376 Hystero-Demonopathy in Savoy. 



eldest of the women, and father of the two girls. They had 

 received a kind, but injudicious letter from a nun in the 

 establishment at Cluny, in which a good deal was said about 

 the demon. M. Tissot read this aloud, till he came to passages 

 he thought undesirable, when he stopped and returned the 

 letter with an incredulous air. This, however, brought the 

 conversation back to the subject he desired to avoid, and the 

 mother had another attack like that of the previous day. The 

 other members of the family exclaimed that nothing but 

 exorcisms would suffice. M. Tissot reminded them that when 

 exorcisms had been general, until forbidden by the bishop, 

 the cases were more numerous. At first the suffering woman 

 made no reply ; but her convulsions grew more violent, and 

 she began to declaim with great volubility. The devil seemed 

 to speak through her mouth ; he spoke in his own name and in 

 that of the daughter, who would not leave her mother. After 

 heartily abusing Mr. Tissot, she experienced eructation, and 

 took some water, which seemed to calm her. During the 

 paroxysm of this fit, she struck the table with her fists as if 

 she would break it to pieces ; but at its termination her hands 

 were not particularly hot, nor was her pulse remarkably rapid 

 or strong. M. Tissot then walked away with the old man, who 

 strongly believed in the alleged possession, which his visitor 

 attempted to counteract by telling of his trick with the holy 

 water, which he was bound to believe the devil would have 

 detected, and not allowed the woman to swallow. 



M. Tissot states that this epidemic had at first a purely 

 hysterical character, from which it passed through stages of 

 convulsion and ecstasy to that of demonopathy. 



For a time the judicious measures adopted by the Minister 

 of the Interior were successful, and from a hundred and 

 twenty patients in the spring of 1862, the number fell in the 

 autumn to perhaps less than twenty. In 1863 the military 

 force left Morzine, as it was hoped that the disorder had 

 finally abated; but M. Tissot has recently received a letter 

 informing him that a fresh outbreak has occurred, commencing 

 at the announcement of a confirmation, and becoming so 

 violent when the bishop arrived as to occasion alarming dis- 

 orders in the church. The poor people who thought them- 

 selves possessed uttered frightful cries and blasphemies, tried 

 to spit upon the bishop and take from him his pastoral ring. 

 When the bishop pronounced his benediction the uproar be- 

 came frightful, and occasioned the utmost consternation. 



It is remarkable that only two men have been attacked by 

 this epidemic, and that, with about ten exceptions, the patients 

 have been women from eighteen to twenty-five years old. 



The authorities are endeavouring to divert the minds of 



