730 ' From the Debaleable Land. [December. 
induced a gay drunkenness. Alcohol from grain, on the 
contrary, occasioned a furious intoxication, and a true scene 
of rage. Absinthe produced paralysis of the legs. 
Cherry-laurel water occasioned in the female subject phe- 
nomena so surprising that they were repeatedly studied and 
scrutinised in detail. There was at first a religious ecstasy, 
which set in almost instantly, and which lasted more than 
a quarter of an hour. Some seconds after the application 
of the substance her eyes were turned upwards, her arms 
rose up slowly, her hands were extended towards heaven, 
her figure seemed to respire beatitude. She fell on her 
knees, with her head bowed down in the attitude of prayer. 
Soon she prostrated herself in adoration ; she wept, with 
her head touching the earth. Convulsive movements of the 
thoracic muscles and the diaphragm follow, succeeded by a 
calm sleep. 
When the subject was again under the influence of this 
hallucination she was somnambulised, and asked what she 
had just seen ? She replied that she had seen the Virgin 
Mary, clad in a blue robe with stars of gold. The Virgin 
had reproached her for her disorderly life, told her to pray 
for a change of conduct, and finally gave her benediction. 
When awake the woman, who is a Jewess, scoffed at all 
mention of the Virgin. This experiment was repeated many 
times, always with the same result. On scrutiny it was 
found that the laurel-water contained both prussic acid and 
the volatile oil of laurel. The prussic acid, used alone, de- 
termined thoracic convulsions without visions ; the volatile 
oil brought on the vision alone without convulsions. 
Nitro-benzol was next tried : it occasioned convulsive 
shocks in the entire body. There was then observed a 
rhythmic trembling in the right arm, which was uplifted as 
if the patient was executing a drawing. She said afterwards 
that she had been sketching. 
In the male subject laurel-water did not occasion ecstasy, 
but immediate thoracic convulsions, hiccup, and salivation. 
The volatile oil of laurel occasioned excitement without 
ecstasy. Nitro-benzol brought on convulsions of the arms, 
and the same hallucination of sketching or drawing. 
Valerian, generally considered as a sedative, occasioned 
in both subjects a violent excitement, with odd phenomena 
analogous to those which it produces in cats. 
In all these phenomena the authors distinguish psychical 
actions, consisting in a variety of hallucinations probably 
specific to each subject, and physical adtions, the chief of 
which are salivation, vomiting, intestinal contractions, 
