ARMY 1VIEDICAL  UBRARY

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HALLUCINATIONS:
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                     OF

APPARITIONS, VISIONS,  DREAMS, ECSTASY, MAGNETISM,
             AND SOMNAMBULISM.
                        BT


      A. BRIEREE  DE BOISMONT,  M. D.,

CHEVALIER DE L'ORDRE DE LA LEGION D'HONNEUR, LAUREAT DE L'lNSTITUTE ET DE
           L'ACADEMIE NATIONALS DE MEDECINE, ETC. ETC.
              TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH


        By ROBERT  T.  HULME,  F. L. S.,


MEMBER OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OP SURGEONS OF ENGLAND, AND LECTURER ON COM'
        PARATIVE ANATOMY AT THE GROSVENOR PLACE OF MEDICINE.
             COLUMBUS, 0.:
JOSEPH  H.  RILEY &  CO.,
                  18 6 0. 
\8<oO 
NOTE  BY THE  TRANSLATOR.
  In presenting to the public the treatise of Dr. de Boismont on
Hallucinations, it affords me much pleasure to express to him my
thanks for the ready permission he gave me to make the transla-
tion, as well as for many manuscript notes and  alterations which
he has since most liberally placed at my disposal.  I should add
that these notes have been carefully prepared by the Author for
his  Third Edition; two large issues of his volume having been
already exhausted.
  The subject of  Hallucinations being one of universal interest,
it has  been thought that the circulation  of  Dr. de Boismont's
volume might be advantageously  extended beyond  the narrow
circle of professional readers.  With this view the work has been
abridged, and while some few cases, only interesting to the physi-
ologist, have been  suppressed,  the details of others have been
shortened.
  I am unwilling to conclude without acknowledging  the kind
assistance I have received from my friend Dr. Tanner, both  in
the course  of translation, and while the  work  has been passing
through the press.
  12 John street, Bedford Row. 
TABLE  OF  CONTENTS.
CHAP.                                                          PAGE.
      Introduction..................................................................    9
    I.  Definition and Divisions of Hallucinations  ...........................   24
   II.  Hallucinations Co-existing with Sanity  ..............................   34
  HI.  Hallucinations Involving Insanity......................................   76
  IV.  Hallucinations in their Relation to Illusions..........................  103
  V.  Hallucinations in Monomania, Stupidity, Mania, Dementia, and
           General Paralysis....................................................  115
  VI.  Hallucinations in Delirium Tremens...................................  143
 VII.  Hallucinations in Nervous Diseases not Constituting Insanity   150
VIII.  Hallucinations in Nightmare and Dreams.............................  159
  IX.  Hallucinations in Ecstasy, Animal Magnetism, and Somnam-
          bulism  ..................................................................  188
  X.  Hallucinations in Febrile, Inflammatory, Acute, Chronic, and
          other Diseases .........................................................  236
  XL  Causes of Hallucinations...................................................  259
XII. Hallucinations in Relation to Psychology, History, Morality,
          and  Religion...........................................................  322
XIII.  Treatment of Hallucinations ............................................  375
XIV.  Hallucinations in Relation to MedicalJurisprudence............. 400 
INTRODUCTION.
  At all  epochs in the history of man, in every climate, under
the most opposite forms of government, and with every variety of
religion, we constantly find the same  belief in spirits and appari-
tions.  The source of an opinion  so  universal must evidently be
sought for in the mental constitution of man, where there predomi-
nates an irresistible craving after the unknown, and a belief in the
supernatural, which manifests itself in the multitude  by a love of
the marvelous.   The savage  who dreams of the Great Spirit, and
of boundless hunting-grounds in a future life;  the Arab  who
wanders in the enchanted palaces of the  Thousand and  One
Nights ; the Indian who loses himself in the incarnations of Bra-
ma ; the inhabitant of the civilized  world who professes  to be-
lieve nothing, yet secretly consults the fortune-teller, or demands
from magnetism what it cannot afford him;  all obey the same
want—that of  believing something.
  At first, it  seems astonishing that  such opinions  should have
obtained so much influence;  and one  is tempted to ask, if man is
a compound of errors, or the sport of illusions;  but a deeper in-
vestigation of the question will convince us that these opinions are
only deviations from the religious sentiment.
        2 
X                      INTRODUCTION.
   History and tradition alike inform us that man came forth pure,
 but  free, from the hands of his Creator.   And as long as reason
 was his  guide, he was safe both from errors  and from supersti-
 tions ; but when, through the abuse of his liberty, and  the  lapse
 of time,  he  had forgotten  who gave him life, and for what pur-
 pose it was  given him, he became the slave of the passions which
 he could no longer control, and thenceforward went  further and
 further astray.  Tormented, on the  one  hand, by the thought of
 what he once had been, enchanted by the pleasures of the imagi-
 nation on the other, he plunged into an unreal world of his own
 creation.
  The imagination, that wildest of  our faculties, is  perpetually
 endeavoring to break away from the ties  which bind it to reason;
 and  when it has succeeded  in this,  there are no fables, no  strange
 beliefs, no singular illusions, or extravagant dreams, that it will
 not  propagate.   "We love better to  believe than to examine,''
 says Bacon,* and this inclination especially prevails in the infancy
 of the  human mind.   Few  periods have  been more  favorable to
 the triumphs of the imagination than  that of the Middle Ages;
 they seem to have been the centre  of every kind of fantastic cre-
 ation.  The  air was filled  with marvelous birds, the  earth  over-
 run with  terrible animals, the seas peopled with monstrous fishes,
 while in its unexplored regions men told of magnificent  countries,
 and  new  terrestrial  paradises.  Notions thus extravagant,  de-
veloped amidst  the irruptions  of  devastating  barbarians, and a
 general apprehension that the world was about to end,  suggested
the idea of an invisible and  supernatural  power, which nothing
 oould resist.   Men  thus predisposed listened with eagerness to
tales of ghosts and witches;  even the narrator recoiled from  the
creations which terrified his hearers.
  The explanation given  by Malebranche of the way in which
such opinions became established, seems to us so just, that we
      * Bacon : De Dignitate  et Augment.  Scient.  lib. v. cap. v. 
INTRODUCTION.
xi
here reproduce it.   A shepherd in his cottage relates, after sup-
per, to his wife and children, his adventures at a witches' meeting.
His imagination is warmed by the effects of  wine, he believes that
he has repeatedly been present  at  these imaginary meetings, and
he tells his tale in a forcible and impressive  manner.   The result
is  not  doubtful;  the children  and  the wife are utterly terror-
stricken, and fully believe all that they have just heard.   It is the
father, the husband, whom they love and respect, who is speak-
ing of  what he  has seen  and  taken part  in; why should they
doubt him ?   These tales are deeply impressed upon their memo-
ries, they accumulate;  the  fear passes  away, but the conviction
remains, and at length curiosity attracts them to the place.  They
anoint themselves, they go to rest, and  their  dreams bring the
scene circumstantially before them.*  On waking up, they  ques-
tion each other, and mutually relate what they have seen; they
thus  confirm  their  previous opinions,  whilst  he  who  has the
strongest imagination exercises  the greatest influence over the
others, and soon  permanently fixes the details  of  the unreal nar-
rative.   Thus the sorceries in which the shepherd  has taken part
are an established fact, and other  inventions will  follow in time,
if his hearers have but an imagination of sufficient force and live-
liness, and are not deterred, by fear, from relating similar adven-
tures, f
  Such  is in fact the origin of many errors.  Once they have
originated they are repeated; they become  formed into a system
of doctrines and  opinions which enter into the mind with its ear-
liest impressions, subject the strongest intellects to their influence,
and continue for ages, until reason  reasserts  her rights, and forces
the imagination to retire within its proper limits.
  When in this way false impressions  are  received as admitted

  * The fact of these anointings is well established.
  f Malebranche : De la Recherche de la Verite, t. i. lib. 11, chapitre der-
nier, De l'Imagination, edition Charpentier:  Paris, 1843. 
Xii                     INTRODUCTION.
facts  by whole nations, and  enter into the teaching of lectures,
books, pictures, sculptures, in a word, of every agent at work in
the social  system, they are so generally diffused, that no individual
can escape them by his own unaided powers. The great intellects
of such periods participate to a certain extent  in the  opinions
and prejudices of their contemporaries;  but these false notions do
not influence their conduct.   These persons represent some  idea
which  is  useful or necessary to the age—an idea of which, if I
may use the expression,  they are the embodiment, and which
Heaven has commissioned  them to announce.  What  they do,
they are impelled to do by a force which they cannot resist;  the
tasks they set themselves  are an  evidence that man's  loftiest
powers are at work in them.
  We propose to apply these principles to our  present  subject,
combining with  them certain psychological facts.  We are sur-
rounded by an external world, which  finds an avenue by every
sense, and fills our  brain with countless sensations  and  images,
which  an  emotion of the  mind, a passion,  a state of abstraction
or disease may reproduce  in an  instant, in all their variety and
coloring.  Hence the desire we feel to call up images of the past.
These vivid reminiscences which affect  us  in two different ways,
according  as they appear to us false or real, constitute the pheno-
menon of  hallucinations.    But the senses are not the only sources
of our ideas;  there are others which originate in the soul itself,
or are derived' from God;  these are general notions, ideas pure,
which cannot be imaged, and cannot become the  subjects of hal-
lucinations, except by an  abuse of the process  of abstraction.  If
they assume a definite shape and form, this is but a result of the
imperfection of our nature—the spiritual part of man is in no way
concerned in the operation.
  Sensible objects are the exclusive materials  of hallucinations;
anything which  can effect a strong impression on the mind, may, 
INTRODUCTION.                     Xlii
under certain circumstances, produce an image, a sound, an odor,
&c.  Thus, when a man has for a long time given himself up  to
habits of profound  meditation, he frequently  perceives  the  idea
with which he was  occupied  clothe itself in a material form ;  as
the mental labor ceases, the vision disappears, and he explains it
to himself by certain natural laws.   But, if this man lives at a time
when the belief in  the appearance  of spirits, demons, ghosts,
and  phantoms is general, then the vision  becomes to him  a re-
ality ; but with this difference, that if his mind is  sound, and his
reasoning powers  in a healthy state, the  apparition  has no in-
fluence on his conduct, and he performs his duties in life just as
well as the man  who has no hallucinations at all.
   This  remark applies with greater force to the hallucinations of
celebrated men.   To have emancipated themselves from the gen-
eral  belief of their time, would have required them to  be  of a
different nature, particularly when that belief contained  nothing
reprehensible.  In  adopting these opinions, they shared the mis-
take of  society at large ; but their enterprises, their actions, their
doctrines, were those of philosophers, of moralists, and of bene-
factors of their  race.   They fulfilled  a  necessary mission, and
their names are justly inscribed amongst those of whom humanity
is proud.
   A circumstance, which should particularly be borne in mind, is,
that in the majority of these cases, the hallucination did but help
them to realize their idea.  Those illustrious men, who have been
so unjustly ranked with madmen, commenced  by originating and
carrying out plans marked by the impress of their genius; and it
was  only after having thought over them  most profoundly, and
when their minds had attained the highest  pitch of enthusiasm—
and  without enthusiasm no great work is possible—that they be-
held their idea clothed in a material form.  The term  " hallucina-
tion," which we  make use of  for want of a better,  was not in this 
XIV                     INTRODUCTION.
 case a sign of insanity, but the result of long-continued medita-
 tion.
   Besides,  who can help being struck with the extreme difference
 between these persons and those of the present day who are sub-
 ject to hallucinations ?  The first, powerful, strong, logical, show
 themselves full of greatness in their  actions ; they are the repre-
 sentatives of a period, of a need felt, of a new idea; the  others
 are cunning, weak,  and vacillating; they are the expression of
 no want; their mission, if they possess any, has neither usefulness
 nor aim.  The  hallucinations of the one were  the  consequences
 of the period in which the persons  lived—they exercised  no in-
 fluence over their reason;  while  those of the others are derived
 from  the diseased  condition  of the  individual, and are more or
 less complicated with insanity.
   When we study the life of a great man, we must never  forget
 that it consists of a history and of a biography.  The history is
 the undying, the spiritual  part; the biography is the  perishable
 part.   If we attempt to judge of one without the  other, we de-
 ceive  ourselves, and we deceive others. The aspirations of genius
 give rise to phenomena which deviate from the common course;
 they are the  rough material, the irregularities in  the  marble,
 which disappear  beneath the chisel of the sculptor, to leave only
 his master-piece in view; they are, if you  please,  hallucinations;
but they have no influence on the truths  taught—these existed
both before and  after the  disappearance  of what was only the
means through which they were given to  the world.   Now  an
idea, like man himself, consists of two parts, the one spiritual
the other material; a hallucination, considered in relation  to  its
characteristic phenomenon, is, according to our notion, the repro-
duction of the sensible sign of the idea.   In the thinker it is the
highest possible  state of tension of which his mind  is capable__
a state of  positive  ecstasy.   This  opinion is directly opposed to
that of M.  Baillarger, who attributes  it to a kind of  arrest of the 
INTRODUCTION.
XV
attention.  We shall discuss the merits  of this theory hereafter.
In societies, whose convictions are strong and deep, where the
imagination has  not  been enlightened  by the  aid of science, the
hallucination is the reflection of  these  general  beliefs;  but in
neither case  does  it offer an obstacle to the free exercise of the
reason.  Hence it is certain  that the most celebrated  men  have
been liable to hallucinations, without their conduct offering any
signs of  mental alienation.
  If, however, we strongly protest against  the charge of insanity
brought  against these lofty intellects, we are fully aware that hal-
lucinations, complicated with the loss of  the reason, have existed
in some  whose names are famous in history.
  The necessity of believing is characteristic of our species. When
this  impulse  is guided  by faith and reason combined, it conducts
us safely to the goal toward which we all tend; but, if it  rests
exclusively upon one or the other of these principles, the greatest
errors  are  likely to ensue.  Faith apart  from reason leads to
superstition,  and reason without faith  almost  always  results in
pride.   The  hallucinations which arise  from these two sources of
error are as numerous and as various as the ideas and the daily
occupations of the  individual.   The desire of ill-regulated know-
ledge  produces all kinds of anomalies.  The want of perpetual
excitement leads even enlightened nations into  the greatest aosur-
dities,  and will always insure the temporary success of the char-
latan, until some new passion  leads them to abandon the one of
which  they were enamored.   It is impossible even to glance at
the hallucinations arising from these two sources, for they are as
numerous as  the combinations of  thought — as  diverse as  the
shades of individual character.
  However much the mind may be concerned  in the production
of hallucinations, they cannot all he referred to this source ;  there
are  others which are produced by disease, by certain substances
introduced into the  body, &c.   The phenomena remain essentially 
XVI
INTRODUCTION.
the same, but the cause of them is different.   For this reason we
have divided hallucinations into two classes — those depending on
moral causes,  and  those depending upon physical causes.  When
treating of the causes, and of hallucinations, in  their relations to
psychology, history, morality, and religion, we shall enter into the
details which the importance of the subject demands.
  In  discussing a question of this kind, it is only reasonable to
ask us our opinion concerning the apparitions  of Scripture.   It
neither accords with our principles nor our convictions to avoid a
reply.   We admit the authenticity of the statements in the Bible
and the New Testament;  we believe in the divine interposition in
the establishment  of a religion, whose  founder  proclaimed  his
mission by destroying the worship of false gods, by the abolition
of slavery, and  by the establishment of  one brotherhood — the
family of  man.  But, just as we have maintained, that in profane
history we meet with instances of hallucinations coexisting with a
sound state of mind, because they were  the  result of certain re-
ceived opinions, while there  were  others  combined with insanity
arising from the diseased  condition of the individual, so in  the
same way we believe that many religious persons have  been sub-
ject to  hallucinations, which were  connected with the opinions,
the errors, and  the prejudices of the age, without their  reason
being affected, whilst others were the victims of a diseased imagi-
nation.   It is only by examining these different elements that we
can hope to approximate to a true solution of the question.  Our
most general laws  partake of our imperfections, and are perpetu-
ally liable to exceptions.
  If, then, we briefly sum up the principal points of this chapter,
we perceive that the feeling of the unknown to which man attaches
himself, and from which arises the want of something in which to
believe, a love of  the  marvelous, a  desire for knowledge, and a
craving after  excitement, is  itself only a weakened  condition of
the religious sentiment. 
INTRODUCTION.                    XV11
  When the pathway of truth and sound philosophy is abandoned,
the reason, having become uncertain and vacillating,  gives full
scope for the play of  the imagination, which indulges itself in the
production of paradoxes, dreams and chimeras.  The imagina-
tion, being thus  mistress of the  situation, develops a number  of
false ideas, which are afterwards embodied into a system, and lay
the foundation of further errors.
  Ideas  are  the  food of the understanding;  they form a  myste-
rious bond between the soul and the body, and they affect man in
two ways — by their  abstract nature,  and by the material form
which  represents them.  If a moral or a physical cause acts with
sufficient power on the idea to present it in a visible form, as  in
the  phenomenon of hallucination, it is the image which is  pro-
duced ; the  idea itself can  never come under the cognizance  of
the senses.   Thus, when  the ideas become  disturbed, it  is the
organ, and not the mind, which is in fault.  The instrument is out
of order, the mind which directs it is sound; the latter may re-
main inactive, -but it is never  altered.   Sometimes,  indeed, it
breaks its way through every obstacle, and shows that it has pre-
served all its energy notwithstanding its long repose.   In the sick
man governed by a phantom, it still continues its operations with
perfect regularity.
  When the  forgetfulness of first principles has  given rise to a
number of false ideas, and imbued the mind with certain popular
but  superstitious errors, it  is the outward forms associated with
these ideas which present themselves to the hallucinated, just as in
other cases it is the objects which surrounded the individual in his
daily life that are represented.   The effects produced by halluci-
nation are of two kinds : in the one case, they do not  affect the
reason;  in the other, they superinduce a disordered  state of the
intellect.
  Lastly, whilst  fully recognizing the  authority of the reason, it
must not be  forgotten that  it  is itself under restraint, and may, 
Xviii                   INTRODUCTION.
therefore, be commanded to stay its course, and yield to a higher
authority.   Agreeing with Bossuet, that religion is not required
to submit to its questioning beyond a certain  point, we admit as
authentic the" apparitions of Scripture, and separate them entirely
from the hallucinations of religious persons, derived from certain
popular beliefs which are not incompatible with reason.
   These preliminaries being established, we proceed to  describe
the general arrangement of the work.
   The definition of a hallucination ought to precede its  history,
and it is with this that the book commences.
   If hallucinations were simple facts, they would not require an
elaborate classification; but  they  are far from being  so.   This
peculiar condition  of the  mind presents itself  under a  variety of
different aspects.   It may coexist with sanity, or it may constitute
a form of insanity;  it is often entirely concealed by a morbid state
of the sensations.   It almost always  accompanies  insanity, of
which it is then only a symptom.  It exists in night-mares, dreams
and ecstasy.   Certain  nervous diseases—such as epilepsy, hys-
teria and hypochondriasis—are often  complicated with  it; lastly,
it is observed in acute, chronic, inflammatory, and other  affections.
These various forms have  led us to establish ten divisions.
   The first contains those hallucinations  which coexist with a
sound state of mind.  The facts adduced in support of this clearly
show, that the reproduction of the cerebral images may take place
without derangement of the intellect;  they will hereafter enable
us to  explain the hallucinations of those illustrious men who have
been falsely charged with  insanity.
   The second section comprises simple  hallucinations,  but  which
are associated with a greater or less  amount of mental derange-
ment.   The individuals are convinced that they see, hear,  smell
taste  or touch things which are  imperceptible to  those around
them.   These false sensations  may exist even where the organs
of the senses are defective.   Thus the  blind will  state  that they 
INTRODUCTION.                    xix
have seen angels and devils.  The deaf will repeat conversations
in which they profess to have just taken a part.  A single hallu-
cination may exist, or several at the same time; all the senses are
liable to be affected by then.
   In the third section are classed those hallucinations which are
associated with another error of the senses, to which the name of
illusion has been given ;  both these states consist of false impres-
sions of the senses.  In the first case  there is a vision without the
presence of any material object to produce it, while in the second
the object exists, but  it  produces  an  impression different to the
reality—a man assumes  the appearance of a woman ; a piece of
wood becomes a hideous monster.   Illusions sometimes appear in
the manner of an  epidemic.  The occurrence of these epidemics
is not rare in history.   Every sense is subject to illusions, and all
of them may be so at the same time.   Not unfrequently illusions
are accompanied by reprehensible and dangerous acts.
   Hallucinations are especially frequent in insanity.  The fourth
section contains those which are combined with monomania and
other forms of insanity.   The kinds of monomania  most  liable to
this complication are lypemania, delirium tremens, demonomania,
erotomania, nostalgia,  &c.  A species of demonomania  formerly
prevailed to a considerable extent, in which the persons who were
attacked imagined they  had relations  with demons  who  were
termed Incubi and Succubi.  To this division belong those hallu-
cinations which show themselves in that particular form of insan-
ity which is known as stupidity.
   The fourth section also contains the hallucinations which accom-
pany mania;  they are very frequently combined with illusions, or
these  two conditions  may occur alternately.  The hallucinations
which  show  themselves  in  delirium tremens,  and  in the frenzy
arising from  narcotic  poisons, form the subject of the fifth sec-
tion.   We have considered it right to separate  the hallucinations 
XX
INTRODUCTION.
which arise from the use of these substances, because they are not
necessarily accompanied by insanity; they are spoken of in that
part of  our work which treats of the causes of hallucinations.
  In the sixth section  are arranged those hallucinations  which
are complicated with catalepsy, epilepsy, hysteria, hypochondri-
asis, &c.
  The hallucinations of night-mare and  dreams form the seventh
section.   It is evident that night-mare, in certain respects, resem-
bles insanity, and that it is observed in this  disorder.  It  is the
same with regard to dreams, which bear  a strong analogy to hal-
lucinations.   The study of the physiology of dreams has supplied
us with  certain facts of peculiar interest; the presentiments  which
happen  in this state are, we conceive, explained in most instances
by the  existence of hallucinations.  Nevertheless,  presentiments
do  not  occur exclusively in dreams, nor can  they always  be ex-
plained  by hallucinations.  Lastly, we have shown that nocturnal
hallucinations have sometimes occurred in the form of an epidemic.
  There is  a singular  condition  of the mind, known under the
name of ecstasy, which has justly attracted the attention  of all
observers.  The hallucinations which  are  one of its distinctive
characters we have placed in the eighth section.  The concentra-
tion of  the mind upon one particular object for a long time may
give rise to an ecstatic condition  of the brain, in which an image
of the object is produced, and reacts  upon the mind as if it real-
ly existed.  It is to this mental state that the visions of celebra-
ted men are to be referred. .We have several times noticed the
occurrence of ecstasy in children, and have also seen it in cata-
lepsy, hysteria, exaggerated states of mysticism, and in  insanity.
  Certain peculiar phenomena, such as prevision, clairvoyance,
second-sight, animal magnetism,  and somnambulism, seem  to us
to  be commonly due to a state  of ecstasy.   The  effect of cold
may be  to produce this  state of the nervous system.  The ecstatic 
INTRODUCTION.
XXI
state has been observed in all ages, and lately occurred  in several
thousand  persons in Sweden.   The hallucinations  observed  in
these  different  conditions of  the nervous system, especially  in
somnambulism,  may give rise  to  conduct which would entail  a
grave responsibility on the individual.
  The ninth section contains those hallucinations which are com-
plicated  with  febrile disorders,  or with  acute,  inflammatory,
chronic, or other diseases, and with certain conditions  of the at-
mosphere.
  Lastly, in the tenth  section we have associated the  epidemic
hallucinations and illusions to which we have  previously referred.
  This classification  includes all  the  varieties of hallucinations
which have come under qur own notice, and to it we think may be
referred all that are likely to occur.
  The numerous divisions we have established show that halluci-
nations arise from different causes.  Their  primary division into
moral  and physical, as indicated  at the commencement of this
chapter, are the centres  to which converge a number of  secondary
causes.   As in insanity, the dominant ideas have considerable in-
fluence on the nature  of  the  hallucination;  thus when a belief in
demonology, sorcery, magic,  lycanthropy, or vampirism prevails,
men see devils, sorcerers, were-wolves, vampires, &c.   The char-
acter  of the hallucinations  also varies with the kind of civiliza-
tion ;  thus, with the  Greeks, they assumed  the  form  of  pans,
fauns, and  naiads; with the  Romans, that  of genii; and  in  the
Middle Ages, that of angels,  saints, and devils.  In our own times
every possible combination  of the ideas may lay the foundation
of them.  When  physical causes  give rise to hallucinations, the
latter will have corresponding characters.
  Properly speaking, only the secondary causes of hallucinations
are treated of  in  the preceding  paragraph;  it is necessary that
they should be  considered from a more elevated point of view;
and this has been attempted in a chapter especially devoted  to 
XX11                    INTRODUCTION.
their physiological, historical, moral, and  religious aspect.  In
the first  part of this chapter we  have endeavored to  show that
the primary cause of hallucinations lies in the violation of certain
leading principles,  and in an ill-regulated condition of the ideas,
which ultimately result in an abnormal reproduction of their sen-
sible signs.   After entering upon a more extended consideration
of the  nature of ideas, of their subdivisions, of the principal ope-
rations of the mind which are concerned in the production of hal-
lucinations, we have shown that these ought frequently to  be re-
garded as occurring in an almost  normal  state of things, as we
have pointed out when speaking  of physiological ecstasy.   This
mode of regarding hallucinations enables  us to explain how it is
that many celebrated  men  have  been subject to  them, and yet
must not be looked upon as having been insane.   The  examples
of Loyola, of Luther,  of Joan of Arc, are decisive proofs of the
correctness of this  opinion.
   All our arguments are especially intended to  show that these
illustrious persons were  the  impersonation of  an epoch, of some
special idea; that  they fulfilled some useful and necessary mission,
and that their hallucinations were altogether different from those
which are observed in  the present day.   In this chapter we have
also endeavored to distinguish between the apparitions of Scrip-
ture and those of profane history, as well  as those of many Chris-
tians.  If we are not mistaken, we have thus presented  the doc-
trine of  hallucinations in a more complete form than has hitherto
been done.
   Examinations after death of the bodies of the insane afford no
satisfactory information  with respect to  hallucinations;  and we
participate  in  the opinion of most medical  men on this  point,
that the  pathological anatomy of hallucinations is still to be ac-
complished.
   Until lately, any special treatment for hallucinations can scarcely 
INTRODUCTION.
xxiii
be said to have existed.  Leuret, in protesting against this error,
has  proved that the hallucinated, when properly managed, are
capable of being  cured.   While  acknowledging  the  talents of
this practitioner, we have  found it  necessary to restrict the em-
ployment  of his method;  at the same time, we can refer to facts
in justification of the treatment  we have  proposed,  and which
seems to us to be capable of a more general application.
   Our task would not have  been completed unless we had ex-
amined the subject  of hallucinations in their relation to our civil
and  criminal  institutions.   It is  shown by numerous  examples
that the hallucinated may, under the influence of their false im-
pressions, commit dangerous and even criminal acts.   This fact is
placed beyond a doubt in the  course of  this work.   It was there-
fore  most important to establish characters which  should serve to
distinguish true cases of hallucination from those which are simu-
lated.   These characters are obtained by inquiring into the his-
tory of the case, by interrogating, by examining the writings, and
by prolonged  observation of the individual.  By the use of these
means we consider that magistrates, as well as medical men, have
the power of distinguishing between the hallucinated  and crimi-
nals.   The question of confinement is previously  discussed when
speaking  of the treatment, but it  is there reconsidered.   Useful
in a great number of cases, especially when the  person is danger-
ous, it could not be enforced in others without great injury to the
individual.  Lastly, we have terminated this chapter  by proving
that the capability of making a will remains in those cases where
the hallucinations  do not influence the acts of the individual.  But
we have shown that this is no longer the case where the affections
of the  hallucinated have  become perverted—as, for example,
when he believes a relative is transformed into the devil, or that
he charges himself  with electricity for  the purpose of poisoning
his food or of tormenting him, &c. 
XX1V
INTRODUCTION.
  In  the composition of a work  like the  present,  the  author
should endeavor to  interest as well as  to  instruct his readers.
The favorable reception we have met with leads us to hope that
these two conditions have been fulfilled. 
HALLUCINATIONS.
                     CHAPTER   I.

             DEFINITION AND DIVISION OF HALLUCINATIONS.

   There is no question in the psychological history of man more
curious than that which  relates  to  the  subject of hallucinations.
To see what no other eye beholds, to  hear sounds which no other
ear perceives, to be convinced of the reality of sensations which
others regard with incredulity, is surely  a matter for examination
full of interest.   Instances of hallucinations have been recorded
in the annals of every nation, they have  occurred in the lives of
many illustrious persons,  and been believed  in from the  remotest
ages; they have undoubtedly been  much diminished by the pro-
gress of science ;  yet, even in the present day, the part they play
in many psychological phenomena, their occurrence in various dis-
eases, and especially in mental affections, renders their  study of
the highest importance.
  What, then, is  a  hallucination, and how  is it  to be defined ?
Does it present itself alone, or complicated with other diseases?
Such are the  questions  with which we must commence our in-
quiry.
  Amongst the ancients, Aristotle,  Zeno, and Chrysippus  were
partially acquainted with these  false perceptions, and  they en-
deavored  to  distinguish  between them  and true perceptions;
       3 
26                     HALLUCINATIONS.
moreover, they pointed out three kinds of hallucinations—those
of sight, of hearing, and of smell; but they did not  observe all
their  degrees, nor  all the conditions  under which they occur.
  Arnold, in our opinion, was the first who gave a nearly correct
definition of hallucinations :  " Ideal insanity," he  says,  " is that
state of mind in which a person imagines he sees, hears, or other-
wise perceives, or converses with, persons or things, which either
have  no external existence to his senses at that time, or have no
such external existence as they are then conceived  to have ;  or, if
he perceives external objects as they really exist,  has yet errone-
ous and absurd ideas of his own form and  other  sensible quali-
ties.*
  This definition, although somewhat  long, distinguishes between
hallucinations and illusions, as well as errors of personality.
  Alexander Crichton, who wrote about the same  time, defined a
hallucination, or  an illusion,  as  " Error of mind,  in  which ideal
objects are  mistaken for  realities; or in which real  objects  are
falsely represented, without general derangement  of the mental
faculties."!
  By the word hallucination, Ferriar  understands  every false  im-
pression, from the appearance of a fly, dancing before the  eyes,
up to the most hideous spectre.
  According to Hibbert, hallucinations are "nothing more than
ideas, or the recollected images of the mind, which have been ren-
dered more vivid than actual  impressions."!
  Esquirol, who  was the first in France to give a definite mean-
ing to  the word hallucination,  applied it  to  those  phenomena
which did not depend upon any local derangement of the organs

  * Arnold:  Observations on the Nature, Kinds, Causes, and Prevention of
Insanity.  Two vol. 8vo. p. 55.  London: 1806.
  f Alex. Crichton: An Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Mental  De-
rangement.  Two vols. 8vo., vol. ii. p. 342.   London: 1798.
  t Samuel  Hibbert:  Sketches of the Philosophy of Apparitions.  Second
edition, p. 1.  London: 1825. 
DEFINITION OF  HALLUCINATIONS.
27
of the senses, a wrong association of the ideas, or upon the im-
agination,  but solely upon some special, and, as  yet, unknown
lesion of the  brain.  He defined a hallucination as a cerebral or
mental phenomenon, occurring independently of the  senses, and
consisting of external  impressions which the patient  believes he
experiences, although  there  is no external  agent  acting on his
senses.   In another part  of the  same work he says: " The pre-
tended sensations of the hallucinated are images or ideas, repro-
duced by the  memory, associated together by the imagination,
and which become impersonated  by habit."
   Darwin, and after him M. Foville, regards hallucinations as re-
sulting from structural changes in the organs of the senses.  Ac-
cording to this hypothesis, there  is always a false perception.  It
is, however, impossible to adopt this  theory in regard  to those
hallucinations which are in perfect accordance with the  habitual
ideas of  the individual, and with the opinions of the period.
   M. Lelut considers  a hallucination as a  phenomenon interme-
diate between the actual sensation and the conception of the idea.
According to this writer,  it is a  spontaneous conversion of the
thought into sensations, which are most frequently external.
   Between a sensation and the conception,  says M.  Leuret, there
is an intermediate phenomenon,  which medical men have desig-
nated by the  term hallucination.  A hallucination resembles  a
sensation, inasmuch  as that, like the latter, it  gives  rise  to the
idea of some  external body acting on the senses  ; it differs in
that this  external object  does not exist.   Like the mind, it cre-
ates ; but, instead of ideas, it produces images—images which, to
the hallucinated,  are the same as  real objects.*
   M. Aubanel, in his excellent thesis on hallucinations, f regards
this  phenomenon as a  special form or variety of mental  disease,
in  which a man converts the insane conceptions  of his mind into
  * Leuret:  Fragments Psychologiques sur la Folie, p. 133.  Paris : 1834.
  f Aubanel: Essai sur les Hallucinations.  These. Paris:  1839. 
28                    HALLUCINATIONS.
actual sensations, or who, in consequence of these same concep-
tions, negatives his true sensations by assimilating  them to  his
perverted ideas.
   M. Baillarger admits two kinds of hallucinations—the one com-
plete, arising from the combined influence of the imagination and
the organs of the senses;  these hallucinations he terms psycho-
sensorial ; the other, being due solely to the involuntary exercise
of the memory and the imagination, and  denominated 'psychical
hallucinations.  He defines a psycho-sensorial hallucination as
the perception of a sensation, independent of all external excite-
ment of the organs of the  senses; and as arising from the invol-
untary exercise of the memory and the imagination.  Psychical
hallucinations may be  defined as purely intellectual  perceptions,
arising from the involuntary exercise of the memory  and   the
imagination ; they differ from the preceding in not producing  any
internal excitement of the  organs of the senses.*
   Dendy, in his Philosophy of Mystery, defines illusive percep-
tion, or ocular spectra, as the conversion  of natural  objects into
phantoms ; and illusive conception, or spectral illusion, as the cre-
ation of phantoms.  He adds,  in the  first class  there  is no real
or palpable object; or, if there be,  it is not what it appears.f
   Taking as our basis the  symptomatology of hallucinations and
illusions, we define  a hallucination as  the  perception of the sen-
sible signs  of the idea; and an illusion as the  false appreciation
of real sensations.  When  we consider this phenomenon in a psy-
chological point of view, we shall explain our meaning,  by show-
ing that  the spiritual portion  of an idea—that  is, its essence__
never forms a part of the hallucination, and that  the sensible sign
alone constitutes its foundation.
  * Baillarger:  Des Hallucinations, des  Causes  qui les produisent et  des
Maladies quelles caracterisent. Memoires de VAcademie de Medecine t
xii.  Paris: 1846.
  f Walter Cooper Dendy : The Philosophy of Mystery, p. 125.   London: 
DEFINITION OF HALLUCINATIONS.            29
   The classification of hallucinations should be  founded upon a
 previous examination  of them,  in their simple and complicated
 conditions ; but this manner of proceeding, although most method-
 ical, would be attended  with serious difficulties in the understanding
 of the work;  the reader would be prevented from comprehending
 at once the general plan ; his mind would be lost in  the details,
 and all our endeavors would fail to do more than to leave a feeble
 impression.   For this  reason we proceed at once to describe our
 classification, having first pointed out  the  divisions which  have
 been generally adopted.
   Esquirol only admits mental hallucinations, which are therefore
 cerebral or idiopathic.
   M.  Leuret has divided hallucinations into those which occur in
 the waking state, and  into those which take place during sleep;
 the latter are commonly termed visions.  He includes incubi and
 succubi* among the hallucinations of sleep.
   M. Aubanel,  who does  not separate hallucinations from illu-
 sions, has proposed the following divisions :
   1.  The  hallucinated are fully  aware of the  nature of  the  phe-
 nomena to which they  are liable, and they attribute them to the
 state of the mind, or to a diseased condition of the  imagination;
 the intellect is perfectly sound, and sometimes extraordinarily de-
 veloped.
   2.  The hallucinated  do not perceive that their false impressions
 may arise without  the  intervention of the organs of the senses;
 and  they regulate their actions  in obedience  to  the phenomena
 which affect them.
   3. The hallucinated  fully believe in  the  intervention of their
  * In the present day, the term incubus is usually applied to the night-
mare, but formerly it referred to imaginary fiends or spectres, to whom
strange powers are attributed by the writers on demoniacal agency.  Many
noble families were supposed to have their origin from the connection of
incubi with females, as in  the well-known instance of Eobert of Norman-
dy, called le Diable.  The succubus was a similar fiend of the female sex. 
30
HALLUCINATIONS.
senses, and in the reality of the external impressions which they
experience.
  These divisions only include those cases where the hallucina-
tions exist without any other disorder.
  With regard to the  hallucinations which are complicated with
insanity, M. Aubanel distinguishes a sensorial  monomania,  in
which " the hallucinations are always in accordance with a regular
series of ideas, and do not exhibit that disorder and  incoherence
which is met with in the insane, and a sensorial mania," manifest-
ed by numerous and various forms of hallucinations, sometimes
well defined, but  more frequently confused, and having the com-
mon character of constituting of themselves a species of insanity;
that is to say, they are inconsistent and irregular,  like the acts and
words of the maniac during his delirium.
  Dr. Paterson, profiting by the labors of Ferriar, Hibbert and
Abercrombie, as well as by his own researches, begins by dividing
hallucinations  into two great sections :  1.  Those of wakefulness.
2. Those of sleep.   Afterwards he proposes a new classification,
the most complete that  has hitherto been  published in Englaud.
It consists of seven sections, which comprise nearly all the known
forms of hallucinations.  One of these admits  the coexistence  of
hallucinations  with the reason.*
  Like most of the writers who have preceded him, Dr. Paterson
includes hallucinations with illusions.
  The classification that we ourselves propose is much more ex-
tended.  We distinguish between hallucinations and illusions, for,
although they constantly approximate to each other,  they have a
different origin.   After pointing out the characters by which they
may be  distinguished,  we shall, when speaking of hallucinations,
also mention what is most important in the history of illusions :
there are many cases in which these aberrations of the mind can-

  * Paterson:  On  Spectral Illusions.  "Edin. Med. and Surg. Journal,"
No. CLIV." 1843. 
DEFINITION OF  HALLUCINATIONS.
31
not be  distinguished from  each other.   The  same  remark will
apply to the division of hallucinations into idiopathic and sympto-
matic, which, although useful for  scientific  purposes, cannot  be
strictly maintained throughout their history.
   These distinctions having  been  established,  we shall  arrange
hallucinations into ten sections, as shown in the following table.
Many of these,  in consequence of their importance, are further
subdivided:
Section 1.  Hallucinations
       coexisting  with  a
       sound state of mind
    1. Corrected by  the
          understanding
    2. Not corrected.
  comprising
hallucinations
of sight.
 " hearing.
 " smell.
 " taste.
 " touch.
 " all the sen-
     ses.*
Section 2.  Simple hallucinations,  constituting of themselves a
    form of insanity, but uncomplicated with monomania, mania,
    dementia, &c.

Section 3.  Hallucinations in their relations to illusions.

Section 4.  Complicated hallucinations, constituting of themselves
    a form of insanity, and combined—
         1. With monomania.
         2.   "   stupidity.
         3.   "   mania.
         4.   "   dementia.
         5.   "   imbecility.

Section 5.  Hallucinations with delirium tremens, drunkenness,
     and the  effects of narcotic and poisonous substances.
* This subdivision will apply to all the other sections. 
32                     HALLUCINATIONS.
Section 6. Hallucinations with nervous diseases, but not compli-
    cated with monomania, mania, or dementia.
          1. With catalepsy.
          2.   "   epilepsy.
          3.   "   hysteria.
          4.   "   hypochondriasis.
          5.   "   hydrophobia.
Section 7. Hallucinations with night-mare and dreams.
Section 8. Hallucinations with ecstasy.
Section 9. Hallucinations with  febrile  diseases,  inflammations,
    acute, chronic, and other  affections,  and with  certain states
    of the atmosphere.
          1. With acute delirium.
2.	n	fever.
3.	a	cerebral diseases.
4.	a	parenchymatous inflammations.
5.	n	typhoid fever.
6.	n	intermittent fever.
n.	n	gout, chlorosis, pellagra, &c.
8.	u	last stages of hectic diseases.
9.	n	syncope, asphyxia, convalescence, &c.
10.	u	atmospheric influences, &c.
             I
Section 10. Epidemic hallucinations.*

  The subdivisions which we have here established seem to in-
clude all the known varieties of hallucination.   In investigating
a subject—which is undoubtedly the  most interesting branch of

  * Hallucinations and illusions, in their epidemic forms, are noticed in
the  chapters containing those divisions of the subject with which they
are  most intimately related, and it was therefore unnecessary to devote a
special chapter to them. 
DEFINITION OF  HALLUCINATIONS.            33
mental pathology, and is  connected with medicine,  philosophy,
history, morality, and  religion—our rule must be to select the
most authentic cases, and those best adapted to establish a cor-
rect theory of hallucinations, to avoid  an unnecessary accumula-
tion of facts ;  and, while we have recourse to our own experience,
at the same time to  avail ourselves of the labors of other writers
on the same subject,  whether of our own or of other countries. 
C HAPTER  II.
              HALLUCINATIONS CO-EXISTING WITH SANITY.

   The  proposition contained in  this work, which has been most
controverted, is, that hallucinations may coexist with the due exer-
cise of the reason.  In order to produce all the evidence of which
this proposition is capable, it is necessary to enter upon the science
of psychology, to analyze the different conditions under which
hallucinations may present themselves  in  a normal manner, and
then to  illustrate  the argument by a series  of well-selected cases.
Before commencing these inquiries, it is important to  point out a
source of error inseparable from the subject, and by which many
persons are  liable to be led astray—I allude  to the  analogies
which exist between reason and insanity.   So  long as we remain
at a distance from that undefined  line which separates these two
conditions, error  is impossible; but no sooner do we approach it
than confusion commences, and it  becomes extremely difficult  to
distinguish between  true ideas and false ideas; between what is
real,  and what does not exist.
   Let us take an  example.   The belief in a God is universal, and
justice is regarded as one of his essential attributes.  If the nature
of this justice is judged of on  the verge of insanity, it is converted
into inflexible severity;  it becomes a source of terror,  punishment
and damnation, and not unfrequently it leads to the  commission
of suicide.   There is no idea which, when it has been  drawn  into
this vortex of the mind, may not be thus  terribly transformed.
The  same phenomenon may occur with respect to images.   In
many cases they are visible to the external  senses, but are recog- 
HALLUCINATIONS CO-EXISTING WITH SANITY.       35
nized as the result of things that have  passed, or as creations of
the mind ;  and sometimes they are looked upon as the effects of a
supernatural power; but  they continue to possess this character
in common, that they do not exercise any injurious influence over
the conduct.   This is no longer the case when the mind mistakes
the image for a real object, to which it becomes an obedient slave;
the hallucination, which was at first  physiological, passes into a
pathological state, and with that commences a state of insanity.
   The existence of images, or rather of physiological hallucina-
tions,* is placed beyond  a doubt by numerous  facts,  both of a
physical and of a moral nature.  They  may, indeed, be produced
by an illusion of the organ of vision or  of hearing.
   Brewster, in his Letters on  Natural Magic,e\ relates an experi-
ment of Newton, which shows that every one has the power of
producing hallucinations at his pleasure.  This philosopher, after
having regarded for some  time an image of the sun in a looking-
glass, was much surprised, on directing his eyes towards the dark
part of the room, to  see a spectre of the sun reproduced  bit by
bit until it shone with all the vividness and all  the colors of the
real object.  The  hallucination afterwards recurred wherever he
was in the dark.
   Paterson remarks that  the same  phenomenon takes place on
looking fixedly at a window in a strong light, and then at a wall;
a spectral impression of the window, with its panes and bars, soon
presents  itself. J  To these examples may be added that of per-
sons, who, having concentrated their attention on a particular land-
scape, or a mountain, which they have met  with  in their  travels,
are able to reproduce them with the greatest exactness.
   The state of reverie has been experienced by every one, and  is

  * These remarks are equally applicable to illusions.
  f Sir David Brewster: Letters on Natural Magic, p. 23.  London : 1832.
  X Paterson: Opus cit. 
36                    HALLUCINATIONS.
a condition which  shows how easily hallucinations may be  pro-
duced.
  " Nothing," says Meister, "so well illustrates the nature of our
thinking faculties as to consider them in the different conditions of
waking and of sleeping, and  in that intermediate state between
sleeping and waking, where the external senses are in a more per-
fect state of quiet and rest, than in the most profound repose;
when  the  active inner sense is cut off from the external world,
and we doubt whether we  are in a state of sleep  or  meditation.
This condition usually precedes or follows  that of sleep; some-
times it arises from prolonged meditation on one object, or on one
idea, especially when we are placed amidst  the silence of nature,
in the recesses of  a forest, or are surrounded by the  darkness of
night.   Under these circumstances, a single impression or a single
image becomes arrested before us, and takes exclusive possession
of our thoughts; at such times the understanding acts only by its
own intuitive  powers.  Entire scenes, broken or connected  pic-
tures, pass slowly or rapidly before  the vision of our  inner sense.
We fancy we  behold, and  behold with the most perfect reality,
things which we have never seen.   They are, in truth, phantoms
which the power of our imagination has invoked around us, happy
or miserable, beneath the charm of its  magic.
  " I am convinced that devotees, lovers, would-be prophets, illu-
minati, Swedenborgians, are all  indebted to  illusions for their
miracles, their presentiments, their visions, their prophecies, their
intercourse with angelic beings, and their visits to heaven and to
hell;  in a word, for all  the  extravagances and superstitions of
their contagious reveries.   At the same time, I have no hesitation
in declaring, that,  under the same  circumstances, men of  genius
have conceived the greatest  beauties,  and the  most original  por-
tion of their writings ; that the geometrician has discovered the
long sought-for solution of his  problem ; the metaphysician  con-
structed the most ingenious of his theories; the poet been inspired 
HALLUCINATIONS CO-EXISTING WITH  SANITY.      37
with his most effective verses ; the musician with his most expres-
sive and  brilliant  passages; the statesman with  expedients  that
all his experience  had failed to  discover;  and the general of an
army with that  comprehensive  glance which  decides  the battle,
and secures for him the victory."*
  Here,  again, we perceive the  effect of that narrow limit which
separates the ideal from the true, and as the state of reverie occu-
pies the one side or the other, so it becomes a source of greatness
or of folly.   Carried away by these day dreams, these castles  in
the air, which substitute the most pleasing illusions for  the sad
realities of life, our thoughts expand, chimeras become realities,
and all the objects of our wishes present themselves before us  in
visible forms.   What man is there who has not summoned before
him the image of  his beloved, or, if enamored of  glory, who has
not heard the sound of the trumpet, and the cries of the com-
batants ?
  All who have lived  in  the East, or  written on that marvelous
country,  have spoken of the powerful influence  of  the  climate
over  its  inhabitants.   It  is said there are productions  of  that
country which throw the mind into  a state of  ecstacy.   "  For my
part," observes M. Paul de Molenes, "I always thought that the
heavens,  beneath which the Arab spreads his tent, were the most
oertain source of reverie which the human soul could imbue itself
with.   The Oriental is unacquainted with the debasing and loqua-
cious  frenzy of wine, of spirits, of beer,  or  of any of those liquors
which distort the  features, disturb  the reason, and  impede the
tongue;  but he possesses the secret of that  glorious and silent
inspiration derived from the heavens,  from solitude and space;
things which are divine, and impart an  august appearance to the
countenance, illuminate the thoughts by the transplendent scenes
which meet  the vision, and  impose a sacred  silence on the  lips,
* Meister: Lettres sur V Imagination, p. 19.  Paris, an. vii. 
38
HALLUCINATIONS.
broken only at rare intervals by a few short  sentences.   It is of
this glorious inspiration, which those who  have once experienced
it will  never  forego,  that  the narrative  of  Chambi*  is  filled.
Amongst the mysterious events which are described in these wan-
derings there is one that has particularly struck me.   Chambi re-
lates, that on the occasion of one of their numerous  halts during
the journey, the same kind of gentle and  fraternal excitement of
the feelings seized upon him and all  his companions.  A species
of invisible  mirage revealed to the whole caravan the image of
their  absent country, and threw the souls  of these pilgrims into
an indescribable state of tenderness.   What breath  from heaven
filled  all  these hearts with  the same emotion at that particular
time,  and inspired their minds with  the same thought ?  This is
one of the secrets of God and the desert.  But I love the country,
and I love  the  book where similar mysteries are offered for our
contemplation, f "
  This is also the opinion of M. Combes, junior.
  "The Oriental," he observes, "is indolent and voluptuous.   The
keff is as  necessary to  his existence as the bread he  eats or the
clothes which cover him.  An Arab, be he rich or poor, who can
not take  his keff during the journey, is a miserable man.   But
you will  ask, What is this  keff ?  There is no word in our  lan-
guage which corresponds to  it,  and even the  Italians, when they
translate  it  by the words far  niente, give but a very imperfect
idea of its true meaning.  The keff is a state of reverie;  it is the
ecstacy of repose; it is a kind of beatitude in which one is plunged,
and desires never to leave.   The Oriental  seldom thinks; the act
of thinking  fatigues him too much.  During the keff, of which
the  hours are fixed, and of which he will never voluntarily deprive
himself  on any account, his dreamy and capricious imagination is

  *  Chambi.  Sid-el-Adj-Mohammed, member of the tribe of Chambas.
  f  Des Ouvrages du General Daumas  ("Article de M. Paul de Molenes_),
Journal des Debats du 4 Mars, 1851. 
HALLUCINATIONS  CO-EXISTING WITH  SANITY.      39
without an object or a purpose ;  he delights to let it wander in
an ideal world, and to fill  itself with  vain  chimeras.   In those
hours of ecstacy every Oriental  is a poet; but he is  the poet of
egotism, and produces nothing."*
  It is to this power of the imagination that we are indebted for
those marvelous tales which are  the delight of the Oriental.   It
is  this which  peoples the interior of the earth with genii, with
magicians, with palaces filled with  treasures, and converts every
European, hunting amongst ruins for the relics of the past, into a
magician about to invoke the guardian genius of the place,  and
possess himself of its treasures.
  The state of reverie is, therefore, highly favorable to the pro-
duction of  physiological hallucinations, and explains how, in pow-
erful  thinkers, it becomes the source of their greatest achieve-
ments.
  Our object here is merely to show that hallucinations may coex-
ist with a sound state of  the reason.  The two divisions we have
established are  distinguished from each  other  by the different
intensity and vividness of  the  phenomena  which they exhibit.
Where the reason is retained, the image may preserve all the force
of the original object, but it is usually recognized as a production
of the imagination, and its  duration is short;  in insanity, on  the
contrary, the pictures of the brain have greater power than even
real objects;  they become detached  from  the  individual, they
assume an independent existence, and derange the faculties of his
mind.
   The study of psychology proves, therefore,  that hallucinations
may exist  in  man  without  the  intellect being disordered.   We
proceed, then, to relate some curious cases in support of this pro-
position, dividing them into two series:  (1) where the hallucina-
tions are corrected by the judgment;  (2)  where the hallucina-
* Combes fils: Voyage en Egypte et en Nubie. 
40
HALLUCINATIONS.
tions are not so corrected;  but in  both series the reason remains
unaffected.
   Subdivision  I.—Hallucinations coexisting  with  a  sound
state of the intellect, and corrected by the judgment.   The hal-
lucinations belonging to this division may exist for a long time.
In some instances they can be produced by an effort of the will.
   Example 1.  "A painter who succeeded to a large portion of
the practice, and (as he thought) to more than all the talent of
Sir  Joshua Reynolds, was so extensively employed,  that  he in-
formed me," says Dr. Wigan, "he had once painted (large and
small) three hundred portraits  in  one  year."   This  would seem
physically impossible; but  the  secret of his rapidity and of his
astonishing success  was this: he  required  but  one  sitting, and
painted  with miraculous facility.  I myself saw him execute a
kit-cat portrait of a gentleman well known  to me in little more
than eight hours;  it was minutely finished, and  a most striking
likeness.
   " On asking him to explain it, he said,  ' When a sitter came. I
looked at him attentively for half an hour, sketching from time to
time on the canvas.   I wanted no more—I put away my canvas,
and took another sitter.   When I wished to  resume my first por-
trait, I took the man and sat him in the chair, where I saw him
as distinctly as if he had  been before me  in  his own proper
person—I may almost say more vividly.   I looked from time to
time at  the imaginary figure, then  worked with my  pencil, then
referred to  the countenance, and so on, just as I should have done
had the sitter been there.  When I looked at the chair, I saw the
man I  This made  me very popular; and, as I always succeeded
in the likeness, people were very glad to be spared  the tedious
sittings of other painters.   I  gained a great deal of  money, and
was very careful of it.  Well  for me and  my children that it was
so.  Gradually I  began to  lose  the  distinction between the
imaginary  figure and the real  person, and  sometimes  disputed 
HALLUCINATIONS CO-EXISTING WITH SANITY.      41
with sitters that they had been with me the day before.   At last
I was sure of it, and then—and then—all is  confusion.   I sup-
pose they took the alarm.  I recollect  nothing more—I  lost my
senses—was thirty years in an asylum.   The whole period, except
the last  six  months of  my confinement, is a  dead blank in my
memory, though sometimes, when  people describe  their visits, I
have a sort of imperfect remembrance  of them; but I must not
dwell on these subjects.'"
   It is an extraordinary fact, that when this gentleman resumed
his pencil, after a lapse of thirty years, he painted nearly as well
as when  insanity compelled him to discontinue it.   His imagi-
nation was still exceedingly vivid, as was proved by the portrait I
saw him execute, for he had  only two sittings of half  an  hour
each ;  the latter solely for the dress and for the eye-brows, which
he could not  fix in his memory.
   It was found that the excitement threatened  danger, and  he
was persuaded to  discontinue the exercise of his art.   He lived
but a short time afterwards.*
   The power of evoking spectres and of peopling a solitude may
go so far as to transform the persons who are  present into phan-
toms.
   Example  2.  Hyacinthe Langlois,  a  distinguished  artist  of
Rouen, who  was very  intimate with  Talma, told  me that this
great actor had informed him, that when he entered on the stage
he was able, by the power of his will, to banish from his sight the
dress of  his numerous and brilliant audience, and to substitute in
the place of  these  living persons  so many skeletons.   When his
imagination had thus filled the theartre with these singular spec-
tators, the emotions which he experienced gave such an impulse
to his acting as to produce the most startling effects.

  * A. L. Wigan, M. D. :  A New View of Insanity.  The Duality of  the
Mind, p. 123.  London : 1844.
         4 
42                    HALLUCINATIONS.
   The hallucination is  thus, in some cases, under the control of
the will,  and would seem to be excited instantaneously.
   A hallucination, although recognized and  appreciated as such
by the person who  is the subject of it, may, by its vividness and
long continuance, produce so depressing an influence on the  mind
as to be the cause of suicide.
   Example  3.  "I knew," says Wigan, "a very intelligent and
amiable man, who had the power of thus placing before his own
eyes himself, and  often  laughed  heartily at his double, who
always seemed to laugh  in turn.   This was long a subject of
amusement and  joke;  but  the ultimate result was lamentable.
He became gradually convinced that he was  haunted  by himself,
or (to violate grammar for the sake of clearly expressing his idea)
by his self.  This other self would argue with him pertinaciously,
and, to his great mortification, sometimes refute him, which, as he
was very  proud  of his  logical powers, humiliated him exceed-
ingly.  He was eccentric, but was never placed in confinement or
subjected  to the  slightest restraint.   At length, worn out by the
annoyance, he deliberately resolved not to enter on another  year
of existence—paid all his debts—wrapped up in separate papers
the amount of the weekly demands—waited, pistol in  hand, the
night of the 31st of September, and as the clock struck twelve,
fired it into his mouth."*
  Example 4. The following case, related by a medical man of
high repute, and an intimate friend of Sir Walter Scott, is, with-
out exception, one of the most remarkable instances of a halluci-
nation which has ever been recorded :
   " It was the fortune of this gentleman to be called in to attend
the illness of a  person, now long deceased, who  in  his lifetime
stood, as I understand, high in  a particular department of the
law, which often  placed the property of others at his discretion
* Wigan : Opus cit. p. 126. 
HALLUCINATIONS CO-EXISTING WITH  SANITY.      43
 and control, and whose conduct, therefore, being  open to public
 observation, he had for many years borne the character of a man
 of unusual steadiness, good sense, and  integrity.   He was at the
 time of my friend's visits  confined principally to  his sick-room,
 sometimes to bed, yet occasionally attending to business, and ex-
 erting  his  mind, apparently  with  all  its  usual strength and
 energy, to the  conduct of important affairs  entrusted  to him; nor
 did there, to a superficial  observer, appear anything  in  his  con-
 duct, while so engaged, that  could argue  vacillation  of intellect
 or depression  of  mind.   His  outward  symptoms  of  malady
 argued no  acute or alarming disease.  But slowness  of pulse,
 absence of appetite, difficulty of digestion, and costant depression
 of spirits, seemed to draw their origin  from some hidden cause
 which  the patient was determined to conceal.   The deep gloom
 of the unfortunate gentleman—the embarrassment, which he could
 not conceal  from his friendly physician—the briefness and obvious
 constraint with which he answered the interrogations of his medi-
 cal adviser, reduced  my friend to take other methods for prosecut-
 ing his inquiries.  He applied to the sufferer's family, to learn, if
 possible, the source of that secret grief which was gnawing the
 heart and sucking the life-blood of his unfortunate patient.   The
 persons applied to,  after conversing together previously, denied
 all knowledge  of  any cause  for the  burthen which obviously
affected their relative.
   " The medical gentleman had finally recourse to serious argument
with the invalid himself, and urged to him the folly of devoting him-
self to a lingering and melancholy death.   He specially pressed upon
him the injury which he was doing to his own character, by suffering
it  to be  inferred that the secret cause of his dejection  and its
consequences was  something too scandalous or flagitious to be
made known, bequeathing in this manner to his family a suspected
and dishonored name.   The patient, more moved by this species
of appeal than  by any which had yet  been urged,  expressed his 
44
HALLUCINATIONS.
desire to speak out frankly to Dr. ----.   Every one else was re-
moved,  and the door  of  the sick-room made secure, when he
began his confession in the following manner:
  " 'You cannot, my dear friend, be more conscious than I, that
I am in the  course of dying under the oppression of the fatal
disease  which consumes my vital powers;  but neither  can you
understand the nature of my complaint  and manner in  which it
acts upon me ;  nor, if you did, I fear, could  your zeal and skill
avail to rid me of it.'   'It  is possible,'  said the physician,  'that
my  skill may not  equal  my wish of  serving you; yet medical
science has many resources, of which those unacquainted with its
powers can never form an estimate.   But until you plainly tell
me  the  symptoms of your complaint,  it is impossible for either
of us to say what may or may not be in my power, or within that
of medicine.'   'I may answer you,' replied the patient, 'that my
case is not a singular one, since we read  of it in the famous  novel
of Le Sage.   You remember, doubtless, the disease of which the
Duke d'Olivarez is there  stated  to have died?'  'Of the  idea,'
answered the medical gentleman,  ' that he was haunted by an ap-
parition, to the actual  existence of which he gave no  credit, but
died, nevertheless, because he was overcome  and heart-broken by
its imaginary presence.'   'I, my dearest doctor,'  said  the sick
man, ' am in that very case ; and so painful  and abhorrent is the
presence of the persecuting  vision, that my reason is totally in-
adequate to combat the effects of my morbid  imagination, and am
sensible I am  dying a wasted victim of imaginary disease.'   The
medical man  listened with anxiety to his patient's statement, and
for the present judiciously avoiding any  contradiction of the sick
man's  preconceived fancy,  contented himself with more minute
inquiry into the nature of the apparition with which he conceived
himself haunted, and into the history of the  mode by which so
singular a disease had made itself  master of his imagination,
secured, as it  seemed, by  strong powers of  the understanding 
HALLUCINATIONS CO-EXISTING WITH SANITY.       45
against an attack so irregular.   The sick person replied by stat-
ing that  its advances were gradual, and at first not of a terrible,
or even disagreeable, character.  To illustrate this,  he gave the
following account of the progress of his disease :
   " 'My visions,' he said, 'commenced  two or three years since,
when I found myself from time to time embarrassed by the pre-
sence of  a large cat,  which came and  disappeared  I could not
exactly tell how, till the  truth was finally forced upon me, and I
was compelled to regard  it as no domestic household cat, but as a
bubble of the elements, which  had no existence, save in  my de-
ranged visual organs or  depraved  imagination.  Still, as I am
rather a friend to cats, I  was able to endure  with much equanim-
ity the presence of my imaginary attendant, and it  had  become
almost indifferent to me;  when within the course of a few months
it gave place to, or was succeeded by, a spectre of a more  import-
ant sort, or  which at least had a more  imposing appearance.
This was no other than  the  apparition of a  gentleman-usher,
dressed as if to wait upon a Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland,  a Lord
High Commissioner of the Kirk, or any other who  bears on his
brow the rank and stamp of delegated sovereignty.
   "' This personage, arrayed in a court dress, with bag and
sword, tambored  waistcoat, and  chapeaubras, glided  beside me
like the  ghost of Beau Nash; and whether in my own house  or
in  another,  ascended the stairs  before me, as if to announce me in
the drawing-room; and  sometimes appeared to mingle with the
company, though  it was   sufficiently evident that they were  not
aware of his presence, and that  I  alone  was sensible of the
visionary honors which this imaginary being seemed  desirous  to
render me.   This freak  of the fancy did  not  produce much im-
pression on me, though it  led me to entertain doubts on the nature
of my disorder, and alarm for the effect it might produce upon my
intellects.  But  that modification of my disease also had  its ap-
pointed  duration.  After a few months the phantom  of the gen- 
46
HALLUCINATIONS.
 tleman-usher was  seen no more, but was  succeeded by one hor-
 rible  to  the  sight  and distressing to the imagination, being no
 other than the image of death itself—the  apparition  of a  skele-
 ton.  Alone or in company,' said the unfortunate individual, 'the
 presence of this last phantom never quits  me.   I in vain tell my-
 self a hundred times over that it is no reality, but merely an im-
 age summoned up by the  morbid  acuteness of my own  excited
 imagination,  and deranged  organs of sight.  But what avail such
 reflections, while the emblem at once and  presage of mortality is
 before my eyes, and while I feel myself, though in fancy only, the
 companion of a phantom representing a ghastly inhabitant of the
 grave, even while I yet breathe on the earth ?   Science,  philoso-
 phy, even religion, has no cure for such a disorder;  and I feel too.
 surely that I shall die the victim to so melancholy a disease, al-
 though I have no  belief whatever in the reality of the  phantom
 which it  places before me.'
   " The  physician was distressed to perceive, from these details,
 how strongly this visionary apparition  was fixed in the  imagina-
 tion of his  patient.  He ingeniously  urged the sick man, who
 was then in bed, with questions concerning the circumstances of
 the phantom's appearance,  trusting he  might lead him, as a sen-
 sible man, into such  contradictions  and inconsistencies as  might
 bring his  common  sense,  which  seemed to  be unimpaired, so
 strongly  into the field as  might combat successfully the fantastic
 disorder  which produced such fatal  effects.  'This skeleton, then,'
 said the doctor, ' seems to you to be always present to your eyes ? '
 ' It is my fate, unhappily,' answered  the  invalid, ' always  to see
 it.'  'Then I understand,'continued the  physician,  'it is now
 present to your imagination ? '  ' To my imagination it certainly
 is  so,' replied the sick man.   And in what part of the chamber
 do you now  conceive the apparition to appear ?'  the physician
 inquired.  'Immediately at the foot  of my bed, where the cur-
trains are left a little open,'answered the invalid;  'the skeleton, 
HALLUCINATIONS CO-EXISTING  WITH  SANITY.      47
 to my thinking, is placed between them, and fills the vacant space.'
 'You  say you are sensible  of the delusion,' said  his  friend;*
 ' have  you firmness  to convince yourself of the truth  of this ?
 Can you take courage enough to rise and place yourself in the spot
 so seeming to be occupied, and convince yourself of the illusion ? '
 The poor man sighed,  and shook  his head negatively.   'Well,'
 said the  doctor, 'we will try the experiment  otherwise.'   Ac-
 cordingly, he rose from his chair by the bedside, and placing him-
 self between  the two half-drawn curtains at the foot of the bed,
 indicated as  the  place occupied  by the apparition, asked if the
 spectre was still visible.   ' Not  entirely so,' replied  the patient,
 ' because  your person is betwixt him and me ;  but I observe his
 skull peering over your shoulder.'
   " It is alleged  the  man of science started on the  instant, de-
 spite of philosophy, on receiving an answer  asserting, with such
 minuteness, that  the ideal spectre was  close  to  his  own person.
 He resorted to other means of investigation and cure,  but with
 equally indifferent success.   The  patient  sunk  into deeper  and
deeper dejection, and died in the same distress of mind  in which
he had spent the latter  months of his life ;  and  his case remains
a melancholy instance of the power of the imagination to kill the
body, even when  its  fantastic terrors cannot overcome the intel-
lect of the unfortunate  persons who suffer  them.   The patient,  in
the present case, sunk under his malady ;  and the circumstance
of his  singular disorder  remaining concealed, he did not, by his
death and last illness, lose any of the well-merited reputation for
prudence and sagacity which had attended him  during the whole
coui-se  of his life, "t"
   In many cases, the  hallucination depends upon indisposition.

  *In  dreams  we  are frequently conscious that the apparition which
freezes us with terror has  no existence, and yet we cannot rid  ourselves
of the alarm which possesses us.
  + Walter Scott:  Letters on Demonology  and Witchcraft, p. 27.  Lon-
don : 1830. 
48                    HALLUCINATIONS.
 One of the most interesting accounts of such a case is that which
 was published some years ago, by Nicolai, a bookseller at Berlin.
   Example 5.—" In the last ten months of the year 1190, I un-
 derwent several very  severe trials, which  greatly  agitated  me.
 From the month of September in particular, repeated  shocks of
 misfortune had befallen me, which produced the deepest sorrow.
 It  had  been  usual  for me  to lose blood by venesection twice a
 year.  This was done once on the 9th of July, 1790, but towards
 the close of the year it wras omitted.
   " In the first two months of the year 1791, I was much affected
 in my mind by several incidents of a very disagreeable  nature ;
 and on the 24th  of February a  circumstance occurred which  ir-
 ritated me extremely.  At ten  o'clock  in  the forenoon  my wife
 and another person came to console me :  I was in a violent per-
 turbation  of mind, owing to a series of  incidents  which  had al-
 together wounded  my moral feelings, and from which I saw no
 possibility of relief,  when suddenly I observed, at the distance of
 ten paces from me, a figure—the figure of a deceased person.  I
 pointed at it,  and asked my wife  whether she did not see it.  She
 saw nothing,  but being  much alarmed, endeavored to compose
 me, and sent for the physician.   The figure remained some seven
 or eight minutes, and at length I became a little more calm; and
 as  I was  extremely exhausted,  I soon  afterwards  fell  into a
troubled kind of slumber, which lasted for half an hour.
  " In the afternoon, a little after four o'clock, the  figure which
 I had seen in the morning  again appeared.   I was alone when
this happened—a circumstance which, as may be easily conceived,
could not be very agreeable.   I went, therefore, to the apartment
 of my wife, to whom I related it.   But thither  also  the figure
pursued me.   Sometimes it was present, sometimes it vanished ;
but it was always the same standing  figure.  A little after  six
 o'clock several stalking figures also appeared; but they had no
connection with the  standing figure. 
HALLUCINATIONS CO-EXISTING  WITH  SANITY.      49
   "After I had recovered  from the first impression of terror, I
 never felt myself particularly agitated by these apparitions, as I
 considered them to be what they really were—the extraordinary
 consequences  of indisposition ; on the contrary, I endeavored as
 much as possible to preserve my composure of mind, that I might
 remain distinctly conscious of what  passed  within me.   I could
 trace no connection with the various figures that  thus appeared
 and disappeared to  my  sight, either with my state of mind, or
 with my employment, and the other thoughts which engaged my
 attention.
   " The figure of the deceased person never appeared to me after
 the first dreadful day ; but several  other figures  showed them-
 selves afterwards very distinctly—sometimes such as I  knew__
 mostly, however, of persons I did not know; and amongst those
 known to me were the semblances  of both  living  and deceased
 persons, but mostly the former;  and I made the observation  that
 acquaintances  with whom I daily conversed never appeared to me
 as phantasms;  it was always  such as were at a distance.   I after-
 wards  endeavored, at my own pleasure, to call forth phantoms of
 several acquaintances, whom I, for that reason, represented to my
 imagination in the most lively manner ; but in vain.   For, how-
 ever accurately I pictured to my mind the figures of such persons,
 I never once  could succeed in my  desire of seeing them exter-
 nally, though  I had some short  time before seen them as phan-
 toms, and they had  perhaps  afterwards unexpectedly presented
themselves to me in the same  manner.   I was always able to dis-
tinguish with the greatest precision  phantasms from phenomena.
I knew  extremely well when it only appeared to me that the door
 was  opened, and a phantom  entered, and  when  the door  was
really opened,  and any person came in.
   " It is also to be noted that these  figures appeared to me at all
times, and under the most different circumstances, equally distinct
and  clear.   Whether I was alone or in  company, by broad day-
 
50                    HALLUCINATIONS.
light equally as in the night time, in  my own as well as in my
neighbor's house ; yet when I was at another person's house they
were less frequent; and when I walked the public street they seldom
appeared.   When I shut my eyes sometimes  the figures disap-
peared,  sometimes they remained  even after I had closed them.
If they  vanished  in  the  former case, on opening my eyes again,
nearly the same figures appeared which I  had seen before.
   " For the most part, I saw human figures of both sexes : they
commonly passed tp and fro, as if they had no connection with
each other, like people at a fair, where all is bustle ;  sometimes
they appeared to have business with one another.  Once or twice
I saw amongst  them persons on horseback, and dogs and birds ;
these figures all appeared to me in their natural size, and as dis-
tinctly as if they had existed in real life, with the several tints on
the uncovered parts  of their body, and  with all the different kinds
and colors of clothes.  But I  think, however, that the colors were
somewhat paler than they are in nature.
   "About four weeks afterwards the numbers  of the phantasms
increased,  and I began to hear them speak;  sometimes the phan-
tasms spoke with one another, but for the  most part they ad-
dressed  themselves to me : these speeches were  in general  short,
and never  contained anything disagreeable.   Intelligent and re-
spected  friends often appeared to me, who endeavored to console
me in my grief,  which still left deep traces on my mind.
   " Though at this time I enjoyed rather  a good state of health,
both in  body and mind, and  had become so very familiar with
these phantasms, that  at last they did not  excite the least dis-
agreeable  emotion,  nevertheless  I endeavored to rid myself of
them by suitable  remedies.   It  was decided that leeches should
be  applied to the anus.  This was performed on the 20th of
April, 1791, at  eleven o'clock in the forenoon.   I was alone with
the surgeon, but during the  operation the room swarmed with hu-
man forms  of  every  description,  which crowded  fast on  one
               • ■•  «%

            •■'■  ■».     •> 
HALLUCINATIONS CO-EXISTING WITH SANITY.      51
 another;  this  continued  till half-past  four o'clock, exactly the
 time when the digestion  commences.   I  then observed that the
 figures began to move more slowly ;. soon afterwards the  colors
 became gradually paler, and at about half-past six o'clock all the
 figures were entirely white ;  they moved very little, although their
 forms  appeared perfectly distinct.  The figures did not move off,
 neither did they vanish, but in this instance they dissolved imme-
 diately into air; of  some even whole pieces  remained  for  a
 length of time, which also by degrees were  lost to the eye.  At
 about  eight o'clock there did not remain a vestige of any of them,
 and I  have never since  experienced  any appearance of the same
 kind.
   " Twice or thrice since that time I have felt a propensity, if I
 may be so allowed to express myself, or a sensation as if  I saw
 something, which in a moment again was gone."*
   We  would especially direct the attention  of the reader to  the
 physiology of these hallucinations of sight and hearing, in a man
 who carefully analyzed his sensations, and observed that his as-
 tonishing  disorder of the mind  could only  be explained by the
 mental anxiety he had undergone, and by the  disturbance in  the
 cerebral circulation  which was produced by it.
   Example 6.    "On the 26th of December, 1830," says Dr.
 Brewster,  " Mrs.  A. was standing near the fire in the hall, and on
the point of going up-stairs to dress, when she heard, as she sup-
posed, her husband's voice calling her by name, '----, come  here!
come to me ! '  She imagined that he was calling at the door to
have it opened, but, upon going there and opening the door, she
was surprised to find no one there.  Upon returning to the fire,
she again  heard  the  same voice calling  out  very distinctly and
loudly, '----•, come, come here !'  She then  opened two  doors
 of the  same room, and upou seeing no person she returned to the
fire-place.   After a few moments she heard  the  same voice still
            * Nicholson's Journal, vol. vi. p.  161.  1803. 
52                    HALLUCINATIONS.
 calling, '----,  come to me, come !  come away !' in a loud, plain-
 tive,  and somewhat impatient  tone.   She answered as  loudly,
 ' Where are you ? I don't know where you are ;' still imagining
 that he was somewhere in search of her ; but receiving no answer,
 she  shortly went up-stairs.   On Mr. A.'s return  to the house,
 about half an  hour  afterwards, she  inquired why  he had called
 her  so  often;  and  she  was,  of course, greatly surprised to learn
 that he had not been near the house at the time.
   " Subsequently, Mrs.  A had  numerous other illusions, some of
 them of a  much  more alarming character."  Brewster adds,
 " that during the six weeks within which the three  first illusions
 took place, Mrs. A. had been considerably reduced  and weakened
 by a troublesome cough.  Her general health had not been strong,
 and long experience put it beyond a doubt that her indisposition
 arose from  a disordered  state  of the digestive organs.   Her  ner-
 vous system was highly sensitive, and  the  account  of any person
 having suffered  severe pain by accident or  otherwise  occasionally
 produced acute  twinges  of pain in the corresponding parts of her
 person.   She would  talk in her sleep with great fluency, and  re-
 peat long passages of poetry, particularly  when she was  unwell.
  " From the very commencement of the  spectral illusions seen
 by Mrs. A., both she and her husband were well aware of their
 nature and  origin, and both of them paid the most minute atten-
 tion to the  circumstances which accompanied them, for the pur-
 pose of ascertaining their connection with the state of health under
 which they appeared."*
  Example 7.   "During my attendance at school  I was in fre-
 quent intercourse with a boy, whom I shall call D.; he was, in
short, my intimate acquaintance in boyhood for many years, until,
by the continued dissipation of  an  infatuated father, the circum-
stances of the family began to decline, and step by step  they  be-
* Brewster : Opus cit. pp. 39-48. 
HALLUCINATIONS CO-EXISTING WITH SANITY.      53
came reduced to the  greatest wretchedness.   In the course of a
few years D.  was sent to sea, as the speediest method of getting
rid of  him.   I  consequently lost sight of him for many years,
until at length I heard that he had returned to his wretched home,
laboring  under symptoms of advanced consumption.   He was
attended during his illness by Dr. C,  and three months after his
return  home  he died.   I was requested to attend the inspection
of the  body, and it will readily be believed that many reflections
of a sad and  painful nature occurred to me, producing an impres-
sion on my mind which several  years  failed  to dissipate.   This
occurred in 1835, and three years  afterwards, the circumstances
of the  family having continued  the  same, their unhappy case was
again called to me in  the following singular manner : One even-
ing, at the time when I was daily in the habit of seeing spectral
illusions, I was engaged in reading Tytler's Life of the  Admira-
ble Crichton, for a considerable  time after  the rest of the family
had retired for the night; and after I had finished my book, and
was  on the point of proceeding to my bed-room, I saw a letter
lying on a side-table, which proved to be an invitation  to attend
the funeral of D.'s mother.  This was the first  intimation  I had
had of  her death; and many painful circumstances connected with
her unhappy life, which need not be mentioned  here, immediately
occurred to me.   I proceeded to my bed-room, reflecting on these
circumstances, undressed myself,  and had extinguished the candle,
when I felt  my  left  arnr suddenly grasped a little below the
shoulder, and forcibly pressed to my  side.   I struggled to free
myself for a  time, calling  aloud, 'Let  go my arm,'when I dis-
tinctly  heard the words, 'Don't  be  afraid,' uttered in a low tone.
I immediately said, 'Allow me  to light the candle,' when  I felt
my arm released, and I  then  proceeded to another part of the
room for means to light the candle,  never for a moment  doubting
but that some one was  in  the room.   I at the same time felt an
uneasy giddiness and faintness, which almost overpowered me.  I 
54                    HALLUCINATIONS.
 succeeded, however, in lighting the candle, and, turning towards
 the door, I beheld the figure of the deceased D.  standing  before
 me.   It was dim and indistinct, as if a haze had been between us,
 but at the same time perfectly defined.   By an impulse I cannot
 account for, I stepped towards it with the candle in my hand ; it
 immediately receded at the same rate as I advanced, and proceed-
 ing thus, with the face always towards me, it passed through  the
 door slowly down-stairs until we came to the lobby, when it stood
 still.  I passed close to it, and opened the street door ; but at this
 moment I became so giddy that I sank down on one of the chairs,
 and let fall the candle.  I cannot say how long I remained in this
 situation; but, on recovering,  I  felt a violent  pain over my  eye-
 brows, with considerable  sickness, and indistinctness of vision.  I
 passed a feverish and restless  night, and  continued in an uneasy
 state during the following day.  I was always able to distinguish
 the different colors of the clothes, and I had never seen the indi-
 vidual during  life dressed in a similar way.  In all its characters
 it approximated the illusions of fever more than any other which
 I have witnessed, and I never for a moment could have considered
 it a real object.   It  is difficult, in this instance, to find any other
 exciting cause, except the pain felt in my arm, which  I now refer
 to cramp of the  triceps  muscle  acting  on the peculiar state of
 mind incident  to spectral  illusions, together with a powerful imag-
ination, already  greatly excited by the preculiar circumstance of
the case.  I may state that  I have felt the same feeling in the arm
 since,  without  associating it with any similar consequences."*
  Example 8.  Along with the preceding case we may place  one
that has been published by Bostock.  " I was laboring," says  this
physiologist, " under a fever attended with symptoms of general
debility, especially of the nervous system,  and with a severe pain
of the head, which was confined to.a small spot situated above the
* Paterson : Loc. cit. p. 84. 
HALLUCINATIONS CO-EXISTING WITH  SANITY.      55
 right  temple.   After having  passed a sleepless night, and being
 reduced to a state of considerable exhaustion,  I  first  perceived
 figures presenting  themselves  before me, which I immediately re-
 cognized as similar  to  those described by Nicolai;  and upon
 which, as I was free from delirium, and  as they were visible for
 about three days and nights,  with little intermission,  I was  able
 to make my observations.  There were  two circumstances which
 appeared to me very remarkable :  first, that the spectral appear-
 ances always followed the motion of the  eyes ; and secondly,  that
 the objects which were the best defined, and remained the  longest
 visible, were such  as I had no recollection of ever  having  pre-
 viously seen.   For about twenty-four hours I had constantly be-
 fore me a human figure, the features and dress of which were as
 distinctly visible as that of any real existence,  and  of which, after
 an interval of many years, I still retain the most lively impression;
 yet, neither at the time nor since, have I  been able to  discover any
 person whom I  had previously  seen that resembled  it.
   " During one part of this  disease, after the disappearance of
 this stationary phantom, I had a very singular and amusing  im-
 agery  presented to me.   It appeared as  if a  number of objects,
 principally human  faces or figures, on a  small  scale,  were  placed
 before me, and gradually removed, like a succession of medallions.
 They were all of the  same size, and  appeared to be all situated
 at the same distance from the face.   After one had been seen for
 a few minutes it became fainter, and then another, which was more
 vivid, seemed to be laid upon it or substituted  in its place, which
 in its turn was  superseded by a new appearance.  During all this
succession of scenery, I do not  recollect that, in a single instance,
 I saw any-,object with which I  had been previously acquainted;
nor, as far as I am aware, were the representations of  any of those
objects, with which  my mind was the most occupied at other times,
presented to  me ; they appeared to be invariably new  creations,
or at least new combinations, of which I  could  not trace the orig-
inal materials."* 
56                    HALLUCINATIONS.
   "'If it is asked,' adds  Conolly, 'how it was that Nicolai and
 the  English physiologist did not lose  their reason,' the ready
 answer will  be, ' they never believed in the reality of these visions.'
 But why did they not ?   And why does the madman believe  in
 their real existence?  The evidence to both is the same — the
 plain evidence of sense.   No evidence one would think could be
 better.  Were  not Nicolai  and Dr. Bostock rather to be called
 mad for not believing their senses than others who do ?   The ex-
 planation  must be this :  The printer of Berlin, and the physician
 in London,  retained  the  power of  comparison : they compared
 certain objects represented to their sight with other objects repre-
 sented to the same sense, and concluded that so many persons as
 they represented to them could not pass through their chamber ;
 they compared  with those actually present, and whose inattention
 to the spectres  they concluded  to be a proof of  their  non-exist-
 ence to their eyes; they compared the visual objects of delusion
 with the impression of other senses, of hearing, and of touch,  and
 acquired further evidence that the whole was deception.   This is
 exactly what madmen cannot do."
   These examples, therefore, lead us to suspect what many other
 examples  will be brought to show, that madness consists of a loss
 or impairment of  one or more of the mental faculties, accompa-
 nied by the  loss of comparison, f  A state of weakness, of con-
 valescence, of fainting, and the condition which precedes  the  act
 of drowning, will sometimes give rise to hallucinations.
   Leuret, in his  Fragments Psychologiques, relates  a circum-
stance which happened to himself:
   Example  9.  "I was attacked," says this physician, "with in-
fluenza, and  my medical attendants ordered me  to  be bled.   A
quarter of an hour after the operation I became faint, without en-

  * Bostock: System of Physiology, vol. iii. p. 204.
  f Conolly :  An Inquiry concerning the  Indications of Insanity, p.  112
London: 1830. 
HALLUCINATIONS CO-EXISTING WITH SANITY.      57
 tirely  losing my consciousness ;  this  state  continued  for more
 than eight hours.   When some one first came to my assistance, I
 distinctly heard the noise of a bottle  being  placed on the table
 by the side of  ray bed, and soon afterwards  a crepitating sound,
 like  that which arises from the action of strong acid on a piece of
 carbonate  of lime.   I thought that some acid had been spilt on
 the marble table, and I admonished the persons in attendance of
 their carelessness.   At first they thought I  was dreaming, then,
 that I was delirious; they next endeavored to undeceive me,  and
 assured me that there  was no bottle  on  the table, nor had  any
 acid been spilt.   I  was then aware that I  had been the subject of
 a hallucination,  and believed in  what  I was  told  rather than in
 what I had heard.   But the noise was so  distinct that, had it not
 been for my experience amongst  the hallucinated, I should,  like
 them, have been deceived by this singular phenomenon."
   M. Andral  experienced a similar illusion; it seemed to  him
 during some minutes that a dead body was stretched out in  the
 room, where he  was confined to  his bed on account of indisposi-
 tion.   This vision arose from the vivid recollection of the effect
 produced upon him by the sight of a dead body the first time he
 entered a lecture room.
  It frequently happens after having held the  head down for some
 time, that on raising it up we feel  ourselves giddy and bewildered;
 we see bright lights before our eyes, and experience a disagreeable
singing in  the  ears.  In some persons this position will give  rise
to hallucinations.
  Example 10.  "A  woman was  engaged to  clean  a house
which  had for  some time been uninhabited; and when she  was
employed in  washing  the stairs  she saw, on accidentally lifting
her head, the  feet  and legs of a gigantic woman; and, greatly
alarmed at such an apparition, fled from the  house without wait-
ing for the further development of the  figure.  "*
                   * Conolly: Opus cit. p. 101. 
58
HALLUCINATIONS.
  A gentleman of high attainments was constantly haunted by a
spectre when he retired to rest, which seemed to attempt his life.
When he raised himself in bed, the  phantom vanished, but reap-
peared as he resumed the recumbent posture.*
  Great  excitement, a  preoccupied state of the mind, or an as-
sociation of ideas, that cannot always  be explained, may repro-
duce an event which has  been forgotten, and give rise to a vivid
external picture of it;  this is shown by the following case, which
was recorded by the medical man to whom it occurred :
  Example 11.  "A  middle-aged respectably dressed man, a
stranger  in  Edinburgh, expired  suddenly in an  omnibus.   The
body was placed in the  police-office.  The next day I was ordered
to make an examination,  and report on the cause of death.
  " On entering the apartment where the body lay,  clad as when
in life,  and attired as for a journey, I was informed  of the affect-
ing incident narrated above, and  I naturally felt deeply interested
by a calamity in itself so appalling, and probably most  painfully
eventful to others."
  The circumstance had, however, passed out of the mind of the
writer, when it was recalled to him in the following manner:
  " I had been employed  for a few days in writing on a profes-
sional subject;  and it so  happened that, of a forenoon, when thus
engaged, on raising my  eyes from the paper,  the  vision of the
dead stranger stood before me,  with a distinctness of outline as
perfect as when I first saw him  extended on a board.   His very
apparel was identical,  only that the broad-brim hat, which was
formerly by his  side, now covered his head; his eyes were directed
towards  me ; the  peculiar benignity of expression, which before
struck me so much, now beamed  from his countenance.  In a few
minutes he disappeared, "f
* Dendy :  Opus cit. p. 290.  t Paterson :  Loc. cit. p. 86. 
HALLUCINATIONS CO-EXISTING WITH  SANITY.       59
  All  mental labor, by over-exciting the brain, is liable to give
rise  to hallucinations.   We have  known many persons, and
amongst others a medical man, who,  when it was night, distinctly
heard voices calling to them ;  some would stop to reply, or would
go to the door, believing they heard  the bell ring.   This disposi-
tion  seems to us not uncommon in persons who are in the habit of
talking aloud to themselves.
  Example  12.   We read in Abercrombie's work, the case of a
gentleman "who has been  all his  life affected by the appearance
of spectral figures.  To such an extent does this peculiarity exist,
that, if he meets a friend in the street, he  cannot at first satisfy
himself whether he really sees the individual or a spectral figure.
By close attention, he can remark a difference between them, in the
outline of the real figure being more distinctly defined than that
of the spectral; but in general he takes  means for correcting  his
visual  impression by touching the figure, or by listening to the
sound  of his footsteps.   He has also  the power of calling  up
spectral figures at his will, by directing  his attention steadily to
the conception  of his own mind;  and this may consist either of a
figure or a scene which he  has seen,  or it may be a  composition
created by his imagination.   But, though he has the faculty of
producing  the illusion, he  has no power  of  vanishing  it; and
when he has called up any particular spectral figure or scene, he
never can say how long it may continue to  haunt him.   The gen-
tleman is in the prime of life,  of sound mind, in good health, and
engaged in  business.  Another of his family has been affected in
the same manner, though in a slight  degree."*
  Subdivision II.—Hallucinations coexisting with a sound
state of the intellect, but not corrected  by the judgment.—In a
letter addressed some years back to  M. Bernard d'Apt, who had
requested me to give him  my opinion  on spiritualism, I frankly

  * Abercrombie:  Inquiries concerning the Intellectual  Powers, p. 380.
Eleventh edition.  London: 1841. 
60
HALLUCINATIONS.
 acknowledged my sympathies for that great creed.  This question
 has  also been  examined  by M. Guizot with his usual ability.
 With him we believe that the  very existence of society depends
 upon it.   It is  in vain that modern philosophy, which, in spite of
 its 2)ositiveness, is unable to explain the actual cause of any single
 phenomenon, attempts to reject the  supernatural;  this  element
 shows itself  every where, and is deeply rooted in the hearts of all.
# The greatest intellects are frequently  its most fervent disciples.
   Dr.  Sigmond, in his remarks on hallucinations, goes even'rar-
 ther, for  he  says,  " there is scarcely a man of eminence who has
 written his biography, or laid open the secrets of his inmost soul,
 but has acknowledged some preternatural event in his life;  the
 most skeptical have felt, at some period  or other, a mental emo-
 tion, either a fantasia or a hallucination."*
   It is thus that  hallucinations  are often  mistaken for realities,
 however improbable they may seem to  those who experience them ;
 but,  at the  same time, the reason is not affected by them.   The
 individual has witnessed a remarkable  event, of which he gives
 some explanation more or less plausible, but  privately, through a
 particular disposition of the  mind; from a tendency to supersti-
 tion, or rather to  the supernatural, he is led to regard it as  the
 forerunner of some  important event, or of some high destiny, as
 an inspiration from  heaven, or  as  a  warning  from Providence.
 Many great  men have believed in the existence of their  star, or
 their guardian  spirit, and hence they have not been  unprepared
 to witness the appearance  of miraculous apparitions.   The  dis-
 tinctive character of these hallucinations is, that they do not  pre-
 judice the conduct, and the individual may maintain in the world
 a high  reputation for virtue,  ability, and wisdom; often, indeed,
 we believe they have served as an additional  stimulus to the indi-
 vidual in carrying out the projects he  had previously conceived.

