A centennial address delivered in the Sanders Theatre, at Cambridge, June 7, 1881 : before the Massachusetts Medical Society.

  • Samuel Abbott Green
Date:
1881
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A centennial address delivered in the Sanders Theatre, at Cambridge, June 7, 1881 : before the Massachusetts Medical Society. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Lamar Soutter Library, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Lamar Soutter Library at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

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    extraordinary fasting. A conncil of ministers was con- vened to consider the matter, but they did not seem to help her. The poor girl afterward declared that she had signed a league with his black majesty in her own blood. It is not recorded what became of the girl; but if she had been attacked twenty years later, she would have been tried and hanged as a witch. A long account of the case is given in the Massachusetts Historical Col- lections, fourth series, VIII. 555. Much of the mist in the medical atmosphere of the colony had been blown from the shores of the mother- country. The credulity of the ignorant was remarkable. In England the touch of the royal monarch, Such sanctity hath Heaven given his hand, was considered a specific for the King's evil or scrofula. The custom began as early as the reign of Edward the Confessor, and was kept up until the time of George I., when it was dropped. At one time a form of prayer used in touching for the evil was inserted in the Book of Common Prayer. It is not strange, therefore, that some lingering faith in the absurd custom should crop out in New England. A petition is on file, among the Massachusetts Archives (CXXVIII. 270), from a poor man asking the Governor to grant him a brief^ which is another name for a license to collect money for a specified purpose. It is as follows : — To bis Excellencys S'' Edmund Andrews Cap' Gen''p of all his Majesties iforses of New England and Governour of all y® said Territoryes. The humble petition of William Ilutchins Inhabitant In y'' prov- ince of New Hampshire In New P^ngland Humble Sheweth That y'' Lord hath been pleased thi'ough his Righteousn [ess] to visit and correct yo'' poore Supplycant about y® space [or] terme of Six yeares witli vntollerable soors all over
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