Mortality in mid nineteenth century Britain

RICHARD CAVENDISH, The powers of evil in western religion, magic and folk belief, London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1975, 8vo, pp. ix, 299, £5.95. Evil supernatural agencies are part of every culture in degrees varying with their sophistication. As is to be expected, primitive man is surrounded by them, but they are of course still believed in by races who boast advanced social and cultural development. This book considers each in turn, ranging from the bogyman to fire and brimstone, and including ghosts and astral evil, pagan spirits, the vampire, darkness and night, nightmares, eaters of the dead, hell, the devil, animals, demons, witches and comparable sinister beings and situations. Mr. Cavendish is a recognized expert on the history of magic and the occult, and writes with authority on his topic, providing a large amount of documented data on each of the agencies he discusses. He carefully explores them in antiquity, in medieval Europe and in modern Europe and America, discovering many associations with, amongst others, evil, sex, death, and the animal world. The very term "the powers of evil" is significant and their influences have been widespread and significant throughout history. The terror and anxiety they have engendered are real enough, but whether supernatural beings and influences actually exist is another matter. The author is significantly agnostic. Nevertheless, he writes about them subjectively, and does not descend to the murky psycho-analytic rubbish that the medical profession has at times produced in this context. His book can be recommended as a reliable survey of evil agencies, factors that have been constantly present in man's life since prehistoric times, and therefore an important topic for the history ofman and medicine. Their role in concepts of disease, etiology, misfortune, sterility, and the destruction of human comfort in general has been, and in some instances still is, a potent one and therefore demands study.