SPASMODIC AFFECTIONS. 



second is manifestly, also, a power acting in the same manner. 

 ]Jut it must be remarked, that it is not in this manner alone 

 anger produces its effects ; for it acts also strongly on the san- 

 guiferous system, and may be a means of giving the stimulus of 

 over-distention, as, under a fit of anger, the blood is impelled 

 into the vessels of the head with violence, and in a larger quan- 

 tity. 



MCCXCII. Under the head of Mental Irritations, is to be 

 mentioned, the sight of persons in a fit of epilepsy, which has 

 often produced a fit of the like kind in the spectator. It may, 

 indeed, be a question, whether this effect be imputable to the 

 horror produced by a sight of the seemingly painful agitations 

 of the limbs, and of the distortions in the countenance of the 

 epileptic person, or if it may be ascribed to the force of imita- 

 tion merely ? It is possible that horror may sometimes produce 

 the effect ; but certainly much may be imputed to that pro- 

 pensity to imitation, at all times so powerful and prevalent in 

 human nature, and so often operating in other cases of convul- 

 sive disorders, which do not present any spectacle of horror. 

 " I say, since the days of Aristotle, every observer of mankind 

 has agreed, that man is a 0ov p^r^ov, an imitating animal. 

 We have innumerable proofs of this, which might be referred 

 to. Thus, we have a case recorded, of a man who involun- 

 tarily assumed the very gesture of the person to whom he 

 was speaking. We are especially under this influence in all 

 cases of more violent exertions of motion. Thus, I have often 

 coughed when another person coughed; and I cannot help 

 vomiting when I see another person straining and vomiting : 

 this will sufficiently account for imitation, as a means of pro- 

 ducing epilepsy, and as the frequent occasion of its spreading." 



MCCXCIII. Under the same head of Mental Irritation, I 

 think proper to mention, as an instance of it, the Epilepsia 

 simulata, or the feigned Epilepsy, so often taken notice of 

 Although this, at first, may be entirely feigned, I have no 

 doubt but that the repetition renders it at length real. The 

 history of Quietism and of Exorcisms leads me to this opinion ; 

 and which receives a confirmation from what we know of the 

 power of imagination, in renewing epileptic and hysteric fits. 



" In many instances which I have myself known, the fits are 



VOL. IT. 2 1) 



