“Dr. Haygarth, who was consulted on the means of relieving these unfortunate people, successfully recommended the use of antispasmodics; that all girls and young women should be prevented from having any communication with persons affected with those convulsions; and that those who were ill should be kept separate as much as possible.”
The same paper from which the above extracts have been taken, quotes a remarkable instance in which religious enthusiasm was the exciting cause of a convulsive disease analogous to those already noticed. The account is given by the Rev. Dr. Meik, at great length. It appears, that in January, 1742, about 90 persons in the parish of Cambuslang, in Lanarkshire, were induced to subscribe a petition to the minister, urging him to give them a weekly lecture, to which he readily assented. Nothing particular occurred at the first two lectures, but, at the third, to which the hearers had been very attentive, when the minister in his last prayer expressed himself thus, “Lord, who hath believed our report; and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?—where are the fruits of my poor labours among this people?” several persons in the congregation cried out publicly, and about fifty men and women came to the minister’s house, expressing strong convictions of sin, and alarming fears of punishment. After this period, so many people from the neighbourhood resorted to Cambuslang, that the minister thought himself obliged to provide them with daily sermons or exhortations, and actually did so for seven or eight months. The way in which the converts were affected, for it seems they were affected much in the same way, though in very different degrees, is thus described. “They were seized, all at once, commonly by something said in the sermons or prayers, with the most dreadful apprehensions concerning the state of their souls, insomuch that many of them could not abstain from crying out, in the most public and frightful manner, ‘bewailing their lost and undone condition by nature; calling themselves enemies to God, and despisers of precious Christ; declaring that they were unworthy to live on the face of the earth; that they saw the mouth of hell open to receive them, and that they heard the shrieks of the damned;’ but the universal cry was, ‘What shall we do to be saved?’ The agony under which they laboured was expressed, not only by words, but also by violent agitations of body; by clapping their hands and beating their breasts; by shaking and trembling; by faintings and convulsions; and sometimes by excessive bleeding at the nose. While they were in this distress, the minister often called out to them, not to stifle or smother their convictions, but to encourage them: and, after sermon was ended, he retired with them to the manse, and frequently spent the best part of the night with them in exhortations and prayers. Next day, before sermon began, they were brought out, and, having napkins tied round their heads, were placed all together on seats before the tents, where they remained sobbing, weeping, and often crying aloud, till the service was over. Some of those who fell under conviction were never converted; but most of those who fell under it were converted in a few days, and sometimes in a few hours. In most cases their conversion was as sudden and unexpected as their conviction. They were raised all at once from the lowest depth of sorrow and distress, to the highest pitch of joy and happiness; crying out with triumph and exultation, ‘that they had overcome the wicked one; that they had gotten hold of Christ, and would never let him go; that the black cloud which had hitherto concealed him from their view was now dispelled; and that they saw him, with a pen in his hand, blotting out their sins.’ Under these delightful impressions, some began to pray, and exhort publicly, and others desired the congregation to join with them in singing a particular psalm, which they said God had commanded them to sing. From the time of their conviction to their conversion, many had no appetite for food, or inclination to sleep, and all complained of their sufferings during that interval.”