at that period. - - - THE BLACK PLAGUE. - -The Black Plague of the fourteenth century was more destructive even -than the bubonic pest of the sixth century, and all other epidemics -observed up to the present day. In the space of four years more than -twenty five millions of human beings perished—one-half the population -of the world. Like all other pestilences, it came from the Orient—from -India, and perhaps from China. Europe was invaded from east to west, -from south to north. After Constantinople, all the islands and -shores of the Mediterranean were attacked, and successively became -so many foci of disease from which the pestilence radiated inland. -Constantinople lost two-thirds of its population. Cyprus and Cairo -counted 15,000 deaths. Florence paid an awful tribute to the disease, -so great being the mortality that the epidemic has often been called -_Peste de Florence_; “100,000 persons perished,” says Boccaccio. Venice -lost 20,000 victims, Naples 60,000, Sicily 53,000, and Genoa 40,000, -while in Rome the dead were innumerable. - -In Spain, Germany, England, Poland, and Russia the malady was as fatal -as in Italy. At London they buried 100,000 persons in the cemeteries. -It was the same in France. Avignon lost 150,000 citizens in seven -months, among whom was the beautiful Laura de Noves, immortalized by -Petrarch, who expired from the plague in 1348, aged forty-one years. -At Marseilles 56,000 people died in one month; at Montpellier three -quarters of the population, including all the physicians, went down in -the epidemic. Narbonne had 30,000 deaths and Strasbourg 16,000 in the -first year of the outbreak. Paris was not spared; the _Chronique de -Saint Denis_ informs us that “in the year of Grace 1348, commenced the -aforesaid mortality in the Realms of France, the same lasting about a -year and a half, increasing more and more until Paris lost each day 800 -inhabitants; so that the number who died there amounted to more than -500,000 people, while in the town of Saint Denis the number reached -16,000.[13] - -Among the victims were Jeanne de Bourgogne, wife of Philip VI.; Jeanne -II., Queen of Navarre, grandchild of Philip the Beautiful. In Spain, -died Alphonse XI. of Castille. “Happily,” says the _Chronicle_, “during -the years following the plague the fecundity of women was prodigious—as -though nature desired to repair the ravages wrought by death.” The -symptoms and history of this plague have been described by several -ocular witnesses, among others Guy de Chauliac, the celebrated surgeon -and professor at Montpellier, who has left the following recital in -quaint old French: - -“The disease was such that one never before saw a like mortality. It -appeared in Avignon in the year of our Saviour 1348, in the sixth year -of the Pontificate of Clement VI., in whose service I entered, thanks -to his Grace. - -“Not to displease you, I shall briefly narrate for your edification the -advent of the disease. - -“It commenced—the aforesaid mortality—in January and lasted for the -space of seven months. - -“The disease was of two kinds. The first type lasted two months, with -a continued fever and spitting of blood. This variety killed in three -days, however. - -“The second type of the disease, prevailing during the epidemic time, -also had a continued fever, with apostumes and carbuncles at the -external parts, principally on the axilla and in the groin; all such -attacked usually died in five days. - -“The malady was so contagious, especially that form in which -blood-spitting was noticed, that one not only caught it from sojourning -with the sick, but also, it sometimes seemed, from looking at the -disease, so that men died without their servants and were buried -without priests. - -“The father visited not his son, nor the son his father. Charity was -dead and hope disappeared. - -“I call the epidemic great, inasmuch as it conquered all the earth. - -“For the pestilence commenced at the Orient, and cast its fangs against -all the world, passing through Paris towards the West. - -“It was so destructive that it left only a quarter of the population of -mankind behind. - -“It was a shame and disgrace to medicine, as many doctors dared not -visit the sick through fear of becoming infected; and those who visited -the sick made few cures and fewer fees, for the sick all died save a -few. Not many having buboes escaped death. - -“For preservation, there was no better remedy than to fly from the -infection, to purge one’s self with aloe pills, to diminish the blood -by phlebotomy, to purify the air with fire, to comfort the heart -with cordials and apples and other things of good odor; to console -the humors with Armenian bole and resist dry rot by the use of acid -things. For the cure of the plague we used bleedings and evacuations, -electuaries, syrups and cordials, and the external apostumes or -swellings were poulticed with boiled figs and onions mixed with oil -and butter; the buboes were afterwards opened and treated by the usual -cures for ulcers. - -“Carbuncles were leeched, scarified and cauterized. - -“I, to avoid infamy, dared not absent myself from the care of the sick, -but lived in continual fear, preserving myself as long as possible by -the before-mentioned remedies. - -“Nevertheless, towards the end of the epidemic, I fell into a fever, -which continued with an aposthume in the groin, and was ill for nigh -on six weeks, being in such danger that all my companions believed I -should die; nevertheless, the bubo being poulticed and treated as I -have above indicated, I recovered, thanks be to the will of God.” - -According to the records of that time, many persons died the first -day of their illness. These bad cases were announced by a violent -fever, with cephalgia, vertigo, drowsiness, incoherency in ideas, -and loss of memory; the tongue and palate were black and browned, -exhaling an almost insupportable fetidity. Others were attacked by -violent inflammation of the lungs, with hemorrhage; also gangrene, -which manifested itself in black spots all over the body; if, to the -contrary, the body was covered by abscesses, the patients seemed to -have some chance for recovery. - -Medicines were powerless, all remedies seeming to be useless. The -disease attacked rich and poor indiscriminately; it overpowered the -robust and debilitated; the young and the old were its victims. On the -first symptom the patients fell into a profound melancholy and seemed -to abandon all hope of recovery. This moral prostration aggravated -their physical condition, and mental depression hastened the time of -death. The fear of contagion was so great that but few persons attended -the sick. - -The clergy, encouraged by the Pope, visited the bedsides of the -dying who bequeathed all their wealth to the Church. The plague was -considered on all sides as a punishment inflicted by God, and it was -this idea that induced armies of penitents to assemble on the public -streets to do penance for their sins. Men and women went half naked -along the highways flagellating each other with whips, and, growing -desperate with the fall of night, they committed scandalous crimes. In -certain places the Jews were accused of being the authors of the plague -by poisoning the wells; hence the Hebrews were persecuted, sometimes -burned alive by the fanatical sects known as Flagellants, Begardes -and Turlupins, who were encouraged in their acts of violence by the -priests, notwithstanding the intervention of Clement VI. - -Physicians were not only convinced of the contagious nature of the -disease, but also believed that it could be transmitted by look and -word of mouth. Such doctors obliged their patients to cover their -eyes and mouth with a piece of cloth whenever the priest or physician -visited the bedside. “_Cum igitur medicus vel sacerdos, vel amicus -aliquem infirmum visitare voluerit, moneat et introducat aegrum suos -claudere et linteamine operire._” - -Guillaume de Machant, poet and _valet de chambre_ of Philip the -Beautiful, mentions this fact in one of his poems, _i. e._: - - - “They did not dare, in the open air - To even speak by stealth, - Lest each one’s breath might carry death - By poisoning the other’s health.” - - -And, in the preface of the “Decameron,” Boccaccio remarks in his turn, -“The plague communicated direct, as fire to combustible matter. They -were often attacked from simply touching the sick, indeed it was not -even necessary to touch them. The danger was the same when you listened -to their words or even if they gazed at you.” - -One thing is certain, that is, that those who nursed the patients -surely contracted the disease. - -All the authorities of the Middle Ages concur in their statements as to -the contagious nature of the plague. The rules and regulations enforced -against the afflicted were barbarous and inhuman. “Persons sick and -well, of one family, when the pest developed,” says Black,[14] “were -held, without distinction, in close confinement in their home, while on -the house door a red cross was traced, bearing the sad and desperate -epitaph, ‘_Dieu ayez pitie de nous!_’ No one was permitted to leave -or enter the plague-stricken house save the physician and nurse, or -other persons who might be authorized by the Government. The doors of -such dwellings were guarded and kept closed until such a time as the -imprisoned had all died or recovered their health.” - -We can well judge of the terror inspired by the pestilence by the -precautions taken by the physicians in attendance on the sick. In his -treatise on the plague Mauget describes the costume worn by those who -approached the bedsides of patients: - -“The costumes worn, says he, “were of Levant morocco, the mask having -crystal eyes and a long nose filled with subtile perfumes. This nose -was in the form of a snout, with the openings one on each side; these -openings served for respiratory passages and were well filled at the -anterior portion with drugs, so that at each breath they contained -a medicated air. Under a cloak the doctor also wore buskins made of -morocco; closely sewed breeches were attached to the bottines above the -ankle; the shirt, the hat and gloves were also of soft morocco.” - -Thus accoutered the doctor resembled a modern diver clad in a bathing -suit of leather. - -In order not to alarm the population all public references to funerals -were forbidden. In the ordinances of magistrates of Paris, passed -September 13, 1553, we read, “And likewise be it declared that the -aforesaid Chamber forbids by statute all criers of funerals and wines, -and all others, no matter what be their state or condition, to render -for sale at any church, house, doorway or gate of this city, or on -the streets thereof, any black cloth or mourning stuffs such as are -used for mortuary purposes, under penalty of forfeiture of their -licenses and property, and confiscation of all goods, especially of the -aforesaid black cloths.” - -Let it be well understood that the great epidemics of plague in the -sixth and twelfth centuries were of a nature to terrify ignorant -populations. The narratives of the historians of that epoch show them -to be imbued with the superstitious ideas of antiquity. This attack -of an invisible enemy whose blows fell right and left paralyzed -and terrified every one. “In the midst of this orgie of death,” -remarks Anglada, “the thought of self-preservation absorbed every -other sentiment. Dominated by this selfish instinct the human mind -shamelessly displayed its cowardice, egotism and superstition. Social -ties were rudely sundered, the affections of the heart laid aside. The -sick were deserted by their relatives; all flew with horror from the -plague-breathing air and contact with the dreadful disease. The corpses -of the victims of the epidemic abandoned without sepulture exhaled a -horrible putrid odor, and became the starting point of new infectious -centres. The worse disorder overthrew all conditions of existence. -Human passion raged uncontrolled; the voice of authority was no longer -respected; the wheels of civilization ceased to revolve.” - -As to the other epidemics of the plague that periodically devastated -France from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century we possess but few -historical documents. We have had in our hands an opuscule by Pierre -Sordes, who was attacked by the plague in 1587, at the age of twenty, -who afterward wrote a treatise on the epidemic, which work he dedicated -to Cardinal de Sourdis, the Archbishop of Aquitaine. - -The author in this monograph endeavors to explain the remedies then -in use for preservation against the infection of the disease. “Avoid -all fatigue, anger, intemperance, too much association with women, as -the act ennervates our forces and enfeebles our spirits. One should -clothe himself in the wools of Auvergne and the camulets of Escot.” -Moreover, says our author, “one should perfume his clothes with laurel, -rosemary, serpolet, marjolane, sage, fennel, sweetbriar, myrrh, and -frankincense.” When the room was to be disinfected “one should use -fumigations of good dry hay. One should not go out early without eating -and taking a drink. One should close the ears with a little cotton -scented with musk and hold in his mouth a clove or piece of angelica -root. One should hold in his hand a piece of sponge saturated in -vinegar, which should be smelled frequently. One should wear upon his -stomach an acorn filled with quicksilver and a small pouch containing -arsenic. Finally, one should take twice a week a pill composed of -aloes, myrrh, and saffron.” - -Notwithstanding all these precautions, Pierre Sordes was attacked by -the plague; having a buboe in the left groin, which caused him acute -pain and to which he applied “_un emplastre de diachyllum cum gummis_” -and afterwards a blister. Not being able to obtain resolution, feeling -his strength undermined and perceiving his entire body “covered with -black lumps and spots, fatal prognostic signs to all who are found thus -marked, I called for a surgeon, the last one left alive, and he brought -his cautery and with it pierced through the apostume. From then the -fever disappeared little by little, and I was perfectly cured eight -days after the application of the aforesaid cautery, with the exception -that, reading in a draught Bartas “Treatise on the Plague,” I brought -on another attack of fever that well nigh carried me off. - -“This is my experience at Figeac in the year 1587, when the plague -destroyed 2500 people, with all the miseries and calamities that can be -read in Greek and Roman histories.” - - -LE MAL DES ARDENTS. - -Towards the end of the tenth century a new epidemic appeared in Europe, -the ravages of which spread terror among the people of the Occident; -this disease was known by the name of _mal des ardents_, sacred fire, -St. Anthony’s fire, St. Marcell’s fire, and hell fire. - -This great epidemic of the Middle Ages is considered by many modern -writers as one of the forms of ergotism, notwithstanding the contrary -conclusions arrived at by the Commission of 1776, composed of such men -as Jussieu, Paulet, Saillant, and Teissier, who were ordered to report -as to the nature of the disease by the Royal Society. According to the -work of this Commission the _mal des ardents_ was a variety of plague, -with buboes, carbuncles and petechial spots, while St. Anthony’s fire -was only gangrenous ergotism. This is a remarkable example of the -confusion into which scientific facts were allowed to fall through the -fault of careless authors. It is in such instances that we may estimate -the importance of history. We find in the “Chronicles of Frodoard,” in -the year 945, the following: “The year 945, in the history of Paris -and its numerous suburban villages, a disease called _ignis plaga_ -attacked the limbs of many persons, and consumed them entirely, so -that death soon finished their sufferings. Some few survived, thanks be -to the intercession of the Saints; and even a considerable number were -cured in the Church of Notre Dame de Paris. Some of these, believing -themselves out of danger, left the church; but the fires of the plague -were soon relighted, and they were only saved by returning to Notre -Dame.” - -Sauvel, the translator of Frodoard, remarks that at this epoch the -Church of Notre Dame served as a hospital for the sick attacked by the -epidemic, and sometimes contained as high as six hundred patients. - -Another historian of the time was Raoul Glaber,[15] who mentions -that “in 993 a murderous malady prevailed among men. This was a sort -of hidden fire, _ignis occultus_, the which attacked the limbs and -detached them from the trunk after having consumed the members. Among -some the devouring effect of this fire took place in a single night. - -“In 1039,” continues our author, “divine vengeance again descended on -the human race with fearful effect and destroyed many inhabitants of -the world, striking alike the rich and the poor, the aristocrat and the -peasant. Many persons lost their limbs and dragged themselves around as -an example to those who came after them.” - -In the _Chronicle of France_, from the commencement of the Monarchy up -to 1029,[16] the monk Adhemar speaks of the epidemic in the following -terms: “In these times a pestilential fire (_pestilential ignis_) -attacked the population of Limousin; an infinite number of persons of -both sexes were consumed by an invisible fire.” - -Michael Felibien, a Benedictine friar of Saint Maur, also left notes -on the epidemic of gangrene. He states in his _History of Paris_: “In -the same year, 1129, Paris, as the rest of France, was afflicted by the -_maladie des ardents_. This disease, although known from the mortality -it caused in the years 945 and 1041, was all the more terrible inasmuch -as it appeared to have no remedy. The mass of blood, already corrupted -by internal heat which devoured the entire body, pushed its fluids -outwards into tumors, which degenerated into incurable ulcers and thus -killed off thousands of people.” - -We could make many more citations, derived from ancient writers, but -we think we have quoted enough authors to prove that the _mal des -ardents_ was only the plague confounded with the symptoms known as -gangrenous ergotism. Could it not have been a plague of a gangrenous -type? We cannot positively affirm, however, that it had no connection -with poisoning by the _sphacelia_ developed in grain, particularly -on rye. Its onset was sudden, and often very rapidly followed by a -fatal termination. The _mal des ardents_ had no prodroma with general -symptoms and marked periods, as in gangrenous ergotism, but it had, to -the contrary, an irregular march, rapid in its evolution, “devouring,” -as Mezeray says, “the feet, the arms, the face, and private parts, -commencing most generally in the groin.” - - - THE ERUPTIVE FEVERS OF THE SIXTH CENTURY —— VARIOLA, - MEASLES, SCARLATINA. - -Before the sixth century, the terrible period of the plague, one never -heard of the eruptive fevers. Small-pox, measles and scarlet fever -were unknown to the ancients. Neither Hippocrates nor Galen nor any -of the Greek physicians who practiced in Rome make mention of these -diseases. The historians and poets of Greece and Italy who have written -largely on medical subjects remain mute on these three great questions -in pathology. Some authors have endeavored to torture texts for the -purpose of throwing light on the contagious exanthemata, but they have -not been repaid for their fresh imagination.[17] It is admitted to-day -that the eruptive fevers are comparatively new diseases, which made -their appearance in the Middle Ages. - -The first document that the history of medicine possesses on this -point is that left by Marius, Bishop of Aventicum, in Switzerland, -who says, in his chronicle, “_Anno 570, morbus validus cum profluvio -ventris et variola, Italiam Galliamque valde affecit_.”[18] - -Ten years later, Gregory of Tours described the symptoms of the new -disease in the following terms:[19] - -“The fifth year of the reign of Childebert, 580, the region of Auvergne -was inundated by a flood and numerous weather disasters, which were -followed by a terrible epidemic that invaded the whole of Gaul. Those -attacked had violent fevers, accompanied by vomiting, great pain in -the neighborhood of the kidneys, and a heaviness in the head and neck. -Matter rejected by the stomach looked yellowish and even green, many -deeming this to be some secret poison. The peasants called the pustules -corals.[20] Sometimes, after the application of cups to the shoulders -or limbs, blisters were raised, which, when broken, gave issue to -sanious matter, which oftentimes saved the patient. Drinks composed of -simples to combat the effects of the poison were also very efficacious. - -“This disease, which commenced in the month of August, attacked all the -very young children and carried them off. - -“In those days Chilperic was also seriously afflicted, and as the King -commenced to convalesce his youngest son was taken with the malady, -and when his extremity was perceived he was given baptism. Shortly -afterwards he was better, and his eldest brother, named Chlodobert, was -attacked in his turn. They placed the Prince in a litter and carried -him to Soissons, in the chapel of Saint Medard; there he was placed in -contact with the good Saint’s tomb, and made vows to him for recovery, -but, very weak and almost without breath, he rendered his soul to God -in the middle of night. - -“In those days, Austrechilde, wife of King Gontran, also died of the -disease; while Nantin, Count of Angouleme, also succumbed to the same -malady, his body becoming so black that it appeared as though calcined -charcoal.” - -Gregory of Tours, in another chapter, narrates: - -“The year of the reign of King Childebert, 582, another epidemic broke -out; this was accompanied by blackish spots of a malignant nature, with -pustules and vesicles, and carried off many victims. - -“Touraine was cruelly devastated by this disease. The patient attacked -by fever soon had the surface of his body covered by vesicles and -small pustules. The vesicles were white and very hard, presenting no -element of softness, and were accompanied by great pain; when they had -attained maturity they broke and allowed the humor within to escape. -Their sticking to the clothing of the body added considerably to the -pain. Medical art was wholly impotent in the presence of this malady, -at least when God did not come to the doctor’s aid. - -“The wife of Count Eborin, who was attacked by the disease, was so -covered by vesicles that neither her hand nor the sole of her foot nor -any portion of her body was exempt; even her eyes remained closed. -Soon after the fever ceased the fall of the pustules occurred, and the -patient recovered without more inconvenience.” - -Small-pox came, then, from the Orient—that eternal center of all -pestilences and curses. From the seventh century the Saracen armies -spread the malady wherever they passed—in Syria, Egypt, and Spain; in -their turn, the Crusaders, in returning from the Holy Land, brought -the disease into France, England, and Germany. From thence the great -epidemics of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, after which -the small-pox became epidemic, appearing and disappearing without -causation, but always destroying myriads of victims. “In 1445,” says -Sauvel “from the month of August to Saint Andres’ day (November 30), -over 6,000 infants died in Paris from small-pox.[21] The physicians -knew neither the nature nor the treatment of the new disease.[22] - -The measles was first noted at the same time as the small-pox, making -its first appearance as an epidemic in the sixth century. - -It is more than probable that the measles originated in Egypt, and -according to Borsieri, it had such an extension throughout Western -Europe that there were but few persons who had not suffered attacks. -The history of measles, however, is less clearly defined than that of -small-pox, although Anglada says that it figured among the _spotted -diseases_, of which Gregory of Tours speaks.[23] But it was only in the -sixteenth century that Prosper Martian exactly describes the disease. - -Says Martian, “It is a disease of a special type peculiar to children, -who can no more avoid it than small pox. It commences with a violent -fever, followed, towards the third day, by an eruption of small red -spots, which become elevated by degrees, making the skin feel rough to -the touch. The fever lasts until the fifth day, and when it has ceased -the papules commence to disappear.” - -Measles was designated in the middle ages under the name _Morbilli_, -which signified a petty plague, the same that _Morbus_ meant a special -plague. It is then fair to presume that the type of disease was no more -serious than it is at the present day. - -It is probable that the measles of the sixth century included at the -same time small-pox, measles and scarlet fever, of which the ancients -made no differential diagnosis. Anglada affirms the co-existence of all -forms of eruptive fevers and gives the following reasons: - -“The contemporaneous appearance of variola and rubeola represents -the first manifestation of an epidemic constitution, resulting from -a collection of unknown influences as to their nature, but manifest -by their effects. The earth was from thence prepared to receive -scarlatina, and it soon came to bear its baleful fruits. We do meet -some mention of scarlet fever in the writings of the Arabian School, -but it is merely suspected and only vaguely indicated. But when we -remember how difficult it often is to diagnose at first between variola -and measles, we are not astonished at the indecision manifested in -adding another exanthematous affection to the medical incognito. It -was only after innumerable observations and the experience of several -centuries that the third new disease received its nosological baptism. -There is nothing to prove that it did not co-operate with earlier -epidemics of variola and rubeola, remaining undistinguished as to type, -however.” - -What clearly proves that there was confusion between the various fevers -of exanthemata is that Ingrassias describes scarlatina in 1510, under -the name of _rosallia_, adding, “Some think the measles and _rosallia_ -are the same malady; as for me, I have determined their differences on -many occasions. _Nonnulli sunt qui morbillos idem cum rossalia esse -existimant. Nos autem soepissime distinctos esse affectus, nostrismet -oculis, non aliorum duntaxat relationi confidentes inspeximus._”[24] - -These facts appear conclusive enough to admit that measles and scarlet -fever are, like variola, the products of the epidemic constitution -developed during the sixth century, as contemporaries of the bubonic -plague, all these maladies representing the medical constitution of the -first centuries of the Middle Age. - - - THE SWEATING SICKNESS OF ENGLAND. - -The name of Sweating Sickness was given to the great epidemic of fever -that appeared in England in the fifteenth century, and from thence -extended over Continental Europe. This epidemic broke out in the month -of September, 1486, in the army of Henry VII., encamped in Wales, and -soon reached London, extending over the British Isles with frightful -rapidity. Its appearance was alarming and during its duration, which -was only a month, it made a considerable number of victims. “It was so -terrible and so acute that within the memory of man none had seen its -like.” - -This epidemic reappeared in England in 1513, 1517 and 1551. It was -preceded by very moist weather and violent winds. The mortality -was great, patients often dying in the space of two hours; in some -instances half the population of a town being carried off. The epidemic -of 1529 can only be called murderous; King Henry VIII. was attacked and -narrowly escaped death. Although flying from village to village the -nobility of England paid an enormous tribute to the King of Terrors. -The Ambassador from France to London, M. du Bellay, writing on the 21st -of July, 1529, remarks, “The day I visited the Bishop of Canterbury -eighteen of the household died in a few hours. I was about the only one -left to tell the tale, and am far from recovered yet.” - -This same year the sweating sickness spread all over Europe. It made -terrible ravages in Holland, Germany and Poland. At the famous synod -of Luther and Zwingle, held at Marburg, the Reformed ministers seized -by fear of death prayed for relief from the pestilence. At Augsburg -in three months eighteen thousand people were attacked and fourteen -hundred died. - -This epidemic did not extend as far as Paris, but it developed in -the north of France and Belgium. Mezeray mentions this fact in the -following terms: “A certain disease appeared this year (1529), -commencing in England. It was of a contagious nature, and passed over -from France to the Lower Countries, and thus spread over most of -Europe. Those attacked sweated profusely; it was for this reason that -the malady was called the _English Sweat_. First one had a hard chill, -then a very high fever, which carried the patient off in twenty-four -hours, unless promptly remedied.” - -Fernel, physician to Henry II., who practiced in Paris, likewise -speaks of this sudorific sickness in one of his works.[25] He says: -“_Febres sudorificae quae insolentes magno terrore in omnem inferiorem -Germaniam, in Galliam, Belgicam, et in Britanniam ab anno Christi -millesimo quingentesimo vigesim autumno potissimum pervagatae sunt_.” - -It prevailed almost always in summer and autumn, especially when -the weather was moist and foggy. Contrary to what is seen in other -epidemics, it was observed that the weak and poor, the old and infants -were not attacked as often as robust persons and those in affluent -circumstances. - -The symptoms noted by physicians, such as Kaye and Bacon, may -be classed into three distinct periods: 1. The period of chill, -characterized by pains and formication in the limbs an extraordinary -prostration of the physical forces—a tremulous, shaky period. 2. The -period of sweat, preceded by a burning heat all over the body and an -unquenchable feverish thirst. The patient was agitated, disquieted by -terror and despair. Many complained of spasms in the stomach, followed -sometimes by nausea and vomiting, suffocation and lumbar pains—a -constant symptom ever—headache, with palpitation of the heart and -præcordial anxiety. 3. This period was announced by a high delirium, -sometimes muttering, sometimes loquacious; a fetid sweaty odor, -irregular pulse, coma, and, in the last-named condition, death always -occurred. - -The duration of the disease was most frequently but a few hours, rarely -exceeding a day, whether the termination was favorable or fatal. - -Convalescence was always long, often being complicated by diarrhœa -or dropsy. It has been remarked in this connection that the malady -might be confounded with the miliary sweat observed in Picardy and -central France, but in the first named disease no cutaneous eruption -was observed. Fernel clearly affirms this statement, as he says: “In -this affection there is no carbuncle, bubo, exanthema nor eczema, but -simply a hypersecretion of sweat.” - -Such was the sweating sickness of the sixteenth century, which made so -few victims in France, but which destroyed so many people in England -and Germany. The origin of this disease has been often discussed, and -also its nature; but all theories emitted by various authors partake of -the doctrines of other days and are too antiquated to be revamped. We -will content ourselves with saying that the classification of periods -made by us is logical, and we consider the sweating sickness of the -fifteenth century as a pernicious fever, in which the sweating stage -predominated and consequently became the characteristic symptom of the -affection. - - - THE SCURVY. - -It has been supposed by many that Hippocrates described scurvy under -the name of _enlarged spleen_, an affection attributed to the use of -stagnant water and characterized by tumefaction of the gums, foul -breath, pale face, and ulceration of the lower limbs. But the study of -this Hippocratic passage leads us to think that these symptoms were -more of the character of scrofula than of scurvy. The recital by Pliny -of the diseases of the Roman soldiers while on an expedition to Germany -seems to indicate scurvy, which Coelius Aurelianus, and after him the -Arabian physicians, claims presented only a slight analogy to that -affection. - -Springer thinks that we may find the first traces of scurvy in the -expedition of the Normans to Wineland, in the first years of the -eleventh century. In admitting that the men commanded by Eric Thorstein -were obliged to winter on the western shores of Wineland and almost -all succumbed to an endemic malady of that country, proves that it was -nothing but scurvy, although that word’s only signification, in Danish, -is ulceration of the mouth. - -We have, besides, another document, which has great authentic value, -a proof transmitted to us by our earliest and best chronicler of the -Middle Ages, by Joinville, the friend and companion of Saint Louis in -his Crusade into Palestine. In his memoirs he gives a very succinct -recital of the epidemic of famine and scurvy which attacked the French -army on the banks of the Nile in 1248, just after the battles of -Mansourah. Says Joinville: “After the two battles just mentioned, -commenced our great miseries in the army; at the end of nine days -the bodies of our dead soldiers arose to the surface of the water -(their tissues were corrupted and rotten), and these corpses floated -to a point between our two camps (those of the King and the Duke of -Bourgogne), at a point where a bridge touched the water. So many had -been slain that a great crowd of corpses floated on the stream for a -long distance. The bodies of the dead Saracens were sickening; the army -servants threw open a portion of the bridge and permitted the dead -infidels to float down the river, but they buried the dead Crusaders in -great pits dug in the ground. I saw among other dead the body of the -Chamberlain of the Count D’Artois, and many other friends among the -slain. - -“The only fish we had eaten for four months were of the variety called -_barbus_, and these _barbus_ fed on the dead bodies, and for this cause -and other miseries of the country where never a drop of rain fell -sickness entered our army of such a sort that the flesh on the limbs -dried and the skin on the legs became black and like old leather boots, -and many sick rotted in their groin; and all having the last named -symptom died. Another sign of death was when the nose bled.” - -The relation of Joinville leaves no doubt as to the nature of the -epidemic that attacked the Crusaders. Here we have a pen picture of -the debility, the hemorrhages, the livid ecchymosis of the skin, the -fungous tumefaction and bleeding of the gums, which characterize the -disease known as scurvy. - -According to the writings of some German physicians of the fifteenth -century, this malady was endemic in the septentrional portions of -Europe upon the shores of the Baltic Sea. In Holland numerous epidemics -of scurvy were observed among the lower classes of the population, -coinciding with bad conditions of public hygiene. Food consisting -of salt and smoked meats, dwellings located on marshy ground, cold -atmospheres charged with fogs, etc., etc. - -This was the same affection that attacked our colonies in Canada, but -at that time we had no knowledge of the therapeutic indications in such -emergencies, and quote as a proof of this a remarkable observation -inscribed on the registers of Cartier on his vessels during his sojourn -in Canada: “The disease commenced in our midst in a curious and unknown -manner; some patients lost their flesh and their limbs grew black and -swollen like charcoal, and some were covered over with bloody splotches -like purpura; after which the disease showed itself on the hips, -thighs, arms, and neck, and in all the mouth was infected and rotten -at the gums, so that all the flesh fell off to the roots of the teeth, -which also most often dropped out; and so terrible was this plague that -on my three ships by February only ten healthy men were about out of a -crew of over a hundred. - -“And, as the disease was unknown to us, the Captain of the ships was -asked to open a few bodies to see if we could possibly detect the -lesion and thus be able to protect the survivors. We found the hearts -of the dead to be white and withered, surrounded by a rose colored -effusion; the liver healthy, but the lung black and mortified and all -its blood retired to the sac of the heart. The spleen likewise was -impaired for about two finger-lengths as though rubbed by a rough -stone.” - -From this autopsy rudely made[26] it is true we discern most of the -signs of scrofula; a profound alteration of the blood and an effusion -of the liquids into certain viscera, denoting a diminution in the -amount of fibrin and the number of globules, alterations that also -serve to explain the tendency to hemorrhages observed in very serious -cases of scurvy. - - - LEPROSY. - -Leprosy is a disease originating in the Orient; Egypt and Judea were -formerly the principal infected centers. It was the return of an -expedition to Palestine, under Pompey, that imported the malady to -Italy. In the first years of the Christian Era it is mentioned by -Celsus, who advised that it should be treated by sweating, aided by -vapor baths. Some years later Areteus used hellebore, sulphur baths, -and the flesh of vipers taken as food, a treatment adopted by others, -as, for instance, Musa and Archigenes. - -In the second century the disease was in Gaul; Soranus treated the -lepers of Aquitaine, who were numerous.[27] - -According to Velly, leprosy was common in France in the middle of the -eighth century epoch, when Nicholas, Abbot of Corbeil, constructed -a leper hospital, which was never much frequented until after the -Crusades of the eleventh and fourteenth centuries. At this period the -number of lepers, or _ladres_, a name given to the unfortunates in -remembrance of their patron saint, St. Lazarus, became so great that -every town and village was obliged to build a leper house in order to -isolate the afflicted. Under Louis VIII. there were 2,000 of these -hospitals; later the number of such asylums reached 19,000. - -According to the historians of this time, when a man was suspected -to be a leper he could have no social relations without making full -declaration as to what the real nature of his complaint might be. -Without this precaution his acts were void, from the capitulary of -Pepin, which dissolved all marriage contracts with lepers, to the law -of Charlemagne, that forbade their associating with healthy persons. -The fear of contagion was such that in places where no leprosy existed -they built small houses for any one who might be attacked; these houses -were called _bordes_.[28] A gray mantle, a hat and wallet, were also -supplied the victims, also a _tartarelle_, a species of rattle, or a -small bell, with which they warned all passers near not to approach. -They also had a cup placed on the far side of the road, in which all -persons might drop alms without going near the leper. - -Leper houses were enriched, little by little, by the liberality of -kings and nobles and the people, and to be a leper became less inhuman -and horrible than at the beginning. - -Lepers, however, were forced to submit to severe police regulations. -They were forbidden under the severest penalties from having sexual -relations with healthy persons, for such intimacy was considered as -the most dangerous method of conveying the contagion. After entering -a leper house the victim was considered as dead under the civil law, -and in order to make the patients better understand their position the -clergy accompanied them to their asylum, the same as to their funeral, -throwing the cemetery dust on them while saying: “Enter into no house -save your asylum. When you speak to an outsider stand to the windward. -When you ask alms sound your rattle. You must not go far from the -asylum without your leper’s robe. You must drink from no well or spring -save on your own grounds. You must pass no plates nor cups without -first putting on your gloves. You must not go barefooted, nor walk in -narrow streets, nor lean against walls, trees, or doors, nor sleep on -the edge of the road,” etc. - -When dead they were interred in the lepers’ cemetery by their -fellow-sufferers. - -Separated from society, these pariahs, living together, sometimes -reproduced their own species, and finished their days in the most -frightful cachexia, awaking only contempt, disgust, and repulsion among -the healthy of the outside world. - -It is true that each time that sanitary measures were relaxed by -the authorities—such, for instance, as the perfect isolation of the -patients—an increase in the number of lepers was noticeable. When this -was observed the old-time ordinances were enforced again with vigor. -It was thus in 1371 the Provost of Paris issued an edict enjoining all -lepers to leave the Capital within fifteen days, under heavy corporal -and pecuniary penalties; and in 1388, all lepers were forbidden to -enter Paris without special permission; in 1402 this restriction was -renewed, “under penalty of being taken by the executioner and his -deputies and detained for a month on a diet of bread and water, and -afterwards perpetual banishment from the kingdom.” Finally, in April, -1488, it was announced “all persons attacked by that abominable, very -dangerous and contagious malady known as leprosy, must leave Paris -before Easter and retire to their hospitals from the date of issuance -of this edict, under penalty of imprisonment for a month on bread and -water; and, where they had property, the sequestration of their houses -and jewels and arbitrary corporal punishment; it was permitted them, -however, to send things to them by servants, the latter being in -health.” - -We can understand from this how these poor wretches, at different -epochs, were accused of horrible crimes, among other things poisoning -rivers, wells, and fountains. As regards this accusation, says the -author of the _Dictionnaire des Mœurs des Francais_, Philip le -Long burned a certain number of these poor devils at the stake and -confiscated their wealth, giving it to the Order of Malta and St. -Lazare. - -The historians and chronicalers of the eleventh and twelfth century -often designated the person attacked by leprosy by the name of _mesel_, -_mezel_, _meseau_ or _mesiaus_. Meantime Barbazin pretends that it is -necessary to make a distinction.[29] - -_Mesel_, according to Barbazin, was a person covered with sores -and ulcers, while the leper was an insensible man. He thinks that -_mesellerie_ was at its origin a different affection than leprosy, and -that these two diseases have been wrongly confounded. “They have both -served,” says he, “to designate a frightful disease, that is reputed -the most dangerous of all maladies.” - -As supporting this assertion of Barbazin, we have found in the -Romanesque tongue some documents strongly confirming this point. They -appear more interesting, inasmuch as they have heretofore been unknown -to medical literature, as, for instance: - -“Seneschal, I now demand of you, said he (Saint Louis), which you love -better, whether you be _mesiaus_, or whether you commit a mortal sin; -and I, who never have lied, responded that rather would I commit thirty -mortal sins than be _mesiaus_.” (Joinville, _Histoire de Saint Louis_.) - -The leprosy, however, was not an absolute cause for divorce, as we -note in the following passage: “A man can leave his wife only for -fornication, and not alone for leprosy, and lepers may marry; and one -may cancel marriage if the husband become leper, and the same may be -said of the bride.” - -In the same manuscript another analogous fact shows the invalidation -of the marital act for the reason of _mesellerie_ complicated by -impotence or barrenness. - -“A woman who through impotence has lost that which is necessary to -her, so that he cannot cohabit with her, for the reason that he is -_mesiaus_, may marry another, telling the latter, however, that the -first she married was worth nothing, not even an infant, as he could -not cohabit; that nothing can prevent cohabitation in marriage nor the -begetting of children.” - -Individuals attacked by _mesellerie_ were in reality outside the pale -of the law. For we read in fact in the “_Coutume de Beauvoisis_, cap. -39,” that “_mesiaus_ must not be called on as witnesses, for custom -accords them no place in the conversation of gentlemen.” - -“The second reason is that when a _mesiaus_ calls on a healthy man, or -when a healthy man calls on a _mesel_, the _mesiaus_ may put in the -defense that he is beyond the reach of worldly law, and cannot be held -responsible in such a case.” - -These unfortunates besides could not inherit nor dispose of their own -wealth during their lives. The following passage from the “ancient -customs of Normandy” bears witness, _i. e._: - -“The _mesel_ can be no man’s heir from the time his disease is -developed, but he may have a life interest, as though he were not a -_mesel_.” - -The same as in many other diseases the leprosy presented itself under -different forms and various degrees of gravity, as is proved from the -following passage from _Le Pelerinage de l’humaine lignee_: - - - “Homs, qui ne scet bien discerner - Entre sante et maladie, - Entre le grant mesellerie - Entre le moienne et le meure.” - - -This gravity of different forms of leprosy has likewise been mentioned -by the Arabian school, and notably by Avicenna, who had seen numerous -cases complicated with ulcerations of the genital organs; also, by the -Englishman, Gilbert, who wrote in the thirteenth century regarding the -existence of several species of leprosy, which could not always be -easily distinguished by reason of the uncertainty of their symptoms. -As to its character as a constitutional malady we have the word of -the Syrian Jaliah ebn Serapion, who attributes its connection to the -predominance of certain humors; finally, Valescus of Tarentum insists -on the heredity of the disease. - -The leprosy, the pork measles and the _mesellerie_ were then only -clinical forms of a single affection of a contagious nature—a -hereditary disease whose symptoms appeared successively on the skin, in -the mucous membranes, the viscera and in the nervous system. It then -required a diathesis, which resembled greatly in its evolution that of -syphilis, with which it has often been confounded. - -The physicians of leper hospitals have left behind a great number -of medical documents bearing on the characteristics of the disease, -but their observations are so confused that we can only conclude -that they considered all cutaneous maladies as belonging to the same -constitutional vice. - -They recognized, however, the _ladrerrie_ (disease arising from measly -pork), by the following symptoms, the same being laid down by Guy de -Chauliac: - -“Eyelids and eyebrows swollen, falling of eye-lashes and eyebrows, -which are replaced by a finer quality of hair; ulceration of septum -of the nose, odor of ozoena, granulated tongue, fœtid breath, painful -breathing, thickening and hardness of the lips, with fissures and -lividity of same; gums tumefied and ulcerated; furfuraceous scales -in the hair, purple face, fixed expression, hideous aspect; forehead -smooth and shiny like a horn; pustules on face; veins on chest much -developed; breasts hard.” - -“Thinness of muscles of the hand, especially thumb and index finger; -lividity and cracking of the nails; coldness of the extremities; -presence of a serpiginous eruption; insensibility of the legs, -collections of nodosities around the joints; under the influence -of cold elevations appeared on the cutis, making it appear like -goose-skin.” - -“Sensation of pricking, ulcerations of skin; sleep uneasy, fetidity of -sweat; feeble pulse, bad odor of blood, which is viscid and oily to the -touch and gritty after incineration, likewise of a violet black color.” - -The contagious characteristic of leprosy through sexual relation was -noticed by physicians attached to hospitals, and was the subject of -police restriction by public sanitary officers. Thus in the thirteenth -century the celebrated Roger Bacon, surnamed the admirable doctor, -wrote that commerce with a leprous woman could be followed by very -serious consequences. This opinion was corroborated by a physician -of the University of Oxford, his contemporary John of Gaddsen, and -by the observations of Bernard Gordon, a celebrated practitioner of -Montpellier. We all know the history of a Countess who came to be -treated for leprosy at Montpellier, when a Bachelor in Medicine charged -with the task of dressing her sores, fell desperately in love with the -leper lady, and from his _amours_ contracted most serious cutaneous -disease. - -At this period the leprosy had already begun to assume a venereal type -of marked character, and many prostitutes suffered from attacks. As we -all are aware, Jean Manardi, an Italian doctor, has fully expressed -his opinion on this subject. In a letter addressed to a friend, Michel -Santana, one of the first specialists who treated pox, Manardi remarks: -“This disease has attacked Valencia, in Spain, being spread broadcast -by a famous courtesan, who, for the price of fifty crowns, accorded her -favors to a nobleman suffering from leprosy. This woman having been -tainted, in her turn contaminated all the young men who called on her, -so that more than four hundred were affected in a brief space of time. -Some of these, having followed the fortunes of King Charles into Italy, -carried and spread this cruel malady in their track.” - -Another Italian physician, Andre Mathiole, likewise shows the identity -of leprosy with syphilis,—in the following terms: “Some authors have -written that the French have taken this disease from impure commerce -with leprous women while traversing the mountains of Italy.”[30] - -We could easily multiply such citations to complete the facts observed -by Fernel and Ambroise Pare in France, and also by many Italian -physicians, from whence it would be easy to understand why Manardi came -to the following conclusion: “Those who have connection with a woman -who has had recent _amours_ with a leper, a courtesan in whose womb the -seeds of disease may linger, sometimes contract leprosy and at other -times suffer from other maladies of a more or less serious nature, -according to their predispositions.” - -This modification from _measles_ (the disease from corrupt pork diet) -into leprosy of the venereal type is made progressively through the -intermediary of the ordinary agencies of prostitution,—bawds and -libertines,—who for a very long period eluded the wise laws ordained by -sanitary police for the restriction of lepers. In 1543, the affection -was so wide-spread as to be beyond sanitary control, and the edict of -Francois I., re establishing leper hospitals, amounted to nothing. -There were too many poxed people. The Hospital of Lourcine, which was -specially devoted to these cases at Paris contained 600 patients in -1540, and in the wards of Trinity Hospital and the Hotel Dieu there -were many more. It was the same in the Provinces, notably at Tolouse, -which had the merit of creating the first venereal hospital ever -instituted, under the Gascon name of “_Houspital das rognousez de la -rougno de Naples_.” Finally, fifty years later, in 1606, for want of -lepers, the leper asylums were officially closed. Henry IV., in a -proclamation, gave those remaining “to poor gentlemen and crippled -soldiers.” - -Thus ended the epidemic of leprosy in France, which had prevailed from -the second century, observing the same progress in other countries of -Western Europe during the same period of time. Syphilis, the product -of the venereal maladies of antiquity and the leprosy of the Middle -Ages, announced a new era; syphilis was thus contemporaneous with the -_Renaissance_. - -In the collection of Guy Patin’s letters, there is an interesting -document relating to the connection of leprosy and syphilis, as witness -the principal passage: - -“It was not long since that I saw in Auvergne a patient who was -suspected of measles (_hog disease_), for the reason that his family -had the reputation of being thus afflicted, though he bore on his body -no marks of the disease. This led me to recall the fact that some -families in Paris have been suspected of this taint; but really we -have no measles or leprosy here. In former times there was a hospital -dedicated to such cases in the Faubourg Saint Denis. I have noticed -no cases in Champagne, Normandy nor Picardy, although in all these -Provinces I found asylums formerly used for such cases that are now -turned into hospitals for plague victims. In former times leprosy -was confounded with pox, through the ignorance of doctors and the -barbarity of the age; nevertheless, there are yet a few lepers in -Provence, Languedoc and Poitou.” - -We have here the authority of Guy Patin for saying that leprosy had -almost entirely disappeared from France in the sixteenth century. - -Although modern Faculties are prone to insist that the real science of -medicine only dates back its origin to the discovery of the microscope, -and that the study of antique medicine is only a retrospective -exposition calculated to show the slight scientific value of ancient -observations, I assert that the many observations recorded by our -medical ancestors are of immense value. Let us cite, as a single -instance, this transformation of a constitutional malady, attenuated -by time, transmitted by heredity through the same masses of people -for ten centuries,—populations having a similar diathesis,—a disease -taking a new vigor and attacking other generations, but destined in a -given time to disappear, most probably, in its turn, in another unknown -metamorphosis. Such an idea may cause a smile in that haughty _section -hors rang_ in medicine, which is so devoted to the culture of specific -germs that but one idea can certainly be adopted as an irrefutable -dogma in medicine—that is, if the facts it represents coincide with the -modifications of the wag—in the tail end of a bacillus. - -As for myself, I remain convinced that everything seen in modern times, -through the objective even of an instrument of precision, cannot -destroy the accumulated work of twenty centuries of medical observation -and study. - - _Scientiæ enim per additamenta fiunt._ - - - THE SYPHILIS. - -If the true syphilis—the variety that appeared in the fifteenth -century—was unknown in the Middle Ages, there still exist documents -which fully affirm the existence of contagious venereal diseases -several hundreds of years before the Italian wars of Charles VIII. -and Louis XII. The maladies which, in times of antiquity, afflicted -the Hebrews and Romans, as a result of impure sexual commerce, are -to-day only the results of the progress made by prostitution after the -Crusades; that is to say, they are merely the products of debauchery -and leprous virus imported from the Orient. - -As early as the twelfth century France knew the _mal malin_ or _mal -boubil_, an affection characterized by sores and ulcerations on the -arms and genital organs. Gauthier de Coinci, Prior of the Abbey of -St. Medard de Soissons, at the beginning of the thirteenth century -considered these maladies as impure and contagious, and warned his -priests in the following verselets: - - - “The monk, the church clerk and the priest - Must not defile themselves the least, - But with good conscience and pure heart - Keep their hands off from private part. - Pray God at morning and at night - To hide corruption from their sight; - The _mal boubil_ the _mal malan_ - Comes ever to each sinning man.” - - -We are permitted to suppose from these lines that the disease was -localized in “a wicked place that the hands must not touch,” and that -it was only an affection of the same nature as the _gorre_ and _grand -gorre_, one of the numerous expressions applied to all contagious -maladies of the sexual organs. This fact cannot be contested, for at -the same epoch, in a poem entitled “_Des XXIII Manieres de Vilains_,” -we find an imprecation launched by this anonymous author against all -blackguards and bawds: - - - “That they may be - Itchy, poxed, and apostumed, - Covered with ulcers, badly rheumed, - Full of fever, jaundice sapped, - That they may be, also, clapped.” - - -Or, as given in French: - - - “Qu ils aient ... - Rogne, variole et apostume, - Et si aient plente de grume, - Plente de fievre et de jaunisse, - Et si aient la chade-pisse” - - -Now, the opuscle, from which these verses are derived, was reprinted -in 1833 by Francisque Michel, and is contemporaneous with the -manuscripts of the thirteenth century, analyzed by M. Littre in _a note -on syphilis_,[31] where our erudite author says: “At this epoch the -venereal diseases had an analogous form to those we observe to-day.” - -_This document dates back 200 years before the discovery of America_, -and is duly authenticated by the testimony of Guillaume Saliceti, -a physician and Italian priest of the thirteenth century. “When a -man has received a corruption of the penis, after having cohabited -with an obscene woman or for other cause, there comes a tumor in the -groin.”[32] And some years after Lanfranc, a student of Salicetis, -wrote, in his turn, in his _Parva Cyrurgia_, that “buboes appear -following ulcers on the penis.” His description of chancres and other -venereal accidents is very remarkable. - -Another writer of the thirteenth century, Michel Scott, a Scotch -physician, alchemist, and philosopher, who lived in France and Germany -for many years, says in one of his numerous works:[33] “Women become -livid and have discharges. If a woman is in such a condition and a -man cohabit with her his penis is easily diseased, as we often see in -adolescents who, ignorant of this fact, often contract a sore organ or -are attacked by leprosy. It is also well to know that if a discharge -exist at the epoch of conception, the fetus is more or less diseased, -and in this case a man must abstain from all connection, and the woman -should resist sexual advances, if she have foresight.” - -This passage leaves no possible doubt as to the existence of -blenorrhagia with the discharge and as to the presence of an hereditary -syphilitic diathesis, for if the author gives the last-mentioned the -name of leprosy it is only for the reason that at this period no -positive term was in use to designate venereal diseases,[34] which were -confounded with leprosy, with or without reason, the former only being, -perhaps, a transformation of the latter. - -About a century later, that is to say, on August 8th, 1347, Queen -Jeanne of Naples, Countess of Provence, sent to Avignon the statutes -relating to the establishment of houses of prostitution in that city. -Article IV. of this law regulated police measures in the following -terms: “The Queen ordains that every Saturday the bailiff and a -barber deputed by the Councilmen shall visit every debauched girl in -the place, and if they find any one who has the disease arising from -venery, that such a one may be separated from the other girls and -lodged apart, to the end that no one may have commerce with her, and -that the young may thus avoid contracting disease.”[35] - -These statutes were first made known by Astruc,[36] and have been -inserted without reserve by Grisolle in his _Traite de Pathologie -Interne_; also by Cazenave in his _Traite des Syphilides_; but Jules -Courtet, and after him Rabutaux and Anglada, have considered these -documents as somewhat apocryphal. - -We shall not stop to discuss the authenticity of these documents; they -have characteristics that make their genuineness almost indisputable. -Besides, we can quote other authors against whom no arguments can be -used; for instance, we will cite John of Gaddesen, a physician of the -English Court, who affirmed that sexual connection with a leprous woman -produced ulcers of the penis;[37] besides, his compatriot Gilbert, -who described in his _Compendium Medicinal_, in the year 1300, the -treatment of gonorrhœa and chancre so common after the Crusades; or -Gui du Chauliac, who in 1360 noticed “the ulcers born of commerce -with a tainted woman, impure and chancrous (_ex coitu cum fœtida vel -immunda vel cancrosa muliere_).”[38] Again, note Torella, of Italy, -who considered pox as a contagious malady which had existed from times -of antiquity, and which had made its appearance at different epochs, -but of which the symptoms, poorly understood by medical men, prevented -isolation and its proper pathological identity.[39] - -We need not reproduce the text of all the French and especially the -Italian doctors, who established the identity of venereal diseases -_before the year_ 1494—such writers as Montagnana, Petrus Pintor, -Nicolas Leonicenus, Joseph Grunpeck, etc. As to these works, they -have all been mentioned by Fracastor, in his celebrated _Treatise on -Contagious Diseases_ (_de morbis contagiosis_), a work at once a fine -poem, whose Latinity is perfect and a monograph of true scientific -exactitude. - -Fracastor described the patient as well as the disease: “The victims -were sad and broken with pale faces.” - -“They had chancres on their private parts; these chancres were -changeable; when cured at one point they reappeared at another; they -always broke out again.” - -“Pustules with crusts were raised on the skin; in some these commence -on the scalp first; this was the usual case; in a few they appeared -elsewhere. At first these were small, afterwards increasing in size, -appearing like unto the milk crust in children. In some these pustules -were small and dry—in others large and humid. Sometimes they were -scarlet, sometimes white, sometimes hard and pink. These pustules -opened at the end of some days, pouring out an incredible quantity of -stinking and nasty liquid, once opened they became true phagedenic -ulcers, which not only consumed the flesh but even the bone.” - -“Those whose upper regions were attacked had malignant fluxions, that -eat away the palate, the trachea, the throat and the tonsils. Some -patients lost their lips, others their noses, others their eyes, others -their private parts.” - -“Large gummy tumors appeared in many and disfigured the limbs. These -growths were often the size of an egg or a French roll of bread. When -opened these tumors discharged a whitish mucilaginous liquid. They were -principally noted on the arms and legs; while ulcerating sometimes they -grew callous, at other times remaining as tumors until death.” - -“As if this were not sufficient, terrible pains oftimes attacked the -limbs; these generally came when the pustules appeared. These pains -were long abiding and well nigh insupportable, aching most at night, -not only affecting the articulation, hut also the bones and nerves of -the limbs. Sometimes the patient had pustules without pains, at other -times pains without pustules; but the great majority had pustules and -pains.” - -“The patients were plunged into a condition of languor. They became -thin, weak, without appetite, sleeping not, always sad and in a sullen -humor, the face and the limbs swollen, with a slight fever at times. -Some suffered with pains in the head, pains of long duration, which did -not recede before any remedies.” - -“Although the greater majority of mortals have taken this disease -by contagion, it is no less certain that a great number of others -contracted it from infection. It is impossible to believe, in fact, -that in such a short time the contagion that marches so slowly by -itself and which is communicated with such difficulty, should overrun -such a number of countries, after having been (as it is claimed), -imported by a single fleet of Spanish ships. For it is well known -that its existence was determined in Spain, France, Italy and Germany -and all through Scythia at the same period of time. Without doubt the -malady originated spontaneously, like the petechial fever, or it had -always existed.” - -“A barber, my friend, has a very old manuscript, containing directions -for the treatment of the affection. This has for its title: ‘_Medicine -for the thick scabs, with pains in the joints._’ The barber remembered -the remedy laid down in this work, and at the very commencement of -the new malady thought he recognized the contagion by the name of the -_thick_ scabs. But physicians having examined this remedy found it too -violent, inasmuch as it was composed of quicksilver and sulphur. He -would have been happier had he not consulted the doctors; he would have -grown wealthy by incalculable gains.” - -We see from this that the syphilis of the fifteenth century did not -present precisely the same symptoms as the variety of to day. Formerly -secondary and tertiary accidents supervened much more rapidly, besides -being very violent in their manifestations. Besides the disease was -exceedingly malignant often causing, death in a short time, which -fact led many authors of that epoch to consider the symptoms due to a -pestilence brought about by general causes.[40] Nicholas Massa wrote in -fact, that: “The patient has pains in the head, arms, and especially -the legs, which are always intensified at night. The buboes in the two -groins are salutary when they suppurate. We observe a chafed and scaly -condition of the palms of the hands and soles of the feet. Ulcers of a -bad appearance are frequently noted on the penis; these ulcers are hard -and callous and very slow in healing. In exploring the throat we often -discover a relaxed condition of the uvula and the presence of sordid -ulcers, which rarely suppurate. With all this eruptive process we note -certain hard tumors that adhere to the skin and bone and bear the name -of _gummata_. These tumors may ulcerate and produce osseous caries.”[41] - -We notice the same errors in all the descriptions given by the authors -of the sixteenth century; they exhibit an imperfect knowledge of the -symptomatology, of the genesis and primitive constitutional accidents. -We see that as yet clinical medicine had no existence, and that our -predecessors were ignorant of the art of co-ordinating the signs of a -disease in a thoughtful manner. Nevertheless, their descriptive powers -in writing on venereal diseases, as before noted, were excellent, -and had the merit of exactitude and honest observation; as, Pierre -Manardi observes: “The principal sign of the French disease consists in -pustules coming out on the end of the penis in men and at the entrance -of vulva or neck of womb among women. Most frequently these pustules -ulcerate; I say frequently for the reason that I have seen patients in -whom these ulcers were hard as warts, cloves or apple seeds.” - -Here we have the aspect of primary syphilis presented by a physician -whose name will, with justice, remain attached to the disease as long -as it has a history. The secondary symptoms of the malady have never -been more dramatically pictured than by Fernel, who remarks: “They had -horrible ulcers on them, which might be mistaken for glands, judging -from size and color, from which issued a foul discharge of a villainous -infecting kind, enough to give a heart-ache; they had long faces of -a greenish-black complexion, so covered with sores that nothing more -hideous could be imagined.”[42] - -Relative to the duration of secondary symptoms, under date of 1495, -Marcello de Cumes wrote from the camp of Novarro that “the pustules on -the face, like those of leprosy and variola, lasted a year or more when -the patient was not treated.”[43] - -The physiognomy of the unfortunates whose faces were adorned with lumps -and whose foreheads bore the sadly characteristic _corona veneris_, -has been well described in the following verses by Jean Lemaire, -of Belgium, a poet and historical writer of fifteenth century. The -portrait is exact: - - - “But in the end, when the venom is ripe, - Sprout out big warts of a scarlet type, - Persistent, spreading over the face, - Leaving the brand of shame and disgrace, - An injury left after passion’s rude storm, - Fair human nature thus to deform. - High forehead, neck, round chin and nose - Many a warty sore disclose; - And the venom, with deadly pain, - Runs through the system in every vein, - Causing innumerable ailments, no doubt, - From itch to the ever-tormenting gout,” etc. - - -Meantime, the symptoms of syphilis were not long in losing some of -their acute features. Already, in 1540, Antoine Lecocq noted this -fact in France:[44] “Sometimes,” says he, “the virus seems to expend -its strength on the groins in tumefaction of the glands; and, if this -bubo suppurates, it is well. This tumor we call bubo; others call it -_poulain_ (colt or filly) for mischief’s sake, as those who are thus -attacked separate their legs while walking, horse style.” Fernel -declared that the venereal disease at the end of the sixteenth century -so little resembled that of his early days that he could scarcely -believe it the same. He remarks: “This disease has lost much of its -ferocity and acuteness.” - -On his part, Fracastor remarked, in 1546, that “For six years past -the malady has changed considerably. We now notice pustules on but -few patients, and they have but few pains, and these are generally -slight; but more gummy tumors are observed. A thing that astonishes the -world is the falling out of the hair of the head and baldness in other -portions of the body. It sometimes happens that in the worst cases the -teeth become loose and even fall out.”[45] - -These phenomena were evidently due to the action of mercurial ointment, -which was much used in Italy from the time it was recommended by -Hugo, of Boulogne, in the _malum mortuum_, or malignant leprosy of -the Occident. In France guaiac was much used, or holy wood, which was -then known as _sanctum lignum_, when only the Latin equivalent was -in vogue. Besides, mention is made of mercurial stomatitis following -inunctions with the so-called Neapolitain ointment in the Prologue of -_Pantagruel_, by Rabelais. - -This passage from Dr. Francis Rabelais[46] leads us to think that -physicians were undecided about caring for syphilitic patients in the -fifteenth century, almost all doctors, in fact, refusing to examine -into the character of a disease of which they knew nothing; a disease -whose infecting centers were the most degraded and ignoble public -places; a malady not described in the works of Hippocrates nor Galen. - -So, this _lues venerea_, as it is called by Fernel, made numerous -victims in all countries. It spread in the towns and throughout the -rural districts, and, at times, caused such ravages that, in the -large cities, the authorities were obliged to use sanitary measures -against the pox, as had been done at other times in the case of -leprosy. Syphilitics were expelled from places and forbidden, under -severe penalties, from having intercourse with healthy people. But -it soon came to be known that contagion could only occur through -sexual connection, and the patients then hid in hospitals, where -they were specially treated by the methods laid down by the first -syphilographers,—vapor baths, mercurial inunctions, frictions, etc. -Unfortunately, no prophylactic measures were instituted against -prostitutes, although they were recognized as having a monopoly in -venereal disorders; for they did not believe at that time, like Jean de -Lorme, who said: “The pox may be caught by touching an infected person; -by breathing the same air; by stepping, barefooted, in the patient’s -sputa, and in many other manners.” - -Even the poets wrote sonnets, poems and ballads upon this _mal d’amour_ -(lovesickness). One could form an immense volume by collecting all -the verses written and published on this subject during the sixteenth -century. But no poem indited during that period presents so great an -interest to medical science as the ballad of Jean Droyn, of Amiens, -dedicated to the Prince, in which the author, stronger in the etiology -of syphilis than the doctors of his time, advised young men who feared -_grosse verole_ (the pox) not to indulge in _liasons_ with girls of the -town without first being satisfied with their pathological innocence. - -This ballad was published at Lyons in 1512, that is to say, seventeen -years after the appearance of the disease in the army of Charles VIII., -at an epoch when the majority of doctors considered the affection as an -infectious malady due to the action of a pestilential miasm in the air. -We shall reproduce but a few lines of this poetical-medical-historical -document: - - - “Perfumed darlings, dandies, dudes, - Take warning in each case, - Beware all types of fleshy nudes - And don’t fall in disgrace. - - Sure, gentlemen and tradesmen gay - May throw away their money, - Give banquets and at gaming play, - As flies are drawn by honey. - - I warn you all of love’s sweet charms, - Place on them protocole, - For haunting oft strange women’s arms - Brings sometimes _grosse verole_. - - “Let love, with moderation wise, - Attend each amorous feast. - Let all be clean unto your eyes, - Fly all lewd girls at least. - - Happier and nobler ’tis to gain - For virtue high renown - Than wound your honor with a stain, - With women of the town. - - Keep out of danger from disease, - Good health will you console, - But if you strive the flesh to please - Beware of _grosse verole_.” - - -In the final stanzas of this poem, which will not bear a more complete -reproduction owing to a maudlin sentimentality existing in modern -times, we find that the Prophet Job is not regarded as strictly -virtuous, for we read: - - - “Prince, sachez que Job fut vertueux, - Mais si futil rongneux et grateleux, - Nous lui prions qu’il nous garde et console, - Pour corriger mondains luxurieux, - S’est engendree ceste grosse verole.” - - -Notwithstanding the undoubted proof of the antiquity of venereal -diseases, Astruc, as we all know, defends the American origin of the -malady, and endeavors to support his views on the hypothesis emitted by -Ulrich de Hutten in 1519, _i.e._, at the siege of Naples, at the end -of 1494, a Spanish army commanded by Gonsalva of Cordova came to the -rescue of the besieged. Their soldiers communicated to the girls of the -town and the courtesans of the neighborhood the _maladie Americaine_ -(American disease), which was contracted in turn, after the capture of -Naples, by the army of King Charles, and afterwards spread throughout -France. But history informs us that the King of France did not return -to Paris with his troops from the Italian campaign until the month of -March, 1496. Now it was on the 6th of March, in this same year, that -Parliament issued a proclamation regulating the pox, in which the -first section reads: “To-day, the 6th of March, whereas in the City of -Paris a disease of a certain contagious character, known as _verole_ -(pox), prevails, the which has made much progress in the Realm the past -two years, as well at Paris as in other places, and there is reason -to fear, this being Springtime, that it may increase, it is deemed -expedient to take cognizance of the same.” - -Other testimony is gathered from the narrative of the voyages of -Christopher Columbus by his contemporary Petrus Martyr, of Anghierra, -historian attached to the court of Ferdinand and Isabella. According -to the notes given him by the great navigator on his return to Spain, -authentic records kept from day to day,[47] the Spanish and Italian -sailors of Columbus found “people who lived in the Age of Gold; with no -ditches, no fences, no books, no laws. The men were entirely naked, the -women only protected by a belly-band of light material; notwithstanding -all this, their morals were pure.” Besides, Petrus Martyr (_La Syphilis -au XV. Siecle_) proves there was syphilis in Spain in 1487. - -When Columbus returned to Europe a second time he left behind him, -under orders of his brother, a hundred of his companions in arms, who -were a collection of adventurers from all the nations of the earth. -These men committed all sorts of excesses among the unfortunate -Indians—steeping themselves in lust and every manner of crime, -violating the women, and indulging in wholesale debauchery. Says -Charles Renaut: “Looking at matters from this standpoint, I am ready -to believe that the Spaniards carried the disease to the natives of -Hispanola, and that the latter did not give the malady to the Spanish.” - -We shall not dwell further on the origin of syphilis, nor its -connection with leprosy and other cutaneous maladies which were so -prevalent in Europe throughout the Middle Ages. We may consider -the disease as something new, and trace its period of invasion and -development to the discovery of America, or assert that it arose from -a semi extinct affection (leprosy), assuming a new type under the -influence of a special epidemic constitution. - -One thing is clearly proven, _i.e._, that syphilis was preceded by -contagious venereal affections, which lost the irregular and malignant -forms of the fifteenth century. When then the civilized nations of -earth create a true Public Health Service, syphilis will be vanquished, -and will pass away to the ranks of other extinct maladies. - - - - - THE DEMONOMANIA OF THE MIDDLE AGES. - - - ORIGIN OF MAGIC AND SORCERY - -From the day that Louis XIV. dissolved the Parliament of Rouen, which -had condemned several persons in the Province of Vire to death for the -crime of sorcery, but few sorcerers have been seen in France. - -It was in 1682 that Urbain Grandier was tortured and burned alive for -having launched a malediction against the Ursulines of Loudun. - -A violent reaction occurred against the Inquisitors, theologians, -and their accomplice butchers, thanks to the courageous intervention -of eminent philosophers and savants, who were justly indignant at -the crimes of the Roman Catholic priesthood. This reaction clearly -demonstrated the fact that the innumerable victims of religious -intolerance in the Middle Ages were not sorcerers, nor possessed of -the devil, nor minions of Hell. Psychologists and moralists claimed -that the victims of these delusions were insane, persons suffering -from semi delusions, subjects of monomania. Science classed these -unfortunates into several groups, among which may be enumerated persons -afflicted with hallucinations, demonomaniacs, erotomaniacs, subjects -of lycanthropy, etc., without counting vampires, choreomaniacs, -lypemaniacs, and others whose attacks are recognized by medical science. - -The encyclopedists and their disciples declared themselves satisfied, -inasmuch as psychological experts had done away with the absurd -traditions of the Middle Ages as well as antique superstitions. The -death penalty for demonidolatry was removed, but the doors of the -insane asylum opened for its followers. - -Could any better arrangement have been made at the present day? Let us -take the history of this famous epidemic of demonidolatry of other days -and examine the documentary evidence offered against those accused of -the crime of sorcery, passing the testimony through the crucible of -modern science, pathology, physiology, together with all observable -symptoms, holding in view meanwhile modern neurological discoveries; -let us strive, in a word, to solve this great psychological question, -which has greatly agitated the human understanding for four hundred -years past. - -We believe _what is, is the truth_, and in order to best judge the -facts narrated, it is well to first arrange our knowledge as to the -psychological condition of Occidental populations during the Middle -Ages, a condition that was only the continuation of the ideas and -traditions of antiquity, modified by the fanatical prejudices of a new -religion and by a cruel and barbarous social Constitution. - -If history authorizes us, in fact, to conclude that the occult sciences -have existed from the earliest periods of antiquity, that the people -who brought learning from the Orient to the Occident, have at all -times admitted the existence of genii, angels, and demons, it is easy -to explain the action that such mysterious traditions would have on -the ignorant minds of the peasantry of the Middle Ages, bowed under -the yoke of slavery to feudal Lords and the clerical despotism of the -Romish Church. - -Let us interrogate these historical texts with impartiality, and -analyze these ancient theogonies, which are, so to speak, the _proces -verbaux_ of the philosophic development of the human mind, and we -shall see whether we can admit that mental diseases may prevail -_epidemically_ for several generations, like the pestilential maladies -of the fourth century, for example. - -We know that it was in India, the cradle of human genius, that the -doctrine of supernaturalism, of good and bad spirits exerting an occult -influence on mankind, was born. Ancient history shows such a belief -goes back to antique times. Zoroaster, inspired by _Ahura Mazda_, -the Omniscient, wrote, in the Zend Avesta, the text and commentaries -of the religious law dedicated to the Aryas of India and Persia. -This law had for its object the destruction of the cult of _dews_ or -demons, who infested the earth under human forms, and also to repress -the naturalistic instinct of the most ancient people of _Asia_, by -initiating them in a faith for Celestial genii. - -The disciples of Zoroaster were the _Magi_; that is to say, the learned -men of the day, but they modified the doctrine of the Prophet, which -the Guebres alone preserved in its purity, with the fundamental -doctrine of the dualism of light and darkness, represented by _Ormazd_ -and _Ahriman_, the spirit of the blest and the spirit of the damned. - -The Chaldeans, celebrated from times of antiquity for their knowledge, -not only of astronomy, but all other sciences, adopted the doctrines of -the Zend-Avesta, and their Magi transmitted the same to the Egyptians, -Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans, and finally to the Gauls, whose adepts -were the Druids. - -The science or Magic of the Chaldeans was only magnetism, somnambulism, -and spiritism. - -Says M. F. Fabart: “The Magi, according to certain _bas reliefs_ -exhumed in Oriental countries, knew the virtue of magnetic passes. We -see figures with hands extended, influencing by their gestures the -subjects, who, seated before them, have closed eyes. - -“The Pythonesses and Sybills did not have the power of foresight until -they had passed through the crisis of an artificial somnambulism, and -we find passages in antique authorities where this imposed sleep is -discussed.[48] - -In one of my preceding works I have spoken of several very curious -passages in the _Pharsalia_ of Lucan, where he speaks of the oracles -of the female magician Erichto and the responses of the Pythonesses in -the Temple of Delphi to the inquiries of Appius. Cassandra, priestess -to Apollo in the tragedy of Agamemnon, by Seneca the tragedian, is a -perfect type of the hypnotizable hysteric, and, if the poet does not -describe the methods followed by the priests of the temple in order to -magnetize their subjects, we find them noted by other Latin authors -in terms so explicit as to leave no doubt as to their knowledge of -magnetic passes (hypnotism). - -Says Cœlius Aurelianus: “We make circular movements with the hands -before the eyes of the patient. Under our gaze the subject follows the -movements of our hands, the eyes blinking.” It is while giving the -treatment for catalepsy that the Roman physician, the contemporary of -Galen, initiates us in magnetic practice. After giving a description -of the neurosis, which he characterizes by prostration, immobility, -rigidity of neck, loss of voice, stupor of the senses, widely opened -eyelids, fixity of the eyes and ocular expression, the Latin author -teaches us how to relieve the disease and partially waken the movement, -senses, and intelligence of the patient; and he magnetizes, as is -clearly indicated in the following lines: “_Atque ita, si ante oculos -eorum quisquam digitos circum moveat, palpebrant ægrotantes, et suo -obtutu manuum trajectionem sequuntur; vel si quicquam profecerint etiam -toto obtutu converso attendunt; et inclamati, respicientes lacrymantur -nihil dicentes, sed volentium respondere vultum æmulantes_.”[49] - -The precepts of Zoroaster were differently modified among ancient -people. Moses, who wished the glory of being the great prophet of -Israel, wrote the law of Jehovah and abjured the Magi, by whom he had -been initiated. The Hebrews meantime preserved the Mazadean religion -in memory; they created magic. Ahriman became Astaroth, Beelzebub, -Asmodeus and other demons, who had for interpreters the Pythonesses -and Prophetesses (_mediums_). Ormazd was transferred into a legion -of angels and archangels, who appeared to men to make prophecies. -Presently the Jewish magicians invented the _Kabbala_, occult science, -by which, in pronouncing certain words, they performed miracles and -submitted supernatural powers to the caprices of the human will; they -were above all necromancers. - -The occult sciences of the ancients, necromancy and magic, had, as will -be observed, more or less connection with the phenomena of magnetism -of the present day. Meantime necromancy resembled modern spiritualism, -toward which the researches of present day magnetizers tend. The -necromancers invoked the souls of the dead to know the future and the -secrets of the present. The Jews pursued this study with much ardor, -notwithstanding the prohibition of Moses, who wished them not _to -speak to wood_. We know that the Pythoness (_witch_) of Endor evoked -the spirit of Samuel before Saul on the eve of battle and predicted -the King’s death. The grotto where this celebrated medium lived still -exists, and she receives, it is said, the travelers who visit her from -far and wide near Mount Tabor. - -Magic was also known by the High Priests in Pharaoh’s court. Like the -Magi of Medea and Chaldea they invoked the spirits and supernatural -powers by methods and ceremonies consisting principally of gestures and -songs. - -Hermes Trismegistus, whom the Alchemists regard as their master, -spread the science of occult magic. Following him we see the mystical -doctrines of the Orient flourish at Alexandria with the founders of -neoplatonism. These taught that the _Goetie_ was the supernatural art -which is practiced by the aid of wicked spirits, that the _Magie_ -produced mysterious manifestations with the assistance of material -demons and superior spirits; that the _Pharmacists_ controlled spirits -by means of philters and elixirs. - -In Greece and in Italy the celestial genii were believed in, and they -multiplied to infinity, peopling the Olympus of Polytheism. Priests -profited by the superstitious idea of the people who invoked the aid -of the witches and sibyls who derived their wisdom from the Magi of -the Orient. Following the example, the historians, philosophers and -poets were apparently led to the belief in all the Genii, in the power -of spirits and their intimate relations with men through the medium of -seers, in a condition of frenzy or somnambulism (trance). - -We know that the poet Hesiodus in his theogony, that Plato, from the -time of his initiation with the Hermetic doctrines, that Aristotle in -his philosophical works, all admit the existence of immaterial beings -interesting themselves in the affairs of humanity. The Pythagorians, -on their side, affirmed their power of controlling demons by keeping -themselves in constant meditation, abstinence and chastity.[50] - -During all times of antiquity, there were corporations of priests, -philosophers, theosophists, thaumaturgists and other sects, who -exercised the trade of invoking spirits by conjuring them with charms, -by enchantments and witchcraft, and changing by their aid the laws of -nature, to command the elements and accomplish other extraordinary -feats. In order to do these prodigies they had recourse to cabalistic -formulæ, indicated in conjuring books, or by incantations, magical -circles, or simply by magnetic power. - -Simon of Samaria, Circe, Medea, Plotinus, Porphyrius, Jamblichus, -and the famous Canidie, so justly cursed by Horace, belonged to this -clan of magicians, gnostics, enchanters and mediums, who acquainted -the people with the occult arts of the magi of Chaldea. It is only -necessary to study history to be convinced of this fact. - -Damis, the historian and pupil of Apollonius of Tyana, has left us -the biography of his master, the most remarkable thaumaturgist of -antiquity. It is in this work that he shows that while Apollonius -was lecturing on philosophy at Ephesus, he stopped in the midst of -his speech and cried out to the murderer who, at the same moment, -assassinated Domitian at Rome, “Courage, Stephanus; kill the tyrant!” -Apollonius had sojourned long in India, and all his disciples have -attested the marvelous things he could do. He cured incurable diseases -and made other miracles that astonished his contemporaries who were -partisans, like himself, of the doctrines of Pythagoras. - -Porphyrius published the fifty-four treatises of his master Plotinus, -the illustrious neoplatonist, a work in which we find all the ideas -of contemporaneous experimental psychology and a mystical philosophy -supported on extasy, contemplation and hypnotism—ideas which were again -enunciated one day by the enchanter Merlin, Albertus Magnus, Pic de -la Mirandolle, Lulle, Cornelius Agrippa, Count Saint Germain, Joseph -Balsamo, Robert Fludd, Richard Price and the _freres_ of _Rose Croix_. - -But, before these, there were others who believed they preserved the -mysterious secrets of nature, the Illuminati, the seers and others -not our immediate ancestors; the Druids in the dark forests of Gaul, -along with the Druidesses. Both classes belonged to the Sacerdotal -order, and only received the vestures of their sacred ministry after -twenty years consecrated to the study of astrology, laws of nature, -medicine and the Kabbala. Their theodicy taught the existence of one -God alone and the immateriality of the spirit, called after death to -be reincarnated an indetermined number of times up to the point when -perfection was obtained; when a new, more divine and happy distinction -was achieved. It admitted as a principal religious dogma the ascendant -metempsychosis, as in the case of the first magi and the great -Greek philosophers; also a multitude of genii and superior spirits -intermediate between the Divinity and mankind. - -The _Druids_ were not only the priests, but dictators of Gaul; they -were assisted in their functions by the _Eubages_, the soothsayers and -sacrifices of their religion, by the _Bards_, the poets and heralds, -and the _Brenns_, who participated in supreme power. Druidism was -then an admixture of warlike ideas of the first inhabitants of Gaul, -together with the doctrines imported by the Magii from Chaldea. -So the Druids were the astronomers, physicians, surgeons, priests -and lawgivers. The Druidesses, descendants of the Pythonesses and -Sibyls of the Orient, spoke in oracles and predicted the future; -their influence was considerable and often surpassed that of the -Druid priests themselves, for they knew just as well how to use the -Kabbala and magic; and besides, as virgins, consecrated depositaries -of the secrets of God, they stood high in the eyes of the people. It -is for this reason that the Druids and Druidesses were, under Roman -domination, the defenders of national independence; but, forced to -take refuge in dense forests far removed from the people, persecuted -by the Romans, barbarians and Christians, they progressively became -magicians, enchanters, prophets and charmers, condemned by the Councils -and banished by civil authority. - -It is at this epoch that evil spirits were noticed prowling around -in the shadows of night and indulging in acts of obscene depravity. -There were the _Gaurics_, beings the height of giants; the _Suleves_, -beardless personages who were succubi, attacking travelers; and the -_Dusiens_ were incubi, demons who deflowered young girls during their -maiden slumbers. - -Saint Augustin accorded his belief to all these fables, which were -retailed throughout the country, affirming that we have no right to -question the existence of these demons or libertine spirits, which make -impure attacks on persons while asleep. (_Hanc assidue immunditiam et -tentare et efficere_,—Saint Augustin, in his “City of God.”) - -Decadence slowly ensued, so that in the seventh century Druidism -disappeared, but the practice of magic, occult art, and the mysterious -science of spirits were transmitted from generation to generation, but -lessened in losing the philosophic character of ancient times. In a -word, magic became sorcery, and its adepts were no longer recruited -save in the infamous and ignorant classes of society. The adoration of -nature and God, the immortality of the soul, the grand ceremonies held -at the foot of gigantic oak trees, gave way to hideous demons, gross -superstitions, witchcraft, and the most immoral abberations. Occultism -still subjugated the masses, but the science had fallen into the hands -of the profane and of charlatans. - - - THE THEOLOGIANS AND DEMONOLOGICAL JUDGES. - -Magic, or the science of magic, then served as a basis, as we have said -before, for mythology and legends and was noticeable in the dogmas of -all religions, for, as Saint Augustin observes, “In order to penetrate -the mystical senses of fictions and allegories, and the parables -contained in sacred history, it is necessary to be versed in the study -of occult science, of which numerals make part.”[51] - -But from the Greek dæmon, or the _Sapiens_ of Plato, Christianity made -a demon, a fallen angel, who wished to people his empire with the -souls of the unbaptized; he is borrowed from the Jews with Beelzebub, -Asmodeus, Satan, and their numerous colleagues. After Jesus, who was -tempted by the Devil, and who delivered those possessed by devils, we -see the apostles and saints visited in turn by the angels of God and -also by spirits of evil, who fight battles among spiritual armies. -These are only visions, apparitions of angels or demons who are -vanquished before the anointed of the Lord. - -Mankind wished to participate in the honors and emotions of -communicating with supernatural beings; it is for this purpose that -humanity addressed magicians and practitioners of Occultism. So we see -in the first ages of Christianity the Bishops were uneasy in regard to -magicians by reason of the popularity of the latter, notwithstanding -the peasantry had submitted to the dogmas of the Church. - -Paul Lacroix, the learned bibliophile, cites as the most ancient -monument made mention of in this connection, an aggregation of shadowy -women collected for a mysterious purpose, who devoted themselves -to making magical incantations; this fragment is gathered from the -Canons of a Council which, he thinks, was held before the time of -Charlemagne. It treats of aerial flights that these sorcerers made, -or thought they made, in company with Diana and Herodias, _i.e._, -“_Illiud etiam non est omitendum quod quædam sceleratæ mulieres, retro -post Satanam conversæ, demonum illusionibus et phantasmatibus seductæ, -credunt et profitentur se nocturnis horis, cum Diana, dea paganorum, -vel cum Herodiate et innumera multitudine mulierum, equitare super -quasdam bestias, et multarum terrarum spacia intempestæ noctis silentio -pertransire ejusque jussionibus velut dominæ obedire, et certis -noctibus ad ejus servitium evocari_.”[52] - -Which, being freely translated, reads: “We must not forget that -impious women devoted to Satan, were seduced by apparitions, demons -and phantoms, and avowed that during the night they rode on fantastic -beasts along with Diana, a Pagan goddess, or Herodias and an -innumberable throng of women. They pretended to traverse immense space -in the silence of the night, obeying the orders of the two demon-women -as those of a sovereign, being called into their service on certain -given occasions.” - -We can understand from this that if Christianity silenced Pagan -oracles, it did not authorize magicians to put the spiritual world -aside. The clergy accepted the evidence of the witnesses of grace, but -refused that of the profane, who were only inspired by demons; they -recognized in the latter the power of giving men illusions of the -senses, of cohabiting with virgins under the form of _incubi_ and with -men under the form of _succubi_,—demons who could insinuate themselves -through natural orifices into all the cavities of the body, and possess -mortals. - -Theologians have described all the pains endured by those -possessed,—pangs in their thoracic and abdominal organs which, made -by the demons, forced their victims to speak, sing, move, to be in a -condition of anæsthesia or hyperæsthesia, following the imp’s will; -in other words, the possessed were subject to infernal action. To -the worship of spirits the first Bishops of the Church substituted a -foolish fear of demons. - -From this exaggeration of the power of evil genii over man surged the -silly terrors and superstitious fears of damnation, which were the -starting-point of aberration among the first demonomaniacs. It was for -these unfortunates that the clergy invented exorcisms and great annual -ceremonies destined to deliver those possessed by demons, ceremonies -at which the Bishops convened the people and the nobles to assist, in -order to show the triumphs of the Church over Satan and his imps. - -The theatrical arrangement of these assemblages certainly induced -some apparent cures—making the faithful cry out “a miracle, truly;” -but who does not know that all affections of the nervous system love -to be treated at the hands of thaumaturgists? To invent demons to -have the glory of defeating them and to deliver mankind from their -influence,—such appears to have been the objective point of the -primitive Christian Church. This was certainly a clever trick in -theological magic, and, if the end did not seem to justify the means to -critical philosophic eyes, we may admit, at least, that it was better -to exorcise the possessed than to burn them alive at the stake, as was -done some centuries later. - -“This doctrine of demons was so intimately intermixed with the dogmas -of this perfected religious system by the Fathers of the Church,” says -Sprengel, that “it is not astonishing authors attributed many phenomena -of nature to the influence of demons.” One of the most celebrated -doctors of the Church, Origen, of Alexandria, in his _Apology for -Christianity_, remarks: “There are demons that produce famines, -sterility, corruption of the air, epidemics; they flutter surrounded -by fogs in the lower regions of the atmosphere, and are drawn by the -blood of their victims in the incense that the pagans offer them as -their Divinity. Without the odor of sacrifice, these demons could -not preserve their influence. They have the most exquisite senses, -are capable of the greatest activity, and possess the most extended -experience.” - -Saint Augustin had already written that demons were the agents of the -diseases of Christians, and attacked even the new-born who came to -receive baptism. - -The Church taught that these demons acted through the intermediary of -fallen creatures who were in revolt against God and his holy ministers. -Such were the sorcerers and female mediums, who were met among ruins, -in rocky cavern, and in other hidden and obscure places. For a morsel -of bread or a handful of barley such creatures could be consulted; -one could demand from them the secrets of the future, instruments for -revenge, charms to secure love. - -Among these sorcerers there were old panderers, who knew, from personal -experience, all practices of debauchery, and who gave the name of -_vigils_ to the saturnalia indulged in among villagers on certain -nights, gatherings composed of bawds and pimps, to which were invited -numerous novices in libidinousness. These sorcerers and witches also -knew the remedies that young girls must take when they wish to destroy -the physiological results of their imprudences, and what old men need -to restore their virility. They knew the medicinal qualities of plants, -especially those that stupified. Perhaps a few of these sorcerers -discovered, from magical incantations, the epoch of deliverance from -Feudal morals, the abolition of servitude, equality and liberty. One -thing is certain, however, _i.e._, that the clergy saw nothing in them -save enemies of the Church and religion, creatures who were dangerous -to society and deserving only destruction, _per fas et nefas_, by -exorcism, by fire—indeed, even by the accusations tortured out of -insane persons. - -Thus, Pope Gregory IX., in a letter addressed to several German -Bishops in 1234, described the initiation of sorcerers as follows: -“When the master sorcerers receive a novice, and this novice enters -their assembly for the first time, he sees a toad of enormous size—as -large, in fact, as a goose. Some kiss its mouth, others its rear. -Then the novice meets a pale man, with very black eyes, and so thin -as to appear only skin and bones; he kisses this creature, too, and -feels a chill as cold as ice. After this kiss it is easy to forget the -Catholic faith. The sorcerers then assemble at a banquet, during which -a black cat descends from behind a statue that is usually placed in the -center of the gathering. The novice kisses the rear anatomy of this -cat, after which he salutes, in a similar manner, those who preside at -the feast and others worthy of the honor. The apprentice in sorcery -receives in return only the kiss of the master; after this the lights -are extinguished and all manner of impure acts are committed among the -assemblage.“[53] - -This was the belief, then, of those who a few years later composed the -“_Tribunal of the Inquisition_” and accepted the banner of Loyola, -and shortly afterwards again a member of the congregation of Saint -Dominick and professor of theology, Barthelemi de Lepine, convinced -of the existence of demons and Demonidolators, showed himself to be -a furious adversary of the sorcerers in a famous dissertation, which -was immediately adopted by his co-religionists. He affirmed that “the -_possessed_ go to the _sorcerers’_ meetings in body or in spirit and -have carnal intercourse with the devil; that they immolate children, -transforming them into animals notably cats; that they have obscene -visions, and it is best to exterminate them, for their number is -growing legion.” - -Barthelemi de Lepine, in speaking thus, only followed the traditions -of the Fathers of the Church; of Saint George, Saint Eparchius, Saint -Bernard, Innocent VIII., and of Antonio Torquemada, who were the -historians of the _incubi_ of their times, and launched anathemas -against the _possessed_ of the Demon of luxury. - -The Jesuit father Costadau wrote, in his treatise _De Signis_, -_apropos_ of incubism: “The thing is too singular to treat lightly. We -would not believe it ourselves had we not been convinced by personal -experience with the Demon’s malice, and, on the other hand, find an -infinity of writings of the first order from Popes, theologians, -and philosophers, who have sustained and proved that there are men -so unfortunate as to have shameful commerce and other things more -execrable with such demons.” - -Another Jesuit, Martin Antoine del Rio, published six books -(_Disquisitiones Magicæ_) in 1599, in which his credulity attained -the limit of fanaticism, thus making the good priest one of the most -redoubtable enemies of demonomania. Such were the doctrines on which -reposed the theocratical pretensions of the theologians. - -It is not astonishing that the last years of the Middle Ages, -during the time religious struggles reached their highest period -of exacerbation, owing to the quarrels between the Court of Rome -and the Reformation, witnessed the multiplication in the number of -demonomaniacs to such an extent that the whole world commenced to -believe in the power of demons. “At this unfortunate time,” remarks -Esquirol, “the excommunicated, the sorcerers and the damned were -seen everywhere; alarmed, the Church created tribunals, before which -the devil was summoned to appear and the _possessed_ were brought to -judgment; scaffolds were erected, funeral pyres were lighted around -stakes, and demonomaniacs, under the names of sorcerers and possessed, -doubly the victims of prevailing errors, were burnt alive, after being -tortured to make them renounce pretended compacts made with the Evil -One. There was a jurisprudence against sorcery and magic as there -were laws against theft and murder. The people, seeing the Church -and Princes believing in the reality of these extravagances, were -positively persuaded as to the existence of demons.” - -No authority raised itself to protect these miserable possessed -people; justice, philosophy, and science remained subjected to -theology, becoming more and more the accomplices of an autocratic and -ever-intolerant Church. - -Among the magistrates, historians and publicists, who were the most -ardent supporters of the Inquisition, we may mention J. Bodin, of -Angers, who published, in 1581, a work entitled _Demonomanie_. He -shows that the victims of demonomania enjoy perfect integrity of the -mental faculties and are in every sense responsible, before Courts of -Ecclesiastical Justice and Parliaments, for their impure relations with -supernatural beings, and he logically concludes that all Demonomaniacs -should be committed to the stakes and burnt alive. “Meantime,” says -this amiable author, “we can deliver the possessed by exorcisms, and -animals may be thus exorcised as well as men.” To the support of his -thesis he then brings an immense collection of ridiculous stories, -which are not supported by evidence. He says: “Those possessed by -a demon can spit rags, hair, wood and nails from their mouths.” He -cites the case of a possessed woman who had her chin turned towards -her back, tongue pushed out of the mouth, a throat which furnished -sounds analogous to the crowing of a crow, the chatter of a magpie and -the song of the cuckoo. Finally, he pretends that the devil may speak -through the mouth of the possessed and use all the idioms, known and -unknown; that he can deflower young girls and give them voluptuous -sensations, etc. - -This work of J. Bodin is, in reality, the argument of a public -prosecutor, presented with passion and prejudice, having all the -erroneous arguments of the Inquisitors, so that the latter were more -than satisfied at convincing the secular magistrates and fixing their -jurisdiction as to the crime of sorcery. On the other hand, the same -year that Bodin gave publicity to his inhuman side of the question, -the _Essays of Michel Montaigne_ appeared in Paris, in which this -celebrated writer appealed to philosophy. He demanded that human life -should be protected from fantastic accusations, and made that famous -response to a Prince who showed him some sorcerers condemned to death: -“In faith, I would rather prescribe hellebore than hemlock faggots, as -they appear to be more insane than culpable.” Montaigne concluded one -of his essays on this subject with the satirical remark: “It is placing -a high valuation on human conjecture when we cook a man alive for an -opinion.” - -Meantime, Bodin had reasoned against Montaigne. But the one remained -the ignorant prosecutor of the Middle Ages, while the other was an -immortal philosopher, whom Colbert certainly quoted before presenting -to Louis XIV. the famous edict of 1682, which forbade in the future -“_the cooking alive of sorcerers_.” - -Meantime, there was still a century to attain before one of the -Prime Ministers of France put an end to all trials for sorcery, and -during the intervening period there were other purveyors of the death -penalty by the stake-burners of the Inquisition; among these were the -celebrated Boguet, Criminal Judge of Bourgogne, and Pierre de l’Ancre, -his colleague of Aquitanus, cited by Calmeil as the most fanatical -judges of their day. - -Boguet, in his _Discours des Sorciers_, wrote: “There were in France -only three hundred thousand under King Charles IX., and they have since -increased more than half as much again. The Germans prevent their -growth by burning at the stake; the Swiss destroy whole villages at -one time; in Lorraine the stranger may see thousands existing with but -few executions. It is difficult to understand why France cannot purge -itself of these creatures. These sorcerers walk around by thousands -and multiply on earth like caterpillars in our gardens. I wish I could -enforce punishment according to my ideas, for the earth would soon be -purged of those possessed. For I fain would collect them all in one -mass and burn them alive in a single bonfire.” - -Pierre de l’Ancre, Councillor to the Parliament of Bordeaux, published -in 1613 his _Tableau de l’inconstance des mauvais anges et demons_, -and in 1622 his _Incredulite et mecreance du sortilege pleinement -convaincue_. In these two works the author treats all questions -regarding sorcery, and declares that in his capacity of judge he -believes it a mistake to spare the life of any individual accused -of magic, as he considers sorcerers _as the enemies of morality and -religion_, and accuses them of having found means of “ravishing women -even while they laid in the embraces of their husbands, thus forcing -and violating the sacred oaths of marriage, for the victims are -made adulterous even in the presence of their husbands, who remain -motionless and dishonored without power to prevent; the women mute, -enshrouded in a forced silence, invoking in vain the help of the -husband against the sorcerer’s attack, and calling uselessly for aid; -the husband charmed and unable to offer resistance, suffering his own -dishonor with open eyes and helpless arms. - -“The sorcerers dance around the bed in an indecent manner, like at a -Bacchanalian feast, accoupling adulterously in a diabolical fashion, -committing execrable sodomies, blaspheming scandalously, taking -insidious carnal revenges, perpetrating all manner of unnatural acts, -brutalizing and denaturalizing all physical functions, holding frogs, -vipers, and lizards, and other deadly animal poisons in their hands, -making stinking smells, caressing with lascivious amorousness, giving -themselves over to horrible and shameful orgies.” - -Thus says the Prosecutor of the Council of Bordeaux, but he fails -to support his statements by a single material fact, not even one -individual case being proven. His trials show nothing but a few poor -demented women, who responded always in the affirmative to the obscene -and indecent questions of the judges and prosecutors _employed by the -Most Holy Inquisition_. - -A sad thing philosophy registers celebrated names during this Age. -We mention only those of Rene Descartes, Blaise Pascal, Nicholas -Malebranche, Thomas Hobbes, Francis Bacon, Leibnitz, and the immortal -Newton. Unfortunately these great geniuses could not take part in -the struggle between the clerical party and free thinkers. Honored -as scholars, their Governments never asked their advice on questions -claimed to be under the control of religious orders. The clergy had all -the latitude they desired in writing the history of demonology, and -also the evidence wrung from those accused of sorcery—vague responses -drawn out by fear, by torture, by suggestion imposed in the obscurity -of a penitential tabernacle. A witness of veracity, as we have before -stated, never gave testimony as to the conduct of the sorcerers at the -secret vigils. Their invocations on initiation, their famous inunctions -used on the body, with magical ointments while in a condition of -absolute nudity; their equestrian position on broom sticks; their -flying tricks up the chimney and their bewitched reunions when horned -devils rode on their shoulders, are legendary recitals which could -only be accepted by ignorant fanatics and judges firm in the Faith. -How a man with the seeming intelligence of Prosecutor Bodin, who was -delegated by the State, who wrote six works on _The Republic_ and _The -Constitution_—works which have been compared in point of ability as -ranking with Montesquieu’s _Spirit of the Law_; how a publicist of -talent could support such stories as we have mentioned in his work on -sorcery is a matter of profound amazement. Yet, Bodin testifies as to -his faith in the story of that peasant of Touraine “who found himself -naked, wandering around the fields in the morning,” and who gave as -an explanation of his conduct that he had surprised his wife the night -before as she was making preparations to go to a sorcerers’ vigil, and -that he had followed his better half, accompanied by the Devil, as far -as Bordeaux, many leagues away. Bodin also believed the narration of -that girl from Lyons “whom the lover perceived rubbing herself with -magical ointment preparatory to attending a sorcerers’ vigil; and the -lover, using the same ointment, followed his girl and arrived at the -vigil almost as soon as she.” - -As to that poor peasant who was found naked and alone in the field -and forced to denounce his wife to the authorities, Bodin remarks -impressively, “The woman confessed and was condemned to be burnt at the -stake.” - -Pierre de l’Ancre was never able to prove his stories by sentinels, -sergeants, guards, or policemen, as to the appearance of the demon he -described in his _Traite sur les demons_; a spirit that showed itself -as a large blood-hound or as a wild bull. It is true that in another -part of his book he demonstrates the changeable character of his Devil, -and gives the following description, which methinks is more worthy the -pen of an insane man rather than that of a magistrate: “The Devil of -the _sabbat_ (vigil) is seated in a black chair, with a crown of black -thorns, two horns at the side of the head and one in the forehead with -which he gores the assemblage. The Devil has bristling hair, pale and -troubled looking face, large round eyes widely opened, inflamed and -hideous looking, a goatee, a crooked neck, the body of a man combined -with that of a billy goat, hands like those of a human being, except -that the nails are crooked and sharp pointed at the ends; the hands are -curved backwards. The Devil has a tail like that of a jackass, with -which, strange to say, he modestly covers his private parts. He has -a frightful voice without melody; he preserves a strange and superb -gravity, having the countenance of a person who is very melancholy and -tired out from overwork.” - -This was the spirit of the lieutenants of justice called on by the -Inquisitorial clergy to fix the penalty for the crime of sorcery. -“Sorcery being a crime,” say they with the spirit of conviction, -“consented to between man and the Devil; the man bowing to adore -Satan, and receiving in exchange a part of his infernal power.” - -According to this compact, “The demon unites carnally with the sorcerer -and female medium likewise; these unite themselves with Satan, denying -God, Christ and the Virgin, and profaning all objects of sanctity by -their profane presence. - -“They become zealots for evil and render eternal homage to the Prince -of Darkness. - -“They are baptized by the Devil and dedicate to his service all -children born to them by nature. - -“They commit incests, poison people, and bewitch and work cattle to -death. - -“They eat the carrion from the rotting bodies of hanged criminals. - -“They enter into a Cabalistic circle laid out by the accursed one, -and matriculate in a secret order which is engaged in all manner of -outrages against society; they accept secret marks that affirm their -complete vassalage to Satan. - -“Finally, they repudiate all authority other than that of the master -in the Cabala (Kabbala), and, abomination above all, _they incite the -people to revolt_.” - -Meantime, while the Judges and Inquisitors pursued all intelligent -people with the most wicked determination, Leloyer published his -monograph on specters,[54] whose doctrines are closely connected with -modern Spiritualistic theories. - -This celebrated Councillor wrote that the soul, the spiritual essence -which animates the organism, may be distracted and separated from the -body for an instant, as we see in cases of ecstacy. - -Now, we know that this nervous phenomenon, which may be _natural_, when -connected with catalepsy, hysteria and somnambulism, or _provoked_ when -it is produced experimentally on subjects in a hypnotic condition, -almost always coincides with an acute moral impression and a suspension -of one or more of the senses. It is during the duration of this -phenomenon that the soul, according to Leloyer, performs far-off -journeys,—not orthodox, however, for we are told that during the period -of such ecstacies, following cataleptic immobility, seven of these -ecstatics were burned alive at Nantes in 1549. - -In another chapter, he adds that souls may, after death, impress -themselves on our senses by taking fantastic forms. He supports -this opinion by the incident relative to a daughter of the famous -Juriscouncillor of the sixteenth century, Charles Dumoulin, who -appeared to her husband and told him the names of assassins; and of the -specter who informed the Justice of the crime committed by the woman -Sornin on her husband, that the soul of Commodus appeared so often to -Caracalla. - -The author of the _Spectres_ attributes to supernatural beings the -frights experienced by certain persons who live in haunted houses. -Every night they are awakened by the sound of noises,—blows resound -on the floor and raps come on the partitions; every few minutes there -are peals of ghostly laughter, whistling, clapping of hands to attract -attention; these nervous persons see spirits and are startled at sudden -apparitions of the dead; specters seize them by the feet, nose, ears, -and even go so far as sit on their chests. Such houses are said to be -the rendezvous of demons. - -The persons spoken of by Leloyer _are to-day known as mediums producing -physical effects_, and the phenomena observed centuries since are -evidently the same as those investigated by William Crookes, with the -collaboration of Kate Fox and Home.