xxxii Journal of Comparative Neurology. 



" It will be observed that nearly all the incidents related are given 

 on the testimony not of missionaries, but of native Christians — mostly 

 native pastors." (Introduction, p. v.) The native Christians continue 

 in this behef. (P. vi, 3ind passim.) 



" Antecedently to any knowledge of the New Testament the peo- 

 ple of North China believed fully in the possession of the minds and 

 bodies of men by evil spirits." (P. iv.) The natives at once recog- 

 nized the identity of the biblical possession with the phenomena about 

 them. 



Our witnesses are, then, filled with a prepossession and it would 

 never enter their minds to seek any other than the demoniac explana- 

 tion, this "belief being a part of that animism, or spirit worship, 

 which has existed in China — as in many other countries — from the very 

 beginning of history or tradition." (P. iv.) They do not regard the 

 phenomena of possession and exorcism "as anything strange or re- 

 markable." (P. 35.) 



Such are the witnesses that are regarded by the author as " more 

 careful observers and more correct in their deductions " than modern 

 pathologists. We cannot expect the writer under the limitations neces- 

 sary to his work to exhibit a familiarity with the recent discoveries in 

 hypnotism but we must at least concern ourselves with the evident bias 

 of writer and observers. 



Again, a belief in exorcism is shown to be universal. The detailed 

 account of the exorcists (p. 68-71) is very full and instructive. The be- 

 lief that these professional mediums, whether Confucionist or Taoist, 

 have a real power to drive out demons is as implicit as that in the spir- 

 itual nature of the manifestations. If the universal belief of these 

 heathen is to be taken as irrefrangible evidence we must also believe in 

 the supernatural power of as pitiful a set of mountebanks as ever dis- 

 graced the name of man. We must believe in charms, in amulets and 

 witchcraft. In other words, the learned author and by implication the 

 whole body of occidental missionaries wish us to abrogate whatever 

 of moral progress has been made by civilization and return to the be- 

 liefs and practices of medieval superstition. Probably the author did 

 not follow his argument to its legitimate conclusion but there is no logi- 

 cal stopping place short of that indicated. The exorcists are supposed 

 to be the special aversion of the spirits and " never venture anywhere 

 without having charms, talismans, and all kinds of abracadabras with 

 them." Armed with a black mule's hoof and a black dog's blood 

 these practioners do, nevertheless, succeed in going about to very good 

 purpose. " She spends her time going about among the villages in the 



