water had been thus given, the possessed remained afflicted, urged
that the devil should be cast out, and some of them even went into
convulsions; the devil apparently speaking from their mouths. It was
evident that Satan had not the remotest idea that he had been thoroughly
dosed with the most effective medicine known to the older theology.(405)

(405) For an amazing delineation of the curative and other virtues of
holy water, see the Abbe Gaume, L'Eau benite au XIXme Siecle, Paris,
1866.

At last Tissot published the results of his experiments, and the
stereotyped answer was soon made. It resembled the answer made by the
clerical opponents of Galileo when he showed them the moons of Jupiter
through his telescope, and they declared that the moons were created
by the telescope. The clerical opponents of Tissot insisted that the
non-effect of the holy water upon the demons proved nothing save the
extraordinary cunning of Satan; that the archfiend wished it to be
thought that he does not exist, and so overcame his repugnance to holy
water, gulping it down in order to conceal his presence.

Dr. Tissot also examined into the gift of tongues exercised by the
possessed. As to German and Latin, no great difficulty was presented:
it was by no means hard to suppose that some of the girls might have
learned some words of the former language in the neighbouring Swiss
cantons where German was spoken, or even in Germany itself; and as to
Latin, considering that they had heard it from their childhood in the
church, there seemed nothing very wonderful in their uttering some words
in that language also. As to Arabic, had they really spoken it, that
might have been accounted for by the relations of the possessed with
Zouaves or Spahis from the French army; but, as Tissot could discover no
such relations, he investigated this point as the most puzzling of all.

On a close inquiry, he found that all the wonderful examples of speaking
Arabic were reduced to one. He then asked whether there was any other
person speaking or knowing Arabic in the town. He was answered that
there was not. He asked whether any person had lived there, so far as
any one could remember, who had spoken or understood Arabic, and he was
answered in the negative.

He then asked the witnesses how they knew that the language spoken
by the girl was Arabic: no answer was vouchsafed him; but he was
overwhelmed with such stories as that of a pig which, at sigh