[55] - -“In the ecstacy of sorcerers,” resumes Leloyer, “the soul is present, -but is so preoccupied by the impressions that it receives from the -Devil, that it cannot act on the body it animates. On awaking, such -ecstatics may remember things they have seen, events in which they have -assisted, as in the case when the soul temporarily abandons its earthly -tenement.” - -Meanwhile, it is but fair to observe that the author makes certain -reservations; he admits that ecstacy and hallucination may be provoked -by a pathological condition of the nervous system, and are not always -the result of the work of demons. He also comments on a certain number -of vampires remaining in a lethargic sleep, from a nervous condition, -after returning from a sorcerer’s vigil, a fact which, according to -Calmeil, was of a nature to throw the theories of the Councillors of -the Inquisition into disfavor. - -The theory of the author of _Spectres_ resembles considerably, as will -at once be noticed, that of the first Magii and the modern doctrine -of Spiritualism. Leloyer, besides, has gathered a number of facts to -support his affirmations; among others, he cites the observation given -him by Philip de Melanchton, the learned Hellenist and author of the -famous confession of Augsburg. This was a spiritual manifestation -experienced by the widow of Melanchton’s uncle: One day, while weeping -and thinking of the dear lost one, two spirits appeared to her -suddenly,—“one habited in the stately, dignified form of her husband, -the other specter in the garb of a gray friar. The one representing her -husband approached her and said a few consoling words, touched her hand -and disappeared with his monkish companion.” - -Melanchton, although one of the chiefs of the Reformation, was still -imbued with the ideas of the Romish Church; after some hesitation he -concluded that the specters seen by his aunt were demons. The same -phenomena have been observed by modern _mediums_; William Crookes, the -celebrated London scientist, relates facts to which he has been witness -which are even more extraordinary than the one we have just narrated. - -Jerome Cardan, of Paris, the celebrated mathematician, renowned for -his discovery of the formula for resolving cubic equations, solemnly -affirmed that he had a protecting spirit, and never doubted the reality -of this apparition. Cardan also tells how his father one evening -received a visit from seven specters, who did not fear to enter into an -argument with the learned old man. - -Imagination, exalted by chimerical fear of demons, sees the work of -these evil-doing spirits on every hand, in gambling, in sickness, in -accidents, in infirmity, in all the ordinary accidents of life. The -sorcerers are accused of attacking man’s virility by witchcraft. The -victims say that some one has knotted their private organs (_noue -l’aiguilette_). This pretended catastrophe in magic, the origin of -which dates back to times of antiquity, may be classed among abnormal -physiological effects under the influence of a moral cause, fear, -timidity, and certainly the suggestion of a feeble mind. - -Such are the sorcerers that Bodin accuses, perhaps not without reason -always, since we see that impotency in some young melancholic subjects -who appear easily impressed with fantastic notions. - -“Sorcerers,” says Bodin, “have the power to remove but a single organ -from the body, that is, the virile organ; this thing they often do -in Germany, often hiding a man’s privates in his belly, and in this -connection Spranger tells of a man at Spire who thought he had lost -his privates and visited all the physicians and surgeons in the -neighborhood, who could find nothing where the virile organs had once -been, neither wound nor scar; but the victim having made peace with the -sorcerer, to his great joy soon had his treasure restored.” - - -There was no need of this kind of witchcraft, _pour nouer -l’aiguilette_, in a timid boy, already subjugated by fear of the devil. -Certainly, if the sorcerers had ideas of that force which is known -to-day as _suggestion_, they could very easily destroy the virile power -of the subject by governing his will and thoughts, his physical and -moral personality. When we can confiscate the physical anatomy of a -man he is reduced to all manner of impotencies. Who will affirm that -suggestion is not one of the mysteries of sorcery? - - -DEMONOLOGICAL PHYSICIANS. - -After the theosophists, theurgists, and the priests, we will now -interrogate the writings of the physicians of antiquity and of the -Middle Ages, as to this question of spirits and their connection with -the affairs of mankind. - -We see that Galen is often drawn away by the beliefs of his time, to -the most ridiculous prejudices and fancies, and that he is the defender -of magical conjurations. He claimed that Æsculapius appeared to him one -day in a dream and advised bleeding in the treatment of pleurisy by -which he was attacked. - -After Galen, Soranus of Ephesus used magical chants for curing certain -affections. Scribonius Largus, a contemporary of the Emperor Claudius, -indicated the manner of gathering plants, so that they might possess -the strongest healing properties (the left hand must be raised to -the Moon). Plants thus gathered cured even serpent bites. Archigenes -suspended amulets on the necks of his patients. And although Pliny -often declared that he wished “to examine everything in nature and -not to speculate on occult causes” he reproduces in his works all the -superstitious practices employed in medicine. - -In the sixth century, Ætius, physician to the Court of Constantinople, -acquired great surgical renown by the preparation of applications of -pomades, ointments, and other topical remedies, in which superstition -played a leading _role_.[56] Thus, in making a certain salve it was -necessary to repeat several times in a low voice, “May the God of -Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob accord efficacy to this medicine.” If one had -a foreign body in the throat it was necessary to touch the neck of the -patient and say, “As Jesus Christ raised Lazarus, and Jonah came out -of a whale, come out thou bone”; or, better still, “The Martyr Blase -and the Servant of Christ commands thee to come out of the throat or -descend to the stomach.”[57] - -After Ætius, we see Alexander of Tralles indulge in the same follies. -In the colic he bids us use a stone on which is represented Hercules -seated on a lion, a ring of iron on which was inscribed a Greek -sentence, and, on the other, the diagram of the Gnostics (a figure -composed of two equilateral triangles); and he adds that sacred things -must not be profaned. - -Against the gout, the same Alexander of Tralles recommended a verse -from Homer, or, better still, to engrave on a leaf of gold the words -_mei_, _dreu_, _mor_, _phor_, _teus_, _za_, _zown_. He conjured, by the -words _Iao_, _Sabaoth_, _Adonai_, _Eloi_, a plant he employed in the -same disease. In quotidian fever he advised an amulet made of an olive -leaf on which was written in ink, _Ka Poi. A._[58] - -In the thirteenth century, Hugo de Lucques said a _Pater noster_ and -other prayers to the Trinity to cure fractures of the limbs. But -in the following century astrology replaced the magic of religious -superstition. Arnauld de Villeneuve attributed to each hour of the -day a particular virtue which influenced, according to the influence -of the horoscope, the different parts of the body. According to -Arnauld, we can use bleeding only on certain days when such and such -a constellation is in place, and no other time; but the position of -the moon more particularly needed attention. The most favorable time -for phlebotomy was when Luna was found in the sign of Cancer; but the -conjunction of the latter with Saturn is injurious to the effects of -medicines, and especially of purgatives.[59] - -His contemporary, Bernard de Gordon (of Montpellier), gives as a sure -method of hastening difficult accouchments the reading of passages from -the Psalms of David. He explains the humors of certain hours of the day -in the following manner: the blood in the morning moves towards the -sun, with which it is in harmony; but it falls towards evening, because -the greatest amount of sanguification occurs during sleep. In the third -hour of the day the bile runs downwards, to the end that it may not -make the blood acid;[60] the black bile moves at the ninth hour and the -mucus towards evening. - -The efficacy of precious stones for bewitching, and many other -superstitious ideas, were likewise noted by medical authors, notably -Italian writers, as, for instance, Michel Savonarola, Professor at -Ferrara, one of the most celebrated physicians of his age. In Germany, -Agrippa of Nettesheim, philosopher, alchemist and physician, had a -predilection for magic and the occult sciences, if we are to judge from -his works published in 1530 and 1531, _i.e._, _De incertitudianæ et -vanitate scientiarum_, _De occulta philosophia_, in which he mentions -action induced at a distance and forsees the discovery of magnetism. - -Like him, his contemporaries, Raymond Lulle, in Spain, and J. Reuchlin, -published books on the Cabala (_Kabbala_), and, in Italy, Porta -founded, at Naples, the _Academy of Secrets_, for the development -of occult sciences, which are explained in his treatise _De Magia -Naturali_. - -At almost the same epoch, Paracelsus, Professor at Basle, claimed that -he possessed the universal panacea; that he had found the secret of -prolonging life, by magic and astrology, for he diagnosed diseases -through the influence of the stars. After him, Van Helmont defended -animal magnetism, and gave himself up to the study of occult science, -in company with his student, Rodolphe Goclenius. - -In the sixteenth century, Fernel, who, inasmuch as he was a -mathematician and an astronomer, published his _Cosmotheria_, where he -indicated the means of measuring a meridian degree with exactitude; his -remarkable works on physiology (_De naturali parte medicinæ_, 1542), -on pathology and therapeutics, which gave him the nickname of the -French Galen. Fernel fully admitted the action of evil spirits on the -body of man; he believed that adorers of the Demons could, by the aid -of imprecations, enchantments, invocations and talismans, draw fallen -angels into the bodies of their enemies, and that these Demons could -then cause serious sickness. He compared the _possessed_ to maniacs, -but that the former had the gift of reading the past and divining the -most secret matters. He affirmed that he had been witness of a case of -delirium caused by the presence of the Devil in a patient, that which -was denied by several doctors at the epoch.[61] He also believed in -lycanthropy.... In the same century, another of our medical glories, -Ambroise Pare, the Father of French surgery, also adopted the theory -of the Inquisitors regarding sorcery in his works,[62] in which may -be found his remarkable anatomical and surgical discoveries. We read -the following quaintly conceived passage: “Demons can suddenly change -themselves into any form they wish; one often sees them transformed -into serpents, frogs, bats, crows, goats, mules, dogs, cats, wolves, -and bulls; they can be transmuted into men as well as into angels -of light; they howl in the night and make infernal noises as though -dragging chains, _they move chairs and tables_, rock cradles, turn the -leaves of books, count money, throw down buckets, etc., etc. They are -known by many names, such as cacodemons, incubi, succubi, coquemares, -witches, hobgoblins, goblins, bad angels, Satan, Lucifer, etc. - -“The actions of Satan are supernatural and incomprehensible, passing -human understanding, and we can no more understand them than we can -comprehend why the loadstone attracts the needle. Those who are -possessed by demons can speak with the tongue drawn out of their mouth, -through the belly and by other natural parts; they speak unknown -languages, cause earthquakes, make thunder, clear up the weather, drag -up trees by the roots, move a mountain from one place to another, raise -castles in the air and put them back in their places without injury, -and can fascinate and dazzle the human eye. - -“_Incubi_ are demons in the disguise of men, who copulate with female -sorcerers; _succubi_ are demons disguised as women, who practice vile -habits not only on sleeping, but wakeful men.” - -“Ambroise Pare,” says Calmeil, “believed that demons _hoarded up -all kinds of foreign bodies in their victims’ persons_, such as -old netting, bones, horse-shoes, nails, horsehair, pieces of wood, -serpents, and other curious odds and ends, and cites the wellknown case -of Ulrich Neussersser.” - -The celebrated surgeon concludes from this that “it was the Devil -who made the iron blades and other articles found in the stomach and -intestines of the unfortunate Ulrich.” - -What would Pare have thought had he seen the strange objects so -commonly found by modern surgeons in ovarian cysts? How many demons -would it take to produce the numerous objects noticed at the present -day? - -Happily these demonological physicians accepted purely and simply the -suggestion that demons could act on men, and abandoned the victims to -the tender mercy of the theologians and their tools the lawyers. Yet, -even in this time of atrocities there were a few courageous physicians -who struggled for humanity as against ecclesiastical despotism. Let us -quote, according to Calmeil, one Francoise Ponzinibus, who destroyed -one by one all the arguments that served to support the criminal code -against demons. It was this brave doctor who dared to write that -demonidolatry constituted a true disease; that all the sensations -leading the ignorant to believe in _spirits_ who adored the Devil were -due to a depraved moral and physical condition; that it was false that -certain persons could isolate their souls from their bodies at night -and thus leave their homes for far off places inhabited by demons; -that the accouplement of sorcerers and all the crimes attributed to -them could not be logically supposed but must be legally proven; that -it was cruel and atrocious to burn demented people at the stake for -witchcraft. - -Let us also quote from Andre Alciat, another courageous physician, who -dared accuse an Inquisitor of murdering a multitude of insane people on -the plea of witchcraft. He considered the vigil (_sabbat_) of sorcerers -as an absurd fiction, and saw in so-called _possessed_ only so many -poor demented women given over to fanatical delusions and wild dreams. - -Paul Zacchias, the author of “Medico-Legal Questions” (_Questiones -Medico-legales_), a work in which he shows himself to be as wise -an alienist as Doctor of Laws. The avowed and open enemy of -supernaturalism, he boldly denounced the cruelties committed against -the demented. - -Let us finally inscribe on the roll of honor, with our respects, the -name of Jean Wier,[63] or rather of Joannes Wierus, physician to the -Duke of Cleves, who studied in Paris, where he received the degree -of doctor, and was afterwards the disciple of Cornelius Agrippa, -a partisan of demonology. Like the latter, Jean Weir believed in -astrology, alchemy, the cabala, sorcerers and female mediums; likewise -in demons who possessed control of human beings through magic power. -But in his works that he published in 1560 he proclaims the innocence -of those unfortunates punished for witchcraft, and declares them to -have been insane and melancholic; likewise asserting that they could -have been cured by proper treatment. He declares that he is fully -persuaded that sorcerers, witches, and lycanthropic patients who were -burned at the stake were crazy people whose reason had been overthrown; -and that the faults imputed to these unfortunates were dangerous to -none but themselves; that the possessed were dupes to false sensations -that had been experienced during the time of their ecstatic transports -or in their sleep. - -Weir[64] insisted that the homicidal monomania attributed to the -inhabitants of Vaud should not be credited, and was not except by fools -and fanatics; while the so-called vampires, whose blood was shed on the -banks of Lake Leman, the borders of the Rhine, and on the mountains of -Savoy, had never been guilty of crimes, nor murders especially, and -cites cases of condemnation where the _insanity_ or _imbecility_ of the -victims was incontestible. He declares, in general, that all sorcerers -are irresponsible, that they are insane, and that the devils possessing -them can be combatted without exorcism. “Above all,” says he to the -judges and executioners, “do not kill, do not torture. Have you fear -that these poor frightened women have not suffered enough already? -Think you they can have more misery than that they already suffer? -Ah! my friends, even though they merited punishment, rest assured of -one thing, _that their disease is enough_.” Beautiful words, worthy -of a grand philosopher. Born in the sixteenth century, he believed in -magic and sorcery; but as a physician he pleaded for the saving of -human life, and as a man he frowned down the crimes committed on the -scaffold. “The duty of the monk,” says he, “is to study how to cure the -soul rather than to destroy it.” Alas! he preached his doctrine in the -barren desert of ecclesiastical fanaticism. - -Although, less well known than those names just mentioned, we must -not forget to note that group of talented men who contributed with -Ponzinibus, Alciat, Zacchias and Jean Wier in the restoration to -medicine of the study of facts, thus freeing the healing art of many -speculative ideas derived from the Middle Ages; we allude to such men -as Baillou, Francois de la Boe (_Sylvius_), Felix Plater, Sennert, -Willis, Bonet, and many other gallant souls who assisted in freeing -medicine from the religious autocracy that overshadowed it,—men who -were the _avant couriers_ of modern positivism. - -Many of those who had preceded these writers had been learned men and -remarkable physicians, to whom anatomy, clinical medicine and surgery -owed important discoveries, but the majority of these were not brave -enough to defend their intelligence against religious superstitions. -In some instances, indeed, they were even the criminal accessories of -the theologians and inquisitors. In acting in adhesion to Demonological -ideas, their very silence on grand psychological questions evidences -their weakness,—we are sorry to say this,—and lowers them from the high -position of humanitarians; the masses of the people of the Middle Ages -owed the majority of their medical savants nothing on the score of -liberty of conscience. - - - THE BEWITCHED, POSSESSED, SORCERERS AND DEMONOMANIACS. - -In order to fully comprehend the Demonomania of the Middle Ages, it is -necessary to previously analyze the different elements composing the -medical constitution of the epoch, and, investigate under what morbid -influences such strange _neuroses_ were produced. - -These influences, we shall find from thence, in the state of -intellectual and moral depression provoked by the successive -pestilential epidemics, which, from the sixth century decimated the -population of Western Europe; in the disposition of the human mind -towards supernaturalism, which had invaded all classes of society; in -the terrors excited by the tortures of an ever flaming and eternal -hell; in the fright, caused by the cruel and atrocious decisions of -brutal Inquisitors, and their fanatical tools, the officers of the -law. We find too, that a frightful condition of misery had weakened -the inhabitants of city and country, morally and physically, inducing -a multitude of women to openly enter into prostitution for protection -and nutrition, owing to the iniquity of a despotic regime; then too, -there were added bad conditions of hygiene and moral decadence, so that -intelligence was sapped and undermined, together with a breaking down -of the vitality of the organism. - -In the recital of the miseries of the Middle Age, made by a master -hand, by an illustrious historian, who bases his assertions on antique -chronicles whose veracity cannot be questioned, we read the following: -“Society was impressed with a profound sentiment of sadness, it was -as though a pall of grief covered the generation; the whole world -given over to plagues; the invasion by barbarians; horrible diseases; -terrible famines decimating the masses by starvation; violent wind -storms; greyish skies with foggy days; the darkness of night casting -its shroud everywhere; a cry of lamentation ascends to Heaven through -all this gruesome period. That sombre witness, our contemporary Glaber, -fully indicates the position of society devoured by war, famine and the -plague. It was thought that the order of seasons and the laws of the -elements, that up to that period governed the world, had fallen back -into the original chaos. It was thought that the end of the human race -had arrived.”[65] - -When the epidemic of Demonomania attacked the earth, at the end of -the fifteenth century, more than ten generations had undergone the -depressive action of the superstitions and false ideas spread broadcast -by religion. Heredity had prepared the earth, the human mind being in -an absolute condition of receptivity for all pathological actions. The -education of children was confined to teaching them foolish doctrines, -diabolical legends, mysterious practices that weakened their judgments. -With the progression, from childhood to majority, a vague sentiment -of uneasiness was experienced with a constant preoccupation on the -subject of conscience and sin. In full adult age, as we have observed, -came religious monomania, with acute sexual excitement, and persistent -erotic ideas. - -Arriving at this phase of the situation, some became theomaniacs, -others demonomaniacs, saying they were possessed by sorcery, under the -influence of genesic and other senses, with psychal hallucinations, and -in some cases, psycho-sensorial illusions. These fictitious perception -were produced either through the influence of the mind, assailed by -supernatural conceptions, or by morbid impressions transmitted most -often by the great sympathetic, or, finally, by an unknown action -arising from the exterior. - -Under the influence of these hallucinations, which manifested -themselves in a state of somnambulism, or during physiological sleep, -the recollection persisting to the after awakening, the Demonomaniac -responded to those asking questions, that he had heard the confused -noises made by the sorcerers at their _vigil_, had heard also the -conversation of the devils, and had seen scenes of the wildest -prostitution enacted by the demons; that fantastic animals were -perceived; that strange odors of a diabolical nature, the savor of -rotten meat, and corrupt human flesh, tainted blood of new born babes, -and other noisome things had been smelled; that these effluvias were -horrible, repulsive, nauseating, combined with the stink of sorcerers -and the sulphurous vapors of magical perfumes; that he felt himself -touched by supernatural beings who had the lightness of smoke or mist, -and wafted away in the air. The hallucinations of the genital senses -had led him to believe he had carnal connection, always of a painful -nature, with succubi. When the victim to these delusions was a woman, -she had the impression of having been brutally violated or deflowered, -and some women declared they oftentimes experienced the voluptuous -sensations of an amorous coition. - -These hallucinations developed one after the other; those belonging to -the anesthetized class, coming first, those belonging to the genesic -class, coming last. The complexity of their symptoms produced what -we call _dedoublement_, or a dual personality. Those _possessed_, -claimed to be in the power of a demon, who entered their body by one -of the natural passages, sporting with their person, placing itself in -apposition with any place in their organism, proposing all sorts of -erotic acts, natural and unnatural, whispering shameless propositions -in their ears, blasphemy against God, forcing them to sign a contract -with the Devil in their own blood. - -The nervous state in which such weak minded creatures were found, -victims to nocturnal hallucinations, insensibly induced a species of -permanent somnambulism, during which they acquired a particularly -morbid personality. They affirmed themselves to be sorcerers possessed -by demons. When this personality disappeared, and the patient returned -to a normal condition, a simple suggestion was all sufficient to cause -the reappearance of the hallucination. This explains why so many -individuals accused of sorcery, denied at first what they afterwards -affirmed. When the Judge demanded with an air of authority, what -they had done at the witch meeting, (_vigil_), they entered into a -most precise recital of minute details, and all the circumstances -surrounding the nocturnal reunions of demons and their victims; and, by -reason of this crazy avowal, or so called confession were burned at the -stake for participation in diabolical practices. - -In the _Chronicles of Enguarrand, of Monstrelet_, a truthful and -trustworthy historian of the incidents of his time, we find a -description of the famous _epidemics_ of sorcery in Artois, which -caused such a multitude of victims to be burnt at the stake, by order -of the Inquisition. The facts recounted by this celebrated writer -support the interpretations we have given to these phenomena. He -expresses himself as follows: - -“In 1459, in the village of Arras, in the country of Artois, came a -terrible and pitiable case of what we named _Vaudoisie_. I know not -why.” “Those possessed, who were men and women, said that they were -carried off every night by the Devil, from places where they resided, -and suddenly found themselves in other places, in woods or deserts, -when they met a great number of other men and women, who consorted with -a large Devil in the disguise of a man, who never showed his face. -And this Demon read, and prescribed laws and commandments for them, -which they were obliged to obey; then made his assembled guests kiss -his buttocks; after which, he presented each adept a little money, -and feasted them on wines and rich foods, after which the lights were -suddenly extinguished, and strange men and women knew each other -carnally in the darkness, after which they were suddenly wafted through -space, back to their own habitations, and awakened as if from a dream. - -“This hallucination was experienced by several notable persons of the -city of Arras, and other places, men and women, _who were so terribly -tormented, that they confessed_, and in confessing, acknowledged that -they had seen at these witch reunions many prominent persons, among -others, prelates, nobles, Governors of towns and villages, _so that -when the judges examined them, they put the names of the accused in the -mouths of those who testified_, and they persisted in such statements -although forced by pains and tortures to say that they had seen -otherwise, and the innocent parties named were likewise put in prison, -and tortured so much, that confessions were forced from them; and -_these too, were burned at the stake most inhumanely_. - -“Some of those accused who were rich and powerful escaped death by -paying out money; others were reduced into making confessions on the -promise that in _case they confessed their lives and property would be -spared_. Some there were indeed who suffered torments with marvelous -patience, not wishing to confess on account of creating prejudice -against themselves; many of these gave the Judges large bribes in money -to relieve them from punishment. Others fled from the country on the -first accusation, and afterwards proved their perfect innocence.”[66] - -Calmeil considers this narrative of so-called sorcery as a delirium, -prevailing epidemically in Artois, where “many insane persons were -executed,” although he is forced to add: “these facts lead us to -foresee what misfortunes pursued the false disciples of Satan in former -times.” - -These neuroses of the inhabitants of Artois had already been observed, -almost half a century previous, among a class of sectarians by the name -of the _Poor of Lyons_. These people were designated in the Romanesque -tongue as _faicturiers_, the word _faicturerie_ meaning sorcerer, or -one who believes in magic. Demonomania then evidently dated back to the -very commencement of the Middle Ages. - -The judgment of the tribunals of Arras, which condemned the sorcerers -of Artois to be burned alive at the stake, is a curious document in -old French, which merits a short notice at least, for it is supported -on the following considerations, which were accepted as veracious, -although merely the delirious conceptions of ignorant peasants: - -“When one wished to go to the witch reunion (_vigil_), it was only -necessary to take some magical ointment, rubbed on a yard stick, and -also a small portion rubbed on the hands. This yard stick or broomstick -placed between the legs, permitted one to fly where he willed over -mountain and dale, over sea and river, and carried one to the Devil’s -place of meeting, where were to be found tables loaded down with fine -eatables and drinkables. There was also the Devil himself, in the form -of a monkey, a dog or a man, as the case might be, and to him one -pledged obedience and rendered homage; in fact one adored the Devil and -presented unto him his soul. Then the possessed kissed the Devil’s -rear—kissing it goat fashion in a butting attitude. After having eaten -and taken drink, all the assemblage assumed carnal forms; even the -Devil took the disguise of man or sometimes woman. Then the multitude -committed the crime of sodomy and other horrible and unnatural -acts—sins against God that were so wholly contrary to nature that the -aforesaid Inquisitor says he does not even dare to name, they are too -terrible and wicked ever to mention to innocent ears, crimes as brutal -as they were cruel.”[67] - -Among these sorcerers there was a poet, a painter and an old Abbot, who -passed for an amateur in the mysteries of Isis. Perhaps the Inquisition -pursued such individuals as sorcerers and heretics, knowing them to be -given over to debauchery. Similar things occurred as before said very -early in the Middle Ages.([68]) - -As also before mentioned, there were demons who cohabited with women at -night, and sometimes with men, called _incubi_ and _succubi_, following -as they were active, (_incubare_, to lie upon), or passive, (_sub -cubare_, to lie under). - -Calmeil has written, that virgins dedicated to chastity by holy laws -were frequently visited by these demons, disguised in the image of -Christ, or of an angel, or seraphim. Sometimes the Devil took the form -of the Holy Virgin, and attempted to seduce young monks from paths of -piety. “Having impressed the victims with the power of beauty,” says -the sage alienist,([69]) “the wicked demon then got into the bed of the -young girl, or young man, as the case might be, and sought to seduce -them through shameful practices. The Gods, so say the ancients, often -sought the society of the daughters of Princes; these pretended Gods -were nothing but demons. A Devil possessed Rhea, under the form of -Mars, and this succubus passed for Venus the day Anchises thought he -cohabited with the Godess of beauty. - -“The demon incubi accosted by preference fallen women, under the form -of a black man, or goat. From times immemorial, damned spirits have -attacked certain females, under the form of lascivious brutes. Hairy -satyrs or shags, fauns and sylvains were only disguised incubi. - -The connections between the _possessed_ and _incubi_ were often -accompanied by a painful sensation of compression in the epigastric -region, with impossibility of making the least movement, the victim -could not speak or breathe. She had all the phenomena noticeable in an -attack of nightmare. Meantime, some had different sensations. A nun of -Saint Ursula, named Armella, said that she seemed “always in company -with demons who tempted her to surrender her honor. During five months, -while this combat lasted, it was impossible to sleep at night, by -reason of the specters, who assumed varied and monstrous shapes.”[70] -This virtuous nun preserved her chastity notwithstanding the frightful -ordeal. - -Angele de Foligno accused the incubi, says Martin del Rio, of beating -her without pity, of putting fire in her generative organs, and -inspiring her with infernal lubricity. There was no portion of her body -that was not bruised by the attack of these demons, and the lady was -not able to rise from her bed. - -Another nun, named Gertrude, cited by Jean Wier, avowed that from the -age of fourteen years, she had slept with Satan in person, and that the -Devil had made love to her, and often wrote her letters full of the -most tender and passionate expressions. A letter was found in this poor -nun’s cell, on the 25th of March, 1565. This amorous epistle was full -of the details of the Demon’s nocturnal debaucheries. - -Bodin, in his “Demonomania” gives the observation of Jeanne Hervillier, -who was burned alive, by sentence of the Parliament of Paris. She -confessed to her Judges, that she had been presented to the Devil, by -her grandmother, at the age of twelve years. “A Devil in the form of a -large black man, who dressed in a black suit and rode a black horse. -This Devil had carnal intercourse with her, the same as men have with -women, only without seed. This sin had been continued every ten, or -fifteen days, even after she married and slept with her husband.” - -This same author reports many instances of the same kind. Among others, -that of Madelaine de la Croix, Abbess of a nunnery in Spain, who went -to Pope Paul III., confessing, that from the age of twelve years, -she had relations with a demon, _in the form of a Moor_, and, that -for more than thirty years this commerce had been continued. Bodin -firmly believes, that this nun had been presented to Satan, “_from -the belly of her mother_,” and affirms that “such copulations are -neither illusions, nor diseases.” In his work, he also gives extracts -of the interrogatories put to the Sorcerers of Longni, in the presence -of Adrien de Fer, Lieutenant General of Laon. These sorcerers were -condemned to be burnt at the stake, for having commerce with incubi. -He mentions Marguerite Bremond, who avowed that she had been led off -one evening, by her own mother, to a reunion of Demons, and “found in -this place six devils in human shape, but hideous to behold. After the -demon dance was finished, the devils returned to the couches with the -girls, and one cohabited with her for the space of half an hour, but -she escaped conception, as he was seedless.” - -One of the distinctive characters of demons, was their infectious -stink, which exhaled from all portions of the body. This odor -attributed to the Devil was an hallucination to the sense of smell -which entered, like those of the genesic sense, into all the complex -hallucinations of Demonomania. - -Examples of men cohabiting with demons, are cited by many authors of -the Middle Ages. Gregory of Tours has left us the record of Eparchius, -Bishop of Auvergne, who cohabited with succubi. - -Jerome Cardan, physician and Italian mathematician, tells of a priest -who cohabited for over fifty years, with a demon disguised as a woman. - -Pic de Mirandolle, relates how another priest had commerce for over -forty years with a beautiful succubus, whom he called Hermione. Bodin -recounts the story of Edeline, the Prior of a religious community in -Sorbonne. An adversary of Demonomaniacal doctrines, Edeline was accused -by the theologians of defending demons. Before the Tribunal the Prior -declared that he had been visited by Satan, in the form of a black ram, -and had prostituted his body to an incubus, and only obeyed his master -in preaching that sorcery was a chimerical invention. “Although the -proof furnished by the registers of the Tribunal of Poitiers,” remarks -Calmeil, “leaves no doubt as to the alienation of the intellectual -faculties at the moment of his trial, Edeline was none the less -condemned to perpetual seclusion from the world.” - -As another striking example of hallucination, bearing upon this -question of incubism, Guibert de Nogent tells of a monk, “who was sick, -and retained the services of a Jew doctor. In exchange for health, the -aforesaid physician, demanded a sacrifice. ‘What sacrifice?’ asked -the monk. ‘The sacrifice of that which is the most precious to men,’ -answered the Jew. ‘What may that be?’ inquired the monk. And the -demon, for it was the Devil disguised as a doctor, had the audacity to -explain. ‘Oh curses! Oh shame! to require such a thing of a priest’—but -the victim, nevertheless, did what was asked. It was the denial of -Christ and the true faith.” - -Like psycho-sensorial hallucinations of the other senses, that of -the genesic sense may assume the erotic type of disease, and is due -undoubtedly, in some men, to a repletion of the spermatic vesicules. It -is this that Saint Andre, physician in ordinary to Louis XIV., gives -as an explanation of incubism. “The incubus,”[71] says this writer, -“a chimera that had for its foundation only a dream, an over excited -imagination, too often a longing after women; artifice had no less a -part in the creation of the incubus,—a woman, a girl, only a devotee in -name, already long before debauched, but desiring to appear virtuous -to hide her crime, passes off the offenses of some lover as the act of -a demon; this is the ordinary explanation. In this artifice the woman -is often aided by the _suggestions_ of the man—a man who has heard -_succubi_ speaking to him in his sleep, usually sees most beautiful -women in his dreams, which, under such circumstances, are often -erotic.” - -It is certain that an ardent imagination and exaggerated sexual -appetite have played a leading _role_ in the history of _incubi_, but, -meantime, there may be exceptions. - -Nicholas Remy, Inquisitor of Lorraine, has given a description of -_impurities_ committed between demons and sorcerers, according to the -testimony given by those _possessed_.[72] Fortunately, he has only -given a Latin version of what they have told him. He states: “_Hic -igitur, sive vir incubet, sive succubet fœmina, liberum in utroque -naturæ debet esse officium, nihilque omnino intercedere quod id vel -minimum moretur atque impediat, si pudor, metus, horror, sensusque, -aliquis acrior ingruit; il icet ad irritum redeunt omnia e lumbis -affœaque prorsus sit natura_.” - -Then comes the sentence of the four girls of Vosges, according to -the confessions, who were named Nanette, Claudine, Nicola, and -Didace, and of whom Nicholas Remy, fortunately for the masses of the -profession, only speaks in Latin, lest modesty be shocked at the -narration. “_Alexia Drigæa recensuit doémoni suo pœnem, cum surrigebat -tentum semper extitisse quanti essent subices focarii, quos tum -forte præsentes digito demonstrabat; scroto ac coleis nullis inde -pendentibus_, etc.” (We forbear from further quotation and for fuller -particulars refer the reader to the original.) - -Were these girls attacked by a malady, a complex hallucination of the -senses that led them to firmly believe they were possessed or owned -by a supernatural being who obliged them to abdicate their free will -in his favor? Were they only, after all, prostitutes suffering from -nymphomania? We can only insist that prostitution, or a low standard -of morality, enters largely into the history of those _possessed_ by -incubi. - -Aside from imaginary _vigils_ (Sabbat), supposed to be frequented -by those who were really insane, it is well to remember there -were numerous houses of prostitution, conducted by old bawds and -unscrupulous panderers, where nightly orgies occurred and scenes of -wild debauchery were common. The real sorcerers boasted of their magic -and their relations with demons, but, in reality, they knew nothing -except the art of compounding stupefying drugs, of which they made -every possible use. Having passed their entire lives in vice, their -passions, instead of becoming extinct, were exalted by age. “Before -ever becoming sorcerers,” remarks Professor Thomas Erastus, “these -_lamia_ (magicians) were libidinous and in close relation with the Evil -One.”[73] - -Pierre Dufour, the celebrated bibliomaniac, made a very lengthy and -learned investigation as to the connection of sorcery with the social -evil, and reaped a veritable harvest of facts, duly authenticated by -the histories of trials for the crime of Demonidolatry, arriving at the -conclusion that sorcery made fewer dupes than victims. Says Dufour: -“Aside from a very small number of credulous magicians and sorcerers, -all who were initiated in the mysteries served, or made others serve, -in the abominable commerce of debauchery. The _vigil_ offered a fine -opportunity as a spot for such turpitudes. Such reunions of hideous -companies of libertines and prostitutes was for the profit of certain -knaves, and the sorcerers’ assemblage was patronized by many misguided -young women, who fell from grace through libidinous fascination.” - -Meantime, sorcery persisted always, notwithstanding judgments and -executions. In the year 1574, on the denunciation of an old demented -hag, eighty peasants were burned alive at Valery, in Savoy. Three years -later nearly four hundred inhabitants of Haut-Languedoc perished for -the same offense. In 1582 an immense number of so-called sorcerers were -executed at Avignon. From 1580 to 1595 nine hundred persons accused of -witchcraft were put to death. - -In 1609, in the country of Labourde (Basses Pyrenees), the prisons were -overcrowded with men, women and children accused of sorcery. Fires for -stake-burnt victims lit up all the villages in the Province, and the -courts spared no one. Many of these unfortunates accused themselves -of believing in the demons of sorcery and having visited diabolical -gatherings (_vigils_), where they had prostituted themselves to incubi. -Others, to whom the death penalty was meted out, were innocent persons -who had been _informed against_, but these, too, although denying all -charges, were condemned to be burnt alive. - -The same year some of the inhabitants of the country of Labourde, who -had sought refuge in Spain, were accused of having carried demons into -Navarre. Five of these unfortunates were burnt at the stake by order of -the Inquisition, one woman being strangled and burned after her death. -Even bodies were exhumed to be given to the flames. Eighteen persons -were permitted to make penance for their alleged sorceries. - -During two years, 1615 and 1616, twenty cases of Demonidolatry were -punished in Sologne and Berry; these persons were accused of being at -a vigil, without having been anointed with frictions however. An old -villain, aged seventy-seven years, named Nevillon, pretended to have -seen a procession of six hundred people, in which Satan took the shape -of a ram, or buck, and paid the sorcerers eight sous, for the murder -of a man, and five sous for the murder of a woman. They accused him of -having killed animals by the aid of his bewitchings. Nevillon was hung -along with those he accused. Another peasant, by the name of Gentil -Leclercq, avowed that he was the son of a sorcerer, that he had been -baptized at the _vigil_, by a demon called _Aspic_; he was condemned to -be hanged, and his body was burnt. The same it was in the case of a man -called Mainguet and his wife, together with one Antoinette Brenichon, -who asserted they had all three visited a witch reunion in company. - -An accusation of anthropophagy was launched against the inhabitants -of Germany, by Innocent VIII., in 1484, and a hundred women were also -accused of having committed murders, and cohabiting with demons. - -The Inquisitors inspired the story of Nider, on the Sorceries of the -Vaudois. They found, according to the testimony of certain witnesses, -that these Vaudois cut the throats of their infants, in order to -make magical philters, which would permit them to traverse space -to attend the _vigil_ of the witches, (_Sorcerers_). Other persons -_accused themselves_ of cohabiting with demons; some pretended they -had caused disasters, floods and tempests, by the influence they had -through Satan. Many submitted to the most horrible tortures with an -insensibility so complete, that the theologians concluded that the -fat of the first born males procured this demonological faculty for -bearing pain. This general anæsthesia permits us to affirm that these -unfortunates were neuropathic. - -It would be a difficult matter to establish the exact number of victims -offered up to the fanaticism of the Inquisition. Already, in 1436, the -inhabitants in the country of Vaud, Switzerland, had been accused of -anthropophagy, of eating their own children, in order to satisfy their -ferocious appetites. Some one said they had submitted to the Devil, -and raised the outcry that they had eaten thirteen persons within a -very short time. Immediately the Judge and the Prosecutor of Eude, -investigated the story. Failing to obtain the proof of eye witnesses, -they subjected, according to Calmeil, hundreds of unfortunates to the -tortures of the rack, after which a certain number were burned at the -stake. Entire families overpowered by terror, fled from home, and found -refuge in more hospitable lands; but fanaticism and death followed them -like a plague.[74] - -The moral and physical torture, undergone by those who were suspected -of this anthropophagical sorcery, made some of the victims confess that -they had the power to kill infants, by uttering charm words, and that -ointments made of baby fat gave them the power to fly through the air -at pleasure; that the practice of Demonic science permitted them to -cause cows and sheep to abort, and, that they could make thunder and -hail storms, and destroy the crops of others; that they could create -flood and pestilence, etc. This was the anthropophagical epidemic of -1436. - -The same observations might be made regarding what was known as -lycanthrophy, which always arose among the possessed and sorcerers; -that is to say crazy people, especially those of the monomaniac type, -accused themselves and others with imaginary crimes, in confessions -made to judges. As an example, we can cite the case of the peasant, -spoken of by Job Fincel, and also one mentioned by Pierre Burgot, -of Verdun, who did not hesitate to assert themselves to be guilty -of lycanthrophy. They were burned alive at Poligny, but the remains -of the five women and children, whose flesh they pretended to have -devoured, were never found. In order to transform themselves into -wolves, they claimed to use a pomade given them by the Devil; and, -while in a certain condition, they copulated with female wolves. Jean -Wier has written long essays on this last case of lycomania, and -thinks the malady of these two men was due to narcotics, of which they -made habitual use; but Calmeil is inclined to consider, that in a -general manner, lycomania is a partial delerium confined to homicidal -monomaniacs. This appreciation of the case seems justified by the -similar one of Gilles Gamier, who was convinced that he had killed four -children, and eaten their flesh. He was condemned to be burnt at the -stake at Dole, as a wehr-wolf, (_loupe garron_), and the peasants of -the suburbs were authorized by the same order to kill off all men like -him. But we must not conclude from this particular instance, that a -general law existed on the subject. - -In 1603, the Parliament of Bordeaux, thought itself liberal in -admitting attenuating circumstantial evidence, in the case of a boy -from Roche Chalais, named Jean Grenier, who was accused of lycanthropy, -by three young peasants. In the trial, no attempt was made to find -evidence, the accused confessed all that was desired, and he was -sentenced to imprisonment for life, before which verdict was announced, -the Court said, that having taken into consideration the age and -imbecility of this patient, who was so stupid that an idiot or child of -seven years would know better, it added mercy to the judgment.” - -He was then one of the imbeciles of the village, such as we see in -asylums for insane, whose presence we rid ourselves of by isolation in -charitable institutions. - -At the same epoch, in the space of two years, 1598 to 1600, we can -count the number of poor wretches of the Jura, whose poverty compelled -them to beg nourishment, and who were almost all condemned to death as -Demonidolators and lycanthropes. Ready and only too willing to leave -this world, these poor people answered all questions as to accusation -in the affirmative, and went to death with the greatest indifference. -The infamous prosecutor, Bouget, who was sent into the Jura as a -criminal agent, boasted that he had executed alone more than six -hundred of these innocents. - -The Inquistorial terror then reigned supreme; and it was only with -extreme difficulty, at that time, that a poor idiot, named Jacques -Roulet, condemned to death as a lycanthrope by the criminal Judge of -Angers, was placed in an asylum for idiots, by order of the Parliament -of Paris; this, too, in the seventeenth century. - - - THE HYSTERO-DEMONOMANIA OF THE CLOISTER. - -The demonomaniacal hysteria of the Cloister, of which we have -enumerated a few examples of a most remarkable kind, was present, in -the Middle Ages, in the form of an epidemic neurosis, characterized -by complex disturbances of the nervous system between the life of -relation and of organic life; that is to say, by functional symptoms -dependent on the general sensibility of the organs of sense, the active -organs of movement, and the intelligence. In our observations we shall -consequently recognize: - -_Hyperæsthesia and spasm of the stomach and abdominal organs_, in the -hallucination of poisoning by witches. - -_Hyperæsthesia of the ovary and the uterus and vagina_, from the -hallucination of painful cohabitation with incubi. - -_Spasms of the pharynx and laryngeal muscles_: coughs, screams and -barks of the prodromic period to convulsive attacks. - -_Vaso-motor disturbances_, in the cutaneous marks, which are attributed -to the Devil, but are simply produced by contact with some foreign body. - -_Somnambulism_, in the execution of movements (sometimes in opposition -with the laws of equilibrium), in a lucid state of mind, outside the -condition of wakefulness, with or without mediumistic faculties and -the conservation of memory; in the perception of sensations, without -the intervention of the senses; in sensorial hallucinations produced -by a simple touch; in _ecstasy_, with loss of tactile sense and -hallucinations of vision.[75] - -_Suggestion_, unconsciously provoked in rapid modifications of -sensibility, in alterations of motility, in automatic movements -executed in _imitation_ (_one form of suggestion_), or by the -domination of a foreign willpower, and, in general, _in the penetration -of an idea or phenomenon into the brain_, by word, gesture, sight, or -thought.[76] - -_Catalepsy_, in the immobility of the body, the fixity of the regard, -and the rigidity of the limbs in all attitudes, that we desire to place -them (_a very rare_ phenomenon). - -_Lethargy_, in the depression of all parts of the body, and a -predisposition on the part of the muscles to contract. - -_Delirium, finally_, in the impossibility of hoping to discern false -from true sensations. - -We find, after this, that in analyzing the principal symptoms of -hystero-demonomania, we easily note the characteristics of ordinary -hysterical folly; we see that _it always attacks_ by preference the -impressionable woman. She who is fantastic, superstitious, hungry for -notoriety, full of emotions,—one who possesses to the highest degree -the gift of assimilation and imitation,—the subject of nightmare, -nocturnal terrors, palpitations of the heart; a woman fickle in -sentiment, one passing easily from joy to sadness, from chastity to -lubricity,—a woman, in a word, who is capable of all manner of deceit -and simulation, a natural-born deceiver. - -The attacks of delirium among hystero-demonomaniacs have always a -pronounced acute character; but, although violent and repeated, they -are liable to disappear rapidly, and are often followed by relapse. -These attacks of delirium are observed: - -1. _Before the convulsive attacks_, under the form of melancholia or -agitation, with hallucinations of sight and hearing. - -2. _During convulsive attacks_, in the period of passional attitudes, -under the most varied forms, by gestures in co-ordination with the -hallucinations observed by the mind of the patient; we often see such -persons express the most opposite sentiments—piety, erotism, and terror. - -3. _After convulsive attacks_, in the form of despair, shame, rage, -sadness, with an abundant shedding of tears. - -4. _Without convulsive attacks_; in that case, the delirium may occur -at any period; it is masked hysteria, which has a very great analogy to -masked epilepsy. - -The delirium of these patients, _en resume_, has for essential -characteristics, exaltation of the intelligence, peculiar fixity of -ideas, perversion of the sentiments, absence of will power, tendency -to erotism. In a number of observations on delirium among hysterical -cases in a state of hypnotism recently published, patients have been -noted who believed that they cohabited with cats and monkeys, while -some had hallucinations of phantoms and assassins—visions that resulted -from complex hallucinations and have a certain similarity to those of -hystero-demonomania observed in the Middle Ages; and, if the demons -did not actually play the principle _role_ in these hallucinations, it -is because the imagination had not the anterior nourishment and belief -in supernaturalism and no faith in the sexual relations of demons with -mankind. - -It was in 1491, about the time Jeanne Pothiere was on trial, that it -was noticed that young girls in religious communities were subject -to an epidemic mental affection, which led its victims to declare -that they had fallen into the power of evil spirits. This species of -delirium betrayed itself to the eyes of its observers by a series of -strange and extravagant acts. These patients at once pretended to be -able to read the future and prophesy. (See Calmeil, work cited.) - -Abusive religious practices, false ideas of the future life, a tendency -to mysticism, the fear of Hell and the snares of the Devil, the -development of hysterical neurosis, in one subject, into suggestion -inherent to imitation; such was the succinct history of the epidemic -of the nuns of Cambrai. Jeanne Pothiere, their companion, denounced by -them, was condemned to perpetual imprisonment, for having cohabited -“434 times” (so the nuns said) with a Demon, and having introduced the -lustful devil into their before peaceful convent. For it could have -been nothing less than a demon that chased the poor young nuns across -the fields and assisted them to climb trees, where, suspended from the -branches, they were inspired to divine hidden things, to foretell the -future, and be the victims of convulsions. - -Sixty years later, in 1550, there suddenly occurred a great number of -hystero-demonomaniacal epidemics similar to that in the convent of -Cambrai. The nuns of Uvertet, following a strict fast, were attacked -by divers nervous disorders. During the night they heard groans, -when they burst out in peals of hysterical laughter; following this -manifestation, they claimed they were lifted out of their beds by a -superior force; they had, at the same time, contractions in the muscles -of the limbs and of the face. They attacked each other in wild frenzy, -giving and taking furious blows; at other times they were found on -the ground, as though “inanimate,” and to this species of lethargy -succeeded a maniacal agitation of great violence. Like the nuns of -Cambrai, they climbed trees and ran over the branches as agile as -so many cats, descending head downwards with feet in the air. These -manifestations were, of course, attributed to a compact with the Devil, -and the officers of the law, acting on the accusations of these nuns, -arrested a midwife residing in the neighborhood, on the charge of -witchcraft (_sorcery_). It is needless to add that the midwife died -soon after. - -A neurosis almost similar occurred the same year among the nuns at -Saint Brigette’s Convent. In their attacks these nuns imitated the -cries of animals and the bleating of sheep. At chapel one after the -other were taken with convulsive syncope, followed by suffocation and -œsophageal spasms, which sometimes persisted for the space of several -days and condemned the victims to an enforced fast. This epidemic -commenced after an hysterical convulsion occurred in one of the younger -nuns, who had entered the convent on account of disappointment in love. -Convinced that this unfortunate creature had imported a devil into the -religious community, she was banished to one of the prisons of the -Church. - -At about this same time another epidemic of hystero-demonomania broke -out at the Convent of Kintorp, near Strasbourg. These nuns insisted -that they were possessed. Convulsions and muscular contractions which -followed these attacks, along with delirium, were attributed to -epilepsy. Progressively, and as though by contagion, all the nuns were -stricken. When the hysterical attack arrived they uttered howls, like -animals, then assaulted each other violently, biting with their teeth -and scratching with finger-nails. Among those having convulsions the -muscles of the pharynx participated in the general spasmodic condition. -The attack was announced by a fetid breath and a sensation of burning -at the soles of the feet. One day some of the young sisters denounced -the convent cook, Elise Kame, as a sorcerer, although she suffered -like the others from convulsive hysteria. This accusation finished -the poor girl, who, together with her mother, was committed alive to -the flames. Their death, most naturally, did not relieve the convent -of the disease; the nervous malady, on the contrary, spread around -in the neighborhood of the institution, attacking married women and -young girls, whose imaginations were overpowered by the recital of -occurrences within the convent walls. - -We must admit that at that period doctors confounded hysteria with -epilepsy. Spasms of the larynx, muscular contractions that we of the -present day can provoke experimentally, as well as other phenomena -of hysterical convulsions in somnambulic phases of hypnotism, were -considered at that period only the manifest signs of diabolical -possession. As to the stinking breath, which revealed the presence -of the Devil among the nuns, that is a frequent symptom in grave -affections of the nervous system; it is often a prodroma of an attack -or series of maniacal convulsions. We have found that this fetidity of -breath coincides with the nauseating odor of sweat and urine, to which -we attribute the same semeological value as that of the mouth. - -Another epidemic of hysterical convulsions, complicated with -nymphomania, occurred at Cologne in 1554, in the Convent of Nazareth. -Jean Wier, who was sent to examine these patients, recognized that the -nuns were possessed by the Demon of lubricity and debauchery, who ruled -this convent to a frightful extent. - -P. Bodin has himself furnished the proofs; it was this author who -wrote the history of erotic nuns. He remarks: “Sometimes the bestial -appetites of some women lead them to believe in a demon; this occurred -in the year 1566, in the Diocese of Cologne, where a dog was found -which, it was claimed, was inhabited by a demon; this animal bit the -religious ladies under their skirts. It was not a demon, but a natural -dog. A woman who confessed to sinning with a dog was once burned at -Toulouse. - -“But it may be that Satan is sometimes sent by God, as certain it is -that all punishment comes from him, through his means or without his -means to avenge such crimes, as happened in a convent in Hesse, in -Germany, where the nuns were demonomaniacs and sinned in a horrible -manner with an animal.” - -Thus says Bodin, the public prosecutor of sorcerers among the laity and -the religious orders. Would he not have shown much greater wisdom if he -had humanely judged the actions of mankind, and had condemned as social -absurdities the innumerable convents and monasteries to which the -fanaticism of the Middle Ages attracted so many men and women who might -have followed more useful avocations? The convulsions of nymphomaniac -girls were very wild, and diversified by curious movements of the -pelvis, while lying in a position of dorsal decubitus, with closed -eyelids. After such attacks these poor nervous nuns were perfectly -prostrated, and only breathed with the greatest difficulty. It was thus -with young Gertrude, who was first attacked by a convulsive neurosis -which it was claimed had been induced by nymphomaniac practices in the -convent, and that evil spirits possessed these nuns. - -In 1609, hystero-demonomania made victims in the Convent of Saint -Ursula, at Aix. Two nuns were said to be _possessed_; these were -Madeleine de Mandoul and Loyse Capel. They were exorcised without -success. Led to the Convent of Saint Baume, they denounced Louis -Gaufridi, priest of the Church of Acoules of Marseilles, as being a -sorcerer, who had bewitched them. - -The Inquisitor Michaelis has left us the history of this trial by -exorcism. These patients had all the symptoms of convulsive hysteria, -with nymphomania, catalepsy, and hallucinatory delirium. This Judge, -however, only saw in these manifestations the work of several demons, -who tormented these nuns one after, the other, at the instigation of -the priest, Louis Gaufridi, who was arrested, tried, condemned by the -executioner, and led to the gallows with a rope around his neck, in -bare feet, a torch in hand; thus punished, the unfortunate and innocent -priest fell into a state of dementia, and while in this condition -confessed that he was the author of the nuns’ demonomania. - -As soon as Gaufridi had been sentenced to death by the Inquisition, -the nuns of Saint Brigette’s Convent, at Lille, who had assisted at -the exorcism of the nuns of Saint Ursula, in turn were attacked by -hystero-demonomania. The report soon spread that they, too, were -possessed, and the Inquisitor Michaelis came to Avignon to exorcise the -demons. One of these nuns, Marie de Sains, suspected of sorcery, was -sent to jail. Three of her companions, treated by exorcism, denounced -the unfortunate girl as a witch. Marie de Sains, who, up to this time, -had asserted innocence, finished by declaring herself guilty towards -the rest of the nuns in the cloister. The demons found under the -nuns’ beds were placed there, according to Marie’s statement, by the -unfortunate Gaufridi. - -She testified that, “the Devil, to recompense the priest, gave him the -title of ‘Prince of Magicians;’ and promised me,” added the nun, “all -kinds of sovereign honors for having consented to poison the other -nuns’ minds by witchcraft. Sister Joubert, Sister Bolonais, Sister -Fournier, Sister Van der Motte, Sister Launoy, and Sister Peronne, who -were first to have symptoms of _possession_ through diabolical power, -soon fell under the action of the potent philter. The witchcraft was -made with the host and consecrated blood, powdered billy goat horns, -human bones, skulls of children, hair, finger-nails, flesh, and seminal -fluid from the sorcerer; by adding to this mixture pieces of the human -liver, spleen, and brain, Lucifer gave to the hideous melange a virtue -of terrible strength. The sorcerers who gave this horrible concoction -to their acquaintances not only destroyed them, but also a large number -of new-born children.” - -This unfortunate, besides, accused herself of having caused the death -of a number of persons, including children, the mother, and often -godmother; she claimed to have administered debilitating powders to -many others. She confessed to casting an evil spell on the other -nuns, which had given them over to lubricity; declared she had been -to the witch _vigils_ and cohabited with devils, and that she had -also committed sodomy, had intercourse with _dogs_, _horses_, and -_serpents_; finally, she acknowledged that she had accorded her favors -to the priest, Louis Gaufridi, whereas the nun was really innocent. - -Marie de Sains was found guilty of being possessed by a demon. She was -exorcised and condemned to perpetual imprisonment and most austere -penances by the Court of Tournay. - -Immediately after the trial of Marie de Sains another nun, Simone -Dourlet, was tried for the crime of sorcery, and by force of torture -and _suggestions_, she admitted to have been at a witch _vigil_ and was -guilty. The history of this poor girl is revolting, for not only was -she innocent of all crimes imputed to her, but she was not even sick. -She was the victim of the hallucinations of her companions. - -Another form of hystero- or hysterical demonomania was observed the -same year near Dax, in the Parish of Amon, where more than 120 women -were attacked by _impulsive insanity_, following the expression of -Calmeil, but which has been designated by others as the _Mal de Laira_. -This neurosis, which was only a variety of hysteria, was characterized -by convulsions and loud barking. De L’Ancre gives an interesting -description of this outbreak, but does not fail to attribute the -affection to sorcerers. “It is a monstrous thing,” says he, “to see in -church more than forty persons, all braying and barking like dogs, as -on nights when the moon is full. This music is renewed on the entrance -of every new sorcerer, who has perhaps given the disease to some other -woman. These possessed creatures commence barking from the time they -enter church.” - -The same barking symptoms were noticed in dwellings when these witches -passed along the street, and all passers by commenced to bark also when -a sorcerer appeared. - -The convulsions resembled those noticed in enraged insane persons. -During the attack the victims would wallow on the earth, beating the -ground with their bodies and limbs, turning their violence on their own -persons without having will power to control their madness for evil -doing. According to Calmeil their cases were rather hysterical than of -an epileptic type. - -A very remarkable fact in regard to this neurosis was that those women -who howled were exempt from convulsions and reciprocally. These howls -or barks were comparable to the cries uttered by the nuns of Kintorp -and the bleatings of the sisters of Saint Brigette. - -We have also the record of a German convent, where the nuns meowed like -cats, and ran about the cloister imitating feline animals. - -It is useless to add that the _Mal de Laira_ was a cause of several -condemnations of nuns who admitted they had bewitched their -companions.[77] - -Among the numerous trials for Demonidolatry, that which has been most -noted was certainly the case of Urbain Grandier, and the Ursulines of -Loudun, from 1632 to 1639. - -The Convent of Loudun was founded in 1611 by a dame of Cose—Belfiel. -Only noble ladies were received therein—Claire de Sazilli, the -Demoiselles Barbezier, Madmoiselle de la Mothe, the Demoiselles -D’Escoubleau, etc. These titled ladies had all received brilliant -educations, but had submitted to life in a nunnery by vocation. Seven -of these young women were suddenly attacked by hallucinations. They all -claimed to be victims of witchcraft. - -During the night these girls went in and out of the convent doors, -sometimes standing on their heads, as is the case with certain -individuals subject to natural somnambulism. These nuns all accused a -chaplain of the order recently deceased of causing their troubles, and -several of the ladies claimed that the chaplain’s ghost made shameful -propositions to them. - -The disease grew worse from day to day, until Justice was called on -to interfere, when the nuns changed their minds and declared that the -real cause of their possession was in reality one Urbain Grandier, -priest to the Church of Saint Pierre of Loudun, a man distinguished for -his brilliant intelligence, perfect education, but rather given to -gallantry, and a desire for public notoriety. - -Was it Mignon, the new chaplain of the order, who _suggested_ to the -nuns their pretended persecutor? - -That was the story, but Urbain Grandier attached no importance to the -rumor. - -The attacks of the nuns increased more and more, however, and were -complicated with catalepsy, ecstasy and nymphomania, the victims making -obscene and shameful remarks. Then exorcisers were called in, but met -with no success. These ladies on the contrary endeavored to provoke -the priests by lascivious gestures and indecent postures. Some of them -wriggled over the floor like serpents, while others moved their bodies -backwards so that their heads touched their heels, a motion, according -to eye-witnesses, made with the most extraordinary quickness. At times -the nuns screamed and howled in unison like a chorus of wild beasts. - -A historian of the time, De Le Menardy, witness _de visu et de auditu_, -has written: “In their contortions they were as supple and easily bent -as a piece of lead—in such a way that their bodies could be bent in -any form—backwards, forwards and sidewise, even so the head touched -the earth, and they remained in these positions up to such a time as -their attitudes might be changed.” These movements were especially -produced during the time of the attempted exorcisms. At the first -mention of Satan “they raised up, passed their toes behind their necks, -and, with legs separated, rested themselves on their perinæums and -gave themselves up to indecent manual motions.” They were delirious at -this time from demonomanical excitement. Madam de Belfiel claimed to -be sitting on seven devils, Madam de Sazilli had ten demons under her, -while Sister Elizabeth modestly asserted her number of imps to be five. - -During the exorcisms these poor women _fell sound asleep_, which -induces Calmeil to think “the condition of these women resembled -closely that of _magnetic somnambulists_.” This supposition would -permit us to explain the impossibility of the nuns telling on certain -days what they had said or done during the course of a nervous attack. -The days when they escaped _contortions_—when they were to the -contrary violently exalted by the nature of these tactile and visceral -sensations—they recalled too much, for the power of reflection -disgusted these unfortunates with their own vile and uncontrollable -acts and assertions. - -This epidemic had continued fifteen months, and all the Ursuline nuns -had been attacked by the epidemic when Laubardemont, one of the secret -agents of the Cardinal Richelieu, arrived at Loudun to examine into the -alleged Demonidolatry said to exist in the convent. The Cardinal had -given this agent absolute and extended power. Urbain Grandier, who was -the author of a libel against Richelieu, was arrested for complicity -in this sorcery, and brought before a commission of Justices, whose -members had been chosen by Laubardemont. He was confronted by the nuns, -invited to exorcise them, and then subjected to most cruel tortures. -Iron needle points were stuck in his skin, all over the body, in order -to find anæsthetised points, which were the pretended marks of the -Devil. - -Notwithstanding his protestations of innocence, the Judges taking -the acts of the accusers while in the poor priest’s presence, for -his appearance was the signal for scenes of the most violent frenzy, -condemned the man to be tied to a gallows alive. There he was subjected -to renewed tortures, while the various muscles of his body were torn -apart and his bones broken. - -The punishment of Urbain Grandier did not put an end to the epidemic -of hysterical demonomania among the Ursulines, for the malady extended -to the people of the town, even to the monks who were charged with -conducting the exorcisms; but the vengeance of his Red Eminence -(Cardinal Richelieu) was satisfied. - -Many commentaries have been made since then on this outbreak of -Demonidolatry among the Ursulines. These we have no desire to reproduce -nor to discuss, as it would only tend to show the ancient ignorance -prevailing regarding diseases of the nervous system, and the want of -character and weakness of the physicians of that epoch, together with -the fanaticism of the monks and priesthood. One thing, however, appears -to be worthy of remembrance; that is the analogy between the convulsive -symptoms observed among the nuns and the phenomena of somnambulism -described by Calmeil. This fact appears to us as so much the more -remarkable, as the learned doctor of Charenton was a declared adversary -of magnetism, and published his work almost half a century since—that -is, in 1845. - -The sleep into which the nuns fell during the period of exorcism, -the forgetfulness of the scenes witnessed where they had played such -a _role_, are, to our mind, only phenomena of hypnotism, and the -resemblance is so strong that we do not believe it would be impossible -to artificially reproduce another epidemic of hysterical demonomania. - -Let us for an instant accept the _hypothesis_ of a convent, where -twenty young nuns are confined. Of these at least ten will be subject -to hypnotism. Let us now admit that these recluses, living the -ordinary ascetic and virtuous life of the cloister, plunged deeply in -the mysticisms of the Catholic faith, receive one day as confessor -and spiritual director a man of energetic character, knowing all the -practices of _hypnotism_ and of _suggestion_—a disciple let us say -of Puel, Charcot, De Luys, Barety, Bernheim—a perfect neurologist. -Now, if this man cared to magnetize individually each of these nuns -in the silence and obscurity of the confessional, and should then -suggest to them that they were _possessed_ by all the demons known to -sorcery, what would occur? Let us suppose again that he should carry -his physiological power further and put his _subjects_ into an ecstacy, -catalepsy or lethargy—into a condition where marked hallucinations -might occur and nervous excitation be provoked, how long would it be -before this man could make these women similar to those who once lived -in the convent of the Ursulines at Loudun? - -We have not admitted this fiction for the purpose of having any one -conclude that the possessed of Loudun were the mere playthings of -some person who used hypnotism in an interest that we ignore; but, if -this fact may be considered possible by the will of an individual, -who can affirm at this day that there does not exist an unknown -force, intelligent or not, capable of producing the same pathological -phenomena observed long ago? What we call, in 1888, hypnotism in the -amphitheatres of our universities, we reserve for another chapter, -where we will give revelations much more extraordinary, and also more -supernatural; our chapter on the neurology of the nineteenth century -will, we promise, be _very interesting_. - -Let us yet remark that the hystero-demonomaniacal manifestations were -not peculiar to the Ursulines of Loudun. They have been observed in -many convents in the same conditions of habits and prolonged fastings -among debilitated young girls; from long vigils spent in prayer and -nervous depression, caused by over-religious discipline; by mystical -exhortations from a man invested in a sacred character, on whom fall -all the discussions, all the entreaties, and all the thoughts of the -girls in the cloister. - -The history of the nuns of Loudun was identically reproduced under -the same conditions among the sisters of Saint Elizabeth’s Convent -at Louviers, in 1643, three years after the execution of poor Urbain -Grandier for witchcraft. - -In a short time eighteen nuns were attacked with hysterical -demonomania; they had active hallucinations of all the senses, -convulsions, and delirium. Like the Ursulines, they blasphemed, -screamed, and gave themselves over to all manner of strange -contortions, claiming to be _possessed_ by demons, describing in -obscene terms the orgies of the witch vigil (_Sabbat_), perpetrating -all varieties of debauchery, even unknown to the vilest prostitutes; -after this they finally accused one or more persons of bewitching them -through sorcery. - -The nuns of Louviers, for instance, after being duly exorcised -according to the Canons of the Church, accused as the author of their -affliction, and as a bad magician, their old time confessor, the Abbot -Picard, who died before their symptoms were developed; then they -accused another priest, by the name of Francois Boulle, and several of -their companions, notably Sister Madeleine Bavan. These innocent people -were tried by the Parliament of Rouen, who ordered that the body of the -priest, Picard, should be exhumed, carried to the stake, there tied to -the living body of Francois Boulle, and after being burnt their ashes -should be cast to the winds. This execution, in the open air, occurred -in the seventeenth century, in the “Old Market Place” at Rouen, at the -spot where Joan d’Arc had also been burnt alive for being _possessed_, -as was claimed, by supernatural beings. What a comment on intelligence -in an age of partial enlightenment! - -In order to close this chapter on hysterical demonomania among -religious orders, of which we have given some examples, we shall -cite an interesting relation left us by the Bishops and Doctors of -Sorbonne, together with the testimony of the King’s deputies, regarding -the _possession_ of nuns at the Convent of Auxonne. Here there were -always convulsions and screams, with blasphemy, aversion to taking the -sacraments, possession, and exorcisms; and there was, undoubtedly, the -phenomenon of _suggestion_ observed with much precision. - -We might say that the nuns of Auxonne were accessible to suggestion; -for, at the command or even the thought of the exorcists, they fell -into a condition of somnambulism; in this state they became insensible -to pain, as was determined by pricking Sister Denise under the -finger-nail with a needle; they had also the faculty of prosternating -the body, making it assume the form of a circle,—in other words, they -could bend their limbs in any direction. - -The Bishop of Chalons reports that “all the before mentioned girls, -secular as well as regular, to the number of eighteen, _had the gift of -Language_, and responded to the exorcists _in Latin_, making, at times, -their entire conversation in the classical tongue. - -“Almost all these nuns had a full knowledge of the secrets and inner -thoughts of others;[78] this was demonstrated particularly _in the -interior commandments_, which had been made by the exorcists on -different occasions, which they obeyed exactly ordinarily, _without the -commandments being expressed to them either by words or any external -sign_. - -“The Bishop himself, among others, experimented on the person of Denise -Pariset, to whom, _giving a command mentally to come to him immediately -and be exorcised_, whereupon the aforesaid nun immediately came to him, -although her residence was in a quarter of the village far removed -from the Episcopal residence. She said on these occasions that she was -commanded to come; and this experiment was repeated several times. - -“Again, in the person of Sister Jamin, a novice, who on hearing the -exorcism, told the Bishop his interior commandment made to the Demon -during the ceremony. Also, in the person of Sister Borthon, who, being -_commanded mentally_ to make her agitations violent, immediately -prostrated herself before the Holy Sacrament, with her belly against -the earth and her arms extended, executing the command at the same -instant, with a promptitude and precipitation wholly extraordinary.”[79] - -Here, I believe, are facts so well authenticated of transmission of -thought or of mental _suggestions_, perhaps _voluntarily unknown_ to -certain modern neurologists. These neuropaths of Auxonne presented -still more extraordinary phenomena; at the word of command they -suspended the pulsations of the pulse in an arm, in the right arm, for -example, and transfered the beatings from the right arm to the left -arm, and _vice versa_. This fact was discovered by the Bishop, and -many ecclesiastics verified the same, and “it was promptly done in the -presence of Doctor Morel, who recognized and makes oath to the fact.” - -We cannot dwell too long on the Demonomania of the Middle Ages, to -which we have, perhaps, added some historical facts which are new and -which we believe it to be our duty to publish, seeing a connection with -modern hypnotism. We shall thus open a new field for investigation on -strange affections, classed up to the present time in all varieties -of monomania, but which appear to us to belong to a variety of mental -pathology independent of insanity, properly speaking. If it were -otherwise it would be necessary to recognize as crazy persons, not only -the Demonomaniacs of the Middle Ages, but also the Jansenists, who went -into trances, and the choreics and convulsionists (_convulsionnaires_) -of the eighteenth century. They were certainly not crazy, those who -came to the mortuary of Saint Medard, to the tomb of the Deacon Paris, -to make an appeal against the Papal bull of Clement XI. And was it -not another cause than auto suggestion, to which it is necessary to -attribute the nervous phenomena that the _appelants_ exhibited during -thirty consecutive years? - -The exaltation of religious ideas, so often advanced by psychologists, -cannot account for these phenomena. I have seen palpable proofs of -this in the various accidents that suddenly overcame sceptics and -strong-minded men of modern times, who came as amateurs to assist at -the experiments on convulsive subjects. These symptoms, as is well -known, are usually ushered in by violent screams, rapid beatings of -the heart, contractions of muscles, and analogous nervous symptoms. - -Besides, it is incontestible that many patients and infirm people -obtain an unhoped for cure following convulsive cries; while others, in -a state of health, are taken with hallucinations and delirium. I have -seen patients who would lacerate certain portions of the body that were -the seat of burns, and continue to walk, cry, gesticulate, and abuse -themselves, like insane persons in a real state of dementia. - -The Jansenists did not speak, had no compacts with demons, no -exorcisms at which Inquisitors and their acolytes could suggest ideas -of demonomania; and notwithstanding their great austerities and the -most rigorous fasts, we note among the _convulsionnaires_ of Saint -Medard only the ideas of possession by the Holy Spirit and divine -favors obtained through the protection of the kind-hearted Deacon; and -meantime, those possessed by God, as by the Devil, were subjects of -somnambulism, to trances, lethargy, catalepsy, and other phenomena.[80] - -The last analogy, finally, between the two nervous epidemics, was the -Royal authority, a special form of _suggestion_ in the Middle Ages, -which put an end to sorcery or witchcraft as well as to Jansenism. - - - HYSTERIA AND PSYCHIC FORCE. - -Among the phenomena observed in demonomaniacal hysteria there are -some, as we have remarked, that modern neurologists have wished to -_pass over in silence_, because it was impossible to give a rational -explanation. It arose from that mysterious force which acts upon the -human personality and its faculties and produces _supernatural results_ -in contradiction to well known scientific laws, known in one sense as -_Psychic Force_, but which is nothing else than _modern spiritualism_. - -This force, a power possessed in a high degree not only by hysterical -persons, but all varieties of neuropaths, who are designated as -_mediums_ by spiritual psychologists, _cannot be doubted by real -scientists to day_. - -The demonologists of the Middle Ages have often mentioned it in the -demonomaniacs, and attributed it to possession by evil spirits; and, -if not pathologists, _they did not disdain to occupy themselves with -something that tends to simplify the study of the physiology of the -nervous system_; but to minds of the modern type, that consider science -as synonymous with truth, it seems strange and incomprehensible that -our learned investigators should have been overpowered by the fear of -the criticism that might overtake them because _they cannot explain -purely and simply an inexplicable fact, a truth, real positive and -certain_. - -Not being ourselves timorous to this prudence, which is, they claim, -one of the conditions, _sine qua non_, to be a candidate for the -Institute of France, we shall now pursue our investigations with the -historical documents regarding the medical Middle Age we possess, and -thus loyally seek a scientific interpretation for facts observed in -modern spiritualism or _psychic force_. - -Among these documents we will choose as a type the “Trial made to -deliver a girl possessed by the Evil Spirit, at Louviers.” This suit, -which dates back to 1591, is in reality a series of trials written -up by several magistrates, in the presence of numerous witnesses, -reporting with precision all facts observed by them—facts interpreted, -it is true, with ideas of the demonidolatry of the sixteenth century, -but having a character whose authenticity is undisputed, and _even -undiscussed_. The first trial is thus conceived:[81] - -“On Saturday, the 18th day of August, 1591, in the morning at Louviers, -in the aforesaid place, before us, Louis Morel, Councillor of the King, -Provost General and Marshal of France for the Province of Normandy, -holding Court in the service of the King in the villages and castles of -Pont de l’Arche and Louviers, with one lieutenant, one recorder, and -fifty archers, assisted by Monsieur Behotte, licentiate of law, Judge -Advocate and Lieutenant General of Monsieur the Viscount of Rouen, in -the presence of Louis Vauquet, our clerk.” * * * - -This old document, in French now almost obsolete and difficult of -translation,[82] goes on to state that in a house at Louviers, -belonging to Mrs. Gay, two officers, belonging to the troops occupying -the town, who had temporary quarters with Gay, complained to their -commandant that “a spirit in the house mentioned tormented them.” -Now, this house was occupied by three ladies: Madame Gay, one of her -friends, a widow named Deshayes, and a servant girl called Francoise -Fontaine. - -Captain Diacre, who was commandant of the village, found on -investigation the general disorder of the residence, the furniture -turned upside down, the two ladies terrified, and the servant girl with -several wounds on her body. The latter was suspected of being in league -with the Devil, and was arrested and cast into the prison of the town. -On her person was found a purse containing a teston (old French coin), -a half teston, and a ten-sous piece. The trial proved nothing. The -ladies might have had nightmare, the officers might have been drunk, -the noises heard might have been the result of a thousand different -causes, but it is necessary to mention this case in order to comprehend -the subsequent trials. - -The second trial, witnessed, tried, and authenticated by the same -authorities, determined the fact that Francoise Fontaine was born at -Paris, Faubourg Saint Honore, and that at the age of twenty two years -she had already witnessed similar phenomena in a house “haunted,” said -she, “by evil spirits that frightened her so much that she went to a -neighbor’s to sleep while her mistress was absent from home.” This -statement was proved correct in six subsequent trials containing the -depositions of Marguerite Prevost, Suzanne Le Chevalier, Marguerite Le -Chevalier, and Perrine Fayel. - -The following trial states that on Saturday, the 31st of August, 1591, -before Louis Morel, Councillor of the King, assisted by his clerk, -Louis Vauquet, etc., etc., - -“Came Pierre Alix, first jailer and guard of the prison, who threw -himself on his two knees before us, holding the prison keys in his -hand, pale and overcome by emotion; for which action we remonstrated, -when he stated to our great astonishment that he did not wish to -longer act as prison guard, for the reason that the evil spirit that -tormented the aforesaid Francoise Fontaine likewise tormented him, and -also the prisoners, who desired to break jail and fly in order to -save themselves, having a presentement that the aforesaid Francoise -Fontaine, was in a dungeon or pit, and _that she had removed a great -iron door that had fallen upon her afterwards_; and several persons -having ran to her along with the jailer found the aforesaid Fontaine -acting as though possessed by an evil spirit, with her throat swollen,” -etc. - -Let us pass over an interminable recital made by Francoise Fontaine -to the priests and counsellors of the King, relative to _diabolic -possession_, to which she had been subject all her life. Also, as to -the testimony of many witnesses as to her performance while in jail; -as, for instance, “the body of Francoise rose in the air about four -feet, without being in contact with anything, and she floated towards -us in the air,” etc., etc. - -Francois Fontaine claimed that she had consented to belong to the -Demon, who was “a black man with whom she had cohabited.” Considered -from a medical standpoint the girl was a victim to hysterical -demonomania. - -Let us make a few more extracts from the records of this trial: - -“As the aforesaid Fontaine told us these things, being meantime on -her two knees before us, who were seated on a raised platform, the -aforesaid Fontaine fell forward on her face as though she had been -struck from above, and the candles in the chandeliers of the room -were extinguished, except those on the clerk’s table, the which were -roughly blown upon several times without being put out, when no visible -person present was near them to blow, and these candles were raised out -of their candlesticks, lighted as they were, and rubbed against the -ground in an attempt to extinguish them, and the which were finally -extinguished with a great noise, without any human hand appearing near -them; the which so astonished the priest, the advocate, the first -jailer, the archers guard, who were present, that they retired, leaving -us alone, the hour being then nine o’clock at night. - -“Finding myself alone, I recommended my soul to God, and exclaimed in -a loud voice the words, ‘My God, give me grace not to lose my soul to -the Devil, and I command thee O, Demon, by the power I have invoked, to -leave the body of Francoise Fontaine! Again I repeat the command!’” - -At the same instant the exorcist felt himself seized by the legs, arms -and body, and tightly held in the arms of an unknown force, which felt -hot and blew a warm breath, while blows were rained on the Judge’s body -as though he were beaten by a heavy piece of wood. He was struck on the -jaw and under the ear hard enough to draw blood, etc. - -At the eleventh trial it was found that Francoise Fontaine was bodily -raised out of bed during the night by an unseen force, and this fact is -duly authenticated by witnesses. - -In the following trial the same phenomena were produced in the church -at Louviers, during the mass of exorcism, where: - -“Francoise Fontaine floated from the earth into the air, higher than -the altar, as though lifted up by the hair by an unseen hand, which -quickly alarmed the assistants, who had never before witnessed such an -occurrence,” etc. - -In presence of these facts Francoise was led back to prison, and it was -decided by the clerical council, assisted by two eminent physicians, -Roussel and Gautier, to cut off the girl’s hair, as was the custom when -witches were arrested. - -During this operation, which was performed publically by Dr. Gautier, -the same phenomenon was reproduced. For says the veracious old French -chronicle: “Francoise est de rechef enleuee en l’air fort hault, la -tete en bas, les pieds en hault sans que ses accoustrementz se soient -renuersez, au trauers desquelz il sortoit par deuant et par derriere -grande quantite d’eaue et fumee puante.” - -Like the many preceding trials, with experiments, which are duly -attested by magistrates, physicians and the clerk, seven person in all, -who witnessed the phenomena, as to material facts, we cannot suspect -people whose honesty was never doubted; for it was through their -influence that Francoise Fontaine was set at liberty, after all her -inexplicable symptoms had disappeared and her nervous malady abated. - -In order to render an account of the _supernatural_ phenomena observed -by early demonographers and attributed to evil spirits, let us briefly -glance at the experiments made regarding _Spiritualism_ by a few brave -physiologists of our own epoch, who have dared to investigate the -analogy existing between these two orders of phenomena. - -Among the modern experimenters who have made a scientific study of this -subject—let us call it _Psychic Force_, if you will—we will mention Mr. -Crookes, member of the Royal Society of London, the (English Academy -of Sciences), the master mind, the most illustrious in modern science; -the discoverer of thallium, radiant matter, photometer of polarization, -spectral microscope—a chemist and physicist of the first order, -accustomed to the most minute experimental investigations. - -The experiments of this _savant_ have been arranged by him in three -classes, as follows: - - CLASS I.—_Movement of weighty bodies with contact, but without - mechanical effort._ - -This movement is one of the most simple forms of the phenomenon -observed; it presents degrees that vary from trembling or vibration -of the chamber and its contents up to the complete elevation in the -air, when the hand is placed above, of a weighty body. We commonly -object that when they touch an object put in motion, they push, draw -or raise it. I have experimentally proved that this is impossible in a -great number of cases; but, as a matter of evidence, I attach little -importance to that class of phenomena considered in themselves, and -have only mentioned them as a preliminary to other movements of the -same kind, but without contact. - -“These movements (and I may truly add all other similar phenomena) are -generally preceded by a particular breeziness of the air, amounting -sometimes almost to a true wind. This air disperses leaves of paper and -lowers the thermometer several degrees. - -“Under some circumstances, to the subject of which I shall, at some -future day, give more details, I have not found any of this air; but -the cold was so intense that I can only compare it to that experienced -by placing the hand at a short distance from mercury in a state of -congelation.” (_Crookes_). - -I have obtained, like the eminent “member of the Royal Society of -London,” the movement of weighty bodies by contact very easily, not -only lifting massive tables of a weight altogether out of proportion -and far superior to the force of a very robust man, but have also seen -this furniture move in a given direction; I have even noted a small -square table keep time in beating with a determined cadence. This -phenomenon, well known to all experimenters, may be reproduced without -the assistance of a powerful medium; it was well known in times of -antiquity, but is not mentioned in the writings on sorcery during the -Middle Ages. - -As extraordinary as these facts seem, they are no more singular than -those observed by W. Crookes, and very recently by Zoellner,[83] -Professor in the University of Leipsic and correspondent of the French -Institute, in presence of Professors Fechner, Braune, Weber, Scheibner, -and the celebrated surgeon, Thiersch. It was with Slade, an American -medium as extraordinary as Home, that Zoellner experimented. These -experiments may be thus briefly mentioned: - -1. Movements made by psychic force, through the medium of Slade, of a -magnet enclosed in a compass box. - -2. Blows struck on a table, a knife raised in air, without contact, to -the height of a foot. - -3. Movement of heavy bodies. Zoellner’s bed was drawn two feet from the -wall, Slade remaining seated with his back to the bed, his legs covered -and in full view of the experimenters. - -4. A fire-screen broken with noise, without contact with the medium, -and the fragments thrown five feet. - -5. Writing produced on several experimental occasions between two -slates belonging to Zoellner, and held well in view. - -6. Magnetization of a steel needle. - -7. Acid reaction given to neutral substances. - -8. Imprints of hands and naked feet on smoked surfaces or surfaces -powdered with flour, which did not correspond with the hands and feet -of the medium, who remained meantime in full view of the experimenters, -while Slade’s feet were covered with shoes. - -9. Knots tied in bands of copper sealed at both ends and held in the -hands of Slade and Zoellner, etc. - -We find the same tests and facts observed by Mr. Crookes and the French -experimenters, who, following his example, have sought to account for -_Psychic Force_. - - CLASS II.—_Phenomenon of percussion and other analogous noises._ - -The popular name of _spiritual rapping_ gives a very poor idea of this -class of phenomena. On different occasions during his experiments, Mr. -Crookes heard blows of a delicate variety, such as might be produced by -the point of a needle; a cascade of sounds, as acute as those coming -from an induction coil in full activity; sharp blows or detonations in -the air; acute notes of a metallic variety; rasping sounds similar to -that heard from a machine with rubbing action; noises like scratching; -twittering chirps like a bird, etc. - -“I have observed these noises,” says Crookes, “with the majority of -mediums, each of whom has a special peculiarity. They were more varied -with Mr. Home; but, for force and certainty of result, I have never met -a medium who approached Kate Fox. For several months I experimented, -it may be said, in an unlimited manner, and verified the different -manifestations induced by the presence of this lady, and I especially -examined the phenomenon relative to these noises. - -“With mediums, it is necessary in general that they be methodically -seated for the _seance_ before noises are heard, but with Miss Kate Fox -it was sufficient to merely place her hand on any object, no matter -what, and violent blows were heard, like a triple sound of beating, and -sometimes so loud as to be heard at different pieces of furniture in -the room. - -“In this manner, I have heard these noises on a living tree, on a -fragment of glass, on a membrane extended in a frame—for instance, a -tambourine—on the top of a cab, and on the edge of the parquet railing -in the theatre. - -“However, effective contact is not always necessary. I have heard -the noise sound inside walls, when the hands and feet of the medium -were tightly held; when Miss Fox was seated in a chair; when she was -suspended above the platform; finally, when she had fallen on a sofa in -a dead faint. - -“I have heard these same noises on the harmonica; I have felt them on -my shoulder and under my hands; I have heard them on a leaf of paper -held between the fingers by the aid of a wire passed through one corner. - -“With a perfect knowledge of the numerous theories advanced, in -America principally, to explain these knocks or spirit rapping, I have -verified them by all methods I could imagine, so that I have acquired -a positive conviction as their objective reality, and the absolute -certainty that it was impossible to produce these sounds by artifice or -some mechanical means. - -“An important question is here asked that deserves attention, _i.e._ -‘_are these noises governed by an intelligence?_’[84] - -“From the commencement of my investigations, I have recognized the fact -that the power which produced the phenomena, was not simply a fluid -force, but that _it is associated with an intelligence, or follows its -directions_.” - -During the three years that I have experimented in psychology with Dr. -Puel and his friends, there has been no _seance_ where we have not -been able to determine more or less important phenomena of percussion. -An experiment I love to make is that of striking my fingers on the -table, either to imitate the music of a band with drum accompaniment -with some known air, and the same sound is immediately produced on the -under surface of the piece of furniture, with the same rhythm appearing -to be invoked by an invisible hand performing under the table. This -phenomenon is manifested sometimes spontaneously upon my demand or -that of my assistant. I observed it one evening at my own house for -more than a quarter of an hour from, the moment I entered the room; -in this case the noise was a rolling, which appeared to arise from -the metallic surface of a table. It was a member of my family who -called my attention to the abnormal noise, so much the more curious, -inasmuch as I could produce it at will, giving shades and variations -expressed by the movements of my hand. In order to respond in advance -to any objection, I will say it was two o’clock in the morning when -this phenomenon was produced, and there was no passing carriages in the -street to make any kind of a vibration. - -These phenomena of percussion are sometimes produced with a most -extraordinary intensity, as in the observations of Kate Fox in the -house at Hydesville; these were probably only phenomena of percussion -similar to those observed at Louviers, in the home of Madame Gay, -under the mediumship of Francoise Fontaine, in 1591, manifestations -which were then attributed to the Devil, or later to a condition of -hallucinations, among the witnesses, according to the _materialistic -psychologists_ of the nineteenth century. - - CLASS III.—_Alteration of the weight of bodies._ - -The experiments made by Mr. Crookes, in regard to the alterations -in the weight of bodies, enters the category of psychic phenomena -examined with the most mathematical exactitude, by the aid of accurate -registering apparatus. It is in these experiments that the celebrated -English physician was able to witness _Psychic Force_ developed by his -_medium_. - -The description and designs of the apparatus thus used may be found in -the “_Moniteur de la Policlinique_,” of the 7th and 14th of May, 1882, -and in “_Le Spiritisme_” of Dr. Paul Gibier, published in the year 1887. - -This article is too lengthy for reproduction in this work, but we have -the right to consider it as the point of departure for experimental -psychology, for not only have they not been denied in France and other -countries, but _they have been recognized as absolutely true_, by -several colleagues of Mr. Crookes, belonging to the _Royal Society of -London_. - - CLASS IV.—_Movements of heavy bodies at a distance from the medium._ - -“There are numerous instances in which heavy objects, such as tables, -chairs, ropes, etc., have been moved when the medium never touched -them. I will mention a few striking cases. - -“My own chair turned half way around while my feet were on the floor. - -“In full view of all the people present, a chair started from a far -off corner and advanced slowly to a table while we were watching its -movement. - -“On another occasion an arm chair came from to the place we were -seated, and then, on my demand, slowly returned backward a distance of -three feet. - -“During three consecutive _seances_, a small table crossed the room -under conditions I had especially fixed in advance, in order to -respond victoriously to all objections that might possibly be raised -against the reality of the phenomenon. - -“I repeated on several occasions the experiment considered as -conclusive by the “_Dialectic Society_,” that is to say, the movement -of a heavy table in a full glare of light, the backs of chairs being -turned towards the table about one foot of distance, each person being -in a kneeling posture upon his chair, the hands placed upon the back -above the table, but not touching it. - -“On one of these occasions, the experiment took place while I walked -all around the table in order to see how each person was placed.” -(_Crookes_). - -In our own seances, with Madam Rosine, L.B., we have seen, ten or -twelve times at least, a small table on rollers, advance towards us as -though moved by a force of attraction or repulsion. - -A similar phenomenon was very often produced in my office, under the -mediumistic influences of M. D. with a strength of extraordinary -propulsion, which seemed to originate in brute force. The traces of -violent shocks of a table against my bureau still remain to testify to -the results of this occurrence. - - CLASS V.