86 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



or he hears a voice calling him evil names, and in the presence of such 

 hallucinations, a delusion may suddenly arise. Other delusions of 

 apparently sudden origin probably arise from other causes, some of 

 them being the end result of a number of experiences, hallucinatory it 

 may be, no one of which by itself has been sufficiently powerful to beget 

 a delusion. 



The somatopsychic delusions. Southard has well shown, may arise 

 because of, or be concomitant with, stimuli resulting in particular kinds 

 of sensation in particular parts of the body. Thus, he describes the 

 case of a woman who expressed the belief that she had been shot in the 

 breast with a "seven-shooter." The patient could not show any signs 

 of a wound, nor were there any external signs visible. There were noted 

 pleuritic friction sounds and the autopsy revealed a fibrous pleurisy at 

 the point at which she believed she had been shot. Whether or not 

 the form of the delusion, namely, the belief in being shot, was due to 

 other experiences, can not be determined. In this case the conclusion 

 that there is a relation of the particular pathological condition of the 

 pleura and the definite ideational localization of the point of the shot 

 with the somatopsychic delusion is not only suggested, but almost 

 forced upon us. The ideational selection of the particular weapon (a 

 seven-shooter) may be indicative of other causes which acted in con- 

 junction with the abnormal sensations. 



Other cases which Southard has reported have equally suggestive 

 histories indicating that the abnormal sensations from different parts 

 of the body may give rise to delusions of a somatopsychic character. 

 Thus, he has recorded the case of a man who complained of torpidity of 

 the bowels. This patient almost constantly kneaded his right chest 

 and abdomen because of this supposed condition. At the autopsy a 

 number of pathological states were found in the region to which he 

 referred his delusion, and one of these, namely, the right lung was 

 adherent to the pleura, is sufficient to mention. Another patient com- 

 plained that his stomach was always full and that he could not eat, and 

 this belief was found to be associated with the pathological finding of 

 intestinal obstruction from cancer. In this case probably the passage 

 of food stuffs from the stomach into and through the intestines was 

 retarded, and it is not' difficult to conclude that the belief that the 

 stomach was full had, partially at least, its origin in, or was built upon 

 the foundation of, the abnormal sensations which accompanied the mor- 

 bid modes of gastric and intestinal activity. The accumulation of ceru- 

 men in the ear of another patient was accompanied by the belief that 

 bugs or buzzing flies were present. 



Two other cases in which no peripheral lesions were found to corre- 

 spond with the delusions are cases in which cerebral lesions were 

 found to accompany the beliefs, (1) that the insides were gone and. 



