86 HAUPT— TOBIT'S BLINDNESS AND SARA'S HYSTERIA. 



Matt. 17, 15 RV has substituted epileptic for the term lunatic of 

 AV. The Greek text has (reArjuid^sra:. The term lunatic is, of 

 course, inappropriate. A lunatic is not moonstruck, his mind is not 

 affected by the hght of the moon, nor is intermittent insanity subject 

 to the changes of the moon. In German, mondsiichtig denotes a 

 sleep-walker or somnambuhst. 



If Sara ahvays had in the wedding-night an epileptic seizure fol- 

 lowed by a fit of hysterics, such an attack would not have killed her 

 husbands, but it might have killed their love for her, and they might 

 have disappeared as speedily as possible. Sara may have married 

 at the age of fifteen,^ and if she had a new husband every year for 

 seven years, she would have been 22 when she decided not to marry 

 again, and she may have been 25 when Tobias came. Hysteria. is 

 especially frequent in girls between the ages of 15 and 25. 



An epileptic fit is characterized by a sudden loss of consciousness 

 attended with convulsions. The seizure is usually preceded by a 

 loud scream. The eyes roll wildly, the teeth are gnashed together; 

 foam, often tinged with blood, issues from the mouth, while the 

 contents of the bowels and the bladder may be ejected. The attack 

 is followed by drowsiness and stupor, which may continue for sev- 

 eral hours, or a hysterical attack may occur as an immediate sequel 

 to an epileptic fit. The eyes may then be tightly closed, with the 

 body and limbs rigid, and this stage may be followed by violent 

 struggling movements. 



The chief remedies for hysterics are asafetida and valerian. 



3 See JHUC, No. 316, p. 24; BL in. The Belgian wife of a Canadian 

 soldier, Harry W. Martindale, was ten years old when she married him, in 

 1917, on a Belgian battlefield; their first child was born when she was twelve 

 and a half (Baltimore News, April 29, 1921, p. 34, col. 3). Napoleon's mother 

 was fourteen when she married in 1764; her first son was born in 1765. Van 

 Dyck's daughter Justiniana, who was born eight days before his death on 

 December 9, 1641. was married when scarcely twelve j^ears old. Lucrezia 

 Borgia was married in 1493 when she was thirteen. Mme. Recamier (1777- 

 1849) was married at fifteen. The Marquis de Rambouillet was married at 

 twelve years old. La Rochefoucauld was married before he was fifteen; he 

 joined the army before he was sixteen. Henry VIII's elder brother was mar- 

 ried to Catherine of Aragon, the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, when 

 he was a youth of scarcely fifteen. Alexander I of Russia (1777-1825) was 

 married to Maria Louisa of Baden in 1793, before he was sixteen (KB" 4, 

 192*; 27, 891"; 4, 249"; 22, 951". 873'' ; 16, 220"; 23, 16"; I, 559"; 17. 755, n. 3)- 



