CHAPTER V.

Poisonous substances — Poisons, the effect of which can be gra- duated— Miraculous deaths — Poisons employed in ordeals — Diseases asserted to be caused by Divine vengeance — Diseases foretold.
Fear is more permanent, as well as more exacting, than gratitude. It was easy for Thaumaturgists to inspire the former, in employing the agency of poisonous substances on organized bodies. Nature has produced these substances principally in those parts of our globe, which were first inhabited ; and the art of increasing their number and their power is not less ancient than civiliza- tion. What could have appeared more magical, what more miraculous, we may inquire, in the eyes of ignorant men, at least in apparent connection with its cause, than poisoning by prussic acid, by morphia, or by certain preparations of arsenic, had they been known in ancient times ? The author of the crime would have appeared in all eyes as a being endowed with supernatural power ; even perhaps as a God, who could sport with the life of
128 INFLUENCE OF POISONS.
weak mortals, and who with a breath could cause them to vanish from the face of the earth.
The ancient use, however, of this formidable know- ledge at one time proved a blessing. The territory of Sycion was desolated by the ravages of wolves. The oracle, which was consulted, pointed out to the inhabit- ants the trunk of a tree, the bark of which it enjoined them to mix with the morsels of flesh which they threw to the wolves. These animals were destroyed by the poison. But the inhabitants could not recognize the tree, of which they had only seen the trunk- The priests reserved this part of the secret to themselves.
If in Greece, more than two thousand years ago, a man had fallen a victim to the influence of poison, or from an excess of intemperance, the incident in itself would not be interesting. But, when the short sojournment of that man on earth had cost more deaths and more evils to humanity than the greatest scourges of nature ; and, nevertheless, when the illusion of conquests and the fallacy of vulgar opinions, had converted that mon- ster polluted with innumerable crimes and vices into a model for heroes ; when, in a word, that man was Alexan- der, the son of Phillip, the problem becomes historical, and excites curiosity. Its solution interests us, from its connexion with scientific ideas, the existence of which it enables us to reveal.
Aelian, Pompeus Trogas, and Quintus Curtius attri- bute the death of Alexander to poison.* The two latter add, that the poison was sent from Macedonia to Baby-
* Pausanias. Corinthiac. cap. ix.
POISONINGS HAVE AIDED THE BELIEF IN MAGIC. 1 29
Ion, and was water from a spring at the foot of Mount Nonacris, in Arcadia. This water was so cold and so bitter that it occasioned death to both men and animals ; it broke or corroded all vases, except those which were made from the hoof of an ass, or a mule, or a horse, or from the horn which the Scythian asses* have on their fore- head. One of these horns had been offered as a present to Alexander: he had dedicated it to Apollo, in the temple of Delphi, with an inscription, relating its won- derful property. f In this recital we may perceive some dubious or obscure expressions ; and remark that sub- stances are frequently qualified as being hot or cold, inde- pendent of their temperature. Instead of the horn of a fabulous animal, a vessel might have been substituted which, like many vessels that were used by the ancients, was in the shape of a horn, and perhaps, also, displayed the colour of one, with its polish and its semi-transparency; but which, being brought from Scythia, or Upper Asia, j might have been made of thick glass, or of porcelain suffi- ciently well baked, and calculated to resist the action of cor- rosive liquids. Without entering into such an inquiry, the narrators have detailed only the marvellous part of the recital, and have made of it a ridiculous story.
I suppose, without entering into any explanation, that
* We are told by Aristotle, that, in his time, there were no asses in Scythia : some other animal, therefore, must have pro- duced the horn sent to Alexander. — Ed.
t Aelian, De Nat. Animal, lib. x. cap. xl.
X The name of Scythia began to be applied to the northen parts of Asia, in the Macedonian period, and was employed at the time of the conquest of Asia by Alexander. — Ed.
