Above all, the object of our argument is to prove that these noted personages were the personifications of an epoch, an idea; that they fulfilled a useful and necessary mission; and that their hallucinations had nothing in common with those of the present time. In this chapter, we have also endeavored to establish a decided line of demarcation between the apparitions of Holy Writ, the hallucinations of profane history, and even those of many

Christians. If our judgment does not deceive us, we have presented the doctrine of hallucinations in a much clearer form than it has hitherto been done; and we willingly believe that all good people, who admit the utility of religion, who think that it ought to be respected and honored, will thank us for our feeble efforts. As to those who rank a belief in Christianity among errors, we judge them not; but if our opinions incur their blame, we prefer it, to an approbation gained by that compromise of conscience which is unhappily too common.

This treatise on hallucinations would have been incomplete, had we been silent on their physiology. Deeply studied by M. Baillarger, in the memoir to which the prize was awarded by the Academy of Medicine,* it had partly been described by us in our symptomatology; we have added to this chapter all that appeared new in the work of our learned brother.

We have no reason to anticipate any satisfactory result from post-mortem examinations of the insane, with regard to hallucinations; on this point we agree with the majority of the Faculty, who consider that the pathological anatomy of hallucinations has yet to be made. If, in this case, alterations were met with, they were simple coincidences or effects, and were quite as frequently wanting, various, and contradictory.

Moreover, the progress and duration, diagnosis and prognosis of hallucinations have offered considerations on which we have dwelt according to their merits.

The treatment of hallucinations up to the present period has been slight. M. Leuret, entering his protest against this error, proved that such patients, properly guided, could be cured. He has claimed the merit of calling the attention of practitioners to this point, and has established rules, which, although much disputed, have in several cases proved successful. But in doing justice to the merit of this physician, unjustly attacked during his life,† we would modify the use of his method, and justify by facts the one which we propose, and which appears to us more generally applicable.

Our task would have been imperfectly performed had we neglected the examination of hallucinations in connection with civil and criminal institutions. It has been proved by a multitude of examples that persons thus affected may, under the influence of their false impressions, commit reprehensible, dangerous, and even criminal acts. This fact, placed beyond doubt in the course of this work, has been confirmed by new examples. Thence it became necessary to establish signs by which this state should be proved, in order that it might not be confounded with simulation; we have discovered these signs by inquiry, and from the writings and prolonged observation of individuals; we also think that magistrates, as well as doctors, possess the means to distinguish criminals laboring under hallucination. The question of sequestration, already agitated in speaking of treatment, has been newly considered. Useful in many cases, especially when the patient is mischievous, in many others it could not be recommended without serious inconvenience to the persons affected. Finally, we have closed this chapter, the principal points of which we have glanced at, by showing that it is possible to use a test in the case of hallucinations, provided that they do not influence the acts of the individual: but we have also shown that it is not thus when the affections are perverted; as would, for example, be the belief that a near relative had the form of a devil, that he used electricity to poison the food, exhaled infectious odors, caused torment, etc.

* Mem. quoted.

† See the notice that we published of him in the Annal. Med. Psych., July, 1851.

In composing a work of this nature, the author should seek to combine interest with instruction. The favorable reception that we have met with induces the belief that these two conditions have been fulfilled.