" Two or three editions contained this
curious compromise; but near the middle of the present century
the whole discussion was quietly dropped.
Science, declining to trouble itself with any of these
views, pressed on, and toward the end of the century we see Dr.
Rhodes at Lyons curing a very serious case of possession by the
use of a powerful emetic; yet myth-making came in here also, and
it was stated that when the emetic produced its effect people had
seen multitudes of green and yellow devils cast forth from the
mouth of the possessed.
The last great demonstration of the old belief in England
was made in 1788. Near the city of Bristol at that time lived a
drunken epileptic, George Lukins. In asking alms, he insisted
that he was "possessed," and proved it by jumping, screaming,
barking, and treating the company to a parody of the _Te Deum_.
He was solemnly brought into the Temple Church, and seven
clergymen united in the effort to exorcise the evil spirit. Upon
their adjuring Satan, he swore "by his infernal den" that he
would not come out of the man--"an oath," says the chronicler,
"nowhere to be found but in Bunyan's _Pilgrim's Progress_, from
which Lukins probably got it.
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