1839] On the preparations of the Indian Hemp, or Gunjah. 841 



required but a very brief examination of the limbs to find that the 

 patient had by the influence of this narcotic been thrown into 

 that strange and most extraordinary of all nervous conditions, into 

 that state which so few have seen, and the existence of which so 

 many still discredit — the genuine catalepsy of the nosologist.* 



It had been my good fortune years before to have witnessed two 

 unequivocal cases of this disorder. One occurred in the female cli- 

 nical ward in Edinburgh, under Dr. Duncan's treatment, and was re- 

 ported by myself for the Lancet in 1828. The second took place 

 in 1831, in a family with whom I resided in London. The case 

 was witnessed by Dr. Silver, Mr. G. Mills, and several other profes- 

 sional friends. In both these cases the cataleptic state was established 

 in full perfection, and in both the paroxysm ran on each occasion a 

 regular course, and terminated suddenly without any evil consequence. 



To return to our patient, we raised him to a sitting posture, and 

 placed his arms and limbs in every imaginable attitude. A waxen 

 figure could not be more pliant or more stationary in each position, no 

 matter how contrary to the natural influence of gravity on the 

 part. 



To all impressions he was meanwhile almost insensible ; he made 

 no sign of understanding questions ; could not be aroused. A sinapism 

 to the episgastrium caused no sign of pain. The pharynx and its 

 coadjutor muscles acted freely in the deglutition of the stimulant 

 remedies which I thought it advisable to administer, although the 

 manifest cataleptic state had freed me altogether of the anxiety under 

 which I before laboured. 



The second patient had meanwhile been roused by the noise in the 

 ward, and seemed vastly amused at the strange aspect of the statuelike 

 attitudes in which the first patient had been placed, when on a sudden 

 he uttered a loud peal of laughter, and exclaimed that four spirits 

 were springing with his bed into the air. In vain we attempted to 

 pacify him ; his laughter became momentarily more and more incon- 

 trolable. We now observed that the limbs were rather rigid, and in a 

 few minutes more his arms or legs could be bent, and would remain 

 in any desired position. A strong stimulant drink was immediately 

 given, and a sinapism applied. Of the latter he made no complaint, but 

 his intoxication led him to such noisy exclamations, that we had to 

 remove him to a separate room ; here he soon became tranquil, his limbs 



* The subject of the celebrated Article in Blackwood, the "Thunder-struck" of tlie 

 Diary of a late Physician. 