VOL. II. K
] 30 POISONINGS HAVE AIDED THE BELIEF IN MAGIC.
the wonderful springs of which they boasted, and the water of which, we are told, corroded all metals with the exception of one alone, which they described simply by this property of inalterability, from the facility with which it was volatilized by heat, and a residue pro- cured under the form of powder, perfectly white, and of extreme tenuity, was such as we need not refer to the land of fables. Such springs are at the doors of the French capital, at Enghien : and for distributing the water, pipes and taps of zinc are used,* because this metal appears to be the only one which does not decompose sulphureous waters.
Our incredulity would be redoubled, if an unaccredited author had made us acquainted, for the first time, with the Zagh ; that substance which is employed in the East for inlaying steel arms with apparent gold. It is drawn from a spring in the mountains of the Druses, and can only be preserved in vessels of lead, or of glass, or porcelain. Zagh is a mixture of the acidulated sul- phate of alumina, and sulphate of iron,f the solution 01 which will corrode any other metal except lead.j This, and the preceding example, at once sets aside part of the improbability which pervades the recitals relative to the water of Nonacris. Nothing precludes the Zagh from being, as the Orientals assert, a production of nature. In a work|| which does as much honour to his
* Revue Encyclopédique, tome xxxv. p. 501.
f Report of the Society for encouraging National Industry, De- cember 1821, p. 362.
% Our author here labours under a mistake. Such a solution will not affect vessels of platinum, gold, or silver. — Ed.
|| Senec. Qucest. Nat. lib. in. cap. xxv.
POISONINGS HAVE AIDED THE BELIEF IN MAGIC. 131
vast knowledge as to his philosophy, Seneca describes a spring near to Tempe in Thessaly, the waters of which are mortal toanimals,and penetrate through iron and copper.* In Thrace, in the country of the Cyclops, also, there flowed a rivulet whose limpid water seemed to differ in nothing from common water ; yet every animal who drank of it instantly died.f
The water of Non acris, which corroded iron, and cracked or dissolved vases of silver and of brass, and even those of baked clay,| could only have been a solution more charged with corrosive substances than the Zagh, and the water of the stream of Tempe. I think, nevertheless, that it was a production of art. Firstly : because it was according to Quintus Curtius a production of Macedonia, and according to many other authors, of Arcadia also, which
* It is probable that this spring contained either free sulphuric acid, or a highly acidulous salt of that acid. Modern chemistry has detected this acid in a free state, as well as hydrochloric acid in the water of the Rio Vinagre, which descends from the volcano of Paraiè, in Colombia, South America. Sulphuric acid is also found in the waters of other volcanic regions. The sour Springs of Byron, in the Genessee country, about sixty miles south of the Erie Canal, contain pure sulphuric acid. Such waters, therefore, would rapidly corrode both iron and copper; converting the former into green, the latter into blue vitriol — sulphates of both metals. — Ed.
f Arist. De Mirab. Auscul.
% Q. Curt. lib. x. cap. ultim. — Vitruv. De Architect, lib. in. cap. in. — Justin, lib. xn. cap. xiv. — Pausanias. Arcad. cap. xvin. — Plutarch in Alexandr. cap. xcix. — Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. xxx. cap. xvi. — Arrian. De Exped. Alexand. lib. vn. cap. vn. — Plu- tarch extends -the dissolving virtue of the water of Nonacris to glass and to crystal. The ancients were anxious to exaggerate ; and the possessors of the secret probably seconded this disposition with all their power.