   * Forbes Winslow's Psychological Journal, vol i. p. 586. 
HALLUCINATIONS CO-EXISTING  WITH  SANITY.      61
    Many instances of this kind have occurred, the truth of which
 is  guaranteed by the high position of the persons themselves, and
 by the undoubted veracity of those who were present.
    Example 13.  In 1806, General Rapp, on his return from the
 siege of Dantzic, having occasion to speak to the Emperor, enter-
 ed his cabinet without being announced.   He found him  in such
 profound meditation that his entrance was not noticed.   The gen-
 eral, seeing that he did not move, was  afraid  he might be indis-
 posed, and purposely made a noise.  Napoleon immediately turn-
 ed round,  and seizing Rapp by the arm, pointed to the heavens,
 saying,  " Do you see that ?"  The general made no reply  ; being
 interrogated a second time, he answered that he perceived nothing.
 " What!" responded the emperor, " you did not discover it ?   It
 is my star, it is immediately in front of  you, most brilliant;" and,
 becoming  gradually more excited, he  exclaimed,  " It  has never
 abandoned me;  I behold it on all  great occasions; it  commands
 me to advance,  and that to me is a sure sign  of success."   M.
 Passy, who had  this anecdote from Rapp himself, related it at the
 meeting of the  Academie des  Sciences Morale et Politique, on
 the 4th of April, 1846.
  Example  14.   "It is now  more than thirty-five years ago,"
 says Dr. Winslow, " that the following  singular  circumstance oc-
 curred to  the Marquis of Londonderry: He was  on a visit to a
 gentleman  in the north of Ireland.   The mansion was such a one
 as  spectres are  fabled  to  inhabit.  The apartment, also, which
 was appropriated to  his lordship, was  calculated to foster  such a
 tone of feeling  from its  antique character; from  the  dark and
richly-carved panels of its wainscot; from  its yawning chimney,
looking like the  entrance to a tomb; from the portraits of grim
men and women  arrayed in  orderly procession  along  the walls,
 and scowling a contemptuous enmity against the degenerate  in-
 vader of their gloomy bowers and venerable halls ;  and from the
 vast, dusky, ponderous, and complicated draperies that  concealed 
62                    HALLUCINATIONS.
the windows, and hung with the gloomy grandeur of funeral trap-
pings about the hearse-like piece  of furniture that, was destined
for his bed.  Lord Londonderry examined his chamber; he made
himself acquainted with the forms  and  faces of the ancient  pos-
sessors of the  mansion as they sat upright in their ebony frames
to receive his salutation; and then, after dismissing his valet, he
retired to bed.   His candle had not long been extinguished when
he perceived a light gleaming on the draperies of the lofty canopy
over his  head.   Conscious  that  there was no  fire in his grate,
that the  curtains were closed, that the chamber had been in per-
fect darkness but a few minutes previously, he supposed that some
intruder  must have entered into  his  apartment; and,  turning
round  hastily to the side from whence the light proceeded, he, to
his infinite astonishment, saw, not the form of any  human visitor,
but the figure of a fair boy surrounded by a halo of glory.   The
spirit stood at some distance from his bed.  Certain that his own
faculties were not deceiving him, but suspecting he might be im-
posed on by the  ingenuity of some of the numerous guests  who
were then inmates of the castle, Lord Londonderry advanced to-
wards  the figure;  it retreated before him;  as he advanced, the
apparition retired, until it  entered the gloomy end of the capa-
cious chimney, and then sunk into the earth.   Lord Londonderry
returned  to  his bed, but not to rest; his mind was harrassed  by
the consideration of the extraordinary event which had  occurred
to him.  Was it real, or the effect of an excited imagination ?
The mystery was not so easily solved.
   " He resolved in the morning to make  no allusion to what had
occurred  the previous  night, until he  had watched carefully the
faces  of  all  the  family, to  discover whether any  deception had
been practiced.   When  the guests  assembled at breakfast,  his
lordship searched in vain for those latent smiles, those conscious
looks,  that  silent communication  between  parties, by which the
authors and abettors of such domestic conspiracies are generally 
HALLUCINATIONS CO-EXISTING WITH  SANITY.      63
betrayed.    Everything  apparently  proceeded  in its  ordinary
course ; the conversation was  animated and uninterrupted, and
no indication was given that any one present had  been engaged
in the  trick.   At last, the hero of the  tale  found himself com-
pelled to narrate the singular event of the preceding night.   He
related every  particular connected with the appearance of the
spectre.  It excited much interest among the auditors, and vari-
ous were the  explanations offered.   At  last, the gentleman who
owned the castle interrupted the various surmises by observing,
that ' the circumstance which had just been recounted must natu-
rally appear very extraordinary to those who have not been in-
mates  long at the castle, and are not conversant with the legends of
his family :' then, turning to Lord Londonderry, he said :  ' You
have seen the  'Radiant Boy.'  Be content, it is an omen  of pros-
perous fortunes.  I would  rather that  this subject should  not
again be mentioned.'
   " On another  occasion, when in the House of Commons, Lord
Castlereagh fancied he saw  the same 'Radiant Boy.'   It is well
known that this nobleman destroyed himself by cutting the carotid
artery.  It is possible that  when impelled to suicide he labored
under some mental  delusion."*
  Example 15.  " The following curious circumstances  are re-
lated in a biography of Charles Jean Bernadotte, published in a
journal at  Pau, the town in which the late King of Sweden was
born :
  ".....There are certain destines which have singular mys-
teries attached to them.   The astonishing success  of Bernadotte
is said to have been foretold to him  by  the same celebrated for-
tune-teller  who  predicted that of Bonaparte, and who  so  fully
possessed the  superstitious confidence of the  Empress Josephine.

  * Forbes Winslow : Anatomy of  Suicide.  One vol. 8vo. p. 242.   Lon-
don : 1840. 
64                    HALLUCINATIONS.
   " Like all men who feel within themselves a power which urges
them on to fortune, or which impels them to extract the means of
it out of favorable events, Bernadotte believed in his special and
independent destiny, and in a kind of tutelar divinity, who vouch-
safed to him a special protection.  An ancient chronicle  of his
family is said to have contained  the prediction of a certain fairy,
who  had married one  of his ancestors, that an  illustrious king
should spring from  her  race.   In  olden  times every family in
these parts possessed its guardian genius, who watched over its
safety.  Bernadotte never forgot the legend which  had charmed
his early days, and possibly it was not without its influence over
the glorious destiny of this great man."
   There is an  event which shows how greatly the supernatural
had preserved its influence over the mind of the King of Sweden.
Wishing to overcome the difficulties he encountered in Norway by
means of the sword, he proposed to dispatch his son Oscar  at the
head of an army, for the purpose of reducing the rebels, a pro-
ceeding which was strongly opposed  by the Council  of State.
One  day, after an animated discussion on the subject, he mounted
his horse and galloped some way from the capital; having gone
a considerable distance, he arrived at the outskirts of a dark forest.
Suddenly he beheld  an  old woman, strangely clad, and with  her
hair in disorder. " What do you want ? " asked the king, sharply.
To which the apparition replied, "If Oscar goes  to the war  you
meditate, he will not give, but receive, the first blow."  Berna-
dotte, struck with  the apparition and its words, returned to his
palace.   The next day, bearing in his countenance the traces of a
sleepless night, and in  a state  of great agitation, he presented
himself  at  the  council.   " I have changed my mind," he said;
" we will negotiate for peace ; but I must have honorable terms."
What was  the  cause of  the  sudden change ?  Had those who
knew the weak point in the character of the great man endeavored
to avail themselves of it in favor of justice, reason, and humanity ? 
HALLUCINATIONS CO-EXISTING WITH SANITY.       65
Or is it not more probable that the idea which occupied his mind,
and, as constantly happens in dreams, and  even in the waking
state, had assumed a visible form, and the mental operation was
mistaken for an actual  occurrence ?  This explanation seems to
us  much more reasonable than that  an  old  woman  should have
been able to place herself in the exact locality whither the caprice
of the king had led him.*
   Example 16.   M. de Chateaubriand  relates, in  his  Life of
31. Ranee, that one day this celebrated man was walking in the
avenue of his chateau of Yeretz, when he thought he saw a great
fire which  issued from  some buildings in the  outer court.  He
ran towards it, but in proprotion as he approached the fire dimin-
ished.   At  a certain distance the conflagration  disappeared, and
was converted  into a lake of fire, in the midst of which was the
half-length figure of  a female devoured by the flames.
   Greatly alarmed, he retraced his steps,  and took the pathway
leading to the house.  When he arrived  there he was completely
exhausted, and fell fainting on his bed. He was  so beside himself
that those around could not obtain a single word from him.f
   It would  be easy to mention many  examples of illustrious men
who have  been subject to hallucinations of this kind, without
their having in any way influenced their conduct.
   Thus, Malbranche declared  he  heard  the voice of  God  dis-
tinctly within him.   Descartes, after long confinement,  was fol-
lowed  by an  invisible person, calling upon  him to pursue the
search of truth.J
   Byron occasionally fancied  he was visited  by a spectre, which
he confesses was but the effect of an over-stimulated brain. §
   The celebrated Dr. Johnson said that  he  distinctly heard his

  *Presse du 14 Mai, 1844.
   f Vie de Ranee, par Chateaubriand.   Paris:  1844.
  f Forbes Winslow :  Opus cit. p.  123.          § Idem, p. 126. 
66                    HALLUCINATIONS.
mother's voice call " Samuel."   This was at a time when she was
residing a long way off.
  Pope, who suffered much from intestinal disease, one day asked
his medical man what the arm was which seemed to come out of
the wall.
  Goethe  positively asserts that he  one  day saw the exact coun-
terpart of himself coming towards  him ((Euvres  Completes,  t.
xxvi. p. 83).  The German psj-chologists give the name of Deu-
teroscopia to this species of illusion.
  The  silence and  horror of a dungeon serve to explain the oc-
currence  of  hallucinations in some persons remarkable for  their
genius  and their  talents.  As,  in the preceding cases, the false
sensations were taken for realities, but without the reason being
affected—a result which seems to have depended upon the opin-
ions  and religious belief of the times, and upon these errors not
injuriously affecting the habits of the persons who were liable to
them.
  Example 17.   Benvenuto  Cellini,  who  was  imprisoned at
Rome by  order of the  Pope, has given an interesting account of
his sufferings in  the memoirs which he has left of his life.   "As
soon," he says, " as the  light failed me, I felt all the misery of my
confinement, and  grew  so  impatient, that I  several  times  was
going to lay violent hands upon myself; however, as I was not
allowed a knife, I had  not  the means of carrying my design into
execution.   I once, notwithstanding, contrived to place a thick
plank of wood over my head, and  dropped it in such a manner
that, if it had fallen upon me, it would instantly have crushed me to
death ; but,  when I had put the whole pile in readiness,  and was
just going to loosen the plank and let it fall upon my head, I was
seized by something invisible,  pushed four cubits from the place,
and terrified to such  a degree that I  was become  almost in-
sensible.
  " Having  afterwards reflected within  myself what it could be 
HALLUCINATIONS CO-EXISTING WITH SANITY.      67
that prevented me from carrying my design into execution, I took
it for granted  that it was some divine power, or, in  other words,
my guardian angel.   There afterwards in the night appeared to
me in a dream a wonderful being, which in form resembled a beau-
tiful youth,and said to me in a reprimanding tone, 'Do you know
who gave you  that body which you would  have destroyed before
the time of its dissolution ? '   My imagination was impressed as
if  I had answered, that I acknowledged to have received it from
the great God of Nature.   ' Do you, then,' replied he,  ' despise
his gifts, that you attempt to deface  and destroy them?  Trust
in his providence, and never give way to despair whilst his divine
assistance is at hand ;' with many more admirable  exhortations,
of which I cannot now recollect the thousandth part."
   His sufferings  were increased, and  "at this juncture the in-
visible being that had prevented my laying  violent hands  upon
myself came to ine, still invisible, but spoke with an audible voice,
shook me, made me rise up, and said :  ' Benvenuto I  Benvenuto !
lose no  time, raise your heart to God  in fervent devotion, and cry
to him  with the utmost  vehemence !'   Being seized  with sudden
consternation,  I fell upon my knees, and said several prayers, to-
gether with the whole psalm,
      'He that  dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High,' &c.
I then,  as it were, spoke with  God for awhile, and  in an instant
the same  voice, altogether clear  and  audible, said to me, ' Take
your repose, and  now fear nothing.'
   "The strongest,  and  almost  only  desire which  animated my
breast,  was an earnest longing to see the sun, the golden orb of
day !    So continuing to  pray, with the same earnestness and fer-
vor of  devotion  to  Jesus  Christ, I thus delivered myself:  '0
thou true Son of God !  I beseech thee, by thy birth,  by thy death
upon the cross, and by thy glorious resurrection, that thou wouldst
deem me worthy to see the sun, in  my dreams at least,  if it can- 
68                   HALLUCINATIONS.
not be otherwise!  but, if thou thinkest me worthy of seeing it
with these mortal eyes, I promise to visit thee at thy holy sepul-
chre 1'   These vows did I make, and these prayers did I put up
to God, on the 2d  of October, 1539.   When the next morning
came I  awoke at daybreak, almost an  hour before sunrise, and,
having quitted my  wretched couch, I put on a  waistcoat, as it
began to be coolish, and prayed with greater devotion than ever
I had done before :  I earnestly entreated Christ that he would be
graciously pleased  to favor  me with a  divine inspiration, to let
me know for what offense I was so severely punished; and, since
his divine majesty did not think me fit to behold the sun even in a
dream, I besought him by his power and goodness, that he would
at least deem  me worthy of knowing the cause of such rigorous
chastisement.   When I had uttered these words, my invisible
guide hurried me away like  a whirlwind to an apartment, where
he unveiled himself to me in a human form, having the figure of
a youth with the first down upon his cheeks, and of a most beau-
tiful countenance, on which a particular  gravity was conspicuous ;
he then showed  me innumerable  figures upon the walls of the
apartment, and said to me,   ' All those  men whom  you see thus
represented are such as have here finished their mortal career.'
I  then asked  him why he brought me  thither ?  To this he an-
swered, ' Come forward, and you  will soon know the reason.'   I
happened to have in my hand a little dagger, and on my back a
coat of mail;  so he led me through that spacious apartment, and
showing me those who traveled several ways to the distance of
an infinite number of miles, he conducted me forward,  went out at
a little door into a place which appeared like a narrow street, and
pulled me after him : upon coming out of the spacious apartment
into this street I found myself unarmed,  and in a white shirt, with-
out anything on  my head, standing at the right of my companion.
When I saw myself in this situation I was in great astonishment,
because I did  not know what street I was in; so, lifting up my 
HALLUCINATIONS CO-EXISTING WITH SANITY.       69
eyes, I saw a  high wall on which the sun darted  his refulgent
rays.  I then said, ' 0, my friend, how shall I contrive to raise
myself so as to be able to see the sphere of the sun ?'  He there-
upon showed me  several steps which  were upon my right hand,
and bade me ascend them.   Having gone to a little distance from
him, I mounted several of those steps backwards, and began by
little to see the approaching sun.  I ascended as fast as I could,
in the  manner  above  mentioned, so that I  at last discovered the
whole  solar orb;  and because  its powerful rays dazzled  me,  I,
upon perceiving  the  cause of it,  opened  my eyes, and looking
steadfastly on  the  great luminary, exclaimed: ' 0 brilliant sun !
whom  I have so long wished to  behold;  I  from henceforward
desire to behold no other object, though the  fierce  lustre of thy
beams quite overpowers and blinds me.'  In this manner  I stood
with my eyes fixed on the sun;  and after  I  had continued thus
wrapped up for some time, I saw the whole force of his rays
united fall on the left side of his  orb, and the rays being removed,
I, with  great delight  and equal astonishment, contemplated the
body of the glorious  luminary,  and could  not but  consider the
concentrating of its beams upon the left as a most extraordinary
phenomenon.   I meditated profoundly on the  divine grace which
had  manifested itself to me this morning,  and thus  raised my
voice:  ' 0  wonderful  power!  0 glorious  influence  divine ! how
much more beauteous art thou to me than I expected !'   The sun
divested of its  rays  appeared  a ball of  purest  melted gold.
Whilst  I gazed on this noble phenomenon, I saw the  centre  of
the sun  swell and bulge out, and in a moment there appeared a
Christ upon the Cross, formed of the self-same matter as the sun ;
and so gracious and pleasing was  his aspect, that no human im-
agination could ever form so much as a faint idea of such beauty.
As I was contemplating this glorious apparition, I cried out aloud,
' A miracle !  a miracle 1  O God !  O clemency divine !  0 good-
ness infinite ! What mercies dost  thou lavish on me this morn- 
70
HALLUCINATIONS.
ing!'  At the very time that I thus meditated and uttered these
words, the figure of Christ began to move towards the side where
the rays were concentrated, and the middle of the sun swelled and
bulged out as  at first.   The protuberance having  increased con-
siderably, was at last converted into the figure of a beautiful Yir-
gin  Mary, who  appeared to sit with her son in her arms, in  a
graceful  attitude, and  even to smile.   She  stood  between two
angels of  so divine a beauty, that imagination could not even form
an idea of such  perfection.  I likewise saw in the same sun  a
figure dressed in sacerdotal robes; this figure turned its back to
me, and looked towards the blessed Yirgin holding Christ in her
arms.  All these things I clearly  and plainly saw, and with  a
loud voice continued to return thanks to  the Almighty.   This
wonderful phenomenon  having appeared before me about  eight
minutes, vanished from  my sight, and  I was  instantly conveyed
back to my couch."*
  In the two examples which follow, the apparitions may be par-
tially explained by the sympathies which exist between members
of the same family, and in whom we have often noticed a common
psychological character,  especially between the husband and wife,
producing not only the same expression of cCuntenance, but even
the same tone of thought.  Such persons will frequently inter-
change their thoughts without any direct communication with each
other, but, as it were, by a kind of divination.
  Example 18.   " One moaning, in 1652, Philip, the second Earl
of Chesterfield, saw a thing in white, like a standidg sheet, with-
in a  yard of his bedside.   He attempted to catch  it, but it slid
to the  foot of the bed,  and he saw  it no more.   His thoughts
turned to  his lady, who was then at Networth, with her father,
the Earl of Northumberland.   On  his arrival  at Networth, a

  * The Life of Benvenuto  Cellini.  Translated from the  original by
Thomas Nugent, LL.D., F.S.A. 
HALLUCINATIONS CO-EXISTING WITH SANITY.      71
footman met him on the stairs with a packet directed to him from
his wife, whom he  found  with Lady Essex, her sister, and  Mrs.
Ramsay.   He was asked  why he returned so suddenly.   He told
his motive; and on  perusing  the  letters in the packet, he found
that his lady had written to him, requesting his return, for she had
seen a thing in white, with a  black face, by her bedside.  These
apparitions were seen by the Earl and Countess at the same mo-
ment, when they were forty miles asunder."*
   Example 19.   A youth  of eighteen, having no tendency to
enthusiasm or romance, and with an entire absence of superstition,
was residing at Ramsgate for the benefit of his health.   In  a
ramble to one of the  neighboring villages, he  happened to go
into a church towards the  close of day, and was struck aghast by
the spectre of his mother, who had died some months before of a
painful and lingering disease,  an object of great compassion and
commiseration.   The figure stood between him and the wall, and
remained  for a considerable time without motion.  Almost faint-
ing, he hastened home ; and the same spectre appearing to him
in his own room for several  successive evenings, he felt quite  ill
from the agitation,  and  hastened off to Paris to join his father,
who was living there.   At the same time he determined  to say
nothing of the vision, lest he should add  to  the distress already
weighing  him  down, from the loss of a tender and  affectionate
wife, the object of his unbounded love.
   " Being compelled to sleep in the same room with his father,
he was surprised to observe that a light was kept burning all the
night,  and for  which there  had  always been previously  a great
dislike.  After several hours of watchfulness from the effect of the
lio-ht, the  son ventured out of bed  to  extinguish it.   His father
soon after woke up in great agitation, and commanded him to re-
light  it, which he did, much wondering at the  anger displayed

  * Dendy:  Opus cit. p. 27.  From a letter of Philip, the second Earl of
Chesterfield. 
72
HALLUCINATIONS.
and the marks  of terror on his father's countenance.  On asking
the reason of the alarm,  he  was put  off by some vague excuse,
and told at some future time he would be informed of it.
   "A week or more  had elapsed, when, finding  his  own rest so
very much disturbed by the light, he once more, when his father
appeared in a  sound sleep, ventured to extinguish it;  but  the
father almost immediately jumped out of bed in  the greatest  tre-
pidation, remonstrated with him  on his disobedience, re-lighted
the lamp, and told him that whenever he was left in the dark the
spectre  of his deceased wife appeared to him, and remained  im-
movable till he  could again obtain a light, when it disappeared.
   " This made  a strong impression on the boy's mind ; and fear-
ing to aggravate his father's grief should he relate the Ramsgate
adventure, he soon after left Paris, and went to  an inland town
about sixty miles off, to visit his brother, who was at school there,
and to whom he had not communicated what had  occurred  to
himself, for fear  of ridicule.   He had  scarcely entered the house
and exchanged  the usual salutations, when the son of the school-
master said to him, ' Has your brother ever shown any signs of in-
sanity ?  for he has behaved very strangely lately.  He came down
stairs the other  night in his shirt, in the greatest alarm, declared
he had seen his  mother's ghost, and dared not go into  his room
again, and then fainted away from excess of terror.' "
   " Had there  been a coincidence in point of  time," adds Dr.
Wigan, " how would this have seemed to corroborate the super-
stitious belief that the spirits of the dead return  to  the  earth ? "
This argument  does not seem to us so irresistible as to  Dr. Wi-
gan ; for in the case of the Earl of Chesterfield, the vision did oc-
cur at  the same time.   With respect to the vision appearing to
three different people, it may be explained by the strong affection
which they had  for the deceased, by  her dying  under the most
distressing circumstances,  and from the  fact that " each of  the
family had the power of forming a voluntary image  of any object 
HALLUCINATIONS CO-EXISTING WITH SANITY.       7-3
at will  on shutting the eyes, and  that  each  could  draw  from
memory a representation of it, more or less accurate."*
   Example  20.   The celebrated Bodin, in his work entitled De
Demonomanie des Sorciers, relates the following history :
   " I have heard," he says, " of a person now living who had a
spirit which  always waited  on him, and whom he  had known for
more than thirty years.   Every  morning, at three  or four o'clock,
the spirit knocked at his door, and  that  getting up, he  would
sometimes open the door, but saw no one.....The spirit al-
ways accompanied him, and gave  him a  sensible sign, such as
touching  him on  his  right ear, if he  did anything that was
wrong, and on his left ear,  if he did what was right.   If any one
came for  the  purpose of deceiving him, or  to  take  him off his
guard, then  he suddenly perceived the signal on his right ear;
but if he  was an honest man, and intended  him  good,  he per-
ceived the signal on his left ear.....If any evil thought en-
tered into his mind, and he  dwelt upon it, he soon felt the  signal
to desist.....Lastly, by a kind of inspiration, he  was able to
divine the meaning of  his dreams, as  well as of similar reveries,
which came to him in ill health  or when his mind  was disturbed.
So that, during all this time, nothing has occurred  to him but
what he has been warned of beforehand.
   " One day, being in great danger of his life, and having prayed
to God with  all his heart that it  might please Him to preserve
him  at daybreak,  being between  sleeping and waking, he per-
ceived on his bed a young child clothed  in  a white robe, whose
countenance was of marvelous beauty.  This reassured him."f
   This case has a peculiar interest  attached  to it, as  an example
of those hallucinations to which M. Michea has given the name

   *Wigans :  Opus cit. p. 167.
  f J. Bodin Augevin :  De la  Demonomanie des Sorciers, p. 11,  et suiv.
Grand in-8vo : Paris, 1587.  At Rouen there is an edition  in"8vo, pub-
lished at Aubers in 1593.
6 
74
HALLUCINATIONS.
of hallucinations dedoublees, or  those  which occur on only one
side of the body.
   Let us briefly consider  the conclusions to which this chapter
leads, the illustrations of  which we have purposely  multiplied.
Many of the cases  refer to  persons who are well  known,  and
we  have selected  them  because  no one has ever thought of
charging these persons with insanity.  Some of them have cor-
rectly regarded  their hallucinations  as the  offspring  of the  im-
agination, or as arising from an unhealthy state of the body.
Others, led  by  their belief in the  supernatural,  by their  van-
ity, by the opinions of the  period, or by superstitious feelings,
have privately  explained  them in  accordance with  their  own
wishes; but  their conversation  and their actions have given  no
evidence of  a disordered intellect; in some  they may even have
been the source of their great deeds.  Frequently, however, the
hallucination of  the sound  mind may be seen  to  glide  into  the
hallucination of insanity, without  its being  possible  always  to
point out the boundary which separates  the one  condition from
the other, so difficult is it at all times to establish precise  limits.
   In concluding this chapter, we  are glad to support our  own
opinions by the authority of a critic well known for his talent and
acuteness.  "It  is certain," says this writer, "that a wide distinc-
tion should be made between those cerebral  derangements which
exclusively affect the senses, and  those which affect the under-
standing.   There  are persons who, haunted  by voices or images,
are  fully  aware  that  they are the dupes of their  imagination.
What then occurs in  these  cases ?  A certain  operation  takes
place spontaneously in the  brain,  an operation which usually re-
sults from a physical sensation.  But it  goes no further, and  the
remainder of the brain continues to perform its functions  in a
normal manner.  If there is insanity in this, it is altogether a par-
tial  insanity, and the mind, properly so called, is unaffected.   It
might be termed insanity of the sensations.   The other indi- 
HALLUCINATIONS CO-EXISTING WITH  SANITY.      75
viduals do not  judge correctly of their  hallucinations; they be-
lieve  in the  reality of  the sensations they perceive, at the same
time they explain them by referring  them to supernatural causes,
to the intervention of a superior  power, &c.   In other respects,
their  conduct is perfectly sensible.   In our opinion, these persons
are no  more  insane  than  the first.   Considering such matters
from a different point of view, they judge  differently of the sen-
sations they have experienced ;  they draw other conclusions from
them, but the disturbance has not  passed  beyond the sphere of
their sensational faculties.  In order that the derangement  should
be  real and confirmed, that it should deserve the  name  of in-
sanity, so as to accord with the etymology of the word, the in-
tellect must be more or less defective, and the individual no longer
master of his judgment or his will."*

  * A. de Chambre :  Analyse de V Ouvrage de M. Szafhowshi sur les Hallu-
cinations, au point de vue de la Psychologie, de VHistoire, et de la Medecine
legale.— Gazette Medicate, 6 Avril, 1850. 
CHAPTER   III.
                HALLUCINATIONS INVOLVING INSANITY.

   Section I.—The  hallucinations  simple  and  isolated.—In
the cases we have  hitherto considered,  the mind  remained un-
affected,  but  in those which  follow there is insanity.   The  rea-
son, abandoning the reins it has long held with a firm hand, is re-
placed by error, whose caprices  and  decrees now  pass unques-
tioned.   In the same proportion as the one invests the  conduct
with prudence and circumspection, so does the other bestow upon
it the characters of  obstinacy and precipitation.
  It must not, however, be  supposed that this  change always
takes place  at  once.  Frequently, when  the unhappy man feels
that  he is beginning to yield to the influence of the  hallucination,
he struggles  against  it; and even when the  delusion  becomes
more  confirmed, and his  torments greater,  he  endeavors to hide
his sufferings from  those about him, but he becomes silent,  sor-
rowful, and  morose.  Moreover,  when the  disease  has taken full
possession of him, he still strives  against it, convinced that he  is
the victim of an illusion.    It may even happen that  his actions
are not controlled by the hallucination ; but in general it carries
with it a profound  impression, which holds the patient in com-
plete subjection, and to all  its promptings he pays implicit  obedi-
ence.
  Hallucinations of hearing.—Sometimes the hallucinated hears
a voice whispering in his ears strange words of the  most extrava-
gant commands.   It  is  mostly during the  silence  of the  night,
early in the morning, upon waking up, or in obscure and gloomy 
HALLUCINATIONS INVOLVING INSANITY.        77
places, that these invisible voices are heard.  Do we not perceive
in this an exaggeration of a physiological  phenomenon common
amongst mankind ?  Is it not, in fact, at these hours that  those
vague  feelings  of fear are experienced,  against which reason can
not always be on its guard?  Hallucinations of hearing are the
most  common,  their number being estimated  to form two-thirds
of all  that occur.  Dr. Baillargar  attributes  the  occurrence  of
hallucinations at these periods to a diminution in the attention,
but the case of Blake (p. 83) is not favorable  to this opinion.
  Example  21.   M.  N, aged fifty-one,  was the governor,  in
1812, of a large town in Germany,  which rose  against the French
army during  its retreat.   The disturbances which  followed these
events unsettled  the mind of the  governor:  he believed he was
accused  of high  treason, and was therefore dishonored.  Under
these circumstances, he cut  his throat with a razor;  when he re-
covered  his senses, he  heard voices  accusing  him.   Cured of his
wound, the voices still pursued him; he  imagined  he was sur-
rounded by spies and denounced by his enemies.   The voices  re-
peated to him,  day and night, that he had betrayed his trust, that
he was dishonored, and that he had no alternative but to destroy
himself.   They successively addressed him in all  the European
languges with which he was acquainted :  one  was heard less dis-
tinctly than the rest, because it made use  of  Russian, which  M.
N.  spoke  with less facility than  the other languages.  In the
midst  of these different voices, the invalid readily distinguished
that of a lady, who bade him take courage, and have confidence.
   M.  N. would  often  retire into privacy to converse more readily
with the voices ; he would question and  answer them, he  would
use words of defiance, and become  enraged in addressing the per-
sons he believed he was conversing with;  he  was  convinced that
his  enemies, by various  means,  could  divine his most  secret
thoughts, convey to him reproaches, menaces, and evil counsels, 
78
HALLUCINATIONS.
with which they overwhelmed him.   On all other points, his rea-
soning was perfectly correct, for his intellect was sound.
  M. IS", passed the summer of 1812 at this chateau, where he
kept open house.   If the conversation interested him, he no long-
er heard the voices, but if it slackened, he perceived them imper-
fectly, and  would then leave the  company, in order to  listen to
the  voices.   He now became anxious and  disturbed.   In the fol-
lowing autumn he came to Paris.  The same symptoms beset him
during the journey, and tormented him  after his arrival.  The
voices  continually repeated, " Kill yourself:  you cannot survive
your honor."  "No, no!" replied the sufferer, "I will terminate
my  existence when I have been justified; I will not bequeath a
dishonored name to my daughter."
  "Placed in my charge " says Esquirol, "the  invalid  kept his
room, but did not communicate his  secret to me. At the end of
two  months he seemed  anxious I should prolong my visits.  I
advised him to call the  voices which tormented him babblers.
This word succeeded, and, when they came, he made  use  of it to
designate their horrible importunity.   I ventured to speak to him
of his disease and the object of his residence  at Paris.   He then
detailed to me all  he had suffered;  he listened more attentively
to my arguments, discussed my objections, and disputed my opin-
ion as to the cause of the voices;  he reminded me that at that
time they were  exhibiting in Paris the so-called  invisible woman,
who,  w'hen  spoken to,  replied from  a distance.  ' Science,' he
said,  ' has  made such progress, that, by means of machines, they
can transmit the voice to a great distance.'
  " ' You have  posted one hundred leagues over a common road:
the noise of your carriage ought to have hindered your babblers
from being heard.'
  " ' Certainly; but by means of their contrivances,  I hear them
very distinctly.'
   " The political news of the approach of the foreign armies upon 
HALLUCINATIONS INVOLVING INSANITY.         79
Paris he regarded as so many tales  invented for the purpose of
betraying him into an expression of his opinions.   Some time af-
ter the siege of Paris had taken place, the patient was satisfied
that  it was no battle, but only a review.  He believed that news-
papers had  been printed expressly to deceive him.   On  the 15th
of April he suddenly said to me, ' Let us go out.'  It so happen-
ed that, at the time we reached the  Jardin  de Plantes, there was
a large number of soldiers wearing the  various uniforms of their
different nations.  We had scarcely gone a hundred steps, when
M. N. seized me sharply by the arm, saying,  ' Let us return—I
have seen enough;  you have not deceived  me.   I have been ill,
but I am cured.'
   " From that moment the babblers  were silent, or only heard in
the morning, soon after  waking.  My convalescent amused him-
self with short conversations, with reading and walking.  He now
took the same view of his symptoms as I did.   He regarded them as
a nervous phenomenon, and expressed his surprise that he  should
have been the dupe of them so long.  He consented to the appli-
cation of some leeches, to use foot-baths, and to take a course  of
purgative mineral waters.   In the month  of May he resided  in
the country,  where  he enjoyed  perfect health, in spite of various
troubles  he had met with, and although he  had the misfortune  to
lose  his  only daughter.   M.  N. returned to his own country  in
1815, where he held office in the Government.
   " This case offers the most simple example of a hallucination  of
the organ of hearing that  I have  met with.  The hallucination
was  the only evidence of cerebral disease, and was the sole cause
of all the annoyances, threats, and fears which had tormented the
patient  for more than two months, and that notwithstanding he
had  entirely recovered his hearing.   Was habit the cause  of this
continuance ?"*

  *Esquirol:  Des Maladies Mentales, vol. i. p. 160: 1838. 
80                    HALLUCINATIONS.
   Example  22.   The patient in this case was employed in  one
 of the Government offices in Paris, where he had shown consid-
 erable capacity;  but, tormented by one fixed idea, he began to
 fail in the discharge of his duties, and was compelled to leave his
 situation.  His reason was perfectly sound when he spoke of mat-
 ters having no connection with his hallucination ;  but on that sub-
 ject he was immovable, and  even made use of some very specious
 arguments in its  favor.   As a specimen of his insanity, we shall
 transcribe a letter which he addressed to one of his superiors :
   " Sir :  I had the honor of writing to you last  year concerning
 a  robbery which  had been committed  on me.  From that time,
 and even before, certain persons produced, both at my own  house
 and at my office, a deafening noise in  my ears, which was quite
 insupportable, and at the same time they offered me the grossest
 insults.  They called out to me concerning individuals and various
 matters at all hours of the day and night.   I was worn out with
 these  infernal annoyances.   They caused, and still  cause  me, at
 certain times, such distractions, that, with all my resolution, I  am
 unable to combat them successfully.
  " To complete these ridiculous and annoying proceedings, they
 have placed  me in the asylum of Dr. Boismont,  where they still
torment me.   I  intend addressing the magistrates, whom  I  am
told ought to be informed  of these proceedings against my  liber-
ty.  I trust that they will interfere, so  that the law may take its
course, and that I may be freed from a condition so prejudicial to
my interests.   I  have begged of them  to  write,  and ask me any
questions they may think proper, so  that  they may satisfy them-
selves, in the  absence of the  medical men, not only that my rea-
son is perfectly sound at the present time, but that it always has
been so.   This  I hope  will  induce them to take proceedings
against the persons who have deprived me of my liberty.
  "Your kindness  has led me to think that you would procure
a favorable termination  to  this affair,  and that  in a few days I 
HALLUCINATIONS INVOLVING INSANITY.         81
shall  be free to return to my own house, and allowed  to  act as I
think proper."
   Persons who are subject to hallucinations of a melancholy char-
acter make every effort to convince others of the reality of their
sensations, and  accumulate  all kinds of proof in favor  of their
statements.   Sometimes their pretended griefs are so cunningly
represented, that careful and repeated observation is necessary to
detect their disease.
   Even the loss of a sense does not prevent its being the subject
of a hallucination.   This fact, which appears to us the best mark
of distinction between a hallucination and an illusion, proves that
images and sensations  which have once been  impressed on  the
brain may be preserved  for a long time.
   Example  23.  A clergyman, who  had lost his hearing, was in
the habit of composing  French and Latin poems, discourses,  let-
ters, and sermous in various languages.  He imagined  that  he
wrote  under the dictation of the Archangel St. Michael, declar-
ing that he could not otherwise produce such beautiful  and  nu-
merous compositions.*  Mrs. M., aged eighty-two, who  was al-
most  perfectly deaf, imagined  that her husband, who had been
dead  many years, walked on the  roof  of  the  house.   She was
continually calling to him and conversing with him.  "Ah,  my
God ! " she would exclaim, " he says  he is naked.  Quick ! bring
him some  clothes.  He complains that he has had nothing to eat;
why don't you give him some soup and  a glass of wine ? "   She
would then groan, cry out, weep, and tear her hair.
  These invisible voices may be either external or internal; they
may come  from  the  clouds,  from  neighboring houses, from  the
ground, from  the  corners  of rooms,  from  chimneys,  from cup-
boards, &c.; but they may also come  from the head, the stomach,
or some other important  organ.   " Sir,"  said a lunatic  to  me,

  * Calmeil: art.  Hallucination, p. 519.—Dictionaire, en 30  vol. Deux-
ieme edition. 
82
HALLUCINATIONS.
pointing to his stomach,  " strange things take place there ;  I con-
tinually hear a voice which threatens and insults me."  He would
incline his head the whole day in the attitude of listening.
   Should  noises  in  the  ears, as many persons  think, be classed
with hallucinations of the organ of hearing ?  We are of opinion
that this  and similar  symptoms belong to illusions;  for, in most
of these cases, there exists the beating  of an artery, or some other
organic change, which the insane person transforms into  a real
sensation.
   Hallucinations  of hearing may exist alone, or combined  with
those of sight, and of the other senses.
   Hallucinations of sight.—These hallucinations have  at all
times played an important part in the history of mankind; and
to these  more  particularly is applied the term vision, while  the
visionary  is used  to designate the persons that are  affected by
them.  In ancient times, and during the Middle Ages, the belief
in visions  was universal.   Castles and graveyards were  haunted
by spirits, while there was scarcely a person who had  not  met
with an apparition.   In our own times, the  northern  nations of
Europe, some parts  of our own provinces, and entire countries
still  believe in visions.  The  works of authors are  filled with
marvelous histories, which the ignorant skepticism of the eighteenth
century rejected as a parcel of old women's tales.   In the present
day, science, more enlightend, explains them  by means of natural
laws.
   Their numbers, and  the  frequency of their occurrence, give to
hallucinations  of  sight the second rank in these singular aberra-
tions of the human mind.
   Example 24.   M. N, aged  forty,  had experienced domestic
troubles,  which he endeavored to  forget by the use  of wine.
Several months before his illness he had become restless and odd
in his  manner.  The 30th of  April,  184—, without  having in-
dulged more freely than  usual, he was  seized  with a feverish deli- 
HALLUCINATIONS INVOLVING  INSANITY.         83
rium, which was treated by bleeding and other suitable remedies.
These means produced a temporary amendment, but symptoms of
excitement soon returned; he heard the sound of persons threat-
ening him, he uttered cries of terror, and he constantly asked for
his knife to kill the wretches.   It was in a paroxysm of this kind
that he  was brought to my house.
   On his entrance,  I was  struck with his bewildered looks.   His
manner expressed fear and rage ;  he was constantly moving about,
uttering threats, or crying out, convinced  that there were persons
concealed in his  room.   Every moment  he  demanded, "Where
are they ? "   The next day he was put in a bath, where, according
to a plan that has been  adopted for some years at my establish-
ment, he remained  eight hours, receiving the douche d'irrigation,
the patient being confined as in an apparatus for fractures.*  He
continually inquired what was the  meaning  of  such  treatment,
called for the commissary of police, and requested to be  set at
liberty.   Observing that he was violently excited by the sight of
the attendants, I left him  quite alone.  For six days he was al-
ternately bathed, purged, nauseated,  and allowed only a limited
supply of food.   At the  end of this time he seemed more calm,
and requested particularly to speak with me.
   On my presenting myself, he  spoke as follows : " Sir, I  was
brought to your establishment, and with reason; for at the time
I was in a state  of great  excitement: I said and  did the most
extravagant  things; my statements against  my wife were want-
ing in common sense ; I know that I have  nothing to reproach her
with.  But  if my mind has  been distracted, it is  not less true
that it was caused by a scene which I witnessed, and which I will
relate to you.

  * De VEmploi des Bains prolonges  et des Irrigations continues dans  le
Traitement des Formes aigues de la Folie, et en particulier de la Manie:
par A. Brierre de Boismont.—Memoire de VAcademic de Medecine, t. xiii.
4to, 1848. 
84
HALLUCINATIONS.
   " I was in the bath, which the medical man had  ordered me in
 consequence of my feverish excitement, when I saw, as plainly as
 I see you now, a man clothed in black enter my apartment,  who
 looked at me attentively, made faces at me, and endeavored to tor-
 ment me.   Indignant at such unpardonable conduct, I  showed
 him by my  manner how much I was  displeased.   He then ap-
 proached the  chimney  of the stove, laid hold of it,  and disap-
 peared through the opening.   I had scarcely recovered from this
 singular  spectacle, when I saw  three  men come  from under  my
 bed ;  they advanced  towards me, making the same gestures and
 grimaces as  the first.   Overcome  with passion, I shouted for my
 knife, that I might kill them,  when they also passed up the chim-
 ney, and disappeared.   Although I had never seen them before,
 yet their features  are  so impressed  on  my mind, that I should
 know them anywhere.  Before leaving, they covered my bed with
 all kinds of  disgusting animals.  'Certainly, at that moment I was
 beside myself; but as regards  the truth of these facts,  I would
 attest it with my blood."
  The calm, collected manner in which M. N. related this history
 to me was   at  least as astonishing as his tale.  I made no reply,
 as I knew by experience  it would only serve to irritate him. Some
 days after, when the  conversation was  renewed, I thought it  was
 time to  speak  to him plainly  about his hallucination.  " Well,"
 he said, " admitting that it was all imaginary, am I not sufficiently
 recovered for you to  allow me to return home where my presence
 is absolutely necessary ?  "
  At the end  of a month M. N. had  completely recovered his
 reason.   He was aware he had been the dupe of a delusion,  and
 promised to avoid the causes which had led to  his illness.   He
requested to be allowed to remain another month, when he would
be able to go direct into the  country.  I saw him  at  the end of
two years, when he was perfectly well.
  Hallucinations of sight vary in every conceivable manner;  and, 
HALLUCINATIONS INVOLVING  INSANITY.        85
inasmuch  as they are generally merely highly colored  pictures of
the daily thoughts, they may assume as many forms as there  are
individuals.
   Example 25.  Harrington, author of Oceana, " was observed
to discourse of most things as rationally as  any man except his
own distemper, fancying strange  things in the  operation of his
animal  spirits, which he thought  to  transpire from *him in  the
shape of birds, of flies, of bees, or the like ; and those about him
reported  that he talked much of good and evil spirits, which
made them have  frightful apprehensions.   He used sometimes to
argue so strenuously that this was no depraved  imagination, that
his doctor was often put to his shifts for an  answer.   He would
on such occasions compare himself to  Democritus, who, for his
admirable discoveries in  anatomy,  was reckoned distracted by his
fellow-citizens, till Hippocrates cured them of their mistake."*
   One of the  strongest arguments against the images in hallucina-
tions being external to the individual is when there is weakness or
loss of sight.   Esquirol  and  M. Lelut have  quoted  several ex-
amples of this.   It is, of course, undeniable  that in total blind-
ness the hallucinations must be seated in the  brain.
   Example  26.   An old  man, who died at more than eighty
years  of  age, never sat  down to table  during the latter part of
his life without fancying  himself surrounded by a number of boon
companions whom  he had known fifty years previously.  This
octogenarian  had only very feeble sight with one eye, over which
also he wore a green shade.  Every now and  then he saw his  own
iniao-e in  front of him, which seemed  to be reflected by the green
shade.
   Dr. Dewar, of Stirling,  related to Dr. Abercrombie a very re-
markable instance of this kind of  hallucination.   " It occurred in
a lady who was quite blind, her eyes  being also disorganized  and

                 * British Biography, vol.  v. p. 405. 
86
HALLUCINATIONS.
sunk.  She  never walked out without seeing a little old woman
with a red cloak and crutch, who seemed to walk before her. She
had no illusions when within doors."*
  In  the asylum in the Faubourg St. Antoine there was an old
lady,  eighty years of age,  who had been blind for many years.
Every morning she had the door and windows of her apartment
set  wide open, to allow a number of persons to pass out who
filled  the room, and whose  dresses and ornaments she could per-
fectly distinguish.
  Example 27.   A lunatic  was in the habit  of  seeing, to the
right of him,  near the wall  of his cell, a  number  of beautiful
women, whom  he  would sometimes address with insults, sometimes
with  compliments.   This  man was blind, and  after his death M.
Calmeil found there was atrophy of both the optic nerves, f
  In  the history of the Inquisition by Lorente, it is stated that
persons who were possessed saw  devils in their bodies, where
they hid  themselves  under various forms.   We have  frequently
known lunatics pretend to  see what was passing  in  their brain,
their stomach,  their intestines, and in the most delicate tissues of
their  bodies;  but, on questioning them, their explanations were
confused or absurd, just in  proportion to  their ignorance of the
parts.  Do not these cases  bear a certain resemblance to those of
the  animal  magnetist, who, in many  instances, merely gives  his
reminiscences,  or  makes vague revelations ?
  Hallucinations of hearing  and  of sight are often combined, as
in the following case, which occurred in Bedlam :
  Example 28.   Some years back there was in the hospital  at
Bedlam a lunatic of the name of Blake, who was called the Seer.
This  man firmly believed in  the reality of his visions : he would
converse with  the angel Michael,  chat with Moses, and dine with
  * Abercrombie : Opus cit. p. 379.
  f Calmeil:  art.  Hallucination, p.  526. — Dictionaire  de  Mcdvciue,
seconde edition, vol. xiv. 
HALLUCINATIONS INVOLVING INSANITY.         87
Semiramis.  There was nothing of the impostor  about him ;  he
seemed  to be  thoroughly in earnest.  The dark portals of the
past were opened to him, and the world of spirits crowded around
him.  All that had belonged to the great, the wonderful, and the
celebrated came into the presence of  Blake.
  This  man constituted himself the painter  of spirits.   On the
table before him  were  pencils and brushes ready for his use, that
he might depict  the  countenances and attitudes of his  heroes,
whom he said  he  did not summon before  him, but who came of
their own accord, and entreated him to take their portraits.  Visi-
tors might examine  large volumes  filled with these  drawings :
amongst others  were  the portraits of the devil and his mother.
"When  I entered his cell," says  the author  of this  notice, "he
was drawing the likeness of a girl whose spectre he  pretended
had appeared to him.
  " Edward III. was one of his most constant visitors, and in
acknowledgment  of the  monarch's   condescension,  Blake  had
drawn his portrait in oils in  three sittings.  I  put such questions
as were likely  to have embarrassed him ;  but he answered them
in the most unaffected manner, and without any hesitation.
  " ' Do these persons  have  themselves announced, or do they
send in  their  cards ? '   ' No; but I recognize them when they
appear.   I did not expect to see Marc Antony last night, but I
knew the Roman the  moment  he  set foot in my house.'   'At
what hour do these illustrious  dead visit you ?'  'At one o'clock :
sometimes their visits  are long, sometimes short.  The day before
yesterday I saw the unfortunate Job, but  he would not stay more
than two minutes; I had hardly time to make a sketch  of him,
which  I afterwards engraved----but silence! Here is Richard
III.!'   ' Where do you see him ? ' '  Opposite to you, on the other
side of the table:  it is his first visit.' ' How do you know his name ? '
' My spirit recognizes  him, but I  cannot tell you how.'   ' What is
he  like ? '  'Stern, but  handsome : at present I only see his pro- 
88
HALLUCINATIONS.
file; now I have the three-quarter face ; ah!  now  he turns to
me, he  is  terrible to behold.'  'Could  you ask him  any ques-
tions ? '  ' Certainly. What would you like me to ask him ? '   'If
he pretends to justify the murders he committed during his life ? '
' Your question is  already known to  him.   We converse mind
to mind by intuition and by magnetism.  We  have no need of
words.'   'What is  his  Majesty's  reply?'  "This;  only it is
somewhat longer than he gave it to me, for you would not under-
stand the language  of spirits.  He  says what you  call murder
and carnage is all nothing ; that in slaughtering fifteen or twenty
thousand men you do no wrong;  for what is immortal of them is
not only preserved, but  passes into a better world, and the man
who reproaches his  assassin  is guilty of ingratitude, for it is by
his  means he enters into a happier and more perfect state  of  ex-
istence.   But do not interrupt me ; he is now in a very good  po-
sition, and if  you say anything more, he will go.'
  "Blake is  a tall  man, pale, speaks well, and sometimes elo-
quently  : he is not deficient in talent  as an engraver and artist."*
  Spinello, when he painted  the fallen angels, represented Luci-
fer with such  a terrible appearance that he was  frightened by his
own production, and had the  figure of the devil perpetually be-
fore him, who reproached him for  the  hideous form which he had
given him in the picture.
  Example 29.  "A gentleman, about thirty-five years  of age,
of active habits and good constitution, living in  the neighborhood
of London, had complained for about five weeks of slight head-
ache.   He was feverish,  inattentive to his occupations, and negli-
gent of his family.   He had been cupped and had  taken some
purgative medicine,  when he was visited by Dr.  Arnold, of Cam-
berwell, who has favored me with  the following history.  By that
gentleman's advice he was sent to  a private asylum, where he re-

           * Revue Britannique, p. 184.   Juillet, 1823. 
HALLUCINATIONS INVOLVING INSANITY.         89
mained about two years.   His delusions very gradually subsided,
and he was afterwards restored to his family."
  " The  account which he gave of himself was almost verbatim
as follows :   One  afternoon, in the month of May, feeling him-
self a little unsettled  and not inclined to business, he thought he
would take a walk  into the  city to amuse his mind;  and having
strolled into St. Paul's  Churchyard, he stopped at the  shop-win-
dow of Carrington and Bowles, and looked at the pictures, among
which was one  of the cathedral.   He had  not been long there
before a short, grave-looking, elderly gentleman, dressed in  dark-
brown clothes, came  up and began to examine the prints,  and
occasionally  casting  a  glance  at  him,  very soon entered into
conversation  with  him,  and, praising the  view  of St.  Paul's
which was exhibited at  the window, told him  many  anecdotes
of  Sir  Christopher Wren,  the  architect, and asked him at the
same time if he had  ever ascended to  the top of  the dome.  He
replied in  the  negative.  The  stanger then inquired  if he  had
dined, and proposed  that they should  go to an  eating-house in
the neighborhood, and said that after dinner he would accompany
him up St. Paul's; it was a glorious afternoon for a view, and he
was so familiar with the place that he could  point out every object
worthy of  attention.  The  kindness of the  old gentleman's man-
ner induced him to comply  with the invitation, and  they went to
a tavern in some dark alley, the name of which he did not know.
They dined and very soon left the table, and ascended  to the  ball
 just below the cross, which they entered alone.   They had not
 been there many minutes, when, while he was gazing on the exten-
 sive prospect, and delighted with the splendid  view  below  him,
 the grave  old  gentleman pulled  out  from an inside coat-pocket
 something like  a compass, having round the edges some  curious
 figures ; then having muttered some unintelligible words, he placed
 it in the centre of the ball.   He felt a great trembling and a sort
 of horror come over him, which was increased by his  companion
 asking him if he should  like to see any friend at a distance, and
            7 
90
HALLUCINATIONS.
to know what he was at that moment doing; for if so, the latter
could show him  any such  person.   It happened that his father
had been for a long time in bad health, and for some weeks past
he had not visited  him.   A sudden thought came into his mind
so powerful that  it overcame his terror, that he  should  like to see
his father.  He had no sooner expressed the wish than the exact
person of his father was immediately presented  to his sight on the
mirror, reclining  in his arm-chair, and taking his afternoon sleep.
Not  having fully believed in the power of the stranger to make
good  his offer, he became  overwhelmed  with terror at  the clear-
ness and truth  of the vision presented to him ;  and entreated his
mysterious  companion  that they might  immediately descend, as
he felt himself  very ill.   The request was complied with ; and on
parting under the portico of the northern  entrance, the  stranger
said  to him, ' Remember,  you are the  slave of the man of the
mirror!'  He  returned in the evening  to  his  house, he does not
know exactly at what hour; he felt himself unquiet,  depressed,
gloomy, apprehensive, and  haunted with thoughts of the stranger.
For the last three months  he has been conscious of the power of
the latter over him."  Dr.  Arnould adds,  "I  inquired in what
way this  power was exercised.  He cast on me a  look of suspi-
cion mingled with confidence, took  my arm, and after leading me
through two or three rooms, and then into  the  garden, exclaimed,
1 It is of no  use—there is no concealment from him, for all places
are alike  open to him—he sees us and he  hears us now /'  I asked
him where the  man was that heard  us ?   He replied, in a voice of
deep agitation, ' Have I not told you that  he lives in the ball be-
low the cross on  the top of St. Paul's, and that  he only comes
down to take a walk in the churchyard, and get his dinner in the
house in the dark alley ?   Since that fatal  interview with the nec-
romancer,' he continued, ' for  such I believe him to be, he is con-
tinually dragging me before him on his  mirror, and he not only
sees me every moment  of  the day, but he  reads all my thoughts, 
HALLUCINATIONS INVOLVING INSANITY.        91
and I have a dreadful consciousness that no action of my life is free
from his inspection, and no place can afford me security from his
power.'  On my replying that the darkness  of the  night  would
afford him  protection from these machinations, he said, ' I know
what you mean, but you are quite mistaken.   I have only told you
of the mirror, but in some part of the building which he passed in
coming away, he showed me  what he called a  great bell, and I
heard sounds which came from it, and which went to it; sounds of
laughter, and of anger, and of pain; there was  a dreadful confu-
sion of  sounds, and as  I listened with wonder and afright, he said,
' This is my organ of  hearing;  this great bell  is in communica-
tion with  all other  bells within the circle of hieroglyphics, by
which every word spoken by those under my control is made au-
dible to me.'  Seeing me  look surprised at him, he said, ' I have
not yet  told you all; for he practices his  spells by hieroglyphics
on walls and houses, and wields his power like a detestable tyrant,
as he is, over the mind of those whom he has enchanted, and who
are the objects of his constant spite, within the circle  of the hiero-
glyphics.'  I asked him what these  hieroglyphics were, and how
he perceived them ?  He replied, ' Signs and symbols which you,
in your ignorance of their true  meaning, have  taken for letters
and words, and reading as you have thought,  Day and Martin
and  Warren's  Blacking!   Oh,  that is  all nonsense ! they are
only the mysterious characters which he traces to mark the  boun-
dary of his dominion,  and by which he prevents all  escape from
his tremendous power.   How  have  I toiled  and labored to get
beyond  the limits of his influence !   Once I walked for three days
and nights, till  I fell down under a wall exhausted by fatigue,  and
dropped asleep; but on waking I saw  the dreadful signs  before
my eyes, and I felt myself as completely under his infernal spells
at the end  as at the beginning of my journey.' "*

  *A  Treatise  on Insanity, and other Disorders affecting  the Mind,  by
James Cowles Prichard, p. 455.  London: 1835. 
92                    HALLUCINATIONS.
  There cannot be an instance of a hallucination more completely
followed out in detail, or better adapted to produce a conviction in
the minds of persons not acquainted with these singular phenome-
na,  than the one which is here related by Pilchard.  In the Middle
Ages this person  would have  been considered  as  possessed, and
would doubtless have been  subjected  to  the  ceremonies of exor-
cism.   I am convinced that,  even in the present day, a similar tale
would find many believers.   It  removes all  doubt as to the au-
thenticity of the  statements which have  been made by  persons
who are worthy of credit, and who declare that they have had ap-
paritions, which have given them extraordinary information.   The
minute details into which they  enter, and the air  of truthfulness
which attaches to  their narratives, are  sufficient to remove all feel-
ings of mistrust.
  It is highly probable  that this person had  formerly visited St.
Paul's, but, having become  insane, his recollections of previous
occurrences were  mixed  up  in a very extravagant manner.  As
they grew more and more vivid,  they  became depicted by the im-
agination in a manner which caused the eye to mistake them for
realities.
  Hallucinations of touch.—It is said that  these cases are diffi-
cult to investigate,  because  they are  apt to be confounded with
neuralgic  affections and  viceral  illusions; there can, however, be
no question that there are some hallucinated persons quite capable
of judging correctly of their sensations who will declare that they
have been pinched or beaten, or  have  received electric discharges
on  different parts of their  bodies.   We lately examined, with
MM.  Foville, Michon, and Seguir,  a  young man who maintained
that the magnetizers were  continually operating  on his breast,
his  back, his legs, and that  he distinctly perceived the contact of
the magnetic fluid  with his body.   He  had not any  neuralgic
affection.
  Example 30.  Mathews, of whose case  Haslam has given a 
HALLUCINATIONS INVOLVING INSANITY.         93
curious report, believed that in some apartment  near London
Wall there was a gang of villains profoundly skilled in pneumatic
chemistry, who assailed him  by means of  what he termed an air-
loom.   He gave a very absurd account of the seven persons who
composed the gang,  and even invented names for the torments he
imagined they inflicted upon him.   Amongst  other things, they
would constrict the  fibre of his tongue  laterally,  by which the
readiness of speech was hindered; they would  spread a magnetic
warp beneath his brain, so that the sentiments  of the  heart could
have no  communication  with the  operations  of  the intellect.
Mathews believed  they could at pleasure produce a precipitation
in the bladder of any person,  and form a calculus;  that they
could make the organ of hearing appear to.be seated in the thigh;
that by means of the air-loom and  magnetic impregnations, they
could introduce into  the  brain some particular idea; that they
could violently force fluids into the head,  elongate the brain, and
many other  things equally absurd.   Mathews even  made a plan
of the room where he believed these persons resided, and drew
the whole of the apparatus which he imagined  they used in their
various operations.   He said that they had several of their ma-
chines in different places, and that many other  persons were sub-
ject to their influence beside himself*
  M. Calmeil relates the case of an old soldier who every night
felt himself  nailed  down in a coffin, and  then  carried on  men's
shoulders, by a subterranean passage,  from Charenton to Yin-
cennes, where a mass for  the dead was chanted over him in the
chapel of the castle.   The  same invisible  persons carried him
back, and deposited him in his bed.
  We attended an Englishman who  believed that he  was  taken
up in the night and transported to distant countries, to the East,
  * Illustrations of Madness, exhibiting a singular  Case of Insanity,  by
John Haslam.  London: 1813. 
94
HALLUCINATIONS.
to the city of Cairo, or London.  He complained of the ill-treat-
ment which he received at the hands of the persons charged with
this mission ; they lacerated his arms and neck, and covered  his
body with bruises.   This idea rendered him extremely miserable.
   The sensation of flying is by no means uncommon.  Yery often
when dreaming we feel we are carried along with the greatest  ra-
pidity, bounding over long intervals, or skimming over the surface
of the ground.  St. Jerome relates, that in  his  dreams he often
felt as if he was flying over the earth, over mountains and  seas.*
   Madame Arnim, the friend of Goethe, speaking of his  sensa-
tion, said, " I felt certain that I was flying and soaring in the air.
The slightest touch with the point of my  foot, and I bounded up-
wards.   I hovered silently and delighted, at  the  distance of two
or three  feet from the  ground;  I  descended; again I rose ; I
flew from side to side, and then I recovered myself.  A few days
after I was attacked with fever, "f
   The extraordinary affections  of the  sense  of touch that have
been  observed in  many of the  insane are, in our opinion, more
nearly allied to the illusions of the hypochondriac.
   Amongst the remarkable instances of hallucination of the sense
of touch is the case of Berbiguier, who believed that goblins were
continually running  over his body, resting themselves upon him
in order to fatigue him, and compel  him to sit down.   These  in-
visible enemies wandered over him  day and night; their weight
was so great that sometimes he  was afraid  of  being suffocated.
To defend himself against their attacks, he conceived the idea of
dexterously catching them beneath  his linen, and then pinning
them to his mattress, or inclosing them in bottles. |

  * Saint-Jerome : Polemique c. Rufin, liv. i.—Pantheon Litteraire.
  f Correspondance de  Goethe et de Bettina, trad. M. Sebast.  Albin, vol.
i. p. 68.
  %Les Farfadets, ou tous les Demous ne sont pas de  Vautre Monde, par
Babiguier de Terre-Neuve du Thym,  3 vols. in-8vo.  Paris :  1821. 
HALLUCINATIONS INVOLVING INSANITY.         95
  Hallucinations of smell.-—These show themselves at the com-
mencement of every form of insanity, and especially in cases of
partial insanity.  Writers have remarked that the presence of
saints spread a sweet perfume through an apartment, while devils
infect it.   "Hallucinations of smell, like those of taste, seldom oc-
cur by themselves, but combined with those of hearing, sight, or
touch.  They are far less frequent than the others.
  Lunatics who experience hallucinations of smell complain that
they are surrounded by fetid and disagreeable odors, or  imagine
they are breathing the  most delicious scents, although no odorous
bodies are near  th,em;  some of them before  their illness have
even  been deprived of the sense of  smell.   A  lunatic declared
there were cellars beneath the Salpetriere  Hospital, where they
had slaughtered a number of men and women, and that every day
she perceived a most horrible smell from the putrifying bodies.*
We had in our establishment a lady who, after attempting to suf-
focate herself, complained that everything was  tainted with the
smell of charcoal;  she stuffed her nostrils, smelt vinegar, but still
the same odor  accompanied  her  everywhere.  M.  Esquirol has
reported a similar case.
  Hallucinations of taste—These are not more  common than
the preceding.   The invalids, especially those who are in the first
stage of  dementia with general paralysis, will express their satis-
faction at the excellent repast they have made,  praise  the flavor
of the dishes, the aroma of the wine, yet all the time they have
eaten nothing.   One lady, who has been remarkable  for  her in-
telligence, passes her days in tasting imaginary dishes.    Some-
times these impressions are of a distressing nature.   One  will be-
lieve  he  is eating  raw flesh, biting  arsenic, or devouring  earth ;
sulphur  and flames surround  his  mouth;  whilst  another im-
agines he is swallowing nectar and ambrosia, f

          * Lelut:  Opus cit.
          f Ssquirol: Des Meladies Ment., vol. i. p. 196, &o. 
96                    HALLUCINATIONS.
   Hallucinations not complicated with one or other of the prin-
cipal forms of insanity are rare, and when  they do occur they
have many points of resemblance with pure monomania.   There
is generally observed some derangement of the intellectual facul-
ties, of the affections, of the tastes, &c. Take, for example, three
of the cases recorded by Esquirol, as simple hallucinations.  One
of the hallucinated spoke  with reverence and in appropriate terms
concerning  religion  and  its miracles; yet  during this  serious
conversation he was engaged in drawing a number of ridiculous
objects.  Another, who was only affected with hallucinations of
the  organ  of hearing,  erred  with respect  to  his  position,  and
judged incorrectly of persons,  things, and events.   A third, after
writing several pages full  of enthusiasm and well arranged, sud-
denly declared that Jesus  Christ was about to appear.
   Experience has proved  beyond a doubt that hallucinations may
show themselves in persons who have never been insane, but they
are of the  elements of insanity most constantly met with in men-
tal diseases.  They occur in some  nervous complaints, in many
inflammatory affections,  and in some severe fevers.
   Section  II.—General  Hallucinations.—Hallucinations of all
the senses  simultaneously do  not appear to be common;  for it
has  often happened  that  the  hallucinations  of hearing and  of
sight have  been confounded with illusions of  touch, of taste, and
of smell.  Nevertheless, analogy and reason concur to show that
they may coexist, and observation has proved that it is sometimes
the case.
   It is also probable that,  by questioning patients with care and
perseverance, it will be found that hallucinations of all the senses
are more common than is generally supposed.
   From amongst the curious cases of this kind we select the  fol-
lowing :
   Example 31.   Mademoiselle----, aged forty, highly nervous,
and  therefore very sensitive, has always been  extremely change- 
HALLUCINATIONS INVOLVING INSANITY.        97
able.  In her youth she would never settle to any serious studies:
the medical men recommended her parents to allow her in pre-
ference to attend to gymnastic exercises.  She has an ample for-
tune, her parents are healthy and their intellects perfectly sound;
but she has a brother whose state is very similar to her own. Her
appearance is healthy.
   Ten years ago she experienced the first symptoms of her pres-
ent disorder.  She saw persons with most extraordinary forms ;
but these  visual aberrations did not hinder her from following her
usual occupations.  Her general health was out  of order, and
the uterine functions deranged.   Six months ago the hallucina-
tions, which had hitherto  been  bearable and at  a distance, now
came close to her; the sight was no longer the only sense  impli-
cated, and ultimately all the others became involved.  The sense
of hearing was the one most disordered : every moment she heard
voices which seemed to be placed in her stomach.  These  voices
were a perpetual  torment,  and regulated all her  actions; they
told her what was passing within her, instructed her in regard to
disease, enabling her to prescribe what seemed to her to be suitable
remedies.  At times she expressed herself eloquently; a power she
owed to the voices, for when she spoke from her own impulse she
used much simpler language.   Frequently the voices led her into
a high ordor  of  subjects : their discourses included geography,
grammar, and elocution; they reproved her when  she  expressed
herself badly, and corrected the faults she had committed.
   One day the voices  persuaded her she was possessed, and she
 went to a clergyman that he might exorcise her.   From that time
her ideas concerning eternity were most distressing, and threw her
 into  the  deepest  despair.  Once the voices revealed  to her that
 she should be queen, and play an important part in history : she
 kept this to herself for many months, waiting for  the fulfillment of
 the promise; but this not being realized, she perceived that the
 voices had deceived her.   They constantly held the most singular 
98
HALLUCINATIONS.
and extravagant conversations with her: she was wholly unable
to resist them, unless they said something comical that made her
laugh.   She would  hear them  mocking her ;  then they would
assail her more violently than ever, perverting all  she said and
did.   If she drank a glass  of  sugared water, they would tell her
it was  poisoned;  and for many hours she would be in a state of
great alarm.   The voices continually urged her  to drown herself;
but to  this she felt an internal repugnance which prevented her,
yet she was  afraid lest she should yield even to this temptation.
  When she walked  out, if a well-dressed person passed by her,
the voices would cry  out  that the woman was scented  with musk,
and at that moment she would  recognize its perfume, of which she
had  a  great horror.   If it was a  man, she would immediately
smell tobacco,  yet she was fully aware that these pretended odors
existed only in her imagination.
  She  often had singular visions :  her apartment was filled  with
people ; long processions would  pass before her, or she would see
only portions of an individual, as the half of him, or she would see
him in profile, or  with  only one  eye;  the figures would  be large,
or small, or  deformed, and assume the most extraordinary shapes.
At other times she would see the eye that the individual had lost,
while he would fly before her as if to avoid her.
  All the  food she ate had a disagreeable taste, and had  lost its
natural flavor.  She would seem to be swallowing  vinegar or
Gruyere cheese, to which she had a great dislike.  If she offered
to partake of a dish,  the  voices would  often give it one of  these
flavors to  hinder her  from tasting it.
  When she moves  about, she feels herself deluged  with water,
the cold striking to her body.    At such times she endeavors to
dry her clothes with  her hands.
   This lady says that  she is  well aware that  these voices  arise
from a nervous affection; but  they are stronger than  her reason,
they overcome her and govern her.   Their power is so great that 
HALLUCINATIONS INVOLVING INSANITY.         99
they compel her to go where they choose:  they told her some
months back to come to Paris in order to obtain the best advice.
She resisted for some time, because she thought the journey use-
less ;  at  length  she came to  M.  Fouquier, who recommended
blistering, &c.—remedies, she said, which could only do her harm,
for what she required were warm and cold baths, and particularly
pure  Bordeaux  wine.   Yesterday the voices told  her to go to
Bercy to get it, and when she reached this locality, the voices im-
mediately declared the wine  was good for nothing.
   The voices had persuaded her to take a bath, promising to be
quiet; but she had scarcely entered when they made such a horri-
ble disturbance that she could not remain in it.  The voices are
unwilling she should talk, they have therefore confused her ideas,
and she cannot express herself clearly.   In fact, she splutters, re-
peats the same words, and has to think of what she wishes to say;
at the same time she is conscious of her condition.    In  order to
counteract  the influence of the  voices, she looks directly at the
persons she is addressing, that they may understand from  her eyes
what she cannot express clearly.
   She perceives that the voices make her do most unreasonable
things ; she wishes  to oppose them, but is unable, and is compell-
ed to obey them, for they possess an irresistible influence.
   This lady, who was recommended to us by M. Fouquier, wishes
to enter our establishment that she may be watched, and her body
examined after her death.   She says she knows it  contains air;
her brain also is filled with it.   For  fifteen years her spinal  cord
has been dried up and destroyed.  After speaking  like this, she
will  add, " I know this is a real monomania, but the voices are
stronger than my will.  I am convinced  it will  all end badly.  I
am truly desirous of submitting to treatment, but it is impossible
for me to remain in one place."
   What  curious reflections  arise from the consideration of this
extraordinary case.   First,  there  is the derangement of all the 
100
HALLUCINATIONS.
 senses, and then  there is the derangement of the individual her-
 self ;  the struggle of the intellect against the revolted senses;  a
 momentary consciousness of the illusion, followed immediately by
 their triumph over the reason ;  and, lastly, the entire subjection of
 the will, struggling  in vain against the power which  governs it.
 It is a subject worthy of the deepest consideration of the philoso-
 pher.  The woman knows she is the dupe of her senses, the sport
 of chimeras, yet she cannot escape from their influence.   She has
 been  deceived a  hundred times,  and feels it always will be so ;
 yet, in spite  of this, she does whatever the  voices command her.
 There is one psychological fact, which will not  escape the notice
 of the observer, and that is, the fresh manifestation of a double
 principle—a duality, by means of which this invalid, overwhelmed
 by jibes and jokes, by menaces and horrible suggestions, and ready
 to give way to despair, suddenly finds herself supported by words
 of kindness and encouragement.   One might say there were two
 spirits—one evil,  one good, each drawing her towards itself.  For
 ten years, during which this pathological condition has lasted, the
 invalid still continued to direct her own affairs, attend to the man-
 agement of her property,  and fulfill all her duties to society ; yet
 for  six years these false sensations have never left her a moment's
 repose.   There is no change in her habits,  only she feels intui-
 tively that her reason will ultimately desert her, and she seeks, in
 advice which she cannot follow, some mitigation of her sufferings.
  The case of this  lady is  equally interesting in a  medico-legal
 point of  view.  Thus the  hallucination  which possessed her, and
 whose unreal nature she generally recognized, but  which, never-
 theless, she was compelled to obey, led  her to undertake  long
 journeys, and to perform other useless actions.  It frequently sug-
 gested the idea of suicide,  and might easily have filled her mind
with other ideas, which she  must equally have obeyed in spite of
herself.   This is an entirely new feature in the psychological his-
tory of man, and  is  the key to a number of singular and unac- 
HALLUCINATIONS INVOLVING INSANITY.        101
countable acts, which cannot be explained, either by the character,
the manners, or the habits of the individual.   The longer one has
been in practice, the more one feels convinced that  there are  in
the world a number of insane  persons, who, from various causes,
have never  sought the assistance of a medical man, and whose
insanity has not been noticed by those with  whom he associates.
Such persons are quarrelsome, engage in duels, injure, beat, and
assassinate their fellow-men, or destroy themselves  in  obedience
to voices, commands, and impulses which they find  it impossible
to resist.
   Amongst many cases of this kind that I have collected, the fol-
lowing presents several points of  interest:
   Example 32.  A man, who was supposed  to be rich, resided
by himself  in his own  house ;  but his style  of living was not  in
accordance with his circumstances: he neglected his person ; he
was parsimonious in his food; and no one was permitted to enter
his house.  Rumors arose that his resources were exhausted, aud
that his house  was heavily mortgaged.   Ultimately,  the latter
was sold.   The cause of  his ruin remained a mystery.
   The circumstance had  been forgotten,  when  one  morning the
unhappy man, pale and  haggard, presented himself before the
owner of the house.   " Sir," he said,  "the gold I possessed, the
fortune I have lost, I know where they are; a voice forewarned
me that a calamity would happen which would deprive me of every-
thing, and  reduce me to  want, and that to avoid this misfortune
I must hide my riches    I followed this advice : property, furni-
ture, house, all were converted into gold,  and this gold I hid in a
place unknown to any one.  After this the voice ceased to make
itself heard.   My head  became  bewildered, and my ideas were
confused, only from time to time  I had an imperfect glimmering
of the truth, until this morning, when the  voice again became
audible, and said to me,  ' You have forgotten  where your gold
is, and no one knows.   I am  about to tell  you.  According to 
102
HALLUCINATIONS.
my advice, you threw it into the well.'  Sir, I entreat  you,  let
it be searched—all my wealth is there."  The gentleman endea-
vored  to console  the  man, and promised  him that his wishes
should be attended to, but that such an investigation would neces-
sarily occupy some time.  He left, and after some days returned
to know  the result of the search.   They told him they had found
nothing !   He groaned, and uttered some incoherent words.   In
a few days madness set in, and banished his vain regrets.
  The question naturally arises,  ought such a person to be  al-
lowed  his liberty, and permitted to make a will ?   The  answer
cannot be quite conclusive;  but, provided his conduct is correct,
that he does not hate his friends  without any just cause, and that
he is prudent in managing his affairs, we see no valid  reason for
taking away his civil rights. 
0 HAPTER  IV.
              HALLUCINATIONS IN RELATION TO ILLUSIONS.

   Nothing  is more common amongst the insane, and especially
 amongst  maniacs, than to mistake one person  for another, or an
 object for something different to what it is.   Such mistakes are
 perpetually occurring ; and  thus the transformation of the wind-
 mills into giants, in the history of Don Quixotte, is an idea which
 will belong to all ages.   These errors of the senses occur in per-
 sons of the soundest  intellect as well as in the  insane ; but, in the
 former, the false ideas are corrected  by the experience  and the
 judgment. It was the existence of illusions which, in the eighteenth
 century, established in the different schools of philosophy the doc-
 trine  that the senses deceived us, and could give us  no reliable
 information.
   Yet a little reflection  will satisfy us that  the senses do report
correctly concerning the objects which  affect them.   Their duty is
to inform us if there exists in such a body, or in such  an agent,
a  property or properties  which  produce in us such and such  a
sensation ; but it is not their province  to make  us acquainted with
the nature of this cause or quality.  Thus, the special objects of
the sense  of sight are space and color.   When we  judge of the
distance  and  form of an object, we  simply make  a  conjecture,
 which no more depends upon  the evidence afforded by the sense
of sight, than  the opinion which we form of the nature  and the
distance  of a sonorous body does upon the evidence  of the  ear
from the vibrations which reach it.  So that, correctly speaking,
 the senses never deceive us, but we deceive ourselves by the judg-
ments which we form upon the true evidence of the senses. 
104
HALLUCINATIONS.
   When  Esquirol  published  his Memoire sur les Illusions, he
 established  certain distinctive  characters  which separate them
 from hallucinations.  The one which appears to us the most char-
 acteristic, is the absence, in the hallucination, of any external  ob-
 ject, while the  presence  of a material object is  necessary to  lay
 the foundation of an illusion.   A man affirms that your figure is
 that of a cat,  of Napoleon, or a well-known orator ; he sees  ar-
 mies fighting in the clouds, angels sounding trumpets.   This man
 labors  under  an illusion.   But if, in the stillness of the night, he
 hears  voices  speaking to him ; if, in profound darkness, he per-
 ceives persons that  no one else can discover, he then labors under
 a hallucination.   The absence of the senses of sight and hearing
 would not prevent the hallucination, while it would form a com-
 plete obstacle to the occurrence of the  illusion.  Illusions are
 frequently observed in a state  of health, and are  easily corrected
 by the reason.  It  is needless to refer to  examples which have
 been so often quoted ; such as the square  tower which appears
 round, or the  apparent movement in the bank of a river—these
 cases have long  been understood: but  there  are other illusions
 which the progress  of science  has only recently explained  ; such
 as the Giant  of the Brocken, the Fata Morgana, or the Castles
 of the Fairy Morgana, and the mirage.
  At certain  times a giant  shows himself on the summit  of the
 Brocken (the loftiest  of the Hartz Mountains), to  the  astonish-
 ment of the inhabitants and of travelers.  This prodigy had been
for many years the source of the most  marvelous tales, when M.
 Haue, who was  desirous  of examining into the  matter, was for-
tunate enough to witness it.   While he was looking at the giant,
his  hat was almost carried away by a violent gust of wind ;  he
suddenly raised  his hand to his  head to protect his hat, and the
colossal figure  did the same ; he immediately made another  move-
ment by bending  his  body, au action which was repeated  by the
spectral figure.   M. Haue then called  the landlord of the  inn to 
HALLUCINATIONS IN  RELATION TO  ILLUSIONS.     105
participate in his discovery, when they jointly repeated his expe-
riments, with the same results.   The wonder was thus solved, and
was  found to be an optical  phenomenon.   When  the  rising sun
(and, according to analogy, the case will be the same at the sit-
ting sun) throws his  rays over  the  Brocken upon the body of a
man standing  opposite  to fine  light clouds, floating around or
hovering  past  him, he  needs  only  to  fix  his eyes  steadfastly
upon them, and, in all probability, he will  see the singular spec-
tacle of his own  shadow  extending to the length of five or six
hundred feet, at the distance of about two miles  before him.*
  Brewster, in the work already referred  to, has  related  similar
phenomena as occurring in Westmoreland and other mountainous
countries.   Troops of cavaliers, armies marching  backwards and
forwards,  have been seen in the  air, arising from the reflection of
horses and peaceful  travelers who were placed on  the opposite
mountains.
  A great number of very different  circumstances may give  rise
to  illusions.  Ignorance  is the chief condition;  and the more
knowledge there is, the less we hear of the subject.   Some coun-
tries (many of the provinces in France, and other country places)
are filled with traditions due solely to illusions of sight.
  A strong impression, the recollection of,any startling event,
may, by the association  of the ideas, produce an illusion.
  "It was in  Paris," says Dendy, "at the soiree of M. Bellart,
and a few days after the death of  Marshal Ney, the  servant, ush-
ering in the Marechal Aine', announced M. le Marechal Ney.  We
were startled ;  and, may I confess  to you, the eidolon  of the
Prince of Moskwa was  for a moment as  perfect  to  my sight as
reality."|
  Fear, remorse, and darkness are all favorable to the production
of illusions.  To these different causes must be referred those ap-

        * Philosophical Magazine, vol. vi. p. 234.  London:  1798.
        f Dendy: Opus cit. p. 56.
         8 
106
HALLUCINATIONS.
 paritions which depend on the presence of any particular object;
 such as the arrangement of a piece of  drapery or tapestry, or the
 position of a piece of  furniture, seen by a pale and  uncertain
 light.
   When the mind is thus prepared, the most familiar objects may
 become transformed into phantoms.  Ellis relates an anecdote of
 this kind, which he had from an eye-witness, the captain of a  ves-
 sel at Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
   Example 33.   His cook, he said, chanced to die on their pas-
 sage homewards.    This honest fellow,  having had one of his  legs
 a little shorter than the other, used to walk in that way which our
 vulgar idiom calls "an up and down."   A few nights after his
 body had been committed to the deep, our captain was  alarmed
 by his mate with an account  that  the  cook was walking before
 the ship, and that all hands were on deck  to see him.   The cap-
 tain, after an oath or two for having been disturbed, ordered them
 to let him alone, and try which (the ship or he) should get first to
 Newcastle.   But, turning out, on further importunity, he honestly
 confessed that he had  like to have caught the contagion ; for on
 seeing something  move in a way so similar to that which  an old
 friend used, and withal having a cap on so like that which he  was
 wont  to  wear, he  verily thought there was more in  the report
 than he was at first willing to believe.  A general  panic diffused
 itself.  He ordered the ship to be  steered  towards the object, but
 not a man would move the helm  !  Compelled to do this himself,
 he found, on a nearer approach, that the  ridiculous cause of all their
 terror was part of a maintop, the remains  of some wreck floating
 before them. Unless he had ventured to make this near approach
to the supposed ghost, the tale of the walking  cook had long
been in the mouths, and excited  the  fears of  many honest  and
very brave fellows  in the Wapping of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.*

  * Hibbert:  Opus cit. p. 16.  Ellis's edition  of Brand's Popular An
tiguities. 
HALLUCINATIONS IN  RELATION TO ILLUSIONS.     107
  Instances of this kind  are numerous, and serve to explain a
number of statements which are met with in different writers.
  King Theodoric, blinded by  jealousy, and yielding to the evil
suggestions of his courtesans,  ordered  the senator Lymmachus,
one of the  most  virtuous men of his time, to  be put to death.
Scarcely was this cruel order executed, when the king was seized
with remorse, and perpetually reproached himself with his crime.
One day a new kind of fish was placed upon  his table, when he
suddenly uttered  a cry of  alarm, for the head of the fish  appeared
to him like that of  the  unfortunate  Lymmachus.  This vision
plunged him into a deep melancholy, which lasted for the remain-
der of his life.*
  Bessus, surrounded by his guests, and giving himself  up to the
pleasures of the  feast, ceased  to pay attention to  his flatterers.
He listened attentively to a conversation that no one else heard,
when suddenly, in a transport  of rage, he  rushed from his couch,
seized his sword, and running  to the  nest of some swallows, he
struck the  poor  birds,  and  killed them.   "Imagine,"  he  said,
"the insolence of  those birds, which dared to  reproach  me with
the murder of my father 1"  Surprised at this sight, the parasites
slunk away.   Some time after it  was known that Bessus  was
really guilty, and  that this action arose from the reproaches of his
conscience, j
  History has recorded  numerous  instances in which illusions of
sight and hearing have occurred in the form of an epidemic.   One
of the most familiar examples of this is where clouds are convert-
ed into armies and various kinds of figures.  Religious  opinions,
optical phenomena, physical laws—at the  time unknown—severe
fevers, pestilences, or disorders of the brain, may each, at times,
afford a natural explanation of  these occurrences.
* Procopius: De Bello Italico.
f Plutarchus: De Sera numinus vindicata. 
108
HALLUCINATIONS.
   At the battle of Plataea the air resounded with a fearful cry,
which the Athenians  attributed to the god Pan.   The Persians
were so alarmed at it that they fled.  The word panic is said to
be derived from this circumstance.
   Pliny  says  that, during the war  of the  Romans against  the
Cimbri, they were alarmed by the noise of arms and the sound of
trumpets, which seemed to come from the heavens.
   Plutarch states that Coriolanus, during his battle with Tarquin,
saw Castor  and Pollux, mounted on white  horses, fighting vali-
antly  in  the foremost  ranks,  and that they instantly  carried  the
news of the victory to Rome.
   A few days  after the feast of the Passover, says Flavius Jose-
phus,  on the  27th of May, a certain prodigious  and incredible
phenomenon appeared.  I suppose the account of  it would seem
to be a fable, were it  not related by those that  saw it, and were
not the events that followed it of so considerable  a nature as to
deserve such signals;  for, before sun-setting, chariots  and troops
of soldiers  in  their armor were seen running about  among  the
clouds, and  surrounding  cities.   Moreover,  at the feast which we
call Pentecost, as the priests were going by night into the inner
court of the Temple, as their custom  was, to perform their several
ministrations, they said that, in the first place, they felt a quaking,
and heard a great noise, and after that they heard a sound as of
a great multitude, saying, "Let us remove hence."*
   History abounds in similar accounts.  In the time of Charle-
magne the hands of sorcerers were seen struggling in the heavens.
At a later  period unearthly beings  howled in  the temples, and
lonely voices were heard, as in the first ages of the world, f
   At  different times  during the reign of Charles VI. mimic

  * Whiston's Josephus : Wars of  the Jews, bk. vi. chap. v. par. 3.
  f Ferdinand Denis : Le Monde Enchante. 
HALLUCINATIONS IN  RELATION TO  ILLUSIONS.     109
battles were seen in the clouds;  armed knights encountered each
other, and the heavens had the color of blood.*
  The period of the  Crusades was remarkable for the number of
these apparitions.   The Christians of that time persuaded them-
selves that the miracles of the Bible and of the  New Testament
were repeated for them ; and this belief seemed the more reason-
able, as  it referred  to an enterprise  undertaken in  the country
where the miracles originally occurred.
  We shall revert to this subject when speaking of hallucinations
in connection with history.
   "Even in the field of battle," says Walter Scott,  "and  amid
the  mortal tug of combat itself, strong  belief  has wrought  the
same wonder which we have  hitherto mentioned as occurring in
solitude  and amid darkness;  and those who were themselves on
the  verge of the world  of spirits,  or employed in  dispatching
others to these gloomy regions, conceived they beheld the appari-
tion of those beings whom their national mythology associated
with such  scenes.   In such  moments of  undecided battle,  amid
the violence, hurry, and confusion of ideas incident to the situa-
tion, the ancients supposed that they saw their deities, "f  And
in the  same way, in aftertimes, the  Christian warrior beheld an
image of his tutelar saint.
  It may be asked  how a  multitude of persons could be  the
dupes of the same illusion.   Besides the reasons we have already
given, and amongst which ignorance, fear, superstition, and disease
are conspicuous, the contagious influence of example must not be
forgotten;  a single cry suffices to alarm a multitude.   An  indi-
vidual,  who  believes  he  has seen  a supernatural  appearance,
speedily communicates his  conviction to others not more enlight-
ened than  himself.   How often  has  the  story been cited of  the

  * Chronique du Religieux  de  Saint Denis:   Collections des  Memoires
relatifs a l'Histoire de France.
  f Walter Scott: Opus cit. p. 11. 
110
HALLUCINATIONS.
 man who contemplated the statue, and  cried out that it bent its
 head, while those around positively affirmed that they saw it move!
 Another motive has  been the utility which  governments  have
 found in promoting these opinions;  so that there is no  doubt they
 have frequently resulted from artifice.  In examining the ruins of
 Hadrian's Yilla, in the neighborhood of Tivoli,  we obserted in
 the Temple of Canopus the remains of long tubes, which served
 to convey the answers of the oracle.
   Illusions of hearing have produced a number of  popular delu-
 sions.   The  murmuring of the wind has been converted into the
 planitive voices of the dead imploring the prayers of the living;
 tombs, caves, and  grottoes have  been regarded as the abiding
 places of departed  spirits; and persons who have traversed a field
 of battle have heard the groans of the warriors who died in the
 strife.
   We have dwelt at some length upon illusions, in order to point
 out the difference which there is between them and hallucinations;
 but, while fully admitting the distinction, we  have considered it
 necessary, in  the first instance, to give a general description of
 illusions, in consequence of the two affections being so  frequently
united.   For the same  reason, when speaking of the etiology of
hallucinations, we shall often be compelled to include that of illu-
sions.
   Sometimes  an  illusion first shows itself, and is afterwards
replaced by a hallucination, which may complicate or succeed it.
   Example 34.   Dr. Martin, physician  to  the Hospital for the
Aged, communicated the following case to M. Bollex:  A man,
aged fifty, of  a plethoric habit, after noticing an alteration in his
sight, which  caused objects to appear sometimes double, some-
times reversed, was suddenly seized  with all  the  symptoms  of
cerebral  congestion, threatening apoplexy.  Three full bleedings
from the arm, and  the application of leeches relieved the conges-
tion ; but he  then experienced a singular  hallucination, accompa- 
HALLUCINATIONS IN  RELATION TO  ILLUSIONS.     Ill
nied by squinting.   At longer or shorter intervals his eyelids con-
tracted, and the globes of his  eyes were alternately turned to the
right and to the left;  at these times his imagination presented to
him objects and persons, whom he described, and whom he pretend-
ed to follow with his eyes as far as the dining-room or the kitchen,
both of which were quite separate from the room where he was
in bed.  The patient, who was thoroughly convinced of the real-
ity of these false perceptions, ultimately died from another attack
of  apoplexy.
   This case shows an illusion passing into a hallucination.
   Like  hallucinations,  illusions which at first  are regarded as
false, when the disease increases, may come to  be considered as
real.
   Example 35.   Towards the end  of  1835,  Madame  N,  a
laundress,  who  was  afflicted  with  violent  rheumatic  pains,
exchanged her  occupation for that  of a  semstress.   Not being
expert at this kind of work, she was obliged to sit up late at night
in order to obtain her living.  In spite of her exertions, she fell
into want, and was attacked with a  violent inflammation of the
eyes,  which afterwards became chronic.  As she continued sew-
ing, she would see four  hands at once, four needles, and four
seams:   she had double vision in  both eyes, in  consequence of  a
slight divergence  in the visual axes.   Madame N. at first under-
stood  th^e  nature  of these phenomena; but at the end of some
days, her indigence having in the meantime increased, they had
produced such an impression  on  her  mind, that she believed she
really did  accomplish four seams  at once, and that God, pitying
her misfortunes, had performed a miracle in her favor.*
   Example 36.   Cardan relates that, when staying in Paris,
happening to  look at his hands,  he was  greatly alarmed at per-

   * Hoffbauer:  Mcdecine legale relative aux Alienes et aux  Sourds-muets;
trad, de I'Allemand, par Chambeyron, avec des notes de MM. Esquirol et
Itard, p. 38. 1 vol. en 8vo.  Paris: 1821. 
112
HALLUCINATIONS.
ceiving a red spot on the index finger of the right hand.   In the
evening he received a letter from his son-in-law, informing him of
his son's imprisonment, who urgently desired  him to  come to
Milan, where he was detained.   The  mark continued  to increase
for fifty-three days, when it had reached the end of the finger;  it
was then as red as blood.   His son having  been execated, the
mark speedily diminished : the day after his death  it hid nearly
disappeared, and in two days there was no trace of it.*
   The illusions present an almost endless variety.   Tie transfor-
mation of persons and things is not uncommon.    Miss D. regarded
all the persons in  the house as Irish :  each played a distinct part
in this general transformation.   One was her enemy; another, one
of her friends ; all had their particular character and standing,
and  each acted accordingly.   This illusion lasted  a long  time.
Mrs.  M. believed  she saw her brother, who  had  been dead for
many  years, in  the person of  several  invalids.    Sauvages,
under the name of tentoin vertigineux, mentions a peculiar  affec-
tion of the hearing, which consists in  the  person hearing to the
right  of him the words  which have been uttered to the left, and
vice versa.
  Illusions  of hearing  are very frequent amongst  the  insane :  a
kind word addressed to another person, or a single  movement of
the lips, is construed into jeers, curses, or blessings.
  Illusions, like hallucinations, have often terminated in .quarrels,
duels, suicides,  and murders.
  Example 37.  M. C, who had been deranged, returned to his
family before he  was completely recovered.   The next  day he
went into the cellar,  where his wife followed him ;  and his sister-
in-law, finding they did not return, did the same.  Their prolonged
absence alarmed the servant, who went to ascertain the cause, and
hastily returned, uttering cries of terror, and fled from the house.
* Cardanus : De Vita prqficia. 
HALLUCINATIONS IN  RELATION TO  ILLUSIONS.     113
 Her broken sentences and expression of alarm showed that some
 terrible catastrophe had  occurred.   The police,  on going to the
 spot, found the two women dead  upon the ground, and weltering
 in  their blood.  C. was  seated on a cask, and  a razor  covered
 with blood at  his feet.   On  being questioned, all the reply he
 made was that he had seen the devil, and had defended himself
 against him.   This man was again placed in confinement at Char-
 enton, and in 1825 was removed to a private asylum, where I saw
 him for about a year.   His reason having returned,  he  claimed
 his liberty, which he obtained against the advice of MM. Esquirol
 and Marc.   Some years after he  attacked the female with whom
 he  was living, taking her for a devil who reproached him with his
 crimes :  she saved her life by jumping out of the window.  Twelve
 days after, C. died in the asylum of M. Pressat, in a transport of
 rage, believing himself surrounded by phantoms and devils. *
   Some invalids accumulate sand and  small  pebbles, believing
 them to be  precious stones.   M. V.  passes the day in examining
 with his  glass these pretended jewels.  He returns home  sinking
 beneath the weight of his riches.  Illusions of the sense of touch
 will frequently lead the insane person to think he  has been struck.
 Madame D. suffers  from an eruption of the skin, which she regards
 as the marks of blows that have been given her during the night.
 It is certain that rheumatic, neuralgic, and internal pains give rise
 to illusions  of touch in many of the insane.   We associate with
 illusions all  those false sensations which arise from disease of the
 internal organs, as  the stomach, intestines, &c. ;  all those of the
hypochondriac  which have been spoken of as internal hallucina-
 tions.
  Most of these illusions are associated with the previous occu-
pations, ideas, habits, and passions of the invalid.   A young lady

  *A Brierre de Boismont:  Observations medico-legates sur la Monomanie
homocide.   Paris: 1827. 
114                    HALLUCINATIONS.
told me that she was unable to rest, because all the persons around
her wore masks, and she was in the midst of a perpetual carnival.
This illusion, like many others,  remained  quite inexplicable, until
she had been with me some time, when I  learnt that it originated
in a visit she had  paid to a bal masque at the opera.
   Illusions of  smell and taste are  exceedingly  common.   We
have hereafter related the case  of a patient who  licked the wralls
of his apartment,  mistaking them for oranges.  Nothing is more
common, especially in monomania accompanied by melancholy,
than to hear the person complain his food has a poisonous taste;
an idea which  leads him to attempt suicide by starvation.
  Each  sense may be the seat of an illusion, and  all of them may
be affected simultaneously.
  Illusions may last for a long time.  Guislain  has related the
case of a poor woman who became deranged when her  son joined
the army.   One day an  idiot  having been brought to the same
asylum as the one she was in, she mistook  him for the son she had
so lamented.   During many years she continued to bestow the
most tender solicitude upon the  idiot boy. 
CHAPTER  V.
HALLUCINATIONS IN MONOMANIA, STUPIDITY, MANIA, DEMENTIA, AND GENERAL
                          PARALYSIS.

