434 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



But, if ordinary diseases were likely to be attributed to dia- 

 bolical agency, how much, more diseases of the brain, and espe- 

 cially the more obscure of these ! These, indeed, seemed to the 

 vast majority of mankind' possible only on the theory of satanic 

 intervention. Any approach to a true theory of the connection 

 between physical causes and mental results is one of the highest 

 acquisitions of science. 



Here and there, during the whole historic period, keen men 

 had obtained an inkling of the truth ; but, to the vast multitude, 

 down to the end of the seventeenth century, nothing was more 

 clear than that insanity is in many, if not in most, cases demonia- 

 cal possession. 



Yet at a very early date, in Greece and Rome, science asserted 

 itself, and a beginning was made which seemed destined to bring 

 a large fruitage of blessings.* In the fifth century before the 

 Christian era, Hippocrates of Cos asserted the great truth that 

 all madness is simply disease of the brain, thereby beginning a 

 noble development of truth and mercy which lasted nearly a 

 thousand years. In the first century after Christ, Aretseus car- 

 ried these ideas yet further, observed the phenomena of insanity 

 with great acuteness, and reached yet more valuable results. 

 Near the beginning of the following century, Soranus went still 

 further in the same path, giving new results of research, and 

 strengthening scientific truth. Toward the end of the same cent- 

 ury, a new epoch was ushered in by Galen, under whom the same 

 truth was developed yet further, and the path toward merciful 

 treatment of the insane made yet more clear. In the third cent- 

 ury came Celius Aurelianus, who received this deposit of pre- 

 cious truth, elaborated it, and brought forth the great idea 

 which, had theology, citing Biblical texts, not banished it, would 



Paris, 1845, i, 104, 105; Esquirol, " Des Maladies Mentales," Paris, 1838, i, 482; also 

 Tylor, " Primitive Culture." For a very plain and honest statement of this view in our 

 own sacred books, see Oort, Hooykaas, and Kuenen, " The Bible for Young People," Eng- 

 lish translation, v, 167, and following; also Farrar's "Life of Christ," chap. xvii. For 

 this idea in Greece and elsewhere, see Maury, " La Magie," etc., iii, 276, giving, among 

 other citations, one from book v of the " Odyssey." On the iniluence of Platonism, see 

 Esquirol and others, as above — the main passage cited is from the "Phaedo." For the devo- 

 tion of the early fathers and doctors to this idea, see citations from Eusebius, Lactantius, 

 St. Jerome, St. Augustine, St. John Chrysostom, St. Gregory Nazianzen, in Tissot, " L'lma- 

 gination," p. 369; also Jacob (i. e., Paul Lacroix), " Croyances Populaires," p. 183. For 

 St. Augustine, see also his " De Civitate Dei," lib. 22, cap. viii, and his " Enarratio in 

 Psal.," cxxxv, 1. For the breaking away of the religious orders in Italy from the entire 

 supremacy of this idea, see Becavin, " L'^cole de Salerne," Paris, 1888 ; also Daremberg, 

 "Histoire de la Medecine." Even so late as the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther 

 maintained ("Table-Talk," Hazlitt's translation, London, 1872, pp. 250-256) that "Satan 

 produces all the maladies which afflict mankind." 



* It is significant of this scientific attitude that the Greek word for superstition signi- 

 fies, literally, fear of gods or demons. 



