^74 On Popula?' Illuftons. 



ped with an equal degree of confidence*. In 

 this fcepticifm, however, he was countenanced 

 only by the outrageous partifans of the inriagina- 

 tion, fuch as Dr. Fienus of Antwerp. 



The natural remedies, as might be expeded, 

 were thofe adapted to hypochondriacal or hyfte- 

 ric diforders, as one or other of thefe was mif- 

 taken for a poflefTion 5 when there was reafon to 

 fufpeft innpofture in the fits, flagellation fucceeded 

 admirably. But many grave phyficians employed 

 even antifpafmodic and cathartic medicines, on 

 the fuppofition of their exerting fpecific powers, 

 and almoft every man had his favo^urite demona- 

 gogue. The herbalifts always notice fome plants 

 for this purpofe. Dr. Thoner extols mercurius 

 "viUy as remarkably ufeful in expelling preterna- 

 tural fubftances from the body; but holding fome 

 other application neceffary to extradl the fub- 

 ftance in which the Jeminale principium of the 

 fafcination lodged (that is, the bewitched bread 

 or apple offered the patient by the forcerefs) he 

 applied, in the cafe treated by him., a cataplafm 

 ex ftercore maleficiatif. Dr. Mynficht cured 

 feveral perfons bewitched, with ^fafoetida applied 

 in form of a plalter, though Hofer, in his 

 Hercules Medicus, doubts whether fuch perfons 

 can be cured by natural means J. Two theories 



* Fien. de Virib. Imagjnat. p. 87, 192. 

 ^ Obferv. p. 224. % P. 452. 



were 



