BLOODY SWEAT. 363 



various points, but especially from her face, feet, and hands. The 

 pai'ts were, in fact, said to be the same from which blood flowed dur- 

 ing the crucifixion of our Lord. Now, as this occurrence created a 

 great sensation in the neighborhood, and attracted numerous pilgrims 

 from all parts of the country, the authorities found themselves com- 

 pelled to make a thorough investigation of the matter. Dr. Haller, 

 a physician who held a high position in the General Hospital at Vi- 

 enna, was sent to the spot, with the necessary staff of police, in time 

 to place the woman under surveillance on a Thursday, and to bring 

 her before the Friday to Vienna. Here she was placed in a room, so 

 that she could be watched uninterruptedly night and day, by medical 

 men. The Friday came, and the woman did not bleed. She, however, 

 took nothing that day nor till the evening of Saturday, when, tor- 

 mented by hunger, she asked for food, and ate a considerable quantity. 

 From this time she took nourishment regularly, and the haemorrhage 

 never returned. The case just related is probably similar to not a few 

 others which are recorded in the history of spontaneous haemorrhages 

 (under the name of stigmata, etc.), but which were never brought into 

 the clear light of scientific investigation, so as to be examined without 

 prejudice and — explained.'^'' 



These impostors, the so-called stigmata, still make their appear- 

 ance from time to time in Catholic countries, as is shown by a cheap 

 publication evidently intended for circulation among the ignorant 

 faithful, which I recently came across, and which has the follow- 

 ing extended title-page : "Letter from the Earl of Shrewsbury to 

 Ambrose Lisle Philips, Esq., descriptive of the Ecstatica of Caldasa, 

 and the Addolorato of Caspiana ; being a second edition, revised and 

 enlarsced : to which is added the Relation of Three Successive Visits 

 to the Estatica of Monte Sansavino, in May, 1842. First American, 

 from the last revised London edition ; with Additional Letters now 

 first published ; bringing the Narrative down to 1842. '^ It is honor- 

 able to reveal and confess the loorJ-cs of God^ (Tobias xii, 7). New 

 York, 1843." 



In this publication fifty similar cases are adduced, which are said 

 to have received the attestation of the Church. Of those with which 

 the book itself is concerned, one is said to eat nothing but a little 

 fruit ; of another it is asserted : " Indeed, she may be truly said to 

 subsist upon air ; for, on the 15th of August next, it will be eight 

 years cornjolete since she ate, dranh, or slept f'' (Where is Dr. Tanner 

 after this ?) 



It is a noteworthy fact that these cases were all those of poor 

 peasant-girls, in secluded, out-of-the-way hamlets, among a rustic 

 and ignorant population ; they were plainly hysterical and catalep- 

 tic, visited by hundreds of wondering, half-adoring spectators, who 

 ,were ready to fall down and worship them. We have here every- 

 thin"- that could stimulate and aid deception, and nothing at all of 



