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                        AN ESSAY
                           ON
           DEMONOLOGY, GHOSTS AND APPARITIONS,
                           AND
                 POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS,
                          ALSO,
                       AN ACCOUNT
                         OF THE
              WITCHCRAFT DELUSION AT SALEM,
                        IN 1682.


            By JAMES THACHER, M. D., A. A. S.


  'With spells and charms I break the viper's jaw,
  Cleave solid rocks, oaks from their fissures draw,
  Whole woods remove, the airy mountains shake,
  Earth forced to groan, and ghosts from graves awake.'
                                     Ovid's Metamor.


  There are mysteries even in nature, which we cannot
  investigate, paradoxes which we can never resolve.


                         BOSTON:
                   CARTER AND HENDEE.
                      M DCCC XXXI.


     ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the
     year 1831, by CARTER & HENDEE, in the Clerk's
     Office of the District Court of Massachusetts.

                  BOSTON CLASSIC PRESS.
                      I. R. BUTTS.




ADVERTISEMENT.


The following pages were in substance composed to be read before the
Plymouth Lyceum, in 1829. When it was understood that Rev. CHARLES W.
UPHAM was about to favor the public with a work on the same subject,
it was determined that this little performance should be suppressed.
The Rev. Author observed in a letter, 'that although we may traverse
the same field, it is highly probable that we pursue different tracks.
The subject is so various, ample and abundant in instruction, that
good rather than evil would result from the application of more than
one mind to its discussion.' Since therefore, in the deeply
interesting work referred to, the learned author has not particularly
discussed the subjects of Ghosts, Apparitions, Mental Illusions, &c,
there may be no impropriety in submitting the following imperfect
production to the public, with the hope that it will not be considered
as altogether superfluous.

                                                   J. T.
    Plymouth, Nov. 1831.




CONTENTS.


                                   Page.
    Ghosts and Apparitions,            1

    Power of Imagination,             21

    Illusions,                        26

    Imagination and Fear,             47

    Superstition,                     63

    Witchcraft and Sorcery,           74

    Salem Witchcraft,                113

    Omens and Auguries,              204

    Medical Quackery,                225




ESSAY.




GHOSTS AND APPARITIONS.


Such is the constitution of the human mind, that it never attains to
perfection; it is constantly susceptible of erroneous impressions and
perverse propensities. The faculties of the soul are bound in thraldom
by superstition, and the intellect, under its influence, is scarcely
capable of reflecting on its divine origin, its nobleness and dignity.
The mind that is imbued with a superstitious temperament, is liable to
incessant torment, and is prepared to inflict the most atrocious evils
on mankind; even murder, suicide, and merciless persecution, have
proceeded from, and been sanctioned by a superstitious spirit. It is
this, in its most appalling aspect, which impels the heathen to a life
of mutilation and perpetual pain and torment of body, which degrades
the understanding below that of a brute. The superstitions practised
by the devotees to the Roman Catholic Church, if less horrible, are
equally preposterous and pernicious. The popular belief in
supernatural visitations in the form of apparitions and spectres, is
fostered and encouraged by the baneful influence of superstition and
prejudice. So universal has been the prevalence of the belief that
those conversant with history can resort to the era when every village
had its ghost or witch, as, in more ancient times, every family had
its household gods. Superstition, is a word of very extensive
signification, but for the purpose of this work, the word applies to
those who believe in witchcraft, magic, and apparitions, or that the
divine will is decided by omens or auguries; that the fortune of
individuals can be affected by things indifferent, by things deemed
lucky or unlucky, or that disease can be cured by words, charms, and
incantations. It means, in short, the belief of what is false and
contrary to reason. Superstition arises from, and is sustained by
ignorance and credulity in the understanding. The subject of
supernatural agency and the reality of witchcraft, has been the
occasion of unbounded speculation, and of much philosophical
disquisition, in almost all nations and ages. While some of the wisest
of men have assented to their actual existence and visible appearance,
others equally eminent have maintained the opinion that the supposed
apparitions are to be accounted for on the principle of feverish
dreams and disturbed imaginations. That our Creator has power to
employ celestial spirits as instruments and messengers, and to create
supernatural visions on the human mind, it would be impious to deny.
But we can conceive of no necessity, at the present day, for the
employment of disembodied spirits in our world; we can hold no
intercourse with them, nor realize the slightest advantage by their
agency. To believe in apparitions is to believe that God suspends the
law of nature for the most trivial purposes, and that he would
communicate the power of doing mischief, and of controling his laws to
beings, merely to gratify their own passions, which is inconsistent
with the goodness of God. We are sufficiently aware that the sacred
spirits of our fathers have ascended to regions prepared for
their reception, and there may they remain undisturbed till the mighty
secrets now concealed shall be revealed for our good. The soul or
spirit of man is immaterial, of course intangible and invisible. If it
is not recognisable by our senses, how can the dead appear to the
living? That disembodied spirits should communicate with surviving
objects on earth, that the ghosts of the murdered should appear to
disclose the murderer, or that the spirit of the wise and good should
return to proffer instructions to the vile and ignorant, must be
deemed unphilosophical.