K 2
132 POISONINGS HAVE AIDED THE BELIEF IN MAGIC.
could not have been the case unless it was manufactured in both countries. Secondly : Plutarch adds, that it was obtained under the form of a light dew,# an expression which seems to characterise it as the production of dis- tillation. Thirdly : at Nonacris, Herodotus says, they took an oath on the water of the Styx. Stobeus adds that, ac- cording to the general opinion, this water possessed the terrible property of punishing perjurers who had dared to swear by it.f If this fact is regarded as the employment of poison in ordeals, we may believe that the water of Nonacris, and the water of the Styx, was a production of Occult Science which rendered it, at will, either innocent or injurious. Fourthly : the water of Nonacris could not be detected by its taste, when mixed with wine, which was not the case with the Zagh, nor is it with the water of Enghien, which can be detected, however small the quan- tity, when mixed with wine or any other liquid. It could not be suspected, says Seneca,! either by its ap- pearance or by its smell ; similar in this respect to the poisons composed by the most celebrated poisoners, which could only be discovered at the expense of life. In speaking thus, does not Seneca describe a composition analogous to the acqua Toff ana of the Italians ;|| espe-
* Plutarch, in Alexander cap. xlix. — Herodot. lib. vi. cap.
LXXV.
f Herodot. lib. vi. — J. Stobaci. Eclog. Physic. De Statu, ani- marum.
% Senec. Loc. Cit.
|| The Aqua delta Toffana, or Acquetta di Napoli, was the in- vention of a woman of the name of Toffana, a celebrated secret poisoner, who resided at Naples in the end of the 1 7th and the commencement of the 18th century. This water was so powerful,
POISONINGS HAVE AIDED THE BELIEF IN MAGIC. 133
daily when he adds, that its deleterious action is exerted particularly on the entrails, which it contracts and binds, and thus occasions death.
Setting aside historical discussion, it is sufficient for us to draw the attention of our readers to the extent of the apparent magical power which such a secret had put into the hands of the Thaumaturgists. What could they not accomplish, if joined to the power of gra- duating the effect of poison, they could determine the exact day when the victim should fall? This art has existed at all times in India, where the possession of it is not concealed.* " There are," says a personage in the Eastern Tales,f " all kinds of poisons. There are some which take away life a month after they have been taken : there are others which destroy it at the
that from four to six drops were sufficient to destroy a man. It was sold in small phials, inscribed " Manna of St. Nicholas of Bari," and ornamented with the image of the saint. By thus concealing her drops under the name of a miraculous oil for curing diseases, then in high repute in Naples, Toffana long carried on her abominable trade of assisting heirs to their estates, and wives to new husbands. This violation of a sacred name, however, having raised a loud outcry against her amongst the clergy, the wretched woman was arrested, put to the rack, and afterwards strangled. These drops were stated by Garelli,a physician to the Emperor Charles VII., to be a strong solution of arsenious acid in an infusion of the Ivy- leaved Toadflax, Linaria Cymbalaria, which was an unnecessary addition, as the arsenious acid is perfectly tasteless. — Ed.
* The Hindoo poison is named Powst, and is a preparation of the Poppy. — Ed. '
f Arabian Nights' Entertainments, Fourteenth night. Story of the Forty Thieves.
a Hoffman quotes Garelli's letter to him, in his Medicirue Ra~ tionalis Symptomata. torn, n p. 2.; cap. n. § 19, p. 185.
1 34 POISONINGS HAVE AIDED THE BELIEF IN MAGIC
end of two months ; and there are others, the effect of which is still more gradual. When a Hindoo widow, in 1822, burnt herself upon the funereal pile of her hus- band, the Brahmans said frankly to the English observer whom we have quoted,* that had she been prevented or dissuaded from accomplishing the sacrifice, she would not have survived the violation of her vow more than three hours, as they had graduated, for that time, the strength of the poison which they had administered to her.
Aelian,f who mentions the art of the inhabitants of India in manufacturing poisons, the effect of which is slow, and graduated at will, ascribes to them also the possession of a substance, a very small dose of which will occasion almost sudden death, without pain. It was sent to the King of Persia, who promised his mother that she alone should share with him the posses- sion of this valuable poison. In fact, it served as well for murderous political unions, as for the sacred ven- geance of the Thaumaturgists.