—_Chairs and tables raised from the earth without contact - with any person._ - -“A remark usually made when cases of this kind arise is: ‘Why do these -things only occur with chairs and tables? Is this a privilege solely -enjoyed by pieces of furniture?’ I wish to answer this by stating that -I simply observed facts and report them without pretending to enter -into the _why_ and _how_; but, in truth, it is very evident that if any -inanimate object of a certain weight can be lifted from the earth in -the ordinary dining room, it could as easily be anything else than a -chair or table. - -“That such phenomena are not limited to furniture I have numerous -proofs, as have other experimenters; the _intelligence_ or _force_, -whichever it may be, that produces the manifestations, can only operate -with materials that are at its disposition. - -“On five distinct occasions a heavy dining table was raised from the -floor for a height varying from some inches to a foot and a half, under -special imposed conditions that made fraud impossible. - -“On another occasion a heavy table was raised to the ceiling, in full -light, _while I held the feet and hands of the medium_. - -“At another time the table raised itself above the floor, without any -one touching it, but under conditions I had previously imposed in such -a manner as to render the proof of the fact incontestable.” (_Crookes._) - -The phenomena observed in this class of experiments belong to those of -_movement without contact_. Although these are difficult to obtain, I -have noticed them several times; I have seen, in my own home, a massive -table raised some distance from the floor ten or fifteen seconds after -all contact had ceased. Dr. Gibier had the advantage of obtaining -complete levitation and seeing the table _turn and touch the ceiling -with its four feet_, under the mediumistic influence of Mr. Slade. The -Doctor affirms this fact in his own book on the subject. - -In the trial of August 31st, 1591, a phenomenon similar to the one -narrated befell Francoise Fontaine, _i.e._, the fall of an iron door -on the unfortunate girl; the elevation in the air of a washtub and -its being emptied in the presence of the jailer and the prisoner -Aufrenille. Francois Fontaine was evidently a _medium_ with _psychic -effects_. - - CLASS VI.—_Raising human beings in the air._ - -“This phenomenon has taken place in my presence four times, although in -obscurity. The conditions under which these movements were performed, -however, were completely satisfactory; but the ocular demonstration of -such a thing is necessary to prevent the effects of our preconceived -opinions; for example, upon that which is _naturally possible or -impossible_, I shall only mention here cases in which the deductions of -reason have been affirmed by the sense of vision. - -“I saw, one day, in the quality of spectator, a chair on which a lady -was seated raised from the floor several inches. - -“On another occasion, in order to avoid being suspected of producing -the phenomenon by artificial means, the lady knelt on the chair, so -that the four legs of the piece of furniture were visible to every -eye; then the chair was lifted from the floor three inches, remaining -suspended in the air for ten seconds, when it slowly descended to the -floor again. - -“Another time, but separately, two children were raised to the ceiling -in their chairs, under a full glare of light, under conditions entirely -satisfactory to me, for I was on my knees and attentively watched the -feet of the chairs in order to see that no one touched them. - -“The most remarkable examples of levitation I have observed have taken -place with Mr. Home. On three occasions I have seen him lifted to the -ceiling of the room. On the first occasion he was seated in a chair, -the second time he was kneeling on a chair, and the third experiment -he stood on the chair. In all these instances I had every facility for -examining the phenomena at the moment they occurred. - -“Over a hundred instances where Mr. Home was raised from the floor in -the presence of numerous witnesses have been published, and I have had -the oral testimony of at least three witnesses to these exhibitions, -_i.e._, Count Dunraven, Lord Lindsay, and Captain Wynne. - -“To reject the numerous depositions presented on this subject would be -to reject all human testimony on any other subject; for there are no -facts in history, be they sacred or profane, that are supported on such -a solid basis of proof. - -“The number of witnesses who will testify to the levitations of Mr. -Home is overwhelming. It is to be greatly desired that persons whose -testimony would be accepted as conclusive by the scientific world would -seriously examine with patience these facts. - -“The majority of ocular witnesses of these phenomena are still living, -and will most assuredly bear witness; but in a few years it will be -difficult, if not impossible, to obtain such _direct evidence_ as in -the case of Home.” (_Crookes._) - -It is to this class of phenomena that the case of Francois Fontaine -belongs, the authenticated facts of which, officially recorded and -witnessed, are matters of history; her levitations in the prison at -Louviers cannot be doubted. - -The cataleptic symptoms accompanying the ascentional movements of this -woman bear witness as to the special neuropathic condition in which she -was found—a condition to-day in which most mediums develop _psychic -force_, either spontaneously or following hypnotic maneuvers. - -One of the benefits to future science will be the explanation given to -these phenomena now considered supernatural; things that our learned -Academicians refuse to believe in, _although not investigating_, -insisting that such phenomena are hallucinations, the mere assertions -of writers and those who witness them; while these so-called _savants_, -who laugh spiritualism to scorn, claiming it a fraud and imposture, are -themselves afraid to be convinced by scientific experimentation.[85] - - CLASS VII.—_Movement of small objects without personal contact._ - -“Under this title I propose to describe certain particular phenomena of -which I have been a witness. - -“I shall content myself to here allude to some facts all the more -surprising, since those who have witnessed them did so under -circumstances that rendered all deception impossible; it would be -foolish to attribute these results to fraud, for the phenomena were -not observed in the house of a medium, but in my own home, where any -previous preparation was out of the question. - -“A medium was taken to my dressing room and seated in a certain portion -of the chamber under the watchful eyes of a number of attentive -witnesses, and played an accordion _I held in my own hand_ with the -keys upside down; this same accordion then floated in the air, playing -as it remained suspended. - -“This medium could not secretly introduce to my home a machine strong -enough to rattle my windows and remove Venetian blinds to the distance -of eight feet; to tie knots in my handkerchief and carry it to a -far-off corner of a large room; to play notes on a piano at a distance; -to make a plate float around the room; to raise a water carafe from -a table; to make a coral necklace stand up on one of its limber -extremities; to put a fan in the usual society motions; or to start the -pendulum of a clock when the time piece was sealed in glass and screwed -tightly to the wall.” (_Crookes._) - -These same phenomena are produced by Fakirs. A certain number of fig or -other leaves are perforated by bamboo sticks stuck in the ground. The -charmer extends his hands, the leaves move up along the long sticks on -which they are strung. - -Another experiment: a vase is filled with water and spontaneously -moves over a table, leans, oscillates, is raised a perceptible height, -without a drop of water being spilled. - -Musical instruments render sounds, play melodious airs, under the eyes -of the investigator, at some distance from the Fakir and without the -latter making any apparent movement. Dr. Gibier cites these phenomena, -witnessed by persons entitled to every confidence. - -During seances at the home of my friend Dr. Fuel, with Madam L. B., we -have witnessed similar phenomena. Several times my _confrere_ and I -have seen damask curtains at his office windows shake and open; have -heard the sound of a small trumpet placed in the center of a table, in -the dark, it is true, but we were holding each other’s hands in the -circle and used all possible precautions not to be duped or humbugged. - - CLASS VIII.—_Luminous apparitions._ - -“These manifestations are weak and generally require a darkened room. -I wish to recall to my readers the fact that on these occasions I have -taken all the necessary precautions to avoid being deceived by light -due to luminous oils (of which phosphorous might form the basis) or -other means. Besides, I have endeavored in vain to imitate these lights -artificially. - -“I have seen under experimental conditions of the most severe sort, a -solid body having its own light about the size of a goose egg float -around the room without noise at a height not to be touched even by -standing on ones toes, afterwards softly descend to the floor. - -“This luminous globe remained visible for more than ten minutes before -disappearing; it struck the table on three occasions, making the noise -produced by any hard and solid body of the same size. - -“During this time, the medium was seated in an arm chair, in an -apparent condition of insensibility. - -“I have seen luminous sparks disport themselves above the heads of -various persons. - -“I have obtained response to questions by means of flashes of light, -any number of times in front of my own face. - -“I have seen sparks of light rise from the table and to the ceiling and -fall back on the table with a distinct noise of solidity. - -“I have obtained, alphabetically, a communication, by means of flashes -of light, produced in mid air, before my eyes, while my hand moved -around in the rays of the communicating light; I have seen a luminous -cloud float up and rest on a picture. - -“On several occasions, under similar conditions of severe control, -a body solid in appearance but crystalline, having a light of its -own, has been placed in my hand by a hand not belonging to any person -present in the room. In _the full glare of light_, I have seen a -luminous body fly to the top of a heliotrope placed on top of a -_console_, break off a small branch of the plant and carry it to the -hand of a lady present. - -“I have sometimes seen similar luminous clouds _visibly condense, -assume the form of a hand_, and carry small articles to people, but -these phenomena properly belong to another class of manifestations.” -(_Crookes_). - -The only phenomena of this nature that I have noticed were produced -under the following circumstances: One evening, after commencing some -experiments with Madam L. B., in the parlor of Dr. Puel, we were -obliged to cut the _seance_ short owing to a convulsive hysterical -attack that overcame the medium—an attack which lasted more than an -hour and which was only stopped by the application of metallic plates -to the thorax. Having regained consciousness, the lady, with her -husband and Dr. Puel, retired to the latter’s consultation office, -where I was summoned a few moments later by my _confrere_. Madam L. B. -was standing, supported by my two friends,[86] while from her chest -arose phosphorescent vapors, which grew more dense and thick as the -lights in the room were turned down. These phenomena lasted more than a -quarter of an hour, during which Madam L. B. uttered long and painful -groans. These vapors had the odor of phosphorus, and seemed to rise -from the epigastric region. - -I was called some months later to attend to Madam L. B., whom I found -in a condition of profound anæmia and mental prostration, reminding me -of the _seance_; I prescribed granules of phosphoric acid for her with -excellent results. - - CLASS IX.—_Apparition of hands, either luminous or visible under - ordinary light._ - -“One finds himself frequently touched by hands, or something having the -form of hands, during _dark seances_, or under circumstances which do -not permit us to see these forms; but _I have seen these hands_. - -“I shall not speak here of instances in which the phenomenon occurred -in obscurity, but will simply choose some of the _numerous instances_ -in which I have seen the hands _in the light_. - -“A small hand, of charming shape, has risen from the table and extended -me a flower; this hand appeared and disappeared three times at -intervals and gave me every opportunity to convince myself that it was, -in appearance, as real as my own. This occurred in a full light, in my -own room, while I held the hands and feet of the medium. - -“On another occasion, a small hand and arm, similar to those of a -child, appeared to play around a lady seated near me; this arm floated -to my side, struck my arm lightly and pulled my coat several times. - -“Another time, I saw an arm and hand tear the petals from a flower -placed in Mr. Home’s _boutonniere_ and hold the same before the faces -of parties sitting near him. - -“On this occasion, and with other witnesses, who saw the same -manifestations, a hand touched the keys of an accordeon and played the -instrument, while the medium’s hands were visible meantime, and even -held at times by persons seated near him. - -“The hands and fingers have always appeared solid and like those of any -living person; at times, however, they appeared nebular, condensations -in the form of hands. - -“These phenomena were not visible to the same extent to all the persons -present. For example, one person would see a flower or other small -object; another person would see a small cloud of luminosity fly over -the flower; another, still, would notice a nebulous hand; while others, -again, would simply see the movement of the flower. - -“I have seen, on several occasions, an object move with the appearance -of a luminous cloud and perfectly condense into the form of a hand; -under such circumstances the hand is visible to all persons present. - -“It is not always a simple form, for often the hand perfectly resembles -that of a living person, and has every element of grace; the fingers -move; the flesh presents a human appearance, the same as though that of -a living person; at the wrist or arm this form may become nebulous, and -end in a luminous cloud of vapor. - -“To the touch the hand appears cold, icy as in death at times; while on -other occasions it feels warm and living, clasping my hand like that of -an old friend would. - -“I have retained one of these hands in mine, _firmly resolved not to -let it escape_; it made no resistance nor effort to disengage itself, -but appeared to gradually resolve itself into vapor.” (_Crookes_). - -I have heard many persons affirm that they perceived hands that -touched them in _full light_. I never had this experience, but I can -testify that during eight or ten sittings I and five or six persons -who assisted me felt these hands perfectly; and among these hands were -those belonging to a small child, and _certainly_ no small child was in -the house; these baby hands were soothing and caressing. Our medium was -still Madam L. B., who, during the _seance_, was held down tightly on -a sofa by Madam P., whose scrupulous attention may be relied on where -_science_ is at stake, for all our experimentations of this sort were -in the dark. Several times the small baby hands were put in my sleeve, -and seemed to take pleasure in pulling off my cuffs and taking them to -other persons in the room. My eyeglass was also taken by the infantile -fingers and carried to one of the circle.[87] - - CLASS X.—_Direct writing._ - -This is the expression we employ to designate a writing not produced by -any person present, and Mr. Crookes gives the following description of -this phenomenon: - -“I have often received words and messages written on paper (on which I -had made private marks) under the most severe conditions of control; -and I have heard, in the dark, the noise of the pencil moving across -the paper. The precautions previously taken by me were so strict that -my mind is perfectly convinced, as if the characters of the writing -were formed under my own eyes. - -“But, as space will not permit me to enter into complete details, I -shall simply choose two cases in which my eyes as well as my ears were -witnesses of the operation. - -“The first case I shall cite took place, it is true, in _dark seance_, -but the result was none the less satisfactory. - -“I was seated near the medium, Miss Fox, and there were only two -persons present, my wife and a relative of ours; I held both hands of -the medium in one of mine, while her feet were on top of my own. There -was paper before us on the table and my hand held the pencil. - -“A luminous hand descended from above, and, after hovering near me for -a few seconds, took the pencil from my hand, writing rapidly on the -paper, threw the pencil over our heads and gradually faded in obscurity. - -“The second case may be considered and registered as a discovery. -A good discovery is often more convincing than the most successful -experiment. - -“This occurred in the light of my own room, in the presence of Mr. Home -and a few friends. Different circumstances, unnecessary to enumerate -here, had shown that evening that _the psychic power was very strong_. -I expressed the desire of witnessing the production of a real written -message, similar to that I had one of my friends mention a short -time before. At the instant this wish was uttered an alphabetical -communication was given which read, ‘_We will try_.’ - -“A pencil and some sheets of paper were placed on the center of the -table. Soon _the pencil stood on its point and advanced_, by jerks, -then fell over. It raised itself again and fell over; it tried a third -time but with no better result. - -“After three fruitless attempts, a small piece of wood which laid near -on the table slid towards the pencil and raised itself some inches -above the table. The pencil now raised itself anew, supporting itself -against the wood, and the two made an effort to write on the paper; -this did not succeed and a new trial was made. On the third attempt the -wooden lath abandoned its efforts and fell back to its old position on -the table; the pencil remained in the position where it fell on the -paper, and an alphabetical message said to us, “_We have tried to do -what you have asked, but our power is exhausted_.” (Crookes.) - -In India, the Fakirs easily obtain direct writing; they spread fine -sand on a table or other smooth surface and place on this sand a small -pointed stick made of wood. At a given moment this stick rises and -traces characters on the sand, which are responses to questions put by -the lookers on.[88] - -In the experiments made with our friend Dr. Puel, we obtained writing -on over twenty slates. A bit of chalk was placed on a new slate and -this slate was placed on a table at some distance from the medium, -Madam L. B., the experiments being made with all the cautions possible. -A previous examination of both surfaces of the slate put away all -doubts as to any fraud in that respect. I, meantime, held the hands of -Madame L. B., the medium, who was always in a hypnotic condition during -such experiments, at which several persons usually assisted—persons who -were known to be capable of observing and recording facts with coolness -and deliberation. - -All these communications have a signature, and many of them date -1900 as the epoch when _modern spiritualism_ shall be scientifically -recognized by the world. - -Dr. Gibier, who made interesting experiments with Mr. Slade, like -us, obtained spontaneous writing on many slates, of which he gives -reproductions in his remarkable work, _a book that he had the courage -to write and to which his celebrated name is affixed_.[89] - -We do not find in any Middle Age documents such spontaneously written -communications; at least Demonographers do not mention them in their -writings, for if they had it would have been a most striking proof of -the analogy of magic with modern spiritualism and Indian Fakirism, -which serves as an intermediary in the history of Occultism. - - CLASS XI.—_Forms and figures of phantoms._ - -“These phenomena are rarely ever witnessed. The conditions required -for their appearance seeming so delicate, and so little prevents their -production, that it is only on very few occasions that I have witnessed -satisfactory results. I will cite two cases: - -“At twilight, in a _seance_ by Mr. Home, given at a private house, the -blinds of a window, back of the medium about eight feet, were seen to -move, then all the persons sitting near the window perceived a shadowy -form that grew darker and then semi-transparent, like that of a man -trying the shutters with his hand. While we gazed at this object in the -twilight it evanesced and the window shutters ceased to move. - -“The following example is still more striking. As in the preceding -case Mr. Home was the medium. A phantom form came from the corner -of the room, took an accordeon in its hand, and glided around the -room playing the instrument beautifully. This phantom was visible to -all those present for the space of several minutes, Mr. Home being -perfectly visible at the same time. Then this shade approached a lady -in the room, when the frightened woman uttered a scream and the phantom -vanished.” (_Crookes._) - -We regret that space will not permit our giving the experiments made on -Miss Cook and Katie King, spectres which became so tangible that they -were photographed. - -This History given by Crookes regarding spiritual photography is well -nigh incredible, but Dr. Crookes has remarked concerning doubters and -his personal experiments, “_I do not say that it is possible, I say -that it is_.” - -These apparitions of forms and figures of phantoms were more common -to the Middle Ages than at the present day, if we are to believe the -numerous cases cited by Pierre Le Loyer.[90] - -This celebrated author in fact, will not admit that there is any -doubt on this subject; a matter he has thoroughly studied, for he -says in this preface of his work—“_Aussi est traicte des extases et -rauissements: de l’essence, nature et origine des Ames, et de leur -estat apres le deces de leurs corps; plus des Magiciens et Sorciers, de -leur communication avec les malins esprits; ensemble des remedes pour -se preseruer des illusions et impostures diaboliques_.” - -In analyzing passages from this curious document, we will immediately -see the correlation that exists between what was called in other times -sorcery or magic, and spiritualism. In speaking of these spectres -which form in the air, and under our eyes, Pierre Le Loyer writes: “We -know them by the coldness of their touch and their bodies, which are -soft, their hands receding from ours like soft cotton when pressed, or -a snow-ball squeezed in a child’s hand. They tarry no longer than it -pleases them, returning again into their element.” - -Further along, Le Loyer adds: “A bad spirit questioned by a sorcerer -why his body was not warm, responded that it was not in his power to -give it heat.” - -But, meantime, he attributed these apparitions to evil spirits and -demons; finally, our author seeks to explain “what is this body seen -and touched of these demons, so to speak, of the air, water and earth?” - -“These devils appear indifferently to all persons; they themselves -affect the society of certain, individuals some much more than others.” - -“To these sorcerers and witches (_mediums_), they ordinarily show -themselves in a visible form, and will come to those who call them.” - -“As to persons subject to these sort of things, they are usually those -young and tender of age, cold and imperfectly organized beings; by such -we can speak with power; old men and eunuchs, and withal melancholy -persons.” - -“All those these devils dominate over, are estranged from their -natural, beings, and not infrequently become maniacs.” - -Our author in his chapter on the essence of souls, affirms, that “that -the ancient oracles _were only the Oracles of the souls of men_,” and -to be specific, he gives a long list of names. He remarks, “there were -in Greece, temples known to be psychomantic, and in such places were -received responses from the souls of different men. It was for this -reason too, that the souls for the same reason watched over the places -where the bodies of generous and noble barons had been burned.” - -Further along Le Loyer mentions the origin of the _power that the -spirits possess of manifesting themselves to us_, but our author -_disagrees with the modern theories that makes them derive their power -from the medium_, for he remarks that the spirits can act “_through -their own powers_,” and are governed only by their own intelligence. -“They are not off so far,” adds he, “and the distance between us and -the spirits is so slight that we may easily communicate;” however, he -says, meantime: “They are commanded by God and conform to his will.” - -Finally, he considers man as an inferior being to the spirits of the -dead—in fact, he states: “The soul appears to derive nothing from -another, and, as an invisible spirit, it acts with us as a passive -agent, being too proud to control that which is inferior; and I deny,” -says he, “that the true souls of the dead obey either charms or magical -words.” - -Of the future of the soul after death he remarks to one of his -opponents, whose opinions he refuted, that “_this soul, whatever it -may be, in a state of health or not purged, comes by degrees and not -at one bound into the full fruition and happiness of God_;” and these -degrees, according to Le Loyer, are like prisons where the penalties -for misdeeds done in the flesh are to be satisfied. He admits, however, -that some spirits make more rapid progress than others. These, to his -mind, are the judgments of God after death, and the fire mentioned in -Scriptures. Such is the manner in which he explains away the ideas of -the images of Paradise and Hell, the promises to the virtuous and the -wicked. He cites (_apropos_ of manifestations before courts of justice) -houses “where spirits have appeared and made all manner of noises, that -disturbed the tenants at night.” He speaks of Daniel and Nicholas -Macquereau, who rented a house for a term of years. “They had been -living there but a short time when they heard the noises and hubbub -made by invisible spirits, who allowed them neither sleep nor repose.” -The court cancelled the lease, thus _admitting that there were places -haunted by spirits_.”[91] - - CLASS XII.—_Particular examples which seem to indicate the - intervention of a superior intelligence._ - -“It has already been demonstrated that these phenomena are governed by -an Intelligence; an important question is to know what is the source of -this Intelligence. - -“Is this the Intelligence of the _medium_ or some one else present in -the room? Or is this Intelligence exterior? I do not wish to commit -myself on this point at present in a positive manner. I will say that I -have observed several circumstances which appeared to demonstrate that -the will and the intelligence of the medium have a great influence on -the phenomena. I have likewise observed others which seemed to prove -in a conclusive manner the intervention of an intelligence entirely -independent of all persons found in the room where the _seance_ was -given. - -“Space will not permit me to give here all the arguments that might -serve to prove these propositions, but I will briefly mention one or -two circumstances chosen from among a number of others. I have several -times seen phenomena take place simultaneously, some of them being -unknown to the medium. I have seen Miss Fox write automatically a -message for a person present, while a message for another person was -given alphabetically by means of _raps_, and during all the time of -these manifestations she conversed on a subject entirely different -from the two others. - -“The following case is, perhaps, still more astonishing. During a -_seance_ with Mr. Home, a small wooden lath, that I have previously -mentioned, came across the table to me, in full light, and gave me a -message by striking lightly on my hand; I repeated the alphabet and -the lath struck me at the proper letters; the other end of this wooden -stick was some distance off from the hands of Mr. Home. - -“The blows were so distinct and clear, the wooden lath was so evidently -under the invisible power that governed its movements, that I said: -‘Can the intelligence that governs the movements of this lath change -the character of the movement and give me a telegraphic message by -means of the Morse alphabet, by blows struck on my hand?’ - -“I had every reason for thinking that the Morse alphabet was entirely -unknown to all the other persons present, and I knew it only -imperfectly myself. - -“Immediately after I had said this the character of the raps changed -and the message was continued in the manner I demanded. The letters -were given too rapidly for me to catch but a word now and then, -consequently I lost the message; but I had heard sufficient to convince -me that there was a good Morse operator at the other extremity of the -line, no matter what place it might be in. - -“Another example: A lady wrote automatically by the aid of Planchette. -I sought to discover the means to prove what she wrote was not due to -_unconscious cerebration_. Planchette, as it always does, affirmed -that, although the movements were made by the hands and arms of the -operator, there was an intelligence coming from an invisible being, -who played on her brain like an instrument of music and thus put her -muscles in motion. - -“I then remarked to this Intelligence, ‘Can you see what is contained -in this chamber?’ And Planchette answered, ‘Yes.’ ‘Can you read this -journal?‘ said I, placing my finger on a copy of the _London Times_ -that happened to be back of me on a table, but which I could not see. -‘Yes’ responded Planchette. ‘Very well,’ said I, ‘write the word now -covered by my finger.’ Planchette commenced to move and the word -‘however’ was slowly written. I turned around and saw that the word -‘however’ was covered by the end of my finger. I had not looked at the -paper when I attempted this experiment, and it was impossible for the -lady, had she tried, to see any word in the journal, as she was seated -at a table and the _London Times_ lay on a table back of me with my -body interposed.” (_Crookes._) - -In the experiments in typtology at which I have assisted, to -all the demands addressed to _psychic force_ the responses have -always presented a particular character independent of that of the -assistants.[92] - -I have sometimes tried to concentrate my will upon the answer awaited, -and have always failed in my attempts at mental pressure. - -1 have likewise determined that these answers cannot be dictated by -the mind of the medium, whose scientific and literary knowledge were -not always equal to the message received. This observation coincides -with the facts observed among pretended Demonomaniacs, who had in their -attacks the gift of language, responding in Latin to the exorcists, -making entire discourses in this language, of which they knew not the -first elements. - -Under the name of _phenomena of ecstasy_, Dr. Gibier described, after -his experiments with the medium Slade, his displacement by a stronger -spirit to that of his usual control. Says Gibier, the phenomena -produced from thence were “a certain discoloration of the medium’s -face, which became red, a sort of grin contracting the muscles of the -visage, the eyes were convulsed upwards, and after some nystagmatic -movements of the ball of the eye the eyelids closed tightly, gritting -of the medium’s teeth was heard, and a convulsive sign, indicating the -commencement of his _possession_ by a strange spirit. After this short -phase, which was painful to behold, the medium’s face fell into a smile -and the voice, as well as the attitude, was completely modified to that -of a different person. Slade thus transformed to his regular control, -saluted all our party most graciously.” - -Among the experiments made by Dr. Gibier to control this condition of -_incarnation_ (the English call it _trance_), we might cite that of -a comparison of the dynamometric force of the medium in his natural -condition and the _trance_ state. In the first case, by reason of two -previous attacks of hemiplegia, Slade’s muscular force gave 27 kilos to -the right and 35 kilos to the left. In the second state there were 63 -kilos to the right and 50 kilos to the left. Meantime, Dr. Gibier, no -more than ourselves, deems it proper to consider the trance state other -than a hypothesis, “a foreign element, introduced in the scene, and -like it present in the experiences of suggestion and catalepsy.” - -If we cannot give a scientific explanation of these phenomena, it -is our duty to examine them as others and retrace their history, -especially seeking those points of coincidence with the proofs -furnished by the history of demonomania and diabolic possession of the -Middle Ages; for we are convinced that these phenomena were dominated -by the same unknown force, interpreted differently by reason of the -philosophic and religious ideas of the epoch at which they were studied. - - CLASS XIII.—_Varied cases of a complex character._ - -Under this title Mr. Crookes cites facts that cannot be classed -otherwise by reason of their complex character. As an example, he -reports two cases: one being an experiment in typtology between -himself, Miss Fox, and another lady. He proved that a bell that -belonged in his business office was brought to the table, as a proof -announced by the intellectual force, that communicated with him, _of -its strength_. The chamber in which this was done was separated from -the office by a door which he previously securely locked with a key, -and he was absolutely positive that the bell in question was in his -office. - -“The second case I desire to report,” says Mr. Crookes, “took place -one Saturday night under a full glare of light, Mr. Home and my family -being the only persons present. - -“My wife and I, having passed the day in the country, had brought home -flowers with us that I had gathered; on arriving at home we had given -them to a servant to put in water. Mr. Home came shortly after and we -went into the dining room. At the instant we seated ourselves, the -domestic brought the flowers, arranged in a vase; I placed them in the -center of the table, which was not covered by a cloth. It was the first -time Mr. Home had seen these flowers. - -“Immediately a message came, given by the rap alphabet, which said, -‘It is impossible for matter to pass through matter, but we will show -you that we can do it.’ We waited in silence, and soon a luminous -apparition was seen floating over the bouquet of flowers, and then, -in full view of all my family at the table, a branch of China grass, -fifteen inches in length, which ornamented the middle of the bouquet, -slowly rose from the bunch of flowers, descended from the vase and -moved across the table, and my wife saw a hand stretched out from under -the table and seize the flower; at the same moment she was struck three -times on the left shoulder and the noise made by the slaps was so loud -we all heard it; then the luminous hand dropped the China grass to the -floor and disappeared. Only two persons of my family saw the hand, but -every one at the table noticed the different movements of the plant -stalk, as I have before described them. - -“During the time that this phenomena lasted we all saw Mr. Home’s hands -on the table, where they rested motionless, and they were at least -eighteen inches from where the plant stalk disappeared. - -“It was a dining-room table that opened in folds, it did not lengthen,” -etc. - -As a contribution to the facts mentioned in this class, I may report -the famous experiments with the bracelet made by Dr. Puel—experiments -that I have witnessed a dozen times at least—as well as numerous other -persons. A bracelet made of brass, without opening or solder, cut by -a machine out of a solid piece of metal, was placed on the forearm -of Madame L. B. The lady’s hands rested flat on the table, or were -held in the hands of those experimenting. At a given moment, often -in the middle of a conversation, Madame L. B. uttered a piercing cry -and at the same instant the bracelet would fall on the floor, or on -some piece of furniture, with great force. Several times, under the -same circumstances,—that is to say, when the lady’s hands were firmly -pressed down on the table by those experimenting,—I have seen the -bracelet _pass from one arm to the other_. - -So, in opposition to all laws of physics, it appears that matter can -pass through matter; I affirm the reality of this, and others, who -are no more victims to hallucination than I, can also testify to the -truth of this statement. And no matter what may be the consequences to -my professional reputation, and utterly without regard for anything -that may be said by critics, I boldly maintain, as if under oath, that -my senses lead me to this imposed conviction. Besides, I am far from -being alone in believing what I have seen, whether or no it be “_in -harmony with our acquired knowledge_;” to the names of French, English -and German _savants_ I have cited, there are experimenters in all -countries who have the courage to believe the evidence offered by their -own senses, as witness that celebrated English geologist, who, after -ten years of investigation with the phenomena under control, _declared -spiritualism to be true_, drawing from his experiments the following -conclusions: “_Who shall determine the limits of the possible, limits -that science and observation accumulate each day? Let us examine, let -us doubt, but not be so daring as to deny the possibility of such -occurrences_” (Barkas). - -If now we have established the balance-sheet of facts attributed to the -Demonomania of the Middle Ages, and compared them to the experiences of -experimental psychology, we are not only led to recognize a striking -analogy between them, but also to interpret them by the hypothesis of -an intelligent force of an intensity proportionate to certain nervous -pathological conditions. It is necessary to remember, in fact, that, -according to the Ritual of the Roman Catholic Church, the phenomena -necessary to recognize _possession_ among Demonomaniacs were: - -1. The faculty of knowing thoughts, even though they are not expressed. - -2. Intelligence in unknown languages. - -3. The faculty of speaking foreign tongues which are unknown to the -party speaking them. - -4. A knowledge of future events. - -5. A knowledge of what is transpiring in far-off places. - -6. Development of superior psychal force. - -7. Suspension of persons or bodies in the air for a considerable space -of time. - -No less interesting is it than to compare these phenomena to those -observed by the thirty-three members of the commission appointed by -the “Dialectic Society of London.” The following was this committee’s -report, after eighteen months’ investigation: - -1. Noises of varied nature, apparently arising from the furniture, -floor or walls of the room, accompanied by vibrations which are often -perceptible to the touch, are present without being produced by -muscular action or any mechanical means whatever. - -2. Movements of heavy bodies occur without the aid of mechanical -apparatus of any sort, and without equivalent development of muscular -force on the part of persons present, and even frequently without -contact or connection with any one. - -3. These noises and movements are produced often at the moment wished -for and in the manner demanded by persons present, and, by means of -a simple code of sounds, respond to questions and write coherent -communications. - -4. The response and communications obtained are, for the most -part, hackneyed and commonplace, but sometimes they give facts and -information only known to one person in the room. - -5. The circumstances under which the phenomena are present vary, the -most striking feature being that the presence of certain persons seems -necessary to their production, and that the presence of some people -serves as a check; but this difference does not seem to depend on -the belief or the unbelief of those present as to the nature of the -phenomena. - -The testimony, oral and written, received by the commission affirmed -the reality of phenomena much more extraordinary still, such as heavy -bodies rising in the air (men in certain cases floated through the -atmosphere) and remaining in suspension without tangible support; -apparitions of hands and forms belonging to no human beings, but -seemingly alive, judging by their aspect and motions. - -This report was signed by _savants_ of the first order, as sceptical -before commencing their investigations as the most positive -Materialists of our academies of science. Let us cite, among the -celebrated names of men known throughout the world for their -learning and scientific veracity, those of the great naturalist and -_collaborateur_ of Darwin, Russell Wallace, Professor A. Morgan, -President of the Mathematical Society of London and Secretary of -the Royal Astronomical Society; F. Varley, Chief Engineer of the -Trans-Atlantic Telegraph Company and member of the Royal Society of -London. - -Mr. Morgan does not fear to add to the report the following lines: “I -am perfectly convinced, from what I have seen and heard, in a manner -that renders doubt impossible, that _Spiritualists_, without doubt, are -upon a track that will lead to the advancement of the psychal sciences; -their opponents are those who seek to trammel all progress.” - -Mr. Varley writes to the celebrated Professor Tyndall: “I am obliged to -investigate the nature of the force that produces these phenomena, but, -up to the present time, I have been unable to discover anything save -the source from which this _psychic force_ emanates, _i.e._, from the -vital systems of the mediums. I am only studying, however, a thing that -has been the object of investigation for two thousand years; brave men, -whose minds are elevated above the narrow prejudices of our century, -seem to have sounded the depths of the subject in question,” etc. - -This opinion of the learned English physicist proves, once more, that -we are right in connecting Demonomania to the magic of antiquity and to -modern spiritualism. One must be perfectly blind or of poor judgment -not to see the connecting links that unite these various phenomena. And -if our men of science dare no longer say that these facts are worthy -of credit, although refusing to investigate the same, it is because -they lack courage, it is because they dare not brave the criticism -of pretended strong-minded men and the jests of the ignorant. If the -_vulgum pecus_, the amorphous matter that stuffs the superior element -of society, contest the value of the works of Crookes, Wallace, Morgan, -Varley, Gibier, Zoellner, Mapes, Hare, Oxon, Sexton, and others, they -can only be included in the same class of people who ridiculed Galileo, -Harvey, Jenner, Franklin, Young, Davy, Jussieu, Papin, Stephenson, -and Galvani, with all the authors of great discoveries and scientific -truths, who have invariably been combatted by the pseudo-scientific -and half-fledged goslings whose names adorn our so-called colleges and -other mutual admiration societies.[93] - -Why, then, longer refuse to study _a force_ recognized by some of the -most eminent men among modern civilized nations and by the modest -pioneers who first studied these phenomena in France? If the number of -experimenters named be not sufficient to convince sceptics, let them -enter into a full study of present-day psychology, and find a host of -the greatest modern neurologists. - -Nine years of study has led Mr. Oxon, Professor at the University of -Oxford, to formulate the following propositions on _Psychic Force_, -which corroborate the results obtained by his colleagues in England, -Germany, and America, and which still constitute another proof of the -identity of the phenomena: - -“1. A force exists which acts by means of a special type of human -organization, a force that we call _psychic force_. - -“2. It is demonstrated that this force is, in certain cases, governed -by an intelligence. - -“3. It is proved that this intelligence is often other than that of the -person or persons through whose influence it acts. - -“4. This Force, thus governed by an exterior intelligence, at times -manifests its action, independent of other methods, by writing coherent -phrases, without the intervention of any known mode of writing. - -“5. The evidence of the existence of this force governed by an -intelligence rests on - -“(_a_) The evidence observed through the senses. - -“(_b_) The fact that _the force_ often uses a language unknown to the -medium. - -“(_c_) The fact that the subject matter treated is very frequently -superior to the medium’s knowledge or education. - -“(_d_) The fact that it has been found impossible to produce the same -results by fraud under the conditions in which these phenomena are -obtained. - -“(_e_) The fact that these special phenomena are not only produced in -public and by paid mediums, but likewise in a family circle where no -strangers are admitted.” - -Without writing to prejudice the question, I believe, in my turn, that -I can solemnly affirm that this force has intimate connection with the -soul, the mind or the ministerial part of our being, as it is called; -that it acts on our ideas as well as on our physiological functions, -and it is to my mind the destiny of humanity to investigate its essence -and study its phenomena, its manifestations and all its sensible -effects by all our senses and means of investigation. - -It is high time that secular boasting of the materialistic scientists -be checked, and that they should recognize the fact that force does -not arise from matter alone but exists independent of it and primarily -submits to its laws. - -Starting, then, with the proposition that an unknown force exists, to -whose influence we unconsciously submit, science should investigate -this force, isolate, and control it, if it be in our power so to do. - -Instead of opposing an ignorant skepticism to modern discoveries -in _psychic force_, our learned Academicians should investigate -the acquired facts for inspiration in future work, remembering -that good thought of Laplace: “We are so far from knowing all the -agents of Nature and their different modes of action, that it is -not philosophical to deny the existence of phenomena simply because -they cannot be explained in the actual condition of our present -knowledge.”[94] - -Such are the conclusions I believe I have a right to draw from my -historical studies on the Demonomania of the Middle Ages. Let me -briefly recapitulate my personal views on the subject: - -1. There exists a psychic force, intelligent, inherent to humanity, -manifesting itself, under determined conditions, by various phenomena, -with an intensity more or less great. - -2. Certain human beings, known as mediums, who are very sensitive to -the action of magnetism, facilitate the production of these phenomena, -considered as supernatural in the actual state of our present -scientific knowledge, and in apparent contradiction with all known -physical and physiological laws. - -3. In certain nervous conditions, natural or provoked, this Force can -possess the human organism and bring about, temporarily, either a -change in one’s personality or an alteration in one’s sensations and in -the intellectual and moral faculties. - - - - - MEDICINE IN THE LITERATURE OF THE MIDDLE AGES. - - -All _savants_ who have studied the literary and historical part of -medicine fully recognize the powerful interest it offers, especially -that medicine portrayed in the works of poets and dramatic authors of -the Middle Ages. It is in the works of these writers, in fact, that we -find the most exact appreciation of medical ideas of the epoch, because -we can judge their morals, criticise their faults, account for their -tendencies—all without bringing in medical science at any given moment, -with its teachings, errors, and prejudices. - -In all that concerns the Middle Ages, we shall find this first in -the writings of philosophers, in certain dramatic works, known under -the name of _Moralities_, because their purport was to demonstrate, -under the form of an allegory, a precept of morality. The personages -of such dramatic scenes always represent ideas, often abstract and -usually fantastic,—The World, Justice, Good Company, Gourmands, Dinner, -Banquet, Experience, Gout, Jaundice, Dropsy, and Apoplexy. A second -class, errors and prejudices, are seldom wanting in some poetical -works, in _comedies and farces_, _satirical_ and _indecent_ poems, that -recall some of the early productions of the Latin Theatre. Eventually -impressed with the Gallic spirit of levity, these short pieces, -enjoyed by clerks and small tradesmen, contain cutting criticisms on -the weaknesses of mankind, doctors in particular. These plays are -considered the embryo of the French stage, which, later, has been -immortalized by the most illustrious of our writers of comedy. - -An unaffected gayety often breaks out in brilliant, sparkling dialogues -in these frivolous farces, and assures the instant success of the -play. The public laughed in high glee, without prudery, at the broad I -insinuations and comical acts in such representations. So the writers -of that period went into raptures when they chanced to make a hit with -their satirical tirades, that amused the passing age. Sometimes the -clergy were satirized as well as the doctor; even the Pope himself -received the attention of the comedians, as witness the carnival of -1511. Even the avarice of Louis XII. was ridiculed. Comedy’s procession -represented Justice by its attorneys, shysters and police; but, above -all, comedy delighted to burlesque the doctor, _Facultas saluberrema -medicinæ parisiensis_, ridiculing them like the rest of the world, -without the least respect for their robe or bonnet. - -Pray, what do these jolly, railing spirits of the Middle Ages say of -our medical ancestors of the good old times? Master Jehan Bouchet, for -example, with his piece, _Traverseur des voyes perilleuses_, and Pierre -Gringore under the pseudonym of _Mere Sotte_, and Nicholas Rousset and -Coustellier, and Jacques Grevin and Pierre Blanchet, and all other -members of that joyous group without care, without pretension, but -not without talent. If professional honor was never really put on -trial by these wits, the pedantic gravity of our medical forefathers, -their formidable doctoral accoutrement, their consultations, sentences -formulated in horrible and barbarous Latin, were all the objects of -raillery and piquant epigrams. We shall find also, in other works we -propose to analyze, the same false ideas of the public regarding the -healing art as exists to-day; the same tendency to always lead one into -error, and unjustly accuse the medical profession of all the accidents -that happen to a patient—this, too, notwithstanding all ancient codes -of hygiene and all the ages of experience. - -When a physician prescribed, for example, in the case of one attacked -by fever, the daily libations were stopped, and we always find the -neighbors and boon companions of the sufferer enter the sick room for -the purpose of criticizing the doctor’s prescriptions and orders, -and such persons excited the patient by their remarks on medical -despotism. This has always been the case since doctors and patients -were created, not only in the Middle Ages, but at all epochs. Olivier -Basselin bears testimony to this fact in one of his charming _Vaux de -Vire_[95] poetical compositions, roundelays and Bacchic songs, dating -back to the sixteenth century; this sonnet is not long;[96] it relates -to a drunkard to whom only barley water is given, and who recovers his -health, according to the veracious poet, through a charitable friend, -who breaks the doctor’s orders and fills the patient up with wine. We -have often read this poem with pleasure, and give a condensed extract: - - - One of my neighbors sick was lying, - Gasping with weak and feverish breath: - “Alas! they’ll kill me,” said he, sighing, - “Forbidding wine; and barley water’s death. - - “Alas! my thirst is great, annoying; - I’d like one drink before I die; - Neighbor, with you one glass enjoying; - Pray quickly to the vintner’s hie. - - “Dear friend, my wish don’t be denying, - Always to me you’ve been a brother; - Now, for the wine in haste go flying, - We’ll take one parting glass together. - - “Since doctors made me quit a-drinking, - My flask I’ve left yon in my will. - These doctors, I can’t help a-thinking, - Don’t cure as often as they kill.” - - Thus spoke my neighbor, sick and weary. - Of wine he drank full bottles five; - The fever left him blithe and cheery; - He’s still a-drinking, and _alive_. - - -The Bibliotheque of the French Theatre contains a great number of other -dramatic compositions, as well as comedies and farces, in which doctors -carry principal _roles_, it is true, but more often are introduced for -the mere purpose of giving the author a chance for pleasantry at the -expense of medicine; and these characters sometimes exceed the limit of -license. Some of these works are gems of literary art. We may cite, for -instance, the “Farce of the Doctor who Cures all Diseases,” by Nicholas -Rousset; the “Discours Facetieux” of Coustellier; “The true Physician, -who Cures all Known Diseases;” and several besides, “La Medecine de -Maistre Grimache,” “Le Triomphe de treshaulte et tres puissante Dame -Verolle,” of Francois Juste; “Mary and the Doctor,” “The Sweetheart of -the Family Physician,” as well as some farces by Tabarin—works dating -back to the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. - -But we shall only take up the study of a few works that have a -veritable literary medical interest, and shall confine ourselves -to the study of the “Farces de Maitre Pathelin, du Munyer et de la -Folie du Monde;” to the moralities of “A’aveugle et du Boiteux, de -Folie et d’Amour;” to the comedies of “La Tresoriere et de Lucelle;” -to the tragedy “De la Goutte,” and to the book of “Gargantua et de -Pantagruel.” This will suffice to give an idea of medicine as portrayed -in the literature of the Middle Ages. - - - THE FARCE OF MASTER PATHELIN. - -The farce of Master Pathelin, whose author was Pierre Blanchet, is -certainly the richest jewel in the crown of the old French Theatre; -it was what inspired Moliere in several of his works. Represented -for the first time in 1480, this celebrated farce is one of the most -precious literary monuments for the study of Middle Age morality. It -is a _chef d’œuvre_ of spirit, malice, comedy, and _naivete_, in which -medicine is found in every scene, either in the simulation of disease, -with consultations, with drugs, and, most amusing of all, the eternal -ingratitude of the sick. - -All the educated world knows the subject of Master Pathelin: A lawyer -without a case or client; a man living on his wits and expedients, -making dupes and yet retaining a certain degree of professional -correctness in his language and his artifices. Guillemette, his wife, -is his worthy accomplice. It is she who reproaches him with not having -more clients and his reputation of earlier days; of starving her to -death by famine. It is she who excites him by ironically saying: - - - “Maintenant chascun vous appelle - Partout; avocat dessoubz l’orme, - Nos robes sont plus qu’estamine - Reses.” - - -And Pathelin responds that he cannot get their clothing out of pawn -without redeeming or stealing it—both things out of the question, as -he has no money and will not commit a crime. It is then that the worthy -couple hit on the credit system to renew their wardrobe. It is for this -purpose he goes to a draper’s to purchase cloth to make new clothes. On -entering the shop he uses the salutation of the period, “God be with -you,” and politely inquires after the shopkeeper’s health, which to -him is very dear. Then he asks after his father’s health, telling him -he resembles his sire like an old picture. Finally, he takes sixteen -yards of fine cloth, and, telling the draper to call at his house in -the evening for his money and to eat, as Master Pathelin expresses -it, “a Rouen goose roasted,” having invited the astonished tradesman -to dine with him, the lawyer walks out with the cloth without paying. -Arriving home he relates his adventure to the delighted Guillemette, -who is overpowered with bewilderment, however, when she learns that the -draper is invited to a roast goose supper. At first it is suggested -that they borrow a tailor’s goose, but fear that the draper will not -appreciate the joke and demand his money legally induces the worthy -couple to adopt a strategem. It is very simple: Master Pathelin is -to feign insanity, or rather that maniacal form of excitation so -frequently employed even at the present day by those who seek to avoid -the consequences of crimes—an excitation principally characterized by -uncontrollable loquacity, mobility of ideas, incoherence, and pretended -illusions. - -These scenes of simulation are extremely curious and interesting. As -soon as the draper enters the wife warns him not to make a noise in the -house: - - - “He’s lying in bed. Don’t speak! - Poor martyr! he’s been sick a week. - - -But the draper refuses to accept the explanation. It cannot be a week, -he says, for - - - “’Tis only this afternoon, you see, - - Your husband bought cloth from me.” - -Then the voice of the attorney is heard in the next room shouting to -his wife: - - - “Guillemette? Un peu d’eue rose! - Haussez moy, serrez-moy derriere! - Trut! a qui parlay. Je? L’esguiere? - A boire? Frottez moy la plante.” - - -Rose water in that century was employed to reanimate the strength -of sick people. Among apothecaries it was called _aqua cordialis -temperata_. Rose water was prescribed in the following cases: “_In -mortis subitis et malignis, ubicunque magnus est virium lapsus -præscribitur; quemadmodum etiam prodest a morbo convalescentibus, ad -vires instaurandas._” - -Pathelin simulates hallucinations of sight, and uses all manner of -words employed by magicians in their conjurations; he asks the draper -and Guillemette to put a charm around his neck such as are used to -frighten away demons. He then, in his ravings, abuses the doctors for -their malpractice and not understanding the quality of his urine.([97]) -Notwithstanding all this the draper is not convinced and demands his -money. We all know what importance was attributed to the examination of -the urine in olden times, long before any search was made for albumen, -sugar, or other morbid principles that it might contain. Charlatans -especially exploited in this field of medicine, practicing it illegally -in the country under the name of _water jugglers_ or _water judges_. -Such men still practice in Normandy and certain northern provinces of -France. - -The intestinal functions had also more or less importance in the eyes -of the public, and the physician was not always consulted as when to -give physic. People sent to an apothecary and ordered a clyster with -cassia and other ingredients, according to the following formula of -the pharmacopœia: “_Cassia Pro Clysteribus. Est eadem pulpa cassiæ cum -decocto herbarum aperitirarum extracta et saccharo Thomæo condita. -Oportet autem illas herbas adhibere recentes, parumque decoquere, alias -viribus aperitivis omnio privantur; siccæ autem per se carent virtute -illa aperitiva._” - -In the “Revue Historique” of Angers we find a document bearing on the -private life of Cardinal Richelieu; it has for its title: “Things -furnished for the person of His Most Eminent Highness, the Cardinal -Duke Richelieu during the year 1635, by Perdreau, apothecary to his -Excellency.” During the one year the Cardinal had used seventy-five -clysters and twenty-seven cassia boluses, without counting other -laxative medicines and bottles of tisane, his purgative bill amounting -to 1401 livres and 14 sous. It is evident that Richelieu was a badly -constipated Cardinal. - -It was a fine period for apothecaries, and we might add that Moliere -did them considerable harm. - -Let us return to Master Pathelin. He was allowed a short breathing -spell for Guillemette, fought off the obdurate creditor by making him -leave the room a few moments while her husband used the bedpan. - -But this respite is of short duration; the draper soon returns to -demand his cloth back or his money, although the wife declares her -husband “is dying in frenzy.” Then commences another scene of maniacal -simulation in this wonderful psychological play. In his pretended -delirium, Pathelin indulges in Limousin _patois_, Flemish, Lower -Breton; his words grow unintelligible and incoherent in order to -convince the draper of his insanity. - - - “Mere de Diou, la coronade, - Par fie, y m’en voul anar, - Or renague biou, outre mar, - Ventre de Diou, zen diet gigone, - Castuy carrible, et res ne donne.” - - -Let us pass from a wild Flemish harangue, that possesses but little -interest even to those understanding the dialects. - -The psychic symptoms, which dominate in the simulated delirium of -Master Pathelin, are especially incoherent in language with mobility -of ideas. The author of this fine comedy had evidently observed -the progressive instability of thought among certain maniacs, the -impossibility of fixing their attention, the too rapid succession of -ideas without order; in fact, that absolute incoördination, a kind of -cerebral automatism, which is the announcement of the breaking-down -of intellectual faculties and the prelude of absolute dementia. In -his ravings, Pathelin descants on the _Mal de Saint Garbot_, or, -more properly speaking, Garbold; this was dysentery, although such a -scholar as Genin translates it as meaning hemorrhoids. Saint Garbold -who was Bishop of Bayeux in the seventh century, was driven out from -his episcopal chair by his diocesans, and, in order to be avenged, sent -them dysentery. - -We may remark, in this connection, that during the Middle Ages many -maladies were called after the Saints, whose aid they invoked in given -diseases; _Saint Ladre_ or _Lazare_, for leprosy; _Saint Roch_, for -the plague; _Saint Quentin_, for dropsy; _Saint Leu_, _Saint Loupt_, -_Saint Mathelin_, _Saint Jehan_, _Saint Nazaire_, _Saint Victor_, for -epilepsy, fever, deafness, madness, etc. - -The _mal Saint Andreux_, _mal Saint Antoine_, _mal Saint Firmin_, _mal -Saint Genevieve_, _mal Saint Germain_, _mal Saint Messaut_, _mal Saint -Verain_, designated erysipelas, scurvy, etc. Drunkenness was called the -_mal Saint Martin_. - -Syphilis naturally had its patron Saint; in fact, it was known as _mal -Saint homme Job_, _Saint Merais_, _Saint Laurant_, _mal Saint Eupheme_, -etc. In fact, all diseases had as an attachment the name of one or more -Saints, at whose shrine the afflicted might implore aid. - -But to return to Master Pathelin: After numerous tirades he finishes -by acknowledging his deceit to the draper. This is an epitome of the -farce of Master Pierre Pathelin, a medical study that had an immense -run in the fifteenth century and remains a valuable document regarding -French morality in the Middle Ages, as interesting to the student of -psychology as to the Theatre. Some years after this (1490) the sequel -to Master Pathelin appeared, called the “Last Will of Pathelin,” which -is also full of strange medical conceits appertaining to the age in -which it was written. In this piece, Pathelin, after years of fraud -and deceit, really becomes ill and sends for the lawyer and priest, -abandoning the doctor to a certain extent. In his will he leaves all -his ailments to different religious orders and charitable institutions, -as, for instance, one _item_ of his will reads as follows: - - - “Au quatre convens aussi, - Cordeliers, Carmes, Augustins, - Jacobins, soient ors, on Soient ens, - Je leur laisse tous bons lopins, - A tous chopineurs et y vrongnes, - Notre vueil que je leur laisse - Toutes goutes, crampes et rongnes, - Au poing, au coste, a la fesse,” etc. - - -But enough of Master Pathelin. Let us now turn to the consideration of -another curious farce. - - - LA FARCE DE MUNYER. - -This farce, whose author was Andre de la Vigne, dates back, like -preceding one, to the fourteenth century. The miller of the Middle -Ages, the ancestor of our present Jack-pudding (French slang for -miller), was in antique times the most rascally and cheating type of -trader, from whence the old Gascon proverb, “One always finds a thief -in a miller’s skin.” - -In this farce we see the miller “lying in bed as though sick,” uttering -long groans and sighing over the pains he professes to endure—groans, -however, to which his wife appears insensible. He commences thus: - - - “Now am I in sore distress, - My sickness hard to cure, - My sore discomfort is not less. - Heart-ache I can’t endure.” - - -To this his wife responds indifferently, although the miller persists -in asking for a bottle of good wine, saying that his “reins and belly -need the supreme consolation of the bottle.” The wife obstinately -refuses her husband the wine, remarking that he cannot “repair his -stomach by filling the belly;” but, instead, she sends for the priest, -who is, moreover, her lover, and carries on a flirtation with the holy -man in the presence of her husband, for the purpose of making the -invalid rise from his sick-bed; but, thinking his end near, the miller -demands that he shall be permitted to die in the faith, or “_mourir -catholiquement_.” He confesses to the priest, avowing all his thefts, -his frauds, his falsification and _amours_, and is prepared to render -his soul. - -But the miller has absorbed some of the popular ideas of his day, -professed by certain philosophers of the time; he believes that, at the -moment of death, the soul of man escapes by his anus, and warns the -priest to absolve him from his sins, saying: - - - “Mon ventre trop se determine. - Helas! Je ne scay que je face; - Ostez vous!” - - -The priest answers: - - - “Ha! sauf vostre grace!” - - -Then the miller remarks: - - - “Ostez vous, car je me conchye.” - - -The wife and the priest pull the sick man to the edge of the bed and -place him in such a position that, if the doctrine of soul departure by -the anus be true, they may witness the miller’s final performance. The -phenomenon of rectal flatulence is now observed, when suddenly to the -consternation of the wife and priest, a demon appears, and placing a -sack over the dying miller’s anus catches the rectal gas and flies off -in sulphurous vapor. In the next act we see the Devil appear before his -patron Lucifer bearing the sack supposed to contain the damned soul of -the miller received in the aforesaid sack at the moment it escaped from -the anus. The devil is commanded by Lucifer to empty the sack at the -feet of Proserpine who is busily engaged in cooking in Hell’s kitchen, -but in place of the miller’s soul they only find _spoiled bran_; the -rascal has cheated even in death. - -It seems strange that earlier comedy writers all showed a tendency to -make their principle scenes pathological burlesques. Thus in many plays -the heroes and heroines were attacked by colic in order to excite the -laughter of the audience, when the buffoon would imitate by signs the -act of defecation. This peculiar French gayety and lack of prudery -is fully evidenced in the comic effects of Pourceaugnac with the -detersive, insinuative and carminative clysters of Moliere. - -This farce, had in former days, an immense success, and is still -occasionally played, being considered a _chef d’œuvre_ of malice and -humor by our best critics and most distinguished authors. In France -the audience always laugh when a thief while plundering is suddenly -taken with pains in his bowels and diarrhœa, while a rectal syringe -flourished aloft as a weapon of defense will bring down the gallery in -a storm of applause. - - - L’AVEUGLE ET LE BOITEUX - -Is another play in which medicine acts a part, by the same author of -the preceding farce; the plot is as follows: A blind man and a lame man -implore public charity on a deserted road; the blind man deplores his -fate as never having seen the light, and the lame man bitterly bemoans -not being able to walk but a few steps at one time, on account of the -gout which has rendered him paraplegic. These two make a mutual avowal -of their infirmities and agree to form a copartnership for mutual -assistance; the lame man climbs on the blind man’s shoulders and they -start out the road in search of charitable persons who may aid them -with alms. On going some little distance the beggars hear a noise; this -is made by a procession of monks going on a pilgrimage to the tomb of -Saint Martin. “What do they say?” asks the blind man; to which the lame -man responds: - - - They tell of things curious and quaint, - Of miracles, wonderous, if true, - Performed by a newly made saint, - For whose aid each monk goes to sue; - This Saint cures all ills he can find, - Even fits, ulcers, fevers and gout; - He _healeth the halt_ and the blind - In a manner that’s past finding out. - - -We all know the eternal popular faith and belief in the ability of the -Saints to cure every malady that flesh is heir to. However, in the -present instance, it seems that one of the requirements necessary to -be healed was a perfect spirit of resignation to all ills on the part -of the sufferer—_now this is the case of our two mendicants_, who now -become alarmed at the idea that they may be cured and thus deprived -of a method of earning their daily bread, _i.e._, by beggary, so they -undertake a number of subterfuges to escape the pious pilgrimage, which -gives rise to many amusing adventures and situations, which might be -well utilized by some modern playwriter. In the end the two mendicants -escape from going with the pilgrim monks to visit the Saint’s shrine, -as the blind man detests the light and the lame man is too lazy to -walk, in fact both are admirably suited with their afflictions. It is -during one of these scenes that the lame man relates to the blind man -the best methods for deceiving the public by simulating maladies, and -making a regular profession of begging. He discloses all the secrets of -those who in the Middle Ages sought public commiseration to earn alms; -he remarks: - - - “Puisque de tout je suis reffait, - Maulgre mes deus et mon visage, - Tant feray, que seray deffaict, - Encore ung coup de mon corsaige, - Car je vous dis bien que encor scay—je” - - “La grant pratique et aussi l’art, - Par onguement et par herbaige, - Combien que soye miste et gaillart, - Que huy on dira que ma jambe art - Du cruel mal de Sainct Anthoyne,” etc. - - -In this lengthy poem, too long to transcribe from the French, the -lame mendicant gives a list of herbs, through means of which various -diseases may be simulated, especially those maladies of the skin that -are repulsive to the majority of mankind; thus he describes the itch -produced by certain varieties of the _clematis_ and the appearance of -leprosy induced by the use of an ointment of which _veronica_ formed -the basis. He also describes how to produce the disease of _Saint -Fiacre_, an affection characterized by warts and ulcers around the -anus. It is useless to add there is nothing new under the sun. Let us -now turn our attention to another play, _i.e._; - - - LUNACY AND LOVE. - -This is a play with six characters, written in 1556, by Louise Labe, -sometimes called the _Belle Cordiere_. - -Love, at all periods of time, has served as an inexhaustible subject -of analysis and observation, not only to poets and novelists, but -also to moralists, and especially physicians. Psychologists have -always considered love, when excessive, as an evidence of insanity. -Esquirol says that “love has lost its empire in France, indifference -having captivated the hearts of our people, who, given over to amorous -passions, having neither purity nor exhaltation, engender attacks of -erotic lunacy.” This learned alienist has also discovered that out -of 323 cases of insanity among the poor, love figured as a cause in -forty-six cases; and out of 167 cases among the rich, twenty-five -persons went insane on account of love. These close relations between -“Lunacy and Love,” admitted since mankind _entered into society_, have -served as a text for the Middle Ages, as is witnessed by the title of -the play we have mentioned; a work the more curious, for reason of its -_finesse_, notwithstanding the jests employed by its author as the -following analysis will witness. - -Love and Lunacy arrive at the same moment at a festival to which -Jupiter has convened all the Gods. Lunacy, full of arrogance, wishes -to enter the banquet-hall before Love, and in order to do so turns -everything topsy-turvy to secure his end. The vindictive Love, in -order to be avenged, discharges a flight of arrows from the historical -quiver; but Lunacy avoids these by becoming invisible, and in his wrath -pulls out Love’s eyes, but afterwards skilfully puts them back in place -with a bandage. - -Love, in despair at being blinded, goes to implore the help of his -mother. The latter desires the boy to remove the bandages from his -eyes, but his efforts are useless; they are full of knots. Venus calls -on Jupiter for justice for the injury done her boy. The Father of Gods -accepts the position of arbitrator and cites the offender to appear -before his tribunal. Mercury acts as attorney for Lunacy and Apollo -does the special pleading for Love. In the cross-examination, Love -tries to inform Jupiter of the fashions of loving, and tells him if -he desires true affection and happiness to descend to earth, drop all -appearances of greatness, and, under the guise of a simple mortal, seek -to captivate some earthly beauty. Apollo, speaking for his client, -young Cupid, is so eloquent that all the assemblage of Gods is seduced -by his oratory, and condemns Lunacy without even giving him a hearing. -But Jupiter is impartial in his tribunal, and allows Mercury to argue -for the defense. The latter pleads, in turn, with such eloquence -that one-half the jury is ready to say that Lunacy is not guilty—at -least among Olympian jurors. Jupiter is undecided; he is very wise, -however, and makes the following decision. “Owing to the differences of -witnesses and the importance of the case, we have set the case for a -re-hearing in three times seven times nine centuries—18,900 years—until -which time Folly, or Lunacy, shall lead the Blind (Cupid) anywhere she -chooses to go; and, at the end of the time named, should Cupid’s eyes -be restored, the Fates may decree otherwise.” - -Lunacy and Love are thus rendered inseparable and eternal on earth; -they are connected together for the happiness of humanity and the -delight of psychologists, philosophers and moralists, who will always -find in these subjects something new for meditation and study. Need we -add, also, that the alienists will secure any number of clients owing -to Jupiter’s decision? - -Let us now turn to a brief mention of - - - THE TREASURER’S WIFE. - -This comedy, by Jacques Grevin, a medical poet, born at Clermont, was -written in the sixteenth century. This physician, from his earliest -youth, was enamored with the daughter of one of his confreres, Charles -Etienne; she was a noted beauty, but preferred another doctor, Jean -Liebaut, the author of “La Maison Rustique,” to our poet. In order to -console himself for the loss of his sweetheart, Grevin commenced to -write rhymes, and even surpassed Jodelle, the author of “Cleopatra and -Dido,” by his fecundity. He followed Marguerite de France, wife of the -Duke of Savoy, to whom he was family physician, to Turin, and died -there in 1570. - -He left several plays in verse, the principal one of which was “La -Tresoriere,” an adulterous comedy relating to the intrigue of a -financier’s wife. It is only of medical interest inasmuch as it alludes -to syphilis, which at the time this play was written prevailed in -Europe almost as an epidemic, and as a study of the morals of the epoch -is not without interest to the syphilographer. The author, probably -owing to his early disappointment in love, had but a poor opinion of -the virtue of the women in his century, and makes many odd comparisons, -as, for instance: - - - “Woman, ’tis often been said, - Resembles a church lamp bright, - That hangs on the altar overhead, - And outshines the candles at night; - She sheds an equal light on all, - But without her light, no shadows fall.” - - -He was no believer in the morality of the aristocratic classes, and -alludes to the laxity of social rules and the spread of syphilis in the -following lines: - - - “Aussi la femme a beau changer - Un familier a l’etranger, - L’etranger au premier venu, - Toujours son cas est maintenu - En son entier, si d’aventure - Elle n’y mele quelqu’ ordure.” - - -The reference to the syphilis is here found in the two last lines; if -she has a love affair, there is ordure in the result. The allusion in -other passages is much more apparent, but too impolite for an English -rendering. - -Let us now turn to another curious old French play, - - - LUCILLE AND INNOCENCE UNCOVERED. - -Pharmacists, even at the present day, notwithstanding the rigid laws -to the contrary, often sell narcotics without a prescription. That the -modern druggist only follows the custom of his ancestor is evidenced -by this comedy of the sixteenth century, by Louis Le Jars, _i.e._, -“Lucille.” - -The plot is as follows: At the moment a rich banker gives the hand -of his daughter Lucille to the Baron Saint Amour, he learns that the -former has been already secretly married to one of his clerks, a young -man named Ascagne. In his wrath the banker places a pistol at Ascagne’s -head, offering him at the same moment a goblet of poison, giving him -his choice as to the manner of death. Ascagne chooses poison, and -bravely drinks half the goblet and falls down, apparently inanimate. -The father then has the body of Ascagne carried into his daughter’s -presence, and also the remaining half-goblet of poison; the young woman -does not hesitate to drain the other half of the poison to the dregs, -and drops to the floor, like Ascagne, without consciousness. - -Almost immediately following this double poisoning, a courier arrives -and demands Ascagne, who turns out to be the son of the King of Poland. -The banker is in despair, and sends post-haste for the apothecary -who furnished the poison, and the druggist forthwith declare that -the mixture is only a narcotic, the effects of which he can soon -neutralize. Scene of overpowering tenderness and joy, and marriage over -again to a real Prince. - -It sometimes happens that physicians themselves give away opiates -without regard for the rights of the _medicamentarius renenum coquens_ -of the neighborhood. Jean Auvray, Member of the French Parliament -and poet, evidences this fact in a tragio-comedy entitled “Innocence -Uncovered.” This little play is only a rural version of Phedra and -Hippolyte. Marsilie, in fact, is in love with Fabrice, the son of -Phocus, her husband, by a former marriage. Her passion for the young -man is so violent that she falls ill, and in a visit made her by -Fabrice the latter learns of the love his step-mother bears him, but -loyally repulses her advances. Marsilie, reflecting on the infamy of -her conduct, wishes to kill herself in a fit of remorse; but to prevent -this and calm her, Fabrice promises that if she will not suicide -he will visit her when his father is absent from home. Phocus soon -starts on a journey. Marsilie recalls to Fabrice the promise he made, -but Fabrice answers her offers with contempt and quits her presence -overcome with horror. Acting under the advice of her maid servant, -through fear that the young man may tell his father of her perfidy, -Marsilie consents to poison Fabrice, and sends her _valet_, Thomas, to -see a doctor and thus secure poison. The unfortunate _valet_ is very -much embarrassed and cannot tell the physician exactly what he desires, -and in order to obtain some deadly drug he details the symptoms of -an imaginary malady, and descants in the following manner: “Sir, for -several days past my master, who exceeds the Persians as a gourmand -in the cooking of delicious meats, gave a grand dinner party, equal -to that of the Gods at the wedding festival of Thetis. Now, know -that I, his principal servant, sat behind him; there by his order I -tasted every dish brought in by the butler, when such a terrible fury -broke forth in my belly that I was overcome with fright and agony. The -rumblings and grumblings in my interior were only comparable to the -reverberation of thunder claps among the highest crags of Tartarus. -Hell was astonished and our castle walls shook,” etc., etc. - -This narration, which is made in French rhyme and is too long for -reproduction, naturally leads the doctor to prescribe for the impudent -_valet_, who proposes to pay him a hundred crowns for enough poison to -kill his master. The physician is angry and revengeful at the same time -at the _valet’s_ dreadful proposition, but, restraining himself, he -accepts the gold and gives Thomas in place of poison only a soporific -liquor; this the valet brings to his mistress, Marsilie. Now, Antoine, -the only son of Marsilie by Phocus, returning from the chase, sees the -flagon of liquor, and, mistaking it for wine, swallows the contents -at one draught. He falls to the floor unconscious and all believe -him dead. Marsilie accuses Fabrice of poisoning his stepbrother; the -unfortunate young man is taken before the judge, who condemns him to -death; he is about to be executed, when the physician enters on the -scene, tells all that has passed, and restores to life the supposed -dead Antoine. - -Marsilie is tried and found guilty and repudiated by her husband and -family; and Fabrice becomes dearer than ever to his father. Without -making further commentaries on this piece, we see the place occupied -on the stage by medicine in the Middle Ages and the social standing of -the physician in polite society. We also note the _irregular_ practice -of the doctor, as well as the high standard of professional honor he -maintained in many instances. - - - THE GOUT. - -This tragedy, in poetic form, was composed towards the close of the -sixteenth century by J. D. L. Blambeausaut. It has only three scenes, -and depicts the triumph of the gout. The poet describes an old man -overcome by the multiple pains of podagra, praying to obtain some -slight respite from the atrocious and agonizing pain he endures. The -Gout, an ever malevolent deity, rejects the old man’s prayer for -help, but carries him into a gathering of doctors who are vaunting, in -mutual admiration society fashion, their power in jugulating all forms -of disease and exalting their specifics for every known affection. -In order to punish these arrogant disciples of Æsculapius for their -presumption, the Gout gives them all the disease that bears his name, -and afterwards jeers at their impotent efforts to cure themselves of -aching joints. - -This tragedy, name given by the author of the poem, is a very curious -treatise on the gout in rhyme, in which we find all the pathogenetic -theories given credence before the time that medical chemistry revealed -the action of an excess of uric acid in the organism. The blood, bile, -peccant humors settling in the parts affected were, as we all know, -causes attributed to diathesis by the majority of medical authors of -the Middle Ages. Thus the gout-afflicted man, in his imprecations -against what he calls “the torturer of humanity,” comes to say: - - - “From the top of my head to the end of my toes - I am cruelly tortured by agony’s woes, - Filled up with black blood and billious humor, - My flesh seems to pulsate like a sore tumor. - The eating and gnawing I can’t describe well; - My tendons all ache with the twinges of Hell, - While through my fingers pains cut like a knife - And add to my torment! I’m weary of life.” - - -Meantime our patient does not appear to have a robust faith in the -humoral theories of his physician, for he adds, in accursing the malady -that has ruined his health, that it permits him no repose: - - - “Mal que jamais l’homme n’a pu comprendre - Qui le plus sage induirait a se pendre.” - - -That is to say, that the doctors do not understand how to manage the -disease, a common idea among patients who are not cured of their malady -as speedily as they desire. - -In one of the scenes the gout addresses a pompous eulogy on its power -over humanity, and inveighs against those physicians who discover a new -specific against gout every day. This list of remedies for the disease -is appalling; we cull but a few to satisfy the reader’s curiosity: - - - “One advises flea wort and a parsley pill, - One eats fruit at morning, when with gout he’s ill, - One chews leaves of lettuce, one takes wild purslain; - Another smells pond lilies, when he doth complain. - Some remedies most curious are for gout deemed good, - Such are herbs and simples to purify the blood; - Angelica and gentian, the iris and green thyme, - Along with fresh culled myrtle will cure it all the time; - Hyssop and lavender, cherry and water cress, - Basil, hops and anise, all make the pain grow less. - Lentills, sage and savory, when the bowels they unbind, - And the marvelous merchoracan that comes from far off Ind. - There’s the beauteous laurel leaf that crowneth bard and king, - Privet and cardamoms, whose praise we often sing. - And there’s the sleeping poppy, what peace within it resides, - Culled by the Turkish houris in the garden Hesperides; - There’s the soothing comfrey and the glorious hoarhound, - And the magic betal nut, in tropic isles that’s found; - There’s the fragrant _fleur de lis_, when with pain you cry, - There’s the odorous sheep dung, given always on the sly. - Some dote on peach blossoms; some on saffron red, - Some like hyoscyamus mixed with piss-a-bed; - There’s bread crumbs and fennel mixed with young carrots - Pounded in a mortar along with eschalots. - There are some who use an ointment this disease to heal, - Made of rinds of citron and golden orange peel, - With frankencense and veratria root, to ease gouty pain, - Applied to the great toes on the leaves of green plantain. - There’s saltpeter ointment too, when to the foot applied - It makes the patient furious wroth, or else he’s terrified, - Giving the gout new twinges, and the sufferer spasms - Only eased by eggs and flour in a soft cataplasm. - Some patients take a razor and their own flesh deeply cut; - The wound then duly poulticed is with meal and Cyprus nut. - Some take red cabbage when other methods fail - And eat it with vinegar mixed with the slime of snail; - Some use biting dressings made from ugly lizards, - Pounded up with doe’s hoof and weasel gizzards. - Many think a certain and most efficacious cure - Is a little blue stone ointment mixed with man’s ordure, - And a celebrated surgeon, a knight of great renown, - Used virgin urine as a cure for all the men in town. - Some wear charms like foxes’ tails, or a beaver tooth; - Others boil a new born caul and chew it up, forsooth,” - etc., etc., _ad nauseam_. - - -Such are a few of the drugs employed against the gout, and certainly we -cannot enumerate all the remedies spoken of by this malevolent demon. -The treatment of Alexander Trallian, for example, is no less odd than -many of the recipes given in this poetic formulary; it was composed of -myrrh, coral, cloves, rue, peony and birthwort pounded together and -mixed in certain proportions, and prescribed as an antidote to the gout -for the space of 365 days, in the following manner: To be taken for -100 consecutive days, and then omitted for thirty days; then taken for -another 100 days, with fifteen days omission afterwards; finally, every -other day for 360 days. Circumcision was also a remedy, only applicable -to Christians for obvious reasons.[98] - -This treatment is an example of the methodical system, and “rests -upon superstitious gifts,” says Sprengel. But there are some merits -discoverable even in this apparent superstition, _i.e._, the great -truth that the gout is a constitutional disease produced by luxury, and -consequently incurable by medicines; a severe regimen being imposed, at -the same time foolish prescriptions were given; it was the dieting and -not the formula that made Alexander Trallian’s treatment so successful. -However, it must not be forgotten that some medicines had a powerful -effect in attenuating the violence of the gouty attack; it was for -this reason that Cœlius Aurelianus resorted to purgatives and mineral -waters; and among the drugs used by chance in the Middle Ages were -found the flowers and bulbs of colchicum; the haughty Demon of Gout -dared not treat this remedy with disdain. - -Meantime the _Gout_ addressed the following lines to the physicians and -_mires_ of the age. - - - “Gardez vous, Siriens; - Menteurs magiciens, - Vendeurs de theriaque, - Qu’elle ne vous attaque.” - - -To call the doctor of ancient times a “_vender of Theriacum_” was an -insult to professional pride. This absurd remedy was invented by one -of Nero’s slaves, and held a high place in public estimation. “It was -laid down in the pharmacopœias, _ad ostentationem artis_,” says Pliny, -“and enjoyed a reputation that was never justified by its thirty-six -ingredients and the varied assortment of inert gums entering into its -composition.” - -In the third scene of the tragedy, the Demon Gout, recalls to the -memory of the doctors of the Middle Ages, its illustrious victims of -antiquity. - - - “Priam, disposed to run, had gout; - Achilles was too lame to get about; - Bellerophon’s saddle toes complained; - Ædipus had big joints that pained; - Plisthenes on his feet, all swollen stood, - Cursing the gout that coursed with his blood.” - - -How many other of the great have wept with the gout? - -Then calling his faithful servitors, Pain, Insomnia, and Indigestion, -the Demon Gout bids them plunge his fiery darts into his enemies, to -burn them with an unquenchable flame: - - - “Toy, brule ici par des douleurs nouvelles - Le chef premier, les cuisses et tendons, - Toy, convertis leur nerfs en noir charbons, - Et vous aussi, d’une fureur soudaine, - Froissez leurs mains, rendez leur drogue vaine.” - - -With this superb peroration, he afflicts all good doctors with the -gout and rheumatism. Since that day physicians the world over, says -our talented author, J. D. L. Blambeausaut, have been the victims of -this horrible malady. Let us now turn to the consideration of a curious -hygienic play, no less interesting than that of the Gout, - - - CONDEMNATION OF HIGH LIVING AND PRAISE OF DIET AND SOBRIETY.[99] - -This moral play, to which we might give the title of hygienic poetry, -appeared in 1507, under the name of its author, Nicolas de la Chesnaye, -along with another work, the latter in prose, on the “Government of the -Human Body.” - -Nicolas de la Chesnaye was not only a poet but a doctor. He was a -physician of enough importance to be personal friend and medical -attendant of Louis XII, at whose instigation the poetical play was -written. This work is considered by many French critics to be a classic -of its kind; it is a poem dealing with all the curious manners and -customs of the time, and treats of morality and the stage. In a -prologue Nicole de la Chesnaye informs us how he came to be a poet, or, -rather, a writer of verses to be recited on the public stage, in which -were embodied the hygienic and dietetic precepts of the epoch, together -with the medical doctrines in vogue. Let us cite a few lines from this -prologue: “Oh, ye who write or attempt to follow copies of ancient -works, ye should strive to omit such phrases as are difficult to be -understood by the masses of the people; endeavor then to not exceed in -quantity and quality their mental capacity and your own understanding. -On such an occasion as this, I, who am ignorant as compared to many -among ye, have had the hardihood to compose and put in rhyme this -little play of mine upon morality. The intention of this work is to -make an exterminating war on gluttony, debauchery, inebriety, and -avariciousness, and to praise and extol temperance, virtue, sobriety, -and generosity, to the end of improving mankind. So in this work I have -given the personages of my play the names of different maladies, as, -for example, Apoplexy, Epilepsy, Dropsy, Jaundice, Gout, etc., etc.” - -The object of the author’s play is thus plainly stated at the outset. -In the first act we see Dinner, Supper, and Banquet conniving against -honest gentlemen by inviting them to feast. Among the plotters are also -Good Company, Fried Meats, Gourmandizer, Drink Hearty, and others. In -the midst of the festivities rascals fall on the assembled guests and -give them deadly blows; these villains are Apoplexy, Gout, Epilepsy, -Gravel, and Dropsy. Almost all the guests present are more or less -injured, and upon their complaint their assailants are cited to appear -before a court held by Judge Experience, while the attorneys for the -plaintiffs and defendants are Remedy, Medical Aid, Sobriety, Diet, and -Old Pills. The trial, carried on in rhyme, is piquant and amusing, and -ends in the conviction of Supper, who is condemned to wear bread and -milk handcuffs. Dinner is doomed to a long exile on penalty of being -hung should he return. Supper is well pleased with the light sentence. -One of the attorneys abuses wine during the course of his argument for -plaintiffs, as, for instance: - - - “Good wine is full of wicked lies, - Good wine a wise man will despise, - Good wine corrupts the blood and tongue, - Good wine has many a fellow hung.[100] - Good wine lascivious men will rue. - Good wine, though red, makes drinkers blue. - Good wine means lost ability, - Good wine means lost docility. - Good wine means jaundiced liver pain. - Good wine means a wild, raving brain. - Good wine means arson, murder, lust, - Good wine means prison chains and rust. - Good wine means broken family ties. - Good wine means woman’s tears and sighs. - Good wine makes cowards of the brave. - Good wine digs a good drinker’s grave.” - - -He then goes on and gives examples, as, for instance, Alexander the -Great killing his foster-brother Clitus at a drinking banquet; he cites -the opinions of Saint Jerome and Terrence; he depicts Lot debauching -his daughters and Noah exposed to the mockery of his sons; he shows -Holofernes decapitated by Judith, and places all these cases to the -credit of intemperance. Then he adds a long list of diseases resulting -from drink, of which we shall only quote one verse of the original: - - - “D’ou vient gravelle peu prisie - Y dropsie, - Paralisie, - Ou pleuresie’ - Collicque qui les boyaulx touche? - Dont vient jaunisse, ictericie - Appoplexie, - Epilencie, - Et squinancie? - Tout vient de mal garder la bouche.” - - -In quaint old French all the symptoms of alcoholism are perfectly -enumerated. It is evident that the epilepsy mentioned by the author is -only the epileptiform convulsion noticed in modern cases of chronic -drunkenness. - -As to the _ictericie_, which a modern critic has translated as meaning -_black humor_, it is nothing more than what is now known as cirrhosis -of the liver. Nicole de la Chesnaye was a physician; his critical -commentator not much of one. We cannot follow this classical author -through the innumerable reasons he gives for blaming liquor drinking -and his high tributes of praise to the cause of Middle Age temperance, -and we cannot quote those original strophes on the ancient satirical -poet: - - - “Le satirique Juvenal - Avoit bien tout cousidere. - Quand il dist qu’il vient tant de mal - De long repas immodere,” etc., etc. - - -In another scene the drunken revelry of the Banqueters is re-enacted, -on the return of the convicts from exile, and another temptation to the -weak and young and foolish. In fact, one of the youths present, Folly -(_Le Fol_), is attacked and badly used up by the villain Gravel. The -poor fellow cries: - - - “Alarme! Je ne puis pisser - La Gravelle me tient aux rains! - Venez ouyr mes piteux plains, - Vous, l’Orfevre et l’Appoticaire.” - - -Then follows a comical scene of suffering, couched in such language as -would offend modern ears polite, and, therefore, out of respect to the -reader omitted. - -In this play are many dialogues between Hippocrates, Galen, Avicenna, -and Averrhoes, who discuss medical topics at length, but these are too -lengthy for reproduction in this epitomized translation. - -The morality of Nicole de la Chesnaye is full of good intentions, but -it is questionable whether he accomplished any considerable result in -reforming the morals of the Middle Ages; he perhaps fell as short in -his aim as modern hygienists on the morality of our own epoch. The same -instincts predominate now as in days of antiquity; the society man of -to-day is generally a mere digestive tube, serving to keep alive the -more or less badly served vital organs. - - - THE FOLLY OF THE WORLD. - -This is a farce by the same Nicole de la Chesnaye. It was acted in -1524, and one of his chief personages in the play depicted a doctor of -the period. The following is a short analysis of this really curious -piece: - -_Grandmother Sottie_ leads to the _World_ several persons whom she -desires the latter to watch while plying their avocations; the -_shoemaker_ makes his boots _too tight_ always; the _dressmaker’s_ -dresses are ever _too large_; the _priest’s_ masses are said _too long_ -or _too short_. This bad showing on the part of the World’s workers -make his mundane majesty sick. He sends a specimen of his urine to the -doctor, who, after a scientific examination, declares the World’s brain -is affected, and also that his new-found client must be visited in -person. On meeting the World he interrogates him as to his health, and -asks questions which might serve to make a diagnosis. The World tells -the doctor he is no longer afraid of water on the brain, but of being -consumed in a deluge of fire. The doctor then utters the following -wise and rather satirical observations: - - - “World! be not troubled in thinking of fire, - Let your mind on that score be at peace. - Know that each monk, and low, rascally _friar_ - Sells and buys a good, fat benefice; - Why, even the children, your subjects in arms, - Are born to be _Abbots_, _Bishops_, and _Priors_, - While church-bells keep ringing false fire alarms. - But, great World, _all the clergy_ are liars! - Their flattering’s truly their sweetest incense, - Yet the parasites fawn for your treasures; - Ah! church love for war was ever intense, - And their doctrines mar all earthly pleasures.” - - -The World is so impressed by the doctor’s remarks that he immediately -weds Folly. Ever since, it is needless to remark, the World has enjoyed -pleasure without as much dread of fire. It is an easy matter to seize -the apologue sought by the author. - -Here we see, as early as the sixteenth century, the social reforms -begun by medicine and continued up to the eighteenth century. The -abbots, priors and other gentry of the Church, who lived in idleness -and luxury, holding sinecures for which the masses were taxed; the -flatterers of bastard princes, the agents of the rich and aristocratic, -ruled the country and made wars costing thousands of lives for the -glory of the Church—_i.e._, _themselves_. These are the parasites that -epidemically attack the _World_. - - - GARGANTUA AND PANTAGRUEL. - -Among the famous galaxy of philological stars of the sixteenth century, -the men who honored their age, we may enumerate Montaigne, Amyot, -Calvin, Marot, Michel de l’Hospital, Etienne Dolet,[101] and the -one great genius who eclipsed them all, the immortal Rabelais, who -was at once physician, philosopher, politician, philanthropist and -_litterateur_; in other words, he illustrated science and letters by -his erudition, and merits a place in the ranks of glorious Frenchmen -and among the list of benefactors of humanity. - -Son of a wine-house keeper, the owner of the “Lamprey Tavern,” at -Chinon, he took orders in the Church, following the custom of the -epoch, because he wished to devote his life to study. During some years -he led the life of a monk, and was a close student of Latin and Greek -literature; to the latter especially he owes his concise, nervous, -but virile style, resembling that of Aristophanes. But soon fatigued -with religious hypocrisy, whose victim he refused to become, he left -the Cordelier and Benedictine Orders and sought refuge in the charming -village of Leguge, that his intimate friend, the Bishop of Maillezais, -had placed at his disposal. - -Here, Rabelais gave himself up with ardor to the study of belle lettres -and science, only meeting socially the freethinkers, with whom he -discussed those great philosophic questions that had just commenced -to occupy the minds of the really thoughtful. Such superior men as -Estissic, Bonaventure Desperriers, Clement Marot, Jean Bouchet, -Guillaume, Bude, and Louis Berquin were the friends of Rabelais. - -Etienne Dolet, the poet, philosopher and celebrated printer, who laid -down his life in opposition to monarchial and religious tyranny, was -the very particular friend and adviser of Francois Rabelais, and one -day traced for him the programme of a book destined, to his mind, to -unveil the vices and console the mass of victims who suffered from -social iniquities. - -“Yes,” responded Rabelais, in answer,[102] “a book truly humane must be -addressed to all. The time has arrived when philosophy must leave the -clouds and shine like the sun for the entire universe. We must, from -this hour, suck from the breast of truth for the ignorant and learned. -I will see what is in me, and write a book of philosophy, which shall -instruct, console and amuse the brave vintners of Deviniere and the -jolly wine-drinkers of Chinon, as well as the learned. So well shall -this be done that Princes, Kings, Emperors and paupers may drink gayly -at one table together. The _truth_, no matter how hard to reach, and -rugged though its nature, must be related as truly as that found in -God’s book; and it shall be presented in a living form, so human and -natural that it will be accepted by all the world, and awaken in the -soul of mankind a common thought. What use is there, unless supported -on eternal conscience, to recount to good and true men the histories -that they love to have related, histories they themselves have made? -For instance, the ‘History of Giants,’ so much printed in our age, -since the divine art of bookmaking seems so well adapted to an end. -Through all of France I hear told the dreadful prowess of the enormous -giant Gargantua; it is necessary to lay violent hands on this history, -include in it all the world, and hand it back thus _newly created_ -to the good people who invented the tale. Here is the true secret; -we derive from the humble class of citizens their plain and simple -ideas, and give them back ornamented with all the good things that the -study of philosophy brings us. The rustic thoughts of the villager, -such is the point I wish to attain, in divulging treasures hidden in -secret up to the present time by the enemies of light.” Such was the -plot conceived by the immortal Rabelais, which soon served as a basis -for “Gargantua and Pantagruel.” Thus, under the familiar form of an -impossible and exaggerated fictitious history, following the advice of -Dolet, our author proposed to attack in his book all the hypocritical -prejudices, superannuated ideas, together with the political and -religious superstitions of the Middle Ages;[103] he thus paved a way -for a Revolution, that must some day be accomplished in social morals, -to the profit of science and reason. In order to change the control -of orthodox and monarchial guardians, it was necessary to resort to -stratagems, to dissimulate in his plans of attack and use the ideas and -language of the superior classes. He had often heard the aristocracy -use vulgar and obscene expressions, and he was to put these back in the -mouths of his characters, so as to depict their unrestrained passions, -intrigues, _amours_, the luxury of their dress, their penchant for -disputation, their tendency to sensuality; all these were to be part of -his projected romance, which was not to be understood as irony even in -the sense of its paraboles. - -The official sanction to publication was to be obtained by making -the authorities believe that the author was only a gay and witty -philosopher, a prince of good fellows whose doctrines were not -dangerous to the continuance of the nobility and the prerogatives of -the aristocracy; whose ideas presented nothing subversive, neither -as to the secular power nor to sacerdotal domination. Meantime, the -Sorbonnists, whom Rabelais had the impudence to rail at, doubted -perhaps the position reserved for them in such a satire, as for several -years previous they had been secretly hostile to him, which was a -serious matter, considering their influence. - -The condemnation to the stake of Louis Berquin, as a propagator of -reform ideas; the pursuit of Desperriers, accused of Atheism; and the -red danger-signals waving on every hand, determined Rabelais, before -publishing his work, to quit Touraine and to go to Montpellier, where -he demanded protection of the Faculty. His natural pronounced taste for -the natural sciences, the avidity with which he continually extended -the circle of his knowledge, and, above all, the liberty of University -life, had long before attracted the former monk towards the study of -medicine. - -It was under these conditions that Rabelais left Longey to go to -Montpellier, where his reputation for erudition, keen wit and most -perfect good nature had long before preceded him. - -The reading of all the classical Greek authors, and principally -Aristotle, had initiated him in the natural sciences to that extent -that he was ready to receive his degree of “Bachelor in Medicine” -shortly after his arrival at the University, under the following -circumstances: He had followed the crowd of students who read theses in -the public halls, and thus mingled with the auditors at the meeting; -the discussion was on the subject of botany. The arguments of the -orators appeared so weak to Rabelais that he soon manifested signs of -impatience by a very sarcastic remark that drew the attention of the -Dean to the newcomer. He was invited to enter the enclosure reserved -for doctors who debated, but excused himself on the grounds that his -opinions would not be proper to enunciate before such a gathering of -_savants_, and that he was, besides, only a Bachelor; but, being -pressed by the crowd, who seemed pleased by his appearance and manner, -he treated the question under discussion in such a masterly manner, and -with an eloquence so unequalled, that rounds of applause greeted him on -every side; his knowledge of the subject seemed unbounded. The Faculty -was so pleased that he was immediately honored with the Baccalaureat. -This was in November, 1530. - -Rabelais had not taken his doctor’s bonnet when his great medical -talent was fully known and appreciated by the professors of the Medical -Department of Montpellier, where his winning grace, good humor, and -communicative gayety made him friends everywhere. - -Two of his boon companions at the University were Antoine Saporta, who -afterwards became Dean of the Faculty, and Guillaume Rondelet; with -these men he inaugurated at Montpellier theatrical representations with -a medical leaning. He wrote some celebrated farces, among others “The -Dumb Wife” (_La Femme Mute_), in which he himself assumed a leading -_role_—a farce which is related, as to plot, in “Pantagruel,” by -Panurge, under the title of “History of a Good Husband who Espoused a -Dumb Wife.” The following is an extract: “Now, the good husband wished -that his wife might speak, and, thanks to the skill of a doctor and -surgeon, who cut a piece from under the tongue, the woman commenced -to talk, and she talked and talked with recovered speech, as though -to make up for lost time, until the husband returned to the doctor -for a remedy to keep his wife’s mouth shut. The physician responded -that he had proper remedies for making women speak, but no remedy had -ever been discovered to keep a wife’s tongue quiet. The only thing -he could suggest to the husband was for the latter to become deaf in -order not to hear the woman’s voice. The old reprobate submitted to -an operation in order to be deaf, and, when the physician demanded -his fee for professional services, the husband answered that he was -too deaf to hear anything.” Then the doctor, in order to make the man -pay his bill, strove to restore his hearing by forcing drugs down the -husband’s throat, whereupon both husband and wife fell on the physician -and surgeon and so beat both medical men with clubs that they were left -for dead. This farce was played at Montpellier by a company of medical -students, and enjoyed an immense run of success. It was this farce that -helped Moliere out in one of his scenes in his famous play “Medecin -malgre lui.” - -His literary productions, strange to say, did not injure his scientific -work meantime. During the time he resided at Montpellier he published -a translation of some of the works of Hippocrates and Galen, and also -commenced his “Pantagruel,” in which medical history may find some -valuable documents, for he showed himself to be in every line not -only a physician but a philosopher.