The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1883-05-05
Female Hallucinations.

Recent circumstances have directed
attention to certain remarkable delus-
Ions to which females of unstable
nervous equilibrium are subject, either
through hysteria or through similar dis
orders OF the nervous system. Charcot
and Bonneville give instances of the
extraordinary self-deceptions that are
frequent among hysterical patients. DIR.
Legrand du Saulle, physician to the
Salpeterire, Paris, describes in his STAN
dard work, Lies Hysteriques, some
remarkable causes of hallucination.
where females labored under the belief
that they have been struck or stabbed
by others, even after having inflicted
blows and wounds upon themselves.
In one instance young woman was
found by her husband lying on the floor
OF her room in a fainting fit, her face
covered with blood. On revivinp from
her swoon she stated that she had been
attacked by armed men; the Paris news
papers related the case, and within
three weeks two similar events occurred
in the French metropolis. All these
cases proved to be fabricated by the
supposed victims. A young girl
wounded herself slightly with a pistol.
She gave the police authorities the mos.
minute details about an imaginary as
sassin who, according to her account,
fired the weapon, but she was found to
be highly historical, and it was proved
that she had willfully wounded herself.
In a third case in DIR. DuSaulle's ex-
perience young woman was found in
a railway carriage, stabbed in the left
side. The incident caused great ex-
element, but it was proved, contrary
to her assertions, that she had inflicted
the wound herself, and was historical
subject. A housemaid was found lying
behind door, bound, gagged and
covered with bruises She stated that
she had been brutally attacked by two
burglars with blackened faces, but she
was a highly hysterical woman, and
there appears to have. been strong evil
dence that she had contrived to tie her
own hands and to gag and bruise her.
self. Perhaps the strongest case of all
occurred in M. Tardieu's practice. A
young lady, living at Courbevoie, wished
to make herself an object of public in
terest by passing as victim of a poll
teal conspiracy, which she pretended
to have discovered. One night she was
found in state of the greatest mental
perturbation at the doors of her apart
ment, She could not talk, but stated,
in writing, that she had been attacked
outside her own house by man who
had attempted to garrote her, at the
same time striking her twice with
dagger. Only the lady's clothing was
injured, and the body of her dress and
her corset were found to be cut through,
but at different levels. She tried to
make out that the attempt at strangula-
ton had caused dumbness. NJ Tardieu
remarked, in her hearing, that this in
trinity rapidly disappeared when pro-
duced under circumstances of this kind.
She soon managed to regain her speech,
and in short time admitted that the
whole narrative had been developed out
of her inner consciousness. Eccen-
tricity in relatives is ever strongly pre-
sumptive of self-deception, when
female makes any statement or charges
of ill-treatment of any kind. The con-
slant fear of assassination, especially il
based on reasonable grounds, is par
ticularly liable to predispose nervous or
excitable subjects to extraordinary de-
lusions of this kind.-Britisb Medical
| Journal.