It will now be attempted to demonstrate, that the generality of the
supposed apparitions, in modern times, will admit of explanation from
causes purely natural. For this purpose, it will be requisite first,
to describe the system of nerves, and their functions, which
constitute a part of our complicated frames. Nerves are to be
considered as a tissue of strings or cords, which have their origin in
the brain and spinal marrow, and are distributed in branches to all
parts of the body. They are the immediate organs of sensation and of
muscular action. Upon the integrity of the nerves, all the senses,
both external and internal, entirely depend. The nerves are the medium
of illusions; their influence pervades the whole body, and their
various impressions are transmitted to the brain. When the entire
brain is affected, delirium is the consequence; if the optic nerve
only, visions disturb the imagination; if the acoustic nerves receive
the impression, unreal sounds or voices are heard. If the optic nerves
are cut or rendered paralytic, the sense of vision is irrecoverably
destroyed. The nervous system is liable to be diseased and deranged
from various causes, from which, it is obvious, derangement of both
body and mind must ensue. The following is extracted from a lecture on
Moral Philosophy, by the learned and Reverend Samuel Stanhope Smith,
D. D., late President of the College of New Jersey.

'The nerves are easily excited into movement by an infinite variety of
external impulses, or internal agitations. By whatever impulse any
motion, vibration, or affection, in the nervous system is produced, a
correspondent sensation, or train of sensations, or ideas in the mind,
will naturally follow. When the body is in regular health, and the
operations of the mind are in a natural and healthful train, the
action of the nervous system, being affected only by the regular and
successive impressions made upon it by the objects of nature, as they
successively occur, will present to the mind just and true images of
the scenes that surround it. But by various species of infirmity and
disorder in the body, the nerves, sometimes in their entire system,
and sometimes only in those divisions of them which are attached to
particular organs of sense, may be subjected to very irregular motions
or vibrations. Hence unreal images may be raised in the mind. The
state of the nervous affections may be vitiated by intemperate
indulgence, or by infirmity resulting from sedentary and melancholy
habits. Superstitions, fancies, or enthusiastic emotions, do often
greatly disturb the regular action of the nervous system. Such elastic
and vibratory strings may be subject to an infinite variety of
irregular movements, sometimes in consequence of a disordered state of
health, and sometimes arising from peculiarity of constitutional
structure, which may present false and often fantastic images to the
mind. No cause, perhaps, produces a more anomalous oscitancy, or
vibration of the nervous system, or of some particular portions of it,
than habits of intemperate indulgence. And I have not unfrequently
become acquainted with men who had been addicted to such excesses, who
were troubled with apprehensions of supernatural apparitions. A
peculiar imbecility of constitution, however, created by study,
retirement, or other causes, may be productive of similar effects, and
sometimes these nervous anomalies are formed in men who are otherwise
of active and athletic constitutions. But where they possess
enlightened minds and vigorous understandings, such visionary
tendencies may be counteracted by their intellectual energies. Yet
have we sometimes known the strongest understandings overcome by the
vivacity of nervous impression, which frequently is scarcely inferior
to the most lively ideas of sense. This may, especially, be the case
in two opposite conditions; either when the body has fallen into a
gloomy temperament, and the mind is weakened by fears, in which case
it is oppressed by distressing apprehensions; or, on the other hand,
when the nerves, the primary organs, of sensation, are strained into
an unnatural tension, and the whole system is exalted by an
enthusiastic fervor to the pitch of delirious intoxication. When a man
is exalted to such a degree of nervous excitement and mental feeling,
his visions are commonly pleasing, often rapturous, and sometimes
fantastic; but generally rise above the control or correction of the
judgment. Lord Lyttleton, in the vision which he believed he saw of
his deceased mother's form, shortly before his own death, may be an
example of the former; and the Baron Von Swedenborg, in his supposed
visions, sometimes of angels and sometimes of reptiles, may be an
instance of the latter. Persons, whose fancies have been much
disturbed in early life, by the tales of nurses, and other follies of
an injudicious education, creating a timid and superstitious mind, are
more especially liable to have their fears alarmed and their
imagination excited by every object in the dark. Whence sounds will be
augmented to