[104] We will not return to this, -as it is too long, and would take an infinity of time to recall his -anatomical erudition, and it is needless to say he dissected as well -as he wrote. A very just conception of his style is obtained from the -description of the combat between Brother John and the soldiers of -Pichrocole, who had invaded the Abbey of Seville, a description which -is terminated in these droll lines: “Some died without speaking, others -spoke without dying; some died in speaking, others spoke in dying.” - -In all his chapters it is easy to perceive that Rabelais never once -forgot he was a physician, and consequently a philanthropist, for could -the author of “Pantagruel” be otherwise? He pleased all those who -suffered, especially gouty patients, to whom he dedicated a portion of -his work. He states, at the beginning of his prologue, to Gargantua, -“This is for those who love gayety, for laughter is a proper attribute -of man.” - -It was this same sentiment of humanity which led Rabelais to give -disinterested services to syphilitics, that unfortunate class of sick -whom the majority of doctors disdained to treat in the sixteenth -century. In 1538 he went to Paris and made great efforts to reform the -treatment to which such patients were barbarously subjected; the number -of such sufferers was great. He works this fact into the description -that Epistemon gives of Hell, “where, not counting Pope Sextus, there -are five millions of poxed devils, for there is as much pox in one -world as in the other.” But Rabelais, alas for modern theories, did -not fish in the ether with hook and line for microbes, while holding -the white hands of Venus. - -It was Rabelais, then, who pleaded the cause of these poor poxed -patients, attacked by mercury as well as the syphilis, and who -exclaims: “How often I have seen them when they were anointed and -greased with mercurial ointment; their faces as sharp as a butcher -knife and their teeth rattling like the key-board of a broken-down -organ or the creaking motion of an old spinnet.” - -It is evident he employed sweating baths, however, since it is -evidently proved by that passage from the redoubtable “Pantagruel’s” -nativity: “For all sweat is salt, as is evidenced if you but taste your -own sweat, or, a better experiment still, try that of pox patients when -they are being sweated.” - -We know, besides, that G. Torella, affirms that “the best methods of -curing pox is to make the patient sweat near a stove or hot oven for -fifteen consecutive days, while fasting meantime.” - -Syphilis, as already remarked, was exceedingly common in the sixteenth -century, as will be found by referring to the writings of Italian and -French specialists of that epoch. Rabelais corroborates this fact, for -he frequently alludes to this malady in his works; according to our -illustrious author great personages were not exempt from the disease, -not even the Pope and the Sacred College of Rome, not even kings and -princes, in fact all the nobility, for we read in chapter seventeen of -“Pantagruel”: “Moreover, Pope Sextus gave me fifteen hundred pounds -of rents on his domains for having cured His Holiness of _la bosse -chancreuse_, which so much tormented him that he feared to be crippled -all his life.” Now, a protuberant chancre was nothing but an inguinal -bubo, whose suppuration was considered as a favorable symptom of the -disease. - -Even the good “Pantagruel” did not escape, more than others, the -fashionable contagion of his time, for we read: “Pantagruel was taken -sick, and his stomach was so disordered that he could neither eat nor -drink; and as misfortunes never come singly, he was seized with a -clap, which tormented him more than you would think, but his physician -succored him well, and by means of drugs, lenitive and diuretic, they -caused him to urinate away his misfortune (_pisser son malheur_). And -his urine was so hot that since that time it has never grown cold, and -there are different places in France where he left his mark, now called -the _hot baths_, as, for instance, at Cauterets, Limoux, Dax, Balaruc, -Neris, and Bourbon-Lancy.”[105] - -The chapters of Rabelais’ famous book which most evidence his medical -knowledge are those discussing the perplexities of Panurge on the -question of marriage. Pantagruel has long commented _pro_ and _con_, -but has not fully made up his mind; he does not demand a solution -of the matrimonial problem from Gods, dreams, nor from the oracles -of Sibyls. He, however, consents to take council from Herr Trippa, -allegorical name bestowed by Rabelais on the German Camilla Agrippa, -of Neterheim, a philosopher and physician best known by his books on -alchemy, magic, and occult science. This _savant_ proposed to unveil -our heroes’ future destiny by “pyromancy, æromancy, hydromancy, -gyromancy”; or, better still, by “necromancy I will make a spirit rise -from the dead, like Apollonius of Tyana to Achilles, like the Witch of -Endor to Saul, who will tell you all, even as Erichto, dead and rotten -in body, rose in spirit and predicted to Pompey the issue of the battle -of Pharsalia.”[106] - -Panurge always refuses, but finishes by taking advice from a priest, -physician, lawyer, and philosopher, who elucidate the question. The -consultation with the physician Rondibilis, that is to say, the -author’s friend Guillaume Rondelet, fellow student of Rabelais at the -University of Montpellier, is particularly interesting to all doctors -by reason of the anatomical and physiological arguments. - -The good physician Rondibilis thus responds to Panurge on the question -of marriage: - -“You say that you feel within yourself the sharp pricking stings -of sensuality. I find in our Faculty of Medicine, and we found our -opinion on the ideas enunciated by the ancient Platonists, that carnal -concupiscence is controlled in five manners. - -“_Imprimis_, by wine; for intemperance in wine makes the blood -cold, slackens up the cords, dissolves the nerves, dissipates the -generative seed, stupefies the senses, perverts muscular movement; -which weaknesses are all impediments to the act of generation. Hence -it is that Bacchus, God of tipplers, bousers, and drunkards, is always -painted beardless and dressed in a woman’s habit, like unto a thing -effeminate or a eunuch. You know full well the antique proverb, _i.e._, -that Venus is chilled without the society of Ceres and Bacchus.” - -These reflections on the general effects of alcohol on the nervous -system are very just. As to its particular effects on the function -of generation, it is admitted by all hygienists that alcohol taken -occasionally in excess excites venereal desires, but when taken -habitually it weakens the generative functions. Amyot remarks that -“_those who drink much wine are slothful in performing the generative -act, and their seed are good for nothing, as a rule_.” - -Rondibilis told Panurge the truth. Let us now see what other advice he -gave his patient, and also note the methods by which he proposed to -secure the best possible completion of the conjugal act. - -“_Secondly_, the fervency of lust is abated by means of certain drugs -and plants, which make the taker cold-blooded towards women; in other -words, unfit him for the act of copulation. Such are the water lily, -agnus castor, willow twigs, hemp stalks, tamarisk, mandrake, gnat -flower, hemlock, and others; the which entering the human body by their -elementary virtues and specific properties freeze and destroy the -prolific germinal fluid, and obstruct the generative spirit instead of -leading it to those passages and conduits designed for its reception by -Nature, and, by preventing expulsion, prevent man from undertaking the -feat of amorous dalliance.” - -We will not enter into a discussion of the anaphrodisiac value of -the plants mentioned by Rondibilis. We still recognize the soothing -properties of _Agnus Castus_ and _vitex_, or monk’s powder, as it is -sometimes called; also that of belladonna, hemlock, digitalis, lupulin, -camphor, and hempseed; as for tamarack and willow bark, their virtues -are at least doubtful. - -But from this passage from Rabelais we must conclude that the -therapeutic uses of plants was already well known in the sixteenth -century. - -Again says Doctor Rondibilis: “Passion or lechery is subdued by hard -labor and continual toiling, which makes such a dissolution in the -whole body that the blood has neither time nor leisure to spare for -seminal resudations or superfluity of the third concoction. Nature -particularly reserves itself, deeming it much more necessary to -conserve the individual rather than to multiply the human species. Thus -the chaste Diana hunted incessantly. Thus the tired and overworked -are said to be ‘castrated.’ We continually see semi-impotency among -athletes. In this manner wrote Hippocrates in his great work, ‘_Liber -de Aere, Aqua, et Locis_’: ‘There is in Scythia a tribe which has been -more impotent than eunuchs to venereal desires, because these people -live continually on horseback and hard work. To the contrary, idleness, -the mother of luxury, begets sexual passion.’” - -There is no necessity for long commentaries to demonstrate that manual -labor and active physical exercise lessen the natural tendency to -erotic ideas. The workingman and peasant are, as all the world knows, -less given to the passion of love than the idle and luxurious of the -cities. And the reasons given above by the Middle Age physicians are -to-day admitted by all physiological writers. - -But let us continue the advice of Rondibilis: - -“Fervent study diminishes the erotic tendency, for under such -conditions there is an incredible resolution of the spirits, so that -they never rest from carrying on a generative resolution. When we -contemplate the form of a man attentive to his studies we shall see all -the arteries of the brain tied down as though with a cord, in order to -furnish him spirits sufficient to keep filled the ventricles of common -sense, imagination, apprehension, memory, co-ordination,” etc. - -These rather vague and imperfect physiological explanations are -open to discussion, but we all are aware that an excess of work, of -intellectual labor applied to science, letters, or arts, is recognized -to-day as a cause for weakening of venereal desires and the forerunner -of impotency. - -Again says Rondibilis: “As to the venereal act, again: I am of the -opinion that the desire is subdued by the methods resorted to by -the Hermits of Thebaide, who macerate their bodies so as to quell -sensuality; this they do twenty-five or thirty times a day, to reduce -the rebellion of the flesh.” - -This is to say that a certain cause of impotence consists in an excess -of genital apparatus, no matter of what variety; and we will add what -the physician of Montpellier has not mentioned, that this maceration, -which was nothing else than masturbation, superinduced spermatorrhœa, -the morbid effects of which, on the human economy, are well known. - -It is unnecessary to follow our Master Rondibilis in all his -dissertations regarding the anatomical and moral imperfections of -women, which he attributes to the misleading of Nature’s ordinary good -sense, which he thinks “molded women more for the delectation of man -and the perpetuity of the species rather than to secure perfection in -the individual.” One thing is certain, that is, that he speaks with -much physiological spirit, and that the amiable Panurge is so enchanted -with the learned talk of Doctor Rondibilis that he does not forget -to pay him a consultation fee, for, says the veracious chronicles, -“Approaching him he put in his hand, without saying a word, four -_nobles a la rose_, the which Rondibilis accepted gracefully.” These -coins were made of fine gold, and struck off in 1334 by Edward III., of -England. They had on one side the figure of a ship, and on the other a -rose, arms of the Houses of York and Lancaster. This consultation was -royally paid for in money of the Realm. - -If we study Rabelais closely we find he was a contagionist of -pronounced type, and believed in no other prophylactic against -pestilence except flight from the contaminated country. This is what he -makes his character “Pantagruel” do when the latter was in a village -“which he found most pleasant to dwell in, had not the plague chased -him out.” In another passage our author remarks: “The cause of plague -is a stinking and infecting exhalation.” It must be added, however, -that the plague was endemic at this epoch, and people, on the word -of prophets, attributed the cause to divine wrath. The roads were -crowded with pilgrims going to make vows and prayers at the chapel of -Saint Sebastian. How often had Rabelais endeavored to combat these -superstitions! As a proof of this let us make another short quotation -from the great satirist: “False prophets announce this lie! They thus -blaspheme the Just and the Saints of God, whom they make out to be -demons of cruelty. These canting hypocrites, the clergy, preach in my -native Province that Saint Anthony gives erysipelas, Saint Eutrope -gives dropsy, Saint Gildas makes people insane, and Saint Gildus -perpetuates the gout. I am amazed that our glorious King allows these -impostors to preach such scandalous lies in his realm; and they should -be punished rather than those who, by magic or otherwise, may bring the -plague into the country. The _plague_ only kills the body; but clerical -impostors poison human souls.” - -It required a grand amount of courage to hold and express such -opinions in the sixteenth century, in the very face of the butchers -of the Inquisition. This courage was not acquired by Rabelais from -his philosophic studies nor his religious ideas; it was inspired by -scientific convictions, of which the Holy Office dared not demand a -retraction, as it did in the case of Galileo. _For the Papacy, from the -earliest periods of time, has always avoided controversy with medical -science._ And we may recall here the device that Rabelais inscribed -in his heart, as on the first page of his books: “_To Doctor Francois -Rabelais and to his friends_.” He was proud of his medical title, and -he considered practice (and we mention this fact inasmuch as an ancient -writer has claimed he did not belong to our glorious profession) as -a sort of magistral and sacerdotal duty, and demanded, as the first -condition for making a doctor, that the candidate for the honored -medical degree should have _a healthy heart_. - -It was for his patients’ edification that he composed portions of his -books. He wished to calm their senses by revealing to them the great -spectacle of the world; and its purpose is all apparent, _i.e._, to -inspire among mankind a love for humanity; having no other personal -ambition himself than to play the part of doctor in the _role_ of life, -to dress the wounds of the unfortunate, to treat diseases of the body -and minister to the low-spirited and downhearted. - -The strong masculine independence of his character is noted in the -manner in which he has attacked all oppressions, be they from science -or the Princes of the Church. He refused to blindly submit to the -authority of the so-called masters in physics, and reserved the right -to freely discuss their doctrines. “Hippocrates, Galen and Aristotle,” -he remarks, “great as they are, never knew all. Science is the work of -many successions of generations, and that which makes its grandeur so -mysterious is that the more we know the more new problems are presented -us for solution. Science, like, Nature, is infinite.” This lofty -language deeply astounded thinkers, and roused against its author that -same servile Pontifical party that prowled and plotted in the gilded -antechamber of the aristocratic chateaux-owners of the day; the same -variety of creatures we see to-day circulating, Indian file, through -the corridors of our academies, faculties and courts. For the new as -for the ancient, it is always the same word of the past, _Magister -dixit_. That never changes. - -While acting as professor at Lyons, Rabelais gave “a course of -anatomical lectures, given with so much eloquence,” writes Eugene -Noel, “as to astonish all listeners; and he showed his audience -how man was constructed, like a magnificent and precious piece of -architecture, a thing of grace and beauty, so that the people crowded -to the lecture-room to hear him. Dolet followed these lectures. One -day Rabelais lectured on the cadaver of a man who had been hanged, and -he discoursed on his subject with so much grace and warmth, showing -so clearly the miracle of our nature, that Dolet, leaving the hall, -exclaimed: “Would I were hanged and I should be so could I be the -occasion of so divine a discourse!” Some passages of this celebrated -lecture may be found embodied in “Pantagruel;” for we see that he -taught, outside the grandeur of creation, respect for life and _what a -sacred thing blood is_. - -Says Rabelais: “A single labor pain of this world is to manufacture -blood continually. In this work each member has its proper office. -Nutrition is furnished by the whole of nature; it is the bread, it -is wine—these are the aliments of all species. In order to find and -prepare this material, the hands of mankind work, the feet climb and -bear the machinery, the eyes lead us, the tongue tastes for us, the -teeth masticate our food, while the stomach receives and digests.” Here -our anatomist dwells somewhat at length on the formation of the blood -and the part played in digestion by our organs, adding: - -“What joy among these dispensing officers of the body when, after their -complex work and hard labor, they see this stream of red gold. Each -limb separates and opens to assimilate or purify anew this treasure, -_the blood_. The heart, with its musical diastole and systole, -subtilizes it so that, met at the ventricle, it is perfection; then, -by the veins, it returns from all the limbs. The harmony of Heaven is -no greater than that of the body of man. One is overwhelmed and lost -when endeavoring to penetrate the depths of this wonderful microcosm. -Believe me, there is therein something divine; ah! this _little world_ -is so good that, this alimentation achieved, _it thinks already for -those who are not yet born_.” - -This extract from Rabelais serves to repel the accusation of scepticism -so often made against him, and we see two men in the personality of the -celebrated writer of the sixteenth century: the _savant_ who enriched -_belle lettres_, and the popular philosopher who addressed himself to -the disinherited of fortune and science. It was for the latter that he -claimed from secular power the right to the material satisfactions of -life, aside from the opinion of Pope and Church. Rabelais was the very -incarnation of philanthrophy and in this above all other things he has -honored the medical profession, of which he is an immortal member. - -Rabelais it was who wished to be Architriclinus for the poor, for the -indigent, the joyous heart of the Pantagruelist. It was to the latter -that he remarked: “Drink merry friends, eternally, drink like hungry -fishes. I shall, be your cup-bearer and host; I shall attend to your -thirst, and never fear that the wine will fall short as at the wedding -in Cana. As much as you draw from the tap, as much more will I astonish -you at the bung; so that the wine cask shall never be empty; source of -all life’s enjoyment, perpetual spring of happiness.” - -The recollection of his youth, so calm and joyous in his father’s -saloon, “the Lamprey Tavern,” amid the brave drinkers and gay wits, -with full goblets of the rich Septembral vintage, pure, sparkling, -rosy, grape juice, the glorious wine of his native Province, had much -influence on the ideas and opinions of the philosopher. He heard again, -as in the echos of memory, the merry songs of the grape gatherers, -and the Bacchic chants died away in musical notes adown the aisles of -the Temple of Time. He was happy in knowing himself to be Francois -Rabelais, doctor in medicine, but looking backwards, he felt the vague -and indefinable sentiment of poetry, that is ever associated with great -genius. It was then he cried: - - - “O bouteille! - Pleine tout - Des mysteres, - D’un oreille - Je t’ecoute.” - - -Yet his heart was never sad, nor even tinged with melancholy. He -dreamed of the golden age of a universal fraternity among mankind and -eternal joy, the duration of the soul’s exile on earth. - -To the Burgundy wine of France we owe this moral analgesia, which -chases away passions and all cares engendered by stupid worldly -ambition. He preferred the face of a jolly drunkard to the head of a -tyrannical Cæsar. He loved the wine bibber’s nose, as he says “that -musical bugle richly inlaid with colors of gorgeous design, purple, -with crimson bands, enameled with jewel-like pimples, embroidered with -veins of heavenly blue. Such a nose has the good priest Panzoult, and -Piedbois, physician at Angers.” - -Rabelais did not ignore the fact that these “good drinkers” once had -the gout, for he did not forget to give a medical prognosis in the -case of the voracious Gargantura. “All his life he will be subject to -gravel.” But what difference is it though he had gravel, and the red -nose, that glorious work of Bacchus? He derived his warmest consolation -from the thought that a little good wine heated his blood and soothed -the bitterness of life, making him forget the injustice of some, and -the ingratitude of others; a veritable _nepenthe_ for his miseries, -cares and apprehensions. Every good drinker is a sage. Horace had said -so, and Rabelais who had read this master of Latin poetry, inscribed on -the front of his dwelling place - - - “HIC BIBITUR.” - - “_Within this place they drink wine, that delicious, precious, - celestial, joyous, God-given, nectar and liquor._” - - -But, at the bottom of Master Francois Rabelais’ cask was a flavor not -fancied by all the world, the taste of free thought, opposition to all -tyranny, a Homeric spirit with a sonorous voice whose echo will resound -into future ages. Our authors, including historians, philosophers and -poets, revere his memory; and one of their greatest minds has said: -“Rabelais was a Gaul, and what is Gallic is Grecian, for Rabelais -is the formidable masque of antique comedy detached from the Greek -proscenium, bronze turned into living flesh, a human face full of -laughter, making us merry and laughing with us.” A similar judgment is -pronounced by the author of _Burgraves_, and _Notre Dame de Paris_. -Rabelais is immortal in spite of the ecclesiastical detractors who have -covertly assailed his memory for several centuries. - -A doctor, philosopher, writer, he was the first exception in the -positive world, of that profound faith identical with science. It was -for that reason that the physicians of the Middle Ages looked up to him -as one of their glories; it is for this reason that his works should -hereafter be placed among the medical classics and no longer remain -neglected by the masses of that profession he honored. In the epitaph -he left, he did not forget the doctoral title he always so honorably -bore: - - - “Cordiger et medicus, dein pastor et intus obivi, - Si nomen quæris, te mea Scripta docent.”[107] - - -He did not think in making this verse, that the Parisians would one day -engrave his name with his last words on the marble of his statue as -witness for future generations that the memory of Rabelais must never -be effaced. - - - [THE END.] - - - _Reprint from - The Cincinnati Lancet-Clinic, - December 1, 1888 to - February 16, 1889._ - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[1] The Mahometans considered dissection of the human cadaver not only -as an impious act, but also forbid its practice by their religious -dogmas. They believed that the soul, after death, did not suddenly -abandon the body, but withdrew itself gradually, until it left the -limbs and finally entered the thoracic cavity. Thus the body could not -be dissected without suffering. However, osteology was not neglected, -and studies were made on the bones gathered in cemeteries. - -[2] The romance of Dolopatos or the Seven Sages is the work of a -Troubadour of the twelfth century, named Herbers. The origin of this -poem seems to date back to Indian literature. - -[3] The words are in old French and therefore not easily translated: - - “Vous avez oi la novelle - Tandis com li plaie est novelle - Lors pust estre mieux garie - Que lors quant elc est envieillie.” etc., etc. - - -[4] This famous poem, by Perrot de St. Cloof, as a work of imagination, -is considered the most remarkable literary monument of the Middle Ages. - -[5] The reader of old French can translate the following lines at his -leisure: - - La pie avoit tel meschief, - Et la Jambe si boursoufflee, - Si vessiee et si enflee - Si pleine de treus et de plaies; - In’il i avoit, ce croi, de naies - Et d’estoupes demi giron, - Boue et venin tout environ, - De toutes parts en saillait fors. - —_Gautier de Conisi._ - -[6] In the _Miracles de Saint Louis_ we find the history of a cure -effected through the royal touch. This cure affords an illustration of -how the monks wrote medicine in the thirteenth century. The disease -resulted in this patient from white swelling of the left knee. The -following is the veracious chronicle: - -“About the year of Our Savior 1174, before the Feast of St. Andre, -one Jehan Dugue of the town of Combreus, in the Diocese of Orleans, -was attacked by inflammation of the left leg near the knee. Several -openings were observable in the flesh, which was soft and rotten above -and below the joint.” - -[7] Bachelor was in other times a title of chivalry or a University -degree. The word was derived from the Latin _Bachalarius_. The word was -not introduced into France until the sixteenth century. Under the name -_bachelor_ or _bachelard_ were afterwards known all young men in the -army studying the profession of arms, or sciences or arts. - -[8] See the oath taken by Christian apothecaries and those that -fear God, prescribed by the _Procureur General_, Jean de Resson, -_Institutions Pharmaceutique_, 1626. - -[9] Before modern times medicated baths were not held in favor; the -sand and iron baths, so highly extolled by Scribonius and Herodotus, -of Rome, were unknown in France. Sulphur baths were recommended in the -eleventh century, by Gilbert, of England, in dropsy and other cachectic -affections; and by Arnauld de Villeneuve, in cases of stone in the -bladder. Mineral water baths did not come into use really until the -sixteenth century. Hubert praised the waters of Bourboune in 1570, -and Pidoux those of Pougnes in 1584. The waters of Auvergne and the -Pyrennees were first described in the seventeenth century, as well as -those of Aix and of De Begnols, in Genanden. - -[10] Procopius, the Greek historian, born at Cæsarea in the year -500, left behind him numerous works, among which may be enumerated -_L’Histoire de son temps_, in eight volumes (_Procopii Cæsariensis -Historia sui temporibus_). This history of the times by Procopius gives -a full description of the Plague, and is one of the _chef d’oeuvres_ -of medical literature, one that will never be excelled. In this work -nothing being omitted, not even the different clinical forms, it is -truly classical. - -[11] Georgius Florentius Gregorius, _Historia Francorum_, de 417 591 -A.D. - -[12] Anglada: _Etude sur les Maladies eteintes et les Maladies -Nouvelles_. - -[13] _Traduction de Laurent Joubert de Montpellier._ - -[14] Black. “Histoire de la Medecine et de la Chirurgie.” - -[15] The “Chronique de Raoul Glaber,” Benedictine of Cluny, covers the -period between the year 900 and 1046. It may be found translated in the -collection of memoirs on the History of France by Guizot. - -[16] “Nouvelle Bibliotheque des Manuscripts.” - -[17] Satirical writers would not have failed to have spoken of the -marks left by small-pox. Such authors as Martial, who frequented the -public baths in order to write up the physical infirmities of his -fellow-townsmen, to the end of divulging their deformities in biting -epigram, would only have been too happy to have mocked the faces of -contemporaries marked by the cicatrices of small-pox. - -[18] In the year 570, a violent disease, with running of the belly and -variola, cruelly afflicted Italy and France. - -[19] Gregorii Turonensis, _Opera Omnia_, Liber V. - -[20] Latin _corallum_, which signifies heart, lung, intestines, and by -extension of meaning, the interior of the body. - - “C’est la douleur, c’est la bataille - Qui li detrenche la coraille.” - —_Roman de la Rose._ - - -[21] Sauvel, “Histoire et recherches des antiquites de la Ville de -Paris.” - -[22] In the year 622, Aaron pointed out small-pox for the first time, -but it was only in the year 900 that the two Arabian physicians, -Rhazes and Avicenna, wrote their works on this malady and determined -the clinical forms, giving the prognosis and diagnostic signs and the -methods of treatment. Rhazes, physician to the hospital at Bagdad, -recommended, on account of the warm climate of his country, cool -and refreshing drinks. In the period of lever, he advised copious -bleedings, and for children wet cupping. He covered up his patients -in warm clothing, had their bodies well rubbed, and gave them a -plentiful supply of ice-water to drink. In certain cases, he placed -large vessels of hot water, one in front and one behind the patient, in -order to facilitate the eruptive process; then the body was anointed -before the sweat cooled off. He prescribed lotions for the eyes when -the eruption was heavy in the ocular regions. He advised the use of -gargles. He opened the pustules, when they maturated, with a golden -needle, and absorbed the pus with pledgets of cotton. He gave opium for -the diarrhœa and insomnia, and, when the disease declined, used mild -purgatives, etc., etc. - -[23] Aaron, a contemporary of Paulus d’Aegineta, speaks only briefly -of the malady in his works. Rhazes mentions measles in his works, -giving a clear account of its diagnosis and treatment. He says that -when the patient experiences great anxiety and falls into a syncope, -he should be plunged into a cold bath and then be vigorously rubbed -over the skin to the end of provoking the eruption. Avicenna did not -recognize measles, considering it only a billious fever or small -pox. Constantine, the African, follows the example of Avicenna and -reproduces the opinion of the Arabian School without comments. - -[24] Johannis Philipi Ingrassiae. “De tumoribus praeter naturam.” Cap. -I. - -[25] Fernelli. “Universa Medico.” - -[26] “Brief recit et succinte narration de la navigation faicte en -ysles de Canada.” Paris, 1545. - -[27] Gregory of Tours says that in Paris they had a place of refuge, -where they cleaned their bodies and dressed their sores. - -[28] They designated by the name of _borde_, _bordeau_, _bordell_, -_bordette_, _bourde_, or _bourdeau_, a small house or cabin built -on the edge of town; a cabin intended to contain lepers. The word -_bordell_, a house of ill-fame, as used even in modern days, takes its -origin from _borde_, an asylum for lepers. - -[29] Etienne Barbazin, erudite and historian, born in 1696, author of -a number of works on the History of France: “Recueil alphabetique de -pieces historiques”; “Tableaux et Contes Francais, des XII., XIII., -XIV., et XV. centuries”; “The Orders of Chivalry, etc.” He also -left numerous manuscripts on the origin of the French language. See -“Bibliotheque de l’Arsenal.” - -[30] Pierre Andre Mathiole, “De Morbo Gallico.” - -[31] Note sur la syphilis au XIII. siecle, “Gazette Medicale de Paris.” - -[32] “Cyrurgia,” Magistri Guilielmi de Saliceti, 1476. - -[33] Michel Scott: “De procreatione hominis physionomia.” Work -published in 1477, but written in 1250, for the author was born in 1210. - -[34] It was Fracastor who gave venereal diseases the name of syphilis -in his poem “Syphilis sive Morbus Gallicus,” published at Verona in -1530. According to Ricord, syphilis is derived from the Greek words -_sus_, pork, and _philia_, love (love for pork). _Gorre_ in the -Romanesque language long before had the same signification. - -[35] The Provencal text in the original reads as follows: “La reino vol -que toudes lous samdes la Baylouno et un barbier deputat des consouls -visitoun todos las filios debauchados, que seran au Bourdeou; et si sen -trobo qualcuno qu’abia mal vengut de paillardiso, que talos filios sion -separados et lougeados a part afin que non las counougoun, por evita -lou mal que la jouinesso pourrie prendre.” - -[36] Astruc: “De Morbis Venereis,” chap. viii. - -[37] Jean de Gaddesen: “De concubitu cum muliera leprosa, in Rosa -Anglica.” - -[38] “Cyrurgia Guidonis de Cauliaco.” - -[39] Torella: “De Pudendagra Tractatus.” - -[40] “The reign of astrology,” remarks Sprengle, “led physicians -to attribute the affection to the influence of the stars. Saturn -who devoured his children, had, following the common expression, -produced the pox. It was his conjunction with Mars, in the sign of -the Virgin, that gave rise to the epidemic. Or it was the conjunction -of Jupiter with Saturn in Scorpio, as in 1484. At other times it was -the opposition of these two planets, as was noticed in 1494. Finally, -it was the conjunction of Saturn and Mars, as in 1496. (“If it was -the combined action of Saturn, Jupiter and Mars in the sign of the -Virgin that produced the syphilis, the astrologers might well think -that Mercury could destroy the effects of the disease, which would be -better than bleeding or purging.”) Leonicus attributed the cause of the -venereal plague to the general inundations that occurred about that -period, _i.e._, 1493, and afterwards in 1528. Besides, they recognized -as a cause of these venereal symptoms a general acridity of the humors -and the pre eminence of the four cardinal humors, but more especially -of a metastasis of bilious matter from the liver towards the genital -organs.” - -[41] “De Morbo Gallico.” - -[42] “Antiquites de Paris,” Tome III., by Sauval. - -[43] “Observations et histoires chirurgiques,” 1670, Geneve. - -[44] Antoine Lecocq, “De ligno sancto.” - -[45] The use of mercury, _larga manu_, in frictions was commenced in -1497. - -[46] Rabelais himself had attended syphilitic patients at Lyons, and -perhaps elsewhere, with more or less success. He says, in fact, in the -fifth book of Pantagruel, that among impossible things it is necessary -to class a quintessence “warranted to cure the pox, as they say at -Rouen.” Now, be it known that syphilis of Rouen was of such a bad type -that it passed for an incurable malady. From whence the proverb, “For -Rouen pox and Paris itch there’s no remedy.” - -[47] “De Rebus Oceanis et de Orbe novo decades.” - -[48] “Histoire Philosophique et Politique de l’Occulte.” - -[49] Cœlius Aurelianus: “De Acutis Morbis.” Edition Dalechamp, p. 90. - -[50] Magic had rank among the sciences of the school of Alexandria 150 -years before our era, in a medico-theosophical sect, whose members -applied to cosmogony the doctrine of emanation. These admitted that -demons come from the source of eternal light, and that man might become -their equal by leading a contemplative life. There were a number of -such demons, all phenomena of nature, and particularly all diseases -were attributed to demonic power. These demons were incorporeal, and -their light surrounded certain bodies in the same manner that the sun -gleams in water without being contained therein. (See Sprengel). Let it -not be forgotten that the Alexandrian Library, the richest institution -of the kind in ancient times, and the Temple of Serapis, in which it -was installed, were committed to the flames at the instigation of the -monks, by order of their creature, the apathetic Emperor Theodosius. - -[51] “De doct. Christ.” liber II. - -[52] Baluze, “Capitularia regum,” capitola 13. - -[53] Fleury, “Histoire Ecclesiastique,” Tome XVII. - -[54] Leloyer, “Des Spectres,” Angers, 1588. - -[55] See “Psychologie Experimentale,” by Dr. Puel; “L’Histoire de -l’Occulte,” by Felix Fabart; the “Livre des Esprits,” by Allan Kardec, -and “Fakirisme Moderne,” by Dr. Gibier,—many extracts from the latter -having been translated and published in the CINCINNATI LANCET-CLINIC in -1887. - -[56] Sprengel, work cited, tome iii. - -[57] Tetrabiblon, ii. et iv. - -[58] Sprengel, tome ii., et Alexander Trallian. Liber ix. et xii. - -[59] Arnauld de Villeneuve: “De Phlebotomia.” - -[60] Bernard Gordon: “Lillium Medicinæ.” - -[61] J. Fernelli, “Opera Universa Medicina,” liber II, chapter 16. - -[62] Ambroise Pare, “Oeuvres,” ninth edition, Lyons, 1633, p. 780. - -[63] Read the works of Jean Wier in the Bibliotheque Diabolique, -with the commentaries of Bourneville thereon. These books have for -a title “Histoires disputes et discours des illusions et impostures -des diables, des magiciens infames, sorcieres et empoisonneurs, des -ensorcelez et demoniaques et de la guerizon d’iceux.” Two splendidly -edited volumes. Delahaye & Co., publishers. - -[64] J. Weir: “De præstigiis dæmonum et incantationibus.” - -[65] Capeifuge. - -[66] Monstrellet, _Chroniques_, liber, III. - -[67] Jacques Duclerc, _Memoires_, liber IV., cap. IV. - -[68] We find proof of this fact in the works of Gautier Coinsi, who -wrote on “magicians” as early as 1219, He gave such sorcerers the name -_tresgetteres_. - - “En la ville une gieve avoit - Qui tant d’engien et d’art savoit - De tresgiet d’informanterie, - De barat et d’enchanterie - Que devant li apartement - Faisoit venir a parlement - Les ennemis et les deables.” - - -[69] Calmeil’s work, before cited, p. 103. - -[70] “Ecole du pur Amour de Dieu ouverte aux Scavants.” Work cited by -P. Dufour. - -[71] “Lettres au sujet de la magie, des malefices et des Sorciers,” -Paris, 1725. - -[72] Remigius, “Demonolatriæ libritres,” Lugd, 1595, p. 55. - -[73] Thomas Erastus, “De Lamiis.” - -[74] Nider: “In malleo maleficorum.” - -[75] The ecstasy takes a sublime and contemplative character if, -during watchfulness, the soul looks upwards to the Divinity; the -hallucinations are erotic, on the other hand, if the mind and heart -dwell on dreams of love; when the thoughts are obscene during the -wakeful period, lascivious sensations are apt to follow. With -irritation of the sexual organs, male or female, come illusions, which -are mistaken for diabolical practices on the part of demons. (See -Esquirol.) - -There is considerable of a correlation between chronic metritis and -obscene dreams. - -[76] Mental suggestions. - -[77] F. Willis observed a similar outbreak in 1700 in a convent at -Oxford, England, where the barking fit was followed by convulsions and -finally pronounced mania. - -Reulin and Hecquet described a similar epidemic in 1701, characterized -by meowing like cats, which were heard every day at the same hour among -a crowd of nuns in a convent of Paris. These nuns all suddenly ceased -meowing when they were accused and told if the thing re-occurred they -should all be taken out and horse-whipped by a company of soldiers, who -were stationed at the convent door to carry out the order. See “Traite -des affections vaporeuses.” - -[78] Mind reading? - -[79] “Histoire des Diables,” p. 57 et 58. - -[80] That is to say, particular states of sensation among certain -beings, conditions which may be produced artificially, with the -development of lucidity, in proportion to the power of the hypnotizer. - -[81] Manuscript in the Bibliotheque Nationale. Published for the first -time by M. A. Benet, Paris, 1883. - -[82] For full report the reader is referred to the original -French.—TRANSLATOR. - -[83] Zoellner, “Wissenschaftliche Abhandlungen,” 1877 and 1881. - -[84] When we question the Fakirs of India as to the phenomena of -_Spiritualism_, they answer that they are produced by spirits. “The -Spirits” they say are the Souls of our ancestors, serving us now as -_mediums_; we loan them our natural fluid to combine with theirs, and -by this mixture they establish a _fluid body_, by the aid of which they -act on matter, as you have seen.” (Paul Gibier, “Le Spiritisme.”) - -[85] To give an idea of the ignorance of the _materialistic_ school -of _so-called scientists_, it is only necessary to read the word -“Somnambulism” as defined in “Littres Dictionary of Medicine,” where -we find the following lines on _rappings_: “These sounds are due to a -slight previous displacement of the patella, of the tibia on the femur, -when the tendon of the long lateral peroneal suddenly brings the parts -back to their first position. This displacement is induced by muscular -contraction and can be easily cultivated by habit.” The author of -this definition supports his statement by the _pretended experiments_ -of Flint and Schiff; he might have said more justly on _the mere -assertion_ of Jobert de Lamballe and Velpeau, _who have all committed_, -as is well known, _in this connection a grave and stupid error in -physiology_.” - -[86] Mr. and Mrs. L. B. are intimate friends of Dr. Puel, but the the -lady, who is a medium, gives us her mediumistic services in a most -disinterested manner; besides, she and her husband occupy a social -position which places them far beyond the need or desire for pecuniary -compensation. - -[87] One of my friends, L. B., always has a wax taper in his hand, -which he lights from time to time, in order to find whether any fraud -is manifest. - -[88] Recital of M. Jacolliot, Judge of the Tribunal at Pondichery, -India. Cited by Dr. Gibier. - -[89] Dr. Gibier, “Le Spiritisme,” 1887. In the experiments made by Mr. -Oxon, of the University of Oxford, with the mediums Slade and Monck, -spontaneous writing was obtained, under the following conditions: The -slates were new, marked with a sign, and closely bound together. Oxon -never lost sight of these slates and held down his hand on them for the -time being. They were never out of his possession after he had washed -and marked them. These experiments were made under a full glare of -light. - -[90] Pierre Le Loyer: Discussions and histories of spectres, visions, -apparitions of men, angels, demons, and spirits making themselves -visible to men. 1605. Paris, Bibliotheque de l’Arsenal. 1225. S. A., in -4°. - -[91] There was at Athens a house which passed as being haunted by a -phantom. The philosopher, Athenodorus, rented this mansion. The first -night he occupied the same, while engaged in his studies, he heard and -saw a spirit, that made repeated signs to him to follow; he accordingly -followed this shade of the departed into the courtyard, where the ghost -disappeared. Athenodorus marked the spot of ground on which the spirit -had last stood, and next day asked the town magistrate to dig up the -earth at the place named; there they found bones loaded with chains, -which were released and given decent sepulture, with all due funeral -honors. The phantom returned no more (Pliny the Younger, Letters VII et -XXVII). - -This is almost the history of the experience of Kate Fax at Hydesville. - -[92] As examples of responses obtained by psychography, we may cite -the following definitions given by Eugene Nus and his collaborateurs, -artists, philosophers, and men of letters: - -_Physics._—Knowledge of material forces that produce life and the -organism of worlds. - -_Chemistry._—Study of different properties of materials, either simple -or composite. - -_Mathematics._—Properties of forces and numbers flowing from the -universal laws of order. - -_Electricity._—Direct force from the earth, emanating from particular -life to worlds. - -_Magnetism._—Animal force, holding persons together; bond of universal -life. - -_Galvanism and Electro-Magnetism._—Combined forces of earthly and -animal life. - -[93] “I am attacked by two classes of different persons,” says Galvani, -“the _savants_ and the ignorant; all torment and ridicule me, calling -me _the dancing master of frog legs_. Meantime, I believe I have -discovered one of the great forces of Nature.” - -[94] Laplace; “Traite du calcul des probabilities.” - -[95] Olivier Basselin was the proprietor of a mill in the valley of -Vire, where he composed his little poems; hence, he named his rhymes -“Vaux de Vire.” - -[96] This is, to a certain extent, a dialect poem, and bears a close -resemblance in more than one respect to Tennyson’s “Northern Farmers”. - -[97] - - “Et mon orine - Vous dit elle que je meure?” - - -[98] - - “On pense estre guari par l’obscure parole - De quelque charlatan qui le pipe et le vole; - Un autre plus niais me fait exorciser, - Ou par un circoncis se fait cabaliser.” - - -[99] In the old French text, “Condampnacion des bancquetz a la louenge -de diepte et sobriete pour le prouffit du corps humain.” - -[100] Poetic license in such rhymes unlimited. - -[101] The group of poets of the same period was composed of Ronsard, Du -Bellay, Jodelle, Dorat, Belleau, Bail, and last, but not least, Pontus -de Thiard. - -[102] Eugene Noel, “Rabelais medecin, ecrivain et philosophe.” - -[103] In the happy Abbey of Theleme, that Gargantua builds, we see the -inscription of Fourier’s phalanctory destined for the elect, with the -inscription over the great door: - - “Ci n’ entrez pas hypocrites, bigots, - Vieulx matagots, mariteux, boursofles. - - “Haires, cagots, caphards, empantouples, - Gueux mitoufles, frapparts escarnifles. - - “Ci n’ entrez pas, masche faim practiciens, - Clercs, basochiens, mangeurs de populaire, - Officiaulx, scribes et pharisiens, - Juges anciens,” etc., etc. - - -[104] The first edition of “Pantagruel” dates back to 1553, and the -year following he was physician at the Lyons Hospital, where he made -first, _before Vesalius_, anatomical lectures on the human cadaver. - -[105] This origin of the French thermal sources is very curious, and -certainly ignored by ordinary patients. - -[106] Agrippa has defined the _role_ of those who deal in magic in -his work, “De Vanitate Scientiarum, cap de Magia Naturali.” He says: -“Magicians are diligent students of nature, and by means of previous -preparation often produce marvelous effects, which the vulgar mostly -deem miracles, whereas they may only be natural work.” Traduction de -Louis de Mayerne, Turquet, medecin du roi Henry IV. 1603. - -[107] “Monk, Physician, afterwards Clergyman, I descend into the tomb. -If thou desire to know mine name, mine works will inform thee.” - - - - - * * * * * * - - - - -Transcriber’s note: - -Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. 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Minor</h1> -<p>This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States -and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no -restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it -under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this -eBook or online at <a -href="http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you are not -located in the United States, you'll have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this ebook.</p> -<p>Title: Medicine in the Middle Ages</p> -<p> Extracts from "Le Moyen Age Medical" by Dr. Edmond Dupouy</p> -<p>Author: Edmond Dupouy</p> -<p>Release Date: December 2, 2020 [eBook #63938]</p> -<p>Language: English</p> -<p>Character set encoding: UTF-8</p> -<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEDICINE IN THE MIDDLE AGES***</p> -<p> </p> -<h4 class="pgx" title="">E-text prepared by<br /> - Turgut Dincer, Les Galloway,<br /> - and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> - (https://www.pgdp.net)<br /> - from page images generously made available by<br /> - Internet Archive<br /> - (https://archive.org)</h4> -<p> </p> -<table border="0" style="background-color: #ccccff;margin: 0 auto;" cellpadding="10"> - <tr> - <td valign="top"> - Note: - </td> - <td> - Images of the original pages are available through - Internet Archive. See - https://archive.org/details/b29007720 - </td> - </tr> -</table> -<p> </p> -<div class="transnote"> -<h3>Transcriber’s Note</h3> - -<p>It should be noted that almost all of the French in the book is -unaccented. No attempt has been made to correct this.</p> -</div> -<hr class="pgx" /> -<p> </p> -<p> </p> -<p> </p> - -<div class="chapter"></div> - -<h1> -Medicine in the Middle Ages.</h1> - -<p class="p2">EXTRACTS FROM “LE MOYEN AGE MEDICAL”</p> - -<p class="p2"><small>OF</small></p> - -<p class="p2">DR. EDMOND DUPOUY.</p> - -<p class="p2"><small>TRANSLATED BY T. C. MINOR, M.D.</small></p> - -<p class="p2"><i><small>Reprinted from the Cincinnati Lancet-Clinic, Dec. 1, 1888, to Feb. 16, 1889.</small></i></p> - -<p class="p2">CINCINNATI:<br /> -<small>CINCINNATI LANCET PRESS PRINT,<br /> -1889.</small> -</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> -<div class="chapter"></div> - -<p class="center"> -<a href="#THE_PHYSICIANS_OF_THE_MIDDLE_AGES">THE PHYSICIANS OF THE MIDDLE AGES</a>.</p> -<p class="center"> -<a href="#THE_GREAT_EPIDEMICS_OF_THE_MIDDLE_AGES">THE GREAT EPIDEMICS OF THE MIDDLE AGES</a>.</p> -<p class="center"> -<a href="#THE_DEMONOMANIA_OF_THE_MIDDLE_AGES">THE DEMONOMANIA OF THE MIDDLE AGES</a>.</p> -<p class="center"> -<a href="#MEDICINE_IN_THE_LITERATURE_OF_THE">MEDICINE IN THE LITERATURE OF THE MIDDLE AGES</a>.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_1"></a>1</span></p> - -<p class="center"> -<big>MEDICINE IN THE MIDDLE AGES</big>.</p> -<p class="center"> -EXTRACTS FROM “LE MOYEN AGE MEDICAL” OF DR. EDMOND DUPOUY.</p> -<p class="center"> -TRANSLATED BY T. C. MINOR, M.D.</p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_PHYSICIANS_OF_THE_MIDDLE_AGES">THE PHYSICIANS OF THE MIDDLE AGES.</h2> -</div> - -<p>In the fourth century of the Christian -era Roman civilization expired; Western -Europe was invaded by the barbarians; -letters and science sought a last refuge at -Alexandria; the Middle Age commenced.</p> - -<p>Greek medicine strove to survive the -revolution in the city of the Ptolemies, and -even produced a few celebrated physicians, -<i>i.e.</i>, Alexander Ætius, Alexander Trallian, -and Paulus Ægineta, but at the end of the -seventh century the school of Alexandria -also fell and disappeared in the clouds of a -false philosophy, bequeathing all Hippocratic -traditions to the Arabs, who advanced -as conquerors to the Occident.</p> - -<p>The Arabian schools of Dschondisabur, -Bagdad, Damascus, and Cordova were -founded and became flourishing institutions -of learning, thanks to a few Nestorian -Greeks and Jews who were attracted to -these centers of learning; such men as -Aaron, Rhazes, Haly-Abas, Avicenna, -Avenzoar, Averrhoes, Albucasis, and other -writers, who continued the work left by -the Greeks, leaving remarkable books on -medicine and surgery. Unfortunately the -ordinance of Islamism prevented these -scientists from following anatomical work -too closely, and consequently limited the -progress they might otherwise have made -in medicine.<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> - -<p>What occurred in Western Europe -during this period of transition? The -torch of science was extinguished; the -sacred fire on the altar of learning only remained -a flickering emblem whose pale -light was carefully guarded in the chapel -of monasteries. Medicine was abandoned -to the priests, and all practice naturally fell -into an empirical and blind routine. “The -physician-clergy,” says Sprengel, “resorted -in the majority of cases to prayers and -holy water, to the invocations of saints -and martyrs, and inunction with sacred -ointments. These monks were unworthy -of the name of doctor—they were, in fact, -nothing else than fanatical hospital attendants.”</p> - -<p>An ephemeral ray of light broke from -the clouds in the <i>renaissance</i> of 805, when -Charlemagne ordered the cathedral schools -to add medicine to their studies as a part -of the <i>quadrivium</i>. Some of the monks -now commenced to study the works of -Celsus and Cœlius Aurelianus, but, ever as -with the Mussulmen, the Catholic religion -forbade the dissection of the human body, -and the monks made no more progress -than the barbarians; so that the masses of -the people had little or no confidence in -clerical medical skill. We find the proof -of a lack of confidence in the Gothic laws -promulgated by Theodoric about this -period—laws kept even into the eleventh -century in the greater portion of Western -Europe. These ordinances, among other -things, proclaim as follows:</p> - -<p>“No physician must open a vein of a -woman or a daughter of the nobility without -being assisted by a relative or body-servant; -<i>quia difficillium non est, ut sub tali -occasione ludibrium interdum adhærescat</i>.” -(Their morality was then a subject for -caution.)</p> - -<p>“When a physician is called to dress a -wound or treat a disease, he must take the -precaution to settle on his fee, for he cannot<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_2"></a>2</span> -claim any in case the patient’s life is -endangered.</p> - -<p>“He shall be entitled to five sous for -operating on hard cataract.</p> - -<p>“If a physician wound a gentleman by -bleeding, he shall be condemned to pay a -fine of one hundred sous; and should the -gentleman die following the operation, the -physician must be delivered into the hands -of the dead man’s relatives, who may deal -with the doctor as they see fit.</p> - -<p>“When a physician has a student he -shall be allowed twelve sous for his services -as tutor.”</p> - -<p>Towards the tenth century, however, -progress in medicine is at last noticeable. -We see some monks going to make their -studies at Salerno and at Mount Cassin, -where the Benedictine friars had established -a medical college in the previous -century. Constantine had given these -friars Arabian manuscripts, which had been -translated into Latin, with commentaries. -Also the works of the early Greek physicians -and the treatises of Aristotle on -“Natural Science.” It was at Salerno that -Ægidius de Corbeil studied physic before -becoming physician to Philip Augustus. -Nevertheless, medicine remained in darkness -with clerical ignorance, the superstition -and despotism of the church offering -an insurmountable barrier to all science. -Finally a reform was instituted in 1206 by -the foundation of the University of Paris, -which included among its school of learning -a college of medicine, wherein many -students matriculated. The <i>physicus</i> Hugo, -and Obiso, physician to Louis the Great, -were the first professors in the institution. -Degrees were accorded indiscriminately to -the clergy or to the laity, the condition of -celibacy being imposed on the latter likewise.</p> - -<p>A medical and surgical service was -organized at the Hotel Dieu, which hospital -was erected before the entrance of -Notre Dame, under the direction of the -clergy. On certain days the priests would -assemble around the holy water font of the -cathedral, <i>supra cupam</i>, in order to discuss -questions in medicine or the connection of -scholastic learning with the healing art.</p> - -<p>The University only recognized as -students of medicine persons who held the -degree of master-in-arts. They absolutely -separated the <i>meges</i> and <i>mires</i>, surgeons, -bonesetters, and barbers, who had made -no classical studies, and to whom was -abandoned as unworthy of the real physicians -all that concerned minor surgery. -These officers of health, so-called, of the -Middle Ages were unimportant and little -respected persons; they kept shops and -never went out without carrying one or -two dressing cases; they were only comparable -to drug peddlers; and the University -imposed no vows of celibacy in -their case.</p> - -<p>In many literary works in Latin it is -often a question whether to call in a physician -or <i>mire</i>, and certain passages admirably -serve to prove this historical fact. -In the <i>Roman de Dolopatos</i>,<a id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> for example, -the poet tells how to prevent the poisoning -of wounds, as they are easy to cure when -the injury is recent:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">You have heard it told</div> - <div class="verse indent2">To dress a wound while new;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">’Tis hard to heal when old.</div> - <div class="verse indent2">You’ll find this statement true.<a id="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></div> - <div class="verse indent0">When the doctor cometh late</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The wound may poisoned be;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The sore may irritate</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And most sad results we see.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>In another troubadour song, <i>The -Wicked Surgeon</i> (<i>Vilain Mire</i>), from which -Moliere purloined his play “A Doctor in -Spite of Himself,” we see the wife of the -bone-setter assure every one that her husband -is not only a good surgeon, but likewise -knows as much of medicine and uroscopy -as Hippocrates himself. (We must -not forget that a knowledge of urine was -claimed by <i>mires</i> and <i>meges</i>.) Thus the -bone setter’s wife says:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“My husband is, as I have said,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A surgeon who can raise the dead.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">He sees disease in urine hid,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Knows more than e’en Ypocras did.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>The <i>Roman de la Rose</i> shows us a poor -devil who complains of not being able to -find a surgeon (<i>mire</i>) to dress his wounds, -<i>i.e.</i>:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Ne sceus que faire, ne que dire,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ne pour ma playe trover mire,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ne par herbe, ne par racine</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Je ne peus trover medecine.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_3"></a>3</span></p> -<p>Some years after the founding of the -University of Paris, a great scientific movement -occurred in the Occident. The -Faculty of Montpellier had already acquired -much celebrity. The College of -Surgeons of Paris was established in 1271. -Medical circles counted a brilliant galaxy -of remarkable men, <i>i.e.</i> Richard de Wendmere, -Jean de Saint Amand, Guillaume -Saliceto, the great Albert, Bernard Gordon, -Arnauld de Villeneuve, Lanfranc, and -Roger Bacon. The school of Paris now -wished to direct its own affairs, and accordingly, -in 1280 A.D., separated from -the University and assumed the title <i>Physicorum -Facultas</i>, and its members became -physicians. Sustained by Royal edict, they -obtained rich grants from the church and -from public taxes, but these marks of favor -aroused bitter jealousies; criticism rained -down on the healing art on every hand, -and medicine was lampooned; these physicians -of the thirteenth century were ridiculed -so bitterly as to make the age historical, -and thus inspire the comedy writers -of future generations. This is more than -evidenced in the wicked satires of Guyot -de Provins (<i>Bible Guiot</i>), who cruelly -assails the doctors; it was he who wrote -the poem that said:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Young doctors just come from Salern(o)</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Sell blown-up bladders for lantern.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>As we see, from perusing these numerous -lampoons, physicians were not held in -high esteem, notwithstanding the sacerdotal -character in which the profession was invested. -Meantime, in the <i>Roman du Noveau -Renard</i>, we find a passage<a id="FNanchor_4" href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> that permits -the supposition that physicians already -possessed a certain amount of medical -erudition; that they were acquainted with -the works of Galen, and had full knowledge -of all writers of the Arabian school, -as well as that of the school of Salerno.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Je faisoie le physicien</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Et allegoie Galien,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Et montrois oeuvre ancienne</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Et de Rasis et d’Avicenne,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Et a tous les faisoie entendre</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In’estoie drois physiciens</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Et maistre des practiciens.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>In revenge, the author of the “Romance -of Renard” accords but little confidence -to medical art, for he adds very -maliciously:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“All belief in medicine is folly,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Trust it and you lose your life;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For it is a fact most melancholy—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Where one is cured two perish in the strife.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Why the poet of the <i>Roman du Renard</i> -was so full of rancor against the doctors of -his time is a problem too difficult to solve; -yet, while he considered them no better -than criminals and dangerous men to society, -he did not fail to call a doctor before -dying. Physicians, for some strange and -unknown reason, have always been criticised -by French literary men in modern as -well as ancient times. Our French authors -have never, as did the masters of Greek -poesy, recognized us as brothers in Apollo. -Permit me here to call their attention to -one of the writers of Greek anthology, -who said of physicians:</p> - -<p>“The son of Phœbus himself, Æsculapius, -has instilled into thy mind, O -Praxagorus, the knowledge of that divine -art which makes care to be forgotten. He -has given into thy hands the balm that -cures all evils. Thou, too, hast learned -from the sweet Epion what pains accompany -long fevers, and the remedies to be -applied to divided flesh; if mortals possessed -medicines such as thine, the ferry -of Charon would not be overloaded in -crossing the Styx.”</p> - -<p>Notwithstanding sarcasm, in spite of -epigrams and calumny, medicine has always -been a source of sublime consolation to the -sick and afflicted, the sufferer—rich and -poor. At all ages the priest has been inclined -to indulge in the practice of physic, -and it was at their instigation that those -nuns known as Sisters of Charity practiced -medicine to a certain extent in the Middle -Ages. In the twelfth century we see the -nuns of the Convent of Paraclet, in Champagne, -following the advice of Abelard, -essaying the surgical treatment of the sick. -It is true the first abbess of this nunnery -was Heloise, in whose history conservative -surgery is not even mentioned. The nuns -who dressed wounds were called <i>medeciennes</i> -or <i>miresses</i>. Gaulthier de Conisi has left a -history of their good works:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“And the world wondered when it did learn</div> - <div class="verse indent2">That woman had found a new mission;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When the doctors of Montpellier and Salern(o)</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Saw each nun to be a physician.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A fever they knew, a pulse they could feel,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And best of it all is, <i>they managed to heal</i>.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_4"></a>4</span></p> -<p>This tendency of women to care for the -sick now became general. “In our ancient -poets and romancers,” says Roquefort, -“we often notice how young girls<a id="FNanchor_5" href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> were -employed to cure certain wounds, because -they were more tender-hearted and gentle-handed; -as, for example, Gerard de -Nevers, having been wounded, was carried -into a chapel, where “a beautiful maiden -took him in hand to effect a cure, and he -thought so much of her that in brief space -of time he commenced to mend; and was -so much better that he could eat and -drink; and he had such confidence in the -skill of the maiden that, before a month -passed, he was most perfectly cured.”</p> - -<p>As early as the sixth century, we note -in the recital, <i>Des Temps Merovingiens</i>, by -Augustin Thierry, that Queen Radegond, -wife of Clotaire I., transformed her royal -mansion into a hospital for indigent women. -“One of the Queen’s pastimes was to go -thither not simply to visit, but to perform -all the most repulsive duties of nurse.”</p> - -<p>In Feudal times it was the custom to -educate the girls belonging to the nobility -in practical medicine; also in surgery, especially -that variety of surgery applied to -wounds. This was immensely useful, inasmuch -as their fathers, brothers, husbands -or lovers were gallant “Knights,” who -ofttimes returned from combat or tourney -mutilated or crippled. It was the delicate -hand of titled ladies that rendered similar -service to strange foreign knights who -might be brought wounded to the castle -gates. This is why the knights of old rendered -such devout homage to the gentler -sex—knowing their kindness and love in -time of distress, when bleeding wounds -were to be staunched and fever allayed. -In a Troubadour song, <i>Ancassin et Nicolette</i>, -we find this passage:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Nicolette, in great alarm,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Asked about his pain;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Found out of joint his arm,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Put it in again;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Dressed with herbs the aching bone—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Plants to her had virtues known.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Although the church was hostile to the -philosophy of Aristotle, whose works were -publicly burned in 1209 A.D. by order of -the Council, Pierre de Vernon published, -in the same thirteenth century, a short -poem by the title <i>Les Enseignements d’Aristote</i>, -the object of which was to vulgarize -the scientific portion of the great Greek -author’s Encyclopedia. This treatise commenced -as follows:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Primes saciez ke icest tretiez</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Est le secre de secrez numez,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ke Aristotle le Philosophe y doine,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">La fiz Nichomache de Macedoine</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A sun deciple Alisandre en bone fei,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Le grant, le fiz, a Philippe le Rei,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Le fist en sa graunt vielesce.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Which, translated from old French, reads: -“From whence learn that this treatise is -the secret of secrets, that Aristotle the philosopher, -son of Nichomachus, gave to his -pupil, Alexander the Great, son of King -Philip, and which was composed in his old -age.”</p> - -<p>In recalling the fact that Aristotle was -the son of Nichomachus, Pierre de Vernon -probably desired to call the attention of his -readers more to the knowledge of medicine -that the author derived from his father, the -celebrated physician, than to the brilliant -pupil of Plato.</p> - -<p>Among the interesting passages in this -poem we distinguish some that advise abstinence -to persons whose maladies are -engendered by excesses at table:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“One man cannot live without wine,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">While another without it should dine;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">For the latter, ’tis clear,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">All grape juice and beer</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For his own stomach’s sake should decline.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>The author claims drinking at meals -induces gastralgia from acidity of the -stomach:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“The signs of bad stomach thus trace:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Poor digestion, a red bloated face,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">With out-popping eyes,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Palpitation, and sighs.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With oppression, as though one did lace.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>He mentions eructations and sour belching -as indicating frigidity of the stomach, -and advises the drinking of very hot water -before meals. Aside from this, he gives -good counsel relative to all the advantages -of a sober and peaceful life:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“If passion within you wax hot,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Pray don’t eat and drink like a sot.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_5"></a>5</span> - <div class="verse indent2">Give wine no license;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">From rich food abstinence;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And luxurious peace is your lot.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>The author then advises that the mouth -and gums be well taken care of, that the -teeth be neatly cleaned after each meal, -and the entire buccal cavity be rinsed out -with an infusion of bitter-sweet plants or -leaves.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Puis apres si froterez</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Vos dents et gencives assez,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Od les escorces tut en tur</div> - <div class="verse indent0">D’ arbre chaud, sec. amer de savur</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Kar iceo les dents ennientit,” etc.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Notwithstanding their want of scientific -form, these precepts still strongly contrast -with the superstitious practices employed -by the monks in the treatment of disease. -When holy relics failed the priesthood had -resource to supernatural power; they believed -in the faith cure; the touch of a -Royal hand could heal disease. They took -all their scrofulous and goitre patients to -Phillip I. and to Saint Louis. These sovereigns -had not always an excessive faith -in the miraculous gifts they were desired -to bestow, but reasons of State policy -forced them to accept this monkish deceit, -which was regularly practiced by the clergy -every Pentecost Day.</p> - -<p>The <i>mise en scene</i> was easily arranged: -the King of France, after holy communion -at Saint Francis Convent, left the building -surrounded by men at arms and Benedictine -friars; then he touched the spots on -his people, saying to each of his afflicted -subjects: “<i>Rex tangit te, Deus sanat te, in -nomine Patris et filii et Spiritus sancti.</i>”<a id="FNanchor_6" href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p> - -<p>Block pretends that the King of England -also enjoyed the power of curing epilepsy, -and remarks <i>apropos</i> to this fact that -the invention is not new, since Pyrrhus, -King of Epirus, possessed the power of -curing individuals attacked by enlarged -spleen by simply pressing his right foot on -that viscera.</p> - -<p>But this is no longer a superstition to-day, -since the age of miracles is past and -the divinity of kings a belief almost without -a disciple. However, Gilbert and -Daniel Turner, physicians of the thirteenth -century, give it credence in their writings, -but they are fully entitled to express their -independent opinion.</p> - -<p>The priests of the Middle Ages could -not employ themselves as obstetricians, -neither could they treat uterine diseases. -The <i>ventrieres</i> were the only midwives of -the period; these women were allowed to -testify as experts in the courts of justice, -but the burden of proof rested on the testimony -of at least three <i>sage femmes</i> when a -newly-married woman was accused of -pregnancy by a husband, as witness the -following:</p> - -<p>“Should a man declare his wife just -wedded be pregnant and she deny the -charge, it is well to conduct the accused -woman to the house of some prudent -female friend, and then that three <i>ventrieres</i> -be summoned who may regard the suspect. -If they declare her to be in a family way, -the provost shall call the midwives as witnesses -as before stated; but if the <i>sage -femmes</i> declare the accused is not pregnant, -then shall the wife have cause against her -husband; but better is it when the husband, -seeing the wrong wrought, shall -humble himself and beg pardon.”</p> - -<p>Midwives were sworn, according to -statutes and ordinances, which contained -formulæ reports to be presented to the -judges, to visit girls who complained of -having been raped; fourteen signs of such -deflowerment were admitted in testimony. -Laurent Joubert has transcribed three of -such reports, of which we will reproduce -only one that was addressed to the Governor -of Paris on October 23d, 1672:</p> - -<p>“We, Marie Miran, Christophlette -Reine, and Jeannie Porte, licensed midwives -of Paris, certify to whom it may -concern, that on the 22d day of October in -the present year, by order of the Provost -of Paris, of date 15th of aforesaid month, -we visited a house in Rue Pompierre and -there examined a girl aged thirty years, -named Olive Tisserand, who had made -complaint against one Jaques Mudont -Bourgeois, whom she insisted deflowered -her by violence. We examined the plaintiff -by sight and the finger, and found as -follows:</p> - -<p>“Her breasts relaxed from below the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_6"></a>6</span> -neck downwards; <i>mammaæ marcidæ et flaccidæ</i>; -her vulva chafed; <i>os pubis collisum</i>; -the hair on the os pubis curled; <i>pubes in -orbem finuata</i>; the perineum wrinkled; -<i>perinæum corrugatum</i>; the nature of the -woman lost; <i>vulva dissoluta et mercessans</i>; -the lips of private pendant; <i>labia pendenta</i>; -the lesser lips slightly peeled; <i>labiorum oræ -pilis defectæ</i>; the nymphæ depressed; <i>nymphæ -depressæ</i>; the caroncles softened; -<i>carunculæ dissolutæ</i>; the membrane connecting -the caroncles retracted; <i>membrana -connecteus inversa</i>; the clitoris was excoriated; -<i>clitoris excoriata</i>; the uterine neck -turned; <i>collum uteri</i>; the vagina distended; -<i>finus pudoris</i>; in fact, the lady’s hymen is -missing; <i>hymen deductum</i>; finally, the internal -orifice of the womb is open; <i>os -internum matricis</i>. Having viewed this sad -state of affairs, sign by sign, we have found -traces <i>omnibus figillatum perspectis et perforutatis</i>, -etc., and the above-named midwives -certify to the before-mentioned Provost that -the aforesaid statement under oath is true.”</p> - -<p>Physicians were not obliged by the -magistrates to determine the nature of -rapes on women; all gynecological questions -were remanded to midwives. In -truth, among all the physicians of antiquity -only Hippocrates discussed uterine complaints -and Ætius studied obstetrics. It -was only in the sixteenth century that midwifery -took its place among the medical -sciences, thanks to Rhodion, Ambroise -Parè, Reif, Rousset, and Guillemeau. -Shortly before this time, that is to say, in -the fifteenth century, Jacques de Foril -published his “Commentaires” on generation, -his ideas being derived from Avicenna; -his notions, however, were absurd, -being wholly based on astrological considerations. -He pretended that an infant -is not viable in the eighth month, because -in the first month the pregnant woman is -protected by Jupiter, from whom comes -life; and in the seventh month by the -moon, which favorizes life by its humidity -and light; while in the eighth month or -reign of Saturn, who eats children, the influence -is hostile. But on the ninth month -the benevolent influence of Jupiter is again -experienced, and for this reason the infant -is more apt to be alive at this period of -gestation.</p> - -<p>To the scholastic philosophy of the -Middle Ages we must attribute the prejudice -that, the human body being in direct -connection with the universe, especially -the planets, it was impossible for physical -change to occur without the influence of -the constellations. Thus astrology came -to be considered as an essential part of -medicine. This belief in the influence of -the stars came from the Orient, and was -carried through Europe after the crusades.</p> - -<p>As to the treatise on “Diseases of -Women,” attributed to Trotula, a midwife -of the school of Salerno, it is only a formulary -of receipts for the use of women—baths -in the sea-sands under a hot sun to -thin ladies suffering from overfat; signs by -which a good wet-nurse may be recognized: -a method of kneading the head, the -nose, and the limbs of new-born children -before placing them in swaddling clothes; -the use of virgin wine mixed with honey as -a remedy for removing the wrinkles of old -age.</p> - -<p>“The <i>Commentaires</i> of Bernard de Provincial -informs us,” says Daremberg, “that -certain practices, not only superstitious but -disgusting, were common among the doctrines -of Salerno; one, for instance, was to -eat themselves, and also oblige their husbands -to eat, the excrement of an ass fried -in a stove in order to prevent sterility; -likewise, to eat the stuffed heart of a diseased -sow in order to forget dead friends,” -etc.</p> - -<p>We can form some judgment, from -such observations, as to the <i>therapeutic</i> wisdom -of these doctrines of the school of -Salerno. It is true, however, that at this -epoch but little medicine save that of an -unique and fantastic order was prescribed. -Gilbert, the Englishman, advised, with the -greatest British <i>sang froid</i>, tying a pig to -the bed of a patient attacked by lethargy; -he ordered lion’s flesh in case of apoplexy, -also scorpion’s oil and angle-worm eggs; -to dissolve stone in the bladder, he prescribed -the blood of a young billy-goat -nourished on diuretic herbs.</p> - -<p>Peter of Spain, who was archbishop, -and afterwards Pope, under the name of -John XXI., was a man whom historians -claim was more celebrated as a physician -than as Pope; it was this Peter who -adapted the curious medical formulary -known by the title of <i>Circa Instans</i>, and, -had improved on the invention. Those -who wore on their bodies the words “Balthazar,” -“Gaspar” and “Melchior” need -never fear attacks of epilepsy; in order to -produce a flux in the belly, it was only -necessary to put a patient’s excrement in a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_7"></a>7</span> -human bone and throw it into a stream of -water.</p> - -<p>Hugo de Lucgnes, in fractures of the -bone, employed a powder composed of ginger -and cannella, which he used in connection -with the “Lord’s Prayer,” in the -meantime also invoking the aid of the -Trinity. He treated hernia by cauterization, -and leprosy by inunctions of mercurial -ointment.</p> - -<p>If therapeutics made only slight progress -in the thirteenth century, we cannot -say as much for other branches of the -medical and natural sciences.</p> - -<p>Arnauld de Villeneuve, physician, chemist -and astrologer, particularly distinguished -himself by discovering sulphuric, nitric -and hydrochloric acids, and also made the -first essence of turpentine.</p> - -<p>Lanfranc attracted large numbers of -students to the College of Saint Come, and -exhibited his skill as an anatomist and -surgeon. In one of his publications he -gives a very remarkable description of -chancres and other venereal symptoms.</p> - -<p>At the Faculty of Montpellier, which -was founded in 1220 A.D., we see as the -Dean Roger of Parma, and as professor -Bernard de Gordon, who left a very accurate -account of leprosy and a number of -observations on chancres following impure -connection; these observations are valuable, -inasmuch as they are corroborated by -Lanfranc and his contemporary, Guillaume -de Saliceto, of Italy, <i>two centuries before the -discovery of America</i>.</p> - -<p>Albert the Great (Albertus Magnus) -and Roger Bacon also belonged to the -thirteenth century.</p> - -<p>Albert de Ballstatt, issue of a noble -family of Swabia, monk of the order of St. -Dominicus, after studying in the principal -schools of Italy and Germany, arrived at -Paris in 1222 A.D., and soon had numerous -auditors, among whom may be mentioned -Saint Augustin, Roger Bacon, Villeneuve, -and other distinguished men. His -lectures attracted such crowds of students -from the University that he was obliged to -speak from a public place in the Latin -Quarter, which, in commemoration of his -success, was called <i>Place Maitre Albert</i>, -afterwards corrupted to Place Maubert.</p> - -<p>His writings were encyclopedic, their -principal merit being commentaries on the -works of Aristotle, of whom but little was -known at that period; he studied also the -Latin translations of the Arabian school, -and reviewed Avicenna and Averrhoes, -adding to such works some original observations.</p> - -<p>Albert the Great, or Albertus Magnus, -the name posterity has bestowed on this -genius, was also much occupied with -alchemy, and passed for a magician. He -was considered a sorcerer by many, as he -was said to evoke the spirits of the departed, -and produced wonderful phenomena.</p> - -<p>Albert’s works on natural history, his -botany and mineralogy are, in reality, taken -from the works of Aristotle, as well as his -<i>parva naturalis</i>, which is only a reproduction -of the <i>Organon</i> of the Greek philosopher; -nevertheless, Albert deserves credit -for his good work in relighting the torch -of science in the Occident.</p> - -<p>His disciple, Roger Bacon, was also a -monk; he studied in Paris and afterwards -removed to Oxford, England, where he -actively devoted himself to natural science, -especially physics. He left behind him -remarkable observations on the refraction -of light; explanation of the formation of -rainbows, inventing the magnifying glass -and telescope. His investigations in alchemy -led him to discover a combustible -body similar to phosphorus, while his work -on “Old Age” (<i>De retardtandus senectutis -occidentibus</i>) entitled him to a high position -among the physicians of the thirteenth -century. Although one of the founders of -experimental science, one of the initiators—if -the expression may be used—of scientific -positivism, he also devoted much time -to astrology. Denounced as a magician -and sorcerer by his own <i>confreres</i> in religion, -he was condemned to perpetual -imprisonment, and was only released a few -years before his death, leaving many -writings on almost every branch of science.</p> - -<p>It was more than a century after these -two great men died that medical science -commenced its upward flight.</p> - -<p>Anatomy, proscribed by the Catholic -Church, had an instant’s toleration in the -middle of the thirteenth century, thanks to -the protection of Frederick II., King of -the Two Sicilies. But an edict of Pope -Boniface VIII., published in 1300, forbid -dissections once more, not only in Italy, -but in all countries under Papal rule. -Nevertheless, in 1316, Mondinus, called -the restorer of anatomy, being professor at -the University of Bologna, had the courage<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_8"></a>8</span> -to dissect the cadavers of two patients in -public; he then published an account of -the same, which Springer declares had -“the advantage of having been made after -nature, and which is preferable to all -works on anatomy published since Galen’s -time.”</p> - -<p>Some years later the prejudice against -human dissection disappeared in France, -and anatomy was allowed to be taught by -the Faculties of Paris and Montpellier. -Henri de Hermondaville, Pierre de Cerlata, -and Nicholas Bertrucci were particularly -distinguished anatomists during the -fourteenth century, and traced the scientific -path followed by Vesalius, Fallopius, -Eustachius, Fabrica de Aguapendente, -Sylvius, Plater, Varola de Torre, Charles -Etienne, Ingrassias, and Arantius in the -sixteenth century.</p> - -<p>From this time dates the escape of -medicine from ecclesiastical authority.</p> - -<p>In 1452, Cardinal d’Estouteville, -charged by the Pope with the reorganization -of the University of Paris, obtained -a revocation of the order obliging celibacy, -claiming it to be “impious and senseless” -in the case of doctors.</p> - -<p>It was at this moment that the Faculty -of Physicians renounced the hospitality of -the University and installed themselves in -a house on the <i>Rue de la Bucherie</i>, the -same being graciously tendered them by -Jacques Desparts, physician to the King. -This faculty now opened a register of its -acts, which later became the <i>Commentaries -of the Society</i>, and, already confident of a -brilliant future and its own strength, the -college engraved on its escutcheon these -words: “<i>Urbi et Orbi Salus</i>,” and declared -itself the guardian of antique morality; -<i>veteris disciplinæ retinentissima</i>. Soon the -dean of the faculty obtained from royalty -the right to coin medals, the same being -bestowed on physicians who rendered -valuable public services; these bore the -imprint of the college coat of arms, and -Guy Patin went so far as to issue his own -coined effigy in 1632 A.D.</p> - -<p>The royal authority still further aided -the medical profession and the faculty in -gathering students: for instance, an order -was issued granting physicians titles of -nobility and coats of arms in cases of great -merit; they were also exempted from taxes -and other contributions to the crown, for, -says Louis XIV., who speaks, “We cannot -withhold such marks of honor to men -of learning and others who by their devotion -to a noble profession and personal -merit are entitled to a rank of high distinction.” -Besides, some of the greatest -names in France were inscribed on the -registers of the faculty; let us cite, for -instance, Prader, Mersenne, Saint Yon, -Montigny, Mauvillain, Sartes, Revelois, -Montrose, Farcy, Jurency, and others. -Can it be astonishing that the Faculty of -Medicine, considering such high favors, -was so deeply attached to the royalty that -gave liberty and reputation to the great -thinkers of the age?</p> - -<p>The dean, who before the thirteenth -century only had the title <i>Magister -Scolarum</i>, administered the affairs of the -faculty without control, and was recognized -as the chief hierarch of the corporation; -but he was elected by all the professors, -and often chosen outside the professors -of the Faculty. This high office was -thus duly dignified, and it was only justice.</p> - -<p>Above the dean, however, was the first -Physician to the King, who was a high -officer of the crown, having the same rights -and privileges as the nobility, securing on -his appointment the title of Count with -hereditary transmission of same to his -family; he was also a Councillor of State -and wore the costume and decorations of -this order. When he came to the faculty -meetings he was received by the dean and -bachelors, for he was also grand master of -hygiene and legal medicine in the realm; -he named all the salaried medical appointments, -notably those of experts in medical -jurisprudence.</p> - -<p>Under Charles VIII., Adam Fumee -and Jean Michel, sitting in Parliament as -Councillors; Jacques Coictier, physician to -Louis XI., was the President of the Tax -Commission; while Fernel, no less celebrated -as a mathematician than as a physician, -was the intimate friend of Henri II. -at the same time that Ambroise Pare was -surgeon to the latter King and his two successors; -F. Miron, too, afterwards became -Embassador to Henri III.</p> - -<p>Later we see Vautier, physician to -<i>Marie de Medecis</i>, one of the malcontents -sent to the Bastile for political reasons. -Valot, Daquin and Fagon, all physicians to -Louis XIV., were politicians, but were -also great dispensers of Royal favor. Medical -politicians figured largely in the time -of Louis XIV. Among the independents, -we may cite Guy Patin, the intimate friend<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_9"></a>9</span> -and adviser of Lamoignan and Gabriel -Naude, who was one of the most erudite -men of the age. Under such conditions, -no wonder that medicine entered into a -new phase of progress. The time of study -was now fixed at six years; after this there -were examinations, from which, unfortunately, -however, clinical medicine was -excluded; examinations corresponded with -the grades of Bachelor and doctor; finally—triumphant -act of culmination—came -the thesis with the obligation of the solemn -Hippocratic oath.</p> - -<p>The degree of Bachelor had existed -since the foundation of the University of -Paris. The Bacchalauri, or Bachalarrii,<a id="FNanchor_7" href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> -were always students for the doctoral -title. After numerous other tests, they -signed the following obligation:</p> - -<p>1. I swear to faithfully observe all -secrets with honor, to follow the code and -statutes laid down by the Faculty, and to -do all in my power to assist them.</p> - -<p>2. I swear to always obey and respect -the Dean of the Faculty.</p> - -<p>3. I swear to aid the Faculty in resisting -any undertaking against their honor or -ordinances, especially against those so-called -doctors who practice illicitly; and -also submit to any punishment inflicted for -a proscribed action.</p> - -<p>4. I swear to assist in full robes, at all -meetings, when ordered by the Faculty.</p> - -<p>5. I swear to assist at the exercises of -the Academy of Medicine and the school -for the space of two years, and sustain any -question assigned me, in medicine or hygiene, -by a thesis. Finally, I swear to be -a good citizen, loving peace and order, -and observe a decent manner in discussion -on all questions laid down by the Faculty.</p> - -<p>This oath was read in Latin by the -Dean, and, as enumerated, each candidate -for a degree solemnly answered “I swear” -after each article.</p> - -<p>Ranged with physicians at this period, -although on a lower plane, came the surgeons -and barbers; these had been created -under the title of <i>mires</i> and <i>meges</i>, by medical -monks, who could not, under the -canons, resort to surgical operations, as it -is written <i>Ecclesia abhorrhet a sanguine</i>.</p> - -<p>Let us continue their history. When -the College of Physicians was added to -the University of Paris, in the twelfth -century, it was specified by the other Faculties -of the institution that surgeons formed -no portion of the medical Faculty, and -were not entitled to any consideration. -These surgeons kept shops and wandered -through the streets with instrument cases -on their backs, seeking clients, and were -assisted in their work by the barbers, who -were even more illiterate than the surgeons; -but, thanks to the exertions of Jean Pitard, -surgeon to Saint Louis, these surgeons -succeeded in forming a corporation in -1271. Their meetings were held in the -dead-house of the Cordeliers’ church, and -they were allowed the same privileges as -the <i>magistri in physica</i>. They were the -surgeons wearing a long robe.</p> - -<p>It was only at the end of the century -that Lanfranc obtained from Phillip the -Beautiful an order to reorganize and bestow -degrees for the exercise of surgical -art. The studies were extremely practical; -they required several years’ attendance at -the Hotel Dieu or in the service of some -city surgeon, likewise a certain amount of -literary education. Like the doctors, these -surgeons were permitted to wear a robe -and hat. They were a great success.</p> - -<p>Unfortunately, the barbers of the fourteenth -century obtained, in their turn, an -edict from Charles V., who recognized -their corporation and authorized the knights -of the razor to practice bleeding, and also -all manner of minor surgery.</p> - -<p>The Faculty of Medicine, jealous of the -Surgeons’ College, encouraged the barbers -with all their influence. They founded for -the face scrapers a special course in anatomy -on condition that the barber would -always acknowledge the physician as superior -to the surgeon. The barbers made this -promise, but the time arrived when they -thought themselves stronger than the -Faculty of Medicine; this was in 1593; -but this same year, an order passed by -Parliament, at the instigation of the doctors, -deprived the barbers of all the power -granted them by Charles V.</p> - -<p>The barbers thus had their punishment -for defying the Faculty of Medicine.</p> - -<p>The College of Surgeons, relieved from -the competition of the barber surgeons, -now claimed the right to become part of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_10"></a>10</span> -the Medical Faculty, and an ordinance of -Francois I. gave them this privilege. Letters -patent were issued that read:</p> - -<p>“It is ordained that the before-mentioned, -professors, bachelors, licentiates or -masters, be they married or single, shall -enjoy all the privileges, franchises, liberties, -immunities and exemptions accorded to -the other medical graduates of the University.”</p> - -<p>Notwithstanding this Royal edict and -confirmation of privileges accorded to surgeons -by Henri II., Charles IX., and -Henri III., the Faculty of Medicine positively -refused to open their doors to their -mortal enemies, the much despised barber-surgeons, -as they were termed.</p> - -<p>Even Louis XIV. gave up the idea of -making the doctors associate socially with -the surgeons; the latter, then, continued -to keep shops, with a sign of three sacrament -boxes supported by a golden lily, and -were only allowed the cadavers of malefactors -for purposes of dissection; these -bodies were stolen from the Faculty of -Medicine. In the meantime, the regular -barber-surgeons renewed their ancient allegiance -to the doctors, who had vainly -attempted to substitute students in their -places.</p> - -<p>To put an end to the struggle, the College -of Surgeons took the desperate but -injurious resolve to admit all barbers to -their institution and recognize their rights -to a surgical degree. A year later, 1660, -the Faculty of Medicine demanded that, -inasmuch as the College of Surgeons admitted -ignorant barbers to their school, the -right of surgeons to wear a medical robe -and hat and bestow degrees be denied. -The Faculty of medicine gained their -suit.</p> - -<p>As an indispensable adjunct to the doctor -at this period, let us now mention the -apothecary and the bath-keeper.</p> - -<p>The patron of the apothecaries was -Saint Nicholas; they belonged to the corporation -of grocers, where they were represented -by three members. Their central -bureau was at the Cloister Saint Opportune.</p> - -<p>The inspection of drug stores and -apothecary shops in Paris occurred once a -year, and was made by three members -elected from the central bureau and two -doctors in medicine. A druggist in Paris -served four years as an apprentice and six -years as an under-dispenser; then the -applicant was obliged to pass two examinations, -and, finally, five extra examinations, -the latter in the presence of the master -apothecaries and two doctors. Notwithstanding -their oath<a id="FNanchor_8" href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> to not prescribe medicine -for the sick and not to sell drugs -without a doctor’s written order, druggists -then, as now, had frequent conflicts with -physicians, as the latter are ever jealous of -non professional interference and always -asserting supremacy.</p> - -<p>However, it is well to say that druggists -never violated the rule relative to strict -inspection of all drugs before using such -articles. All medicines were passed at the -central bureau before any apothecary -would purchase for dispensing purposes.</p> - -<p>As to bath-keepers, they belonged in -antique times, as now, more to the order -of empirics; their history dates far back to -the period when the Romans introduced -their bathing system into Gaul—a system -which was perpetuated up to as late as the -sixteenth century.</p> - -<p>The baths constructed by the ancients -and destroyed by the barbarians, reappeared -again in the Middle Ages, under -the names of vapor baths and furnace -baths. These baths were shops, usually -kept by barbers, where one could be -sheared, sweated or leeched by a tonsorial -artist. All the world then took baths—even -the monks washed themselves sometimes; -in fact, almost every monastery had -its bath-rooms, where the poor could wash -and be bled without pay.</p> - -<p>In those days gentlemen bathed before -receiving the order of chivalry. When -one gave a ball it was customary and gallant -to offer all the guests, especially the -ladies, a free bath. When Louis XI. went -out to sup with his loyal subjects, the honest -tradespeople of Paris, he always found -a hot bath at his disposal. Finally, it was -considered a severe penance to forbid a -person from bathing, as was done in the -case of Henry IV., who was excommunicated.</p> - -<p>Paris had many bath-houses. From -early dawn until sunset the streets were -filled, with cryers for bath-houses, who invited -all passers-by to enter. In the time -of Charles VI., bath-keepers introduced<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_11"></a>11</span> -vapor baths. Some of these latter were -entirely given up to women; others were -reserved for the King and gentlemen of -the court. The price of vapor baths was -fixed by Police ordinance at twenty centimes -for a vapor bath and forty centimes -for those who washed afterwards. This -price was subject to revision only at the -pleasure of the municipal authorities.</p> - -<p>During times of epidemics vapor baths -were discontinued. It was for sanitary -reasons, probably, that an order of the -Mayor of Paris, named Delamere, forbade -all persons taking vapor baths until after -Christmas eve, “on penalty of a heavy -fine.” This same proclamation was repeated -by act of Parliament on December -13th, 1553, “the penalty corporeal punishment -for offending bath-keepers.”</p> - -<p>Parisian vapor baths had such wide-spread -reputations and success that an -Italian doctor of the sixteenth century by -the name of Brixanius, who arrived in -Paris, wrote the following verses:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Balnea si calidis queras sudantia thermis,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In claris intrabis aqua, ubi corpus inungit,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Callidus, et multo medicamine spargit aliptes’,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Mox ubi membra satis geminis mundata lacertis</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Laverit et sparsos crines siccaverit, albo</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Marcida subridens componit corpora lecto.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Already, in the time of Saint Louis, the -number of bath-keepers was so great that -they had a trades union; they were almost -all barbers, too; they washed the body, -cut hair, trimmed corns and nails, shaved -and leeched.</p> - -<p>Bath houses more than multiplied from -the twelfth century, imitations of Oriental -customs, due to the crusaders. Baths were -run not only by men, but by old harridans -and fast girls. No respectable woman -ever entered a public bath-house; Christine -de Pisan bears witness to that fact in the -following lines: “As to public baths and -vapor baths, they should be avoided by -honest women except for good cause; they -are expensive and no good comes out of -them, for many obvious reasons; no -woman, if she be wise, would trust her -honor therein, if she desire to keep it.”</p> - -<p>The establishments known as vapor -baths, as early as the time of Saint Louis, -had already degenerated into houses of -prostitution. The police, in defense of -public morality, were finally obliged to forbid -fast women and diseased men from -frequenting such places.</p> - -<p>In Italy, vapor baths were recognized -officially and tolerated as places of public -debauchery; this was also the case in -Avignon. The Synodal statutes of the -Church of Avignon, in the year 1441, bear -an ordinance drawn by the civil magistrates -and applicable to married men and -also to priests and clergy, forbidding access -to the vapor baths on the Troucat Bridge, -which were set apart as a place of tolerated -debauchery by the municipal authorities. -This ordinance contained a provision that -was very uncommon in the Middle Ages, -<i>i.e.</i>, a fine of ten marks for a violation of -the law during day time and twenty marks -fine for a violation occurring under cover -of night.</p> - -<p>In 1448 the city council of Avignon -again tried its hand at regulating the -vapor baths at the bridge; but the golden -days of debauched women had long before -passed away, and the previous century had -witnessed the acme of the courtesans’ fortunes. -The sojourn of the Popes at Avignon -had gathered together from all over -the Globe a motley collection of pilgrims -and begotten a frightful condition of -libertinage; we have the authority of -Petrarch in saying that it even surpassed -that of the Eternal City, and Bishop Guillaume -Durand presented the Council of -Vienna with a graphic picture of this social -evil.</p> - -<p>According to the proclamation of -Etienne Boileau, Mayor of Paris in the -reign of Louis IX., barber bath keepers -were forbidden to employ women of bad -reputation in their shops in order to carry -on under cover, as in the massage shops of -the present day, an infamous commerce, -on penalty of losing their outfit—seats, -basins, razors, etc.,—which were to be sold -at public auction for the profit of the public -treasury and the Crown. But we know -full well that the Royal Ordinance of 1254, -which had for its object the reformation of -public debauchery, was only applied for -the space of two years, and that the new -law of 1256 re-established and legalized -public prostitution which offered less objectionable -features than clandestine prostitution.</p> - -<p>The use of public baths and hydrotherapy -lasted until the sixteenth century. -At this epoch, and without any known -reason, the public suddenly discontinued -all balneary practices, and this was noticeable -among the aristocratic class as among -the common people. A contrary evil was<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_12"></a>12</span> -developed. “Honest women,” says Vernille, -“took a pride in claiming that they -never permitted themselves certain ablutions.” -Nevertheless, Marie de Romien, -(<i>Instruction pour les Jeunes Dames</i>) in her -classical work for the instruction of young -women, remarks: “They should keep -clean, if it be only for the satisfaction of -their husbands; it is not necessary to do as -some women of my acquaintance, who -have no care to wash until they be foul -under their linen. But to be a beautiful -<i>damoyselle</i> one may wash reasonably often -in water which has been previously boiled -and scented with fragrants, for nothing is -more certain than that beauty flourishes -best in that young woman who not only -looks but smells clean.”</p> - -<p>In an opuscle published in 1530, by -one called De Drusæ, we observe that -“notwithstanding the natural laws of propriety, -women use scents more than clean -water; and they thus only increase the bad -smells they endeavor to disguise. Some -use greasy perfumed ointments, others -sponges saturated in fragrants”</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Entre leur cuisses et dessoubz les aisselles,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Pour ne sentir l’espaulle de mouton.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>This horror of water did not last long, -however, and at the commencement of the -seventeenth century the false modesty of -women ended with the creation of river -baths, such as exist to-day along the banks -of the Seine.</p> - -<p>Was this restoration of cleanly habits -due to medical advice? This question -cannot be answered, but it may not be out -of place to cite that remarkable passage -from the “Essays of Montaigne” on the -hygiene of bathing, which he recommends -in certain maladies:</p> - -<p>“It is good to bathe in warm water, it -softens and relaxes in ports where it stagnates -over sands and stones. Such application -of external heat, however, makes -the kidneys leathery and hard and petrifies -the matter within. To those who bathe: -it is best to eat little at night to the end -that the waters drank the next morning -operate more easily, meeting with an -empty stomach. On the other hand, it is -best to eat a little dinner, in order not to -trouble the action of the water, which is -not in perfect accord; nor should the -stomach be filled too suddenly after its -other labor; leave the work of digestion to -the night, which is better than the day, -when the body and mind are in perpetual -movement and activity.</p> - -<p>“I have noted, on the occasion of my -voyages, all the famous baths of Christendom, -and for some years past have made -use of waters, for as a general rule I consider -bathing healthy and deem it no risk -to one’s physical condition. The custom -of ablution, so generally observed at times -past in all nations, is now only practiced in -a few as a daily habit. I cannot imagine -why civilized people ever allow their -bodies to become encrusted with dirt and -their pores filled with filth.”<a id="FNanchor_9" href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p> - -<p>If Montaigne made great use of mineral -waters, he had in revenge a formidable -dread of physicians and their medicines, a -sentiment he inherited from his father, -“who died,” says he, “at the age of -seventy-four years,” and his “grandfather -and great-grandfather died at eighty years -without tasting a drop of physic.”</p> - -<p>Montaigne has justly criticized medicine -in several essays on the healing art. -He knew well the <i>intividia medicorum</i>, and -it was for this reason that he remarked that -a physician should always treat a case -without a consultant. “There never was -a doctor,” says Montaigne, “who, on accepting -the services of a consultant, did -not discontinue or readjust something.” -Is not the same criticism deserved at the -present day? How absurd are our medical -consultations. The examples Montaigne -gives of disagreements of doctors -in consultation as to doctrines are equally -applicable to modern times. The differences -of Herophilus, Erasistratus, and the -Æsclepiadæ as to the original causation of -disease were no greater than those of the -schools of Broussais and Pasteur, which -have both acquired a universal celebrity in -less than half a century.</p> - -<p>Montaigne insisted that medicine owed<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_13"></a>13</span> -its existence only to mankind’s fear of -death and pain, an impatience at poor -health and a furious and indiscreet thirst -for a speedy cure, but the author of the -“Essays” adds in concluding: “I honor -physicians, not following the feeling of -necessity, but for the love of themselves, -having seen many honest doctors who -were honorable and well worthy of being -loved.”</p> - -<p>The reputation for disagreement among -doctors so much insisted on by Montaigne -has served as a well-worn text for many -other critics.</p> - -<p>In <i>Les Serres</i> of Guillaume Bouchet, a -contemporary of the author, we find the -same shaft of sarcasm directed at physicians. -Where will you find men in any -other profession save that of medicine who -envy and hate each other so heartily? -What other profession on earth is given -over to such bitter disagreements? How -can common people be expected to honor -and respect experts and savants so-called -when the professors call each other ignoramusses -and asses? Call these doctors -into a case and one after the other they -will disagree as to the diagnosis as well as -to the method of cure. As Pellisson wrote:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“When an enemy you wish to kill</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Don’t call assasins full of vice,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But call two doctors of great skill</div> - <div class="verse indent2">To give contrary advice.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Or in the verses of the original:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“D’un ennemi voulez vous defaire?</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Ne cherchez pas d’assasins</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Donnez lui deux medecins,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Et qui’ils soient d’avis contrarie.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>This professional jealousy is always -more apparent than real. Aside from the -rivalry for public patronage physicians are -a very social class of men, as witness their -many festive meetings. We banquet in honor -of St. Luke the physician, and St. Come, -after each thesis, at anniversaries, at the -election of the Dean, and on many other -occasions. It is these co-fraternal meetings -at which are reinagurated the old feelings -of good-fellowship; our little quarrels -only serve to discipline the medical body -and to increase the grandeur of the -Faculty. It is the constant rubbing of -surfaces that makes the true professional -metal glitter.</p> - -<p>When we hear new doctors, young -graduates, swear the Hippocratic oath, we -do not forget that the principal articles of -the statute prescribe the cultivation of -friendships, respect for the older members -of the profession, benevolence to the -young beginners, and the preservation of -professional decency and kindness. It -may be insisted that banquets are not to be -considered as medical assemblages, for -there they laugh long and loud, and drink -many a bumper of rich Burgundy; making -joyous discourse; holding to the -famous compliment of Moliere:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Salus, honor et argentum</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Atque bonum appetitum.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>We know to-day many of the truthful -precepts of the School of Salerno and their -bearing on the medical records of the -middle ages. Then as now the doctor -had the ever increasing ingratitude of the -patient (<i>ad proccarendam oegrorum ingratitudinem</i>).</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“The disciple of Hippocrates meeteth often treatment rude,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The payment of his trouble is base ingratitude.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When the patient is in grievous pain the time is opportune</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For a keen, sharp-witted doctor to make a good fortune.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Let him profit by the sufferer’s aches and gather in the money,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For the ant gets winter provender and the summer bee its honey.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Our ancient friends had no pity for -charlatans, however. They rightfully -abused all medical impostors, as we read -in the precepts of Salerno’s school:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Il n’est par d’ignorant, de chartatan stupide,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">D’histron imposteur, ou de Juif fourbe avide,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">De sorciere crasseuse ou de barbier bavard,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">De faussiare inpudent, ou de moine cafard,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">De marchand de savon, ou de avengle oculiste,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">De baigneur imbecile, ou d’absurde alchimiste,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Pas d’heretique impur qui ne se targue, enfin,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Du beau titre, du nom sacre de medecin.