608 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



trembling, followed by a kind of swoon, or rather convulsion, during 

 wbich perspiration would stream from his forehead in the coldest 

 weather ; he would lie with his eyes closed, foaming at the mouth, and 

 bellowing like a young camel. Ayesha, one of his wives, and Zeid, 

 one of his disciples, are among the persons cited as testifying to that 

 effect. They considered him at such times as under the influence of a 

 revelation. He had such attacks, however, in Mecca, before the Koran 

 was revealed to him. Cadijah feared that he was possessed by evil 

 spirits, and would have called in the aid of a conjurer to exorcise them, 

 but he forbade her. He did not like that any one should see him 

 during these paroxysms. His visions, however, were not always pre- 

 ceded by such attacks. Hareth Ibn Haschem, it is said, once asked 

 him in what manner the revelations were made. l Often,' replied he, 

 * the angel appears to me in a human form and speaks to me. Some- 

 times I hear sounds like the tinkling of a bell, but see nothing.' (A 

 ringing in the ears is a symptom of epilepsy.) ' When the invisible 

 angel has departed, I am possessed of what he has revealed.' Some 

 of the revelations he professed to receive direct from God, others in 

 dreams ; for the dreams of prophets, he used to say, are revelations." 



Bayle says (" Dictionnaire Historique et Critique," article " Mo- 

 hammed") that he was subject to the mat caduc (epilepsy), and that 

 he tried to make his wife Cadijah believe that " he only fell into con- 

 vulsions because he could not sustain the glory of the appearance of 

 the angel" Gabriel, who came to announce many things from God 

 concerning religion. 



The following passage is quoted by Moreau (de Tours) from " Gis- 

 bert Voctins : " j 



" Non video cur hoc negandum sit (epilepsia et maniacis delirii& 

 aut enthusiasmis diabolicis Mahommedi ad fuisse energema) si vitami 

 et actiones ejus intueamur." "I do not see how it can be denied 1 

 (that the fanaticism of Mohammed arose from the maniacal delirium 

 or diabolic enthusiasm of epilepsy), if we look carefully into his life 

 and actions." l The inhabitants of Mecca considered him to be a mad- 

 man and possessed, and his wife thought he was a fanatic deceived by 

 the artifices of a demon. 



" By his ecstatic visions " (says Moreau), " had he not become the 

 dupe of his visions, whence sprung the first idea of his divine mission, 

 and then had not these visions become the principal, if not the sole 

 basis of his apostolic works, as well as the source of his audacity, and 

 of his prophetic power over the ignorant and superstitious spirit of his 

 countrymen ? " a 



It seems incredible that a religion which sways the minds of 

 200,000,000 of the human race at the present day should have no 

 better foundation than the visions and dreams of an epileptic. 



1 " Life of Mohammed," by Washington Irving, p. 30. 



3 " Psvchologie Morbide," par le Dr. J. Moreau (de Tours), p. 552. 



