i6z THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



cast about in every way, in obedience to the exaggerated excitation of 

 the spinal marrow. Cerebral life, which has been suspended since the 

 beginning of the attack, has returned, and consciousness has, at least 

 partially, appeared again. Now, hallucinations of every kind arise, 

 sometimes gay, sometimes sad, sometimes amorous, sometimes reli- 

 gious or ecstatic. Whenever any image rises in the mind, the move- 

 ments of the limbs, the expression of the face, the general attitude of 

 the body, respond at once to its character. These poses, these passional 

 attitudes, have a vivacity, a vigor of expression, that can not be found 

 anywhere else. The most skillful actor would never be competent to 

 represent fear, menace, anger, with as much truthfulness and power as 

 these poor hysterical girls, whose demeanor is influenced by the agita- 

 tions of a raving and changeable delirium. One crosses her arms and 

 raises her eyes to heaven in an attitude of religious admiration, as if 

 she saw the clouds opening to show her the saints or God. Another 

 talks in tender words to her little girl, from whom she has been sepa- 

 rated for a long time. Another sees monstrous animals, lizards with 

 red snouts and blood-shot eyes, or enormous bats, and her features ex- 

 press unspeakable horror. Generally there are two types of delirium, 

 gay and melancholy, answering to corresponding forms of hallucina- 

 tion. The two frequently appear in combination, taking each other's 



place with marvelous rapidity. M. , says M. Paul Richer, " is 



with Ernest * at a pleasure-party in a restaurant near Paris, where the 

 tables are set under trellises adorned with flowers and climbing plants. 

 At the right is a negress surrounded with strong-armed black men 

 who are tattooed, and entirely naked, who seize her by the hair and 

 are about to scalp her. The blood runs in streams over the face of 

 the unfortunate woman, who utters lamentable cries, and calls for help. 

 On the left is a very different spectacle : Ernest has a throng of friends 

 who accompany other young women. All the personages have no 

 other clothing than a broad, red girdle, except Ernest, who wears a 

 Spanish costume. They sit at the table, eat oysters, drink of a white 

 wine, sing, and laugh." Each patient generally has a form of delirium 

 peculiar to herself, so that the different attacks in the same subject 

 always bear a resemblance to one another. The same personages ap- 

 pear, the same scenes are repeated in all the attacks. The order in 

 which the hallucinations come on does not vary, and one who has wit- 

 nessed a few attacks suffered by the same patient can always judge 

 when the end of the fit is near from the nature of these hallucinations. 

 With one, it is indicated by a flourish of military music ; with another, 

 by the noise of a railroad-train ; with another, by the appearance of 

 monstrous animals vipers, crows, frogs, rats. The regularity of these 

 mad deliria is indeed surprising. Listening to the vociferations, the 

 bowlings of the sufferers, it would seem as if chance alone directed the 



* Names of young people have taken the place of the names of devils which the 

 demoniacs formerly gave to the personages of their hallucinations. 



