The Warner weekly sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1885, 1884-01-11
FEMALE BALLUcINATIoNs.
Interesting Facts Cruelty Recalled
AGTopos or Lady Florence Dixie.


Interesting Facts Cruelty Recalled
AGFopos or Lady Florence Dixie.
From the British Medical Journal.
Recent circumstances have directed
attention to certain remarkable delu-
sions 10 WHICH females Of unstable ner-
vous equilibrium are subjected, either
through hysteria or through similar dis
orders 6 tic i !!!eeSgo.4 system. Charcot
and Bonneville give instances of the
extraordinary self,deceptions that are
frequent amongst hysterical patients.
DR.. Legrand du Saulle, physician to the
Salpetrire, Paris, describes in his stand
ard work, lies HysteiQues,o some re-
markable cases 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 n
instance o young Woman was found by
her husband lying on the floor of her
room in a fainting fit, her face covered
with blood. On reviving from her swoon
she stated that she had been
attacked by armed men; the
Paris newspapers related the case, and
Willii4l buIGG NGchS O@O 6Iiiliidt SfSAAIo
occurred in the French metropolis. iii
these cases proved TO be fabricated by
the supposed victims. A young girl
wounded herself slightly with a pistol.
She gave the notice authorities the most
minute details about al. imaginary assas-
sin, who, according to her account, fired
the weapon, but she was found to be
highly hysterical and it was proved that
she had wilfully wounded herself. In a
third case in DR.. du SaulPs experience,
q Young woman was found in a railway
carriage, stabbed in the left side. The
incident caused great excitement, but it
was proved, contraryto REPRESENTATIONS,
that she had inflicted the woundherself,
and was a hysterical subject. a house
maid was found lying behind a door,
bound, gagged and covered with bruises.
She stated that she had been brutallv
attacked by two burglars with blackened
faces, but sire was q highly hysterical
woman and there appears to have strong
evidence that she had contrived TO tie
her own hands and to gag and bruise
herself. Perhaps the ]strangest case Of
all occurred in MIR. TaTdieu's practice.
A young lady living at Courbeyoie wish
ed to make herself an object of public
interest by passing as a victim Of poht-
lCti GOtiSDlidCy NiIJEAl sllE iIGbSilhE0 W
have discovered. One night she was
found ia a state Of the greatest mental
perturbation at the door of her apart
ment. She could talk, but stated in
writing that she had been attacked out.
side her own house by a man, who had
attempted to carrote her, at the same
time striking her twice with a dagger.
Only the lady's clothing was injured end
the body of her dress and corset were
found to be cut through, but at different
levels. She tried to make out that the
attempt at s~trangulation had caused
dumbness. NJ. Tardieu remarked, in
her hearing, that this naRrmity rapidly
disappeared when produced under cir
cumstances OF this kind. she soon
managed to regain her spe cch, and III a
short time admitted tilat the whole mar
Iatiye had been developed out OF nerIn-
ner consciousness. Eccentricity In rel
atives is eyer strongly presumptiye Of
| self-deception when a female makesa"ysr
| statement or charges of i'll treatment Of
any kind. The constant fear OF assassi-
nation, especially if based on reasonable
grounds, IS particularly liable to predis-.
pose nervous or excitable subjects to ex-
| traordinarv delusions of this kind.