* Brierre de Boismont, De la Menstruation consideree dans sea rapports physiologiques et pathologiques, 1 vol. 8vo. pp. 55, 100, 423, 436, 531. Rechcrches bibliographiques et cliniques sur la Folie puerpenile, precedees d'un apercu sur les Rapports de la Menstruation et de l'Alienation men-tale. (Annal. de Medico-Psychol, annee 1851, t. iii. p. 574.) cially excited her lamentations; she saw a modern Babylon, with all its iniquities. By degrees her ideas became more cheerful, she went out more frequently, and occupied herself with worldly affairs.

These results were not obtained without many alterations; from being very lively she would suddenly become sad, and refuse to go out. Her recovery was characterized by her great desire for occupation; she would work several hours in the day; her cries became less frequent; she no longer fled society, and even talked much. Desirous, on one occasion, of profiting by this improvement, I invited her to write to her friends, but she refused, saying that she was too sick at heart. In the morning, she was calm, and said that she was like other people; and she also laughed when rallied on her notion of being the beast mentioned in the Apocalypse.

In two months after her entrance into the establishment, she had a relapse; she was continually bursting into tears, sighing, and crying out that the devil was carrying her off to hell because she had communed under the weight of a mortal sin. Nevertheless, her progress towards recovery continued, and it became highly interesting to watch this struggle between reason and madness, with every probability that the former would gain the victory.

I know not if I am in error, but it appears to me that there is no nobler mission than that of the physician, who watches the reawakening of reason; who is an attentive observer of those strange perversions of natural affection, those irresistibly foolish ideas, whimsical phantoms, and fantastic creations of the imagination. What joy will he not feel at seeing the first stone detached from the pile which madness has constructed to conceal human reason! In that struggle where, often overcome, he still rises to the combat, by turns using force, skill, persuasion, and kindness, how great must be his satisfaction when he has succeeded, through patience and a knowledge of the human heart, in conquering the chimera!

Madlle. Claire was at length in a condition of mind which evinced that the false idea tottered on its base. She smiled when she was rallied, and resolved on going to church; but having reached the threshold, she declared it was impossible for her to cross it; she felt as though nailed to the doorway; no reason-31 ings could induce her to enter the building, and she returned home.* By degrees the lady became calm, worked at her needle, and visited her friends.

In four months after her arrival, she wrote and worked; her countenance had a natural expression, but still she would not realise her real state, wept and mourned from time to time, saying that she never should be well; however, she could now control her will.

In two months more she was so far convalescent that I arranged for her departure, no doubt existing of her entire recovery. She was much agitated on the evening preceding, from the dread she felt of a relapse, but soon after she was seated in the carriage, recovered her spirits, and was very lively.

My prognosis on the happy termination of the alienation of this lady was founded on the following reasons: she had never betrayed any whimsicalities or strangeness in her conduct; never had any brain disease, her periods were regular; she was correct in judgment, sound in mind, sensible in discourse, but cold and reserved; she was well informed, had read good books, and her reflections were judicious; finally, none of her relatives had ever been insane. These united considerations led me to consider her as under the influence of a critical time of life excited by continence, and the uterine hemorrhage which she had experienced. The pathological condition of the uterus in reacting on the brain, had given explosion to the ideas with which it was familiar. The conclusion that we drew from this assemblage of facts, which the event justified, was, that after a sojourn of some months in our establishment the menses would entirely cease, and reason be restored.

I still followed the mental condition of Madlle. Claire with a lively interest; from her letters I learned that she had entered the Church, fulfilled all her religious duties, and was quite well. Still more recently she wrote word that her cure was entire, and thanked me affectionately for my attention. Five years afterwards, her health continued excellent.

With this lady, hallucinations formed the chief characteristics of the disease; the false ideas which accompanied them, were but the consequences. The physical agents were but few, for, with the exception of some baths and a blister, it was impossible to persuade her to take any medicaments. Her dry and nervous constitution made us reject bleeding. Probably, these remedies had some effect; but we are firmly convinced that the moral treatment which we perseveringly carried out during several months contributed mainly to the re-establishment of her reason.

* This fact, related in all histories of the possessed and of sorcerers, is naturally explained by the character of the delirious conception.

We have selected this case from many others, because we cannot in a history of hallucinations accumulate facts as we might in a special pamphlet, and this one appears sufficient to make our method apparent.

An unexpected event, or a sudden comparison of what is, with what is believed to be, suffices, under some circumstances, to cause the cessation of hallucinations.

The prefect of the empire, whose case we have given in detail, exclaimed, on seeing the Cossacks in the Jardin des Planten: "Enough, I am cured!" Another patient of Esquirol awaited the speedy advent of the Messiah. After a long conversation with that physician, she gave a written agreement that she would acknowledge herself to be mad, if the Messiah did not come on the 25th of March. On the day appointed, the Messiah did not appear; the patient yielded with a good grace, resumed her former habits, and, in a very short time, her reason was restored.