360 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



bleed, and soon after a haemorrhage broke out from every part of the 

 integuments, and from the nose. A case is also related of a widow, 

 forty-five years of age, who had lost her only son. She one day fan- 

 cied that she beheld his apparition beseeching her to relieve him from 

 purgatory by her prayers, and by fasting every Friday. The follow- 

 ing Friday, in the month of August, a perspiration tinged with blood 

 broke out. For five successive Fridays the same phenomenon ap- 

 peared. The blood escaped from the upper part of the body, the 

 back of the head, the temples, the eyes, the nose, the breast, and the 

 tips of the fingers. The disorder disappeared spontaneously on Friday, 

 the 8th of March in the following year. 



This affection was evidently occasioned by superstitious fears ; and 

 this appears more probable from the periodicity of the attacks. The 

 first invasion of the disease might have been purely accidental ; but 

 the regularity of its subsequent appearance on the stated day of the 

 vision may be attributed to the influence of apprehension. Bartholi- 

 nus mentions cases of bloody sweat taking place during vehement 

 terror, and the agonies of torture. 



The case of Catherine Merlin, of Chamburg, is well authenticated, 

 and worthy of being recorded. She received a kick from a bullock 

 over the pit of the stomach, that was followed by vomiting of blood ; 

 this discharge having been suddenly stopped by her medical attend- 

 ants, the blood made its way through the pores of various parts of her 

 body, every limb being affected in turn. The sanguineous discharge 

 was preceded by a pricking and itching sensation. The discharge 

 usually occurred twice in the twenty-four hours ; and on pressing the 

 skin the flow of blood could be accelerated and increased. Dr. Four- 

 nier relates the case of a magistrate who was attacked with bloody 

 sweat after any excitement, whether of a painful or a pleasurable 

 nature. 



In his " Commentaries on the Four Gospels," Maldonato refers to a 

 robust and healthy man at Paris, who, on hearing sentence of death 

 passed on him, was covered with a bloody sweat. Zacchias mentions 

 a young man who was similarly affected on being condemned to the 

 flames. The following case is quoted, in the " Medico-Chirurgical Re- 

 view," from the French " Transactions Medicale " for November, 1830 : 

 A young woman, aged twenty-one years, of indolent habits and obsti- 

 nate temper, had been much irritated by some reflections made by her 

 parents on account of her abjuring the Protestant religion. She left 

 the parental roof, and, after wandering about for some time, took up 

 her residence in a hospital. She was then suffering from violent attacks 

 of hysteria, attended with general convulsions. After paroxysms of 

 hysteria, which sometimes lasted twenty-four or thirty-six hours, this 

 young woman fell into a kind of ecstasy, in which she lay with her 

 eyes fixed, sensibility and motion suspended. Sometimes she muttered 

 a prayer, but the most remarkable phenomenon was an exudation of 



