Catalepsy. 37 



Hering has recorded the disease in the horse, I^andel in the ox, 

 and I^eisering in the prairie wolf. The hypnotic form has been 

 shown in cats, chickens, and Guinea pigs. The serpent charm- 

 ing of the Indian dervishes and similar effects on frogs and cray- 

 fish have been attributed to hypnotic catalepsy. 



Causes. Strong mental emotions and diseases which pro- 

 foundly affect the nervous system have been adduced as causes 

 (fear, excitement, chills). Indigestible food has even been 

 charged with causing it. There is undoubtedly, to begin with 

 a speeially susceptible nervous system, and hence it is liable to 

 prove hereditary, and in man to appear as a form of hysteria, or 

 to alternate in the same family with epilepsy, chorea, alcoholism, 

 opium addiction and other neurosis. 



Hypnotism as a cause is claimed by various writers. Azam 

 says that in the fairs in the South of France, jugglers hypnotize 

 cocks by placing the bill on a board, on which they trace a black 

 line passing between the two feet of the bird. Cadeac adds that 

 Father Kircher, in the 17th century, employed a similar method 

 to put fowls to sleep. Alix put cats to sleep by securing them 

 firmly, and then looking steadily into their eyes. The condition 

 attained varies according to the degree of the sleep, the will being 

 dominated first, and later, consciousness of external objects is 

 lost. Hypnotism, however, appears to be difficult and uncertain 

 in the lower animals, in keeping with the limited development of 

 intelligence and will, as compared with the human being. Cadeac 

 states that the very old and the very young are completely refrac- 

 tory to hypnotizing influences. 



Lesions. No constant pathological changes are found, though 

 different nervous lesions may serve to rouse the disease in a pre- 

 disposed subject. Frohner found in the affected muscles granu- 

 lar swelling, fatty degeneration, haemorrhages, and waxy (amy- 

 loid) degeneration of the cardiac muscles, corresponding to what 

 has been found in tetanus ; also haemorrhages on the stomach 

 and intestines. 



Symptoms. The leading objective symptom is the tonic con- 

 dition of the muscles by which si perfect balance is established and 

 maintained betw6«n the flexors and extensors so that the affected 

 part maintains the same position which it had when the attack 

 began, or any other position which may be given to it during the 



