534 



HYSTERIA. 



fit is such that the patient lies motionless, breath- 

 ing slowly and deeply, and resembling one apo- 

 plectic. What is called catalepsy, or a state in 

 which the muscles, no longer obeying the will, 

 continue contracted in whatever position or atti- 

 tude the limbs or hody may be placed, seems to be 

 a variety of hysteria. The trances in which pa- 

 tients have been supposed to be dead, but many of 

 the cases of which are fabulous or exaggerated, are 

 also of the family of hysteria. 



There are other varieties of hysterical affection?, 

 so extravagantly odd as sometimes to have caused 

 suspicions that the subjects of them were under 

 the influence of magic or witchcraft. Such strange 

 motions of the limbs, such unaccountable predilec- 

 tion tor the repetition of some unmeaning syllables, 

 or for singing, ' without mitigation or remorse of 

 voice," a few notes suggested no one can tell by 

 what association of ideas, or snatches of ballads or 

 spiritual songs, have at times characterized this dis- 

 order, that its being ascribed to supernatural agency 

 really cannot excite surprise ; the more especially 

 as such strange forms of affliction, like all the 

 forms of hysteria, are found to be catching, and 

 have even at times prevailed as a kind of epidemic. 

 It has also sometimes happened, that amidst the 

 excitement of the malady the patients have been 

 gifted with such acute mental perception, or so 

 much activity of the mental powers, and such un- 

 wonted eloquence, as to seem to the unaffected to 

 be endued with the spirit of prophecy and divina- 

 tion. The history of animal magnetism presents 

 some remarkable illustrations of these circum- 

 stances. 



The causes of hysteria are often purely corpo- 

 real, connected with some disorder which the phy- 

 sician may recognize; either some disorder peculiar 

 to the female system, or existing in the organs of 

 digestion, and particularly in the neglected state of 

 the bowels ; or in the state of the patient's strength 

 or weakness, as in fullness of habit, or the state 

 opposite to fullness ; or in a peculiar susceptibility 

 of the whole nervous system. This susceptibility 

 is always one link in the chain of causes, and 

 sometimes it is itself the chief cause. When de- 

 pending, with all the hysteric phenomena elicited 

 in consequence of its existence, on primary disor- 

 der of the stomach and bowels, or of the uterus, 

 the cure is strictly medical. The removal of the 

 primary disorder will sometimes be followed by a 

 return of the nervous system to its healthy condi- 

 tion, even in cases in which hope had almost been 

 abandoned ; but both in this case, and in the case 

 of the nervous susceptibility being itself apparently 

 the chief or primary cause, a mixed treatment is 

 demanded, regiminal, medicinal, dietetic, and mo- 

 ral, which can only be instituted or pursued by the 

 combined efforts of the physician, and of parents; 

 relatives, friends, and guardians. 



Southern climates tend to develope the too great 

 sensibility of the nerves which disposes to hysteria; 

 and certainly the enervating and artificial atmos- 

 phere of very warm rooms, in which young women 

 often spend much of their time in our own climate, 

 is exceedingly detrimental to the general tone of 

 the nervous system, entirely indisposing them to 

 face the air and persevere in taking exercise on foot. 

 The indolence of the morning is very ill compen- 

 sated for. by the fatigues of the evening, where, in 

 rooms greatly heated and crowded, the young lady 

 who passed the morning in bed, and the middle of 

 the day on the sofa or in an easy chair, passes the 



night in dancing, or in listemng to musical perfor- 

 mances, prolonged far beyond midnight. 



Nothing is more remarkable in the present age 

 of mental excitement than the care with which, by 

 most of the prevalent customs and a system of 

 fashionable education, the minds of the generality 

 of females are consigned to inactivity and utter 

 uncompanionable insipidity. Whilst the expres- 

 sion of almost every elevated feeling is repressed 

 as inconsistent with refinement, every artificial 

 want, every habit of selfish gratification, is as much 

 as possible indulged. Active exercise in the open 

 air, cheerful country walks, a joyful participation 

 of the hearty pleasures of any society in which 

 every movement is not taught by the posture-mas- 

 ter, or conversation conducted according to the 

 rules laid down in books professing to teach female 

 duty and behaviour ; all this would be inconsis- 

 tent with the general aim of all classes to imitate 

 the manners and habits of the highest. All kind 

 of reading, except of works the most frivolous, is 

 considered ungenteel, or at least, singular ; and any 

 display of deep and unsophisticated sentiment ex- 

 cites universal pity. The beauties of nature, the 

 triumphs of science, the miracles of art, excite no 

 more than a languid expression of wonder. To 

 apply the mind to read or understand such things 

 would destroy the apathetic elegance which those 

 desire to preserve, who still believe knowledge to 

 be a very good thing for persons who live by it. 

 With as much care as the natural proportions of 

 the female figure are destroyed by stays made upon 

 abstract principles, is the mind cribbed and cabined 

 by custom and fashion. Then, universal ambition 

 leads to universal difficulties as to fortune ; and 

 the only serious duty to daughters is to obtain an 

 advantageous settlement, which, whether gained or 

 missed, is too often thus the cause of cureless discon- 

 tent, injured health, and all the nervous maladies 

 incidental to an ill-managed mind and infirm body. 



Barely equal to sustain a life of indolence, from 

 which all strong and all noble emotions are shut 

 out, the slighter pains "and disappointments of life 

 induce suffering in the frivolous and morbid mind ; 

 and any serious contradiction, any check to indul- 

 gence, any appeal of duty against pleasure, pro- 

 duces discontent, agitation of the nervous system, 

 tears, low spirits, bewailings, the vapours, or a 

 hysteric fit. The tendency to the latter exhibi- 

 tion of feelings injured or irritated, is found to be 

 partly under the control of the will, or is at least 

 often yielded to as the shortest way of putting an 

 end to the disagreeable opposition of parents or a 

 husband. Youth gives place to middle age, and 

 middle age leads on to declining years, and, the 

 mind having no resources to retreat upon, the fri- 

 volity of early life is too frequently exchanged for 

 a feverish devotion and a chronic hysteric sensibil- 

 ity. Vainly hoping to obtain from various stimu- 

 lants that feeling of health which no stimulants 

 can bestow, so long as good atmospheric air is not 

 breathed and the voluntary muscles are not exer- 

 cised, the invalid sinks by slow degrees into all the 

 selfish inactivity of a confirmed valetudinarian ; 

 and in these cases the double grievance of hypo- 

 chondriasis and hysteria is often incurred by the 

 same individual, and seems to furnish an excuse for 

 the neglect of every duty requiring the smallest 

 exertion of body and mind. See Histoire Philo- 

 sophique de V Hypochondrie et de V Hysteric ; par M. 

 Dubois, Paris, 1833, 8vo., and Foreign Quarterly 

 Review, No. 23. 



