69 



^een to Avliat is styled " one of the phases of splritaaiisiHj" of 

 the present day 1 Whether many of the peculiarities, which 

 seemed so mysterious as to induce learned and religious persons 

 " to obtain books upon the subject of Witchcraft for the purpose 

 of informing" themselves, could not be traced to certain abnor- 

 mal conditions of the system, to physical causes ; and that dis- 

 turbances of the body might not produce disturbance of the 

 mind, and that the regimen of the physician would not have 

 proved more sanitary than that of a council of divines ? This 

 discussion was participated in, by Messrs. Fowler, Phippen, 

 Upham, and others, each adding some interesting item. Mr. 

 Uphara remarked that he had little doubt that in the early de- 

 velopment of the mysterious proceedings, which had formed the 

 subject of the evening's entertainment, dreams, and especially 

 that kind known as night-mare, had entered largely as the chief 

 basis on which much of the extraordinary testimony of the 

 witches rested, as, the riding through the air to a witch meet- 

 ing on a broomstick, and the like. Taking these deductions as 

 correct, we can easily gather, why little children bore so con- 

 spicuous a part in the legal investigations of the matter, being 

 used frequently as witnesses. 



A communication in the form of a letter and circular, from 

 C. B. Richardson, of Boston, respecting the establishment of 

 an historical journal, was referred to a committee, consisting 

 of Messrs. Geo. D . Phippen, H. M. Brooks, and John H. Stone» 



Friday, November 28, 1856. 



Evening meeting at 7 o'clock. Rev. John L. Russell, Vice 

 President, in the chair. 



Records of preceding meeting, were read. Letters from 

 Charles Lowe, C. Benjamin Richardson of Boston, and Joseph 

 Scattergood of Philadelphia ; also, donations to the library, 

 from H. M. Brooks, D. A. White, 0. C. Marsh, Israel P. 

 Ward, George B. Loring, Caleb Foote, and from the Friends' 

 bookstore, in Philadelphia, by Joseph Scattergood, agent, were 



