The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1897-02-20
HALLUCINATIONS.
Napoleon's Star and Other Curious
Historical Examples.

Historical Examples
The Importance of the part played by
dominant Authorizations in the history
of the world can scarcely be overrated.
Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, So
crates, Luther, Ignatius Loyola are
but few of the great men, says the
London Standard. whose lives were in
timately entwined with ruling delu-
sions. In these cases the illusions seem
to have been persistent, and not to
have been produced by any voluntary
effort on the part of the seer. On the
other hand, TaIma could walk ON to the
stage, and, after staring at the brilliant
and applauding audiences for a few
seconds, would see nothing but rows of
grinning skeletons. In this he seems to
have forestalled Herr Rontgen. for the
skeletons were in the exact positions of
the members of the audience and
changed their postures with every vari-
alton of their position. 1t was to this
grisly "house" that the great actor de-
| livered some of his grandest histrionic
efforts.
Goethe, as might be expected, called
up pleasanter and more peaceful VII
sions. At will he could see flower in
the center of his visual field. He thus
described it: This flower does not for
a moment preserve its form; it is gene
rally decomposed, and from it's interior
are born other flowers with colored, or
sometimes green, petals. These are not
natural flowers, but fantastic, never
theless regular, figures, such as the
roses of sculptors." The capacity for
thus producing at will a lovely object
! had, however, the disadvantage de-
ssribed by Abercrombie in his famous
Inquiry concerning the Intellectual
| Powers that they were not as a rule
dismissable at pleasure. Blake after
studying a model seated in a chair
could continue seeing her clearly when
the chair was empty. This must have
been an economical way of hiring a
subject by the hour, and would be an
acceptable talent in these days of high
ly feed models. The CHASTITY case de-
scribed by Sir Walter Scott, of the man
who knew that he was dying. and knew
equally WE'LL that there was nothing
whatever the matter with him, is, per-
haps, too familiar to need more than
passing mention. The black cat that
this luckless man saw was, to use his
own words, mo household cat, but a
bubble of the elements which has nc
existence" This animal was as COM
pick in form as the seer's metaphor fol
it would turn suddenly into a court
usher, and the usher in his turn would
become a skeleton. This man showed
no symptoms of insanity, and was fully
aware of the unreality of what he saw
which must greatly have added to the
persistent misery of his condition.
An old gentleman described by the
late DR.. Elan had power of conjurins
up, often without voluntary effort, two
or more charming dancing girls. ant
the antics of these nymphs continued
until sleep came to the rescue. The ole
fellow was of a particularly pious ant
proper turn of mind, SO that their gra
tuitous ballet was presumably wasted
on him. Nicolai of Berlin, a very level
headed savant. was troubled for TIVE
months with the vision of a corpse
The hallucination lasted as a rule eX
actly eight minutes, and the body wa
apparently always steady at unifron
distance of about ten feet from the Oh
server. This trouble superveHed sud
denly after a violent quarrel liz which
Nicolai had been engaged. Ultimatel!
the corpse and all the poor mans othe
decisions were driven back to their owl
sphere by the prosaic attacks of leech
es on the temples This treatment wa
also most effective in dispelling the vi
sions of a certain clergyman in Hamp
shire late in the last century. He ha
bitually engaged in personal encoun
} ters with the Devil. until the leeche
"A drove the foul fiend out OF his yisua