  Although hallucinations may exist by themselves without any
complication, it  is far more common to find  them combined with
some form  of  insanity.   According to Esquirol,  out of every
hundred lunatics eighty are more or less affected by hallucinations.
Recent observations have  shown  that  this number is too high.
" In 145 cases at the Bicetre," says M. Baudry, " 56 had halluci-
nations."— These, 1833, p. 14.   In our own establishment, out of
66 lunatics,  38 had hallucinations.
  Hallucinations are  most frequent in monomania.  This arises
partly from  the nature of the insanity itself, and partly  from these
phenomena  being more  easily observed  in  such cases.  This  is
not, however, invariably the case; for  in melancholia  some  indi-
viduals will  maintain an obstinate silence for many years, and the
secret hallucination is only revealed by chance.   It may, however,
be stated generally, that  the more extravagant and singular the
actions  of the individuals, the more reason  there is to  suppose
that they are the result of hallucinations or illusions.
  Example 38.   "I  have seen,"  says Marc, " in the asylum of
Dr. Pressat, a man advanced  in  years, and  affected with melan-
choly from  reverse of fortune.   For many  years he  had never
spoken  a word.   His  sole occupation consisted in smelling and
licking  the walls of his apartment, and  the  sill of his door:  he
would continue this for hours together, without our being  able to 
116                   HALLUCINATIONS.
explain the reason of such a singular and laborious act, whose
frequency and duration had made several deep impressions on the
plaster of the room.   During my visits I had often questioned
him, but in vain, as to his motives for such conduct, when  one
day, pretending  not to notice him,  I asked the attendant how all
these dirty  spots had come upon the wall.  To our great surprise,
the invalid  broke through his long  silence,  and said, ' Do you  call
those dirty  spots and excavations ? Do you not perceive they are
oranges from Japan ?   What delicious fruit they  are ; what  a
color, what a perfume,  what an excellent flavor they have !'  And
he continued to smell and lick  them with increased  eagerness.
Thus, then, all was explained, and the poor hallucinated, whom I
had hitherto pitied as the most unfortunate  of mankind, on  the
contrary, was happy, since the  most agreeable  hallucinations of
the senses,   of sight,  of smell,  and of taste  provided  him with
perpetual pleasure."*
   Esquirol has reported a case of melancholia  where the individual
passed the  whole day perfectly motionless, and seemed lost to all
that was around him.   He  was kept  in this condition through
fear of a voice, which threatened him with death if he made  the
slightest movement.
   MM. Aubanel and Thore, in their statistics of the Bicetre, state
that in 87  cases of monomania which they had  registered in  one
year, 45 had hallucinations.
   Out of 18 cases of monomania in our establishment, 12  had
hallucinations.   Several had also illusions.   Lypemania (melan-
choly) was the  form  which predominated;  and  all  who were
attacked by it had hallucinations  of hearing and of sight, either
combined or separate.
   Example 39.   On the 3d December, 1839, M. D. was received
into my establishment, coming  from  the  Bicetre,  where he  had

   * Marc : De la Folie dans ses Rapports, avec les Questions Medico-judici-
aires.  2 vols. in-8.   Vol. i, p. 191.  Paris: 1840. 
MONOMANIA, STUPIDITY, DEMENTIA, PARALYSIS.     117
 been  placed two  months  previously for an act of insanity.  The
 son of a very rich merchant, and having himself enjoyed all the
 luxuries  of wealth, he had  seen his fortune gradually dissipated
 through  an  uninterrupted series of misfortunes.   Compelled to
 become a teacher, often reduced to the merest necessaries of life,
 the deprivations  which he  experienced exercised  a depressing
 influence over his  thoughts, which ultimately ended in insanity.
   When I saw him I found him with a bewildered look, timid,
 and alarmed at the slightest question.  He complained of a gen-
 eral feeling of cold—a very  common symptom  in lypemania; but
 what  tormented him  more than anything else, was  the sound  of
 unfriendly voices, which issued from the walls, and the presence  of
 invisible agents, who placed  articles  of value within his pillow,  or
 in  the inside of his bed, in  order that  he  might be taken for a
 thief, and become dishonored.   This  idea never left him a moment's
 repose.   It was impossible to convince him of the groundlessness
 Of his fears; kindness had no effect  upon him ;  he was insensible
 to every consolation.
  At  length,  to diminish his  anxiety, I  had his pillow unsewed,
 which he pretended was filled with diamonds by the malice of his
 enemies.   Having carefully examined its contents, he was tranquil
 for the rest of the day; but  on the next the old idea returned,
 and when we desired again to convince him, he told  me, with the
 deepest despondency, that the invisible agents  had taken care to
 remove the diamonds before hand.
  This unhappy man was worse in the night than during the day.
 At that time he was in the habit of  seeing a man enter his room
 who removed his clothes for the purpose  of filling them with pre-
cious stones.   At  other times his persecutors,  coming in greater
numbers, would put him in a bath and ill-treat him ; they would
take him  up, and transport  him to different towns in France, Afri-
ca, and America.   His plate,  the walls, the curtains, seemed to him
filled  with people,  or  with sailors,  who  had come to take  him 
118
HALLUCINATIONS.
away.   When his meals were served, he would not take the por-
tion intended for him, but that of some  other person, for he now
thought it was intended to poison  him.   His drinks caused him
terrible anguish; he would never empty his glass, thinking that
the poison was at the  bottom.   He had a great dread of  being
left alone in a room where there was money, fearing he  should be
accused of having stolen it.  Yet  this man would converse with
remarkable ability when his attention was fixed  upon any subject
which might happen to come up.
   M. D., who for some time had eaten but very little, began to
feel that pieces of copper and sponge were placed in  his throat
and  stomach.  He did  not conceal from us that he believed my
wife, my children, and myself plotted together to poison him.  He
asked our pardon for this idea, feeling that  it  must seem  very
strange, and admitted that, if any one else had said such a thing,
he would justly be regarded as insane ;  still, he said, what he had
told us was the truth
   The life  of man is a series of contradictions;  in a moment he
passes from one  extreme to another, and the acts of  to-day belie
those of yesterday.  The conduct of the lunatic  is only an exag-
geration of these eccentricities.   Thus, we  see an unhappy crea-
ture, who trembles at the thought of being poisoned, condemning
himself to all the horrors  of famine, submitting  to real suffering
to avoid imaginary torments, and who fears death, yet brings it
on himself.   It is in vain that others partake of  the same food or
drink of the same wine—nothing can tranquilize his fears.
   At the end of four months, the extreme  emaciation of M. D.
showed  the  injury which his system had received from his  long
abstinence.   In  spite of his utter  prostration and his speedily-
approaching end, the unhappy man persisted in his idea; he was
convinced that sponges,  keys,  and many other  strange substances
were put into his  stomach.  To prevent his  food touching the
plates, he  would endeavor to hold it  suspended in the air, and 
MONOMANIA, STUPIDITY, DEMENTIA, PARALYSIS.    119
 when it fell his anguish was horrible to behold.  On the very day
 of his death he declared that I had poisoned him ; that his pillows
 were full of diamonds, and that he should be accused of having
 stolen them.   He died, saying that the morsel which he had eaten
 was poisoned.
   The hallucinations of the lypemaniac correspond to the cause
 and nature of  their disease, to the character of their thoughts and
 passions.  Those who have been engaged in chemistry, in medi-
 cines, or in  any of the sciences, believe themselves haunted by
 physicians, electricity, or magnetism.  Those who have been rich,
 who have been engaged in business, or who have lost money, im-
 agine they wish to steal, or that the police  are in search of them.
   Ascetic insanity is attended with  most  melancholy results.
 When the unfortunate person who  is attacked by it  is surrounded
 by hallucinations,  he thinks he is yielding to the influence of the
 devil,  who governs all his actions.
   The fear  of the devil, the  dread of future punishment, had
 formerly an  immense influence  over the  mind.  This demono-
 mania, which was considerably  diminished  during the eighteenth
 century, has reappeared with the restoration of religious feelings,
 as though evil  was the inevitable shadow of good.   In the space
 of six years we have had as many as fifteen cases in  our establish-
 ment.
   Dr.  Macario is  of opinion  that  this form of madness is fre-
 quently met with in the  provincial  asylums for the insane, owing,
 as he thinks, to the circumstance that materialism has not  taken
 such deep  root in  France as might have been expected.*   He
 considers these lunatics have numerous hallucinations  and illusions.
   Some demonomaniacs are  carried up into  the air, transported
to hell, or seized  with horror and  alarm:  they witness the tor-
ments  of the damned.  Others believe themselves transformed

  * Macario : Etudes  Clinques sue la Demonomanie—Annates Medico-psy-
chologiques.  Mai, 1843.  Vol. i. lre serie, pp. 440 et suiv. 
120                   HALLUCINATIONS.
into  animals, trees, or fruits;  or they are reduced  to  ashes, and
then, like  a new phoenix, pretend that they are resuscitated and
renewed.   Many are surrounded  by  hideous reptiles or  dead
bodies.  Some declare they have sold their souls to the devil, that
they have  signed the compact with their blood, and are doomed
to eternal damnation.   There  are  some who believe they shall
never die,  and that at the end of the world they will be left alone
upon the  earth.   Some  are  more  happy;  the devil has taken
them under his protection, has taught  them the secret  of making
gold, tells them what is to happen, displays to them the mysteries
of hell, and grants them the power of working miracles : hence, at
their command, the lightning flashes,  the  thunder rolls, the  rain
descends, the earth opens, and the dead return to life.
  Example 40.   Madame C, of foreign extraction, aged 48, has
always been animated, sensitive and romantic.  Brought up in
the midst of superstitious customs, and without education, she has
had for the last six years a kind of intermittent melancholy, which,
after several attacks, presented  itself in a new form.   This  lady,
who for a  long time  had  neglected  her  religious  duties, became
uneasy in  her conscience, and  believed  she should be eternally
lost.  Haunted by this idea, she abstained  for several days  from
taking any nourishment.   When she  was brought to  my house
she had constant fits of raving.   Quiet at first,  she  afterwards
burst into  tears, complaining that  she saw devils, and that she
was  surrounded  by  flames.   "I am  damned, my children are
damned, save me !"  she cried, and at the same time accompanying
the  words with  the most fearful  shrieks, she struck her  head
against the wall, broke the windows, and tore her clothes.   She
was constantly calling for drink, as though  she was burnt up by
an internal fire.
   For three days she was tranquil; but at the end of that  time
the same  ideas returned,  her hair seemed to  stand on end, her
eyes were wild, and, with her prolonged bowlings, gave her the 
MONOMANIA, STUPIDITY, DEMENTIA, PARALYSIS.    121
 appearance of one possessed.   A thick saliva flowed from  her
 mouth, which every now and  then she spat at the attendants.
 The terror and despair which were depicted in  her countenance
 but too truly indicated the effects of her frightful visions.
   During the last month of her illness her cries were perpetual,
 so that she was obliged to be placed in a room by herself.   There,
 always crouching down, her body disfigured by the blows she con-
 tinually inflicted on herself;  her eyes fixed, sunk  in  their sockets,
 and blood-shot; her skin cadaverous, jaundiced and wrinkled ;  her
 appearance threatening ; her voice hoarse with constantly crying
 out that she was lost and damned, that the devil was in her body
 and tormented her with constant apparitions^she was the picture
 of the most fearful despair, and perpetually besought the atten-
 dants to save  and  deliver her from her fate.
   This fearful frenzy disturbed all  the functions of  her  body.
 From an early period  of the illness she had refused to take  her
 food.   Towards the end of her existence  she was fifteen days
 without eating, only drinking from time to time a cup of coffee,
 frequently  refusing even that, saying that it burnt  her, and that
 it had a horrible taste.   This arose from the state of her breath,
 the smell of which was  most offensive.   Her eyes and  nostrils
now  became  filled  with a purulent  mucus, announcing the  ap-
proach  of  death.  During  the  latter days of her life, a circum-
stance  occurred which shows the extraordinary influence that ner-
vous diseases exercise over the physical organization. Wasted to
the last degree, and having taken no food for a considerable time,
this patient had so twisted her limbs together, and had rolled her-
self up with  such  power, that  no efforts which  could  be  made
would  restore her to her natural position.   She died in the same
state of rigidity, a prey to the same hallucinations,  and declaring
she would not die.
  In women, these demoniacal apparitions are often associated with
derangement of the  sexual feelings,  and  explain the hysterical
        9 
122
HALLUCINATIONS.
symptoms, the  erotomania and  the  nymphomania which  are  so
common in this sex.   Instances of this kind are exceedingly nu-
merous.
   Example 41.   An unhappy woman at Nantes was tormented
by a demon, who presented himself to her in a most beautiful form.
He addressed her in most endearing  language, but concealed his
criminal intentions, and then gained her  affections.   When  he
had  obtained  her assent to his suit, he  extended his arms, and
taking her feet in one hand,  with the other he touched the crown
of her head, thus  signing the compact between  them.   She had
for her husband a brave  soldier, who was entirely ignorant of this
abominable  alliance.  The invisible adulterer even visited her in
bed where her husband was sleeping beside her.
   For six years the woman  concealed her terrible misfortune, not
daring to confess  so  horrible a crime.   In  the seventh year, tor-
tured by the reproaches  of her conscience, she  felt terrified,  as
much by her long course of infamy as by the fear of her Savior,
at the thought of whom  she  trembled, lest his judgment  should
come suddenly upon her, and she should be damned.  She, there-
fore, hastened  to  confess her sin to the priest.   She visited the
sacred places, and implored the  assistance of the saints; but no
confession, no prayer, no almsgiving  could  procure  her consola-
tion.  Every day the demon subjected her to his passion, even
more furiously than before.   At length her disgrace  became pub-
lic, and her husband, hearing of it, looked upon her with horror.
At this time St. Bernard arrived with his attendants.  When the
unhappy woman learned  this, she hastened trembling to throw her-
self at his feet; told  him, in a flood of tears, her horrible suffer-
ings, the insults of the  demon to  whom she was a prey, and how
useless all that the priests had directed had been: she added, that
her tormentor had informed  her of the  arrival of the holy man,
and had forbidden her, with dreadful threats, to visit him, saying,
that  such a proceeding would not avail her, for, as soon  as the 
MONOMANIA, STUPIDITY, DEMENTIA, PARALYSIS.    123
abbe" was gone, he, who had hitherto been her lover, would be-
come her most cruel persecutor.   The man of God, hearing these
things, comforted the woman with the words of  mercy, and prom-
ised her  the assistance of Heaven; but, as night was approaching,
he  directed her to come to him  the next day, and to trust in her
Savior.   Accordingly, she  visited him in the  morning, and re-
ported to him the blasphemies and threats of the incubus. " Have
no fear of his threats," said Saint Bernard, "but take my staff
and place  it in your bed, in case he should  try to annoy  you."
The woman did as she was  ordered ; and when she went to rest,
protected her bed with the sign of the cross, and placed the staff
beside her.  The  incubus  soon came,  but  dared not attempt
his usual proceedings, nor even to approach her bed, but furiously
threatened the  unfortunate  woman that, so soon  as  the man of
God was gone,  he would return  and  punish her.   The next Sun-
day the holy abbot ordered that  the people should  be summoned
to  church  by  proclamation of the  bishop.    The consequence
was, that on this  day a large  concourse of people  assembled
in the church, when St. Bernard, followed by  the two bishops,
Goeffrey of Chartres  and Brieton of Nantes, entered  the  rood-
loft, and said that he wished to speak.   Having directed that all
the attendants should hold lighted tapers in their  hands, himself,
the bishops, and  the clergy doing the same, he publicly exposed
the wicked and unheard-of attempts  of the demon ; then, assisted
by the priests and all the faithful present, he anathematized this
adulterous  spirit, and forbade him in the name of Christ  to ap-
proach this or  any other  woman.  When the sacred tapers were
burnt out, the power of the demon became extinguished at the same
time.   The unfortunate possessed having been confessed, took the
sacrament;  and from that time her enemy never dared to appear,
but fled from her, never to return.*

  * Vie de Saint Bernard—Collection des  Memoires relatifs a VHistoire de
France.   Traduite par M. Guizot.  At this period religion was the only
remedv for evils against which science was powerless. 
124
HALLUCINATIONS.
  In the present day the intercourse with demons is far more rare
than formerly;  out of the  hundreds of lunatics who have  come
under our notice, we have not met with a single well-established
instance.  Hallucinations of this kind now generally assume the
form of angels, or of men  gifted with all  the  charms which the
imagination can bestow upon them.   They frequently refer to the
head of the  asylum.
  Example 42.  Madame  B. is persuaded she is  about to be
married to a man of birth and influence, who has all her sympa-
thies.  Possessed with this  idea, she is oblivious of her real hus-
band.  Every night, she tells me, she receives a visit from "he
angel Raphael,  a beautiful, fair young man,  with  a pale com-
plexion, clothed  in black, and who speaks to her in the most gra-
cious manner.
  Example 43.  Mademoiselle Z., aged seventeen,  was brought
to our establishment on account of a mental  derangement caused
by love.   The first symptoms  had shown  themselves three days
previously.  Her countenance  expressed  a joyous  excitement.
Her lover never  quits her;  he  follows her everywhere, and calls
her by the most endearing names. When he goes away, she throws
herself on her knees, asks his pardon, and entreats him not to re-
duce her to despair.  She sees him in the clouds, crowned with
roses, and from whence he regards her with looks  of tenderness.
One of the  most interesting scenes we ever witnessed was her
singing to her lover the ballad of La Folle.   Such was the attrac-
tion, that  lunatics who had  been in our house for more  than ten
years, would gather round her, and listen to her with marked de-
light.
  To show his affection, this ideal lover brought her bouquets of
flowers, and surrounded her with delicious perfumes.   " See these
roses," she would say, " what a delicious perfume they give; the
room is filled with it."  Tne thoughts  of Mademoiselle  Z. were
so concentrated  on one object, that it was scarcely possible to ob- 
MONOMANIA, STUPIDITY, DEMENTIA, PARALYSIS.    125
tain even a few words from her.   Her excitement rapidly dimin-
ished :  she still heard the voice of her lover; but her reason was
soon restored, and at the end of  eight days all her symptoms dis-
appeared.
   The Monomania  of  Nostalgia—home sickness—is seldom
observed in the asylums for the  insane.  Under the  influence  of
their insanity,  these  unhappy persons see their country, their
home, their parents, and their friends with smiles on their lips and
joy in their countenances : they converse with invisible beings, and
speak of the pleasure which the sight affords them.   We attended
a case of dementia, accompanied with paralysis, where the patient's
words were scarcely audible, and, while in his own house, he was
subject to paroxysms of rage.  No sooner  was  he separated from
his family than he refused all nourishment,  would allow no one to
approach him, and uttered frightful cries.  Eight days were passed
in the  most  rigid abstinence: satisfied that his return home was
the only thing that could  save him, we immediately wrote to his
wife.   As saon as he saw her he consented to  take some broth;
and this man, who seemed almost dying, was able to enter a car-
riage with the assistance of only a single person.
   Hallucinations and illusions almost always accompany Calen-
ture—a febrile disease peculiar to sailors.   The irresistible desire
felt by these persons to  throw themselves into the sea, arises from
their mistaking  it for verdant fields, enameled with flowers; they
long to traverse these  fertile plains, fresh with moisture, and to
which their imagination imparts  the  presence  of cooling shades
and the sweetest perfume  of the  flowers.   At other  times it is for
the purpose  of  escaping  from their vessel, and to be freed from
their miserable thoughts, or from the presence of a phantom.
   Vampirism  and Lycanthropy, which existed some  centuries
ago as epidemics, were accompanied  by hallucinations and illu-
sions.
   The other varieties of monomania may also be accompanied by 
126
HALLUCINATIONS.
hallucinations; but those we have dwelt upon are the kinds which
present themselves most frequently.    What we have said with
regard  to these,  renders it  unnecessary to enter into  further
details.
                          STUPIDITY.
  There are lunatics who resemble statues :  they seem to  be per-
fectly unconscious of all  which passes around  them;  their eyes
are fixed, their mouths wide  open,  and  they look like  idiots.
Georget gave the name  of stupidite to  this particular kind of
insanity ;  Esquirol considers it as a variety of dementia—demence
aigue;  and M. Baillarger, as the highest  degree of a peculiar
form  of  melancholia.   According  to this writer,*  everything
around  these lunatics is changed.  They are a prey to all kinds
of hallucinations and illusions ;  they  will  believe that they are in
a desert, in a house of bad repute, in a foreign country ; that they
have been sent to the galleys, or are  in prison.  Some will take
the bath-room for hell, the baths for boats, the scar  of a blister
for the mark of the galleys, the other lunatics for men risen from
their graves, for prisoners, for women, for soldiers in disguise ; or,
on the other hand, they will mistake women for  men.   Others see
hideous and threatening phantoms,  or everybody around them
appears to be drunk.
  Others  hear frightful voices, which insult them, and threaten to
kill or burn them.   Their beds are filled with the noise of clocks
and tambourines;  the explosions of fire-arms rattle around them;
their  relations  are struggling with  their enemies, and implore
their assistance ; their bodies are pierced  with bullets, their blood
streams upon the ground, or they have the sensation of some one
suffocating them by pressing on their chests.
  It is impossible  not to recognize in this description the  highest

  * Baillarger : De V Etat designe chez les Alienes sous le Nom de Stupidite—
Annates Med. Psychol., Nos. 1 et 2.  Paris : 1843. 
MONOMANIA, STUPIDITY, DEMENTIA, PARALYSIS.    127
degree of melancholy monomania.  In nine cases recorded  by M.
Baillarger, all had either hallucinations or illusions.
   Example 44.   M. B., aged twenty-five,  at the head of  one of
the Government offices, was brought to Chareton, Aug. 12, 1833.
On two occasions he had attacks of insanity.   The symptoms, at
the commencement of the last attack, seemed to have been those
of acute delirium.   At  his  entrance M. B. was pale, his  eyes
fixed, his countenance  had lost  all expression, and denoted the
most profound idiocy.    He would remain the whole day  in the
same place,  perfectly silent, and without paying the  slightest
attention to what was passing around  him.   His memory seemed
completely gone.  The  stupor into which he had fallen was so
profound that it was necessary to feed him, and instead  of the
usual dress, he was provided with a sort of long blouse.
   A blister applied to the neck produced some improvement, and
towards the end  of December he  was perfectly cured.
   The state in which M.  B. has been for three months cannot be
better described  than as  a long dream.  Everything around him,
he said,  seemed  transformed:  he had the impression  of there
having been  a general  annihilation.   The earth trembled  and
opened beneath his feet, and he felt as though he should be engulfed
in a  deep abyss.   When he  laid hold of the persons who were
near him, it was to  prevent  them falling over precipices  which
resembled the craters of volcanoes.   M.  B. mistook the  bath-
room of Chareton for hell (he had refused to enter it), and the
baths for boats.   He thought that all who were with him drowned
themselves.   It appeared  to him afterwards that he had been
wounded, and that his blood continued to trickle on to the ground.
The blister he had had on  his neck was the mark of the galleys,
and he thought he was dishonored for ever by this brand of infamy.
He could not at  all understand who were the strange-looking  per-
sons around him; he at  last regarded them as  persons who  had
risen from the  dead.  He saw his brother in  the midst of torments, 
128                   HALLUCINATIONS.
 and constantly  heard the cries of his  relatives, who were being
 murdered, imploring  his  assistance.  He was surrounded by the
 noise of fire-arms; balls traversed his body without  wounding
 him, and  killed  other people.   Everything was confused and dis-
 ordered in his mind :  he no longer distinguished night from day ;
 the months seemed to  him like years.  He believed he had brought
 all these  evils upon  himself, and  for that reason  made several
 attempts to commit suicide.
   In the  article Stupidite, in  the  Supplement  au Dictionnaire
 des Dictionnaires de Medecine, we have observed that this dis-
 ease may, like sleep, present two different conditions, one of which
 is characterized  by a  complete  suspension of the  faculties, and the
 other by the existence of dreams.

                           MANIA.
   The  rapidity  with  which the  thoughts, the recollections, and
images  pass through the mind of the maniac, the difficulty which
he has in forming comparisons, the impossibility  he finds in fixing
his attention, all concur to favor the production  of hallucinations
and illusions.
   This  complication  is therefore very  common  in  the maniac.
MM.  Aubanel and Thore have stated that in one hundred and
eighty-one maniacs, they had observed fifty-six instances of hallu-
cinations.
   None of these cases presented  hallucinations of all the senses.
These physicians have justly remarked that this number would be
considerably higher,  but  that many hallucinations escape  our
notice in  the  midst  of the agitation and other troubles which
afflict the maniac.   In  seven maniacs who were  in our establish-
ment at the time of  our last  returns, all had either illusions or
hallucinations.
   Example 45.  M. P., aged thirty-nine, a man of intelligence
and a good linguist, but with great confidence in his abilities, had 
MONOMANIA, STUPIDITY, DEMENTIA, PARALYSIS.    129
conducted the business of a large commercial house in Paris for
twenty years, when  the entire management was left in his hands.
Every one supposed  that M. P.  had now attained his  utmost
wishes, when it was  perceived his conduct was no longer the same.
He embarked  large sums of money in speculations quite distinct
from those which had  been carried on previously, nor were these
transactions conducted  with the ability he had  hitherto  shown.
In spite of a  promise  he had given his partner to the contrary,
he continued to speculate on his  own account.
  A remark of considerable  importance here suggests itself.   It
frequently happens that a man who, up to a certain time, has con-
ducted himself with the greatest integrity, commits a breach of
trust, embezzles money, or in some way robs his employer, people
are astonished and indignant, and the act receives its appointed
punishment.   There is no doubt that many unfortunate persons
have  expiated in prison, as a crime, an act which was the result
of disease.  Circumstances of this kind have come under  our
notice  a  sufficient number of times to induce us specially to  call
the attention of  magistrates to this species of mental aberration.
An invalid was sent to us by Dr. Ollivier, of Angers, to ascertain
whether  the patient  was really insane;  for, on  examining his
accounts, there was  found a deficiency of more than 10,000 francs.
Greatly concerned,  his family  were  earnestly endeavoring to  buy
off the persons whom  he had robbed.   Two months' observation
left no doubt in our  mind that it was a case of dementia  with
paralysis.  These embezzlements had  taken place during the time
that the  disease was being engendered.   C, who was employed
in a  banking-house, had had a violent fall upon  his head, but,
after  a time,  he was  able  to return to his  employment.   An
examination of his  accounts proved there was a deficiency of sev-
eral thousand  francs ;  the strict integrity and attention to business
which he  had previously shown prevented his being prosecuted,
and his employers were contented with dismissing  him.   Shortly 
130                   HALLUCINATIONS.
afterwards  he was sent to my  house.   I immediately perceived
there was general paralysis, without any other disturbance of the
mental faculties than a loss of memory.   His constant anxiety
was to return to his situation, where he imagined he was wanted.
As in the preceding case, all that had passed during the time that
the disease  was being developed was a blank.   The man was still
upright, but his mind was  irrevocably destroyed.
  When, therefore,  a  person,  whose conduct has always been
irreproachable,  becomes  unsettled, and  acts in an eccentric,
strange, or  reprehensible manner, he should be carefully watched,
and frequently at the end of a few months,  sooner or  later, insan-
ity will begin  to  show itself,  and  in  the  majority of cases will
assume the  form of dementia with general paralysis.
  The conduct of  M. P. was soon afterwards explained; he was
seized  with a  violent attack of mania,  which lasted fifteen days.
His recovery was rapid and seemed to be  complete ;   but it was
observed he had no longer the same decision of character that he
had previously, while his self-esteem had greatly increased.
  Having  returned  to his usual  occupations, M.  P.  could  not
resist   again  entering into hazardous  speculations, which,  more
than once,  must have caused him bitter regret.   About the end
of September he had a second attack, more violent than the first.
The following is the  description which his relative gave us of this
seizure:
  "I  was," he said, "alone with M.  P. and his  wife when  the
attack  came  on;  the house stood  by itself,  far from any other
habitation.   For some  hours he had done  nothing but violently
open and shut the doors;  we saw that every moment his excite-
ment was increasing.   All at once he cried out that he was God.
' Down on  your knees,' he added, with a terrific voice, and with
rage depicted on his  countenance.   ' I  obey,'  I replied, ' because
I know it is God who commands.'  ' It is well.  Now rise, place
yourself on the bed.  that I may perform an operation.'   He then 
MONOMANIA, STUPIDITY, DEMENTIA, PARALYSIS.    131
 passed his hands over all parts of my body, tickling the soles of
 my feet;  if I removed them, he would say, you have no patience,
 the operation is marred ;  I must begin again.   I was particularly
 careful to show no  signs of  fear, and to repeat, after each of his
 commands,  'I obey, because I know it  is  God  who commands.'
   " This  frightful scene  lasted more than four hours ; flight was
 impossible, for he had taken the precaution to fasten the doors;
 besides which, he would have stopped me by force.  At last the
 crisis came :  ' I must  kill you !' he cried, in a voice of fury it  is
 impossible to describe.   Conciliation was  at an end; it was use-
 less to hesitate.  I threw myself upon him ; the struggle was ter-
 rific ; I was speedily covered with bites,  and the blood streamed
 from  me.  He  called me Satan, and actually roared with rage.
 I felt my strength failing me, and that I  was about to be at the
 mercy of  a  furious  maniac,  when a  thought struck me.   ' My
 friend,' I said, ' God commands me, and I  obey you ;  but I must
 surround  you with bands to render the honors that are  due to
 you.'
   " Scarcely had I said these words when he  loosened his grasp,
 became calm,  and himself assisted in executing the idea which had
 suggested itself so opportunely.  Assisted by his wife, whom he
 had no more  spared than myself, I surrounded  him with cords,
 towels, and curtains.   In this state he wished to rise;  but, find-
 ing that he was bound, his  transports of  rage were  so violent,
 that, if some  men had not  come to our assistance,  a dreadful
catastrophe must have ensued."
  When I received M.  P.  into  my establishment, he still bore
traces  of  his  recent  struggle.   I had  him placed in the bath,
 where he remained eight  hours, receiving a continued stream of
water on  his head;  a mode of treatment which I have employed
with great success in cases of this kind.  At times he was very
calm ;  then he would  declare that he was God, Jesus Christ,  the
emperor, and  that we were all devils.   He saw before him heaps 
132                   HALLUCINATIONS.
of gold and  precious stones, which he bestowed on all around
him.
  During the night he had a paroxysm of rage, and endeavored
to destroy the walls of his apartment.  Five days after he struck
one of the attendants with an  iron bar  he had  taken  from his
window; he afterwards assigned, as the reason for his doing this,
that a voice had told him that  he had the power of restoring the
dead to life, and he was desirous of  killing the attendant, in order
to cut off  his head, and then resuscitate him.   He constantly saw
lions,  leopards, giraffes, and cameleons, all of which  he described
most admirably.
  As his  disease increased, he  expressed  himself less in French,
and  all his  monologues were  in   English.  It  has been  long
observed that the insane, in their delirium, almost always return
to the use of their own language,  although they are sometimes
less familiar with it than that of the country they inhabit.
  M.  P. often imitated the noise of trumpets; at those times  he
was hunting lions and leopards; at other times the walls of his
apartment  were decorated with gold and  precious stones.   The
persons present seemed changed into others, and supposing the
change, he then spoke to  them  correctly concerning matters with
which they were  acquainted.   Sometimes he imagined he was
growing so tall he should  touch the ceiling, and  to avoid this he
would double himself  up.   These hallucinations and illusions con-
tinued uninterruptedly for two  months;  his appetite was  good,
and there was  no alteration in his  appearance; but changes of
structure were going on;  his legs  became dropsical, and  it was
evident  he was sinking from the effects  of his disease.   At the
end of  three months, there was a defect  and hesitation in his
speech; all the symptoms of cerebral congestion rapidly set  in,
and two days after he died in a state of coma.
  How did it happen that such a  powerful organization  should
have  fallen a prey to insanity!  This question subsequently re- 
MONOMANIA, STUPIDITY, DEMENTIA, PARALYSIS.    133
 ceived an answer.  We were informed that  M. P. had married
 against the advice of his relations and  friends, and that this  had
 been a constant source of  vexation and mortification.   The mur-
 der of one of his  relations at Rome by the mob, had  also been a
 source of great  grief to him; for  in  men  of his temperament,
 the impossibility  of revenging  themselves becomes the cause of
 torment, such as cannot even be comprehended by other persons.
    Hallucinations  may show themselves in the maniac at the com-
 mencement of his disease;  they may precede it,  complicate it,
 terminate at the same time,  or continue when it has ceased.
    It sometimes happens that the illusion becomes  converted into
 a hallucination, and vice  versa.  A maniac mistakes the persons
 that are  present  for frightful animals; afterwards, by a natural
 process of  the  mind, he detaches the  image from the idea,  and
 places it before his eyes; then, terrified by his own creation, with
 shrieks and cries  he engages in a furious contest with the imag-
 inary animal.    At other times, the  maniac, having mistaken a
 stranger for some  one he was acquainted with, afterwards sees this
 person before him, and enters into conversation with him.   These
 changes are also noticed in other forms  of insanity.
   In puerperal  mania,  or the insanity of child-bed, the  most ex-
 travagant hallucinations of sight and hearing throw the patients
 into a state of violent  agitation; they  are tormented  by the fear
 of death or  of being  poisoned, and  undergo all the  agonies ol
 despair.
   In an article* we have published on  this disorder, we have re-
corded the presence of hallucinations.    Those of hearing are very
common.  The patients hear voices sounding in their ears, in some
cases urging them to commit suicide.   Out of one hundred and
eleven cases of puerperal  mania recorded at Bethlem, thirty-two
had a tendency to suicide.

  * Folic des  Femmes en Couche. — Bibliotheque des Medecines  Praticiens,
vol. ix. p. 472. 
134
HALLUCINATIONS.
  The hallucinations and illusions often explain the acts and reso-
lutions of the  maniac.   He  attacks you, because the illusion has
converted you into the person of his  enemy, or he imagines  you
mock and insult him.  Another throws  himself out of the win-
dow, because he  thinks the street is  level with the floor  of his
apartment, or he mistakes it for a flower  garden.
  Many lunatics,  on their first admission, refuse their food,  think-
ing it is poisoned.   Some contemplate the heavens in a kind of
ecstasy, for to their eyes  the clouds are of pure gold, and  in the
midst of  them are gorgeous palaces and mounted horsemen.
  In  consequence of the  agitation of the patient, his irritability,
and the impossibility of obtaining replies from him, it is often very
difficult to trace  these eccentric or dangerous acts to their true
causes; but they are none the less the  result of hallucinations and
illusions.
                         DEMENTIA.
  Section I.—Hallucinations in Dementia.—If the meaning of
the word dementia  had always been  restricted  to the  definition
which is generally given of it in the present day, then the cases of
insanity included  under that head  would rarely present the phe-
nomena of hallucinations and illusions.
  The different degrees which exist between the first weakening
of the intellect and its  complete obliteration  are  numberless.
There are  lunatics  who have only a momentary incoherence,  and
then resume a conversation  as if there was no defect whatever in
their intellect.   The symptoms of dementia only show themselves
in these  persons at longer or shorter  intervals.   What has most
attracted our attention is, that dementia presents itself under two
types—the maniacal and  the monomaniacal.   This enables us to
establish  the  following  classification:  monomanical  dementia,
maniacal dementia, and complete dementia; to which it is  neces-
sary to add, senile dementia.
  Regarding dementia in this new light, it is scarcely surprising 
MONOMANIA, STUPIDITY, DEMENTIA, PARALYSIS.    135
that our results should differ  materially from those of MM. Au-
banel and Thore;  thus while these gentleman state that they have
only observed one instance of hallucination  in forty-five cases of
dementia, in  only twenty-one cases we have found hallucinations
and illusions  in no less than sixteen of them.
   Example  46.  Mademoiselle C, aged seventy-two, never show-
ed any symptoms of  derangement until  her  seventy-first year.
Instead of leading a sedentary life, according to her usual  habits,
she was continually changing  her residence  and traveling  about.
Her family could not persuade her to  remain in  one place, and
she was therefore placed under my charge.  This  lady believed
that some dishonest person had possessed himself of her papers,
and had committed forgeries in order to obtain possession of  her
property.   She likewise accused three other persons of being in
league with  him.   Her conversation  was unconnected, and  her
memory defective ; but frequently she would converse in a rational
manner, and these  lucid intervals would last for days.
   On questioning this lady, we learned that for  some months,
during the night, she had seen persons in her bed-room, who con-
versed in a way she could not understand, and disturbed her rest.
"When I resided in the country," she said,  "I was accompanied
by  persons of importance ;  sometimes  they  disappeared, then
again they would  be riding in cabriolets.   Very often I  met an
attendant belonging to the  chateau, who made his appearance  as
soon as I stepped  into the  street, and  whose duty it was to pro-
tect me."
   During her examination she spoke  rationally, and the  magis-
trates would  have been exceedingly puzzled, if she had not allud-
ed to the forgeries.   When they  were  gone, she assured me it
was a plot, for they were persons in disguise whom she had recog-
nized.
   Some days this lady, who still  remembered the  events of  her
past life, and gave reasonable answers to  the questions which 
136
HALLUCINATIONS.
 were put to  her, became completely deranged;  she believed the
 king had granted her a pension, and insisted she was only impris-
 oned in  my house for the  purpose of depriving her of her  pro-
 perty.   During the night she would often converse with imaginary
 persons; sometimes she answered them in a respectful or friendly
 manner,  while at other times she would insult them.  One morn-
 ing she assured me that an inmate, Madame D., had come to her
 in the middle of the night, (each person is fastened in a separate
 apartment,) to say she was the  Goddess of  Insanity, and that she
 had  proclaimed this throughout the country.   She then changed
 the subject, and pretended she was drawing a likenss of Destiny,
 that she was Madame Georges, that I ought to allow her to go
 out to counteract the forgeries.  All these  communications were
 made in  a low  and confidential tone  of voice, lest the imaginary
 persons should overhear them.
   The state of Mademoiselle C. remained the same for two years;
 she always believed  she was the victim of others.  Nearly every
 day she asked me  to allow her to go out  to attend her church;
 but her intention was to escape.   This  lady died at eighty years
 of age, retaining considerable firmness of character, but subject
 to the same hallucinations without the dementia having increased.
   There  are  some  cases of dementia in  which the patients  are
 only slightly affected by external impressions;  they have lost the
 power of associating their ideas, and their memory is  defective,
but they are  still  capable  of holding  a  conversation for a few
 minutes at a  time.   A lady who was in this state was  troubled
 with hallucinations.   She  imagined  that  her  brother, who  had
been dead for many years,  lived in an adjoining room;  she heard
him groan and complain.   She  was convinced that he knocked at
the walls, that he was dying; she would become greatly excited,
run wildly about,  calling to him, and uttering cries of  lamenta-
 tion.   During the night she saw and disputed with  people  who
 struck  her;  in  consequence of this she never undressed.  This 
MONOMANIA, STUPIDITY, DEMENTIA, PARALYSIS.    137
  lady complained that  she was surrounded by disagreeable odors,
  and that her food was poisoned; she would therefore only eat dry
  bread, and would drink nothing but water.
    The  monomaniacal form of the hallucination may continue to
  a very advanced stage of the disease.  Madame M., aged eighty-
  one, whose case is related at page 81, has entirely lost her memory;
  she does not know her children, and her life, past and  present, is
  a blank.  During four years that she has been in my establish-
  ment, the same hallucination has continued to torment  her.
    Dementia frequently presents itself under the maniacal type,
  and it is sometimes very difficult to distinguish between the two.
  One lunatic will seem to be  a maniac who is already on the verge
  of dementia;  while another will seem to  be in a state of dementia
  who is still a maniac.  When the disease  increases, the diagnosis
 soon  becomes clear;  but the  intermediate state may  continue a
 long time, and  give rise to considerable embarrassment.
   Example 47.   M. B., an artist of considerable celebrity, was
 attacked, fifteen years ago, with maniacal  insanity, which has since
 passed into  dementia.   He  has been several times restored to
 liberty, but when any political disturbance took place, his excite*
 ment always returned.   At  those times he had hallucinations of
 the senses of smell and taste;  he imagined he was compelled to*
 breathe an infected atmosphere, that persons wished to injure or
 poison him; he became  suspicious,  and  shut himself  up  in his
 room.   He would  pace round it, with his sword, threatening to
 kill twelve or fifteen hundred people.
   During his lucid intervals,  he would speak and write concerning
 his art in  an agreeable manner, and in a way which gave no indi-
 cation of  the disorder of his  mind.   In his delirium, he  imagined
 he was an elector, and must  go and vote; that he was  a  landed
 proprietor, and  that he was  unjustly confined.   He  referred all
his misfortunes  to  foreigners,  and  considered  that, but for the
preference shown to them, his works would  have procured him the
        10 
138                   HALLUCINATIONS.
notice of his country.   His memory began  to  fail, his  conversa-
tion was unconnected, he  saw persons and heard  voices, which
threatened him  and filled  him  with alarm.   By  degrees these
symptoms  disappeared; he became collected; he would draw,
paint, or play on the violin, and  converse rationally.   This state
continued for eleven years.  Latterly, he has  played music the
whole of the night, and danced with the phantom company which
assembles at his imaginary parties.   His hallucinations  remain
the same.
  Example 48.   Madame Z., aged fifty, insane for more than
ten years, believes herself appointed inspector-general; her con-
versation is generally unconnected, especially when it is continued
for  any length of time.   This  lady holds her head erect,  speaks
with  an  air of  importance, and expresses herself  in Italian.
From  time to time she has fits  of rage because the telegraphs
affect her in a way that degrades her, and surrounds her with
fumigations which she wishes to avoid.  She complains that people
strike her, and every fresh violence increases her rage, by remind-
ing her of the previous  attacks.....By means of acoustics
her ears are assailed with indecent and insulting expressions.  At
times Madame Z. dresses herself in the most burlesque manner,
and walks in a theatrical style.    She fancies she is  invested with
the most important duties, keeps a strict watch, and reports every-
thing which comes under her notice.
  During the ten years which she  has been an inmate of my estab-
lishment, her acts of folly have always been the same; she  fre-
quently explains them in a very plausible manner.  The dementia
has increased, but up to this time the hallucinations and illusions
still continued.
  In complete dementia, where the memory is nearly gone, where
the passions and  feelings are obliterated, and the patients pay a
child-like  obedience to their attendants,  we may still detect  the
existence of hallucinations and illusions. 
MONOMANIA, STUPIDITY, DEMENTIA, PARALYSIS.     139
  Example 49.   M.  C, aged sixty-three, has  always been  of
weak intellect, and, at the same  time,  obstinate.   His children
have  been obliged  to  separate from him.  Arrived at the last
stage of dementia, in  which he recognizes no one, he is brought
to my establishment, because  every night, when he goes  to bed,
he is terrified at the  sight of murderers, who are going  to kill
him.  While this idea occupies his mind, he continues to call out
to the assassins,  to  shout  for assistance, and to struggle, as if he
was defending himself.  This condition lasted for several months.
Some days before his death the same hallucination again tormented
him.
  We attended  a lady in a state of dementia for ten years, with
whom  it was impossible to keep any communication, for  she fell
into  a furious state whenever she was approached, and continued
to utter all  sorts of absurdities.   Every night she disputed with
persons who contradicted  and annoyed  her;  these quarrels were
violent in the extreme, and continued for hours together.   It was
easy to follow the course of the quarrel by means of the dialogue.
  Senile  dementia, which is  only a variety of  the last form, is
also  sometimes accompanied by hallucinations.   We knew an old
lady, eighty-two years of  age, who from time to time was subject
to a  false sensation  of a very  singular character.   This  lady,
whose  room had a  large white wall, told us  she was very agree-
ably entertained  by the sight of thousands of people who de-
scended the wall for the purpose of going to a, fete. They carried
with them their  Presses for the festival.   The company consisted
of men, women,  and children.  We  have heard her cry out with
delight at their  number,  the variety of their costumes,  and the
haste with which they descended.   Gradually the number of the
promenaders diminished :  she only perceived a few solitary  groups,
and  by degrees  they  all  disappeared.   We have  since met with
two  similar cases in very old  ladies. 
140
HALLUCINATIONS.
  Section II.—Hallucinations in Dementia with General Pa-
ralysis.—It may at first seem singular that the most severe form
of insanity should be capable of being complicated with  hallu-
cinations.   How, in fact, are we to believe  that a man who can
not speak plain, whose  memory is gone, who is blind, his mouth
half open, his lips hanging  down, his step tottering and uncer-
tain, can  be excited by anything ?   Nevertheless,  experience
shows that it does occur.   What we have said at page  134, re-
garding the  different degrees and types of dementia, will  also ap-
ply to cases  of deranged intellect accompanied by paralysis. We
speak here only of paralysis with insanity, and not of that of dis-
ease, which has been described some years back under the title  of
progressive general paralysis without insanity.
  Examples of hallucinations in this kind of insanity are  far from
numerous, but there can be no doubt  that some insane  persons,
with paralysis and  in a state  of dementia, have hallucinations
of sight and hearing.  Out of  eight lunatics,  paralized and in a
state of dementia, whom we have had in our establishment, four
have been so affected.
  Example 50.  Madame----, aged sixty-five, belonged to  a
literary family, and has herself been distinguished by her writings.
At the present time her conversation is unconnected, her speech
hesitating, and  her memory  gone ;  but in the midst of  this total
wreck, the idea  that she had been a poetess still survives.   Every
morning she tells me, in a voice full of emotion, that she has been
visited by an angel  clothed  in white, who spoke to her.  During
the day she  said to me,  " My angel spoke  to me, and engaged
me to go out and visit my daughter."   The angel is young, beau-
tiful, and fair; it is a recollection of the past.   At times she im-
agines  she partakes  of an  excellent repast, and will describe  to
me all the dishes she has tasted.  To hear her, you would  suppose
that  she  still assisted at the banquet.    The meats on the table
are exquisite; they  give forth the most  savory  smells,  and the 
MONOMANIA, STUPIDITY, DEMENTIA, PARALYSIS.    141
wines are of the  most celebrated  growths.   Unless she is speak-
ing of her poems and her writings, her conversation wanders per-
petually.
   In the following case, the person had  arrived at the very worst
stage of disease,  when he  suddenly emerged from his  speechless
condition,  and uttered cries and howls which nothing could allay.
.   Example 51.   M. B., who has been  insane  and paralytic for
nearly  four years, seems  to  have entirely  lost the  power  of
speech.  From  time to time he utters hoarse,  inarticulate  cries;
this will last for  fifteen days, and after that he will remain silent
for a month.  At times he recovers his speech,  and utters a num-
ber of sentences, which all  show that he is under the influence of a
frightful hallucination.  He  believes there is a shark close  at
hand, and  ready to devour him.   His efforts to frighten the crea-
ture and drive  it  away are terrible to  behold.   He sends forth
cries that may be heard a long way off, and  dashes himself against
the walls  of  his room; his features are distorted, his eyes are
starting from their sockets, and the sweat pours from his body.
It is impossible to afford him  any relief, and one is compelled to
remain  a helpless spectator of a  struggle  which it is most dis-
tressing to witness.
   This  hallucination  produced very serious results.   One day he
imagined  that his sister,  who anxiously attended upon him, was
the shark;  he rushed at her with a razor, and tried to wound her.
Fortunately, she  was  able to  avoid his  cuts;  but  one of his
cousins, who was present  at this  frightful  scene, was so affected
by it, that she died five days after.

   HALLUCINATIONS IN IMBECILITY, IDIOTISM,  AND CRETINISM.

   For the production of hallucinations it is necessary that certain
faculties, amongst  which  the imagination holds an  important
place, should be  able to perform their functions.  But when the 
142
HALLUCINATIONS.
intellect is destroyed, as in the last  stage  of dementia, or where
it  has  never existed, as  in idiotism  and cretinism, errors  of the
senses  cannot take place.
   A distinction must be made where the imbecile has some por-
tion of intelligence—where, for instance, he has memory, is capa-
ble of  being  taught, or  of observing; where he  experiences fear
and sometimes revenges  himself.   It seems to us beyond a doubt
that reprehensible  and criminal acts have been committed by im-
beciles under the  influence of hallucinations and illusions.  The
insane  imbecile is unquestionably a credulous being, and this con-
dition of his mind renders him a docile instrument in the hands of
designing  men;  the examination  of his mental faculties proves
that he may be governed by hallucinations. 
CHAPTER   VI.
                HALLUCINATIONS IN DELIRIUM TREMENS.

   The effect of alcoholic liquors on man are too well known to
render  it necessary for  us to  dwell upon  them here;  we  shall
therefore confine ourselves to noticing  some  particulars concern-
ing the insanity which they give rise to.
   In those  lunatic asylums which are devoted to the reception of
the middle  classes of society,  one-tenth  of the inmates, says M.
Royer-Collard,* become  insane through the abuse of spirituous
liquors or wine.  At Charenton the number of men insane  from
this cause is four times that of the women.   M. Bayle attributes
to the same cause one-third of  all the mental  diseases which have
come under his  notice, f  It is important to remember that in
some individuals this propensity to drink does not  show itself
until  after the appearance of  the  mental disease ;  thus in some
females of most  estimable character it makes its appearance  at
the change of life.
   In  the houses for the  reception of pauper  lunatics these  pro-
portions are still greater.   Out of 1679 insane  admitted into the
Bicetre from 1808 to 1813, M. Ramou—formerly house-surgeon
to the hospital—considered that 126 of these were due to exces-
sive  drinking; while, according to M.  Esquirol,  out  of 264
females at the  Salpetriere, 26 were  to be attributed solely to the

  * H. Koyer-Collard: De V Usage et de VAbus des Boissons fermentees et
distillees.—These de Concours.  Paris: 1830.
  t Bayle : Traite des Maladies du Cerveau et de ses Membranes.  Paris :
1826. 
144                  HALLUCINATIONS.
 abuse of wine or spirits.  The functional disorders which are pro-
 duced in the insane from excessive drinking  manifest themselves
 under many different forms ; but those only will  be noticed here
 which relate to sensation, and which show themselves by illusions
 and  hallucinations of the senses.   These patients  see  objects
 double ;  everything  around them is in motion ; they are haunted
 by shadows and spectres;  they hear  the sound of many voices,
 or of separate noises; they believe their food is poisoned, and
 they are annoyed by disagreeable odors.
   M. Yiardot, translator of the Nouvelles Eusses of M. Gogol,
 says that the Zaporogh Cossacks, who indulge in  the immoderate
 use of spirituous  liquors, are often attacked  with delirium tre-
 mens, and that they are then beset with demoniacal visions.   He
 mentions the case  of one  man who  saw  enormous scorpions
 stretching  out their claws, endeavoring to lay hold of him, and
 who died  in convulsions on the third day, when he thought  they
 had actually seized him.   {Revue des Deux Mondes.)
  The existence of these peculiar  and  distressing hallucinations
 has been  commented on  by the writers of every country.  We
 read  in the American Journal of Insanity, that all  kinds  of
 animals introduce  themselves into the  room  of  the  sick man;
they glide into his bed, or walk over the coverings, or threaten
and torment him with hideous grimaces.*
  From the  numerous cases of this kind which  are  brought in
the course of every year to my establishment, mostly from amongst
publicans,  I have selected the following:
  Example 52.   M., aged  twenty-seven,  stout,  small,  and  of
lymphatic  temperament.   In consequence of his  occupation,  he
had been in the habit of drinking large quantities of brandy. Three
days before his admission into my house, his friends perceived
that he stuttered and was affected with a general trembling.   On
* Annal. Med.-Psych., p. 466.  Juillet: 1850. 
HALLUCINATIONS IN DELIRIUM  TREMENS.        145
the day of his admission, his  symptoms had greatly increased;
the walls were covered with skeletons, phantoms, and devils, who
climbed up  them and then disappeared.  Sometimes this ap-
pearance was  confined to a space not larger  than a sheet of pa-
per.   The  objects which were  before him became transformed  in
a most extraordinary manner.   Thus he brought his medical man
a jug and  a woman's cap, which he  declared had  assumed the
form of certain persons.  In his delirium, he imagined he  saw his
wife committing  the  most  sanguinary outrages.  This  illusion
greatly  excited  him.   He fancied  he  heard the voices of the
dying.  It was under these  circumstances h3 was brought to my
establishment.
  When I  questioned him he  trembled violently, and related  to
me the visions he had seen.  His wife, he said, had  denied their
existence, but this  was mere dissimulation on her  part.   He
pointed them  out with his finger, and asked  me if I  did not see
them.   During the whole night he was  stooping down to seize
all  kinds  of objects, which  issued from the  floor of the room.
Presently, he would shriek out, frightened by  the horrible aspect
of the phantoms ; then he would signal  others to approach, that
they might mingle together.  I have noticed above the frequency
of this  symptom, and shown that it mostly consists of the figures
of animals, reptiles, or insects.* Two baths, each of  eight hours'
duration, combined  with the irrigation  of cold water, was  suffi-
cient to cure this man, upon  whom twenty-five  drops of opium
had produced no effect.
  Example 53.   " I  was called upon," says Dr. Alderson, " some
time ago to visit Mr. ----, who at that time kept a dram-shop.
Having at different times attended, and thence knowing him very
well, I was struck with something singular upon my first entrance.

  * Brierre de Boismont: De V Hydropisie chezles Alienes buveurs, et de sa
Guerison par V Usage modere du Vin et de VEau-de-vie.— Gazette  des Ho-
pitaux, 8 Aout,  1844. 
146
HALLUCINATIONS.
He went up stairs with me, but evidently hesitated  occasionally
as he went.   When he  got into his chamber, he expressed some
apprehension lest I should consider hiin as insane, and send him to
the asylum at York, whither I had not long ago sent one of his
pot-companions.  Whence all these apprehensions ?   What is the
matter with you ?  Why do you look so full of terror ?   He  then
sat down, and gave me a history of his complaint.
   "About a week or ten days before,  after drawing some liquor
in his cellar for a girl, he  desired her to  take away the oysters
which lay upon the floor, and which he  supposed she had dropped.
The girl, thinking him drunk, laughed at  him, and went out of
the room.
   " He endeavored to take them up  himself,  and, to his great
astonishment, could find none.   He was then going out of the
cellar, when, at the door, he saw a soldier whose looks he did not
like, attempting to enter the room where he then was.  He desired
to know what he wanted there ; and  upon receiving no answer,
but, as he thought, a menacing look, he sprung forward  to seize
the intruder, and, to his  no small surprise, found it  a phantom.
The cold sweat hung upon his brow—he trembled in every limb.
It was the dusk of the evening; as he passed along the  passage
the phantom flitted before his eyes;  he attempted to follow it,
resolutely determined to satisfy himself; but as it vanished there
appeared others, and some of them at a distance, and he exhausted
himself by fruitless attempts to lay hold of them.  He hastened
to his family with marks of terror and confusion;  for, though a
man of the most undaunted resolution, he confessed  to me that he
never before felt what it was to be completely terrified.   During
the whole of that night he was constantly tormented  with a variety
of spectres,  sometimes of people who had been long dead, and at
other times of friends who were living;  and  harassed himself
with continually getting out of bed, to ascertain whether  the peo-
ple he saw were real or not.   Nor could he always  tell who were 
          HALLUCINATIONS  IN DELIRIUM  TREMENS.        147
_____________1__________________________________________________________

and who were not real customers, as they came  into the rooms in
the day-time, so that  his conduct became the subject of observa-
tion ; and though it was for a time attributed to private drinking,
it  was at last suspected to arise  from some other cause ;  and
when I was sent for, the family were under the full conviction that
he was insane, although they  confessed that, in everything  else,
except the foolish  notion of seeing apparitions, he was perfectly
rational and  steady;  and during the whole of the time that  he
was relating  his case  to me—and his mind was fully occupied—
he felt the most gratifying relief, for in all  that time he had not
seen one  apparition; and he  was elated with pleasure, indeed,
when I told  him I should  not send  him to York, for his was a
complaint  I  could  cure at  home.  But whilst I  was writing a
prescription,  and had suffered him to be at rest, I saw him  sud-
denly get up, and  go with a hurried  step  to  the  door.  ' What
did you do that  for ?'  He looked ashamed and mortified.   He
had  been so  well whilst in  conversation with me, that he could
not believe that the  soldier whom he saw enter the room was a
phantom,  and he got up to convince himself.
   "I need not here detail particularly the  medical  treatment
adopted;  but it may be as  well just  to state  the circumstances
which  probably led to  the complaint, and  the  principle of cure.
Some time previously he  had had a quarrel with a drunken sol-
dier, who attempted, against his inclination, to enter his house at
an unseasonable  hour, and in the struggle to  turn him out, the
soldier drew his bayonet,  and  having struck him across the  tem-
ples, divided  the temporal artery; in consequence of  which  he
bled a very large quantity before a surgeon arrived, as there was
no one who knew that, in such a case, simple compression  with
the finger  upon  the  spouting artery  would stop the effusion  of
blood.  He had scarcely recovered from the effects of this loss of
blood, when he undertook to accompany a  friend in his walking-
match against time,  in which he went forty-two miles in  nine 
148
HALLUCINATIONS.
hours.   Elated with success, he spent the whole of the following
day in  drinking;  but found himself, a short time afterwards, so
much out of health that  he came to  the resolution of abstaining
altogether from liquor.   It was in the course of the week follow-
ing that abstinence from his usual habits, that he had the disease.
It kept increasing for several days, till  I saw him, allowing  him
no time for rest.   Never was he able to  get rid of these  shadows
by night when in bed, nor by day  when in motion, though he
sometimes walked miles with that view,  and at others got into a
variety of company.  He told me he suffered  even bodily pain,
from the severe lashing  of a wagoner with his whip, who came
every night to a particular corner of his bed, but who always
disappeared when he jumped out of bed to retort, which he did
several nights successively.  The whole of this  complaint  was
effectually removed  by bleeding with leeches, and active purga-
tives.  After the first employment of these means,  he   saw no
more phantoms in  the day-time, and after the second, only once
saw his milkman in his bed-room between sleep and waking.  He
has remained perfectly rational and  well ever since, and  can go
out in  the dark as well as ever, having received a  perfect convic-
tion  of the nature of ghosts."*
  The  hallucinations vary greatly;  they are, as has been already-
remarked, the reflection of the character and habits of the invalid.
Sometimes,  however, they originate in  an  association  of ideas,
which a matter of chance has given rise to.
  The  hallucinations occasioned by drinking  may produce very
serious results.   M.  R. had experienced  great domestic troubles,
which he endeavored to forget by plunging  into continual drunk-
enness, a habit which soon affected his mind.   One day he saw an
extraordinary  figure, which made him  a sign to  follow it; he
rose, pursued it, and fell into the  street; he  had, in fact, gone

  * Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal,  vol. vii. p. 288. 1810. 
HALLUCINATIONS IN DELIRIUM  TREMENS.       149
through the window.  He was brought to me, completely stunned
by his fall; he  thought he still saw the phantom, and answered
the questions which were put to him in a confused manner.   A
few days' confinement and abstinence restored his reason.
  Writers who  have treated  of this disease have recorded  many
examples  of  these derangements of the sensations.   It may, in
fact, give rise to a vast variety of hallucinations.   This complica-
tion of the disorder may show itself at the commencement of the
insanity, and it is important  to  bear this in mind, for  if  one
patient falls through a window,  thinking that he is following some
strange figure, it is equally possible for another to attack a perso*n
whom he mistakes for an enemy or a monster.
   It  may be said, why separate the hallucinations of drunken-
ness from those produced  by the action of certain drugs ?  The
reason is this :
   The delirium  of drunkenness  is  a very frequent disease, and
shows  itself  accompanied by symptoms of insanity, of which the
primary cause—that is, the abuse  of intoxicating  liquors—may
itself be only a symptom of insanity.  On the other hand, the hallu-
cinations produced  by drugs are temporary; we rarely meet with
them in this country, and the effects of many of  these agents still
require to be investigated.   Besides this, their action on the body
is very different from  that  of intoxicating  liquors, while insanity
does not in reality form a part of  their symptoms ;  so that, until
further observations have been made, these  hallucinations are best
considered in a separate chapter. 
CHAPTER   VII.
     HALLUCINATIONS IN NERVOUS DISEASES, NOT CONSTITUTING INSANITY.

   Having now examined the subject of hallucinations in relation
to the principal forms of mental  disease, we pass  on to the con-
sideration of them in connection  with certain nervous  affections,
which, in some respects, verge upon insanity.  In this series, only
those diseases  will be noticed which present the  phenomena of
hallucinations most frequently, or in which they  present  some
marked peculiarities.
   1.   Catalepsy in  relation to Hallucinations.—The difficulty
which attends the existence  of hallucinations in catalepsy arises
from the changes which the intellectual faculties undergo in this
singular state.  In fact, they are generally more or less completely
suspended.  Nevertheless, our own experience and that of others
prove that there are  some  few cataleptics  who have dreams  or
visions concerning objects which have strongly affected them.   In
a case recorded in the memoirs  of  the Acad^mie  Royale des
Sciences, the catalepsy was produced by anxiety concerning an
important law-suit.  During the attack the patient  gave an accu-
rate account of his legal affairs.   Dr.  Hamilton,  in one  of his
essays {Revue Brittanique), has related the history of a  young
girl who,  when  she was in this state,  heard all  that  was  said
around her.
  2.  Epilepsy in relation  to Hallucinations.—The  frequent
complication of epilepsy with insanity would lead us  to expect
the occurrence  of  hallucinations.  In the tables drawn up at the
Salpetriere,  Esquirol  found that, out of three hundred  epileptic
patients, more than half were insane. 
HALLUCINATIONS IN NERVOUS DISEASES.       151
  Many of these  patients, before they were  entirely deprived of
sensation, had various hallucinations ; they imagined  they  saw
luminous bodies, which made them fearful of being burnt.  They
beheld dark objects which gradually enlarged, and threatened to
envelope them in  total darkness; they heard a noise like thunder,
the roll of drums, the clatter of arms, and the tumult  of an  en-
gagement ; they  smelt the most noxious odors,  and complained
they were struck  and covered with blows.   These hallucinations
caused them the greatest alarm.   Perhaps it is this feeling, adds
Esquirol, which gives to the physiognomy of most epileptics  that
expression  of terror or of  indignation which is peculiar to these
patients during their attacks.
  These remarks  did not escape  the notice of Hibbert and of
Paterson, who have specially called attention to the  existence of
hallucinations in epilepsy.   Dr.  Gregory, in his  lectures, speaks
of a patient who  was " liable  to epileptic fits, in  whom the  par-
oxysm was generally preceded  by the apparition of an old woman
in a red cloak, who seemed to  come up to him and strike him on
the head with her crutch; at that instant he fell down in the fit."*
  Amongst the patients  we have attended, we  have met  with
many in whom the  attack  was preceded by an  apparition, and
others in whom the hallucination succeeded the attack.
  Example  54.   M. L. was seized ten years ago with monoma-
nia of a melancholy character, since  which he imagines that he is
subject to the persecutions of relentless enemies.   He often hears
them making disgusting remarks  to him, and  they prevent his
sleeping by their  wicked  proposals.   From his childhood this
patient was subject to irregular attacks of epilepsy, which were
often preceded by a hallucination, resembling a flash of lightning.
The  moment before  losing his consciousness, he used to see the
figure of a demon, which approached him  like the shadows of  a
* Paterson : Loc. cit. 
152
HALLUCINATIONS.
phantasmagoria;  he then  uttered a  loud cry, saying, " Here is
the devil! " and fell on the ground.
   Sometimes strange figures  address the epileptic; they insult
him or  command him to do a certain act.   It is highly probable
that many of the crimes committed by these unfortunate persons,
and for  which some have been severely punished, were the results
of hallucinations of hearing and of sight.
   Example 55.  Jacques Mounin, of Berne, was  liable to  epi-
leptic fits.   At their termination he showed symptoms of great
excitement; and after one of these attacks he rushed  like a mad-
man into the country, and successively  assassinated three men.
He was followed, secured, and thrown into prison, where he was
interrogated as to the reason for his actions.  Mounin stated  that
he  perfectly recollected killing the  three men, especially  one
who was his relative, which he very much regretted.  He  said
that, during these paroxysms of fury, he saw himself surrounded
by flames, and that the color of blood delighted him.*
   Several lunatics have  told us they were dazzled by the sight of
a  large crimson halo, which shone like lightning previous  to the
attack.  In the majority of the cases we have recorded, the  hal-
lucination preceded the attack.
   M. Bellodf has  quoted the case of a young man, who, two or
three days before his fits, saw and heard his mother and his  sister,
with whom he conversed.   " The paroxysms of epilepsy,"  says
Conolly, "are often preceded by a spectrum ; and the state  of the
brain then existing, whatever it be,  being  present in other in-
stances without being followed by the paroxysm, has often been
the orign of a belief in  supernatural appearances.   I know a
gentleman who, in a state approaching to fainting, sometimes in-

  * Brierre de Boismont:  Observations Medico-legates  sur la Monomania
homicide, p. 24.   Paris : 1827.
  t Annal. Med.-Psych. p. 384.  Nov. 1843. 
HALLUCINATIONS IN  NERVOUS DISEASES.        153
duced by cupping, and sometimes  by pain, sees  the  most lovely
landscapes displayed before him."*
   Some years ago, we had under our care a gentleman from  the
country; he was a powerful,  well-formed man, and  came to be
treated for attacks of epilepsy, which occurred every  month.   He
told us that,  during one of these attacks, when  traveling in  the
country in harvest time, he had seized a scythe, and that,  rushing
through the fields  with it, he cut down everything that came  in
his way, urged on by a voice which  told  him to  act in  this man-
ner.  After passing through a number of fields, he stopped, over-
come by fatigue, and laid himself  down  by a wall, where he fell
asleep.   What  could have prevented this man  from committing
some terrible crime ?
   M. Brachet, who has given a good description of  eclampsia^
in infants, notices,  as precursors of the attack, the  occurrence of
frightful dreams, from which the child starts up  with an  expres-
sion of  terror and cries of  alarm.
   In the  eclampsia which occurs towards the end  of pregnancy,
or during and after delivery, hallucinations and illusions are very
frequent.
   3.  Hallucinations in Hysteria.—There is no  nervous affec-
tion which presents a greater variety of phenomena than hysteria.
When listening to the monologues of hysterical patients,  we may
often detect them speaking or replying to beings whom they see,
or with whom they imagine they are conversing; at  other times
they complain they are breathing a foetid atmosphere, and that
everything has a disagreeable taste.
   The hallucinations which occur in hysteria may be  divided into
two series; in the one the reason is unaffected, in the other there
is insanity.
  * Conolly : Opus cit. p. 240.
  * Eclampsia is a peculiar convulsive disease of infancy, occurring some
times as early as the fifth month.—See  Dr. Tanner's Diseases of Infancy
and Childhood, p. 271. London:  8vo, 1848.
          11 
154
HALLUCINATIONS.
  Example 56.  Madame C. has for many years been subject to
attacks of hysteria.   At the time of their occurrence she is timid,
anxious, and alarmed, and at length her fears become so extreme
that she does nothing but call out for help.   This excessive terror
is caused by the horrible phantoms which show themselves during
the  attatk, and  who mock, insult,  and  threaten to strike her.
  Hibbert, in his work on Hallucinations, says, that  when the
excitement of hysterical women is at its hight, its effects are sim-
ilar to those  produced by the nitrous oxide gas,  which  is  con-
sidered  to have a peculiar influence on the blood.   This writer
speaks of a woman, whose case  is related by Portius,  who  was
always warned  of a hysterical attack by the appearance  of her
own image, as in a mirror.
  Sauvages states,  that during the proxysm the patients  are in
the  habit of seeing frightful  spectres.
  M.  Michea says, that hallucinations were very common  in the
epidemic hysteria which attacked the female proselytes of Eliza-
beih of Louviers.*
  Hysteria may exist with insanity, nor are such cases uncommon ;
it is, therefore, necessary to ascertain to which disorder  the hallu-
cinations belong.   When they show themselves as precursors of,
or during the attacks, and cease with it, then  there can  be no
hesitation in regarding them as a complication of hysteria.
  Example 57.  Mademohselle  S.,  aged  46, beleives  she is the
cause  of all the evil which happens in the world.  To  hear her,
one would suppose she had committed every possible  crime.
" God," she says,  " has forsaken  her, and  given her over  unto
Satan."  This abberation of the intellect, which first showed itself
in the form of melancholy,  is now characterized  by singing  of
songs, by recitations, and monologues, spoken with extreme volu-
bility  and at the summit of the  voice.   Mademoiselle  S. is con-

        *Michea:  Delire des Sensations, p. 298.  Paris:  1846. 
HALLUCINATIONS IN  NERVOUS DISEASES.        155
scious of the absurdity of this conduct, and feels that it may justly
be regarded  as insanity; but she is compelled by an irresistable
impulse to utter these things aloud.  These periods of excite-
ment  are succeeded by strong hysterical attacks, in which she ex-
periences long-continued and violent convulsions.   The spasm
commences in the womb.  She  asserts that her disease has its
seat in the  abdomen.   During the attack, the attendants become
transformed ;  she sees hideous phantoms, or the devil makes his
appearance;  she fancies  she is possessed, utters piercing  shrieks,
and prays to be delivered from the  apparitions; she alternately
laughs and weeps, and then,  at the end of some hours, returns to
her usual state.                             *
  In  many insane hysterical women who  have come under our
notice, the hallucinations  were connected  with ideas of love;
while in others, who had a religious tendency, they took  the form
of angels or devils.   In  this  respect  the  hallucinations  only fol-
lowed the laws by which they are usually governed.
  Hysteria, in insanity,  often shows itself with erotomania  and
nymphomania.  It is probable  that the  instincts and passions,
which have hitherto been controlled by education, now burst forth
with the greater violence  in consequence of the restraint they have
so long undergone.
  The hallucinations occur most  commonly along with  the pre-
monitory symptoms of the hysteria, but they may also take place
during the attack, when the mental faculties are partially retained ;
they may also show themselves at its termination.   The  halluci-
nations of hearing and of sight are the  most common, but all the
senses may be involved;  it is the same with regard to illusions.
  4.  Hallucinations in Hypochondriasis.—The hypochondriac,
who,  from his moral  condition, becomes, as it were,  the  focus of
all  kinds of diseases, is  necessarily predisposed to hallucinations
and illusions.  His constant and uninterrupted contemplation of
the various forms of disease is most favorable to their production. 
156                   HALLUCINATIONS.
 It is a common thing for these persons to complain of explosions,
 whistlings, musical sounds, and other extraordinary noises in the
 head.   "They declare," says M.  Dubois  d'Amiens, "that their
 brain is in a state of ebullition, that it is dried up and hardened,
 and maintain that they are on the  point  of losing their sight and
 their hearing."
   Some imagine  they perceive a  snake or a fish  moving about
 their person.   A lady, whose case has been reported by M. Fal-
 ret, said her skin  looked as if it was covered with scales like those
 of a carp; but she corrected this impression by the sense of touch.
 Some complain that they are alternately hot and cold, either sim-
 ultaneously or successively, in different parts of their bodies.
   Zimmerman, the celebrated writer and physician, who fell into
 a hypochondriacal condition, continually complained  of the state
 of his digestive organs.   His work on Solitude is filled with mel-
 ancholy ideas, which were  increased  by the  French  Revolution.
 This state of things was followed by wakefulness, optical illusions,
 and the appearance of phantoms during the night.  He had trem-
bling and giddiness, increased by the use of coffee ; the least ex-
ertion was followed by fainting ; there was a want of moral firm-
ness and of confidence in his  own  opinions ;  there was a slight
confusion in his ideas, and  a loss of memory, with a timidity and
nervous  weakness which  strongly  contrasted  with his previous
character.
  In addition  to these  numerous  symptoms arising from hypo-
chondriasis, he  exhibited at an early period a disposition  to mel-
ancholy in  his  extreme  love of solitude.   This propensity after-
wards increased until it assumed an exclusive form of insanity, pro-
ducing a continual fear of seeing some one enter his house for the
 purpose of robbing him.*
  Example 58.   M. L. has been tormented for more than twenty

  * Louyer-Villermay:  Traite des Maladies Nerveuses et en particulier de
 VHysterie ct de VHypocondie, t. i. p. 421. 
HALLUCINATIONS IN NERVOUS  DISEASES.       157
 years with the idea that he has a serious disease of the stomach
 and intestines, which, however, has not deprived him of an excel-
 lent appetite for whatever comes before him.  He even perceives
 a tumor in the  left hypochondrium,  which M.  Louis and  other
 medical men are unable to detect.   Two  years ago ho began to
 imagine he  was surrounded by enemies, and  that everybody  re-
 garded him with suspicion, and made grimaces at him.  He has
 frequently thought he was insulted and threatened, and has con-
 sequently annoyed  inoffensive persons,  who had not even looked
 at him.
   Example 59.   M. J.,  aged twenty-two, a teacher of German,
 had suffered for some years from pains in the bowels.   The  chief
 symptom was a kind of obstruction and pain, which he had vainly
 endeavored to get rid of.   This young man, who had received an
 education superior to his present position, had met with all kinds
 of obstacles to his success in life.   A combination of physical and
 moral suffering had produced a disordered state of the intellect,
 for which he was brought to our establishment.
   On his entrance  he  told us that the visceral  disease had un-
 doubtedly produced a state of hypochondriasis, and that this,  as
 it increased, had  at length affected his brain, and  given  rise  to
 incoherent  ideas and  unmeaning  acts.   His constant idea  was,
 that his friends had  produced his  illness, that they had subjected
 him to magnetic influences, and that they had at length placed a
 maguetizer in his inside.   He endeavored to explain  to me the
 operations which the magnetizer carried on within  him.  In list-
 ening to his narrative, it was most interesting to trace the chain  of
 ideas by which he had gradually arrived at the notion which now
 possessed him.   He  held conversations  with the magnetize:',
 whom he could not compel to leave him.
  Two blisters  to the legs, good living, and a judicious employ-
ment of his mind, produced a rapid amendment, which soon  ena-
bled us to restore him to his family. 
158
HALLUCINATIONS.
   5.  Hallucinations in Chorea.—Hallucinations  are very rare
in chorea as it occurs in the present day.   It wras, however, quite
the reverse in the epidemic chorea of the Middle Ages.   During
the dance, says M. Hecker, these invalids saw apparitions;  they
were insensible to  all external impressions, and their imagination
presented to them  spirits, whose names they pronounced, or rather
shouted out.   At a later period many of them declared they were
plunged in a river of blood, and that that was the reason  they
jumped so high.  Others, during their ecstasy, saw the  heavens
open, and beheld the Virgin and the Savior on his throne;  these
visions  varying  in form according   to  the different impressions
which the religious  creeds of the period had produced  on their
imagination.*
   6.  Hydrophobia.—M.  Trolliet  has mentioned several exam-
ples of hallucinations in this class of patients, who  had been under
his care in the hospital at Lyons.   One of  them expired violently
striking his bed, thinking  that he  was struggling  with  a rabid
wolf.   Another  fought with an enraged animal  and died in  the
midst of the conflict.f

  * Hecker: Memoire sur la  Choree du  Moyen-age, traduit de I'Allemand
par M. Ferdinand Dubois.—Annal. d'Hyg. et de Medecine Legale, vol. xii.
p.  314.   1834.
  f Trolliet: Nouveau Traite de la Rage.  Paris: 1820. 
C HAPTE R  VIII.
             HALLUCINATIONS IN NIGHTMARE AND DREAMS.

               HALLUCINATIONS IN  NIGHTMARE.

  Any one who has carefully studied nervous diseases, will have
little doubt of the analogy which  exists between nightmare and
insanity;  the curious facts  which we have  witnessed  leave  no
doubt  in  our own mind  upon  the  question.  A  distinguished
writer, when attacked with nightmare, imagined he was leaping in
the  air.  We have seen  him, at these times, with his hair on end.
his countenance filled with terror, and uttering inarticulate sounds;
when he spoke, he would say,  " What a wonderful thing! I fly like
the  wind, I am  passing over mountains and precipices."  For
some moments after he was awake  he still imagined he was sailing
through space.
  A particular species  of nightmare, which we  have often  ob-
served, consists rin the sensation of flying close to the surface of
the  ground.  The person seems  to be carried  along with  the
greatest  rapidity, but the enemy,  or the danger, from which  he
flies, pursues him as quickly, and always keeps close to him.  The
alarm  wakes him up, he feels  fatigued, and  as if he had gone a
long distance.
  Distressing emotions will produce nightmare in  nervous per-
sons.   A young and delicate lady, of a susceptible temperament,
avoided all alarming and distressing tales, for whenever she heard
an anecdote of this kind,  her rest was sure to be disturbed.  To-
wards  the middle of the night she would become restless, groan, 
160                   HALLUCINATIONS.
and utter  some unintelligible words;  her body  would  be in a
profuse perspiration, and she would exhibit symptoms of  extreme,
agitation.   Her husband was compelled to awaken her, when she
would cry out with terror, and imagine  she saw thieves and assas-
sins, who were about to destroy her.
  In childhood and youth, nightmare often assumes the following
form: the individual who is attacked, fancies he is on the edge of
the bed, or of a precipice, and is about to fall. Nothing can save
him  from  his danger; he  sees with horror the opening  gulf, an
irresistible  force pushing  him into it,  and he awakes from the
shock of his fall.  Sometimes the images which surround the child
are of a happy nature, and he laughs with delight.
  At other times there are robbers in the  person's apartment;  he
wishes to fly, but finds an irresistible force binds him to the spot.
The person who is \prey to this  kind of hallucination, is in a
state of violent agitation ; he endeavors to call for help, but  his
voice is stifled in his throat, and he finds himself  speechless. The
most imminent danger, or even death itself, may form  the  termi-
nation of the crisis;  the  person wakes up in a state of  alarm,
and with his body bathed in a profuse perspiration ;  his  pulse  is
quickened, he feels a sensation of choking and discomfort;  these
feelings pass  off in a few seconds.
  Amongst the various  forms of nightmare, we must not omit
that in which the person believes  he is condemned to  death ;  he
sees all the  preparations made for his execution, he mounts the
scaffold, his  head falls, and yet he continues to retain  his con-
sciousness, as if nothing had happened.
  A peculiarity,  which we have  not seen noticed elsewhere, is,
that the individual who has had the nightmare, may be tormented
with it for several successive nights at the same  hour  and under
the same form.   A lady had a feeling of  discomfort upon going
to sleep; soon  after she would see some one pursuing  her for the
purpose of killing her. She started from her sleep with the fright. 
HALLUCINATIONS IN NIGHTMARE AND DREAMS.    161
The same vision  occurred  for several successive nights.   She
dreaded going to bed; her  rest was disturbed ; and, in spite of
herself, she yielded to the influence of the phantom.   By degrees,
this  miserable sensation  passed away, and she  returned to her
usual state.  A young  man told us that for several successive
nights men came and placed themselves at the foot of his  bed in
order to remove his bed-clothes ; a struggle ensued between them,
which terminated by  their carrying  them away :  when he  was
completely uncovered, he awoke.
  In other cases, the hallucinations of nightmare, however  dis-
tressing they may be, do "not show themselves  by any external
movements.  A medical man, who was in the habit of reading in
bed, has had his wife tell him, on her waking up, that she had a
long and frightful nightmare : he had not, however, perceived her
to be disturbed in the slightest degree.
  Sometimes the persons are  conscious that what  happens to
them is not real; they reason as  though they were  awake,  and
endeavor  to  prove that the sensations  are false.   A  young lady
saw the  wall open, and from the aperture there emerged a death's
head, which placed itself upon a skeleton, and at the same time
advanced towards her. Satisfied that this apparition  was an illu-
sion, she would reason  with herself and endeavor to allay her
fears : the  matter terminated by her waking up.
  Writers  have described a variety of nightmare, in  which a cat,
or some other  animal, or a monster, is  supposed to be placed
upon the chest or stomach.  Under these circumstances, a violent
oppression is felt in these parts ; the  sufferer  tries to rid himself
of the imaginary weight, which threatens to stifle him, and  his
countenance expresses the greatest alarm.
  In the examples which have  hitherto  been  mentioned, the hal-
lucinations produced by nightmare have ceased when  the person
has woke up ; but they may continue in the waking state, and be 
162                   HALLUCINATIONS.
mistaken for realities.   Lastly, nightmare  may be complicated
with insanity.
  Example 60.  In a convent at Auvergne, an apothecary, who
was  sleeping in a room where there were several other persons,
had an attack  of nightmare, and in consequence he accused his
companions  of having thrown  themselves  upon him, and  en-
deavored to strangle him.  His companions denied the charge,
and  declared he had passed the night without sleeping, and in a
state of violent agitation.  To convince him, they placed him in
a room by himself, having first given  him  a good supper,  and
made him partake of indigestible food.  He bad the same attack ;
but this  time he declared it was produced by a demon, whom  he
minutely described.   There was no means of disabusing him of
this  idea but by subjecting him  to a  regular  course  of  treat-
ment. *
  Epilepsy, hypochondriasis, mania, hysteria, and somnambulism,
have  sometimes the nightmare as a precursory symptom;  while
at other  times it accompauies them.  Sensual dreams seem to be
associated with nightmare.
  Example 61.  An individual,  says  Jason, lately came to  me,
saying :  " Sir, if you do not assist  me, what is to become of me ?
I am wasting away; you see how pale and thin I am ;  I am noth-
ing but  skin and  bone, I who had always a good figure and was
moderately stout."   " What is the matter with you ? "  I asked ;
"to what do you attribute your disease ? "  "I will tell you," he
replied, " and you will certainly be surprised.  Nearly every night,
a female, whose person is not unknown  to me, comes close to  me,
throws herself on  my chest, and  presses me so  violently that I
can scarcely breathe ;  if I cry out, she stifles me, and the more I
endeavor to call out, the less am I able to do so.   I soon lose all
power in my limbs, and  she  holds me  bound  and  fixed to  the
spot."
                    Schoenckius :  Obs. 253. 
HALLUCINATIONS IN NIGHTMARE  AND  DREAMS.    163
   " There is nothing astonishing," I replied—I knew immediately
that it was nightmare—" all this is only a phantom, and the effect
of the imagination----"  " A phantom ! " he cried, " an  effect of
the imagination I   I am telling you of what I have seen with my
eyes, and  touched with my hands.   Frequently, even when I am
awake, and with all my senses  about me,  I have seen her come
and  throw herself  upon  me;  it is in vain that I try to repulse
her ;  fear,  anxiety, and  her strength  being  greater than  mine,
throw me  into such a state of languor, that I am quite incapable
of defending myself.   I  have sought everywhere to  obtain relief
from this miserable condition."
   I vainly endeavored  to disabuse this man of his insane idea;
but after two or three conversations, he began to be convinced of
the nature of his malady, and to entertain  hopes of being cured.*
   The hallucinations of nightmare sometimes show themselves in
the form of an epidemic.
   Example 62.   " The  first battalion of the  regiment  of  La-
tour-d'Auvergne,  of which," says Dr. Parent, " I was the surgeon,
was quartered at Palmi in Calabria, when  it received  peremptory
orders to march with all dispatch to  Tropea, and there  oppose
the landing of troops from the enemy's flotilla, which had  threat-
ened these parts.   It was in the month of June, and the troops
had  to  traverse  nearly forty miles  of country.   The  battalion
started at midnight, and did not arrive at its destination till about
seven o'clock in the evening, having scarcely rested, and having
suffered much from the heat.   On its arrival its rations and quar-
ters were ready prepared.
   "As this battalion had come the furthest, it was the last to ar-
rive  and consequently had the worst barracks assigned to it;
eight hundred  men being placed  where   usually  only  half that
number would have been lodged.   They were  huddled together

  * Jason :  De Morbis Cerebri, Src, cap. xxvi.,  et Schcenckius :  Obs. 253. 
164
HALLUCINATIONS.
on straw placed upon the ground, and as they had no  coverings,
they could not undress themselves. It was an old deserted abbey.
The inhabitants had previously warned us the battalion would not
he able to rest,  for that  spirits assembled .there  every  night, and
that already other regiments had failed  in the experiment.  We
merely laughed at their credulity ;  but what was  our surprise,
about midnight, to hear the most frightful cries issue from  all
parts of the building, and to see the soldiers rushing out in the
greatest alarm 1  I questioned them as to the cause of their fear,
and  they all told me the devil  dwelt in the abbey; that they had
seen 'him enter  through an opening of the door of their chamber
in the form of a large black dog with curly hair, who had bounded
upon them, ran over  their chests with the  rapidity of lightning,
and  disappeared  on  the side opposite to the one at which he.had
entered.
  " We ridiculed their fears, and endeavored to  satisfy them that
the event depended upon simple and  natural  causes, and was
nothing  more than the  result of their imagination.   We were
quite unable to convince them, or to induce them to reenter their
quarters.   They passed  the remainder  of the night  on the sea-
shore, and  scattered about in  different parts of the town.  The
next day I again  questioned  the sergeants,  and corporals, and
some of the oldest  soldiers.  They  assured me they were  not
persons to  give  way to fear,  nor did they believe in spirits  or
ghosts; yet they seemed to me to be perfectly convinced that the
scene which had taken place in the  abbey was no effect of the
imagination, but a real event.  According to these men, they had
scarcely fallen asleep when the dog entered : they saw him quite
plainly, and were almost  suffocated when  he leaped  upon their
chests.
  " We remained the whole of that day at Tropea, and the town
being full of troops, we were obliged to retain the same quarters:
we  could only persuade  the soldiers to go to rest by promising to 
HALLUCINATIONS IN  NIGHTMARE  AND  DREAMS.    165
pass the night with them.   I retired at half-past eleven with the
major of the battalion; the officers through  curiosity were  scat-
tered about in the different  rooms.   We had no expectation that
:he scene of the preceding night would be renewed. The soldiers,
who were reassured by the presence of their officers, who  kept
watch, had  fallen  asleep,  when, at one  o'clock in the  morning,
from all the rooms at the same time, the same cry came forth, and
the men  who had seen the dog jump on to their chests,  fearful of
being suffocated, left  their quarters, resolved not to return to
them again.  We were up, wide awake, and on the watch to see
what would  happen ; but,  as  may easily be  supposed, nothing
made its appearance.  The enemy's flotilla having sailed away,
we returned the next  day to Palmi.  Since the event which has
just been recorded, we have traversed the kingdom of Naples at
all periods of the year, our soldiers have often been crowded to-
gether in the same way, but this  phenomenon has never shown
itself again."*
   It is  probable that the forced march and  the  great  heat had
combined to  affect the respiratory organs, and had predisposed
them  to  nightmare (incubus, ephialtes),  favored  also by the un-
comfortable  locality where they were obliged to  sleep with  their
clothes on, by the rarefaction of the air,  and possibly also by its
containing some noxious gas.

                 HALLUCINATIONS IN DREAMS.

