But, if ordinary diseases were likely to be attributed to diabolical agency, how much, more diseases of the brain, and especially the more obscure of these! These, indeed, seemed to the vast majority of mankind possible only on the theory of satanic intervention. Any approach to a true theory of the connection between physical causes and mental results is one of the highest acquisitions of science.
Here and there, during the whole historic period, keen men had obtained an inkling of the truth; but, to the vast multitude, down to the end of the seventeenth century, nothing was more clear than that insanity is in many, if not in most, cases demoniacal possession.
Yet at a very early date, in Greece and Rome, science asserted itself, and a beginning was made which seemed destined to bring a large fruitage of blessings.[1] In the fifth century before the Christian era, Hippocrates of Cos asserted the great truth that all madness is simply disease of the brain, thereby beginning a noble development of truth and mercy which lasted nearly a thousand years. In the first century after Christ, Aretæus carried these ideas yet further, observed the phenomena of insanity with great acuteness, and reached yet more valuable results. Near the beginning of the following century, Soranus went still further in the same path, giving new results of research, and strengthening scientific truth. Toward the end of the same century, a new epoch was ushered in by Galen, under whom the same truth was developed yet further, and the path toward merciful treatment of the insane made yet more clear. In the third century came Celius Aurelianus, who received this deposit of precious truth, elaborated it, and brought forth the great idea which, had theology, citing Biblical texts, not banished it, would
- ↑ It is significant of this scientific attitude that the Greek word for superstition signifies, literally, fear of gods or demons.
Paris, 1845, i, 104, 105; Esquirol, "Des Maladies Mentales," Paris, 1838, i, 482; also Tylor, "Primitive Culture." For a very plain and honest statement of this view in our own sacred books, see Oort, Hooykaas, and Kuenen, "The Bible for Young People," English translation, v, 167, and following; also Farrar's "Life of Christ," chap. xvii. For this idea in Greece and elsewhere, see Maury, "La Magie," etc., iii, 276, giving, among other citations, one from book v of the "Odyssey." On the influence of Platonism, see Esquirol and others, as above—the main passage cited is from the "Phædo." For the devotion of the early fathers and doctors to this idea, see citations from Eusebius, Lactantius, St. Jerome, St. Augustine, St. John Chrysostom, St. Gregory Nazianzen, in Tissot, "L'Imagination," p. 369; also Jacob (i.e., Paul Lacroix), "Croyances Populaires," p. 183. For St. Augustine, see also his "De Civitate Dei," lib. 22, cap. viii, and his "Enarratio in Psal.," cxxxv, 1. For the breaking away of the religious orders in Italy from the entire supremacy of this idea, see Becavin, "L'École de Salerne," Paris, 1888; also Daremberg, "Histoire de la Médecine." Even so late as the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther maintained ("Table-Talk," Hazlitt's translation, London, 1872, pp. 250-256) that "Satan produces all the maladies which afflict mankind."
