Chap. XII. ERECTION OF THE HAIR. 295 



writers of fiction might not have applied to man what 

 they had often observed in animals, I begged for informa- 

 tion from Dr. Crichton Browne with respect to the in- 

 sane. He states in answer that he has repeatedly seen 

 their hair erected under the influence of sudden and ex- 

 treme terror. For instance, it is occasionally necessary 

 to inject morphia under the skin of an insane woman, 

 who dreads the operation extremely, though it causes 

 very little pain; for she believes that poison is being 

 introduced into her svstem, and that her bones will be 

 softened, and her flesh turned into dust. She becomes 

 deadly pale; her limbs are stiffened by a sort of tetanic 

 spasm, and her hair is partially erected on the front of 

 the head. 



Dr. Browne further remarks that the bristling of the 

 hair which is so common in the insane, is not always 

 associated with terror. It is perhaps most frequently 

 seen in chronic maniacs, who rave incoherently and have 

 destructive impulses; but it is during their paroxysms 

 of violence that the bristling is most observable. The 

 fact of the hair becoming erect under the influence both 

 of rage and fear agrees perfectly with what we have seen 

 in the lower animals. Dr. Browne adduces several cases 

 in evidence. Thus with a man now in the Asylum, be- 

 fore the recurrence of each maniacal paroxysm, " the hair 

 rises up from his forehead like the mane of a Shetland 

 pony." He has sent me photographs of two women, 

 taken in the intervals between their paroxysms, and he 

 adds with respect to one of these women, " that the state 

 of her hair is a sure and convenient criterion of her men- 

 tal condition." I have had one of these photographs 

 copied, and the engraving gives, if viewed from a little 

 distance, a faithful representation of the original, with 

 the exception that the hair appears rather too coarse and 

 too much curled. The extraordinary condition of the 



