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Poisonous Vapours: Joseph Glanvill's Science of Witchcraft

In 1666 the newly appointed Rector of the Abbey at Bath, Joseph Glanvill (1636–1680), published a small and unassuming letter entitled A Philosophical Endeavour Towards the Defence of the Being of Witches and Apparitions. In A Letter To the Much Honoured, Robert Hunt, Esq. Motivated by a concern that Atheism was on the rise, Glanvill, with this letter, sought to disprove the claim that witchcraft was impossible by putting forward various naturalistic theories to explain witchcraft phenomena and the nature of spirits. Most of the initial print run was destroyed in the Great Fire of London, but nonetheless, Glanvill’s little bookmade quite a stir in various intellectual circles and a new edition was promptly printed in 1667. Samuel Pepys reported that although he was not quite convinced by the work’s argument in 1666, he spent an enjoyable evening with his wife reading over a copy of the expanded edition to be printed in 1668 under the title A Blow at Modern Sadducism. The addition of two reports on current supernatural sensations – the Irish faith healer Valentine Greatrakes and the infamous Drummer of Tedworth – was then enough to convince them. Over the next twenty-three years, what was initially a small sixty-two page work was expanded twice, growing to over six hundred pages in Henry More’s first posthumous