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>The investigation of medical science -was far from being an honor to the middle -ages. The best of the profession was -hidden in the doctoral sanctuary, enveloped -in those mysteries which are never penetrated -by the profane and only known to -the initiated.</p> - -<p>The recommendations as to the secrets -of our art are addressed to all young -doctors in that famous epilogue commencing:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Gardez surtout, gardez qui’un profane vulgaire</div> - <div class="verse indent0">De votre art respecte ne perce le mystere;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Son eclat devoile perdrait sa dignite</div> - <div class="verse indent0">D’un mystere connu decroit la majeste,”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_14"></a>14</span></p> -<p>Let us invoke God, the Supreme physician, -let us demand the professional banishment -of every doctor who reveals a professional -secret.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Exsul sit medicus physicius secreta revelans.”—Amen!</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_GREAT_EPIDEMICS_OF_THE_MIDDLE_AGES">THE GREAT EPIDEMICS OF THE MIDDLE AGES.</h2> -</div> - - -<h3>THE PLAGUE</h3> - -<p>Several great epidemics of the Plague -had already devastated the world; the -plague of Athens in the fifth century, -B. C.; the plague of the second -century, in the reign of Marcus Aurelius; -the plague of the third century, in the -reign of Gallus; then came that most terrible -epidemic of the sixth century, known -by the name of the inguinal pestilence, -which, after ravaging Constantinople spread -into Liguria, then into France and Spain. -It was in 542, according to Procopius, -that an epidemic struck the world and consumed -almost all the human species.<a id="FNanchor_10" href="#Footnote_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p> - -<p>“It attacked the entire earth,” says our -author, “striking every race of people, -sparing neither age nor sex; differences in -habitation, diet, temperament or occupation -of any nature did not stop its ravages; -it prevailed in summer and in winter, in -fact, at every season of the year.</p> - -<p>“It commenced at the town of Pelusa in -Egypt, from whence it spread by two -routes, one through Alexandria and the -rest of Egypt, the other through Palestine. -After this it covered the whole world, progressing -always by regular intervals of -time and force. In the springtime of 543 -it broke out in Constantinople and announced -itself in the following manner:</p> - -<p>“Many victims believed they saw the -spirits of the departed rehabilitated in -human form. It appeared as though these -spirits appeared before the subject about to -be attacked and struck him on certain portions -of the body. These apparitions heralded -the onset of the malady. It is but -fair to say that the commencement of the -disease was not the same in all cases. Some -victims did not see the apparitions, but -only dreamed of them, but all believed -they heard a ghostly voice announcing -their inscription on the list of those who -were going to die. Some claim that the -greater number of victims were not haunted -either sleeping or waking by these ghosts -and the mysterious voice that made sinister -predictions.</p> - -<p>“The fever at the onset of the attack -came on suddenly,—some while sleeping, -some while waking, some while at work. -Their bodies exhibited no change of color, -and the temperature was not very high. -Some indications of fever were perceptible, -but no signs of acute inflammation. In -the morning and at night the fever was -slight, and indicated nothing severe either -to the patient or to the physician who -counted the pulse. Most of those who -presented such symptoms showed no indications -of approaching dissolution; but the -first day among some, the second day in -others, and after several days in many -cases, a bubo was observed on the lower -portion of the abdomen, in the groin, or in -the folds of the axilla, and sometimes back -of the ears or on the thighs.</p> - -<p>“The principal symptoms of the disease -on its invasion were as I have pointed out; -for the remainder, nothing can be precisely -indicated of the variations of the type of -the disease following temperament; these -other symptoms were only such as were -imprinted by the Supreme Being at his -divine will.</p> - -<p>“Some patients were plunged into a condition -of profound drowsiness; others were -victims to furious delirium. Those who -were drowsy remained in a passive state, -seeming to have lost all memory of the -things of ordinary life. If they had any -one to nurse them they took food when -offered from time to time, and if they had -no care soon died of inanition. The<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_15"></a>15</span> -delirious patients, deprived of sleep, were -eternally pursued by their hallucinations; -they imagined themselves haunted by men -ready to slay them, and they sought flight -from such fancied foes, uttering dreadful -screams. Persons who were attacked while -nursing the sick were in the most pitiable -condition—not that they were more liable -to contract the disease by contact, however, -for nurses and doctors did not get -the disease from actual contact with the -sufferers, for some who washed and laid -out the dead never contracted the malady, -but enjoyed perfect health throughout the -epidemic; some, however, died suddenly -without apparent cause. Many of the -nurses were overworked keeping patients -from rolling out of bed and preventing the -delirious from jumping from high windows. -Some patients endeavored to throw themselves -in running water, not to quench -their thirst, but because they had lost all -reason. It was necessary to struggle with -many of the sick in order to make them -swallow any nourishment, which they -would not accept without more or less resistance. -The buboes enfeebled certain -patients who were neither drowsy nor delirious, -but who finally succumbed to their -atrocious sufferings.</p> - -<p>“As nothing was known of this strange -disease, certain physicians thought its origin -was due to some source of evil hidden -in the buboes, and they accordingly opened -these glandular bodies. The dissection of -the bubo showed sub-adjacent carbuncles, -whose rapid malignity brought on sudden -death or an illness of but few days’ duration. -In some instances the entire body -was covered by black spots the size of a -bean. Such unfortunates rarely lived a -day, and generally expired in an hour. -Many cases died suddenly, vomiting blood. -One thing I can solemnly affirm, that is, -that the wisest physicians gave up all hope -in the case of many patients who afterwards -recovered; on the contrary, many -persons perished at the very time their -health was almost re-established. For all -these causes, the malady passed the confines -of human reasoning, and the outcome -always deceived the most natural predictions.</p> - -<p>“As to treatment, the effects were -variable, following the condition of the -victim. I may state that, as a fact, no efficacious -remedies were discovered that -could either prevent the onset of the -disease or shorten its duration. The victims -could not tell why they were attacked, nor -how they were cured.</p> - -<p>“Pregnant women attacked inevitably -aborted at death, some succumbing while -miscarrying; some going on to the end of -gestation, dying in labor along with their -infants. Only three cases are known where -women recovered of plague after aborting; -while only one instance is on record where -a newly-born child survived its mother in -this epidemic. Those in whom the buboes -increased most rapidly in size, maturated -and suppurated, most often recovered, -for the reason, no doubt, that the malignant -properties of the bubonic carbuncle -were weakened or destroyed.</p> - -<p>“Experience proved that such symptoms -were an almost sure presage of a return to -health. Those, on the contrary, in whom -the tumor did not change its aspect from -the time of its eruption, were attacked with -all the symptoms I have before described. -In some cases the skin dried and seemed -thus to prevent the tumor, although it -might be well developed, from suppurating. -Some were cured at the price of a loss of -power in the tongue, which reduced the -victims to stammer and articulate words in -a confused and unintelligible manner for -the rest of their days.</p> - -<p>“The epidemic at Constantinople lasted -four months, three months of which time it -raged with great violence. As the epidemic -progressed the mortality-rate increased -from day to day, until it reached -the point of 5,000 deaths per day, and on -several occasions ran up to as high as -10,000 deaths in the twenty four hours.”</p> - -<p>Let us pass over this very important -description that Procopius gives of the -moral effect of this epidemic on the people, -of the scenes of wild and heart-rending -terror, of curious examples of egotism and -sublime devotion, of instances of blind -superstition developed in a great city under -the influence of fear and the dread of a -very problematical contagion.</p> - -<p>Evagre, the scholastic, another Greek -historian of the sixth century, recounts in -his works the story of the plague at Constantinople. -He states that he frequently -observed that persons recovering from a -first and second attack subsequently died on -a third attack; also that persons flying -from an infected locality were often taken -sick after many days of an incubating -period, falling ill in their places of refuge<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_16"></a>16</span> -in the midst of populations free, up to that -time, from the pestilence.</p> - -<p>In following the progress of this epidemic -from the Orient to the Occident, it -was noticed that it always commenced at -the sea-ports and then traveled inland. -The disease was carried much more easily -by ships than it could be at the present -time, inasmuch as there were no quarantines -and no pest-houses for isolating patients. -It entered France by the Mediterranean -Sea. It was in 549 that the plague -struck Gaul. “During this time,” says -Gregory of Tours, “the malady known as -the <i>inguinal disease</i> ravaged many sections -and the province of Arles was cruelly depopulated.”<a id="FNanchor_11" href="#Footnote_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p> - -<p>This illustrious historian wrote in another -passage: “We learned this year that -the town of Narbonne was devastated by -the <i>groin disease</i>, of so deadly a type that -when one was attacked he generally -succumbed. Felix, the Bishop of Nantes, -was stricken down and appeared to be desperately -ill. The fever having ceased, the -humor broke out on his limbs, which were -covered with pustules. It was after the -application of a plaster covered with cantharides -that his limbs rotted off, and he -ceased to live in the seventieth year of his -age.</p> - -<p>“Before the plague reached Auvergne -it had involved most all the rest of -the country. Here the epidemic attacked -the people in 567, and so great -was the mortality that it is utterly impossible -to give even the approximate -number of deaths. Populations perished -<i>en masse</i>. On a single Sunday morning -three hundred bodies were counted in St. -Peter’s chapel at Clermont awaiting funeral -service. Death came suddenly; it struck -the axilla or groin, forming a sore like a -serpent that bit so cruelly that men rendered -up their souls to God on the second -or third day of the attack, many being so -violent as to lose their senses. At this -time Lyons, Bourges, Chalons, and Dijon -were almost depopulated by the pestilence.”</p> - -<p>In 590 the towns of Avignon and -Viviers were cruelly ravaged by the -<i>inguinal disease</i>.</p> - -<p>The plague reached Marseilles, however, -in 587, being carried there by a -merchant vessel from Spain which entered the -port as a center of an infection. Several -persons who bought goods from this -trading vessel, all of whom lived in one -house nevertheless, were carried off by the -plague to the number of eight. The spark -of the epidemic did not burn very rapidly -at first, but after a certain time the baleful -fire of the pest, after smouldering slowly, -burst out in a blaze that almost consumed -Marseilles.</p> - -<p>Bishop Theodorus isolated himself in a -wing of the cloister Saint Victor, with a -small number of persons who remained -with him during the plague, and in the -midst of their general desolation continued -to implore Almighty God for mercy, with -fasting and prayer until the end of the epidemic. -After two months of calm the -population of the city commenced to drift -back, but the plague reappeared anew and -most of those who returned died. The -plague has devastated Marseilles many -times since the epoch just mentioned.</p> - -<p>Anglada<a id="FNanchor_12" href="#Footnote_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> who, like the writer, derives -most of his citations from Gregory of -Tours, thinks that the plague that devastated -Strasbourg in 591 was only the same -<i>inguinal disease</i> that ravaged Christendom. -He cites, in support of his assertion, that -passage from the historian poet Kleinlande -translated by Dr. Boersch: “In 591 there -was a great mortality throughout our -country, so that men fell down dying in -the streets, expiring suddenly in their -houses, or even at business. When a person -sneezed his soul was apt to fly the -body; hence the expression on sneezing, -‘God bless you!’ And when a person -yawned they made the sign of the cross -before their mouths.”</p> - -<p>Such are the documents we possess on -the great epidemic of inguinal plague of -the fourth century, documents furnished -by historians, to whom medical history is -indebted, and not from medical authors, -who left no marks at that period.</p> - - -<h3>THE BLACK PLAGUE.</h3> - -<p>The Black Plague of the fourteenth -century was more destructive even than -the bubonic pest of the sixth century, and -all other epidemics observed up to the -present day. In the space of four years -more than twenty five millions of human<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_17"></a>17</span> -beings perished—one-half the population -of the world. Like all other pestilences, -it came from the Orient—from India, and -perhaps from China. Europe was invaded -from east to west, from south to north. After -Constantinople, all the islands and shores -of the Mediterranean were attacked, and -successively became so many foci of disease -from which the pestilence radiated -inland. Constantinople lost two-thirds of -its population. Cyprus and Cairo counted -15,000 deaths. Florence paid an awful -tribute to the disease, so great being the -mortality that the epidemic has often been -called <i>Peste de Florence</i>; “100,000 persons -perished,” says Boccaccio. Venice lost -20,000 victims, Naples 60,000, Sicily 53,000, -and Genoa 40,000, while in Rome -the dead were innumerable.</p> - -<p>In Spain, Germany, England, Poland, -and Russia the malady was as fatal as in -Italy. At London they buried 100,000 -persons in the cemeteries. It was the -same in France. Avignon lost 150,000 -citizens in seven months, among whom -was the beautiful Laura de Noves, immortalized -by Petrarch, who expired from the -plague in 1348, aged forty-one years. -At Marseilles 56,000 people died in one -month; at Montpellier three quarters of -the population, including all the physicians, -went down in the epidemic. Narbonne -had 30,000 deaths and Strasbourg -16,000 in the first year of the outbreak. -Paris was not spared; the <i>Chronique de -Saint Denis</i> informs us that “in the year -of Grace 1348, commenced the aforesaid -mortality in the Realms of France, the -same lasting about a year and a half, increasing -more and more until Paris lost -each day 800 inhabitants; so that the -number who died there amounted to -more than 500,000 people, while in the -town of Saint Denis the number reached -16,000.<a id="FNanchor_13" href="#Footnote_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p> - -<p>Among the victims were Jeanne de -Bourgogne, wife of Philip VI.; Jeanne II., -Queen of Navarre, grandchild of Philip the -Beautiful. In Spain, died Alphonse XI. -of Castille. “Happily,” says the <i>Chronicle</i>, -“during the years following the plague -the fecundity of women was prodigious—as -though nature desired to repair the -ravages wrought by death.” The symptoms -and history of this plague have been -described by several ocular witnesses, -among others Guy de Chauliac, the celebrated -surgeon and professor at Montpellier, -who has left the following recital in -quaint old French:</p> - -<p>“The disease was such that one never -before saw a like mortality. It appeared -in Avignon in the year of our Saviour 1348, -in the sixth year of the Pontificate of -Clement VI., in whose service I entered, -thanks to his Grace.</p> - -<p>“Not to displease you, I shall briefly -narrate for your edification the advent of -the disease.</p> - -<p>“It commenced—the aforesaid mortality—in -January and lasted for the space of -seven months.</p> - -<p>“The disease was of two kinds. The -first type lasted two months, with a continued -fever and spitting of blood. This -variety killed in three days, however.</p> - -<p>“The second type of the disease, prevailing -during the epidemic time, also had -a continued fever, with apostumes and carbuncles -at the external parts, principally -on the axilla and in the groin; all such -attacked usually died in five days.</p> - -<p>“The malady was so contagious, especially -that form in which blood-spitting -was noticed, that one not only caught it -from sojourning with the sick, but also, -it sometimes seemed, from looking at -the disease, so that men died without -their servants and were buried without -priests.</p> - -<p>“The father visited not his son, nor -the son his father. Charity was dead and -hope disappeared.</p> - -<p>“I call the epidemic great, inasmuch -as it conquered all the earth.</p> - -<p>“For the pestilence commenced at the -Orient, and cast its fangs against all the -world, passing through Paris towards the -West.</p> - -<p>“It was so destructive that it left only -a quarter of the population of mankind behind.</p> - -<p>“It was a shame and disgrace to medicine, -as many doctors dared not visit the -sick through fear of becoming infected; -and those who visited the sick made few -cures and fewer fees, for the sick all died -save a few. Not many having buboes escaped -death.</p> - -<p>“For preservation, there was no better -remedy than to fly from the infection, to -purge one’s self with aloe pills, to diminish -the blood by phlebotomy, to purify the air -with fire, to comfort the heart with cordials<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_18"></a>18</span> -and apples and other things of good odor; -to console the humors with Armenian bole -and resist dry rot by the use of acid things. -For the cure of the plague we used bleedings -and evacuations, electuaries, syrups -and cordials, and the external apostumes -or swellings were poulticed with boiled -figs and onions mixed with oil and butter; -the buboes were afterwards opened and -treated by the usual cures for ulcers.</p> - -<p>“Carbuncles were leeched, scarified -and cauterized.</p> - -<p>“I, to avoid infamy, dared not absent -myself from the care of the sick, but lived -in continual fear, preserving myself as long -as possible by the before-mentioned remedies.</p> - -<p>“Nevertheless, towards the end of the -epidemic, I fell into a fever, which continued -with an aposthume in the groin, and -was ill for nigh on six weeks, being in -such danger that all my companions believed -I should die; nevertheless, the bubo -being poulticed and treated as I have -above indicated, I recovered, thanks be to -the will of God.”</p> - -<p>According to the records of that time, -many persons died the first day of their -illness. These bad cases were announced -by a violent fever, with cephalgia, vertigo, -drowsiness, incoherency in ideas, and loss -of memory; the tongue and palate were -black and browned, exhaling an almost -insupportable fetidity. Others were attacked -by violent inflammation of the -lungs, with hemorrhage; also gangrene, -which manifested itself in black spots all -over the body; if, to the contrary, the -body was covered by abscesses, the patients -seemed to have some chance for -recovery.</p> - -<p>Medicines were powerless, all remedies -seeming to be useless. The disease attacked -rich and poor indiscriminately; it -overpowered the robust and debilitated; -the young and the old were its victims. -On the first symptom the patients fell into a -profound melancholy and seemed to abandon -all hope of recovery. This moral -prostration aggravated their physical condition, -and mental depression hastened the -time of death. The fear of contagion was -so great that but few persons attended the -sick.</p> - -<p>The clergy, encouraged by the Pope, -visited the bedsides of the dying who bequeathed -all their wealth to the Church. -The plague was considered on all sides as -a punishment inflicted by God, and it was -this idea that induced armies of penitents -to assemble on the public streets to do -penance for their sins. Men and women -went half naked along the highways flagellating -each other with whips, and, growing -desperate with the fall of night, they committed -scandalous crimes. In certain -places the Jews were accused of being the -authors of the plague by poisoning the -wells; hence the Hebrews were persecuted, -sometimes burned alive by the fanatical -sects known as Flagellants, Begardes and -Turlupins, who were encouraged in their -acts of violence by the priests, notwithstanding -the intervention of Clement -VI.</p> - -<p>Physicians were not only convinced of -the contagious nature of the disease, but -also believed that it could be transmitted -by look and word of mouth. Such doctors -obliged their patients to cover their eyes -and mouth with a piece of cloth whenever -the priest or physician visited the bedside. -“<i>Cum igitur medicus vel sacerdos, vel amicus -aliquem infirmum visitare voluerit, moneat -et introducat aegrum suos claudere et linteamine -operire.</i>”</p> - -<p>Guillaume de Machant, poet and <i>valet -de chambre</i> of Philip the Beautiful, mentions -this fact in one of his poems, <i>i. e.</i>:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“They did not dare, in the open air</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To even speak by stealth,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Lest each one’s breath might carry death</div> - <div class="verse indent0">By poisoning the other’s health.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>And, in the preface of the “Decameron,” -Boccaccio remarks in his turn, -“The plague communicated direct, as fire -to combustible matter. They were often -attacked from simply touching the sick, -indeed it was not even necessary to touch -them. The danger was the same when you -listened to their words or even if they -gazed at you.”</p> - -<p>One thing is certain, that is, that those -who nursed the patients surely contracted -the disease.</p> - -<p>All the authorities of the Middle Ages -concur in their statements as to the contagious -nature of the plague. The rules -and regulations enforced against the afflicted -were barbarous and inhuman. -“Persons sick and well, of one family, -when the pest developed,” says Black,<a id="FNanchor_14" href="#Footnote_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_19"></a>19</span> -“were held, without distinction, in close -confinement in their home, while on the -house door a red cross was traced, bearing -the sad and desperate epitaph, ‘<i>Dieu ayez -pitie de nous!</i>’ No one was permitted to -leave or enter the plague-stricken house -save the physician and nurse, or other persons -who might be authorized by the Government. -The doors of such dwellings -were guarded and kept closed until such a -time as the imprisoned had all died or recovered -their health.”</p> - -<p>We can well judge of the terror inspired -by the pestilence by the precautions taken -by the physicians in attendance on the -sick. In his treatise on the plague Mauget -describes the costume worn by those who -approached the bedsides of patients:</p> - -<p>“The costumes worn, says he, “were -of Levant morocco, the mask having crystal -eyes and a long nose filled with subtile -perfumes. This nose was in the form of a -snout, with the openings one on each side; -these openings served for respiratory passages -and were well filled at the anterior -portion with drugs, so that at each breath -they contained a medicated air. Under a -cloak the doctor also wore buskins made of -morocco; closely sewed breeches were attached -to the bottines above the ankle; -the shirt, the hat and gloves were also of -soft morocco.”</p> - -<p>Thus accoutered the doctor resembled a -modern diver clad in a bathing suit of -leather.</p> - -<p>In order not to alarm the population -all public references to funerals were forbidden. -In the ordinances of magistrates -of Paris, passed September 13, 1553, we -read, “And likewise be it declared that the -aforesaid Chamber forbids by statute all -criers of funerals and wines, and all others, -no matter what be their state or condition, -to render for sale at any church, house, -doorway or gate of this city, or on the -streets thereof, any black cloth or mourning -stuffs such as are used for mortuary -purposes, under penalty of forfeiture -of their licenses and property, and confiscation -of all goods, especially of the aforesaid -black cloths.”</p> - -<p>Let it be well understood that the great -epidemics of plague in the sixth and twelfth -centuries were of a nature to terrify ignorant -populations. The narratives of the -historians of that epoch show them to be -imbued with the superstitious ideas of antiquity. -This attack of an invisible enemy -whose blows fell right and left paralyzed -and terrified every one. “In the midst of -this orgie of death,” remarks Anglada, -“the thought of self-preservation absorbed -every other sentiment. Dominated by this -selfish instinct the human mind shamelessly -displayed its cowardice, egotism and superstition. -Social ties were rudely sundered, -the affections of the heart laid aside. -The sick were deserted by their relatives; -all flew with horror from the plague-breathing -air and contact with the dreadful -disease. The corpses of the victims of the -epidemic abandoned without sepulture -exhaled a horrible putrid odor, and became -the starting point of new infectious centres. -The worse disorder overthrew all conditions -of existence. Human passion raged -uncontrolled; the voice of authority was -no longer respected; the wheels of civilization -ceased to revolve.”</p> - -<p>As to the other epidemics of the plague -that periodically devastated France from -the fourteenth to the eighteenth century we -possess but few historical documents. We -have had in our hands an opuscule by -Pierre Sordes, who was attacked by the -plague in 1587, at the age of twenty, who -afterward wrote a treatise on the epidemic, -which work he dedicated to Cardinal de -Sourdis, the Archbishop of Aquitaine.</p> - -<p>The author in this monograph endeavors -to explain the remedies then in -use for preservation against the infection -of the disease. “Avoid all fatigue, anger, -intemperance, too much association with -women, as the act ennervates our forces -and enfeebles our spirits. One should -clothe himself in the wools of Auvergne and -the camulets of Escot.” Moreover, says -our author, “one should perfume his -clothes with laurel, rosemary, serpolet, -marjolane, sage, fennel, sweetbriar, myrrh, -and frankincense.” When the room was -to be disinfected “one should use fumigations -of good dry hay. One should not go -out early without eating and taking a -drink. One should close the ears with a -little cotton scented with musk and hold in -his mouth a clove or piece of angelica root. -One should hold in his hand a piece of -sponge saturated in vinegar, which should -be smelled frequently. One should wear -upon his stomach an acorn filled with -quicksilver and a small pouch containing -arsenic. Finally, one should take twice a -week a pill composed of aloes, myrrh, and -saffron.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_20"></a>20</span></p> - -<p>Notwithstanding all these precautions, -Pierre Sordes was attacked by the plague; -having a buboe in the left groin, which -caused him acute pain and to which he -applied “<i>un emplastre de diachyllum cum -gummis</i>” and afterwards a blister. Not -being able to obtain resolution, feeling his -strength undermined and perceiving his entire -body “covered with black lumps -and spots, fatal prognostic signs to all -who are found thus marked, I called -for a surgeon, the last one left alive, -and he brought his cautery and with it -pierced through the apostume. From then -the fever disappeared little by little, and I -was perfectly cured eight days after the -application of the aforesaid cautery, with -the exception that, reading in a draught -Bartas “Treatise on the Plague,” I brought -on another attack of fever that well nigh -carried me off.</p> - -<p>“This is my experience at Figeac in -the year 1587, when the plague destroyed -2500 people, with all the miseries and -calamities that can be read in Greek and -Roman histories.”</p> - - -<h3>LE MAL DES ARDENTS.</h3> - -<p>Towards the end of the tenth century a -new epidemic appeared in Europe, the -ravages of which spread terror among the -people of the Occident; this disease was -known by the name of <i>mal des ardents</i>, -sacred fire, St. Anthony’s fire, St. Marcell’s -fire, and hell fire.</p> - -<p>This great epidemic of the Middle Ages -is considered by many modern writers as -one of the forms of ergotism, notwithstanding -the contrary conclusions arrived at by -the Commission of 1776, composed of -such men as Jussieu, Paulet, Saillant, and -Teissier, who were ordered to report as to -the nature of the disease by the Royal -Society. According to the work of this -Commission the <i>mal des ardents</i> was a -variety of plague, with buboes, carbuncles -and petechial spots, while St. Anthony’s -fire was only gangrenous ergotism. This -is a remarkable example of the confusion -into which scientific facts were allowed to -fall through the fault of careless authors. -It is in such instances that we may estimate -the importance of history. We find in the -“Chronicles of Frodoard,” in the year -945, the following: “The year 945, in the -history of Paris and its numerous suburban -villages, a disease called <i>ignis plaga</i> attacked -the limbs of many persons, and -consumed them entirely, so that death -soon finished their sufferings. Some few -survived, thanks be to the intercession of -the Saints; and even a considerable number -were cured in the Church of Notre -Dame de Paris. Some of these, believing -themselves out of danger, left the church; -but the fires of the plague were soon relighted, -and they were only saved by -returning to Notre Dame.”</p> - -<p>Sauvel, the translator of Frodoard, remarks -that at this epoch the Church of -Notre Dame served as a hospital for the -sick attacked by the epidemic, and sometimes -contained as high as six hundred -patients.</p> - -<p>Another historian of the time was -Raoul Glaber,<a id="FNanchor_15" href="#Footnote_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> who mentions that “in -993 a murderous malady prevailed among -men. This was a sort of hidden fire, <i>ignis -occultus</i>, the which attacked the limbs and -detached them from the trunk after having -consumed the members. Among some the -devouring effect of this fire took place in a -single night.</p> - -<p>“In 1039,” continues our author, “divine -vengeance again descended on the -human race with fearful effect and destroyed -many inhabitants of the world, -striking alike the rich and the poor, the -aristocrat and the peasant. Many persons -lost their limbs and dragged themselves -around as an example to those who came -after them.”</p> - -<p>In the <i>Chronicle of France</i>, from the -commencement of the Monarchy up to -1029,<a id="FNanchor_16" href="#Footnote_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> the monk Adhemar speaks of the -epidemic in the following terms: “In these -times a pestilential fire (<i>pestilential ignis</i>) -attacked the population of Limousin; an -infinite number of persons of both sexes -were consumed by an invisible fire.”</p> - -<p>Michael Felibien, a Benedictine friar of -Saint Maur, also left notes on the epidemic -of gangrene. He states in his <i>History of -Paris</i>: “In the same year, 1129, Paris, as -the rest of France, was afflicted by the -<i>maladie des ardents</i>. This disease, although -known from the mortality it caused in the -years 945 and 1041, was all the more -terrible inasmuch as it appeared to have -no remedy. The mass of blood, already -corrupted by internal heat which devoured<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_21"></a>21</span> -the entire body, pushed its fluids outwards -into tumors, which degenerated into incurable -ulcers and thus killed off thousands -of people.”</p> - -<p>We could make many more citations, -derived from ancient writers, but we think -we have quoted enough authors to prove -that the <i>mal des ardents</i> was only the plague -confounded with the symptoms known as -gangrenous ergotism. Could it not have -been a plague of a gangrenous type? We -cannot positively affirm, however, that it -had no connection with poisoning by the -<i>sphacelia</i> developed in grain, particularly -on rye. Its onset was sudden, and often -very rapidly followed by a fatal termination. -The <i>mal des ardents</i> had no prodroma -with general symptoms and marked -periods, as in gangrenous ergotism, but it -had, to the contrary, an irregular march, -rapid in its evolution, “devouring,” as -Mezeray says, “the feet, the arms, the -face, and private parts, commencing most -generally in the groin.”</p> - - -<h3>THE ERUPTIVE FEVERS OF THE SIXTH CENTURY —— VARIOLA, -MEASLES, SCARLATINA.</h3> - -<p>Before the sixth century, the terrible -period of the plague, one never heard of -the eruptive fevers. Small-pox, measles -and scarlet fever were unknown to the -ancients. Neither Hippocrates nor Galen -nor any of the Greek physicians who practiced -in Rome make mention of these -diseases. The historians and poets of -Greece and Italy who have written largely -on medical subjects remain mute on these -three great questions in pathology. Some -authors have endeavored to torture texts -for the purpose of throwing light on the -contagious exanthemata, but they have not -been repaid for their fresh imagination.<a id="FNanchor_17" href="#Footnote_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> -It is admitted to-day that the eruptive -fevers are comparatively new diseases, -which made their appearance in the Middle -Ages.</p> - -<p>The first document that the history of -medicine possesses on this point is that -left by Marius, Bishop of Aventicum, in -Switzerland, who says, in his chronicle, -“<i>Anno 570, morbus validus cum profluvio -ventris et variola, Italiam Galliamque valde -affecit</i>.”<a id="FNanchor_18" href="#Footnote_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></p> - -<p>Ten years later, Gregory of Tours described -the symptoms of the new disease -in the following terms:<a id="FNanchor_19" href="#Footnote_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a></p> - -<p>“The fifth year of the reign of Childebert, -580, the region of Auvergne was -inundated by a flood and numerous -weather disasters, which were followed by -a terrible epidemic that invaded the whole -of Gaul. Those attacked had violent -fevers, accompanied by vomiting, great -pain in the neighborhood of the kidneys, -and a heaviness in the head and neck. -Matter rejected by the stomach looked -yellowish and even green, many deeming -this to be some secret poison. The peasants -called the pustules corals.<a id="FNanchor_20" href="#Footnote_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> Sometimes, -after the application of cups to the -shoulders or limbs, blisters were raised, -which, when broken, gave issue to sanious -matter, which oftentimes saved the patient. -Drinks composed of simples to combat the -effects of the poison were also very efficacious.</p> - -<p>“This disease, which commenced in -the month of August, attacked all the very -young children and carried them off.</p> - -<p>“In those days Chilperic was also -seriously afflicted, and as the King commenced -to convalesce his youngest son -was taken with the malady, and when his -extremity was perceived he was given baptism. -Shortly afterwards he was better, -and his eldest brother, named Chlodobert, -was attacked in his turn. They placed the -Prince in a litter and carried him to Soissons, -in the chapel of Saint Medard; there -he was placed in contact with the good -Saint’s tomb, and made vows to him for -recovery, but, very weak and almost without -breath, he rendered his soul to God -in the middle of night.</p> - -<p>“In those days, Austrechilde, wife of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_22"></a>22</span> -King Gontran, also died of the disease; -while Nantin, Count of Angouleme, also -succumbed to the same malady, his body -becoming so black that it appeared as -though calcined charcoal.”</p> - -<p>Gregory of Tours, in another chapter, -narrates:</p> - -<p>“The year of the reign of King Childebert, -582, another epidemic broke out; -this was accompanied by blackish spots of -a malignant nature, with pustules and vesicles, -and carried off many victims.</p> - -<p>“Touraine was cruelly devastated by -this disease. The patient attacked by fever -soon had the surface of his body covered -by vesicles and small pustules. The vesicles -were white and very hard, presenting -no element of softness, and were accompanied -by great pain; when they had -attained maturity they broke and allowed -the humor within to escape. Their sticking -to the clothing of the body added considerably -to the pain. Medical art was -wholly impotent in the presence of this -malady, at least when God did not come -to the doctor’s aid.</p> - -<p>“The wife of Count Eborin, who was -attacked by the disease, was so covered by -vesicles that neither her hand nor the sole -of her foot nor any portion of her body -was exempt; even her eyes remained -closed. Soon after the fever ceased the -fall of the pustules occurred, and the patient -recovered without more inconvenience.”</p> - -<p>Small-pox came, then, from the Orient—that -eternal center of all pestilences and -curses. From the seventh century the -Saracen armies spread the malady wherever -they passed—in Syria, Egypt, and Spain; -in their turn, the Crusaders, in returning -from the Holy Land, brought the disease -into France, England, and Germany. -From thence the great epidemics of the -twelfth and thirteenth centuries, after -which the small-pox became epidemic, -appearing and disappearing without causation, -but always destroying myriads of -victims. “In 1445,” says Sauvel “from -the month of August to Saint Andres’ day -(November 30), over 6,000 infants died in -Paris from small-pox.<a id="FNanchor_21" href="#Footnote_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> The physicians -knew neither the nature nor the treatment -of the new disease.<a id="FNanchor_22" href="#Footnote_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a></p> - -<p>The measles was first noted at the same -time as the small-pox, making its first -appearance as an epidemic in the sixth -century.</p> - -<p>It is more than probable that the -measles originated in Egypt, and according -to Borsieri, it had such an extension -throughout Western Europe that there -were but few persons who had not suffered -attacks. The history of measles, -however, is less clearly defined than that -of small-pox, although Anglada says that it -figured among the <i>spotted diseases</i>, of which -Gregory of Tours speaks.<a id="FNanchor_23" href="#Footnote_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> But it was -only in the sixteenth century that Prosper -Martian exactly describes the disease.</p> - -<p>Says Martian, “It is a disease of a -special type peculiar to children, who can -no more avoid it than small pox. It commences -with a violent fever, followed, -towards the third day, by an eruption of -small red spots, which become elevated by -degrees, making the skin feel rough to the -touch. The fever lasts until the fifth day, -and when it has ceased the papules commence -to disappear.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_23"></a>23</span></p> - -<p>Measles was designated in the middle -ages under the name <i>Morbilli</i>, which signified -a petty plague, the same that <i>Morbus</i> -meant a special plague. It is then fair to -presume that the type of disease was -no more serious than it is at the present -day.</p> - -<p>It is probable that the measles of the -sixth century included at the same time -small-pox, measles and scarlet fever, of -which the ancients made no differential -diagnosis. Anglada affirms the co-existence -of all forms of eruptive fevers and -gives the following reasons:</p> - -<p>“The contemporaneous appearance of -variola and rubeola represents the first -manifestation of an epidemic constitution, -resulting from a collection of unknown influences -as to their nature, but manifest by -their effects. The earth was from thence -prepared to receive scarlatina, and it soon -came to bear its baleful fruits. We do -meet some mention of scarlet fever in the -writings of the Arabian School, but it is -merely suspected and only vaguely indicated. -But when we remember how difficult -it often is to diagnose at first between -variola and measles, we are not astonished -at the indecision manifested in adding -another exanthematous affection to the -medical incognito. It was only after innumerable -observations and the experience -of several centuries that the third new -disease received its nosological baptism. -There is nothing to prove that it did not -co-operate with earlier epidemics of variola -and rubeola, remaining undistinguished as -to type, however.”</p> - -<p>What clearly proves that there was -confusion between the various fevers of -exanthemata is that Ingrassias describes -scarlatina in 1510, under the name of -<i>rosallia</i>, adding, “Some think the measles -and <i>rosallia</i> are the same malady; as for -me, I have determined their differences on -many occasions. <i>Nonnulli sunt qui morbillos -idem cum rossalia esse existimant. Nos -autem soepissime distinctos esse affectus, nostrismet -oculis, non aliorum duntaxat relationi -confidentes inspeximus.</i>”<a id="FNanchor_24" href="#Footnote_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a></p> - -<p>These facts appear conclusive enough -to admit that measles and scarlet fever are, -like variola, the products of the epidemic -constitution developed during the sixth -century, as contemporaries of the bubonic -plague, all these maladies representing the -medical constitution of the first centuries of -the Middle Age.</p> - - -<h3>THE SWEATING SICKNESS OF ENGLAND.</h3> - -<p>The name of Sweating Sickness was -given to the great epidemic of fever that -appeared in England in the fifteenth century, -and from thence extended over -Continental Europe. This epidemic broke -out in the month of September, 1486, in -the army of Henry VII., encamped in -Wales, and soon reached London, extending -over the British Isles with frightful -rapidity. Its appearance was alarming and -during its duration, which was only a -month, it made a considerable number of -victims. “It was so terrible and so acute -that within the memory of man none had -seen its like.”</p> - -<p>This epidemic reappeared in England -in 1513, 1517 and 1551. It was preceded -by very moist weather and violent winds. -The mortality was great, patients often -dying in the space of two hours; in some -instances half the population of a town -being carried off. The epidemic of 1529 -can only be called murderous; King -Henry VIII. was attacked and narrowly -escaped death. Although flying from -village to village the nobility of England -paid an enormous tribute to the King of -Terrors. The Ambassador from France to -London, M. du Bellay, writing on the 21st -of July, 1529, remarks, “The day I visited -the Bishop of Canterbury eighteen of the -household died in a few hours. I was about -the only one left to tell the tale, and am -far from recovered yet.”</p> - -<p>This same year the sweating sickness -spread all over Europe. It made terrible -ravages in Holland, Germany and Poland. -At the famous synod of Luther and -Zwingle, held at Marburg, the Reformed -ministers seized by fear of death prayed -for relief from the pestilence. At Augsburg -in three months eighteen thousand people -were attacked and fourteen hundred died.</p> - -<p>This epidemic did not extend as far as -Paris, but it developed in the north of -France and Belgium. Mezeray mentions -this fact in the following terms: “A certain -disease appeared this year (1529), commencing -in England. It was of a contagious -nature, and passed over from France -to the Lower Countries, and thus spread -over most of Europe. Those attacked -sweated profusely; it was for this reason<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_24"></a>24</span> -that the malady was called the <i>English -Sweat</i>. First one had a hard chill, then a -very high fever, which carried the patient -off in twenty-four hours, unless promptly -remedied.”</p> - -<p>Fernel, physician to Henry II., who -practiced in Paris, likewise speaks of this -sudorific sickness in one of his works.<a id="FNanchor_25" href="#Footnote_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> -He says: “<i>Febres sudorificae quae insolentes -magno terrore in omnem inferiorem Germaniam, -in Galliam, Belgicam, et in Britanniam -ab anno Christi millesimo quingentesimo -vigesim autumno potissimum pervagatae -sunt</i>.”</p> - -<p>It prevailed almost always in summer -and autumn, especially when the weather -was moist and foggy. Contrary to what is -seen in other epidemics, it was observed -that the weak and poor, the old and -infants were not attacked as often as -robust persons and those in affluent circumstances.</p> - -<p>The symptoms noted by physicians, -such as Kaye and Bacon, may be classed -into three distinct periods: 1. The period -of chill, characterized by pains and formication -in the limbs an extraordinary prostration -of the physical forces—a tremulous, -shaky period. 2. The period of sweat, -preceded by a burning heat all over the -body and an unquenchable feverish thirst. -The patient was agitated, disquieted by -terror and despair. Many complained of -spasms in the stomach, followed sometimes -by nausea and vomiting, suffocation and -lumbar pains—a constant symptom ever—headache, -with palpitation of the heart and -præcordial anxiety. 3. This period was -announced by a high delirium, sometimes -muttering, sometimes loquacious; a fetid -sweaty odor, irregular pulse, coma, and, -in the last-named condition, death always -occurred.</p> - -<p>The duration of the disease was most -frequently but a few hours, rarely exceeding -a day, whether the termination was -favorable or fatal.</p> - -<p>Convalescence was always long, often -being complicated by diarrhœa or dropsy. -It has been remarked in this connection -that the malady might be confounded with -the miliary sweat observed in Picardy and -central France, but in the first named disease -no cutaneous eruption was observed. -Fernel clearly affirms this statement, as he -says: “In this affection there is no -carbuncle, bubo, exanthema nor eczema, but -simply a hypersecretion of sweat.”</p> - -<p>Such was the sweating sickness of the -sixteenth century, which made so few -victims in France, but which destroyed so -many people in England and Germany. -The origin of this disease has been often -discussed, and also its nature; but all theories -emitted by various authors partake of -the doctrines of other days and are too -antiquated to be revamped. We will content -ourselves with saying that the classification -of periods made by us is logical, -and we consider the sweating sickness of -the fifteenth century as a pernicious fever, -in which the sweating stage predominated -and consequently became the characteristic -symptom of the affection.</p> - - -<h3>THE SCURVY.</h3> - -<p>It has been supposed by many that -Hippocrates described scurvy under the -name of <i>enlarged spleen</i>, an affection attributed -to the use of stagnant water and characterized -by tumefaction of the gums, foul -breath, pale face, and ulceration of the -lower limbs. But the study of this Hippocratic -passage leads us to think that these -symptoms were more of the character of -scrofula than of scurvy. The recital by -Pliny of the diseases of the Roman soldiers -while on an expedition to Germany seems -to indicate scurvy, which Coelius Aurelianus, -and after him the Arabian physicians, -claims presented only a slight analogy -to that affection.</p> - -<p>Springer thinks that we may find the -first traces of scurvy in the expedition of -the Normans to Wineland, in the first years -of the eleventh century. In admitting that -the men commanded by Eric Thorstein -were obliged to winter on the western -shores of Wineland and almost all succumbed -to an endemic malady of that -country, proves that it was nothing but -scurvy, although that word’s only signification, -in Danish, is ulceration of the -mouth.</p> - -<p>We have, besides, another document, -which has great authentic value, a proof -transmitted to us by our earliest and best -chronicler of the Middle Ages, by Joinville, -the friend and companion of Saint -Louis in his Crusade into Palestine. In his -memoirs he gives a very succinct recital of -the epidemic of famine and scurvy which -attacked the French army on the banks of -the Nile in 1248, just after the battles of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_25"></a>25</span> -Mansourah. Says Joinville: “After the -two battles just mentioned, commenced our -great miseries in the army; at the end of -nine days the bodies of our dead soldiers -arose to the surface of the water (their -tissues were corrupted and rotten), and -these corpses floated to a point between -our two camps (those of the King and the -Duke of Bourgogne), at a point where a -bridge touched the water. So many had -been slain that a great crowd of corpses -floated on the stream for a long distance. -The bodies of the dead Saracens were -sickening; the army servants threw open a -portion of the bridge and permitted the -dead infidels to float down the river, but -they buried the dead Crusaders in great pits -dug in the ground. I saw among other -dead the body of the Chamberlain of the -Count D’Artois, and many other friends -among the slain.</p> - -<p>“The only fish we had eaten for four -months were of the variety called <i>barbus</i>, -and these <i>barbus</i> fed on the dead bodies, -and for this cause and other miseries of the -country where never a drop of rain fell -sickness entered our army of such a sort -that the flesh on the limbs dried and the -skin on the legs became black and like old -leather boots, and many sick rotted in their -groin; and all having the last named -symptom died. Another sign of death -was when the nose bled.”</p> - -<p>The relation of Joinville leaves no -doubt as to the nature of the epidemic that -attacked the Crusaders. Here we have a -pen picture of the debility, the hemorrhages, -the livid ecchymosis of the skin, -the fungous tumefaction and bleeding of -the gums, which characterize the disease -known as scurvy.</p> - -<p>According to the writings of some German -physicians of the fifteenth century, -this malady was endemic in the septentrional -portions of Europe upon the shores -of the Baltic Sea. In Holland numerous -epidemics of scurvy were observed among -the lower classes of the population, coinciding -with bad conditions of public -hygiene. Food consisting of salt and -smoked meats, dwellings located on marshy -ground, cold atmospheres charged with -fogs, etc., etc.</p> - -<p>This was the same affection that attacked -our colonies in Canada, but at that -time we had no knowledge of the therapeutic -indications in such emergencies, and -quote as a proof of this a remarkable -observation inscribed on the registers of Cartier -on his vessels during his sojourn in -Canada: “The disease commenced in our -midst in a curious and unknown manner; -some patients lost their flesh and their -limbs grew black and swollen like charcoal, -and some were covered over with -bloody splotches like purpura; after which -the disease showed itself on the hips, -thighs, arms, and neck, and in all the -mouth was infected and rotten at the -gums, so that all the flesh fell off to the -roots of the teeth, which also most often -dropped out; and so terrible was this -plague that on my three ships by February -only ten healthy men were about out of a -crew of over a hundred.</p> - -<p>“And, as the disease was unknown to -us, the Captain of the ships was asked to -open a few bodies to see if we could possibly -detect the lesion and thus be able to -protect the survivors. We found the hearts -of the dead to be white and withered, surrounded -by a rose colored effusion; the -liver healthy, but the lung black and mortified -and all its blood retired to the sac of -the heart. The spleen likewise was impaired -for about two finger-lengths as -though rubbed by a rough stone.”</p> - -<p>From this autopsy rudely made<a id="FNanchor_26" href="#Footnote_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> it is -true we discern most of the signs of -scrofula; a profound alteration of the -blood and an effusion of the liquids into -certain viscera, denoting a diminution in -the amount of fibrin and the number of -globules, alterations that also serve to explain -the tendency to hemorrhages observed -in very serious cases of scurvy.</p> - - -<h3>LEPROSY.</h3> - -<p>Leprosy is a disease originating in the -Orient; Egypt and Judea were formerly -the principal infected centers. It was the -return of an expedition to Palestine, under -Pompey, that imported the malady to Italy. -In the first years of the Christian Era it is -mentioned by Celsus, who advised that it -should be treated by sweating, aided by -vapor baths. Some years later Areteus -used hellebore, sulphur baths, and the -flesh of vipers taken as food, a treatment -adopted by others, as, for instance, Musa -and Archigenes.</p> - -<p>In the second century the disease was<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_26"></a>26</span> -in Gaul; Soranus treated the lepers of -Aquitaine, who were numerous.<a id="FNanchor_27" href="#Footnote_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a></p> - -<p>According to Velly, leprosy was common -in France in the middle of the eighth -century epoch, when Nicholas, Abbot of -Corbeil, constructed a leper hospital, which -was never much frequented until after the -Crusades of the eleventh and fourteenth -centuries. At this period the number of -lepers, or <i>ladres</i>, a name given to the unfortunates -in remembrance of their patron -saint, St. Lazarus, became so great that -every town and village was obliged to -build a leper house in order to isolate the -afflicted. Under Louis VIII. there were -2,000 of these hospitals; later the number -of such asylums reached 19,000.</p> - -<p>According to the historians of this -time, when a man was suspected to be a -leper he could have no social relations -without making full declaration as to what -the real nature of his complaint might be. -Without this precaution his acts were void, -from the capitulary of Pepin, which dissolved -all marriage contracts with lepers, -to the law of Charlemagne, that forbade -their associating with healthy persons. -The fear of contagion was such that in -places where no leprosy existed they built -small houses for any one who might be -attacked; these houses were called <i>bordes</i>.<a id="FNanchor_28" href="#Footnote_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> -A gray mantle, a hat and wallet, were also -supplied the victims, also a <i>tartarelle</i>, a -species of rattle, or a small bell, with -which they warned all passers near not to -approach. They also had a cup placed on -the far side of the road, in which all persons -might drop alms without going near -the leper.</p> - -<p>Leper houses were enriched, little by -little, by the liberality of kings and nobles -and the people, and to be a leper became -less inhuman and horrible than at the beginning.</p> - -<p>Lepers, however, were forced to submit -to severe police regulations. They -were forbidden under the severest penalties -from having sexual relations with healthy -persons, for such intimacy was considered -as the most dangerous method of conveying -the contagion. After entering a leper -house the victim was considered as dead -under the civil law, and in order to make -the patients better understand their position -the clergy accompanied them to their -asylum, the same as to their funeral, throwing -the cemetery dust on them while saying: -“Enter into no house save your asylum. -When you speak to an outsider -stand to the windward. When you ask -alms sound your rattle. You must not go -far from the asylum without your leper’s -robe. You must drink from no well or -spring save on your own grounds. You -must pass no plates nor cups without first -putting on your gloves. You must not go -barefooted, nor walk in narrow streets, nor -lean against walls, trees, or doors, nor -sleep on the edge of the road,” etc.</p> - -<p>When dead they were interred in -the lepers’ cemetery by their fellow-sufferers.</p> - -<p>Separated from society, these pariahs, -living together, sometimes reproduced -their own species, and finished their days -in the most frightful cachexia, awaking -only contempt, disgust, and repulsion -among the healthy of the outside world.</p> - -<p>It is true that each time that sanitary -measures were relaxed by the authorities—such, -for instance, as the perfect isolation -of the patients—an increase in the number -of lepers was noticeable. When this was -observed the old-time ordinances were enforced -again with vigor. It was thus in -1371 the Provost of Paris issued an edict -enjoining all lepers to leave the Capital -within fifteen days, under heavy corporal -and pecuniary penalties; and in 1388, all -lepers were forbidden to enter Paris without -special permission; in 1402 this restriction -was renewed, “under penalty of being -taken by the executioner and his deputies -and detained for a month on a diet of -bread and water, and afterwards perpetual -banishment from the kingdom.” Finally, -in April, 1488, it was announced “all persons -attacked by that abominable, very -dangerous and contagious malady known -as leprosy, must leave Paris before Easter -and retire to their hospitals from the date -of issuance of this edict, under penalty of -imprisonment for a month on bread and -water; and, where they had property, the -sequestration of their houses and jewels -and arbitrary corporal punishment; it was -permitted them, however, to send things to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_27"></a>27</span> -them by servants, the latter being in -health.”</p> - -<p>We can understand from this how these -poor wretches, at different epochs, were -accused of horrible crimes, among other -things poisoning rivers, wells, and fountains. -As regards this accusation, says the -author of the <i>Dictionnaire des Mœurs des -Francais</i>, Philip le Long burned a certain -number of these poor devils at the stake -and confiscated their wealth, giving it to -the Order of Malta and St. Lazare.</p> - -<p>The historians and chronicalers of the -eleventh and twelfth century often designated -the person attacked by leprosy by -the name of <i>mesel</i>, <i>mezel</i>, <i>meseau</i> or <i>mesiaus</i>. -Meantime Barbazin pretends that it is necessary -to make a distinction.<a id="FNanchor_29" href="#Footnote_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a></p> - -<p><i>Mesel</i>, according to Barbazin, was a -person covered with sores and ulcers, while -the leper was an insensible man. He -thinks that <i>mesellerie</i> was at its origin a different -affection than leprosy, and that these -two diseases have been wrongly confounded. -“They have both served,” says he, -“to designate a frightful disease, that is -reputed the most dangerous of all maladies.”</p> - -<p>As supporting this assertion of Barbazin, -we have found in the Romanesque tongue -some documents strongly confirming this -point. They appear more interesting, inasmuch -as they have heretofore been unknown -to medical literature, as, for instance:</p> - -<p>“Seneschal, I now demand of you, -said he (Saint Louis), which you love better, -whether you be <i>mesiaus</i>, or whether you -commit a mortal sin; and I, who never -have lied, responded that rather would I -commit thirty mortal sins than be <i>mesiaus</i>.” -(Joinville, <i>Histoire de Saint Louis</i>.)</p> - -<p>The leprosy, however, was not an absolute -cause for divorce, as we note in the -following passage: “A man can leave his -wife only for fornication, and not alone -for leprosy, and lepers may marry; and -one may cancel marriage if the husband -become leper, and the same may be said -of the bride.”</p> - -<p>In the same manuscript another -analogous fact shows the invalidation of the -marital act for the reason of <i>mesellerie</i> complicated -by impotence or barrenness.</p> - -<p>“A woman who through impotence has -lost that which is necessary to her, so that -he cannot cohabit with her, for the reason -that he is <i>mesiaus</i>, may marry another, telling -the latter, however, that the first she -married was worth nothing, not even an -infant, as he could not cohabit; that nothing -can prevent cohabitation in marriage -nor the begetting of children.”</p> - -<p>Individuals attacked by <i>mesellerie</i> were -in reality outside the pale of the law. For -we read in fact in the “<i>Coutume de Beauvoisis</i>, -cap. 39,” that “<i>mesiaus</i> must not be -called on as witnesses, for custom accords -them no place in the conversation of gentlemen.”</p> - -<p>“The second reason is that when a -<i>mesiaus</i> calls on a healthy man, or when a -healthy man calls on a <i>mesel</i>, the <i>mesiaus</i> -may put in the defense that he is beyond -the reach of worldly law, and cannot be -held responsible in such a case.”</p> - -<p>These unfortunates besides could not -inherit nor dispose of their own wealth -during their lives. The following passage -from the “ancient customs of Normandy” -bears witness, <i>i. e.</i>:</p> - -<p>“The <i>mesel</i> can be no man’s heir from -the time his disease is developed, but he -may have a life interest, as though he were -not a <i>mesel</i>.”</p> - -<p>The same as in many other diseases the -leprosy presented itself under different -forms and various degrees of gravity, as is -proved from the following passage from -<i>Le Pelerinage de l’humaine lignee</i>:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Homs, qui ne scet bien discerner</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Entre sante et maladie,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Entre le grant mesellerie</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Entre le moienne et le meure.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>This gravity of different forms of leprosy -has likewise been mentioned by the -Arabian school, and notably by Avicenna, -who had seen numerous cases complicated -with ulcerations of the genital organs; also, -by the Englishman, Gilbert, who wrote in -the thirteenth century regarding the existence -of several species of leprosy, which -could not always be easily distinguished by -reason of the uncertainty of their symptoms. -As to its character as a constitutional -malady we have the word of the -Syrian Jaliah ebn Serapion, who attributes -its connection to the predominance of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_28"></a>28</span> -certain humors; finally, Valescus of Tarentum -insists on the heredity of the disease.</p> - -<p>The leprosy, the pork measles and the -<i>mesellerie</i> were then only clinical forms of a -single affection of a contagious nature—a -hereditary disease whose symptoms appeared -successively on the skin, in the -mucous membranes, the viscera and in the -nervous system. It then required a diathesis, -which resembled greatly in its evolution -that of syphilis, with which it has -often been confounded.</p> - -<p>The physicians of leper hospitals have -left behind a great number of medical documents -bearing on the characteristics of -the disease, but their observations are so -confused that we can only conclude that -they considered all cutaneous maladies as -belonging to the same constitutional vice.</p> - -<p>They recognized, however, the <i>ladrerrie</i> -(disease arising from measly pork), by the -following symptoms, the same being laid -down by Guy de Chauliac:</p> - -<p>“Eyelids and eyebrows swollen, falling -of eye-lashes and eyebrows, which are replaced -by a finer quality of hair; ulceration -of septum of the nose, odor of ozoena, -granulated tongue, fœtid breath, painful -breathing, thickening and hardness of the -lips, with fissures and lividity of same; -gums tumefied and ulcerated; furfuraceous -scales in the hair, purple face, fixed expression, -hideous aspect; forehead smooth and -shiny like a horn; pustules on face; veins -on chest much developed; breasts hard.”</p> - -<p>“Thinness of muscles of the hand, -especially thumb and index finger; lividity -and cracking of the nails; coldness of the -extremities; presence of a serpiginous -eruption; insensibility of the legs, collections -of nodosities around the joints; under -the influence of cold elevations appeared -on the cutis, making it appear like goose-skin.”</p> - -<p>“Sensation of pricking, ulcerations of -skin; sleep uneasy, fetidity of sweat; -feeble pulse, bad odor of blood, which is -viscid and oily to the touch and gritty after -incineration, likewise of a violet black -color.”</p> - -<p>The contagious characteristic of leprosy -through sexual relation was noticed by -physicians attached to hospitals, and was -the subject of police restriction by public -sanitary officers. Thus in the thirteenth -century the celebrated Roger Bacon, surnamed -the admirable doctor, wrote that -commerce with a leprous woman could be -followed by very serious consequences. -This opinion was corroborated by a physician -of the University of Oxford, his contemporary -John of Gaddsen, and by the -observations of Bernard Gordon, a celebrated -practitioner of Montpellier. We -all know the history of a Countess who -came to be treated for leprosy at Montpellier, -when a Bachelor in Medicine -charged with the task of dressing her sores, -fell desperately in love with the leper lady, -and from his <i>amours</i> contracted most serious -cutaneous disease.</p> - -<p>At this period the leprosy had already -begun to assume a venereal type of marked -character, and many prostitutes suffered -from attacks. As we all are aware, Jean -Manardi, an Italian doctor, has fully expressed -his opinion on this subject. In a -letter addressed to a friend, Michel Santana, -one of the first specialists who treated -pox, Manardi remarks: “This disease -has attacked Valencia, in Spain, being -spread broadcast by a famous courtesan, -who, for the price of fifty crowns, accorded -her favors to a nobleman suffering from -leprosy. This woman having been tainted, -in her turn contaminated all the young -men who called on her, so that more than -four hundred were affected in a brief space -of time. Some of these, having followed -the fortunes of King Charles into Italy, -carried and spread this cruel malady in -their track.”</p> - -<p>Another Italian physician, Andre -Mathiole, likewise shows the identity of -leprosy with syphilis,—in the following -terms: “Some authors have written that -the French have taken this disease from -impure commerce with leprous women -while traversing the mountains of -Italy.”<a id="FNanchor_30" href="#Footnote_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a></p> - -<p>We could easily multiply such citations -to complete the facts observed by Fernel -and Ambroise Pare in France, and also by -many Italian physicians, from whence it -would be easy to understand why Manardi -came to the following conclusion: “Those -who have connection with a woman who -has had recent <i>amours</i> with a leper, a courtesan -in whose womb the seeds of disease -may linger, sometimes contract leprosy and -at other times suffer from other maladies of -a more or less serious nature, according to -their predispositions.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_29"></a>29</span></p> - -<p>This modification from <i>measles</i> (the disease -from corrupt pork diet) into leprosy -of the venereal type is made progressively -through the intermediary of the ordinary -agencies of prostitution,—bawds and libertines,—who -for a very long period eluded -the wise laws ordained by sanitary police -for the restriction of lepers. In 1543, the -affection was so wide-spread as to be -beyond sanitary control, and the edict of -Francois I., re establishing leper hospitals, -amounted to nothing. There were too -many poxed people. The Hospital of -Lourcine, which was specially devoted to -these cases at Paris contained 600 patients -in 1540, and in the wards of Trinity -Hospital and the Hotel Dieu there were many -more. It was the same in the Provinces, -notably at Tolouse, which had the merit of -creating the first venereal hospital ever instituted, -under the Gascon name of “<i>Houspital -das rognousez de la rougno de Naples</i>.” -Finally, fifty years later, in 1606, for want -of lepers, the leper asylums were officially -closed. Henry IV., in a proclamation, -gave those remaining “to poor gentlemen -and crippled soldiers.”</p> - -<p>Thus ended the epidemic of leprosy in -France, which had prevailed from the -second century, observing the same progress -in other countries of Western Europe -during the same period of time. Syphilis, -the product of the venereal maladies of -antiquity and the leprosy of the Middle -Ages, announced a new era; syphilis -was thus contemporaneous with the <i>Renaissance</i>.</p> - -<p>In the collection of Guy Patin’s letters, -there is an interesting document relating to -the connection of leprosy and syphilis, as -witness the principal passage:</p> - -<p>“It was not long since that I saw in -Auvergne a patient who was suspected of -measles (<i>hog disease</i>), for the reason that his -family had the reputation of being thus -afflicted, though he bore on his body no -marks of the disease. This led me to -recall the fact that some families in Paris -have been suspected of this taint; but -really we have no measles or leprosy here. -In former times there was a hospital dedicated -to such cases in the Faubourg Saint -Denis. I have noticed no cases in Champagne, -Normandy nor Picardy, although -in all these Provinces I found asylums -formerly used for such cases that are now -turned into hospitals for plague victims. In -former times leprosy was confounded with -pox, through the ignorance of doctors and -the barbarity of the age; nevertheless, -there are yet a few lepers in Provence, -Languedoc and Poitou.”</p> - -<p>We have here the authority of Guy -Patin for saying that leprosy had almost -entirely disappeared from France in the -sixteenth century.</p> - -<p>Although modern Faculties are prone -to insist that the real science of medicine -only dates back its origin to the discovery -of the microscope, and that the study of -antique medicine is only a retrospective -exposition calculated to show the slight -scientific value of ancient observations, I -assert that the many observations recorded -by our medical ancestors are of immense -value. Let us cite, as a single instance, -this transformation of a constitutional malady, -attenuated by time, transmitted by -heredity through the same masses of people -for ten centuries,—populations having a -similar diathesis,—a disease taking a new -vigor and attacking other generations, but -destined in a given time to disappear, most -probably, in its turn, in another unknown -metamorphosis. Such an idea may cause -a smile in that haughty <i>section hors rang</i> in -medicine, which is so devoted to the culture -of specific germs that but one idea can -certainly be adopted as an irrefutable -dogma in medicine—that is, if the facts it -represents coincide with the modifications -of the wag—in the tail end of a bacillus.</p> - -<p>As for myself, I remain convinced that -everything seen in modern times, through -the objective even of an instrument of precision, -cannot destroy the accumulated -work of twenty centuries of medical observation -and study.</p> - -<p><i>Scientiæ enim per additamenta fiunt.</i></p> - - -<h3>THE SYPHILIS.</h3> - -<p>If the true syphilis—the variety that -appeared in the fifteenth century—was unknown -in the Middle Ages, there still exist -documents which fully affirm the existence -of contagious venereal diseases several -hundreds of years before the Italian wars -of Charles VIII. and Louis XII. The -maladies which, in times of antiquity, -afflicted the Hebrews and Romans, as a -result of impure sexual commerce, are to-day -only the results of the progress made -by prostitution after the Crusades; that is -to say, they are merely the products of debauchery -and leprous virus imported from -the Orient.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_30"></a>30</span></p> - -<p>As early as the twelfth century France -knew the <i>mal malin</i> or <i>mal boubil</i>, an affection -characterized by sores and ulcerations -on the arms and genital organs. Gauthier -de Coinci, Prior of the Abbey of St. -Medard de Soissons, at the beginning of -the thirteenth century considered these -maladies as impure and contagious, and -warned his priests in the following verselets:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“The monk, the church clerk and the priest</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Must not defile themselves the least,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But with good conscience and pure heart</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Keep their hands off from private part.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Pray God at morning and at night</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To hide corruption from their sight;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The <i>mal boubil</i> the <i>mal malan</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0">Comes ever to each sinning man.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>We are permitted to suppose from these -lines that the disease was localized in “a -wicked place that the hands must not -touch,” and that it was only an affection of -the same nature as the <i>gorre</i> and <i>grand -gorre</i>, one of the numerous expressions applied -to all contagious maladies of the -sexual organs. This fact cannot be contested, -for at the same epoch, in a poem -entitled “<i>Des XXIII Manieres de Vilains</i>,” -we find an imprecation launched by this -anonymous author against all blackguards -and bawds:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“That they may be</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Itchy, poxed, and apostumed,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Covered with ulcers, badly rheumed,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Full of fever, jaundice sapped,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That they may be, also, clapped.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Or, as given in French:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Qu ils aient ...</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Rogne, variole et apostume,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Et si aient plente de grume,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Plente de fievre et de jaunisse,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Et si aient la chade-pisse”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Now, the opuscle, from which these -verses are derived, was reprinted in 1833 -by Francisque Michel, and is contemporaneous -with the manuscripts of the thirteenth -century, analyzed by M. Littre in -<i>a note on syphilis</i>,<a id="FNanchor_31" href="#Footnote_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> where our erudite -author says: “At this epoch the venereal -diseases had an analogous form to those we -observe to-day.”</p> - -<p><i>This document dates back 200 years before -the discovery of America</i>, and is duly authenticated -by the testimony of Guillaume -Saliceti, a physician and Italian priest of -the thirteenth century. “When a man -has received a corruption of the penis, -after having cohabited with an obscene -woman or for other cause, there comes a -tumor in the groin.”<a id="FNanchor_32" href="#Footnote_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> And some years -after Lanfranc, a student of Salicetis, -wrote, in his turn, in his <i>Parva Cyrurgia</i>, -that “buboes appear following ulcers on -the penis.” His description of chancres -and other venereal accidents is very remarkable.</p> - -<p>Another writer of the thirteenth century, -Michel Scott, a Scotch physician, -alchemist, and philosopher, who lived in -France and Germany for many years, says -in one of his numerous works:<a id="FNanchor_33" href="#Footnote_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> “Women -become livid and have discharges. If a -woman is in such a condition and a man -cohabit with her his penis is easily diseased, -as we often see in adolescents who, -ignorant of this fact, often contract a sore -organ or are attacked by leprosy. It is -also well to know that if a discharge exist -at the epoch of conception, the fetus is -more or less diseased, and in this case a -man must abstain from all connection, and -the woman should resist sexual advances, if -she have foresight.”</p> - -<p>This passage leaves no possible doubt -as to the existence of blenorrhagia with -the discharge and as to the presence of an -hereditary syphilitic diathesis, for if the -author gives the last-mentioned the name -of leprosy it is only for the reason that at -this period no positive term was in use to -designate venereal diseases,<a id="FNanchor_34" href="#Footnote_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> which were -confounded with leprosy, with or without -reason, the former only being, perhaps, a -transformation of the latter.</p> - -<p>About a century later, that is to say, on -August 8th, 1347, Queen Jeanne of -Naples, Countess of Provence, sent to -Avignon the statutes relating to the establishment -of houses of prostitution in that -city. Article IV. of this law regulated -police measures in the following terms:<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_31"></a>31</span> -“The Queen ordains that every Saturday -the bailiff and a barber deputed by the -Councilmen shall visit every debauched -girl in the place, and if they find any one -who has the disease arising from venery, -that such a one may be separated from the -other girls and lodged apart, to the end -that no one may have commerce with her, -and that the young may thus avoid contracting -disease.”<a id="FNanchor_35" href="#Footnote_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a></p> - -<p>These statutes were first made known -by Astruc,<a id="FNanchor_36" href="#Footnote_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> and have been inserted without -reserve by Grisolle in his <i>Traite de -Pathologie Interne</i>; also by Cazenave in his -<i>Traite des Syphilides</i>; but Jules Courtet, and -after him Rabutaux and Anglada, have -considered these documents as somewhat -apocryphal.</p> - -<p>We shall not stop to discuss the authenticity -of these documents; they have characteristics -that make their genuineness -almost indisputable. Besides, we can -quote other authors against whom no arguments -can be used; for instance, we will -cite John of Gaddesen, a physician of the -English Court, who affirmed that sexual -connection with a leprous woman produced -ulcers of the penis;<a id="FNanchor_37" href="#Footnote_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> besides, his -compatriot Gilbert, who described in his -<i>Compendium Medicinal</i>, in the year 1300, -the treatment of gonorrhœa and chancre -so common after the Crusades; or Gui du -Chauliac, who in 1360 noticed “the ulcers -born of commerce with a tainted woman, -impure and chancrous (<i>ex coitu cum fœtida -vel immunda vel cancrosa muliere</i>).”<a id="FNanchor_38" href="#Footnote_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> Again, -note Torella, of Italy, who considered pox -as a contagious malady which had existed -from times of antiquity, and which had -made its appearance at different epochs, -but of which the symptoms, poorly understood -by medical men, prevented isolation -and its proper pathological identity.<a id="FNanchor_39" href="#Footnote_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a></p> - -<p>We need not reproduce the text of all -the French and especially the Italian doctors, -who established the identity of venereal -diseases <i>before the year</i> 1494—such -writers as Montagnana, Petrus Pintor, -Nicolas Leonicenus, Joseph Grunpeck, etc. -As to these works, they have all been -mentioned by Fracastor, in his celebrated -<i>Treatise on Contagious Diseases</i> (<i>de morbis -contagiosis</i>), a work at once a fine poem, -whose Latinity is perfect and a monograph -of true scientific exactitude.</p> - -<p>Fracastor described the patient as well -as the disease: “The victims were sad -and broken with pale faces.”</p> - -<p>“They had chancres on their private -parts; these chancres were changeable; -when cured at one point they reappeared -at another; they always broke out -again.”</p> - -<p>“Pustules with crusts were raised on -the skin; in some these commence on the -scalp first; this was the usual case; in a -few they appeared elsewhere. At first -these were small, afterwards increasing in -size, appearing like unto the milk crust in -children. In some these pustules were -small and dry—in others large and humid. -Sometimes they were scarlet, sometimes -white, sometimes hard and pink. These -pustules opened at the end of some days, -pouring out an incredible quantity of -stinking and nasty liquid, once opened they -became true phagedenic ulcers, which not -only consumed the flesh but even the -bone.”</p> - -<p>“Those whose upper regions were attacked -had malignant fluxions, that eat -away the palate, the trachea, the throat and -the tonsils. Some patients lost their lips, -others their noses, others their eyes, others -their private parts.”</p> - -<p>“Large gummy tumors appeared in -many and disfigured the limbs. These -growths were often the size of an egg or a -French roll of bread. When opened these -tumors discharged a whitish mucilaginous -liquid. They were principally noted on -the arms and legs; while ulcerating sometimes -they grew callous, at other times remaining -as tumors until death.”</p> - -<p>“As if this were not sufficient, terrible -pains oftimes attacked the limbs; these -generally came when the pustules appeared. -These pains were long abiding and -well nigh insupportable, aching most at -night, not only affecting the articulation, -hut also the bones and nerves of the limbs. -Sometimes the patient had pustules without<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_32"></a>32</span> -pains, at other times pains without pustules; -but the great majority had pustules -and pains.”</p> - -<p>“The patients were plunged into a -condition of languor. They became thin, -weak, without appetite, sleeping not, -always sad and in a sullen humor, the -face and the limbs swollen, with a slight -fever at times. Some suffered with pains -in the head, pains of long duration, which -did not recede before any remedies.”</p> - -<p>“Although the greater majority of mortals -have taken this disease by contagion, -it is no less certain that a great number of -others contracted it from infection. It is -impossible to believe, in fact, that in such -a short time the contagion that marches so -slowly by itself and which is communicated -with such difficulty, should overrun such a -number of countries, after having been (as -it is claimed), imported by a single fleet of -Spanish ships. For it is well known that -its existence was determined in Spain, -France, Italy and Germany and all through -Scythia at the same period of time. Without -doubt the malady originated spontaneously, -like the petechial fever, or it had -always existed.”</p> - -<p>“A barber, my friend, has a very old -manuscript, containing directions for the -treatment of the affection. This has for -its title: ‘<i>Medicine for the thick scabs, with -pains in the joints.</i>’ The barber remembered -the remedy laid down in this work, -and at the very commencement of the new -malady thought he recognized the contagion -by the name of the <i>thick</i> scabs. But -physicians having examined this remedy -found it too violent, inasmuch as it was -composed of quicksilver and sulphur. He -would have been happier had he not consulted -the doctors; he would have grown -wealthy by incalculable gains.”</p> - -<p>We see from this that the syphilis of -the fifteenth century did not present precisely -the same symptoms as the variety of -to day. Formerly secondary and tertiary -accidents supervened much more rapidly, -besides being very violent in their manifestations. -Besides the disease was exceedingly -malignant often causing, death in a -short time, which fact led many authors of -that epoch to consider the symptoms due -to a pestilence brought about by general -causes.<a id="FNanchor_40" href="#Footnote_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> Nicholas Massa wrote in fact, -that: “The patient has pains in the head, -arms, and especially the legs, which are -always intensified at night. The buboes -in the two groins are salutary when they -suppurate. We observe a chafed and -scaly condition of the palms of the hands -and soles of the feet. Ulcers of a bad appearance -are frequently noted on the -penis; these ulcers are hard and callous -and very slow in healing. In exploring -the throat we often discover a relaxed condition -of the uvula and the presence of sordid -ulcers, which rarely suppurate. With all -this eruptive process we note certain hard -tumors that adhere to the skin and bone -and bear the name of <i>gummata</i>. These -tumors may ulcerate and produce osseous -caries.”<a id="FNanchor_41" href="#Footnote_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a></p> - -<p>We notice the same errors in all the -descriptions given by the authors of the -sixteenth century; they exhibit an imperfect -knowledge of the symptomatology, of -the genesis and primitive constitutional -accidents. We see that as yet clinical -medicine had no existence, and that our -predecessors were ignorant of the art of co-ordinating -the signs of a disease in a -thoughtful manner. Nevertheless, their -descriptive powers in writing on venereal -diseases, as before noted, were excellent, -and had the merit of exactitude and honest -observation; as, Pierre Manardi observes: -“The principal sign of the French disease -consists in pustules coming out on the end -of the penis in men and at the entrance of -vulva or neck of womb among women. -Most frequently these pustules ulcerate; I<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_33"></a>33</span> -say frequently for the reason that I have -seen patients in whom these ulcers were -hard as warts, cloves or apple seeds.”</p> - -<p>Here we have the aspect of primary -syphilis presented by a physician whose -name will, with justice, remain attached to -the disease as long as it has a history. The -secondary symptoms of the malady have -never been more dramatically pictured -than by Fernel, who remarks: “They had -horrible ulcers on them, which might be -mistaken for glands, judging from size and -color, from which issued a foul discharge -of a villainous infecting kind, enough to -give a heart-ache; they had long faces of -a greenish-black complexion, so covered -with sores that nothing more hideous could -be imagined.”<a id="FNanchor_42" href="#Footnote_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a></p> - -<p>Relative to the duration of secondary -symptoms, under date of 1495, Marcello -de Cumes wrote from the camp of Novarro -that “the pustules on the face, like those -of leprosy and variola, lasted a year or -more when the patient was not treated.”<a id="FNanchor_43" href="#Footnote_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a></p> - -<p>The physiognomy of the unfortunates -whose faces were adorned with lumps and -whose foreheads bore the sadly characteristic -<i>corona veneris</i>, has been well described -in the following verses by Jean Lemaire, -of Belgium, a poet and historical writer of -fifteenth century. The portrait is exact:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“But in the end, when the venom is ripe,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Sprout out big warts of a scarlet type,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Persistent, spreading over the face,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Leaving the brand of shame and disgrace,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">An injury left after passion’s rude storm,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Fair human nature thus to deform.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">High forehead, neck, round chin and nose</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Many a warty sore disclose;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And the venom, with deadly pain,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Runs through the system in every vein,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Causing innumerable ailments, no doubt,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From itch to the ever-tormenting gout,” etc.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Meantime, the symptoms of syphilis -were not long in losing some of their acute -features. Already, in 1540, Antoine Lecocq -noted this fact in France:<a id="FNanchor_44" href="#Footnote_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> “Sometimes,” -says he, “the virus seems to expend -its strength on the groins in tumefaction -of the glands; and, if this bubo -suppurates, it is well. This tumor we call -bubo; others call it <i>poulain</i> (colt or filly) -for mischief’s sake, as those who are thus -attacked separate their legs while walking, -horse style.” Fernel declared that the -venereal disease at the end of the sixteenth -century so little resembled that of his early -days that he could scarcely believe it the -same. He remarks: “This disease has -lost much of its ferocity and acuteness.”</p> - -<p>On his part, Fracastor remarked, in -1546, that “For six years past the malady -has changed considerably. We now notice -pustules on but few patients, and they -have but few pains, and these are generally -slight; but more gummy tumors are observed. -A thing that astonishes the world -is the falling out of the hair of the head -and baldness in other portions of the body. -It sometimes happens that in the worst -cases the teeth become loose and even fall -out.”<a id="FNanchor_45" href="#Footnote_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a></p> - -<p>These phenomena were evidently due -to the action of mercurial ointment, which -was much used in Italy from the time it -was recommended by Hugo, of Boulogne, -in the <i>malum mortuum</i>, or malignant leprosy -of the Occident. In France guaiac was -much used, or holy wood, which was then -known as <i>sanctum lignum</i>, when only the -Latin equivalent was in vogue. Besides, -mention is made of mercurial stomatitis -following inunctions with the so-called -Neapolitain ointment in the Prologue of -<i>Pantagruel</i>, by Rabelais.</p> - -<p>This passage from Dr. Francis Rabelais<a id="FNanchor_46" href="#Footnote_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> -leads us to think that physicians -were undecided about caring for syphilitic -patients in the fifteenth century, almost all -doctors, in fact, refusing to examine into -the character of a disease of which they -knew nothing; a disease whose infecting -centers were the most degraded and ignoble -public places; a malady not described -in the works of Hippocrates nor Galen.</p> - -<p>So, this <i>lues venerea</i>, as it is called by -Fernel, made numerous victims in all -countries. It spread in the towns and -throughout the rural districts, and, at -times, caused such ravages that, in the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_34"></a>34</span> -large cities, the authorities were obliged to -use sanitary measures against the pox, as -had been done at other times in the case -of leprosy. Syphilitics were expelled from -places and forbidden, under severe penalties, -from having intercourse with healthy -people. But it soon came to be known -that contagion could only occur through -sexual connection, and the patients then -hid in hospitals, where they were specially -treated by the methods laid down by the -first syphilographers,—vapor baths, mercurial -inunctions, frictions, etc. Unfortunately, -no prophylactic measures were -instituted against prostitutes, although they -were recognized as having a monopoly in -venereal disorders; for they did not believe -at that time, like Jean de Lorme, who said: -“The pox may be caught by touching an -infected person; by breathing the same air; -by stepping, barefooted, in the patient’s -sputa, and in many other manners.”</p> - -<p>Even the poets wrote sonnets, poems -and ballads upon this <i>mal d’amour</i> (lovesickness). -One could form an immense -volume by collecting all the verses written -and published on this subject during the -sixteenth century. But no poem indited -during that period presents so great an -interest to medical science as the ballad of -Jean Droyn, of Amiens, dedicated to the -Prince, in which the author, stronger in -the etiology of syphilis than the doctors of -his time, advised young men who feared -<i>grosse verole</i> (the pox) not to indulge in -<i>liasons</i> with girls of the town without first -being satisfied with their pathological innocence.</p> - -<p>This ballad was published at Lyons in -1512, that is to say, seventeen years after -the appearance of the disease in the army -of Charles VIII., at an epoch when the -majority of doctors considered the affection -as an infectious malady due to the -action of a pestilential miasm in the air. -We shall reproduce but a few lines of this -poetical-medical-historical document:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Perfumed darlings, dandies, dudes,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Take warning in each case,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Beware all types of fleshy nudes</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And don’t fall in disgrace.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Sure, gentlemen and tradesmen gay</div> - <div class="verse indent2">May throw away their money,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Give banquets and at gaming play,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">As flies are drawn by honey.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">I warn you all of love’s sweet charms,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Place on them protocole,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For haunting oft strange women’s arms</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Brings sometimes <i>grosse verole</i>.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Let love, with moderation wise,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Attend each amorous feast.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Let all be clean unto your eyes,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Fly all lewd girls at least.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Happier and nobler ’tis to gain</div> - <div class="verse indent2">For virtue high renown</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Than wound your honor with a stain,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">With women of the town.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Keep out of danger from disease,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Good health will you console,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But if you strive the flesh to please</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Beware of <i>grosse verole</i>.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>In the final stanzas of this poem, which -will not bear a more complete reproduction -owing to a maudlin sentimentality existing -in modern times, we find that the Prophet -Job is not regarded as strictly virtuous, for -we read:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Prince, sachez que Job fut vertueux,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Mais si futil rongneux et grateleux,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Nous lui prions qu’il nous garde et console,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Pour corriger mondains luxurieux,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">S’est engendree ceste grosse verole.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Notwithstanding the undoubted proof -of the antiquity of venereal diseases, Astruc, -as we all know, defends the American -origin of the malady, and endeavors to -support his views on the hypothesis emitted -by Ulrich de Hutten in 1519, <i>i.e.</i>, at -the siege of Naples, at the end of 1494, a -Spanish army commanded by Gonsalva of -Cordova came to the rescue of the besieged. -Their soldiers communicated to -the girls of the town and the courtesans of -the neighborhood the <i>maladie Americaine</i> -(American disease), which was contracted -in turn, after the capture of Naples, by the -army of King Charles, and afterwards -spread throughout France. But history informs -us that the King of France did not -return to Paris with his troops from the -Italian campaign until the month of -March, 1496. Now it was on the 6th of -March, in this same year, that Parliament -issued a proclamation regulating the pox, -in which the first section reads: “To-day, -the 6th of March, whereas in the City of -Paris a disease of a certain contagious -character, known as <i>verole</i> (pox), prevails, -the which has made much progress in the -Realm the past two years, as well at Paris -as in other places, and there is reason to -fear, this being Springtime, that it may increase, -it is deemed expedient to take cognizance -of the same.”</p> - -<p>Other testimony is gathered from the -narrative of the voyages of Christopher -Columbus by his contemporary Petrus<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_35"></a>35</span> -Martyr, of Anghierra, historian attached -to the court of Ferdinand and Isabella. -According to the notes given him by the -great navigator on his return to Spain, -authentic records kept from day to day,<a id="FNanchor_47" href="#Footnote_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> -the Spanish and Italian sailors of Columbus -found “people who lived in the Age of -Gold; with no ditches, no fences, no -books, no laws. The men were entirely -naked, the women only protected by a -belly-band of light material; notwithstanding -all this, their morals were pure.” Besides, -Petrus Martyr (<i>La Syphilis au XV. -Siecle</i>) proves there was syphilis in Spain -in 1487.</p> - -<p>When Columbus returned to Europe -a second time he left behind him, under -orders of his brother, a hundred of his -companions in arms, who were a collection -of adventurers from all the nations of the -earth. These men committed all sorts of -excesses among the unfortunate Indians—steeping -themselves in lust and every manner -of crime, violating the women, and -indulging in wholesale debauchery. Says -Charles Renaut: “Looking at matters -from this standpoint, I am ready to believe -that the Spaniards carried the disease -to the natives of Hispanola, and that the -latter did not give the malady to the Spanish.”</p> - -<p>We shall not dwell further on the origin -of syphilis, nor its connection with -leprosy and other cutaneous maladies -which were so prevalent in Europe throughout -the Middle Ages. We may consider -the disease as something new, and trace its -period of invasion and development to the -discovery of America, or assert that it -arose from a semi extinct affection (leprosy), -assuming a new type under the -influence of a special epidemic constitution.</p> - -<p>One thing is clearly proven, <i>i.e.</i>, that -syphilis was preceded by contagious venereal -affections, which lost the irregular and -malignant forms of the fifteenth century. -When then the civilized nations of earth -create a true Public Health Service, syphilis -will be vanquished, and will pass away -to the ranks of other extinct maladies.</p> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_DEMONOMANIA_OF_THE_MIDDLE_AGES">THE DEMONOMANIA OF THE MIDDLE AGES.</h2> -</div> - - -<h3>ORIGIN OF MAGIC AND SORCERY</h3> - -<p>From the day that Louis XIV. dissolved -the Parliament of Rouen, which -had condemned several persons in the -Province of Vire to death for the crime of -sorcery, but few sorcerers have been seen -in France.</p> - -<p>It was in 1682 that Urbain Grandier -was tortured and burned alive for having -launched a malediction against the Ursulines -of Loudun.</p> - -<p>A violent reaction occurred against the -Inquisitors, theologians, and their accomplice -butchers, thanks to the courageous -intervention of eminent philosophers and -savants, who were justly indignant at the -crimes of the Roman Catholic priesthood. -This reaction clearly demonstrated the fact -that the innumerable victims of religious -intolerance in the Middle Ages were not -sorcerers, nor possessed of the devil, nor -minions of Hell. Psychologists and moralists -claimed that the victims of these delusions -were insane, persons suffering from -semi delusions, subjects of monomania. -Science classed these unfortunates into -several groups, among which may be -enumerated persons afflicted with hallucinations, -demonomaniacs, erotomaniacs, -subjects of lycanthropy, etc., without -counting vampires, choreomaniacs, lypemaniacs, -and others whose attacks are -recognized by medical science.</p> - -<p>The encyclopedists and their disciples -declared themselves satisfied, inasmuch as -psychological experts had done away with -the absurd traditions of the Middle Ages -as well as antique superstitions. The -death penalty for demonidolatry was removed, -but the doors of the insane asylum -opened for its followers.</p> - -<p>Could any better arrangement have -been made at the present day? Let us -take the history of this famous epidemic of -demonidolatry of other days and examine -the documentary evidence offered against -those accused of the crime of sorcery, passing -the testimony through the crucible of -modern science, pathology, physiology,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_36"></a>36</span> -together with all observable symptoms, holding -in view meanwhile modern neurological -discoveries; let us strive, in a word, to -solve this great psychological question, -which has greatly agitated the human -understanding for four hundred years -past.</p> - -<p>We believe <i>what is, is the truth</i>, and in -order to best judge the facts narrated, it is -well to first arrange our knowledge as to -the psychological condition of Occidental -populations during the Middle Ages, a condition -that was only the continuation of the -ideas and traditions of antiquity, modified -by the fanatical prejudices of a new religion -and by a cruel and barbarous social -Constitution.</p> - -<p>If history authorizes us, in fact, to conclude -that the occult sciences have existed -from the earliest periods of antiquity, that -the people who brought learning from the -Orient to the Occident, have at all times -admitted the existence of genii, angels, and -demons, it is easy to explain the action -that such mysterious traditions would have -on the ignorant minds of the peasantry of -the Middle Ages, bowed under the yoke of -slavery to feudal Lords and the clerical despotism -of the Romish Church.</p> - -<p>Let us interrogate these historical texts -with impartiality, and analyze these ancient -theogonies, which are, so to speak, -the <i>proces verbaux</i> of the philosophic development -of the human mind, and we shall -see whether we can admit that mental diseases -may prevail <i>epidemically</i> for several -generations, like the pestilential maladies -of the fourth century, for example.</p> - -<p>We know that it was in India, the -cradle of human genius, that the doctrine -of supernaturalism, of good and bad -spirits exerting an occult influence on mankind, -was born. Ancient history shows -such a belief goes back to antique times. -Zoroaster, inspired by <i>Ahura Mazda</i>, the -Omniscient, wrote, in the Zend Avesta, the -text and commentaries of the religious law -dedicated to the Aryas of India and Persia. -This law had for its object the destruction -of the cult of <i>dews</i> or demons, -who infested the earth under human forms, -and also to repress the naturalistic instinct -of the most ancient people of <i>Asia</i>, by -initiating them in a faith for Celestial -genii.</p> - -<p>The disciples of Zoroaster were the -<i>Magi</i>; that is to say, the learned men of -the day, but they modified the doctrine of -the Prophet, which the Guebres alone preserved -in its purity, with the fundamental -doctrine of the dualism of light and darkness, -represented by <i>Ormazd</i> and <i>Ahriman</i>, -the spirit of the blest and the spirit of the -damned.</p> - -<p>The Chaldeans, celebrated from times -of antiquity for their knowledge, not only -of astronomy, but all other sciences, adopted -the doctrines of the Zend-Avesta, and -their Magi transmitted the same to the -Egyptians, Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans, -and finally to the Gauls, whose -adepts were the Druids.</p> - -<p>The science or Magic of the Chaldeans -was only magnetism, somnambulism, and -spiritism.</p> - -<p>Says M. F. Fabart: “The Magi, according -to certain <i>bas reliefs</i> exhumed in -Oriental countries, knew the virtue of magnetic -passes. We see figures with hands -extended, influencing by their gestures the -subjects, who, seated before them, have -closed eyes.</p> - -<p>“The Pythonesses and Sybills did not -have the power of foresight until they had -passed through the crisis of an artificial -somnambulism, and we find passages in -antique authorities where this imposed -sleep is discussed.<a id="FNanchor_48" href="#Footnote_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a></p> - -<p>In one of my preceding works I have -spoken of several very curious passages in -the <i>Pharsalia</i> of Lucan, where he speaks -of the oracles of the female magician -Erichto and the responses of the Pythonesses -in the Temple of Delphi to the inquiries -of Appius. Cassandra, priestess to -Apollo in the tragedy of Agamemnon, by -Seneca the tragedian, is a perfect type of -the hypnotizable hysteric, and, if the poet -does not describe the methods followed by -the priests of the temple in order to magnetize -their subjects, we find them noted -by other Latin authors in terms so explicit -as to leave no doubt as to their knowledge -of magnetic passes (hypnotism).</p> - -<p>Says Cœlius Aurelianus: “We make -circular movements with the hands before -the eyes of the patient. Under our -gaze the subject follows the movements of -our hands, the eyes blinking.” It is while -giving the treatment for catalepsy that the -Roman physician, the contemporary of -Galen, initiates us in magnetic practice. -After giving a description of the neurosis,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_37"></a>37</span> -which he characterizes by prostration, immobility, -rigidity of neck, loss of voice, -stupor of the senses, widely opened eyelids, -fixity of the eyes and ocular expression, -the Latin author teaches us how to -relieve the disease and partially waken the -movement, senses, and intelligence of the -patient; and he magnetizes, as is clearly -indicated in the following lines: “<i>Atque -ita, si ante oculos eorum quisquam digitos -circum moveat, palpebrant ægrotantes, et suo obtutu -manuum trajectionem sequuntur; vel si -quicquam profecerint etiam toto obtutu converso -attendunt; et inclamati, respicientes lacrymantur -nihil dicentes, sed volentium respondere -vultum æmulantes</i>.”<a id="FNanchor_49" href="#Footnote_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a></p> - -<p>The precepts of Zoroaster were differently -modified among ancient people. -Moses, who wished the glory of being the -great prophet of Israel, wrote the law of -Jehovah and abjured the Magi, by whom -he had been initiated. The Hebrews -meantime preserved the Mazadean religion -in memory; they created magic. Ahriman -became Astaroth, Beelzebub, Asmodeus -and other demons, who had for interpreters -the Pythonesses and Prophetesses (<i>mediums</i>). -Ormazd was transferred into a -legion of angels and archangels, who -appeared to men to make prophecies. -Presently the Jewish magicians invented -the <i>Kabbala</i>, occult science, by which, in -pronouncing certain words, they performed -miracles and submitted supernatural -powers to the caprices of the -human will; they were above all necromancers.</p> - -<p>The occult sciences of the ancients, necromancy -and magic, had, as will be observed, -more or less connection with the -phenomena of magnetism of the present -day. Meantime necromancy resembled -modern spiritualism, toward which the researches -of present day magnetizers tend. -The necromancers invoked the souls of -the dead to know the future and the secrets -of the present. The Jews pursued this -study with much ardor, notwithstanding -the prohibition of Moses, who wished them -not <i>to speak to wood</i>. We know that the -Pythoness (<i>witch</i>) of Endor evoked the -spirit of Samuel before Saul on the eve of -battle and predicted the King’s death. The -grotto where this celebrated medium lived -still exists, and she receives, it is said, the -travelers who visit her from far and wide -near Mount Tabor.</p> - -<p>Magic was also known by the High -Priests in Pharaoh’s court. Like the Magi -of Medea and Chaldea they invoked the -spirits and supernatural powers by methods -and ceremonies consisting principally of -gestures and songs.</p> - -<p>Hermes Trismegistus, whom the Alchemists -regard as their master, spread the -science of occult magic. Following him -we see the mystical doctrines of the Orient -flourish at Alexandria with the founders of -neoplatonism. These taught that the -<i>Goetie</i> was the supernatural art which is -practiced by the aid of wicked spirits, that -the <i>Magie</i> produced mysterious manifestations -with the assistance of material demons -and superior spirits; that the <i>Pharmacists</i> -controlled spirits by means of philters -and elixirs.