DEMONOLOGY. 
Urfulines, under Ills care, all bewitched. Tn a diflerta- 
tion annexed to his works, he treats very fully of amu¬ 
lets, which he divides into four kinds, divine, diabolical, 
vain, and natural. He permits the ufe of the firft and 
the lad. Fludd believed difeafes to be inflidted by the 
mi'nidry of angels. }-fe publifhed a treatife De Myjlica 
Morboruin Caufa. Dr. Willis, wliofe labours contributed 
fo much towards forming the nervous pathology, fup- 
pofed convulfive diforders to originate, in fome cafes, 
from witchcraft. Even the author of Religio Medici, if 
Dr. Hutchinfon may be credited, inclined fo ftrongly to 
this perfuafion, that being interrogated by lord chief juf- 
tice Hale, concerning a convullive difeafe, attributed to 
two poor women who were tried before him, he de¬ 
clared, “ that he - was clearly of opinion, that the fits 
■were natural, but heightened by the devil, co-operating 
w ith the malice of the witches, at whofe indance he did 
the villainies.” T11 confequence of this opinion, the cri¬ 
minals were condemned. 
Towards the clofe of the feventeenth century, Dr. 
Boulton, an Englilh phyficiun, publifhed his Medicina 
Magica. Mean time, the belief in forcery was fo preva¬ 
lent with the faculty, that a periodical work publiihed 
in Germany, to which the fird phyficians of the time 
contributed, was filled with hidories of demoniacs, and 
diabolical illufions of all forts; it was the Mifcellauea 
Curiofa. One or two cogent examples are there recorded 
of demoniacal copulation, a fubjedt on which faints, and 
fathers of the church, as well as lawyers and phyficians, 
have exerted themfelves to accumulate the molt difgud- 
ing impurities. Another periodical collection, of confi- 
derable note, the AEla Hafnienfia, publifhed by the Bar- 
tholines, contains a good deal of demonology. In the 
fame work, is a confultation of Dr. Hannerman on a cafe 
of impotence ; the dodtor’s fird enquiry is, an naturale, 
an magicum vitium fit ? 
In this country, while the belief in witchcraft was 
fupported by royal authority, James I. having then pub¬ 
lifhed his book on witchcraft, countenanced by Bacon, 
only one writer was hardy enough to oppofe it. This 
was Reginald Scott, who publifhed a collection of im- 
podures detected, under the title of Difcoveries of Witch¬ 
craft. James ordered the book to be burnt by the com¬ 
mon executioner, and the judges continued to burn 
witches as ufual. During the civil wars, upwards of 
eighty were hanged in Suffolk, on the accufations of 
Hopkins the witch-finder. Webder was the next writer 
againd witchcraft, but he had a different fate from that 
of Scott, for mod of his arguments were refuted by 
Glanville. This very acute writer was induced to pub- 
lifli his Philofophical Conliderations about Witchcraft, 
by the apprehenlion, that the increaling dilbelief of 
witches and apparitions tended to affedt the evidences 
of religion, and even of a Deity. The celebrated Bax¬ 
ter added his name to the defenders of witchcraft; he 
made great ufe of the German demonologids, and of the 
unhappy affair in New England. He thought the devil 
fo active againd well-dilpofed'perfons, as frequently to 
raife whirlwinds, in order to carry away their linen, when 
hung out to dry : “Truly, (fays he,) I have often won¬ 
dered to fee my own fmall linen caught up in an eddy, 
and carried out of fight, over the church-deeple !” 
