Case VI

We owe to a very eminent physician of acknowledged reputation, and intimate with Sir Walter Scott, the recital of a fact that occurred to a well-known personage, which is, without contradiction, one of the most curious examples that can be offered in the history of hallucination. The physician was, by chance, called on to attend a man, now long deceased, who, during his life, filled an important office in a particular department of justice. His functions made him frequently an arbiter of the interests of others; his conduct was therefore open to public observation, and for a series of years he enjoyed a reputation for uncommon firmness, good sense, and integrity.

At the time when the physician visited him, he kept his room, sometimes his bed, and yet he continued now and then to engage in the duties of his office; his mind displayed its usual force and habitual energy in directing the business which devolved on him. A superficial observer would not have noticed anything indicative of weakness or oppression of mind. The external symptoms announced no acute or alarming illness; but the slowness of his pulse, the failure of his appetite, a painful digestion, and an unceasing sadness, appeared to have their source in some cause which the invalid was resolved to conceal.

The gloomy air of the unhappy man, the embarrassment which he could not disguise, the constraint with which he replied briefly to the questions of the physician, induced the latter to apply to bis family, who could not give him any satisfactory information.

The physician then had recourse to arguments calculated to make a strong impression on the mind of the patient. He pointed out the folly of devoting himself to a slow death rather than communicate the secret of the grief which was dragging him to the grave. Above all, he represented the injury he was inflicting on his own reputation, by creating a suspicion that the cause of his affliction, and the consequences resulting, were of too disgraceful and criminal a character to be owned; and added, that he would bequeath to his family a suspected and dishonored name, and leave a memory to which would be attached the idea of some crime, which he dared not own, even in his dying hour. This latter argument made more impression than any which had 4 been previously started, and he expressed a desire to unbosom himself frankly to the doctor. They were left together, the door of the sick man's room was carefully closed, and he began his confession in the following manner: -

"You cannot, my dear friend, be more convinced than myself of the death that threatens me; but you cannot comprehend the nature of the disease, nor the manner in which it acts upon me; and even if you could, I doubt if either your seal or your talents could cure me." "It is possible," replied the physician, "that my talents would not be equal to the desire I have to be useful to you, but medical science has many resources, which only those who have studied, can appreciate. However, unless you clearly describe your symptoms, it is impossible to say whether it is in my power, or in that of medicine to relieve you." "I assure you," replied the patient, "that my situation is not unique, for there is a similar example in the celebrated romance of Le Sage. Without doubt, you remember by what disease the Duke of Olivares died? He was overcome by the idea that he was followed by an apparition, in whose existence he did not believe; and he died because the presence of this vision conquered his strength, and broke his heart. Well, my dear doctor, mine is a similar case; and the vision that persecutes me is so painful and so frightful, that my reason is quite inadequate to combat the effects of a frenzied imagination, and I feel that I shall die, the victim of an imaginary malady."

The physician attentively listened to the recital, and judiciously abstained from any contradiction; he contented himself with asking for more circumstantial details of the nature of the apparition that persecuted him, and of the manner in which so singular an affection had seized on his imagination, which, it would appear, a very moderate exercise of understanding would have succeeded in destroying. The patient replied that the attack had been gradual, and that, in the commencement, it was neither terrible nor very unpleasant; and the progress of his sufferings was as follows: -

"My visions," said he, "began two or three years ago. I was then annoyed by the presence of a great cat, which came and disappeared I knew not how; but I did not continue long in doubt, for I perceived that this domestic animal was the result of a vision produced by a derangement in the organs of sight, or of the imagination. However, I have not the same antipathy to these animals as that brave mountain-chief, now dead, whose face turned all the colors of his plaid, if in a room with a cat, even though he did not see it. On the contrary, I rather like them, and I endured the presence of my imaginary companion with a degree of patience that almost amounted to indifference. But, at the end of a few months, the cat disappeared, and was succeeded by a phantom of a higher grade, and whose exterior was at least more imposing. It was no other than a gentleman-usher, dressed as though he were in the service of the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, or of a great functionary of the church, or of any other person of rank or dignity.

" This character, in a court-dress, with bag wig, a sword by his side, a vest worked in tambour, and a chapeau-bras, glided by my side like the shade of Beau Nash. Whether in my own house, or elsewhere, he mounted the stairs before me, as if to announce me. Sometimes he mixed in with the company, although it was evident that no one remarked his presence, and that I alone witnessed the chimerical honors he paid me. This caprice of imagination did not make a strong impression on me; but it raised a question as to the nature of the disease, and I began to fear the effect it might have on my senses. This apparition also had its term. After a few months, my gentleman-usher was no more seen, but was replaced by a phantom horrible to the sight, and distressing to the mind - a skeleton. Alone, or in society," added the unfortunate man, "this apparition never leaves me. It is in vain that I repeat to myself that it has no reality, that it is but an illusion caused by the derangement of my sight, or a disordered imagination. Of what use are such reflections, when the presage and the emblem of death is constantly before my eyes? when I see myself, although only in imagination, forever the companion of a phantom representing the gloomy inhabitant of the tomb, whilst I am still upon earth? Neither science, philosophy, nor even religion has a remedy for such a disease; and I too truly feel that I shall die this cruel death, although I have no faith in the reality of the spectre that is always present."

The physician was pained to see how deeply this vision was rooted in the mind of. the invalid, who was then in bed. He adroitly pressed him with questions as to the apparition; knowing him to be a sensible man, he hoped to make him fall into contradictions, which would put his judgment, to all appearance clear, in a state fitted to combat successfully the disordered imagination, which was producing such fatal effects. "It would appear, then," said he, "that this skeleton is ever before you?" "It is my hapless destiny to see it always," replied the sick man. "In this case," continued the doctor, "you see it now." "Yes." "In what part of the room does it appear to you?" "At the foot of my bed; when the curtains are a little open, it places itself between them, and fills the opening." "You say that you understand it to be only an illusion? - In dreams we are frequently aware that the apparition which freezes us with fear is false; but we cannot, nevertheless, overcome the terror that oppresses us. Have you firmness enough to be positively convinced? Can you rise, and take the place which the spectre appears to occupy, in order to assure yourself that it is a real illusion?" The poor man sighed, and shook his head. "Well, then," said the doctor, "we will try another plan." He quitted the chair on which he had been seated at the head of the bed, and, placing himself between the open curtains, in the spot pointed out as being occupied by the apparition, he inquired if the skeleton was yet visible. "Much less, because you are between it and me, but I see the skull over your shoulder."

It is said that, in spite of his philosophy, the learned doctor shuddered at a reply so distinctly announcing that the ideal spectre was behind him. He had recourse to other experiments, and employed various methods of cure, but in vain. The patient became more and more dejected, and died a victim to the agony in which his latter years had been passed.

Here is an unexceptionable proof of the power the imagination has on the body, even when the fantastic terrors it occasions cannot destroy the judgment of the unfortunate being who suffers them. The patient, in this case, perished, the victim of a hallucination; and the details of this singular history being kept secret, his death and disease did not injure the well-merited reputation for prudence and acuteness which he had enjoyed during the whole course of his life.*

In many cases, hallucination attaches itself to a weakly constitution. Bonnet, and La Place in his Essai Philosophique sur let Probabilites (pp. 224-226), have mentioned a fact of this nature relating to a maternal grandfather of the former of these physicians.*

* Walter Scott, History of Demonology and Witchcraft.

One of the most interesting narratives of this character is that which was published a few years since by the bookseller Nicolai, of Berlin: -