1881 .] “ Jumpers” of Maine. 91 
heels over one another, when a number of them were sitting 
near each other. 
The order to “ drop it” they are compelled to obey, as 
well as that to strike, or to jump, or to throw. On one of 
the steamers on the Rangeley Lakes there was a waiter who 
was a Jumper, and when told to “ drop it” he would drop 
whatever he had in his hands, even if it were a plate of 
baked beans, on the head of one of the guests. The Jumpers 
with whom I experimented exhibited the same phenomena. 
These phenomena suggest epilepsy, particularly in their 
explosive character and in the nature of the cry. The hands 
strike or throw with a quick impulsive movement, which is 
very hard to imitate artificially. They go off like a piece of 
machinery ; it is more like the explosion of a gun than the 
movement of the limbs of even an angry man ; and the cry 
suggeststhat which we hear in hysteria and in epilepsy. The 
face does not always exhibit any change, but in some cases 
there is a temporary flushing, and in others a temporary pallor. 
All the Jumpers agree that it tires them to be very much 
jumped ; that they feel worse after it, more or less exhausted 
and nervous; they all dislike to be jumped, and avoid it 
when it is possible; the more they are jumped the worse 
they are ; and that after a while in the woods, where they 
are constantly teased and annoyed after the day's labour is 
over, they are made worse ; whereas, after long periods of 
rest they become better, are less irritable and jump less, and 
do not jump so easily on excitement. 
Nature of this Disease . — What now is the pathology of this 
jumping ? How are we to rank these phenomena among 
the neuroses ? What relation do they bear to the great 
family of diseases ? Are they functional or structural ? Are 
they physical or psychical ? The answer is clear: jumping 
is a psychical or mental form of nervous disease, and is of a 
functional character. Its best analogue is psychical or 
mental hysteria, the so-called “ servant-girl hysteria,” as 
known to us in modern days, and as very widely known dur- 
ing the epidemics of the middle ages. Like mental or 
psychical hysteria, this jumping occurs not in the weak, or 
the nervous, or the anaemic, but in those, as a rule, in at 
least good if not firm and unusual health ; there are no 
stronger men in the woods or anywhere than some of these 
Jumpers. Although some of them are injured by being 
excessively jumped for the time at least, yet to the majority, 
if not nearly all, this injury can not be said to be of a serious 
character. It does not apparantly shorten life, and does 
not bring on, so far as I can learn, any other form of nervous 
disease. It can not, therefore, be said to be in any sense a 
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