36 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



to make the state of war persistent and almost universal." When 

 not in conflict with their neighbors, the constant friction and strife 

 within the individual states still prevented organization and natural 

 development. "In such a state of society little thought could be 

 bestowed on anything which did not directly relate to the fierce strug- 

 gle for very life in wliich every state and every individual was en- 

 gaged." There was no time for philanthropy, for the care of the suffer- 

 ing, for the relief of the poor, for comforting the sick in body or 

 mind. Slowly the leaven of Christianity was at work, a silent force 

 effecting slow but deep-rooted changes in the constitution of society, 

 beginning about the eleventh century to gradually bring about the 

 abolition of slavery and exerting an influence in instituting some sort 

 of provision for those whose mental condition was thought to be the 

 result of disease. The monks were also the physicians during the dark 

 ages and the monasteries offered quiet retreat and seclusion for many 

 insane, together with sympathy and protection which could not be 

 found elsewhere. Spiritual agencies were everywhere popularly be- 

 lieved to be most efficacious in the cure of madness, and many and long 

 were the pilgrimages made to the shrines of those saints who were be- 

 lieved to have special influence over the mentally afflicted, and many 

 miraculous cures were said to have been brought about through exor- 

 cism and prayer. There were many wells through Europe and the 

 British Isles, each with its particular saint, to which the insane were 

 brought to bathe and to pray. At St. Nim's Pool in England, it was 

 the custom to plunge the patients backwards into the water and drag 

 them to and fro until their excitement was subdued. If they showed 

 signs of recovery thanks were offered in a neighboring church, but if 

 not, the treatment was continued until no hope remained. From the 

 seventh century even to the present day lunatics have made pilgrim- 

 ages to the shrine of St. Dymphna at Gheel, and here the first colony 

 for the insane originated through a slow process of evolution, and 

 stands to-day as the best representative of the coimnunity or family 

 system of caring for the insane. 



So great a part did superstition and religious bigotry play in the 

 treatment of insanity that the estate of the lunatic grew ever worse. 

 Any man who exhibited anything unusual in conduct or language was 

 at once suspected by his neighbors of necromancy or commerce with 

 the Devil and looked upon with suspicion. Any manifestation of 

 peculiar genius, the display of inventive ability or promulgation 

 of a new doctrine rendered a man liable to torture, imprisonment or 

 death. The belief in demoniacal possession, and witchcraft, was dis- 

 tinctly recognized in the Bible and fostered by the church. All over 

 Europe persons undoubtedly insane were burned or hanged as witches 

 or were whipped in the public squares to drive out the evil spirits. 