On the continent, this controverfy feemed almod for¬ 
gotten, till Bekker publiihed his Monde Enckantee, in 
which he denied the exidence of witches on the Carte- 
fian principle, that the Deity is the fource of all adlion, 
confequently aCtions fo oppofite to his nature and attri¬ 
butes, cannot be fuppofied to ex ill. He was anfwered 
by Frederick Hodman, the father of the modern theory 
and praftice of medicine, in his dilfertation De Diaboli 
Potentia in Corpora. Dr. Hoffman fets out with the ufual 
alfertion of demonologids, that the fadts edablifhing the 
dodtrine are as certain as any in hi dory ; that the devil 
can alter the date of the atmofphere at pleafure, fo as 
to raife dorms; that he can produce infeeds by his own 
707 
power; that, with refpect to the human fubjeCI, he can 
aCt upon the animal fpirits, or even on the imagination, 
though he cannot divine our thoughts: and here the 
good doCtor takes occafion to praife the devil’s learning : 
“ He is an excellent optician and natural philofopher, 
(fays he,) on account of his long experience fummits 
opticus c.t p/iyficus, propter diuturnam experientiam. This great 
man, who has fo finely illudruted the theory of fpafmodic 
difeafes, thinks they are fometirr.es produced by witch¬ 
craft, although he confiders the witches merely as paf- 
five indruments of the demoniacal aCtion : he relates the 
cafe of a woman who was afflicted with a leve-re head- 
ach, from the time of her refilling to fell a calf’s-head to 
a fuppofed witch, and does not fcruple to confider the 
difeafe as an effeCt of the witch’s refentment. This dif- 
fertation was publiihed in the large edition of his works, 
by the doftor himfelf, in 1747. From the time of HofF- 
man, there does not appear any refpectable writer in fa¬ 
vour of witchcraft, (excepting that Brucker mentions 
incidentally, in his excellent Hi/ioria Critica Philofophu,e, 
in 1766, that he thinks the quediori dill undecided,) till 
the year 1770, when Dr. De Haen of Vienna publiihed a 
defence of magic, chiefly on the authority of Philodra- 
tus, and the fathers of the church. But at that time, the 
opinion was fo completely exploded among the faculty, 
that he did not provoke a Angle antagonid. 
Tire number of thofe whofe lives have been facrificed 
to this delufion, cannot perhaps be afeertained ; by Dr. 
flutchinfon’s colledtion of fadts, it appears, that, at cer¬ 
tain times, many vidtims have fallen together ; and it is 
a remark not peculiar to him, that the condemnation of 
one witch has always led to the difeovery of others. The 
lated phrenzy of this kind, was that in New England, 
about 1692, when, fays Hutchinfon, “the imprifonment 
and execution of witches made as great a calamity there 
as a plague or a war.” The accufers became fo daring, 
that neither civil nor religious authority would have 
proved a fecurity againd their attacks, if all the prole- 
cutions had not been fuddenly dropped, and the prifoners 
fet at liberty. So far did thofe wretches proceed in ab- 
furdity, that a dog was accufed of throwing perfons into 
fits, by looking at them. One Parris, a minider at Sa¬ 
lem, was at the bottom of this horrible bufinefs-; but it 
is worth while to oblerve, as a key to the difpofitions of 
the people, who fubmitted to fo grofs and fatal an impo- 
fition, that they believed the Indians to be magicians ; 
and Mr. Cotton Mather imputed the frequency of witch¬ 
craft, during the general delufion, to fpirits lent among 
them by the Indian conjurers, or paw-zuaws, as the colo- 
nids term them. Another indrudtive circumdance is, 
that as foon as the profecutions were dopped, all reports 
of witchcraft ceafed. 
In this country, the difeouragement long given to all 
fufpicions of witchcraft, and the repeal of the datutes 
againd that crime, though they have much weakened, 
have not eradicated the perfuafion ; fome periodical pub¬ 
lications, condudted by men of letters, afford proof of 
this; and the Bridol dory, though unpubliflied, is a re¬ 
cent and linking confirmation. In 1786, however, the 
count de Cagliodro was accufed of forcery by madame 
de la Motte, at Paris. But it will be ealier to diicover 
the fources of deception in thofe cafes, if we confider 
the fign.s of fafeination in the patient, edablilhed by de¬ 
monologids; the indications by which the forcerer was. 
traced; and the nature of the remedies which have 
proved fuccefsful in demoniacal cafes. 
I. A hidden attack of any difeafe, in a perfon previ- 
oufiy in good health, was held a reafon for fufpedting 
preternatural influence. It is evident that this tell was 
admitted entirely front ignorance and piefumption, be-, 
caufe feveral dileafes do certainly accede without much 
previous fenlible indifpofition.—When the-caufe-. of a 
difeafe did not readily fugged itlelf, it was generally at¬ 
tributed to witchcraft. Thus, the atrophy of .infants wa-s 
long imputed to the power of evil eyes, and. Sennertus has 
treated; 