</p> - -<p>In Greece and in Italy the celestial -genii were believed in, and they multiplied -to infinity, peopling the Olympus of Polytheism. -Priests profited by the superstitious -idea of the people who invoked the -aid of the witches and sibyls who derived -their wisdom from the Magi of the Orient. -Following the example, the historians, -philosophers and poets were apparently led -to the belief in all the Genii, in the power -of spirits and their intimate relations with -men through the medium of seers, in a -condition of frenzy or somnambulism -(trance).</p> - -<p>We know that the poet Hesiodus in his -theogony, that Plato, from the time of his -initiation with the Hermetic doctrines, that -Aristotle in his philosophical works, all admit -the existence of immaterial beings interesting -themselves in the affairs of -humanity. The Pythagorians, on their -side, affirmed their power of controlling -demons by keeping themselves in constant -meditation, abstinence and chastity.<a id="FNanchor_50" href="#Footnote_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_38"></a>38</span></p> - -<p>During all times of antiquity, there were -corporations of priests, philosophers, theosophists, -thaumaturgists and other sects, -who exercised the trade of invoking spirits -by conjuring them with charms, by enchantments -and witchcraft, and changing -by their aid the laws of nature, to command -the elements and accomplish other extraordinary -feats. In order to do these prodigies -they had recourse to cabalistic formulæ, -indicated in conjuring books, or by -incantations, magical circles, or simply by -magnetic power.</p> - -<p>Simon of Samaria, Circe, Medea, -Plotinus, Porphyrius, Jamblichus, and the -famous Canidie, so justly cursed by Horace, -belonged to this clan of magicians, -gnostics, enchanters and mediums, who -acquainted the people with the occult arts -of the magi of Chaldea. It is only necessary -to study history to be convinced of -this fact.</p> - -<p>Damis, the historian and pupil of Apollonius -of Tyana, has left us the biography -of his master, the most remarkable thaumaturgist -of antiquity. It is in this work -that he shows that while Apollonius was -lecturing on philosophy at Ephesus, he -stopped in the midst of his speech and -cried out to the murderer who, at the same -moment, assassinated Domitian at Rome, -“Courage, Stephanus; kill the tyrant!” -Apollonius had sojourned long in India, -and all his disciples have attested the marvelous -things he could do. He cured incurable -diseases and made other miracles -that astonished his contemporaries who -were partisans, like himself, of the doctrines -of Pythagoras.</p> - -<p>Porphyrius published the fifty-four -treatises of his master Plotinus, the illustrious -neoplatonist, a work in which we find all -the ideas of contemporaneous experimental -psychology and a mystical philosophy supported -on extasy, contemplation and hypnotism—ideas -which were again enunciated -one day by the enchanter Merlin, Albertus -Magnus, Pic de la Mirandolle, Lulle, -Cornelius Agrippa, Count Saint Germain, -Joseph Balsamo, Robert Fludd, Richard -Price and the <i>freres</i> of <i>Rose Croix</i>.</p> - -<p>But, before these, there were others -who believed they preserved the mysterious -secrets of nature, the Illuminati, the seers -and others not our immediate ancestors; -the Druids in the dark forests of Gaul, -along with the Druidesses. Both classes -belonged to the Sacerdotal order, and only -received the vestures of their sacred ministry -after twenty years consecrated to the -study of astrology, laws of nature, medicine -and the Kabbala. Their theodicy -taught the existence of one God alone and -the immateriality of the spirit, called after -death to be reincarnated an indetermined -number of times up to the point when perfection -was obtained; when a new, more -divine and happy distinction was achieved. -It admitted as a principal religious dogma -the ascendant metempsychosis, as in the -case of the first magi and the great Greek -philosophers; also a multitude of genii and -superior spirits intermediate between the -Divinity and mankind.</p> - -<p>The <i>Druids</i> were not only the priests, -but dictators of Gaul; they were assisted -in their functions by the <i>Eubages</i>, the -soothsayers and sacrifices of their religion, -by the <i>Bards</i>, the poets and heralds, and -the <i>Brenns</i>, who participated in supreme -power. Druidism was then an admixture -of warlike ideas of the first inhabitants of -Gaul, together with the doctrines imported -by the Magii from Chaldea. So the -Druids were the astronomers, physicians, -surgeons, priests and lawgivers. The -Druidesses, descendants of the Pythonesses -and Sibyls of the Orient, spoke in oracles -and predicted the future; their influence -was considerable and often surpassed that -of the Druid priests themselves, for they -knew just as well how to use the Kabbala -and magic; and besides, as virgins, consecrated -depositaries of the secrets of -God, they stood high in the eyes of the -people. It is for this reason that the -Druids and Druidesses were, under Roman -domination, the defenders of national independence; -but, forced to take refuge in -dense forests far removed from the people, -persecuted by the Romans, barbarians and -Christians, they progressively became -magicians, enchanters, prophets and charmers, -condemned by the Councils and banished -by civil authority.</p> - -<p>It is at this epoch that evil spirits were -noticed prowling around in the shadows of -night and indulging in acts of obscene depravity. -There were the <i>Gaurics</i>, beings -the height of giants; the <i>Suleves</i>, beardless<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_39"></a>39</span> -personages who were succubi, attacking -travelers; and the <i>Dusiens</i> were incubi, -demons who deflowered young girls during -their maiden slumbers.</p> - -<p>Saint Augustin accorded his belief to -all these fables, which were retailed throughout -the country, affirming that we have no -right to question the existence of these -demons or libertine spirits, which make -impure attacks on persons while asleep. -(<i>Hanc assidue immunditiam et tentare et -efficere</i>,—Saint Augustin, in his “City of -God.”)</p> - -<p>Decadence slowly ensued, so that in -the seventh century Druidism disappeared, -but the practice of magic, occult art, and -the mysterious science of spirits were -transmitted from generation to generation, -but lessened in losing the philosophic -character of ancient times. In a word, -magic became sorcery, and its adepts were -no longer recruited save in the infamous -and ignorant classes of society. The adoration -of nature and God, the immortality -of the soul, the grand ceremonies held at -the foot of gigantic oak trees, gave way to -hideous demons, gross superstitions, witchcraft, -and the most immoral abberations. -Occultism still subjugated the masses, but -the science had fallen into the hands of the -profane and of charlatans.</p> - - -<h3>THE THEOLOGIANS AND DEMONOLOGICAL -JUDGES.</h3> - -<p>Magic, or the science of magic, then -served as a basis, as we have said before, -for mythology and legends and was noticeable -in the dogmas of all religions, for, as -Saint Augustin observes, “In order to -penetrate the mystical senses of fictions -and allegories, and the parables contained -in sacred history, it is necessary to be -versed in the study of occult science, of -which numerals make part.”<a id="FNanchor_51" href="#Footnote_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a></p> - -<p>But from the Greek dæmon, or the -<i>Sapiens</i> of Plato, Christianity made a -demon, a fallen angel, who wished to people -his empire with the souls of the unbaptized; -he is borrowed from the Jews with -Beelzebub, Asmodeus, Satan, and their -numerous colleagues. After Jesus, who -was tempted by the Devil, and who delivered -those possessed by devils, we see the -apostles and saints visited in turn by the -angels of God and also by spirits of evil, -who fight battles among spiritual armies. -These are only visions, apparitions of -angels or demons who are vanquished -before the anointed of the Lord.</p> - -<p>Mankind wished to participate in the -honors and emotions of communicating -with supernatural beings; it is for this purpose -that humanity addressed magicians -and practitioners of Occultism. So we -see in the first ages of Christianity the -Bishops were uneasy in regard to magicians -by reason of the popularity of the latter, -notwithstanding the peasantry had submitted -to the dogmas of the Church.</p> - -<p>Paul Lacroix, the learned bibliophile, -cites as the most ancient monument made -mention of in this connection, an aggregation -of shadowy women collected for a -mysterious purpose, who devoted themselves -to making magical incantations; this -fragment is gathered from the Canons of a -Council which, he thinks, was held before -the time of Charlemagne. It treats of -aerial flights that these sorcerers made, or -thought they made, in company with -Diana and Herodias, <i>i.e.</i>, “<i>Illiud etiam non -est omitendum quod quædam sceleratæ mulieres, -retro post Satanam conversæ, demonum illusionibus -et phantasmatibus seductæ, credunt et -profitentur se nocturnis horis, cum Diana, dea -paganorum, vel cum Herodiate et innumera -multitudine mulierum, equitare super quasdam -bestias, et multarum terrarum spacia intempestæ -noctis silentio pertransire ejusque jussionibus -velut dominæ obedire, et certis noctibus ad -ejus servitium evocari</i>.”<a id="FNanchor_52" href="#Footnote_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a></p> - -<p>Which, being freely translated, reads: -“We must not forget that impious women -devoted to Satan, were seduced by apparitions, -demons and phantoms, and avowed -that during the night they rode on fantastic -beasts along with Diana, a Pagan goddess, -or Herodias and an innumberable throng -of women. They pretended to traverse -immense space in the silence of the night, -obeying the orders of the two demon-women -as those of a sovereign, being -called into their service on certain given -occasions.”</p> - -<p>We can understand from this that if -Christianity silenced Pagan oracles, it did -not authorize magicians to put the spiritual -world aside. The clergy accepted the -evidence of the witnesses of grace, but refused -that of the profane, who were only -inspired by demons; they recognized in -the latter the power of giving men illusions<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_40"></a>40</span> -of the senses, of cohabiting with virgins -under the form of <i>incubi</i> and with men -under the form of <i>succubi</i>,—demons who -could insinuate themselves through natural -orifices into all the cavities of the body, -and possess mortals.</p> - -<p>Theologians have described all the pains -endured by those possessed,—pangs in -their thoracic and abdominal organs which, -made by the demons, forced their victims -to speak, sing, move, to be in a condition -of anæsthesia or hyperæsthesia, following -the imp’s will; in other words, the possessed -were subject to infernal action. To -the worship of spirits the first Bishops of -the Church substituted a foolish fear of -demons.</p> - -<p>From this exaggeration of the power of -evil genii over man surged the silly terrors -and superstitious fears of damnation, which -were the starting-point of aberration among -the first demonomaniacs. It was for these -unfortunates that the clergy invented exorcisms -and great annual ceremonies destined -to deliver those possessed by demons, -ceremonies at which the Bishops convened -the people and the nobles to assist, in -order to show the triumphs of the Church -over Satan and his imps.</p> - -<p>The theatrical arrangement of these -assemblages certainly induced some apparent -cures—making the faithful cry out “a -miracle, truly;” but who does not know -that all affections of the nervous system -love to be treated at the hands of thaumaturgists? -To invent demons to have the -glory of defeating them and to deliver -mankind from their influence,—such -appears to have been the objective point -of the primitive Christian Church. This -was certainly a clever trick in theological -magic, and, if the end did not seem to -justify the means to critical philosophic -eyes, we may admit, at least, that it was -better to exorcise the possessed than to -burn them alive at the stake, as was done -some centuries later.</p> - -<p>“This doctrine of demons was so intimately -intermixed with the dogmas of this -perfected religious system by the Fathers -of the Church,” says Sprengel, that “it is -not astonishing authors attributed many -phenomena of nature to the influence of -demons.” One of the most celebrated -doctors of the Church, Origen, of Alexandria, -in his <i>Apology for Christianity</i>, remarks: -“There are demons that produce -famines, sterility, corruption of the air, -epidemics; they flutter surrounded by -fogs in the lower regions of the atmosphere, -and are drawn by the blood of their -victims in the incense that the pagans -offer them as their Divinity. Without the -odor of sacrifice, these demons could not -preserve their influence. They have the -most exquisite senses, are capable of the -greatest activity, and possess the most extended -experience.”</p> - -<p>Saint Augustin had already written that -demons were the agents of the diseases of -Christians, and attacked even the new-born -who came to receive baptism.</p> - -<p>The Church taught that these demons -acted through the intermediary of fallen -creatures who were in revolt against God -and his holy ministers. Such were the -sorcerers and female mediums, who were -met among ruins, in rocky cavern, and in -other hidden and obscure places. For a -morsel of bread or a handful of barley -such creatures could be consulted; one -could demand from them the secrets of the -future, instruments for revenge, charms to -secure love.</p> - -<p>Among these sorcerers there were -old panderers, who knew, from personal -experience, all practices of debauchery, -and who gave the name of -<i>vigils</i> to the saturnalia indulged in among -villagers on certain nights, gatherings composed -of bawds and pimps, to which were -invited numerous novices in libidinousness. -These sorcerers and witches also knew the -remedies that young girls must take when -they wish to destroy the physiological results -of their imprudences, and what old -men need to restore their virility. They -knew the medicinal qualities of plants, -especially those that stupified. Perhaps a -few of these sorcerers discovered, from -magical incantations, the epoch of deliverance -from Feudal morals, the abolition of -servitude, equality and liberty. One thing -is certain, however, <i>i.e.</i>, that the clergy -saw nothing in them save enemies of the -Church and religion, creatures who were -dangerous to society and deserving only -destruction, <i>per fas et nefas</i>, by exorcism, -by fire—indeed, even by the accusations -tortured out of insane persons.</p> - -<p>Thus, Pope Gregory IX., in a letter -addressed to several German Bishops in -1234, described the initiation of sorcerers -as follows: “When the master sorcerers -receive a novice, and this novice enters -their assembly for the first time, he sees a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_41"></a>41</span> -toad of enormous size—as large, in fact, -as a goose. Some kiss its mouth, others -its rear. Then the novice meets a pale -man, with very black eyes, and so thin as -to appear only skin and bones; he kisses -this creature, too, and feels a chill as cold -as ice. After this kiss it is easy to forget -the Catholic faith. The sorcerers then -assemble at a banquet, during which a -black cat descends from behind a statue -that is usually placed in the center of the -gathering. The novice kisses the rear -anatomy of this cat, after which he salutes, -in a similar manner, those who preside at -the feast and others worthy of the honor. -The apprentice in sorcery receives in return -only the kiss of the master; after this -the lights are extinguished and all manner -of impure acts are committed among the -assemblage.“<a id="FNanchor_53" href="#Footnote_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a></p> - -<p>This was the belief, then, of those who -a few years later composed the “<i>Tribunal -of the Inquisition</i>” and accepted the banner -of Loyola, and shortly afterwards again a -member of the congregation of Saint Dominick -and professor of theology, Barthelemi -de Lepine, convinced of the existence of -demons and Demonidolators, showed himself -to be a furious adversary of the sorcerers -in a famous dissertation, which was -immediately adopted by his co-religionists. -He affirmed that “the <i>possessed</i> go to the -<i>sorcerers’</i> meetings in body or in spirit and -have carnal intercourse with the devil; -that they immolate children, transforming -them into animals notably cats; that they -have obscene visions, and it is best to exterminate -them, for their number is growing legion.”</p> - -<p>Barthelemi de Lepine, in speaking thus, -only followed the traditions of the Fathers -of the Church; of Saint George, Saint Eparchius, -Saint Bernard, Innocent VIII., and -of Antonio Torquemada, who were the -historians of the <i>incubi</i> of their times, and -launched anathemas against the <i>possessed</i> of -the Demon of luxury.</p> - -<p>The Jesuit father Costadau wrote, in -his treatise <i>De Signis</i>, <i>apropos</i> of incubism: -“The thing is too singular to treat lightly. -We would not believe it ourselves had we -not been convinced by personal experience -with the Demon’s malice, and, on the other -hand, find an infinity of writings of the -first order from Popes, theologians, and -philosophers, who have sustained and -proved that there are men so unfortunate -as to have shameful commerce and other -things more execrable with such demons.”</p> - -<p>Another Jesuit, Martin Antoine del -Rio, published six books (<i>Disquisitiones -Magicæ</i>) in 1599, in which his credulity -attained the limit of fanaticism, thus making -the good priest one of the most redoubtable -enemies of demonomania. Such -were the doctrines on which reposed the -theocratical pretensions of the theologians.</p> - -<p>It is not astonishing that the last years -of the Middle Ages, during the time religious -struggles reached their highest -period of exacerbation, owing to the quarrels -between the Court of Rome and the -Reformation, witnessed the multiplication -in the number of demonomaniacs to such -an extent that the whole world commenced -to believe in the power of demons. “At -this unfortunate time,” remarks Esquirol, -“the excommunicated, the sorcerers and -the damned were seen everywhere; alarmed, -the Church created tribunals, before -which the devil was summoned to appear -and the <i>possessed</i> were brought to judgment; -scaffolds were erected, funeral pyres were -lighted around stakes, and demonomaniacs, -under the names of sorcerers and possessed, -doubly the victims of prevailing errors, -were burnt alive, after being tortured -to make them renounce pretended compacts -made with the Evil One. There was -a jurisprudence against sorcery and magic -as there were laws against theft and murder. -The people, seeing the Church and -Princes believing in the reality of these extravagances, -were positively persuaded as -to the existence of demons.”</p> - -<p>No authority raised itself to protect -these miserable possessed people; justice, -philosophy, and science remained subjected -to theology, becoming more and -more the accomplices of an autocratic and -ever-intolerant Church.</p> - -<p>Among the magistrates, historians and -publicists, who were the most ardent supporters -of the Inquisition, we may mention -J. Bodin, of Angers, who published, in -1581, a work entitled <i>Demonomanie</i>. He -shows that the victims of demonomania -enjoy perfect integrity of the mental faculties -and are in every sense responsible, -before Courts of Ecclesiastical Justice and -Parliaments, for their impure relations with -supernatural beings, and he logically concludes -that all Demonomaniacs should be<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_42"></a>42</span> -committed to the stakes and burnt alive. -“Meantime,” says this amiable author, -“we can deliver the possessed by exorcisms, -and animals may be thus exorcised -as well as men.” To the support of his -thesis he then brings an immense collection -of ridiculous stories, which are not supported -by evidence. He says: “Those -possessed by a demon can spit rags, hair, -wood and nails from their mouths.” He -cites the case of a possessed woman who -had her chin turned towards her back, -tongue pushed out of the mouth, a throat -which furnished sounds analogous to the -crowing of a crow, the chatter of a magpie -and the song of the cuckoo. Finally, -he pretends that the devil may speak -through the mouth of the possessed and -use all the idioms, known and unknown; -that he can deflower young girls and give -them voluptuous sensations, etc.</p> - -<p>This work of J. Bodin is, in reality, -the argument of a public prosecutor, presented -with passion and prejudice, having -all the erroneous arguments of the Inquisitors, -so that the latter were more than -satisfied at convincing the secular magistrates -and fixing their jurisdiction as to the -crime of sorcery. On the other hand, the -same year that Bodin gave publicity to his -inhuman side of the question, the <i>Essays -of Michel Montaigne</i> appeared in Paris, in -which this celebrated writer appealed to -philosophy. He demanded that human -life should be protected from fantastic -accusations, and made that famous response -to a Prince who showed him some -sorcerers condemned to death: “In faith, -I would rather prescribe hellebore than -hemlock faggots, as they appear to be -more insane than culpable.” Montaigne -concluded one of his essays on this subject -with the satirical remark: “It is placing a -high valuation on human conjecture when -we cook a man alive for an opinion.”</p> - -<p>Meantime, Bodin had reasoned against -Montaigne. But the one remained the -ignorant prosecutor of the Middle Ages, -while the other was an immortal philosopher, -whom Colbert certainly quoted before -presenting to Louis XIV. the famous -edict of 1682, which forbade in the future -“<i>the cooking alive of sorcerers</i>.”</p> - -<p>Meantime, there was still a century to -attain before one of the Prime Ministers of -France put an end to all trials for sorcery, -and during the intervening period there -were other purveyors of the death penalty -by the stake-burners of the Inquisition; -among these were the celebrated Boguet, -Criminal Judge of Bourgogne, and Pierre -de l’Ancre, his colleague of Aquitanus, -cited by Calmeil as the most fanatical -judges of their day.</p> - -<p>Boguet, in his <i>Discours des Sorciers</i>, -wrote: “There were in France only three -hundred thousand under King Charles -IX., and they have since increased more -than half as much again. The Germans -prevent their growth by burning at the -stake; the Swiss destroy whole villages at -one time; in Lorraine the stranger may -see thousands existing with but few executions. -It is difficult to understand why -France cannot purge itself of these creatures. -These sorcerers walk around by -thousands and multiply on earth like caterpillars -in our gardens. I wish I could enforce -punishment according to my ideas, -for the earth would soon be purged of -those possessed. For I fain would collect -them all in one mass and burn them alive -in a single bonfire.”</p> - -<p>Pierre de l’Ancre, Councillor to the Parliament -of Bordeaux, published in 1613 his -<i>Tableau de l’inconstance des mauvais anges et -demons</i>, and in 1622 his <i>Incredulite et -mecreance du sortilege pleinement convaincue</i>. -In these two works the author treats all -questions regarding sorcery, and declares -that in his capacity of judge he believes it -a mistake to spare the life of any individual -accused of magic, as he considers -sorcerers <i>as the enemies of morality and -religion</i>, and accuses them of having found -means of “ravishing women even while -they laid in the embraces of their husbands, -thus forcing and violating the -sacred oaths of marriage, for the victims -are made adulterous even in the presence -of their husbands, who remain motionless -and dishonored without power to prevent; -the women mute, enshrouded in a forced -silence, invoking in vain the help of the -husband against the sorcerer’s attack, and -calling uselessly for aid; the husband -charmed and unable to offer resistance, -suffering his own dishonor with open eyes -and helpless arms.</p> - -<p>“The sorcerers dance around the bed -in an indecent manner, like at a Bacchanalian -feast, accoupling adulterously in a -diabolical fashion, committing execrable -sodomies, blaspheming scandalously, taking -insidious carnal revenges, perpetrating all -manner of unnatural acts, brutalizing and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_43"></a>43</span> -denaturalizing all physical functions, holding -frogs, vipers, and lizards, and other -deadly animal poisons in their hands, -making stinking smells, caressing with -lascivious amorousness, giving themselves -over to horrible and shameful orgies.”</p> - -<p>Thus says the Prosecutor of the Council -of Bordeaux, but he fails to support his -statements by a single material fact, not -even one individual case being proven. -His trials show nothing but a few poor demented -women, who responded always in -the affirmative to the obscene and indecent -questions of the judges and prosecutors -<i>employed by the Most Holy Inquisition</i>.</p> - -<p>A sad thing philosophy registers celebrated -names during this Age. We mention -only those of Rene Descartes, Blaise -Pascal, Nicholas Malebranche, Thomas -Hobbes, Francis Bacon, Leibnitz, and the -immortal Newton. Unfortunately these -great geniuses could not take part in the -struggle between the clerical party and -free thinkers. Honored as scholars, their -Governments never asked their advice on -questions claimed to be under the control -of religious orders. The clergy had all the -latitude they desired in writing the history -of demonology, and also the evidence -wrung from those accused of sorcery—vague -responses drawn out by fear, by torture, -by suggestion imposed in the obscurity -of a penitential tabernacle. A witness -of veracity, as we have before stated, -never gave testimony as to the conduct of -the sorcerers at the secret vigils. Their -invocations on initiation, their famous inunctions -used on the body, with magical -ointments while in a condition of absolute -nudity; their equestrian position on broom -sticks; their flying tricks up the chimney -and their bewitched reunions when horned -devils rode on their shoulders, are legendary -recitals which could only be accepted -by ignorant fanatics and judges firm in the -Faith. How a man with the seeming -intelligence of Prosecutor Bodin, who was -delegated by the State, who wrote six -works on <i>The Republic</i> and <i>The Constitution</i>—works -which have been compared in -point of ability as ranking with Montesquieu’s -<i>Spirit of the Law</i>; how a publicist -of talent could support such stories as we -have mentioned in his work on sorcery is a -matter of profound amazement. Yet, -Bodin testifies as to his faith in the story of -that peasant of Touraine “who found -himself naked, wandering around the fields -in the morning,” and who gave as an explanation -of his conduct that he had surprised -his wife the night before as she was -making preparations to go to a sorcerers’ -vigil, and that he had followed his better -half, accompanied by the Devil, as far as -Bordeaux, many leagues away. Bodin -also believed the narration of that girl from -Lyons “whom the lover perceived rubbing -herself with magical ointment preparatory -to attending a sorcerers’ vigil; and the -lover, using the same ointment, followed -his girl and arrived at the vigil almost as -soon as she.”</p> - -<p>As to that poor peasant who was found -naked and alone in the field and forced to -denounce his wife to the authorities, Bodin -remarks impressively, “The woman confessed -and was condemned to be burnt at -the stake.”</p> - -<p>Pierre de l’Ancre was never able to -prove his stories by sentinels, sergeants, -guards, or policemen, as to the appearance -of the demon he described in his -<i>Traite sur les demons</i>; a spirit that showed -itself as a large blood-hound or as a wild -bull. It is true that in another part of his -book he demonstrates the changeable character -of his Devil, and gives the following -description, which methinks is more worthy -the pen of an insane man rather than that -of a magistrate: “The Devil of the <i>sabbat</i> -(vigil) is seated in a black chair, with a -crown of black thorns, two horns at the -side of the head and one in the forehead -with which he gores the assemblage. The -Devil has bristling hair, pale and troubled -looking face, large round eyes widely -opened, inflamed and hideous looking, a -goatee, a crooked neck, the body of a man -combined with that of a billy goat, hands -like those of a human being, except that -the nails are crooked and sharp pointed at -the ends; the hands are curved backwards. -The Devil has a tail like that of a jackass, -with which, strange to say, he modestly -covers his private parts. He has a frightful -voice without melody; he preserves a -strange and superb gravity, having the -countenance of a person who is very -melancholy and tired out from overwork.”</p> - -<p>This was the spirit of the lieutenants of -justice called on by the Inquisitorial clergy -to fix the penalty for the crime of sorcery. -“Sorcery being a crime,” say they with -the spirit of conviction, “consented to between -man and the Devil; the man bowing<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_44"></a>44</span> -to adore Satan, and receiving in exchange -a part of his infernal power.”</p> - -<p>According to this compact, “The demon -unites carnally with the sorcerer and -female medium likewise; these unite themselves -with Satan, denying God, Christ and -the Virgin, and profaning all objects of -sanctity by their profane presence.</p> - -<p>“They become zealots for evil and -render eternal homage to the Prince of -Darkness.</p> - -<p>“They are baptized by the Devil and -dedicate to his service all children born to -them by nature.</p> - -<p>“They commit incests, poison people, -and bewitch and work cattle to death.</p> - -<p>“They eat the carrion from the rotting -bodies of hanged criminals.</p> - -<p>“They enter into a Cabalistic circle -laid out by the accursed one, and matriculate -in a secret order which is engaged in -all manner of outrages against society; -they accept secret marks that affirm their -complete vassalage to Satan.</p> - -<p>“Finally, they repudiate all authority -other than that of the master in the Cabala -(Kabbala), and, abomination above all, -<i>they incite the people to revolt</i>.”</p> - -<p>Meantime, while the Judges and Inquisitors -pursued all intelligent people with -the most wicked determination, Leloyer -published his monograph on specters,<a id="FNanchor_54" href="#Footnote_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a> -whose doctrines are closely connected with -modern Spiritualistic theories.</p> - -<p>This celebrated Councillor wrote that -the soul, the spiritual essence which animates -the organism, may be distracted and -separated from the body for an instant, as -we see in cases of ecstacy.</p> - -<p>Now, we know that this nervous phenomenon, -which may be <i>natural</i>, when -connected with catalepsy, hysteria and -somnambulism, or <i>provoked</i> when it is produced -experimentally on subjects in a hypnotic -condition, almost always coincides -with an acute moral impression and a suspension -of one or more of the senses. It -is during the duration of this phenomenon -that the soul, according to Leloyer, performs -far-off journeys,—not orthodox, however, -for we are told that during the period of -such ecstacies, following cataleptic immobility, -seven of these ecstatics were burned -alive at Nantes in 1549.</p> - -<p>In another chapter, he adds that souls -may, after death, impress themselves on -our senses by taking fantastic forms. He -supports this opinion by the incident relative -to a daughter of the famous Juriscouncillor -of the sixteenth century, Charles -Dumoulin, who appeared to her husband -and told him the names of assassins; and -of the specter who informed the Justice of -the crime committed by the woman Sornin -on her husband, that the soul of Commodus -appeared so often to Caracalla.</p> - -<p>The author of the <i>Spectres</i> attributes to -supernatural beings the frights experienced -by certain persons who live in haunted -houses. Every night they are awakened -by the sound of noises,—blows resound on -the floor and raps come on the partitions; -every few minutes there are peals of ghostly -laughter, whistling, clapping of hands to -attract attention; these nervous persons -see spirits and are startled at sudden apparitions -of the dead; specters seize them by -the feet, nose, ears, and even go so far as -sit on their chests. Such houses are said -to be the rendezvous of demons.</p> - -<p>The persons spoken of by Leloyer <i>are -to-day known as mediums producing physical -effects</i>, and the phenomena observed centuries -since are evidently the same as -those investigated by William Crookes, -with the collaboration of Kate Fox and -Home.<a id="FNanchor_55" href="#Footnote_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a></p> - -<p>“In the ecstacy of sorcerers,” resumes -Leloyer, “the soul is present, but is so -preoccupied by the impressions that it receives -from the Devil, that it cannot act on -the body it animates. On awaking, such -ecstatics may remember things they have -seen, events in which they have assisted, as -in the case when the soul temporarily -abandons its earthly tenement.”</p> - -<p>Meanwhile, it is but fair to observe -that the author makes certain reservations; -he admits that ecstacy and hallucination -may be provoked by a pathological condition -of the nervous system, and are not -always the result of the work of demons. -He also comments on a certain number of -vampires remaining in a lethargic sleep, -from a nervous condition, after returning -from a sorcerer’s vigil, a fact which, -according to Calmeil, was of a nature to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_45"></a>45</span> -throw the theories of the Councillors of the -Inquisition into disfavor.</p> - -<p>The theory of the author of <i>Spectres</i> -resembles considerably, as will at once be -noticed, that of the first Magii and the -modern doctrine of Spiritualism. Leloyer, -besides, has gathered a number of facts to -support his affirmations; among others, he -cites the observation given him by Philip -de Melanchton, the learned Hellenist and -author of the famous confession of Augsburg. -This was a spiritual manifestation -experienced by the widow of Melanchton’s -uncle: One day, while weeping and thinking -of the dear lost one, two spirits appeared -to her suddenly,—“one habited in -the stately, dignified form of her husband, -the other specter in the garb of a gray -friar. The one representing her husband -approached her and said a few consoling -words, touched her hand and disappeared -with his monkish companion.”</p> - -<p>Melanchton, although one of the chiefs -of the Reformation, was still imbued with -the ideas of the Romish Church; after -some hesitation he concluded that the -specters seen by his aunt were demons. -The same phenomena have been observed -by modern <i>mediums</i>; William Crookes, -the celebrated London scientist, relates -facts to which he has been witness which -are even more extraordinary than the one -we have just narrated.</p> - -<p>Jerome Cardan, of Paris, the celebrated -mathematician, renowned for his discovery -of the formula for resolving cubic equations, -solemnly affirmed that he had a protecting -spirit, and never doubted the reality -of this apparition. Cardan also tells how -his father one evening received a visit from -seven specters, who did not fear to enter -into an argument with the learned old -man.</p> - -<p>Imagination, exalted by chimerical fear -of demons, sees the work of these evil-doing -spirits on every hand, in gambling, -in sickness, in accidents, in infirmity, in -all the ordinary accidents of life. The -sorcerers are accused of attacking man’s -virility by witchcraft. The victims say -that some one has knotted their private -organs (<i>noue l’aiguilette</i>). This pretended -catastrophe in magic, the origin of which -dates back to times of antiquity, may be -classed among abnormal physiological -effects under the influence of a moral -cause, fear, timidity, and certainly the -suggestion of a feeble mind.</p> - -<p>Such are the sorcerers that Bodin accuses, -perhaps not without reason always, -since we see that impotency in some -young melancholic subjects who appear -easily impressed with fantastic notions.</p> - -<p>“Sorcerers,” says Bodin, “have the -power to remove but a single organ from -the body, that is, the virile organ; this -thing they often do in Germany, often -hiding a man’s privates in his belly, and in -this connection Spranger tells of a man at -Spire who thought he had lost his privates -and visited all the physicians and surgeons -in the neighborhood, who could find nothing -where the virile organs had once been, -neither wound nor scar; but the victim -having made peace with the sorcerer, to -his great joy soon had his treasure restored.”</p> - -<p>There was no need of this kind of -witchcraft, <i>pour nouer l’aiguilette</i>, in a timid -boy, already subjugated by fear of the -devil. Certainly, if the sorcerers had ideas -of that force which is known to-day as <i>suggestion</i>, -they could very easily destroy the -virile power of the subject by governing -his will and thoughts, his physical and -moral personality. When we can confiscate -the physical anatomy of a man he is -reduced to all manner of impotencies. -Who will affirm that suggestion is not one -of the mysteries of sorcery?</p> - - -<h3>DEMONOLOGICAL PHYSICIANS.</h3> - -<p>After the theosophists, theurgists, and -the priests, we will now interrogate the -writings of the physicians of antiquity and -of the Middle Ages, as to this question of -spirits and their connection with the affairs -of mankind.</p> - -<p>We see that Galen is often drawn away -by the beliefs of his time, to the most -ridiculous prejudices and fancies, and that -he is the defender of magical conjurations. -He claimed that Æsculapius appeared to -him one day in a dream and advised bleeding -in the treatment of pleurisy by which -he was attacked.</p> - -<p>After Galen, Soranus of Ephesus used -magical chants for curing certain affections. -Scribonius Largus, a contemporary -of the Emperor Claudius, indicated the -manner of gathering plants, so that they -might possess the strongest healing properties -(the left hand must be raised to the -Moon). Plants thus gathered cured even -serpent bites. Archigenes suspended amulets -on the necks of his patients. And<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_46"></a>46</span> -although Pliny often declared that he wished -“to examine everything in nature and not -to speculate on occult causes” he reproduces -in his works all the superstitious -practices employed in medicine.</p> - -<p>In the sixth century, Ætius, physician -to the Court of Constantinople, acquired -great surgical renown by the preparation -of applications of pomades, ointments, and -other topical remedies, in which superstition -played a leading <i>role</i>.<a id="FNanchor_56" href="#Footnote_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a> Thus, in -making a certain salve it was necessary to -repeat several times in a low voice, “May -the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob -accord efficacy to this medicine.” If one -had a foreign body in the throat it was -necessary to touch the neck of the patient -and say, “As Jesus Christ raised Lazarus, -and Jonah came out of a whale, come -out thou bone”; or, better still, “The -Martyr Blase and the Servant of Christ -commands thee to come out of the throat -or descend to the stomach.”<a id="FNanchor_57" href="#Footnote_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a></p> - -<p>After Ætius, we see Alexander of -Tralles indulge in the same follies. In the -colic he bids us use a stone on which is -represented Hercules seated on a lion, -a ring of iron on which was inscribed -a Greek sentence, and, on the other, the -diagram of the Gnostics (a figure composed -of two equilateral triangles); and he adds -that sacred things must not be profaned.</p> - -<p>Against the gout, the same Alexander -of Tralles recommended a verse from -Homer, or, better still, to engrave on a -leaf of gold the words <i>mei</i>, <i>dreu</i>, <i>mor</i>, <i>phor</i>, -<i>teus</i>, <i>za</i>, <i>zown</i>. He conjured, by the words -<i>Iao</i>, <i>Sabaoth</i>, <i>Adonai</i>, <i>Eloi</i>, a plant he employed -in the same disease. In quotidian -fever he advised an amulet made of an -olive leaf on which was written in ink, <i>Ka -Poi. A.</i><a id="FNanchor_58" href="#Footnote_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a></p> - -<p>In the thirteenth century, Hugo de -Lucques said a <i>Pater noster</i> and other -prayers to the Trinity to cure fractures of -the limbs. But in the following century -astrology replaced the magic of religious -superstition. Arnauld de Villeneuve attributed -to each hour of the day a particular -virtue which influenced, according to -the influence of the horoscope, the different -parts of the body. According to Arnauld, -we can use bleeding only on -certain days when such and such a constellation -is in place, and no other time; but the -position of the moon more particularly -needed attention. The most favorable -time for phlebotomy was when Luna was -found in the sign of Cancer; but the conjunction -of the latter with Saturn is injurious -to the effects of medicines, and -especially of purgatives.<a id="FNanchor_59" href="#Footnote_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a></p> - -<p>His contemporary, Bernard de Gordon -(of Montpellier), gives as a sure method of -hastening difficult accouchments the reading -of passages from the Psalms of David. -He explains the humors of certain hours of -the day in the following manner: the -blood in the morning moves towards the -sun, with which it is in harmony; but it -falls towards evening, because the greatest -amount of sanguification occurs during -sleep. In the third hour of the day the -bile runs downwards, to the end that it -may not make the blood acid;<a id="FNanchor_60" href="#Footnote_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a> the black -bile moves at the ninth hour and the -mucus towards evening.</p> - -<p>The efficacy of precious stones for bewitching, -and many other superstitious -ideas, were likewise noted by medical -authors, notably Italian writers, as, for instance, -Michel Savonarola, Professor at -Ferrara, one of the most celebrated physicians -of his age. In Germany, Agrippa of -Nettesheim, philosopher, alchemist and -physician, had a predilection for magic -and the occult sciences, if we are to judge -from his works published in 1530 and -1531, <i>i.e.</i>, <i>De incertitudianæ et vanitate scientiarum</i>, -<i>De occulta philosophia</i>, in which he -mentions action induced at a distance and -forsees the discovery of magnetism.</p> - -<p>Like him, his contemporaries, Raymond -Lulle, in Spain, and J. Reuchlin, -published books on the Cabala (<i>Kabbala</i>), -and, in Italy, Porta founded, at Naples, -the <i>Academy of Secrets</i>, for the development -of occult sciences, which are explained in -his treatise <i>De Magia Naturali</i>.</p> - -<p>At almost the same epoch, Paracelsus, -Professor at Basle, claimed that he possessed -the universal panacea; that he had -found the secret of prolonging life, by -magic and astrology, for he diagnosed diseases -through the influence of the stars. -After him, Van Helmont defended animal -magnetism, and gave himself up to the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_47"></a>47</span> -study of occult science, in company with -his student, Rodolphe Goclenius.</p> - -<p>In the sixteenth century, Fernel, who, -inasmuch as he was a mathematician and -an astronomer, published his <i>Cosmotheria</i>, -where he indicated the means of measuring -a meridian degree with exactitude; -his remarkable works on physiology (<i>De -naturali parte medicinæ</i>, 1542), on pathology -and therapeutics, which gave him the -nickname of the French Galen. Fernel -fully admitted the action of evil spirits on -the body of man; he believed that adorers -of the Demons could, by the aid of imprecations, -enchantments, invocations and -talismans, draw fallen angels into the -bodies of their enemies, and that these Demons -could then cause serious sickness. -He compared the <i>possessed</i> to maniacs, but -that the former had the gift of reading the -past and divining the most secret matters. -He affirmed that he had been witness of a -case of delirium caused by the presence of -the Devil in a patient, that which was denied -by several doctors at the epoch.<a id="FNanchor_61" href="#Footnote_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a> -He also believed in lycanthropy.... -In the same century, another of our medical -glories, Ambroise Pare, the Father of -French surgery, also adopted the theory of -the Inquisitors regarding sorcery in his -works,<a id="FNanchor_62" href="#Footnote_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a> in which may be found his remarkable -anatomical and surgical discoveries. -We read the following quaintly -conceived passage: “Demons can suddenly -change themselves into any form -they wish; one often sees them transformed -into serpents, frogs, bats, crows, -goats, mules, dogs, cats, wolves, and bulls; -they can be transmuted into men as well -as into angels of light; they howl in the -night and make infernal noises as though -dragging chains, <i>they move chairs and tables</i>, -rock cradles, turn the leaves of books, -count money, throw down buckets, etc., -etc. They are known by many names, -such as cacodemons, incubi, succubi, coquemares, -witches, hobgoblins, goblins, bad -angels, Satan, Lucifer, etc.</p> - -<p>“The actions of Satan are supernatural -and incomprehensible, passing human -understanding, and we can no more understand -them than we can comprehend why -the loadstone attracts the needle. Those -who are possessed by demons can speak -with the tongue drawn out of their mouth, -through the belly and by other natural -parts; they speak unknown languages, -cause earthquakes, make thunder, clear up -the weather, drag up trees by the roots, -move a mountain from one place to -another, raise castles in the air and put -them back in their places without injury, -and can fascinate and dazzle the human -eye.</p> - -<p>“<i>Incubi</i> are demons in the disguise of -men, who copulate with female sorcerers; -<i>succubi</i> are demons disguised as women, -who practice vile habits not only on sleeping, -but wakeful men.”</p> - -<p>“Ambroise Pare,” says Calmeil, “believed -that demons <i>hoarded up all kinds of -foreign bodies in their victims’ persons</i>, such as -old netting, bones, horse-shoes, nails, horsehair, -pieces of wood, serpents, and other -curious odds and ends, and cites the wellknown -case of Ulrich Neussersser.”</p> - -<p>The celebrated surgeon concludes from -this that “it was the Devil who made the -iron blades and other articles found in the -stomach and intestines of the unfortunate -Ulrich.”</p> - -<p>What would Pare have thought had he -seen the strange objects so commonly -found by modern surgeons in ovarian -cysts? How many demons would it take -to produce the numerous objects noticed at -the present day?</p> - -<p>Happily these demonological physicians -accepted purely and simply the suggestion -that demons could act on men, and -abandoned the victims to the tender mercy -of the theologians and their tools the -lawyers. Yet, even in this time of atrocities -there were a few courageous physicians -who struggled for humanity as against -ecclesiastical despotism. Let us quote, -according to Calmeil, one Francoise Ponzinibus, -who destroyed one by one all the -arguments that served to support the -criminal code against demons. It was this -brave doctor who dared to write that -demonidolatry constituted a true disease; -that all the sensations leading the ignorant -to believe in <i>spirits</i> who adored the Devil -were due to a depraved moral and physical -condition; that it was false that certain -persons could isolate their souls from their -bodies at night and thus leave their homes -for far off places inhabited by demons; -that the accouplement of sorcerers and all -the crimes attributed to them could not be<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_48"></a>48</span> -logically supposed but must be legally -proven; that it was cruel and atrocious to -burn demented people at the stake for -witchcraft.</p> - -<p>Let us also quote from Andre Alciat, -another courageous physician, who dared -accuse an Inquisitor of murdering a multitude -of insane people on the plea of witchcraft. -He considered the vigil (<i>sabbat</i>) of -sorcerers as an absurd fiction, and saw in -so-called <i>possessed</i> only so many poor demented -women given over to fanatical -delusions and wild dreams.</p> - -<p>Paul Zacchias, the author of “Medico-Legal -Questions” (<i>Questiones Medico-legales</i>), -a work in which he shows himself -to be as wise an alienist as Doctor of -Laws. The avowed and open enemy -of supernaturalism, he boldly denounced -the cruelties committed against the demented.</p> - -<p>Let us finally inscribe on the roll of -honor, with our respects, the name of Jean -Wier,<a id="FNanchor_63" href="#Footnote_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a> or rather of Joannes Wierus, physician -to the Duke of Cleves, who studied -in Paris, where he received the degree of -doctor, and was afterwards the disciple of -Cornelius Agrippa, a partisan of demonology. -Like the latter, Jean Weir believed -in astrology, alchemy, the cabala, sorcerers -and female mediums; likewise in demons -who possessed control of human beings -through magic power. But in his works -that he published in 1560 he proclaims the -innocence of those unfortunates punished -for witchcraft, and declares them to have -been insane and melancholic; likewise -asserting that they could have been cured -by proper treatment. He declares that he -is fully persuaded that sorcerers, witches, -and lycanthropic patients who were burned -at the stake were crazy people whose -reason had been overthrown; and that the -faults imputed to these unfortunates were -dangerous to none but themselves; that -the possessed were dupes to false sensations -that had been experienced during the -time of their ecstatic transports or in their -sleep.</p> - -<p>Weir<a id="FNanchor_64" href="#Footnote_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a> insisted that the homicidal -monomania attributed to the inhabitants of -Vaud should not be credited, and was -not except by fools and fanatics; while the -so-called vampires, whose blood was shed -on the banks of Lake Leman, the borders -of the Rhine, and on the mountains of -Savoy, had never been guilty of crimes, -nor murders especially, and cites cases of -condemnation where the <i>insanity</i> or <i>imbecility</i> -of the victims was incontestible. He -declares, in general, that all sorcerers are -irresponsible, that they are insane, and -that the devils possessing them can be -combatted without exorcism. “Above -all,” says he to the judges and executioners, -“do not kill, do not torture. Have -you fear that these poor frightened women -have not suffered enough already? Think -you they can have more misery than that -they already suffer? Ah! my friends, even -though they merited punishment, rest -assured of one thing, <i>that their disease is -enough</i>.” Beautiful words, worthy of a -grand philosopher. Born in the sixteenth -century, he believed in magic and sorcery; -but as a physician he pleaded for the -saving of human life, and as a man he -frowned down the crimes committed on -the scaffold. “The duty of the monk,” -says he, “is to study how to cure the soul -rather than to destroy it.” Alas! he -preached his doctrine in the barren desert -of ecclesiastical fanaticism.</p> - -<p>Although, less well known than those -names just mentioned, we must not forget -to note that group of talented men who -contributed with Ponzinibus, Alciat, Zacchias -and Jean Wier in the restoration to -medicine of the study of facts, thus freeing -the healing art of many speculative ideas -derived from the Middle Ages; we allude -to such men as Baillou, Francois de la Boe -(<i>Sylvius</i>), Felix Plater, Sennert, Willis, -Bonet, and many other gallant souls who -assisted in freeing medicine from the religious -autocracy that overshadowed it,—men -who were the <i>avant couriers</i> of modern -positivism.</p> - -<p>Many of those who had preceded these -writers had been learned men and remarkable -physicians, to whom anatomy, clinical -medicine and surgery owed important discoveries, -but the majority of these were -not brave enough to defend their<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_49"></a>49</span> -intelligence against religious superstitions. In -some instances, indeed, they were even -the criminal accessories of the theologians -and inquisitors. In acting in adhesion to -Demonological ideas, their very silence on -grand psychological questions evidences -their weakness,—we are sorry to say this,—and -lowers them from the high position -of humanitarians; the masses of the people -of the Middle Ages owed the majority of -their medical savants nothing on the score -of liberty of conscience.</p> - - -<h3>THE BEWITCHED, POSSESSED, SORCERERS -AND DEMONOMANIACS.</h3> - -<p>In order to fully comprehend the -Demonomania of the Middle Ages, it is -necessary to previously analyze the different -elements composing the medical constitution -of the epoch, and, investigate under what -morbid influences such strange <i>neuroses</i> -were produced.</p> - -<p>These influences, we shall find from -thence, in the state of intellectual and -moral depression provoked by the successive -pestilential epidemics, which, from -the sixth century decimated the population -of Western Europe; in the disposition of -the human mind towards supernaturalism, -which had invaded all classes of society; -in the terrors excited by the tortures of an -ever flaming and eternal hell; in the fright, -caused by the cruel and atrocious decisions -of brutal Inquisitors, and their fanatical -tools, the officers of the law. We find too, -that a frightful condition of misery had -weakened the inhabitants of city and -country, morally and physically, inducing -a multitude of women to openly enter into -prostitution for protection and nutrition, -owing to the iniquity of a despotic regime; -then too, there were added bad conditions -of hygiene and moral decadence, so that intelligence -was sapped and undermined, -together with a breaking down of the -vitality of the organism.</p> - -<p>In the recital of the miseries of the -Middle Age, made by a master hand, by -an illustrious historian, who bases his -assertions on antique chronicles whose -veracity cannot be questioned, we read the -following: “Society was impressed with a -profound sentiment of sadness, it was as -though a pall of grief covered the generation; -the whole world given over to -plagues; the invasion by barbarians; horrible -diseases; terrible famines decimating -the masses by starvation; violent wind -storms; greyish skies with foggy days; -the darkness of night casting its shroud -everywhere; a cry of lamentation ascends -to Heaven through all this gruesome -period. That sombre witness, our contemporary -Glaber, fully indicates the -position of society devoured by war, -famine and the plague. It was thought -that the order of seasons and the laws of -the elements, that up to that period -governed the world, had fallen back -into the original chaos. It was thought -that the end of the human race had -arrived.”<a id="FNanchor_65" href="#Footnote_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a></p> - -<p>When the epidemic of Demonomania -attacked the earth, at the end of the -fifteenth century, more than ten generations -had undergone the depressive action -of the superstitions and false ideas -spread broadcast by religion. Heredity -had prepared the earth, the human mind -being in an absolute condition of receptivity -for all pathological actions. The -education of children was confined to -teaching them foolish doctrines, diabolical -legends, mysterious practices that weakened -their judgments. With the progression, -from childhood to majority, a vague sentiment -of uneasiness was experienced with a -constant preoccupation on the subject of conscience -and sin. In full adult age, as we -have observed, came religious monomania, -with acute sexual excitement, and persistent -erotic ideas.</p> - -<p>Arriving at this phase of the situation, -some became theomaniacs, others demonomaniacs, -saying they were possessed by -sorcery, under the influence of genesic -and other senses, with psychal hallucinations, -and in some cases, psycho-sensorial -illusions. These fictitious perception -were produced either through the influence -of the mind, assailed by supernatural -conceptions, or by morbid impressions -transmitted most often by the great -sympathetic, or, finally, by an unknown -action arising from the exterior.</p> - -<p>Under the influence of these hallucinations, -which manifested themselves in a -state of somnambulism, or during physiological -sleep, the recollection persisting to -the after awakening, the Demonomaniac -responded to those asking questions, that -he had heard the confused noises made by -the sorcerers at their <i>vigil</i>, had heard also -the conversation of the devils, and had<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_50"></a>50</span> -seen scenes of the wildest prostitution -enacted by the demons; that fantastic -animals were perceived; that strange odors -of a diabolical nature, the savor of rotten -meat, and corrupt human flesh, tainted -blood of new born babes, and other -noisome things had been smelled; that -these effluvias were horrible, repulsive, -nauseating, combined with the stink of -sorcerers and the sulphurous vapors of -magical perfumes; that he felt himself -touched by supernatural beings who had -the lightness of smoke or mist, and wafted -away in the air. The hallucinations of -the genital senses had led him to believe -he had carnal connection, always of a -painful nature, with succubi. When the -victim to these delusions was a woman, -she had the impression of having been -brutally violated or deflowered, and some -women declared they oftentimes experienced -the voluptuous sensations of an -amorous coition.</p> - -<p>These hallucinations developed one -after the other; those belonging to the -anesthetized class, coming first, those -belonging to the genesic class, coming -last. The complexity of their symptoms -produced what we call <i>dedoublement</i>, or a -dual personality. Those <i>possessed</i>, claimed -to be in the power of a demon, who -entered their body by one of the natural -passages, sporting with their person, -placing itself in apposition with any place -in their organism, proposing all sorts of -erotic acts, natural and unnatural, whispering -shameless propositions in their ears, -blasphemy against God, forcing them to -sign a contract with the Devil in their own -blood.</p> - -<p>The nervous state in which such weak -minded creatures were found, victims to -nocturnal hallucinations, insensibly induced -a species of permanent somnambulism, -during which they acquired a particularly -morbid personality. They affirmed themselves -to be sorcerers possessed by demons. -When this personality disappeared, and the -patient returned to a normal condition, -a simple suggestion was all sufficient to -cause the reappearance of the hallucination. -This explains why so many individuals -accused of sorcery, denied at first what -they afterwards affirmed. When the Judge -demanded with an air of authority, what -they had done at the witch meeting, (<i>vigil</i>), -they entered into a most precise recital of -minute details, and all the circumstances -surrounding the nocturnal reunions of -demons and their victims; and, by reason -of this crazy avowal, or so called confession -were burned at the stake for participation -in diabolical practices.</p> - -<p>In the <i>Chronicles of Enguarrand, of Monstrelet</i>, -a truthful and trustworthy historian -of the incidents of his time, we find a -description of the famous <i>epidemics</i> of -sorcery in Artois, which caused such a multitude -of victims to be burnt at the stake, by -order of the Inquisition. The facts recounted -by this celebrated writer support -the interpretations we have given to these -phenomena. He expresses himself as -follows:</p> - -<p>“In 1459, in the village of Arras, in -the country of Artois, came a terrible and -pitiable case of what we named <i>Vaudoisie</i>. -I know not why.” “Those possessed, who -were men and women, said that they were -carried off every night by the Devil, from -places where they resided, and suddenly -found themselves in other places, in woods -or deserts, when they met a great number -of other men and women, who consorted -with a large Devil in the disguise of a man, -who never showed his face. And this -Demon read, and prescribed laws and -commandments for them, which they were -obliged to obey; then made his assembled -guests kiss his buttocks; after which, he -presented each adept a little money, and -feasted them on wines and rich foods, -after which the lights were suddenly -extinguished, and strange men and women -knew each other carnally in the darkness, -after which they were suddenly wafted -through space, back to their own habitations, -and awakened as if from a dream.</p> - -<p>“This hallucination was experienced -by several notable persons of the city of -Arras, and other places, men and women, -<i>who were so terribly tormented, that they -confessed</i>, and in confessing, acknowledged -that they had seen at these witch reunions -many prominent persons, among others, -prelates, nobles, Governors of towns and -villages, <i>so that when the judges examined -them, they put the names of the accused -in the mouths of those who testified</i>, and they -persisted in such statements although -forced by pains and tortures to say that -they had seen otherwise, and the innocent -parties named were likewise put in prison, -and tortured so much, that confessions -were forced from them; and <i>these too, -were burned at the stake most inhumanely</i>.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_51"></a>51</span></p> - -<p>“Some of those accused who were rich -and powerful escaped death by paying out -money; others were reduced into making -confessions on the promise that in <i>case they -confessed their lives and property would be -spared</i>. Some there were indeed who suffered -torments with marvelous patience, -not wishing to confess on account of creating -prejudice against themselves; many of -these gave the Judges large bribes in -money to relieve them from punishment. -Others fled from the country on the first -accusation, and afterwards proved their -perfect innocence.”<a id="FNanchor_66" href="#Footnote_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a></p> - -<p>Calmeil considers this narrative of so-called -sorcery as a delirium, prevailing -epidemically in Artois, where “many insane -persons were executed,” although he -is forced to add: “these facts lead us to -foresee what misfortunes pursued the false -disciples of Satan in former times.”</p> - -<p>These neuroses of the inhabitants of -Artois had already been observed, almost -half a century previous, among a class of -sectarians by the name of the <i>Poor of Lyons</i>. -These people were designated in the -Romanesque tongue as <i>faicturiers</i>, the word -<i>faicturerie</i> meaning sorcerer, or one who -believes in magic. Demonomania then -evidently dated back to the very commencement -of the Middle Ages.</p> - -<p>The judgment of the tribunals of Arras, -which condemned the sorcerers of Artois -to be burned alive at the stake, is a curious -document in old French, which merits a -short notice at least, for it is supported on -the following considerations, which were -accepted as veracious, although merely the -delirious conceptions of ignorant peasants:</p> - -<p>“When one wished to go to the witch -reunion (<i>vigil</i>), it was only necessary to -take some magical ointment, rubbed on a -yard stick, and also a small portion rubbed -on the hands. This yard stick or broomstick -placed between the legs, permitted -one to fly where he willed over mountain -and dale, over sea and river, and carried -one to the Devil’s place of meeting, where -were to be found tables loaded down with -fine eatables and drinkables. There was -also the Devil himself, in the form of a -monkey, a dog or a man, as the case might -be, and to him one pledged obedience and -rendered homage; in fact one adored the -Devil and presented unto him his soul. -Then the possessed kissed the Devil’s -rear—kissing it goat fashion in a butting -attitude. After having eaten and taken -drink, all the assemblage assumed carnal -forms; even the Devil took the disguise of -man or sometimes woman. Then the multitude -committed the crime of sodomy and -other horrible and unnatural acts—sins -against God that were so wholly contrary to -nature that the aforesaid Inquisitor says he -does not even dare to name, they are too -terrible and wicked ever to mention to innocent -ears, crimes as brutal as they were -cruel.”<a id="FNanchor_67" href="#Footnote_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a></p> - -<p>Among these sorcerers there was a -poet, a painter and an old Abbot, who -passed for an amateur in the mysteries of -Isis. Perhaps the Inquisition pursued such -individuals as sorcerers and heretics, -knowing them to be given over to debauchery. -Similar things occurred as before -said very early in the Middle Ages.(<a id="FNanchor_68" href="#Footnote_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a>)</p> - -<p>As also before mentioned, there were -demons who cohabited with women at -night, and sometimes with men, called -<i>incubi</i> and <i>succubi</i>, following as they were -active, (<i>incubare</i>, to lie upon), or passive, -(<i>sub cubare</i>, to lie under).</p> - -<p>Calmeil has written, that virgins dedicated -to chastity by holy laws were -frequently visited by these demons, disguised -in the image of Christ, or of an -angel, or seraphim. Sometimes the -Devil took the form of the Holy Virgin, -and attempted to seduce young monks -from paths of piety. “Having impressed -the victims with the power of beauty,” -says the sage alienist,(<a id="FNanchor_69" href="#Footnote_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a>) “the wicked -demon then got into the bed of the young -girl, or young man, as the case might be, -and sought to seduce them through shameful -practices. The Gods, so say the ancients, -often sought the society of the daughters -of Princes; these pretended Gods were -nothing but demons. A Devil possessed<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_52"></a>52</span> -Rhea, under the form of Mars, and this -succubus passed for Venus the day Anchises -thought he cohabited with the Godess of -beauty.</p> - -<p>“The demon incubi accosted by -preference fallen women, under the form -of a black man, or goat. From times -immemorial, damned spirits have attacked -certain females, under the form of lascivious -brutes. Hairy satyrs or shags, fauns and -sylvains were only disguised incubi.</p> - -<p>The connections between the <i>possessed</i> -and <i>incubi</i> were often accompanied by a -painful sensation of compression in the -epigastric region, with impossibility of -making the least movement, the victim -could not speak or breathe. She had all -the phenomena noticeable in an attack of -nightmare. Meantime, some had different -sensations. A nun of Saint Ursula, -named Armella, said that she seemed -“always in company with demons who -tempted her to surrender her honor. -During five months, while this combat -lasted, it was impossible to sleep at night, -by reason of the specters, who assumed -varied and monstrous shapes.”<a id="FNanchor_70" href="#Footnote_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a> This -virtuous nun preserved her chastity notwithstanding -the frightful ordeal.</p> - -<p>Angele de Foligno accused the incubi, -says Martin del Rio, of beating her without -pity, of putting fire in her generative -organs, and inspiring her with infernal -lubricity. There was no portion of her -body that was not bruised by the attack of -these demons, and the lady was not able -to rise from her bed.</p> - -<p>Another nun, named Gertrude, cited -by Jean Wier, avowed that from the age -of fourteen years, she had slept with -Satan in person, and that the Devil had -made love to her, and often wrote her -letters full of the most tender and passionate -expressions. A letter was found in -this poor nun’s cell, on the 25th of March, -1565. This amorous epistle was full of -the details of the Demon’s nocturnal -debaucheries.</p> - -<p>Bodin, in his “Demonomania” gives -the observation of Jeanne Hervillier, who -was burned alive, by sentence of the -Parliament of Paris. She confessed to her -Judges, that she had been presented to the -Devil, by her grandmother, at the age of -twelve years. “A Devil in the form of a -large black man, who dressed in a black -suit and rode a black horse. This Devil -had carnal intercourse with her, the same -as men have with women, only without -seed. This sin had been continued every -ten, or fifteen days, even after she married -and slept with her husband.”</p> - -<p>This same author reports many instances -of the same kind. Among others, -that of Madelaine de la Croix, Abbess of -a nunnery in Spain, who went to Pope -Paul III., confessing, that from the age of -twelve years, she had relations with a -demon, <i>in the form of a Moor</i>, and, that for -more than thirty years this commerce had -been continued. Bodin firmly believes, -that this nun had been presented to Satan, -“<i>from the belly of her mother</i>,” and affirms -that “such copulations are neither illusions, -nor diseases.” In his work, he also gives -extracts of the interrogatories put to the -Sorcerers of Longni, in the presence of -Adrien de Fer, Lieutenant General of -Laon. These sorcerers were condemned -to be burnt at the stake, for having commerce -with incubi. He mentions Marguerite -Bremond, who avowed that she -had been led off one evening, by her own -mother, to a reunion of Demons, and -“found in this place six devils in human -shape, but hideous to behold. After the -demon dance was finished, the devils -returned to the couches with the girls, and -one cohabited with her for the space of -half an hour, but she escaped conception, -as he was seedless.”</p> - -<p>One of the distinctive characters of -demons, was their infectious stink, -which exhaled from all portions of the -body. This odor attributed to the Devil -was an hallucination to the sense of smell -which entered, like those of the genesic -sense, into all the complex hallucinations -of Demonomania.</p> - -<p>Examples of men cohabiting with -demons, are cited by many authors of the -Middle Ages. Gregory of Tours has left -us the record of Eparchius, Bishop of -Auvergne, who cohabited with succubi.</p> - -<p>Jerome Cardan, physician and Italian -mathematician, tells of a priest who cohabited -for over fifty years, with a demon -disguised as a woman.</p> - -<p>Pic de Mirandolle, relates how another -priest had commerce for over forty years -with a beautiful succubus, whom he called -Hermione. Bodin recounts the story of -Edeline, the Prior of a religious community<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_53"></a>53</span> -in Sorbonne. An adversary of Demonomaniacal -doctrines, Edeline was accused -by the theologians of defending demons. -Before the Tribunal the Prior declared -that he had been visited by Satan, in the -form of a black ram, and had prostituted -his body to an incubus, and only obeyed -his master in preaching that sorcery was -a chimerical invention. “Although -the proof furnished by the registers of the -Tribunal of Poitiers,” remarks Calmeil, -“leaves no doubt as to the alienation of -the intellectual faculties at the moment of -his trial, Edeline was none the less condemned -to perpetual seclusion from the -world.”</p> - -<p>As another striking example of hallucination, -bearing upon this question of incubism, -Guibert de Nogent tells of a monk, -“who was sick, and retained the services of -a Jew doctor. In exchange for health, -the aforesaid physician, demanded a -sacrifice. ‘What sacrifice?’ asked the -monk. ‘The sacrifice of that which is -the most precious to men,’ answered the -Jew. ‘What may that be?’ inquired the -monk. And the demon, for it was the -Devil disguised as a doctor, had the audacity -to explain. ‘Oh curses! Oh shame! -to require such a thing of a priest’—but -the victim, nevertheless, did what was -asked. It was the denial of Christ and the -true faith.”</p> - -<p>Like psycho-sensorial hallucinations of -the other senses, that of the genesic sense -may assume the erotic type of disease, and -is due undoubtedly, in some men, to a repletion -of the spermatic vesicules. It is -this that Saint Andre, physician in ordinary -to Louis XIV., gives as an explanation of -incubism. “The incubus,”<a id="FNanchor_71" href="#Footnote_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a> says this -writer, “a chimera that had for its foundation -only a dream, an over excited imagination, -too often a longing after women; -artifice had no less a part in the creation of -the incubus,—a woman, a girl, only a -devotee in name, already long before debauched, -but desiring to appear virtuous to -hide her crime, passes off the offenses of -some lover as the act of a demon; this is -the ordinary explanation. In this artifice -the woman is often aided by the <i>suggestions</i> -of the man—a man who has heard <i>succubi</i> -speaking to him in his sleep, usually sees -most beautiful women in his dreams, -which, under such circumstances, are often -erotic.”</p> - -<p>It is certain that an ardent imagination -and exaggerated sexual appetite have -played a leading <i>role</i> in the history of -<i>incubi</i>, but, meantime, there may be exceptions.</p> - -<p>Nicholas Remy, Inquisitor of Lorraine, -has given a description of <i>impurities</i> committed -between demons and sorcerers, -according to the testimony given by those -<i>possessed</i>.<a id="FNanchor_72" href="#Footnote_72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a> Fortunately, he has only given -a Latin version of what they have told -him. He states: “<i>Hic igitur, sive vir incubet, -sive succubet fœmina, liberum in utroque -naturæ debet esse officium, nihilque omnino -intercedere quod id vel minimum moretur atque -impediat, si pudor, metus, horror, sensusque, -aliquis acrior ingruit; il icet ad irritum redeunt -omnia e lumbis affœaque prorsus sit -natura</i>.”</p> - -<p>Then comes the sentence of the four -girls of Vosges, according to the confessions, -who were named Nanette, Claudine, -Nicola, and Didace, and of whom Nicholas -Remy, fortunately for the masses of the -profession, only speaks in Latin, lest modesty -be shocked at the narration. “<i>Alexia -Drigæa recensuit doémoni suo pœnem, cum -surrigebat tentum semper extitisse quanti essent -subices focarii, quos tum forte præsentes digito -demonstrabat; scroto ac coleis nullis inde pendentibus</i>, -etc.” (We forbear from further -quotation and for fuller particulars refer -the reader to the original.)</p> - -<p>Were these girls attacked by a malady, -a complex hallucination of the senses that -led them to firmly believe they were possessed -or owned by a supernatural being -who obliged them to abdicate their free -will in his favor? Were they only, after -all, prostitutes suffering from nymphomania? -We can only insist that prostitution, -or a low standard of morality, enters largely -into the history of those <i>possessed</i> by -incubi.</p> - -<p>Aside from imaginary <i>vigils</i> (Sabbat), -supposed to be frequented by those who -were really insane, it is well to remember -there were numerous houses of prostitution, -conducted by old bawds and unscrupulous -panderers, where nightly orgies -occurred and scenes of wild debauchery -were common. The real sorcerers boasted -of their magic and their relations with<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_54"></a>54</span> -demons, but, in reality, they knew nothing -except the art of compounding stupefying -drugs, of which they made every possible -use. Having passed their entire lives in -vice, their passions, instead of becoming -extinct, were exalted by age. “Before -ever becoming sorcerers,” remarks Professor -Thomas Erastus, “these <i>lamia</i> (magicians) -were libidinous and in close relation -with the Evil One.”<a id="FNanchor_73" href="#Footnote_73" class="fnanchor">[73]</a></p> - -<p>Pierre Dufour, the celebrated bibliomaniac, -made a very lengthy and learned -investigation as to the connection of sorcery -with the social evil, and reaped a -veritable harvest of facts, duly authenticated -by the histories of trials for the crime -of Demonidolatry, arriving at the conclusion -that sorcery made fewer dupes than -victims. Says Dufour: “Aside from a -very small number of credulous magicians -and sorcerers, all who were initiated in the -mysteries served, or made others serve, in -the abominable commerce of debauchery. -The <i>vigil</i> offered a fine opportunity as a -spot for such turpitudes. Such reunions -of hideous companies of libertines and -prostitutes was for the profit of certain -knaves, and the sorcerers’ assemblage was -patronized by many misguided young -women, who fell from grace through libidinous -fascination.”</p> - -<p>Meantime, sorcery persisted always, -notwithstanding judgments and executions. -In the year 1574, on the denunciation of -an old demented hag, eighty peasants were -burned alive at Valery, in Savoy. Three -years later nearly four hundred inhabitants -of Haut-Languedoc perished for the same -offense. In 1582 an immense number of -so-called sorcerers were executed at Avignon. -From 1580 to 1595 nine hundred -persons accused of witchcraft were put to -death.</p> - -<p>In 1609, in the country of Labourde -(Basses Pyrenees), the prisons were overcrowded -with men, women and children -accused of sorcery. Fires for stake-burnt -victims lit up all the villages in the Province, -and the courts spared no one. Many -of these unfortunates accused themselves -of believing in the demons of sorcery and -having visited diabolical gatherings (<i>vigils</i>), -where they had prostituted themselves to -incubi. Others, to whom the death penalty -was meted out, were innocent persons who -had been <i>informed against</i>, but these, too, -although denying all charges, were condemned -to be burnt alive.</p> - -<p>The same year some of the inhabitants -of the country of Labourde, who had -sought refuge in Spain, were accused of -having carried demons into Navarre. Five -of these unfortunates were burnt at the -stake by order of the Inquisition, one -woman being strangled and burned after -her death. Even bodies were exhumed to -be given to the flames. Eighteen persons -were permitted to make penance for their -alleged sorceries.</p> - -<p>During two years, 1615 and 1616, -twenty cases of Demonidolatry were punished -in Sologne and Berry; these persons -were accused of being at a vigil, without -having been anointed with frictions however. -An old villain, aged seventy-seven -years, named Nevillon, pretended to have -seen a procession of six hundred people, -in which Satan took the shape of a ram, -or buck, and paid the sorcerers eight sous, -for the murder of a man, and five sous for -the murder of a woman. They accused -him of having killed animals by the aid of -his bewitchings. Nevillon was hung along -with those he accused. Another peasant, -by the name of Gentil Leclercq, avowed -that he was the son of a sorcerer, that he -had been baptized at the <i>vigil</i>, by a demon -called <i>Aspic</i>; he was condemned to be -hanged, and his body was burnt. The -same it was in the case of a man called -Mainguet and his wife, together with one -Antoinette Brenichon, who asserted they -had all three visited a witch reunion in -company.</p> - -<p>An accusation of anthropophagy was -launched against the inhabitants of Germany, -by Innocent VIII., in 1484, and a -hundred women were also accused of -having committed murders, and cohabiting -with demons.</p> - -<p>The Inquisitors inspired the story of -Nider, on the Sorceries of the Vaudois. -They found, according to the testimony of -certain witnesses, that these Vaudois cut -the throats of their infants, in order to -make magical philters, which would permit -them to traverse space to attend the -<i>vigil</i> of the witches, (<i>Sorcerers</i>). Other -persons <i>accused themselves</i> of cohabiting -with demons; some pretended they had -caused disasters, floods and tempests, by -the influence they had through Satan. -Many submitted to the most horrible -tortures with an insensibility so complete,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_55"></a>55</span> -that the theologians concluded that the fat -of the first born males procured this -demonological faculty for bearing pain. -This general anæsthesia permits us to -affirm that these unfortunates were neuropathic.</p> - -<p>It would be a difficult matter to -establish the exact number of victims -offered up to the fanaticism of the Inquisition. -Already, in 1436, the inhabitants in -the country of Vaud, Switzerland, had -been accused of anthropophagy, of eating -their own children, in order to satisfy their -ferocious appetites. Some one said they -had submitted to the Devil, and raised the -outcry that they had eaten thirteen persons -within a very short time. Immediately -the Judge and the Prosecutor of Eude, -investigated the story. Failing to obtain the -proof of eye witnesses, they subjected, -according to Calmeil, hundreds of unfortunates -to the tortures of the rack, after -which a certain number were burned at -the stake. Entire families overpowered by -terror, fled from home, and found refuge -in more hospitable lands; but fanaticism -and death followed them like a plague.<a id="FNanchor_74" href="#Footnote_74" class="fnanchor">[74]</a></p> - -<p>The moral and physical torture, undergone -by those who were suspected of this -anthropophagical sorcery, made some of the -victims confess that they had the power to -kill infants, by uttering charm words, and -that ointments made of baby fat gave -them the power to fly through the air at -pleasure; that the practice of Demonic -science permitted them to cause cows and -sheep to abort, and, that they could make -thunder and hail storms, and destroy the -crops of others; that they could create -flood and pestilence, etc. This was the -anthropophagical epidemic of 1436.</p> - -<p>The same observations might be made -regarding what was known as lycanthrophy, -which always arose among the -possessed and sorcerers; that is to say -crazy people, especially those of the -monomaniac type, accused themselves and -others with imaginary crimes, in confessions -made to judges. As an example, we can -cite the case of the peasant, spoken of by -Job Fincel, and also one mentioned by -Pierre Burgot, of Verdun, who did not -hesitate to assert themselves to be guilty of -lycanthrophy. They were burned alive at -Poligny, but the remains of the five -women and children, whose flesh they -pretended to have devoured, were never -found. In order to transform themselves -into wolves, they claimed to use a pomade -given them by the Devil; and, while in a -certain condition, they copulated with -female wolves. Jean Wier has written -long essays on this last case of lycomania, -and thinks the malady of these two men -was due to narcotics, of which they made -habitual use; but Calmeil is inclined to -consider, that in a general manner, lycomania -is a partial delerium confined to -homicidal monomaniacs. This appreciation -of the case seems justified by the similar -one of Gilles Gamier, who was convinced -that he had killed four children, and eaten -their flesh. He was condemned to be -burnt at the stake at Dole, as a wehr-wolf, -(<i>loupe garron</i>), and the peasants of the -suburbs were authorized by the same order -to kill off all men like him. But we must -not conclude from this particular instance, -that a general law existed on the subject.</p> - -<p>In 1603, the Parliament of Bordeaux, -thought itself liberal in admitting attenuating -circumstantial evidence, in the case of -a boy from Roche Chalais, named Jean -Grenier, who was accused of lycanthropy, -by three young peasants. In the trial, no -attempt was made to find evidence, the -accused confessed all that was desired, -and he was sentenced to imprisonment for -life, before which verdict was announced, -the Court said, that having taken into -consideration the age and imbecility of -this patient, who was so stupid that an idiot -or child of seven years would know better, -it added mercy to the judgment.”</p> - -<p>He was then one of the imbeciles of -the village, such as we see in asylums for -insane, whose presence we rid ourselves of -by isolation in charitable institutions.</p> - -<p>At the same epoch, in the space of two -years, 1598 to 1600, we can count the -number of poor wretches of the Jura, -whose poverty compelled them to beg -nourishment, and who were almost all condemned -to death as Demonidolators and lycanthropes. -Ready and only too willing to -leave this world, these poor people answered -all questions as to accusation in the affirmative, -and went to death with the greatest -indifference. The infamous prosecutor, -Bouget, who was sent into the Jura as a -criminal agent, boasted that he had -executed alone more than six hundred of -these innocents.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_56"></a>56</span></p> - -<p>The Inquistorial terror then reigned -supreme; and it was only with extreme -difficulty, at that time, that a poor idiot, -named Jacques Roulet, condemned to -death as a lycanthrope by the criminal -Judge of Angers, was placed in an asylum -for idiots, by order of the Parliament of -Paris; this, too, in the seventeenth century.</p> - - -<h3>THE HYSTERO-DEMONOMANIA OF THE -CLOISTER.</h3> - -<p>The demonomaniacal hysteria of the -Cloister, of which we have enumerated a -few examples of a most remarkable kind, -was present, in the Middle Ages, in the -form of an epidemic neurosis, characterized -by complex disturbances of the nervous -system between the life of relation and -of organic life; that is to say, by functional -symptoms dependent on the general sensibility -of the organs of sense, the active -organs of movement, and the intelligence. -In our observations we shall consequently -recognize:</p> - -<p><i>Hyperæsthesia and spasm of the stomach -and abdominal organs</i>, in the hallucination -of poisoning by witches.</p> - -<p><i>Hyperæsthesia of the ovary and the uterus -and vagina</i>, from the hallucination of painful -cohabitation with incubi.</p> - -<p><i>Spasms of the pharynx and laryngeal -muscles</i>: coughs, screams and barks of -the prodromic period to convulsive -attacks.</p> - -<p><i>Vaso-motor disturbances</i>, in the cutaneous -marks, which are attributed to the Devil, -but are simply produced by contact with -some foreign body.</p> - -<p><i>Somnambulism</i>, in the execution of movements -(sometimes in opposition with the -laws of equilibrium), in a lucid state of -mind, outside the condition of wakefulness, -with or without mediumistic faculties and -the conservation of memory; in the perception -of sensations, without the intervention -of the senses; in sensorial hallucinations -produced by a simple touch; in <i>ecstasy</i>, -with loss of tactile sense and hallucinations -of vision.<a id="FNanchor_75" href="#Footnote_75" class="fnanchor">[75]</a></p> - -<p><i>Suggestion</i>, unconsciously provoked in -rapid modifications of sensibility, in alterations -of motility, in automatic movements -executed in <i>imitation</i> (<i>one form of suggestion</i>), -or by the domination of a foreign willpower, -and, in general, <i>in the penetration of -an idea or phenomenon into the brain</i>, by -word, gesture, sight, or thought.<a id="FNanchor_76" href="#Footnote_76" class="fnanchor">[76]</a></p> - -<p><i>Catalepsy</i>, in the immobility of the -body, the fixity of the regard, and the -rigidity of the limbs in all attitudes, that -we desire to place them (<i>a very rare</i> phenomenon).</p> - -<p><i>Lethargy</i>, in the depression of all parts -of the body, and a predisposition on the -part of the muscles to contract.</p> - -<p><i>Delirium, finally</i>, in the impossibility of -hoping to discern false from true sensations.</p> - -<p>We find, after this, that in analyzing -the principal symptoms of hystero-demonomania, -we easily note the characteristics of -ordinary hysterical folly; we see that <i>it -always attacks</i> by preference the impressionable -woman. She who is fantastic, -superstitious, hungry for notoriety, full of -emotions,—one who possesses to the highest -degree the gift of assimilation and imitation,—the -subject of nightmare, nocturnal -terrors, palpitations of the heart; a -woman fickle in sentiment, one passing -easily from joy to sadness, from chastity to -lubricity,—a woman, in a word, who is -capable of all manner of deceit and simulation, -a natural-born deceiver.</p> - -<p>The attacks of delirium among hystero-demonomaniacs -have always a pronounced -acute character; but, although violent -and repeated, they are liable to disappear -rapidly, and are often followed by relapse. -These attacks of delirium are -observed:</p> - -<p>1. <i>Before the convulsive attacks</i>, under -the form of melancholia or agitation, with -hallucinations of sight and hearing.</p> - -<p>2. <i>During convulsive attacks</i>, in the -period of passional attitudes, under the -most varied forms, by gestures in co-ordination -with the hallucinations observed by -the mind of the patient; we often see such -persons express the most opposite sentiments—piety, -erotism, and terror.</p> - -<p>3. <i>After convulsive attacks</i>, in the form<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_57"></a>57</span> -of despair, shame, rage, sadness, with an -abundant shedding of tears.</p> - -<p>4. <i>Without convulsive attacks</i>; in that -case, the delirium may occur at any period; -it is masked hysteria, which has a very -great analogy to masked epilepsy.</p> - -<p>The delirium of these patients, <i>en resume</i>, -has for essential characteristics, exaltation -of the intelligence, peculiar fixity of -ideas, perversion of the sentiments, absence -of will power, tendency to erotism. In a -number of observations on delirium among -hysterical cases in a state of hypnotism recently -published, patients have been noted -who believed that they cohabited with cats -and monkeys, while some had hallucinations -of phantoms and assassins—visions -that resulted from complex hallucinations -and have a certain similarity to those of -hystero-demonomania observed in the -Middle Ages; and, if the demons did -not actually play the principle <i>role</i> in these -hallucinations, it is because the imagination -had not the anterior nourishment and belief -in supernaturalism and no faith in the -sexual relations of demons with mankind.</p> - -<p>It was in 1491, about the time Jeanne -Pothiere was on trial, that it was noticed -that young girls in religious communities -were subject to an epidemic mental affection, -which led its victims to declare that -they had fallen into the power of evil -spirits. This species of delirium betrayed -itself to the eyes of its observers by a series -of strange and extravagant acts. These -patients at once pretended to be able to -read the future and prophesy. (See Calmeil, -work cited.)</p> - -<p>Abusive religious practices, false ideas -of the future life, a tendency to mysticism, -the fear of Hell and the snares of the Devil, -the development of hysterical neurosis, in -one subject, into suggestion inherent to -imitation; such was the succinct history of -the epidemic of the nuns of Cambrai. -Jeanne Pothiere, their companion, denounced -by them, was condemned to perpetual -imprisonment, for having cohabited -“434 times” (so the nuns said) with a Demon, -and having introduced the lustful -devil into their before peaceful convent. -For it could have been nothing less than a -demon that chased the poor young nuns -across the fields and assisted them to climb -trees, where, suspended from the branches, -they were inspired to divine hidden things, -to foretell the future, and be the victims of -convulsions.</p> - -<p>Sixty years later, in 1550, there suddenly -occurred a great number of hystero-demonomaniacal -epidemics similar to that -in the convent of Cambrai. The nuns of -Uvertet, following a strict fast, were attacked -by divers nervous disorders. During -the night they heard groans, when they -burst out in peals of hysterical laughter; -following this manifestation, they claimed -they were lifted out of their beds by a -superior force; they had, at the same time, -contractions in the muscles of the limbs -and of the face. They attacked each other -in wild frenzy, giving and taking furious -blows; at other times they were found on -the ground, as though “inanimate,” and to -this species of lethargy succeeded a maniacal -agitation of great violence. Like the nuns -of Cambrai, they climbed trees and ran -over the branches as agile as so many cats, -descending head downwards with feet in -the air. These manifestations were, of -course, attributed to a compact with the -Devil, and the officers of the law, acting -on the accusations of these nuns, arrested -a midwife residing in the neighborhood, on -the charge of witchcraft (<i>sorcery</i>). It is -needless to add that the midwife died soon -after.</p> - -<p>A neurosis almost similar occurred the -same year among the nuns at Saint -Brigette’s Convent. In their attacks these -nuns imitated the cries of animals and the -bleating of sheep. At chapel one after the -other were taken with convulsive syncope, -followed by suffocation and œsophageal -spasms, which sometimes persisted for the -space of several days and condemned the -victims to an enforced fast. This epidemic -commenced after an hysterical convulsion -occurred in one of the younger nuns, who -had entered the convent on account of -disappointment in love. Convinced that -this unfortunate creature had imported -a devil into the religious community, she -was banished to one of the prisons of the -Church.</p> - -<p>At about this same time another epidemic -of hystero-demonomania broke out -at the Convent of Kintorp, near Strasbourg. -These nuns insisted that they were -possessed. Convulsions and muscular contractions -which followed these attacks, -along with delirium, were attributed to -epilepsy. Progressively, and as though by -contagion, all the nuns were stricken. -When the hysterical attack arrived they -uttered howls, like animals, then assaulted<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_58"></a>58</span> -each other violently, biting with their teeth -and scratching with finger-nails. Among -those having convulsions the muscles of -the pharynx participated in the general -spasmodic condition. The attack was announced -by a fetid breath and a sensation -of burning at the soles of the feet. One -day some of the young sisters denounced -the convent cook, Elise Kame, as a sorcerer, -although she suffered like the others -from convulsive hysteria. This accusation -finished the poor girl, who, together with -her mother, was committed alive to the -flames. Their death, most naturally, did -not relieve the convent of the disease; the -nervous malady, on the contrary, spread -around in the neighborhood of the institution, -attacking married women and young -girls, whose imaginations were overpowered -by the recital of occurrences within -the convent walls.</p> - -<p>We must admit that at that period -doctors confounded hysteria with epilepsy. -Spasms of the larynx, muscular -contractions that we of the present day -can provoke experimentally, as well as -other phenomena of hysterical convulsions -in somnambulic phases of hypnotism, were -considered at that period only the manifest -signs of diabolical possession. As to the -stinking breath, which revealed the presence -of the Devil among the nuns, that is -a frequent symptom in grave affections of -the nervous system; it is often a prodroma -of an attack or series of maniacal convulsions. -We have found that this fetidity of -breath coincides with the nauseating odor -of sweat and urine, to which we attribute -the same semeological value as that of -the mouth.</p> - -<p>Another epidemic of hysterical convulsions, -complicated with nymphomania, -occurred at Cologne in 1554, in the Convent -of Nazareth. Jean Wier, who was -sent to examine these patients, recognized -that the nuns were possessed by the Demon -of lubricity and debauchery, who ruled -this convent to a frightful extent.</p> - -<p>P. Bodin has himself furnished the -proofs; it was this author who wrote the -history of erotic nuns. He remarks: -“Sometimes the bestial appetites of some -women lead them to believe in a demon; -this occurred in the year 1566, in the Diocese -of Cologne, where a dog was found -which, it was claimed, was inhabited by a -demon; this animal bit the religious ladies -under their skirts. It was not a demon, -but a natural dog. A woman who confessed -to sinning with a dog was once -burned at Toulouse.</p> - -<p>“But it may be that Satan is sometimes -sent by God, as certain it is that all punishment -comes from him, through his means -or without his means to avenge such -crimes, as happened in a convent in Hesse, -in Germany, where the nuns were demonomaniacs -and sinned in a horrible manner -with an animal.”</p> - -<p>Thus says Bodin, the public prosecutor -of sorcerers among the laity and the religious -orders. Would he not have shown -much greater wisdom if he had humanely -judged the actions of mankind, and had -condemned as social absurdities the innumerable -convents and monasteries to -which the fanaticism of the Middle Ages -attracted so many men and women who -might have followed more useful avocations? -The convulsions of nymphomaniac -girls were very wild, and diversified by -curious movements of the pelvis, while -lying in a position of dorsal decubitus, with -closed eyelids. After such attacks these -poor nervous nuns were perfectly prostrated, -and only breathed with the greatest -difficulty. It was thus with young Gertrude, -who was first attacked by a convulsive -neurosis which it was claimed had -been induced by nymphomaniac practices -in the convent, and that evil spirits possessed -these nuns.</p> - -<p>In 1609, hystero-demonomania made -victims in the Convent of Saint Ursula, at -Aix. Two nuns were said to be <i>possessed</i>; -these were Madeleine de Mandoul and -Loyse Capel. They were exorcised without -success. Led to the Convent of Saint -Baume, they denounced Louis Gaufridi, -priest of the Church of Acoules of Marseilles, -as being a sorcerer, who had bewitched -them.</p> - -<p>The Inquisitor Michaelis has left us the -history of this trial by exorcism. These -patients had all the symptoms of convulsive -hysteria, with nymphomania, catalepsy, -and hallucinatory delirium. This Judge, -however, only saw in these manifestations -the work of several demons, who tormented -these nuns one after, the other, at the -instigation of the priest, Louis Gaufridi, -who was arrested, tried, condemned by the -executioner, and led to the gallows with a -rope around his neck, in bare feet, a torch -in hand; thus punished, the unfortunate -and innocent priest fell into a state of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_59"></a>59</span> -dementia, and while in this condition confessed -that he was the author of the nuns’ -demonomania.</p> - -<p>As soon as Gaufridi had been sentenced -to death by the Inquisition, the -nuns of Saint Brigette’s Convent, at Lille, -who had assisted at the exorcism of the -nuns of Saint Ursula, in turn were attacked -by hystero-demonomania. The report soon -spread that they, too, were possessed, and -the Inquisitor Michaelis came to Avignon -to exorcise the demons. One of these -nuns, Marie de Sains, suspected of sorcery, -was sent to jail. Three of her companions, -treated by exorcism, denounced -the unfortunate girl as a witch. Marie de -Sains, who, up to this time, had asserted -innocence, finished by declaring herself -guilty towards the rest of the nuns in the -cloister. The demons found under the -nuns’ beds were placed there, according -to Marie’s statement, by the unfortunate -Gaufridi.</p> - -<p>She testified that, “the Devil, to recompense -the priest, gave him the title of -‘Prince of Magicians;’ and promised me,” -added the nun, “all kinds of sovereign -honors for having consented to poison the -other nuns’ minds by witchcraft. Sister -Joubert, Sister Bolonais, Sister Fournier, -Sister Van der Motte, Sister Launoy, and -Sister Peronne, who were first to have -symptoms of <i>possession</i> through diabolical -power, soon fell under the action of the -potent philter. The witchcraft was made -with the host and consecrated blood, powdered -billy goat horns, human bones, skulls -of children, hair, finger-nails, flesh, and -seminal fluid from the sorcerer; by adding -to this mixture pieces of the human liver, -spleen, and brain, Lucifer gave to the hideous -melange a virtue of terrible strength. -The sorcerers who gave this horrible concoction -to their acquaintances not only -destroyed them, but also a large number of -new-born children.”</p> - -<p>This unfortunate, besides, accused herself -of having caused the death of a number -of persons, including children, the -mother, and often godmother; she claimed -to have administered debilitating powders -to many others. She confessed to casting -an evil spell on the other nuns, which had -given them over to lubricity; declared she -had been to the witch <i>vigils</i> and cohabited -with devils, and that she had also committed -sodomy, had intercourse with <i>dogs</i>, -<i>horses</i>, and <i>serpents</i>; finally, she acknowledged -that she had accorded her favors to -the priest, Louis Gaufridi, whereas the nun -was really innocent.</p> - -<p>Marie de Sains was found guilty of being -possessed by a demon. She was exorcised -and condemned to perpetual imprisonment -and most austere penances by the -Court of Tournay.</p> - -<p>Immediately after the trial of Marie de -Sains another nun, Simone Dourlet, was -tried for the crime of sorcery, and by force -of torture and <i>suggestions</i>, she admitted to -have been at a witch <i>vigil</i> and was guilty. -The history of this poor girl is revolting, -for not only was she innocent of all crimes -imputed to her, but she was not even sick. -She was the victim of the hallucinations of -her companions.</p> - -<p>Another form of hystero- or hysterical -demonomania was observed the same year -near Dax, in the Parish of Amon, where -more than 120 women were attacked by -<i>impulsive insanity</i>, following the expression -of Calmeil, but which has been designated -by others as the <i>Mal de Laira</i>. This neurosis, -which was only a variety of hysteria, -was characterized by convulsions and loud -barking. De L’Ancre gives an interesting -description of this outbreak, but does not -fail to attribute the affection to sorcerers. -“It is a monstrous thing,” says he, “to -see in church more than forty persons, all -braying and barking like dogs, as on -nights when the moon is full. This music -is renewed on the entrance of every -new sorcerer, who has perhaps given the -disease to some other woman. These -possessed creatures commence barking -from the time they enter church.”</p> - -<p>The same barking symptoms were noticed -in dwellings when these witches -passed along the street, and all passers by -commenced to bark also when a sorcerer -appeared.</p> - -<p>The convulsions resembled those noticed -in enraged insane persons. During -the attack the victims would wallow on the -earth, beating the ground with their bodies -and limbs, turning their violence on their -own persons without having will power to -control their madness for evil doing. According -to Calmeil their cases were rather -hysterical than of an epileptic type.</p> - -<p>A very remarkable fact in regard to -this neurosis was that those women who -howled were exempt from convulsions and -reciprocally. These howls or barks were -comparable to the cries uttered by the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_60"></a>60</span> -nuns of Kintorp and the bleatings of the -sisters of Saint Brigette.</p> - -<p>We have also the record of a German -convent, where the nuns meowed like cats, -and ran about the cloister imitating feline -animals.</p> - -<p>It is useless to add that the <i>Mal de -Laira</i> was a cause of several condemnations -of nuns who admitted they had bewitched -their companions.<a id="FNanchor_77" href="#Footnote_77" class="fnanchor">[77]</a></p> - -<p>Among the numerous trials for Demonidolatry, -that which has been most noted -was certainly the case of Urbain Grandier, -and the Ursulines of Loudun, from 1632 -to 1639.</p> - -<p>The Convent of Loudun was founded -in 1611 by a dame of Cose—Belfiel. Only -noble ladies were received therein—Claire -de Sazilli, the Demoiselles Barbezier, Madmoiselle -de la Mothe, the Demoiselles -D’Escoubleau, etc. These titled ladies -had all received brilliant educations, but -had submitted to life in a nunnery by vocation. -Seven of these young women were -suddenly attacked by hallucinations. -They all claimed to be victims of witchcraft.</p> - -<p>During the night these girls went in -and out of the convent doors, sometimes -standing on their heads, as is the case with -certain individuals subject to natural -somnambulism. These nuns all accused -a chaplain of the order recently deceased -of causing their troubles, and -several of the ladies claimed that the -chaplain’s ghost made shameful propositions -to them.</p> - -<p>The disease grew worse from day to -day, until Justice was called on to interfere, -when the nuns changed their minds -and declared that the real cause of their -possession was in reality one Urbain Grandier, -priest to the Church of Saint Pierre -of Loudun, a man distinguished for his -brilliant intelligence, perfect education, -but rather given to gallantry, and a desire -for public notoriety.</p> - -<p>Was it Mignon, the new chaplain of the -order, who <i>suggested</i> to the nuns their pretended -persecutor?</p> - -<p>That was the story, but Urbain Grandier -attached no importance to the rumor.</p> - -<p>The attacks of the nuns increased more -and more, however, and were complicated -with catalepsy, ecstasy and nymphomania, -the victims making obscene and shameful -remarks. Then exorcisers were called in, -but met with no success. These ladies on -the contrary endeavored to provoke the -priests by lascivious gestures and indecent -postures. Some of them wriggled over the -floor like serpents, while others moved -their bodies backwards so that their heads -touched their heels, a motion, according -to eye-witnesses, made with the most extraordinary -quickness. At times the nuns -screamed and howled in unison like a chorus -of wild beasts.</p> - -<p>A historian of the time, De Le Menardy, -witness <i>de visu et de auditu</i>, has written: -“In their contortions they were as -supple and easily bent as a piece of lead—in -such a way that their bodies could be -bent in any form—backwards, forwards -and sidewise, even so the head touched the -earth, and they remained in these positions -up to such a time as their attitudes might -be changed.” These movements were -especially produced during the time of the -attempted exorcisms. At the first mention -of Satan “they raised up, passed their toes -behind their necks, and, with legs separated, -rested themselves on their perinæums -and gave themselves up to indecent -manual motions.” They were -delirious at this time from demonomanical -excitement. Madam de Belfiel claimed to -be sitting on seven devils, Madam de Sazilli -had ten demons under her, while Sister -Elizabeth modestly asserted her number -of imps to be five.</p> - -<p>During the exorcisms these poor women -<i>fell sound asleep</i>, which induces Calmeil to -think “the condition of these women resembled -closely that of <i>magnetic somnambulists</i>.” -This supposition would permit us to -explain the impossibility of the nuns telling -on certain days what they had said or done -during the course of a nervous attack. -The days when they escaped <i>contortions</i>—when -they were to the contrary violently -exalted by the nature of these tactile and -visceral sensations—they recalled too<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_61"></a>61</span> -much, for the power of reflection disgusted -these unfortunates with their own vile and -uncontrollable acts and assertions.</p> - -<p>This epidemic had continued fifteen -months, and all the Ursuline nuns had -been attacked by the epidemic when Laubardemont, -one of the secret agents of the -Cardinal Richelieu, arrived at Loudun to -examine into the alleged Demonidolatry -said to exist in the convent. The Cardinal -had given this agent absolute and extended -power. Urbain Grandier, who was the -author of a libel against Richelieu, was arrested -for complicity in this sorcery, and -brought before a commission of Justices, -whose members had been chosen by Laubardemont. -He was confronted by the -nuns, invited to exorcise them, and then -subjected to most cruel tortures. Iron needle -points were stuck in his skin, all over -the body, in order to find anæsthetised -points, which were the pretended marks of -the Devil.</p> - -<p>Notwithstanding his protestations of innocence, -the Judges taking the acts of the -accusers while in the poor priest’s presence, -for his appearance was the signal for scenes -of the most violent frenzy, condemned the -man to be tied to a gallows alive. There -he was subjected to renewed tortures, -while the various muscles of his body were -torn apart and his bones broken.</p> - -<p>The punishment of Urbain Grandier -did not put an end to the epidemic of hysterical -demonomania among the Ursulines, -for the malady extended to the people of -the town, even to the monks who were -charged with conducting the exorcisms; -but the vengeance of his Red Eminence -(Cardinal Richelieu) was satisfied.