150 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ments that they were simply suffering from hysteria. One of his 

 investigations is especially curious. In order to observe the pa- 

 tients more carefully, he invited some of them to dine with him, 

 gave them without their knowledge holy water in their wine or 

 their food, and found that it produced no effect whatever, though 

 its results upon the demons when the possessed knew of its pres- 

 ence had been very strikingly marked. Even after plentiful doses 

 of holy water had been thus given, the possessed remained afflict- 

 ed, urged that the devil should be cast out, and some of them even 

 went into convulsions, the devil apparently speaking from their 

 mouths. It was evident that Satan had not the remotest idea 

 that he had been thoroughly dosed with the most effective medi- 

 cine known to the older theology.* 



At last Tissot published the results of his experiments, and the 

 stereotyped answer was soon made. It resembled the answer 

 made by the clerical opponents of Galileo when he showed them 

 the moons of Jupiter through his telescope, and they declared 

 that the moons were created by the telescope. The clerical oppo- 

 nents of Tissot declared that the non-effect of the holy water upon 

 the demons proved nothing save the extraordinary cunning of 

 Satan ; that the arch-fiend wishes it to be thought that he does 

 not exist, and so overcame his repugnance to holy water, gulping 

 it down in order to conceal his presence. 



Dr. Tissot also examined into the gift of tongues exercised by 

 the possessed. As to German and Latin, no great difficulty was 

 presented : it was by no means hard to suppose that some of the 

 girls might have learned some words of the former language in 

 the neighboring Swiss cantons where German was spoken, or 

 even in Germany itself ; and as to Latin, considering that they 

 had heard it from their childhood in the church, there seemed 

 nothing very wonderful in their uttering some words in that lan- 

 guage also. As to Arabic, had they really spoken it, that might 

 have been accounted for by the relations of the possessed with 

 Zouaves or Spahis from the French army ; but, as Tissot could 

 discover no such relations, he investigated this point as the most 

 puzzling of all. 



On a close inquiry he found that all the wonderful examples 

 of speaking Arabic were reduced to one. He then asked whether 

 there was any other person speaking or knowing Arabic in the 

 town. He was answered that there was not. He asked whether 

 any person had lived there, so far as any one could remember, who 

 had spoken or understood Arabic, and he was answered in the 

 negative. He then asked the witnesses how they knew that the 

 language spoken by the girl was Arabic ; no answer was vouch- 



* For an amazing delineation of the curative and other virtues of holy water, see the 

 Abbe Gaume, " L'Eau benite au XIX me Siecle," Paris, 1863. 