   The analogy which exists between the hallucinations of dreams
and of the waking state, have induced those writers who consider
a hallucination as a pathological phenomenon, to range the two
series in the same category.  An  English writer, who has main-
tained  this theory, says, that in both cases  the horses  have run

  * Grand Dictionnaire des Sciences Medicates, vol. xxxiv., Art.  ' Incube;"
obs. communiquee par M le docteur Parent. 
166                   HALLUCINATIONS.
 away with the carriage, but, with this difference, that in insanity
 the driver is drunk, while in dreams he is  asleep.  (The Anti-
 quary, vol. i. p. 189.)
   If this manner of regarding the question was admitted, it would
 follow that  no person  could escape the charge  of  insanity, for
 those  whom it spares  in the day-time would be more  or  less
 attacked by it during the night.   The absoluteness of the propo-
 sition  is its  best refutation.   The act  of dreaming,  in the great
 majority of cases, is a purely physiological condition; it presents
 itself as a continuance of the operations of the thinking principle.
 To prove this,  it is sufficient  to produce examples  of mental oper-
 ations, places, and actions, which have been conceived and  exe-
 cuted during sleep.   Dreams should therefore be divided  into
 two series, according as they are physiological or pathological.
   The condition of sleep necessarily modifies the nocturnal hallu-
 cinations.  In fact, in dreams, man is no longer master of his will
 or of his movements ; in general, the senses  are in abeyance ; he
 loses the  power of identification ; he confounds time and  space;
 he believes without surprise in the most extravagant things, both
 as  regards persons and events ;  he has no  power of  fixing his
 attention ;  his imagination is unbounded ; his memory often extra-
 ordinary.   All these pyschological conditions are met with in
 dreams, and  establish a difference between them and  the halluci-
 nations of the waking state.
  Voltaire imagined one day that he had dreamed the first canto
 of the Henriade  different to what he had composed  it.  Struck
 with this  singularity, " I  said in a dream," he writes,  " things
 which I could scarcely have said  when awake ; I must,  therefore,
have had thoughts and  reflections in spite of myself and without
having taken the least part in them.  I had  neither will nor lib-
erty, and yet I associated my ideas with propriety,  and sometimes
with genius."
  The hallucinations of  dreams frequently show themselves in the 
HALLUCINATIONS IN NIGHTMARE AND  DREAMS.    167
state  between sleeping and waking.   Purkingie and Gruthuisen
have termed them the elements of dreams.  Cerebral congestion
seems  favorable to their production ; but to make a general  pro-
position of this statement is contrary to experience, for thousands
of persons dream without having any signs of congestion.
  The subject of a dream  may be the precise,  or  nearly precise,
representation  of what was the  subject of the hallucination, just
as the  subject of a hallucination may be the exact reproduction of
what formed a dream.
  Abercrombie, in  his work  On the Intellectual  Powers, is of
opinion that dreams and  hallucinations are closely allied.  In
support of this  doctrine, he has related the following case :   "An
eminent medical  friend, having  sat  up late one  evening, under
considerable anxiety, about one  of his children who was ill, fell
asleep  in his chair, and had a  frightful dream, in which the promi-
nent figure was an immense baboon.  He awoke with the fright,
got up instantly, and walked  to  a table which was  in the middle
of the  room.   He was then quite  awake, and quite conscious of
the articles around him ;  but, close by the wall,  in the end of the
apartment, he distinctly saw the  baboon  making the same grim-
aces which he had seen in  his dream ;  and the  spectre continued
visible  for about half a minute."  *
  The analogy between dreams  and  hallucinations, says Walter
Scott,  are numerous : thus  " any sudden noise which the slumberer
hears,  without being actually awakened by it—any casual touch
of his  person occurring in  the same manner—becomes  instantly
adopted in his dream, and accommodated to the tenor of the cur-
rent train  of thought, whatever that may happen to  be;  and
nothing is more remarkable thau the rapidity with which imagi-
nation  supplies a complete explanation of the interruption, accord-
ing to  the  previous  train  of ideas expressed in the dream, even
when  scarce a moment of time is allowed for that purpose.  In
                    * Opus cit. p. 381. 
168                   HALLUCINATIONS.
dreaming, for example, of a duel, the external sound becomes, in
the twinkling of an eye, the discharge of the combatants' pistols ;
is an orator haranguing  in  his  sleep, the sound becomes the
applause of his supposed  audience;  is  the dreamer wandering
among  supposed ruins,  the noise  is that of the fall of some  part
of the mass.  In short,  an  explanatory system is adopted during
sleep with  such extreme rapidity, that  supposing  the intruding
alarm to have been  the first call  of  some person  to awaken the'
slumberer,  the  explanation,  though requiring some  process  of
argument or deduction, is  usually formed and  perfect before the
second  effort of  the speaker has restored  the dreamer to  the
waking world and its realities.  So rapid and intuitive is the suc-
cession  of ideas in sleep, as to remind us of the vision of the
Prophet Mahommed, in which he saw the whole wonders of heaven
and hell, though the jar of water which fell when his ecstasy com-
menced, had not spilled its contents when he returned to  ordinary
existence." *
  The hallucinations which occur in dreams, arise from  the asso-
ciation of ideas, or are the recollection of things which have  pre-
viously  taken place.  Amongst  the  many  curious  instances of
this  kind, the following  are some of the  most interesting, and
show what  singular events and  combinations  of  thought  may
originate with dreams.
  Example 63.   "A particular friend of mine," says Abercrom-
bie, " was connected with one of the principal banks in Glasgow,
and was at his  place at  the tellers' table, where money is paid,
when a person entered demanding payment of a sum  of six pounds.
There were several people waiting, who were, in turn, entitled to
be attended  to before him,  but  he was extremely impatient, and
rather noisy; and being,  besides, a  remarkable stammerer, he
became  so annoying, that another  gentleman requested my friend
* Opus cit. p. 25. 
HALLUCINATIONS IN  NIGHTMARE  AND DREAMS.    169
 to pay him his money and get rid of him.   He did so accordingly,
 but with an expression of impatience at being obliged to attend
 to him before his turn,  and thought no more of the transaction.
 At the end of the year, which was eight or nine months after, the
 books of the  bank could not be made to balance, the deficiency
 by exactly six pounds.   Several days and  nights had  been spent
 in endeavoring to discover the error, but without success; when
 at last my friend returned home, much fatigued, and went to bed.
 He dreamed of being at his  place in the bank, and the whole trans-
 action,  with the stammerer, as now detailed, passed before him in
 all its  particulars.  He awoke  under a full impression that the
 dream was to  lead him to the discovery of what he was so anxi-
 ously in search of; and,  on examination, soon discovered that the
 sum paid to this person  in the manner now mentioned, had been
 neglected to be inserted in the book of interests, and that it exactly
 accounted for the  error in the balance." *
   Example 64.   "Mr.  R., of Bowland, a gentleman  of landed
 property in the vale  of Gala, was prosecuted for a very consider-
 able sum, the  accumulated  arrears of teind (or tithe), for which
 he was said to be indebted to a noble family, the titulars (lay im-
 propriators of the tithes).   Mr. R. was strongly impressed with
 the belief that his father had, by a form of process peculiar to the
 law  of  Scotland,  purchased these teinds  from the titular, and,
 therefore, that the  present prosecution was groundless.  But, after
 an industrious search, among his  father's papers, an investigation
 of the public  records, and  a careful inquiry among all persons
who had transacted law business for his father, no evidence could
be recovered to support  his defense.  The period was now near
at hand when he conceived the loss of his law-suit to be inevitable,
and  he had  formed his determination to ride to  Edinburgh next
day, and make the best bargain he could in the way of compro-
12
* Opus cit. p. 280. 
170                   HALLUCINATIONS.
mise.  He went to bed with this resolution, and, with all the cir-
cumstances of the case floating  in his mind, had a dream to the
following  purpose :   His father, who had been many years dead,
appeared to him, he thought, and asked him why he was disturbed
in his mind.   In dreams men are not surprised  at  such appari-
tions.  Mr. R. thought that he  informed his father of the  cause
of his distress, adding, that the  payment of a  considerable sum
of money was the  more  unpleasant  to  him, because  he had  a
strong consciousness that it was not due, though he was unable to
recover  any evidence  in support of his  belief.  ' You  are  right,
my son,'replied the paternal  shade; ' I did acquire a right to
these teinds, for payment of which you are now  prosecuted.   The
papers relating to the transaction are  in the hands of Mr.  -----,
a writer (or attorney), who is now retired from professional busi-
ness, and resides at  Inveresk, near Edinburgh.   He was a person
I  employed on  that occasion for  a  particular reason,  but who
never on any other  occasion transacted business on  my account.
It is very possible,' pursued  the  vision,  'that Mr. ----  may
have forgotten a matter which is  now of a very old date ;  but you
may  call it to his recollection by this token, that, when I came to
pay his account, there was difficulty in getting change for a Por-
tugal piece  of gold, and that we were forced  to drink out  the
balance at a tavern.'
   " Mr. R. awoke in the morning, with all the words of the vision
imprinted  on his mind, and thought it worth while to ride across
the country to Inveresk, instead  of going straight to Edinburgh.
When he came there he waited on the gentleman mentioned in
the dream, a very old man;  without saying anything of the vision,
he inquired whether he remembered having conducted such a mat-
ter for his  deceased father.   The old gentleman  could not at first
bring the circumstance to his recollection, but, on mention of the
Portugal piece of gold, the whole returned upon his memory.
He made an immediate search for the papers, and recovered them, 
HALLUCINATIONS IN NIGHTMARE AND DREAMS.    171
so that Mr. R. carried to Edinburgh the documents  necessary to
gain the cause which he was on the verge of losing.   There can-
not be a doubt that this gentleman had heard the circumstances
from his father, but had entirely forgotten them, until the frequent
and intense application of his mind to the subject with which they
were connected, at length gave rise to a train of association which
recalled them in the dream.*
   There  are well authenticated  instances of dreams which have
given notice of an event that was occuring at the time or occurred
soon  after.   "A  clergyman had come to  this city  (Edinburgh)
from a short distance in  the country, and was  sleeping at an inn,
when he dreamed of seeing a fire, and one of his children in the
midst of it.  He  awoke with  the impression, and  instantly left
town on his return home.  When he arrived within sight of his
house, he found it on fire, and got there in time to assist in saving
one of his children, who, in the alarm and confusion, had been left
in a situation of danger."
   This case may be explained on simple and natural  principles,
without having  recourse to the supernatural.  " Let us  suppose
that the gentleman had a servant who had shown great carelessness
in regard to fire, and had often given rise in his mind to  a strong
apprehension  that  he might set fire  to the house; his  anxiety
might be increased by being from home, and the same circumstan-
ces might make the servant still  more careless.   Perhaps there
was on that day, in the neighborhood of his house, some fair or
periodical  merry-making, from which  the servant was very likely
to return home in a state  of intoxication.  -It was  most natural
that these  impressions  should  be embodied into a dream of his
house being on fire, and that the circumstances might lead to the
dream being fulfilled, "f
   Example 65.   The following anecdote of Ben  Jonson is re-
lated in the Heads of Conversations, published by the executors
         * Abercrombie: Opus cit. p. 288.     t lb. p. 291. 
172                   HALLUCINATIONS.
of Drummond of Hawthornden  (Drummond's  Works, p. 224).
Jonson told him, that, " when the king—James the First—came
to England, about  the time that the plague was in  London, he
being in the country at Sir Robert Cotton's house with old Cam-
den, he saw in a vision his eldest son, then a young child and at
London, appear unto him with the mark of a bloody cross on his
forehead, as if it had  been cut with a sword; at which, amazed,
he prayed unto God, and in the morning he came unto Mr. Cam-
den's chamber to tell  him, who persuaded him it was but an ap-
prehension, at which he should not be dejected.  In the meantime
there came letters  from his wife  of  the death of that boy in the
plague.   He appeared to him," he said, "of  a  manly shape,
and of that growth he thinks he shall be at the time of the resur-
rection."*
  Example 66.   Antiquity  has  supplied us with  a celebrated
dream, which has since been  frequently published.   Two  friends
had  arrived at Megara,  and  took  up their  abode in different
houses.  Scarcely had one of them  fallen  asleep, when his com-
panion appeared before him, stating  that his landlord had formed
a plan to  assassinate him, and begging his friend to come to his
assistance  as quickly as possible.   The other woke up, but  feeling
satisfied that it was only the  delusion  of a dream, soon returned
to sleep.   Again his friend appeared, and implored him to make
haste, for his murderers were entering his apartment.   A  second
time disturbed, he was astonished at the continuance of his dream,
and felt inclined to go to his friend,  but being  fatigued and rea-
soning as before,  he again arranged himself to  sleep.  For  the
third time his friend appeared, but now he was pale, bleeding, and
disfigured.   " Alas 1"  he  said,  "you have not come to me when I
requested  you, and the deed is done; now  avenge me.  At day-
break you will meet, at the gate  of  the town, a cart filled with
Ferriar:  Opus cit. p. 58. 
HALLUCINATIONS IN NIGHTMARE  AND  DREAMS.    173
dung, stop it, order it to be unloaded, and you will find my body
concealed in the midst; provide me with the rites  of burial,  and
punish my murderers."
   This  pertinacity and  the minuteness of the details no longer
admitted of hesitation;  the friend got up, went to the gate that
had been named, found the cart, stopped the driver, who appeared
agitated, and soon discovered the body of his companion.*
   Even admitting the truth of this tale, and supposing that it has
not become magnified and embellished in the telling, yet it may
be easily explained by natural causes.   The  separation of the  two
friends in a strange town after the fatigues of the voyage was suffi-
cient to produce in the mind the forebodings of evil, which, during
the silence of the night, fear presented in the form of assassins.
This idea having once entered the  mind, the imagination would
complete the rest.   With regard to the episode of  the cart, which
it seems difficult to explain, there is nothing opposed to the idea
that it might  have been seen in the courtyard of the house,  and
the principle  of the association  of ideas connected  it with  the
events of the dream.
   Cicero, Plutarch, and other ancient writers, have preserved the
following anecdote :  Simonides having on his journey found  the
dead body of a man  who was unknown  to him, had it buried;
when  he was about to  embark, the man  appeared to  him in his
sleep, and warned him not to go in the vessel or he would perish.
This warning made  him change his  intentions, and he  afterwards
learned  that the vessel in which he had intended to sail had been
wrecked, f
   "The opinion," says  an illustrious  writer,  "that the truth  is
sometimes  revealed to us in our dreams, exists  amongst all  the
nations of the world.   The greatest men of antiquity have held

  * Cicero :  De Divin. lib.  i. § xxvii.
  f Cicero.  See Valerius  Maximus, bk. i.  ch. i.  Plutarch: On the Py-
thian Oracles. 
174                  HALLUCINATIONS.
this faith;  amongst  others,  Alexander, Csesar, the  Scipios, the
two Catos and  Brutus, who  were none of them men of feeble in-
tellect.   The Old and New  Testaments furnish numerous exam-
ples  of dreams being fulfilled.   For  myself, Lain satisfied with
my own experience in the matter.  I  have  more than once found
that dreams do forwarn us of things in which we are interested ;
but if we wish to dispute or defend  by arguments things which
are beyond the scope of human reason, we attempt what is  im-
possible."*
  Lastly, the illustrious Bossuet, in  his funeral oration  on the
Princes Palatine, Anne  of Gonzaga,  attributes  her conversion to
a mysterious dream.
  " This,"  he  said,  " was  a  marvelous dream;  one  of those
which God Himself produces through the ministry of his angels ;
one in which the images are  clearly and orderly arranged, and we
are permitted to obtain a glimpse of celestial things.   The prin-
cess fancied  she was  walking alone in a forest, when she found a
blind man in a small cottage.   She approached him, and asked him
if he had been blind from his birth, or whether it was the result of
accident.  He told her that  he  was born blind.  'You are igno-
rant, then,'  she said, 'of the effect of light, how beautiful and
pleasant it is;  nor can you  perceive the glory or splendor of the
sun.'   ' I have  never,' he said, ' enjoyed the  sight of that beautiful
object, nor can I form any idea of it;  nevertheless, I believe it to
be surpassingly glorious.'  The blind man then seemed  to change
his  voice and  manner, and  assuming  a tone of authority,  ' My
example,' he continued, ' should teach you that there  are excel-
lent things which escape your notice,  and which are not less true
or less desirable, although you can neither comprehend or imagine
them.'"
  Presentiments.—The  study  of dreams  naturally leads us to

           * Bernardin de Saint-Pierre:  Paul  et  Virginie. 
HALLUCINATIONS IN  NIGHTMARE AND DREAMS.    175
speak of presentiments.   The further we advance in the study of
the nervous system, the more we are obliged to recognize, as  has
been well said by M. Max Simon, "that if the science of statistics
is true when applied to size and quantity, it is no longer so when
applied  to  life  and  to  quality.  Can we measure truth, virtue,
justice, health, sensibility, &c. ?   No—a thousand times no—any
more than we can identify them with matter.*
   Sensation is, in fact, like a set of musical notes, of which it is
impossible to express all the various tones, and which  produce
the most astonishing and unexpected results.  I read lately, in
the Souvenirs d'une Aveugle-nee, of a young girl who had been
brought up in the country, at the foot of the mountains, and who
could distinguish,  in the midst of the  noise  and confusion by
which she was  surrounded, distant sounds  that were quite inap-
preciable by every  one else.  She would be  conscious of a distant
rumbling on the  summit  of the Pyrenees,  and during the night
this would be followed by a violent  storm  in  the  valley, or  she
would hear the- tramp of  horse's feet upon the ground, and, to the
astonishment of her neighbors, some hours after, a traveler would
arrive, proving  that she had not  been deceived by an  illusion,
caused by the highly exalted condition of hearing, f
   The same phenomena may occur  with  regard to  the other
senses; thus, the delicacy of the sense of smell is sometimes so
great, that it enables the person to distinguish substances placed
at a  considerable distance, and of which those around  him  are
quite unconscious.
   Some would  deny the extraordinary influence of the  atmos-
phere upon certain organizations,  but there ore  numerous facts
which prove the existence of temperaments so susceptible, that
their  possessor is aware  of coming atmospheric changes long be-
fore they take place.
  * L1 Opinion Peine du Monde, Union Medicate,  2 Aut, 1851.
  f Souvenirs d'une Aveugle-nee, recueillis et ecrits par elle-meme, publiea
par M. Dufau, Directeur des Aveugles, p. 45.  Paris : 1851. 
176                   HALLUCINATIONS.
  The moral character affords an equally curious field for obser-
vation.  All those who have loved strongly know that the passion
bestows on them a kind of supernatural vision, which reveals the
woman  whom they love  or hate by unappreciable signs; she is
not seen, yet nevertheless they feel conscious of her presence.
  To presentiments are closely allied antipathies and sympathies.
Well authenticated  cases show that individuals  have experienced
a kind of shudder on the approach of an enemy, or any unknown
danger.  Some  years  ago we had the opportunity of carefully
noticing a lady who possessed an instinctive feeling, which mani-
fested itself immediately  preceding her introduction to a stranger.
The sensation which she  experienced was always confirmed by the
result.
  Much might be said concerning presentiments, but we forbear
from entering further on the subject.   Unimpressionable and  se-
rious minds reject such  doctrines, but sensitive persons believe in
them.   In most  instances they are not realized; where  they  are
borne out by the  result, they consist either of reminiscences or of
a simple coincidence.  Nevertheless,  it is quite  certain that any
unexpected event, any strong conviction, a constant restlessness,
a change in the habits, a sudden feeling of fear, may give rise to
presentiments which it would be unwise to reject  with systematic
incredulity.  This view of the  matter seems to us in accordance
with common sense, and  with what is observed to take place.
  Presentiments are  therefore explained, in a great many cases,
by natural causes;  yet, without being charged with a love of  the
marvelous, may we not say that there are occurrences which seem
to deviate from  the ordinary course of events,  and at least  de-
pend upon relations—still most imperfectly known—which exist
between the spiritual and physical  nature of man, on an exalted
condition of the  nervous system, or are connected with  that class
of phenomena which are included under magnetism  and somnam-
bulism ? 
HALLUCINATIONS  IN NIGHTMARE AND DREAMS.    177
  Example 67.   Mademoiselle R., who was possessed of an ex-
cellent understanding, and  who  was  religious without  being
bigoted, resided, before her marriage, with  her  uncle, a medical
man of eminence, and a member of the Institute.  At this time
she was  at some  distance from  her mother, who lived in the
country, and was laboring under a  dangerous disease.   One night
this young lady dreamed that  she beheld her mother pale, melan-
choly, about to die, and  lamenting that she was not surrounded
by her children, of whom one, the cure of a Parisian parish, had
emigrated to Spain, while the other was at Paris.  Presently she
heard her  mother call her several  times  by her Christian name;
she saw, in her dream, the persons who surrounded her mother,
and who, thinking that she was asking for her grand-daughter of
the same  name, go into the next  room to fetch her, when the in-
valid made signs  to  them that it was her  daughter who was in
Paris, and not her grand-daughter, whom she  wished to see. Her
look expressed  the greatest grief  at her absence ; all at once her
countenance changed; it assumed  the pallor of death, and she
sank down lifeless on her bed.
  The next day, Mademoiselle R., seeming very much depressed,
D. begged her to tell  him the cause of her grief.  She related to
him the particulars of her dream,  which weighed so heavily upon
her spirits.  D., finding her in this state of  mind, pressed her to
his heart,  and told her that the information  was only too true, for
her mother was  dead; but he entered into no further  explana-
tions.
   Some months after, Mademoiselle R., taking advantage  of her
uncle's absence to put his papers in order, found a letter which
had  been laid aside.   What  was  her surprise on reading in it all
the particulars which had passed in her dream, and which D. had
passed over in silence, being  unwilling to  cause her  further ex-
citement when her mind was already so strongly affected. 
178
HALLUCINATIONS.
   This statement  was made to us by the  lady  herself, in whom
 we place the most  perfect confidence.
   Great caution is necessary in judging  of such occurrences as
 the one just recorded;  the explanation which has been applied to
 the  clergyman's dream, mentioned  by Abercrombie,  (p.  169,)
 might be brought  forward in the present case ;  but we  must con-
 fess that these explanations  do not satisfy us, and  that  these
 events seem rather to belong to some of the deepest mysteries of
 our being.
   As bearing upon these reflections, we shall relate the following
 anecdote, mentioned by  Dr.  Sigmond, who  received it from the
 widow of M. Cplmache, the private secretary and friend of M.
 de  Talleyrand.  One  day,  in the  presence  of  the minister, the
 conversation  had turned upon the subject of the sudden warnings
 which  have been looked upon as communications from  the world
 of spirits to man;  some one observed that it would be difficult to
 find a man of any note who had not,  in the course of his life, ex-
 perienced something of the kind.
   Example  68.  " I  remember,"  says Talleyrand, " upon one
 occasion, having been gifted, for  one single moment, with an
 unknown and nameless power.- I know not to this moment  whence
 it came ; it has never once returned, and yet upon that  one occa-
 sion it  saved my  life.   Without  that  sudden and  mysterious
 inspiration, I should not have been here to tell my tale.   I had
freighted a ship in  concert with my friend Beaumetz.   He was a
 good  fellow,  Beaumetz, with whom I had  ever lived on the most
 intimate  terms; and in those stormy times, when it  needed not
 only friendship to bind men together, but almost godlike courage
to  show that friendship, I could not but prize most highly all his
bold and loyal demonstrations of kindness and attachment to me.
 I had  not a single reason to doubt his friendship.  On the con-
trary, he had given me, on several  occasions, most positive proof
 of  his devotion to my interest and well-being.  We had fled from 
HALLUCINATIONS IN NIGHTMARE AND DREAMS.    179
France ;  we had arrived at New York together, and we had lived
in perfect harmony during our stay there.   So, after  having re-
solved upon  improving the little money that was  left, by specu-
lation, it was, still in  partnership and together, that we freighted
a small vessel for India, trusting to all  the  goodly chances which
had  befriended us in  our escape from danger and  from death, to
venture once more conjointly to  brave the storms and  perils of a
yet longer and more  adventurous voyage.   Everything was em-
barked for our departure ; bills were all paid, and farewells all
taken, and we were  waiting  for a  fair  wind with most  eager
expectation, being prepared to embark at any hour of the day or
night, in obedience to the  warning of the captain.  This state of
uncertainty seemed to irritate the temper of poor Beaumetz to an
extraordinary degree; and, unable to remain quietly at home, he
hurried to and from the city with an  eager,  restless activity, which
at times excited my astonishment, for he had ever been  remarkable
for great calmness and placidity of temper.  One day he entered
our lodging,  evidently laboring under great excitement, although
commanding himself  to appear calm.   I  was engaged  at that
moment  in  writing letters to  Europe;  and looking  over my
shoulder, he said,  with forced gayety, 'What need to waste time in
penning those letters  ?  They will never reach their destination.
Come with me, and let us take a turn on  the Battery; perhaps
the wind may be  chopping round ; we  may be nearer our depart-
ure than we imagine.'  The day was very fine, although the wind
was blowing  hard, and I suffered myself to  be persuaded.   Beau-
metz, I remembered afterwards, displayed an unusual officiousness
in aiding me to close  my desk and put away my papers, handing
me, with hurried eagerness,  my hat and cane, and doing other
services to quicken my departure, which at the time I attributed
to the restless desire  for change, the love  of activity  with which
he seems to have been devoured during the whole period of our
delay.  We walked through the crowded streets to the Battery. 
180
HALLUCINATIONS.
He had seized my arm, and hurried me along, seemingly in eager
haste to advance.  When we had arrived at the broad esplanade—
the glory then, as now, of New York—Beaumetz quickened his
step still more, until we arrived close to the water's edge.   He
talked  loud and quickly, admiring in energetic terms the  beauty
of the  scenery, the Brooklyn heights,  the  shady groves of the
island,  the  ships riding at anchor,  and the busy  scene  on the
peopled wharf; when  suddenly he paused in his mad, incoherent
discourse—for I had  freed my arm from his grasp, and stood
immovable before him.  Staying his wild and rapid steps, I fixed
my eye  upon his face.  He turned aside, cowed and dismayed.
' Beaumetz,' I shouted, 'you mean to murder me ; you intend to
throw me from the height into the sea below.   Deny it, monster,
if you can.'   The maniac stared at me for a moment; but I took
especial care not to avert  my gaze  from his countenance, and he
quailed beneath it.   He stammered  a few incoherent words, and
strove to pass me, but I barred his  passage with extended arms.
He looked vacantly right and left, and then flung  himself upon
my neck, and burst into tears.   ' 'Tis true—'tis true, my friend 1
The thought has haunted me day and night, like a flash from the
lurid fire of hell.   It was for this I brought you here.   Look !
you stand within a foot of the  edge of the parapet: in another
instant the work would have been done.'   The demon  had left
him; his eye was unsettled, and the  white foam stood in bubbles
on  his  parched lips;  but  he was no longer tossed by the  same
mad excitement under which he had been laboring, for he suffered
me to lead him home  without a  single word.   A few days' repose,
bleeding, abstinence, completely restored him to his former self,
and, what  is most extraordinary, the circumstance was never
mentioned between us.  My Fate was at work."
   It was whilst watching by the bed-side of his friend, that Talley-
rand received letters which enabled  him to return to France ; he
did so,  and  left  Beaumetz to  prosecute the  speculation alone. 
HALLUCINATIONS IN NIGHTMARE AND DREAMS.    181
The Prince Talleyrand could never speak of the preceding event
without shuddering, and to the last hour of his existence believed
that "he was for an instant gifted  with an extraordinary light,
and during a quick and vivid flash, the possible and the true was
revealed to a strong and  powerful mind," and that upon this the
whole of his destiny hinged.  " This species of momentary exalta-
tion," says Dr. Sigmond, "which is not again repeated, but is
remembered  with the  most vivid  impression, is  what is  more
immediately known by the name of fantasia." *  In France it is
named presentiment.
  We  have read, in  the Souvenirs de Madame de Crequi, the
following  statement:
  Example 69.   The Prince Radziwil had adopted one of his
orphan  nieces.   She resided  at  a chateau in Gallicia.  In the
chateau was  a large hall, which separated the apartments of the
prince from those of his children, and through which it was neces-
sary to  pass, in  order to  get from the one to the other, without
going into the open  air.  The young Agnes, only five or six
years  of age, screamed every  time  she was  taken  through the
great hall, pointing  with  an expression of terror to a picture rep-
resenting  the Sibyl of Cuma, which hung over the door.  For a
long time  they endeavored to overcome this repugnance, which
was looked  upon as a childish fancy;  but the  effects of  these
attempts were so serious  to the child that at length she was per-
mitted to have her own way, and for ten or twelve years she con-
tinued  to  traverse the open court or the  garden, exposed to all
the inclemencies of the weather, rather than  pass  through the
doorway which produced  such a feeling of alarm.
  The time came when  the young countess was to be married,
and a large party had assembled at the chateau for the occasion.
In the evening the company proceeded to the great hall, where

  * Forbes  Winslow's Psychological Journal, vol. i. p. 586. 
182                  HALLUCINATIONS.
the  wedding dance  had always taken  place.  Animated  by the
youthful spirits around her, Agnes entered into all the amusements
of her friends.   Scarcely, however, had she passed beneath the
doorway than she wished to retreat, and acknowledged the fear
which came over her.   They had made her, as was usual, pass in first,
and  her betrothed,  her friends, and  her  uncle, laughing  at  her
fears, closed the door against her.   The unfortunate girl resisted,
and  knocking at  the  panels of the  door, threw down the picture,
which fell  upon  her.   The great  mass struck  her on the head
with one of its angles, and killed her on the spot.*
  We find, therefore, that in certain instances there is a peculiar
condition of the nervous system which serves to warn the individ-
ual of some coming  event of a dangerous or unusual character.
Travelers who have  passed through the vast forests of the New
World, and noticed their savage inhabitants, have observed a pe-
culiar restlessness in  the animals, and a state of excitement in the
human population, immediately preceding some great convulsion
of nature, whilst  the European is still  speculating on the cause
of their extraordinary agitation.  Without referring to the  action
of mind upon  matter,  we are satisfied that the  imponderable
agents, especially electricity, have relations with man's organiza-
tion  which are still unknown.
  Many of the preceding observations  show that the operations
of the mind  in dreaming consist  in the reproduction of former
ideas and associations, which follow  each other in an order of suc-
cession over which the will has no control. This, however,  is not
always the case, and the operation of thinking sometimes continues
in this state.
  Example 70.   One of the most remarkable instances of this
is the famous sonata of Tartini, known  as the Sonate du Diable.
This celebrated composer  fell asleep  after vainly endeavoring to

  *  J. Charpignon, Physiologie, Medecine, et Metaphysique du Magnetism,
p. 352.  Paris:  1848. 
HALLUCINATIONS IN NIGHTMARE AND DREAMS.     183
finish a sonata; the subject followed  him  in  his  sleep, during
which he dreamed that he again applied himself to  his work, but
felt in a state of despair at finding he composed with so  little
spirit or success; all at once the devil appeared to him, and pro-
posed that he should finish the sonata for him, provided he would
give him  his soul.  Carried away by the hallucination, he con-
tinued his dream  and accepted  the devil's proposition; he then
distinctly heard the long-desired sonata executed in a most charm-
ing and effective  manner on the violin ;  after this he awoke in a
transport  of delight, ran to his desk, and wrote from memory the
ending which he had heard in his dream.   This  is, perhaps, the
most  remarkable  instance  of  this  kind of hallucination on rec-
ord.*
   Condorcet related of himself that, when engaged in some pro-
found and obscure calculations, he was often obliged to  leave
them in an incomplete state and retire to rest;  and  that the re-
maining steps had more than once presented themselves in his
dreams.  Dr. Franklin also informed Cabanis that the bearings
and issue of political events, which had puzzled him when awake,
were not unfrequently unfolded to him in his dreams.
   Hermas  says it  was  whilst he slept he heard a voice dictate to
him the work which he has entitled the Pasteur.  Some persons
maintain the Divina Commedia was suggested by a dream.
   Galen became a physician in consequence  of a dream, in which
Apollo  appeared to him  on  two different  occasions, and  com-
manded him immediately to devote himself to the study of medi-
cine.
   It is well known that dreams may present  a connected series of
events, so forcibly represented that, as the dreamer starts from his
sleep with his mind strongly impressed by what has passed, it re-
quires some evidence to convince him that the whole has been the
offspring of his imagination.  Dreams which are thus strongly
           * Moreau, de la Sarthe: Melanges de  Litterature. 
184
HALLUCINATIONS.
marked may recur on  several successive nights.  "I  remember,'
says M. A. Maury,  in his Memoire  (p. 31), "to have dreamed
eight times, during the course of one month, of a person who al-
ways had the same figure and appearance, but of whom I had
not the slightest knowledge,  and who, most probably,  only existed
in my imagination."  What wras still more strange, he frequently
continued actions, during a dream, which he  had commenced in
the preceding one.
  It often happens that dialogues  are carried on in a dream.
These  may relate every  variety of subject, not only occupying,
but wearying the mind  during its  sleep, by  some discussion in
which it does not feel that it has even the advantage of its adver-
sary.   There is the  impression of two distinct individuals holding
opposite  opinions, one of whom triumphs over the other, and yet
it is one and the  same person.
  Saint Augustin relates the following case :
  Example 71.   A man of education, who  devoted himself to
the study of Plato, stated that one night, before he retired to rest,
he saw a philosopher, with whom he  was intimate, come to  him,
and expound to him certain propositions in Plato ; a thing which
he had hitherto refused to do.   The next day, having asked  this
philosopher  how it  was  that he  had explained these matters to
him  in another person's  house, when he had refused to do so in
his  own,  the  philosopher replied,  " I  have  done nothing of the
kind, although I  did dream that I had."
  " Thus," adds  Saint Augustin, "the one being perfectly awake,
saw and heard by means of a phantom what the other experienced
in a  dream."
  "For  my own part," he further observes, "if the  matter  had
been related to me by  any ordinary person, I should have rejected
it as unworthy of belief;  but the individual  in  question was not
one who  was likely to have been deceived."*
         * Saint Augustin : Cite de Dieu, liv. xviii. ch. xviii. 
HALLUCINATIONS IN NIGHTMARE AND DREAMS.    185
   The hallucinations  of dreams are  generally obliterated  on
 waking up, or, if they leave a partial  impression,  they have  no
 perceptible influence on  the  conduct; this, however, is not the
 case when they are  the  precursors  of  mental disease, nor when
 they  occur during sleep  in the  insane ;  they then become ex-
 tremely vivid, and are firmly engraven  on the memory.   Patho-
 logical dreams  have been mentioned by  all observers, and there
 can be no doubt that at times they may afford useful indications.
   Galen  mentions the case of an invalid who dreamed one of his
 legs was  made of stone;  and soon afterwards this same leg was
 struck with paralysis.
   The learned  Conrad Gesner dreamed  one night that he was
 bitten on the left side of his chest by a serpent;  not long after, a
 serious disease  showed  itself at this part in the form of a car-
 buncle, which terminated his  existence  in about five days.   Ner-
 vous, and especially mental diseases, are often preceded by extra-
 ordinary dreams.
   Odier, of Geneva, was  consulted in  1778 by a lady of  Lyons,
 who,  the night before  she was attacked  with insanity, dreamed
 that her mother-in-law came to her with a dagger in her hand for
 the purpose of killing her.   This impression was so strong, that
 it was prolonged  into the waking state, and acquired such an in-
 tensity that it ultimately produced a fixed melancholy and all the
 characters of actual  insanity.
   A tendency to mysticism and a preoccupied state of the mind
 may have the same effect.
   Example  72.   "  In the year 1610," says Van Helmont, " after
 long  meditation, by which I was greatly  exhausted, and  during
 which  I had  endeavored to obtain some knowledge of the  nature
 of my soul, I fell  asleep.   Soon  after I was carried beyond the
 realms of mere human reason, and I found myself in a large ob-
 scurely-lighted chamber; on my right hand  I saw a table with a
bottle upon it, containing a liquor, which spoke to me as follows :
        13 
186
HALLUCINATIONS.
' Do you desire honor and riches ? '  I was astounded at hearing
these words.   I paced about, questioning myself what this could
mean.  On my right  hand I  perceived  a  window in  the  wall,
through which there came a light, whose brilliancy made me forget
the words of the liquid, and changed the current of my thoughts;
for I was  contemplating things which surpassed all description.
The light  lasted but an instant, and with a feeling of desolation
I returned to my bottle, and carried it away with me.   I felt de-
sirous of tasting the contents, and,  with considerable  difficulty, I
succeeded in opening it, when, with a feeling of horror,  I  awoke.
This  occurrence left me with a strong desire to know my soul, a
wish which lasted for three and twenty years, that is to say,  until
1633, when I  had a vision, during which my very soul manifested
itself to my astonished  sight.   It consisted of  a perfectly homo-
geneous light, composed of  a crystaline and  brilliant  spiritual
essence.   It was contained in an envelope like a pea in its husk,
and I heard a voice which  said to  me,  ' Behold  what you saw
through the  opening in the wall.'  This vision operated on the
intellectual part of my nature;  for whoever should  behold his
soul with the eyes of his body would be blinded."*
  The dream may become completely obliterated  from the mind
of persons, so that he  entirely forgets that he ever had  such  a
dream.
  This circumstance probably explains some of the presumed in-
stances of second sight.
  The sleep of the maniac  has  always afforded important infor-
mation. Esquirol was so convinced of this, that he has frequently
passed the night in  watching  them;  and his  perseverance has
been rewarded more than once  by the patient  revealing  during
his  sleep the cause of his insanity.
  Leuret,  in  his  Fragmens  of Psychologiques, has  also re-

  *Van Helmont: Ortus  Medicines Imago Mentis,  &c, vol.  i.  p. 269.
Amsterodami, 1643. 
HALLUCINATIONS IN NIGHTMARE AND DREAMS.    187
marked, that there are a  cetain number of lunatics who  reason
during the day, according to the ideas and perceptions  which
they have during the night.  They judge correctly of what occurs
during the  waking state, and if they did not mix up with their
conversation what happens in their dreams, their minds would be
perfectly sound.
  The coincidence which  occasionally exists between the dreams
and  the  insanity has  already been  pointed  out.  The following
case supports this  opinion.  A maniac, whom Dr. Gregory had
attended, and who had perfectly  recovered,  was troubled a week
afterwards with dreams, in which the same ideas and violent feel-
ings presented themselves that  had agitated him during  his in-
sanity.
  Some  hallucinations which commence during sleep, and con-
tinue for several successive nights, are at length regarded  as re-
alities during the day.   The widow Schoul . .  . heard, for three
successive nights, a voice saying to her,  Kill thy daughter.  At
first she  resisted this, and drove it from her thoughts  when she
was  awake ; but the idea  ultimately became  fixed, and  continued
during the waking state.   Some  days after,  the  unhappy woman
sacrificed her child. 
CHAPTER   IX.
   HALLUCINATIONS IN ECSTASY, ANIMAL MAGNETISM, AND SOMNAMBULISM.

                 HALLUCINATIONS IN ECSTASY.

  All authors who  have treated of ecstasy are agreed that this
state  implies an habitual elevation of the ideas and feelings of
those who experience it, far beyond the ordinary mental average;
to this is joined  great concentration of the thoughts, and conse-
quently an  abnormal condition of mind and body.   An exception
must, however, be  made with regard to religious devotees and the
insane; the influence which these  conditions  exercise over the
body  may give rise  to  states of ecstasy in persons of ordinary
intellect.  The most remarkable ecstatics have been carried away
by an extreme regard for religion, morality, poetry, the fine arts,
the sciences, or for philosophy ;  they have  been given up to the
contemplation  of the Deity or of nature.   This condition of the
mind  is also most favorable to the existence of hallucinations, and
hence they  are  very common in the ecstatic.
  Example 73.   The celebrated visionary, Count Emanuel  Swe-
denborg, imagined he  had  the  singular  happiness  of enjoying
frequent  interviews  with  the world of spirits,  and has favored
mankind with minute descriptions of the scenes he visited and the
conversations he heard.   " The Lord Himself," says he, in a letter
prefixed  to  his   Theosophic Lucubrations,  " was  graciously
pleased to  manifest  Himself to  me,  his unworthy servant, in a
personal appearance in  the year 1743, to  open to me a sight of 
ECSTASY, MAGNETISM, SOMNAMBULISM.        189
the spiritual world, and to enable  me to converse with spirits and
angels ; and this privilege has continued with me to this day."
  Example 74.   Very  similar to this were the visions  of John
Engelbrecht, who, after  passing many years in a state of the most
gloomy  and agonizing despondency, in which he had frequently
been tempted to commit suicide, appeared at length, to his friends
and to himself, to die, and to be restored again to life, and fancied
he had visited, during the short space from his supposed  death to
his  resuscitation,  first hell, and afterwards  heaven, and was from
that time freed  from his melancholy, which he had exchanged for
the opposite emotions of religious joy.
  The following is the particular  account which he  gives of what
he experienced  in this singular state :
  "It was  on Thursday noon, about twelve o'clock, when I dis-
tinctly perceived that death was making his approaches upon me
from  the lower parts upwards—insomuch, that my whole  body
becoming  stiff,  I had no more feeling left in my hands and feet,
neither in any other part of my whole body ; nor  was I at last
able to speak or see, for my mouth now became very stiff—I was
no longer able to open it, nor did I feel it any longer.   My eyes
also broke in my head in such a manner, that I  distinctly felt it.
But, for  all that,  I understood  what  was said when they were
praying by me ; and I heard distinctly that they said one to an-
other, ' Pray, feel his legs—how stiff and cold they have become ;
it will now be soon over with him.''  This I heard distinctly, but
had  no perception of their touch.  And  when the watchman
cried  eleven o'clock, at midnight, I heard that too distinctly;
and much about twelve o'clock at midnight the bodily hearing
failed and left me too.   Then was I—as it seemed to me—taken
up with my whole body, and it was transported  and carried away
with far more swiftness  than any  arrow can fly when discharged
from a cross-bow."
  During this supposed and apparent death, he  had been carried 
190
HALLUCINATIONS.
in imagination, or, as he terms it, in a trance  or vision, and set
down before hell, where he  had perceived  a dismal  darkness, a
thick, nasty fog, smoke and vapor, and a horrible bitter  stench,
and had  heard dreadful howlings and lamentations ; had  from
thence been conveyed  by the  Holy  Ghost,  in a chariot of  gold,
into the radiant and splendorous light of the Divine glory, where
he had seen the  choir of holy angels, prophets, and apostles,
singing and  praying round the throne of God, the angels in the
form of flames  of fire, the souls of believers in the shape of lumin-
ous sparks,  and God's throne under the appearance of a great
splendor; had received a  charge  or  message from God,  by
means of a holy angel; had had such assurances of Divine favor,
and felt such delight from this momentary glimpse of the glory of
God,  that he was  ever after a happy enthusiast, and the joy he
retained  from this splendid spectacle was so very great and
unspeakable in his heart, as to  surpass all kind  of descrip-
tion.
  "In coming to  myself," he said, " I first  began to hear again
corporally something of what they were praying in the same room
with  me.   Thus  was my hearing the first of all the senses  I
recovered again.  After this  I began to have a perception of my
eyes, so that by little and little my whole body became gradually
strong and sprightly.  And no sooner did  I get a feeling of my
legs  and feet  again, but  I  rose  and stood upon them  with  a
strength and firmness I never had enjoyed before,  through the
whole course of my life.   The heavenly joy invigorated me  to
such a degree,  that the people were  greatly terrified at it, seeing
that, in so rapid and almost instantaneous a manner, I had recov-
ered my strength again to such great advantage."
  Arnold remarks upon this case,  " that the pretended death was
of an exceedingly short duration ; for  Engelbrecht  himself tells
us that  the whole process was but of a moment's continuance,
that  it was  much about twelve d'clock at midnight, when his 
ECSTASY, MAGNETISM, SOMNAMBULISM.       191
bodily hearing failed and left him, and that when the watchman
cried twelve o'clock, the ecstatic rapture had fully passed upon
him.   After this  he  had  for several years frequent visions  and
revelations."*
  Ecstasy, being a phenomenon of over-excitement of the nervous
system, was likely  to occur at all  periods when the minds of peo-
ple were agitated  by fanaticism, and by religious opinions which
involved either great fears' or great hopes.  From this it is  also
evident that it would be more general in times of ignorance than
when an advancing civilization had enabled the reason to control
the imagination.
  It is, however, most important to distinguish between what we
shall  term physiological ecstasy and morbid ecstasy.  In other
words, we  consider that ecstasy may have no influence over the
reason, and  may only consist in enthusiasm carried to the highest
degree ; while, on the other hand, it may give rise to extravagant,
reprehensible, and unreasonable acts.  Let us add, that it is often
extremely difficult to  define the precise boundaries between the
two, which is no more than may be said of many other conditions
of our existence.
  This division enables  us to arrange in one class prophets,  saints,
philosophers, and  many celebrated persons whose ecstasies have
resulted  from profound meditation, from a sudden enlightenment
of their thoughts,  or from  a supernatural  intuition ; while  in the
other class may be ranged the pythoness of antiquity, the celebra-
ted sects of the Middle Ages, the nuns of Loudun, the  Convulsion-
ists, the Illuminati, and many other religious enthusiasts.  Madame
Guyon, whose opinions have created so much noise in the  world,
says herself that, in her most exalted condition, she saw God and
his angels.
  It would seem probable  that the ecstatic state would only have

   * See Arnold:  Observations on the Nature, Kinds,  Causes, and Preven-
tion of Insanity, vol i. p.  295.  London :  1806. 
192                   HALLUCINATIONS.
   been manifested in those whose imagination had had time to devel-
   ope itself.  Nevertheless, we read in the Theatre sacre des Ce-
   vennes (p. 20), that children of the age of eight or six years,  or
   even younger, fell into a state of ecstasy, and were able to preach
   and prophesy like other ecstatics.
     In 1506, the greater nnmber of the children brought up in the
   hospital at Amsterdam—girls as well as boys, to  the  number  of
   sixty or seventy—were  attacked by an  extraordinary  disease;
   they climbed over the walls  and upon the tiles like cats.  Their
   appearance was frightful; they  spoke in foreign  languages, they
   uttered the most  astonishing things,  and even revealed what was
   passing at  the time  in the municipal council.   One  of  these
   children announced  to a certain Catherine Gerardi, one of the
   superintendents of  the  hospital, that  her  son,  Jean  Nicolai,
   purposed  leaving for  the Hague, where  he would come  to  no
   good.   This woman went to the side of the Basilicon, where she
   arrived just as the council had broken up, and found her son.   It
   seems  that Nicolai was  himself  a member of the council.  His
   mother asked him if  it were true that he intended leaving for the
   Hague.  Much disturbed at the question, he admitted  that it was
*  so;  but when he  learned that if was  one of the children  who had
   revealed his intention,  he returned, and informed the consuls of it,
   who, finding that the project was discovered, entreated the party
   to abandon it.
     These children escaped  in parties of ten or twelve, and ran
   about in the public places.   They went  to the Provost, to  whom
   they <revealed the most secret portions  of his  conduct.  We are
   even assured that they discovered several  plots which had been
   formed against the Protestants. *
     These phenomena were probably  due to an exalted condition
   of the mind, fostered  by persecutions and by the  spirit of  imita-
Van Dale :  De Idololatria, pref. pp. 18 et 19. 
ECSTASY, MAGNETISM, SOMNAMBULISM.        193
tion.   This condition  did not produce  any development of the
intellect different from what was  observed in the  preaching  dis-
ease in Sweden, which we shall notice hereafter, and in which the
persons merely stated things they had heard and known previously,
but which were rendered more vivid by the cerebral excitement.
  Ecstasy may show itself under  various conditions, of which one
of the most remarkable is that of catalepsy.
  The majority of the  cataleptic, when the fit has passed, speak
of the indescribable joys they have experienced, of the  frightful
phantoms they have seen, or of the heavenly visions and the angelic
intercourse  which they have witnessed.   Many remarkable obser-
vations of this kind may be met with in medical writers.
  Example 75.   A woman, aged twenty-four, of  low origin  and
without education, occasionally went to church, listening with the
greatest  attention to the  sacred  word ;  this  led her to a true
repentance  and to a horror and hatred of sin.   One day, when
she was listening to the preacher, she became  suddenly deprived
of motion and sensation.   When the  service terminated, she  was
found fixed as a statue, perfectly insensible, her  eyes open  and
directed towards heaven.  At the end of an  hour she recovered
herself.   To those who questioned her, she stated  that she  had
been unconscious of all external objects, that she had not felt  ill,
and  compared her  condition  to that of deep sleep.   She  had
beheld her Savior, and had experienced the most delightful sensa-
tions.  This condition recurred as many as a hundred times in the
space of forty days—sometimes  slighter and  shorter,  sometimes
longer and more profound;  but in all the attacks she was insensi-
ble to the action of the strongest ammonia applied to the eyes or
nostrils ; frictions with it were not noticed, and even punctures of
the skin had no effect on her.
  During the attack, the pulse, the  respiration, the warmth  and
color of the body, remained in its  usual state.   Almost as soon as
the attack had terminated, she could return to  her usual occupa- 
194                   HALLUCINATIONS.
tion ; all  the functions of the body were regularly and properly
performed.  For nearly fourteen days she abstained from eating
and  drinking.  What is  remarkable,  the paroxysms  generally
came on after she had listened to the singing of psalms  or to the
reading of the scriptures, when she would express an ardent love
for Christ.  This affection, which had resisted all means of treat-
ment, was cured by change of air and exercise. *
   Ecstasy is often complicated with hysteria.  It  has long been
remarked that histerical women have visions and hallucinations in
the same manner as the ecstatic.
   The following  narrative from  Dr. Sanderet,  professor in the
School of Medicine at Besancon, shows the  connection between
these  conditions of the nervous system :
   Example 76.  In the village of Voray (Haute Soane), seven
or eight miles from Besancon, resided a  young girl, Alexandrine
Lanois, aged seventeen.   Her countenance  possessed no  charac-
teristic  expression ; her manners were  simple, quiet, and good,
and until the following events took place, she had never attracted
any particular  attention.   Her  parents were poor people; she
worked for her living, and assisted her mother in the management
of the house.   In a word, according  to the expression  of the
priest, she was a person of the greatest obscurity.
   In the month of February,  1850, this young girl had a pleurisy
on the left side.  After being well for about a month she had a
relapse, and was again under medical treatment; this was followed
by an attack of intermittent fever, assuming at first a quotidian
and then  a tertian form.   At the end  of fifteen days this  was
cured by the use of sulphate  of quinine.
   Nothing more was heard of this illness, when, in the beginning
of the June following, she had an affection of the nerves,  accom-
panied by  hysterical  fits, which occurred twenty  or thirty times

  * Frederici Hoffmanni:  Opera Medeca, t.  iii. sect. i. cap. iv. p. 50. 
ECSTASY, MAGNETISM, SOMNAMBULISM.       195
during the day, lasting, however, for  only  a few minutes.   At
these times the girl became quite unconscious, and it  required
several persons to control her movements.   This state only lasted
for a few days, and disappeared under the use of antispasmodics.
   At the end of July, the states of ecstasy  commenced.   Every
attack was periodical;  she slept for twelve, and then remained
awake for twenty-four hours.  All the precautions recommended
by the medical men, such as employment, dancing, occupying the
mind, rest, muscular exertion, were utterly useless; the  fit  came
and went at  the appointed moment.   She  would announce the
approach of the attack,  saying, " I am going," and, when restored
to herself, declare she had been in paradise.  Now, also, she
began to  recite prayers, to sing psalms and hymns, but nothing
further.
   At the  end of twelve days these visions terminated under the
use of cold baths.
   The preceding account was  given me by M. Jennin, who had
attended upon Alexandrine Lanois from  the commencement of
her illness.
   Six weeks afterwards, in the month of October,  the attacks
reappeared, but the course of the phenomena was reversed.   The
attack now lasted for twenty-four hours, and the waking  state for
only twelve.   It was at this time, when I happened to be passing
through the village, that I was requested by a pious woman to see
this miraculous girl.   It was about four o'clock in the afternoon,
and  I was told I  must  be quick, if I wished  to see her in her
waking state, for the attack would commence at four.   I  found
her in a small, badly-lighted room, which was  filled with people,
who were there out of curiosity; they told me she was going off.
I looked at my watch, and it was exactly two minutes past four.
   She was laid on her bed, her countenance perfectly composed,
her eyes closed, but the  lids in perpetual motion ;  her limbs were
supple, and fell back gently and involuntarily,  when lifted up. 
196
HALLUCINATIONS.
The respiration was regular and even; the pulse was quick. Her
hands were nearly joined across her chest.   After a few minutes,
she rubbed  them gently together.   Her mother observed to me
that she was about to sing, and, in fact, she had commenced a song
in a clear, thrilling  voice, without any effort, but in a voice unlike
her own.   Although  her  song consisted of country ballads, yet,
from the manner in  which she sang, it was not unmusical.   When
I raised the eye-lid,  the  eye  was rapidly affected  by the light;
repeated trials produced an accumulation of fluid at the external
corner of the left eye.   I pinched her hard, but she felt nothing ;
I even  ran  a  pin into her hand, but with the same result; her
insensibility was complete.
  Presently, she endeavored to remove the coverings at the foot
of the  bed.   " She is about to rise," said her mother;  and, with
surprising ease and  grace, she raised herself without the assistance
of her hands.   At  first she sat down, and then, without dissar-
ranging a single fold  of her white petticoat, stood  up  in  a kind
of recess formed by the curtains; her head was slightly inclined
forwards, and  to the right, her arms hung down, with the palms
of the  hands directed forwards and at some distance  from the
sides of her body;  the left leg was slightly bent, and the hips
were somewhat inclined.
  In this state she formed a  most  natural representation of an
image  of the  Immaculate Conception, which is very common in
this part of the country, and  is of a classical design.   Alexan-
drine then said some prayers;  but,  unlike the singing, her words
were rapid and confused, so that I could not understand what she
said.
  I several  times raised the arms at right angles  to the body;
they descended gently and with a more even and  continuous mo-
tion than if  they had been guided by the will.   I  endeavored to
place the arms close to the body, and to alter the direction of the
hands,  but they always resumed the position they have  in the 
ECSTASY, MAGNETISM, SOMNAMBULISM.        197
statue.  At length she folded her arms across her, laid herself on
bed, and became  motionless,  again, after  a  time, to repeat the
scene I  have just described.
  The invalid seemed fatigued by my experiments;  her forehead
was covered with  perspiration, and  her mother was  surprised, as
by something which was  unusual, at the expression of suffering
depicted on her countenance.  In this way I passed an  hour in
examination of Alexandrine.
  The mother, who seemed not to have the slightest idea of its
being anything like a miracle, and requiring the assistance of her
daughter, who was the eldest of seven children, begged of me
to endeavor  to cure  her.  But  the patient having stated some
days previously that her attacks would cease on the Saturday, and
it was now Thursday, I refused to interfere, promising  my as-
sistance in case the attacks should continue beyond the appointed
time.
  On Sunday I returned to Voray, led there, as may readily be
supposed, by curiosity.   The ecstasies had terminated; Alexan-
drine was awake.  She told  me, without stating the precise  period,
that her attacks would not return for some time.   I questioned
her concerning her journeys to heaven, and asked her  what she
saw.  She had seen God, who, she said, was all white, angels, &c;
and that heaven was composed  of gold and silver.  This did lit-
tle  credit  to her  imagination.  And, in fact, the girl,  when she
was awake, seemed to me to be of a simple, gentle, and timid dis-
position ;  her ideas were limited,  and, therefore,  without  artifice.
  I promised to do all I could to cure her, if she was  ill again.
She accepted my offer like  a person  who would rejoice at my suc-
cess, and said she would give me  notice of its coming on.
  Thursday, December 26th, the medical man at Voray wrote to
me, saying,  " Our young ecstatic  desires me to let you know that
her attacks will recommence on Monday;  a voice came and an-
nounced this to her."  I afterwards learned, from two trust-worthy 
198
HALLUCINATIONS.
persons, that on Monday, the 30th, at eight o'clock in the morn-
ing,  Alexandrine had recommenced her fictitious journeys.
   An  occurrence, more extraordinary than all the rest, at this
time, renewed  and increased the general belief  that the whole
affair was a miracle.  The only interest which we attach to it is
its announcement of the precise time of  the attack.
   One day in  the  week, Alexandrine,  sorrowful and  deep  in
thought,  went,  for the purpose of diverting her  mind, to one of
her companions, who resided near the parsonage  house.   As she
was  walking along, with her eyes cast  down, she beheld before
her a lady, clothed in white ;  die took her, at first, for an inhabi-
tant of this world, but, upon raising her eyes, she perceived it
was  the  Virgin,  recognizing her by the crown upon her brow.
The Virgin spoke to her for a long time, informed her of the re-
turn of her attacks, and that they would last longer than the pre-
vious ones.  She then gradually disappeared, letting a chaplet fall
at her  feet.
  Alexandrine, weeping, entered  the parsonage  house, and re-
lated, in broken sentences, her miraculous adventure, in confirma-
tion  of which the  chaplet was  found before the door; it was a
chaplet worth  about two sous.   Thus the phenomena have  pro-
ceeded, gradually becoming more complicated from the commence-
ment, and containing more and more of  the marvelous, up to the
last  circumstance,  of which the reader will readily perceive the
purport and meaning when he  calls to mind the  curiosity which
had  been excited  concerning this young girl, and  which daily in-
creased until it  passed beyond all reasonable bounds.
  On the 5th of January, Dr. Druhen accompanied me to Voray.  **
He found the facts of the case just as I had related them to  him,
but, in order to satisfy himself of  certain phenomena, he repeated
my tests,  and also added some of his own.  For instance, he  sud-
denly placed a bottle of strong ammonia under  the nose, but
without the least  effect.   He also magnetized the patient, and 
ECSTASY,  MAGNETISM, SOMNAMBULISM.       199
questioned her, but  in vain.   The pulse was 112, and the respi-
ration 22.  The attacks were  periodical, lasting thirty-six hours,
as the  white lady had  foretold;  the  waking  periods  were of
twenty-four hours' duration.   While  they lasted—and it was the
same with  the  first  attacks—nothing passed from her.   At the
time of our visit, when the attack was drawing to a close, the
bladder was empty.  In  the intervals she enjoys ordinary health,
eating and drinking, and performing all the functions of the body
the same as  other persons.   (Annates  Medico-psychologiques,
Avril, 1811.)
   The periodicity of the  attacks induced me to prescribe the sul-
phate of quinine.  This was afterwards administered in large doses
by the medical man at Voray, but without any beneficial  result.
  Wc saw this Ecstatic of the Vosges along with M.  Duchenne,
of Boulogne,  MM. Bouchet. and Brown-Sequard.   The two last
proved her insensibility, and, therefore, her diseased condition, by
means of a strong discharge of electricity.   She presented  to us
the same peculiarities of prevision with regard to the  occurrence
of her attacks and of the hallucinations.  We have heard  her, in
these ecstatic states,  converse  with the  Virgin and  with angels,
as if they were present.   The harmonious tone of her voice, the
expression of her features, the air of beatitude which  was spread
over her  countenance, "had something  in it extremely attractive.
Whether she expressed herself in prose or verse, the subjects of her
discourse were always of a religious character. She states that she
has often been entranced  with  the sight of heaven,  and  that, in her
ecstatic  condition, she has frequently  seen  her  father  and her
brother,  both of whom have  been dead for  some  years.   This
young girl, only twenty years  of age, and of a pleasing figure, has
something about her that prepossesses you in her favor;  we greatly
regret that the proposal we made of receiving both herself and her
mother  into  our establishment  was not accepted, for truth and
science could hardly have failed to have been gainers by  it. 
200
HALLUCINATIONS.
   The ecstasy of mysticism is principally observed in persons of
an ardent temperament who are given to fasting and prayer, who
have  accustomed themselves to long watchings, or to an ascetic
and contemplative mode of life.  Persons carrying such practices
to the extreme, may, to a certain extent, produce in themselves a
state  of ecstasy.
  Example 77.   Jeanne des Rochers, a young  woman belong-
ing to the court of Louis XIV., having withdrawn into  solitude
in order to arrive at perfection by practicing privations of every
kind,  has related, in a work of three volumes, the history of her
long  martyrdom.  "I only ate," she says, "once in the day, and
I only  slept four hours.  ...  I heard at the  foot of my cross,
what  it pleased my Savior to communicate to me.  My spiritual
works—prayers, ejaculations, &c.—sometimes lasted for two days,
and at  those times I neither ate  nor  drank.  ....  Then  the
devil  would torment me in every possible  manner, and cause me
to behold the most horrible spectres.   For months I never closed
my eyes.....  I was killing myself that I might raise my soul
to God. .  . . For fifteen days  I have walked in the forest, like a
lunatic, without saying a prayer.
  " On Palm Sunday, while chastising  myself, I saw the form  of
a most hideous man, who seemed to do the same;  with every
blow  he gave himself, he uttered a frightful  cry, and  said  each
time :  That is for such a sin.
  "At times I experienced feelings of great rapture, but more
frequently I felt that I was tempted by the devil."
  One of the most extraordinary cases  of ecstasy is that which
has been  related by several writers  worthy of  credit—MM. the
Professors Garres, Leon Bore, Edmond Cazales, Cerises, &c.—and
which is known under the name of the Ecstatic  of the Tyrol*

  * Les Stigmatisees du Tyrol, au VExtatique de Kaldern, et la Patiente de
Capriana; relations traduites de l'ltalien, de I'Allemand, et de PAnglais,
par M. Leon Bore.  Paris : 1843. 
ECSTASY,  MAGNETISM, SOMNAMBULISM.        201
   Example 78.   Marie de Marl was born on the 16th of Octo-
 ber, 1812, of a noble  but poor  family.   In her infancy she had
 several severe  attacks of illness.  When she was twenty years of
 age, in 1832, her confessor noticed  that occasionally she did  not
 reply to his questions, and that she seemed like a person who was
 lost.   Those who  attended  upon the young girl  informed him
 that this took  place whenever she received the communion.   He
 promised to watch  her carefully.   On the day of the Fete-Dieu
 he carried the  Host to her early in the morning.  At that mo-
 ment she  fell into  a state of ecstatic delight.  The next day, he
 visited her at three o'clock in the  afternoon, when he found  her
 on her knees, and  in the same  attitude in which he had left  her
 six-and-thirty hours before.  The persons present, who were ac-
 customed to the sight, declared  that she had never changed  her
 position.   He  undertook to remove this state of things, for fear
 it should become habitual with her.  For this purpose he reminded
 her of the virtue of obedience,  and to which she had  bound her-
 self when  she  entered the third order of Saint Francois.  The
 ecstasies were repeated, with phenomena more or less extraordi-
 nary, until the latter half of the year 1833. At that time, crowds
 of curious people,  attracted by her fame, came to visit the  ec-
 static.  It is said that  forty thousand persons went to Kaldern
 between the months of  July and September.  Marie remained the
 whole time in a state of ecstasy.  These visits were interdicted by
 the authorities. The Prince-bishop of Trente, wishing to ascertain
 the truth of the matter for the information of the government, visited
 these parts.  He pronounced that Marie's condition would not in
 itself constitute a  state of holiness; but  that her piety, which
 was well known, was not a state  of disease.   After this  pru-
 dent declaration, the police removed its  interdict.  In the autumn
 of the same year, her  confessor perceived in the middle  of her
hands, where at a later period  the marks of the  crucifixion  ap-
peared, indentations as if they  had been  hollowed out by the
         14 
202
HALLUCINATIONS.
pressure of some  projecting body.   At  the  same time the part
became painful, and was  frequently attacked  with cramps.   On
February the 2d, 1834, at the fete of the  Purification, he saw her
wipe  the  middle of her hands  with a piece of linen, frightened
like a child  at  the blood she noticed.  Similar marks soon after-
wards showed themselves on her feet, and another near her heart.
They were nearly circular, but  extended a little in  the  length of
the hand; they were  three or four lines in diameter,  and passed
through to the opposite sides of the hands and feet.   On a Tues-
day night, and on the Wednesdays, these spots discharged a drop
of clear blood.  On  other nights they were covered  with a drop
of dried blood.   Marie preserved the most profound  silence con-
cerning these marvelous events ;  but in 1834, the day of the Visi-
tation,  the ecstasy came on during a procession, and took place
before  several witnesses;  twice  she was  seen in a  state of the
greatest joy, resembling a glorified angel, scarcely touching her
bed with the ends of her feet, the color mounting to her cheeks,
and her arms crossed, so that every one saw the marks  upon her
hands.  From that time,  this wonderful  circumstance  could  no
longer be kept a secret.
  " The first time that I visited her," says Professor  Garres, " I
found her in the position she occupies the greater part of the
day;  she was on her knees at the foot of her  bed, and in a state
of ecstasy ;  her  hands, crossed  upon her bosom, exhibited  the
marks;  her  countenance was directed slightly upwards towards
the church, and her eyes, which  were raised  to heaven, expressed
the most complete abstraction, from which nothing around could
disturb  her.  For hours together, I could not observe that she
made the slightest movement,  except that produced  by a very
gentle respiration, or by a slight degree of oscillation  ; and I can
only compare her attitude  to that in which we  see the angels rep-
resented before the throne of God, absorbed in the contemplation
of His glory.  It is hardly to be wondered at  that this  spectacle 
ECSTASY,  MAGNETISM, SOMNAMBULISM.       203
 should have produced  the  strongest impression on all who wit-
 nessed it.   According  to  the statement of the priest and  her
 spiritual advisers, she had been continually in a state of  ecstasy
 for the last  four years.  . .  .  The crucifixion generally forms the
 subject of the meditations of the  ecstatic of  Kaldern,  and pro-
 duces the most profound impression  upon her.  The contempla-
 tion of this mystery recurs every Wednesday in the year, and
 therefore affords numerous  opportunities for  witnessing its mar-
 velous effects. .  . .  The proceedings commence on the Wednes-
 day morning.   If we follow them  in their order, we see that, as
 certain persons utter their thoughts aloud,  without being  aware
 of the words they pronounce, so Marie de  Marl, meditating  on
 the Passion, acts it without being conscious of what she is doing.
 At first, the movement with which she is affected is gentle and
 regular, but by degrees, as the scene becomes more sorrowful and
 affecting, her representation is  more solemn  and more definite.
 At length, when the hour of death  approaches, and the agony has
 entered into her  soul, her  countenance  becomes the image  of
 death itself.   There she rests upon the bed, on bended knees, her
 hands  crossed upon her breast, while a  solemn stillness reigns
 around, scarcely broken by the breathing of the attendants.  How-
 ever pale she may have  been during this  sorrowful tragedy, you
 see her become  successively paler  and paler;  the chills of death
 pass more  frequently through her body, and the  life, which is
 passing away, momentarily becomes more feeble.
   " She can scarcely breathe, and her oppression increases.   Her
 eyes become more and more fixed and vacant; large tears descend
 slowly over her cheeks.  The parts  about the  mouth  become
 spasmodically contracted; at length the whole  face is  similarly
 affected; while from time to time the spasms increase in violence,
until the wliole  body is convulsed by them.   The respiration,
already so difficult, now consists of short and painful gasps; the
countenance assumes a darker hue ; the tongue becomes swollen, 
204
HALLUCINATIONS.
and seems to cleave to the parched  surface of the palate; the
convulsions, already increased in strength and frequency, are now
incessant.  The hands, always crossed,  at first sink slowly  and
feebly down,  and then more quickly;  the  nails assume a dark
blue  tint, and the fingers are convulsively intertwined.   Soon  a
rattling is heard in the throat.  The breathing is still more  op-
pressed, and  is accompanied by convulsive heavings of the chest.
The latter seems as though it was encircled  with bands of iron,
while the features  become so disfigured that they cannot be re-
cognized.  The  mouth remains wide  open;  the  nose is nipped
and pointed  ; the eyes, constantly fixed, are ready to start from
their sockets.  At  long intervals a few gasps pass through the
stiffening form, and you are told that the last breath has passed
away.  The  head then drops forwards, bearing, all the signs of
actual death; the body sinks down, completely exhausted: it be-
comes another figure, sunken, drooping, and scarcely to be known.
Matters  remain in this state for about a minute or a minute  and
a half.  At  the  end  of this time the head  is raised;  the hands
are again placed upon the breast; the countenance resumes its
usual appearance and tranquil expression. Marie is on her knees,
her eyes directed to heaven, and she is engaged  in giving thanks
to God.   This scene is renewed every week, its general features
always the same, but more  strongly  marked during  the Holy
Week;  it  also  offers  peculiarities which vary with the internal
feelings of the ecstatic.  I have  satisfied myself of the genuine
nature of all  this by careful  and repeated observation;  there is
nothing studied, nothing false or  exaggerated in  the  whole of
this  marvelous representation; and if Marie  de  Marl died in
reality under  similar circumstances, she would have no other ap-
pearance than what she possesses in her ecstasy.
  " However much  the ecstatic  may be absorbed in her contem-
plations,  a single word from her confessor, or from any other per-
son in spiritual communion with her,  suffices to  recall her to her 
ECSTASY,  MAGNETISM, SOMNAMBULISM.       205
ordinary state of life,  without her having to pass through any
intermediate condition.   In a moment  she will  recover herself,
open her eyes, and appear as though she had never known a state
of ecstasy.   Her expression becomes quite changed;  she is per-
fectly natural, and you would say she had preserved the simplicity
and ingenuousness  of childhood.   The first thing that  she does
when she recovers her senses and finds there are strangers present,
is to conceal her hands beneath the bed-clothes, like a child who
has spotted her cuffs with ink, and sees her mother approaching.
Then, accustomed as she is to this concourse of people, she  looks
around her, and bestows on each a friendly salutation.  When the
emotion caused by  the  scene that has  passed is  evident on the
faces of her attendants, she is not at ease ; if they approach her
with an air  of  reverence and solemnity, she  endeavors to banish
these  feelings  by her familiar and happy manner.   As she has
been silent for a long time, she  endeavors to make them under-
stand her by signs ;  and when that does not succeed, like  an infant
who knows not  how to speak, she looks towards her confessor, and
with her eyes entreats him to  speak for her.
  " Her dark eyes express the happiness and innocence  of child-
hood.   Her look is  so open, that you feel you can  read her inmost
thoughts, and you are satisfied that there is not a particle of fraud
or deceit in her nature.   There is no appearance either of melan-
choly or  exaltation,  no morbid  sentimentality, and still less  of
hypocrisy or pride.   Her whole aspect  expresses the happiness
and serenity of youth  and innocence.  When in the society of her
friends,  once she has come to herself, she can continue so for some
time ; but one  perceives that it is only  by a strong effort of the
will, for the state of ecstasy has become to  her a second nature,
and the life  of the rest of mankind is to her what  is artificial and
unusual.
  " In the midst of a conversation, even  when she  seems interested
in it,  her eyes will suddenly become  fixed, and in an instant, 
206                    HALLUCINATIONS.
without  any transition, she  relapses into  a state of ecstasy.
During my  stay at Kaldern, she had been asked to be godmother
to an infant who was baptized in her room.   She took it  in  her
arms, and manifested the greatest interest in the whole ceremony;
but, even in that space  of time, she several times relapsed into
the ecstatic condition, and it was necessary to recall her to what
was actually going on.
   " These contemplations and religious exercises do not raise  her
above  her domestic duties.   From her bed she directs the man-
agement of the establishment, which she formerly shared with a
sister,  who is since dead.  A pension which  was given her. by
some charitable people she devotes to the education of her brothers
and sisters.  Every day, at two  o'clock, her confessor recalls  her
to the ordinary life, that she may  attend to  the  affairs  of  her
house.   They  confer  together  on  any  difficulties which may
arise ;  she thinks of everything, anticipates the wants of those in
whom she is interested, and  with  the large amount of common
sense which  she possesses, arranges everything in the most perfect
manner."
   The ecstatic condition is not uncommon amongst the insane ;
but, to avoid being deceived, it is necessary to ascertain that  the
patient is not acting in obedience to some superior power,  which
directs him  to remain motionless or to assume a particular posi-
tion.   It may  show itself in the  maniac and in the monomaniac.
   Leuret has related the case of a lunatic subject to hallucinations,
who also passed into states  of ecstasy, and  who at those times
saw God.   She would kneel before the sun, and  then felt  an in-
ternal  elevation and a  sensation of extreme delight.  God had
spoken to her.   She  not only saw Him  when she contemplated
the sun, but also in the dormitory and in the promenade.   To do
this it was sufficient for her to pray.  She saw Him also  in  her
sleep during the night,  and before she slept.   God was good and
amiable ; He would  smile upon  her; He was  clothed, and had 
ECSTASY,  MAGNETISM,  SOMNAMBULISM.       207
light hair.   In speaking of the sensation which she experienced,
she said, " That  the taste of bread and water, and this state  of
elevation, were the greatest pleasures which could be enjoyed, and
that if the world  only knew it, it would desire nothing else."*
   The state of ecstasy may arise whenever there is a high degree
of moral exaltation; it did not terminate with the ages of igno-
rance, although these were favorable to its production.  We have
seen it prolonged throughout the  eighteenth century,  and it still
daily  presents itself to our notice.   A short account of the religious
epidemic ecstasy which has been observed in Sweden, with which
we shall terminate this sketch, will prove the correctness of these
statements.
   Between the years 1841 and 1842,  there occurred, in the rural
districts and central parts of Sweden, a disease which was charac-
terized by two remarkable and prominent symptoms—one physical,
consisting of spasmodic  attacks, involuntary contractions,  distor-
tions, &c. ; the other psychical,  indicated by a state of  ecstasy
more  or less  involuntary, during which the invalid imagined  he
saw or heard things of a divine or supernatural character.  During
their  ecstasies,  these  invalids  were  possessed by an  irresistibre
desire to talk, and by a  constant mania for preaching the word of
God—hence named the preaching disease.  They saw visions,
and  pretended  to prophesy.   The  persons  often spoke of the
visions they had had of heaven and  hell, of  angels, &c.  They
 predicted the end of the world, the last judgment, and  the day of
 their  own death, always  pretending  that their predictions were
 divine prophecies.   In the same way the Convulsionists  of  St.
 Medard predicted the end of the world, and fixed the  exact date
 of its occurrence ; and their  predictions, like those of the  Swedes
 and Millenarians, were  never fulfilled.
   When the  paroxysms terminated,  these ecstatics seemed as if
* Leuret:  Fragmens Psychologiques sur la Folie, p. 344. 
208
HALLUCINATIONS.
they  had emerged from a dream; they  declared  they had seen
visions, and began to prophesy;  they had  seen the abode  of the
damned and witnessed the happiness of the elect in  the presence
of God.   This state  might  be complicated  with  mania,  melan-
cholia, and dementia.  The disease  commonly attacked  young
persons,  of from sixteen to thirty years of age, often  also children
of from six to sixteen years of age, and occasionally aged people.
   The majority of the persons attacked belonged to the body of
the people.   The disease spread  by a kind of mental contagion or
by  imitation.   In one  year  several  thousand  persons  were
attacked by this  epidemic.
   No increase in the intellectual powers was noticed in these
cases, or, if it did occur, it was the exception.   The majority of
the discourses and sermons were miserable  productions, made up
of  the same phrases  and  absurdities,  repeated  over  and over
again, but delivered in an authoritative tone of voice.   We would
especially call attention to this point,  because the ecstatic condi-
tion is often accompanied by an elevation of the  thoughts which
endows even ordinary  minds with a oertain degree of eloquence.
  The state  of ecstasy frequently  occurs  among the  primitive
races  of the earth, where the religious feeling is largely developed.
The Hindoo is often seen to fall voluntarily into the  ecstatic con-
dition.  The inhabitants of North and South America are ren-
dered ecstatic  by their traditions, and  while in  this state they
believe they are in communication with spirits.
  The phenomena  of ecstasy  are shown  in a very  remarkable
manner in the  Kamtschatgans,  the  Yakoulis, and  many other
northern nations, amongst whom the soothsayers sometimes inflict
frightful wounds upon  themselves,  and apparently without suffering
any pain.
  The state of ecstasy also  occurs amongst the  inhabitants of
Otaheite, the Sandwich Islands, and Polynesia.   Mariner, in his
Voyage to Tonga- Taboo,  relates that the son of King  Finow 
ECSTASY,  MAGNETISM, SOMNAMBULISM        209
often told him that he was inspired by the spirit of Toogoo-Aboo,
the last king of the Tonga Islands;  that at those  times he was
not conscious  of his own personal existence, and that his body
seemed animated by  a soul  which was not his own.  Having
asked him concerning  the  nature  of the spirit which possessed
him, and how this  spirit had descended  upon him,  the young
prince replied, "What a  foolish question ?  Can I tell you how
I know it ?   I know it from my  own conviction, and a voice has
warned me of it."

HALLUCINATIONS IN ANIMAL  MAGNETISM  AND  SOMNAMBULISM.

   Many persons have  expressed  their surprise that a medical
inquirer should have introduced into  a scientific work the subjects
of previsions, of clairvoyance, of second-sight, of animal magnetism,
and of somnambulism.  But is it right to reject whatever amount
of truth these subjects may contain,  because fanaticism  and  cre-
dulity have brought them into discredit ?
   It is impossible to deny that a most extraordinary  condition of
the nervous system is produced by separating the individual from
the influences of the senses, by completely isolating him  from the
external world, while at the same time he remains under the influ-
ence of the operator who has produced these surprising effects.
But, however curious the  phenomena of magnetism may be, they
are surpassed by those of somnambulism, in which the individual,
at the command of his master, reveals his  most secret thoughts,
and sometimes even the nature of his  disease.  Animal magnetism
is practiced by the indigenous races of North and South America ;
it was known to the ancients; and in the sixteenth century, Van
Helmont and Maxwell  described  its leading principles.   Its
modern form has been revealed by the Illuminati, for Swedenborg
wrote in 1763, " Man may fill himself with celestial light, even in
this world, if the senses are shrouded in a lethargic sleep." 
210
HALLUCINATIONS.
   But although facts have been recorded by medical men of high
authority, and although similar facts were recognized by the an-
cients, which place beyond a doubt the existence of an artificially
superinduced state of magnetism and somnambulism, it must also
be remembered that there are a large number of persons  who en-
tirely resist the influence of the  operator.   At the same time we
are bound to admit  that we have never seen a case of complete
lucidity, or of transposition  of the senses, where vision has taken
place through opaque bodies, or at a distance.
   Having made these reservations, we have  no hesitation in say-
ing that observation  proves that the nervous system is the source
of extraordinary phenomena; and although  some of these may be
explained as resulting from the power of the imagination, this
will  not, in all instances, remove  the difficulties which  surround
the problem.
   There  is, in fact, in our organization,  an unknown force which
is capable of producing the most astonishing results; it is the in-
fluence, or rather the  power, of one will over another.  It is  exer-
cised, not only by words, gestures, and looks,  but also by touch.
A pressure, a contact of the hands, will often produce in nervous
affections a marked improvement,  an instantaneous change.   It is
evident that this kind of remedy depends upon the degree of sen-
sibility in the medical man, and on the impressibility, or rather on
the amount  of sympathy, in the patient.    Here, then,  are no
principles which can be reduced to rule, everything depends on
idiosyncrasy, and a man may be very learned, but if he is ignorant
of this influence, or fails in producing these  effects, he will, in all
probability, not believe in them.
   There  are hundreds of examples which prove this influence  of
the will.   A great actor wills that his audience should weep, and
his acting so corresponds to the thought that they  cannot refrain
from tears.  An orator who excites his listeners with  some noble
sentiment, expresses himself in such an irresistible manner, that 
ECSTASY, MAGNETISM, SOMNAMBULISM.       211
those who listen to him are ready to sacrifice themselves on the
spot.   History has preserved the account of the  celebrated St.
Bernard, who, although he preached the Crusades to the Germans
in a language they  did not understand, yet persuaded thousands
by the expression of his features and the intonations of his voice.
   The power which man has over man has been recognized by
many celebrated and learned men.  Humboldt observes that the
nervous fluid can extend its influence  around the  individual, in
the same way as the electric fluid does around an electrified body,
although the two agents are totally distinct.   Cuvier did not
hesitate to  admit a certain sympathy between the nervous systems
of two individuals.  In seeking for the imaginary cause of animal
magnetism, says Arago, there has been shown the actual power
which man  has  over his fellow man without the  intervention of
any visible or known physical agent.
   We have, then, in the nervous system a power which may serve
us as a guide in the study of a class of phenomena which seem to
stand apart from the recognized course of nature ; when, therefore,
any of these  phenomena  have  been carefully  observed   and
recorded, although contrary  to the generally  received scientific
doctrines, they are not to be rejected with contempt, but we should
patiently await the effects of time and an increase  of knowledge
in removing the obscurity which still surrounds the greater portion
of the special properties of the nervous system.   Thus, while fully
admitting the power of the  imagination, we believe that  both
magnetism and  somnambulism  contain truths  from  which psy-
chology and medicine may obtain important results.
   The plan of this work restricts our examination of these  two
conditions to the connections which exist between them and hallu-
cinations ; we shall commence with the subject of prevision, which
is allied to  magnetism and somnambulism by ecstasy, which forms
a common bond between them.
   Prevision, which has been  attacked  and defended  with equal 
212
HALLUCINATIONS.
violence, presents  us  with  many curious  examples, which are
supported by  such reliable testimony,  that mere impartiality
requires that some of them should  be related before forming an
opinion upon the subject.
  One of the best-authenticated instances  of prevision is that
which is related by Josephus.
  Example 79.   Four years before the  war began, when Jerusa-
lem was in very great peace and prosperity, Jeuss, the son of
Auanus, a plebeian and a husbandman, who came to the Feast of
Tabernacles which is  celebrated every year in the  temple to the
honor of God, began on a sudden to cry aloud, " A  voice from the
east, a voice  from  the west, a voice  from the four winds, a  voice
against Jerusalem  and the holy house, a voice against the bride-
grooms and the brides, and a voice against this whole  people !"
This was his cry as he went about by day and by night in all the
lanes of the city.   However, certain of the most eminent among
the populace  had great indignation at this  dire  cry of his, and
took up the man, and  gave him a great number of severe stripes ;
yet did he not either say anything for himself or anything peculiar
to those that  chastised him, but still  he went on with  the  same
words which he cried before.
  Hereupon, our rulers, supposing, as the case proved to be, that
this was a sort of divine fury in the man,  brought him to Albinus,
governor of Judea, where he was whipped till his bones were laid
bare; yet did he not make any supplication for himself, nor  shed
any tears; but turning his voice to the most lamentable tone pos-
sible, at every stroke of the whip his answer  was, " Woe, woe to
Jerusalem!"   And when Albinus asked him who he  was, and
whence he  came, and why  he uttered such words, he made no
manner of reply  to what he said, but still did not leave off his
melancholy ditty, till  Albinus took  him to be a  madman, and
dismissed him.  Now, during all the time that passed before the
war began, this man did not go near any of the citizens, nor was 
ECSTASY, MAGNETISM, SOMNAMBULISM.       213
seen by them while he said so; but he every day  uttered these
lamentable words, as if it were his premeditated vow, "Woe, woe
to Jerusalem."   Nor  did he give ill words to any of those that
beat him every  day, nor good words to those that gave him food.
This was all he said, and his cry was loudest at the festivals.  He
continued this  ditty for seven  years and five months,  without
growing hoarse or being tired therewith, until the very time when
he  saw his presage  in  earnest fulfilled  in our siege,  when it
ceased; for,  as he was going round upon the wall, he cried  out
with his utmost force,  " Woe, woe  to the city again*  and to  the
people, and to  the holy house !"  And just as  he added, at  the
last, " Woe,  woe to myself, also," there came a stone out of  one
of the engines, and smote him, and killed him immediately;  and
as he was uttering the very same presages he gave up the ghost.*
   Saint Gregory  of  Tours, the best historian of the  fifteenth
century, has included  in his writings an  anecdote of an equally
confirmatory  nature.
   Example  80.   On the day  of the death  of Saint Martin, at
Tours  (anno 400), Saint  Ambrose was  informed  of the event
whilst he was  celebrating  the  mass in the  church at Milan.   It
was customary for the reader  to present himself with the book
before the officiating priest, and not to read the lesson until he
had received his orders to do so.  It  happened, however, on the
Sunday of which we  are speaking, that while the person,  whose
duty it was to read the epistle of Saint Paul, was kneeling  before
the  altar, Saint Ambrose,  who was celebrating the mass,  fell
asleep.
   Two or three hours had passed without any one venturing to
disturb him.   At length they  informed him how long the people
had been  waiting.  " Be not disturbed," he said; " it has been a
great happiness to me to sleep, since God has chosen to show me

   * Whiston's Josephus,  Wars of the Jews, book vi., chap. 5, par. 3. 
214                  HALLUCINATIONS.
 a miracle ; for know that Martin, my brother bishop, is about  to
 die.  I have  assisted at his funeral—the  usual service was com-
 pleted, and only  the capitulum remained to be said, when you
 awoke me."
   The  assistants  were  greatly  surprised.   They noted the day
 and the hour, and it was subsequently ascertained that the moment
 of the blessed confessor's departure  exactly corresponded  to the
 time when Bishop Ambrose had assisted at the celebration of his
 funeral*
   Reason and science  would  account for these cases by over-
 excitement of the brain, and by the occurrence of  coincidences;
 but is not this only removing the difficulty ?  In the case  related
 by Saint Gregory, the death of Saint Martin de Tours was known
 to Saint Ambrose the moment it occurred, although he was more
 than two hundred leagues fromthe place of the event.  In speak-
 ing of  the presentiments of dreams,  we have quoted the case of
 Mademoiselle R., whose character  and intelligence were alike
 guarantees of the correctness of the  details  which she gave us ;
 with her, also, the time of her mother's death exactly corresponded
 with her dream.   Our  investigations fail before these powers of
 the intellect; but why should we seek to be wiser, since they are
 matters which relate to its  abnormal  state ?
   Let it not be forgotten that men possessed of the highest in-
 tellects have admitted the existence of prevision, at the same time
 they acknowledge their  ignorance as to the cause.   Bacon has
 observed that we meet with remarkable examples of persons being
forewarned of events in their dreams, in states of  ecstasy, and at
 the time of their death.f   " I cannot give the reason of it," says
Macchiavelli, " but all history, both ancient and modern,  attests
the fact, that no great  misfortune happens either to a town or

    * Grregoire de Tours :   De Miraculis S. Martini, lib. i. chap.  5.
    t Bacon :  De Dignitate 
ECSTASY,  MAGNETISM, SOMNAMBULISM.        215
a province which has not been foretold by some one possessed of
the power of prophecy, or else it has been announced by prodigies
or other  celestial signs.   It is very desirable that the cause of
this  should be  discussed by men  acquainted with  things  both
natural and supernatural, an  advantage we do not ourselves pos-
sess.   Whatever may be the explanation, the thing itself cannot
be questioned."*
  In  support of this opinion of Macchiavelli, I might  quote a
great number of  instances, but I shall content myself with only
mentioning  a few.  It was in the year 1483 that Savonarola felt
within him that secret and prophetic impulse which led him to
become a reformer of the Church, and to preach to Christians the
necessity of repentance, warning them beforehand of the calami-
ties which threatened both the State and the Church.  He  com-
menced in 1484, at Brescia,  with his predictions on the Apoca-
lypse, and told the people that the walls  of their city would one
day be bathed in torrents of blood.   This prediction  was fulfilled
two months after the death of Savonarola, when, in the year 1500,
the French, under the command of the Duke de Nemours,  took
possession of Brescia, and made  a frightful  slaughter of the
inhabitants, f
  "Savonarola,"  says  Philippe  de  Commines,  "had  always
predicted the coming of the king, saying that he would be sent
by God to chastise the tyrants of Italy, and that it would be in
vain that they  attempted to defend themselves  against him;  he
stated that  the  king would come to Pisa, and that when  he
entered, the kingdom of Florence would be destroyed; and  so it
turned out, for on that day Pierre de Medicis was driven away.
Other things that he prophesied  also came true, such as the death    >
of Lorenzo de Medicis.   He also publicly  preached that it had
  * Macchiavelli:  Discours sur Tite-Live, liv. i. 56.
  f Simonde  Sismondi: Hist. Ital. t. xii. p. 67.  Vita di Savonarola, liv.
i. ix. xv. p. 19. 
216
HALLUCINATIONS.
been revealed to him that the dominions of the Church should be
reformed at the point of the sword.   This has not happened as
yet, but it is not far off." *
   The author of a summary of the life of Cattho, archbishop of
Vienna, relates that the latter was the first to announce to Louis
XI. the death of Charles the Bold.   " At the moment," says the
author of the summary, " that the said duke was killed, King
Louis  was  receiving the mass in the church of Saint  Martin, at
Tours, distant at least ten days' journey from Nancy; and the said
mass  was administered to him by the  Almoner  Archbishop of
Vienna, who, in giving the blessing to the  said Seigneur, spoke
to him in these  words :  ' Sir, God grant you  peace and repose ;
you have them if you choose, quia consummatum est, your enemy,
the Duke of Burgundy, is dead ; he is slaughtered, and his army
discomfited.'   The hour was noted, and it was found to correspond
exactly to the time when the said duke  met his death, "f
   Thirteen years before the  Revolution in 1789, Father Beaure-
gard,  a noted predicter, uttered these remarkable  words beneath
the arches  of Notre  Dame:  " Yes, Lord,  thy temples  shall  be
plundered and destroyed, thy  fetes shall be abolished, thy name
blasphemed, thy worship proscribed.   But, what do I hear ? great
God!  what do I see  ?   The holy hymns with which  the sacred
roofs resounded in honor of Thy name, are succeeded by profane
and licentious songs.    And you, infamous goddess of paganism,
abandoned  Venus ! you enter here, and even  usurp the place  of
the living God, seat  thyself on the throne of the  Holiest of the
Holy,  and  receive the  blasphemous idolatry  of  your new wor-
shipers."!

