DOI Heft:
November 1, 1862
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16870#0184
Novembeh l, 1862.] PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI. 1T7
SHARKS!!
Horror of Bo Fippz at the appearance of Miss Celincc Bloggins (on whose swimming-ground he had inadvertently trespassed) whom he at first took
for one of those terrible creatures that have recently visited Scarborough.
A MODERN URBAIN GRANDIER.
(For the Spiritual Magazine.)
The Paris Correspondent of the Morning Post tells a story which
i will perhaps be quoted by prejudiced materialists as making against
spiritualism, and by narrow-minded Protestants as evidencing Roman
Catholic superstition. He gives the following narrative of certain won-
derful phenomena which have occurred at Morzines in Savoy:—
“ It appears that about the year 1857, a mysterious epidemic, characterised by
convulsions (like your ‘ revivals ’), and a train of symptoms usually observed in
hysteria and epilepsy, raged with such violence that in seven months 27 persons
exhibited the form of the disease in its worst character. Seventeen were cured by
.the virtues of exorcisers. So delighted were the inhabitants of the commune at the
success of these crafty deluders that they were called to show their skill upon the
dumb animals of the district that were supposed to partake of the malady. Before
the conclusion of 1860, 110 persons, mostly children, were victims of the epidemic.”
This slate of things continued, getting worse and worse, until some
account of it came to the ears of the Minister of the Interior ; who sent
Dr. Corstans to see about it. As this physician is Inspector-General
of Lunatic Asylums, it was perhaps natural'enough of a sceptical Home
Secretary, to entrust him with such a mission. Dr. Corstans went,
and, behold!—
“ On his arrival at Morzines he found the whole population in a state of the
i utmost depression, every one believing himself possessed by a devil. The munici-
pal council, with the utmost gravity, assured the learned doctor that if he only
j brought with him the ordinary remedies of science his treatment of the disease
i must fail; that hitherto success had only attended exorcisms, pilgrimages to holy
| shrines, and animal magnetism.”
The foregoing statements, however, will be cited by Spiritualists,
too, against incredulous people, to prove that the supernatural virtues
of exorcisms and holy shrines are shared by animal magnetism. Incre-
dulous people, to be sure, will adduce it to demonstrate the same thing
in confutation of both Spiritualists and Romanists, and will no cloubl
consider its subjoined sequel as a clincher of their argument
“The experienced physician's prescription was as simple as it was efficacious.
The first item was the removal of the cv.ri of the parish, followed by the arrival of
a brigade of gendarmerie and a detachment of infantry. The epidemic has dis-
appeared. ”
“ Ha, lia ! Cured in an instant! ” Yes, it is all very well of shallow-
materialists to jump to their lame and impotent conclusion with a gra-
tuitous laugh; but do they suppose that epidemic hysteria is curable
by the arrival of a body of police and a troop of soldiers in the affected
district P Are they blind to the significance of the fact that the dis-
appearance of the disorder coincided with the removal of the cure?
The cause was taken away, and the effect ceased. Of course they will
turn this fact into ridicule by attempting to account for it on the sup-
ositiontbat the cure had turned his people’s heads, and that as soon as
e was gone they came round again. This is the view that will betaken
by stolid common sense; but we know better. The manifestations
stopped on the removal of the medium. The narrator of the preceding
particulars expresses the wish that such a treatment as that adopted in
this case “ had been followed in the days of Cardinal Richelieu, when
the unfortunate Urbain Grandier, a curate of great merit, was burnt
alive, being imagined by the nuns ol the Ursulines to be the demon that
afflicted them with a similar epidemic.” Urbain Grandier was burnt for
bewitching the Nuns of Loudon; not because he was imagined to be a
demon, for if his judges had entertained that idea of him ot course they
would never have thrown faggots away upon him, which they would have
looked upon as more absurd than carrying coals to Newcastle. It was
stupid cruelty to burn him, when if lie had been set down to a table and
furnished with a planchette, he might have been utilised. The enlightened
Spiritualist does not doubt that Grandier was a medium, aud, in his
explanation ot the marvellous influence exerted by the cure of Morzines
upon his flock, will also be guided by the truly golden maxim, medio
tutissimus ibis.
“The Voices of the Night.”
“I couldn’t get a wink of sleep,” said a newly-blessed Benedict,
“ on account of a discordeon that kept playing all night. “ Dis-
cordeoninquired the contidaut of li is troubles, “What new instru-
ment is that P “ Only the baby,” was the yawning reply.
