NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 147 



niany temporarily or permanently of such little brains as they 

 possessed ; it was only when the violence had become an old story 

 and the charm of novelty had entirely worn off, and the afflicted 

 found themselves no longer regarded with especial interest, that 

 the epidemic died away.* 



But in Germany at that time the outcome of this belief was far 

 more cruel. In 1749 Maria Renata Sanger, sub-prioress of a con- 

 vent at Wiirzburg, was charged with bewitching her fellow-nuns. 

 There was the usual story — the same essential facts as at Loudun 

 — women shut up against their will, dreams of Satan disguised as 

 a young man, petty jealousies, spites, quarrels, mysterious uproar, 

 trickery, utensils thrown about in a way not to be accounted for, 

 hysterical shrieking and convulsions, and, finally, the torture, 

 confession, and execution of the supposed culprit, f 



Various epidemics of this sort broke out from time to time in 

 other parts of the world, though happily, as modern skepticism 

 prevailed, with less cruel results. 



In 1760 some congregations of Calvinistic Methodists in Wales 

 became so fervent that they began leaping for joy. The mania 

 spread and gave rise to a sect called the " Jumpers." A similar 

 outbreak took place afterward in England, and has been repeated 

 at various times and places since in our own country .\ 



In 1780 came another outbreak in France ; but this time it was 

 not the Jansenists who were affected, but the strictly orthodox. 

 A large number of young girls between twelve and nineteen 

 years of age, having been brought together at the church of St. 

 Roch, in Paris, with preaching and ceremonies calculated to 

 arouse hysterics, one of them fell into convulsions. Immediately 

 other children were similarly taken, until some fifty or sixty were 

 engaged in the same antics. This mania spread to other churches 

 and gatherings, proved very troublesome, and in some cases led 

 to results especially painful. 



About the same period came a similar outbreak among the 

 Protestants of the Shetland Isles. A woman having been seized 

 with convulsions at church, the disease spread to others, mainly 

 women, who fell into the usual contortions and wild shriekings. 

 A very effective cure proved to be a threat to plunge the diseased 

 into a neighboring pond. 



But, as we near the end of the eighteenth century, a fact very 



* See Madden, " Pkantasmata," chap, xiv ; also Sir James Stephen, " History of France," 

 lecture xxvi; also Henry Martin, " Histoire de France," chap, xv, pp. 168 et seq. ; also Cal- 

 meil, liv. v, chap, xxiv ; also Hecker's " Essay," iv, 5 ; and, for samples of myth-making, 

 see the apocryphal " Souvenirs de Crequy." 



f See Soldan, Seherr, Diefenbach, and others. 



% See Adams's " Dictionary of All Religions," article on " Jumpers " ; also Hecker's 

 " Essay," iv, 6. 



