LUNATICK1. Those sick Persons are called by this Name, who are attacked principally in the Changes of the Moon; for Example, epileptical Persons, or they who have the falling Sickness, mad People,or they who are tormented with Fits of dismal Melancholy; and lastly, Persons possessed by the Devil, for they have often been believed to have really been possessed by the Devil, who were tormented only with too great a Degree of Melancholy. Saint Jerom2 is of Opinion, that the Lunaticks in the Gospel were possessed Persons, whom the People through Mistake called Lunaticks, because they saw them most tormented during the Change of the Moon; the Devil affecting to make them suffer most in these Circumstances, that simple People might impute the Cause of it to the Moon, and from thence take Occasion to blaspheme the Creator. Others maintain, that all the Difference between Epilepticks and Lunaticks was, that the one were more disordered than the others. Persons subject to Epilepsies are not all equally attacked. Some fall more frequently, and others more rarely. Some there are who fall every Day. Lunaticks are affected only upon the Declension of the Moon. See the Commentators upon Saint Matthew iv. 24. and the Authors who have particularly treated of the Diseases mentioned in the Scripture.
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