The occult sciences: the philosophy of magic, prodigies, and apparent miracles (Volume 2).

  • Salverte, Eusèbe, 1771-1839.
Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The occult sciences: the philosophy of magic, prodigies, and apparent miracles (Volume 2). Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    had passed two nights and a day in the grotto.* They appear to be rather the dreams of a person intoxicated by a powerful narcotic than the descrip- tion of a real spectacle. Timarches, the name of the initiate, experienced a violent headache when the apparitions commenced—that is to say, when the drugs began to affect his senses; and when the apparitions vanished and he awoke from this de- lirious slumber, the same pain was as keenly felt. Timarches died three months after his visit to the grotto; the priests, no doubt, having made use of very powerful drugs. It is said that those who had once consulted the oracle acquired a melan- choly which lasted all their lives ;t the natural con- sequence, no doubt, of the serious shock to their health from the potions administered to them. The consulters of the oracle, were, I believe, carried to the gate of the gi'otto, when their forced sleep began to be dissipated. The visions that oc- cupied this slumber most probaby formed (as has been also suspected by Clavier)| all the incidents of the miraculous spectacle they believed to have been exhibited by the gods. On awakening also, after having been presented with a drink, probably intended to restore entirely the use of their senses, they were ordered to relate every thing they had seen and heard ; the priest requiring to know what they had dreamed. Powerful soporifics often possess the property of deranging the intellect: the berries of the bel- ]adonna,§ when eaten, produce furious madness, * Plutarch, De Damonio Socratis. t Suidas. . . . Clavier, Memoire sur les Oracles, ^c, pp. 159, 160. t Clavier, MemoiVe sar les Oracles, cf-c.,pp. 158, 159. 6 Atropa belladonna, deadly nightshade, has fruit resembling a black cherry, seated within a large, green, persistent flower-cup or calyx The fruit is of a deep-black purple color, and contains