  * Mem. de  Philippe de Commines, lib. viii. ch. iii.  p. 270, et chan. xxvi.
p.  443.                                                 *
  t Biog.  Univ. t. viii.  p. 420.  Ligne, W. S.
  % Biog. Univ. t. iii. p. 421.  Nouv. edit.,  article Beauregard.  Ligne,
T. D. 
ECSTASY, MAGNETISM, SOMNAMBULISM.        217
   The phenomena of second sight, which is largely believed in in
 Scotland and other countries, are closely allied to those of previ-
 sion.   Unquestionably philosophy  and physiology  are agreed in
 rejecting this doctrine ; but the testimony of many persons in its
 favor at least demands that it should be carefully investigated.
   We are far from accepting  all the accounts which have been
 reported of this kind,  and shall only quote the  following, which
 Ferriar,  Hibbert,  and Abercrombie  have each regarded in a
 different light.
   Example  81.   "Agentleman," says Ferriar, "connectedwith
 my family, an officer in the  army, and certainly addicted to no
 superstition,  was  quartered, early in life, in the middle of the last
 century, near the  castle of a gentleman in the north of Scotland,
 who was supposed to possess the second sight.
   " My friend assured me that, one day, while he was reading a
 play to the ladies of the family, the chief,  who had been walking
 across the room, stopped suddenly, and  assumed  the look of a
 Seer.   He rang the bell,  and ordered a groom to saddle a horse,
 to proceed immediately to a seat  in the neighborhood,  and to
 inquire after the health of a lady.   If the account was favorable,
 he then directed him to call at another castle, to ask after another
 lady, whom he named.
   " The reader immediately closed his book, and declared that he
 would not  proceed  till these abrupt orders were explained, as he
 was confident that they were produced by the second sight.  The
 chief was very unwilling  to  explain himself; but  at length he
 owned that the door had appeared to open, and that a little woman
 without a head had  entered the room, that the apparition indicated
the sudden death  of some  person of his acquaintance.
   "A few hours afterwards the servant returned, with an account
that  one of  Jie ladies had died of an apoplectic fit, about the
time when the vision appeared.
   " At another time the chief was  confined to his bed by indispo-
           15 
218
HALLUCINATIONS.
 sition, and my friend was reading to him, in a stormy winter night,
 while  the  fishing-boat  belonging to  the castle was at sea.  The
 old  gentleman repeatedly expressed much anxiety respecting his
 people, and  at last exclaimed,  ' My boat is lost 1'  The colonel
 replied,  ' How do  you  know it,  sir ?'  He was answered,  ' I  see
 two of the boatmen bringing the third drowned, all dripping wet,
 and laying him down close to your chair.'   The chair was  shifted
 with great precipitation.  In the  course of the night the fisher-
 men returned, with the  corpse of one of the boatmen." *
   Ferriar  reasonably  attributes this  vision  to  a  hallucination ;
 according to  Abercrombie, it was the recollection of a dream which
 had been forgotten.  We  consider that  it ought especially to be
 referred  to those  hallucinations which occur in a state of ecstasy.
   It is to hallucinations we must also refer the ecstatic visions of
 the inhabitants of  northern  climates, as  well as the instances of
 second sight which have  been  observed in the Laplanders, the
 Samoides,  the  Osteaks, and the Kamtschatdales.    Hibbert has
 noticed several other curious instances, f
   Every phenomenon which deviates widely from the ordinary
course of events  should be  carefully scrutinized,  and, whenever
there is any doubt as to its authenticity,  should  be rejected;  but
 when it  is guaranteed by  educated and trustworthy persons, who
have taken every precaution against being deceived, skepticism is
no  longer  possible;  the only  difference can be as  regards the
explanation.    Many cases  of prevision are  explained by  the
occurrence  of hallucinations in  a state of ecstasy; others, how-
ever, belong to another order of  things, such, for instance, as those
related in the history of Joseph.  They are then developed under
circumstances of  which we are  ignorant; it may be through  an
extraordinary activity of the  perceptive faculties, just as in certain

  * Ferriar: Opus cit. p. 64.
  f History of Lapland, written by John Scheffer, Professor  of Law at
UpsaL in  Sweden.  English translation, published A. D.  1704. 
ECSTASY,  MAGNETISM,  SOMNAMBULISM.        219
 diseases  at the  approach of  death we  observe that the  senses
 acquire a wonderful degree of susceptibility.   The patients aston-
 ish those who are around them by the elevation of their thoughts,
 and the  intellect, which may have been obscured or extinguished
 during many years, is again restored to all its integrity.*
   Nothing, says Aretaetus, is  more surprising than the observa-
 tions which are sometimes made by patients at the period of their
 deaths, both as regards the doctrines they maintain and the objects
 they behold.   Their senses  are clear and unerring, their penetra-
 tion most subtle, and their mind in  a  condition  which enables
 them to prophesy.  These patients will predict the hour of their
 death, and foretell things which are about to happen to the persons
 who are present.   Their mind is already  separated from the
 grosser and material  portion  of their  nature, and the  scene fills
 with astonishment all  who witness it. f
   To these observations we will  only add  a  remarkable  passage
 from Cabanis.   " It is necessary," says this writer, " at this point
 to bear in mind  those singular  and acute diseases, in which we
 witness a sudden creation and development of intellectual powers,
 which had not previously existed.....   We see also in certain
 invalids  attacked  with ecstasy  and convulsions the organs of
 the  senses become  susceptible of impressions which would  not
 affect them in their ordinary conditions, or  they may even receive
 impressions foreign to the nature  of man.   I have often observed
 in women who had become excellent pythonesses, the  most extra-
 ordinary effects  resulting from the changes of which I am speak-
 ing.   Some of these patients will readily distinguish  microscopic
 objects by the naked eye;  others  can  see to  guide themselves in
the greatest obscurity with  perfect confidence.   Some can follow

  * Brierre de Boismont: Du  Retour de la Raison chez les Alienes mou-
rants.  Memoir inedit.   Gazette des Hopitaux, 1844.—Annal. Med.-Psych.
t. ii.  2' serie, p. 531.
  f Aretee de Cappadoce :  De Signis et Causis aculorum Morborum, lib
ii. oap. i. 
220
HALLUCINATIONS.
the track of a person with the acuteness of a dog, and recognize
objects by their smell, which a person had used or merely touched.
   " I have known the sense of taste acquire such a peculiar sensi-
bility, that the patients would have a craving for, or would select
food and even  remedies  which seemed to benefit them, with that
kind of instinct which is usually observed only in animals.   Some,
during their paroxysms, can perceive  what is taking place within
them, the  correctness of their  sensations  being  proved  by the
termination of the  attack, or by organic changes, which  are still
more to be depended on." *
   Is it, then, an act of weakness to admit that there are numerous
mental phenomena which will always remain to us an inexplicable
problem ?
   Somnambulism.—The study  of hallucinations in ecstasy and
prevision leads, by a natural transition, to those which are observed
in somnambulism ; and in the first place, we shall speak  of those
which belong to natural somnambulism.   This singular condi-
tion  resembles  in many respects  that of dreams, and, in  reality,
the only  difference seems to be the extent to which the different
functions  of the body are  affected.   The mind, as in dreams, is
fixed upon its  own special creations, and these it mistakes for
actual external  impressions ; but the organs still remain obedient
to the will, while the individual acts and speaks under the influ-
ence of his erroneous ideas.
   Like the different condition of the nervous system which we
have previously examined, somnambulism  favors the  production
of hallucinations.
   Example 82.  A most  respectable person, whose active life
had been spent as master  and  part  owner of a  large merchant
vessel, related to Sir Walter Scott the following incident, which

  * Cabanis, 7e  Memoire :  De VInfluence des Maladies sur la Formation
des Idees et des Affections morales. 
ECSTASY, MAGNETISM, SOMNAMBULISM.        221
occurred when he  was laying in the  Tagus :  " One of his crew
was murdered by a Portuguese assassin, and a report arose  that
the ghost of the slain  man haunted the vessel.   Sailors are gen-
erally  superstitious, and those of my  friend's vessel became un-
willing to remain on  board the ship ; and it was probable they
might  desert rather than return to England with the ghost for a
passenger.   To prevent so great a calamity, the captain deter-
mined  to examine the  story to the bottom.  He soon found that,
though all pretended to have seen lights, and heard noises and  so
forth, the weight of the evidence  lay upon the  statement of one
of his  own mates,  an  Irishman and a Catholic, which  might in-
crease  his  tendency to superstition, but in other respects a vera-
cious, honest, and  sensible  person, whom Captain----had no
reason to  suspect would wilfully deceive  him.   He affirmed  to
Captain S., with the deepest  obtestations,  that the spectre of the
murdered man appeared to him  almost nightly, took  him from
his place in the vessel, and, according to his own expression, wor-
ried his life out.  He  made these communications with a degree
of horror which intimated the reality of his distress and appre-
hensions.   The captain, without any argument  at the time, pri-
vately  resolved to watch  the  motions of  the  ghost-seer in the
night.  As the ship bell struck twelve the sleeper started up, with
a ghastly and disturbed countenance, and, lighting a candle, pro-
ceeded to the galley or cook-room of the  vessel.  He  sat down
with his eyes open,  staring before him as on some  terrible object,
which he beheld with  horror,  yet  from which he could not with-
hold his eyes.  After a short space he  arose, took up a tin can or
decanter, filled it with  water,  muttering to himself all the while,
mixed  salt in the water, and sprinkled it about the galley.  Finally
he sighed deeply, like one relieved from a heavy burden, and, re-
turning to his hammock, slept soundly.   The next  morning, the
haunted  man told the  usual precise story of his apparition, with
the additional circumstances  that the  ghost had  led him to the 
222
HALLUCINATIONS.
 galley, but that he had fortunately—he knew not how—obtained
 possession of some holy  water, and succeeded in getting  rid of
 his unwelcome  visitor.  The visionary was then  informed  of the
 real transactions of the night, with so many particulars as to sat-
 isfy him  he had been the dupe of his imagination.  He acquiesced
 in his commander's reasoning, aud the dream, as often happens in
 these cases,  returned no  more after its imposture  had been de-
 tected."*
   In most cases somnambulism occurs during sleep ;  but it is not
 uncommon to observe, in the day-time,  a very analogous  condi-
 tion,  in  which there is particularly noticed an insensibility with
 external  objects.  At one time  these attacks will come on  sud-
 denly ; at another, they  are  preceded by a noise or a feeling of
 confusion in the head.  These persons then become more or less
 lost;  they are  no longer  cognizant of external objects, or have
 a very confused  idea of them.  They will often talk in an intelli-
 gible  and connected manner, but  the actual impression on  the
 mind is always manifested in their conversation.   They will re-
 peat long pieces of poetry or prose, which they could not do in
 their natural state.   Sometimes they converse with imaginary be-
 ings, and relate events  and discussions which had occurred at  dis-
 tant periods, and which  it might be  supposed had  long  since
 passed from their remembrance ; they will sing much  better than
 at other times.   Well-authenticated  examples  are  mentioned of
 persons  expressing  themselves correctly in languages with  which
 they were only imperfectly acquainted.
  Example 83.  " Some years ago," says Abercrombie, "I  had
under my care a young lady who was liable to an affection of  this
kind, which came on repeatedly during the day, and continued for
from ten minutes to an  hour at a time.   Without any warning,
her body became motionless; her eyes open, fixed, and entirely
* Walter Scott:  Opus cit. p. 8. 
ECSTASY, MAGNETISM, SOMNAMBULISM.        223
insensible, and  she  became totally  unconscious of  any external
impression.   She was  frequently seized  while playing  on the
piano, and  continued to play over and over a part of a tune with
perfect correctness, but without advancing beyond a certain point.
On one  occasion she was seized after she had begun to play from
the book a piece of music which was new to  her.   During the
paroxysm she continued the  part which she had played,  and re-
peated it five or six times with perfect correctness, but, on  coming
out of the attack, she could not play it without the book."*
   The  hallucinations of somnambulism may give rise to  strange
conduct or to actions involving  great  responsibility, and which
might be followed by consequences most serious to the individual,
unless the whole  of the transaction was known to other persons
   Example  84.  Dom. Duhaget was  of  a  good  family in Gas-
cony ; he had  served  in  the  army with  distinction, had been a
captain  of infantry for twenty years,  and was a knight of the
order of Saint Louis.  I never knew a person of more unaffected
piety or more pleasant to converse with.
   "We had,"  he told  me,  " at----, where I was prior, before
coming  to Pierre-Chatel, a monk of a melancholy and sombre dis-
position, and who was known to  be a somnambulist.
   " Sometimes, during these attacks, he would come from his cell
and return to it by  himself;  but at other times he would  wander
about, and it was necessary to lead him  back.  He was  placed
under medical  treatment, and after that the attacks became more
rare, and were almost forgotten.
   " One night,  being occupied at my bureau in examining some
papers,  I  had not  gone to bed  at  my usual hour, when  I heard
the door of my room opened—for I seldom turned the lock—and
saw this monk  enter in a complete state of somnambulism.
   " His eyes were  open, but fixed; he was only clothed in  his
night-dress, and had a large knife in his hand.
                 * Abercrombie :   Opus cit. p. 313. 
224
HALLUCINATIONS.
   "He went straight to my bed, of which he knew the position;
he felt with his hand, and seemed to  satisfy himself that I was
there ; after that he struck three such blows, that the blade of the
knife pierced the coverings, and penetrated the mattress, or rather
the matting, which I had in its place.
   " When he first passed me  his countenance was fixed, and his
brows  contracted.   After  he  had  struck the blows he returned,
and I noticed  his features were relaxed, and his countenance ex-
pressed a feeling of satisfaction.
   " The  light  of two lamps, which were  on my bureau, made
no  impression on his  eyes;  he returned as he came, carefully
closing two doors which led into my  cell.   Soon  afterwards I
satisfied  myself that he had returned quietly to his own cell.
   "You may judge,"  continued  the prior,  "what I felt during
this terrible apparition.  I shuddered with horror at the sight of
the danger  which I had escaped, and I thanked Providence for
the mercy.  I was so excited, I could  not  close my eyes for the
remainder of the night.
   " The  next  day  I called  the  somnambulist, and asked  him
quietly what he had dreamed  during the past night.
   "At this question he was much disturbed.   'My father,' he re-
plied, ' I  had so strange a dream, that I am most reluctant to tell
it to you: it was perhaps the  work of the devil, and----' ' I
command you,' I replied;'  ' a dream is always involuntary—it is
nothing but an illusion.  Speak  with sincerity.'   ' My  father,'
he then said,  ' scarcely had I gone to bed, when I dreamed  that
you had killed my mother, that her bleeding phantom appeared to
me, and  demanded  vengeance.   At this spectacle I felt in such
a transport of  fury, that I  ran like a madman to your apartment,
and,  having found you, I stabbed you.   After that I awoke,  in a
profuse perspiration, horrified  at my attempt, and returned thanks
to God that I was free from so great a crime.'  ' You were nearer
committing it than you imagine,' I said. 
ECSTASY, MAGNETISM, SOMNAMBULISM.       225
  " I then informed him of what had passed, and showed him the
effects of the blows, which at the time he  thought he had aimed
at me.
  "At this sight he threw himself at my feet and burst into tears,
lamenting the misfortune which he had considered had happened
to him, beseeching me to say what penance I considered he ought
to inflict upon himself.
  " 'No, no,' I said,  'I  shall not  punish you for  an act  over
which you had no control;  but henceforth I  shall  excuse you
from  assisting at the offices for the night, and I shall insist  upon
your  cell being fastened on the outside after the evening meal, and
only opened  so as to  let you come to the family  mass, which  is
said at daybreak.'"
  If,  under  these circumstances—and he  only  escaped  by  a
miracle—the prior had been killed, the somnambulist  monk ought
not to have been punished, for the murder  would have been invol-
untary on his part.*
  The  Neapolitan journals  mention the  case of a man,  who
having dreamed, during an attack of somnambulism, that his wife
was  unfaithful to him,  wounded her dangerously with a poniard,
which he always  kept about him.   M. Maglietta,  a  councilor,
has published a report  of the case, in which he maintains that the
blows and wounds inflicted by a man during his  sleep, or  in a
state of somnambulism, ought not to render him liable to punish-
ment.   (Union Medicate, 16th December, 1851.)
  Lorry has  described the phenomena of two remarkable cases,
of which he  was an eye-witness. A woman, in a state resembling
somnambulism, used to converse aloud with  absent persons,  sup-
posing them to be present.   She was so insensible  to external
impressions, that she  could not be  excited by pricking or pinch-
ing  her  body, yet  she  perceived objects to which  the current of

  * Brillat-Savarin :  Physiologie du Gout, 2 edit. t. ii. p. 6.  Paris :  1828. 
226
HALLUCINATIONS.
her thoughts  directed her, or  to  which they had relation.   Her
arms and fingers retained the positions in which they were placed
till they were changed by a voluntary  movement of the limbs.
After  the paroxysm, she had  lost all  recollection  of what had
passed.
   The other case given by Lorry was that of  a female who had
deficient catamenia.   During her paroxysms, she used to  address
herself to some  individual actually present,  whom she evidently
saw, while all  that she said to him turned upon the subject of her
reverie.   In  the  meantime, she  appeared  unconscious  of the
presence of others, and could  not be made  to hear them or per-
ceive them.  The mother of this female died unexpectedly; after
which, the daughter used to hold conversations  with her, as if she
was present.
   The remarkable circumstance in these cases is the fact that,
while the individual is totally insensible  to all other impressions,
he retains the perception of all objects which fall  in with the
course of his ideas, or connect themselves with  the thoughts and
feelings  which occupy his attention  for the time being.  This
character presents a striking analogy to animal magnetism. Other
striking  characteristics  of this affection are the instantaneous
change which it occasions in the thoughts and state of conscious-
ness, the ecstatic condition  of  the mind, the total suspension of
present ideas which  take  place during  an indefinite  period, and
the equally sudden and remarkable restoration of the former state
of mind after the termination of a paroxysm.
   I shall close this series of cases with one recorded by Dr. Dyce,
of Aberdeen, and  published in the Edinburgh  Philosophical
Transactions.*   This case is one of singular  interest; in  some
respects  it resembles that of Negretti, related  by Muratori, but
seems to be quite conclusive on the question  whether somnambu-
*Edin. Phil. Trans, vol. ix.  1822. 
ECSTASY,  MAGNETISM, SOMNAMBULISM.       227
lism involves or not a suspension  of specific  sense, or of  sense
through the ordinary channels, and a transference of the external
feelings to the nervous system of physical life.
  Example 85.  The subject of this  relation was a girl sixteen
years of age, and the phenomena ceased when the uterine func-
tions were established.  The first symptom was a propensity to
fall asleep in the  evening;  this was followed by the habit of talk-
ing on these occasions, but not  incoherently, as sleep-talkers  are
apt to do.   She  repeated  the  occurrences of the day, and sang
musical airs, sacred and profane.   Falling, one evening,, asleep,
she imagined herself to be going to Epsom races, placed herself
on a kitchen stool, and rode into the room with a clattering noise.
Afterwards she became able to answer  questions put to her in this
state without being awakened.  The fits occurred more  frequently,
and came on at different times.   She dressed  the children  of  the
family, still " dead  asleep," as her mistress termed  her state, and
once set in order a breakfast-table with her eyes shut.
  When she was taken to church, she  heard, and was affected by
a sermon,  particularly by an  account of an  execution of three
young men, and of their progress in depravity, which was related
by the preacher.   On returning home, when questioned, after  the
fit had passed,  she denied that she had been at the church,  but, in
a subsequent paroxysm, repeated the  text and substance of  the
sermon.   The following fact  is still more remarkable :   " Another
young woman, a depraved fellow-servant of  the patient,  under-
standing that she wholly forgot  every transaction which occurred
during  the  fit, clandestinely introduced a  young  man into  the
house, who treated her with the  utmost rudeness, while her fellow-
servant stopped  her breath  with  the  bed-clothes, and otherwise
overpowered a vigorous resistance, which was  made by her even
while  under the influence of her complaint.   The next day  she
had  not the slightest recollection of even that  transaction, nor  did
any person  interested in her welfare know it for several days, till 
228
HALLUCINATIONS.
 she  was in one of her  paroxysms, when she related the whole
 facts to her mother.
   This girl, therefore, remembered during the paroxysms, things
 which  had  excited her  attention in former  paroxysms, but had
 been entirely forgotten  during the intervals, and on  recovering
 from an attack, recurred to the impressions which had last been
 made upon her mind  previously to the fit.  In this case, it is evi-
 dent hearing took place  in the ordinary way.   The patient heard
 a sermon, and replied to  questions put to her by other persons,
 apparently in the usual manner.  With regard to vision, we do
 not believe, as Dyce does,  that it took place through the medium
 of the eye ; numerous facts prove that the somnambulist does not
 in general see; even  in this case, the girl once laid the table with
 her eyes closed.*
  Artificial Somnambulism.—The cases which will  now come
 under  our consideration, belong  to a superinduced state of som-
 nambulism.   These   two  conditions  must not  be   confounded
 together, for, although  they  are  analogous to each other, there
 are sensible differences;  thus,  the  first  generally arises without
 any known  cause, and is not under the control of the will.  The
 somnambulist seems only  to avail himself of  a single sense,f  he
 only directs his attention to one  order of events, viz., that with
 which his mind is  occupied; his  thoughts have only  one object)
 and it is  with that only  he concerns himself.   The second condi-
 tion is the  result of magnetic influence;  it is  brought  about

  * Prichard: Opus cit.  p. 188.
  f In somnambulism, the sense of hearing is frequently preserved ; the
individual hearing, and replying to questions, as if he was awake.  Touch
is also frequently unaffected;  in some cases it may even acquire an extra-
ordinary degree of  delicacy.  It is, so to speak,  the sense which  guides
the actions of the somnambulist.   Sauvages,  of Montpelier, has recorded
the occurrence of natural somnambulism accompanied by clairvoyance, in
two patients who were in the hospitals.  An account of them is found in
the Memoires de I'Academie des Sciences.  Szafhowski: Recherches sur
les Hallucinations, p. 155.   1849. 
ECSTASY, MAGNETISM, SOMNAMBULISM.        229
through  the  will of the operator.   The person is then almost
always free, as regards his thoughts,  and has the power of direct-
ing his attention to all external objects.
   Artificial somnambulism  presents many  curious phenomena.
We  have already alluded to some  of them  when speaking of
dreams and of ecstasy.  We shall  confine ourselves here to the
examination of somnambulism in relation to hallucinations.  It is
wrong to say that we have  pretended to  explain  this singular
state by means of hallucinations ;  what we have stated is, that it
produces hallucinations in the magnetic sleep, not that somnam-
bulism is merely an hallucination.   Neither must it be forgotten
that this state may be a physiological phenomenon,  and manifest
itself in reverie, in dreams,  and in other conditions of  the mind,
which no one has ever thought of classing with insanity.
   Amongst the instances of artificial somnambulism, we  shall
select some whose  authenticity cannot be doubted.
   Example 86.   Madame  Plantin,  aged  sixty-four,  had con-
sulted, in June, 1828, a somnambule recommended to her by Dr.
Chapelain;  this person warned her that the  gland of the  right
breast was enlarging, and threatened to become cancerous.  The
patient passed the summer in the country, paying but little atten-
tion  to the regimen which had been  ordered her.   She returned,
at the end of September, to  see Dr. Chapelain, and told him that
the  gland  was considerably increased in  size.  He commenced
magnetizing her on the 23d of the following  October, and pro-
duced sleep in the course of a few days ; but  her state  of clair-
voyance  was always  very imperfect.  This treatment retarded,
but did not cure the disease.  At length the breast ulcerated, and
the doctor considered there was no hope, except in excision.  M.
Jules Cloquet, the well-known surgeon, was of the same opinion ;
and  it  remained  with the  patient  to  decide.  Dr. Chapelain,
thanks to the magnetic influence he had over her, prevailed upon
her to consent.  He endeavored with all the power of his will to 
230                   HALLUCINATIONS.
produce insensibility of the part to be operated on, and when he
thought he had succeeded,  he tested it by  pinching  it severely
with his nails, and found  that  it was  insensible  to pain.   The
patient remained in ignorance of the exact day of  the operation,
which was  the 12th April, 1829.  Dr. Chapelain  threw her into
the magnetic state, and strongly magnetized the part itself.   He
also magnetized the operator and his assistant, who had not  the
slightest  doubt  that Madame  Plantin would wake up with the
first cut of  the knife.   Great, therefore, was their surprise,  when
she continued  in the most complete  state of  insensibility.   " It
seemed to me," observed Dr.  Cloquet, " that we were cutting on
a dead body."*
   Madame Plantin  died, fifteen or sixteen days after the opera-
tion, from causes which had nothing to do with it; her body was
opened, and the circumstances connected with  the  autopsy were
exceedingly curious.
   This lady had a daughter married  to M.  Lagandre" ;  unfortu-
nately  she  resided in the  country, and could  not come  to  Paris
until some  days  after the  operation.   Madame Lagandre  was a
somnambule, and possessed of a remarkable lucidity.
   " M.  Cloquet requested Dr. Chapelain to  put  Madame La-
gandre into the magnetic condition, and to ask her some questions
concerning  Madame Plantin.  She  replied to him as  follows :
' My mother has been very  weak for some days;  she no longer
sees except by means of magnetism, which sustains her artificially ;
she has no  life.'   ' Do  you think you can sustain the life of your
mother V   ' No, she will die early to-morrow  morning, without
pain,  without  suffering!'  'What  are  the  parts  which  are
diseased ?'   ' The right lung is shriveled up,  drawn within  itself;
it is surrounded with a membrane resembling paste,  and floats in a
quantity of water.  But it  is  especially at this  part,' said  the
See Archives Generates de Medecine, t. xx. p. 131.  May, 1829. 
ECSTASY, MAGNETISM, SOMNAMBULISM.       231
somnambule, pointing to the lower angle of the bladebone, ' that
my mother suffers.   The right lung no longer performs the act of
respiration ; it is dead.  The left lung is sound ; it is by means
of this that my mother lives.  There is a little water in the cover-
ing of the  heart—pericardium !'  ' How are the  organs of the
abdomen V  ' The stomach and intestines are healthy, the liver is
white, and discolored at the surface.'
   " M. Chapelain magnetized  the  patient energetically on the
Monday, but could  scarcely superinduce a state of sleep.  She
awoke on the Tuesday, and  expired about  seven o'clock in the
morning.   The  medical men were  very  desirous of testing the
statements of the somnambule with regard to the condition of the
internal organs,  and they  obtained the consent of the family to
their making an examination.   M. Moreau,  secretary to the sur-
gical section  of  the  Academy, and Dr. Dronsart were requested
to witness it, and were informed that it should  be made the  next
day  in their presence.   The examination was made by M. Cloquet
and  his assistant,  M.  Pailloux, aided  by Dr. Chapelain.  The
latter had  magnetized Madame Lagandre shortly before the time
named for the autopsy.  The medical  men  wished  to hear from
her own mouth  what she stated she  had seen within the body of
Madame Plantin ; the somnambule repeated, in a clear voice, and
without  hesitation,  what  she  had  already  announced to MM.
Cloquet  and Chapelain.   The latter then  led her  into a room,
adjoining the one in which  the examination was  made, and of
which the door was closed.   Madame Lagandre" was all the time
in the state  of  somnambulism, and, in  spite of the partitions
which separated her from the medical men, she followed the course
of the knife in the hands of the operator, and said to the  persons
around her :  ' Why  has he made an incision in the middle of the
chest when the effusion is  to the right ?'
   " The statements of the somnambule  were found to be perfectly 
232                   HALLUCINATIONS.
   correct, and the details of the autopsy, which were written down
   by Dr. Dronsart, were as follows :
      Examination  of the Body of Madame Plantin,  Tuesday,
   29th April, 1829.
      " Exterior.   The body of a pale yellow tinge, wasted, and the
   abdomen large.   The wound is three-parts healed, and the  sur-
   face covered with healthy granulations ; the margins are united,
   and covered with a recently formed cicatrix.
      " Interior.   On opening the chest,  the right pleura was found
   to be filled with about two pints of a thick serous  fluid.   The
   pulmonary and costal layers of this membrane were covered with
   soft  coagulated  exudations, more abundant  at the posterior than
   at the anterior  parts of the cavity.   The lung was greatly con-
   tracted ;  incisions on its posterior margin,  and  especially at the
   superior  lobe, showed the existence of pneumonia, and  gave exit
   to a sero-purulent fluid.   Many parts  of the anterior margin and
   of the inferior lobe were still permeable to air  and crepitated.
   The pericardium contained  about  three or four ounces  of limpid
   serum.   The posterior surface of the heart was slightiy  reddened,
   and presented several shreds of coagulable lymph.
      " The  liver  was of the ordinary size, the upper surface was cov-
   ered at  its middle  part  with  white spots, which did not extend
   into the substance of the organ.   The  gall-bladder was  atrophied
   and of a white color; it was  filled with biliary calculi, and con-
   tained no bile.
      "The  other organs were not examined."*
      Those who  were present at this case are all living, and occupy
   a  high  position  in the  medical  world.  Different  explanations
   have  been  given of their statement, but their veracity  has never
•   been questioned.
      The two following cases have been  recorded by M. Chardel, a

     * Chardel: Psychologic Physiclogique, p.  260.   Paris, 1844. 
ECSTASY,  MAGNETISM, SOMNAMBULISM.       233
 counselor in the Court of Appeals, who received the account of
 them from eye-witnesses, who were persons of staid and  serious
 character.                                            *
   Example 87.   A magistrate, a counselor in one of the royal
 courts,  related to me  the following  anecdote :  His wife had  a
 maid-servant in very delicate health, whom she magnetized and
 put into a state of somnambulism.  This was  done privately, be-
 cause their charitable intentions had subjected them to some jokes.
 One day, when the  magnetic influence was accompanied by con-
 siderable pain,  the  somnambule asked for some old wine;  the
 husband took a light and went to fetch it.   He descended the first
 steps without  any accident, but the  cellar being situated at an
 unusual depth, and  the  steps damp, he slipped down half the
 staircase and fell  backwards,  without, however, hurting himself,
 or extinguishing the light which he  held in his  hand.   This did
 not prevent him  from accomplishing his  object, and returning
 with the wine which  had been asked  for.   He found his wife was
 acquainted  with his fall and  all the  details of his underground
 adventures; the somnambule  had related them as they came to
 pass.*
  Example 88.   The wife of a colonel of cavalry was  magne-
 tized by her husband, and became clairvoyant.   During this course
 of treatment, an indisposition compelled  him to avail himself of
 the aid  of an officer  in his regiment.   This only lasted for eight
 or ten days.   Some time after, at a magnetic seance, the husband
 having put his wife into a state of somnambulism, directed her to
 occupy her attention with this officer.   "Ah, the unhappy man !"
she cried, "I see him—he is at----;  he is about to kill himself__
he takes a pistol; run—quick .  . .   !"  The  place named  was
about a  league off; some one instantly mounted a horse, but when
he arrived the suicide was already committed, f

         * Chardel:  Opus cit. p. 290.         f lb. p. 292.
         16
• 
234
HALLUCINATIONS.
   We have limited ourselves to these three cases, but they are
sufficient to prove that persons and objects which are en rapport
with  the  magnetic individual  may be revealed  to him in their
actual state;  and that, under  these  circumstances, phenomena
arise  similar to those which we have observed in reverie, in dreams,
in ecstasy, in  prevision, in presentiment, and, in a word, in any
of those states in which hallucinations coexist with a sound state
of mind.   There are undoubtedly other peculiarities which seem
to pass beyond the limits  of the ordinary course of nature; but
it should be remembered that these are altogether of an irregular
character: they may suddenly disappear in persons who had pre-
viously been subject to them; they  are only met with at consider-
able intervals, and then generally in a small number of delicate,
nervous, and frequently unhealthy individuals—such, at least, has
been  the case in those instances which have come under our own
observation.
  The various conditions which we have now examined are closely
connected with  hallucinations in this  respect, that the thoughts
create and color them, and, in a word,  the mind gives them their
material form.  If, however, we feel  perfectly  confident of the
actual power of man's will over man, and of the influence which
is exercised by hallucinations, we also  believe that  it is contrary
to the laws of physiology to suppose  that  during life the phe-
nomenon of clairvoyance can be extended over the surface  of the
body, or can have  its especial seat in the epigastrium, in the ends
of the fingers,  &c.  The phenomena  of clairvoyance, of  previ-
sion, and of second sight depend upon  a sudden exaltation  of the
brain, which disperses the obscurity that surrounds the sensual
organs,  and bestows upon them  a greater vivacity.   What takes
place  in natural somnambulism, here occurs under the influence of
an unknown cause; the individual sees distinctly in  his brain the
stairs, the apartments, and the several localities through which he
passes;  it is there he  reads the characters of the book which is
• 
ECSTASY,  MAGNETISM, SOMNAMBULISM.        235
before him, or of the letter which he is writing.  It is an internal
mirror where all his impressions  are reflected, and which serves
him as a guide;  but in this case the action relates to things which
arc past, for if the person finds himself in a locality which is un-
known to him, he will wander about, stumble, and perhaps injure
himself.  In  artificial  somnambulism, the  perceptions are more
distinct, more extended, and indicate a more complete isolation of
the mind,  with  greater activity  of its  faculties.   How this is
brought about we do not know, nor are we any better informed as
regards the thousand different  thoughts  which pass through our
minds under the guidance of the will.  These are facts which we
are compelled to admit, but the  mode of their production  will
probably always escape us. 
CHAPTER  X.
 HALLUCINATIONS IN FEBRILE, INFLAMMATORY, ACUTE,  CHRONIC,  AND OTHER
                            DISEASES.

 HALLUCINATIONS IN  ACUTE DELIRIUM AND CEREBRAL  DISEASES.

   These disorders, which  were long confounded with  inflamma-
 tion of the  brain,  and  were named by some acute madness or
 acute  delirium, but  which, along with M.  Lelut, we  have sepa-
 rated  from  this group of diseases,*  leads us by a natural transi-
 tion from nervous to  inflammatory disorders.
   The presence of maniacal excitement, which is one of  the symp-
 toms of acute delirium,  would lead us to expect  the existence of
 strange conceptions and illusions of the senses in the mind of the
 invalid, and  this is what observation has shown to be the case.
   Some patients, when suffering from acute  delirium, imagine
 they see persons hidden under their beds, in closets, or  similar
 localities; they  will  point them out, and endeavor to drive them
 away.   Others  believe  themselves  surrounded by  frogs,  or ser-
 pents,  which are ready to devour them.   There  can hardly be a
doubt  that the terror  which is exhibited, the cries which are utter-
ed, the desire to bite  and strike, or to precipitate  themselves from
elevated spots,  which  are noticed in some of these patients,  pro-

  * Lelut : Induction sur la Valeur des Alterations de V Encephale dans le
Delire aigu et dans la Folie.  Paris : 1836.  Brierre de Boismont: Du De-
lire aigu quon  observe dans les Etablishnents d'Alienes.   Mem. lu a l'Acad.
Roy. de Med.  en 1842, insere dans le  tome xi. des Mc.moires de  VAcade-
mic.  This was honored with a gold medal by the Institute. 
ACUTE DELIRIUM  AND  CEREBRAL DISEASES.      237
ceed from the existence of hallucinations of an alarming character.
The nature of hallucinations  which occur in acute delirium are
in accordance with the habits, the character and the pursuits of
the individual.   A lady who was very religious, continually cried
out, "See the demons which surround me ; leave me,  Satan!
Merciful Jesus, drive them  away /"  A young student  begged
that the water might be removed which surrounded his bed; he
saw it gradually rising; it reached up to his breast, and he felt
that he was on the point of being suffocated.
   Illusions are equally common in acute delirium.   The invalids
mistake  those around them for their personal friends, or they are
transformed, and take  on  peculiar appearances.   Illusions of
taste and smell are also noticed in acute delirium.   The patients
will often reject their drink with expressions of horror, declaring
that it  smells of smoke, that it has a most nauseous taste, and
that it is intended to poison them.  Others will declare that their
drinks have  the  taste of the  finest wines, and are in  a kind of
ecstasy while partaking of  them.
   HALLUCINATIONS IN  INFLAMMATORY AND OTHER DISEASES.
   Works on internal  pathology contain numerous observations
which prove most clearly the existence of hallucinations in slight
and  severe fevers, in  inflammation of the different organs, in the
most opposite diseases, in convalescence, &c.  We shall not exam-
ine these in detail, but simply adduce instances in which the dis-
ease is complicated by hallucinations.
   Congestion, or hypercemia, is sometimes preceded by halluci-
nations.   Broussais relates the case of a woman, nineteen years of
age, who, during her labor, was troubled with noises in the head,
who thought  she saw lights, a coffin, and a large black dog, which
advanced to  devour her.  This woman presented  all  the symp-
toms of plethora   Some leeches were ordered, which sufficed to
dissipate these visions, and quickly restored her reason.*
              * Phleam. Chron. vol. ii.. pp. 421 42^. 
238
HALLUCINATIONS.
   Example 89.  A man of sound intellect  was seated  in  his
room, when, to his great surprise, he saw the door open and one
of his friends  enter, who, after he had taken  several  turns in the
room, placed himself  opposite to him, and looked fixedly at him.
Wishing to receive  his visitor with politeness, he rose ; scarcely
had he advanced a few steps, when the figure vanished.   He then
perceived that he had had a vision.  Soon afterwards the appari-
tion  reappeared,  accompanied by  several of his acquaintances,
who surrounded him, and looked at him in a similar manner.   In
the space of a quarter of an hour the company became so numer-
ous, that the apartment seemed as though it would be  incapable
of holding them.   These phantoms followed him into his bed-
room, and arranged themselves around  his bed, so that  he  had
great difficulty in obtaining a few hours' sleep.  During his sleep
they reappeared, and  were as  numerous as  on the previous
evening.
   This state continued until the next day, when he consulted his
medical  man, who recollected  that the year before he had bled
him for  congestion  of the brain.   On  several occasions  he  had
also  been troubled  with hemorrhoids.   Some leeches  were  ap-
plied ; the next day the phantoms had greatly diminished, and by
night-time they had entirely  disappeared.
   Many  writers have noticed the  occurrence of hallucinations
before an attack of apoplexy.
   Inflammation of the membranes of the brain will  also give
rise to this phenomenon.  MM. Martinet and Parent-Duchatelet
have recorded five  instances out of one hundred and two cases
contained in their  work.   The  treatise on Encephalitis of M.
Bouillaud (pp. 8, 66, and 86) contains several cases of hallucina-
tions of  the sense of smell, and illusions of sight and  touch.
   In epidemic  cerebro-spinal  meningitis hallucinations are very
numerous.  M.  Tourdes, the author of a history of this epidemic, 
INFLAMMATORY  AND  OTHER DISEASES.       239
has mentioned several remarkable examples.—Hist, de I'Epid. de
Mening.-cereb.-spinale, Strasbourg:  1843.
  Dr. Alderson, of Hull, has related an interesting case of hallu-
cinations, combined with violent headache and inflammation of
the integuments.
  Example 90.  "A few  months ago," says this  writer,  "I
visited Mr.  R , who  was seized, in his  passage from America,
with a most excruciating headache.  He obtained some temporary
relief from the formation of matter under the  scalp ;  swellings
came on in the throat, and  he  had some  difficulty of  respiration
when in bed.   At  this time he  complained  to me that he had
troublesome dreams, and that  he seemed  to dream whilst awake.
In a short time after he told me he had, for an hour or two, been
convinced that he had  seen his wife and family, when his right
judgment told him that they  were  in America  ; and the impres-
sion was so strong a few nights afterwards, and the conversation
he  had with his son  so very  particular  and important,  that he
could not help  relating the whole to his friends in the morning,
and requesting to know if his  wife and son were not actually ar-
rived from America,  and at that time in  the house.  I was sent
for  to hold a consultation, and  he evidently saw  that they all took
him to be insane.  He therefore  immediately turned to  me, and
asked me whether the complaint he then had would bring on the
imagination of spectres, and apparitions, and figures, for he had
always hitherto  been an unbeliever in ghosts and in  everything
else.   He felt, and his  friends acknowledged,  that he was per-
fectly sane and strong in mind as he had  ever been in his  life.
  " Having satisfied  him with the nature and extent of his com-
plaint, and that it would soon  vanish with his bodily sufferings,
he  and his friends were made  easy in  their minds; but the phan-
toms .'became at length more troublesome, so that he could  not
bear to go into his bed-room, where every picture brought with it
the association,  and conjured  up the spirits  of the departed, or 
240
HALLUCINATIONS.
introduced a train of unpleasant companions.  He remained after
this in a low room, and was for a time free  from intruders ; but
in a bright brass lock he again saw his transatlantic friends, and
never afterwards could he look at it but he saw them;  and when
I  have  been with him, and  have purposely taken up a book, I
have  seen him  hold conversation in his  mind's eye with them;
and I  have momentarily  known him consider  me as  hearing
and seeing them too.   I  say momentarily, for he is  a man of
strong parts, and perfectly convinced of the  nature of the  com-
plaint ;  for whenever I spoke, and he turned from  the  lock, he
could converse on religion, physic, and politics as  well as  ever.
He then changed his house ; the matter  again formed under the
scalp ; and he is now in a state of convalescence,  and totally free
from such visitations."*
   Fever performs an important part in the productions  of hallu-
cinations, either from the flow of  blood it determines to the brain,
or  in consequence  of the derangements of the  nervous system
which it produces.  Most  frequently it is accompanied by wake-
fulness,  and when this has lasted some time, the patient, worn
out with fatigue, becomes drowsy, but is soon woke up by horrible
dreams, which have all the  appearance of reality.   The subdued
light, the shadows, and the drapery of the room combine to pro-
duce definite forms before  his disturbed imagination.   At  first
these  objects are  faintly depicted, but soon they  assume the dis-
tinctness of an  actual  existence, and  prepare the way for a con-
stant and rambling delirium.
   Example 91.   " A highly intelligent friend," says Abercrom-
bie, " whom I  attended several years ago,  in a mild but very pro-
tracted  fever without delirium,  had frequent interviews with  a
spectral visitor,  who  presented  the  appearance  of an old  and
gray-headed man of a  most benignant aspect.   His visits  were

      * Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, vol. vi. p. 291. 
INFLAMMATORY AND OTHER DISEASES.        241
always conducted  exactly in the same  manner.  He entered the
room by a door which was on the left-hand side of the bed, passed
the  end of the bed, and seated  himself on a chair  on the  right-
hand side; he then fixed  his eyes upon the patient with an ex-
pression of intense interest and  pity, but never spoke ; continued
distinctly visible for some seconds, and then seemed to vanish into
air."
   Example  92.   " A lady," says the same writer, " whom I  at-
tended some  years ago in  a slight feverish disorder, saw distinctly
a  party of ladies and gentlemen sitting round her bed-chamber,
and a servant handing something to them on a tray.   The  scene
continued in a greater or  less degree for several  days, and was
varied by spectacles of castles and churches of a very brilliant ap-
pearance, as  if they had  been  built  of finely-cut  crystal.  The
patient had  from the first a full impression  that it was a morbid
affection of vision connected with the fever, and amused herself
and her attendants by watching  and describing the changes in the
scenery."
   Conolly, who has carefully studied the effects  of fever on the
imagination,  has pointed  out three  degrees in the impressions
that it gives rise to.
   In the first the patient's bed will seem in flames; or voices will
whisper in his ear; or the smell of a banquet assail him ;  or his
sense of touch  seem opposed  by moving and bulky bodies;  or
the sense  of sight  will be harassed by the rapid succession of im-
aginary faces, appearing  and disappearing in endless trains and
variety.
   If we question  these patients, some  will tell us in a very quiet
way that  they are  thus tormented.   Others will seem confused,
and make a  visible effort  of sight and hearing before they tell us
how they arc troubled.  Lastly, some  believe in  the reality  of
all these  sensations.   Of these  three  classes of patients, the last 
242
HALLUCINATIONS.
 are in a state of delirium, the  second are approaching to it, the
 first are in a sound state of mind.
   In the first case, the patient attends to the sensation  received
 from the surrounding objects by senses not partaking of the mor-
 bid state.   He  recognizes his own chamber, his own family, his
 medical  attendant, his nurse ; the other faces that flit before him
 he knows could  not be in that chamber.   He remembers that  he
 became ill some days before, that he is feverish, that he  took to
 his bed.  Comparing the objects before him and the things re-
 membered, with the succession of features which  have been dis-
 played to him, or with the sounds  he has seemed to hear, he is
 convinced that  the latter are  inconsistent with the former, and
 are the mere creations of his malady.
   In the second case, the patient is nearer to delirium; on awak-
 ing for a few moments, the sight of his bed-curtains apparently
 on fire alarms him; he  seizes  the  curtains,  he  looks anxiously
 about him;  but his sense of touch, the tranquility of those near
 him, leads him to the conclusion that the appearance is a part of
 his disease.   When you  speak to such a patient as he is awaking
 from his troubled  sleep, your voice  is at first  associated with the
 images of his dream; but he opens his eyes, gazes upon you,
takes hold of your  hand, and  by comparing sensations  derived
from things present with  what has appeared to him in his reverie,
becomes in a short time quite collected.
   This kind of disorder  usually lasts for some hours, or for some
days.  If it increases, the visions  assume a more  decided form,
they are more continuous, and delirium  may be the  result.   A
poor woman, a patient at the dispensary at  Stratford, who was
very much  out of health, complained  that she never saw more
than the  half of  a persons's countenance,  or of any other  object.
Sometimes these apparitions appear in great numbers, heads and
faces are seen crowded together and looking through the window
or in at the door. 
INFLAMMATORY  AND  OTHER DISEASES.        243
  In the third case, the patient is mastered by the false sensations
actually arising from things present, or the sensations he has of
things  present are not accurate; he continues to talk to persons
supposed to be present, and  does not recognize the voices of his
friends;  his eyes are directed to them, but the impression he re-
ceives is  of other figures and faces; he looks about his  chamber,
and yet thinks himself in a strange apartment.  This man cannot,
then, compare true sensations, which he does not  receive, with the
false sensations which he does receive ; he cannot compare what
he  sees with what, in his febrile state, he cannot remember, and
the immediate consequence is delirium, or an active madness.
   " In cases of fever," says Conolly, " I have many times watched
these  three  states sliding into one another, as the patient, in the
increase  of his malady, lost the power of receiving correct sensa-
tion ;  and again, as  the  malady receded, regained it, and in this
case slight efforts were sufficient to engage his attention."
   We  have  on several occasions convinced ourselves of the exist-
ence of visions in the course  of typhus fever; a circumstance which
had not escaped the notice of Hibbert.   Hallucinations have been
observed at  the commencement,  in the  course of,  and during  con-
valescence from this fever.
   Abercrombie quotes from the Christian Observer the case of
a farmer who, when returning from market, was  deeply affected
by a most extraordinary  brilliant light, which he thought he saw
upon the road, and by an appearance in the light which he  sup-
posed to be our  Savior.  He was  greatly alarmed, and, spurring
his horse, galloped home; remained agitated during the evening;
was seized  with typhus fe.ver, then prevailing  in the  neighbor-
hood, and died in about two days.   It  was afterwards ascertained,
that on the morning of the day of the  supposed  vision, before he
left home, he had complained of headache and languor;  and there
can be no doubt that the spectral appearance was connected  with
the commencement of the fever. 
244                    HALLUCINATIONS.
   The same author relates that a friend of his, who was convales-
cent from typhus fever, imagined that his body was ten feet high.
His bed seemed six or seven feet from the ground, so that he was
afraid to get out of it.  The opening of the chimney was as large
as  the  arch of a bridge; what was  most  singular,  the  persons
around were of their natural size.   The most curious phenomena
are those furnished by illusions of sight.
   The occurrence of phantoms in severe fevers has been noticed
by  the ancients.   How many cases of delirium, says Hippocrates,
in ataxic and  adynamic fevers are accompanied by hideous  spec-
tres,  indicating the entire  derangement  of the  economy  and
approaching dissolution.
  Moreau, of Larthe, mentions, in the Encyclopedic Methodique,
art. " Med. Mentale," having attended a child twelve or  thirteen
years old, who had scarcely any knowledge of Latin, but during
an attack of fever was suddenly capable of speaking that language
with tolerable  correctness.  The same child expressed himself  to
the persons around in  terms far beyond the  ordinary language  of
his  age, or the general character of  his own  mind.  He died a
few days afterwards.
  M. Rayer related to us a case of typhus fever, in which the
patient, for seven or  eight days, saw the figure of a man at the
foot of his bed, whom he endeavored to drive away.  There  was
nothing repulsive  in the  figure,  and it only troubled him by its
presence.   With  convalescence the vision  entirely  disappeared.
Dr. Marotte mentioned a similar case to us.
  English  writers who  have described the fever of Cadiz  and
Malaga, state that the patients were insensible to external objects,
which were replaced by a new world of ideas of a most  terrible
kind.   Frightful spectres appeared to the patients, the precursors
of coma and death.
  Hallucinations have been observed in the typhus fever of armies, 
INFLAMMATORY AND OTHER DISEASES.        245
in pestilential fevers, and in several of the epidemics of the Middle
Ages.
   Thucydides, in his history  of the plague at Athens—a disease
that has been classed by modern  writers with typhus—speaks of
spectres which alarmed the inhabitants.  Procopus mentions the
case of men who, during the  plague, fell victims  to this  scourge,
having dreamed of demons who touched them, and informed them
they would speedily die.  During the epidemic which  depopu-
lated Neo-Caesarea,  the inhabitants  saw and heard phantoms in
their houses.  When the plague broke out in Egypt, in the reign
of the Emperor  Justinian,  ships of brass were seen upon  the sea,
navigated by black men who  had  no  heads.   During an epidemic
which  depopulated Constantinople,  the people were horrified by
the sight of demons, who,  in the dress of ecclesiastics, went from
house to house, bringing death upon all the inhabitants.
   Cases  are related  which leave no question of the  occurrence of
hallucinations and illusions in this disease.   A pupil of the cele-
brated practitioner Hilclenbrand, who was attacked by typhus,
imagined, during his delirium, which lasted  for seven days,  that
he had the part of the viper-eater assigned to him;  a character
in an opera entitled Miroir d' Arcadie, which he had seen acted
a  short time previously.  He was  in a  state of indescribable
agony  and terror every time  he endeavored to seize and swallow
the dangerous reptile.*
   In some recent descriptions, of the typhus fever of armies, men-
tion, is made of hallucinations of  sight.  The  typhus at Mayence
was frequently complicated with this symptom.
   Intermittent fever, which modern  observers believe sometimes
produces insanity,f has been noticed to be  attended by hallucina-

  * Hildenbrand :  Du  Typhus  Contagieux, traduis de I'Allemand par
Gasc, p. 70, in-8.  Paris  :  1811.
  f M. Baillarger : De la Folie dans les Fievres Intermittentes—Ann. Med.
Psych. Novembre, 1843. 
246                   HALLUCINATIONS.
tions.  Nicolai, the publisher, of Berlin, whose case has been pre-
viously related,  was attacked,  in  1778,  with intermittent fever,
during which he saw  landscapes and  colored figures.   When  he
closed his eyes the phantoms were  no  longer visible ; but when he
opened them they reappeared.   A deranged state of the digestive
organs, by reacting on the brain and its membranes, has frequently
given rise to hallucinations.   The same thing has occurred  from
congestion and inflammation of these organs.  Illusions of  taste
and smell are also very common.
  Dr.  Hungerford  Sealy  has published a paper  on  a  peculiar
biliary disease of hot climates, which is characterized by constant
irritability,  accompanied by a greatly exalted state of the  mind
and of the muscular system.   It mostly attacks persons who  have
been resident in the country two or three years, and have begun
to experience feelings of nostalgia.   The mind is troubled  with
visions,  the imagination becomes  excited ;  the reason  still pre-
serves some power over the imagination, but it is restrained  with
difficulty.
  From amongst the  examples which he gives we shall select the
case  of the English  clergyman at Messina.  When  Dr. Sealy
visited this patient, "he found him in  bed, countenance  haggard,
eyes  glaring out of his head, and deeply suffused and bilious;
skin dry  and parched, and almost verging on the icteroid  tint;
tongue dry  and red at edges,  and covered  with a brown fur in
centre and back portion ; pulse small  and quick;  his general ex-
pression  denoted the  deepest misery,  though his  mind  was per-
fectly clear.   He had been ill three  weeks."  Dr. Sealy purged
him,  applied leeches to the head,  and mustard sinapisms to the
feet.   After twelve hours, there was a perceptible improvement.
  " During  the progress of his disease, his  hallucinations bore a
strong resemblance  to the  clairvoyance  of the magnetic  ; his
visions were frightful.  His  pervading wish  was to tear every-
thing near him, to shout, to sing, and curse.   He fancied he saw 
INFLAMMATORY AND OTHER DISEASES.       247
his limbs leave his body.   He was convinced of the unreality of
the vision,  and of its being the result of a diseased imagination ;
yet so palpable was the delusive vision, that he could scarcely
correct the delusion by  the utmost effort of his reason.
   " The bodily disease had evidently  its origin in the biliary and
chylopoietic viscera; this was also proved by the character of  the
evacuations."*
   A curious case of hallucinations, occurring during a long attack
of pneumonia, is recorded in the fifteenth volume of Nicholson's
Philosophical Journal, p. 289.
   Example 93.  " About twelve years ago," says  the writer, " I
had an  attack of fever, arising from some deep-seated inflamma-
tion which caused acute pain in the left side.   It was occasioned
by a cold caught at the breaking up of the hard frost in the spring
of 1795.   The pulse was generally about 110 in the minute, and
the illness, which lasted some weeks, was accompanied with dis-
ordered perception  through almost its whole duration.  The first
night, after the setting in of the fever, was attended with great
anxiety, and the fatigue and perpetual  recurrence of the same
dream.   I supposed myself to be in the midst of an immense sys-
tem of mechanical  combinations, all the parts of which were re-
volving with extreme rapidity and noise, and at the same time I
was impressed with a conviction that the aim or purpose  of this
distracting operation was to cure my  disorder.  When the agita-
tion was carried to a certain  hight, I suddenly  awoke, and soon
afterwards fell again into a  doze, with a repetition of the same
dream.   After many such repetitions, it occurred to me that if I
could destroy  the  impression or conviction, there  might be a
probability that the delirious dream  would  change its form; and
as the most likely method, I thought by  connecting some  simple

  * Observations on a  peculiar Nervous Affection incident to Travelers in
Sicily and Southern Italy, by J. Hungerford Sealy, M.  D.—Medico-Chirur-
gical Review, July, 1844. 
248
HALLUCINATIONS.
visible object  in my mind with the notion of cure,  that object
might be made to occupy the situation of the rapidly-moving ob-
jects in the dream.   The consequence, in some measure, answered
my expectation ; for upon the next access, the recollection of the
figure of a bottle, to which 1 had  previously directed my mind,
presented itself, the rotation ceased, and my subsequent dreams,
though disturbed, were more various and less irritating.
   " The  medical treatment consisted in the external  application
of leeches to the side, with venesection, and a saline mixture.
   " A second night was passed with  much agitation in repeated
dozing,  with dreams, in  which it was difficult to distinguish the
time of sleep from that of wakefulness.  None of that anxiety of
mind remained which had added to the sufferings of the preceding
night.   When morning came, the state of the sensations had un-
dergone a marked alteration ; for the real impressions of surround-
ing objects predominated over the phantasms of the disease.   Be-
ing perfectly awake, in  full possession of memory,  reason,  and
calmness, conversing with  those around me, and seeing, without
difficulty or impediment, every surrounding object, I was enter-
tained and delighted with a succession of faces, over which I had
no  control, either as to their appearance, continuance, or removal.
   " They appeared directly  before me,  one at a time, very  sud-
denly, yet not so much but that a second of time might be  em-
ployed in the emergence of each, as if through a cloud or mist, to
its  perfect clearness.  In this state each face continued five or six
seconds,  and then vanished by becoming gradually fainter during
about two seconds, till nothing was left but a dark opaque mist,
in which almost immediately after  appeared another face.   All
these faces were in the highest degree  interesting to me for beauty
of form and the variety  of expression they manifested of every
great and  amiable  emotion of the human  mind.   Though  their
attention was invariably directed to me,  and none  of them seemed
to speak, yet I seemed to read the very soul which gave anima- 
INFLAMMATORY  AND  OTHER DISEASES.       249
tion to their lovely and intelligent countenances : admiration and
a sentiment of joy and affection when each face appeared, and re-
gret upon its disappearance, kept my  mind constantly riveted to
the visions before it; and this state was interrupted only when an
intercourse with the persons in the room was proposed or urged."
   The visions suddenly vanished while in the act of taking  some
medicine.   How long  the appearances  were suspended was for-
gotten ; but, notwithstanding the medicine  was  continued, the
figures returned; but they now consisted of books, or parchments,
or papers containing printed matter.  The patient was, however,
unable to  read them, either because  they were not distinctly legi-
ble, or did not remain a sufficient time  before they vanished.   " It
occurred to me that all these delusions were of one sense only,
namely, the sight; and upon considering the recurrence of sounds,
a few musical tones  were afterwards  heard,  for one time only ;
soon  after which, having  dropped  asleep,  an animal  seemed to
jump upon my back, with  the most shrill and piercing screams,
which were too intolerable for the continuance of sleep."
   Hallucinations have  been known to coincide with the suppres-
sion of a hemorrhoidal  discharge.  The following case is recorded
in Les Archives de Medecine :
   Example  94.  A gentleman, aged forty, resided at Carlsruhe,
in Silesia.   He  was of sound mind,  and free from all superstitious
ideas.  He  was subject  to  a hemorrhoidal discharge; besides
which, the sight of one eye was  weak, and the other had a cata-
ract.   One day he was alarmed by a fire at a neighboring house.
On the evening of the same  day his wife observed he was very
restless,  and asked her  some  singular questions.  About  six
o'clock, when candles  were lighted, he  assured his wife that  his
mother had entered the room, taken him by  the hand, and then
vanished,  just as he was rising to receive her.   He said, more-
over,  that she was accompanied  by  her husband and three  other
persons, whom  he did not know.  At supper-time he went into a
        17 
250
HALLUCINATIONS.
 room overhead, and having taken his meal, returned ta the lowei
 apartment, still accompanied by the vision;  at  bed-time  he cov-
 ered his head with the clothes and slept quietly.  The next  day
 he  had  a different illusion:  all the walls seemed covered with
 black and white squares like a chess-board.   The illusion was so
 complete that it hid several  engravings which hung against the
 walls of the room.  These things  continued for two days, after
 which his sight returned to its natural condition.   He  then com-
 plained of weakness and giddiness;  his sleep, his  pulse, and his
 appetite remained healthy.   Some purgative medicine, some
 foot-baths, and the administration  of  the tincture of  quinine,
 restored the hemorrhoidal discharge  and completed his cure.*
  Many affections, under circumstances  which we are not  able to
 appreciate, may produce hallucinations.   The following case, from
 Dr. Alderson, is an instance of their occurring in gout:
  Example  95.   "I was called," says this gentleman, "to Mrs.
 B.,  a fine old lady about eighty years of age, whom I have  fre-
 quently visited in fits of the  gout.   She complained of an unu-
 sual deafness, and great  distension in  the organs of  digestion,
 leading her to expect an attack of gout.   From this time she had
 visions.  She was visited by several of her friends, whom she had
 not invited; she told them she was very  sorry she could not hear
 them speak,  nor keep up  conversation  with  them ; she  would,
 therefore, order  the  card-table, and rang the bell for that pur-
 pose.   Upon the entrance of the servant, the whole party disap-
 peared.   She could not help expressing her surprise to her maid
 that they should all go away so abruptly; but she  could scarcely
believe her when she told her that there had been nobody in  the
room.   She  was so ashamed, that she suffered, for many days and
nights together, the intrusion of a variety of phantoms, and had
some of her finest feelings wrought upon by the exhibition of

  * Archives Generates de Medecine, vol. xix.  p. 262.  1824.  Hufeland's
Journal, September,  1824. 
INFLAMMATORY AND OTHER DISEASES.         251
friends long lost, and who had come to cheat her fancy and revive
sensations  that time had  almost obliterated.   She  determined,
however, for a long time, not to complain, and contented herself
with merely ringing her bell, finding she could always get rid of
the phautoms by the entrance of her maid.
   " It was not till some time after that she could bring herself to
relate her distresses to me.  She was all  this  time convinced of
her own  rationality, and so were those friends  who really visited
her,  for  they could  never find  any one  circumstance  in  her con-
duct and conversation to lead them to suspect her in  the smallest
degree deranged,  though  unwell.  This  complaint was  entirely
removed by cataplasms to the feet and gentle purgatives, and ter-
minated  a short time afterwards in a regular slight fit  of the gout.
She has remained  ever since, now somewhat more than a  year, in
the perfect enjoyment of her health and faculties."*
   Every practitioner has noticed  the state of discomfort and rest-
lessness,  of  melancholy and terror,  produced by affections of the
heart.   The patients start up from their sleep,  haunted by fright-
ful spectres  and hideous phantoms.  Not unfrequently this state
of mind  comes on during the  day.  We have collected several
instances of hallucinations  coexisting with organic diseases of the
heart.  M.  Saucerotte has published some similar cases;  amongst
others, he relates that of a non-commissioned officer  with  hyper-
trophy of the left ventricle, who imagined he saw  white phan-
toms of strange and indefinite  forms place themselves before him
in threatening attitudes.   Ashamed of his fears, knowing himself
that it was only a  phantasma, dreading above all  things the jokes
of his companions, he dared not  confess  how much he was under
the influence of the strange malady which tormented  him.")"
   Pellagra is a cutaneous disease  which  occurs in Lombardy, in
  * Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, vol. vi. p. 291.
  f Saucerotte : De V Influence des Maladies du Cceur sur les Facultes In-
tellectuelles et Morales de VHomme.—Annal. Med. psych, t. iv. p. 177.
September, 1^44. 
252
HALLUCINATIONS.
the  Landes of  Bordeaux, and in several parts  of the south of
France.   It is frequently complicated with hallucinations and illu-
sions.   Some of these patients fancy they are monks or  priests;
others believe that they are pursued by Satan, and imagine they
see the flames of hell.   In Italy,  the delirium most commonly as-
sumes a religious form ;  and  as the  sufferings of the  patient fill
him with sorrowful ideas, the disorder  is especially characterized
by visions of the devil, of hell, &c*
  It is probably these depressing ideas which produce the tendency
to suicide which is observed in the persons attacked with pellagra;
possibly the homicidal monomania, which has also been noticed, is
likewise accompanied by hallucinations.   The ideas taking another
direction, may substitute for the demoniacal visions those of angels
of paradise, &c.
  Women with chlorosis are  often a prey to profound melancholy.
They prefer solitude,  avoid  all exertion, and indulge in melan-
choly thoughts; many of them have also symptoms of insanity,
they are surrounded by strange forms, see hideous objects and re-
pulsive figures.  If this state continues and becomes more  intense,
it may bring on insanity and render these visions permanent, which,
by a slight effort of the reason, might have been dissipated.
  Muratori has related a curious case  where there was a feeling
of happiness, accompanied by visions during a state of syncope
and half consciousness.  A young lady  became violently delirious
at the termination of a  severe fever.   When the  delirium was
over she remained motionless, and the pulse  was imperceptible;
the  surface of  the body became cold, and she was supposed to be
dead.  The body  was being laid out when she fetched  a deep
sigh.   The attendants immediately rubbed her with strong solu-
tion of spirits, and endeavored to  restore the warmth of the body ;

  *  Brierre de  Boismont:  De la Pellagre et  de la  Folie  Pellagreuse, ob-
servations recuellies au Grand Hopital de Milan, 2e edit.  Paris : 1832. 
INFLAMMATORY AND OTHER  DISEASES.       253
 at length she moved, then consciousness and speech returned, and
 she  recovered.
   Instead, however,  of thanking the persons who had taken such
 pains to restore her to life, she  complained to them of their hav-
 ing  recalled  her soul from a condition of indescribable repose and
 happiness, such as it was not permitted  to  enjoy in this life, and
' with which the greatest pleasures she had ever experienced would
 not  bear comparison.  She added that she  had heard  the  sighs
 and  lamentations of her  father,  and all that had been  said with
 regard to her funeral, but that it had not disturbed  her  feeling of
 tranquility;  that her soul was in a state of rapture; that she had
 lost all care for the things of this world, even to the preserving of
 her  life.*
   Hullucinations  are sometimes observed during convalescence.
   Example  96.   At the termination of an inflammatory disease
 which had produced  great  weakness,  Lieutenant-General Thid-
 bault, a man distinguished alike for his intelligence and military
 talents, was troubled with visions; a  circumstance  all  the more
 extraordinary,  as  he  was in  the full possession of his reason, and
 none of the senses had undergone any physical alteration ;  yet the
 fantastic forms which haunted him affected his sight so strongly
 that he could give a minute description of them as easily as of
 the real objects with which he was surrounded, f
   Example  97.   Miss N.  was just convalescent from  an attack
 of simple fever which had been of some duration, and had left her
 very weak.   All  the family  had gone  to church, a violent  storm
came on, and Miss N. seated herself at a front window  to watch
its  effects; all at once the thought of her father and where he
might be came into her mind, causing her great alarm.   She soon
fancied  that  he had been killed in the storm, and becoming very

  * Muratori :  Delia Forza delta Fantazia, c. 9.
  f Eusebe  Salverte:  Des  Sciences Occultes, p. 324.   D. Thiebault:
Souvenirs d' un Sejour a Berlin,  vol. v. 5e edit. 
254
HALLUCINATIONS.
uneasy concerning him, she went into a back room which he gen-
erally occupied,  and near the fire of which he usually sat in a
high-backed  arm-chair.    On entering the room, Miss N.  was
astonished to behold the  image of her father in his  usual dress
and attitude, and seated  by the fireside.   She immediately went
forward to lay her hand  upon his shoulder and inquire how he
got in, and repeating the  word " Father," she attempted to lay
her hand upon his shoulder, but her hand encountered a vacancy,
and she retired in alarm.   As she was about to leave the room,
however, she looked  back and still saw the figure occupying the
same position in the chair.  Fully half an hour elapsed from the
time  that  this lady first  saw  the apparition  till it  disappeared.
Miss N, who all the time was  convinced that it was a spectral  illu-
sion,  entered  and left the room several times, carefully examining
the arrangement of the drapery and the chair.*
  Atmospheric influences seem, under some circumstances, to favor
the production of hallucinations.   In the noted winter of 1829-30,
says  Conolly, I observed this complication in the course  of  sev-
eral diseases, f
   M. Prus, in some  observations on a memoir of M. Baillarger,
entitled Fragments pour servir a V Histoire des Hallucinations,
remarks that extreme cold may produce hallucinations, and  that
he himself experienced this effect in 1814, when he  left the divi-
sion of the army to which he was attached to go two leagues to
visit his family.   " I had hardly gone a league," he says, "in the
most intense cold I had ever experienced, when I perceived I was
no longer in a normal state.   I walked more from habit than from
the influence of my will—my  whole body seemed extremely light.
Fully aware  of the danger of this state, I vainly endeavored to
hasten my steps;  what troubled me most was, that my eyes closed
every minute in spite of me.  Then I was surrounded by a num-

        * Paterson :  Loc cit.         \ Conolly:  Opus cit. 
INFLAMMATORY  AND  OTHER DISEASES.       255
ber of pleasing images;  I imagined I was in the midst of beauti-
ful  gardens, and I had  visions of  trees, rivers, and  extensive
plains."
  In the Russian campaign the soldiers were also attacked with
hallucinations, sometimes of a joyous, sometimes of  a melancholy
character.
  In 1845, we observed a marked predominance  of nervous symp-
toms.  We are indebted to the kindness of Dr.  Descuret and Dr.
Salone for several instances in which hallucinations were observed
in common diseases.   M.  Descuret has mentioned to us seven
cases of  this kind in persons attacked with influenza.
   One of these  was a clergyman, who imagined he was  tripled.
He saw himself  three  times.  When he was in bed, if he changed
his side,  the other two turned at the same time and placed them-
selves over him.   All these patients were cured of their halluci-
nations when they recovered from their illness.
  Hallucinations are sometimes the precursors of disease.
  Plutarch relates  that Cornelius Sylla was warned of a fever
which seized him unexpectedly by the sight of  a phantom which
called him by his name.   Convinced that his death was  close at
hand, he prepared for that event, which took place the next night.
  There  is no necessity to have recourse to the  marvelous to ex-
plain  the occurrence  accompanying this death.  It is probable
that Sylla was in the last stage of some organic disease, and that
the apparition only increased his danger.  Possibly it hastened
his end by some few days, but certainly it was no  prediction of
the event.  It is to similar causes, to the influence of religious
opinions, to the  want of  scientific  knowledge,  and to the effects
of the imagination that we must refer those deaths  whose occur-
rence has been predicted, and of which we meet with numerous
examples amongst the ancients.  Under  the same circumstance, a
highly exalted condition of the nervous system might cause death.
  Example  98.   "A lady," says Abercrombie, " whom I attend- 
256                  HALLUCINATIONS.
 ed some years ago, on account of an inflammatory affection of the
 chest, woke her husband one night at the commencement  of her
 disorder, and begged him to get up  instantly.   She  said she had
 distinctly seen a man enter the apartment,  pass the foot  of her
 bed, and go into a closet which entered from the opposite side of
 the room.   She was quite awake, and fully convinced of the real-
 ity of the appearance ; and  even after the closet was examined,
 it was found almost impossible  to convince her that it was a delu-
 sion.   There are numerous examples of this kind on record."*
   Example.  99.  "Entirely analogous  to this, but still more
 striking in its  circumstances,  is a case which I have received from
 an eminent medical friend, and  the subject of it was a near rela-
 tion of his own, a lady about  fifty years of age.   On  returning
 one evening from a party, she went into a dark room to lay aside
 some part  of  her  dress, when  she  saw distinctly before her the
 figure of Death as a skeleton, with  his arm uplifted and a dart in
 his hand.   He instantly aimed a blow at her with the dart, which
 seemed to  strike her on  the  left side.   The same night she was
 seized- with fever,  accompanied  by  symptoms  of inflammation of
 the left side, but  recovered  after a severe illness.   So strongly
 was the vision impressed upon  her mind, that  even for some time
 after  her recovery she could not pass the door of the room  in
 which it occurred without discovering agitation, declaring it was
 there  she met with her illness, "f
   Many  writers (and  amongst  others Hibbert) have remarked
 that it is not unusual for patients in the last stage of hectic dis-
 eases,  and in many other chronic affections, to experience hallu-
 cinations of an agreeable nature.   By means of  this peculiar
 state of the system, they explain those  numerous communications
which pious persons are supposed to have with spiritual beings on
their death-beds.  To the same state may probably be referred that
* Abercrombie :  Opus cit. p. 391.      f #>• P- 392. 
INFLAMMATORY  AND  OTHER DISEASES.        257
feeling of happiness which is possessed by many sick persons, but
especially by those who are consumptive, and who, up to the very
moment of their death, form all manner of delightful projects for
the future.  We would remark that, when speaking of  hallucina-
tions coexisting with a sound mind, wc mentioned that a state  of
weakness, of .syncope, or of asphyxia  was favorable to  their pro-
duction.
   Amongst the instances that  have been noticed of hallucinations
in the last stage of disease, there is one that will  ever remain en-
graven on my memory.
   Example 100.   On the 1st of June, 1842,  I received the
melancholy  intelligence that my mother, who had  suffered for sev-
eral years from disease of the uterus, which  had  confined her to
her bed,  had been seized, two  days previously, with epileptic fits,
accompanied with loss of consciousness, so  that  her life was de-
spaired of,  and  it was feared that,  if the fits returned, the in-
valid, already extremely weak, would die before  I arrived.  My
friend told me that the violence of the attack had for a time sub-
sided,  and  was  succeeded by a mild delirium, in which the in-
valid saw phantoms, figures,  strange persons, and spoke  about
various matters which had no  reference to her present condition ;
she no longer recognized those  who  were about  her;  she  imag-
ined they ill-treated her, and  wished  them sent away.   Even my
sister, who had never left her,  she had become quite indifferent to.
In the midst of her ramblings, the idea that  she should not see me
again never left her, and she was continually asking for me.
   I arrived during the night, and on entering the room of my
beloved  mother, about one o'clock in the morning, a prey to the
most acute anguish, I found her sitting up in bed, her eyes fixed,
and uttering in a low voice the words of her delirium, she desired
that the  trades-people  and the other persons who were in her room
should be sent  away,  especially  a female who  was perpetually
teasing her.  With her hand she waved them away.  " Make them 
258
HALLUCINATIONS.
go  away," she constantly repeated.   " Do  you not hear what
a noise they make ?"   (There wras perfect silence at the time.)
" Tliey will not. let me  see my son.   My poor son I he will not
come.   When he arrives, I shall be no more."  This  delirium
had lasted for twenty-four hours.
  I was greatly affected at this sight, and taking her by the hand,
I said  to her, " Calm  yourself, my dear mother—I am with
you, and will not leave you."  I had hardly spoken these words,
when my mother became silent, and recovering her senses, said to
me,  " Tell me, my son, is it really you?  Ah, I recognize your
voice.   Where are you, for I cannot see  you?"  When she be-
came more  collected, she could distinguish different  objects, and
was able to perceive me.  Her countenance expressed her satis-
faction, and she added,  " Now I have seen you, I shall die con-
tented."  The delirium had ceased;  the sound of my voice had
produced a wonderful change.  Her intelligence  returned to her
under the influence of maternal affection, and for five days I had
the happiness to converse with her, and to  see her in the full pos-
session of her faculties.  On the  fifth—the day of her death—
about eleven  o'clock in  the  morning,  the artist, who was  taking
her likeness,  seeing  she turned  pale, proposed to leave  off for
awhile.   " Continue," she said;  "it will soon be too late."  She
expired at three o'clock.
  The  subject of hallucinations in nervous and some other dis-
eases has been previously considered, when speaking of hallucina-
tions coexisting with a sound state of mind; it is  therefore un-
necessary to repeat what has already been said. 
                    C HAPTER  XI.

               CAUSES  OF  HALLUCINATIONS.*

   When considering the causes—before passing to those sources
of hallucinations which are capable of being appreciated, that is
to say, to the secondary causesf—it must be borne in mind that a
hallucination  is composed  of two distinct elements, the sensible
sign, and the mental conception.  These are  mysteriously united,
like  the  body and  the  soul, and  are a  perfect emblem of man's
nature.   The hallucination  which is the material embodiment, a
daguerreotype of the idea, is only the  bodily portion, while  the
mental conception is the psychical portion.  It is by defining these
two  elements that  we must endeavor to seek for the cause of this
singular phenomenon.
  We have seen that fevers and many other diseases favor the pro-
duction of hallucinations; but, at the same time, hallucinations
also  occur in persons of sound mind, and who are in good health.
These, and such cases as the  one  which follows, can only be  ex-
plained by a particular condition  of the nervous system.
   Example 101.   Madame the Viscountess A., whom I attend-
ed for many years,  was one day conversing with me about the  ap-
paritions recorded in the Scriptures, and in which she fully believed.
"An event," she said, "happened some twelve years back, which

  * The causes of hallucinations so  closely resemble those  of illusions
that we have not considered it necessary to separate them.
  1 The primary cause of this and all other phenomena will always escape us.
It is this which constitutes the difference between the finite and the infin-
ite, toward which we constantly tend, often in spite  of ourselves,  but
which all our endeavors after knowledge will never dissipate in this  life. 
260
HALLUCINATIONS.
satisfied me of the existence  of  those visions to  which science
gives  the  name  of hallucinations.  I received a letter from my
son-in-law, the Count 0., informing me of the severe illness of my
daughter,  who was many leagues away from me.   The letter con-
tained nothing which led me to anticipate a fatal termination.   On
entering my room—it  was about nine o'clock in the morning—
thinking upon the state of my daughter, I heard a voice, in a feel-
ing tone, utter these words : ' Do you love me !' I felt no surprise,
and immediately replied  in a loud voice,  ' Lord, Thou knowest
that I place my whole trust in TJiee, and that I  love you with
all my soul.'  The voice then added,  'Do you give her'to me?'
I felt  a thrill of dread pass through me, but immediately recover-
ing myself, I replied, ' However  painful  may  be the sacrifice,
Thy holy  will be done !'  I then sank on my couch  in a state of
great  depression.   The next day a second letter from my son-in-
law informed me of my dear child's death."
   The "Viscountess was a person endowed with an excellent un-
derstanding, a devout Catholic, but without bigotry or fanaticism.
The hallucination  took place in broad daylight, when she was in
excellent health, and when her thoughts were  concentrated on the
illness of  her  daughter.  Bred up in the Christian faith, and
having recourse to prayer in all her afflictions, she felt no surprise
at the voice she heard.   When Madame A. related this anecdote
to me, twelve years had passed away,  but her belief in the reality
of the event  was as firm as on the day of its occurrence.   This
instance is to us a most convincing proof  of the way  in which the
apparitions of the Middle Ages are to be  explained, and of the
erroneousness  of that system which regards  hallucinations as an
invariable indication of insanity.
   In  a medical point of view, the nervous and circulatory systems
undoubtedly perform a very important part in the  production of
hallucinations; but the  difficulty is, how do  they  act ?  We are 
CAUSES OF  HALLUCINATIONS.             261
entirely ignorant of this  even in  the  ordinary operations of the
mind.   We only  know  that various  stimulants, acting on  the
blood and on the nervous system,  give greater  brilliancy and vi-
vacity to the ideas, which simply means that there is a greater in-
flux of  blood to the brain.   We are neither acquainted with the
agent which produces this  excitement,  where  it operates,  nor
what are  the changes which it produces.   Must we not then ad-
mit  a predisposition—that unknown  something—which in  one
person  gives rise to apoplexy, in another to inflammation, and in
a third  to softening of the brain, or some other  form of disease ?
   Thus, then, under the influence of a moral or physical cause,
is  produced an excited state  of the nervous and vascular systems,
which give rise to  hallucinations, without, however, its being pos-
sible to establish an intimate connection between  the two series of
events.
   Having determined  the part which is performed by the organic
element, we  next  enter  upon the consideration of the  mental,
where we must ultimately seek for the cause of  the singular phe-
nomena of  hallucinations.   Such an inquiry is beset by insur-
mountable difficulties, unless we  first  establish certain  data to
guide us in our  inquiry.   Thus we shall devote a first chapter to
the examination of the action of social and individual influences,
and of moral and physical causes,  in the production of hallucina-
tions ;  and in a  second, we  shall endeavor  to penetrate  more
deeply into  their mode of formation, by examining  them in rela-
tion to  psychology, to  history, to morality, and to religion.
   The  causes of hallucinations should  not be  confounded  with
those of insanity,  as was formerly the case.  It  is true, the ma-
jority of  the insane are subject to hallucinations; but it is equal-
ly  certain, that they may occur  by themselves.   Even when the
hallucinations are  combined with insanity, it is not always difficult
to   recognize  their origin.  Lastly, they  may  be  conveniently 
262
HALLUCINATIONS.
classed  into those which coexist with a sound state of mind, and
into those which are accompanied by disease.

               FIRST DIVISION—MORAL CAUSES.

   Hallucinations constantly appearing in mental diseases, d,priori,
the division into  moral and  physical causes ought to be equally
applicable to them.
   A circumstance, however,  which we have pointed out in our
Memoire  sur VInfluence de la Civilization, in our opinion, de-
cides the  question in favor  of moral causes.   In fact, epidemic
hallucinations, such as  vampirism,  ecstasy,  and the  visions ob-
served in the different forms of plague, are not  susceptible of any
other explanation.  In  these cases, the hallucinations are  trans-
mitted by  means of the  ideas  which exist in society, or have been
inculcated by education  and by the force of example, that is, by a
true moral contagion, just in the same way as thousands of men
will fly to arms at the command of a celebrated general, or as a
multitude  will massacre  a defenseless wretch, hurried away by the
ravings of a madman.
   The  two-fold action  of the  moral on the physical  shows that
hallucinations are amenable to the common law ; but their nature,
the part in which  they take place, alike indicate  the predominance
of one of  these influences ;  thus, at the commencement, we stated
that a preoccupied state of the mind, the  prolonged concentration
of the thoughts upon one subject, were conditions highly favorable
to the  production of hallucinations.  The  examples  which we
have taken from poets, philosophers, and the founders  of religious
creeds, have  proved  this to be the case: at the  same time, we
have strongly insisted on the  difference between these hallucina-
tions and those which are observed in insanity.
   Men who, from a defective  education,  are constantly in a state
of over-excitement, whose organization has become  exceedingly 
MORAL  CAUSES.                   263
susceptible,  and in whom the imagination is left without restraint,
are subject to hallucinations.   Certain imaginations, says a mod-
ern writer, are  necessarily superstitious ; they  are  generally the
most  fertile and the most  exalted;  they prefer fable to reality;
and attached by their instincts to the impossible, or at least to the
ideal, they find nature too poor for them.   They delight in the
sombreness  of the forest, for it is the abode of  phantoms and of
genii.   The poetic imagination of the ancients  encountered  such
beings in open day; and  beneath the influence of their brilliant
climate it created  phantoms and spirits, and the laughing dryad
of the wood.   The same thing  happens to persons whose minds
are always filled with chimeras and  fantastic creations.
   This love of the marvelous, which justifies the saying, that man
is ice to wisdom, but fire to folly, seems to us a fruitful  source of
hallucinations.  When a man has passed ten,  fifteen, or twenty
years of his life in  dreaming, it requires but a slight concentration
of the mind upon his favorite subject for its image to become in-
tensified, and suddenly transformed into  a hallucination.
   The  marvelous histories and the tales of terror which were so
long the  accompaniments of childhood,  prepared the mind, when
it is naturally sensitive, to become the  recipient of all  the ex-
travagant creations of the age.   But it is said that in the present
day this system is completely changed, and children are brought
up with a feeling  of contempt  for these  ancient  superstitions.
This  argument might hold  good when speaking of colleges  and
schools;  but  those who make use of it, forget the  attendants to
whom the child is entrusted during its earliest years, and the nur-
sery,  with its follies and its tales of  horror, in the midst  of which
the child grows up.  I shall content myself with quoting the ex-
ample of the poet  Robert Burns.   " I owed much," he says, " to
an old  woman who resided in the family, remarkable for her  ig-
norance,  credulity, and  superstition.   She had,  I suppose, the
largest collection  in the  country of tales and songs concerning 
264
HALLUCINATIONS.
devils, ghosts, fairies, brownies, witches, warlocks,  spunkies, kel-
pies,  elf-candles,  dead-lights,  wraiths,  apparitions, cantraips,
giants, enchanted towers, dragons, and other trumpery. This cul-
tivated the latent seeds of poetry ; but had so strong an effect on
my imagination,  that to this hour,  in  my nocturnal rambles,  I
sometimes  keep  a sharp  look-out  in suspicious  places;  and
though nobody can be more skeptical than I am in such matters,
yet it often takes an  effort  of philosophy to shake off these idle
terrors."
   Darkness, obscurity, the silence of night, and solitude contribute
largely to the development of that  feeling of terror  which is so
unadvisedly infused into the minds of children.  They soon per-
ceive hideous forms, which  regard them with threatening looks,
and  the vacant room is peopled with assassins, thieves,  demons
and monsters of every kind.
   This  effect  of  darkness is clearly shown in those who are deli-
rious.  At first, their wanderings only occur when the room is
darkened, or when they  close their eyes ; at those times they see
a number of horrible  figures, who mock or threaten them.  When
they open their eyes, or  when the room is lighted, these phantoms
disappear.
   Long imprisonment, or complete solitude, are conditions which
may give rise to hallucinations.   M. Leon Faucher relates that  a
prisoner informed MM. de Beaumont and Tocqueville, that during
the first  months  of his  solitude he was often haunted by visions
for many successive  nights—an  eagle seemed to perch  itself on
the foot of his bed. In  1840, in the  penitentiary at Philadelphia,
there were ten or twelve cases of hallucinations, and from 1837
to 1841  eighty-six prisoners  became insane.  What can speak
more forcibly than this simple statement of facts.*   M. Gosse
also states that nearly all the persons in a penitentiary in Switzer-

  * De la Reforme des Prisons.—Revue des Deux-Mondes, Fevrier, 1841. 
MORAL  CAUSES
265
land became subject to hallucinations under the influence of soli-
tary confinement.*
  We have already related  the  history of Benvenuto  Cellini;
the following is the account  which Silvio Pellico, who was con-
fined at Spielberg, gives of the effect it had upon himself:  " Du-
ring those horrible nights my imagination became so excited, that,
although awake, the prison-walls seemed to resound with groans
or with suppressed laughter.  In my childhood I never believed
in sorcerers or spirits;  but now these sounds  filled  me with ter-
ror.   I could not understand it,  and I asked myself whether I
was  not at the  mercy of some malignant and mysterious power.
   "  Often,  with a trembling hand, I took the light and  looked if
any  one  was beneath  my bed. .  . . Seated at my table,  I im-
agined some one pulled my dress ; then, that an invisible hand
had  pushed away my book,  which I saw fall  upon  the ground ;
subsequently, that some one had come behind  me, and was en-
deavoring to blow out the light.   I would jump up, look around
me,  and walk about with an air of defiance,  wondering whether I
was  sane or insane.
   " Each morning these phantoms vanished, and as long as day-
light lasted, I  felt so insensible to all these terrors, that it seemed
to me impossible that I could be troubled with them again.  But
at sunset my fears returned, and each succeeding night reproduced
the extravagant visions of the preceding.
   " These nocturnal apparitions, which  during the day I regarded
as foolish  illusions,  became  transformed at night  into  frightful
realities, "f
   Some of the companions of the unfortunate Silvio Pellico had
the same sensations.
  When the mind is thus prepared to experience these illusions,

  * Bibliotheque de Geneve, No. 86. p. 255.   Fevrier, 1843.
  t Silvio Pellico :  Mes Prisons,  traduction de M. Antoine Latour, p.
127.   Paris : 1840.
        18 
266                   HALLUCINATIONS.
any accidental circumstance, such as an unusual noise, a particu-
lar disposition of the lights and  shadows, some accidental  ar-
rangement of the drapery of the room, may bestow upon thern all
the appearance  of a reality ; such  things have, in fact, laid  the
foundation of a number of marvelous tales.   Sir Walter Scott,
not long after the death of Byron, was engaged during the dark-
ening twilight of an autumn evening in perusing one of the pub-
lications which professed to detail  the habits and opinions of  the
distinguished individual who was now no more.  As he had  en-
joyed  the  intimacy of  Byron to a considerable degree,  he  was
deeply interested in the publication, which contained some partic-
ulars relating to himself and other friends.  A visitor was sitting
in the apartment, who was also  engaged in reading.   Their sit-
ting-room opened into an entrance  hall rather fantastically fitted
up with articles of armor, skins  of  wild beasts,  and the like.   It
was  when  laying down his  book,  and  passing into  this  hall,
through which the moon was beginning to shine, that Sir  Walter
saw, right before him, and in  a standing posture, the exact repre-
sentation of his departed friend, whose recollection had been so
strongly brought to his imagination.  He stopped  for a single
moment, so as to  notice the wonderful accuracy with which fancy
had impressed upon the bodily eye  the peculiarities of  dress and
posture of the illustrious poet.   Sensible, however, of the delu-
sion, he felt no sentiment save that of wonder at the extraordinary
accuracy of the  resemblance, and stepped onwards  towards  the
figure,  which resolved itself as he approached into the various ma-
terials of which it Was composed.   These were  merely  a  screen,
occupied by great coats, shawls, plaids, and such other articles as
usually are found in a country entrance hall.*
   Example  102.  Ferriar relates  that  a gentleman  "was  be-
nighted while traveling  alone in a remote part of the Highlands
* Walter Soott:  Opus cit. p. 38. 
MORAL CAUSES.
267
 of Scotland, and was compelled to ask shelter for the evening at
 a small lonely hut.   When he was to be conducted to his bed-room,
 the landlady observed, with mysterious reluctance, that  he  would
 find the window very insecure.   On examination, part of the wall
 appeared  to  have  been  broken down to enlarge the opening.
 After some inquiry, he was told that a peddler, who had  lodged in
 the room  a  short  time  before, had  committed suicide, and was
 found hanging  behind the door in the morning.  According to
 the superstition of the country, it was deemed improper  to remove
 the body through the door of the house, and to convey it through
 the  window  was impossible,  without removing part of  the wall.
 Some hints were dropped that the room  had been subsequently
 haunted by the poor man's spirit.
   " My friend laid his arms,  properly prepared against  intrusion
 of any kind, by the bedside, and retired to rest, not without some
 degree  of apprehension.   He was visited in a dream by a fright-
 ful apparition, and, awaking in agony, found himself sitting up
 in bed  with  a pistol grasped in his  right hand.  On  casting a
 fearful glance round the room, he discovered by the moonlight  a
 corpse,  dressed  in a shroud,  reared erect against the wall,  close
 by the window.   With  much difficulty he summoned up  resolu-
 tion to approach the dismal object, the features of which, and the
 minutest parts of its funeral apparel, he perceived distinctly.  He
 passed one hand over it—felt nothing—and staggered back to the
 bed.   After a long interval, and much reasoning  with himself, he
 renewed his investigation, and at length  discovered that the ob-
 ject of his  terror was produced by  the moonbeams forming a long
 bright image through the  broken window,  on which his fancy, im-
 pressed by his dream, had pictured with mischievous accuracy the
 lineaments of a body prepared for interment."*

  * Ferriar:  Opus cit. p. 24.  We have elsewhere insisted  upon the
characters which separate illusions from hallucinations ; this distinction
must not be forgotten. 
268
HALLUCINATIONS.
   These remarks clearly  prove the influence of moral causes in
the production of hallucinations.   The following details  cannot
leave any  doubt on this  point.   Out of 190 cases collected  by
other writers, or by  ourselves in 115,  the circumstances which
favored the  production of the hallucinations  were meditations
carried to the state of ecstasy, the prevalent notions of the period
in regard to religion,  philosophy,  politics, superstition, &c,  ima-
ginative works, concentrations  of the thoughts,  mental struggles,
particular  passions, a preoccupied  state of mind,  troubles, re-
morse, grief,  excessive study, love, hope, jealousy, and anger.
   All  these  causes are not of equal importance,  and we  shall
therefore dwell most upon those which have the  greatest influence,
and amongst which we rank education, religious belief, the domi-
nant ideas  of the age, and the  different kinds of civilization, &c.
   Education, whose influence we have already  referred to in the
production of depressing  ideas, those fertile sources of physical
and  moral  disorders, may, says M. Cerise,  give rise to many
false ideas, and under such circumstances there may be ignorance,
error, and prejudices ; but not necessarily a state  of disease.  Thus
the idea of a man's  head, which is associated with the sensational
impression  produced by the moon, or of a giant's tomb with  that
of a mountain, are notions more or less poetical, and are  per-
fectly harmless to those who entertain them.   It is, however,  very
different when the impression associated with the idea is extended
to the sensational and mental emotions;  when, for example, the
idea  of a frightful spectre is associated from childhood with a
particular  stone,  or a birch-tree, as is the case  in some  country
places.*  These erroneous ideas  are sources of  terror and alarm
to those who entertain them.
   The false ideas connected with the sensational and mental emo-

  * Cerise :   Des Fonctions et  des  Maladies Nerveuses, p. 463.  Paris :
1842. 
MORAL  CAUSES.
269
tions, continues the same writer, are those which at all times have
had  the  most marked influence  upon  hallucinations.  Consider
how many  popular traditions and superstitions  are derived from
the ancient forms of worship.  When we  remember that  every
age has witnessed some form of superstition, such as magic, astrol-
ogy, sorcery, divination, omens, the raising of spirits, auguries,
auruspices,  necromancy, cabalism,  oracles, the  interpretation  of
dreams, pythonesses, sibyls, manes, lares, talismans, the presence
of demons in flesh and blood, incubi,  succubi,  familiar  lemures,
vampirism,  possession,  lycanthropy,  spirits,  ghosts, spectres,
phantoms,  lutins, sylphides, fairies,  goblins, the evil eye, enchant-
ments,  &c, one  cannot  refrain from mourning over the facility
with which man falls into error, and one is almost induced to be-
lieve  he was destined to pass his life surrounded by illusions, if
we did  not trace them to the  influence of his education and his
neglect of moral and religious principles.
   We shall confine our observations  to some of  those causes
which have predominated in Europe—such, for instance, as  the
belief in the power and corporeal nature of demons, in sorcery, in
possession, in lycanthropy, in ghosts, vampires, spirits, &c.
   The religion of the ancients,  which peopled every part of na-
ture with divinities,  genii, or demons, and other supernatural  be-
ings, naturally  led to a belief  in the power and  embodied nature
of spirits.   In  this  respect the  doctrines of Plato exercised an
important influence,  and ruled in the school of Alexandria.   Even
when its disciples were converted to  Christianity, they clung  to the
genius of Plato,  and endeavored to reconcile it to the exact and
rigorous philosophy of Christianity.  Hence amongst the learned
arose abstract and philosophical discussions,  errors and heresies.
Amongst the mass of the people, who could neither read nor  write,
this influence showed itself in another form.   They could only
comprehend such portions of Christianity as were associated with
a  material form; this they adopted to  the letter, and thus  the 
270
HALLUCINATIONS.
 ! r nciple of evil became invested with hideous forms, which  were
 transferred to the literature and  architecture of the period.  The
 hallucinated of those  days were pursued by black devils armed
 with horns, provided  with cleft  feet  and a long tail, just  as in a
 former age Orestes was tormented by the Eumenides,  and terri-
 fied by the hissing of serpents.
  Such was  the origin of those  hallucinations which  universally
 prevailed for several ages, and which still  exist in some countries
 at the present day, especially in  Lapland,  and of which examples
 are by no  means uncommon in France, as Esquirol, M. Marcario,
 and we ourselves can testify.
  To believe in demons and their assumption of corporeal forms
 was,  at the same time, to admit compacts and relations with them,
 and their power overman, or, in  other words, sorcery,  possession,
and  lycanthropy.  This belief in the intervention of demons in
human affairs was the  source of great moral disorders, which were
 only  increased by the  use  of the stake  and the scaffold.   Men,
 women, and even children  persuaded themselves that they  had as-
sisted at a witches' meeting,  that they were  in communication
 with  the devil, and had  seen persons enter into unholy  compacts
 with  him.   Every  one pursued the subject according to the  bent
 of his own mind, and soon the foolish fancies of persons weakened
by disease or misfortune became repeated on  all sides.   Judges
 and ecclesiastics believed  in such declarations, and condemned
 thousands  of unhappy  victims  to their appointed punishment.
 Even so late as 1664, the good Sir Matthew  Hale pronounced
 the sentence  of death upon  miserable women accused of witch-
craft.   Sir Thomas Browne himself, who stripped the veil from a
 number of vulgar  errors, when  examined at the trial, declared
 "that the fits were natural, but hightened by the power of the
 devil cooperating with the malice of witches."*
  * See the account of Sir T. Browne, in No.  XIV. of the Family  Library
 —Lives of British Physicians,  p. 60. 
MORAL  CAUSES.                   271
  Spinello, the  forerunner of Milton, was the first who  in those
barbarous times invested Lucifer wiih some traits of terrific gran-
deur ; yet this innovation of his  genius did not hinder him from
remaining constant to the opinions of his age ; his reason wander-
ed after he had finished the picture of the fallen angels : he ima-
gined he was pursued by the demons he had represented,  and died
in the midst of his fears.
  In 1651, Dr.  Pordage,  an Englishman, regarded as real occur-
rences visions which were produced by an over-excited state of his
brain.  He and his disciples, Jane Leade, Thomas Bromly, Hooker,
Sabberton, and others, saw a vision of great magnificence on the
occasion of their first  meeting  together.  The powers  of  hell
passed in review before them, seated in chariots, surrounded by
dark clouds, and drawn  by lions,  bears, dragons,  and  tigers.
These  were followed by  the inferior spirits,  who were provided
with the  ears of a cat or a griffin, and with  deformed and  dis-
torted limbs.   It made no differenc to the disciples  of  Pordage
whether their eyes  were  open or shut—the visions were  equally
distinct.   " For," said their master,  "we see with the eyes of the
spirit, not with those of  the body."   This case  is an example of
a number of persons seeing the same hallucination.
  Towards the  end of the sixteenth century, Dr. Lee declared,
apparently with a sincere  conviction of its truth, that he was on
terms of intimacy with most of the angels.  His cotemporary,
I»r.  Richard  Napier, the  father of the  well-known  inventor of
logarithms, believed that  he received  most of  his prescriptions
fnm the angel  Raphael.
  At that time there were, in fact, few medical men who could
actoraplish a cure without the intervention of some  supernatural
meins.   Certain causes  peculiar to England served to  depress
the  public mind.   The writers of that country describe the mel-
ancioly tendency of the rigid Puritans of the period ; their  oc-
cupincy of old family seats, formerly the residence  of hospitality 
272
HALLUCINATIONS.
and good cheer, which in their hands became desolate and gloomy,
and the dismal stories propagated by the discarded  retainers to
the ancient establishments, ecclesiastical and  civil,  contributed
altogether to produce a national horror unknown in other periods
of her history.*
   The following  cases which we have  selected will serve to illus-
trate the opinions of this period, and have also some other  points
of interest attached to them.
   " In this year (1459), in the town of Arras,  and county of
Artois, arose,  through a terrible and melancholy chance, an opin-
ion called, I know  not why, the  religion of Vaudoisie.   This
sect consisted, it is said, of certain persons, both men and women,
who, under cloud of night, by the power of the devil, repaired to
some  solitary spot,  amid woods  and deserts, where the devil ap-
peared before them in a human form, save that his visage was never
perfectly visible to them—read to the  assembly a book of his or-
dinances, informing  them how he would be obeyed—distributed a
very little money and plentiful meal,  which was  concluded by a
scene  of general  profligacy ; after  which each one of his  party
was conveyed home to her or his own habitation.
   "On accusations of access  to such acts of madness, several
creditable persons  of the  town of Arras were seized and im-
prisoned, along with some  foolish  women and persons of little
consequence.   These were  so  horribly  tortured,  that some  cf
them  admitted the  truth  of the  whole  accusations, and  said,
besides, that they had  seen and  recognized in their  nocturiul
assembly many persons of  rank—prelates,  seigneurs, and gov-
ernors  of bailliages  and  cities—being such names as the examira-
tors  had  suggested to  the persons examined, while they con-
strained  them  by torture to impeach  the persons to whom tiey
belonged.   Several of those who had been thus informed aganst
* Ferriar :  Opus cit; p. 109. 
MORAL CAUSES.
273
were arrested, thrown into prison, and tortured for so long a time,
that they also were  obliged to confess what was charged  against
them.   After this, those of mean condition were executed and in-
humanly burnt, while the richer and more powerful of the  accused
ransomed themselves by sums of money, to avoid the punishment
and the shame  attending it.   Many even of those also confessed,
being persuaded to take that course by the  interrogators, who
promised them-indemnity for life and fortune.   Some there  were,
of  a truth, who suffered, with marvelous patience and constancy,
the torments inflicted on them, and would confess nothing im-
puted to their charge ;  but they, too, had to give large sums to
the judges, who  exacted  that  such of  them as, notwithstanding
their  mishandling, were  still able to move, should banish them-
selves from that part of the country."
   Monstrelet winds up this shocking narrative by informing us,
" that it ought not to be concealed that the whole  accusation was
a stratagem  of wicked men for their own covetous  purposes, and
in order, by these false accusations  and  forced  confessions, to de-
stroy the life, fame, and fortune of  wealthy persons."*
   The facts connected with the possession of the nuns of  Loudun
are too well  known to render it necessary  that we  should  enter
into the details; but in the description of one of these apparitions,
we perceive  all  the characters which  belong to a hallucination.
One of the nuns saw, during the night, a phantom surrounded by
a red light.   It approached her, and she recognized the ghost of
her deceased confessor.  He  spoke to her;  she answered  him,
and he  then disappeared,  promising to return  the next night.
The following night the spectre did not fail to show itself.  They
conversed together  for some time on religious subjects.  All at
once, she said, the phantom changed its form to that of Grandier ;
with its person it also  changed its conversation, and spoke to her
  * Chronique de Monstrelet, t.  iii. fol. 24, edit, de  Paris,  1572. Walter
Scott:  Opus cit. p. 202.
\ 
274
HALLUCINATIONS.
of love.   " It caressed her;  she resisted it, and cried out, but no
one  came  to her  assistance ; she trembled;  she entreated; she
became faint, and  calling on  the holy name of Jesus, the spectre
vanished."*  Such w"as the real origin of  the possession.
  We can readily understand  that  the  principle  of  imitation
would have great  influence over the susceptible imagination of
women, and that the visions would soon spread to the other  nuns.
  The result of this possession was the condemnation of the un-
fortunate  TTrbain Grandier, who was burnt alive on Wednesday,
the 18th of August, 1634, for the crimes of magic, witchcraft, and
sorcery.
  The origin  of lycanthropy reaches back to the earliest ages of
paganism.  In this  illusion the unhappy lunatics believed they
were changed into were-wolves.  Sometimes the pretended trans-
formation  was accomplished by means of drinks or poisonous unc-
tions.  It was more especially during the  fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries that this singular illusion spread through Europe. These
were-dogs and were-wolves abandoned  their houses to  dwell in
forests; they allowed their nails, their hair, and  their  beard to
grow.   Their  ferocity arrived  at  such a  pitch,  that they would
mutilate, and sometimes destroy and devour children who might
have the misfortune to come in their  way.f
  Wierius has reported a singular trial which took  place at Be-
sancon in  1521.   It was a case of lycanthropy, and certainly it
leaves no doubt of the insanity which existed on the one side, or
of the ignorance on the other.
  The inquisitor who  examined into the  affair ordered  the  three
accused persons to  be brought before  him ;  they  were named
Pierre Burgot, Michel Yerdun,  and  the gros Pierre.   All  three
confessed  that they  had given themselves to the devil, and that