When the church, scarcely delivered from the persecu- tions of the Polytheists, was torn by disputes on transub- stantiation, which, to use the expression of a great poet, caused Christians to perish martyrs of a dipthong, j Saint
* See chap. xvn. Asiatic Journal, vol. xv. (1823) pp. 292 — 293.
t Aelian. De Nat. Animal, lib. iv. cap. xxx. cap. xli. % " Lorsque attaquant le verbe et sa divinité, D'une syllabe impie un saint mot augmenté, Faisait, dans une guerre et si vive et si longue, Périr tant de Chrétiens, martyrs d'une dipthongue." Boileau. Satire xn. vers. 199 — 202. — Omousios, unsubstantiate
POISONINGS HAVE AIDED THE BELIEF IN MAGIC. 135
Athanasius* and his partizans had the imprudence to cele- brate the miracle which had freed them from Arius. Let the names be suppressed ; let the details alone of this
or of equal essence j Omoiousios, or of similar essence. The dip- thong oi, which distinguished these two words from one another, was adopted by the Arians, and rejected by their adversaries.
* St. Athanasius was born in Alexandria, a.d. 206, of Chris- tian parents. He received the most liberal education, andprofited by it to a degree that admirably fitted him for the station in the Church which he afterwards filled. Arius, his opponent, was a native of Cyrenaica. He had been expelled the communion of the Church by St. Peter, who had ordained him a Deacon, on account of having joined the Meletians ; but having repented, he was re- admitted by Achillas, who had succeeded St. Peter as Patriarch of Alexandria, and was ordained a priest and pastor to one of the churches of Alexandria. The ambition of Arius was disappointed when his patron was succeeded by St. Alexander ; and he soon afterwards began to preach the heresy known by his name, respect- ing the divinity of our Saviour, which caused his second expul- sion from the communion of the Church. St. Athanasius was then merely a Deacon ; but, in the Council of Nice, he combated so successfully the doctrines broached by Arius, and supported by the followers of the heresiarch, that, on the death of Alexander, he was elected Patriarch of Alexandria, a.d. 326. Soon after this event, the Meletians and Arians having joined, and St. Athanasius having had a sentence of deposition pronounced against him, through the means of Eusebius, Arius made a kind of retraction of his former opinions to Constantine, and was re-admitted to the Church generally, but nevertheless he was refused to be admitted by the Church at Alexandria. It is unnecessary to enter into the history of Arianism, and the various controversies, feuds, and even appeals to arms, which this heresy occasioned. On the recanta- tion of Arius to Constantine, in a third confession of his faith, and his profession on oath to submit to the Nicene Creed, the Empe- ror, in 336, commanded that the Patriarch should leave his See in case he persisted to refuse admitting Arius to communion, and
136 POISONINGS HAVE AIDED THE BELIEF IN MAGIC.
unexpected death be recalled; — those which have been
transmitted to us by three church historians,* there is
no man, however indifferently educated, who will not
there recognise symptoms produced by violent poison. No
physician would have hesitated to counsel a circumstantial
examination, in order to clear up some very plausible
suspicions, and no magistrate would have declined to
order it. And if it is added, that a few hours before
the death, Saint Alexander, the adversary of x\rius,
was heard addressing fervent prayers to heaven, that
rather than the heretic should be permitted to enter in
triumph into the church, and his heresy with him, he
might be struck dead,f it is not surprising that the
partizans of Arius did not think his death natural,
although they had supposed it to be a miracle, and that
their accusations were sufficiently public, to induce one of
their adversaries to think it necessary to pass them over
in silence.J
resolved that he should be received in a solemn manner. St. James, who was then at Constantinople, exhorted the people to have recourse to God by fasting and prayer for seven days ; and on the eighth day, the Sunday on which Arius was to have been admitted, that wretched man was found dead in a privy. Socrates relates that he was taken ill of a bowel complaint during the procession. Some writers ascribed his death to poison ; but as the Arians ascribed his death to the magical practices of his enemies, the accusation of poisoning was not believed. — Ed.
