ork of
Satan, while their opponents ascribed it to a divine influence. The
disorder soon increased, until it produced, in nervous women,
_clairvoyance_ (_Schlafwachen_), a phenomenon till then unknown; for one
female especially attracted attention, who, blindfold, and, as it was
believed, by means of the sense of smell, read every writing that was
placed before her, and distinguished the characters of unknown persons.
The very earth taken from the grave of the Deacon was soon thought to
possess miraculous power. It was sent to numerous sick persons at a
distance, whereby they were said to have been cured, and thus this
nervous disorder spread far beyond the limits of the capital, so that at
one time it was computed that there were more than eight hundred decided
Convulsionnaires, who would hardly have increased so much in numbers had
not Louis XV directed that the cemetery should be closed. The disorder
itself assumed various forms, and augmented by its attacks the general
excitement. Many persons, besides suffering from the convulsions, became
the subjects of violent pain, which required the assistance of their
brethren of the faith. On this account they, as well as those who
afforded them aid, were called by the common title of _Secourists_. The
modes of relief adopted were remarkably in accordance with those which
were administered to the St. John's dancers and the Tarantati, and they
were in general very rough; for the sufferers were beaten and goaded in
various parts of the body with stones, hammers, swords, clubs, &c., of
which treatment the defenders of this extraordinary sect relate the most
astonishing examples in proof that severe pain is imperatively demanded
by nature in this disorder as an effectual counter-irritant. The
Secourists used wooden clubs in the same manner as paviors use their
mallets, and it is stated that some _Convulsionnaires_ have borne daily
from six to eight thousand blows thus inflicted without danger. One
Secourist administered to a young woman who was suffering under spasm of
the stomach the most violent blows on that part, not to mention other
similar cases which occurred everywhere in great numbers. Sometimes the
patients bounded from the ground, impelled by the convulsions, like fish
when out of water; and this was so frequently imitated at a later period
that the women and girls, when they expected such violent contortions,
not wishing to appear indecent, put on gowns make l