"
This belief survived in great force in this century, and probably in
country places is not yet extinct. Several persons have been named to me
who suffered long from diseases the doctor could not understand, nor do
anything to remove, and therefore these obscure diseases could only be
ascribed to the devil-aided practices of malicious persons. In some
cases, cures were said to have been effected through making friends of
the supposed originators of the disease. The custom not yet extinct of
burning persons in effigy is doubtless a survival of this old
superstition.
A newly-married woman with whom I was acquainted took a sudden fit of
mental derangement, and screamed and talked violently to herself. Her
friends and neighbours concluded that she was under the spell of the
evil one. The late Dr. Mitchell was sent for to pray for her, but when
he began to pray she set up such hideous screams that he was obliged to
stop. He advised her friends to call in medical aid. But this conduct
on the part of the woman made it all the more evident to her relations
and neighbours that her affliction was the work of the devil, brought
about through the agency of some evil-disposed person.
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