380 Scientific Intelligence. — Zoology. 



or melancholy. M. Esquirol has examined the body of a 

 woman at the Saltpctriere, who for a long time fancied she car- 

 ried an animal in her stomach ; she had cancer of this organ. 

 An aged woman, who was very devout, and who laboured under 

 monomania, imagined that she carried in her abdomen all the 

 personages of the Old and New Testament; when her pains 

 became very severe, she sometimes figured to herself that Jesus 

 Christ was being crucified in her abdomen, and she said that 

 she distinctly heard the blows of the hammer ; when she was 

 opened after death, they discovered the existence of a chronic 

 peritonitis, which formed extensive adhesions to all the intestines, 

 so that they formed one mass. The same alteration existed, 

 though less marked, in a demonomaniac, who was extremely ema- 

 ciated, who fancied that she carried in her abdomen several 

 devils, who were tearing her and exciting to self-destruction. 

 Her skin was as insensible as if it had been tanned, and M. 

 Epquirol several times stuck pins into it, without causing any 

 pain. This woman stated that the devil had taken away her 

 skin from her, and that he replaced it by his own. Irritation 

 and pains in the organs of generation are oftentimes the cause 

 of illusions in maniacs, particularly in women. The painful 

 constrictions of the throat in hysterical monomaniacs are often 

 attributed by them to the effects of some jealous person who 

 wishes to strangle them. The wandering pains which maniacs 

 sometimes feel in their limbs also give rise to illusions. A me- 

 dical student, in an attack of mania, caused by the presence of 

 worms in the intestinal canal, felt acute pains all over the body, 

 and attributed them to darts with which he fancied himself con- 

 stantly pierced. The illusion went off after the expulsion of the 

 worms. The author next passes in review the cases where the 

 illusion arises from the external senses. The derangement of 

 the digestive functions, and the perversion of taste almost inva- 

 riably observed at the onset of mental diseases, often make the 

 patients, who find fault with their food, fancy that they have 

 been poisoned, a circumstance which contributes to inspire them 

 with an aversion to those who have charge of them. This illu- 

 sion disappears when the digestive functions are restored to their 

 natural state. It is very important to distinguish this refusal of 

 food from that which results from a fixed determination, as, for 



