The question for the medical faculty is: Does a decided taste for
wilful fire-raising often accompany exhibitions of dancing furniture
and crockery, gratuitously given by patients of hysterical
temperament? This is quite a normal inquiry. Is there a nervous
malady of which the symptoms are domestic arson, and amateur leger-de-
main? The complaint, if it exists, is of very old standing and wide
prevalence, including Russia, Scotland, New England, France, Iceland,
Germany, China and Peru.
As a proof of the identity of symptoms in this malady, we give a
Chinese case. The Chinese, as to diabolical possession, are precisely
of the same opinion as the inspired authors of the Gospels. People
are "possessed," and, like the woman having a spirit of divination in
the Acts of the Apostles, make a good thing out of it. Thus Mrs. Ku
was approached by a native Christian. She became rigid and her demon,
speaking through her, acknowledged the Catholic verity, and said that
if Mrs. Ku were converted he would have to leave. On recovering her
everyday consciousness, Mrs. Ku asked what Tsehwa, her demon, had
said.
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