HYSTERIA AND DEMONISM. i 55 



so will probably disappear the folly that breaks out in the curricu- 

 lum of the institutions above mentioned. If not, and woman, in a 

 vain wish to vindicate her equality with man by claiming the same 

 weight that he foolishly carries, straps on her shoulders the dead 

 languages, one thing is certain : she will never fulfill the proud pre- 

 diction that I have ventured to make for her, but hereafter, as here- 

 tofore, will lag, instead of leading. However, I am not anxious that 

 woman should lead. Nor yet would I have her lag. The best thing 

 for both sexes, and for all rational interests, would be to drop the 

 dead languages out of the scheme of education altogether, and stick 

 to our mother-tongue until we are educated, when the study of for- 

 eign languages, dead and living, or any other outlying study that we 

 like, will be in order. In acquiring the use of our faculties through 

 the use of our vernacular, we acquire the key of universal knowl- 

 edge, with which we may at pleasure unlock any door in that many- 

 mansioned house. But, first, we should possess ourselves of this key. 

 Education, like charity, begins at home. To-day, if we would have 

 fruitful minds, we must cultivate our lingual birthright ; to-morrow, 

 if we please, to fresh woods and pastures new. Meantime, let Greek 

 and Latin wait ; and when Mr. Harris, or any other representative of 

 those renowned tongues on the Stygian shore, asks us to contribute 

 aid to the suffering classics, let our response be, in the spirit of Ran- 

 dolph's reply to Mrs. Jellyby : " The classics, sir, are at your door." 



T 



HYSTERIA AND DEMONISM* 



A STUDY IN MORBID PSYCHOLOGY. 



By CHARLES PJCHET. 



II. 



HE word anaesthesia signifies absence of sensibility. In order to 

 comprehend the significance of this symptom, it is important to 

 present a few summary notions relative to sensibility and the sense of 

 touch. The skin of man, like that of all animals, is furnished with in- 

 numerable nerves which are sensitive to the most trifling excitinsr 

 cause, so that, if we touch ever so lightly any point on the skin, the 

 shock communicated to the sensitive nerves of that organ is trans- 

 mitted to the brain, and provokes there a sensation and a perception. 

 Several modes of sensibility in the skin have been distinguished. Thus 

 by the tactual sensibility we perceive the contact of objects ; but this 

 is not all there is of the sense of touch, for at the same time with the 

 contact we are able to feel the temperature and consistency of foreign 



* Translated from the " Eevue des Deux Mondes " by W. II. Larrabee. 



