NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 153 



Satan " attacks lunatics at the full moon, when their brains are 

 full of humors," that in other cases of illness he " stirs the black 

 bile," and that in cases of blindness and deafness he " clogs the 

 eyes and ears." By the close of the century this compromise was 

 evidently found untenable, and one of a very different sort was 

 attempted in England. 



In the third edition of the " Encyclopaedia Britannica," pub- 

 lished in 1797, under the article " Dsemoniacs," the orthodox view 

 was presented in the following words : " The reality of demonia- 

 cal possession stands upon the same evidence with the gospel sys- 

 tem in general." 



This statement, though necessary to satisfy the older theologi- 

 cal sentiment, was clearly found too dangerous to be sent out into 

 the modern skeptical world without some qualification. Another 

 view was therefore suggested, namely, that the personages of the 

 New Testament " adopted the vulgar language in speaking of 

 those unfortunate persons who were generally imagined to be pos- 

 sessed with demons." Two or three editions contained this curi- 

 ous compromise ; but, as we come to the middle of the present 

 century, the whole discussion is quietly dropped. 



But science, declining to trouble itself with any of these views, 

 pressed on, and toward the end of the century we see Dr. Ehodes 

 at Lyons curing a very serious case of possession by the use of a 

 powerful emetic ; yet myth-making came in here also, and it was 

 stated that, when the emetic produced its effect, people had seen 

 multitudes of green and yellow devils cast forth from the mouth 

 of the possessed. 



The last great demonstration of the old belief in England was 

 made in 1788. In the city of Bristol at that time lived a drunken 

 epileptic, George Lukins. In asking alms he insisted that he 

 was " possessed," and proved it by jumping, screaming, barking, 

 and treating the company to a parody of the " Te Deum." 



He was solemnly brought into the Temple Church, and seven 

 clergymen united in the effort to exorcise the evil spirit. Upon 

 their adjuring Satan, he swore " by his infernal den " that he 

 would not come out of the man — " an oath," says the chronicler, 

 " nowhere to be found but in Bunyan's ' Pilgrim's Progress/ 

 from which Lukins probably got it." 



But the seven clergymen were at last successful, and seven 

 devils were cast out, after which Lukins retired, and appears to 

 have been supported during the remainder of his life as a monu- 

 ment of mercy. 



With this great effort the old theory in England seemed prac- 

 tically exhausted. 



Science had evidently carried the stronghold. In 1876, at a 

 little town near Amiens, in France, a young woman was brought 



VOL. XXXV. — 10* 