</p> - -<p>Many commentaries have been made -since then on this outbreak of Demonidolatry -among the Ursulines. These we have -no desire to reproduce nor to discuss, as it -would only tend to show the ancient ignorance -prevailing regarding diseases of the -nervous system, and the want of character -and weakness of the physicians of that -epoch, together with the fanaticism of the -monks and priesthood. One thing, however, -appears to be worthy of remembrance; -that is the analogy between the convulsive -symptoms observed among the nuns and the -phenomena of somnambulism described -by Calmeil. This fact appears to us as so -much the more remarkable, as the learned -doctor of Charenton was a declared adversary -of magnetism, and published his work -almost half a century since—that is, in -1845.</p> - -<p>The sleep into which the nuns fell during -the period of exorcism, the forgetfulness -of the scenes witnessed where they -had played such a <i>role</i>, are, to our mind, only -phenomena of hypnotism, and the resemblance -is so strong that we do not believe -it would be impossible to artificially -reproduce another epidemic of hysterical -demonomania.</p> - -<p>Let us for an instant accept the <i>hypothesis</i> -of a convent, where twenty young nuns -are confined. Of these at least ten will be -subject to hypnotism. Let us now admit -that these recluses, living the ordinary -ascetic and virtuous life of the cloister, -plunged deeply in the mysticisms of the -Catholic faith, receive one day as confessor -and spiritual director a man of energetic -character, knowing all the practices of -<i>hypnotism</i> and of <i>suggestion</i>—a disciple let -us say of Puel, Charcot, De Luys, Barety, -Bernheim—a perfect neurologist. Now, if -this man cared to magnetize individually -each of these nuns in the silence and obscurity -of the confessional, and should -then suggest to them that they were <i>possessed</i> -by all the demons known to sorcery, what -would occur? Let us suppose again that -he should carry his physiological power -further and put his <i>subjects</i> into an ecstacy, -catalepsy or lethargy—into a condition -where marked hallucinations might occur -and nervous excitation be provoked, how -long would it be before this man could -make these women similar to those who -once lived in the convent of the Ursulines -at Loudun?</p> - -<p>We have not admitted this fiction for the -purpose of having any one conclude that -the possessed of Loudun were the mere -playthings of some person who used hypnotism -in an interest that we ignore; but, -if this fact may be considered possible -by the will of an individual, who can -affirm at this day that there does not -exist an unknown force, intelligent or -not, capable of producing the same pathological -phenomena observed long ago? -What we call, in 1888, hypnotism in the -amphitheatres of our universities, we reserve -for another chapter, where we will -give revelations much more extraordinary, -and also more supernatural; our chapter -on the neurology of the nineteenth century -will, we promise, be <i>very interesting</i>.</p> - -<p>Let us yet remark that the hystero-demonomaniacal<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_62"></a>62</span> -manifestations were not -peculiar to the Ursulines of Loudun. They -have been observed in many convents in -the same conditions of habits and prolonged -fastings among debilitated young -girls; from long vigils spent in prayer and -nervous depression, caused by over-religious -discipline; by mystical exhortations -from a man invested in a sacred character, -on whom fall all the discussions, all the -entreaties, and all the thoughts of the girls -in the cloister.</p> - -<p>The history of the nuns of Loudun was -identically reproduced under the same -conditions among the sisters of Saint Elizabeth’s -Convent at Louviers, in 1643, three -years after the execution of poor Urbain -Grandier for witchcraft.</p> - -<p>In a short time eighteen nuns were -attacked with hysterical demonomania; -they had active hallucinations of all the -senses, convulsions, and delirium. Like -the Ursulines, they blasphemed, screamed, -and gave themselves over to all manner of -strange contortions, claiming to be <i>possessed</i> -by demons, describing in obscene terms -the orgies of the witch vigil (<i>Sabbat</i>), perpetrating -all varieties of debauchery, even -unknown to the vilest prostitutes; after -this they finally accused one or more persons -of bewitching them through sorcery.</p> - -<p>The nuns of Louviers, for instance, -after being duly exorcised according to the -Canons of the Church, accused as the -author of their affliction, and as a bad -magician, their old time confessor, the -Abbot Picard, who died before their symptoms -were developed; then they accused -another priest, by the name of Francois -Boulle, and several of their companions, -notably Sister Madeleine Bavan. These -innocent people were tried by the Parliament -of Rouen, who ordered that the body -of the priest, Picard, should be exhumed, -carried to the stake, there tied to the living -body of Francois Boulle, and after being -burnt their ashes should be cast to the -winds. This execution, in the open air, -occurred in the seventeenth century, in the -“Old Market Place” at Rouen, at the spot -where Joan d’Arc had also been burnt -alive for being <i>possessed</i>, as was claimed, by -supernatural beings. What a comment on -intelligence in an age of partial enlightenment!</p> - -<p>In order to close this chapter on hysterical -demonomania among religious orders, -of which we have given some -examples, we shall cite an interesting relation -left us by the Bishops and Doctors of Sorbonne, -together with the testimony of the -King’s deputies, regarding the <i>possession</i> of -nuns at the Convent of Auxonne. Here -there were always convulsions and screams, -with blasphemy, aversion to taking the sacraments, -possession, and exorcisms; and -there was, undoubtedly, the phenomenon of -<i>suggestion</i> observed with much precision.</p> - -<p>We might say that the nuns of Auxonne -were accessible to suggestion; for, at the -command or even the thought of the exorcists, -they fell into a condition of somnambulism; -in this state they became insensible -to pain, as was determined by pricking -Sister Denise under the finger-nail with a -needle; they had also the faculty of -prosternating the body, making it assume -the form of a circle,—in other words, they -could bend their limbs in any direction.</p> - -<p>The Bishop of Chalons reports that -“all the before mentioned girls, secular as -well as regular, to the number of eighteen, -<i>had the gift of Language</i>, and responded to -the exorcists <i>in Latin</i>, making, at times, -their entire conversation in the classical -tongue.</p> - -<p>“Almost all these nuns had a full -knowledge of the secrets and inner thoughts -of others;<a id="FNanchor_78" href="#Footnote_78" class="fnanchor">[78]</a> this was demonstrated particularly -<i>in the interior commandments</i>, which -had been made by the exorcists on different -occasions, which they obeyed exactly -ordinarily, <i>without the commandments being -expressed to them either by words or any external -sign</i>.</p> - -<p>“The Bishop himself, among others, experimented -on the person of Denise Pariset, -to whom, <i>giving a command mentally to -come to him immediately and be exorcised</i>, -whereupon the aforesaid nun immediately -came to him, although her residence was -in a quarter of the village far removed -from the Episcopal residence. She said -on these occasions that she was commanded -to come; and this experiment was repeated -several times.</p> - -<p>“Again, in the person of Sister Jamin, -a novice, who on hearing the exorcism, -told the Bishop his interior commandment -made to the Demon during the ceremony. -Also, in the person of Sister Borthon, who, -being <i>commanded mentally</i> to make her -agitations violent, immediately prostrated -herself before the Holy Sacrament, with her<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_63"></a>63</span> -belly against the earth and her arms extended, -executing the command at the -same instant, with a promptitude and precipitation -wholly extraordinary.”<a id="FNanchor_79" href="#Footnote_79" class="fnanchor">[79]</a></p> - -<p>Here, I believe, are facts so well -authenticated of transmission of thought or -of mental <i>suggestions</i>, perhaps <i>voluntarily -unknown</i> to certain modern neurologists. -These neuropaths of Auxonne presented -still more extraordinary phenomena; at -the word of command they suspended the -pulsations of the pulse in an arm, in the -right arm, for example, and transfered the -beatings from the right arm to the left -arm, and <i>vice versa</i>. This fact was discovered -by the Bishop, and many ecclesiastics -verified the same, and “it was promptly -done in the presence of Doctor Morel, -who recognized and makes oath to the -fact.”</p> - -<p>We cannot dwell too long on the Demonomania -of the Middle Ages, to which we -have, perhaps, added some historical facts -which are new and which we believe -it to be our duty to publish, seeing a -connection with modern hypnotism. We -shall thus open a new field for investigation -on strange affections, classed up to -the present time in all varieties of monomania, -but which appear to us to -belong to a variety of mental pathology -independent of insanity, properly speaking. -If it were otherwise it would be necessary -to recognize as crazy persons, not only the -Demonomaniacs of the Middle Ages, but -also the Jansenists, who went into trances, -and the choreics and convulsionists (<i>convulsionnaires</i>) -of the eighteenth century. -They were certainly not crazy, those who -came to the mortuary of Saint Medard, to -the tomb of the Deacon Paris, to make an -appeal against the Papal bull of Clement -XI. And was it not another cause than -auto suggestion, to which it is necessary to -attribute the nervous phenomena that the -<i>appelants</i> exhibited during thirty consecutive -years?</p> - -<p>The exaltation of religious ideas, so -often advanced by psychologists, cannot -account for these phenomena. I have seen -palpable proofs of this in the various accidents -that suddenly overcame sceptics and -strong-minded men of modern times, who -came as amateurs to assist at the experiments -on convulsive subjects. These -symptoms, as is well known, are usually -ushered in by violent screams, rapid beatings -of the heart, contractions of muscles, -and analogous nervous symptoms.</p> - -<p>Besides, it is incontestible that many -patients and infirm people obtain an unhoped -for cure following convulsive cries; -while others, in a state of health, are taken -with hallucinations and delirium. I have -seen patients who would lacerate certain -portions of the body that were the seat of -burns, and continue to walk, cry, gesticulate, -and abuse themselves, like insane -persons in a real state of dementia.</p> - -<p>The Jansenists did not speak, had no -compacts with demons, no exorcisms at -which Inquisitors and their acolytes could -suggest ideas of demonomania; and notwithstanding -their great austerities and the -most rigorous fasts, we note among the -<i>convulsionnaires</i> of Saint Medard only the -ideas of possession by the Holy Spirit and -divine favors obtained through the protection -of the kind-hearted Deacon; and -meantime, those possessed by God, as by -the Devil, were subjects of somnambulism, -to trances, lethargy, catalepsy, and other -phenomena.<a id="FNanchor_80" href="#Footnote_80" class="fnanchor">[80]</a></p> - -<p>The last analogy, finally, between the two -nervous epidemics, was the Royal authority, -a special form of <i>suggestion</i> in the -Middle Ages, which put an end to sorcery -or witchcraft as well as to Jansenism.</p> - - -<h3>HYSTERIA AND PSYCHIC FORCE.</h3> - -<p>Among the phenomena observed in -demonomaniacal hysteria there are some, -as we have remarked, that modern neurologists -have wished to <i>pass over in silence</i>, -because it was impossible to give a rational -explanation. It arose from that mysterious -force which acts upon the human personality -and its faculties and produces -<i>supernatural results</i> in contradiction to well -known scientific laws, known in one sense -as <i>Psychic Force</i>, but which is nothing else -than <i>modern spiritualism</i>.</p> - -<p>This force, a power possessed in a high -degree not only by hysterical persons, but -all varieties of neuropaths, who are designated -as <i>mediums</i> by spiritual psychologists, -<i>cannot be doubted by real scientists to day</i>.</p> - -<p>The demonologists of the Middle Ages -have often mentioned it in the demonomaniacs,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_64"></a>64</span> -and attributed it to possession by -evil spirits; and, if not pathologists, <i>they -did not disdain to occupy themselves with something -that tends to simplify the study of the -physiology of the nervous system</i>; but to minds -of the modern type, that consider science -as synonymous with truth, it seems strange -and incomprehensible that our learned investigators -should have been overpowered -by the fear of the criticism that might -overtake them because <i>they cannot explain -purely and simply an inexplicable fact, a truth, -real positive and certain</i>.</p> - -<p>Not being ourselves timorous to this -prudence, which is, they claim, one of the -conditions, <i>sine qua non</i>, to be a candidate -for the Institute of France, we shall now -pursue our investigations with the historical -documents regarding the medical -Middle Age we possess, and thus loyally -seek a scientific interpretation for facts observed -in modern spiritualism or <i>psychic -force</i>.</p> - -<p>Among these documents we will choose -as a type the “Trial made to deliver a girl -possessed by the Evil Spirit, at Louviers.” -This suit, which dates back to 1591, is in -reality a series of trials written up by -several magistrates, in the presence of -numerous witnesses, reporting with precision -all facts observed by them—facts interpreted, -it is true, with ideas of the demonidolatry -of the sixteenth century, but -having a character whose authenticity is -undisputed, and <i>even undiscussed</i>. The first -trial is thus conceived:<a id="FNanchor_81" href="#Footnote_81" class="fnanchor">[81]</a></p> - -<p>“On Saturday, the 18th day of August, -1591, in the morning at Louviers, in the -aforesaid place, before us, Louis Morel, -Councillor of the King, Provost General -and Marshal of France for the Province of -Normandy, holding Court in the service of -the King in the villages and castles of -Pont de l’Arche and Louviers, with one -lieutenant, one recorder, and fifty archers, -assisted by Monsieur Behotte, licentiate of -law, Judge Advocate and Lieutenant General -of Monsieur the Viscount of Rouen, -in the presence of Louis Vauquet, our -clerk.” * * *</p> - -<p>This old document, in French now -almost obsolete and difficult of translation,<a id="FNanchor_82" href="#Footnote_82" class="fnanchor">[82]</a> -goes on to state that in a house at -Louviers, belonging to Mrs. Gay, two -officers, belonging to the troops occupying -the town, who had temporary quarters with -Gay, complained to their commandant that -“a spirit in the house mentioned tormented -them.” Now, this house was occupied -by three ladies: Madame Gay, one of her -friends, a widow named Deshayes, and a -servant girl called Francoise Fontaine.</p> - -<p>Captain Diacre, who was commandant -of the village, found on investigation the -general disorder of the residence, the furniture -turned upside down, the two ladies -terrified, and the servant girl with several -wounds on her body. The latter was suspected -of being in league with the Devil, -and was arrested and cast into the prison -of the town. On her person was found a -purse containing a teston (old French -coin), a half teston, and a ten-sous piece. -The trial proved nothing. The ladies -might have had nightmare, the officers -might have been drunk, the noises heard -might have been the result of a thousand -different causes, but it is necessary to mention -this case in order to comprehend the -subsequent trials.</p> - -<p>The second trial, witnessed, tried, and -authenticated by the same authorities, determined -the fact that Francoise Fontaine -was born at Paris, Faubourg Saint Honore, -and that at the age of twenty two years she -had already witnessed similar phenomena -in a house “haunted,” said she, “by evil -spirits that frightened her so much that she -went to a neighbor’s to sleep while her -mistress was absent from home.” This -statement was proved correct in six subsequent -trials containing the depositions of -Marguerite Prevost, Suzanne Le Chevalier, -Marguerite Le Chevalier, and Perrine -Fayel.</p> - -<p>The following trial states that on Saturday, -the 31st of August, 1591, before -Louis Morel, Councillor of the King, -assisted by his clerk, Louis Vauquet, etc., -etc.,</p> - -<p>“Came Pierre Alix, first jailer and -guard of the prison, who threw himself on -his two knees before us, holding the prison -keys in his hand, pale and overcome by -emotion; for which action we remonstrated, -when he stated to our great astonishment -that he did not wish to longer act as -prison guard, for the reason that the evil -spirit that tormented the aforesaid Francoise -Fontaine likewise tormented him, and also -the prisoners, who desired to break jail<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_65"></a>65</span> -and fly in order to save themselves, having -a presentement that the aforesaid Francoise -Fontaine, was in a dungeon or pit, -and <i>that she had removed a great iron -door that had fallen upon her afterwards</i>; -and several persons having ran to her -along with the jailer found the aforesaid -Fontaine acting as though possessed by an -evil spirit, with her throat swollen,” etc.</p> - -<p>Let us pass over an interminable recital -made by Francoise Fontaine to the priests -and counsellors of the King, relative to -<i>diabolic possession</i>, to which she had been -subject all her life. Also, as to the testimony -of many witnesses as to her performance -while in jail; as, for instance, “the -body of Francoise rose in the air about -four feet, without being in contact with -anything, and she floated towards us in the -air,” etc., etc.</p> - -<p>Francois Fontaine claimed that she had -consented to belong to the Demon, who -was “a black man with whom she had -cohabited.” Considered from a medical -standpoint the girl was a victim to hysterical -demonomania.</p> - -<p>Let us make a few more extracts from -the records of this trial:</p> - -<p>“As the aforesaid Fontaine told us -these things, being meantime on her two -knees before us, who were seated on a -raised platform, the aforesaid Fontaine fell -forward on her face as though she had -been struck from above, and the candles -in the chandeliers of the room were extinguished, -except those on the clerk’s -table, the which were roughly blown upon -several times without being put out, when -no visible person present was near them to -blow, and these candles were raised out of -their candlesticks, lighted as they were, -and rubbed against the ground in an attempt -to extinguish them, and the which were finally -extinguished with a great noise, without -any human hand appearing near them; -the which so astonished the priest, the advocate, -the first jailer, the archers guard, -who were present, that they retired, leaving -us alone, the hour being then nine -o’clock at night.</p> - -<p>“Finding myself alone, I recommended -my soul to God, and exclaimed in a -loud voice the words, ‘My God, give me -grace not to lose my soul to the Devil, and -I command thee O, Demon, by the power -I have invoked, to leave the body of -Francoise Fontaine! Again I repeat the -command!’”</p> - -<p>At the same instant the exorcist felt -himself seized by the legs, arms and body, -and tightly held in the arms of an unknown -force, which felt hot and blew a warm -breath, while blows were rained on the -Judge’s body as though he were beaten by -a heavy piece of wood. He was struck on -the jaw and under the ear hard enough to -draw blood, etc.</p> - -<p>At the eleventh trial it was found that -Francoise Fontaine was bodily raised out -of bed during the night by an unseen -force, and this fact is duly authenticated -by witnesses.</p> - -<p>In the following trial the same phenomena -were produced in the church at -Louviers, during the mass of exorcism, -where:</p> - -<p>“Francoise Fontaine floated from the -earth into the air, higher than the altar, as -though lifted up by the hair by an unseen -hand, which quickly alarmed the assistants, -who had never before witnessed such an -occurrence,” etc.</p> - -<p>In presence of these facts Francoise -was led back to prison, and it was decided -by the clerical council, assisted by two -eminent physicians, Roussel and Gautier, -to cut off the girl’s hair, as was the custom -when witches were arrested.</p> - -<p>During this operation, which was performed -publically by Dr. Gautier, the same -phenomenon was reproduced. For says -the veracious old French chronicle: -“Francoise est de rechef enleuee en l’air -fort hault, la tete en bas, les pieds en hault -sans que ses accoustrementz se soient -renuersez, au trauers desquelz il sortoit par -deuant et par derriere grande quantite -d’eaue et fumee puante.”</p> - -<p>Like the many preceding trials, with -experiments, which are duly attested by -magistrates, physicians and the clerk, -seven person in all, who witnessed the -phenomena, as to material facts, we -cannot suspect people whose honesty was -never doubted; for it was through their influence -that Francoise Fontaine was set at -liberty, after all her inexplicable symptoms -had disappeared and her nervous malady -abated.</p> - -<p>In order to render an account of the -<i>supernatural</i> phenomena observed by early -demonographers and attributed to evil spirits, -let us briefly glance at the experiments -made regarding <i>Spiritualism</i> by a few -brave physiologists of our own epoch, who -have dared to investigate the analogy<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_66"></a>66</span> -existing between these two orders of phenomena.</p> - -<p>Among the modern experimenters who -have made a scientific study of this subject—let -us call it <i>Psychic Force</i>, if you -will—we will mention Mr. Crookes, member -of the Royal Society of London, the -(English Academy of Sciences), the master -mind, the most illustrious in modern science; -the discoverer of thallium, radiant -matter, photometer of polarization, spectral -microscope—a chemist and physicist -of the first order, accustomed to the most -minute experimental investigations.</p> - -<p>The experiments of this <i>savant</i> have -been arranged by him in three classes, as -follows:</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Class I.</span>—<i>Movement of weighty bodies -with contact, but without mechanical effort.</i></p> - -<p>This movement is one of the most simple -forms of the phenomenon observed; it presents -degrees that vary from trembling or -vibration of the chamber and its contents -up to the complete elevation in the air, -when the hand is placed above, of a -weighty body. We commonly object that -when they touch an object put in motion, -they push, draw or raise it. I have experimentally -proved that this is impossible in -a great number of cases; but, as a matter -of evidence, I attach little importance to -that class of phenomena considered in -themselves, and have only mentioned them -as a preliminary to other movements of the -same kind, but without contact.</p> - -<p>“These movements (and I may truly -add all other similar phenomena) are generally -preceded by a particular breeziness -of the air, amounting sometimes almost to -a true wind. This air disperses leaves of -paper and lowers the thermometer several -degrees.</p> - -<p>“Under some circumstances, to the -subject of which I shall, at some future -day, give more details, I have not found -any of this air; but the cold was so intense -that I can only compare it to that experienced -by placing the hand at a short distance -from mercury in a state of congelation.” -(<i>Crookes</i>).</p> - -<p>I have obtained, like the eminent -“member of the Royal Society of London,” -the movement of weighty bodies by -contact very easily, not only lifting massive -tables of a weight altogether out of proportion -and far superior to the force of a very -robust man, but have also seen this furniture -move in a given direction; I have -even noted a small square table keep time -in beating with a determined cadence. -This phenomenon, well known to all experimenters, -may be reproduced without -the assistance of a powerful medium; it -was well known in times of antiquity, but -is not mentioned in the writings on sorcery -during the Middle Ages.</p> - -<p>As extraordinary as these facts seem, -they are no more singular than those observed -by W. Crookes, and very recently -by Zoellner,<a id="FNanchor_83" href="#Footnote_83" class="fnanchor">[83]</a> Professor in the University -of Leipsic and correspondent of the French -Institute, in presence of Professors Fechner, -Braune, Weber, Scheibner, and the -celebrated surgeon, Thiersch. It was with -Slade, an American medium as extraordinary -as Home, that Zoellner experimented. -These experiments may be thus briefly -mentioned:</p> - -<p>1. Movements made by psychic force, -through the medium of Slade, of a magnet -enclosed in a compass box.</p> - -<p>2. Blows struck on a table, a knife -raised in air, without contact, to the height -of a foot.</p> - -<p>3. Movement of heavy bodies. Zoellner’s -bed was drawn two feet from the -wall, Slade remaining seated with his back -to the bed, his legs covered and in full -view of the experimenters.</p> - -<p>4. A fire-screen broken with noise, without -contact with the medium, and the fragments -thrown five feet.</p> - -<p>5. Writing produced on several experimental -occasions between two slates -belonging to Zoellner, and held well in -view.</p> - -<p>6. Magnetization of a steel needle.</p> - -<p>7. Acid reaction given to neutral substances.</p> - -<p>8. Imprints of hands and naked feet on -smoked surfaces or surfaces powdered with -flour, which did not correspond with the -hands and feet of the medium, who remained -meantime in full view of the experimenters, -while Slade’s feet were covered -with shoes.</p> - -<p>9. Knots tied in bands of copper sealed -at both ends and held in the hands of -Slade and Zoellner, etc.</p> - -<p>We find the same tests and facts observed -by Mr. Crookes and the French -experimenters, who, following his example, -have sought to account for <i>Psychic Force</i>.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_67"></a>67</span></p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Class II.</span>—<i>Phenomenon of percussion -and other analogous noises.</i></p> - -<p>The popular name of <i>spiritual rapping</i> -gives a very poor idea of this class of phenomena. -On different occasions during -his experiments, Mr. Crookes heard blows -of a delicate variety, such as might be produced -by the point of a needle; a cascade -of sounds, as acute as those coming from -an induction coil in full activity; sharp -blows or detonations in the air; acute -notes of a metallic variety; rasping sounds -similar to that heard from a machine with -rubbing action; noises like scratching; -twittering chirps like a bird, etc.</p> - -<p>“I have observed these noises,” says -Crookes, “with the majority of mediums, -each of whom has a special peculiarity. -They were more varied with Mr. Home; -but, for force and certainty of result, I -have never met a medium who approached -Kate Fox. For several months I experimented, -it may be said, in an unlimited -manner, and verified the different manifestations -induced by the presence of this -lady, and I especially examined the phenomenon -relative to these noises.</p> - -<p>“With mediums, it is necessary in -general that they be methodically seated -for the <i>seance</i> before noises are heard, but -with Miss Kate Fox it was sufficient to -merely place her hand on any object, no -matter what, and violent blows were heard, -like a triple sound of beating, and sometimes -so loud as to be heard at different -pieces of furniture in the room.</p> - -<p>“In this manner, I have heard these -noises on a living tree, on a fragment of -glass, on a membrane extended in a frame—for -instance, a tambourine—on the top -of a cab, and on the edge of the parquet -railing in the theatre.</p> - -<p>“However, effective contact is not always -necessary. I have heard the noise sound -inside walls, when the hands and feet of -the medium were tightly held; when Miss -Fox was seated in a chair; when she was -suspended above the platform; finally, -when she had fallen on a sofa in a dead -faint.</p> - -<p>“I have heard these same noises on -the harmonica; I have felt them on my -shoulder and under my hands; I have -heard them on a leaf of paper held between -the fingers by the aid of a wire passed -through one corner.</p> - -<p>“With a perfect knowledge of the -numerous theories advanced, in America -principally, to explain these knocks or -spirit rapping, I have verified them by all -methods I could imagine, so that I have -acquired a positive conviction as their objective -reality, and the absolute certainty -that it was impossible to produce these -sounds by artifice or some mechanical -means.</p> - -<p>“An important question is here asked -that deserves attention, <i>i.e.</i> ‘<i>are these noises -governed by an intelligence?</i>’<a id="FNanchor_84" href="#Footnote_84" class="fnanchor">[84]</a></p> - -<p>“From the commencement of my investigations, -I have recognized the fact that -the power which produced the phenomena, -was not simply a fluid force, but that <i>it is -associated with an intelligence, or follows its -directions</i>.”</p> - -<p>During the three years that I have -experimented in psychology with Dr. -Puel and his friends, there has been no -<i>seance</i> where we have not been able to -determine more or less important phenomena -of percussion. An experiment I -love to make is that of striking my fingers -on the table, either to imitate the music of -a band with drum accompaniment with -some known air, and the same sound is -immediately produced on the under surface -of the piece of furniture, with the same -rhythm appearing to be invoked by an -invisible hand performing under the table. -This phenomenon is manifested sometimes -spontaneously upon my demand or that of -my assistant. I observed it one evening at -my own house for more than a quarter of -an hour from, the moment I entered the -room; in this case the noise was a rolling, -which appeared to arise from the metallic -surface of a table. It was a member of -my family who called my attention to the -abnormal noise, so much the more curious, -inasmuch as I could produce it at will, -giving shades and variations expressed by -the movements of my hand. In order to -respond in advance to any objection, I will -say it was two o’clock in the morning when -this phenomenon was produced, and there -was no passing carriages in the street to -make any kind of a vibration.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_68"></a>68</span></p> - -<p>These phenomena of percussion are -sometimes produced with a most extraordinary -intensity, as in the observations of -Kate Fox in the house at Hydesville; -these were probably only phenomena of -percussion similar to those observed at -Louviers, in the home of Madame Gay, -under the mediumship of Francoise Fontaine, -in 1591, manifestations which were -then attributed to the Devil, or later to a -condition of hallucinations, among the -witnesses, according to the <i>materialistic -psychologists</i> of the nineteenth century.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Class III.</span>—<i>Alteration of the weight of -bodies.</i></p> - -<p>The experiments made by Mr. Crookes, -in regard to the alterations in the weight of -bodies, enters the category of psychic -phenomena examined with the most mathematical -exactitude, by the aid of accurate -registering apparatus. It is in these -experiments that the celebrated English -physician was able to witness <i>Psychic Force</i> -developed by his <i>medium</i>.</p> - -<p>The description and designs of the -apparatus thus used may be found in -the “<i>Moniteur de la Policlinique</i>,” of the -7th and 14th of May, 1882, and in “<i>Le -Spiritisme</i>” of Dr. Paul Gibier, published -in the year 1887.</p> - -<p>This article is too lengthy for reproduction -in this work, but we have the right to -consider it as the point of departure for -experimental psychology, for not only have -they not been denied in France and other -countries, but <i>they have been recognized as -absolutely true</i>, by several colleagues of Mr. -Crookes, belonging to the <i>Royal Society of -London</i>.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Class IV.</span>—<i>Movements of heavy bodies -at a distance from the medium.</i></p> - -<p>“There are numerous instances in -which heavy objects, such as tables, chairs, -ropes, etc., have been moved when the -medium never touched them. I will mention -a few striking cases.</p> - -<p>“My own chair turned half way around -while my feet were on the floor.</p> - -<p>“In full view of all the people present, -a chair started from a far off corner and -advanced slowly to a table while we were -watching its movement.</p> - -<p>“On another occasion an arm chair -came from to the place we were seated, -and then, on my demand, slowly returned -backward a distance of three feet.</p> - -<p>“During three consecutive <i>seances</i>, a -small table crossed the room under -conditions I had especially fixed in advance, -in order to respond victoriously to all -objections that might possibly be raised -against the reality of the phenomenon.</p> - -<p>“I repeated on several occasions the -experiment considered as conclusive by the -“<i>Dialectic Society</i>,” that is to say, the -movement of a heavy table in a full glare -of light, the backs of chairs being turned -towards the table about one foot of distance, -each person being in a kneeling -posture upon his chair, the hands placed -upon the back above the table, but not -touching it.</p> - -<p>“On one of these occasions, the -experiment took place while I walked all -around the table in order to see how each -person was placed.” (<i>Crookes</i>).</p> - -<p>In our own seances, with Madam -Rosine, L.B., we have seen, ten or twelve -times at least, a small table on rollers, -advance towards us as though moved by a -force of attraction or repulsion.</p> - -<p>A similar phenomenon was very often -produced in my office, under the mediumistic -influences of M. D. with a strength -of extraordinary propulsion, which seemed -to originate in brute force. The traces of -violent shocks of a table against my bureau -still remain to testify to the results of this -occurrence.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Class V.</span>—<i>Chairs and tables raised from -the earth without contact with any person.</i></p> - -<p>“A remark usually made when cases -of this kind arise is: ‘Why do these things -only occur with chairs and tables? Is this -a privilege solely enjoyed by pieces of -furniture?’ I wish to answer this by -stating that I simply observed facts and -report them without pretending to enter -into the <i>why</i> and <i>how</i>; but, in truth, it is -very evident that if any inanimate object -of a certain weight can be lifted from the -earth in the ordinary dining room, it could -as easily be anything else than a chair or -table.</p> - -<p>“That such phenomena are not limited -to furniture I have numerous proofs, as -have other experimenters; the <i>intelligence</i> -or <i>force</i>, whichever it may be, that produces -the manifestations, can only operate with -materials that are at its disposition.</p> - -<p>“On five distinct occasions a heavy -dining table was raised from the floor for a -height varying from some inches to a foot -and a half, under special imposed conditions -that made fraud impossible.</p> - -<p>“On another occasion a heavy table<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_69"></a>69</span> -was raised to the ceiling, in full light, -<i>while I held the feet and hands of the -medium</i>.</p> - -<p>“At another time the table raised itself -above the floor, without any one touching -it, but under conditions I had previously -imposed in such a manner as to render the -proof of the fact incontestable.” (<i>Crookes.</i>)</p> - -<p>The phenomena observed in this class -of experiments belong to those of <i>movement -without contact</i>. Although these are difficult -to obtain, I have noticed them several -times; I have seen, in my own home, a -massive table raised some distance from -the floor ten or fifteen seconds after all -contact had ceased. Dr. Gibier had the -advantage of obtaining complete levitation -and seeing the table <i>turn and touch the ceiling -with its four feet</i>, under the mediumistic -influence of Mr. Slade. The Doctor -affirms this fact in his own book on the -subject.</p> - -<p>In the trial of August 31st, 1591, a -phenomenon similar to the one narrated -befell Francoise Fontaine, <i>i.e.</i>, the fall of an -iron door on the unfortunate girl; the elevation -in the air of a washtub and its -being emptied in the presence of the jailer -and the prisoner Aufrenille. Francois -Fontaine was evidently a <i>medium</i> with -<i>psychic effects</i>.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Class VI.</span>—<i>Raising human beings in the -air.</i></p> - -<p>“This phenomenon has taken place in -my presence four times, although in obscurity. -The conditions under which these -movements were performed, however, -were completely satisfactory; but the ocular -demonstration of such a thing is necessary -to prevent the effects of our preconceived -opinions; for example, upon that -which is <i>naturally possible or impossible</i>, I -shall only mention here cases in which the -deductions of reason have been affirmed -by the sense of vision.</p> - -<p>“I saw, one day, in the quality of -spectator, a chair on which a lady was -seated raised from the floor several inches.</p> - -<p>“On another occasion, in order to -avoid being suspected of producing the -phenomenon by artificial means, the lady -knelt on the chair, so that the four legs of -the piece of furniture were visible to every -eye; then the chair was lifted from the -floor three inches, remaining suspended in -the air for ten seconds, when it slowly descended -to the floor again.</p> - -<p>“Another time, but separately, two -children were raised to the ceiling in their -chairs, under a full glare of light, under -conditions entirely satisfactory to me, for I -was on my knees and attentively watched -the feet of the chairs in order to see that -no one touched them.</p> - -<p>“The most remarkable examples of -levitation I have observed have taken -place with Mr. Home. On three occasions -I have seen him lifted to the ceiling of the -room. On the first occasion he was seated -in a chair, the second time he was kneeling -on a chair, and the third experiment -he stood on the chair. In all these instances -I had every facility for examining -the phenomena at the moment they occurred.</p> - -<p>“Over a hundred instances where Mr. -Home was raised from the floor in the -presence of numerous witnesses have been -published, and I have had the oral testimony -of at least three witnesses to these -exhibitions, <i>i.e.</i>, Count Dunraven, Lord -Lindsay, and Captain Wynne.</p> - -<p>“To reject the numerous depositions presented -on this subject would be to reject all -human testimony on any other subject; for -there are no facts in history, be they sacred -or profane, that are supported on such a -solid basis of proof.</p> - -<p>“The number of witnesses who will -testify to the levitations of Mr. Home is -overwhelming. It is to be greatly desired -that persons whose testimony would be -accepted as conclusive by the scientific -world would seriously examine with patience -these facts.</p> - -<p>“The majority of ocular witnesses of -these phenomena are still living, and will -most assuredly bear witness; but in a few -years it will be difficult, if not impossible, -to obtain such <i>direct evidence</i> as in the case -of Home.” (<i>Crookes.</i>)</p> - -<p>It is to this class of phenomena that the -case of Francois Fontaine belongs, the -authenticated facts of which, officially recorded -and witnessed, are matters of history; -her levitations in the prison at -Louviers cannot be doubted.</p> - -<p>The cataleptic symptoms accompanying -the ascentional movements of this -woman bear witness as to the special -neuropathic condition in which she was -found—a condition to-day in which most -mediums develop <i>psychic force</i>, either spontaneously -or following hypnotic maneuvers.</p> - -<p>One of the benefits to future science<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_70"></a>70</span> -will be the explanation given to these phenomena -now considered supernatural; -things that our learned Academicians -refuse to believe in, <i>although not investigating</i>, -insisting that such phenomena are -hallucinations, the mere assertions of -writers and those who witness them; while -these so-called <i>savants</i>, who laugh spiritualism -to scorn, claiming it a fraud and imposture, -are themselves afraid to be convinced -by scientific experimentation.<a id="FNanchor_85" href="#Footnote_85" class="fnanchor">[85]</a></p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Class VII.</span>—<i>Movement of small objects -without personal contact.</i></p> - -<p>“Under this title I propose to describe -certain particular phenomena of which I -have been a witness.</p> - -<p>“I shall content myself to here allude -to some facts all the more surprising, since -those who have witnessed them did so -under circumstances that rendered all deception -impossible; it would be foolish to -attribute these results to fraud, for the phenomena -were not observed in the house of -a medium, but in my own home, where -any previous preparation was out of the -question.</p> - -<p>“A medium was taken to my dressing -room and seated in a certain portion of the -chamber under the watchful eyes of a -number of attentive witnesses, and played -an accordion <i>I held in my own hand</i> with -the keys upside down; this same accordion -then floated in the air, playing as -it remained suspended.</p> - -<p>“This medium could not secretly introduce -to my home a machine strong enough -to rattle my windows and remove Venetian -blinds to the distance of eight feet; to -tie knots in my handkerchief and carry it -to a far-off corner of a large room; to play -notes on a piano at a distance; to make a -plate float around the room; to raise a -water carafe from a table; to make a coral -necklace stand up on one of its limber extremities; -to put a fan in the usual society -motions; or to start the pendulum of a -clock when the time piece was sealed -in glass and screwed tightly to the wall.” -(<i>Crookes.</i>)</p> - -<p>These same phenomena are produced -by Fakirs. A certain number of fig or -other leaves are perforated by bamboo -sticks stuck in the ground. The charmer -extends his hands, the leaves move up along -the long sticks on which they are strung.</p> - -<p>Another experiment: a vase is filled -with water and spontaneously moves over -a table, leans, oscillates, is raised a perceptible -height, without a drop of water being -spilled.</p> - -<p>Musical instruments render sounds, -play melodious airs, under the eyes of the -investigator, at some distance from the -Fakir and without the latter making any -apparent movement. Dr. Gibier cites -these phenomena, witnessed by persons -entitled to every confidence.</p> - -<p>During seances at the home of my -friend Dr. Fuel, with Madam L. B., we -have witnessed similar phenomena. Several -times my <i>confrere</i> and I have seen -damask curtains at his office windows -shake and open; have heard the sound of -a small trumpet placed in the center of a -table, in the dark, it is true, but we were -holding each other’s hands in the circle -and used all possible precautions not to be -duped or humbugged.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Class VIII.</span>—<i>Luminous apparitions.</i></p> - -<p>“These manifestations are weak and -generally require a darkened room. I wish -to recall to my readers the fact that on -these occasions I have taken all the necessary -precautions to avoid being deceived -by light due to luminous oils (of which -phosphorous might form the basis) or other -means. Besides, I have endeavored in -vain to imitate these lights artificially.</p> - -<p>“I have seen under experimental conditions -of the most severe sort, a solid -body having its own light about the size of a -goose egg float around the room without -noise at a height not to be touched even -by standing on ones toes, afterwards softly -descend to the floor.</p> - -<p>“This luminous globe remained visible -for more than ten minutes before disappearing; -it struck the table on three occasions, -making the noise produced by any -hard and solid body of the same size.</p> - -<p>“During this time, the medium was<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_71"></a>71</span> -seated in an arm chair, in an apparent -condition of insensibility.</p> - -<p>“I have seen luminous sparks disport -themselves above the heads of various persons.</p> - -<p>“I have obtained response to questions -by means of flashes of light, any number -of times in front of my own face.</p> - -<p>“I have seen sparks of light rise from -the table and to the ceiling and fall back on -the table with a distinct noise of solidity.</p> - -<p>“I have obtained, alphabetically, a -communication, by means of flashes of -light, produced in mid air, before my eyes, -while my hand moved around in the rays -of the communicating light; I have seen a -luminous cloud float up and rest on a picture.</p> - -<p>“On several occasions, under similar -conditions of severe control, a body solid -in appearance but crystalline, having a -light of its own, has been placed in my -hand by a hand not belonging to any person -present in the room. In <i>the full glare -of light</i>, I have seen a luminous body fly to -the top of a heliotrope placed on top of a -<i>console</i>, break off a small branch of the -plant and carry it to the hand of a lady -present.</p> - -<p>“I have sometimes seen similar luminous -clouds <i>visibly condense, assume the form -of a hand</i>, and carry small articles to people, -but these phenomena properly belong -to another class of manifestations.” (<i>Crookes</i>).</p> - -<p>The only phenomena of this nature that -I have noticed were produced under the -following circumstances: One evening, -after commencing some experiments with -Madam L. B., in the parlor of Dr. Puel, -we were obliged to cut the <i>seance</i> short -owing to a convulsive hysterical attack -that overcame the medium—an attack -which lasted more than an hour and which -was only stopped by the application of -metallic plates to the thorax. Having regained -consciousness, the lady, with her -husband and Dr. Puel, retired to the latter’s -consultation office, where I was summoned -a few moments later by my <i>confrere</i>. -Madam L. B. was standing, supported by -my two friends,<a id="FNanchor_86" href="#Footnote_86" class="fnanchor">[86]</a> while from her chest -arose phosphorescent vapors, which grew -more dense and thick as the lights in the -room were turned down. These phenomena -lasted more than a quarter of an hour, -during which Madam L. B. uttered long -and painful groans. These vapors had the -odor of phosphorus, and seemed to rise -from the epigastric region.</p> - -<p>I was called some months later to -attend to Madam L. B., whom I found in a -condition of profound anæmia and mental -prostration, reminding me of the <i>seance</i>; I -prescribed granules of phosphoric acid for -her with excellent results.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Class IX.</span>—<i>Apparition of hands, either -luminous or visible under ordinary light.</i></p> - -<p>“One finds himself frequently touched -by hands, or something having the form of -hands, during <i>dark seances</i>, or under circumstances -which do not permit us to see -these forms; but <i>I have seen these hands</i>.</p> - -<p>“I shall not speak here of instances in -which the phenomenon occurred in obscurity, -but will simply choose some of the -<i>numerous instances</i> in which I have seen the -hands <i>in the light</i>.</p> - -<p>“A small hand, of charming shape, -has risen from the table and extended me -a flower; this hand appeared and disappeared -three times at intervals and gave -me every opportunity to convince myself -that it was, in appearance, as real as my -own. This occurred in a full light, in my -own room, while I held the hands and feet -of the medium.</p> - -<p>“On another occasion, a small hand -and arm, similar to those of a child, appeared -to play around a lady seated near -me; this arm floated to my side, struck -my arm lightly and pulled my coat several -times.</p> - -<p>“Another time, I saw an arm and -hand tear the petals from a flower placed -in Mr. Home’s <i>boutonniere</i> and hold the -same before the faces of parties sitting near -him.</p> - -<p>“On this occasion, and with other witnesses, -who saw the same manifestations, a -hand touched the keys of an accordeon -and played the instrument, while the -medium’s hands were visible meantime, -and even held at times by persons seated -near him.</p> - -<p>“The hands and fingers have always -appeared solid and like those of any living -person; at times, however, they appeared -nebular, condensations in the form of -hands.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_72"></a>72</span></p> - -<p>“These phenomena were not visible to -the same extent to all the persons present. -For example, one person would see a -flower or other small object; another person -would see a small cloud of luminosity -fly over the flower; another, still, would -notice a nebulous hand; while others, -again, would simply see the movement of -the flower.</p> - -<p>“I have seen, on several occasions, an -object move with the appearance of a -luminous cloud and perfectly condense -into the form of a hand; under such circumstances -the hand is visible to all persons -present.</p> - -<p>“It is not always a simple form, for -often the hand perfectly resembles that of -a living person, and has every element of -grace; the fingers move; the flesh presents -a human appearance, the same as though -that of a living person; at the wrist or arm -this form may become nebulous, and end -in a luminous cloud of vapor.</p> - -<p>“To the touch the hand appears cold, -icy as in death at times; while on other -occasions it feels warm and living, clasping -my hand like that of an old friend would.</p> - -<p>“I have retained one of these hands in -mine, <i>firmly resolved not to let it escape</i>; it -made no resistance nor effort to disengage -itself, but appeared to gradually resolve -itself into vapor.” (<i>Crookes</i>).</p> - -<p>I have heard many persons affirm that -they perceived hands that touched them in -<i>full light</i>. I never had this experience, but -I can testify that during eight or ten sittings -I and five or six persons who assisted -me felt these hands perfectly; and among -these hands were those belonging to a -small child, and <i>certainly</i> no small child -was in the house; these baby hands were -soothing and caressing. Our medium was -still Madam L. B., who, during the <i>seance</i>, -was held down tightly on a sofa by Madam -P., whose scrupulous attention may be relied -on where <i>science</i> is at stake, for all our -experimentations of this sort were in the -dark. Several times the small baby hands -were put in my sleeve, and seemed to take -pleasure in pulling off my cuffs and taking -them to other persons in the room. My -eyeglass was also taken by the infantile -fingers and carried to one of the circle.<a id="FNanchor_87" href="#Footnote_87" class="fnanchor">[87]</a></p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Class X.</span>—<i>Direct writing.</i></p> - -<p>This is the expression we employ to -designate a writing not produced by any -person present, and Mr. Crookes gives the -following description of this phenomenon:</p> - -<p>“I have often received words and -messages written on paper (on which I had -made private marks) under the most severe -conditions of control; and I have heard, -in the dark, the noise of the pencil moving -across the paper. The precautions previously -taken by me were so strict that my -mind is perfectly convinced, as if the characters -of the writing were formed under -my own eyes.</p> - -<p>“But, as space will not permit me to -enter into complete details, I shall simply -choose two cases in which my eyes as well -as my ears were witnesses of the operation.</p> - -<p>“The first case I shall cite took place, -it is true, in <i>dark seance</i>, but the result was -none the less satisfactory.</p> - -<p>“I was seated near the medium, Miss -Fox, and there were only two persons -present, my wife and a relative of ours; I -held both hands of the medium in one of -mine, while her feet were on top of my -own. There was paper before us on the -table and my hand held the pencil.</p> - -<p>“A luminous hand descended from -above, and, after hovering near me for a -few seconds, took the pencil from my hand, -writing rapidly on the paper, threw the -pencil over our heads and gradually faded -in obscurity.</p> - -<p>“The second case may be considered -and registered as a discovery. A good -discovery is often more convincing than -the most successful experiment.</p> - -<p>“This occurred in the light of my own -room, in the presence of Mr. Home and a -few friends. Different circumstances, unnecessary -to enumerate here, had shown -that evening that <i>the psychic power was very -strong</i>. I expressed the desire of witnessing -the production of a real written message, -similar to that I had one of my friends -mention a short time before. At the -instant this wish was uttered an alphabetical -communication was given which read, -‘<i>We will try</i>.’</p> - -<p>“A pencil and some sheets of paper -were placed on the center of the table. -Soon <i>the pencil stood on its point and advanced</i>, -by jerks, then fell over. It raised -itself again and fell over; it tried a third -time but with no better result.</p> - -<p>“After three fruitless attempts, a small<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_73"></a>73</span> -piece of wood which laid near on the table -slid towards the pencil and raised itself -some inches above the table. The pencil -now raised itself anew, supporting itself -against the wood, and the two made an -effort to write on the paper; this did not -succeed and a new trial was made. On -the third attempt the wooden lath abandoned -its efforts and fell back to its old -position on the table; the pencil remained -in the position where it fell on the paper, -and an alphabetical message said to us, -“<i>We have tried to do what you have asked, -but our power is exhausted</i>.” (Crookes.)</p> - -<p>In India, the Fakirs easily obtain -direct writing; they spread fine sand on a -table or other smooth surface and place on -this sand a small pointed stick made of -wood. At a given moment this stick rises -and traces characters on the sand, which -are responses to questions put by the -lookers on.<a id="FNanchor_88" href="#Footnote_88" class="fnanchor">[88]</a></p> - -<p>In the experiments made with our -friend Dr. Puel, we obtained writing on -over twenty slates. A bit of chalk was -placed on a new slate and this slate was -placed on a table at some distance from -the medium, Madam L. B., the experiments -being made with all the cautions -possible. A previous examination of both -surfaces of the slate put away all doubts as -to any fraud in that respect. I, meantime, -held the hands of Madame L. B., the -medium, who was always in a hypnotic -condition during such experiments, at -which several persons usually assisted—persons -who were known to be capable of -observing and recording facts with coolness -and deliberation.</p> - -<p>All these communications have a signature, -and many of them date 1900 as the -epoch when <i>modern spiritualism</i> shall be -scientifically recognized by the world.</p> - -<p>Dr. Gibier, who made interesting experiments -with Mr. Slade, like us, obtained -spontaneous writing on many slates, of -which he gives reproductions in his remarkable -work, <i>a book that he had the courage -to write and to which his celebrated name -is affixed</i>.<a id="FNanchor_89" href="#Footnote_89" class="fnanchor">[89]</a></p> - -<p>We do not find in any Middle Age -documents such spontaneously written -communications; at least Demonographers -do not mention them in their writings, for -if they had it would have been a most -striking proof of the analogy of magic -with modern spiritualism and Indian Fakirism, -which serves as an intermediary in the -history of Occultism.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Class XI.</span>—<i>Forms and figures of phantoms.</i></p> - -<p>“These phenomena are rarely ever witnessed. -The conditions required for their -appearance seeming so delicate, and so -little prevents their production, that it is -only on very few occasions that I have witnessed -satisfactory results. I will cite two -cases:</p> - -<p>“At twilight, in a <i>seance</i> by Mr. Home, -given at a private house, the blinds of a -window, back of the medium about eight -feet, were seen to move, then all the persons -sitting near the window perceived a -shadowy form that grew darker and then -semi-transparent, like that of a man trying -the shutters with his hand. While we -gazed at this object in the twilight it -evanesced and the window shutters ceased -to move.</p> - -<p>“The following example is still more -striking. As in the preceding case Mr. -Home was the medium. A phantom form -came from the corner of the room, took an -accordeon in its hand, and glided around -the room playing the instrument beautifully. -This phantom was visible to all -those present for the space of several -minutes, Mr. Home being perfectly visible -at the same time. Then this shade approached -a lady in the room, when the -frightened woman uttered a scream and -the phantom vanished.” (<i>Crookes.</i>)</p> - -<p>We regret that space will not permit -our giving the experiments made on Miss -Cook and Katie King, spectres which became -so tangible that they were photographed.</p> - -<p>This History given by Crookes regarding -spiritual photography is well nigh incredible, -but Dr. Crookes has remarked -concerning doubters and his personal experiments, -“<i>I do not say that it is possible, -I say that it is</i>.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_74"></a>74</span></p> - -<p>These apparitions of forms and figures -of phantoms were more common to the -Middle Ages than at the present day, if -we are to believe the numerous cases cited -by Pierre Le Loyer.<a id="FNanchor_90" href="#Footnote_90" class="fnanchor">[90]</a></p> - -<p>This celebrated author in fact, will not -admit that there is any doubt on this subject; -a matter he has thoroughly studied, -for he says in this preface of his -work—“<i>Aussi est traicte des extases et rauissements: -de l’essence, nature et origine des -Ames, et de leur estat apres le deces de leurs -corps; plus des Magiciens et Sorciers, de leur -communication avec les malins esprits; ensemble -des remedes pour se preseruer des illusions et -impostures diaboliques</i>.”</p> - -<p>In analyzing passages from this curious -document, we will immediately see -the correlation that exists between what -was called in other times sorcery or magic, -and spiritualism. In speaking of these -spectres which form in the air, and under -our eyes, Pierre Le Loyer writes: “We -know them by the coldness of their touch -and their bodies, which are soft, their -hands receding from ours like soft cotton -when pressed, or a snow-ball squeezed in a -child’s hand. They tarry no longer than -it pleases them, returning again into their -element.”</p> - -<p>Further along, Le Loyer adds: “A -bad spirit questioned by a sorcerer why -his body was not warm, responded that it -was not in his power to give it heat.”</p> - -<p>But, meantime, he attributed these apparitions -to evil spirits and demons; finally, -our author seeks to explain “what is this -body seen and touched of these demons, -so to speak, of the air, water and earth?”</p> - -<p>“These devils appear indifferently to -all persons; they themselves affect the -society of certain, individuals some much -more than others.”</p> - -<p>“To these sorcerers and witches -(<i>mediums</i>), they ordinarily show themselves -in a visible form, and will come to those -who call them.”</p> - -<p>“As to persons subject to these sort of -things, they are usually those young and -tender of age, cold and imperfectly organized -beings; by such we can speak with -power; old men and eunuchs, and withal -melancholy persons.”</p> - -<p>“All those these devils dominate over, -are estranged from their natural, beings, -and not infrequently become maniacs.”</p> - -<p>Our author in his chapter on the essence -of souls, affirms, that “that the ancient -oracles <i>were only the Oracles of the souls of -men</i>,” and to be specific, he gives a long -list of names. He remarks, “there were -in Greece, temples known to be psychomantic, -and in such places were received -responses from the souls of different men. -It was for this reason too, that the souls -for the same reason watched over the -places where the bodies of generous and -noble barons had been burned.”</p> - -<p>Further along Le Loyer mentions the -origin of the <i>power that the spirits possess of -manifesting themselves to us</i>, but our author -<i>disagrees with the modern theories that makes -them derive their power from the medium</i>, for -he remarks that the spirits can act “<i>through -their own powers</i>,” and are governed only -by their own intelligence. “They are not -off so far,” adds he, “and the distance between -us and the spirits is so slight that we -may easily communicate;” however, he -says, meantime: “They are commanded -by God and conform to his will.”</p> - -<p>Finally, he considers man as an inferior -being to the spirits of the dead—in -fact, he states: “The soul appears to derive -nothing from another, and, as an invisible -spirit, it acts with us as a passive -agent, being too proud to control that -which is inferior; and I deny,” says he, -“that the true souls of the dead obey -either charms or magical words.”</p> - -<p>Of the future of the soul after death he -remarks to one of his opponents, whose -opinions he refuted, that “<i>this soul, whatever -it may be, in a state of health or not -purged, comes by degrees and not at one bound -into the full fruition and happiness of God</i>;” -and these degrees, according to Le Loyer, -are like prisons where the penalties for -misdeeds done in the flesh are to be satisfied. -He admits, however, that some -spirits make more rapid progress than -others. These, to his mind, are the judgments -of God after death, and the fire -mentioned in Scriptures. Such is the manner -in which he explains away the ideas of -the images of Paradise and Hell, the promises -to the virtuous and the wicked. He -cites (<i>apropos</i> of manifestations before -courts of justice) houses “where spirits -have appeared and made all manner of -noises, that disturbed the tenants at night.”<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_75"></a>75</span> -He speaks of Daniel and Nicholas Macquereau, -who rented a house for a term of -years. “They had been living there but -a short time when they heard the noises -and hubbub made by invisible spirits, who -allowed them neither sleep nor repose.” -The court cancelled the lease, thus <i>admitting -that there were places haunted by -spirits</i>.”<a id="FNanchor_91" href="#Footnote_91" class="fnanchor">[91]</a></p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Class XII.</span>—<i>Particular examples which -seem to indicate the intervention of a superior -intelligence.</i></p> - -<p>“It has already been demonstrated that -these phenomena are governed by an Intelligence; -an important question is to know -what is the source of this Intelligence.</p> - -<p>“Is this the Intelligence of the <i>medium</i> -or some one else present in the room? Or -is this Intelligence exterior? I do not wish -to commit myself on this point at present in -a positive manner. I will say that I have -observed several circumstances which appeared -to demonstrate that the will and the -intelligence of the medium have a great influence -on the phenomena. I have likewise -observed others which seemed to -prove in a conclusive manner the intervention -of an intelligence entirely independent -of all persons found in the room -where the <i>seance</i> was given.</p> - -<p>“Space will not permit me to give -here all the arguments that might serve to -prove these propositions, but I will briefly -mention one or two circumstances chosen -from among a number of others. I have -several times seen phenomena take place -simultaneously, some of them being unknown -to the medium. I have seen Miss -Fox write automatically a message for a -person present, while a message for another -person was given alphabetically by means -of <i>raps</i>, and during all the time of these -manifestations she conversed on a subject -entirely different from the two others.</p> - -<p>“The following case is, perhaps, still -more astonishing. During a <i>seance</i> with -Mr. Home, a small wooden lath, that I -have previously mentioned, came across the -table to me, in full light, and gave me a -message by striking lightly on my hand; -I repeated the alphabet and the lath struck -me at the proper letters; the other end of -this wooden stick was some distance off -from the hands of Mr. Home.</p> - -<p>“The blows were so distinct and clear, -the wooden lath was so evidently under -the invisible power that governed its movements, -that I said: ‘Can the intelligence -that governs the movements of this lath -change the character of the movement and -give me a telegraphic message by means of -the Morse alphabet, by blows struck on -my hand?’</p> - -<p>“I had every reason for thinking that -the Morse alphabet was entirely unknown -to all the other persons present, and I -knew it only imperfectly myself.</p> - -<p>“Immediately after I had said this the -character of the raps changed and the message -was continued in the manner I demanded. -The letters were given too -rapidly for me to catch but a word now -and then, consequently I lost the message; -but I had heard sufficient to convince me -that there was a good Morse operator at -the other extremity of the line, no matter -what place it might be in.</p> - -<p>“Another example: A lady wrote -automatically by the aid of Planchette. -I sought to discover the means to prove -what she wrote was not due to <i>unconscious -cerebration</i>. Planchette, as it always does, -affirmed that, although the movements -were made by the hands and arms of the -operator, there was an intelligence coming -from an invisible being, who played on her -brain like an instrument of music and thus -put her muscles in motion.</p> - -<p>“I then remarked to this Intelligence, -‘Can you see what is contained in this -chamber?’ And Planchette answered, -‘Yes.’ ‘Can you read this journal?‘ said -I, placing my finger on a copy of the <i>London -Times</i> that happened to be back of me -on a table, but which I could not see. -‘Yes’ responded Planchette. ‘Very well,’ -said I, ‘write the word now covered by -my finger.’ Planchette commenced to -move and the word ‘however’ was slowly -written. I turned around and saw that the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_76"></a>76</span> -word ‘however’ was covered by the end -of my finger. I had not looked at the -paper when I attempted this experiment, -and it was impossible for the lady, had she -tried, to see any word in the journal, as -she was seated at a table and the <i>London -Times</i> lay on a table back of me with my -body interposed.” (<i>Crookes.</i>)</p> - -<p>In the experiments in typtology at -which I have assisted, to all the demands -addressed to <i>psychic force</i> the responses have -always presented a particular character -independent of that of the assistants.<a id="FNanchor_92" href="#Footnote_92" class="fnanchor">[92]</a></p> - -<p>I have sometimes tried to concentrate -my will upon the answer awaited, and -have always failed in my attempts at mental -pressure.</p> - -<p>1 have likewise determined that these -answers cannot be dictated by the mind of -the medium, whose scientific and literary -knowledge were not always equal to the -message received. This observation coincides -with the facts observed among pretended -Demonomaniacs, who had in their -attacks the gift of language, responding in -Latin to the exorcists, making entire discourses -in this language, of which they -knew not the first elements.</p> - -<p>Under the name of <i>phenomena of ecstasy</i>, -Dr. Gibier described, after his experiments -with the medium Slade, his displacement -by a stronger spirit to that of his usual -control. Says Gibier, the phenomena produced -from thence were “a certain discoloration -of the medium’s face, which -became red, a sort of grin contracting the -muscles of the visage, the eyes were convulsed -upwards, and after some nystagmatic -movements of the ball of the eye the -eyelids closed tightly, gritting of the -medium’s teeth was heard, and a convulsive -sign, indicating the commencement of -his <i>possession</i> by a strange spirit. After this -short phase, which was painful to behold, -the medium’s face fell into a smile and the -voice, as well as the attitude, was completely -modified to that of a different person. -Slade thus transformed to his regular -control, saluted all our party most -graciously.”</p> - -<p>Among the experiments made by Dr. -Gibier to control this condition of <i>incarnation</i> -(the English call it <i>trance</i>), we might -cite that of a comparison of the dynamometric -force of the medium in his natural -condition and the <i>trance</i> state. In the first -case, by reason of two previous attacks of -hemiplegia, Slade’s muscular force gave 27 -kilos to the right and 35 kilos to the left. -In the second state there were 63 kilos to -the right and 50 kilos to the left. Meantime, -Dr. Gibier, no more than ourselves, -deems it proper to consider the trance state -other than a hypothesis, “a foreign element, -introduced in the scene, and like it -present in the experiences of suggestion -and catalepsy.”</p> - -<p>If we cannot give a scientific explanation -of these phenomena, it is our duty to -examine them as others and retrace their -history, especially seeking those points of -coincidence with the proofs furnished by -the history of demonomania and diabolic -possession of the Middle Ages; for we are -convinced that these phenomena were -dominated by the same unknown force, -interpreted differently by reason of the -philosophic and religious ideas of the -epoch at which they were studied.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Class XIII.</span>—<i>Varied cases of a complex -character.</i></p> - -<p>Under this title Mr. Crookes cites facts -that cannot be classed otherwise by reason -of their complex character. As an example, -he reports two cases: one being an -experiment in typtology between himself, -Miss Fox, and another lady. He proved -that a bell that belonged in his business -office was brought to the table, as a proof -announced by the intellectual force, that -communicated with him, <i>of its strength</i>. -The chamber in which this was done was -separated from the office by a door which -he previously securely locked with a key, -and he was absolutely positive that the bell -in question was in his office.</p> - -<p>“The second case I desire to report,” -says Mr. Crookes, “took place one Saturday -night under a full glare of light, Mr. -Home and my family being the only persons -present.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_77"></a>77</span></p> - -<p>“My wife and I, having passed the -day in the country, had brought home -flowers with us that I had gathered; on -arriving at home we had given them to a -servant to put in water. Mr. Home came -shortly after and we went into the dining -room. At the instant we seated ourselves, -the domestic brought the flowers, arranged -in a vase; I placed them in the center of -the table, which was not covered by a -cloth. It was the first time Mr. Home -had seen these flowers.</p> - -<p>“Immediately a message came, given -by the rap alphabet, which said, ‘It is impossible -for matter to pass through matter, -but we will show you that we can do it.’ -We waited in silence, and soon a luminous -apparition was seen floating over the -bouquet of flowers, and then, in full view of -all my family at the table, a branch of -China grass, fifteen inches in length, -which ornamented the middle of the -bouquet, slowly rose from the bunch of -flowers, descended from the vase and -moved across the table, and my wife saw a -hand stretched out from under the table and -seize the flower; at the same moment she -was struck three times on the left shoulder -and the noise made by the slaps was so -loud we all heard it; then the luminous -hand dropped the China grass to the floor -and disappeared. Only two persons of my -family saw the hand, but every one at the -table noticed the different movements of -the plant stalk, as I have before described -them.</p> - -<p>“During the time that this phenomena -lasted we all saw Mr. Home’s hands on the -table, where they rested motionless, and -they were at least eighteen inches from -where the plant stalk disappeared.</p> - -<p>“It was a dining-room table that -opened in folds, it did not lengthen,” etc.</p> - -<p>As a contribution to the facts mentioned -in this class, I may report the -famous experiments with the bracelet made -by Dr. Puel—experiments that I have witnessed -a dozen times at least—as well as -numerous other persons. A bracelet made -of brass, without opening or solder, cut by -a machine out of a solid piece of metal, -was placed on the forearm of Madame L. -B. The lady’s hands rested flat on the -table, or were held in the hands of those -experimenting. At a given moment, often -in the middle of a conversation, Madame -L. B. uttered a piercing cry and at the -same instant the bracelet would fall on the -floor, or on some piece of furniture, with -great force. Several times, under the same -circumstances,—that is to say, when the -lady’s hands were firmly pressed down on -the table by those experimenting,—I have -seen the bracelet <i>pass from one arm to the -other</i>.</p> - -<p>So, in opposition to all laws of physics, -it appears that matter can pass through -matter; I affirm the reality of this, and -others, who are no more victims to hallucination -than I, can also testify to the truth -of this statement. And no matter what -may be the consequences to my professional -reputation, and utterly without regard -for anything that may be said by critics, I -boldly maintain, as if under oath, that my -senses lead me to this imposed conviction. -Besides, I am far from being alone in -believing what I have seen, whether or no -it be “<i>in harmony with our acquired knowledge</i>;” -to the names of French, English -and German <i>savants</i> I have cited, there are -experimenters in all countries who have -the courage to believe the evidence offered -by their own senses, as witness that celebrated -English geologist, who, after ten -years of investigation with the phenomena -under control, <i>declared spiritualism to be -true</i>, drawing from his experiments the following -conclusions: “<i>Who shall determine -the limits of the possible, limits that science and -observation accumulate each day? Let us examine, -let us doubt, but not be so daring as to deny -the possibility of such occurrences</i>” (Barkas).</p> - -<p>If now we have established the balance-sheet -of facts attributed to the Demonomania -of the Middle Ages, and compared -them to the experiences of experimental -psychology, we are not only led to recognize -a striking analogy between them, but -also to interpret them by the hypothesis of -an intelligent force of an intensity proportionate -to certain nervous pathological conditions. -It is necessary to remember, in -fact, that, according to the Ritual of the -Roman Catholic Church, the phenomena -necessary to recognize <i>possession</i> among -Demonomaniacs were:</p> - -<p>1. The faculty of knowing thoughts, -even though they are not expressed.</p> - -<p>2. Intelligence in unknown languages.</p> - -<p>3. The faculty of speaking foreign -tongues which are unknown to the party -speaking them.</p> - -<p>4. A knowledge of future events.</p> - -<p>5. A knowledge of what is transpiring -in far-off places.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_78"></a>78</span></p> - -<p>6. Development of superior psychal -force.</p> - -<p>7. Suspension of persons or bodies in -the air for a considerable space of time.</p> - -<p>No less interesting is it than to compare -these phenomena to those observed by the -thirty-three members of the commission -appointed by the “Dialectic Society of -London.” The following was this committee’s -report, after eighteen months’ investigation:</p> - -<p>1. Noises of varied nature, apparently -arising from the furniture, floor or walls of -the room, accompanied by vibrations which -are often perceptible to the touch, are present -without being produced by muscular -action or any mechanical means whatever.</p> - -<p>2. Movements of heavy bodies occur -without the aid of mechanical apparatus of -any sort, and without equivalent development -of muscular force on the part of persons -present, and even frequently without -contact or connection with any one.</p> - -<p>3. These noises and movements are -produced often at the moment wished for -and in the manner demanded by persons -present, and, by means of a simple code of -sounds, respond to questions and write -coherent communications.</p> - -<p>4. The response and communications -obtained are, for the most part, hackneyed -and commonplace, but sometimes they -give facts and information only known to -one person in the room.</p> - -<p>5. The circumstances under which the -phenomena are present vary, the most -striking feature being that the presence of -certain persons seems necessary to their -production, and that the presence of some -people serves as a check; but this difference -does not seem to depend on the belief -or the unbelief of those present as to the -nature of the phenomena.</p> - -<p>The testimony, oral and written, received -by the commission affirmed the -reality of phenomena much more extraordinary -still, such as heavy bodies rising in -the air (men in certain cases floated -through the atmosphere) and remaining in -suspension without tangible support; apparitions -of hands and forms belonging to no -human beings, but seemingly alive, judging -by their aspect and motions.</p> - -<p>This report was signed by <i>savants</i> of -the first order, as sceptical before commencing -their investigations as the most -positive Materialists of our academies of -science. Let us cite, among the -celebrated names of men known throughout -the world for their learning and scientific -veracity, those of the great naturalist and -<i>collaborateur</i> of Darwin, Russell Wallace, -Professor A. Morgan, President of the -Mathematical Society of London and Secretary -of the Royal Astronomical Society; -F. Varley, Chief Engineer of the Trans-Atlantic -Telegraph Company and member -of the Royal Society of London.</p> - -<p>Mr. Morgan does not fear to add to the -report the following lines: “I am perfectly -convinced, from what I have seen and -heard, in a manner that renders doubt impossible, -that <i>Spiritualists</i>, without doubt, -are upon a track that will lead to the -advancement of the psychal sciences; -their opponents are those who seek to -trammel all progress.”</p> - -<p>Mr. Varley writes to the celebrated -Professor Tyndall: “I am obliged to investigate -the nature of the force that produces -these phenomena, but, up to the -present time, I have been unable to discover -anything save the source from which -this <i>psychic force</i> emanates, <i>i.e.</i>, from the -vital systems of the mediums. I am only -studying, however, a thing that has been -the object of investigation for two thousand -years; brave men, whose minds are elevated -above the narrow prejudices of our -century, seem to have sounded the depths -of the subject in question,” etc.</p> - -<p>This opinion of the learned English -physicist proves, once more, that we are -right in connecting Demonomania to the -magic of antiquity and to modern spiritualism. -One must be perfectly blind or of -poor judgment not to see the connecting -links that unite these various phenomena. -And if our men of science dare no longer -say that these facts are worthy of credit, -although refusing to investigate the same, -it is because they lack courage, it is because -they dare not brave the criticism of -pretended strong-minded men and the jests -of the ignorant. If the <i>vulgum pecus</i>, the -amorphous matter that stuffs the superior -element of society, contest the value of -the works of Crookes, Wallace, Morgan, -Varley, Gibier, Zoellner, Mapes, Hare, -Oxon, Sexton, and others, they can only -be included in the same class of people -who ridiculed Galileo, Harvey, Jenner, -Franklin, Young, Davy, Jussieu, Papin, -Stephenson, and Galvani, with all the -authors of great discoveries and scientific -truths, who have invariably been combatted<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_79"></a>79</span> -by the pseudo-scientific and half-fledged -goslings whose names adorn our -so-called colleges and other mutual admiration -societies.<a id="FNanchor_93" href="#Footnote_93" class="fnanchor">[93]</a></p> - -<p>Why, then, longer refuse to study <i>a -force</i> recognized by some of the most eminent -men among modern civilized nations -and by the modest pioneers who first -studied these phenomena in France? If -the number of experimenters named be not -sufficient to convince sceptics, let them -enter into a full study of present-day psychology, -and find a host of the greatest -modern neurologists.</p> - -<p>Nine years of study has led Mr. Oxon, -Professor at the University of Oxford, to -formulate the following propositions on -<i>Psychic Force</i>, which corroborate the results -obtained by his colleagues in England, -Germany, and America, and which still -constitute another proof of the identity of -the phenomena:</p> - -<p>“1. A force exists which acts by means -of a special type of human organization, a -force that we call <i>psychic force</i>.</p> - -<p>“2. It is demonstrated that this force -is, in certain cases, governed by an intelligence.</p> - -<p>“3. It is proved that this intelligence -is often other than that of the person or -persons through whose influence it acts.</p> - -<p>“4. This Force, thus governed by an -exterior intelligence, at times manifests its -action, independent of other methods, by -writing coherent phrases, without the intervention -of any known mode of writing.</p> - -<p>“5. The evidence of the existence of -this force governed by an intelligence rests -on</p> - -<p>“(<i>a</i>) The evidence observed through -the senses.</p> - -<p>“(<i>b</i>) The fact that <i>the force</i> often uses -a language unknown to the medium.</p> - -<p>“(<i>c</i>) The fact that the subject matter -treated is very frequently superior to the -medium’s knowledge or education.</p> - -<p>“(<i>d</i>) The fact that it has been found -impossible to produce the same results by -fraud under the conditions in which these -phenomena are obtained.</p> - -<p>“(<i>e</i>) The fact that these special phenomena -are not only produced in public -and by paid mediums, but likewise in a -family circle where no strangers are admitted.”</p> - -<p>Without writing to prejudice the question, -I believe, in my turn, that I can -solemnly affirm that this force has intimate -connection with the soul, the mind or the -ministerial part of our being, as it is called; -that it acts on our ideas as well as on our -physiological functions, and it is to my mind -the destiny of humanity to investigate its -essence and study its phenomena, its manifestations -and all its sensible effects by all -our senses and means of investigation.</p> - -<p>It is high time that secular boasting of -the materialistic scientists be checked, and -that they should recognize the fact that -force does not arise from matter alone but -exists independent of it and primarily submits -to its laws.</p> - -<p>Starting, then, with the proposition that -an unknown force exists, to whose influence -we unconsciously submit, science -should investigate this force, isolate, and -control it, if it be in our power so to do.</p> - -<p>Instead of opposing an ignorant skepticism -to modern discoveries in <i>psychic force</i>, -our learned Academicians should investigate -the acquired facts for inspiration in -future work, remembering that good -thought of Laplace: “We are so far from -knowing all the agents of Nature and their -different modes of action, that it is not -philosophical to deny the existence of phenomena -simply because they cannot be explained -in the actual condition of our present knowledge.”<a id="FNanchor_94" href="#Footnote_94" class="fnanchor">[94]</a></p> - -<p>Such are the conclusions I believe I -have a right to draw from my historical -studies on the Demonomania of the Middle -Ages. Let me briefly recapitulate my personal -views on the subject:</p> - -<p>1. There exists a psychic force, intelligent, -inherent to humanity, manifesting -itself, under determined conditions, by -various phenomena, with an intensity more -or less great.</p> - -<p>2. Certain human beings, known as -mediums, who are very sensitive to the -action of magnetism, facilitate the production -of these phenomena, considered as -supernatural in the actual state of our -present scientific knowledge, and in apparent -contradiction with all known physical -and physiological laws.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_80"></a>80</span></p> - -<p>3. In certain nervous conditions, natural -or provoked, this Force can possess the -human organism and bring about, temporarily, -either a change in one’s personality -or an alteration in one’s sensations and in -the intellectual and moral faculties.</p> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="MEDICINE_IN_THE_LITERATURE_OF_THE">MEDICINE IN THE LITERATURE OF THE -MIDDLE AGES.</h2> -</div> - - -<p>All <i>savants</i> who have studied the literary -and historical part of medicine fully -recognize the powerful interest it offers, -especially that medicine portrayed in the -works of poets and dramatic authors of the -Middle Ages. It is in the works of these -writers, in fact, that we find the most exact -appreciation of medical ideas of the epoch, -because we can judge their morals, criticise -their faults, account for their tendencies—all -without bringing in medical science at any -given moment, with its teachings, errors, -and prejudices.</p> - -<p>In all that concerns the Middle Ages, -we shall find this first in the writings of -philosophers, in certain dramatic works, -known under the name of <i>Moralities</i>, because -their purport was to demonstrate, under -the form of an allegory, a precept of morality. -The personages of such dramatic -scenes always represent ideas, often abstract -and usually fantastic,—The World, -Justice, Good Company, Gourmands, Dinner, -Banquet, Experience, Gout, Jaundice, -Dropsy, and Apoplexy. A second class, -errors and prejudices, are seldom wanting -in some poetical works, in <i>comedies and -farces</i>, <i>satirical</i> and <i>indecent</i> poems, that -recall some of the early productions of the -Latin Theatre. Eventually impressed with -the Gallic spirit of levity, these short -pieces, enjoyed by clerks and small tradesmen, -contain cutting criticisms on the -weaknesses of mankind, doctors in particular. -These plays are considered the -embryo of the French stage, which, later, -has been immortalized by the most illustrious -of our writers of comedy.</p> - -<p>An unaffected gayety often breaks out -in brilliant, sparkling dialogues in these -frivolous farces, and assures the instant -success of the play. The public laughed -in high glee, without prudery, at the broad I -insinuations and comical acts in such representations. -So the writers of that period -went into raptures when they chanced to -make a hit with their satirical tirades, that -amused the passing age. Sometimes the -clergy were satirized as well as the doctor; -even the Pope himself received the attention -of the comedians, as witness the carnival -of 1511. Even the avarice of Louis -XII. was ridiculed. Comedy’s procession -represented Justice by its attorneys, shysters -and police; but, above all, comedy -delighted to burlesque the doctor, <i>Facultas -saluberrema medicinæ parisiensis</i>, ridiculing -them like the rest of the world, without the -least respect for their robe or bonnet.</p> - -<p>Pray, what do these jolly, railing spirits -of the Middle Ages say of our medical -ancestors of the good old times? Master -Jehan Bouchet, for example, with his -piece, <i>Traverseur des voyes perilleuses</i>, and -Pierre Gringore under the pseudonym of -<i>Mere Sotte</i>, and Nicholas Rousset and -Coustellier, and Jacques Grevin and Pierre -Blanchet, and all other members of that -joyous group without care, without pretension, -but not without talent. If professional -honor was never really put on trial by these -wits, the pedantic gravity of our medical -forefathers, their formidable doctoral accoutrement, -their consultations, sentences -formulated in horrible and barbarous -Latin, were all the objects of raillery and -piquant epigrams. We shall find also, in -other works we propose to analyze, the -same false ideas of the public regarding the -healing art as exists to-day; the same tendency -to always lead one into error, and -unjustly accuse the medical profession of -all the accidents that happen to a patient—this, -too, notwithstanding all ancient -codes of hygiene and all the ages of experience.</p> - -<p>When a physician prescribed, for example, -in the case of one attacked by -fever, the daily libations were stopped, and -we always find the neighbors and boon -companions of the sufferer enter the sick -room for the purpose of criticizing the doctor’s -prescriptions and orders, and such -persons excited the patient by their<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_81"></a>81</span> -remarks on medical despotism. This has -always been the case since doctors and patients -were created, not only in the Middle -Ages, but at all epochs. Olivier Basselin -bears testimony to this fact in one of his -charming <i>Vaux de Vire</i><a id="FNanchor_95" href="#Footnote_95" class="fnanchor">[95]</a> poetical compositions, -roundelays and Bacchic songs, -dating back to the sixteenth century; this -sonnet is not long;<a id="FNanchor_96" href="#Footnote_96" class="fnanchor">[96]</a> it relates to a drunkard -to whom only barley water is given, -and who recovers his health, according to -the veracious poet, through a charitable -friend, who breaks the doctor’s orders and -fills the patient up with wine. We have -often read this poem with pleasure, and -give a condensed extract:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">One of my neighbors sick was lying,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Gasping with weak and feverish breath:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">“Alas! they’ll kill me,” said he, sighing,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">“Forbidding wine; and barley water’s death.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Alas! my thirst is great, annoying;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">I’d like one drink before I die;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Neighbor, with you one glass enjoying;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Pray quickly to the vintner’s hie.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Dear friend, my wish don’t be denying,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Always to me you’ve been a brother;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Now, for the wine in haste go flying,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">We’ll take one parting glass together.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Since doctors made me quit a-drinking,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">My flask I’ve left yon in my will.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">These doctors, I can’t help a-thinking,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Don’t cure as often as they kill.”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Thus spoke my neighbor, sick and weary.</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Of wine he drank full bottles five;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The fever left him blithe and cheery;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">He’s still a-drinking, and <i>alive</i>.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>The Bibliotheque of the French Theatre -contains a great number of other dramatic -compositions, as well as comedies and -farces, in which doctors carry principal -<i>roles</i>, it is true, but more often are introduced -for the mere purpose of giving the -author a chance for pleasantry at the expense -of medicine; and these characters -sometimes exceed the limit of license. -Some of these works are gems of literary -art. We may cite, for instance, the -“Farce of the Doctor who Cures all Diseases,” -by Nicholas Rousset; the -“Discours Facetieux” of Coustellier; “The -true Physician, who Cures all Known Diseases;” -and several besides, “La Medecine -de Maistre Grimache,” “Le Triomphe de -treshaulte et tres puissante Dame Verolle,” -of Francois Juste; “Mary and the Doctor,” -“The Sweetheart of the Family Physician,” -as well as some farces by Tabarin—works -dating back to the fifteenth, sixteenth -and seventeenth centuries.</p> - -<p>But we shall only take up the study of -a few works that have a veritable literary -medical interest, and shall confine ourselves -to the study of the “Farces de -Maitre Pathelin, du Munyer et de la Folie -du Monde;” to the moralities of “A’aveugle -et du Boiteux, de Folie et d’Amour;” -to the comedies of “La Tresoriere et de -Lucelle;” to the tragedy “De la Goutte,” -and to the book of “Gargantua et de Pantagruel.” -This will suffice to give an idea -of medicine as portrayed in the literature -of the Middle Ages.</p> - - -<h3>THE FARCE OF MASTER PATHELIN.</h3> - -<p>The farce of Master Pathelin, whose -author was Pierre Blanchet, is certainly -the richest jewel in the crown of the old -French Theatre; it was what inspired -Moliere in several of his works. Represented -for the first time in 1480, this celebrated -farce is one of the most precious -literary monuments for the study of Middle -Age morality. It is a <i>chef d’œuvre</i> of -spirit, malice, comedy, and <i>naivete</i>, in -which medicine is found in every scene, -either in the simulation of disease, with -consultations, with drugs, and, most -amusing of all, the eternal ingratitude of -the sick.</p> - -<p>All the educated world knows the subject -of Master Pathelin: A lawyer without -a case or client; a man living on his wits -and expedients, making dupes and yet retaining -a certain degree of professional -correctness in his language and his artifices. -Guillemette, his wife, is his worthy -accomplice. It is she who reproaches him -with not having more clients and his reputation -of earlier days; of starving her to -death by famine. It is she who excites -him by ironically saying:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Maintenant chascun vous appelle</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Partout; avocat dessoubz l’orme,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Nos robes sont plus qu’estamine</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Reses.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>And Pathelin responds that he cannot -get their clothing out of pawn without<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_82"></a>82</span> -redeeming or stealing it—both things out -of the question, as he has no money and -will not commit a crime. It is then that -the worthy couple hit on the credit system -to renew their wardrobe. It is for this purpose -he goes to a draper’s to purchase -cloth to make new clothes. On entering -the shop he uses the salutation of the -period, “God be with you,” and politely -inquires after the shopkeeper’s health, -which to him is very dear. Then he asks -after his father’s health, telling him he resembles -his sire like an old picture. -Finally, he takes sixteen yards of fine -cloth, and, telling the draper to call at his -house in the evening for his money and to -eat, as Master Pathelin expresses it, “a -Rouen goose roasted,” having invited the -astonished tradesman to dine with him, the -lawyer walks out with the cloth without -paying. Arriving home he relates his adventure -to the delighted Guillemette, who -is overpowered with bewilderment, however, -when she learns that the draper is invited -to a roast goose supper. At first it is -suggested that they borrow a tailor’s goose, -but fear that the draper will not appreciate -the joke and demand his money legally -induces the worthy couple to adopt a -strategem. It is very simple: Master -Pathelin is to feign insanity, or rather that -maniacal form of excitation so frequently -employed even at the present day by those -who seek to avoid the consequences of -crimes—an excitation principally characterized -by uncontrollable loquacity, mobility -of ideas, incoherence, and pretended -illusions.</p> - -<p>These scenes of simulation are extremely -curious and interesting. As soon -as the draper enters the wife warns him -not to make a noise in the house:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“He’s lying in bed. Don’t speak!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Poor martyr! he’s been sick a week.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>But the draper refuses to accept the explanation. -It cannot be a week, he says, -for</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“’Tis only this afternoon, you see,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Your husband bought cloth from me.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Then the voice of the attorney is heard -in the next room shouting to his wife:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Guillemette? Un peu d’eue rose!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Haussez moy, serrez-moy derriere!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Trut! a qui parlay. Je? L’esguiere?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A boire? Frottez moy la plante.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Rose water in that century was -employed to reanimate the strength of sick -people. Among apothecaries it was called -<i>aqua cordialis temperata</i>. Rose water was -prescribed in the following cases: “<i>In -mortis subitis et malignis, ubicunque magnus -est virium lapsus præscribitur; quemadmodum -etiam prodest a morbo convalescentibus, ad vires -instaurandas.</i>”</p> - -<p>Pathelin simulates hallucinations of -sight, and uses all manner of words employed -by magicians in their conjurations; -he asks the draper and Guillemette to put -a charm around his neck such as are used -to frighten away demons. He then, in his -ravings, abuses the doctors for their malpractice -and not understanding the quality -of his urine.(<a id="FNanchor_97" href="#Footnote_97" class="fnanchor">[97]</a>) Notwithstanding all this -the draper is not convinced and demands -his money. We all know what importance -was attributed to the examination of the -urine in olden times, long before any -search was made for albumen, sugar, or -other morbid principles that it might contain. -Charlatans especially exploited in -this field of medicine, practicing it illegally -in the country under the name of <i>water -jugglers</i> or <i>water judges</i>. Such men still -practice in Normandy and certain northern -provinces of France.</p> - -<p>The intestinal functions had also more -or less importance in the eyes of the public, -and the physician was not always consulted -as when to give physic. People -sent to an apothecary and ordered a clyster -with cassia and other ingredients, according -to the following formula of the pharmacopœia: -“<i>Cassia Pro Clysteribus. Est -eadem pulpa cassiæ cum decocto herbarum -aperitirarum extracta et saccharo Thomæo -condita. Oportet autem illas herbas adhibere -recentes, parumque decoquere, alias viribus -aperitivis omnio privantur; siccæ autem per -se carent virtute illa aperitiva.</i>”</p> - -<p>In the “Revue Historique” of Angers -we find a document bearing on the private -life of Cardinal Richelieu; it has for its -title: “Things furnished for the person of -His Most Eminent Highness, the Cardinal -Duke Richelieu during the year 1635, by -Perdreau, apothecary to his Excellency.” -During the one year the Cardinal had used -seventy-five clysters and twenty-seven -cassia boluses, without counting other laxative -medicines and bottles of tisane, his -purgative bill amounting to 1401 livres<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_83"></a>83</span> -and 14 sous. It is evident that Richelieu -was a badly constipated Cardinal.</p> - -<p>It was a fine period for apothecaries, -and we might add that Moliere did them -considerable harm.</p> - -<p>Let us return to Master Pathelin. He -was allowed a short breathing spell for -Guillemette, fought off the obdurate creditor -by making him leave the room a few -moments while her husband used the bedpan.</p> - -<p>But this respite is of short duration; -the draper soon returns to demand his -cloth back or his money, although the wife -declares her husband “is dying in frenzy.” -Then commences another scene of maniacal -simulation in this wonderful psychological -play. In his pretended delirium, -Pathelin indulges in Limousin <i>patois</i>, Flemish, -Lower Breton; his words grow unintelligible -and incoherent in order to convince -the draper of his insanity.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Mere de Diou, la coronade,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Par fie, y m’en voul anar,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Or renague biou, outre mar,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ventre de Diou, zen diet gigone,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Castuy carrible, et res ne donne.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Let us pass from a wild Flemish -harangue, that possesses but little interest -even to those understanding the -dialects.</p> - -<p>The psychic symptoms, which dominate -in the simulated delirium of Master Pathelin, -are especially incoherent in language -with mobility of ideas. The author of this -fine comedy had evidently observed the -progressive instability of thought among -certain maniacs, the impossibility of fixing -their attention, the too rapid succession of -ideas without order; in fact, that absolute -incoördination, a kind of cerebral automatism, -which is the announcement of the -breaking-down of intellectual faculties and -the prelude of absolute dementia. In his -ravings, Pathelin descants on the <i>Mal de -Saint Garbot</i>, or, more properly speaking, -Garbold; this was dysentery, although -such a scholar as Genin translates it as -meaning hemorrhoids. Saint Garbold who -was Bishop of Bayeux in the seventh century, -was driven out from his episcopal -chair by his diocesans, and, in order to be -avenged, sent them dysentery.</p> - -<p>We may remark, in this connection, -that during the Middle Ages many maladies -were called after the Saints, whose aid -they invoked in given diseases; <i>Saint Ladre</i> -or <i>Lazare</i>, for leprosy; <i>Saint Roch</i>, for the -plague; <i>Saint Quentin</i>, for dropsy; <i>Saint -Leu</i>, <i>Saint Loupt</i>, <i>Saint Mathelin</i>, <i>Saint -Jehan</i>, <i>Saint Nazaire</i>, <i>Saint Victor</i>, for epilepsy, -fever, deafness, madness, etc.</p> - -<p>The <i>mal Saint Andreux</i>, <i>mal Saint Antoine</i>, -<i>mal Saint Firmin</i>, <i>mal Saint Genevieve</i>, -<i>mal Saint Germain</i>, <i>mal Saint Messaut</i>, <i>mal -Saint Verain</i>, designated erysipelas, scurvy, -etc. Drunkenness was called the <i>mal -Saint Martin</i>.</p> - -<p>Syphilis naturally had its patron Saint; -in fact, it was known as <i>mal Saint homme -Job</i>, <i>Saint Merais</i>, <i>Saint Laurant</i>, <i>mal Saint -Eupheme</i>, etc. In fact, all diseases had as -an attachment the name of one or more -Saints, at whose shrine the afflicted might -implore aid.</p> - -<p>But to return to Master Pathelin: After -numerous tirades he finishes by acknowledging -his deceit to the draper. This is -an epitome of the farce of Master Pierre -Pathelin, a medical study that had an immense -run in the fifteenth century and -remains a valuable document regarding -French morality in the Middle Ages, as -interesting to the student of psychology as -to the Theatre. Some years after this -(1490) the sequel to Master Pathelin -appeared, called the “Last Will of Pathelin,” -which is also full of strange medical -conceits appertaining to the age in which -it was written. In this piece, Pathelin, -after years of fraud and deceit, really becomes -ill and sends for the lawyer and -priest, abandoning the doctor to a certain -extent. In his will he leaves all his ailments -to different religious orders and -charitable institutions, as, for instance, one -<i>item</i> of his will reads as follows:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Au quatre convens aussi,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Cordeliers, Carmes, Augustins,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Jacobins, soient ors, on Soient ens,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Je leur laisse tous bons lopins,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A tous chopineurs et y vrongnes,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Notre vueil que je leur laisse</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Toutes goutes, crampes et rongnes,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Au poing, au coste, a la fesse,” etc.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>But enough of Master Pathelin. Let -us now turn to the consideration of another -curious farce.</p> - - -<h3>LA FARCE DE MUNYER.</h3> - -<p>This farce, whose author was Andre de -la Vigne, dates back, like preceding one, -to the fourteenth century. The miller of -the Middle Ages, the ancestor of our -present Jack-pudding (French slang for -miller), was in antique times the most<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_84"></a>84</span> -rascally and cheating type of trader, from -whence the old Gascon proverb, “One -always finds a thief in a miller’s skin.”</p> - -<p>In this farce we see the miller “lying -in bed as though sick,” uttering long -groans and sighing over the pains he professes -to endure—groans, however, to -which his wife appears insensible. He -commences thus:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Now am I in sore distress,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">My sickness hard to cure,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My sore discomfort is not less.</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Heart-ache I can’t endure.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>To this his wife responds indifferently, -although the miller persists in asking for a -bottle of good wine, saying that his “reins -and belly need the supreme consolation of -the bottle.” The wife obstinately refuses -her husband the wine, remarking that he -cannot “repair his stomach by filling the -belly;” but, instead, she sends for the -priest, who is, moreover, her lover, and -carries on a flirtation with the holy man in -the presence of her husband, for the purpose -of making the invalid rise from his -sick-bed; but, thinking his end near, the -miller demands that he shall be permitted -to die in the faith, or “<i>mourir catholiquement</i>.” -He confesses to the priest, avowing -all his thefts, his frauds, his falsification -and <i>amours</i>, and is prepared to render his -soul.</p> - -<p>But the miller has absorbed some of the -popular ideas of his day, professed by certain -philosophers of the time; he believes -that, at the moment of death, the soul -of man escapes by his anus, and warns -the priest to absolve him from his sins, -saying:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Mon ventre trop se determine.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Helas! Je ne scay que je face;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ostez vous!”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>The priest answers:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Ha! sauf vostre grace!”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Then the miller remarks:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Ostez vous, car je me conchye.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>The wife and the priest pull the sick -man to the edge of the bed and place him -in such a position that, if the doctrine of -soul departure by the anus be true, they -may witness the miller’s final performance. -The phenomenon of rectal flatulence is now -observed, when suddenly to the consternation -of the wife and priest, a demon -appears, and placing a sack over the dying -miller’s anus catches the rectal gas and -flies off in sulphurous vapor. In the next -act we see the Devil appear before his -patron Lucifer bearing the sack supposed -to contain the damned soul of the miller -received in the aforesaid sack at the moment -it escaped from the anus. The devil -is commanded by Lucifer to empty the -sack at the feet of Proserpine who is busily -engaged in cooking in Hell’s kitchen, but -in place of the miller’s soul they only find -<i>spoiled bran</i>; the rascal has cheated even -in death.</p> - -<p>It seems strange that earlier comedy -writers all showed a tendency to make -their principle scenes pathological burlesques. -Thus in many plays the heroes and -heroines were attacked by colic in order to -excite the laughter of the audience, when -the buffoon would imitate by signs the act -of defecation. This peculiar French gayety -and lack of prudery is fully evidenced in -the comic effects of Pourceaugnac with the -detersive, insinuative and carminative clysters -of Moliere.</p> - -<p>This farce, had in former days, an immense -success, and is still occasionally -played, being considered a <i>chef d’œuvre</i> of -malice and humor by our best critics and -most distinguished authors. In France -the audience always laugh when a thief -while plundering is suddenly taken with -pains in his bowels and diarrhœa, while a -rectal syringe flourished aloft as a weapon -of defense will bring down the gallery in a -storm of applause.