THE 



POPULAR SCIEN"CE 

 MOJ^THLY. 



FEBRUARY, 1889. 



NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 



By ANDEEW DICKSON WHITE, LL.D., L.H. D., 



FOEMEELT PRESIDENT OF COENELL TTNIVERSITT, 



"DEMONIACAL POSSESSION" AND INSANITY. 

 PART I. 



OF all the triumphs won by science for humanity, none has 

 been farther-reaching in its good effects than the modern 

 treatment of the insane. But it is the result of a struggle long 

 and severe between two great forces. On one side have stood the 

 survivals of various superstitions, the metaiDhysics of various 

 philosophies, the theologies of various religions, the literal inter- 

 pretation of various sacred books, and especially of our own — all 

 compacted into a creed that insanity is mainly or largely demoni- 

 acal possession; on the other side has stood science, gradually 

 accumulating proofs that insanity is always the result of physical 

 disease. 



I purpose, in this chapter and the following, to sketch, as 

 briefly as I may, the history of this warfare, or rather of this 

 evolution of truth out of error. 



Nothing is more simple and natural, in the early stages of 

 civilization, than belief in occult, self-conscious powers of evil. 

 Troubles and calamities come upon man ; his ignorance of physi- 

 cal laws forbids him to attribute them to physical causes; he 

 therefore attributes them sometimes to the wrath of a good being, 

 but more frequently to the malice of an evil being. 



Especially is this the case with diseases. The real causes of 

 disease are so intricate that they are reached only after ages of 

 scientific labor ; hence they, above all, have been attributed to the 

 influence of evil spirits.* 



* On the general attribution of disease to demoniacal influence, see Sprenger, " History 

 of Medicine," jDam'w (note, for a later attitude, ii, ISO-l'ZO, 178); Calmeil, "De la Folie," 

 VOL. XXXIV. — 28 