  * Ch. Lauze :  Essai Medico-historique sur  les Possedees de Loudun, pp.
12-13.  Paris: 1839.
  f J. Garinet:  Opus cit. p. 118. 
MORAL CAUSES.                   275
after  they had anointed  themselves, they had wolves for their
wives.  Burgot acknowledged he had killed a young boy with his
wolf's paws and  teeth, and that he  should have eaten him if the
country people had not pursued him.  Michel Verdun confessed
that he had killed a young girl who  was  gathering peas out of a
garden ;  and that himself and Burgot had killed and eaten four
others.  He mentioned the time  and place, and the age  of the
children whom he had devoured.  He added that they made use
of a powder to kill them.
   These three were-wolves wrere condemned to be burnt alive.*
   Example 103.  A mason, in the autumn of  the  year  XII.,
fell into a deep  melancholy without any  known  cause.  During
the night  be had strange  visions,  and  in  the  morning  would
secretly steal away to secluded places.   On the  twelfth day of
his attack he refused  all  nourishment;  but two days  afterwards
he  devoured with extreme voracity the food which was offered to
him ;  he howled  like a wolf, and  was several times in a kind of
fury, with an inclination to bite.  On the fourteenth day, towards
night  time, he again escaped into the country, where  he  recom-
menced his howlings, but which ceased upon the repeated affu-
sion of cold water.  This singular disease appeared to terminate
on the eighteenth day with a violent attack of fever, which lasted
twenty-four hours.  His  complete recovery  seems to have been
accomplished by the unaided resources of nature, f
  It is curious to find in our own times, amongst the Abyssinians,
a superstition very similar to this, which prevailed amongst the
inhabitants of Europe during the Middle Ages. Like  them, they
believe in a zoological metamorphosis, which is the exact coun-
terpart of lycanthropy.  Thus the  class of potters  and  black-

  * Bottiger alteste  spuren der "Wolfowuth in der Griechischen mithologie,
nebst Zutsatzen von Sprengel, in dessen  Beitragen zur Gesch. der  Med.—
Freidreich, Litnrargesch. pp. 23-27.
  f Matthey: Nouvelles  Recherches sur  les Maladies de VEsprit, p. 96.
1816. 
276
HALLUCINATIONS.
smiths are generally regarded as having the power of metamor-
phosing themselves into  hyenas and other wild animals,  and to
be able to produce disease by their looks.   But, instead of being
brought to the stake, like the were-wolves of the Middle Ages,
they are feared, and live in peace.*
  The mystical  ideas from whence most of the superstitions we
have  alluded to are derived, were exceedingly favorable to the
production of hallucinations.   As these superstitions were  uni-
versal and their truth never questioned, their power was unlimited.
The minds of men were directed towards  heaven; but, governed
by the nature of their feelings and ideas, some delivered themselves
up  to the most ascetic penitence—fasts, chastisements, solitude,
and the fear of hell engendered by their frightful visions.   There
were others, on the contrary,  who gave  themselves  up to all the
emotions of an ascetic contemplation ; these had raptures, ectasies,
and communications with celestial spirits.   For the same  reason,
amongst pagans, those who had depressing thoughts, arising from
a bilious  temperament, were pursued by the furies and the infernal
deities ;  while those with elevated ideas, which belong to the  san-
guine temperament, saw sylphs, fairies, and the deities of Olympus.
  This ancient  and universal belief in  spirits, which  showed
itself amongst the  Greeks in the communications which were sup-
posed to take place with fauns and sylvan deities,  with  naiads
and demons ; amongst the Romans, with nymphs;  amongst the
Eastern nations, with genii and gnomes ;  and amongst Christians,
with fays,  sylphs,  angels, and devils, were the  sources of those
numerous hallucinations which are described in various works.  It
is to these superstitions that we  owe those tales  of the souls
which were in torment, coming to claim  the prayers of the living;
of  spirits making  revelations,  or  announcing  the  approach of
death, or who have revisited the earth in consequence of compacts
they had made when living;  and  of the dead  returning  to  suck
the blood of their  victims.
                * Pearce : Residence in Abyssinia. 
MORAL CAUSES.
277
  It is  certain that a vast number of apparitions have occurred
which coincided  with  no important epoch, and which were not
even followed by any  remarkable event: these,  therefore, have
been forgotten, while those which, by chance, have been realized,
have been carefully  kept in remembrance.
  Such is the story  told in Beaumont's World of Spirits,  one of
the most interesting of its kind.  The heroine of the event, which
took place in 1662, was the daughter of Sir Charles Lee.  No
reasonable doubt can  be placed on the authenticity of the narra-
tive, as it was drawn  up by the Bishop of Gloucester, from the
recital of the young lady's father.
  Example  104.   " Sir Charles Lee, by his first lady, had only
one daughter, of which she died in childbirth; and when she was
dead, her sister,  the lady Everard, desired to have the  education
of the child, and she was  by her very well educated  till she was
marriageable, and a match Was concluded for her with Sir Wil-
liam Perkins, but was then prevented in  an extraordinary manner.
Upon  a Thursday  night,  she, thinking she  saw  a  light  in her
chamber, after she  was in bed, knocked for her maid, who pres-
ently came to her ;  and she asked,  ' Why she left a candle burn-
ing in her chamber V   The maid said,  she ' left none,  and there
was none but what she had brought with her at that time.'  Then
she said it was  the fire;  but  that, her  maid told  her,  was quite
out, and said she believed it was only a dream ; whereupon she
said it  might be so, and composed herself again to  sleep.  But
about two of the clock she was awakened again, and  saw the ap-
parition of a little woman between her curtain and her  pillow,
who told her she was  her mother, that  she was happy, and that
by twelve of the clock that day she should be with her.   Where-
upon she knocked again for her maid, called for her clothes, and
when she was  dressed, went into her  closet, and came not out
ao-ain until nine, and then brought out with her a letter sealed to
her father;  brought it to her aunt, the Lady Everard, told her 
278                   HALLUCINATIONS.
what had happened, and declared that as soon as she was dead it
might be sent to him.   The lady thought she was suddenly fallen
mad, and thereupon sent presently away to Chelmsford for a phy-
sician and surgeon, who both came  immediately; but the physi-
cian could discern no indication of what the lady imagined, or of
any  indisposition of her body; notwithstanding, the lady would
needs have  her let blood, which was done accordingly.  And
when the young woman had patiently let them do  what they
would with her, she desired that the chaplain  might be called to
read prayers;  and when prayers were ended, she took her guitar
and psalm-book and sat down on a chair without arms, and played
and  sung so melodiously  and admirably that her music-master,
who was then there, admired at it.  And near the stroke of twelve
she rose and sate  herself down  in a  great chair with arms, and
presently fetching  a strong  breath or two immediately  expired,
and was so suddenly cold  as was much wrondered at by  the phy-
sician and surgeon.   She died at Waltham, in Essex, three miles
from Chelmsford, and  the letter was  sent to Sir Charles at  his
house in Warwickshire, but he was so  afflicted with the  death of
his daughter that he came not till she was buried; but  when he
came, he caused her to be taken up and to be buried with her
mother at Edmonton, as she desired in her letter."*
   The reflections which this case suggests seem  to us to  afford a
natural  explanation of the event; the  imagination  of a  sensitive
girl would  be  highly  excited at the   thoughts  of approaching
death.   The exaltation of the nervous system, in an organization
which was probably delicate, arrived at such a pitch as to exter-
minate life.  As regards the revelation, rational minds will only
see a happy coincidence, for without this accompaniment the story
would never have been told.
   In the north  of Scotland, and  in  some parts  of  Germany, the
inhabitants  still believe in a spectral apparition which appears
                    * Hibbert: Opus cit. 
MORAL  CAUSES.                    279
before the death of a person, giving warning of the event.   He
sees  his  double—a figure which resembles him  in  hight, in fea-
tures, in  manners, and in dress.  We have already alluded to this
phenomenon, which the  Germans term deutroscopia*  .
  The following anecdote is told of the celebrated Duke of Buck-
ingham.   Clarendon relates that the ghost of Sir George Yilliers,
the duke's father,  appeared no less than three times to an officer
of the wardrobe, to inform  him of the fate which awaited his son ;
but this man's situation  was too mean to warrant his  going directly
with the important intelligence to  the  favorite.   He  therefore
neglected the warning  till  the third time,- and then he  went to a
gentleman to whom he  was well known,  Sir Ralph  Freeman,  one
of the masters of the requests, who had married  a lady nearly
allied  to the duke, and prevailed with him to apply to  his grace
to grant the officer of the wardrobe  an   opportunity of speaking
with him privately on a subject of the utmost consequence to his
grace.   The man  gave  sufficient information, which he had got-
ten from the ghost, relative  to Buckingham's  private  affairs, to
satisfy the duke that  he was no impostor; and  the duke was ob-
served to be very melancholy afterwards.  But to what  all  this
warning tended, except to create  uneasiness at some impending
calamity, it is impossible to conceive, since the  hint was too dark
and mysterious to enable him to provide against the danger, f
   An apparition which made some  noise about the beginning of
the seventeenth century, that of Desfontaines, seems to have ori-
ginated  in a fainting fit, connected with the remembrance of a
friend.
   Example 105.   M. Bezuel,  a young student of fifteen,  had
contracted an intimacy with a younger  lad named Desfontaines.
After  talking  together of the  compacts which had been made
between persons,  that  in case of death the spirit of the deceased
should visit the survivor,  they agreed  to form such  a compact
  * Walter Scott: A Legend of Montrose, chap. xvii.  Note, " Wraiths."
  f Brodie: History of the British Empire, vol. ii, p.  209. 
280                  HALLUCINATIONS.
together, and signed it with their blood in 1696.   Soon after this
they were separated by Desfontaine's removal to Caen.
  In  July, 1697, Bezuel,  while  amusing himself in  haymaking
near a friend's house,  was seized with  a fainting fit; after  which
he had a bad night.  Notwithstanding this attack, he returned to
the meadow next day, when he again  fainted.   On the third day
he had a still more severe attack.   " I fell into a swoon ; I  lost
my senses; one of the  footmen  perceived me and called out for
help.   They recovered me a little, but my mind was more  disor-
dered than it  had been before ; I was told that  they asked me
then what ailed  me, and  that I answered, I have seen what  I
thought I should never see.  But I neither remember  the ques-
tion nor the answer.   However, it agrees with  what I  remembe'r"
I saw then—a naked man in half length; but I  knew him not.
  " Shortly after, when mounting a ladder, I saw at the bottom of
it my school-fellow, Desfontaines.  At this sight I had another
fainting fit;  my head got between two  steps, and I again lost my
senses.  They helped me down, and sat me on a large beam  which
served for a seat  in the Place  des Capucins.   I sat upon it,  and
then I no longer  saw M. de Sorteville  nor his  servants, though
they were present.   Perceiving Desfontaines near the foot of the
ladder, who made me a sign to come to  him, I went back upon my
seat, as it were, to make room for him; those  who saw me, but
whom I  did not see,  though my eyes  were open, observed that
movement.
  "Because he did not come,  I got up to go to him ; he came up
to me, took  hold of my left arm with his right  hand, and carried
me  thirty paces further into a  bye-lane, holding me fast.
  " The  servants believing that I was well again, went to their
business, except a stable-boy, who told M. de Sorteville that  I  was
talking to myself.  M. de Sorteville thought I was drunk.   He
came  near me, and heard me ask some questions and return some
answers, as he told me since. 
MORAL  CAUSES.                   281
   " I talked with  Desfontaines  nearly three-quarters of an hour.
'I promised you,'  said  he,  'that  if I died before you, I  would
come and tell you so   I was drowned in the river of Caen, yes-
terday, at this hour.  I was walking with such and such persons.
The  weather was very hot; the fancy took us to go into the wa-
ter;  I grew faint, .and  sunk to the bottom of the  river.   The
Abbe Meniljean, my school-fellow, dived to bring me up.   I took
hold of his foot; but whether he was afraid or had a mind to rise
to the top of the water,  he struck out his leg so violently that he
gave me a blow on the breast, and threw me again to the bottom
of the river, which is there very deep.'
   " Desfontaines," continues M. Bezuel,  " was taller than when I
had  seen  him alive.  I  always  saw him half-length, and  naked,
bareheaded, with his fine light hair, and a white paper  upon his
forehead,  twisted in his hair, on which there was a writing, but I
could only read 'In, &c.' "
   These spectral impressions were repeated more than once, with
conversations.   The accidental death of the young man was ascer-
tained very quickly.   The  celebrated Abbe de St.  Pierre, who
published this  anecdote, guarantees its being authentic, but con-
siders it may be explained by natural causes.  It is very probable
that  Bezuel's  fainting  was  the  cause  of  the  apparition.   " I
know," says Ferriar,  "from  my own experience, as well as  that
of others, that the  approach of syncope is sometimes  attended
with a spectral appearance, which I believe is always a recollected
image.   One circumstance that  should  be borne in mind, is the
obstinacy  with  which a morbid impression is preserved, long after
the restoration to health.   A gentleman fancied, during the deli-
rium of a fever, that a considerable estate had  been bequeathed
him; the impression continued long after  his recovery, and he
was not undeceived without much trouble and difficulty."*

  * Ferriar-.  Opus cit. p. 118.—Journal de Trevoux, vol. viii. 1724.
        19 
282                   HALLUCINATIONS.
  The recollection of the figure and the  voice  of  an intimate
friend may be the cause of a hallucination.  Of this kind  seems
to have been the celebrated apparition  of Ficinus,  to Michael
Mercato, mentioned by Baronius.
  Those illustrious friends, after a long  discourse on the nature
of the soul,  had  agreed, whoever of the  two should  die first,
should, if possible, appear to his surviving friend, and inform him
of his condition in the other world.
  "A short time afterwards,"  says Baronius, " it happened  that
while Michael Mercato, the  elder, was studying philosophy, early
in the morning, he suddenly heard the noise of a  horse galloping
in the streets, which stopped  at his door, and  the  voice  of his
friend Ficinus was heard, exclaiming, ' 0, Michael! 0, Michael!
those things are true.'  Astonished at this address, Mercato rose
and looked out of the window,  when he saw the back of his friend,
dressed in white, galloping off,  on a white horse.
  " Mercato called after him, and followed him with his eyes, till
the appearance vanished.   Upon inquiry, he learned  that Ficinus
had died at Florence, at  the very time when this vision was pre-
sented to Mercato, at  a considerable distance.    This  apparition,
which created a considerable sensation on account of  the elevated
position  of the persons concerned in it,   may be accounted for in
the following manner:  In studying the reveries of Plato,  the
idea of his friend, and of their compact, had  been  revived, and
had  produced a  spectral  impression, favored by the  solitude and
silence of the morning."*
   Ought we always to refer to the influence of  mysticism, and to
regard as  hallucinations of sight and hearing, events which seem
to have been the means of the sudden conversion of individuals,
who, up to the time of their  occurrence, had  been unbelievers ?
  * Ferriar: Opus cit. p. 100.  De Apparitionibus Mortuorum vivis et pacto
factis.  Lips. 1709.—Baronii Annates.  This story was told to Baronius
by the grandson of Mercato, who was Prothonotary of the  Church, and a
man of the greatest probity, as well as of general knowledge. 
MORAL CAUSES.
283
Looking at such matters in a religious light,  we are unable to
participate in this  opinion ;  we  believe that God has at times
chosen to make  use of supernatural means to recall  men to him
who have fallen  away; to think otherwise would be to reject the
authority of Scripture.*
  Example 106.   Colonel  Gardiner had  spent the evening in
some gay company, and had an unhappy assignation'with a mar-
ried woman, whom he was to attend exactly at twelve.  The com-
pany broke up about  eleven, and not judging it convenient to an-
ticipate  the time appointed, he went into his chamber to kill the
tedious hour, perhaps, with some amusing  book.    But it acci-
dently  happened that he took up a religious  book,  which his
mother or aunt,  without his knowledge, had slipped into his port-
manteau : it was called The Christian Soldier, or Heaven taken
by Storm.   Guessing by the title of it that  he would find some
phrases of his own profession spiritualized in a manner which  he
thought might afford  him some diversion, he resolved to dip into
it;  but he took  no serious notice of anything it had in it; and
yet,  while this book  was  in  his hand, an impression  was made
upon his mind—perhaps God only knows how—which  drew after
it a train of happy consequences.
  He thought he saw an unusual blaze of light fall upon the book
which he was reading, which  he at first imagined  might happen
by some  accident in the candle ; but lifting up his eyes, he saw, to
his  great amazement,  the Lord Jesus Christ upon the Cross, sur-
rounded on all sides with a glory;  and at the same time he seem-
ed to hear a voice utter these words :  " Oh, sinner!  did I suffer
this for thee, and are these thy returns?"   This apparition pro-
duced  so profound an  impression upon  the mind of  the Colonel,

  * There is an important distinction to make in regard to mysticism.
Taken in a general sense, it is not a disease of the mind ; it rests upon
undoubted truths,  and provides for an actual want.  Mysticism is beauti-
ful and  great, but it requires to be regulated. Without some check, it
falls into exaggerated and erroneous opinions. 
284
HALLUCINATIONS.
that he forsook his previous mode of life and became a religious
character. *
  To this instance, which has been quoted in  favor of a  divine
interposition, has been  opposed another vision which occurred in
the seventeenth  century to one of the most  powerful enemies to
Christianity, and of  which the effect  was to encourage him to
publish the book in which his dangerous tenets were contained.
  Example 107.  " My book, De Veritate, prout distinguitur
a Revelatione Verisimili Possibili et & Falso," says Lord Her-
bert,  "having been begun by me in England, and formed there in
all its principal parts, was about this time finished; all the spare
hours  which I could get from  my visits and negotiations being
employed to perfect this work, which was no  sooner done but that
I communicated it to Hugo Grotius, that great scholar, who, hav-
ing escaped his prison  in the Low Countries, came into France,
and was much welcomed by me and Monsieur Tieleners, also one
of the greatest scholars of his time, who, after they had perused
it, exhorted me earnestly to print and publish it.
  " The favorable opinion  of these two great persons encouraged
me ; but, on the other hand, I hesitated, in consequence of the op-
position I knew it would meet with.   Being  thus doubtful, in my
chamber, one  fair day  in  the summer, my casement being open
toward the south, I took my book, De Veritate, in  my hand, and
kneeling on my knees, devoutly said these words :   ' O, thou eter-
nal God, Author of  the  light  which  now  shines upon  me, and
Giver of all inward illuminations, I do beseech Thee, of Thy  in-
finite goodness, to pardon a greater request  than a sinner  ought
to make;  I am not satisfied enough whether I shall publish this
book  De Veritate; if it be  for Thy  glory, I beseech  Thee give
me some sign from heaven ; if not, I shall suppress it.'
  I had no sooner spoken these words, but a loud, though yet
* Hibbert:  Opus cit. p. 324. 
MORAL CAUSES.
285
gentle, noise came from the heavens—for it was like  nothing  on
earth—which did so comfort and cheer me that I took my petition
as granted, and that I had the sign demanded;  whereupon, also,
I resolved to print my book.
   " This, however strange it may seem,  I protest before the eter-
nal God is  true;  neither am  I any way superstitiously deceived
herein, since I did not only clearly hear  the noise, but in the sere-
nest sky that ever I saw, being without all cloud, did, to my think-
ing, see the  place from whence it came."*
   Dr. Ireland, in his  View of the  Deistical Writers, throws no
doubt on the statement of this nobleman.   We cannot help being
struck with the inconsistencies of the human mind in reading such
a narrative : here is a man who is preparing to send forth a book
against revelation, and entreats the  Deity to favor him with a spe-
cial revelation.  It seems to us logically incorrect to establish any
comparison between this case and that of Colonel Gardiner.
   When man is under the dominion of superstition and fear, there
are no ideas so extravagant but what  they may become to him as
realities.  One of the most singular forms of  insanities of this
kind is that which is  known under the name of vampirism, and
of which traces are met with in the  stryges of the Talmud.   This
species of epidemic prevailed at the commencement of the 18th
century in several parts of  Hungary,  Moravia,  Silesia, and Lor-
raine.   The country people who were attacked by it, believed that
after death the souls of their enemies appeared to them under dif-
ferent forms ;  some of them dreamed that these malignant  spec-
tres seized them by the throat,  strangled them, and sucked their
blood.   Others believed that they  actually saw these malignant
monsters.
   The various states  of ecstasy of which we have already spoken,
and which were characterized by all kinds of celestial visions, ori-

  * Hibbert: Opus cit. p. 227.—Autobiography of Lord Herbert of Cher-
bury. 
286
HALLUCINATIONS.
 ginated in modifications of these mystical ideas  acting upon an
 excited imagination.   It is to this influence we must refer the ap-
 paritions and sounds which occurred to the ConvuLsionists, the
 Secourists, the Ecstatics of Cevennes, the Possessed of Loudun,
 and the Convulsionists of  Cornwall and the  Shetland Isles,  &c.
   In pointing out the ideas which have had the greatest share in
 producing hallucinations, we have called attention to certain su-
 perstitious notions which prevailed during the Middle Ages ;  but,
 in order to appreciate the influence of this era of strange decep
 tions, of wonderful dreams, of fantastic but magnificent  and im-
 mortal fictions, it is indispensable to take a general review of the
 strange,  the  terrible, and  the  benignant beings  with which the
 world had already been peopled.*
   The barbarians not only brought with them death and spolia-
 tion, they also inculcated their religious opinions  in the minds of
 the inhabitants.   For the  first time the Roman people heard of
 Himenberg, that celestial city  which was only to be reached by
 traversing  the arc of the  heavens; of Nifleim,  a subterraneous
 world, watered by poisonous rivers; of the wolf Fenris, who  had
 strength sufficient to shake the  universe; of the serpent Yormon-
 godour, who encircled the earth with its  folds; of  Grasvitnir,
 whose very breathings produced terror;  and of the colossal Esk-
thirnir, a deer with  gigantic horns, the source  of the primitive
fountain  from whence  flowed  all the rivers of  the earth.   The
Hun, the offspring of a diabolical intercourse, who was regarded
as a man-eater, gave rise to the fable of the Ogre.
  Men—to  whom antiquity had  bequeathed its centaurs  and
minotaurs,  its  satyrs,  fauns,  pans  and  aegypans,  beings  who
were still encountered in solitary places—when they  listened to

  * Ferdinand Denis:   Le Monde Enchante, cosmographie, ou histoire
naturelle et fantastique du moyen-age.  Paris :  1842.  Bekker:  Le
Monde Enchante, 4 vols.  Amsterdam. 
MORAL CAUSES.                   287
similar tales, could not arrest the career of their imagination, and
they became surrounded on all sides by  supernatural beings.
  All at once these ancient forms  disappeared, and the supersti-
tions of the barbarians became merged in the paradise  and the
hell of the Christians, while the voice of Mohammed spread fresh
marvels over another portion of the world.
  The doctrines of Scripture, wrongly interpreted, caused a terri-
ble perturbation in the latter years of the ninth century ; men
were confounded with fear,  and  thought the end of the  world
was approaching.  We must contemplate the formidable  images
of the eleventh and twelfth centuries to form a just notion of the
terror which was spread over Europe.
  The forms of  Christian belief  which were developed under the
influence of these depressing  ideas, and the agony which was in-
spired  by the  fear that the destruction of  the world was at hand,
were extremely  favorable to the formation of those  demoniacal
opinions,  whose rapid extension is explained by  the  causes we
have already alluded to.
  Natural history did its part towards  increasing these errors of
the imagination, and in enlarging the realms of fiction.   The ex-
istence of the phoenix, of fabulous vultures, of winged serpents,
were taken for  truths; while the bones  of the  mastodon were
looked upon as  the remains of giants.  The air  was filled with
terrible dragons, basilisks, and flying  serpents.  The caverns of
the earth contained monsters with eyes of flame.   The seas were
the abode of the great Kraken, of the monk, and of the bishop of
the seas.  The  Talmud  increased these  fantastical conceptions,
by declaring the existence of cherubims, of spectral serpents, and
of stryges, a kind of vampire which sucked the breath of infants.
  The  discovery  of America  gave a new  direction to  men's
thoughts.   Adventurers  willingly encountered  a multitude of
perils in search of the Eldorado, of the terrestial paradise, and of
the fountain of perpetual youth. 
288                  HALLUCINATIONS.
    The vast forests of Malabar were peopled by singular creatures,
  who united in their extraordinary organization the religious reve-
  ries of India to  those of Europe.  Falsehoods, says  Fijoo, the
  Yoltaire of the Spaniards, are like serpents, they multiply without
  end.   Compelled to  retire  before the advancing tide of science
  which arose in  the sixteenth century, the traditions of the Middle
  Ages found a last retreat in the New World, where all the  divin-
  ities of the earth are to be met with.
    Such were the sources bf that mixture of the marvelous and the
  terrible, of faith and ignorance,  which, during the long period of
  the Middle Ages, formed the code of the human race, giving  rise
  to a number of superstitions, which produced real hallucinations,
  of which there  are traces in  every page of  history.   At the same
  time,  it may be understood why they are not to be considered as
  indications of insanity.   The  persons who were  subject to them
  only participated in the general  opinions of the age.   Their ima-
  gination, strongly excited  by these doctrines, whose  truth was
  never questioned, and by the tales which were told in support of
  them, led them  to see what others only imagined they had seen.
  The impulse thus given was communicated to all;  but still  the
  conversation and actions of these persons had no taint of insanity.
  The error originated in society, and not in  the individual.
    To complete this portion of our subject,  it is necessary to trace
  the causes  of hallucinations which existed in the  different  forms
* of civilization.   What has been previously  stated, shows that they
  would reflect the religious  beliefs, the passions,  the prejudices,
  and manners of the times.   Thus, on  reading  the history of the
  apparitions  which occurred to the Greeks  and Romans, they  are
  found to vary in accordance with the doctrines which were held by
  their  philosophers upon the subject;  and it was  these opinions
  which, in the course of time, prevailed amongst the mass  of the
  people.   In nearly all the ancient nations,  the hallucinations par-
  took of a religious character.   The importance assigned to dreams 
MORAL CAUSES.                   289
in Egypt, in Greece,  and by the Romans, explains  the  frequent
occurrence  of apparitions,  of  warnings,  and of communications
with supernatural powers, with  which the histories of these nations
abound.   This kind of hallucination frequently showed  itself in
the Lower Empire.   Julian, who was one of the emperors most
celebrated for his philosophical attainments, beheld the genius  of
the Empire  in the deepest affliction a few  days before his engage-
ment with the Persians.
   During the ninth  century, the emperor Basil, of Macedonia,
inconsolable for the loss of his  son, had recourse to the prayers of
a  celebrated pontiff.*    He saw the image  of  his beloved  son
magnificently clothed, and mounted on a superb horse ; the youth
rushed towards his  father,  threw himself in his arms, and disap-
peared, f
   In the East, nearly all the apparitions consisted of good or evil
genii, occupied in guarding  treasures and palaces;  of angels sent
by Mohammed to console the believer, or to warn the evil-doer of
the punishment which awaited  him.  In  India, where man's  life
was one continual system of worship, of which the least infraction
was  punished with severe penalties, the hallucinations were of a
religious character,  modified  by the climate and the  religious
tenets.
   Lastly, in regard to the action of moral causes in the produc-
tion of hallucinations, some special influences remain to be noticed,
the study of which presents more than one point of  interest.
   Fear, always essentially the  same, but which varies in its form
according to the  age, has produced—especially since the  period
of the revolution in  1789—a numerous body of hallucinated per-
sons,  who believe themselves  pursued by their enemies, by  the
police, or even by the public executioner.
   Example 108.  A clerk in a public office stated that his stores
  * Theodore Santabaren :  Abbe, Archere.que des Zachaites.
   + Eusebe Salverte :  Opus cit.—Les Grammat. in vita  Basil, imp. 20.
Brewster :  Opus cit. p. 67. 
290
HALLUCINATIONS.
had  been robbed; he  fell into a low, despondent condition, and
declared that the officers of justice were in search of him; he
saw the gendarmes surround his house, the scaffold prepared, and
the executioner in attendance to put him to death.  He was taken
out in order to convince him that no such scene existed, except in
his imagination ;  but it was  useless; he still continued to see the
scaffold and the gendarmes.   To escape this  imaginary death he
committed suicide.
   Example 109.   Clergeaud, who was  condemned  to death as a
poisoner by the court  of Assize at Perigueux, when he entered
his prison, was  seized with a kind of giddiness, and  knew no one.
A hallucination, which only left him on  the Wednesday morning,
made him mistake one  of the keepers for the executioner; he was
constantly under the  idea that this man was going to  kill him.
At night, however, Clergeaud recovered his  senses; he became
tranquil, and hope returned to him. *
   Hallucinations, like insanity, arise from remorse, more frequently
than is  commonly supposed.  The account of the death of Man-
oury, the surgeon, is a  convincing proof of  this; it  serves also to
explain the condition of many criminals.
   Example 110.  Manoury, who was  the enemy of Urbain  Gran-
dier, was chosen, on April 26,  1634,  to examine and  ascertain
whether, according to the statement of the prioress, the accused
had any part of his body which was insensible.   He fulfilled this
mission with the greatest barbarity, and one cannot  even think of
the sufferings of the unhappy man without a thrill of horror, f
He had, however, reason to  repent of his cruelties,  for,  "return-
ing one night from visiting a patient on  the outskirts of the town,
accompanied by his brother and another person, he  suddenly
cried out,  'Ah ! there is Grandier !   What do you want with

  * Gazette des Tribunaux, 2 Mai, 1844.
  f See the excellent  episode of the torture of Urbain Grandier in the
Cinq-Mars de M.  de Vigny. 
MORAL CAUSES.
291
 me ?'  He trembled violently, and was seized with a frenzy, from
 which his companions could  not recover him.   They took him  to
 his house,  talking perpetually to Grandier, whom he seemed  to
 have before his eyes ;  they got him to bed, still  trembling and  in
 the same state of  frenzy.   During the few remaining days of his
 life he  remained in the same state.  He died with the idea that
 Grandier was present, and endeavored to keep him away, uttering
 all the time frightful exclamations."
   Sully relates that the solitary hours of Charles IX. were ren-
 dered terrible by a repetition of the cries and groans which assail-
 ed his ears during the  massacre of Saint Bartholomew.*
   "Charles,"  says the illustrious minister,  "hearing,  on the
 night of that day, and during the whole of the next day, the
 account  of the slaughter of  so many old men, women, and chil-
 dren,  called apart Master Ambroise Pare, his principal surgeon, to
 whom he was greatly attached, although of the proscribed relig-
 ion, and said to him, 'Ambroise, I don't know what has come
 over me  during the last two or three days, but I find both my
 mind  and body greatly depressed ;  I feel as though I had a fever;
 and whether sleeping  or  waking, the slaughtered bodies,  with
their hideous and  blood-stained countenances, are always before
 me.   I  wish they  had not included the imbecile and the inno-
 cent."
   When the mind is burdened by a  great crime, monomania is
 close  at hand.   Not unfrequently accusing voices  terrify the guilty
 person,  and he becomes insane.
   Example  111.   In  1623  or  1624, one Fletcher, of Rascal, a
 town  in the North Riding of Yorkshire, a yeoman of good estate,
 married  a  young  woman  who had been formerly kind with  one
 Ralph Raynard, who kept an inn within half a mile from Rascal,
 in the high roadway  between York and  Thirske, his sister  liv-

  * Collection des Memoirs relatifs a VHistorie de France, 2e serie, vol. i.
 p. 245. 
292
HALLUCINATIONS.
 ing  with him.   This Raynard  continued  in unlawful  lust with
 the  said  Fletcher's  wife, who, not content therewith,  conspired
 the  death of Fletcher,  one Mark Dunn being  made privy, and
 hired to assist  in the murder, which  Raynard and Dunn accom-
 plished upon May-day,  by  drowning Fletcher,  as they came all
 three together  from a town called Huby; and acquainting the
 wife with the deed,  she  gave them a sack therein to convey the
 body, which they  did, and buried it  in Raynard's back field or
 croft, where an old oak-root had been stubbed  up, and  sowed
 mustard-seed upon  the  place, thereby to  hide it.  So  they con-
 tinued  their wicked course of lust  and  drunkenness, and the
 neighbors did  much wonder at  Fletcher's  absence;  but his wife
 did excuse it, and said that he was but gone aside for fear of some
 writs being served upon him.   And  so it continued until  about
 the 7th day of  July, when Raynard, going  to Topcliffe fair, and
 setting  up his horse in the stable, the spirit  of Fletcher,  in his
 usual shape and habit,  did appear unto  him,  and  said,  "Oh!
 Ralph, repent,  repent, for my revenge  is  at  hand."   And ever
 after, until he was put in the gaol, it seemed to stand before him,
 whereby he became  sad and restless; and  his  own  sister, over-
 hearing his confession and relation of it to another  person, did,
 through fear of her own life, immediately reveal it to Sir William
 Sheffield, who lived in Rascal, and was a justice of peace.
  They were all three apprehended, and sent to the gaol at  York,
 where they were all three condemned, and so executed accordingly
 near to  the place where Raynard lived, and where Fletcher was
 buried. *
  The death of Cardinal Beaufort is  represented as truly terrible.
 The  consciousness of having murdered the Duke of Gloucester is
 said  to have rendered Beaufort's death one  of  the most terrific
 scenes ever witnessed.  Despair in its worst form  appeared to take

  * Webster :  On Witchcraft, p. 296.  Webster assisted in the prosecu-
tion. 
MORAL CAUSES.                   293
 possession of his mind at the last moment;  he offered all  his
 wealth for some days' respite.   A few minutes before his  death,
 his mind appeared to be undergoing the tortures of the damned.
 He held up his two hands, and cried, "Away! away !—why thus
 do you look at me ?"   It was  evident he saw some horrible spec-
 tre by his bedside.*
   The Abbe Guillon, in his Entretiens sur le Suicide, has related
 a  most  remarkable case of a  duelist who had  killed, seventeen
 people in duels.  The phantoms  of his  victims  perpetually pur-
 sued him.
   The following case  is a convincing proof of  the effect  of  re-
 morse in producing hallucinations :
   Example  112.   " Jarvis Matcham was pay-sergeant in a regi-
 ment, where he was so highly  esteemed as a steady and accurate
 man, that he was permitted opportunity to embezzle a consider-
 able  part of the money lodged in his hands for pay of soldiers,
 bounty of recruits, then a large sum, and other charges which fell
 within his duty.  He was summoned to join his  regiment from a
 town  where he had  been on  the recruiting service, and this, per-
 haps,  under some shade  of suspicion.    Matcham perceived dis-
 covery was at hand, and would have deserted, had it not been  for
the presence of a little drummer lad, who was the only one of  his
party appointed to attend him.   In the desperation of his crime, he
resolved to murder the  poor boy, and avail himself of some balance
of money to make his escape.   He meditated this wickedness the
 more readily, that the drummer he thought had been put as a spy
on him.   He perpetrated  his crime, and  changing his dress after
the deed was done, made a long walk across the country to an inn
on the Portsmouth road, where he halted, and went  to bed, de-
siring to be called when the first  Portsmouth coach came.  The
waiter summoned him accordingly; but long after remembered,
* Forbes Winslow :  Opus cit. p. 52. 
294
HALLUCINATIONS.
that when he shook  the guest by the shoulder, his first words, as
he awoke, were, 'My God ! I did not  kill him.'
  " Matcham went to the seaport by the coach, and instantly en-
tered  as an  able-bodied landsman or marine, I know  not which.
His sobriety and  attention to duty gained him  the  same good
opinion of the officers in his new service which he had enjoyed in
the army.   He was  afloat for several years, 'and behaved  remark-
ably well in some actions.   At length  the vessel  came into  Ply-
mouth, and was paid off, and some of the crew, among whom was
Jarvis Matcham, were dismissed as too old for service.   He and
another seaman resolved to walk to town, and took the route by
Salisbury.   It was when within two or three  miles of this cele-
brated city, that they were overtaken  by a tempest so suddenly,
and accompanied with such vivid lightning, and thunder so dread-
fully loud, that the obdurate conscience of the old sinner began to be
awakened.   He expressed more terror than seemed natural for one
who was familiar with the war of elements, and began to look and
talk so wildly,  that his  companion became aware that something
more than usual was the matter.  At length Matcham complained
to his companion that the stones rose from the road and flew after
him.    He desired the man to walk on  the other side of the high-
way, to see if  they would  follow him  when he was alone.  The
sailor complied, and Jarvis Matcham complained that the stones
still flew after  him, and did not pursue the other.  ' But what is
worse,' he added, coming  up to  his companion, and whispering,
with a tone of mystery  and fear,  'who is that little drummer-boy ?
and what business has he to follow us so closely ?' ' I can see no
one,' answered the seaman, infected by the superstition of his asso-
ciate.   ' What! not see that little  boy with the bloody panta-
loons  !' exclaimed the secret  murderer, so much  to the  terror of
his comrade, that he conjured him, if he had anything on his mind,
to make a clear conscience as far as  confession could do it.  The
criminal  fetched a deep groan, and  declared that he was unable 
MORAL  CAUSES.
295
longer to endure the life which he had  led for years.   He then
confessed the murder of the drummer, and added that, as a con-
siderable reward had been  offered, he wished his  comrade  to  de-
liver him up to the  magistrates of Salisbury,  as  he  would desire
a shipmate to profit by his fate, which he was now convinced was
inevitable.  Having overcome  his friend's objections to this mode
of proceeding, Jarvis Matcham was  surrendered to justice  ac-
cordingly, and made a full confession of his  guilt.   But  before
the trial the love of life  returned.  The prisoner denied his con-
fession, and  pleaded 'Not Guilty.'  By this time,  however,  full
evidence had been procured  from other quarters.  Witnesses  ap-
peared from his  former regiment to  prove his identity with  the
murderer and deserter, and the waiter  remembered  the  ominous
words  which he had spoken when he awoke him to join the Ports-
mouth coach.  Jarvis Matcham was  found guilty, and executed.
When  his last chance of life was over, he returned to  his confes-
sion, and with his dying breath averred,  and truly, as he thought,
the truth of the  vision on Salisbury Plain.  " Similar  stories,"
adds Sir Walter  Scott,  "might be  produced, showing plainly
that, under the direction of Heaven, the influence of  superstitious
fear may be the appointed means of bringing the criminal to  re-
pentance for his own sake, and to punishment for the advantage of
society. "*
  Hallucinations, says Esquirol, may arise from the  voluntary or
forced  repetition of the same mental operations, f
  When the recollections  acquire the same intensity as  first im-
pressions, or when the same sensations are indefinitely prolonged,
it becomes impossible to distinguish between the two.   This is
what happened when the susceptibility of the brain becomes over-
wrought by constantly dwelling on the same  subject.  At those
times the individual is apt to hear or see the special objects of  his
          * Walter Scott: Opus cit. p. 367.
          t Esquirol: Des Maladies Mentales, vol. ii.  1838. 
296                   HALLUCINATIONS.
thoughts as distinctly as if the images or sounds came from with-
out ; his reason wanders, being deceived by these false sensations.
  Example 113.   In the month of October, 1833, a  woman,
aged twenty-eight, a native of Piemont, went to the ball given at
the fete of her village.  She danced for three days with a kind of
frenzy; after that she perpetually heard the  sound of the music
which had so delighted her.   Fire-baloons had been let off, and
of these she saw a continual succession,  one making  way for
another.  This hallucination disturbed the vital powers,  and ulti-
mately brought on a kind of nervous consumption.   Dr.  Brosse-
rio observed that the musical sounds continued to increase  with
the progress  of the disease, and  the  woman  died  without  ever
ceasing to hear them.*
  Example 114.   Tasso, whose  passion for the Princess  d'Est
was the cause  of all his misfortunes, ended by believing  that  he
had a familiar spirit with whom he conversed ; and from whom he
declared he learned things which he had never read  or heard of,
and that indeed were unknown to other persons.   J. B. Manso,
his friend, says, that one  day, at  Besaccio, near Naples, when he
endeavored'to convince him of  the illusion under which he labored,
the poet replied  to him :  " Since  my reasons are not sufficient to
convince you, I will do so by your own experience ; and  for this
purpose I wish you to see with your own eyes this spirit of which
I have spoken to you, and for which you will not trust my word."
" I accept the offer," said Manso;  and the next day, the two  be-
ing seated  before the fire, "on a sudden he observed that Tasso
kept his eye on a window, and remained in a  manner immovable.
He called  him  by his name, but received no answer.   At last
Tasso cried out,  'There is the friendly spirit that  is come to con-
verse with me; look ! and you will be convinced  of the  truth  of
all that I have said.'
* Journal de Paris.  23 Aout, 1831. 
MORAL  CAUSES.                    297
  " Manso heard him with surprise ; he looked, but saw nothing
except the sunbeams darting through  the windows.  He cast his
eyes all over the room, but could perceive nothing;  and was just
going to ask where the pretended spirit was, when he heard Tas-
so speak with  great earnestness,  sometimes putting questions to
the spirit, sometimes giving answers ;  delivering the whole in such
a pleasing  manner, and  in such elevated  expressions, that he
listened with admiration,  and had not the least inclination to in-
terrupt him.  At last, the uncommon conversation ended with
the departure  of the spirit,  as appeared by Tasso's own words,
who, turning to  Manso,  asked him if his doubts  were  removed.
Manso was  more amazed than ever *, he scarce knew what to think
of his friend's situation ;  and waived any further conversation on
the subject." *
  Apparently slight causes, such as  are enumerated below, and
which do not seem to us to have been previously noticed by those
who have written on the  subject, may favor the development of
hallucinations.
  Readings or  conversations on any  favorite subject continued
unreasonably late at night will produce restlessness,  unreasonable
fears, or even visions in nervous  and sensitive people.   Conolly
speaks  of young persons, who, from  this cause,  would  wake up
with frightful dreams, and were troubled for some  time with false
impressions  with regard to surrounding objects.   We attended a
gentleman of intelligence and  education, who, for several  years
after a severe attack of  fever,  experienced every night  the most
indescribable terror, and  an intense  feeling of anxiety, fearing
every moment that he should be surrounded by apparitions.  He
was aware this state was  the result of his illness,  but at the ap-
proach  of darkness, all his firmness vanished.

  * Hoole's Life of Tasso, p. 48.   Vie du  Tasse, par Manso. The Friend,
by S. T. Coleridge, vol. xi. p. 236.
20 
298
HALLUCINATIONS.
             SECOND  DIVISION—PHYSICAL CAUSES.

  These causes may be arranged under five heads.   To the first
belong those hallucinations which arise from special physical con-
ditions, such as descent,  sex, climate, &c. ;  to the second, those
occasioned by mechanical causes, by alcoholic drinks and narcotic
substances; to  the third, those which  show themselves with  in-
sanity ;  to the fourth, those  which are complicated with nervous
diseases not constituting insanity ; lastly, to the fifth belong those
hallucinations which are produced by inflammatory, acute, chronic,
or other diseases.   Many of these subjects having been considered
in another part of the work, we shall confine ourselves to giviug a
general description of them.
  First Section.—In this division we have to examine  the influ-
ence which is exercised over the production of hallucinations by
descent,  sex,  age, temperament,  occupation; by physiological
causes, by the seasons, and by climate and  locality.  We really
know nothing with regard to several of these causes, and of others
our knowledge  is  extremely  limited.   It must not be  forgotten
that the hallucination is  frequently  only a complication, a symp-
tom, and that,  under these circumstances, its separate  study is
extremely difficult.
  We have no  records  which prove  the influence of descent on
hallucinations.   Two cases of hereditary hallucinations have come
under our notice, and we  are of  opinion that this disease, like
others of the nervous system, is capable of being transmitted.
  The father of Jerome Carden  was subject to apparitions, and so
was the son.  Catherine de Medicis had a hallucination in refer-
ence to  Pierre de I'Estoile, and  Charles IX., her son, had one on
the night of the  massacre of Saint Bartholomew.
  We have not  observed anything in  regard to the occurrence of
hallucinations which  could specially  be referred  to the influence 
PHYSICAL CAUSES.
299
of sex.   Out of one hundred and thirty-six persons admitted into
our  establishment,  sixty-three  were  males  and  seventy-three
females.   It is very different, however, with regard to the nature
of the hallucinations, for throughout their history it is found that
erotic  ideas prevail in women.  Their infrequency in man is  ex-
plained by the greater facility he possesses for gratifying his  de-
sires.
   Age.—Hallucinations generally originating in  moral causes,
and being very frequently complicated with insanity, their appear-
ance corresponds with the progress of that disease, and they show
themselves  at the time  of  life which is most liable to it.  There
are many exceptions to  this rule, and instances have occurred of
children being subject to hallucinations at a very early age.
   Example 115.  About twelve  years ago we saw, in a private
asylum in Paris, a young girl seven years old,  whose mother  and
grandmother were insane, and  subject to hallucinations.  This
child had a  particularly  intelligent appearance—a high forehead,
with large expressive eyes.   Her  conversation was very  superior
to that of most children  of her age, and surprised all who  heard it.
   The animation and  restlessness of the child were excessive ;
she could never remain  quiet in one place, and always wanted to
be moving about.  Any attempt to restrain her rendered her irri-
table and impatient.  From time to time  she was subject to at-
tacks, which showed themselves  in the following manner :  Her
animation and restlessness were increased, her speech  was short
and  abrupt,  and she soon  fell into a  state of ecstasy ;  her  eyes
were turned upwards, and  became fixed,  an  expression of happi-
ness spread  over her countenance, and she spoke in an impressive
tone of voice,  saying, " Do you see those angels in the heavens ?
They are crowned with  flowers ;  they advance to meet me ; they
have come to seek me."  Yery often  she would remain silent, as
if plunged in a state of abstraction; then she would again point
with her finger towards the  heavens, calling to the  angels.  When 
300                   HALLUCINATIONS.
       this had lasted  for two or three hours, the vision  disappeared;
       while it continued, the girl was as  white as wax,  her  skin was
       cold, and her  pulse scarcely perceptible; as soon as it was over,
       she  would fall asleep.   Upon  waking up, her agitation  returned,
       and continued for some days.   Her conversation was somewhat
       disconnected;  she scarcely understood what was  said to her, and
       answered in a peculiar manner.  Everything would  then go on in
       the usual manner, until a fresh attack took place.
          These hallucinations  in children may arise from  fear or from
       punishment.   They occur during the waking state as well  as du-
       ring sleep, and in the latter case will continue some  time after the
       child has woke up.
          Example 116.  "A  young girl, about nine or ten years old,
       had spent her birth-day with several companions of  her  own age,
       in all the gayety of youthful amusement.   Her parents were of  a
       rigorous sect, and filled the child's mind with a number of strange
       and horrible tales concerning the devil, hell, and  eternal damna-
       tion.  In the  evening, as she was  retiring to rest, the devil ap-
       peared  to her, and threatened to  devour her; she gave a loud
       shriek,  fled  to the apartment  where  her  parents were, and fell
       down, apparently dead, at their feet.   A physician was called in,
       and  in a few hours she  began to recover  herself.   She  then re-
       lated what had happened, adding that she was sure she should be
       damned.  This occurrence was immediately followed by a  severe
       and tedious nervous complaint."*
         Example  117.  A child, nine years of age, of a delicate and
       very excitable  temperament, having  been severely  reprimanded
       for some fault,  went to bed in great grief.   In  the  night his pa-
i       rents were awoke by his cries ; they went to him, and found him
       in  tears, and struggling to get  away;  they asked  him  what he
       was doing.   His answers, at first, were confused; his eyes were
         A. Crichton :  Opus cit. vol. ii. p. 15.  Psychological Magazine,  vol. iv.
       pt. i p. 70. 
PHYSICAL CAUSES.
301
open, and he told them he was disturbed by a number of persons,
who were  before him, causing him great alarm, and whom  he
begged them to remove.   They assured  him that there was  no
one  in the room but themselves, though he  still persisted that
other persons were present.  They told him he should get up and
have some tea with them ; a proposal he readily agreed to.  His
tears and his alarm continued for a short  time, and then entirely
ceased.
   Hibbert has taken the account of an interesting case of  hallu-
cination from the Mercure Galant of 1690.
   Example 118.   "I was sent  very young  to a town at  a dis-
tance of seven leagues from my native place, in order that I might
be weaned from home and learn to write.   Having returned from
thence, at the  expiration of five or six months, I was directed to
repair to  the house of one of my relatives, where my father, who
was newly returned from the army, had arrived, and had sent for
me.   He  examined my specimens of writing, and, finding them
good, failed not to express a suspicion of their being  my own.
As he was going out, therefore, one afternoon, along with the
lady of the house, to pay a visit in the neighborhood, he recom-
mended me to write ten or  twelve lines, in order to remove his
doubts.   Immediately  upon my father's  departure,  my  duty
prompted me to go up to the chamber that had been allotted for
us, and having searched for all my  writing materials, I knelt down—
being  then a  little boy—before  an  arm-chair,   upon  which  I
placed my paper and ink.
  " While engaged in writing, I thought  I heard upon the  stair-
case people who were carrying corn to granaries.   Having,  there-
fore, risen from the place where I was kneeling, I turned a corner
of the tapestry, and saw a little  room open, and in this room my
father seemed engaged in conversation with the lady of the house,
being seated near her.   As I had seen both one and the other
get into a carriage, and  set out from the chateau,  I was  much 
302                   HALLUCINATIONS.
surprised  at  now  perceiving them before me.   Terror united
itself to astonishment.   I let go the  tapestry, and, leaving the
chamber, quickly descended the  staircase.
  " Upon meeting with the housekeeper, she remarked some alter-
ation in my face, and asked what was the matter.   I told her all
about it.  She honestly assured me that I had  been dreaming,
and that the marchioness and my father would not return for more
than an hour.   I would fain have discredited her assurance, and
stood fixed near the door of her room, until at length I saw them
arrive.   My trouble was not a little increased at the sight;  for
the present, however, I said nothing  to  my father; but when,
after supper, he would  have sent me to bed  before  him, all the
self-collection which I could muster on the occasion was to allow
myself  to be conducted out of his presence.   Yet I waited  for
him  to accompany me  into our chamber, for  I was unwilling to
reenter it but along with him.    He  was astonished,  therefore,
upon retiring, to find that I had lingered.  He failed not to ask
me what was the cause of it; and, after some vain excuses, I con-
fessed to him that  I was terrified, because spirits had appeared in
the chamber.   He  derided my fear, and demanded of me to whom
I was indebted for  such foolish tales.   I then told him my adven-
ture ; which he no sooner heard, than, intent upon undeceiving
me, I was conducted by him to the granaries, or rather to the
garrets, to which the staircase led.  It was then  made  known to
me that these garrets were not fit to  be store-rooms for corn—
that  there was actually none there, and that there never had been
any.   Upon my return, as I followed close to  my father, he asked
me to point out the place where I had  lifted up the tapestry and
seen  the room open.  I searched for it in all directions to show
him, but in vain.   I could find no other door in the four walls of
our chamber than  that which led from the staircase.
  " Events so opposite to what I had believed could be the case,
alarmed  me still  more, and I imagined, from what I had heard 
PHYSICAL CAUSES.
303
related of goblins, that some of them had caused these  illusions
iu order to abuse my senses.   My father then  insisted that such
alleged  freaks of spirits were  mere fables—more fabulous even
than those of iEsop or of Phsedrus; adding, that the truth was,
I had slept while writing, that I dreamed during my sleep all which
I now believed  I had heard and seen,  and  that the conjoined
influence  of surprise  and fear having acted on my  imagination,
had caused  the same effect upon it as would have been produced
by truth itself.   I had difficulty at the time to assent to his reason-
ing ; but was obliged to acknowledge it in the end  as very just.
Observe, however, how strong  the impression  of this dream was.
I think, candidly, that if the vision had  not been falsified  by all
the circumstances which I have just noted,  I should, even at this
time, have received it for a truth." *
  There can be no doubt that this was not a dream, but a hallu-
cination.  I  could  cite numerous similar instances  which  were
caused by a preoccupied state of the mind, by fear,  by the dread
of punishment, or from the alarm which is produced by the silence
and darkness of night.
  Nothing positive can  be  stated with regard to  the influence
of professions : a priori, those which afford the greatest  scope to
the imagination should be the most favorable  to the production
of hallucinations.   In support of this opinion,  we might mention
several  poets who  have had hallucinations, and  whose abbera-
tiou was evidently owing to the nature of their occupation.
   Climate, undoubtedly, exercises an influence over hallucinations.
The character of the European differs  from that of the Asiatic
and African.  The physical constitution  tends to impress a special
character on the various nations ; but, in addition  to this, we feel
convinced that the ideas vary with the natural features of the dis-
trict.   In proof of climatal influence, it  is sufficient to recall the
theological creeds and the systems of cosmogony belonging to the
* Hibbert:  Opus cit. p. 436. 
304
HALLUCINATIONS.
north; in these countries the aspects of nature are gigantic, wild,
and  terrible;  the inhabitants—as  the Laplanders, the Ostyaks,
and  the  Samoiedes—are  of a highly susceptible temperament,
and people their solitudes with invisible beings.*   On comparing
the opinions of these nations with regard to the world of spirits
with those which prevailed in Greece and America, they are found
in each case to accord with the natural features of the country.
   The hallucinations present remarkable differences in regard to
locality;  those which occur in  towns  are frequently very distinct
from  those which take place in the  country.   Thus, while the
effects of the passions and of skepticism are reflected in the first,
ignorance and superstition  impress their characters on the second.
The  histories  of the most civilized  countries, such as France,
England,  and Germany, would fill  volumes with  these  popular
superstitions.   The following is one belonging to Franche-Comte:
" On  the  plateau of  Haute-Pierre there is  often  seen a figure,
half-woman, half-serpent; it is the  Vouivre.  She has no  eyes,
but ou her forehead she  carries a carbuncle,  which guides her by
a ray  of light which shines by day as well  as by night.  When
she wishes to enter a river, she is obliged to leave the carbuncle
on'the land.  Any one who can then succeed in obtaining it, may
command the spirit, and compel her to bring him all the treasures
which are hidden in the mountains ; but it is a dangerous adven-
ture ; for, at  the least noise, the Youivre darts out of the  river,
and woe to him whom she may encounter, f  The English sailor,
who  fears nothing else, confesses his terror for Old Nick, and be-
lieves him the author of almost all the various calamities to  which
the precarious life of a sailor is so  continually exposed.
   The Bhar-guest, or Bhar-geist, by which name it is generally
acknowledged  through various  country parts  of England, and
particularly  in  Yorkshire,  also called  a Dubie—a local spectre,
  * The countries of the North were long regarded as the abode of demons
and magicians.—Broc : Essai sur les  Races Humaines, vol. i.  1836.
  t Xavier Marmier :  Souvenirs de Voyage et Traditions Populaires, p. 73. 
PHYSICAL CAUSES.
305  •
 which haunts a particular spot under various forms—is a deity, as
 his name implies, of Teutonic  descent. *
   Solitude  is one  of the  influences which belongs to locality.
 This will  constantly produce a partial hallucination  or  ecstasy,
 especially in imaginative individuals.   The Eastern  tales of the
 desert, and the feelings of those who have traversed  it, show the
 powerful effect  of this cause ;  nevertheless,  observation  proves
 that it varies with the locality.  The hallucinations  which occur
 on the Northern steppes are different to those which  arise on the
 burning  plains of the  South.
   In speaking of the physical causes of hallucinations, we may
 again refer to those  which are produced voluntarily by looking at
 the sun,  or an image of it in a glass, and then directing the vision
 to a dark part of the room.
   Amongst  other experiments of this  kind,  Darwin has related
 the following:  "I covered a paper about four inches  square, with
 yellow, and with a pen  filled with a blue  color, wrote upon the
 middle of it the word BANKS, in capitals ; and sitting with my
 back to the sun, fixed  my eyes for a  minute exactly on the centre
 of the letter N in the word.  After shutting my  eyes, and shading
 them somewhat with  my hands, the  color was  distinctly  seen in
 the spectrum in yellow  colors on a  blue  ground; and then, on
 opening  ray eyes on a yellowish wall at twenty feet distance, the
 magnified  name of  BANKS  appeared on  the wall, written in
 golden characters."
   "A  friend  of  mine,"  says Abercrombie, "had been one day
 looking intensely at a small print of the Yirgin and Child, and
 had sat bending  over it for some  time.   On raising his head, he
 was startled by perceiving at the  farther end of the apartment a
female figure of the  size  of life, with a child in her  arms.   The
first  feeling of surprise having subsided, he instantly traced the
source of the illusion,  and remarked  that the figure corresponded
                 * Walter Scott: Opus cit. p. 97. 
306
HALLUCINATIONS.
exactly with that which he had contemplated in the print.   The
illusion continued distinct for about two minutes." *
  The state  of the atmosphere  may produce  singular  visions.
All who have traversed the desert  or the  ocean  are acquainted
with the phenomenon of the mirage.   General Daumas, in his
translation  of the Travels  of the Arab Sid-el-Adg-Mohammed,
has mentioned  several curious examples of this.   Soldiers  who
have made  campaigns in Egypt and Africa have witnessed distant
views of rivers,  trees, villages, or armies, which, on a  nearer ap-
proach,  have resolved themselves into dry  and  burning masses
of sand.  The same effects  may be produced by great elevations
in the atmosphere.
  Onanism, by its action on the  nervous system, and the mental
depressson  which it produces when it has been long continued, has
frequently been the cause of hallucinations.
  We have known young men who had been well  and religiously
brought up, but having contracted this pernicious habit, they sank
into the  deepest despondency, lost  all desire of life, became the
victims of imaginary terrors, and were pursued by temptations to
commit suicide.   In these cases the physical constitution  was nut
altered,  but the distressing  feelings arose from the mental suffer-
ing.
  The second division of physical causes which may give  rise
to hallucinations, comprises mechanical causes, alcoholic drinks,
certain gases, plants, and poisonous narcoctic substances.
  The mechanical causes which favor hallucinations include pres-
sure  on the organs of the senses, their  irritation  by foreign
bodies, concussion of the brain, hanging, abstinence,  and insuf-
ficient food.
  A miner was  shut up in  one  of the galleries of the mine  for
fifteen days, having no food, and only so much water as he caught
Abercrombie : Opus cit. p. 63. 
PHYSICAL CAUSES.
307
by a drop at a time in his hand.  During all this time he never lost
his senses;  but when he thought upon the  distress of his wife and
children, he heard celestial voices which quieted all anguish. *
   M. Savigny, who  was on the raft  of the wrecked Medusa, and
experienced all the horrors of starvation, saw himself surrounded
by  beautiful plantations, and was in communication with beings
of an agreeable nature.   He reasoned, however, upon the state  he
was in, and  felt that  it was only by a strong mental effort he could
ward off this kind of incipient insanity.  Many of those on board
the Medusa daily imagined themselves surrounded  by  similar ob-
jects ; some saw vessels in the distance, which they signaled  to
their assistance, or they beheld  a road leading  to  a magnificent
city.   M.  Coreard  fancied he was passing through the  most
beautiful scenery  of  Italy.   M. Savigny observes, that during the
nights he and  his  companions were attacked  with  dementia.
When daylight returned, they were more  tranquil; but the ap-
proach of darkness  reproduced the  disorder in their enfeebled
brains.   He noticed, with  regard to himself, that his imagination
was much more vivid during the silence  of the  night; at which
time everything had a strange and fantastic appearance, f
  Abstinence has performed an  important  part in the  production
of the hallucinations of  monks and of the  anchorites of the  The-
baid.
   Continence will occasionally  give rise to false sensations.   A
priest, mentioned by Pinel, had the most frightful hallucinations*
which were  cured by a natural discharge.
  The. effects of alcoholic liquors have been sufficiently exam-
ined when speaking of delirium  tremens ;  we shall therefore only
remark, that it is not uncommon for persons who have  habituated

  *Medical and Physical Journal, by William  Hutchison, vol. xliii. No.
252, Feb.  1850.
  f These, read 1818, to the Faculte de  Paris, by M. Savigny, surgeon to
the  Medusa frigate. 
308
HALLUCINATIONS.
themselves to the use of spirits, and who suddenly leave them off,
to have hallucinations, from which they are relieved by returning
to a moderate use of their accustomed stimulant.
   The action  of nitrous oxide gas on the economy deserves es-
pecial notice.   Under its influence the  sensations and  the  ideas
are extremely vivid;  the  mind gradually becomes  insensible to
actual impressions,  particularly such as are disagreeable ;  these
are replaced  by others of a joyous and happy character.   Sir
Humphry Davy states that,  when  he  had inhaled  this  gas, he
" lost all  connection with external things ;  trains of vivid visible
images passed rapidly through his mind, and were connected with
words in such a manner as to produce perceptions perfectly novel.
He existed in a  world of newly connected and newly  modified
ideas.   After  partially recovering himself, he exclaimed, he says:
1 Nothing exists but thoughts !  The universe is composed of im-
pressions, ideas, pleasures, and pains !' "*
   Of all the  substances whose action  on  the  body gives rise to
hallucinations  and illusions, the most remarkable are  opium and
the haschisch.   In the  work entitled Confessions of an English
Opium  Eater, the author has admirably described the sensations
which he experienced from the prolonged use of this drug.
   Example 119.  The first notice I had of any important change
going on in  this part of  my physical economy, was  from  the
reawakening of a state of eye generally incident to childhood, or
exalted  state  of irritability.   At night, when I lay awake in bed,
vast processions passed along in mournful pomp ; friezes of never-
ending  stories, that to my feelings were as sad  and solemn as
if they were stories drawn from times before CEdipus or Priam—
before Tyre—before Memphis.  And  at the  same time a cor-
responding change took place in my dreams; a  theatre seemed
suddenly opened and lighted up within my brain, which presented
* Davy's Researches on Nitrous Oxide, p. 488. 
PHYSICAL CAUSES.                  309
nightly spectacles of more than earthly splendor.  And the four
following facts may be mentioned as noticeable at this time :
  That, as the creative state of the  eye increased, a sympathy
seemed to arise between the  waking and dreaming states of the
brain in one point.   That whatsoever I happened to call up  and
to trace  by a voluntary act upon the darkness, was very apt to
transfer itself to my dreams, so that I feared  to exercise  this
faculty; for, as Midas  turned all things to gold that yet baffled
his   hopes  and defrauded  his  human  desires,  so whatsoever
things capable of being visually  represented I did but think of in
the  darkness,  immediately shaped themselves into phantoms of
the eye ; and, by a process no  less  inevitable,  when  once thus
traced  in  faint and visionary colors, like  writings in sympathetic
ink,  they were  drawn out by the fierce chemistry of my dreams
into insufferable splendor that fretted my heart.
  For this, and all pther changes in  my dreams," were accompa-
nied by deep-seated  anxiety and gloomy melancholy, such  as are
wholly incommunicable by words.  I seemed every night to de-
scend, not  metaphorically, but literally to descend,  into chasms
and  sunless abysses, depths below depths, from which it seemed
hopeless  that I could ever reascend.   Nor did I by waking  feel
that I had reascended.
  The sense of space, and, in the end, the sense of time,  were
both powerfully affected.   Buildings,  landscapes, &c, were ex-
hibited in proportions so vast as the bodily eye is not fitted to re-
ceive.   Space  swelled,  and  was amplified to  an extent of un-
utterable  infinity.   This, however, did not disturb me so much as
the  vast expansion  of time ; I  sometimes seemed to have lived
for seventy or a hundred years in one  night—nay, sometimes  had
feelings representative of a  millennium  passed  in that time, or,
however, of a duration far  beyond the limits of any human ex-
perience.
  The minutest incidents of childhood, or forgotten  scenes of 
310
HALLUCINATIONS.
later years, were often revived.  I could not be said to recollect
them, for if I had  been told  of them when waking, I should  not
have been able to acknowledge them as parts of my past experi-
ence.   But, placed as they were before me in dreams, like  intui-
tions, and clothed  in  all their evanescent circumstances and  ac-
companying feelings,  I  recognized instantaneously.  I was once
told  by a near  relative of mine, that having in her  childhood
fallen into a river, and being on the very verge of death but  for
the critical assistance which  reached her, she saw in  a moment
her whole life, in its minutest incidents, arrayed before  her simul-
taneously as in a mirror; and she had a faculty developed as sud-
denly for comprehending the whole  and  every part.  This, from
some opium experiences of mine,  I can believe.   I have, indeed,
seen the same  thing asserted twice in modern books, and accom-
panied by a remark which I am convinced is true ;  viz., that  the
dread book of account which the Scriptures speak of, is, in fact,
the mind itself of each individual.
   With a power of endless growth and  self-reproduction,  archi-
tecture entered into my dreams.   In the very early stage  of  my
malady, the splendors of my dreams were indeed chiefly architec-
tural,  and I beheld such pomp of cities and palaces as  was never
yet beheld by the waking eye, unless in the clouds.   To  my  archi-
tectural, succeeded dreams of lakes and silvery expanses of water.
For two months I  suffered greatly  in my head.   The waters now
changed their character; from translucent lakes, shining like mir-
rors, they now became  seas and  oceans.   And now came a tre-
mendous change,  which,  unfolding  itself  slowly  like a  scroll,
through many  months promised an  abiding torment; and, in fact,
it never left me until the winding  up  of  my case.   Hitherto  the
human face had mixed often in my dreams, but not despotically,
nor with any special power of tormenting.   But nowT that  which
I have called  the  tyranny  of the  human face  began  to  unfold
itself.   Upon the rocking waters of the ocean the human face be- 
PHYSICAL CAUSES.
311
gan to appear; the sea appeared  paved with innumerable  faces
upturned to the heavens—faces  imploring,  wrathful, despairing,
surged upwards by thousands, by myriads, by generations, by cen-
turies ;  my  agitation was  infinite—my mind tossed and surged
with the ocean.*
   Dr. Porqueville, in his Voyage en Moree, has given a frightful
picture  of the  effects of opium  on those who habitually use it.
Their passion  for it is so strong, that the certainty of death and
all the miseries which precede it, cannot hinder them from indul-
ging in this deadly poison.
   Example  120.   This writer relates the case of an English
ambassador,  who was sent on a political mission to one of the
Indian  kings.  On his arrival at the palace  of the  sovereign, he
was  conducted through a long  suite of magnificent apartments,
lined by officers of state clad in  the richest apparel; he was then
led into a small chamber, where  the  furniture and decorations
were of a still  more  costly description than what he had already
seen.
   There he  was left  by himself.  In a short time two persons of
high rank entered, preceding a litter borne by slaves, and covered
with rich silks and cashmere shawls of great value.  On the couch
was stretched a human form, which he should have  mistaken for
a  corpse but for the motion of the head, which corresponded to
that of the bearers;  two of the officers in attendance had in their
hands a golden waiter, on  each  of which was a cup, and a small
bottle containing a bluish-looking liquid.
   The ambassador, thinking he was the involuntary witness of
some  funeral ceremony, wished  to retire; but he  was soon un-
deceived upon  observing one of  the officers  raise the head of this
apparently lifeless being, replace the tongue, which was  hanging
from the  mouth, and make it swallow  some black  liquid, at the

  * Confessions of an English Opium  Eater, pp. 37-40.  London: 5th
edition. 
312
HALLUCINATIONS.
same time closing the mouth, and gently rubbing  the  throat in
order to facilitate its passage.  When this  operation  had been
repeated five or six times, the figure opened  its eyes and  closed
its  mouth of its own accord; it then  swallowed, without  assist-
ance, another large dose of the liquid, and, in less  than an hour,
became revived, and sat up on the  couch, having  somewhat re-
covered its natural color and the partial use  of its  limbs.  He
then addressed the envoy in Persian,  and  asked him  the objects of
his  mission.  For nearly two hours  this  extraordinary person re-
mained perfectly conscious and capable of transacting business of
the  greatest importance.   The  English ambassador  took the
liberty of asking  him  some questions  concerning the strange
scene which he had witnessed.  "Sir," he replied, "I have long
been an opium-eater, and by degrees have fallen into  this deplor-
able condition.   I pass three parts of  the day in the torpid state*
in which you have seen me.  Although  incapable  of moving or
of speaking, I retain my consciousness,  and  during this time  I
am  surrounded  with the most delightful visions ;  but I  should
never awake if I was not surrounded by  zealous and  affectionate
attendants, who  watch over me with  the most anxious solicitude.
When, from the  state of my pulse, they know that my heart is be-
coming enfeebled, and my respiration is scarcely perceptible, they
then make  me swallow a solution  of opium,  which  revives me in
the manner you  have seen.  During these four hours I shall have
swallowed several ounces, and in a short  time I shall  relapse into
my  habitual torpor."*
  In some  particular cases, opium has  been known to produce its
peculiar effects  on the brain without the persons having  used it
for  any length of time, and, in a few cases, this has  occurred from
the first dose.
  Example 121.   " Some  time ago," says Abercrombie,  "I at-
  * Porqueville :  Voyage en Moree.—Bibliotheque  Universelle de Geneve,
1841.  Neuf Annees a Constantinople, par Brager, 2 vol. in-8.  1836. 
PHYSICAL CAUSES.                  313
 tended a gentleman affected with a painful local disease, requiring
 the use of large  opiates,  but which  often failed  in producing
 sleep.  In one watchful night there passed before him a long and
 regular exhibition of characters and transactions connected with
 certain occurrences which had been the subject of much conversa-
 tion  in Edinburgh some  time  before.  The figures succeeded
 each other  with all the regularity and vividness of a theatrical
 exhibition : he heard their conversation and long speeches which
 were occasionally made, some of which were in rhyme;  and he
 distinctly remembered,  and repeated the next  day, long passages
 from these  poetical  effusions.  He was quite awake, and quite
 sensible that  the  whole was a phantasm ; and he remarked that
 when he  opened his eyes, the vision vanished,  but  instantly  re-
 appeared whenever he closed them.*
   Attention was  directed, some  years  ago, to a substance which
 is extensively used in the East, under the name of haschisch.   It
 is made from the seeds  of  the Indian hemp (Cannabis Indica);
 and it  would appear,  from  the  researches  of MM. Lengles,
 Michaud, and De  Sacy, that this compound performed an import-
 ant part during the Middle Ages ;  it is highly probable that the
 Vieux de la Montague  made use of it to plunge their fanatics into
 a species of delirium.
   The facts which have been observed in Egypt and  France  are
 in favor of this  opinion.   In 1840  I assisted,  with several other
 medical men, at an inquiry, of which the results were published in
 the  Gazette Medicate.   Those  who  were present felt no doubt
 that the haschisch was the principal ingredient in the liquid which
 was given to the persons experimented on, even if it  was not that
preparation itself, without the admixture of any other ingredient.
The following is an account  of what took place at this meeting:
I had been requested by M. A. de G., well known by his transla-
tion of  Pliny, to  be present at some  experiments  which were
                * Abercrombie : Opus cit. p. 388.
        21 
314
HALLUCINATIONS.
about to be made on a liquid whose effects, he  said, when  drank,
were precisely similar to the phenomena which were exhibited by
the adepts of the Vieux de la Montagne.
  When I  arrived, I found,  amongst the persons  who were
present, MM.  Esquirol, Ferrus, and others well-known in science,
literature, and art.
  Example 122.   Three persons had taken the liquor at eleven
o'clock: A. K., a novelist, of  strong physical  organization;  D.,
a barrister, one of the most celebrated  pupils  of the university;
and B., a painter and musician.   Two hours elapsed without any
sensible effect being produced.  A fresh dose was  administered,
when we noticed the following phenomena in two of these gentle-
men : A. K. resisted  the  action  of the liquor, experiencing, ac-
cording to his own  statement,  only a slight sensation in the head
and  epigastrium ; possibly a second meal, which he had  taken,
prevented the effects of  the liquor: all three  had partaken of
breakfast previous to the  experiment.
  The state of the pulse  was not noticed at  the commencement,
but its  acceleration at a later  period, and the state  of the pupil,
sufficiently proved the action of the liquid.
  M. B.,  who was the first to experience  any effects from  the
drug, complained of a dryness in his throat, and twitchings in his
limbs ; the pulse was 96 in a minute, and the countenance injected.
Soon M. B. closed  his eyes in order to collect his thoughts ; his
ideas seemed to become developed  with extraordinary  rapidity.
At one time he exhibited the singular phenomenon of the  double
man, a fact which had already been observed in some  previous
experiments;  he heard, he said,  music  with one ear,  and what
was spoken with the other:  this, however, did not last long.  The
pupils  at this time were greatly dilated.   Upon being asked what
he  felt, M. B.  said he had voluptuous  sensations.   He became
very animated, in consequence of the feeling of lightness and hap-
piness which  he  experienced.   He wished to be left alone  and 
PHYSICAL CAUSES.
315
 where there was a subdued light; he felt an invincible repugnance
 to speaking or doing anything;  the persons around him assumed
 a ridiculous appearance.
   Up to this time M. B. had kept in communication with those
 who were present;  he would walk about, and laughed, sometimes
 very loudly; his actions more or less resembled those of a man
 excited by drink.  All at once he threw himself on a sofa, and
 would answer no more questions ;  he begged to be left quiet, and
 not to be disturbed from  the delicious sensations which possessed
 him.   There were spasmodic movements of the limbs and of the
 diaphragm;  he sighed, wept, and laughed by turns.   The pulse
 beat  120 in a minute ; the countenance  was very florid.  A feel-
 ing of alarm was felt by  those around, but it was speedily dissi-
 pated upon hearing M. B. repeat several times that he was very
 happy, and free from  all pain.  All the  phenomena he  exhibited
 were  of  an ecstatic character ; his features  expressed the greatest
 happiness ;  he was at a loss for words  in which  to  describe his
 sensations; he  had no wish to pass out of his present state, he
 was so happy.   The effect of B.'s temperament was manifested
 in the experiment by his  becoming  extremely  sensitive.   But
 when things of a joyous character were introduced, or if laughable
 and agreeable images were presented to his mind, his ideas would
 immediately  harmonize with  them.   It  is quite  evident, in  this
 case, that the person experimented on was under the  influence of
 the person who addressed him, and that it was in the  speaker's
 power to guide his thoughts in what direction  he  pleased.   Dur-
 ing the  experiment, M. B. acquired great acuteness  of ear,  and
 could distinctly hear things which were whispered a long way off.
 During his  ecstasy he never lost his  consciousness of things or
 persons; he replied  correctly to the questions which were put to
 him, he knew the persons  who were  around  him ; but he evidently
 spoke with the  greatest reluctance, and that he would rather have
been left in the undisturbed enjoyment of his ecstasy.   At half- 
316                   HALLUCINATIONS.
past four the pulse was 90 ; the ecstatic reveries continued.  He
felt as though his soul was liberated from  his body ; but, never-
theless,  had the most agreeable sensations.   All  those I have
questioned on the subject who have made the experiment, assured
me that they  felt no inconvenience  the next day, and  that the
feeling of happiness continued for two or three days.
   M.  D., the  second  who was experimented on, felt convinced
that the liquid would have no effect upon him, and was determined
to resist its influence.   For  two  hours and a half no symptoms
were manifested.   The countenance of M. D. is naturally stern;
he is of a serious disposition, and engaged in the  study  of meta-
physics.
   Towards two o'clock, his pulse was 100, and the  heart beat vio-
lently.    M. D.,  who  up to  this time had  been perfectly col-
lected, conversing with the different persons at the meeting, cried
out that he was in a delirium; he began to sing, and, taking up
his pen, endeavored  to describe his sensations.   The following
are some of these fragmentary notes:  "It  is very droll; my
sensations are extremely vivid; what decided  me to  take this
admirable beverage was, that I might be useful without fear;  I
am very singular.  Ah! they are laughing at me, I will write
no more."  He threw his paper aside.  The delirium increased.
The features of M. D.  became very changeable; he had  a sarcas-
tic smile, a lively 'expression of the eye, the countenance was in-
jected,  the pulse  120, and  the pupil  dilated.  Like M. B.,  he
seemed  perfectly happy; he  laughed, sang, jesticulated, and spoke
with extreme  volubility.  His  ideas succeeded each  other  with
great rapidity; he had the appearance of a  delighted  monoma-
niac.   In the  midst of these  numerous and versatile ideas, those
which belong to his usual pursuits still prevailed.  These grave
subjects  were  mingled  with  jokes, witticisms, and  puns.  The
tongue  was dry;  he  was constantly spitting; and the lower ex-
tremities were agitated with  slight convulsive movements.  The 
PHYSICAL CAUSES.
317
experimentalist himself remarked, " This is a singular kind of
insanity."  Like  M. B., his sight and  hearing  were extremely
acute.   He  had no longer any notion of time or space, but he
recognized all the persons who were present, and at times replied
correctly to the questions which were put to him.  He drew out
his watch, and said very seriously, " It is such an hour."   A mul-
titude of ideas came into his head, but he could not find terms in
which to  express them.   "I  wish," he said,  "you  would  take
away an ear and an eye, and give me a  tongue the more, that I
might be able to communicate what I feel."
   The pulse diminished in frequency, it became softer, and did
not beat  more than 90 in a minute.   The delirium continued;
some water was  given to him,  and he cried out,  "That will  pro-
duce frogs, which will swallow the liquor."  He uttered a number
of incoherent phrases, with inconceivable volubility and much ges-
ticulation.
   The delirium then changed its character; M. D. sat down in a
corner of the room, closed his eyes, and talked to himself: he had
the appearance of a person who is  inspired.   We stood around
him while he discoursed upon the sciences,  and gave definitions ;
then, like a person who is making preparatory efforts, he pronoun-
ced certain  broken  words, and  suddenly repeated some twenty
verses.   Believing they  were  already  known,  we neglected to
note them down ;  but  when asked  if Yictor Hugo was  not the
author, he replied, " No."  " They are your own, then ?" to which
he made a sign of assent.   His countenance had a gay and satis-
fied expression ;  he had become  extremely  pale;  the pulse  beat
100; the eyes were closed, but he opened them at the request of
his brother, and the pupils were less dilated.
   He ceased to  improvise, and spoke of foreign countries.   We
had been told that the experimentalists manifested the phenomena
of second sight.  M. D. accurately described,  as though they
were present, the countries and towns which  he had visited ; he 
318                   HALLUCINATIONS.
remembered particular events which happened during his travels :
thus he told us that he saw men engaged in building the Pantheon
at Naples, and gave us a most poetical description of the locali-
ties and countries which had attracted his attention ; but, in spite
of all our questions, he was quite unable to describe places he had
never visited.  He  saw objects  which had  no existence.  His
brother  asked him  if he could  see  into his  brain.  " No, it is
empty;  besides," he added,  "how do you expect I can see into
your brain when  there are curtains and other objects between us?"
Presently he rose up, saying: "All this has been a dream;  the
aberration gave a powerful impulse to my ideas, but it has added
nothing to what  I  knew."  The delirium, which for  some  time
had been confined to one train of ideas,  now again became  gen-
eral.  The person who put questions could, as in the previous
case, make him talk and act as he  pleased.*  This experiment
presented several remarkable phenomena.  The person under the
influence of the  haschisch had a maniacal  exaltation ;  his ideas
were unconnected, and succeeded each other with great rapidity;
they were in a state of excitement, which placed them beyond the
influence of the will.  The mind was under the dominion  of hal-
lucinations and illusions.   Things of the past  could be called and
revived, as though they were actually present;  but it was neces-
sary for the individual to have had a personal knowledge of them,
for when questioned concerning things which were not  known  to
him, he would reply, that it was  impossible for him to describe
what he  had not seen,  or, if he  attempted, the description was
obscure.   As in  dreams, the idea of time and space was lost.   In
one of the three, the excitement  so far exalted  his faculties as  to
enable him to improvise a number of verses ; it is not, however,
proved that the subject had not  been previously treated by him.
What is certain, is, that M. D. declared he felt his  intellectual

       * Brierre de Boismont: Gazette Medicate, 2  Mai, 1840. 
PHYSICAL CAUSES.
319
 capacities were enlarged, but that the exaltation had added noth-
 ing to what he previously knew.
   In the  midst  of this disordered career  of the ideas,  a state
 which one of the experimentalists termed a singular insanity,
 the feeling of  personality was preserved ; nothing was more curi-
 ous than the contrast which existed between the rational  replies
 that were made to the questions addressed to them, and the ram-
 bling character of their ideas when there was nothing to recall
 them to the realities of life.
   In one instance a circumstance occurred which had some analogy
 to the doctrine of the duality of the mind, which Dr. Wigan has
 endeavored to  establish—with one ear  the person  heard the con-
 versation,  and with the other the  music  which  was being played.
 All the  persons experimented  on had  voluptuous  feelings and
 great sensibility  of the organ of hearing;  they  were delirious;
 the  ideas  became fixed  on  a  particular subject;  and they were
 liable to irresistible impulses
   Stramonium (datura stramonium)  is another poisonous sub-
 stance which has  the power  of producing hallucinations.
   Example 123.  Some years ago a musician and composer, who
 was borne  down by domestic calamities, determined to put an end
 to his existence.   For this  purpose he took a large dose of stra-
 monium.   The poison first produced giddiness, but soon gave
 rise  to  symptoms resembling those of  drunkenness.   He saw
 troops of men  whirling before him, and  endeavoring to entangle
 him in their disordered movements.  All the persons of the ballet
 in Gustave, at  which he had assisted on  the previous night, pre-
 sented themselves before him, mocking him  and tormenting him
 in every possible manner.   He lost his consciousness, and fell on
 the ground, when he was carried to the police-court, where he
 became extremely violent, thinking he was surrounded by thieves
and assassins, who intended  to ill-use him.   The figures appeared 
320
HALLUCINATIONS.
 by  hundreds, filling the  room,  and were possessed  of  the  most
 hideous countenances.
   Taken to the Hotel-Dieu, he  was treated as a furious madman,
 whom it was necessary to  put in confinement.   The next day,
 when he was brought to my establishment, his excitement, though
 very  decided, was  much  diminished.   The  pupils still  remained
 sumewhat  dilated, and he  was  still surrounded by phantoms.
 These phenomena  soon ceased, and at the  end  of three days he
 was completely recovered.
   In  November, 1843, three young children ate  some seeds of the
 stramonium.  They soon exhibited the usual symptoms  produced
 by this drug: to these were added, in two  of the children,  num-
 erous and  continued hallucinations of sight.  The  next day all
 the symptoms were much diminished;  the youngest continued very
 weak  in its legs.   On the third day all the  symptoms had disap-
 peared, as if by enchantment. *
  Many of the  patients who were treated with  the  stramonium,
 according to the plan of Dr. Moreau, saw animals in their beds.
 This hallucination occurred principally during the night.
  The berries of the belladonna will  likewise produce  hallucina-
tions or illusions.   In the Dictionnaire  des Sciences Medicates
a case is mentioned, where a company of soldiers, having eaten
some of these berries by mistake, were attacked by numerous illu-
sions.   M.  Baillarger, in  his clinical  lectures at the Salpetriere,
has related  several cases of this  kind.   A  cook, at  the  monthly
period, took some  iufusion  of belladonna, which brought on an
attack of delirium.   She  saw herself  surrounded by  a number of
little animals which ran along the  ground; she endeavored to put
her hand upon one of them,  but  only took hold of a leaf, as in the
 Tales of the Thousand and One  Nights, or in those legends of
treasures sold by the devil.
  The third section comprises hallucinations  complicated  with
               * Examinat. Med. 15 Mai, 1843. 
PHYSICAL CAUSES.                    321
mental diseases.  It is to be observed that, in many instances, they
precede the insanity, and that then they ought to be considered as
the cause of it;  but in  a great number of cases they arise during
the progress of the mental disease.  They are then only a result, a
symptom, and complication of it.  Several  questions have sug-
gested themselves : Do the hallucinations depend upon the organic
changes  superinduced by the  mental disease ?  Are they associ-
ated with the psycho-cerebral excitement which  has produced the
insanity ?  In a  word, are  they physical or moral  ?  The distinc-
tion is often very difficult, yet the nature of the hallucinations and
their immediate  connection with the cause of the  insanity, justify
us in thinking that they often arise  from moral causes.   With this
reservation, we are of opinion  that the action of mental diseases,
although  imperfectly  known,  should  nevertheless  be  classed
amongst the physical causes.
   The fourth section contains the  hallucinations  of nervous dis-
eases not constituting forms of insanity, and  those of nightmare
and ecstasy.   What we  have just  stated with regard  to the dis
tinction between moral and physical causes, will also apply to the
present section.
   The fifth section includes the hallucinations which are observed
in inflammatory, acute,  chronic and other diseases.   These  have
been already considered in a former chapter.
   We have thus  endeavored to trace out,  as  far as was in our
power, the causes of hallucinations.    In  doing this, we  do not
suppose  that none have been omitted, but at least  we feel satisfied
of having accumulated essential materials towards a complete eti-
ology of this disease. 
C HAPTE R  XII
   HALLUCINATIONS IN RELATION TO PSYCHOLOGY, HISTORY, MORALITY AND
                           RELIGION.

