Case XXIX

The patient who is the subject of this case had shown much talent in the public office to which he was attached; but, overpowered with his fixed idea, he ceased to acquit himself of his duties, became tiresome to his colleagues, and was obliged to resign. His mind was perfect when he spoke on subjects foreign to his hallucination. On this subject he was immovable, and advanced very specious reasons in favor of his argument. We transcribe one of his letters, addressed to a person in authority, as a specimen of his frenzy: -

"Sir, I had the honor to write you last year on the subject of a robbery. From that moment, and even farther back, I have heard, both at my own house and at my office, the most deafening noises, which were quite insupportable. At the same time, I was offered, from a place that appeared near to my house, the grossest insults. Individuals and various objects were named to me incessantly, night and day. I was fatigued with these infernal tricks. They have caused, and still do cause me, at certain hours, abstractions that all my presence of mind fails to combat. To put the climax to these stupid and annoying manoeuvres, they have sent me to Dr. Boismont's madhouse, where they continue the same punishment.

"I have just written to legal authorities, who, I am told, ought to know what are trespasses against individual liberty. I hope they will interpose, in order that the law may have its full and plain effect, and that I may be removed from a situation so prejudicial to my interests. I have begged them to write to or to see me as frequently as they judge it advisable, in order that they may assure themselves, in the absence of the physicians, not only that my reason is sound, but that it has never ceased to be in a normal state. I hope this will urge them to take measures against the guilty, and restore me to liberty.

* Esquirol, Des Maladies Mentales, 1838, vol. i. p. 160.

"Your friendly solicitude leads me to believe that you will give a satisfactory issue to this affair, and that in a few days hence I shall be at liberty to return home, and to do what I consider right, taking only my own will for judge."

Persons who have distressing hallucinations make every effort to convince others of the reality of their sensations, and, persuaded of their truth, overwhelm the authorities with complaints. Sometimes their pretended griefs are exhibited so artfully, that it requires an attentive and repeated examination to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.

The loss of the senses is not an obstacle to hallucinations. This fact, which appears to us the clearest line of demarcation between hallucination and illusion, proves that sensations and images, once received in the brain, remain there for a length of time.

Case XXX

An ecclesiastic, deprived of hearing, composed Latin and French poems, discourses, letters, and sermons, in several languages. He imagined he wrote from the dictation of the archangel Michael, asserting that of himself he was unable to produce so many and such beautiful works.*

Madame M., twenty-four years of age, almost entirely deaf, imagined that her husband, who had been dead for several years, was walking on the roof of the establishment. She called on him night and day, and conversed with him. "Ah, my God!" said she, "he says he is naked; quick, bring him clothes. He complains that he has nothing to eat; give him broth, a glass of wine." And she sighed, complained, wept, and tore her hair.

Invisible voices may bo external or internal; they come from heaven, from neighboring houses, from the angles of a room, from the chimney, from wardrobes, from mattresses; but they may also come from the head, the stomach, or any other important organ. "Sir," said a madman to us one day, pointing to his stomach, "strange things pass there; I constantly hear a voice that speaks to me, addresses to me menaces and insults;" and all the day he was leaning down to listen.

* Calmiel, art Hallucination, p. 519, Dictionnaire, in 30 vols. 2d edition.

Should buzzing in the ears be ranked amongst hallucinations, as some medical men think? We think that this symptom, and others analogous to it, belong to illusions; for in the greater number of cases there exists an arterial beating or some other organic modification that the insane person transforms into real sensations.

Hallucinations of hearing are oftentimes isolated; but they may be combined with those of sight or of the other senses.

Hallucinations of Sight. - In all times, these hallucinations have played an important part in the history of mankind, and to them has been more particularly attached the name of visions, whence the appellation of visionaries to those who are thus affected. Every nation, and every celebrated man, has felt their influence. In the Middle Ages, the belief in visions was general. Spirits haunted castles and cemeteries; there was no one but had seen an apparition.

At the present time, the north of Europe, and some of our provinces, manifest a belief in visions. Authors fill their pages with wonderful histories, which the ignorant skepticism of the eighteenth century had banished as old women's fables; the more enlightened science of these days explains them naturally, giving them a destiny similar to the recitals of Herodotus and Marco Polo, which were at first well received, then for a long period rejected as fabulous, and now again receive their just appreciation.

Hallucinations of sight, by their number and their frequency, hold the second rank among the singular aberrations of the human mind.