HYSTERIA. 419 



idiosyncrasy in hysteria, and that the odd and often very extraordinary 

 state of mind into which the patient falls is to be ascribed to this. As, 

 however, the real and imaginary impressions which inspire the patient 

 with a sense of disgust or displeasure are the predominant ones, her 

 spirits gradually become more and more depressed. She is constantly 

 sad, unhappy, and in despair about her fate, even although she may be 

 in possession of every thing which can tend to make life enjoyable. 

 This constant and apparently unreasonable lamentation and weeping 

 gradually tire out the sympathy of the friends of the patient. Her 

 relatives become indifferent to her troubles, do not listen to her com- 

 plainings, or allow it to be perceived that they are becoming tired of 

 them. Unfortunately, hysterical persons often become objects of 

 ridicule to inexperienced physicians. It is to this absence of sympathy 

 and to this gradual diminution of interest that we may most reason- 

 ably ascribe the tendency which develops in nearly all hysterical pa- 

 tients to exaggerate their complaints and to feign diseases a tendency 

 which, although really a symptom of the malady, does away with the 

 last vestige of sympathy for their condition. Cases are on record 

 where patients have undergone the most painful operations, in order 

 to regain the attention and sympathy which have been withheld from 

 them. Krukeriberg tells of an hysterical girl, at his clinic, who mal- 

 treated a wound upon her skin with irritating substances until ampu- 

 tation became necessary, and who, after the stump began to heal, re- 

 commenced the practice. The capacity of such a patient for inventing 

 conditions calculated to excite notice or sympathy is something in- 

 credible. It is often very difficult to separate the truth from false- 

 hood. Credulous persons are often duped, and we should make it a 

 rule to accept all unusual reports with the utmost distrust, such as, 

 that the patient never takes any food, that she never passes either 

 water or faeces, that she has vomited blood or maggots, or other odd 

 objects. It is a very common occurrence for a patient to declare that 

 she cannot make water, and for her to submit to the passage of a 

 catheter twice a day. It is equally common for her to remain in bed 

 for months or years, asserting that she cannot stand upright. It is 

 easy to see what a treasure animal magnetism must be to hysterical 

 persons, and with what alacrity they submit to the manipulations of 

 the " magnetizers," and that, having once " got into magnetic rapport " 

 with some other person, and thus become enabled to perform all man- 

 ner of new tricks, they leave off then* old ones, and thus are " cured 

 of the most wonderful diseases by animal magnetism." In my opinion, 

 it is only necessary for the right man to appear (like the magic tailor 

 in Tmmermann's " Mlinch-hausen "), in order to convert any decidedly 

 hysterical female into a " somnambulist " or clairvoyant. At the same 