</p> - - -<h3>L’AVEUGLE ET LE BOITEUX</h3> - -<p>Is another play in which medicine acts a -part, by the same author of the preceding -farce; the plot is as follows: A blind -man and a lame man implore public charity -on a deserted road; the blind man deplores -his fate as never having seen the light, and -the lame man bitterly bemoans not being -able to walk but a few steps at one time, -on account of the gout which has rendered -him paraplegic. These two make a mutual -avowal of their infirmities and agree to -form a copartnership for mutual assistance; -the lame man climbs on the blind man’s -shoulders and they start out the road in -search of charitable persons who may aid -them with alms. On going some little distance -the beggars hear a noise; this is made -by a procession of monks going on a pilgrimage -to the tomb of Saint Martin. “What -do they say?” asks the blind man; to -which the lame man responds:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_85"></a>85</span></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">They tell of things curious and quaint,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of miracles, wonderous, if true,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Performed by a newly made saint,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For whose aid each monk goes to sue;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">This Saint cures all ills he can find,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Even fits, ulcers, fevers and gout;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">He <i>healeth the halt</i> and the blind</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In a manner that’s past finding out.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>We all know the eternal popular faith -and belief in the ability of the Saints to -cure every malady that flesh is heir to. -However, in the present instance, it seems -that one of the requirements necessary to -be healed was a perfect spirit of resignation -to all ills on the part of the sufferer—<i>now -this is the case of our two mendicants</i>, who -now become alarmed at the idea that they -may be cured and thus deprived of a -method of earning their daily bread, <i>i.e.</i>, -by beggary, so they undertake a number of -subterfuges to escape the pious pilgrimage, -which gives rise to many amusing adventures -and situations, which might be well -utilized by some modern playwriter. In -the end the two mendicants escape from -going with the pilgrim monks to visit the -Saint’s shrine, as the blind man detests the -light and the lame man is too lazy to walk, -in fact both are admirably suited with -their afflictions. It is during one of these -scenes that the lame man relates to the -blind man the best methods for deceiving -the public by simulating maladies, and -making a regular profession of begging. -He discloses all the secrets of those who in -the Middle Ages sought public commiseration -to earn alms; he remarks:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Puisque de tout je suis reffait,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Maulgre mes deus et mon visage,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Tant feray, que seray deffaict,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Encore ung coup de mon corsaige,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Car je vous dis bien que encor scay—je”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“La grant pratique et aussi l’art,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Par onguement et par herbaige,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Combien que soye miste et gaillart,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Que huy on dira que ma jambe art</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Du cruel mal de Sainct Anthoyne,” etc.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>In this lengthy poem, too long to transcribe -from the French, the lame mendicant -gives a list of herbs, through means of -which various diseases may be simulated, -especially those maladies of the skin that -are repulsive to the majority of mankind; -thus he describes the itch produced by -certain varieties of the <i>clematis</i> and the -appearance of leprosy induced by the use -of an ointment of which <i>veronica</i> formed -the basis. He also describes how to produce -the disease of <i>Saint Fiacre</i>, an -affection characterized by warts and ulcers -around the anus. It is useless to add there -is nothing new under the sun. Let us now -turn our attention to another play, <i>i.e.</i>;</p> - - -<h3>LUNACY AND LOVE.</h3> - -<p>This is a play with six characters, written -in 1556, by Louise Labe, sometimes -called the <i>Belle Cordiere</i>.</p> - -<p>Love, at all periods of time, has served -as an inexhaustible subject of analysis and -observation, not only to poets and novelists, -but also to moralists, and especially physicians. -Psychologists have always considered -love, when excessive, as an evidence -of insanity. Esquirol says that -“love has lost its empire in France, indifference -having captivated the hearts of our -people, who, given over to amorous passions, -having neither purity nor exhaltation, -engender attacks of erotic lunacy.” This -learned alienist has also discovered that -out of 323 cases of insanity among the -poor, love figured as a cause in forty-six -cases; and out of 167 cases among the -rich, twenty-five persons went insane on -account of love. These close relations -between “Lunacy and Love,” admitted -since mankind <i>entered into society</i>, have -served as a text for the Middle Ages, as is -witnessed by the title of the play we have -mentioned; a work the more curious, for -reason of its <i>finesse</i>, notwithstanding the -jests employed by its author as the following -analysis will witness.</p> - -<p>Love and Lunacy arrive at the same -moment at a festival to which Jupiter has -convened all the Gods. Lunacy, full of -arrogance, wishes to enter the banquet-hall -before Love, and in order to do so -turns everything topsy-turvy to secure his -end. The vindictive Love, in order to be -avenged, discharges a flight of arrows from -the historical quiver; but Lunacy avoids -these by becoming invisible, and in his -wrath pulls out Love’s eyes, but afterwards -skilfully puts them back in place with a -bandage.</p> - -<p>Love, in despair at being blinded, goes -to implore the help of his mother. The -latter desires the boy to remove the bandages -from his eyes, but his efforts are useless; -they are full of knots. Venus calls -on Jupiter for justice for the injury done -her boy. The Father of Gods accepts the -position of arbitrator and cites the offender -to appear before his tribunal. Mercury -acts as attorney for Lunacy and Apollo<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_86"></a>86</span> -does the special pleading for Love. In the -cross-examination, Love tries to inform -Jupiter of the fashions of loving, and tells -him if he desires true affection and happiness -to descend to earth, drop all appearances -of greatness, and, under the guise of -a simple mortal, seek to captivate some -earthly beauty. Apollo, speaking for his -client, young Cupid, is so eloquent that all -the assemblage of Gods is seduced by his -oratory, and condemns Lunacy without -even giving him a hearing. But Jupiter is -impartial in his tribunal, and allows Mercury -to argue for the defense. The latter -pleads, in turn, with such eloquence that -one-half the jury is ready to say that -Lunacy is not guilty—at least among -Olympian jurors. Jupiter is undecided; -he is very wise, however, and makes the -following decision. “Owing to the differences -of witnesses and the importance of -the case, we have set the case for a re-hearing -in three times seven times nine centuries—18,900 -years—until which time Folly, -or Lunacy, shall lead the Blind (Cupid) -anywhere she chooses to go; and, at the -end of the time named, should Cupid’s -eyes be restored, the Fates may decree -otherwise.”</p> - -<p>Lunacy and Love are thus rendered inseparable -and eternal on earth; they are -connected together for the happiness of -humanity and the delight of psychologists, -philosophers and moralists, who will always -find in these subjects something new for -meditation and study. Need we add, also, -that the alienists will secure any number -of clients owing to Jupiter’s decision?</p> - -<p>Let us now turn to a brief mention of</p> - - -<h3>THE TREASURER’S WIFE.</h3> - -<p>This comedy, by Jacques Grevin, a -medical poet, born at Clermont, was written -in the sixteenth century. This physician, -from his earliest youth, was enamored -with the daughter of one of his confreres, -Charles Etienne; she was a noted beauty, -but preferred another doctor, Jean Liebaut, -the author of “La Maison Rustique,” to -our poet. In order to console himself for -the loss of his sweetheart, Grevin commenced -to write rhymes, and even surpassed -Jodelle, the author of “Cleopatra -and Dido,” by his fecundity. He followed -Marguerite de France, wife of the Duke -of Savoy, to whom he was family physician, -to Turin, and died there in 1570.</p> - -<p>He left several plays in verse, the -principal one of which was “La Tresoriere,” -an adulterous comedy relating to the intrigue -of a financier’s wife. It is only of -medical interest inasmuch as it alludes to -syphilis, which at the time this play was -written prevailed in Europe almost as an -epidemic, and as a study of the morals of -the epoch is not without interest to the -syphilographer. The author, probably -owing to his early disappointment in love, -had but a poor opinion of the virtue of the -women in his century, and makes many -odd comparisons, as, for instance:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Woman, ’tis often been said,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Resembles a church lamp bright,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That hangs on the altar overhead,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And outshines the candles at night;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">She sheds an equal light on all,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But without her light, no shadows fall.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>He was no believer in the morality -of the aristocratic classes, and alludes to -the laxity of social rules and the spread of -syphilis in the following lines:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Aussi la femme a beau changer</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Un familier a l’etranger,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">L’etranger au premier venu,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Toujours son cas est maintenu</div> - <div class="verse indent0">En son entier, si d’aventure</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Elle n’y mele quelqu’ ordure.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>The reference to the syphilis is here -found in the two last lines; if she has a -love affair, there is ordure in the result. -The allusion in other passages is much -more apparent, but too impolite for an -English rendering.</p> - -<p>Let us now turn to another curious old -French play,</p> - - -<h3>LUCILLE AND INNOCENCE UNCOVERED.</h3> - -<p>Pharmacists, even at the present day, -notwithstanding the rigid laws to the contrary, -often sell narcotics without a prescription. -That the modern druggist only -follows the custom of his ancestor is evidenced -by this comedy of the sixteenth -century, by Louis Le Jars, <i>i.e.</i>, “Lucille.”</p> - -<p>The plot is as follows: At the moment -a rich banker gives the hand of his daughter -Lucille to the Baron Saint Amour, he -learns that the former has been already -secretly married to one of his clerks, a -young man named Ascagne. In his wrath -the banker places a pistol at Ascagne’s -head, offering him at the same moment a -goblet of poison, giving him his choice as -to the manner of death. Ascagne chooses -poison, and bravely drinks half the goblet -and falls down, apparently inanimate. The<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_87"></a>87</span> -father then has the body of Ascagne -carried into his daughter’s presence, and -also the remaining half-goblet of poison; -the young woman does not hesitate to -drain the other half of the poison to the -dregs, and drops to the floor, like Ascagne, -without consciousness.</p> - -<p>Almost immediately following this -double poisoning, a courier arrives and demands -Ascagne, who turns out to be the -son of the King of Poland. The banker -is in despair, and sends post-haste for the -apothecary who furnished the poison, and -the druggist forthwith declare that the mixture -is only a narcotic, the effects of which -he can soon neutralize. Scene of overpowering -tenderness and joy, and marriage -over again to a real Prince.</p> - -<p>It sometimes happens that physicians -themselves give away opiates without regard -for the rights of the <i>medicamentarius -renenum coquens</i> of the neighborhood. Jean -Auvray, Member of the French Parliament -and poet, evidences this fact in a tragio-comedy -entitled “Innocence Uncovered.” -This little play is only a rural version of -Phedra and Hippolyte. Marsilie, in fact, -is in love with Fabrice, the son of Phocus, -her husband, by a former marriage. Her -passion for the young man is so violent -that she falls ill, and in a visit made her by -Fabrice the latter learns of the love his -step-mother bears him, but loyally repulses -her advances. Marsilie, reflecting on the -infamy of her conduct, wishes to kill herself -in a fit of remorse; but to prevent this -and calm her, Fabrice promises that if she -will not suicide he will visit her when his -father is absent from home. Phocus soon -starts on a journey. Marsilie recalls to -Fabrice the promise he made, but Fabrice -answers her offers with contempt and quits -her presence overcome with horror. Acting -under the advice of her maid servant, -through fear that the young man may tell -his father of her perfidy, Marsilie consents -to poison Fabrice, and sends her <i>valet</i>, -Thomas, to see a doctor and thus secure -poison. The unfortunate <i>valet</i> is very -much embarrassed and cannot tell the -physician exactly what he desires, and in -order to obtain some deadly drug he details -the symptoms of an imaginary malady, -and descants in the following manner: -“Sir, for several days past my master, -who exceeds the Persians as a gourmand in -the cooking of delicious meats, gave a -grand dinner party, equal to that of the -Gods at the wedding festival of Thetis. -Now, know that I, his principal servant, -sat behind him; there by his order I -tasted every dish brought in by the butler, -when such a terrible fury broke forth in -my belly that I was overcome with fright -and agony. The rumblings and grumblings -in my interior were only comparable to the -reverberation of thunder claps among the -highest crags of Tartarus. Hell was astonished -and our castle walls shook,” etc., etc.</p> - -<p>This narration, which is made in -French rhyme and is too long for reproduction, -naturally leads the doctor to prescribe -for the impudent <i>valet</i>, who proposes -to pay him a hundred crowns for enough -poison to kill his master. The physician is -angry and revengeful at the same time at -the <i>valet’s</i> dreadful proposition, but, restraining -himself, he accepts the gold and -gives Thomas in place of poison only a -soporific liquor; this the valet brings to his -mistress, Marsilie. Now, Antoine, the -only son of Marsilie by Phocus, returning -from the chase, sees the flagon of liquor, -and, mistaking it for wine, swallows the -contents at one draught. He falls to the -floor unconscious and all believe him dead. -Marsilie accuses Fabrice of poisoning his -stepbrother; the unfortunate young man is -taken before the judge, who condemns -him to death; he is about to be executed, -when the physician enters on the scene, -tells all that has passed, and restores to life -the supposed dead Antoine.</p> - -<p>Marsilie is tried and found guilty and -repudiated by her husband and family; -and Fabrice becomes dearer than ever to -his father. Without making further commentaries -on this piece, we see the place -occupied on the stage by medicine in the -Middle Ages and the social standing of the -physician in polite society. We also note -the <i>irregular</i> practice of the doctor, as well -as the high standard of professional honor -he maintained in many instances.</p> - - -<h3>THE GOUT.</h3> - -<p>This tragedy, in poetic form, was composed -towards the close of the sixteenth -century by J. D. L. Blambeausaut. It has -only three scenes, and depicts the triumph -of the gout. The poet describes an old -man overcome by the multiple pains of -podagra, praying to obtain some slight -respite from the atrocious and agonizing -pain he endures. The Gout, an ever -malevolent deity, rejects the old ma<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_88"></a>88</span>n’s -prayer for help, but carries him into a -gathering of doctors who are vaunting, in -mutual admiration society fashion, their -power in jugulating all forms of disease -and exalting their specifics for every -known affection. In order to punish these -arrogant disciples of Æsculapius for their -presumption, the Gout gives them all the -disease that bears his name, and afterwards -jeers at their impotent efforts to cure themselves -of aching joints.</p> - -<p>This tragedy, name given by the author -of the poem, is a very curious treatise on -the gout in rhyme, in which we find all the -pathogenetic theories given credence before -the time that medical chemistry revealed -the action of an excess of uric acid -in the organism. The blood, bile, peccant -humors settling in the parts affected were, -as we all know, causes attributed to diathesis -by the majority of medical authors of -the Middle Ages. Thus the gout-afflicted -man, in his imprecations against what he -calls “the torturer of humanity,” comes to -say:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“From the top of my head to the end of my toes</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I am cruelly tortured by agony’s woes,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Filled up with black blood and billious humor,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My flesh seems to pulsate like a sore tumor.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The eating and gnawing I can’t describe well;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My tendons all ache with the twinges of Hell,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">While through my fingers pains cut like a knife</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And add to my torment! I’m weary of life.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Meantime our patient does not appear -to have a robust faith in the humoral -theories of his physician, for he adds, in -accursing the malady that has ruined his -health, that it permits him no repose:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Mal que jamais l’homme n’a pu comprendre</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Qui le plus sage induirait a se pendre.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>That is to say, that the doctors do not -understand how to manage the disease, a -common idea among patients who are not -cured of their malady as speedily as they -desire.</p> - -<p>In one of the scenes the gout addresses -a pompous eulogy on its power over -humanity, and inveighs against those physicians -who discover a new specific against -gout every day. This list of remedies for -the disease is appalling; we cull but a few -to satisfy the reader’s curiosity:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“One advises flea wort and a parsley pill,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">One eats fruit at morning, when with gout he’s ill,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">One chews leaves of lettuce, one takes wild purslain;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Another smells pond lilies, when he doth complain.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Some remedies most curious are for gout deemed good,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Such are herbs and simples to purify the blood;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Angelica and gentian, the iris and green thyme,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Along with fresh culled myrtle will cure it all the time;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Hyssop and lavender, cherry and water cress,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Basil, hops and anise, all make the pain grow less.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Lentills, sage and savory, when the bowels they unbind,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And the marvelous merchoracan that comes from far off Ind.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">There’s the beauteous laurel leaf that crowneth bard and king,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Privet and cardamoms, whose praise we often sing.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And there’s the sleeping poppy, what peace within it resides,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Culled by the Turkish houris in the garden Hesperides;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">There’s the soothing comfrey and the glorious hoarhound,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And the magic betal nut, in tropic isles that’s found;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">There’s the fragrant <i>fleur de lis</i>, when with pain you cry,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">There’s the odorous sheep dung, given always on the sly.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Some dote on peach blossoms; some on saffron red,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Some like hyoscyamus mixed with piss-a-bed;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">There’s bread crumbs and fennel mixed with young carrots</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Pounded in a mortar along with eschalots.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">There are some who use an ointment this disease to heal,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Made of rinds of citron and golden orange peel,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With frankencense and veratria root, to ease gouty pain,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Applied to the great toes on the leaves of green plantain.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">There’s saltpeter ointment too, when to the foot applied</div> - <div class="verse indent0">It makes the patient furious wroth, or else he’s terrified,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Giving the gout new twinges, and the sufferer spasms</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Only eased by eggs and flour in a soft cataplasm.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Some patients take a razor and their own flesh deeply cut;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The wound then duly poulticed is with meal and Cyprus nut.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Some take red cabbage when other methods fail</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And eat it with vinegar mixed with the slime of snail;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Some use biting dressings made from ugly lizards,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Pounded up with doe’s hoof and weasel gizzards.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Many think a certain and most efficacious cure</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Is a little blue stone ointment mixed with man’s ordure,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And a celebrated surgeon, a knight of great renown,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Used virgin urine as a cure for all the men in town.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Some wear charms like foxes’ tails, or a beaver tooth;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Others boil a new born caul and chew it up, forsooth,” etc., etc., <i>ad nauseam</i>.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_89"></a>89</span></p> -<p>Such are a few of the drugs employed -against the gout, and certainly we cannot -enumerate all the remedies spoken of by -this malevolent demon. The treatment of -Alexander Trallian, for example, is no less -odd than many of the recipes given in this -poetic formulary; it was composed of -myrrh, coral, cloves, rue, peony and birthwort -pounded together and mixed in certain -proportions, and prescribed as an antidote -to the gout for the space of 365 days, in -the following manner: To be taken for -100 consecutive days, and then omitted for -thirty days; then taken for another 100 -days, with fifteen days omission afterwards; -finally, every other day for 360 days. -Circumcision was also a remedy, only -applicable to Christians for obvious -reasons.<a id="FNanchor_98" href="#Footnote_98" class="fnanchor">[98]</a></p> - -<p>This treatment is an example of the -methodical system, and “rests upon superstitious -gifts,” says Sprengel. But there -are some merits discoverable even in this -apparent superstition, <i>i.e.</i>, the great truth -that the gout is a constitutional disease -produced by luxury, and consequently incurable -by medicines; a severe regimen -being imposed, at the same time foolish -prescriptions were given; it was the dieting -and not the formula that made Alexander -Trallian’s treatment so successful. -However, it must not be forgotten that -some medicines had a powerful effect in -attenuating the violence of the gouty -attack; it was for this reason that Cœlius -Aurelianus resorted to purgatives and -mineral waters; and among the drugs used -by chance in the Middle Ages were found -the flowers and bulbs of colchicum; the -haughty Demon of Gout dared not treat -this remedy with disdain.</p> - -<p>Meantime the <i>Gout</i> addressed the following -lines to the physicians and <i>mires</i> -of the age.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Gardez vous, Siriens;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Menteurs magiciens,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Vendeurs de theriaque,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Qu’elle ne vous attaque.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>To call the doctor of ancient times a -“<i>vender of Theriacum</i>” was an insult to -professional pride. This absurd remedy -was invented by one of Nero’s slaves, and -held a high place in public estimation. -“It was laid down in the pharmacopœias, -<i>ad ostentationem artis</i>,” says Pliny, “and enjoyed -a reputation that was never justified -by its thirty-six ingredients and the varied -assortment of inert gums entering into its -composition.”</p> - -<p>In the third scene of the tragedy, the -Demon Gout, recalls to the memory of the -doctors of the Middle Ages, its illustrious -victims of antiquity.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Priam, disposed to run, had gout;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Achilles was too lame to get about;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Bellerophon’s saddle toes complained;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ædipus had big joints that pained;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Plisthenes on his feet, all swollen stood,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Cursing the gout that coursed with his blood.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>How many other of the great have -wept with the gout?</p> - -<p>Then calling his faithful servitors, Pain, -Insomnia, and Indigestion, the Demon -Gout bids them plunge his fiery darts into -his enemies, to burn them with an unquenchable -flame:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Toy, brule ici par des douleurs nouvelles</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Le chef premier, les cuisses et tendons,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Toy, convertis leur nerfs en noir charbons,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Et vous aussi, d’une fureur soudaine,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Froissez leurs mains, rendez leur drogue vaine.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>With this superb peroration, he afflicts -all good doctors with the gout and rheumatism. -Since that day physicians the world -over, says our talented author, J. D. L. -Blambeausaut, have been the victims of -this horrible malady. Let us now turn to -the consideration of a curious hygienic -play, no less interesting than that of the -Gout,</p> - - -<h3>CONDEMNATION OF HIGH LIVING AND PRAISE -OF DIET AND SOBRIETY.<a id="FNanchor_99" href="#Footnote_99" class="fnanchor">[99]</a></h3> - -<p>This moral play, to which we might -give the title of hygienic poetry, appeared -in 1507, under the name of its author, -Nicolas de la Chesnaye, along with another -work, the latter in prose, on the “Government -of the Human Body.”</p> - -<p>Nicolas de la Chesnaye was not only a -poet but a doctor. He was a physician of -enough importance to be personal friend -and medical attendant of Louis XII, at -whose instigation the poetical play was -written. This work is considered by many -French critics to be a classic of its kind; it -is a poem dealing with all the curious<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_90"></a>90</span> -manners and customs of the time, and -treats of morality and the stage. In a prologue -Nicole de la Chesnaye informs us -how he came to be a poet, or, rather, a -writer of verses to be recited on the public -stage, in which were embodied the hygienic -and dietetic precepts of the epoch, together -with the medical doctrines in vogue. -Let us cite a few lines from this prologue: -“Oh, ye who write or attempt to follow -copies of ancient works, ye should strive to -omit such phrases as are difficult to be -understood by the masses of the people; -endeavor then to not exceed in quantity -and quality their mental capacity and your -own understanding. On such an occasion -as this, I, who am ignorant as compared to -many among ye, have had the hardihood -to compose and put in rhyme this little -play of mine upon morality. The intention -of this work is to make an exterminating -war on gluttony, debauchery, inebriety, -and avariciousness, and to praise and extol -temperance, virtue, sobriety, and generosity, -to the end of improving mankind. -So in this work I have given the personages -of my play the names of different -maladies, as, for example, Apoplexy, Epilepsy, -Dropsy, Jaundice, Gout, etc., etc.”</p> - -<p>The object of the author’s play is thus -plainly stated at the outset. In the first -act we see Dinner, Supper, and Banquet -conniving against honest gentlemen by inviting -them to feast. Among the plotters -are also Good Company, Fried Meats, -Gourmandizer, Drink Hearty, and others. -In the midst of the festivities rascals fall -on the assembled guests and give them -deadly blows; these villains are Apoplexy, -Gout, Epilepsy, Gravel, and Dropsy. Almost -all the guests present are more or less -injured, and upon their complaint their -assailants are cited to appear before a court -held by Judge Experience, while the attorneys -for the plaintiffs and defendants are -Remedy, Medical Aid, Sobriety, Diet, -and Old Pills. The trial, carried on in -rhyme, is piquant and amusing, and ends -in the conviction of Supper, who is condemned -to wear bread and milk handcuffs. -Dinner is doomed to a long exile on penalty -of being hung should he return. Supper -is well pleased with the light sentence. -One of the attorneys abuses wine during -the course of his argument for plaintiffs, as, -for instance:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Good wine is full of wicked lies,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Good wine a wise man will despise,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Good wine corrupts the blood and tongue,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Good wine has many a fellow hung.<a id="FNanchor_100" href="#Footnote_100" class="fnanchor">[100]</a></div> - <div class="verse indent0">Good wine lascivious men will rue.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Good wine, though red, makes drinkers blue.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Good wine means lost ability,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Good wine means lost docility.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Good wine means jaundiced liver pain.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Good wine means a wild, raving brain.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Good wine means arson, murder, lust,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Good wine means prison chains and rust.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Good wine means broken family ties.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Good wine means woman’s tears and sighs.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Good wine makes cowards of the brave.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Good wine digs a good drinker’s grave.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>He then goes on and gives examples, -as, for instance, Alexander the Great killing -his foster-brother Clitus at a drinking -banquet; he cites the opinions of Saint -Jerome and Terrence; he depicts Lot debauching -his daughters and Noah exposed -to the mockery of his sons; he shows -Holofernes decapitated by Judith, and -places all these cases to the credit of intemperance. -Then he adds a long list of -diseases resulting from drink, of which we -shall only quote one verse of the original:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“D’ou vient gravelle peu prisie</div> - <div class="verse indent6">Y dropsie,</div> - <div class="verse indent6">Paralisie,</div> - <div class="verse indent6">Ou pleuresie’</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Collicque qui les boyaulx touche?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Dont vient jaunisse, ictericie</div> - <div class="verse indent6">Appoplexie,</div> - <div class="verse indent6">Epilencie,</div> - <div class="verse indent6">Et squinancie?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Tout vient de mal garder la bouche.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>In quaint old French all the symptoms -of alcoholism are perfectly enumerated. It -is evident that the epilepsy mentioned by -the author is only the epileptiform convulsion -noticed in modern cases of chronic -drunkenness.</p> - -<p>As to the <i>ictericie</i>, which a modern -critic has translated as meaning <i>black -humor</i>, it is nothing more than what is now -known as cirrhosis of the liver. Nicole de -la Chesnaye was a physician; his critical -commentator not much of one. We cannot -follow this classical author through the -innumerable reasons he gives for blaming -liquor drinking and his high tributes of -praise to the cause of Middle Age temperance, -and we cannot quote those original -strophes on the ancient satirical poet:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Le satirique Juvenal</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Avoit bien tout cousidere.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Quand il dist qu’il vient tant de mal</div> - <div class="verse indent0">De long repas immodere,” etc., etc.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>In another scene the drunken revelry<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_91"></a>91</span> -of the Banqueters is re-enacted, on the return -of the convicts from exile, and another -temptation to the weak and young -and foolish. In fact, one of the youths -present, Folly (<i>Le Fol</i>), is attacked and -badly used up by the villain Gravel. The -poor fellow cries:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Alarme! Je ne puis pisser</div> - <div class="verse indent0">La Gravelle me tient aux rains!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Venez ouyr mes piteux plains,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Vous, l’Orfevre et l’Appoticaire.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Then follows a comical scene of suffering, -couched in such language as would -offend modern ears polite, and, therefore, -out of respect to the reader omitted.</p> - -<p>In this play are many dialogues between -Hippocrates, Galen, Avicenna, and -Averrhoes, who discuss medical topics at -length, but these are too lengthy for reproduction -in this epitomized translation.</p> - -<p>The morality of Nicole de la Chesnaye -is full of good intentions, but it is questionable -whether he accomplished any considerable -result in reforming the morals of -the Middle Ages; he perhaps fell as short -in his aim as modern hygienists on the -morality of our own epoch. The same instincts -predominate now as in days of -antiquity; the society man of to-day is -generally a mere digestive tube, serving to -keep alive the more or less badly served -vital organs.</p> - - -<h3>THE FOLLY OF THE WORLD.</h3> - -<p>This is a farce by the same Nicole de la -Chesnaye. It was acted in 1524, and one -of his chief personages in the play depicted -a doctor of the period. The following is a -short analysis of this really curious piece:</p> - -<p><i>Grandmother Sottie</i> leads to the <i>World</i> -several persons whom she desires the latter -to watch while plying their avocations; the -<i>shoemaker</i> makes his boots <i>too tight</i> always; -the <i>dressmaker’s</i> dresses are ever <i>too large</i>; -the <i>priest’s</i> masses are said <i>too long</i> or <i>too -short</i>. This bad showing on the part of -the World’s workers make his mundane -majesty sick. He sends a specimen of his -urine to the doctor, who, after a scientific -examination, declares the World’s brain is -affected, and also that his new-found client -must be visited in person. On meeting the -World he interrogates him as to his health, -and asks questions which might serve to -make a diagnosis. The World tells the -doctor he is no longer afraid of water on -the brain, but of being consumed in a -deluge of fire. The doctor then utters the -following wise and rather satirical observations:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“World! be not troubled in thinking of fire,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Let your mind on that score be at peace.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Know that each monk, and low, rascally <i>friar</i></div> - <div class="verse indent2">Sells and buys a good, fat benefice;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Why, even the children, your subjects in arms,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Are born to be <i>Abbots</i>, <i>Bishops</i>, and <i>Priors</i>,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">While church-bells keep ringing false fire alarms.</div> - <div class="verse indent2">But, great World, <i>all the clergy</i> are liars!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Their flattering’s truly their sweetest incense,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Yet the parasites fawn for your treasures;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ah! church love for war was ever intense,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And their doctrines mar all earthly pleasures.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>The World is so impressed by the doctor’s -remarks that he immediately weds -Folly. Ever since, it is needless to remark, -the World has enjoyed pleasure without -as much dread of fire. It is an easy -matter to seize the apologue sought by the -author.</p> - -<p>Here we see, as early as the sixteenth -century, the social reforms begun by medicine -and continued up to the eighteenth -century. The abbots, priors and other -gentry of the Church, who lived in idleness -and luxury, holding sinecures for which -the masses were taxed; the flatterers of -bastard princes, the agents of the rich and -aristocratic, ruled the country and made -wars costing thousands of lives for the -glory of the Church—<i>i.e.</i>, <i>themselves</i>. These -are the parasites that epidemically attack -the <i>World</i>.</p> - - -<h3>GARGANTUA AND PANTAGRUEL.</h3> - -<p>Among the famous galaxy of philological -stars of the sixteenth century, the men -who honored their age, we may enumerate -Montaigne, Amyot, Calvin, Marot, Michel -de l’Hospital, Etienne Dolet,<a id="FNanchor_101" href="#Footnote_101" class="fnanchor">[101]</a> and the -one great genius who eclipsed them all, the -immortal Rabelais, who was at once physician, -philosopher, politician, philanthropist -and <i>litterateur</i>; in other words, he illustrated -science and letters by his erudition, and -merits a place in the ranks of glorious -Frenchmen and among the list of benefactors -of humanity.</p> - -<p>Son of a wine-house keeper, the owner -of the “Lamprey Tavern,” at Chinon, he -took orders in the Church, following the -custom of the epoch, because he wished to -devote his life to study. During some -years he led the life of a monk, and was a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_92"></a>92</span> -close student of Latin and Greek literature; -to the latter especially he owes his concise, -nervous, but virile style, resembling that -of Aristophanes. But soon fatigued with -religious hypocrisy, whose victim he refused -to become, he left the Cordelier and -Benedictine Orders and sought refuge in -the charming village of Leguge, that his -intimate friend, the Bishop of Maillezais, -had placed at his disposal.</p> - -<p>Here, Rabelais gave himself up with -ardor to the study of belle lettres and -science, only meeting socially the freethinkers, -with whom he discussed those -great philosophic questions that had just -commenced to occupy the minds of the -really thoughtful. Such superior men as -Estissic, Bonaventure Desperriers, Clement -Marot, Jean Bouchet, Guillaume, -Bude, and Louis Berquin were the friends -of Rabelais.</p> - -<p>Etienne Dolet, the poet, philosopher -and celebrated printer, who laid down his -life in opposition to monarchial and -religious tyranny, was the very particular -friend and adviser of Francois Rabelais, -and one day traced for him the programme -of a book destined, to his mind, to unveil -the vices and console the mass of victims -who suffered from social iniquities.</p> - -<p>“Yes,” responded Rabelais, in answer,<a id="FNanchor_102" href="#Footnote_102" class="fnanchor">[102]</a> -“a book truly humane must be -addressed to all. The time has arrived -when philosophy must leave the clouds and -shine like the sun for the entire universe. -We must, from this hour, suck from the breast -of truth for the ignorant and learned. I -will see what is in me, and write a book of -philosophy, which shall instruct, console -and amuse the brave vintners of Deviniere -and the jolly wine-drinkers of Chinon, as -well as the learned. So well shall this be -done that Princes, Kings, Emperors and -paupers may drink gayly at one table -together. The <i>truth</i>, no matter how hard -to reach, and rugged though its nature, -must be related as truly as that found in -God’s book; and it shall be presented in a -living form, so human and natural that it -will be accepted by all the world, and -awaken in the soul of mankind a common -thought. What use is there, unless supported -on eternal conscience, to recount to -good and true men the histories that they -love to have related, histories they -themselves have made? For instance, the -‘History of Giants,’ so much printed in -our age, since the divine art of bookmaking -seems so well adapted to an end. -Through all of France I hear told the -dreadful prowess of the enormous giant -Gargantua; it is necessary to lay violent -hands on this history, include in it all the -world, and hand it back thus <i>newly created</i> -to the good people who invented the tale. -Here is the true secret; we derive from the -humble class of citizens their plain and -simple ideas, and give them back ornamented -with all the good things that the -study of philosophy brings us. The rustic -thoughts of the villager, such is the point I -wish to attain, in divulging treasures hidden -in secret up to the present time by the -enemies of light.” Such was the plot conceived -by the immortal Rabelais, which -soon served as a basis for “Gargantua and -Pantagruel.” Thus, under the familiar -form of an impossible and exaggerated fictitious -history, following the advice of -Dolet, our author proposed to attack in -his book all the hypocritical prejudices, -superannuated ideas, together with the political -and religious superstitions of the Middle -Ages;<a id="FNanchor_103" href="#Footnote_103" class="fnanchor">[103]</a> he thus paved a way for a -Revolution, that must some day be accomplished -in social morals, to the profit of -science and reason. In order to change -the control of orthodox and monarchial -guardians, it was necessary to resort to -stratagems, to dissimulate in his plans of -attack and use the ideas and language of -the superior classes. He had often heard -the aristocracy use vulgar and obscene expressions, -and he was to put these back in -the mouths of his characters, so as to depict -their unrestrained passions, intrigues, -<i>amours</i>, the luxury of their dress, their -penchant for disputation, their tendency to -sensuality; all these were to be part of his -projected romance, which was not to be<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_93"></a>93</span> -understood as irony even in the sense of -its paraboles.</p> - -<p>The official sanction to publication was -to be obtained by making the authorities -believe that the author was only a gay and -witty philosopher, a prince of good fellows -whose doctrines were not dangerous to the -continuance of the nobility and the prerogatives -of the aristocracy; whose ideas presented -nothing subversive, neither as to -the secular power nor to sacerdotal domination. -Meantime, the Sorbonnists, whom -Rabelais had the impudence to rail at, -doubted perhaps the position reserved for -them in such a satire, as for several years previous -they had been secretly hostile to him, -which was a serious matter, considering -their influence.</p> - -<p>The condemnation to the stake of Louis -Berquin, as a propagator of reform ideas; -the pursuit of Desperriers, accused of Atheism; -and the red danger-signals waving on -every hand, determined Rabelais, before -publishing his work, to quit Touraine and -to go to Montpellier, where he demanded -protection of the Faculty. His natural -pronounced taste for the natural sciences, -the avidity with which he continually extended -the circle of his knowledge, and, -above all, the liberty of University life, -had long before attracted the former monk -towards the study of medicine.</p> - -<p>It was under these conditions that Rabelais -left Longey to go to Montpellier, -where his reputation for erudition, keen -wit and most perfect good nature had long -before preceded him.</p> - -<p>The reading of all the classical Greek -authors, and principally Aristotle, had -initiated him in the natural sciences to -that extent that he was ready to receive his -degree of “Bachelor in Medicine” shortly -after his arrival at the University, under -the following circumstances: He had followed -the crowd of students who read -theses in the public halls, and thus mingled -with the auditors at the meeting; the discussion -was on the subject of botany. The -arguments of the orators appeared so weak -to Rabelais that he soon manifested signs -of impatience by a very sarcastic remark -that drew the attention of the Dean to the -newcomer. He was invited to enter the -enclosure reserved for doctors who debated, -but excused himself on the grounds -that his opinions would not be proper to -enunciate before such a gathering of -<i>savants</i>, and that he was, besides, only a -Bachelor; but, being pressed by the -crowd, who seemed pleased by his appearance -and manner, he treated the question -under discussion in such a masterly manner, -and with an eloquence so unequalled, -that rounds of applause greeted him on -every side; his knowledge of the subject -seemed unbounded. The Faculty was so -pleased that he was immediately honored -with the Baccalaureat. This was in November, -1530.</p> - -<p>Rabelais had not taken his doctor’s -bonnet when his great medical talent was -fully known and appreciated by the professors -of the Medical Department of Montpellier, -where his winning grace, good -humor, and communicative gayety made -him friends everywhere.</p> - -<p>Two of his boon companions at the -University were Antoine Saporta, who -afterwards became Dean of the Faculty, -and Guillaume Rondelet; with these men -he inaugurated at Montpellier theatrical -representations with a medical leaning. -He wrote some celebrated farces, among -others “The Dumb Wife” (<i>La Femme -Mute</i>), in which he himself assumed a leading -<i>role</i>—a farce which is related, as to -plot, in “Pantagruel,” by Panurge, under -the title of “History of a Good Husband -who Espoused a Dumb Wife.” The following -is an extract: “Now, the good -husband wished that his wife might speak, -and, thanks to the skill of a doctor and -surgeon, who cut a piece from under the -tongue, the woman commenced to talk, -and she talked and talked with recovered -speech, as though to make up for lost -time, until the husband returned to the -doctor for a remedy to keep his wife’s -mouth shut. The physician responded that -he had proper remedies for making women -speak, but no remedy had ever been discovered -to keep a wife’s tongue quiet. The -only thing he could suggest to the husband -was for the latter to become deaf in order -not to hear the woman’s voice. The old -reprobate submitted to an operation in -order to be deaf, and, when the physician -demanded his fee for professional services, -the husband answered that he was too deaf -to hear anything.” Then the doctor, in -order to make the man pay his bill, strove -to restore his hearing by forcing drugs -down the husband’s throat, whereupon -both husband and wife fell on the physician -and surgeon and so beat both medical men -with clubs that they were left for dead.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_94"></a>94</span> -This farce was played at Montpellier by a -company of medical students, and enjoyed -an immense run of success. It was this -farce that helped Moliere out in one of his -scenes in his famous play “Medecin malgre -lui.”</p> - -<p>His literary productions, strange to -say, did not injure his scientific work -meantime. During the time he resided at -Montpellier he published a translation of -some of the works of Hippocrates and -Galen, and also commenced his “Pantagruel,” -in which medical history may find -some valuable documents, for he showed -himself to be in every line not only a physician -but a philosopher.<a id="FNanchor_104" href="#Footnote_104" class="fnanchor">[104]</a> We will not -return to this, as it is too long, and would -take an infinity of time to recall his anatomical -erudition, and it is needless to say -he dissected as well as he wrote. A very -just conception of his style is obtained -from the description of the combat between -Brother John and the soldiers of Pichrocole, -who had invaded the Abbey of -Seville, a description which is terminated -in these droll lines: “Some died without -speaking, others spoke without dying; some -died in speaking, others spoke in dying.”</p> - -<p>In all his chapters it is easy to perceive -that Rabelais never once forgot he was a -physician, and consequently a philanthropist, -for could the author of “Pantagruel” -be otherwise? He pleased all those who -suffered, especially gouty patients, to -whom he dedicated a portion of his work. -He states, at the beginning of his prologue, -to Gargantua, “This is for those who love -gayety, for laughter is a proper attribute of -man.”</p> - -<p>It was this same sentiment of humanity -which led Rabelais to give disinterested -services to syphilitics, that unfortunate -class of sick whom the majority of doctors -disdained to treat in the sixteenth century. -In 1538 he went to Paris and made great -efforts to reform the treatment to which -such patients were barbarously subjected; -the number of such sufferers was great. -He works this fact into the description -that Epistemon gives of Hell, “where, not -counting Pope Sextus, there are five millions -of poxed devils, for there is as much -pox in one world as in the other.” But -Rabelais, alas for modern theories, did not -fish in the ether with hook and line for -microbes, while holding the white hands of -Venus.</p> - -<p>It was Rabelais, then, who pleaded the -cause of these poor poxed patients, attacked -by mercury as well as the syphilis, -and who exclaims: “How often I have -seen them when they were anointed and -greased with mercurial ointment; their -faces as sharp as a butcher knife and their -teeth rattling like the key-board of a -broken-down organ or the creaking motion -of an old spinnet.”</p> - -<p>It is evident he employed sweating -baths, however, since it is evidently proved -by that passage from the redoubtable -“Pantagruel’s” nativity: “For all sweat is -salt, as is evidenced if you but taste your -own sweat, or, a better experiment still, -try that of pox patients when they are -being sweated.”</p> - -<p>We know, besides, that G. Torella, -affirms that “the best methods of curing -pox is to make the patient sweat near a -stove or hot oven for fifteen consecutive -days, while fasting meantime.”</p> - -<p>Syphilis, as already remarked, was exceedingly -common in the sixteenth century, -as will be found by referring to the -writings of Italian and French specialists of -that epoch. Rabelais corroborates this -fact, for he frequently alludes to this -malady in his works; according to our -illustrious author great personages were not -exempt from the disease, not even the -Pope and the Sacred College of Rome, not -even kings and princes, in fact all the nobility, -for we read in chapter seventeen of -“Pantagruel”: “Moreover, Pope Sextus -gave me fifteen hundred pounds of rents -on his domains for having cured His Holiness -of <i>la bosse chancreuse</i>, which so much -tormented him that he feared to be crippled -all his life.” Now, a protuberant -chancre was nothing but an inguinal bubo, -whose suppuration was considered as a -favorable symptom of the disease.</p> - -<p>Even the good “Pantagruel” did not -escape, more than others, the fashionable -contagion of his time, for we read: “Pantagruel -was taken sick, and his stomach -was so disordered that he could neither eat -nor drink; and as misfortunes never come -singly, he was seized with a clap, which -tormented him more than you would -think, but his physician succored him well, -and by means of drugs, lenitive and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_95"></a>95</span> -diuretic, they caused him to urinate away his -misfortune (<i>pisser son malheur</i>). And his -urine was so hot that since that time it has -never grown cold, and there are different -places in France where he left his mark, -now called the <i>hot baths</i>, as, for instance, -at Cauterets, Limoux, Dax, Balaruc, Neris, -and Bourbon-Lancy.”<a id="FNanchor_105" href="#Footnote_105" class="fnanchor">[105]</a></p> - -<p>The chapters of Rabelais’ famous book -which most evidence his medical knowledge -are those discussing the perplexities of -Panurge on the question of marriage. -Pantagruel has long commented <i>pro</i> and -<i>con</i>, but has not fully made up his mind; -he does not demand a solution of the -matrimonial problem from Gods, dreams, -nor from the oracles of Sibyls. He, however, -consents to take council from Herr -Trippa, allegorical name bestowed by -Rabelais on the German Camilla Agrippa, -of Neterheim, a philosopher and physician -best known by his books on alchemy, -magic, and occult science. This <i>savant</i> -proposed to unveil our heroes’ future destiny -by “pyromancy, æromancy, hydromancy, -gyromancy”; or, better still, by -“necromancy I will make a spirit rise -from the dead, like Apollonius of Tyana to -Achilles, like the Witch of Endor to Saul, -who will tell you all, even as Erichto, dead -and rotten in body, rose in spirit and predicted -to Pompey the issue of the battle of -Pharsalia.”<a id="FNanchor_106" href="#Footnote_106" class="fnanchor">[106]</a></p> - -<p>Panurge always refuses, but finishes by -taking advice from a priest, physician, -lawyer, and philosopher, who elucidate the -question. The consultation with the physician -Rondibilis, that is to say, the -author’s friend Guillaume Rondelet, fellow -student of Rabelais at the University of -Montpellier, is particularly interesting to -all doctors by reason of the anatomical and -physiological arguments.</p> - -<p>The good physician Rondibilis thus responds -to Panurge on the question of -marriage:</p> - -<p>“You say that you feel within yourself -the sharp pricking stings of sensuality. I -find in our Faculty of Medicine, and we -found our opinion on the ideas enunciated -by the ancient Platonists, that carnal -concupiscence is controlled in five manners.</p> - -<p>“<i>Imprimis</i>, by wine; for intemperance -in wine makes the blood cold, slackens up -the cords, dissolves the nerves, dissipates -the generative seed, stupefies the senses, -perverts muscular movement; which weaknesses -are all impediments to the act of -generation. Hence it is that Bacchus, -God of tipplers, bousers, and drunkards, is -always painted beardless and dressed in a -woman’s habit, like unto a thing effeminate -or a eunuch. You know full well the -antique proverb, <i>i.e.</i>, that Venus is chilled -without the society of Ceres and Bacchus.”</p> - -<p>These reflections on the general effects -of alcohol on the nervous system are very -just. As to its particular effects on the -function of generation, it is admitted by all -hygienists that alcohol taken occasionally -in excess excites venereal desires, but -when taken habitually it weakens the -generative functions. Amyot remarks that -“<i>those who drink much wine are slothful in -performing the generative act, and their seed -are good for nothing, as a rule</i>.”</p> - -<p>Rondibilis told Panurge the truth. Let -us now see what other advice he gave his -patient, and also note the methods by -which he proposed to secure the best possible -completion of the conjugal act.</p> - -<p>“<i>Secondly</i>, the fervency of lust is abated -by means of certain drugs and plants, -which make the taker cold-blooded towards -women; in other words, unfit him -for the act of copulation. Such are the -water lily, agnus castor, willow twigs, -hemp stalks, tamarisk, mandrake, gnat -flower, hemlock, and others; the which -entering the human body by their elementary -virtues and specific properties freeze -and destroy the prolific germinal fluid, and -obstruct the generative spirit instead of -leading it to those passages and conduits -designed for its reception by Nature, and, -by preventing expulsion, prevent man from -undertaking the feat of amorous dalliance.”</p> - -<p>We will not enter into a discussion of -the anaphrodisiac value of the plants mentioned -by Rondibilis. We still recognize -the soothing properties of <i>Agnus Castus</i> -and <i>vitex</i>, or monk’s powder, as it is sometimes -called; also that of belladonna, hemlock, -digitalis, lupulin, camphor, and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_96"></a>96</span> -hempseed; as for tamarack and willow -bark, their virtues are at least doubtful.</p> - -<p>But from this passage from Rabelais we -must conclude that the therapeutic uses of -plants was already well known in the sixteenth -century.</p> - -<p>Again says Doctor Rondibilis: “Passion -or lechery is subdued by hard labor -and continual toiling, which makes such a -dissolution in the whole body that the -blood has neither time nor leisure to spare -for seminal resudations or superfluity of -the third concoction. Nature particularly -reserves itself, deeming it much more necessary -to conserve the individual rather -than to multiply the human species. Thus -the chaste Diana hunted incessantly. -Thus the tired and overworked are said to -be ‘castrated.’ We continually see semi-impotency -among athletes. In this manner -wrote Hippocrates in his great work, -‘<i>Liber de Aere, Aqua, et Locis</i>’: ‘There is -in Scythia a tribe which has been more impotent -than eunuchs to venereal desires, -because these people live continually on -horseback and hard work. To the contrary, -idleness, the mother of luxury, begets -sexual passion.’”</p> - -<p>There is no necessity for long commentaries -to demonstrate that manual labor -and active physical exercise lessen the -natural tendency to erotic ideas. The -workingman and peasant are, as all the -world knows, less given to the passion of -love than the idle and luxurious of the -cities. And the reasons given above by -the Middle Age physicians are to-day admitted -by all physiological writers.</p> - -<p>But let us continue the advice of Rondibilis:</p> - -<p>“Fervent study diminishes the erotic -tendency, for under such conditions there -is an incredible resolution of the spirits, so -that they never rest from carrying on a -generative resolution. When we contemplate -the form of a man attentive to his -studies we shall see all the arteries of the -brain tied down as though with a cord, in -order to furnish him spirits sufficient to -keep filled the ventricles of common sense, -imagination, apprehension, memory, co-ordination,” -etc.</p> - -<p>These rather vague and imperfect -physiological explanations are open to -discussion, but we all are aware that -an excess of work, of intellectual labor -applied to science, letters, or arts, is -recognized to-day as a cause for -weakening of venereal desires and the forerunner -of impotency.</p> - -<p>Again says Rondibilis: “As to the -venereal act, again: I am of the opinion -that the desire is subdued by the methods -resorted to by the Hermits of Thebaide, -who macerate their bodies so as to quell -sensuality; this they do twenty-five or -thirty times a day, to reduce the rebellion -of the flesh.”</p> - -<p>This is to say that a certain cause of -impotence consists in an excess of genital -apparatus, no matter of what variety; and -we will add what the physician of Montpellier -has not mentioned, that this maceration, -which was nothing else than masturbation, -superinduced spermatorrhœa, -the morbid effects of which, on the human -economy, are well known.</p> - -<p>It is unnecessary to follow our Master -Rondibilis in all his dissertations regarding -the anatomical and moral imperfections of -women, which he attributes to the misleading -of Nature’s ordinary good sense, which -he thinks “molded women more for the -delectation of man and the perpetuity of -the species rather than to secure perfection -in the individual.” One thing is certain, -that is, that he speaks with much physiological -spirit, and that the amiable Panurge -is so enchanted with the learned talk of -Doctor Rondibilis that he does not forget -to pay him a consultation fee, for, says the -veracious chronicles, “Approaching him -he put in his hand, without saying a word, -four <i>nobles a la rose</i>, the which Rondibilis -accepted gracefully.” These coins were -made of fine gold, and struck off in 1334 -by Edward III., of England. They had -on one side the figure of a ship, and on the -other a rose, arms of the Houses of York -and Lancaster. This consultation was -royally paid for in money of the Realm.</p> - -<p>If we study Rabelais closely we find he -was a contagionist of pronounced type, -and believed in no other prophylactic -against pestilence except flight from the -contaminated country. This is what he -makes his character “Pantagruel” do when -the latter was in a village “which he found -most pleasant to dwell in, had not the -plague chased him out.” In another passage -our author remarks: “The cause of -plague is a stinking and infecting exhalation.” -It must be added, however, that -the plague was endemic at this epoch, and -people, on the word of prophets, attributed -the cause to divine wrath. The roads were<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_97"></a>97</span> -crowded with pilgrims going to make vows -and prayers at the chapel of Saint Sebastian. -How often had Rabelais endeavored -to combat these superstitions! As a proof -of this let us make another short quotation -from the great satirist: “False prophets -announce this lie! They thus blaspheme -the Just and the Saints of God, whom they -make out to be demons of cruelty. These -canting hypocrites, the clergy, preach in -my native Province that Saint Anthony -gives erysipelas, Saint Eutrope gives dropsy, -Saint Gildas makes people insane, and -Saint Gildus perpetuates the gout. I am -amazed that our glorious King allows these -impostors to preach such scandalous lies in -his realm; and they should be punished -rather than those who, by magic or -otherwise, may bring the plague into -the country. The <i>plague</i> only kills the -body; but clerical impostors poison human -souls.”</p> - -<p>It required a grand amount of courage -to hold and express such opinions in the -sixteenth century, in the very face of the -butchers of the Inquisition. This courage -was not acquired by Rabelais from his -philosophic studies nor his religious ideas; -it was inspired by scientific convictions, of -which the Holy Office dared not demand a -retraction, as it did in the case of Galileo. -<i>For the Papacy, from the earliest periods of -time, has always avoided controversy with -medical science.</i> And we may recall here -the device that Rabelais inscribed in his -heart, as on the first page of his books: “<i>To -Doctor Francois Rabelais and to his friends</i>.” -He was proud of his medical title, and he -considered practice (and we mention this -fact inasmuch as an ancient writer has -claimed he did not belong to our glorious -profession) as a sort of magistral and sacerdotal -duty, and demanded, as the first -condition for making a doctor, that the -candidate for the honored medical degree -should have <i>a healthy heart</i>.</p> - -<p>It was for his patients’ edification that -he composed portions of his books. He -wished to calm their senses by revealing to -them the great spectacle of the world; and -its purpose is all apparent, <i>i.e.</i>, to inspire -among mankind a love for humanity; -having no other personal ambition himself -than to play the part of doctor in the <i>role</i> -of life, to dress the wounds of the unfortunate, -to treat diseases of the body and -minister to the low-spirited and downhearted.</p> - -<p>The strong masculine independence of -his character is noted in the manner in -which he has attacked all oppressions, be -they from science or the Princes of the -Church. He refused to blindly submit to -the authority of the so-called masters in -physics, and reserved the right to freely -discuss their doctrines. “Hippocrates, -Galen and Aristotle,” he remarks, “great -as they are, never knew all. Science is the -work of many successions of generations, -and that which makes its grandeur so -mysterious is that the more we know the -more new problems are presented us for -solution. Science, like, Nature, is infinite.” -This lofty language deeply astounded -thinkers, and roused against its -author that same servile Pontifical party -that prowled and plotted in the gilded -antechamber of the aristocratic chateaux-owners -of the day; the same variety of -creatures we see to-day circulating, Indian -file, through the corridors of our academies, -faculties and courts. For the new -as for the ancient, it is always the same -word of the past, <i>Magister dixit</i>. That -never changes.</p> - -<p>While acting as professor at Lyons, -Rabelais gave “a course of anatomical -lectures, given with so much eloquence,” -writes Eugene Noel, “as to astonish all -listeners; and he showed his audience -how man was constructed, like a magnificent -and precious piece of architecture, a -thing of grace and beauty, so that the -people crowded to the lecture-room to hear -him. Dolet followed these lectures. One -day Rabelais lectured on the cadaver of a -man who had been hanged, and he discoursed -on his subject with so much grace -and warmth, showing so clearly the miracle -of our nature, that Dolet, leaving the -hall, exclaimed: “Would I were hanged -and I should be so could I be the occasion -of so divine a discourse!” Some passages -of this celebrated lecture may be found -embodied in “Pantagruel;” for we see -that he taught, outside the grandeur of -creation, respect for life and <i>what a sacred -thing blood is</i>.</p> - -<p>Says Rabelais: “A single labor pain of -this world is to manufacture blood continually. -In this work each member has its -proper office. Nutrition is furnished by -the whole of nature; it is the bread, it is -wine—these are the aliments of all species. -In order to find and prepare this material, -the hands of mankind work, the feet climb<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_98"></a>98</span> -and bear the machinery, the eyes lead us, -the tongue tastes for us, the teeth masticate -our food, while the stomach receives -and digests.” Here our anatomist dwells -somewhat at length on the formation of the -blood and the part played in digestion by -our organs, adding:</p> - -<p>“What joy among these dispensing -officers of the body when, after their complex -work and hard labor, they see this -stream of red gold. Each limb separates -and opens to assimilate or purify anew this -treasure, <i>the blood</i>. The heart, with its -musical diastole and systole, subtilizes it so -that, met at the ventricle, it is perfection; -then, by the veins, it returns from all the -limbs. The harmony of Heaven is no -greater than that of the body of man. One -is overwhelmed and lost when endeavoring -to penetrate the depths of this wonderful -microcosm. Believe me, there is therein -something divine; ah! this <i>little world</i> is -so good that, this alimentation achieved, <i>it -thinks already for those who are not yet born</i>.”</p> - -<p>This extract from Rabelais serves to repel -the accusation of scepticism so often -made against him, and we see two men in -the personality of the celebrated writer of -the sixteenth century: the <i>savant</i> who enriched -<i>belle lettres</i>, and the popular philosopher -who addressed himself to the disinherited -of fortune and science. It was for the -latter that he claimed from secular power -the right to the material satisfactions of life, -aside from the opinion of Pope and Church. -Rabelais was the very incarnation of philanthrophy -and in this above all other things -he has honored the medical profession, of -which he is an immortal member.</p> - -<p>Rabelais it was who wished to be Architriclinus -for the poor, for the indigent, the -joyous heart of the Pantagruelist. It was -to the latter that he remarked: “Drink -merry friends, eternally, drink like hungry -fishes. I shall, be your cup-bearer and -host; I shall attend to your thirst, and -never fear that the wine will fall short as at -the wedding in Cana. As much as you -draw from the tap, as much more will I -astonish you at the bung; so that the wine -cask shall never be empty; source of all -life’s enjoyment, perpetual spring of happiness.”</p> - -<p>The recollection of his youth, so calm -and joyous in his father’s saloon, “the -Lamprey Tavern,” amid the brave drinkers -and gay wits, with full goblets of the -rich Septembral vintage, pure, sparkling, -rosy, grape juice, the glorious wine of his -native Province, had much influence on -the ideas and opinions of the philosopher. -He heard again, as in the echos of memory, -the merry songs of the grape gatherers, -and the Bacchic chants died away in -musical notes adown the aisles of the Temple -of Time. He was happy in knowing -himself to be Francois Rabelais, doctor in -medicine, but looking backwards, he felt -the vague and indefinable sentiment of -poetry, that is ever associated with great -genius. It was then he cried:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“O bouteille!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Pleine tout</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Des mysteres,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">D’un oreille</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Je t’ecoute.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Yet his heart was never sad, nor even -tinged with melancholy. He dreamed of -the golden age of a universal fraternity -among mankind and eternal joy, the duration -of the soul’s exile on earth.</p> - -<p>To the Burgundy wine of France we -owe this moral analgesia, which chases -away passions and all cares engendered by -stupid worldly ambition. He preferred the -face of a jolly drunkard to the head of a -tyrannical Cæsar. He loved the wine bibber’s -nose, as he says “that musical bugle -richly inlaid with colors of gorgeous design, -purple, with crimson bands, enameled -with jewel-like pimples, embroidered with -veins of heavenly blue. Such a nose has -the good priest Panzoult, and Piedbois, -physician at Angers.”</p> - -<p>Rabelais did not ignore the fact that -these “good drinkers” once had the gout, -for he did not forget to give a medical -prognosis in the case of the voracious Gargantura. -“All his life he will be subject -to gravel.” But what difference is it -though he had gravel, and the red nose, -that glorious work of Bacchus? He derived -his warmest consolation from the thought -that a little good wine heated his blood -and soothed the bitterness of life, -making him forget the injustice of some, -and the ingratitude of others; a veritable -<i>nepenthe</i> for his miseries, cares and apprehensions. -Every good drinker is a sage. -Horace had said so, and Rabelais who had -read this master of Latin poetry, inscribed -on the front of his dwelling place</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="center">“HIC BIBITUR.”</p> - -<p>“<i>Within this place they drink wine, that -delicious, precious, celestial, joyous, God-given, -nectar and liquor.</i>”</p></div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_99"></a>99</span></p> - -<p>But, at the bottom of Master Francois -Rabelais’ cask was a flavor not fancied by -all the world, the taste of free thought, -opposition to all tyranny, a Homeric spirit -with a sonorous voice whose echo will -resound into future ages. Our authors, -including historians, philosophers and -poets, revere his memory; and one of their -greatest minds has said: “Rabelais was a -Gaul, and what is Gallic is Grecian, for -Rabelais is the formidable masque of -antique comedy detached from the Greek -proscenium, bronze turned into living flesh, -a human face full of laughter, making us -merry and laughing with us.” A similar -judgment is pronounced by the author of -<i>Burgraves</i>, and <i>Notre Dame de Paris</i>. -Rabelais is immortal in spite of the ecclesiastical -detractors who have covertly assailed -his memory for several centuries.</p> - -<p>A doctor, philosopher, writer, he was -the first exception in the positive world, of -that profound faith identical with science.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_100"></a>100</span> -It was for that reason that the physicians -of the Middle Ages looked up to him as -one of their glories; it is for this reason -that his works should hereafter be placed -among the medical classics and no longer -remain neglected by the masses of that -profession he honored. In the epitaph he -left, he did not forget the doctoral title he -always so honorably bore:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Cordiger et medicus, dein pastor et intus obivi,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Si nomen quæris, te mea Scripta docent.”<a id="FNanchor_107" href="#Footnote_107" class="fnanchor">[107]</a></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>He did not think in making this verse, -that the Parisians would one day engrave -his name with his last words on the marble -of his statue as witness for future generations -that the memory of Rabelais must -never be effaced.</p> - - -<p class="center">[THE END.]</p> - - -<p class="center"> -<i>Reprint from<br /> -The Cincinnati Lancet-Clinic,<br /> -December 1, 1888 to<br /> -February 16, 1889.</i></p> - -<div class="footnotes"> -<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[1]</a> The Mahometans considered dissection of -the human cadaver not only as an impious act, -but also forbid its practice by their religious -dogmas. They believed that the soul, after -death, did not suddenly abandon the body, but -withdrew itself gradually, until it left the -limbs and finally entered the thoracic cavity. -Thus the body could not be dissected without suffering. -However, osteology was not neglected, -and studies were made on the bones gathered in -cemeteries.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2" class="label">[2]</a> The romance of Dolopatos or the Seven -Sages is the work of a Troubadour of the twelfth -century, named Herbers. The origin of this -poem seems to date back to Indian literature.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_3" href="#FNanchor_3" class="label">[3]</a> The words are in old French and therefore -not easily translated:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Vous avez oi la novelle</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Tandis com li plaie est novelle</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Lors pust estre mieux garie</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Que lors quant elc est envieillie.” etc., etc.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_4" href="#FNanchor_4" class="label">[4]</a> This famous poem, by Perrot de St. Cloof, -as a work of imagination, is considered the most -remarkable literary monument of the Middle -Ages.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_5" href="#FNanchor_5" class="label">[5]</a> The reader of old French can translate the -following lines at his leisure:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">La pie avoit tel meschief,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Et la Jambe si boursoufflee,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Si vessiee et si enflee</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Si pleine de treus et de plaies;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In’il i avoit, ce croi, de naies</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Et d’estoupes demi giron,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Boue et venin tout environ,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">De toutes parts en saillait fors.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">—<i>Gautier de Conisi.</i></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_6" href="#FNanchor_6" class="label">[6]</a> In the <i>Miracles de Saint Louis</i> we find the -history of a cure effected through the royal touch. -This cure affords an illustration of how the monks -wrote medicine in the thirteenth century. The -disease resulted in this patient from white swelling -of the left knee. The following is the veracious -chronicle:</p> - -<p>“About the year of Our Savior 1174, before -the Feast of St. Andre, one Jehan Dugue of the -town of Combreus, in the Diocese of Orleans, was -attacked by inflammation of the left leg near the -knee. Several openings were observable in the -flesh, which was soft and rotten above and below -the joint.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_7" href="#FNanchor_7" class="label">[7]</a> Bachelor was in other times a title of chivalry -or a University degree. The word was derived -from the Latin <i>Bachalarius</i>. The word was -not introduced into France until the sixteenth -century. Under the name <i>bachelor</i> or <i>bachelard</i> -were afterwards known all young men in the -army studying the profession of arms, or sciences -or arts.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_8" href="#FNanchor_8" class="label">[8]</a> See the oath taken by Christian apothecaries -and those that fear God, prescribed by the -<i>Procureur General</i>, Jean de Resson, <i>Institutions -Pharmaceutique</i>, 1626.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_9" href="#FNanchor_9" class="label">[9]</a> Before modern times medicated baths were -not held in favor; the sand and iron baths, so -highly extolled by Scribonius and Herodotus, of -Rome, were unknown in France. Sulphur baths -were recommended in the eleventh century, by -Gilbert, of England, in dropsy and other cachectic -affections; and by Arnauld de Villeneuve, in -cases of stone in the bladder. Mineral water -baths did not come into use really until the sixteenth -century. Hubert praised the waters of -Bourboune in 1570, and Pidoux those of Pougnes -in 1584. The waters of Auvergne and the Pyrennees -were first described in the seventeenth century, -as well as those of Aix and of De Begnols, -in Genanden.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_10" href="#FNanchor_10" class="label">[10]</a> Procopius, the Greek historian, born at -Cæsarea in the year 500, left behind him numerous -works, among which may be enumerated -<i>L’Histoire de son temps</i>, in eight volumes (<i>Procopii -Cæsariensis Historia sui temporibus</i>). This history -of the times by Procopius gives a full -description of the Plague, and is one of the -<i>chef d’oeuvres</i> of medical literature, one that will -never be excelled. In this work nothing being -omitted, not even the different clinical forms, it -is truly classical.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_11" href="#FNanchor_11" class="label">[11]</a> Georgius Florentius Gregorius, <i>Historia -Francorum</i>, de 417 591 A.D.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_12" href="#FNanchor_12" class="label">[12]</a> Anglada: <i>Etude sur les Maladies eteintes et -les Maladies Nouvelles</i>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_13" href="#FNanchor_13" class="label">[13]</a> <i>Traduction de Laurent Joubert de Montpellier.</i></p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_14" href="#FNanchor_14" class="label">[14]</a> Black. “Histoire de la Medecine et de la -Chirurgie.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_15" href="#FNanchor_15" class="label">[15]</a> The “Chronique de Raoul Glaber,” Benedictine -of Cluny, covers the period between the -year 900 and 1046. It may be found translated -in the collection of memoirs on the History of -France by Guizot.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_16" href="#FNanchor_16" class="label">[16]</a> “Nouvelle Bibliotheque des Manuscripts.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_17" href="#FNanchor_17" class="label">[17]</a> Satirical writers would not have failed to -have spoken of the marks left by small-pox. -Such authors as Martial, who frequented the -public baths in order to write up the physical -infirmities of his fellow-townsmen, to the end of -divulging their deformities in biting epigram, -would only have been too happy to have mocked -the faces of contemporaries marked by the cicatrices -of small-pox.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_18" href="#FNanchor_18" class="label">[18]</a> In the year 570, a violent disease, with -running of the belly and variola, cruelly afflicted -Italy and France.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_19" href="#FNanchor_19" class="label">[19]</a> Gregorii Turonensis, <i>Opera Omnia</i>, Liber V.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_20" href="#FNanchor_20" class="label">[20]</a> Latin <i>corallum</i>, which signifies heart, lung, -intestines, and by extension of meaning, the interior -of the body.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“C’est la douleur, c’est la bataille</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Qui li detrenche la coraille.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">—<i>Roman de la Rose.</i></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_21" href="#FNanchor_21" class="label">[21]</a> Sauvel, “Histoire et recherches des antiquites -de la Ville de Paris.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_22" href="#FNanchor_22" class="label">[22]</a> In the year 622, Aaron pointed out small-pox -for the first time, but it was only in the year 900 -that the two Arabian physicians, Rhazes and -Avicenna, wrote their works on this malady and -determined the clinical forms, giving the prognosis -and diagnostic signs and the methods of treatment. -Rhazes, physician to the hospital at Bagdad, -recommended, on account of the warm -climate of his country, cool and refreshing drinks. -In the period of lever, he advised copious bleedings, -and for children wet cupping. He covered -up his patients in warm clothing, had their bodies -well rubbed, and gave them a plentiful supply of -ice-water to drink. In certain cases, he placed -large vessels of hot water, one in front and one -behind the patient, in order to facilitate the -eruptive process; then the body was anointed -before the sweat cooled off. He prescribed -lotions for the eyes when the eruption was heavy -in the ocular regions. He advised the use of -gargles. He opened the pustules, when they -maturated, with a golden needle, and absorbed -the pus with pledgets of cotton. He gave opium -for the diarrhœa and insomnia, and, when the -disease declined, used mild purgatives, etc., etc.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_23" href="#FNanchor_23" class="label">[23]</a> Aaron, a contemporary of Paulus d’Aegineta, -speaks only briefly of the malady in his -works. Rhazes mentions measles in his works, -giving a clear account of its diagnosis and treatment. -He says that when the patient experiences -great anxiety and falls into a syncope, he should -be plunged into a cold bath and then be vigorously -rubbed over the skin to the end of provoking -the eruption. Avicenna did not recognize -measles, considering it only a billious fever or -small pox. Constantine, the African, follows the -example of Avicenna and reproduces the opinion -of the Arabian School without comments.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_24" href="#FNanchor_24" class="label">[24]</a> Johannis Philipi Ingrassiae. “De tumoribus -praeter naturam.” Cap. I.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_25" href="#FNanchor_25" class="label">[25]</a> Fernelli. “Universa Medico.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_26" href="#FNanchor_26" class="label">[26]</a> “Brief recit et succinte narration de la -navigation faicte en ysles de Canada.” Paris, -1545.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_27" href="#FNanchor_27" class="label">[27]</a> Gregory of Tours says that in Paris they -had a place of refuge, where they cleaned their -bodies and dressed their sores.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_28" href="#FNanchor_28" class="label">[28]</a> They designated by the name of <i>borde</i>, <i>bordeau</i>, -<i>bordell</i>, <i>bordette</i>, <i>bourde</i>, or <i>bourdeau</i>, a small -house or cabin built on the edge of town; a cabin -intended to contain lepers. The word <i>bordell</i>, a -house of ill-fame, as used even in modern days, -takes its origin from <i>borde</i>, an asylum for lepers.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_29" href="#FNanchor_29" class="label">[29]</a> Etienne Barbazin, erudite and historian, -born in 1696, author of a number of works on the -History of France: “Recueil alphabetique de -pieces historiques”; “Tableaux et Contes Francais, -des XII., XIII., XIV., et XV. centuries”; “The -Orders of Chivalry, etc.” He also left numerous -manuscripts on the origin of the French language. -See “Bibliotheque de l’Arsenal.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_30" href="#FNanchor_30" class="label">[30]</a> Pierre Andre Mathiole, “De Morbo Gallico.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_31" href="#FNanchor_31" class="label">[31]</a> Note sur la syphilis au XIII. siecle, “Gazette -Medicale de Paris.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_32" href="#FNanchor_32" class="label">[32]</a> “Cyrurgia,” Magistri Guilielmi de Saliceti, -1476.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_33" href="#FNanchor_33" class="label">[33]</a> Michel Scott: “De procreatione hominis -physionomia.” Work published in 1477, but -written in 1250, for the author was born in 1210.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_34" href="#FNanchor_34" class="label">[34]</a> It was Fracastor who gave venereal diseases -the name of syphilis in his poem “Syphilis sive -Morbus Gallicus,” published at Verona in 1530. -According to Ricord, syphilis is derived from the -Greek words <i>sus</i>, pork, and <i>philia</i>, love (love for -pork). <i>Gorre</i> in the Romanesque language long -before had the same signification.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_35" href="#FNanchor_35" class="label">[35]</a> The Provencal text in the original reads as -follows: “La reino vol que toudes lous samdes la -Baylouno et un barbier deputat des consouls visitoun -todos las filios debauchados, que seran au -Bourdeou; et si sen trobo qualcuno qu’abia mal -vengut de paillardiso, que talos filios sion separados -et lougeados a part afin que non las counougoun, -por evita lou mal que la jouinesso -pourrie prendre.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_36" href="#FNanchor_36" class="label">[36]</a> Astruc: “De Morbis Venereis,” chap. viii.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_37" href="#FNanchor_37" class="label">[37]</a> Jean de Gaddesen: “De concubitu cum -muliera leprosa, in Rosa Anglica.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_38" href="#FNanchor_38" class="label">[38]</a> “Cyrurgia Guidonis de Cauliaco.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_39" href="#FNanchor_39" class="label">[39]</a> Torella: “De Pudendagra Tractatus.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_40" href="#FNanchor_40" class="label">[40]</a> “The reign of astrology,” remarks Sprengle, -“led physicians to attribute the affection to the -influence of the stars. Saturn who devoured his -children, had, following the common expression, -produced the pox. It was his conjunction with -Mars, in the sign of the Virgin, that gave rise to -the epidemic. Or it was the conjunction of Jupiter -with Saturn in Scorpio, as in 1484. At other -times it was the opposition of these two planets, -as was noticed in 1494. Finally, it was the conjunction -of Saturn and Mars, as in 1496. (“If it -was the combined action of Saturn, Jupiter and -Mars in the sign of the Virgin that produced the -syphilis, the astrologers might well think that -Mercury could destroy the effects of the disease, -which would be better than bleeding or purging.”) -Leonicus attributed the cause of the -venereal plague to the general inundations that -occurred about that period, <i>i.e.</i>, 1493, and afterwards -in 1528. Besides, they recognized as a -cause of these venereal symptoms a general acridity -of the humors and the pre eminence of the -four cardinal humors, but more especially of a -metastasis of bilious matter from the liver towards -the genital organs.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_41" href="#FNanchor_41" class="label">[41]</a> “De Morbo Gallico.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_42" href="#FNanchor_42" class="label">[42]</a> “Antiquites de Paris,” Tome III., by Sauval.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_43" href="#FNanchor_43" class="label">[43]</a> “Observations et histoires chirurgiques,” -1670, Geneve.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_44" href="#FNanchor_44" class="label">[44]</a> Antoine Lecocq, “De ligno sancto.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_45" href="#FNanchor_45" class="label">[45]</a> The use of mercury, <i>larga manu</i>, in frictions -was commenced in 1497.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_46" href="#FNanchor_46" class="label">[46]</a> Rabelais himself had attended syphilitic patients -at Lyons, and perhaps elsewhere, with -more or less success. He says, in fact, in the fifth -book of Pantagruel, that among impossible things -it is necessary to class a quintessence “warranted -to cure the pox, as they say at Rouen.” Now, be -it known that syphilis of Rouen was of such a bad -type that it passed for an incurable malady. -From whence the proverb, “For Rouen pox and -Paris itch there’s no remedy.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_47" href="#FNanchor_47" class="label">[47]</a> “De Rebus Oceanis et de Orbe novo decades.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_48" href="#FNanchor_48" class="label">[48]</a> “Histoire Philosophique et Politique de -l’Occulte.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_49" href="#FNanchor_49" class="label">[49]</a> Cœlius Aurelianus: “De Acutis Morbis.” -Edition Dalechamp, p. 90.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_50" href="#FNanchor_50" class="label">[50]</a> Magic had rank among the sciences of the -school of Alexandria 150 years before our era, in -a medico-theosophical sect, whose members applied -to cosmogony the doctrine of emanation. -These admitted that demons come from the -source of eternal light, and that man might become -their equal by leading a contemplative life. -There were a number of such demons, all phenomena -of nature, and particularly all diseases -were attributed to demonic power. These demons -were incorporeal, and their light surrounded -certain bodies in the same manner that the sun -gleams in water without being contained therein. -(See Sprengel). Let it not be forgotten that the -Alexandrian Library, the richest institution of the -kind in ancient times, and the Temple of Serapis, -in which it was installed, were committed to the -flames at the instigation of the monks, by order -of their creature, the apathetic Emperor Theodosius.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_51" href="#FNanchor_51" class="label">[51]</a> “De doct. Christ.” liber II.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_52" href="#FNanchor_52" class="label">[52]</a> Baluze, “Capitularia regum,” capitola 13.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_53" href="#FNanchor_53" class="label">[53]</a> Fleury, “Histoire Ecclesiastique,” Tome -XVII.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_54" href="#FNanchor_54" class="label">[54]</a> Leloyer, “Des Spectres,” Angers, 1588.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_55" href="#FNanchor_55" class="label">[55]</a> See “Psychologie Experimentale,” by Dr. -Puel; “L’Histoire de l’Occulte,” by Felix Fabart; -the “Livre des Esprits,” by Allan Kardec, -and “Fakirisme Moderne,” by Dr. Gibier,—many -extracts from the latter having been translated -and published in the <span class="smcap">Cincinnati Lancet-Clinic</span> -in 1887.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_56" href="#FNanchor_56" class="label">[56]</a> Sprengel, work cited, tome iii.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_57" href="#FNanchor_57" class="label">[57]</a> Tetrabiblon, ii. et iv.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_58" href="#FNanchor_58" class="label">[58]</a> Sprengel, tome ii., et Alexander Trallian. -Liber ix. et xii.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_59" href="#FNanchor_59" class="label">[59]</a> Arnauld de Villeneuve: “De Phlebotomia.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_60" href="#FNanchor_60" class="label">[60]</a> Bernard Gordon: “Lillium Medicinæ.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_61" href="#FNanchor_61" class="label">[61]</a> J. Fernelli, “Opera Universa Medicina,” -liber II, chapter 16.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_62" href="#FNanchor_62" class="label">[62]</a> Ambroise Pare, “Oeuvres,” ninth edition, -Lyons, 1633, p. 780.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_63" href="#FNanchor_63" class="label">[63]</a> Read the works of Jean Wier in the Bibliotheque -Diabolique, with the commentaries of -Bourneville thereon. These books have for a -title “Histoires disputes et discours des illusions -et impostures des diables, des magiciens infames, -sorcieres et empoisonneurs, des ensorcelez et -demoniaques et de la guerizon d’iceux.” Two -splendidly edited volumes. Delahaye & Co., publishers.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_64" href="#FNanchor_64" class="label">[64]</a> J. Weir: “De præstigiis dæmonum et incantationibus.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_65" href="#FNanchor_65" class="label">[65]</a> Capeifuge.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_66" href="#FNanchor_66" class="label">[66]</a> Monstrellet, <i>Chroniques</i>, liber, III.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_67" href="#FNanchor_67" class="label">[67]</a> Jacques Duclerc, <i>Memoires</i>, liber IV., cap. -IV.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_68" href="#FNanchor_68" class="label">[68]</a> We find proof of this fact in the works of -Gautier Coinsi, who wrote on “magicians” as -early as 1219, He gave such sorcerers the name -<i>tresgetteres</i>.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“En la ville une gieve avoit</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Qui tant d’engien et d’art savoit</div> - <div class="verse indent0">De tresgiet d’informanterie,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">De barat et d’enchanterie</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Que devant li apartement</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Faisoit venir a parlement</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Les ennemis et les deables.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_69" href="#FNanchor_69" class="label">[69]</a> Calmeil’s work, before cited, p. 103.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_70" href="#FNanchor_70" class="label">[70]</a> “Ecole du pur Amour de Dieu ouverte -aux Scavants.” Work cited by P. Dufour.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_71" href="#FNanchor_71" class="label">[71]</a> “Lettres au sujet de la magie, des malefices -et des Sorciers,” Paris, 1725.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_72" href="#FNanchor_72" class="label">[72]</a> Remigius, “Demonolatriæ libritres,” Lugd, -1595, p. 55.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_73" href="#FNanchor_73" class="label">[73]</a> Thomas Erastus, “De Lamiis.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_74" href="#FNanchor_74" class="label">[74]</a> Nider: “In malleo maleficorum.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_75" href="#FNanchor_75" class="label">[75]</a> The ecstasy takes a sublime and contemplative -character if, during watchfulness, the soul -looks upwards to the Divinity; the hallucinations -are erotic, on the other hand, if the mind and -heart dwell on dreams of love; when the thoughts -are obscene during the wakeful period, lascivious -sensations are apt to follow. With irritation of -the sexual organs, male or female, come illusions, -which are mistaken for diabolical practices on the -part of demons. (See Esquirol.)</p> - -<p>There is considerable of a correlation between -chronic metritis and obscene dreams.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_76" href="#FNanchor_76" class="label">[76]</a> Mental suggestions.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_77" href="#FNanchor_77" class="label">[77]</a> F. Willis observed a similar outbreak in -1700 in a convent at Oxford, England, where the -barking fit was followed by convulsions and -finally pronounced mania.</p> - -<p>Reulin and Hecquet described a similar epidemic -in 1701, characterized by meowing like -cats, which were heard every day at the same -hour among a crowd of nuns in a convent of Paris. -These nuns all suddenly ceased meowing when -they were accused and told if the thing re-occurred -they should all be taken out and horse-whipped -by a company of soldiers, who were stationed -at the convent door to carry out the order. -See “Traite des affections vaporeuses.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_78" href="#FNanchor_78" class="label">[78]</a> Mind reading?</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_79" href="#FNanchor_79" class="label">[79]</a> “Histoire des Diables,” p. 57 et 58.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_80" href="#FNanchor_80" class="label">[80]</a> That is to say, particular states of sensation -among certain beings, conditions which may be -produced artificially, with the development of -lucidity, in proportion to the power of the hypnotizer.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_81" href="#FNanchor_81" class="label">[81]</a> Manuscript in the Bibliotheque Nationale. -Published for the first time by M. A. Benet, -Paris, 1883.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_82" href="#FNanchor_82" class="label">[82]</a> For full report the reader is referred to the -original French.—<span class="smcap">Translator.</span></p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_83" href="#FNanchor_83" class="label">[83]</a> Zoellner, “Wissenschaftliche Abhandlungen,” -1877 and 1881.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_84" href="#FNanchor_84" class="label">[84]</a> When we question the Fakirs of India as to -the phenomena of <i>Spiritualism</i>, they answer that -they are produced by spirits. “The Spirits” -they say are the Souls of our ancestors, serving -us now as <i>mediums</i>; we loan them our natural -fluid to combine with theirs, and by this mixture -they establish a <i>fluid body</i>, by the aid of which -they act on matter, as you have seen.” (Paul -Gibier, “Le Spiritisme.”)</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_85" href="#FNanchor_85" class="label">[85]</a> To give an idea of the ignorance of the -<i>materialistic</i> school of <i>so-called scientists</i>, it is only -necessary to read the word “Somnambulism” as -defined in “Littres Dictionary of Medicine,” -where we find the following lines on <i>rappings</i>: -“These sounds are due to a slight previous displacement -of the patella, of the tibia on the -femur, when the tendon of the long lateral peroneal -suddenly brings the parts back to their first -position. This displacement is induced by muscular -contraction and can be easily cultivated by -habit.” The author of this definition supports -his statement by the <i>pretended experiments</i> of Flint -and Schiff; he might have said more justly on <i>the -mere assertion</i> of Jobert de Lamballe and Velpeau, -<i>who have all committed</i>, as is well known, <i>in this -connection a grave and stupid error in physiology</i>.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_86" href="#FNanchor_86" class="label">[86]</a> Mr. and Mrs. L. B. are intimate friends of -Dr. Puel, but the the lady, who is a medium, -gives us her mediumistic services in a most disinterested -manner; besides, she and her husband -occupy a social position which places them far -beyond the need or desire for pecuniary compensation.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_87" href="#FNanchor_87" class="label">[87]</a> One of my friends, L. B., always has a wax -taper in his hand, which he lights from time to -time, in order to find whether any fraud is manifest.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_88" href="#FNanchor_88" class="label">[88]</a> Recital of M. Jacolliot, Judge of the Tribunal -at Pondichery, India. Cited by Dr. Gibier.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_89" href="#FNanchor_89" class="label">[89]</a> Dr. Gibier, “Le Spiritisme,” 1887. In the -experiments made by Mr. Oxon, of the University -of Oxford, with the mediums Slade and -Monck, spontaneous writing was obtained, under -the following conditions: The slates were new, -marked with a sign, and closely bound together. -Oxon never lost sight of these slates and held -down his hand on them for the time being. -They were never out of his possession after he -had washed and marked them. These experiments -were made under a full glare of light.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_90" href="#FNanchor_90" class="label">[90]</a> Pierre Le Loyer: Discussions and histories -of spectres, visions, apparitions of men, angels, -demons, and spirits making themselves visible to -men. 1605. Paris, Bibliotheque de l’Arsenal. -1225. S. A., in 4°.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_91" href="#FNanchor_91" class="label">[91]</a> There was at Athens a house which passed -as being haunted by a phantom. The philosopher, -Athenodorus, rented this mansion. The -first night he occupied the same, while engaged in -his studies, he heard and saw a spirit, that made -repeated signs to him to follow; he accordingly -followed this shade of the departed into the courtyard, -where the ghost disappeared. Athenodorus -marked the spot of ground on which the spirit -had last stood, and next day asked the town magistrate -to dig up the earth at the place named; -there they found bones loaded with chains, which -were released and given decent sepulture, with -all due funeral honors. The phantom returned -no more (Pliny the Younger, Letters VII et -XXVII).</p> - -<p>This is almost the history of the experience -of Kate Fax at Hydesville.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_92" href="#FNanchor_92" class="label">[92]</a> As examples of responses obtained by psychography, -we may cite the following definitions -given by Eugene Nus and his collaborateurs, -artists, philosophers, and men of letters:</p> - -<p><i>Physics.</i>—Knowledge of material forces that -produce life and the organism of worlds.</p> - -<p><i>Chemistry.</i>—Study of different properties of -materials, either simple or composite.</p> - -<p><i>Mathematics.</i>—Properties of forces and numbers -flowing from the universal laws of order.</p> - -<p><i>Electricity.</i>—Direct force from the earth, emanating -from particular life to worlds.</p> - -<p><i>Magnetism.</i>—Animal force, holding persons -together; bond of universal life.</p> - -<p><i>Galvanism and Electro-Magnetism.</i>—Combined -forces of earthly and animal life.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_93" href="#FNanchor_93" class="label">[93]</a> “I am attacked by two classes of different -persons,” says Galvani, “the <i>savants</i> and the ignorant; -all torment and ridicule me, calling me -<i>the dancing master of frog legs</i>. Meantime, I believe -I have discovered one of the great forces of -Nature.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_94" href="#FNanchor_94" class="label">[94]</a> Laplace; “Traite du calcul des probabilities.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_95" href="#FNanchor_95" class="label">[95]</a> Olivier Basselin was the proprietor of a mill -in the valley of Vire, where he composed his little -poems; hence, he named his rhymes “Vaux de -Vire.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_96" href="#FNanchor_96" class="label">[96]</a> This is, to a certain extent, a dialect poem, -and bears a close resemblance in more than one -respect to Tennyson’s “Northern Farmers”.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_97" href="#FNanchor_97" class="label">[97]</a></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Et mon orine</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Vous dit elle que je meure?”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_98" href="#FNanchor_98" class="label">[98]</a></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“On pense estre guari par l’obscure parole</div> - <div class="verse indent0">De quelque charlatan qui le pipe et le vole;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Un autre plus niais me fait exorciser,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ou par un circoncis se fait cabaliser.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_99" href="#FNanchor_99" class="label">[99]</a> In the old French text, “Condampnacion -des bancquetz a la louenge de diepte et sobriete -pour le prouffit du corps humain.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_100" href="#FNanchor_100" class="label">[100]</a> Poetic license in such rhymes unlimited.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_101" href="#FNanchor_101" class="label">[101]</a> The group of poets of the same period was -composed of Ronsard, Du Bellay, Jodelle, Dorat, -Belleau, Bail, and last, but not least, Pontus de -Thiard.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_102" href="#FNanchor_102" class="label">[102]</a> Eugene Noel, “Rabelais medecin, ecrivain -et philosophe.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_103" href="#FNanchor_103" class="label">[103]</a> In the happy Abbey of Theleme, that Gargantua -builds, we see the inscription of Fourier’s -phalanctory destined for the elect, with the inscription -over the great door:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Ci n’ entrez pas hypocrites, bigots,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Vieulx matagots, mariteux, boursofles.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Haires, cagots, caphards, empantouples,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Gueux mitoufles, frapparts escarnifles.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Ci n’ entrez pas, masche faim practiciens,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Clercs, basochiens, mangeurs de populaire,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Officiaulx, scribes et pharisiens,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Juges anciens,” etc., etc.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_104" href="#FNanchor_104" class="label">[104]</a> The first edition of “Pantagruel” dates -back to 1553, and the year following he was physician -at the Lyons Hospital, where he made first, -<i>before Vesalius</i>, anatomical lectures on the human -cadaver.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_105" href="#FNanchor_105" class="label">[105]</a> This origin of the French thermal sources is -very curious, and certainly ignored by ordinary -patients.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_106" href="#FNanchor_106" class="label">[106]</a> Agrippa has defined the <i>role</i> of those who -deal in magic in his work, “De Vanitate Scientiarum, -cap de Magia Naturali.” He says: -“Magicians are diligent students of nature, and -by means of previous preparation often produce -marvelous effects, which the vulgar mostly deem -miracles, whereas they may only be natural -work.” Traduction de Louis de Mayerne, Turquet, -medecin du roi Henry IV. 1603.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_107" href="#FNanchor_107" class="label">[107]</a> “Monk, Physician, afterwards Clergyman, I -descend into the tomb. If thou desire to know -mine name, mine works will inform thee.”</p> - -</div> -</div> - -<p> </p> -<p> </p> -<hr /> -<p> </p> -<p> </p> - - -<div class="transnote"> -<h3>Transcriber’s Note</h3> - -<p>Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. 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