Engraving of the attempted healing of possessed

Credit: NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Caption: Interior scene showing the attempted healing of possessed people. Notice the choir in the background and the man lying on the floor at right who is being healed with a large blunt object. The practice of standing on the victims of possession was apparently an attempt to quell their convulsions, it may have been that such cases were, in reality, simply the unfortunate sufferers of epilepsy. This engraving, dating from around 1736, was by B. Picard from his Ceremonies et Coutumes religieuses de tous les peuples du monde, (Religious ceremonies and customs from around the world). "Differentes agitations des convulsionaires".

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Keywords: epilepsy, healing, healing of, historical image, history, medical charlatanism, of possessed people, possession, quack treatment, quackery, superstitions

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