The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-05-31
TWELVE PAGES.
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RELIGIOUS FRANCES"

RELIGIOUS FRANCES"
A study of similar epidemic commissions to
those attending Mrs. Woodworths labors
shows that they are becoming less in number
and milder in their physical manifestations.
The world progresses in health and reason.
Religious liberty, the love of freedom, and the
spread Of scientific knowledge are accomplish
ing for the present century asafeguard against
religious monomania which neither the schol
asticism nor bitter sectarianism of the past
could repress or control. We have in our
present civilization guaranty against the
recurrence of such epidemics as those of the
swooning Camisards who appeared in the
mountains Of the Cevennes at the
close of the seventeenth century, and
were put down by Louis XIV, after an obsti-
nate struggle. The press and the public
school machinery, abundant occupation, are
the prophy lactics against the religious abuses
of our times. Probably Mr.. Moody has had
during the last ten years such hearing as
was never granted any previous evangelist,
and yet all his religious meetings-even where
5000 women were congregated in one assem-
bly-have been conducted quietly, the mind
in condition to reason about the problems of
duty and conduct which constitute the bur-
den Of his discourse. There have been no
such disorders as marked the early career of
John Wesley, who records in his jour
nal that men and women dropped
to the ground under his preaching 'tas. if
struck by lightning" Lorenzo Dow relates
that at religious meeting in the courthouse
of Knoxville, the Governor of Tennessee
present, he saw one hundred and fifty people
Jerking at one time; and at another meeting
not less than three thousand persons fell in
commissions to the ground. In Logan county,
Kentucky, under the preaching of Rev. James
McGready man of "hideous visage and
thunder tones" commenced religious excite
ment producing nervous disorders which have
been widely recognized in the medical litera-
ture of the times. The fervor of religious feel
ing eliminated in 1900, when camp-meetings
with 10000 people in attendance were held.
Under the fervid and impassioned preaching,
the feelings were worked to the highest pitch
of excitement. This excitation of the nervous
centers was intensified by holding the meet
ings so far into the night that the people were
exhausted. Many of the actors in these
scenes have left records which show they
were in condition bordering on insanity.
AT McGready's meetings few shrieks set men
and women to falling all round These peo-
pie remained in the cataleptic state from
few minutes toseveral hours and in some cases
for several days. They were speeches., with
cold extremities, annulled sensibilities and
wildly-rolling eyes. For full and detailed
history of these and other manifestations, no.
tably the clerks, which by imitation affected
all classes saints and sinners, the strong and
the weak by jerking of the arms from the
elbow downward, the head being thrown vio-
lently backward, it is only necessary to con-
suit the authentic religious and medical litera-
ture of the times; as Dr. Davidsons "History
of the Presbyterian Church in Kentucky"
the Medical History of Kentucky"
These perverted muscular movements and
abnormal mental states come under the phys
ical head of morbid reflex action, whatever
spiritual significance may be attributed to
them by those who produce, or are
under the influence of them. To
the physician and the alenist it
is the inordinate excitement of the nervous
centers of emotion and feeling transmitted
through the spinal cord, and producing mus
cular commissions, with the annulling of sensi
bility and even the production of unconscious
ness. The principle of imitation, as natural
to man as to children or apes, also accounts
for much When Rev. Joseph Lyle, on the
second Sabbath of July, 1903, preached sig
nihcant sermon on 'Order," in his church,
very few fell, and moderation finally tri-
umphed. Fear and shame will check the
epidemics of chorea and hysterical convul-
sions, which sometimes spread through girls
seminary. Suicides were at one time so com
nnon in Paris that the mania was only checked
among young girls by threatening to expose
their dead persons
There is no doubt that the people to whom
Mrs. Woodwork is preaching can control
their muscular actions and mental states, and