Page:Life of Sir William Petty 1623 – 1687.djvu/94

 he appears to have belonged to a peculiar section of that body, which professed itself able to cure illness by the laying on of hands, and was persuaded that the fumes of their own bodily humours were the emanations of God's spirit. On these claims Dr. Petty was constantly pouring a boundless ridicule from the point of view of medical science. His 'Reflections' are full of grotesque anecdotes of the spiritual claims and antics of Sir Hierome and his coadjutors. Thus he relates how a Mr. Wadman, being in a fit of melancholy, owing to the death of his wife, was visited by Sir Hierome, who, taking notice of some odd expressions let fall by the patient, came to the conclusion that Wadman was possessed: 'that is, to speak in the language of Sir Hierome's order, enchanted.' Sir Hierome thereupon undertook to cast out the devil. At the end of every period of his conjurations, he would ask Mr. Wadman 'how he did,' to which the invariable reply was, 'All one.' 'At length, Sir Hierome being weary of his vain exorcisms, was fain to say that Wadman's devil was of that sort which required fasting as well as prayer to expell it. Whereupon the spectators, observing how plentifully Sir Hierome had eaten and tippled that evening, did easily conceive the cause why the devil did not stir.' Sir Hierome claimed earlier in life to have successfully exorcised a celebrated walking spirit named 'Tuggin,' 'between whom and him there were great bickerings;' but that struggle, Dr. Petty maliciously reminded his adversary, was when he was aspiring to holy orders in the Established Church, and he told him that he might consequently be more correctly described as a 'curate adventurer' than a 'knight adventurer.' For these jibes and jeers Dr. Petty had to pay. All through the later stages of the distribution of the army lands, Dr. Petty describes himself, alluding possibly to the early prowess in manly sports of Sir Hierome—as 'having been like a restless football, kickt up and down by the dirty feet of a discontented multitude,' and as 'having been tyed all day long to the stake, to be baited for the most part by irrational creatures. ...