OCCASIONAL NOTES. 



LATA. 



The following extract will be of great interest to those who 

 have read Mr. O'Brien's paper on this subject in No. 11 of 

 this Journal. — Ed. 



" The first thing of interest to attract me within a few hours 

 of my arrival at Kosala, Was a case in one of the servants of 

 the house of that curious cerebral affection called by the 

 natives lata. It is of a hysterical nature,, and is confined 

 chiefiy to women, although I have also seen a man affected by 

 it. On being startled, or excited suddenly, the person becomes 

 lata, losing the control of her will, and cannot refrain from 

 imitating whatever she may hear or see done, and will keep 

 calling out, as long as the fit lasts, the name — and generally 

 that w T ord alone — of whatever has flashed through her mind as 

 the cause of it. "He-ih-heh matjan!" (tiger) ; " He-ih-heh boo- 

 rung besar!"" (a great bird). Her purpose will be arrested, 

 as, if walking, she will stop short, and on going on again will 

 often follow some other course. The prefatory exclamation is 

 an invariable symptom, seemingly caused by involuntary hys- 

 terical inspirations. According to the degree of alarm the 

 symptoms may remain only a few moments, or last for the 

 greater part of a day, especially if the patient be prevented 

 from calming down. The afflicted, if not very seriously 

 affected, are not altogether incapacitated from performing the 

 duties to which they are accustomed. The most curious cha- 

 racteristic of the disease is their imitation of every action they 

 see. On one occasion, while eating a banana, I suddenly met 

 this servant with a piece of soap in her hand : and, perceiving 

 she was slightly lata, but without appearing to take any notice 

 of her, I made a vigorous bite at the fruit in passing her, an 

 action she instantly repeated on the piece of soap. On another 