SHARKS!!
Horror of Bo Fippz at the appearance of Miss Celincc Bloggins (on whose swimming-ground he had inadvertently trespassed) whom he at first took
for one of those terrible creatures that have recently visited Scarborough.
A MODERN URBAIN GRANDIER.
(For the Spiritual Magazine.)
The Paris Correspondent of the Morning Post tells a story which
i will perhaps be quoted by prejudiced materialists as making against
spiritualism, and by narrow-minded Protestants as evidencing Roman
Catholic superstition. He gives the following narrative of certain won-
derful phenomena which have occurred at Morzines in Savoy:—
“ It appears that about the year 1857, a mysterious epidemic, characterised by
convulsions (like your ‘ revivals ’), and a train of symptoms usually observed in
hysteria and epilepsy, raged with such violence that in seven months 27 persons
exhibited the form of the disease in its worst character. Seventeen were cured by
.the virtues of exorcisers. So delighted were the inhabitants of the commune at the
success of these crafty deluders that they were called to show their skill upon the
dumb animals of the district that were supposed to partake of the malady. Before
the conclusion of 1860, 110 persons, mostly children, were victims of the epidemic.”
This slate of things continued, getting worse and worse, until some
account of it came to the ears of the Minister of the Interior ; who sent
Dr. Corstans to see about it. As this physician is Inspector-General
of Lunatic Asylums, it was perhaps natural'enough of a sceptical Home
Secretary, to entrust him with such a mission. Dr. Corstans went,
and, behold!—
“ On his arrival at Morzines he found the whole population in a state of the
i utmost depression, every one believing himself possessed by a devil. The munici-
pal council, with the utmost gravity, assured the learned doctor that if he only
j brought with him the ordinary remedies of science his treatment of the disease
i must fail; that hitherto success had only attended exorcisms, pilgrimages to holy
| shrines, and animal magnetism.”
The foregoing statements, however, will be cited by Spiritualists,
too, against incredulous people, to prove that the supernatural virtues
of exorcisms and holy shrines are shared by animal magnetism. Incre-
dulous people, to be sure, will adduce it to demonstrate the same thing
in confutation of both Spiritualists and Romanists, and will no cloubl
consider its subjoined sequel as a clincher of their argument
“The experienced physician's prescription was as simple as it was efficacious.
The first item was the removal of the cv.ri of the parish, followed by the arrival of
a brigade of gendarmerie and a detachment of infantry. The epidemic has dis-
appeared. ”
“ Ha, lia ! Cured in an instant! ” Yes, it is all very well of shallow-
materialists to jump to their lame and impotent conclusion with a gra-
tuitous laugh; but do they suppose that epidemic hysteria is curable
by the arrival of a body of police and a troop of soldiers in the affected
district P Are they blind to the significance of the fact that the dis-
appearance of the disorder coincided with the removal of the cure?
The cause was taken away, and the effect ceased. Of course they will
turn this fact into ridicule by attempting to account for it on the sup-
ositiontbat the cure had turned his people’s heads, and that as soon as
e was gone they came round again. This is the view that will betaken
by stolid common sense; but we know better. The manifestations
stopped on the removal of the medium. The narrator of the preceding
particulars expresses the wish that such a treatment as that adopted in
this case “ had been followed in the days of Cardinal Richelieu, when
the unfortunate Urbain Grandier, a curate of great merit, was burnt
alive, being imagined by the nuns ol the Ursulines to be the demon that
afflicted them with a similar epidemic.” Urbain Grandier was burnt for
bewitching the Nuns of Loudon; not because he was imagined to be a
demon, for if his judges had entertained that idea of him ot course they
would never have thrown faggots away upon him, which they would have
looked upon as more absurd than carrying coals to Newcastle. It was
stupid cruelty to burn him, when if lie had been set down to a table and
furnished with a planchette, he might have been utilised. The enlightened
Spiritualist does not doubt that Grandier was a medium, aud, in his
explanation ot the marvellous influence exerted by the cure of Morzines
upon his flock, will also be guided by the truly golden maxim, medio
tutissimus ibis.
“The Voices of the Night.”
“I couldn’t get a wink of sleep,” said a newly-blessed Benedict,
“ on account of a discordeon that kept playing all night. “ Dis-
cordeoninquired the contidaut of li is troubles, “What new instru-
ment is that P “ Only the baby,” was the yawning reply.