   The time has come when it is necessary for us to consider col-
lectively the examples which have been recorded, the observations
we have  made upon them, and the brief but complete demonstra-
tion which we have  given of the return of the sensations to the
state they were in at the  time of the conception of an idea, and
of the conversion of the conception into a hallucination  (reflex
sensation).  The intelligent reader  ought now to recognize  the
scientific character of our opinion, and to perceive that it is based
on a legitimate induction from a principle inherent in the nature
of man—that of forming  a mental representation of objects.  In
order to  demonstrate the  physiological character  which we have
assigned to one series of hallucinations, it is necessary to establish
our  theory, with its immediate consequences, and to  answer the
objections  which have  been raised  against it.   There is no one
who has  not repeatedly called up in his mind the recollection of  a
friend, a  landscape, or a statue ; and in proportion to the strength
of his will and  the power of his imagination, the image has been
indistinct and obscure, as if seen through a mist, or clear, vivid,
and well-defined, but still  inferior to  the original.
  Practice will  render the images more definite and more truthful,
so that under some circumstances  they become as  real  as  the
original  sensations.   Several  years  ago, when we  devoted our-
selves to this kind of research,  we have frequently seen the figure
of a clergyman, an  intimate friend, whom we had  selected for 
PSYCHOLOGY, HISTORY, RELIGION.          323
the experiment on account  of his artistic  appearance.   At  that
period we could summon his image before  us whenever we chose,
whereas now it only appears to us from time to time, and inde-
pendent of our will.  It has the size and characters of the origi-
nal, and faithfully represents all the  details  of his person  and
dress.   We see it smile, talk, preach, and make  use of his habit-
ual attitudes.   This mental representation is visible to us whether
our eyes are open or shut.  The image is external, in front of us,
and in the  direction  of the visual ray; it has a shadowy appear-
ance, and is of a different nature to an objective  sensation;  but
nevertheless we see it with a perfect outline, with the hues of  life,
and  possessing in its peculiar way all  the  characters of the  real
object.   In this case it is therefore impossible  to make use of any
other term than the word see.   It is useless to say that to see an
object, and to represent  that object to oneself, are two things to-
tally distinct,  and that  there is a vast difference  between these
impressions.   Our reply is, we have the  sensation of an idea, an
image, so  truly represented, that were  we an  artist,  it  would
not be  merely a  resemblance, but  as  a  ray of light emanating
from  our interior  sense, which  we  could reproduce upon  the
canvas.
   M. Boisbaudrant, one of the professors at the Ecole Imperial of
drawing, has endeavored to make his pupils avail themselves of
this power of  mental  representation of objects, or, as it has been
termed, the mnemonic  faculty of  painters.   He places  before
them a model,  and directs them to examine it carefully;  at the
end of a few  minutes it is removed, and he then tells them to
draw the model from memory.  The following are the answers of
some  of the students to questions which were put to them with
respect to this mode of proceeding :
   Q.  After having studied your model, and allowed it to be re-
moved, what plan do you pursue when you endeavor to draw it
from memory ? what is your  guide ?  A. I endeavor to figure to 
324                    HALLUCINATIONS.
myself the model,  but I  only obtain a confused view of it.
Another:  I see it best when I close my eyes.
   Q.  What do you do when the image is too confused or disap-
pears ?   A.  I make an  effort, and  it  becomes  more  visible ;
sometimes it escapes me altogether, but with some difficulty I am
able to recall  it.
   Q.  You have now practiced this for four months.   Do  you
always experience the3 same  amount of difficulty ?   A. No ;  the
image at present is much more distinct than when I commenced,
and, if it  disappears, I can recall it almost at will.
   This reply  was confirmed by all the  other pupils.
   This fact, therefore, verifies the proposition we have laid down,
viz., that by practice it is possible to  give  such intensity to  the
mental representation, that it may be combined with sensation.
In treating so difficult a subject, theory is best  explained by ex-
amples.  The  following case shows that, if the mnemonic faculty—
and  consequently the  hallucination—is not the  first sensation,
it approaches it so closely that the mistake is perfectly excusable.
   One day the celebrated sculptor, Dantan, saw  a young man
enter his studio, his countenance expressive of the  deepest grief.
" Sir," he  said, " I have a sister who is on  her  death-bed, and I
have come to ask you to make a bust of her.  To take you to
her and request a sitting  would reveal to her the state she is in.
I must, therefore, find some means of introducing you which shall
not excite  her suspicions."   The next day the unhappy brother
entered his sister's room,  accompanied by a shopman from one of
the first  houses  in  Paris, bearing a  quantity  of jewelry.   The
artist—for it  was he who played  the part of the jeweler's assist-
ant—spread some boxes of jewels on the bed.
   While the  invalid was temporarily roused up by the  sight of
the jewels, the sculptor contemplated  her with that comprehensive
glance which daguerreotypes the  model in his memory.   The 
PSYCHOLOGY, HISTORY, RELIGION.          325
 brother and the supposed shopman prolonged the selection until
 a sign from the artist indicated that he was prepared to leave.
   The  impression  obtained  at the interview was  soon realized,
 and the result was a most perfect likeness of the young invalid—
 a piece of living marble.
   A year passed since  this occurrence, when one  morning the
 father of  the young man was announced.   " Sir," he  said to the
 sculptor,  " my  son  is on his death-bed, attacked by the same fatal
 disease which deprived me of my daughter, and I have  come to
 ask you for his bust, as he asked you for that  of his sister.  You
 will require an interview to impress his features on your  memory,
 which is  all  the more difficult because your person is known to
 him."
   They bethought them  of changing some of  the furniture in the
 room of the dying man.   Disguised as an  upholsterer's assistant,
 Dantan entered the room, and approaching the bed to  receive the
 young man's orders, was enabled  to watch  him.  The patient did
 not  recognize the sculptor.
   Having removed  a looking-glass, Dantan  arranged it so as to
 reflect the countenance of the young man, and in such a manner
 that he could fix his attention upon it for some time without being
 noticed.   The  brother died,  and his bust was  placed beside that
 of his sister.
   This  faculty  is not confined to  the  recollection of the features
 of an individual, but may include an entire composition.
   In the  church of St.  Peter, at  Cologne,  the  altar-piece  is a
 large and  valuable picture by Rubens, representing the martyrdom
 of the apostle.   This picture having  been carried  away by  the
 French in 1805, to the great regret of the inhabitants, a painter
 of that city undertook to make a copy of it from recollection,  and
succeeded  in doing so in such a manner that the most delicate
tints  of the original  are preserved with the minutest  accuracy.
The original painting has now been restored, but the copy is pre- 
326
HALLUCINATIONS.
 served along with it;  and even when they are rigidly compared,
 it is scarcely possible to distinguish the one from the other.*
   Serious  objections have emanated from some  members of the
 Societe Medico-Psychologique to this doctrine of  mental repre-
 sentation, f  M.  Baillarger, who regards a hallucination  simply
 as a disease, observes  that, like Burdach and  Muller, he has  ex-
 perienced various phantasms, and that he feels certain they could
 not be associated with  any of his previous ideas, not even of those
 images which were the most  distinct.  Moreover, he  considers
 that between these phenomena there is the same kind of affinity
 as between a substance and a shadow—he ought at least to say a
 shadow which reflects and is bounded by distinct outlines.
   A  great  artist, M.  Horace Yernet, when questioned by  M.
 Maury as to the mnemonic faculty,  told him  that  the most dis-
 tinct images of objects which the memory reproduced could not
 be compared with  actual  sensations.   M.  Baillarger concludes
 from  these observations, that  the mnemonic  faculty, even  when
 most  developed,  never becomes a hallucination, a phenomenon
 which  constitutes the  most complete deviation from the laws of
 physiology.   He sees an insuperable difference between a normal
 sensation and the recollection of this sensation—between the hal-
lucination, which  is  spontaneous and involuntary, and that remi-
 niscence  which is summoned  up  by  an act of volition.   In fact,
 according to this gentleman, it is a new phenomenon, of a special
kind, which is entirely pathological.
   M. de Castlenau is  also opposed to physiological  hallucina-
tions, and, moreover, declares  that they are not  consistent with
reason.   He commences by denying  the identity of  the hallucina-
tion with the sensation, because the  latter presents three distinct
facts—the impression, the transmission, and the perception ; while
  * Abercrombie :  Opus cit. p. 130.
  f Societe  Medico-Psychologique:  Discussion  sur les  Hallucinations,
Ann. Med-Psych. 3"  serie.  t. i. p. 526.  1855,—idem, t. ii. p.  126 et
suivantes.  1856. 
PSYCHOLOGY,  HISTORY, RELIGION.          327
in the hallucination there is no evidence wliatever of the impres-
sion.   He adds, that there is no proof that the brain is the exclu-
sive seat of the hallucination ; and with respect to the argument
which has been drawn from  the excited state of  the nerves of
sense in the blind, and in the deaf and dumb, he says it is of no
value, inasmuch as it might be shown that  the cerebral  termina-
tion of the nerve was itself altered.   The frequent  association of
hallucinations with mental derangement is only a coincidence.  It
is equally difficult to show the identity or non-identity of the hal-
lucinations, or of the true sensations, with the ideas or the sensa-
tional recollections, because the recollection is essentially under
the control of the will; while the sensation and the hallucination
are completely involuntary.
   Having thus stated  the objections of MM. Baillarger and Cas-
tlenau to the theory, that the mental representation is a phenom-
enon of  sensation, we  return  to the  consideration  of those facts
and arguments which seem to us to prove its correctness.
   M. Buchez has justly observed, that since it is the same organ-
ism which is the seat of the phenomena exhibited in health  and of
the symptoms presented by disease,  it is quite natural that there
should be points of  analogy between the two states.  This com-
mon origin is, however, no reason why they  should be confounded
together, and  especially that they should be  designated  by the
same terms.  An energetic and enduring will, or a state of pro-
longed concentration, will sometimes produce a certain  condition
of mental abstraction and isolation from external objects, as  was
the case, so often quoted,  of Archimedes.   Are we to admit that
a state of profound meditation, to which we owe the most splendid
discoveries that have  done  honor to the human mind,  is a state
of disease, because  it  offers certain analogies with ecstasy ? or is
even ecstasy itself always a pathological phenomenon ?  It is cer-
tain that these two states should not be confounded together; the
one belongs to physiology, the other to pathology. 
328                   HALLUCINATIONS.
   Let us apply this reasoning upon the phenomena of hallucina-
 tions, in support of the sound and lucid arguments of M. Peisse.
   " Some persons," says this writer, " are surprised that I should
 have maintained that a hallucination is only an exaggerated con-
 dition of the normal phenomenon, exhibited in the mental repro-
 duction of sensational perceptions by the memory and the imagi-
 nation ;  while, according to M. Gamier, the mental representation
 consists  only of the conception.   Yet I believe it to be so lite-
 rally, and without any figure of speech ; and I think I am justi-
 fied in saying, that the representation in the mind of any sensible
 and known  quality, whatever may be the  cause which  produces
 it, is a perception, a  sensorial  act,  identical in its essence with
 those sensations which  are  termed external.   When,  having
 closed  my eyes,  I mentally summon up any visible  object, is what
 I then perceive—as M. de Boismont says, in  his work on halluci-
 nations—anything else than an  assemblage  of lines and colors,
 arranged in a determinate manner—in one  word, an image ?
   Having thus logically proved that every  mental  representation
 of a color, and equally, therefore, of a sound,  a taste, or an odor,
 is ipso facto an art of vision, of hearing, of taste, or of smell,  I
 believe I am justified in concluding that the  phenomena—appa-
 rently so dissimilar—of sensorial perception  or  sensation,  of
 voluntary and normal mental  representation  (memory, imagi-
 nation,  conception),  and of involuntary and  abnormal mental
 representation (illusions, hallucinations), result  from the ope-
 ration of one and the same psycho-organic faculty, acting under
 different  conditions, and with apparent degrees of  intensity.   In
 answer to the objections which have been urged by MM. Gamier
 and Baillarger against this explanation, I shall produce a simple
statement and comparison of facts, which are open to the observa-
tion  of every one.
  When  a material object  is placed before me, I have a conscious-
ness of a representation, in which the object—let it be a  man or a 
PSYCHOLOGY,  HISTORY, RELIGION.           329
*    picture—appears to me as it actually and  really exists substan-
     tially and externally to me.  The act by which I usually become
     cognizant of this evidence  of something  existing  externally, is
     termed external perception or sensation.   In this particular case
     it is a perception of sight.   To perceive by the eye, is to see.
        Now, if I close my*eyes, the image of this man, that is to say,
     the man—for, as regards the sense of sight, the  man, or his image,
     is the same  thing—usually disappears ; nevertheless, I can by an
     act of the will reproduce the representation, and obtain a contin-
     uance  of  the  image.   But  in that case the  image is not so well
     defined, and is less clear; it has a tendency to become distorted,
     to become obscure, and to vanish.  Besides which, in this case the
     visual  representation is  not accompanied by a belief in the actual
     external existence of  the object seen.   Yet that of which I have
     the consciousness with my eyes closed, is virtually the same thing
     as that of  which I had the consciousness a minute before, when my
     eyes were open.  It is impossible for  me to  perceive any essential
     difference in the nature of the two images.  The second is evi-
     dently only  a continuation  or repetition of the  first.  I therefore
     apply to both the same expression—I see.
        This kind of vision  may arise in  other ways.   Thus, in the
     morning or at night previous to or after sleep, it is not unusual to
     have the sensation of fantastic images floating before the closed or
     open eyes, which perceive both them and  the real objects over
     which  they pass or become arrested.  These images have also a
     more marked character  of outwardness than the mental repre-
     sentations, but  less marked than in the sensorial  perceptions.
     More  subjective than a sensation, more objective than a simple
     conception, these varieties of representation are intermediate be-
     tween the  two modes or extreme degrees of vision.   They resem-
     ble  a  sensation by their clearness,  by the permanency of the
     images, by the definite position of the images in actual space, and
     by their spontaneous and involuntary  appearance ; they approxi-
             22 
330                   HALLUCINATIONS.
mate  to a simple conception by their instability  and incessant
change, whence it happens that the  person who experiences them
resists the illusion, and does not become the dupe of his eyes.   It
is an incomplete form of hallucination.
  At length, in dreams and hallucinations, a belief  is engendered
in the reality of the imaginary objects.  'The  person sees and
believes.
  In all these cases a visible image is evidently produced, which
is the essential and invariable element of  each of these acts.  In
all these instances the person also uniformly expresses himself by
the term I see, implying thereby consciousness.   Doubtless there
are great differences in these  psychical conditions, but the differ-
ences only relate  to accessory and secondary circumstances, or to
such as are even unconnected with the existence of the phenomenon.
  Amongst these  differences there  are  principally  two, which
seem to MM. Baillarger and Gamier to form an insuperable bar-
rier, on the one hand, between  the sensation and the conception;
and on the other, between the  conception and  the  hallucination.
In the sensation,  say they, the  representation is involuntary and
compelled;  while,  on the contrary, the so termed  mental acts of
seeing and hearing are  voluntary, and produced designedly ; but
this difference in  no way alters  the  essential nature of the thing
represented, nor of the  act of  representation.   Yoluntary or in-
voluntary, permanent or fugitive, the images are always  images,
the sounds are still sounds;  it will be found, moreover, that the
distinction established by MM.  Baillarger and Garnier is far from
being absolute.
  Another distinction,  which,  according  to these  gentlemen, is
not less important, is the character of outwardness—exteriorite—
which  is presented by  the  object  perceived by the senses, and
which is entirely wanting in the object represented  by the imagi-
nation.   This requires to  be  examined.   In fact, the object con-
ceived by the imagination is  always—like the object perceived by 
PSYCHOLOGY, HISTORY, RELIGION.          331
 the senses—presented as something exterior and at some distance
 from the ego.
    The object is not in me, it is before me ;  it has always an ideal
 position  in  space.   The  luminous circle  which is  perceived on
 pressing the eye-ball, appears  not only as external, but, moreover,
 as being situated to  the right  or to the left, above or below.  The
 image, although  entirely  subjective, is  projected objectively at  a
 distance, and occupying a place in space.
    In the same way,  the  sounds which are heard  when  mentally
 repeating a  song, seem to come from without, further or nearer, in
 proportion to their intensity.   Thus,  far from being, as  has been
 stated, strictly internal, the mental representation  of sensible ob-
 jects—at least as regards sight and hearing—always involves an
 idea of outwardness, of distance, and even of a particular locality
 in relation to the individual, and thus partakes of all the charac-
 ters of sensational perceptions.
   An examination of the anatomical and physiological conditions
 furnishes the same results, for  the mental and organic portions of
 the phenomena correspond  precisely, and are simply parallel as-
 pects of the  same fact.  Thus, in the effort  which we instinctively
 make to recall an image or a sound, we  perceive the influx from
 the will acts locally  in those  portions of the  brain  which corre-
 spond to the organs of the senses. For example, in matters which
 relate to vision, the organic action is referred to the region of the
 orbit; for that of hearing to the side of the head.  This is a fur-
 ther proof of the functional identity of the external perception,
 and of the mental representation or conception.
   Now, to decide this question of the relation which  exists be-
tween the sensation and the conception, and the conception and
the hallucination, must we admit that these  phenomena cannot be
associated together without violence to a general law, and that it
is  necessary to refer each of them to a special organ  ? or, taking
for our foundation the  law of unity, and recognizing  a strict 
332
HALLUCINATIONS.
analogy between these various facts, admit that they are the func-
tional results of the same  mental and organic activity, exercised
in different ways, in consequence of varying influences ?  The lat-
ter is the inference we draw from a comparison of the facts; and
on summing them up, we feel justified in stating that imagination,
memory, conception, illusion,  hallucination,  and the  various
forms of these  conditions  and mental acts, when divested of all
accidental circumstances, have  the  same  common  and  identical
foundation, the same essential  element—that is to say, the  nor-
mal  phenomenon of the sensorial perception of a  sensation; it
is, therefore, in a correct theory  of  sensation that we ought  to
find an explanation of hallucinations.
   Hitherto the arguments used have principally related to exter-
nal images ;  but the mental representation is equally capable  of
reproducing sounds; this power of internal audition is frequently
very marked in composers,  and  in some  musicians.  M. Buchez
has  known several  who, after hearing an entire composition per-
formed  by an orchestra, were able to repeat on  the piano what
they had thus heard and  meditated on.   Beethoven  must have
possessed this faculty in a high degree, for during the latter years
of his life,  although deaf,  he produced  some of his most novel
and  beautiful  compositions.  The  leader  of  an  orchestra  well
known to the musical  world of  Paris, who was accustomed  to
direct concerted pieces of  music, when questioned  by M. Buchez
on this internal audition, told him that he heard it  as if he did so
with his ears, not only the harmonies, but  each  orchestral sound,
so that he could appreciate the  beauty of the symphony  and the
effect of each  particular instrument.  When  a new score was
given to him of an overture or a symphony, at the first  reading
he heard the  sound of the  quartette ; at the second and following
readings, he  successively added the audition of  the other effects;
sometimes he was obliged to recommence, in order  thoroughly to
appreciate  the effects of these  secondary sounds, combined with 
PSYCHOLOGY,  HISTORY, RELIGION.          333
 that of the four principal instruments, but  he could always  ac-
 complish this by repeating it several times.  This composer added,
 that  every musician, by attention  and study,  could arrive at this
 internal audition, and  that  without it there was neither a great
 composer nor a good leader of an orchestra.
   This vivacity of the internal audition having been shown to re-
 produce an entire concert in the  perfect musician, we return to
 the subject of internal  vision.   We read in the life of the  cele-
 brated Danish  traveler, Niebuhr, that when he was blind, and so
 infirm that he required to be carried from his bed to his arm-chair,
 he was in the habit of writing to his friends the most  exact  and
 minute descriptions of the sites which he had visited in his youth.
 When they expressed their surprise at the vividness of his de-
 scriptions, he  told them, " that as he lay in  bed, all visible objects
 shut out, the pictures of what he had seen in the East continually
 floated before his mind's  eye, so that it was no wonder he could
 speak of them as if he had seen them yesterday.  With like vivid-
 ness,  the deep intense sky of Asia, with its brilliant and twinkling
 host of stars,  which he had so often gazed at by night, or its lofty
 vault  of blue by day,  was reflected in the hours of stillness  and
 darkness on his inmost  soul.  Abercrombie, who  has published
 this  interesting case, regards it as an example  of what may be
 called the highest  degree of healthy conception,  adding, some-
 thing a little beyond this leads to that state on which depends the
 theory of apparitions or spectral illusions.*
   This further step has been  accomplished, and there can be no
 better proof afforded of this than the case  of the artist recorded
from Wigan, p.  40.   Dr. M. stated at the meeting of the Medi-
cal Society of the  Twelfth  Arrondissement,  on February  6th,
 1847, that he  could summon hallucinations  at his pleasure.    The
object would appear at first obscure, like a  shadow, then it would
* Abercrombie : Opus cit. p. 129. 
334
HALLUCINATIONS.
become more defined, and ultimately perfectly distinct.   In lec-
turing to his pupils, he never described the parts of the body bet-
ter than when, by the concentration of his thoughts, he could be-
stow  upon them the  characters of the  reality, and render them
objective ;  his descriptions were far less clear when he  was unable
to depict them thus  naturally before him.   He stated he could
easily cause these visual impressions to disappear.   We may also
refer  to the  anecdote  of the celebrated actor Talma,  who never
produced such startling effects on the spectators, as when, by the
power of his will, he had converted  them into so many skeletons.
   In the discussion of the Societe" Medico-Psychologique, the op-
ponents of the theory of mental representation, established as a dis-
tinctive character, between the act of reminiscence and a hallucina-
tion, the power, in  the first case, of summoning the images at will,
while in the second they  are involuntary and spontaneous.   It is
seen that this distinction is far from possessing the value which
has  been assigned to it; and unless the facts which  have  been
quoted are denied, it must be admitted that the mental represen-
tation  and a hallucination resemble  each other.   We  shall bring
further proof of this identity with respect to their common foun-
dation, when we enter on an examination of  the part which is per-
formed by the attention in the production of hallucinations.
   In  reading the  biographies of many men of genius, we obtain
a  convincing proof that the conception is converted into a hallu-
cination, or  rather, that the  idea  becomes  invested  with a sen-
sible form.   Raphael, as we learn from   a  passage in Aber-
crombie, saw before him the picture  of the Transfiguration at the
time he was  painting it.   In one of his letters to  his friend  Cas-
tiglione,  he says that, being unable to obtain models which would
serve him  for his  Madonnas, he was compelled  to figure in his
mind the types  of these  creations.  We have  also  read  that
Michael Angelo remained for days  gazing  upon  vacancy, where
he beheld at those  times the reflected  image of his  gigantic 
PSYCHOLOGY,  HISTORY, RELIGION.           335
 cupola.   Leonardi da Yinci, when  he was commissioned by the
 prior of  the  Santa Maria della  Grazia to paint his  celebrated
 picture of the Last Supper, after  having worked at it steadily for
 some time, suddenly laid it aside.   The prior, discontented  at
 this, made great complaints to the Duke Louis le Maure, who, in
 consequence,  requested Leonardi to complete  his  work.  The
 illustrious painter  did  not give a direct answer to the duke, but
 began to discourse upon  his  art with that  enthusiasm  which
 caused it to be said of him, that he painted while he spoke; when
 he perceived  that he had satisfied the duke, he observed to those
 present that the ideas  of the artist were formed in his brain, and
 not merely on the canvas, and that frequently  he was more truly
 painting when at rest, than when the brush was in  his hand.*
   Observation, as well as the study of a large number of works on
 psychology, has convinced us that poets, painters,  and sculptors,
 whose genius had driven reason from her seat,  have all, after pro-
 longed  meditation, seen  the ideal forms of which  they had
 dreamed.  Their history attests that these forms were not only
 visible to the  "mind's eye," but frequently to their actual  organs
 of vision ; a fact of which Shakespeare has so wonderfully availed
 himself in the air-drawn dagger,  and  in the  apparition  of  the
 ghost  of  Banquo in his tragedy of Macbeth.   In these cases  the
 ideal form assumes  the character of something which is external,
 and becomes converted into a hallucination.   We believe, more-
 over, that no immortal work of genius has been produced without
 this external realization of the ideal.  If the great artists  of  an-
 tiquity have never been  surpassed—if their productions have con-
 tinued to excite  the admiration of successive ages—it is because
these artists were filled with  enthusiasm, or, in the words  of  the
M. Th. de Bauville, they attained to a state of ecstasy, and, con-
fident of the enduring character of  their works, they labored for
posterity.
              * Ferriet: Les Hommes Illustres d'ltalie. 
336
HALLUCINATIONS.
  We  therefore regard the hallucination as physiological in the
cases which have just been mentioned, and also in many other in-
stances, as in dreams, in the intermediate state between  sleeping
and waking, in ecstasy, &c.  It is the revivification of those nu-
merous images, sounds, and tactile impressions  which can  only
exist in the brain with the loss  of their sensible signs, and which
one is tempted to compare to the mystery  of the  resurrection  of
the body, when it  will be raised with  all its attributes of sensa-
tion.   Physiological hallucinations,  although  not common, as in
former times,  which is explained by the difference in the ideas of
the two periods, are, however, still observed in persons of intelli-
gence and of sound mind, who are led, by their religious opinions,
by the tendency of their ideas, and by their temperament, to be-
lieve in them.
  The opponents  of the theory of mental representation have
talked much of sensibility, and  of  the laws  of physiology,  to
show that the reminiscence can never be in any way comparable
to the  actual sensation.   But to deny the sensations of others be-
cause  of  our  own, is to forget  the distinction which exists be-
tween individuals.    To avoid error, we must bear in mind the re-
markable difference which is observed in the sensibility both of in-
dividuals  and  of the different  races of mankind.  Whoever  has
lived amongst the  slave populations, must have noticed  many
singular instances of their impressibility, of their belief  in mys-
teries,  apparitions, and  visions,  and their  tendency to pass into
states  of  ecstasy and  illumination,  &c.   " In  the presence  of
death," says M. Paul de Molene, "they experience a feeling of
secret  exultation,  such as gives to the warrior all the joys of ec-
stasy on the verge of a battle."
  It is especially  in individual  idiosyncrasy that the elements of
the question in dispute are to be sought.   It may undoubtedly be
affirmed as a general principle, that the remembrance never equals
the actual sensation ; there are,  however, many exceptions to this 
PSYCHOLOGY, HISTORY, RELIGION.           337
rale.   The recollection of a horrible catastrophe will produce in
some persons the same feelings as the event itself.
   Certain organizations have  the  power of so identifying them-
selves with the  feelings of others, that they become, as it were,
the theatre on which is repeated  all  the  occurrences that take
place around them.  Tell them of  some fatal accident, or of some
exciting drama,  and immediately they imagine themselves the vic-
tim or  the hero; they become enthusiastic or  despondent, they
triumph over  their enemies, or sink beneath their machinations;
such is the power of the imagination, that it converts these imag-
inary scenes into real events.   This influence of the memory and
the imagination is frequently exhibited by religious enthusiasts,
who,  while kneeling before the altar, in contemplation of the cru-
cifixion and the  wounds  of the Savior, experience  pains  in the
same  parts of their bodies; or it may go even beyond this, as in
the case of the Ecstatic of the Tyrol  (p. 200).   In nervous and
susceptible persons, the vividness of the recollection may almost
equal the original and actual sensation, and the  objections which
have been made to this nervous phenomenon simply resolve them-
selves into a question  of degree.   The propriety of  the term
physiological, which we  have applied to  one class  of hallucina-
tions, has been strongly objected to ; it will not, therefore,  be out
of place if we here make a few observations on the meaning of
the word.
  By dissections,  by experiments,  by the  study of  the  different
organs in their healthy and diseased conditions, the anatomist has
established the  science of human physiology;  can similar pro-
ceedings be applied to the study of the  mind,  whose modes of
operation are  wholly unknown to us ?
  In  an analysis of the  mind we  recognize the  existence of a
number of different manifestations, such as reverie, profound med-
itation__during  which the person is lost to external objects—that
kind of excitement involved in the production of a great work, 
338                   HALLUCINATIONS.
ecstasy, &c; in all of which the most superficial observer will per-
ceive peculiarities, extravagancies, and eccentricities which, in the
eyes of those who lead a uniform course of life,  pass for acts
which  approximate closely to insanity.   Nevertheless, it is from
these apparently exceptional conditions that the most sublime un-
dertakings and the most wonderful creations of the mind arise.
  Out of these intellectual phenomena we  shall select only one,
viz., that  state of mental excitement which is a necessary  condi-
tion for the  production of intellectual works;  and this we shall
illustrate  by examples from the lives of musicians, painters, and
religious writers.
  Most of our celebrated composers have had recourse to peculiar
methods of exciting their enthusiasm and inspiring their thoughts.
Haydn, like Newton, required to be alone—his world was bound-
ed by the  walls of his  room.   Seated in a chair, he had only his
harpsichord  as the confidant of  his inspirations;  when  he  felt
these  upon him, he fixed his eyes on the ring  which  had been
given him by Frederick the Great, and continued to  gaze on it.
Then  it was  that  his  imagination became transported into  the
midst of a celestial choir, whose divine harmonies  he  revealed to
mankind ; and from this singular contemplation there issued forth
his  masterpieces.
  Contrary to Haydn, Gluck wanted space; his genius was inac-
tive when confined by four walls.  The open air and the sun's
rays falling on his head were what he required.   It was in open
day, and in the midst of a meadow, whither he had had his piano
transported, that he composed his opera of Iphigenia.
  Granville, when struck with an idea, if he found himself embar-
rassed  in the composition  or execution of his design, would get
up, jump about his room, throw  his velvet  cap against the walls
and ceiling, talking to it at the same time ; or, with his finger, he
would  stir up a frog, which he kept in a glass jar on the chimney-
piece ; and after thus shouting and jumping about, he would be- 
PSYCHOLOGY, HISTORY, RELIGION.           339,
 come serious  and quietly  return to his work, in which he was
 speedily absorbed.
    The same singularities have been noticed in profound thinkers
 and great orators.   One of the most celebrated  preachers in the
 time of Louis XIY. was  in the habit of shutting himself  up  in
 his rooms.  No one was  then permitted to come near him, his
 servants having received the strictest injunctions on this point.
 Piqued either  by curiosity or attachment, his valet availed himself
 of an open door to enter within  the forbidden precincts:  great
 was his surprise to hear  the tones of a violin.   He stopped, and
 endeavored to ascertain from whence they came ;  and having sat-
 isfied himself  that they  issued from his master's apartment, he
 placed his eye to  the key-hole of the door, and there beheld his
 master, in  nothing  but his shirt, playing on the violin, and dancing
 until he was in a profuse perspiration, when, having seated  him-
 self at his desk, he began to write.   In this way, after a secrecy
 of many years, was discovered  the  mode in which the  Christian
 orator composed his  admirable discourses.
   These episodes in the lives of great men show that, if we are to
 refer all that is singular and extravagant, and all that  differs  from
 the ordinary routine  of  every-day life, to a state of  disease, we
 must attribute symptoms of  insanity to many persons who  have
 been the pride  and glory of their respective countries.
   These arguments seem to us clearly .to establish the theory of
 hallucinations which  has  been put  forward.  Perhaps it may be
 objected that this is not a demonstration, in the strict sense of the
 word.   We admit it; but matters of fact do not admit of dem-
 onstration ; they can  only be shown by appealing to the testimony
 of each  person's consciousness, and  to  their immediate and per-
 sonal  observations.   This psychological experimentation  appears
 to us equally good with the methods used in physiology, and, in
this kind of investigation, to  be conclusive.   It  remains, before
treating  of hallucinations in a historical and  religious point of 
340
HALLUCINATIONS.
view, to make some observations  with respect  to  the influence
which  is exerted by the  moral over the physical part of our na-
ture, upon the effects of certain excitements in the production of
hallucinations, on the nature of the ideas, and upon  the theory of
attention.
  M. Lelut, who  may justly be  regarded as at  the head of that
school  which has proclaimed the intervention of physiology in his-
tory, has enunciated his doctrine in the following words :  " Consider
Socrates, who not only imagined himself the recipient of super-
natural influences  and divine inspirations, but, in consequence of
this privilege, believed he possessed a similar influence over his
friends at a distance, over his disciples, and almost over strangers.
This influence was even independent of the  words, or of  the looks;
it took place through walls, and over a space more or less extend-
ed.   In truth, it would  be difficult to meet with anything more
extravagant or more characteristic of insanity;  and those hallu-
cinated persons  who, in my presence, pretend to convey and to
receive from a distance physical, magnetic, or other  influences, do
not express themselves in a different manner to  Socrates, and in
that respect are  not more insane than he was.  In modern times,
the insanity of Tasso, of Pascal, of Rousseau, of Swammerdam,
of Yan Helmont,  and Swedenborg, is now generally admitted by
all who have added the  study of mental  disease to that of history
and philosophy. "*
  Leuret, in his Fragments Psychologiques, and M. Calmet, in
his work,f have advocated the same doctrine, and it is also that
of M. Baillarger.
  M. Al.  Maury,  who, by his great learning  and his  own re-
searches, has supported  the opinions of M. Lelut, also observes,

  * Lelut: Du Demon de Socrate, Specimen d'wne Application de la Science
psychologique a celle de VHistoire, augmente de Memoires sur les Halluci-
nations et la Folic, p. 121, 2nd edit.  Paris : 1856.
  \ De la Folic, consideree sous la Pointe de Vue pathologique, philosophique,
historique, et judiciare.  Paris : 2 vols.   1845. 
PSYCHOLOGY, HISTORY, RELIGION.           341
that regard must be had  to the influence exerted over society by
the temperament and diseased condition of the individual.   Ac-
cording to this writer, historical events are mostly brought about
by isolated  minds and individual acts,  and that consequently, in
this respect, the facts of history often fall under the dominion of
physical laws.*
   The philosophy of history is altogether opposed to this  doc-
trine.   In fact, it shows  that individuals never lead  the age in
which they live ; and the proof of this is that, if the time is  not
ripe for the principles they advocate, such persons are  in advance
of their  time, and most of them perish in dungeons, in misery, or
in obscurity.   Happy those  who have not been branded with the
charge of insanity.   With regard to such as have been favored by
fortune, and have come at the right time, they have achieved suc-
cess so long as they fulfilled the requirements of the day; but, if
dazzled  by their triumphs, they have endeavored to substitute
their own will for that of  others, and to turn the course of public
opinion to their advantage, they have generally been precipitated
from  the high position in which circumstances had placed them.
Man, in  spite  of his pride, is but an  instrument in the hands of
Providence; and, as  Fenelon has truly observed, man proposes,
but God disposes.
  It has been said it is not surprising that madmen and monoma-
niacs have accomplished great things, for they recognize no obsta-
cles, they are hindered by no  misgivings, but recklessly pursue the
realization of their ideas; while men whose intellects are sound
carefully consider the attendant difficulties, and leave  nothing to
chance.   Grant these premises, and  then Alexander, Christopher
Columbus, and a thousand others were madmen.   All  the acts of
heroism which history has recorded, and which  have filled us  with
admiration—all those  deeds  of self-devotion which have called
forth  our sympathy—would be converted into acts of insanity, for
       * Al. Maury : Annul. Med.-psyck. vol. v. p.  317.  1845. 
342
HALLUCINATIONS.
they have not been governed by a cold and cautious calculation—
honorable and enthusiastic feelings have alone produced them.
  The predominance of the mind over the body may be observed
in a great number of instances.   A celebrated Asiatic conqueror,
when dying, learned  that his army was on the point of being de-
feated ; he directed his officers to place him in  his palanquin, to
close  the curtains, to carry him to the points of the battle where
there  was the greatest danger, and not to  reveal his death until
they had gained the victory.  At the sight of the imperial palan-
quin the soldiers recovered their courage  ; the enemy were beaten
and put to flight.   When they opened the curtains, the emperor
had been dead some hours.  Moliere, that great genius and pro-
found observer,  was an invalid, and depressed by melancholy, yet
no dramatic writings have ever contained such a rich vein of hu-
mor as that wliich distinguishes  his immortal works.   It is not,
therefore, the mind which is overcome, that active principle  gov-
erning the  body rather than itself submitting to the yoke of the
different organs and their various diseases.  Pascal himself, whose
sufferings have been looked upon as the mainspring of his actions,
has afforded a most convincing proof of this predominance of the
intellect  over the  physical structure in  the  following anecdote,
related by M. Lelut:
  " This great man suffered from a violent toothache, which formed
the commencement of the second  stage of those infirmities which
wrere soon to conduct him to the grave.   One night the Duke de
Roannez,  his friend  and  admirer, left him in great agony from
this  cause  ; the next day, finding him  well, he asked him the
secret of his cure.  Pascal, without seeming to attach any import-
ance to it, and as though he had made use of an ordinary remedy,
said that he had solved some problems in cycloid curves, and that
during the process the pain left him."
  Without referring to such illustrious examples, every one has
witnessed the suspension of disease and suffering during study and 
PSYCHOLOGY, HISTORY, RELIGION.            343
 the  distraction  of conversation.   Those  who  have been present
 during the last moments of true Christians, cannot have forgotten
 the  elevation of their  thoughts and  the serenity of their souls.
 Not unfrequently the minds of those are the strongest whose bodies
 are the most feeble.
   To regard, therefore, the doctrines,  the beliefs,  and opinions of
 men as the result of disease, is to advance a proposition which
 may be true of the general character and of the temperament, but
 is totally false  with regard to those  phenomena of the reason
 which take place in the  soul.    The  facts  of psychology differ
 from those of physiology;  each of them are governed by separate
 laws.   If their mysterious  union establishes certain points of con-
 tact,  still their nature is  distinct: the  one   is  impalpable, the
 other tangible.
   The positive influence of a diseased state of the organs in the
 production of hallucinations, is the substance  of the doctrine of
 the advocates of the intervention of  physiology in history;  the
 integrity of the reason in hallucinations of many celebrated men ;
 the secondary influence  of the  organs in numerous cases are, on
 the contrary, the principles which we have advocated.
   In the  chapter devoted  to the  consideration of hallucinations
 coexisting with a sound state of mind,  we have brought together
 the examples which  have served as the foundation of the present
 work;  it now remains for us to interpret their meaning, and to
 point out some of their results.
   If the essential fact—the production of an image or of a sensi-
 ble sign—is always the same, still it will necessarily vary in differ-
 ent individuals, and according to  circumstances.   We cannot
consider the hallucinations  of the lunatic as similar to those of the
child, the poet, or the thinker ;  to those  of the man who  recog-
nizes their nature, and is not controlled by them;  to  those of him
who  submits to them through the influence of the age; or to those
which arise from certain drugs,  &c. 
344
HALLUCINATIONS.
  The material part of an idea—its  image—may show itself at
an early age in man.  Many children, perhaps all, perceive phan-
toms  in the dark.   In some  this faculty is simply passive, while
in others the power of producing these singular effects is volun-
tary,  or half voluntary.   "A child,"  says one  writer,  " whom I
questioned on this matter, told me, ' I can tell them to come, and
they come, but sometimes they come without my telling them.'"
  When, in  the buoyancy of youth, the imagination is prodigal
of its treasures, we are  surrounded  by  visions,  chimeras, and
golden dreams.  Hours are passed in  the contemplation of imagi-
nary  schemes, but, whatever their charms, a simple effort of the
reason is  sufficient  to  dispel them.   After imagining ourselves
rich, powerful, authors  or kings, we resume our  proper  character.
A strong  moral or physical emotion may convert  these indefinite
ideas into hallucinations, but we are always masters of  ourselves,
and can banish them when we please
  The study of psychology  establishes the humbling but incon-
testable fact, that man  is  constantly surrounded by insane ideas,
which swarm about  him like crowds of insects on a summer's even-
ing.   Obscure, confused,  and of no  importance so  long as  the
reason maintains its activity, they are the elements of those castles
in the air in which we all indulge.   In dreaming, their power is
greater, and  they assume a more definite form.   It is  then, says
Conolly, they present themselves to us in the form of landscapes,
oceans, rivers, and the scenery of every region.  At another time,
they  are  vast cities, endless foliage,  patterns  infinitely  varied,
costumes  the  most fanciful,  incongruous architectural designs;
people of various  classes, variously  occupied; faces or figures,
grotesque, deformed, threatening, or  grimacing;  the beginning,
the middle, and the conclusion of a train  of ideas ; voices which
whisper in  our ears, or  cry aloud,  revealing matters  that  have
been hidden in our  inmost thoughts ;  in a word, they image forth
every possible combination  of the thoughts.   For  us, then, the 
PSYCHOLOGY, HISTORY, RELIGION.            345
state of hallucination occurs under very different circumstances.
If it is a state of cerebral excitement, it is certainly far from being
a constant symptom  of insanity.   In many persons  it is  almost
their normal condition.
  We have never pretended to separate mind from matter, although
they arc  perfectly distinct from each other, and  the  influence  of
the one seems to  us far superior to that of the other.   That they
are united by a mysterious bond of  union, is incontestable, but the
psychological  phenomena have a mode of  existence totally dis-
tinct from that of the physical.  We  fully admit that hallucina-
tions are  nervous phenomena, and  have their seat in the  brain ;
we  will  only remark,  that possibly  other portions of the nervous
system, especially the ganglionic, may contribute to  the produc-
tion of certain impressions ;  but for these impressions to be con-
verted into ideas, it is necessary that they should be  subjected  to
the influence of  the central  part of the nervous system,  for no
intellectual process can take place without its cooperation.
  When  speaking of the secondary causes  of hallucinations, we
pointed out the part which is performed by the nervous and vas-
cular systems in their production;  at the same time, it is impos-
sible always  to determine the way in which they act; it  is the
material  boundary of our knowledge,  beyond which we cannot
pass.   To judge correctly of a hallucination, in a psychological
point of view, it is necessary  to pause for a moment and  consider
the  nature of the  ideas, whose influence on civilization, on society,
and on the individual, has been examined in the chapter on the
causes of hallucinations.  They may be referred to two sources,
those which are derived from the senses—sensational, or secondary
ideas—and those  which are derived from the mind, and from God—
spiritual, or primary ideas.
  The operation  of the senses can be clearly defined; their func-
tion is to transmit the image of external objects to the brain, and
to give notice of  their preseuce by effecting some peculiar change 
346
HALLUCINATIONS.
in that organ; but they do not originate the idea.   Thus a man
who cannot read sees the written  characters, his eye perceives
them, but his mind does not comprehend  them.   An idea is the
thought which passes from one individual to another, from  one
generation to another, while an image is only produced by some
external object.  We conceive  an idea, we figure to  ourselves an
image.  An idea dwells in the mind ;  it  is the impression or
image which remains on the  senses.  Thus, in judging  of the
sensations  in the same way, we cannot  say strictly that—Nihil
est in intellectu, quod non prius fuerit in sensu.
  The ideas furnished by the senses are  the  first to become
evolved.   By this we do not in any way mean to imply that they
preexist to the  spiritual  ideas ; the term  secondary, which  we
have applied to them, sufficiently indicates our opinion.
  Man, therefore, possesses two classes of ideas—those which are
derived from external objects, and are communicated through the
senses, and those which are termed general ideas—such as ideas
of existence, of quality, and causality, of analogy, of time, order,
law, justice, &c.  These are the attributes  of  mind, as sensible
qualities are those of material objects.
  This division of ideas, established by the spiritualists, of whom
we are proud to acknowledge ourselves a disciple, does not hinder
us from appreciating the great  influence of the physical organiza-
tion, and which is most important in relation to  our  present sub-
ject ; for  we  are  convinced  that  the primary  ideas cannot be
changed, that their essential character, their type, is not affected
by insanity ; but we consider that the sensational ideas—the most
numerous,  it is true—are the exclusive materials of insanity ; and
if a superficial examination of facts indicates that the first class
of ideas may become involved  in insanity, a more careful study
will show that it is only the sensible forms with  which our imper-
fect nature compels  us to invest  immaterial objects, which  are
really implicated. 
PSYCHOLOGY, HISTORY, RELIGION.           347
  We  cannot conceive of spiritual  things without  representing
them by some form or image.   It is true, we are  conscious that
such a proceeding is  defective,  and even false, and  that  such
things have a mode of existence which does not come under the
cognizance of our senses.  This is one of  those  fundamental
truths which  only requires to  be stated in order to be admitted ;
but our finite nature, surrounded by matter, and intimately asso-
ciated  with it, is  perpetually falling into these errors.   Man ob-
tains his first information through the medium of the senses, while
the primary ideas are only developed with  the  acquirement of
language,  by education, and by a knowledge of tradition;  contin-
ually compelled to form abstractions, and remembering, in the ma-
jority  of  cases, the material origin of this operation, he  sees in
these abstractions  only the qualities of those  bodies to which he
naturally refers them.   Thus, when  we say that a stick is white,
long, and  pointed, each of these qualities becomes associated with
the image of a stick; so when it is affirmed, that a man is good,
amiable, and just, these various  attributes are associated in the
mind with the human figure.   The same proceeding is adopted in
regard to the spiritual world; we give some special form to the
ideas which we derive  from it, and their attributes, in their turn,
become materialized  in the brain.   A more  exact investigation
shows  that this  proceeding of the mind is purely artificial,  and
that the sensible signs attached to the spiritual ideas do not bring
them any  the more under the cognizance of our senses.  In other
respects, the independence of  the mind remains as distinct and as
complete beneath these illusory sensations as in the ordinary  sen-
sations derived from the external world.
  It would be very surprising  if, with sensations different to those
which  are experienced by persons in  health, the  invalid should
continue to reason the same as such persons do; it is then, indeed,
that the  reason  would be perverted and strange.   Because the
brain may be the cause of insanity, let us guard against  coming 
348
HALLUCINATIONS.
 to the conclusion that it is the brain which thinks and reasons;  it
 would be  quite as correct to say  that  the  eye discourses  upon
 colors because it is the  instrument by which  we distinguish them.
   This point having been established, we will next iuquire how
 the impressions due  to the senses can be  reproduced,  without
 their  intervention,  with all the  characters of reality itself.   In
 blindness, in sleep, there can be no  doubt, they are derived from
 images previously  impressed upon the brain  by  means of the
 senses, and which seem to manifest themselves externally under
 influences  which must  now be  examined.   It is  said  that the
 movement by which  the sensation is  produced from without to
 within passes in the opposite course.   " The nervous filaments,"
 says Malebranche, " may be excited in two ways, either at the ex-
 tremity, which is away from the brain, or by that which terminates
 in the brain.....If these filaments are excited by any cause
 within the brain, the mind perceives something externally."  Ch.
 Bonnet, and all logicians, after  having established  the principle
 that the final act of every sensation consists in some special and
 actual molecular change in the brain, maintain that the same sen-
 sation ought to be excited every  time the same molecular state is
 reproduced in  the  brain itself.   This  is the explanation which
 Meyer,  Professor  in  the University at  Halle, has given in his
 Essay on Apparitions*
  When these external and  internal  sensations happen  in the
healthy brain, we are  not conscious of their occurrence; but if our
attention is  strongly  excited, the material form, or the  sensible
sign, may show itself almost at the same moment, which  then
leaves no doubt of their presence  in  the organ.  Thus, if we anx-
iously desire to bring  an object before us, we close the eyes, when
possibly it  will present itself to us—at first, it is true, confusedly,
but still sufficiently clear to give us some idea of it.  A greater

  * Essay on Apparitions.   Attributed to M. Meyer,  Professor in the Uni-
versity of Halle, A. D., 1748. 
PSYCHOLOGY, HISTORY, RELIGION.           349
 concentration of the mind may enable us to see it, even in daylight,
 and with our eyes open.   The image is still indistinct, the colors
 faint, the outline undefined, and it appears as if every moment it
 would pass away; but by degrees its form becomes more decided,
 its colors more vivid, and  the perception of the object is  perfect.
 Lastly, in a more profound  state of meditation, and with a still
 more complete isolation from the external world, the image, which
 has gone  through these different shades of  development in the
 brain, passes from within to without, and places itself substantially
 before the eyes.
   These psychological phenomena are observed in persons given
 to  meditation, such  as  poets  and imaginative writers, who, sur-
 rounded by an ideal world, mistake the offspring of their imagi-
 nation for realities.
   In these cases the mind requires a certain amount  of  excite-
 ment in order that the illusions should be produced, but there are
 conditions under which  they are constantly present, and in a still
 more sensible manner; we allude to the states of reverie and  of
 dreaming, and the intermediate state between sleeping and waking.
 Thus, in dreams, for example,  objects which have strongly attract-
 ed our attention when awake, frequently reappear during sleep in
 a most exact and perfect manner.
  A preoccupied state of the mind, or a powerful emotion, may pro-
 duce the same effect as long-continued  meditation.   In moments
 of extreme  peril, persons have seen all  the transactions of their
 lives pass rapidly before them, verifying  the passage of Scripture
 wherein it is said, " In the hour of judgment all your deeds shall
 be retraced in the twinkling of an eye."   " The  last moment of a
 warrior,"  says the Arab  proverb, "is the mirror  of his life;  all
 that is dear to him is then remembered."
  After continued mental work,  where all the faculties have been
concentrated on one subject, the material forms associated with it
 may continue visible, although the subject itself  has ceased to en- 
350
HALLUCINATIONS.
gage  the  attention.   When Sir Joshua Reynolds,  after being
many hours occupied  in  painting, walked out into the street, the
lamp-posts seemed to him to be trees, and  the men  and women
moving shrubs.*
   Theory of Attention.—In our analysis  of those  faculties  of
the mind which exercise  a greater or less influence in the produc-
tion of hallucinations, we have placed the attention first.  Before
proceeding  further,  it is necessary  to  apprehend the value we
attach to  the theory of which this  faculty forms the foundation.
Looking at man's moral and intellectual nature  collectively, we
have no faith in those systems which refer everything to a single
law.  The history of philosophy has constantly shown, that if a
certain number  of facts  accord  with one of these new systems,
there  are sure, also, to be others which contradict  it.   To us this
is another of the consequences of our finite nature.
  We are therefore not surprised to find  that M. Baillarger, in an
interesting memoir entitled  Hallucinations, the  Causes which
produce them, and  the  Disease they characterize,^ has stated
that the production of hallucinations is favored by  the involuntary
exercise of the memory and the imagination, by the suspension of
all external impressions, and  by  excitement of the  sensorium—or,
in other words, by a weakening,  a relaxation, or an actual suspen-
sion of the attention.
  No doubt the cases quoted by this  observer substantiate his
opinion.   We must, however, observe, that the hallucinations pro-
duced during reverie, in dreams, and in the intermediate state be-
tween sleeping and waking, have a different origin to those which
we  refer to a  disturbed  condition of the mind.   It  seems to us
equally certain that the visions of the celebrated English painter,
Sir Joshua Reynolds, were  owing  to a  fatigued condition of the
brain.

  * Conolly: Opus cit. p. 119.
  t Memoires de V Academic Roy ale de Medecine, vol. xii. pp. 273,426, et seq. 
PSYCHOLOGY, HISTORY, RELIGION.           351
   Having made this observation, we proceed to show that the at
 tention, in many cases, has a positive influence over the produc-
 tion of hallucinations, and that  it affords a satisfactory explana-
 tion of the visions of many celebrated persons.
   The power of producing hallucinations by an  effort of the will
 has been mentioned  by many observers.
   Speaking  of this  subject, Jerome  Cardan says,  " Video q'uce
 volo, oculis, non  vi mentis."*
   M. Michea, in his work, has quoted the following case :  A mo-
 nomaniac,  with an active and cultivated mind, instantly transform-
 ed whatever passed  in his brain into phantoms.   He  had only
 to recall to his recollection, or  to imagine a person  or an object,
 and their  respective images would immediately assume the ap-
 pearance of an actual external  existence.  " One day," says  M.
 Michea,  " we found  him with his eyes fixed  in one direction, his
 countenance smiling, and clapping  his hands in sign  of applause.
 He had not heard us enter the room.  To our question,  ' What
 is it you are doing ?'  'I  am,' he replied, 'like the fool mentioned
 by Horace, assisting at an imaginary performance.  I am amusing
 myself after  the manner  of my fool.   Being very fond  of the
 amusements of the opera, I  am representing to myself the ballet
 of the Sylphide, and when you touched me on the shoulder I was
 applauding Taglioni, who had enchanted me with her graceful and
 beautiful dancing.'"f
   "A young man," says M.  Baudry,  "occupied himself in plan-
 ning canals.   One day, when he had been thinking upon this sub-
 ject, he marked on a map the course  of a canal which was to pass
 through his part of the country.  All at once he saw a pamphlet,
  * De Rerum Varietate, vol. viii, de. 43, p. 410.  Lugd.   See also  Mai-
 sonneuve: Recherches et Observations sur  VEpilepsie, p. 295. This writer
mentions the case of a  young person subject to epileptic fits, who would
occasionally amuse himself by wishing to see some fanciful object; scarce-
ly would he have formed an object in his imagination, when it would be
 clearly represented to the organs of vision.
  t Mkhea: Du Delire des Sensations, p. 94.  Paris: 1846. 
352
HALLUCINATIONS.
in a yellow cover,  with this title,  Plan for  cutting  a  Canal
through the Plains of Sologne.  On reading the plans, he found
they exactly corresponded with  what had been passing  in  his
mind.   He read in it for some minutes, and the opinions it con-
tained confirmed his own ; the phantom work  then  disappeared,
and he continued his investigations."*
  M. Moreau de Tours has reported, in  the Gazette des  Hopi-
taux, the  case  of one of his patients  who could instantaneously
summon up hallucinations of sight.   To produce  them he had
only to incline his head  a little forwards.  An intelligent medical
man, who was afflicted with a nervous disease, but which left him
in the full possession of his faculties, informed us that he had be-
come subject to slight hallucinations of vision,  and  he found that
they returned whenever he allowed  his mind  to dwell upon them.
Desirous of studying this singular phenomenon, he several times,
so to speak, daguerreotyped the subjets  of his thoughts.   The
objects  then presented themselves with all  the  vividness of reali-
ties,  and remained a longer or shorter time.   Observing that  the
repeated revival of these images was becoming a state  of  actual
disease, by a determined effort of the  will  he freed  himself from
the hallucinations.
  To these cases may  be added the  hallucinations of ecstatics,
and of persons who have concentrated their  thoughts for a long
time on one subject.  Under  these circumstances, the hallucina-
tions are evidently the climax of the meditation ; and to assume,
as has been done, that in this case also they follow the loss  of  the
attention,  is to be led into error through following a  particular
system.  If, then,  a diminution of the attention is favorable to
hallucinations, this  explanation  will not apply to  all cases, and
especially to those where the hallucinations  coexist with a sound
state of mind.
  The following remark is most important in  regard  to that ar-
  * Baudry:  Essai sur les Hallucinations, p. 11.   These.  Paris :  1853. 
PSYCHOLOGY,  HISTORY, RELIGION.          353
 rested state of the attention in which the individual has been com-
 pared to an automaton.   It is  evident  that, in  many instances,
 the object which is sought cannot be attained during the concen-
 trated condition of the  thoughts.   In  critical  moments,  upon
 which hangs the destiny  of a nation or the fate of an  individual,
 the mind will  weary itself without obtaining the information  it
 requires; but instantaneously, and when  least expected, the solu-
 tion will suddenly present itself.   It is related of a certain admi-
 ral, that he  always made  his arrangements so as to  have an hour
 left to himself before the engagement  took  place.   It has  often
 happened, that during this period of repose the idea has occurred
 to him which secured him the victory.  It is clear to us that the
 mind continued to  meditate on the subject,  in  spite of its appa-
 rent repose, and it would be a great mistake to refer the  succes-
 ful idea to a relaxation of the attention.
   The tension  of the mind is a less exalted sphere  of life, and
 under certain conditions,  such as  darkness, the silence of night, or
 complete solitude, will create fantastic images, and people vacancy
 with hideous objects.   We have already called the reader's atten-
 tion to this (p. 264).   In nervous persons who are timid, super-
 stitious, and uneducated,  the  brain  at  those times  is filled with
 depressing and horrifying ideas.   If the  eye then becomes  fixed
 on objects of an indefinite form, the phantoms of  the imagination
 are converted into actual  apparitions.   It is  under similar circum-
 stances that the dead have been seen to revisit the earth.
   It is easily conceived that, when the  mind is in this state, the
 imagination is  free to  exert its influence.   In  most persons the
 hallucination reflects their daily thoughts ; so that it seldom con-
 sists  of sensations which are altogether  new to them.
   " The imagination," says M. Eusebe Salverte, "creates nothing;
it  merely associates impressions which have been previously re-
ceived.   In  the phantoms of sleep, in the wanderings of wakeful-
ness, it presents nothing which we have not seen,  or felt, or heard 
354
HALLUCINATIONS.
of.   Fear,  sorrow, anxiety, or  preoccupation, easily  produces
that intermediate state  between  sleeping and waking, during
which the dreams become converted into visions.   Cassius Par-
mensis, when he had been proscribed by the triumvirs,  slept in a
state  of  anxiety, too  well warranted  by his circumstances.   A
man of hideous aspect appeared to him, and told him he was  his
evil genius.   Accustomed to  believe in the existence  of such  su-
pernatural beings, Cassius felt no doubt of the reality of  the appa-
rition, and to a  superstitious mind it would be the sure presage
of the violent  death  which a  proscribed  person  could hardly
escape." *
  A similar explanation applies to  the vision which  Brutus saw
on the eve of the battle of Philipi.  The following is the account
which Plutarch gives of this  celebrated apparition:
  Example 124.  " When they were about to leave Asia, Brutus,
it is said, had an extraordinary apparition.   Thus, a little  before
he left Asia, he  was sitting alone  in his tent, by a dim  light, and
at a late  hour.    The whole army  lay in sleep and  silence,  while
the general, wrapped in meditation, thought he perceived something
enter  his  tent:  turning towards the door, he saw a horrible and
monstrous spectre standing silently by his side.   ' What  art thou?'
said he, boldly.  'Art thou god or man ?  and what is thy business
with me V The  spectre answered: 'lam thy evil genius, Brutus!
Thou wilt see me at Philipi!'   To which he calmly replied, ' I'll
meet thee there !'  When the apparition was  gone, he  called  his
servants, who told him they had neither heard any noise nor seen
any vision.  That night he did not go to  rest, but went early in
the morning to  Cassius, and told him what had  happened.   Cas-
sius, who was of the school  of Epicurus, and used frequently to
dispute with Brutus on these subjects,  answered him thus :  ' It is
the opinion  of our  sect, that not  everything  we see  is real; for
matter is evasive, and sense deceitful.  Besides, the impressions it
                 * Eusebe Salverte : Opus cit. 
PSYCHOLOGY, HISTORY, RELIGION.             355
receives  are, by the  quick  and subtle  influence of imagination,
thrown into a variety of forms, many of which have no archetypes
in nature;  and this the imagination effects as easily as we make
an impression on  wax.  But when the body, as in your case, is
fatigued  with labor, it naturally suspends  or perverts the  regular
functions of the mind.  Upon the whole,  it is  highly improbable
that  there should be any such  beings as  demons or spirits, or that,
if there were such, they should assume a human shape or voice, or
have any power to affect us.'"*
   This hallucination, whatever  explanation may be  given of it,
had  no  influence  over the  conduct of Brutus, who was a man
of superior intellect, and  whom  no one has  ever accused  of
insanity.
   We  should place the dream of the Emperor Julian in the same
class.  A phantom with a disturbed countenance, says Ammianus
Marcellinus,  appeared, and seemed to leave  him on the night
before  his death: it was the genius of the empire, whose image
was constantly before his  eyes ; it was engraven on the coinage ;
it was  revered by  his army; it was depicted on his standards;
and,  without doubt, a statue  of it was placed in his tent.  Troubled
by the  scarcity of provisions, which distressed his soldiers; certain
also, that a religion which  was opposed  to his own  must have
procured him numerous enemies, even  in  his own army,  and  on
the eve of a decisive battle,  it is scarcely to be wondered at if  his
sleep was disturbed by dreams of a depressing nature.   Is it sur-
prising that the enthusiastic disciple of the  Theurgistic philosophy,
whose  doctrine assigned an  important  part to such supernatural
beings, should see  in his dream, and believe in  the reality of  the
vision,  the genius of the empire mourning, and about to depart
from him ?
  The  hallucinations may also  consist  of things long since  im-
pressed upon  the  brain, which  at the time, are recalled by  the
       * Langhorne's Plutarch, vol. vi. p. 84.  London : 1770. 
356
HALLUCINATIONS.
principle of association.   The material forms which painters and
sculptors  have given to the characters of Scripture,  and which
are so commonly represented in books, in churches, and in paint-
ings,  have formed the foundation of those visions of saints, angels,
demons,  and  many  other apparitions which have appeared  to
ignorant and superstitious persons who were troubled with hallu-
cinations.
   Nocturnal hallucinations,  dreams, and somnambulism have been
referred exclusively  to  the  action of the  brain.  There is  no
longer, it is said, either external or internal impressions to excite
it.  How then does it act ?   Clearly by a kind  of spontaneous-
ness.   It seems to us impossible that these intellectual operations
can be accomplished solely  by the brain.   That its cooperation
is indispensable,  no one will deny—ourselves less than any ;  but
it requires the assistance of the mind.
   We have  thus  endeavored, as far as possible, to  point  out the
mental phenomena which are concerned in the production of hal-
lucinations.   If this examination has  produced the same effect on
the mind of the  reader as upon ourselves, he will  have  come to
the conclusion that in a certain number of cases a hallucination is
nothing extraordinary, but  may be regarded almost as a  normal
phenomenon, which is consistent with the  due exercise of the rea-
son ;  and  hence  it  is easy to  understand  how, under the circum-
stances which have been  mentioned, many celebrated  men have
been subject to hallucinations,  but have not on that account been
insane.
   In  order that the coexistence of hallucinations  with a sound
state of mind may be fully comprehended, we proceed to examine
two series of these cases, one relating to a multitude of individu-
als, the other concerning persons of celebrity, both series  having
been recorded in history.   The materials present themselves in
abundance, and the only difficulty is in forming a selection.  That
our examples may not be too numerous, we shall confine ourselves 
PSYCHOLOGY, HISTORY, RELIGION.            357
to the time of the Crusades.   Few periods are so full of interest
in regard to the present subject.  Kings, generals, soldiers, and
civilians were daily in the habit of witnessing apparitions.
   First Series.—Historical Hallucinations occurring to Col-
lections of Individuals.—Peter the  Hermit, to whom belongs
the glory of having delivered Jerusalem, disgusted with the world
and mankind, withdrew  into one of the most austere orders  of
recluses.  His  imagination became  exalted  by fasting, prayer,
meditation,  and from the effects of solitude.   He possessed the
fervor of an apostle, and the courage of a martyr ; his zeal recog-
nized no obstacles, and all that he aimed at seemed to him easy of
accomplishment.  The   power of  his  eloquence and the  force
of his example were irresistible.   Such was the extraordinary
man who  inaugurated the Crusades, and who, without name or
fortune, solely by the influence of his lamentations and  his pray-
ers, excited the Western world  to  array itself against the East.
In such a  state of mind, and  filled  with  the  project he  had
conceived in his religious retirement, it  is hardly to be wondered
at that he imagined he held continual intercourse with heaven, and
believed himself the instrument of its designs, and the repository
of its counsels.
   In the midst of the rising civilization of Europe, the Christian
religion was intimately associated with all  the interests  of its
inhabitants  ; it formed in a manner the  basis of every society—it
was in  fact society itself.   We cannot,  therefore, be  surprised
that men were  ready to rise in its defense.   The bond of a uni-
versal church powerfully contributed to excite and to cherish the
enthusiasm and progress of the Holy Wars.
   Everything concurred to favor the production of hallucinations—
religion, the love  of the marvelous, ignorance, anarchy, and  the
still lingering  fear that the end  of the world was at hand.  Men
awaited some  great event, prepared to welcome it with an ardor
proportioned to the degree in which it accorded with their feelings. 
358                    HALLUCINATIONS.
The voice of Peter the Hermit stirred up the hearts of men, and
the delivery of the Holy Places became  the  object of their most
ardent wishes.  The very name of the East had something magi-
cal in its sound, and inflamed the imaginations of the  people ;  it
was the land where the wonders  of the  Old  Testament and the
miracles of the New  had been accomplished,  and  was still the
birth-place of a thousand marvelous tales.
  Scarcely had the signal been given for the first Crusade, when
apparitions made their appearance ;  every one related the visions
he had had, the words he had heard, and the commands which he
had received.  The civilian and the soldier alike beheld, signs  in
the heavens.  But it was when the Crusaders had penetrated into
the regions of Asia that these prodigies were multiplied without
end.
  At the battle of Dorylseum, St.  George  and St.  Demetrius
were seen fighting in the ranks of the Crusaders.*  In the midst
of the melee of Antioch,  a celestial troop,  clothed in armor, were
seen to descend from Heaven, led by the martyrs St. George, St.
Demetrius, and St. Theodore.f
  During the most sanguinary contest at the siege of  Jerusalem,
the Crusaders  saw a  knight appear upon the  Mount of  Olives
waving his buckler, and giving the Christian army the signal for
entering  the city.   Godfroy  and Raymond, who perceived him
first and  at the same  time, cried out aloud that St. George was
come to the help of the  Christians.   At  the same time a report
was spread in the Christian army that the holy pontiff Adhemar,
and  several Crusaders who had  fallen during the siege, had ap-
peared at the head of the assailants,  and had unfurled the stand-
ard of the  Cross upon the  towers of Jerusalem.   Tancred and
the two  Roberts, animated  by this  account, made  fresh efforts,
and at last threw themselves into the place. J

  * Michaud's History of the Crusades, vol. i. p. 112.  Translated by W.
Robson, 3 vols.  London : 1852.
  t Idem, vol. i. p. 173.           % Idem, vol. i. pp. 221, 222. 
PSYCHOLOGY, HISTORY, RELIGION.           359
   On the day Saladin entered  into the Holy City, says Rigord,
the monks of Argenteuil saw the moon descend from heaven upon
earth, and then reascend to heaven.  In  many churches the cru-
cifixes and images of the saints shed tears of blood in the pres-
ence of  the faithful.   A Christian knight had a dream, in which
he saw an eagle flying over an army, holding  in his claws seven
javelins,  while he uttered in an intelligible voice,  "Evil be to
Jerusalem."*
   These examples, which we have selected from many others re-
lated by the  same writer,  clearly prove that  hallucinations may
affect a  number of persons at the same time, without there being
any reason to  accuse them of insanity.  This phenomenon is ex-
plained  by such a  combination of circumstances as those we have
previously described.
   We next proceed to show that the same remarks will apply to
the hallucinations  of celebrated men.
   Second Series.—Historical Hallucinations relating to an In-
dividual.—Loyola, when compelled to a long period of inaction,
in consequence of  a dangerous wound which he had received at
the siege of Pampeluna, directed his thoughts to the state of re-
ligion, which had always been the object of his veneration.  The
distant rumors of the  secession at Wittenberg, of which he cor-
rectly estimated  the importance, reached  him in his seclusion,
where his mind had already conceived the plan of that  institution
which was to render such great services to his religion.  Filled
with that idea whose realization was to reestablish the tottering
throne of the  Pope and the Catholic religion, at that time so vig-
orously  attacked,  he prepared himself for the encounter.  In the
presence of this great struggle, of which  he  comprehended the
difficulties and the dangers, his mind attained  to its  greatest
energy and concentration, that is to say,  to that state  which is
* Michaud : Opus cit. vol. i. p. 435. 
360
HALLUCINATIONS.
mast favorable to the conversion of an idea into a sensible sign or
image.   Neither must it be forgotten that these events took place
at the beginning of the sixteenth century and in Spain, where
nothing  was more common than for the individual  to  attain to
that state of exaltation which  is induced by solitude, and where
men were in the habit of concentrating all their faculties and  all
the energies of their mind on one object.
   It was at this period of his life that historians inform us he had
ecstasies and visions.   He saw the  Yirgin, who encouraged him
in his plans and in  the mission he had undertaken;  he himself
surrounded  by celestial voices.   These  hallucinations, admitting
them as such in  a scientific point of  view, were only the most for-
cible expression  of his  meditations,  the result  of those profound
convictions  which constituted  one of the distinctive features of
the age.  The idea which had taken  possession of  him became
intensified, assumed  a material form, and presented  itself to his
mind's eye without his evincing Lny  symptoms  of insanity ; in this
case the  original idea, instead of being intercerebral, became ex-
ternal ;  it placed itself before the individual, and  guided him in
all his undertakings.   But in Loyola, as in other celebrated  men,
the hallucination was subsequent to the original conception.
   The character of  the age in  which  Loyola  lived must  not  be
forgotten, and, moreover, that he  was surrounded by the citizens
and people of Spain, an ardent, credulous, excitable, and enthu-
siastic race, but whose religion was of a sombre  character.   To
such a people, visions, spectres, oracles, supernatural events,  were
simple matters  of  fact, and so  to  speak,  of daily  occurrence.
Phantoms in their cemeteries or saints in their  streets created  no
surprise.
   The hallucinations of Loyola, therefore, belonged to the age in
which he lived, and  his sufferings  only bestowed on them  greater
intensity.  The  immense ability  which was shown  by this reli- 
X
PSYCHOLOGY, HISTORY, RELIGION.           361
gious ascetic in his plans and his writings, sufficiently proves that
his reason was not affected.
  Are we  now to believe that the establishment of that order
which formed a counterpoise to Protestantism, by means of that
secret army which mingled with all orders of society, and which
was less devoted  to religious practices than to works which were
truly serviceable to Catholicism, was the offspring of a diseased
brain?   Does not  the evidence, on  the  contrary, show that it
originated in Luther's attack  upon the Catholic religion ?  His-
tory contains more  than one instance of this  kind of antagonism
of one power against  another—of one will devoting  itself to  the
reversing of another.  We cannot therefore admit that the cell of
a visionary soldier was the original  source of this wonder.   Such
an explanation, although  supported by science, seems to us  con-
trary to the dignity of man.   To transform philosophers, reform-
ers, the founders of religion, and  the inventive  geniuses of the
world into so many hallucinated madmen, is to offer  the grossest
insult to human nature.
  It does not devolve upon us to  examine the character of Lu-
ther in a religious point of  view—this  task has been admirably
fulfilled by  others ; but it is impossible for us not to recognize in
him one of the most powerful natures which has ever existed
amongst men.   What strength of will, what power of argument—
how all his labors harmonized with  each other!  With what per-
severance did he pursue his course !   How vigorously did he re-
pulse the attacks 'of his enemies !   Always engaged in the strug-
gle, he died, knowing that the doctrine of free inquiry was hence-
forth triumphant.  And  yet the father of the Reformation ought
mercilessly to be classed with the insane, for he had numerous in-
terviews with the devil.
  "It happened," he says,  "on one occasion (1521) that I woke
up  suddenly, and Satan commenced disputing  with me."  The
conference  turned entirely  on the  subject of the mass,  and is
         24 
362
HALLUCINATIONS.
merely a reproduction of Luther's argument against this sacra-
ment ;  and there can be no doubt that the Reformer, whose days
and nights were occupied with the accomplishment  of his great
work, saw Ofc this occasion his thoughts assume a material form,
in the same manner as all  those whose  minds are strongly preoc-
cupied with a subject perceive it distinctly before them, and mis-
take it for a reality, until the tension of the mind is relaxed, and
they return to the real life which is around them.
  One writer, M. Claude,  will only regard this conference as a
parable, a species of myth, imagined by Luther; engendered,  he
says, by reading monkish  works, where the Tempter is often in-
troduced. The character of Satan in this case being not a reality,
but a philosophical  abstraction, or a symbolical representation  of
our evil passions.
  Luther has  himself refuted this supposition of  M. Claude, in
his  3Iissa Privata, where this vision is related.  After expatiat-
ing on the power which is given to Satan, he says, " This explains
to  me how it sometimes happens that men are found dead in their
beds—it is Satan who has  strangled them.  Eraser, (Ecolampa-
dius, and others like them, who have fallen into the clutches and
under the ban of Satan, have thus died suddenly."
  In a scientific point of view, Luther is proved to have had hal-
lucinations ; but was he insane ?  A question which  we consider
must be answered entirely in the negative.   At the period of the
Reformation, Satan had an  immense power; he  was mixed  up
with the  religious  opinions  of  the time ; he was spoken of in
books and conversation ; he was represented in the paintings and
sculptures of the period ;  and all evil was attributed to him. The
ideas of Luther, exalted by perpetual controversy, by the dangers
of his situation, by the  fulminations of the church, and  by con-
tinually dwelling on religious  subjects, would naturally fall under
the influence of the demon,  which he saw everywhere,  and to
whom he attributed all the obstacles he  encountered, and whom— 
PSYCHOLOGY,  HISTORY, RELIGION.           363
 like his  cotemporaries—he conceived  interfered in all the affairs
 of life.
   The hallucinations, if we may so express ourselves,  belonged
 to society and not to the individual.   This character  of  univer-
 sality, which  is observed in the extravagancies of the  Middle
 Ages, originated in  the circumstance  that  matters of faith had
 subjugated mankind ;  while, on the other hand, the liberty of free
 examination would cause  the  predominance of the  individual.
 Thus, in our own times, where  individuality has attained its max-
 imum development, insanity of a common type has almost disap-
 peared, and has been replaced by  forms of insanity peculiar  to
 each individual.
   To the instances already quoted, we will add that of the he-
 roine to  whom France was indebted for driving the invader from
 her soil.
   " There is no episode in our annals," says M. Buchon, " which
 excites so much admiration  and interest as the brief  history  of
 the arrival of  Joan of Arc in the French camp—her exploits, her
 courage, and her martyrdom.  This extraordinary event has given
 rise to the most opposite  opinions.   Those  who participated  in
 the ideas of the period, believed her to have been  truly inspired
 with supernatural  powers ; others looked upon her enthusiasm  as
 the result of an exalted state of her religious and  patriotic feel-
 ings ; whilst some have regarded  her as the agent or dupe of a
 deep intrigue  planned by the ministers of Charles VII."*
  Who,  then, was this Maid  of Orleans ?  A young  peasant,
 eighteen  or  nineteen years of age, with  a noble  and lofty bearing,
 her countenance pleasing, but  with an expression  of pride, pos-
 sessing a character  remarkable  for its mixture of candor and de-
termination, of modesty and self-possession, and whose conduct
excited the admiration of all who knew her.  From the first mo-

  * Buchon :  Analyse Raisonnee des Documents sur la Pucelle, pp. 196,
198.  Paris:  1843. 
364                   HALLUCINATIONS.
ment that she entered on the career of a warrior, and from which
no repulses were able to deter her, she became  the  most perfect
model of a Christian knight.  Intrepid, indefatigable, calm, pious,
modest, an excellent horse-woman, and as skilful  as  an experi-
enced leader in all the practices of arms,  her whole career man-
ifests  a lofty inspiration, and  bears the impress of a  divine  au
thority.—Charles Nodier.  At the age of  eighteen her mission is
terminated, and it only remained for her to crown it with the  act
of martyrdom.
  Thus we have on one side  the  most unimpeachable conduct,
sagacity of no ordinary kind, and perfect integrity of the reason-
ing powers; while, on the other, as in many other celebrated per-
sons, there were visions and revelations.   Such were the facts of
the case.  Let us examine them more in detail.
  When only eleven  years  old, Joan  had her first apparition,
which took place in the following  manner:  When in  a meadow,
along with her companions, she saw a young man near her, who
said, " Joan, run  to  the house, your mother is in want of your
assistance."   Joan hastened to her mother, who declared she had
not asked for her.   The  young  girl  rejoined  her companions,
when  suddenly a white and brilliant cloud presented itself before
her eyes, and a voice  came from the midst of it, saying, "Joan,
you are born to follow a different course of life, and to accomplish
great  wonders, for you are the person whom Heaven has selected
to restore the  kingdom of France, and to afford succor and sup-
port to Charles, who is now  deprived of his empire.  Dressed
like a man, yon will take arms, you will become the leader of  the
war, and  everything  will be conducted according to your direc-
tions."  Day and night similar apparitions presented  themselves
to Joan, and for five  years she remained in this troubled  state.
At length, in a final vision, she received the following  announce-
ment :  " The King of heaven  commands  you to proceed on your
mission ;  ask no raore how it is to be done, for such is the will of 
PSYCHOLOGY, HISTORY, RELIGION.           365
 God in heaven, and such it shall be fulfilled on earth.   Go, then,
 to the neighboring district of Vancouleurs, which alone  of all
 Champagne has remained faithful to the king, and the commander
 of the  district will conduct you without  difficulty to the accom-
 plishment of your desires."*
   When the unhappy girl answered the questions which were put
 to her by her enemies, she said that St. Catherine  and St. Mar-
 garite had  appeared to her when she was thirteen years old, and
 taught  her  how to  conduct herself.   The  first voice which she
 heard was that of St.  Michael, who presented himself  before her,
 accompanied  by angels, all of them having assumed a corporeal
 form.   She declared she had embraced the  two saints, whom she
 clearly discerned and touched, f
   Hallucinations of all the senses are  evident in this case.  Is
 that, however,  a sufficient  reason to regard the  heroic Joan of
 Arc as a lunatic ?   We strongly protest against such an opinion.
 Read the questions of her interrogators, which are filled with
 malevolence, cunning, and  hate, and you must be struck with the
 simple,  ingenuous,  and uniform answers  of Joan ;  she is always
 superior to her judges; her openness and  courage stand in strong
 contrast to their perfidy and cowardice ;  her strong mind to their
 weakness ; and her lofty piety to their degrading bigotry.
   Her life, as displayed by these examinations,  was of a romantic
 and innocent character.   When the panic  came which was caused
 by the disorders of  the soldiery, Joan, already remarkable for her
 courage, would escort  through the dangerous places those of her
 companions  who would otherwise have been afraid to have ac-
companied their flocks.
   At the early age of thirteen, all the physical powers began to
develop themselves in  her vigorous constitution; the  moral and
intellectual faculties had already manifested  a premature develop-
* Buchon :  Opus cit.    \ Interrogatoire du 17 Mars, p. 492. 
366
HALLUCINATIONS.
ment.  At this time the inhabitants of the rural districts lived in
perpetual terror of the English and the Burgundians ;  they were
utterly dispirited  and  prostrate, and the  country seemed entirely
lost.  The* youthful imagination of Joan  was excited by the mis-
eries of her country, of her hamlet, and her family.  Womanhood,
which in  her case immediately succeeded to childhood, impressed
upon her blood and her brain an extraordinary state of agitation.
During this kind  of crisis, she turned her eyes upon the windows
of the church, which at the time were brilliantly illuminated with
the rays  of a burning sun.  She  was dazzled by the sight, and
remained in  a species of  ecstasy.   It was  then, continues M.
Buchon, from  whom we  have taken the  foregoing account, that
the visions  relating  to her mission commenced.  When the hallu-
cination had passed, and Joan had returned  to herself, she doubted
the meaning of what she had seen.   For several weeks her blood
was quieter, and neither filled  her  brain with warlike ideas, mar-
velous visions, nor inspirations concerning the future ;  but at the
end of every few weeks, when there were  symptoms of a great
constitutional  change, which seems never  to have taken place,
the same hallucinations were reproduced.   St. Michael appeared
to her, she  fell into  ecstatic reveries, and  held mystical communi-
cations with him,  with the angel Gabriel, with St.  Catherine, and
with St.  Margarite, " whose  heads were adorned with rich  and
precious  crowns."  It was in vain  for her to reason against these
things—the constant  return of the  same phenomena gave them
greater power on  each occasion; and as the voices which appealed
to her pure and noble heart inspired  only thoughts of  honor and
devotion, she no  longer mistrusted, but  relied on them  with as
much confidence as  she had formerly had  doubts concerning them.
Already for nearly seven years she had lived in the constant con-
templation of the most lofty ideas, which found a responsive echo
in her bosom.   The age of eighteen had arrived,  and she was in
all the vigor of her  splendid organization.  She was eager to fulfill 
PSYCHOLOGY,  HISTORY, RELIGION.          367
her mission.   She presented herself to the Governor of Vancou-
leurs, who, after considerable hesitation, touched by her  courage
and  perseverance, which alone were sufficient to rouse the hearts
of the most  dejected, he  yielded  to her prayers, armed her, and
had her conducted to Chinon. *
   This appreciation of the conduct of Joan of Arc, by a man of
undoubted merit, seems to us to accord so exactly with the judg-
ment of science, that we have considered  it desirable to report  it
entire.  But here occurs an  objection  which we  have elsewhere
alluded to.   If the absence of an important change in the female
economy is to  be regarded as the source of Joan's hallucinations,
how does it  happen we do not find in it any analogy to  what
occurs in  the present day under similar circumstances ?   The
period of menstruation does in fact influence the brain, and pro-
duces  disorders of the sensibility and the powers of motion;  it
affects the mind, and gives rise to symptoms of insanity;  in other
words, to a state of disease, f  Nothing of this  kind existed in
Joan ; her health was perfect, her reason excellent, and  her hal-
lucinations only reflected the opinions of the period ;  they resulted
from the conviction that her mission had a divine  origin.
   We have never pretended that the persons who were subject to
hallucinations were in their ordinary condition.  It is in that state
of enthusiasm arising from strong convictions, and which is favored
by the circumstances in the  midst of which they have been engen-
dered, that we  have  sought  for an explanation of hallucinations;
phenomena which were formerly so common, and which are  still
to be met with.   This is also the explanation which has been given
by a  distinguished writer, M.  Ch.  Louandre ; and it will be found
that  it is quite as ingenious, far more probable, and has a philo-
sophical and  historical bearing very different from that hypothesis
which is founded upon a diseased condition of the organs.

  * Buchon:  Opus cit. pp. 196-198.
  t A Brierre de Boismont: Recherches Bibliographiques et Cliniques sur la
Menstruation.—Annal.  Med.-psgchol.   Oct. 1851. 
368
HALLUCINATIONS.
   Let us reconsider  this case of Joan of Arc, so full of interest
and of heroism.
   During the Middle  Ages, it was believed  throughout Chris-
tendom that God  had honored  France with  his special protec-
tion, and had chosen it for his terrestrial kingdom.   This  belief
entered into the interpretation of historical events, and formed the
foundation of a number of  marvelous  legends.   God, it was sup-
posed, by means of  that celestial  messenger,  the dove,  conveyed
into the cathedral  of Rheims the oil for the coronation.   It  can
hardly be doubted  that this legend exercised an important influ-
ence over the destiny of the kings of France, and consequently
over that of the country.   The coronation of its kings was not a
vain ceremony ; it  was a solemn mystery, by which God  conferred
on them special favors, as the spirit of justice and the gift of mir-
acles.
   These traditions  had no doubt come to the kn  wledge o"  oan ;
and it is  easy to understand how, in such times,  and with her pe-
culiar temperament, she would mistake the voices which she heard
in her ecstasies for that of the  guardian angel of France.  Joan
obeyed the superior power of enthusiasm, illumination and ecstasy;
conditions which, while they defy all analysis, form part  of  man's
nature, and  influence the events of history.   In the  internal  de-
rangement which is produced by ecstasy, the mind becomes greatly
excited, and demands from the imagination the phantoms  of its
dreams, and the latter, in spite of the continuance of the reason,
invests them with  material forms.  The mind  extends itself to
new horizons ; the  external world no longer maintains its ordinary
appearance ; it is no longer bounded  by the actual, but a mirage
rises on all sides, possessed of such mighty power, that the mys-
tics have maintained the superiority  of this inner over  the outer
sense.' This inner sight,  this  mystical vision,  says  Hughes de
Saint-Victor,  endowed with ubiquity, sees God,  and  all that
belongs to  God; when enlightened by faith, it assumes a spiritual 
PSYCHOLOGY, HISTORY, RELIGION.             369
character, and the soul by faith discovers in itself things which
escape the senses in the world of matter.
  Hallucinations are not peculiar to individuals, they occur also
to the masses, and visions may become contagious.
  Joan and  her cotemporaries would find in the traditions of
Christianity a confirmation of  these hallucinations.  Angels were
sent to Abraham, to Moses, and to Joshua.  The ecclesiastical
writers of the first ages maintained that, when two nations were
at war, celestial spirits placed  themselves on the boundaries of the
two kingdoms, and engaged in desperate combats;  a circumstance
which tends to explain the propensity of the people during  the
Middle Ages  to see armies fighting in the clouds.   The spectators
who witnessed the sacrifice of the heroic Joan of Arc, declared
that they saw the sacred name of Jesus—the last word she utter-
ed—inscribed in the flames.
  Patriotism  and military genius, elevated by faith to the very
verge of inspiration, afford the true explanation of the glorious
destiny of Joan of Arc, and is the only one which can be admit-
ted  by modern reasoning.
  The more  we  examine the records of history, the more are we
compelled to admit that eminent men, especially those who have
been desirous of benefiting their race, must be placed in the Pan-
demonium of the insane, if the diseased hallucination is the only
form which can be recognized.  Every one has heard of the sect
of Friends or Quakers, whose probity is proverbial; yet, accord-
ing  to the existing medical doctrines, George Fox, the founder
of the society, would be regarded as a lunatic.
  George Fox, in order to devote himself to the work of regen-
eration, withdrew himself from his family at an  early period of
his career.  For  many years he clothed himself entirely in leather.
Sometimes shut up in  his chamber, sometimes crouched up in the
hollow of an  old  tree,  but always fasting, praying, and mediatat-
ing  on the Scriptures,  he  was assailed by temptations and  dis- 
370                   HALLUCINATIONS.
couragements.   At  this time he had several revelations, which
struck him with astonishment.   It was revealed to him that all
Christians, whether Protestants or Papists, were  believers and
the sons of God.  Alarmed and disconsolate at finding no means
for commencing his intended work, he was at length consoled by
a voice which said in his heart, " There is one who can compre-
hend you, it is Christ Himself."  For fourteen days he continued
in a kind of lethargy ;  and while his body remained as though it
was dead, his vision was extended to eternity and to matters which
the tongue cannot utter.   " I beheld," he adds, " the greatness,
the infinity, and the love of God." . . .  One  Sunday, in 1649,
he felt himself compelled to  enter the cathedral at Nottingham,
and there to utter his testimony. ...  It  is, therefore, indisputa-
ble, that the founder of the  society of  Quakers had  visions and
revelations.   These psychological  phenomena  also manifested
themselves in the first converts to his preaching.   Like him, they
were all convinced of their infallibility; they looked  upon them-
selves as saints cleansed from sin, and all  were endowed with the
gift of prophecy ;  at  the same  time  they possessed a  certain
amount of heroism, a contempt of danger, and the zeal which  is
imparted by sincerity.*
   If the cases we have quoted  are conclusive, and the inferences
we have drawn correct, the opinion which has converted  Socrates,
Plato, Numa, Pythagoras, Pascal, and many other celebrated men,
into hallucinated lunatics, must be rejected, and reason be permit-
ted to claim these great minds as her own.
   To the four examples we have already quoted  should be added
that of Socrates, the grandest intellect of ancient times.  But  if
our arguments, which  only feebly represent our convictions, have
satisfied the minds of  our readers, they will spontaneously apply
them to the Grecian philosopher, who, in spite of all medical theo-

  * George Fox et les Premiers Prophets.—Revue des Deux Mondes, vol.  ii.
p. 94.  Par M. J. Melsand. 
PSYCHOLOGY, HISTORY, RELIGION.          371
ries, will ever remain the most noble impersonation of the human
intellect  and the  master  of Plato.   Common sense will never
bring itself to regard as a lunatic a man whose  conduct was so
pure, so wise, and  in a manner so providential.   His familiar de-
mon was but the impersonation of his Ego—son mot—whose ma-
terial representation was  owing to the period.   In those ages a
belief in dreams was common to him and the rest  of  mankind.
The reproaches which have been cast upon him on account of the
influence he imagined he possessed over his disciples at a distance
originated in the admiration they felt for his talents, their devotion
to his person, and  the  high opinion  he entertained of his priestly
office.
   Thus, in our opinion, the celebrated men whom  we have quoted,
and many others, may have had hallucinations without their influ-
encing their plans, their actions, or their conduct, and without its
being possible justly to charge them with  insanity.  This estab-
lishes a vast difference  between them and the hallucinated of our
own times, whose  conversations, actions, and  conduct are always
indicative of insanity.   They are persons who represent no want,
fulfill no mission, and, in a word, who seem to  be utterly useless to
their fellow-men.
   In a work  intended  to prove  that  the integrity  of the reason
was consistent  in  some persons with the existence  of  hallucina-
tions, I should show an  undue respect  for human ^opinions if I
did  not declare  that the founders of Christianity, most of whom
were of humble origin—although  M. Lelut says,  " I  have con-
fined the existence of  physiological hallucinations  to  persons of
high rank"—enjoyed the full possession of their  mental faculties.
We must also remark,  that the hallucinations did  not exist merely
in some exceptional and isolated cases, as the  same writer has fur-
ther stated, in order to produce the impression that we could only
maintain our doctrine  in  regard to  a few individuals; they also 
372
HALLUCINATIONS.
 occurred  to multitudes, as  we have seen them in the present  day
 amongst the nations of the North and of India.*
   We are not the first who, believing in the divine origin of
 Christianity, have pointed out the line which separates the appa-'
 ritions of Scripture from those of profane history, and  even of
 many Christian persons.  English medical writers who have writ-
 ten  on  this  subject, have already maintained  a similar  opinion.
 Thus, Arnold says : " But as a rational Christian can allow of no
 such inspiration but what was given to Christ and to the prophets
 and  apostles,  we must, of course, conclude that the pretenders to
 Divine illumiuation and the gift of prophecy were, among the an-
 cient heathens, as they have since been among modern Christains,
 of two  sorts j and were either no  better than insane, or were
 downright cheats and impostors.   The latter became such either
 from private views of ambition, reputation, and emolument, a zeal
 for the public good, or an attachment to the interests of a party, "-j-
   " It has been asked," says Hibbert,  "if all  the  authenticated
 instances  of apparitions and supernatural communications are to
 be regarded as cases of disease, it is necessary to make a distinc-
 tion  with  regard to those which are recorded in Scripture.   It
 would indeed be most presumptuous to  comment on the  manner
 in which God has chosen to communicate with man  for a special
 purpose ;  but this distinction having been made, it is necessary to
 remark  that there is  nothing which proves to us  that similar
 events have taken place since  the  apostolic times; and all  the
 alleged instances of this kind which have occurred in recent times,
 seem to us to  belong to medicine  rather  than to theology." J   It

  * Bumouf:  Commentaire sur le Baghavat Pourana, vol. i, p. 146.—Re-
 vue Etrangere, par Philarete Chasles, Debat du 18 Octobre,  1857.
  f Arnold: Opus cit. vol. i. p.  304.
  t Hibbert: Opus cit.   In the work of the Abbe Lenglet Dufresnoy is a
very  clear  account of the religious view of those apparitions and visions
 which have occurred since the apostolic times, and especially during the
Middle  Ages.—Traite Historique et Dogmatique sur les Apparitions, les
 Visions, et les Revelations particuliers, vol. i. p. 97.  2 vols, in-12.  Avig-
non et Paris, 1751. 
PSYCHOLOGY, HISTORY, RELIGION.          373
is  not  to  be forgotten that Arnold and Hibbert were Protest-
ants.
   " Lastly," adds Abercrombie, in his work on the Intellectual
Powers, " however humbling it is to the pride of human reason,
it is not the less true, that the highest acquirement ever made by
the most exalted genius of man has been only to trace a part, and
a very  small  part, of that order which the  Deity has established
in his works.  When we endeavor to pry into the causes of this
order, we  perceive the operation of powers  which  lie far beyond
the reach of our  limited faculties.   They  who  have made the
highest advances in true science,  will be the first to confess how
limited these faculties are, and how small a part they can compre-
hend of the ways of the Almighty Creator;  they will be the first
to acknowledge that the highest acquirements of human wisdom
is to advance to that line which is its legitimate boundary ; and
then, contemplating  the  wondrous field  which  lies beyond it, to
bend  in humble  adoration before a  wisdom  which  it cannot
fathom, and a power which it cannot comprehend." *
   Certain writers  have exclaimed against the distinction we have
made in favor of those apparitions which have been recorded in
Scripture.   But instead  of charging us with having shown too
much respect to the canonical statements, they have attacked  us
as an eclectic who adopts on the one hand and  rejects on the
other.   In acting thus, we do not pretend  to be more orthodox
than the  Fathers  of the Church and those  learned theologians
who, like ourselves,  were rationalists with regard to the halluci-
nations of many religious persons, as shown by the following quo-
tations.
   St. Bonaventura says positively that certain persons who ima-
gined they had  seen  Jesus Christ  or the Virgin, and  pretended

  * Abercrombie :  Opus cit.  John Cheyne :  Essays on Partial Derange-
ment of  the Mind in Supposed Connection with Religion.   1 vol.  Dublin:
1843. 
374
HALLUCINATIONS.
they had received consolation from their mouths, were  exposed
to errors, the  very publication of which  was blasphemy.*  The
illustrious  chancellor Gerson  has  written an  entire work in this
spirit.   The Church, as  we learn from Cardinal Lambertini, ac-
cords but  very little authority to all  special visions.  She tole-
rates some, but in the mass she rejects them.  In her acts of. can-
onization she pays no attention to them, unless they are accompa-
nied by virtuous actions.   Lastly, even  when the visions are ap-
proved of by the Holy See, they do not form a subject for gener-
al belief.   Each person is at liberty to form what opinion  he
pleases as to their causes, even such as do away with their mirac-
ulous character, without  becoming unorthodox, f
   Thus, then, if we  have sometimes  accepted such matters, and
at other times rejected them, we have  only acted in  the same way
as orthodox theologians.   It must not be forgotten that  the
visions of the  prophets have  signs which distinguish them from
these personal hallucinations ; they present  a series  of revelations
relating to the same subject, continued  for ages, and possessing
the same characters; they are all connected with the regeneration
of the world and the birth of a Savior.   In a word, they form a
complete system.

  * De Profectu Relig. lib. vii. c. 8.
  t De Canonis, SS., lib. iii. c. 52.  M. Michea, Du Delire des Sensations,
p. 27. 
,                  C HAPTER  XIII.

