At the foot of Mount Tabor a young man is brought by his father to be healed. The youth is possessed of a dumb spirit, “who, wheresoever he taketh him dasheth him, and he foameth, and gnasheth with the teeth, and pineth away.” When Jesus approached, “immediately the spirit troubled him; and being thrown down upon the ground, he rolled about foaming.” The patient had been thus afflicted “from his infancy, and oftentimes hath he cast him into the fire and into waters to destroy him.” Our Lord threatened the spirit, and forthwith expelled it. (S. Mark ix. 14-28.) It should be noticed that it is the demons who are addressed on these occasions, not their victims. In the face of this catena of Biblical evidence and the various circumstances attending these exorcisms it is impossible to maintain that the possessed suffered merely from epilepsy, paralysis, acute mania, or any other such disease. In fact the Evangelists carefully separate natural maladies from diabolic possession: “He cast out the spirits with his word: and all that were sick he healed” (S. Matthew viii. 16); “They brought to him all that were ill and that were possessed with devils ... and he healed many that were troubled with divers diseases and he cast out many devils” (S. Mark i. 32, 34). In the original Greek the distinction is still more clearly and unmistakably shown: πάντας τοὺς κακῶς ἔχοντας καὶ τοὺς δαιμονιζομένους. Saint Matthew, again, differentiates: “they presented to him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases [ποικίλαις νόσοις] and torments [βασάνοις] and such as were possessed by devils [δαιμονιζομένους] and lunatics [σεληνιαζομένους] and those who had the palsy [παραλυτικούς] and he cured them,” iv. 24. Moreover, Our Lord expressly distinguishes between possession and natural disease; “Behold I cast out devils and do cures,” are the Divine Words; ἰδοὺ ἐκβάλλω δαιμόνια καὶ ἰάσεις ἀποτελῶ (S. Luke xiii. 32). That the demoniacs were often afflicted with other diseases as well is highly probable. The demons may have attacked those who were already sick, whilst the very fact of obsession or possession would of itself produce disease as a natural consequence.