Case LV

Madame B. is convinced that she is about to marry a noble and powerful man, who has all her sympathies. Preoccupied with this idea, she thinks nothing of her real husband. She tells me that she receives, nightly, visits from the angel Raphael, a handsome blonde, pale, and dressed in black, who speaks to her in the most gracious manner. The attendants quickly remove her mattress, as if to seek a man beneath.

Case LVL

Mademoiselle R. sees persons to whom she speaks, and who address her. She is, moreover, constantly attended by her friend, whose love makes her the happiest of women. Ill-conditioned persons, whose aim may be understood, are constantly engaged in spreading disagreeable smells around her, and give her detestable hot dishes, fit to poison her. They beat her and bruise her arms. She frequently sees the people of the house with the head of a dog, a wolf, or of a rhinoceros. The figures are incessantly changing, or growing indistinct. She has a kind of ecstasy in which she sees angels. Esquirol, who examined her, fifteen years since, in concert with Alibert and ourselves, decided that she had hallucinations of all the senses, and illusions.

Case LVII

Mademoiselle Z., aged seventeen, was brought to our house in consequence of a derangement caused by a love affair. Her symptoms appeared three days previously. Her countenance expresses the intoxication of happiness; her friend does not leave her; he follows her everywhere, and is prodigal of tender appellations; if he is about to depart she kneels, begs him to forgive her, and entreats him not to give her up to despair. She sees him in the clouds; he is crowned with roses, and smiles sweetly on her.

One of the most interesting scenes is, when she sings to her lover the romance of la Folle. So great is the interest excited that old patients, who have been for ten years in the asylum, group themselves around, and listen with evident pleasure. Never was the part of Nina played with more truth and talent. It is the only time for twenty years in which I have seen a case of amorous madness that would serve as a theatrical model. The symptoms which almost always accompany this form of insanity render exact imitation almost impossible.

* Macario, op. cit.

† Jules Garrinet, Histoire de la Magie en France, p. 31.

In order to exhibit his tenderness, her lover brings her bouquets, and makes her inhale the most delicious perfumes. "See these roses!" she cries; "the room is filled with their fragrance." Her discourse and looks have nothing wandering; they are all addressed to the same person. Indeed, she is quite an object for study. So entirely are her thoughts concentrated, that it is difficult to obtain any words from her. Her excitement subsiding, she again hears the voice of him whom she loves. But her reason soon returned, the hallucinations ceased, and, after eight days of retirement, all the symptoms disappeared.

Nostalgic monomania occurs very seldom in lunatic asylums; but numerous examples are given by writers. In their delirium, the unhappy beings see their country, their fireside, their parents, and their friends; with smiling lips, and joy in their countenances, they converse with invisible beings, to whom they express all the pleasure they experience in seeing them.*

We attended a paralytic madman whose words were almost unintelligible, and who, at home, had transports of fury. So soon as he was separated from his family, he refused all kinds of nourishment; would not allow any one to come near him; and uttered horrible cries. For eight days he maintained a rigorous abstinence. Convinced that a return home would alone save him, we wrote to his wife. As soon as he saw her, he consented to take some broth, and that man, who had just before appeared dying, had strength enough to walk to the carriage, supported by only one person.

Hallucinations and illusions almost always accompany calen-tura, a febrile malady peculiar to mariners. In fact, the irresistible desire that leads them to leap into the sea is occasioned by the fact that that element appears to them like a plain of green turf enamelled with flowers; they are eager to tread the fertile, fresh, and lovely fields, in which their imagination paints the shade and perfume of the most delicious groves. On other occasions, it is to escape from painful ideas or fantastic apparitions that they try to quit the vessel.

* See Castelnau'8 Considerations sur la Nostalgic, Paris, 1806. - An-dresse, Dissert, inaug. psychica-nostalgise, adumbratio pathologica, Berol. Beauchamp. - Memoire de la Societe Medic. d'emul. Paris, 1798. - Pellegrini, De Nostalgia, in Orteschi, Diario Medico, t. iv. p. 372.

The madness of drunkards is almost always united with hallucinations and illusions; the interest which attaches to this variety of insanity has tempted us to give it a special chapter, the more so as it may take on many different forms of madness.

Vampirism and lycanthropy, which, several centuries ago, assumed the form of an epidemic, had also for their epiphenomena hallucinations and illusions. The other varieties of monomania may present this symptom; but the species on which we have dwelt appear to be most frequent. We have said enough to prevent the necessity of entering more into detail.

Recapitulation. - Hallucinations seem to prefer the form of monomania; they are most easily detected in this kind of delirium. Hallucinations of hearing and of sight are most common; then follow those of touch, taste, and smell, which are much less common. They rarely exist alone.

Lypcmania, demonology, erotomania, nostalgia, and calentura, frequently present the same combination.

Hallucinations in monomania are in accordance with the cause, the nature of the evil, and the character of the ideas and the passions exhibited by the individual.

Hallucinations of demonomania are common, and much more frequent than Esquirol believed; the incubus occurs in some cases of madness.

Sexual hallucinations arise from exaggerated hysteric symptoms, and, in a great many instances, are occasioned by uterine derangement.

Hallucinations have frequently put on the character of an epidemic in certain varieties of monomania.

Illusions often accompany hallucinations in monomania.

Hallucinations do not develop themselves with equal facility in all kinds of monomania.