* Socrat. Hist. Eccles. lib. i. cap. xxxviii. — Sozomen. Hist. Ecoles, lib. n. cap. xxix — xxx. — Theodorit. Hist. Eccles. lib. i. cap. xiv.
f Theodorit. Hist. Eccles. lib. i. cap. xiv.
% Sozomen. Hist. Eccles. lib. n. cap. xxix. — From what has been already stated, the Editor cannot avoid blaming our
POISONINGS HAVE AIDED THE BELIEF IN MAGIC. 137
Such, in those days of discord, was the transport of zeal ! The Christians, in the excess of joy which the death of the Emperor Julian occasioned them, indis- creetly published that his tragical end had been foretold by marvellous dreams, and that they perceived in it a signal miracle of the Divine vengeance. The philosopher Libanius,* the friend of the monarch, after his death, and under successors who had very little respect for his me- mory, boldly declared that Julian had fallen beneath the blows of a Christian assassin. To this imputation an orthodox writer replies, " The fact might be true ; and who will blame that man, who for his God and his reli- gion would have committed so courageous an action ?"f This shameful glorying in crime, so contrary to the pre- cepts of the religion which the writer believed, may, however, be natural ; for it is natural that, in proportion to the keenness of the interests by which they are affected, men become eager, reject reason, and precipitate them- selves into -delirium and fury.
author for great partiality, in insinuating the charge of poi- soning against the opposers of Arius. Such feuds in the Christian Church were undoubtedly most unhappy at the time, for the progress of the true faith, and led to much of the apostacy that followed : but there are no grounds for the accusa- tion of the poisoning of Arius. — Ed.
* Libanius was a native of Antioch, in Syria. He became so celebrated a teacher of rhetoric, that, although a Pagan, yet he numbered some Christians amongst his scholars ; and was on intimate terms with Saint Basil. He was the personal friend of Julian ; and, being adverse to the Christians, his assertions respecting the death of the Emperor can, therefore, be scarcely regarded as worthy of much credit. — Ed.
t Sozomen. Hist. Eccles, lib. vi. cap. 11.
ISS ORDEALS BY POISON.
It must be lamented that in every nation, the ancient priests enjoyed an influence equally infallible and myste- terious, in submitting the judgment of crimes to ordeals, more especially to those of beverages prepared by their hands; and which were generally deadly or innocent beverages, according to their wish to save or to destroy the accused person.
The Hindoo law, the most ancient of all, is the only one which dares frankly to utter the name— poison. The accused who submits to this ordeal, in taking the poison which he is about to drink, believes that it will change, if he is innocent, into a delicious draught.* This is a remarkable formulary, which, conformable with what we have elsewhere declared, addresses itself to the phy- sical agent as if it were a being endowed with supernatural power and knowledge ; as, for instance, a genius, or a God. Sometimes the trial was confined to swallowing the water in which the priest had bathed the image of one of the divinities,! which, although less formidable in appearance, yet was, in fact, as decisive, j
* Asiatic Researches, vol. i. pp. 473 and 486.
f Refer to vol. i. chap. vi.
X Asiatic Researches, vol. i. pp. 474 and 486. — Upon the dif- ferent ordeals employed among the Hindoos, namely, those of fire, of a weight, of freezing water, of scalding oil, of the serpent, of poison, &c, see Dubois, Mœurs et Coutumes des Peuples de l'Inde, tome n. pp. 546 — 554. There is not one of them, the success of which does not depend on the will of the priests.
The Hindoo code of laws is a pure theocracy, the law-giver being supposed to promulgate nothing but what was revealed to him by the Divinity ; hence the unconditional and implicit obe- dience which the people yield to their priests, who must be neces- sarily the interpreters of revealed laws. Princes are even subject to
ORDEALS BY POISON. 139
In Japan, the accused is obliged to swallow, in a cup of water, a piece of paper, on which the priests have traced magical characters and pictures ; and this beve- rage tortures him cruelly, until he has confessed his crime.*
Guided, probably, by ancient tradition, more than by any knowledge which belongs to them, the Arabs prac- tise similar trials.
