Case XLVII

Madame R., aged forty-nine, small in person, brown, lean, lymphatic, sanguine, leading a very regular life, and extremely parsimonious, lost, through a relative, a considerable sum of money. Up to that time, she had never shown any symptoms of insanity, although her mother had been deranged. Almost immediately after this reverse of fortune, she became restless and eccentric. Three or four days before she was brought to me, she began to talk incoherently; incessantly repeated that every one was robbing her, and taking her property. She showed an extreme fear of being arrested by a gendarme. This idea so possessed her that she said, rather than be subjected to it, she would commit suicide.

Besides this, Madame R. believed that she was surrounded by menacing figures, who uttered impertinences and insulting language. She sought for them behind the curtains, under the bed, and in the wardrobes. These figures were equally distinct day and night, and during a conversation she maintained that they were actually present.

Besides these imaginary creations, she insisted that the countenances of strangers were those of persons intimately known to her. During eight days she abused my wife, taking her for one of the intimate friends who had brought her to my establishment. It was in vain that my wife endeavored to undeceive her; her consolations were converted into insults, nonsense, or grossness. "How wicked you are!" she would say; "you only speak to maltreat me." At this time, her breath was fetid and gastric, and she refused all nourishment, asserting either that her food was poisoned, or that it had so detestable a flavor that she could not touch it.

This lady complained that she was beaten in the night, and that the attendants bruised her by their tortures. I was witness to the fact that it was only necessary to touch her to make her say she was hurt.

On two different occasions she attempted suicide. The last had, for the moment, a favorable result. She was much bruised by her fall, and during several days spoke rationally on her hallucinations and illusions.

We have seen, in Bodin's case (Case XXVIL), that hallucinations take place sometimes on the right, sometimes on the left side. This phenomenon, to which M. Michea has given the title of double hallucinations,* may equally be manifested in illusions.

Bartholin speaks of an hysterical female who saw everything in nature shortened to half its size, and who saw only with the left eye.†

Illusions may be of long continuance. Guislain relates the case of a poor woman who lost her reason on account of her son joining the army. An idiot being one day brought into the asylum where she was, she took him for this much regretted son, and for years lavished upon him the most tender caresses.

Recapitulation. - Illusions, like hallucinations, may exist in a healthy state. They have formed one of the most powerful arguments against the veracity of the senses. This philosophical error has arisen from more being required of the senses than it is their mission to bestow. Illusions cannot be confounded with hallucinations, inasmuch as the former have a material object for their foundation, whilst the second are purely cerebral images.

Neither their frequent complexity, nor their transformation into each other, nor their common origin, nor the difficulty of distinguishing them, can destroy this division. Illusions, as well as hallucinations, have their seat in the brain. Illusions in sane persons are corrected by observation, experience, and judgment, and have besides no influence on their general conduct. Ignorance is their most common cause; and they greatly diminish as instruction progresses. Fear, darkness, and a particular disposition of mind are favorable to their existence. The association of ideas plays an important part in the production of illusions. To the united effects of these circumstances must be attributed the appearance of figures walking out from tapestry, statues that move, sighs that come from the tombs, etc. etc. Illusions have often occurred in an epidemic form, which must be attributed to certain beliefs, to ignorance of physics, to severe fevers, and to the power of example and imitation. With the insane, illusions may first appear, may be replaced by hallucinations, may unite with them, may succeed them, or they may exist singly. Like hallucinations, illusions may show themselves one by one, two by two, or affect all the senses together; like them, they may be the cause of singular, dangerous, and reprehensible acts. Habits, inclinations, passions, and powerful emotions explain the greater number of illusions.

* Hallucinations dedoublees. † De luce animal, p. 41.