AND BODILY STATES UPON THE IMAGINATION. 229 



grotesque and curious apparitions, birds of the brightest exotic plu- 

 mage, animals of the most extraordinary shapes, forms of the most 

 fascinating and alluring description. The patient is generally 

 highly delighted with her attendant spectres ; their manoeuvres 

 produce the most violent peals of laughter, and the most extrava- 

 gant expressions of delight. The hallucinations of hypochondria 

 are sad and gloomy, consisting of single figures gliding about in 

 slow and solemn state, attending a funeral procession, or weeping 

 for the loss of property or friends ; their countenances and dresses 

 are all of the same sombre and forbidding cast, they all relate to 

 the patient's misfortunes, and never minister to his pleasure ; they 

 are essentially the phantoms of sorrow, the personifications of grief, 

 the emblems of sadness and despair. Those accompanying fever 

 are of another character ; they are vivid and numerous, hurried in 

 their motions, constantly changing their shape, appearing and dis- 

 appearing with wonderful celerity ; like the dreams of persons thus 

 affected, they are terrific or alluring, distressing or pleasant, in pro- 

 portion as the symptoms are aggravated or mild. The spectres pro- 

 duced by inflammation of the brain border almost upon the inten- 

 sity of those which we noticed in the last lecture as accompanying 

 a paroxysm of mania. They are huge, gigantic shapes, correspond- 

 ing in size and form to the great excitement of the mind. They 

 are the Titans of hallucinations, powerful beings, armed, deter- 

 mined, and terrific. Their forms are strong and muscular, their 

 countenances fiery and passionate, and their habiliments remarkable 

 for the brilliancy of their colouring and the peculiarity of their 

 fashion. 



The last instances of hallucination from bodily affections which I 

 shall mention, are those which occasionally attend the dying couch 

 of the sick, or the rack or scaffold of the martyr. Strange and 

 mysterious is the tie which connects the mind and body. We ob- 

 serve, during ordinary states of disease, the strength and faculties of 

 the mind modified, exalted, and depressed in some degree proportion- 

 ate to the bodily affection; during the series of lectures which 

 I have been delivering, these have frequently fallen under ob- 

 servation, and from their various peculiarities of circumstance have 

 led to some of our most pleasing illustrations. What the strength 

 and limits of that connection are which unite the mind and body we 

 know not ; we see them grow and expand together into the full 

 power of perfect maturity, we witness the beauty of that harmony 

 which unites them in so close a bond ; we wonder, and theorize, 

 and speculate, and to a certain extent these dreams of science hold 