The negroes of Issyny dare not drink the water into which the Fetiche has been dipped, when they affirm what is not the truth. f Before consecrated water could inspire so great a fear, must there not have been several examples to prove its deadly efficacy ?
The initiated of Para-belli, a very powerful religious society in the interior of Southern Africa, prepare, among the Qojas negroes, a water of trial, which is thrown over the legs, the arms, or the hands of the accused. If the water burns him, he is declared guilty ; if it does not burn him, he is innocent.]: Is not the mysterious com-
them ; and, so far, does the assumption of power by the Brahmans extend, that we find these words in the Institutes of Menu: — "What Prince could gain wealth by oppressing those (Brahmans), who, if angry, could frame other worlds ; and could give being to other Gods and to other mortals."" After such an assumption in the priesthood, the degree of superstition and mental degradation, which has kept the condition of man servile and stationary in India, will no longer excite surprise ; for, what follows so closely in the steps of superstition, as popular ignorance, mental despotism, and barbaric tyranny ? — Ed.
* Koempfer. History of Japan, bookm. chap. v. p. 51.
f Godefroy Loyer. Voyage to the Kingdom of Issyny .
t O. Dapper. Description de V Afrique, pp. 269 — 270. a Institutes of Menu, chap. ix. verse 315.
140 ORDEALS BY POISON.
position of the water, and the care that is taken to wash the limbs before they are exposed to its action, sufficient to explain the assumed miracle ?
Among the Qojas, and among numbers of other African tribes, a person suspected of poisoning is made to drink a very acid liquid, prepared by scraping the in- side bark of the Quony tree, from which the sap has been first pressed out, into water. The accused who sur- vives the trial is declared innocent ; he who dies is pro- nounced guilty. # It may be believed that the care with which the bark is pressed, decides the fate of the accused. In other countries, the accused is obliged to drink a liquid prepared by the hands of the priests : in Mono- motapa he is condemned if he vomits it ; and in the kingdom of Loango, if the liquid has a diuretic effect upon him, he is also condemned. f
Nations more advanced in civilization, have authorized those trials in which the Divinity is called upon to work a miracle to manifest the truth. At Rome, in the time of Cicero and Horace, a master who suspected that his slaves had robbed him, conducted them before a priest. They were each obliged to eat a cake over which the priest had pronounced some magical words, {carmine infectum.) This plan undoubtedly discovered the author of the theft.J Near Tyana, an inexhaustible spring of very cold, but always bubbling water, (water strongly gaseous), served to test the truth of vows. The truthful man drank of it with impunity ; the man guilty of a
* O. Dapper. Description de l'Afrique. 1. c. p. 263.
f Ibid. pp. 325—326 and 392.
% Acron. in Horat. Epist. lib. i. Epist. x. verse 9.
ORDEALS BY POISON. 141
false vow, if he dared to taste it, saw his body covered with blisters and abscesses, and was so deprived of his strength, that he could not quit the place until he had confessed his perjury.*
Christianity has not altogether rejected these kind of ordeals. The fountain of Wieresf is still celebrated in Picardy. The unfaithful wife of Saint Genoulf dared to plunge her arm into it, vowing that her conduct was irreproachable: but her arm immediately became withered. The fountain however is now less malicious, and all women wash their hands in it with impunity. It may, therefore, be believed that this ordeal has not been always harmless ; and that, more than once, the terror which it inspired had restrained many from attempting it. This has often occurred with other ordeals. The collections of anecdotes are replete with stories of the guilty, who, by the fear of a miracle, have been induced to confess their crimes. Here we repeat the reasonings that we have already offered, that fear would not have been occasioned, if pre- ceding experiments had not proved that the ordeal was sometimes well founded. It was so managed that the pro- mised miracle should not exceed the powers of the Thau- maturgist.