             TREATMENT  OF  HALLUCINATIONS.*

   Until of late  years the treatment of hallucinations in France
had not attracted the special attention of medical men. This was
the  natural  consequence of the universal opinion that they were
merely a symptom of insanity.   In the  important works of Fer-
riar, Hibbert, Esquirol, and Jacobi, on hallucinations, there is no
chapter devoted to  their treatment.   The French  author assures
us that they do not  require any particular method ;  he adds, how-
ever, that  they ought to be taken  into  our  serious consideration
when  deciding  upon the moral and intellectual treatment of the
insane  and the therapeutic agents which are  to be  used.   The
English authors have not been more  explicit, nor does the Ger-
man philosopher suggest anything new in this respect.
   Such was the  state  of  the  science  when  M. Leuret, having
carefully considered what had been done previously, declared that
hallucinations,  which had  hitherto been left  entirely to the re-
sources of nature, were  amenable  to treatment, and capable  of
being cured, and that this desirable result could be easily obtained
by resolutely opposing and continually pursuing them until  they
gave way.   Experience has since shown the  value of this  method,
but at the  same time it does not possess that general  application

  * It should be borne in mind that, since a hallucination is generally a
complication  of  some one  of the different forms of insanity, what we
shall say with regard to the treatment will often apply to both  disorders.
This distinction is particularly perceptible in the means which are  em-
ployed against the false idea. 
376                   HALLUCINATIONS.
which  was believed by its author, who had  only tried it in the
treatment of hospital patients.  It was evident  that in private
establishments, intended for persons who, from their  position in
society and from their  education,  had been accustomed to com-
mand, and  who  were endowed with a large amount  of  pride—
which is an element in many cases of insanity—it would be neces-
sary to modify very materially the  treatment which has been pro-*
posed by the medical officer of the Bicetre.   With  these reser-
vations, we were amongst the first to  call attention to the utility
of this method,  and we availed ourselves of  it in the treatment
of those cases to which  it seemed adapted.
  The treatment of hallucinations may be arranged under  two
heads—the first comprising the physical, the second the moral
means.
  Before entering upon  the details of  this part of our subject, we
must first refer to the conditions under which the treatment should
be pursued.  Ought the hallucinated to be removed, or treated
at their own houses ?  According to the plan of  M. Leuret, their
removal is absolutely necessary.  The  nature of the hallucination,
the length of time  it has lasted, and  its complications, are  also
circumstances which establish important distinctions.  To  this
preliminary question we shall reply by quoting certain cases.
  Example  125.   "A  naval officer, who held a  lucrative and re-
sponsible  situation, was much attached to making telescopic ob-
servations, and imagined that he had made remarkable discoveries
in the sun. Among other strange assertions, he solemnly declared
that, at the time of the abdication  of Napoleon, in 1814, he saw
the emperor's figure in  the sun, and that the next day the figure
appeared  again, but reduced  to  a skeleton.  On the third day
the figure was no longer visible, but the united colors of the  allies
were very  distinctly seen.   A minute of these  appearances was
regularly  entered in the log-book, and it is said that several of
the crew of the ship were ready to testify to the perfect accuracy 
TREATxMENT OP   HALLUCINATIONS.         377
 of the captain's observations.   In the face, however, of such evi-
 dence, few persons were found who believed a word of it, and the
 gallant  officer had the mortification to find that this was  con-
 sidered to be only one  of  his delusions.  That it was a mere de-
 lusion, there can, indeed, be no kind of doubt;  but the delusion,
 and all  the  other  delusions cherished  by  the  same  individual,
 were perfectly harmless;  they did not affect the  operations of his
 mind in  the common business of his life, or in any way disqualify
 him for his official duties."
   Conolly, from whom we have copied  the preceding case, adds,
 that men must not be confined for entertaining peculiar opinions
 on particular subjects ; or, if they are, it is clear that no rule can
 be found by which  any one can be guided on the one hand, or
 protected on the other.  A man may even  be accounted mad for
 believing that there are two worlds of created intelligences  con-
 nected with  our planet—one invisible,  the  other visible ;   that
 there is no such thing as solitude;  that every lonely place  is peo-
 pled, and every solitary action done before many witnesses; yet
 he would not assert  more in avowing this belief than religion has
 taught many to believe.  If he goes a step farther, and imagines
 that he can communicate  with the  invisible  beings,  he will  cer-
 tainly  run great risk of being looked  upon as a dangerous mad-
 man, although some great men have  cherished  the  same  belief.
 He is then,  in fact,  under the dominion of a hallucination ; he
 has allowed his ideas to assume a bodily form, and his powers of
 comparing and  of judging are defective.  But, although he may
 be insane upon this particular point, if his conduct is correct  and
 his action blameless,  no  one has a right to interfere with his affairs
 or to call him to account for his  opinions; still less have they
the right to place him in confinement.*
   Thus, so long as  the hallucinations are harmless,  confinement

                   * Conolly :  Opus cit. p. 406.
        25 
378                   HALLUCINATIONS.
 is not necessary;  but that is not the case when the hallucination
 may prove injurious to the  individual  himself or to others ; con-
 finement is then absolutely  necessary.  It may  also  be asked
 whether confinement is not justifiable, even in the treatment of
 harmless hallucinations, when they have long resisted  the means
 usually employed in such cases.
   Example  126.   We were consulted,  some  years ago, by a
 young lady (an artist) whose  husband had short attacks of epi-
 lepsy, but which were immediately followed by a state of insanity.
 In one  of  these attacks, he seized his wife by the throat and en-
 deavored to strangle her,  and it  was with difficulty she managed
 to escape from the room.   At another time, he imagined he was
 surrounded by enemies, and asked for his dagger to kill them.
   The  alarm of his young wife at these two attacks may readily
 be conceived.  "I cannot," she said, "lead such a life any longer.
 My  sleep  is  disturbed by frightful  dreams ;  I continually im-
 agine that  I  perceive the symptoms which precede these  attacks;
 I watch his every movement;  my whole attention is fixed on him ;
 my powers are paralized;  I cannot speak; and I am entirely
 prevented  from following  my profession.   Pray,  sir,  assist me,
 and  do  not leave  me in  this cruel position.   In the name  of
 Heaven, take pity on my misfortunes."
   On the  other hand, the  husband, when he had recovered him-
 self,  gave no further evidence of insanity.   His conversation was
 reasonable ;  he was fully aware he had labored under a delusion.
'"When I suffer in that way," he  observed, " it seems to me as if
 my  ideas  were jumbled  together; my  head becomes a perfect
 chaos, and I can distinguish nothing."
   Young,  devoted to his wife, and not believing in the dangerous
 nature of his disease, the position of the patient was most embar-
 rassing ; nor was it less so for the medical man.
   It was quite evident that  the  young man's disease was of a
 most serious character with respect to the safety of his wife, for 
PHYSICAL TREATMENT.                379
 experience has too often shown  the dangerous catastrophies  to
 which those persons are exposed  who reside with the insane epi-
 leptic when he labors under a hallucination.   The moral state  of
 the  wife  had also to be considered, for a little  more might have
 driven her to commit suicide or rendered her insane.  Separation
 was  therefore indispensable,  and I accordingly advised  it; but
 taking  into  consideration the briefness of the  attacks and the
 speedy return of the reason, I did  not think it desirable  to recom-
 mend an asylum.   His friends promised me they would  show him
 the  necessity  of separating from  his wife  for some months, and
 that  they would  take care he should keep to the arrangement I
 had suggested.
   In the present state of our laws, confinement, in this  case, was
 out of the question;  yet, what  dependence was to be placed on
 the word  of a man whose disease might at any moment deprive
 him  of his reason, and  what guarantee was there he would not
 seek his wife ?

               SECTION I.—PHYSICAL TREATMENT.

   The intimate connection which exists between  the two constitu-
 ent principles of man, shows that each may be affected in its turn,
 and  that it is therefore necessary to make use of such therapeutic
 agents as  are applicable to both of them.   Let  us take some ex-
 amples :  a person gives himself up to the immoderate use of fer-
 mented liquors, and becomes subject to hallucinations; sometimes
 confinement is sufficient to effect a cure, but  frequently  it is also
 necessary  to  have  recourse  to  opium,   bleeding,  baths,  &c.
 Another person imagines he sees  the devil, and reasoning with
 the patient, the use of ridicule or the douche, will succeed in
 banishing the  false  sensation.   Generally speaking, it will  be
 necessary to have recourse to both these  modes of treatment, in
consequence of the reciprocal action of the  two principles.  A 
380
HALLUCINATIONS.
person experiences some great misfortune, which he attributes to
one of his enemies;  soon  afterwards the figure of the latter, 01
some fantastic form,  makes its appearance; he no longer sleeps;
his blood, to use a common expression, becomes heated ; the secre-
tions and excretions  are deranged.   In this case, ought not the
employment of physical remedies to precede that of moral agents ?
What reason teaches us, experience confirms.
   The Academician  Nicolai was subject  to  congestions, which
required the  employment of leeches, but which he had neglected
to make use of, and the consequence was, he was  constantly sur-
rounded  by all kinds of phantoms.   He  is then bled,  and the
phantoms disappear.
   Example  127.  A lodging-house keeper, with a strong con-
stitution and sanguine temperament, who from time to time gave
way to drink, was brought to the establishment of Madame Marcel
de Sainte Colombe, of which I was at the time  the medical at-
tendant.   His countenance  was inflamed, his  eyes  bright and
wild.   He told me in the most excited  manner that his aunt had
let a part of his house to some exhibitors of wild beasts—this was
not true—which  had greatly annoyed him.   "One of them," he
said, "insulted my wife on three different occasions ;  this exaspe-
rated me, and I threw myself on the scoundrel; but he changed
himself into a horse,  and gradually diminished to my sight; but
this did not  hinder me from killing him."
   The man was very violent, and it was necessary to place him in
a strait-waistcoat;  I  had his head  shaved, thirty leeches  applied
along the course of the sagittal suture, and on  the next day he
was  placed in the bath.  At the end of two days he was better.
To the use of these means was added  that of purgatives alter-
nately with the baths.   Eight  days after  his admission  he had
quite recovered the use of his faculties.
  Under the head of  Hypochondriasis we  have reported the case
of a teacher of German, who imagined he was under magnetic in- 
PHYSICAL TREATMENT.
381
fluences, and that a magnetizer had been placed  in his abdomen.
In order to  divert his ideas, and at the same time cure the intes-
tinal  disorder, I applied  two large blisters to  his  legs.   His
countenance, which had hitherto  been melancholy, soon assumed
a more happy expression ;  he ceased to talk about his erroneous
sensations, and by directing his attention to  intellectual occupa-
tions, his cure was completed.
   One of our lunatics persuaded  himself that several men  had
entered his room for the purpose of ill-treating him.   Enraged at
this idea, he defied them, and called out loudly for  his knife, in
order to destroy his  persecutors.    The  treatment  consisted of
purgatives  and baths.    A  month  after  his  entrance  he  was
restored to his family, cured.
   Mademoiselle C. became insane  after a disappointment in love.
She  continually saw her lover about her; she  saw  him  in  the
heavens and in the clouds, and bestowed  upon him the most en-
dearing  names ;  he  spoke to her, and she replied.   Every  day
this lady was placed  in the bath,  where she  remained four, five,
and six hours at a time, receiving  the water  on  her  head  in the
form of continued irrigation ; on the fourth day she had no longer
any hallucinations, and at the end  of a week she was quite recov-
ered.
   Bleedings are useful under some circumstances, but they should
not be excessive.  Without referring to the serious consequences
mentioned by Pinel, and the truth  of which all who have had
charge  of the  insane  will confirm,  experience  proves that  the
bleeding may be carried on until the patient  faints, without pro-
ducing any alteration in his ideas.
  Example 128.  A physician who had  hallucinations of sight
and hearing, requested Esquirol to bleed him.   For a long time
Esquirol refused; but at length, overcome by his importunity, he
consented.   Scarcely had  the patient been left, when he tore off
the bandage, and filled a chamber  utensil and a tin basin with his 
382
HALLUCINATIONS.
blood, besides a considerable  quantity  which fell on  the floor;
feeling faint, he laid  himself on  his bed, the blood  still flowing
from him.   When assistance arrived, he was  bloodless.  He was
ultimately restored, but had become blind.   In spite of his  anae-
mic condition  and the loss of  sight, his insanity remained unal-
tered.   The hallucinations  preserved the  same  character,  they
were as vivid, and lasted just  as long  as  they had  done previ-
ously.*
  The cure of hallucinations has sometimes been effected by vio-
lent  means,  which were a disgrace  to  humanity, but of which,
nevertheless, there are numerous examples related by authors.
  Example 129.   A carpenter of Anvers  imagined that during-
the night he saw a number of  horrible spectres.  The terror
which they caused him was so great, that he became insane.   He
was taken to the tomb of the virgin St.  Dymphrea, who had the
reputation  of curing the possessed.    The  carpenter remained
there for the space  of  a year, and was  submitted to the various
modes  of  treatment which were  made use  of in mania.  But at
the end of that time, as the money for  his maintenance  was not
paid, he was sent home tied in a cart.  During the journey, the
invalid having broken his chains,  jumped from the vehicle into a
deep piece of water by the roadside.   With some difficulty his
conductors succeeded in rescuing  him, and placed him half dead
in the vehicle.   This cured him, and he lived for eighteen years
afterwards, quite recovered from his insanity.-j-
  An emetic or a purgative  will sometimes banish the hallucina-
tions.
  A lunatic believed he had swallowed  the devil, and he still re-
mained in his stomach.  For several days he refused to obey the
calls of  nature, for  fear the  devil should recover his liberty.  I

   * Esquirol:  Des Maladies Mentales, vol. i. p. 183.
   f Van Helmont: Demens Idea, 39 oper.  p. 175. 
PHYSICAL TREATMENT.                383
triumphed, says Ferriar, over his resolution, by administering to
him an emetic along with his food.*
  The use of baths, combined with the douche or continued  irri-
gation, deserves especial notice.   In the hands of M. Leuret, the
douche has more than once convinced the hallucinated of the false
nature of his ideas.   Other  practitioners have  not been so  suc-
cessful.
  Under certain regulations, this method provides us with useful
resources.   If the hallucination is  of recent date, if the invalid is
timid and fearful, the impression produced by a column of water
may instantly change the nature of his ideas.   Should the false
sensations  continue after the use of persuasive  and other gentle
means in a  person who has  been accustomed to have his wishes
fulfilled, and who is endowed with a moderate amount of energy,
then,  in such a case, the application  of the douche  may effect a
cure.
  The circumstances are not so favorable when  the hallucination
occurs in a  person of energy and  determination, and has lasted
for a long  time.   It is the same where it is complicated  with in-
sanity, especially in melancholy monomania with a  tendency to
suicide.  The hallucinations  of mania, of dementia, and of gene-
ral  paralysis will seldom be  treated successfully  by means of the
douche.  In a certain number of cases, the use of the douche will
aggravate the symptoms instead of benefiting them.
  We have substituted for the douche, continued irrigation.   The
water is allowed to fall, for  hours together, in a thin stream, or
in a number of streams like those from a watering-pot, on the
head  of the patient while seated in  the bath.   The effect  pro-
duced by this  continued sprinkling  has, first, the advantage of
keeping up a constant  cooling effect on the organ which is  con-
gested,  without causing those injurious results  which have been
laid  to  the charge of ice.    In the second  place, it  harasses the
                     * Ferriar:  Opus cit. 
384                    HALLUCINATIONS.
patient, so that he will often ask  for pardon.   What others have
stated, as regards the instantaneous action of the douche,  we have
also observed from  the  use of continued irrigation.  After this
treatment  has been persevered in  for some  hours, the  patients
have begged of us to remove them  from the bath, admitting they
were previously deranged, that what they had said was nonsense,
but that now they were completely  cured.
  Example 130.  A young female who had become hallucinated
after her confinement, imagined she saw before her a large figure
clothed in white, which  followed her everywhere.   Her  medical
attendant  applied leeches to the neck, and  ordered her several
baths.   This treatment produced no amendment; the patient be-
came more violent, and  fears were  entertained she would  throw
herself out of the window.
  She  was then brought to my establishment.  As soon as she
arrived she was taken to the bath.  The water was allowed to
fall on her head for two  hours.  At the end of that time  I visited
her.   "Sir,"  she said,  "let  me come out of this; the  water
which falls on my head like a shower of rain is unbearable.  You
have done  it because I was  out of my mind; I know  it; but,
thank God, I am now in my right senses.  Do not leave  me here
any longer."  Before granting her  request, I asked her what had
become of the  figure in white.  " It  exists  no longer," she re-
plied;  "it was  an  illusion  produced by my milk fever."  The
lady having replied rationally to all my questions, I took her to
her apartment, and in eight hours she was restored to her friends.
  Things  do not always  turn  out so fortunately, and  we have
often  known the erroneous impressions to return after a momen-
tary cessation.  In other cases, the  false sensation disappears, but
the insanity remains.   We have, however, found  such beneficial
results from the use of irrigation, that  we constantly employ it;
and the cures we have affected by combining it with baths of con-
siderable duration, have  been  so numerous and rapid, that we con- 
PHYSICAL TREATMENT.
385
sider we  have rendered an important service to the therapeutics
of mental diseases in pointing out the circumstances under which
this treatment should be pursued.
  The facts which we have just related can scarcely leave a doubt
as to the efficacy of physical agents ; in the majority of the cases,
they act  by  quieting the symptoms of excitement.   It is because
sufficient attention has  not been paid to this period of  the disease
that such contradictory opinions have been maintained.  When
the  excitement has passed away, either owing to the use of reme-
dies or from the lapse of time, then the greatest advantages are
to be derived from moral treatment.
  Before entering upon this part of our subject, it is necessary to
say a few words on the Datura stramonium, which was  proposed
some years back by Dr. Moreau  of Tours, the medical attendant
upon the insane at the  Bicetre.  This medicine was employed in
the case of hallucinated persons, who, if they could not be termed
incurable, were in a more or less hopeless condition.   Seven were
cured,  and three experienced only a temporary amendment.  The
cures  were  accomplished in from four to seven days to  a month,
by means of graduated doses of the sweetened  extract of stra-
monium, beginning  with  one decigramme (1.5432 grains) night
and morning, increasing the dose, in the course of five, eight, or
fifteen days, to three decigrammes, made up into a drink, of which
a tablespoonful was taken every  hour. At the end of  twenty-four
hours the doses were  greatly increased, one decigramme of the
extract being administered  every hour,  until   its physiological
effects were evident.  According to Dr. Moreau, these  generally
showed themselves after the administration of three decigrammes.
Great care is required  in the administration of large doses of the
Datura.  The patient should never be  left, in order that the
effects of the  remedy may be watched, and not allowed to  pass
beyond the  normal limits.*
  * Journal des Connaissances  Medicates  Pratiques, p. 134.   Fev.  1842.
Analyse de M. Bouchardat. 
386
HALLUCINATIONS.
  The necessity of these  precautions show that this remedy can
only be used with great reserve.  Another objection is, that the
remedy has not produced the same fortunate  results in the hands
of others as it did with M. Moreau.
  Some years ago,  M. Mitivie attempted to treat hallucinations
by means  of electricity.   M. Baillarger subsequently reverted to
the use of this agent:  it was found, however, to  be  exceedingly
painful and difficult in its application, and  was therefore  aban-
doned.
  Drugs may sometimes  cure  hallucinations; not by  means  of
their therapeutic action, but by breaking the chain of ideas which
possess the mind of the patient.
  Example 131.   A student of Berlin, who had always enjoyed
good health, returned home one  evening in a state  of  great
alarm ; his countenance was pale, his eyes had a wild expression,
and he declared he should die in six and thirty hours.  He  went
to bed, sent for a clergyman  to reconcile him to God, and wrote
his will. These serious  symptoms alarmed his companions. Hufe-
land was requested to visit the invalid, but his reasonings had no
effect upon him.  This celebrated physician then ordered a large
dose of opium, and so  produced a deep sleep, which lasted  until
the fatal period had passed.  On his waking  up, the day and the
hour was  shown to  the patient, and it was thus proved to him he
had been under the influence of his imagination. When the young
man had become thoroughly  convinced, quiet in his mind, and re-
stored to his usual state, he related  that, as  he  was leaving the
town at the close of the day, he saw a death's head, and  heard a
voice,  which  said  to  him,  " You  will die in  six and thirty
hours."
  The principal physical  agents which are used in the treatment
of hallucinations, consist  of  general and local  blood-letting, of
prolonged general baths,  either by themselves or combined with
the douche, with the bath of irrigation, or with  purgatives; oc- 
MORAL  TREATMENT.                 387
casionally  emetics, narcotics, and anti-spasmodics;  and, lastly,
external revulsions,  by means  of  blisters, moxas,  and setons.
Many other remedies  have  been  extolled,  but we  consider
it would be  useless  to enumerate them.   Manual labor  is
often a very  useful auxiliary.   Persons  are  sometimes brought
into asylums whose insanity seems to depend upon insufficient nu-
trition.  Should this be the cause of  the  hallucination, a nutri-
tious regimen  must be  prescribed.   Lastly,  it is most import-
ant carefully to examine all the organs of  the body, and to as-
certain that their functions are properly performed.

                SECTION II.—MORAL TREATMENT.

   When the excitement has  been subdued, the  employment of
moral means—which consists essentially  in giving rise to  fresh
impressions, reawakening the affections, and in directing the at-
tention to new  objects—may be productive  of the greatest good.
The choice  of these  different means must necessarily vary ac-
cording to the education, the disposition, and the kind of insanity
of the hallucinated.  Means which will succeed in  a person of in-
telligence will be useless in one of moderate understanding.   The
artisan cannot be addressed in the same terms as the man of  edu-
cation.  A woman is accessable to consolations which would have
no  influence  on the opposite sex.  The  employment  of moral
means requires  intelligence, a knowledge of mankind,  great tact,
and, at the same time, a large  amount of perseverance.  Knowing
how largely the ideas are concerned in the production of halluci-
nations, it  is easily understood that we  must revert to them in
order to cure the false sensation which torments the hallucinated.
  After a judicious course of medicine has tranquilized the pa-
tient, but the hallucinations are not changed, although he  talks
less about them, then it is that the medical man should avail him-
self of all the resources he is acquainted with to combat the idea, 
388
HALLUCINATIONS.
to weaken and exterminate it, sometimes by direct, sometimes by
indirect means, but almost always by a happy  mixture of kind-
ness and firmness.
   Let us  apply these principles to a particular case.
   Example 132.  Mademoiselle Claire, aged  forty, a brunette,
tall, thin, and of a nervous temperament, had always enjoyed good
health.  She had never shown  any symptom of insanity, when it
was perceived that for the last eight months her  ideas had become
somewhat defective.  The monthly periods were irregular.  Two
years previously  she  had had a profuse uterine  hemorrhage,
brought on  by fatigue.   She was placed in my charge in 1838.
   When I questioned Mademoiselle  Claire, she told me she had
committed every imaginable crime.  " I am," she said "the beast
mentioned in the Apocalypse, which is to appear in  1840.  God
has forsaken me.   Satan has appearred to  me; he  has  entered
into my body, and will compel me to traverse the whole of Paris."
There was no evil  in the world of which she was not the cause.
Any remonstrance  only  made  her  cry out that she  was lost.
When  I endeavored to show her that it was hardly possible she
could have committed  such crimes, she would  reply, that if she
had not already committed them, she should do so.  Her appetite
was good, her functions were properly performed;  she was thin,
and of a yellow tint; her breath was bad, and the tongue white;
her sleep  was short, and  broken by shrill cries,  which resounded
through the house.  The cries  were  produced by visions of hell
and the devil, by the threats which the evil spirits held out to her,
and by the fear of eternal misery.
  Mademoiselle  Claire avoided me whenever she saw me;  for,
although I manifested great interest in her, I often rallied her on
the singularity of her ideas.   "  How is it possible," I said, "that
a lady with your correct notions can  suppose you have seen the
devil ?"  Then I would leave, after having  endeavored to infuse
a doubt in her mind. 
MORAL TREATMENT.                  389
  At other  times I  would content myself  by observing, all my
arguments are useless;  they fail to convince  you.   Those who
have attended upon the insane have long been aware that to hope
to convince a lunatic  is to be as bad as the patient himself.  " But
I am not insane."   Then  she would follow me, and endeavor to
prove the truth of her sensations.  I would go away laughing,
without saying anything  more.   Sometimes  I would  exclaim
against her  pretensions of having committed so many crimes: it
must arise either from pride or insanity.  Again she would bring
forward arguments to show me  she was in  possession of her rea-
son.   I would listen  to her or make no answer, according to the
state in which I found her.
  To subdue the physical  excitement, I ordered her some baths,
and gave her cooling drinks.  Her hallucinations continued with-
out any cessation, although she avoided speaking about them for
fear  of my laughing  at her.   One  night she was alone with my
daughter, at that time ten years of age.   " Do you not  see the
flames which are coming out of my mouth?" she cried.  "They
surround me—I am lost!"  My daughter,  laughing, told her
she was talking nonsense.   She sighed, and from that moment
spoke no more about the flames.
  Mademoiselle Claire had intervals  of repose, after which the
hallucinations would  seize her anew.  At those times advice and
remonstrance had no effect  upon her: only, when she  was too
much harassed, she became less communicative and dissembled.
  As Mademoiselle Claire was at the critical  time of life, I pro-
posed a blister on her arm, to  which she  consented.   Amongst
her other  delirious propensities, she had  the habit  of making a
general confession to the person with whom  she  conversed.  I
attributed the derangement of the intellect in this case  to the
change of life, and I told  the patient my opinion  in this respect.
"None  of your relatives,"  I said, "have been insane.   Your
reason has  never  been  disturbed previously;  all your illness
depends upon this critical time." 
390
HALLUCINATIONS.
   Mademoiselle Claire, although she would not admit she was
 insane,  was fully aware  that she was a great sufferer, and, like
 many others,  said  she should never get  better.    I perceived
 that the idea I had suggested made an  impression on her mind;
 and from that time I continually referred to it, combining it with
 other moral resources which I had at my command.
   I bestowed great attention upon her;  I praised her understand-
 ing and her judgment, and at the same time expressed my surprise
 that a person so happily organized should give way to such ideas.
 I often  laughed at her  about her devils.   "You  may laugh," she
 said, "but for all that they exist."   Then she would laugh herself
 at the jokes I had  passed upon her.   These conversations were
 agreeable to her.  I called  her self-esteem  into play ; I engaged
 her attention, and appealed  to her good  sense.   This plan, which
 I perseveringly followed, ultimately produced a happy diversion in
 her ideas.  When there was  a marked improvement, I allowed^er
 to go out and visit her  friends.  These visits sometimes made her
 melancholy.  The  persons whom  she had seen were lost.   These
 lamentations happened especially when  she had passed through
 the public gardens, and had seen  the luxury and brilliant dresses
 of the company.   The city  seemed  to her  the modern Babylon,
 with all its iniquities.  By degrees  her  ideas became less melan-
 choly ;  she went out more  frequently,  and, when she was out,
 occupied herself  with the affairs of life.
  These results were not obtained without alternations from bet-
ter to worse.  Thus Mademoiselle  Claire, after having been lively,
 would again become melancholy, and refuse  to go out.   Her
amendment was  especially characterized by the desire which she
showed  of being employed.  She  commenced working for several
hours in the day.   Her cries occurred at longer intervals ; she no
longer avoided society, and  would enter into conversation  for a
considerable time.
  Two  months after her admission she had a relapse; she was 
MORAL TREATMENT.                 391
constantly in tears, groaned and declared the  devil was going to
take her away,  because  she had received the communion while
laboring under mortal sin.   Nevertheless, she continued to im-
prove, and  we watched  with the greatest interest the struggle
between  the reason and  insanity, but with every hope that the
first would be triumphant.
   Mademoiselle Claire was  at this time in a state indicating that
the false idea was shaken to its foundation.  She smiled when we
joked her about it, and she determined to go to church; but when
she arrived at the entrance she declared she could not pass in, for
she felt as if fastened to the spot;  and as no reasonings could
induce her to enter, she returned.  By degrees she  became more
 md more tranquil, applied herself to needlework,  and now fre-
quently visited her friends and relations.
   At the end of four months, Mademoiselle Claire was  able to
write and work, and in two months more this lady's convalescence
had so far advanced, that I persuaded  her to leave, there being
no longer any doubt of her getting  well.  Mademoiselle Claire
offered some objections; she was much excited on the morning of
her departure, and was fearful her disease would return.   When
she had  passed  the door  and had entered the carriage, she felt
better and seemed  more happy.
   We subsequently watched with the greatest interest the mental
condition of Mademoiselle Claire.   Her letters informed  us that
she had been to church, and that she felt quite well.  Five years
after her health continued perfectly good.
   This case, which we have selected  from several others,  is suffi-
cient to enable the reader to appreciate  our method  of treatment.
With the exception of some baths and a blister, no use was made
of physical  agents; but  I  am  fully convinced  that the moral
treatment, which I followed  with perseverance for several months,
powerfully contributed to the restoration of the reason.
   An unforeseen event, the sudden  comparison of  what actually 
392
HALLUCINATIONS.
exists with the belief of the patient, is sufficient, under some cir-
cumstances, to destroy the hallucinations.
   The governor whose case is detailed at page 11, exclaimed, on
seeing the Cossacks in the Jardin des Plautes, "Enough—I am
cured!"   Another patient  of Esquirol awaited  the coming of
the Messiah.   After  a long conversation, she  made  a  written
agreement with her medical  man, in which she engaged to admit
she was insane if the Messiah did not come on the  25th of  March.
On the day fixed the Messiah did not appear.  The patient per-
formed  her promise with a good grace,  returned to her ordinary
habits, and the restoration of her reason was completed in a very
short time.
   Example 133.  A lady affected with  melancholia  after her
lying-in, began, after a long struggle between  sanity and insanity,
to believe she  had been guilty of crimes for which she  was to be
publicly executed, that her infamy had  occasioned the death of
her husband, and that his spirit haunted  her.   It was her custom
every evening to fix herself at the window, and to gaze on  a white
post, which seemed to her to be the ghost of her husband.  Sev-
eral weeks having passed without change  or amendment, her
husband thought it would be better that he should see her; for,
although he had been told that her removal from home was essen-
tial to her recovery, he reasonably imagined that the best  way of
proving himself to be alive  was to  show himself.  He was told
that, even if he did show himself, his wife might persist  in believ-
ing him to be a  ghost;  but he  was obstinate, and the medical
attendants gave way to him.  The effect, as afterwards stated by
the husband, was very striking.
   "As soon as I  entered the drawing-room where  she  usually
spent the  day, she ran into  a  corner, hid  her face in her hand-
kerchief, then  turned round, looked me  in the face, one moment
appearing delighted that I was alive, but immediately afterwards
assumed a hideous expression of countenance, and screamed out 
MORAL TREATMENT.                 393
that I was dead and come to haunt her.   This was exactly what
Dr. ----had anticipated,  and for some  minutes I thought all
was lost.
   " Finding  that  persuasion  and argument  only  irritated and
confirmed her in her belief, I desisted, and  tried to draw off her
attention to other subjects.   It was some time since she had either
seen me or the children.  I put her arm under mine, took her into
the garden, and began to  relate what had occurred  to me and
them since we parted.  This excited her attention ; she soon be-
came interested, and I entered with the utmost  minuteness and
circumstantiality into the  affairs of the  nursery, her home, and
her friends.  I now felt that I was gaining ground ; and when  I
thought I had complete possession of her mind, I ventured to ask
her, in a joking manner, whether I was  not very communicative
for a ghost.   She  laughed.  I immediately  drew her from the
subject, and again  engaged her attention with her children and
friends.   The plan succeeded beyond my hope.   I dined, spent
the evening with her, and left her at night perfectly herself again."
   This happy result was permanent; and whatever general objec-
tions may be made  to such trials, it is impossible not to be deeply
impressed with the  fact that they sometimes succeed.*
   The method of M. Leuret must necessarily be noticed here;
for, although we have already pointed out its  principal features,
we consider that an example taken from his work is necessary to
make it thoroughly understood.
   Example  134.   A., aged  forty-two,  a carpenter,  had drunk
freely  and was  of  an impatient  and excitable disposition.   He
was brought to the  Bicetre, 18th June,  1839, suffering  from
various hallucinations.  He  was treated by the application of
cuppings to  the neck, baths,  with affusions, foot-baths, and lem-
onade.   Afterwards, he was  ordered to work, but this he obsti-
   * Conolly:  Opus cit. p. 402.   We witnessed a precisely  similar case
in the establishment of M. Esquirol.
26 
394                  HALLUCINATIONS.
nately declined  doing.   The douche was given to him several
times, and he promised he would work, but failed to do so.
  On the 12th of September, M. Leuret, who was now in attend-
ance,  questioned A. as to whether he  intended  to  work.  This
he refused to do.
  A.  was  immediately conducted to  the bath, and placed under
the douche.   M. Leuret then interrogated him, and desired him
to relate what  had happened to  him since  he had been in the
Bicetre.
  After having listened for some time to all the statements of A.,
M.  Leuret spoke to him as follows :
  " Now, A., I am going to tell you what I think of all you have
told me: there is not a word of truth in anything you have  men-
tioned ; all you have been telling me is sheer nonsense,  and it is
because you are insane you have been placed  in the Bicetre."
  Here A.  replied:
  " Monsieur Leuret, I am not insane;  I cannot  help seeing the
persons who are under my bed and in the subterranean passages,
because they are there.  You maintain that all I have been say-
ing is nonsense: I wish it  was  so, but I  know  what I  see and
hear.   After what you have said, is there, then, no hope of my
getting out of this place ? "
  " You will go out, but on one condition.  Listen to what  I am
going to tell you.  You will only go  out when you are no longer
insane, and this is what you must do in order to show you are not
so : you must no longer look at the  sun or the stars; you  must
not imagine that there are  subterranean  passages  beneath  your
bed, because there  are none; you must not believe in the voices
which come from these passages, because there are neither voices
nor persons speaking in these passages,  nor do they  exist.  In
addition to this, you must never refuse to work, whatever may be
the kind of labor you are ordered to do.  If you wish me  to be
satisfied with you, you must be perfectly obedient, because all that 
MORAL TREATMENT.                 395
 I require of you is perfectly reasonable.   Will  you promise me
 that you will  not  think  any more  of  your follies ?   Will you
 promise me not to speak of them  again ?"
   " If you  wish me to speak no more about these things, because
 you say they are follies, I will not speak of them."
   " Promise me you will think of them  no more."
   The patient had some  difficulty in deciding on this  point, but
 being strongly urged replied :
   "No, sir, I will  not think of them."
   "Promise me you will work every day, when you are desired."
   The patient  hesitated, and answered reluctantly.
   " Since you  have several times been silent on this point, and as
 I cannot depend  upon your  promises, you will have the douche,
 and I shall  continue to give it you every day until  you  come and
 ask me to allow you to work, and until you admit of  your own
 accord that all you have said is mere nonsense."
   The douche was given;  it became extremely distressing to him,
 and he soon gave in.
   " You wish me to work;  I will do so.  You  wish me not to
 think about what I have told you, because it is all  imaginary;  I
 will  not do so.   If anybody asks  me about those things, I will
 say,  ' They  were not true, they were  follies  which I had got into
 my head.'"
  "Will you go and work to-day ?"  " Since you compel me,  I
 must go."
  " Do you  go willingly ?"   " I will go, because you compel me."
  " You ought to say, that you perceive it is to your advantage
to go  and  work.   Will you go willingly, yes or no ?"   (Hesi-
tated—the  douche.)  After a short  interval:  "Yes,  sir, all  I
have said to you is nonsense; I will go and  work."
  " Have you been insane ?"  "No,  I have not been insane."
  "Have you  not been insane?"   "At least  I  believe not."
(Douche.) 
396
HALLUCINATIONS.
   "Have you been insane ?"  "Am I mad because I have had
imaginations, because I have seen and heard ?"
   " Yes."   " Well then, sir, it was insanity.   There were neither
the men, the women, nor the companions I spoke of, because they
originated in insanity."
   "When you imagine you hear anything of this kind, wmat do
you  say ?"  " I  say that it is nonsense,  and I  will  not  listen
to it,"
   " I wish you would  come to-morrow and  thank me for having
rid you of these insane ideas."  " I promise you I will work, and
thank you for having relieved me of my ideas."
   " I wish  you would go and  work to-day."  "I promise  you  I
will go."
   On the evening of the same  day, A. received  a douche for not
having gone to work during the day.
   September 13.   This  morning,  A. went to M. Leuret and
thanked  him for  having freed  him from his insane ideas.  He
awaited the  hour of work in order that he might be allowed to go
out.   Since  yesterday,  he has neither seen nor heard anything.
   September 14.   A. laughs at  his previous notions.   M. Leu-
ret tried to entrap him, but A. always eluded these attempts, re-
maining convinced that his ideas had  been erroneous.  For seve-
ral days M.  Leuret renewed these attempts ;  but always with the
same result.
   September 25.   There can  be no doubt that A.  is effectually
cured.   This man, previous to the last mode of  treatment, was
thin  and melancholy,  now  he  is stout  and looks happy.  He
sleeps tolerably well.  He is on good  terms with everybody.  He
had  believed he   w. i.c had  belie ed he heard; such were the
terms in which he expressed himself,  when  questioned about his
hallucinations.   A.  requests to  be allowed to  go  out; this is
granted him on  October 3rd—that is to say, twenty days  after
the long interview of September 12. 
MORAL TREATMENT.
397
   "The cure of A.," says M. Leuret,  "is undoubtedly owing,
first, to the douche, and  next  to the pains which I took  to make
him speak upon all the subjects of his delirium, and to  compel
him to answer me rationally.  It is necessary not to appear satis-
fied until there  is, or appears to be, no reservation in what the
patient says.  If I had  been content  with A.'s evasive answers,
the patient would have dissimulated, and probably I should never
have  succeeded.  I did  not humor his self-esteem;  I required
him to pronounce the name of madman,  in order, if possible, to
render the idea  of  insanity inseparable from that of his disease,
giving to this its proper  name, so that he  might reject it.
   " I often lay traps for  those lunatics who seem reasonable  after
the douche;  I return to  them, pretend to regret the objections I
had made to  them, and the pain I had caused them ; if they give
way, I then point out to  them how they have failed, so that  they
may be constantly on their guard.   Since,  however,  my object
in this kind of contest is not  to punish, but to cure, it  must be
fully understood that I take care that these stratagems are strictly
proportioned to  the intelligence of  the patients upon whom I use
them."*
   This interesting case, of which we have  given the most import-
ant particulars,  seems to us a strong  argument  in favor of the
opinion we have  previously expressed, as  to the  difficulty of ap-
plying indiscriminately the treatment of M. Leuret to the cases
which  occur  in  private  asylums.   Educated persons,  who  have
been accustomed to reflect, to  compare, and to  have their wishes
fulfilled,  will  not so readily give up the ideas which possess them.
Serious  consequences might result from telling  them  they  were
mad, especially if it was  attempted to compel them to admit the
fact.   Three  years ago we  were consulted by a  clergyman, whose
mania  consisted  in believing he was a bishop.   While under the

  * Leuret: Du Traitement Moral de la Folie, p. 186, 1 vol. in-8. Paris :
1840. 
398
HALLUCINATIONS.
douche  he seemed to recognize his error, and was  permitted to
leave  the  Bicetre.  These  were his own  words:   "I was con-
vinced I was  in  error, because there was  no other means of
escaping from the punishment  of the douche, and  my protesta-
tions wrere useless in a place where the medical man is all-power-
ful.  The receiving of the douche  in no way convinced  me that
what I said was not true."  In our own practice we  have had re-
course to intimidation, and behind our backs the  patients would
say, " We give way  because there is nothing else to  be done
against  violence, but  we are fully convinced  of the truth  of our
ideas."
  We will only make  one more observation, which is, that it is
not always without danger  that we can force a patient to  recog-
nize his error.
  Example  135.   A man, named Vincent, imagined  he  was so
tall that it was impossible for him to pass out of the door of his
apartment;  his medical man recommended that force should be
used.   The  recommendation was followed, but it was attended
with a fatal result; for, in passing through the doorway, Vincent
cried  out that they were lacerating him and  breaking his  bones.
The impression was  so strong  that he died some days after, re-
proaching his attendants with having been his murderers.*
  It is,  therefore,  a fact, which is now added to science, that hal-
lucinations may be treated with success.   So far  our opinion is
in accordance with that of M. Leuret, but we  differ as to its mode
of execution.  We do not consider that the treatment of halluci-
nations should be confined to the employment of  moral means  ;
sometimes it is necessary to have  recourse to physical  agents,
sometimes to moral  influences,  and sometimes to a combination
of both these  means.  By  the  employment of this mixed treat-
ment,  in accordance   with the  etiology  and symptomatology of
hallucinations, we shall obtain a number  of permanent  cures,
        * Marcus  Donatus :  Hist. Med. Var. lib. ii. cap. 1. 
MORAL  TREATMENT.
399
which may not have the brilliant appearance of those effected by
the method of M. Leuret, but which will at least have the advan-
tage of not wounding the sensibilities of the patient.
  In our previous examination we have divided the hallucinations
into several classes.  It is evident that the treatment  we have
now pointed out will require to be modified in  accordance with
the circumstances under which the hallucinations are developed,
and the special diseases with which they are associated.   Lastly,
there are many cases which  will require  a different plan to be
pursued. 
CHAPTER   XIV.
        HALLUCINATIONS IN RELATION TO MEDICAL  JURISPRUDENCE.      •

  A fatal destiny seems to pursue the hallucinated; if he escapes
the asylums for the insane, he is thrown into prison.  Such is the
nature of his disease, that he is looked upon  either as a criminal
or a lunatic.
  How often have we known men accused of vagrancy, of theft,
of unnatural crimes,  of murder,  who were unfortunate  persons
who had yielded to the suggestions of a hallucination and of in-
sanity.*
  Only a short time back the  Gazette des  Tribunaux gave  the
following  account of the  misfortunes of an unhappy lunatic  de-
tained by the police as a vagrant:
  " In the  course of  the last week, a man  about forty  years of
age, whose name is Auguste Victor Chevillard, was brought be-
fore the police court, charged with vagrancy.   The incoherence
of his replies, his melancholy appearance,  and  his vacant look, in-
duced the court to believe that he was not in his right mind, and
Dr. Brierre de Boismont  was directed by the president  to ascer-
tain  the state of his mind, and report upon it to the court.
  "At the sitting of to-day, Dr. Brierre de Boismont made the
following report:  I  visited Chevillard in prison, and had a long
conversation with him.   I asked him what was the cause of his

  * We protest against a too extended application of the word monoma-
nia.  There can be no doubt it has often protected  true criminals with
the shield of insanity. 
MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE.              401
misfortunes and of his vagrant  condition.   At this  question his
eyes became animated, and his voice trembled, his demeanor was
abrupt and excited, and he said, ' My enemies pursue me every-
where ;  they have ruined me, and they have now thrown me into
prison.'  ' Who are those enemies of  whom you speak ?'   ' I  do
not see them,  but I hear them; they speak  to  me,  they whisper
in my ears, they want to  deprive me of what I have still left;
they shall not have it, even when I die, for I will swallow it with
my last breath.   Although I am as  you see me, I am richer than
the Emperor of China or the King of Mogador; I possess the
clue to inexhaustible  treasures ;  I can enrich whom I please with-
out being any  the poorer for it.' "
   "I  pretended," says M.  de Boismont,  "to believe the halluci-
nations of the  unhappy man, and asked him where these treasures
were."  "They are in Prussia," he confidently replied: "but I
have never been there ; I have been much further—as far as Cal-
cutta,  but never in Prussia.   I  wanted 2000 francs to make the
journey, and the  necessary diggings,  but  my enemies have hin-
dered me from getting them."  "Do.you think your enemies can
penetrate even into your prison ?   If it is so, I will inform the
governor, and  he will take measures to prevent them from dis-
turbing you."  " It would  be useless—they would pass through
the walls."
   " On leaving the prison," continues M. de Boismont,  " I went
to the Bicetre, and found that Chevillard had been confined there
several times between  1830 and  1843. At one time his insanity was
attended with great  excitement, at another with melancholy, and
once he was placed there for attempting his life.  I visited him
again  yesterday, and  he still continues under the same delusions.
After  a long course of treatment, he may perhaps become quieter;
but he can never be left to his own. guidance; the best thing that
can be done is to send him to the Bicetre."
   " At these words Chevillard, wh  pretended not to have heard 
402                   HALLUCINATIONS.
a single  word during the doctor's statement, said, ' I will not go
to the Bicetre ;  it is an  inquisition, it is a secret tribunal;  they
all say I am mad.   Well!  there, then, for the incredulous.'  Say-
ing which, he  handed a piece of paper to the clerk of the court,
written-on both sides.  On one side were these words:
  " ' 9th  November,  1844.—Whatever  opinion  may be enter-
tained of me,  I promise  the person who can place at my disposal
from  4000 to  5000 francs, to procure him  a happy position in
life—a pleasant and agreeable existence, by securing him an in-
come  of  100 to 200 francs a day.'
  " On the other side :
  " 'The person who can  only dispose  of  from  2000  to 3000
francs could easily, and without any risk, have an income of from
800 to 1000 francs a month.
  " ' Whoever sees this, let him believe it!!!
                                       " 'Chevillard.
                " ' Rue  Saint-Jacques  la Boucherie No. 14.
                        "'a Paris  (Affranchir).'
  "The  court acquitted Chevillard on the prosecution,  and de-
sired  him to be placed at the disposal of the  administrative  au-
thorities."*
  How could  it be otherwise ?   This  man, who is convinced that
he is surrounded by enemies whom he perceives  before  him, and
hears  threatening him, will endeavor to injure  them, to pursue
them, to  strike them, and to kill them ;  and should he, through
an illusion, convert the persons of the assistants into those of his
pretended enemies, the  most disastrous results might ensue from
this error.
  These  waking dreams  may cause the most frightful calamities.
  Example 136.   Madame X., a  Frenchwoman,  aged thirty-
two, married, with a pretty little girl eighteen months old, re-
sided  at Brussels.
* Gazette des Tribunaux.  Decembre, 1844. 
MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE.
403
  The husband  was a teacher in a school at Tirlemont.  The
wife, whose  religious opinions had for  some time been very ex-
alted, and were  at times converted into hallucinations,  was at-
tacked during the night with a fit of homicidal monomania.  She
imagined  she saw angels,  who commanded her to kill her  child
that it might become theirs; her husband also appeared  to
her with a wreath of white roses on his head;  he was wounded,
and held the murderous weapons in his hand.  He informed his
wife that he had killed himself in order to enter paradise, and in-
vited her to kill her infant and herself  that they might join him
in his happy  abode.   The  miserable  woman soon carried out the
suggestions  of her disordered intellect.  She  suffocated her in-
fant with her own hands ;  she then endeavored to stab herself un-
der the left  breast  with a small pocket-knife ;  but  the pain  it
caused her, and the instinct of self-preservation  opposing them-
selves to the  monomania, she  abandoned the attempt   She then
laid herself down by  the  body of her child, trusting that God
would speedily take her to Him, and that she should be reunited
to  her child.   In the morning, she was found in this miserable
condition, and conveyed to the hospital of  Saint-Jean.
   These examples, selected  from many others, will serve to  in-
troduce us to the  study  of hallucinations in relation to  medical
jurisprudence and our civil institutions.
   The importance of this inquiry might already have  been  in-
ferred from the history which has been given of  particular  cases.
We are beginning, in  the present day, to be aware that there are
certain extravagant actions, hitherto inscribed amongst the an-
nals of crime, which ought to be referred to insanity, and  espe-
cially to hallucinations.   Some of the  insane  destroy themselves
in  order to escape the vision which pursues them ; others rob be-
cause a voice tells them that  the thing they steal is their own.
Some set fire to places ; a great many  will insult, provoke, strike,
or even kill people. 
404
HALLUCINATIONS.
  A corpse is found in an obscure place, bearing the marks of a
violent death.  The first idea which comes into the mind is, that
a crime has been  committed ;  but it may be the result of suicide,
and the man's miserable end may have been caused by a false sen-
sation. • A clerk perpetually imagined that he saw the gendarmes
around him ready to seize him  and conduct  him to  the scaffold.
Wishing  to save his wife  from  disgrace,  he  remained a whole
night, while she slept, with a razor over her neck.   Fortunately,
his  ideas took another  direction, and he threw away the instru-
ment of death.  The next morning, tormented by the sight  of his
persecutors, and unable to bear it any longer, he drowned himself
in a water-butt.
  If in this case the man had cut his wife's throat, and afterwards
drowned  himself, the fearful  tragedy might have been attributed
to a very different cause from the real  motive.
  Suicide often takes place in maniacal delirium, and  in the  acute
delirium  which accompanies fevers.   When it is possible to trace
these  catastrophes to their source, they are constantly found  to
have been  the result of hallucinations and illusions  which have
produced  great alarm, and are then, with respect to  the motives,
less acts  of suicide than attempts—originating in the feeling  of
self-preservation—to  escape  from  imaginary  dangers.   "I  re-
member a patient,"  says Marc, " attacked with typhus, who would
have thrown himself out of the window if he had not  been pre-
vented.  He  fully  remembered, when his delirium  had ceased,
that he  fancied  he was  pursued  by a horrible  phantom, from
which he was  endeavoring to escape. "*
  Hallucinations frequently give rise to attacks on other persons.
Sorrowful  ideas,  melancholy, and  fear, especially contribute  to
the production of these acts.  Nothing is more common than to
be  consulted  for lunatics who  believe they are persecuted, and

  * Marc : De la Folie consideree dans les Rapports avec les Questions Med-
ico-judiciaires, vol. ii. p. 156.  2 vols. in-8.  Paris :  1840. 
MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE.
405
that  there are persons who wish to poison or assassinate them.
To escape from these annoyances, some seek solitude, others are
continually moving about from place to place, and endeavor in
every possible way to conceal their movements ;  others, of a more
determined character, face their pretended enemies, provoke them
to fight, and there can be no doubt that unfortunate persons have
fallen beneath the swords of these hallucinated individuals during
their paroxysms.
  Example  137.   "In 1831," says  M. Gauthier,  "I was going
to Lyon a Saint-Amour.  There were four of us in the carriage:
a clergyman and myself occupied the coupe, an officer and another
person in  the interior.  This officer  had been expelled  his regi-
ment, and sent to Strasbourg.  He was perfectly quiet  when he
entered the carriage; but we had hardly gone half  a league when
he uttered the most frightful cries.  He declared he was insulted,
and  wished to know the reason of it.  He hastily mounted to the
roof of the  diligence, where he thought he heard the voice of  a
person  named Pouzet, with whom he had quarreled in the regi-
ment.   He sought for this person everywhere.   Not being able to
find  him, he  reentered the  diligence  in the same  state of excite-
ment.   He continued to hear the voice of  the person who insulted
him, and who told him  he had been  cashiered.   He became en-
raged, and determined to fight him.   When we arrived at Mexi-
mieux, and while the horses were  being changed, the unfortunate
man got out of  the carriage, and, drawing his sword, cried out,
'Pouzet, come out of your hiding-place;  come and fight; these
gentlemen will be our witnesses.   If  you don't show yourself, and
I assassinate you, it will be the result of your cowardice.'  The
same kind of excitement continued until we arrived at Lons-le-
Saulnier, when he was taken to the hospital."*
  An illusion is frequently combined with the hallucination, and
the lunatic sees  an enemy in every person he  meets.   To escape
                       * Bottex :  Opus cit. 
406
HALLUCINATIONS.
from his torments, sometimes  he destroys  himself; but at other
times he lays plans of vengeance, and will  kill or wound the first
person he may chance to meet, and who, according to his expres-
sion, pays for the others.   Sometimes he conceives a hatred for
the person he is most intimate with, and in this case his conduct
is liable to impose upon the superficial thinker, who regards  it as
an act of vengeance.
  Numerous examples prove that these  hallucinated lunatics are
generally very dangerous.   A case of this  kind, which attracted
considerable attention, was that of the crew of the Severe, which
was tried at  Bourbon.  An additional  source of interest arose
from the circumstance that, after the vessel had arrived in the col-
ony, the captain, M. L., exhibited evident symptoms of insanity;
without any reasonable or known motives,  he had  twice fired a
pistol at a peaceable citizen.  The report of three medical  men
had pronounced him to be attacked with homicidal monomania.
  The following are the facts as stated in  the indictment for the
prosecution :
  Example 138.   During his residence at  Cette, Captain L. im-
agined he heard insults and threats used towards him, which led
him to keep watch during the night on the deck of his vessel, car-
bine in hand.
  The vessel put to sea for the purpose of going to Bourbon. In
the course of the voyage a great many  disturbances occurred on
board.   On several occasions  the captain  severely beat some of
the crew.  In their evidence the accused brought many charges
against the captain.   They stated that the captain looked at them
in a very sinister manner, that he often talked to himself, and de-
clared that he heard taunts  and insults, which no one had really
offered, and that one day he held a pistol to the throat of a cabin-
boy.
   The captain, on his side, complained he was constantly the ob-
ject of annoyances.   He said that during his confinement he had 
MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE.
407
been  daily insulted and his feelings outraged, without, however,
specifying any particular instance.
   The court  naturally asked the captain some questions connected
with other subjects.   When called upon to state what had induced
him only lately to fire his  pistol twice at a person he scarcely
knew, he stated, in a most serious manner, that for some time past
he  had distinctly heard the  voice  of  his wife—the prosecution
took place at Bourbon, and his wife was in France—calling to
him from the bottom of his cabin  for assistance;  that when he
had spoken to the police to aid him in  his search, they would not
listen to him  ; that he had  threatened  these men for  neglecting
their  duties ; after he had fired at  the  person who had  provoked
him, and he  was  taken  to  the  hospital, they had endeavored to
poison him.
   The court  by  its verdict unanimously acquitted the crew.*
   Much has  been said on the serious blow this verdict was likely
to give to the  question of discipline, but every man acquainted
with such  matters must be aware  that the safety of the crew of
this vessel  and of every other was  equally in danger from such a
monomaniac, j
   Example  139.   T. D. was accused of having killed his wife
on  the night of  the 3d of May, 1828.   He had an uncle on his
mother's side who had been deranged.   His  mind was feebly de-
veloped, but still he had profited by the education which had been
given him.   His conduct had always been regular.   He had been
married for some years, and lived happily with his wife.
  The mayor of his  district, on the occasion of the fete of St.
Charles,  1827, having given an  entertainment to the  firemen of
the town, D.  was  joked by his companions, and being also proba-

  * Le Droit Bulletin des Tribunaux, 21 Fevrier, 1844.  Cour d'Assises
de Pile Bourbon.
  f Brierre de  Boismont:  Observations  Medico-legates sur les Monomanes
tristes, hallucines.— Gazette des Hopitaux Civils et Militaires, 10 Octobre,
1843. 
408
HALLUCINATIONS.
bly excited by wine, he drew his sword, and  attacked the drum-
mer of the firemen, causing a great disturbance.   After this event,
D., who had been previously of a social disposition, became mel-
ancholy.
   One  night,  towards the  end  of the December  following, D.
started up from his sleep, and complained of being ill.  The medi-
cal man  who was called in  found  him suffering from gastric de-
rangement and delirum; in his subsequent deposition, he stated
that D. rejected his services, and  frequently declared he  was in
league with  his father and his wife to kill him.
   From that time, D.'s character and conduct underwent a change ;
he became sombre, suspicious, irritable, and passionate ; he ceased
to attend his church, neglected his work in the fields, and took to
drinking; he suspected his wife of being untrue to him ;  he avoid-
ed his former acquaintances,  went but little from home, and often
expressed his apprehensions that there were persons who sought
his life.  D. was  convinced that a certain Robert, whom he had
often  named before  and after the  3rd of May,  1828, was ,at the
head of the  plots which were formed against him.   His former
companions, his friends, his father,  his wife, were each in turn re-
garded by him as  enemies; on every  other subject D. reason-
ed correctly.   In one  of the paroxysms  of  his  disease,  dur-
ing which his delirium was increased,  he  attempted suicide by
swallowing  some  sulphuric acid, in order,  as he said, to  escape
from his torments and his  enemies.  This attempt at suicide oc-
curred in the spring of 1827.  The medical men pronounced D.
to be  attacked with insanity,  which they termed melancholia with
delirium.
  On  the 3rd  of May, 1828, D.  passed the evening up to nine
o'clock with  his wife and a third person.   Nothing occurred to in-
dicate  the disturbance or restlessness of an unhappy being about
to commit a  double crime—his wife was with child.   He embraced
his wife, whom he invited to sup and  sleep with him. 
MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE.
409
   The next  day D.'s wife was found dead in her  bed; a table-
napkin was laid over the body, and a cross placed upon it.  Her
husband  had disappeared,  taking with  him his father's  horse.
The clothes which he had worn before he went to bed were found
hid  in a  cellar, stained  with blood.   Nine days after he was  ar-
rested, when the following  facts were learned from himself and
other witnesses :
   After D. had killed his wife, while  she  was asleep, with a mal-
let,  which  he had taken out  of the court-yard, he got a napkin
out  of the closet, spread it over  the body, and  placed a cross,
which was  on the chimney-piece, on the top of it.   He then wash-
ed his hands, changed and concealed his clothes, which were cov-
e-red  with  blood, provided himself with some money, and taking
his father's horse, closed the door of  the house, hid the key, and
fled into  the country, taking care to avoid those rodes which were
most frequented.   He stopped at an inn, where he ate largely and
drank two  bottles of wine ;  he then departed,  leaving behind him
such  things as  would lead  to his  being recognized, and did not
return.   For nine days  he  succeeded in  concealing himself, and
was not arrested until the  11th of May,  after saying and doing
things which served to betray him.
   When  D. was  taken, several  letters were found  on him which
he had written  during his flight.   Two of these  letters were ad-
dressed to  the king.   Others were intended for two of his former
friends, to  whom  he  gave an account of the murder which he had
committed, and requested them to  procure him a foreign passport
under a feigned name.
   At his examination, D.  related all the details of the murder,
the precautions he had taken  not to be arrested, but he prevari-
cated as to the  motives  which had induced him to kill his wife.
Sometimes he  pretended he  was  under  the  influence  of wine;
sometimes that he was in a  passion, because his wife had  refused
him money;  at other times  he declared he was enraged and irri-
        27 
410
HALLUCINATIONS.
tated at the bad advice which had been given to his wife, who, in
other respects, was a good woman; lastly, he declared it was his
enemies who had urged  him on to it, in  order  to ruin him.   He
particularly accused Robert.
   Whilst in prison, D. wrote several times to his father, to  the
magistrates,  to his medical man, M. Richard, and others.   All
his letters  were  alike  in the incoherence of the thoughts, in  the
repetition of the  same ideas, and in  what they contained, either
excusing his own conduct or accusing his enemies.  These letters
showed that the unhappy man had no moral consciousness of  the
double crime he had committed, or of the penalty which he might
undergo for it.
   In consequence of the state of the criminal's mind, the  public
prosecutor declined to proceed against him.   The court, however,
were of opinion  that the evidence did not sufficiently prove  the
insanity of D. at the  time  the  crime was committed, and  a writ
was  therefore issued, charging  D. with  the  murder of his wife.
He was then removed to Paris,  and  placed in  the Bicetre, in  or-
der that he might be under medical surveillance.
   During the first weeks of his residence at the Bicetre,  D. lived
by himself, took  no exercise, refused to speak, and  appeared in a
state of stupor.   He had frequent and long fits of crying, espe-
cially when questioned on the subject of the murder, and  as to his
motives for committing it, &c.    At  those  times his countenance
became flushed, he would cry and accuse  his enemies, particularly
Robert, of  having led  him into  this criminal act.  He spoke of
the murder as if it was a matter  he had  had nothing  to  do with,
and of which some other person had been guilty ;  he demanded
his liberty,  saying it had  not been his fault.   He also wrote sever
al letters similar to those he had written  previous to  his resi-
dence in the Bicetre.  In  other respects,  D.'s actions,  and  the
little he said, gave no indications of insanity.
   When he had been in the hospital  for some months, he became 
MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE.
411
more communicative, took more exercise, conversed voluntarily
with the attendants and the other inmates.   His  fits of crying
were less frequent, unless he was questioned as to the cause of
his detention in the hospital.   He would then make replies whose
subtilty showed he was quite aware of his  legal position.   He en-
gaged in  manual  occupations, and had learned to make thread
purses.
   On April  14th,  1829, a marked  change was observed  in D. ;
he seemed more restless and disturbed.*  It was thought he had
hallucinations of hearing.   He complained that the inmates of
the hospital  said  disagreeable  things to him in passing; he ex-
pressed himself discontented with some of the lunatics, with whom
he had had discussions, but never any disputes or quarrels.
   On April 16th,  he requested to be placed in close confinement,
and of his own accord gave the medical  man a needle, with which
he made the purses, saying, " I will not injure any one."
   On April 18th,  D. went to bed, the attendants not having no-
ticed that he had been more disturbed than on the previous days.
In the course  of the night he made an excuse to leave the dormi-
tory in which  he slept; he then went and obtained a broomstick,
with which  he struck the lunatic who was sleeping in the sixth
bed  from his own.  The man who  was  sleeping next the person
he had struck was awoke by the noise, and called  out for help.
D. was satisfied  with striking the latter  so as to make him retreat
beneath his bed-clothes, and then continued his attack on the per-
son he had struck first.  The attendants hastened to save him
from D., who allowed them to  put on  him a strait-jacket, wept,
and  repented  of what he  had  done, accusing  other persons  of
having compelled him to the act, and declaring that  he had heard
voices, which  told him to avenge himself; he added, it was fortu-
  * A sudden change in the habits of the lunatic is of great importance.
Whenever we have observed this  in the persons in our establishment,
the individual has  afterwards attempted to commit suicide, to escape, &o. 
412
HALLUCINATIONS.
nate they had restrained him, for  he had intended to serve two
or three others in the same  way.
  After this second murder, D. appeared quiet, slept tolerably,
ate well, made no attempt  to free himself from the strait-waist-
coat, but often  cried, especially  when reminded of his conduct.
It was observed  that  after this outbreak he seemed afraid he
would be punished as a criminal.
  Such are the facts of the case.   These facts may be arranged
into two series: the one would  induce us  to  believe that D. was
in possession of his reason  when he murdered his  wife, and that
when  he took  to flight he  was conscious he had committed a
crime; the  other seemed to prove that he was insane when he
killed his wife, and that even when he fled he  had no distinct idea
of the position in  which the event had placed  him.
  First Order of Facts.—On May  3rd, 1828, D.  had shown no
symptoms of insanity or of irritation ; he went quietly to bed with
his  wife.   These circumstances were  noticed  by the witness who
passed the evening of May 3rd with him and his victim.   After
the murder, D.  took precautions to avoid  the pursuit of justice.
These precautions were such as implied that  he was conscious of
the crime  he had committed, and  was aware of the penalties to
which it had exposed him.   During the different examinations to
which  he  was subjected, he appeared to be in the possession of
his  reason ;  it was the same after his admission into the hospital
of the Bicetre—at least his conversation and  his actions were not
like those of the insane generally.   His numerous  letters showed
he was not altogether wanting in intellect when he  wrote them.
  Second  Order of Facts.—D. has had a  maternal  uncle who
was insane, and  he was consequently predisposed  to insanity.
He had never shown any evil inclinations ;  his conduct had been
regular up to the  end of 1826, when his habits and conduct sud-
denly became changed.  After that time he frequently gave indi-
cations of insanity.   The disorder of his mind is  proved by cer- 
MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE.
413
tificates from three medical  men who had attended him, and also
by public opinion.   D. was a monomaniac;  he believed he was
surrounded by enemies,  who  wished to injure and destroy him.
He was convinced that his friends, his  father, and his wife plot-
ted against him.   His insanity diminished  and increased from
time to time.
   In the spring of 1827, he attempted suicide, in order to escape
the plots of his pretended enemies.  In the spring of 1828, after
having embraced his wife and  taken her home with him, without
any provocation, without anger, but waking up from some dis-
tressing dream, harassed by imaginary fears—and let it be borne
in mind that at the commencement of his illness D. also started
up from his sleep—his reason wandered.  D. saw in his wife  an
enemy from whom he must deliver himself, and he struck the un-
fortunate woman in her sleep,  not  with any instrument which was
close at hand, but with a mallet which he went into the court-yard
to look for.   Far from immediately betaking  himself to flight, D.
deliberately goes to a closet,  takes out a cloth, with which  he
covers the body, and places a cross upon it.   This done, his fury
has expended itself, and the sight of the dead body now makes a
strong impression on the murderer—his insanity has ceased, his
reason has  returned, and the miserable  man awakens  to the con-
sciousness of the horrible act he has committed ; he perceives the
consequences, he flies, and endeavors to avoid the pursuit of jus-
tice.
  The same  thing happened to D.  which has  been noticed in a
great  many other lunatics, who, after a strong physical or moral
impression, or who, after accomplishing some design which had
been engendered during their delirium,  seem  suddenly to recover
the use of their reason, and  act almost as if they had never been
deprived of it.   We have sometimes seen lunatics suddenly cured
by a strong moral impression.
  Although D. took  great  precautions for  his flight, he, never- 
414
HALLUCINATIONS.
theless, left traces behind  him by which he might be recognized,
a thing which  would not  have been done  by a person who was
in his sound mind, or by a  criminal.   Thus, if he hid his clothes,
it was  in his own house; if he  fled, it was with his father's horse.
He left at the inn things which might  betray him ; he  retained
letters on his person which condemned him ; when he is arrested,
he makes no concealment of the particulars of  the murder; he
gives several reasons for it, which are evidently false.   The let-
ters  which he writes in the prison and in  the  hospital bear the
impress of  a disordered  intellect.   In the spring of the year fol-
lowing (1829) D. is restless,  and seems to have hallucinations ;
four days later, he goes  quietly to bed, and during the night kills
a lunatic, not with instruments which are at hand and in the dor-
mitory, but  with a stick which  he goes in  search of, not after a
quarrel, a scuffle, or  a fit of anger, but while his victim  is asleep.
  The  identity of the  period  of the  year,  and of the hour at
which the two murders  were  committed, the selection of the in-
struments of death, the absence of  all passion, of all provocation,
the  sleeping  condition  of his victims, the quiet state of the mur-
derer on the  evenings of the 3d of May, 1828, and of the 18th
of April, 1829—this identity in all the circumstances, we say,  is
a proof that D. was led to commit the two murders by the in-
sanity  to which  he had been  a prey since the end  of the year
1826, and that  when he perpetrated  these two acts he was not in
the  possession of his moral liberty.
  We  therefore  consider  that the hereditary predisposition, the
conduct of D. during his residence at the Bicetre, his being treated
as a lunatic previous to  the 3d  of May, 1826, the opinion  of the
medical men who have attended him since that time, the circum-
stances which accompanied the act laid to his charge,  all prove
that D. .was insane when he committed the murder of which he is
accused; that the precautions taken  by him on the night of the
3d  of May, 1828, and afterwards to  escape from  justice, show 
MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE.              415
that the accused was not in possession of his right mind, and are
perfectly consistent with  a state of insanity, taking the legal
meaning of the word,  and not the special interpretation given to
it by medical men, who designate this state by the term of mono-
mania.                   Given  at  Paris, 6th July, 1829.
                                 (Signed)  Esquirol, Ferrus.

  The court therefore acquitted  D.  of the charge of murder, on
the ground of insanity, but ordered him to be confined as a crim-
inal lunatic.
  This  example, which we have  given in detail, because we con-
sider it an  excellent model to be followed in all similar  cases,
affords an additional instance of the  dangers which arise from the
hallucinations and illusions of monomaniacs  attacked by melan-
choly.
  Example  140.   On the 25th of November, 1840,  Mr. Pearce,
the author  of several clever medical  works, was tried at the Cen-
tral Criminal Court for shooting at his wife with intent to  mur-
der, and acquitted  on  the ground of insanity.   He was shortly
afterwards  taken to Bethlem Hospital, where he has remained
ever  since.   He entertained  the peculiar notion that his wife
wished  to  destroy  him,  and that  she  had bribed  persons  to
effect  his  death in various ways,  the principal of which  was
that his bed was constantly damped or wetted.   This idea  seems
to have haunted him continually.  For some time he refused to
leave  the  gallery in which  his cell was situated, and go into the
airing-ground;  in order, as it appeared, that he might watch his
cell door to prevent anything  " villainous " being done.
  In a letter addressed to the governors  of the  hospital, Pearce
argued the point in a very serious and connected manner.   " If,"
said he, in an  allusion to some of the witnesses, who  at various
times  had stated they felt his bedding and found it dry, " the sim-
ple act  of  placing one's hand upon a damp bed, or even the im- 
416
HALLUCINATIONS.
mediate impression on a man's body when he gets into it,  was in-
fallible, how could  it occur so frequently that travelers at times
are crippled  with rheumatism, or lose their lives by remaining a'.l
night in damp bedding ?  If the thing was so easily discoverable,
no man of common understanding could be injured by such a pro-
ceeding or accident at inns.
  " Technically speaking, the matter of which I complain is not
a delusion; it is an allegation—a positive  charge, susceptible of
proof, if proper evidence could be  brought to  bear upon  the
fact, not warped or suborned by the man or men in whose power
I hourly am.   It would be a  sad delusion for me to declare  my
bed was  composed of straw instead  of flocks, or that I was a
prophet, or the Pope, or Sir Astley Cooper.  I  grant I have  no
such crotchets.  My mind is perfectly sound, calm, and reflective ;
and I implore you to consider well  the distinction between  the
things which cannot in nature  physically be and the things which
can physically be.   It is  a vital one in my sad case.
  " It  may be told you I have charged persons elsewhere with
this atrocity of damping  my bed.   I have done  so.   At the pri-
vate mad-house kept by persons of the name of Stillwell, near
Uxbridge, whence I was  brought here, my bed  was kept  almost
wet for three months, and I only saved my life by sleeping on a
large trunk, now in the store-room of this hospital, with my daily
articles of dress to cover me.  Some portion of this time the cold
was, by Fahrenheit's scale,  eight and ten  degrees below freezing
point."
  He then solicited that a lock might be put on his cell door to
protect him from  this annoyance, and concluded his letter with
the following  appeal:
  " I beseech you to commiserate my hard lot.  I have had some
little claim to the title of gentleman, and have been estimated  by
persons of some consideration  in society.  I  am now, by  a
wretched chain  of circumstances,  in  a  great   prison-hospital, 
MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE.
417
dragged from my children and my home and the comforts of social
life, and doomed to herd with  desperadoes  against the state, the
destitute, and the mad."
  Mr. Pearce was afterwards introduced, and answered the ques-
tions put  to him in a very  collected  manner.   After which  he
went on to state that, since his  marriage trip to Boulogne, he had
been subjected to the greatest abuse from his present wife, and on
one occasion had been struck by her, and insulted by the vilest
epithets.   He complained that, when first  brought to  Bethlem
Hospital, he had been " chummed " with Oxford, and  objected,
but had  been compelled to associate with that ruffian.   He had
taught Oxford  the  French  language, and  tried to  improve his
mind.  Oxford had  conveyed to him matter  of great importance
relative  to the great crime of which  he  had  been guilty, and
which he  (Mr. Pearce) thought  of sufficient importance  to  be
communicated to the Secretary of  State, and accordingly he had
written a letter  in Latin, communicating all  the circumstances. It
had, however, been taken from  him, and he did not know whether
it had ever been sent to Downing  street.   He wished to  show
how Oxford boasted of having cajoled Sir A. Morrison and Dr.
Monro into a belief that he  was insane, and how he sent for such
books as Jack the Giant-Killer in order to make the jury let him
off  on the  ground of insanity.   This was what he (Mr. Pearce)
wished to tell the Secretary of  State, and now the  letter was used
against him.
  After some further remarks,  Mr. Pearce was questioned  by the
jury, and persisted in the statement that his bed was damped, that
deleterious drugs were  applied to his clothes, and that a con-
spiracy existed  against him.  He produced from under his clothes
a small  packet, which he said  contained  portions of the shirt of
which mention had been made, and a snuff-box, in which he stated
he had kept parts of the shirt,  and which he "demanded1' to have
submitted to the test of Professor Faraday or some other eminent 
418                  HALLUCINATIONS.
chemist.   He announced himself to be grand-nephew of Zacha-
riah Pearce,  Bishop of Rochester, and translator  of Longinus,
and  prayed, in conclusion, the jury to relieve him from the situa-
tion in which he was placed.
  The jury returned a verdict to the effect " that Mr.  Pearce was
of unsound mind, and that he had been so from the 16th of Octo-
ber, 1840."*
  But that we are unwilling to multiply these examples, we  might
relate the history  of MacNaughten, the assassin of  Mr.  Drum-
mond, who saw strange figures about  him, and  believed he  was
surrounded by evil-disposed  persons, who mocked him.-j"
  It is probable that the great political assassinations have been
committed by persons laboring under hallucinations, and that, in
most instances, the insensibility of  these individuals under their
sufferings has arisen from the diseased  state of their minds,  and
from the absence of feeling, wliich is so frequent in the  melancholy
monomaniac.
  M. Bazin, in his Histoire de la Fronde, relates that Ravaillac,
in his examinations, stated that some days before the commission
of his crime, his feet exhaled the odor of sulphur and of burning,
which proved to him that heretics  were deserving of purgatory.
On another occasion he felt some object leap  upon him.   Several
days before his crime he saw figures in the air.  Lastly, he  added
that in a certain town he saw the head of a Moor on a statue, and
that having requested  an artist to give it to him, he found  this
same head in  the  artist's studio, which made him conclude that
Henry IV. was as black as the devil,  that he could  not cleanse
himself from  his sins, and that he would be eternally damned.
  Historical  documents prove that Jacques Clement must also be
classed amongst the hallucinated insane.
   " One  night, when he was in  bed, God sent his angel to him in
           * Britannia newspaper, p.  811.  Dec. 23d, 1843.
           f MacNaughten afterwards became imbecile. 
MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE.
419
a vision;  he came to this fanatic in the midst of a great light,
and showing him  a naked sword, said,  'Brother  Jacques, I  am
the messenger of the Almighty, and have come to  tell you that
through you the tyrant of France must be put to death.   Think,
then, and  prepare yourself, for the  crown of martyrdom awaits
you.'  This said, the vision disappeared, and left him dreaming of
these prophetic words.   In the morning brother Jacques recalled
the preceding apparition, and feeling doubtful  as to what he ought
to do, addressed himself to an intimate friend—the father Bour-
going,  the prior of his  convent, a scientific  man, and one well
versed in the scriptures.  To this  person he freely related  his
vision, and demanded of him if to kill  a king who  had neither
faith nor religion was a thing that was agreeable to God."*
   It is sad to think that many persons have fallen  victims to simi-
lar fanatics.
   The young German who intended to assassinate Napoleon at
Schonbrunn also had visions.  He  saw the  guardian genius of
Germany, who commanded him to deliver his country.
   The resolutions and actions to which the individuals are led by
the hallucinations sometimes occur all at once.   Obscurity, night-
time, and  particularly sleep, seem frequently to have favored this
instantaneous action.  In some circumstances no delirium has pre-
ceded the criminal act.
   Example 141.   On January 1st, 1843, a young man requested
to be accommodated for the night at an inn near Lyons.  The
inn-keeper, who waited at supper, accepted a glass  of wine from
his guest, and afterwards conducted him to his bed-room.  There
was nothing in the manner of the traveler to  attract attention, or
which indicated any evil intention.
   Two hours after, about ten o'clock at night, the inn-keeper, hear-
  * See Discours Veritable,  fait par  un  Jacobin sur la du Mort du  Roy
Henru III   This piece was printed at Troyes in 1589 :  it is to be found
£ Li Journal de Henri III. vol. iii. p. 455.   Par Pierre de I'Estoile.  La
Haye, in-12. 
420
HALLUCINATIONS.
 ing a noise in the room where the stranger was sleeping, hastened
 with a light to inquire into the cause of it.   He had hardly en-
 tered the room when the traveler threw himself upon him, and
 struck him with a pair of tailor's scissors.  At the cries of the
 inn-keeper persons hastened to his assistance, and with difficulty
 disarmed  the  murderer.   Fortunately he had  not inflicted any
 serious wounds.
   When  questioned as to the motive  of his crime, he replied: "I
 was aware that a plan had been laid in the house to assassinate
 me, and I determined to sell my life as dearly as  possible."
   This man's name was Alphonse Terry, a working tailor, traveling
 in search  of work:  he was twenty-eight years  of  age.   During
 his imprisonment he  was  perfectly calm,  and his conversations
 with his keepers and his companions evinced no indications of in-
 sanity.   The following are the answers he gave to the questions
 which were put to him at his trial :
   Q. Why did you ill-use  the master  of the inn at Bully ?
   A. While I was at supper the inn-keeper took a large knife, and
 entered a  recess in the room, and came out saying, " So much for
 one of them."  Another man entered a similar recess at the bot-
 tom  of the staircase and killed a second person.   The inn-keeper
 then offered me a glass of red wine, which I accepted; there were
 also  some women present to whom he gave white wine.   I went
 to bed.   Being then  in my chamber,  which was above the com-
 mon  room  of the inn, I heard  them lay a plan to assassinate  me,
 and I determined to sell my life dearly.   I  placed myself near
 the door with the scissors  in my hand, and when he entered  the
 room, I defended myself.
  Q.  What did  you hear which induced you to think it was in-
tended to assassinate you ?
  A.  They knew I had seen them assassinate the other two trav-
elers,  and  I heard them deliberating together;   one said, "He
saw them  assassinated;"  the  other replied,  "He  saw nothing, 
MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE.
-:2i
you must leave him alone ;" the first repeated, " I tell you he did
see it; after all, he must be  assassinated, it is safer."  One said,
" Go  up;" the other replied,  "Do you go up."
   In  the course of all his  examinations, this man evinced  excel-
lent sense and intelligence.   He repeated again all  he had seen,
heard, and felt in the inn at Bully.   His statement was always
that of a man who was thoroughly convinced, and was glad to
think he had escaped so imminent a danger.
   One cannot  help trembling at the  perilous position of the ac-
cused, and the impossibility of exculpating him in  a  court of
justice, if it had  so happened  he  had had  any cause of  hatred
against the innkeeper, or if he  had disputed with him about his
reckoning, or  lastly, if there had been any reason  to  suppose he
intended to commit a robbery.*
   The suddenness with which the hallucinations may occur is suf-
ficiently proved by the case we have just quoted, while the records
of science  could furnish numerous  others.   So  long as the hallu-
cinations only give rise to extravagant conduct they are not no-
ticed or the person is placed in an asylum.  When  they have be-
come the cause of crime  they should  not  be judged of hastily;
on the contrary, every circumstance which can throw a light upon
them should  be  carefully collected  together.   There are  some
hallucinations of this kind, such as homicidal monomania, which
manifest themselves  all  at once, and  without  being preceded by
any mental derangement.   A knowledge of the person's  antece-
dents will often provide us with the clue to his  insanity.   Pecu-
liarities and eccentricities augur badly for the integrity of the rea-
 son-  these presumptions will  become strengthened, if only a sin-
 gle instance of some unaccountable conduct can be proved to have
 occurred previously.  An inquiry into hereditary  predisposition
 under such circumstances is  exceedingly useful.  The motives for
 the act, and  the  replies of  the individual,  ought to  be carefully
               * Bulletin des Tribunaux, 20 Janvier, 1843. 
422                    HALLUCINATIONS.
considered.  When he states that he has acted  in obedience to a
voice, that he has been irritated by insults, and  that he sought to
revenge himself on his persecutors—if his victim was unknown to
him, or had  been on friendly terms with him—if we can discover
no connection between the alleged  motive and  the act—the pre-
sumption becomes still stronger.   The correspondence should not
be overlooked, as it sometimes explains  an  action which would
otherwise  appear incomprehensible.
  If there is any doubt in  the  case, the  patient must be  placed
under control; and generally, after a longer or  shorter detention,
undoubted symptoms  of insanity will show themselves, and re-
move all uncertainty.
  The hallucinations  are not only the cause of suicide and mur-
der, they  may also excite the person to theft or  incendiarism.
  Example 142.   Jonathan Martin, who burnt the cathedral at
York, declared, in answer to the judge, " Your  charge of theft is
not in accordance with common sense, and you would do better to
say no more about it;   I  had never any intention of stealing any-
thing ; but an angel having  commanded  me by the will of God
to set fire to the church ; you  had better produce proofs that I
alone committed the act, so  that no one else may have the honor,
or, if you  prefer  it, may receive the punishment of it."   Jonathan
Martin was declared a lunatic,  and confined in Bedlam, where he
still remains.
  Example 143.   A  young girl, named Grabowska, not fifteen
years of age, was attacked with nostalgia, and twice committed
acts  of incendiarism in order to leave her employers.  She  de-
clared that from the time she had entered their service she  was
constantly beset with the desire to burn tilings.  It seemed to her
as if a shadow was constantly before her,  and urged her on to  acts
of incendiarism.   This girl had long suffered from violent head-
aches, and her courses had not appeared.*

  * Marc :  Memoire sur la Pyromanie, vol. ii. p. 326.  Klein : Des Mono-
manes—Annates Judiciaires, vol. ix. 
MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE.
423
  We have shown that very often the hallucinations are compli-
cated with illusions :  the latter may in their turn give rise to sud-
den impulses of a serious character.   A knowledge of the facts,
where the mental derangement is undoubted, will serve as a guide
in analogous cases where, not having been previously recognized,
or manifesting itself  suddenly, it might embarrass both the medi-
cal man and the legal tribunal.
  Example 144.  Madame B., when near the critical period of
her life,  became  subject to  a very  singular derangement.  She
imagined that her husband  had sold her.   Her religious views
were very exalted: she imagined she was in  communication with
heavenly beings, she  heard divine voices,  and God  himself made
revelations  to her.  At this time she began to dislike her hus>
band, and  complained of his ill-treatment.   Her  sister  remon-
strated with her on the subject,  and one day, when she was most
earnest,  Madame  B., siezing her by the throat, endeavored to
strangle her and throw her out of the window.
  She was removed on account of this  violence  to  an asylum,
where she remained  for a month ;  when she left  she was quite
rational, although her religious state was very exalted.  After
her return home she  seemed  tranquil; but, her husband,  who mis-
trusted  her,  always  fastened the door of his bed-room.   One
night he heard a gentle knocking at the  door.  He got up, and
asked who was there, but obtained no  answer.  Half an hour
after he heard the same knocking, and this time the person spoke.
It was Madame B.,  who said, in a plaintive voice, " My friend, I
am  ill, and I am come to ask you to give me something."  No
sooner did  her husband open his door than  she immediately en-
tered, and struck  him  five times on  the  head with an  iron bar.
By  a desperate effort he forced her out, closed the door, and fell
on the ground covered with blood.
  The next day Madame B. was sent back to the asylum.  Some
days after, when she  had  become quieter, she said she could not 
424
HALLUCINATIONS.
explain the act, except by a derangement of her mind.  " I imag-
ined my husband was transformed  into the devil, and I had con-
ceived the  greatest horror of him."
   One  day, as I was questioning this lady on the insane attempt
she had made upon her sister's life, she replied, "What would
you have ?  When I threw myself on my sister, her figure seemed
to me to be that of a dead  body,  green  and  hideous to look at,
while its countenance  resembled that of the devil.  This sight
filled me with horror, and I was determined to rid mysel of it at
all cost."   It was the same motive which made her strike her hus-
band.
  We cannot insist too strongly upon examples of this kind, for
they may give rise to the most unfounded comments, and to infer-
ences which are directly opposed to the truth,  the appearances are
sometimes so deceitful.
  The illusions of sleep may, like  the hallucinations, continue at
the moment  of waking up, and even during the  state of com-
plete wakefulness, and may give rise to extravagant, criminal, and
dangerous  acts.   Soon, however, the images of the night are di-
minished in intensity and disappear, and the  person is amongst
the first to  be astonished at the languge he has held, although he
declares that  at the time his sensations seemed to him to be  per-
fectly natural.
  In the Journal de  Belfort, for August 23d, 1843, a curious
nocturnal  scene is related, which had happened a short time pre-
viously in that town :
  Example  145.  "A quartermaster of  an African regiment was
lodging at  an inn in which the dining-room was ornamented  with
a piece of tapestry representing the feats of the French army in
Algeria.  The subaltern had regarded with pleasure this  repre-
sentation of engagements in which he had taken a  part.  From
the sparkling of his eyes, the haughtiness of his bearing, and the
agitation of his muscles, it was evident the picture had revived in 
MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE.              425
him the recollection of past events.   In this state he went to bed,
casting looks of fury at the soldiers of the modern Jugurtha.
  " In the middle of the night the innkeeper heard a great uproar
in the dining-room.   He descended, and what should he see but
the quartermaster, like the hero of La Mancha, dressed in nothing
but his shirt.   He had just awoke under the influence of a hallu-
cination, and,  with  a stick in his hand, he was striking wildly at
the Arabs in the tapestry.   In his fury of extermination he had
demolished  the chairs, tables, glasses, &c.  No one can say  what
would  have been the result of  this onslaught but for the interfe-
rence of the police."*
  Hallucinations and illusions are one source of the most charac-
teristic symptoms of the effects of intoxicating liquors ; and when-
ever they become the cause of  an act committed  in a state of
drunkenness, they should be taken into consideration, and regard-
ed  as  an extenuating, if  not  as an  exonerating  circumstance.
These errors of the senses occasionally give rise to deplorable oc-
currences.
  Since  the Thirty Years' War in Germany a superstition has
prevailed amongst the inhabitant of certain countries on the banks
of the Elbe, that ghosts make their appearance from time to time
at  midnight.    These  phantoms are  mounted  on  horseback,
clothed in a blue uniform faced with red, and traverse the country
between the different villages, not only causing the greatest alarm
to those  who may be  out at that time, but sometimes wounding
them with their swords.  The people say these phantoms are the
spirits  of Swedish  cavaliers  who have remained in the country
since the war.   This  tradition is so firmly rooted, that no reason-
ing can eradicate it.
  Example 146.   Two countrymen, advanced in years, who had
been friends from their youth, and  had always lived on terms of

          * Univers et Union Catholique, 1 Novembre, 1843.
         28 
426
HALLUCINATIONS.
intimacy, became the victims of this superstition.  They had been
at work in the country when night came on, and they prepared to
return  home.  Fatigued with work, and  wanting something to
drink, they seated themselves at the foot of a tree.  One of them
had a bottle of wine, of  which they partook until they became in-
toxicated and lost  their senses.   In  this state  they  bethought
them  of the  Swedish  cavaliers, and  their imaginations, already
excited  by drink, led  them to believe they were surrounded by
the  phantoms, and could  only escape by  fighting  their  way
through them.   Each, after the manner  of the country people,
carried  a stick, and with these they began to knock  each other
about, thinking they were striking the  Swedish cavaliers, until
one of the  two suddenly disappeared.   The  other, whose stick
was broken, happened to lay hold of his friend's hat,  which was
on the ground, and, imagining he had obtained  a complete vic-
tory over the Swedish spectres, mistook it for one of  their head
coverings.   Provided with this trophy, and armed with his broken
stick, he returned to the village and hastened to the house of his
friend, whose wife and children awaited him with impatience.  As
soon as the man  had entered,  he cried out  in  triumph,  " The
devils wanted to take me  away, but  I have  given one of them
such a dressing with  my stick, that they will not come again."
The hat, however, soon  explained the misfortune which had hap-
pened.  The sons of his victim  hastened to the tree where the
old  men had sat down to refresh  themselves;  there  they found
their aged father  stretched  out dead, with a large wound on the
back of his head.
  The next day the unfortunate homicide, having recovered his
reason, wept, and expressed the most poignant regrets.   During
his  examination all he  could  say was that, having continued to
drink with his friend, it  seemed to them they were surrounded by
the spectres on horseback, in their blue and red uniforms, and be-
ing convinced that evil was about to  happen  to them, they re- 
MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE.              427
solved to defend themselves with their sticks ; that, consequently,
they both attacked the spectres, having heard that when fearlessly
confronted they would betake themselves to  flight.  He added,
that in the midst of the struggle he missed his companion, and
the spectres seemed to have disappeared.  Finding a hat on the
ground, he brought  it away,  and, thinking that his friend had
already returned, he  hastened to his house to know how he was.
   The legal faculty of the University of Helmstadt, having been
consulted,  replied as  follows:   "Drunkenness is itself a vice
which every one should  avoid.  If any one becomes voluntarily
intoxicated, and in this state commits a crime, he must be respon-
sible  for it;  for the loss  of his reason is  due to his own act.
Jurists have adopted as  a rule, that when a crime has been com-
mitted in  a state of complete intoxication, this condition exempts
the  criminal from the usual  penalty,   except where  his reason
having returned to  him, he expresses no regret for what he has
done; since such conduct shows that  he approves of the act he
has committed, and implies that he would be capable of it even
when he was not under the influence  of drink.   It is true, it must
also be admitted, that complete drunkenness cannot exempt from
ordinary punishment in  the case  where the legislature does not
choose that regard should be had to it in the application of the
penal code.  On the other hand, drunkenness cannot be charged
with a crime when it has been brought  about against the will  of
the person implicated ; as, for instance, when he has  been  made
to take a drink which he did  not suppose was capable of intoxi-
cating him, and to which some drug had  been  added to produce
this effect.  These are the principles which must guide us in de-
termining the amount of punishment the accused has incurred."
   The man was condemned to ten years' hard labor, as having
been the cause of the catastrophe by transgressing  the laws  of his
country, which expressly forbid the people, under severe  penal-
ties, to get drunk ; and  which direct that homicide committed in 
428
HALLUCINATIONS.
a state of intoxication, unless this has not been voluntary, should
be severely punished, and that it should even be regarded as less
excusable than when it has been the result of rashness.*
  If at the time, and in the country where this event took place,
the doctrine of hallucinations and illusions had been better under-
stood, and the power of those which accompany drunkenness more
fully appreciated, the punishment would probably have been,  less
severe.
  The superficial observer finds  it difficult to  account for a num-
ber of apparently incomprehensible acts.   This circle is much di-
minished  for the philosopher and  the moralist; but it is espe-
cially the medical  man who is able to penetrate the mystery be-
neath which so many men  fancy they hide themselves; he is able
to perceive their defects, their  passions, their vices, their moral
and physical  diseases, and  to obtain from them a natural expla-
nation of the person's conduct.   Thus, for example, to  keep to
our present subject, since  hallucinations and illusions have been
better understood, we have been able to account for a number of
inexplicable acts, which would otherwise have been  attributed to
depravity and wickedness.
  Amongst the cases of this kind we have especially called atten-
tion to a variety of melancholy monomania complicated with hal-
lucinations.   We have proved by numerous  conclusive observa-
tions, and of which the evidence has  satisfied the magistrates, that
many individuals who are regarded as quarrelsome and passion-
ate, as  mischief-makers,  and even as  murderers,  belong to  this
series, f
  Having already  considered the question of confinement when
speaking of the treatment, we shall  merely add that hallucinated

  * Eisenhart:  Relation de Proces Remarquables, vol. i.  p. 5.  Muller :
Medecine Legale, vol. ii. p. 281.
  f See an article in Le Droit, 29 Janvier, 1850, and entitled—De V In-
fluence des Hallucinations dans certain Actes en Apparence Criminels. 
MEDICAL  JURISPRUDENCE.               429
persons who have a tendency to commit suicide, to thieve, to
burn, or to murder, &c., ought to be placed under restraint.   The
same precaution should be taken with  hallucinated monomaniacs
who believe  themselves surrounded  by  enemies  whom  they
threaten, for experience has only too  clearly shown that at any
moment  they may commit acts of violence.   Separation should
not be enforced when there is nothing serious in the hallucina-
tions.
   The interdiction may be demanded when the hallucinations are
of such a nature  as to involve  the ruin  of the  person  and his
family; but this deprivation  of civil rights should not be  granted
for a mere eccentric mode of living, for singular conduct, extrav-
agant expressions; or for believing in imaginary matters which
do not compromise the fortune of the individual  or  render him
the dupe of designing persons.*

  *  A Brierre de Boismont:   De V Interdiction des Alienes et  de V Etat
de la Jurisprudence en Matiere  de Testaments dans V Imputation de De-
mence, avec des notes de M. Isambert, Conseiller a la Cour de Cassation.
Paris :  1852.  Annal d' Hygiene et de Medecine Legale, Janvier, 1852.

                          THE  END. 
 
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