COMMUNICATED INSANITY. 831 



ferred her visual hallucinations. From this state it was easy to 

 get into a condition where anything red exerted a very disturbing 

 influence over them.* As the insanity progressed aural disturb- 

 ances manifested themselves, and they were made still more un- 

 happy by hearing noises in the rooms above, which convinced 

 them that their enemies were not content to annoy them only 

 when they went into the street, but that they had actually taken 

 possession of the house in order to keep up their torment. One 

 night the elder sister awakened the younger saying that she 

 heard some one walking in the room above them, and that she was 

 sure that it was some one who had come to do them injury. The 

 younger listened and became convinced that they were in great 

 danger, and both claimed that they could feel the presence of the 

 stranger, although they could not see him, and they both smelled 

 the kerosene oil with which he was to burn the house. Believing 

 that they were in great danger, they began throwing furniture 

 out of the house, deeming that the best way of attracting the 

 attention of the police. While in the act of throwing the furni- 

 ture out they both screamed : " We can not help it. We are not 

 to blame!" They were, of course, taken in charge, and the 

 next day they came under my care. They were separated at once 

 and placed upon different wards in the hospital. In about four 

 months from the time of admission the younger sister had given 

 up all her delusions and had reached her normal condition. The 

 course of the disease in the elder sister was not so satisfactory, 

 however, and, though much improved, she is still influenced by 

 the ideas which controlled her before admission. From frequent 

 conversations with the younger sister after her recovery the fact 

 was made plain that for several weeks she realized that her sister 

 was insane and fought hard to remain uninfluenced herself. At 

 last, however, the sane mind succumbed to the overpowering in- 

 fluence of the insane one, and she became her sister's second self 

 in word, thought, and act. Of course, this would not have occurred 

 had the condition of things been reversed and had the younger 

 sister been the first to become insane. Neither would it have fol- 

 lowed had it not been for the neurotic tendencies of the passive 

 subject coupled with the debilitation due to worry, overwork, and 



* This interesting peculiarity reminds us of the dancing mania so graphically described 

 by Hecker in his Epidemics of the Middle Ages. This remarkable epidemic, which began 

 in 1374 in Aix-la-Chapelle and lasted until 1418, when its scene was transferred to Stras- 

 burg, was characterized by dancing of the wildest and most abandoned character, which 

 lasted until those who participated in it fell to the ground from sheer exhaustion. Thou- 

 sands upon thousands were affected by it. Its victims became furious whenever they saw 

 anything red, while on the contrary the same color exerted a remarkable fascination over 

 those who were affected by another form of dancing mania known as Tarantism, which 

 existed later and lasted several centuries. 