Death was not the only revenge which was foretold by the interpreters of an irritated God. Turning against his enemies the secrets of the sacred science with which he was armed, with more address and less danger to him-
* Philostrat. Vita Apollon, lib. i. cap. iv.
f A fountain situated near Samer, department of the Pas de Calais. — Mémoires de l'Académie Celtique, tome v. pp.109 — 110.
142 APPARENT MIRACULOUS BLINDNESS.
self, the priest often reserved to himself the power of producing a second miracle in favour of repentance.
A very bright light, such, for example, as the Bengal fire, can dazzle the eye so effectually, that the power of see- ing will remain suspended for some time. At the taking of Milet by Alexander, when the soldiers entered the temple of Milet to despoil it, so strong a light shone forth from the sanctuary, that the soldiers were struck with temporary blindness. * But the effect produced by such a method of revenge is of very short duration ; and its success depends too much on the concurrence of favourable circumstances to permit it to be often prac- tised.
Near the river Archeloiis grew the plant Myope ;f it is impossible to rub the face with it, without losing the sight. The leaves of the Stramonium possess a property differing very little from the Myope. A young man having accidentally spurted a drop of the sap into his eye, remained for several hours deprived of the use of the organ.! We know, in this day, that the extract of Bel- ladonna, diluted with water, paralyses for a time the organ of sight. To seize the propitious moment for causing the poisonous substance to act, and for working the miracle, requires nothing more than address. Thus, with the talents of the Juggler aiding the science of the Thaumaturgist, the histories of men miraculously struck
* Valer. Maxim, lib. i. cap. i. — Lactant. Divin. Instit. lib. n. cap. vu.
f Plutarch, de Nomin. Fluv. et Mont. § xxn. — M. Vallot, of the Academy of Dijon, is of opinion that this plant was a kind of Tithymale, most probably Euphorbia officinarum.
X Bibliothèque Universelle des Sciences, tome iv. p. 221.
ORACLES CONSULTED IN ENDEMIC DISEASES. 143
blind, and as miraculously recovered, present nothing im- probable.
Endemic diseases, which ravage a country, an army, a city, sometimes assume so malignant a character that ignorance believes, and policy feigns to believe them as contagious as the pestilence.
Formerly, before the oracles were abolished, desolated populations had recourse to them ; and it was the wish of the oracles that the people should always recognise in these diseases the vengeance of Gods, justly irritated against their worshippers. This belief, being once established, the priest menaced countries rebellious to his commands with the invasion of the plague : more than once he has announced the appearance of it at a certain time, and his prophesy has been fulfilled. It was, in fact, easy for him to found his opinion upon probabilities, equivalent to cer- tainty ; it is only requisite to have observed beforehand the return of circumstances capable of reproducing these diseases. It was this science in ancient Greece which procured for Abaris* the reputation of being a prophet. The same observations will, at the present time, serve for similar predictions, although the honest man will con- fine himself to indicating precautions for preventing the evil; and he is afflicted if, in neglecting them, a triumph is provided him of passing for a true prophet.f But instead
* Iamblich. in Vit. Pythag. lib. i. cap. xxviii.
t In 1820, the Port of Roquemaure (an arrondissement of Uzes, department of Gard), was discovered to be surrounded by stagnant waters in those places where the Rhone had been turned from its course. .M. Cadet, of Metz, predicted that, from the month of March, the country would certainly be ravaged by an endemic
144 ORACLES CONSULTED IN ENDEMIC DISEASES.
of the philosophical observer, let us substitute a Thau- maturgist ; would not the coincidence of the prophesy, and of the disaster strike many minds, even at this day, with a deep and religious terror ?
fever, if, before summer, the river was not restored to its old bed. The works could only be completed in autumn, and the summer saw Roquemaure depopulated by raging fevers. {Letter from