Excerpt from The Popular Science Monthly, Vol. 35: May to October, 1889 IN the foregoing chapter I have sketched the triumph of science in destroying the idea that individual lunatics are possessed by devils, - in establishing the truth that insanity is physical disease, - and in substituting for superstitious cruelties toward the insane a treatment mild, kindly, and based upon ascertained facts. The Satan who had so long troubled individual men and women thus became extinct; henceforth his fossil remains only were preserved; they may Still be found in the' sculptures and storied windows of mediaeval churches, in sundry liturgies, and in popular forms of speech. But another Satan still lived - a Satan who wrought on a larger scale - who took possession of multitudes. For, after this triumph of the scientific method, there still remained a class of mental disorders which could not'be treated in asylums, which were not yet fully explained by science, and which therefore gave arguments of much apparent strength to the supporters of the old theological view: these were the epidemics of diabolic possession which for so many centuries afflicted various parts of the world. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.