Case XLV

M. C, after a mental aberration, from which he has not quite recovered, returns to his family. The day after his arrival, he goes down to the cellar, followed by his wife. As he does not return, his sister-in-law goes down likewise. The continued absence of these three persons alarms the servant; she wishes to ascertain the cause, but presently returns, shrieking fearfully, and rushes from the house. Her broken words and looks of terror intimate some dreadful event. The watchmen fly to the spot; they descend. Two women lie on the ground, bathed in blood. C. is, at a little distance, seated on a cask, with a bloody razor at his feet. To all their questions he replies, that he is defending himself against the devil. This man, proved insane, was placed at Charenton; and in 1825 was transferred to the private establishment of Mme. Marcel Sainte Colombo, where I attended him for nearly a year. On being restored to reason, he demanded his liberty, and, against the advice of MM. Esquirol and Marc, obtained it. Some years after, he rushed on the woman who lived with him, taking her for a demon, who was reproaching him with his crimes; she only escaped by throwing herself out of the window. Twelve days after, he died, in the madhouse of Dr. Pressat, my predecessor, in transports of rage, believing himself to be surrounded with phantoms and devils.†

Case XLVI

Madame B., who has been in our establishment, is well educated; she converses agreeably, and expresses herself in good language. On two different occasions, her illusions have led her to the commission of very dangerous acts. The first time she seized her sister by the throat, and tried to strangle her, and throw her out of the window, taking her for a corpse. The second time, about midnight, she knocked gently at the chamber-door of her husband, telling him that she was taken ill. Scarcely had he opened the door than she dealt him five blows on the head with an iron bar. Staggering and covered with blood, he made a tremendous effort, pushed her out, closed the door, and fainted; she believed him to be a devil. This lady has since acknowledged her mistake; but she also persists in saying that she took him for a devil.

* Proces, examen, etc, du mechant et execrable parricide Francois Ravaillac, sur la mort de Henri le Grand. An anonymous pamphlet, Paris, 1611, p. 35.

† A. Brierre de Boismont, observations medico- legates sur la monomanie homicide, Paris, 1826.

There are some crazy people who pick up sand and little pebbles, convinced that they are precious stones; they fill their pockets with them. M. V. passes the whole day in examining these pretended jewels through a magnifying glass, in order to select the finest. He goes to his room, bending under the weight of his riches. By illusions of the touch, persons think they are struck. Madame D. is subject to an eruption, which she thinks are marks put on her during the night by evil people. It is certain that rheumatic, neuralgic, and visceral pains become, to many deranged persons, the source of illusions of the touch. Those of smell are very common. Madame L. scents the most disgusting objects, pretending that they exhale a delicious perfume.

M. D. asserts that her physicians cause the most infectious odors to arise from her food and drinks, by which means they desire to kill her.

The major part of these illusions are linked with the preoccupations, ideas, habits, and passions of the patients. One young lady tells me that she cannot remain any longer, because every one around her is disguised; that it is a perpetual carnival. This illusion, like many others, remained long inexplicable, until I at length discovered that the event which caused her madness took place at a masked ball.

Illusions of taste are constantly occurring. We will cite the case of the patient who, maintaining for years an obstinate silence, passed his days in licking the walls of his room, for which no one could account, when he one day said: "You do not know what I taste? These are delicious oranges." Nothing is more common, especially among melancholy monomaniacs, than to hear them complain of the poisonous flavor of their food. This idea frequently loads them to commit suicide through abstinence. We have frequently noticed horrible perversions of taste. A patient who remained eighteen months in our establishment every day devoured any filth she could find. Her breath became very offensive. When remonstrated with on this depraved taste, she flew into a passion, and said that it was excellent food. The contrast which the manners and language of this young woman presented to her conduct and appearance was painful to witness. Every day another young lady, perfectly well-educated, and full of wit and talent, came to see her, avowing that she was her sister, who had really been dead for ten years.

A number of the facts that we have reported, and of which we have only given a brief account, were cases of combined hallucinations of hearing, sight, etc. The following is only a more complete reproduction of them: -