The Wadsworth dispatch. [volume] (Wadsworth, Nev.) 1892-1899, 1897-05-19


Have Been Prophetic; at other Time.
They Have Caused Tragedies.
The Importance of the part played by
dominant hallucinations in the history
sf the world can scarcely be overrated.
julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, Soc
rates, Luther, Ignatius Loyola, are but
a few CT the great men whose lives were
intimately entwined with ruling delu-
slons. In these cases the illusions seem
10 have been persistent and not to have
been produced by any voluntary effort
Oh the part of the seer. On the other
hand, Talma could walk on to the stage
and after staring at the brilliant and
~applauding audience for a few seconds
would see nothing but rows of grinnine
skeletons. In this he seems to have fore
stalled Herr Rcentgen, for the skeletons
were in the exact positions of the mem
Lers Of the audience and changed thei1
Pastures with every variation of their
positions. l. was to this grisly house"
that the great actor delivered some OF
his grandest histrionic efforts.
Goethe, as might be expected, called
mp pleasanter and more peaceful visions.
AT will he could see a flower in the cen
ter of his visual field. He thus described
it: This flower does o tor a moment
preserve its form: it is generally decom.
posed, and from its interior are born
ether flowers with colored, OR sometimes
green, petals. These are ret natural
flowers, but fantastic. nevertheless regu-
lar, figures, such as the roses of sculp.
eors."
The capacity fer thus producing at
will a lCyely cl5tct had. however, the
disadvantage described ly Abercrombie
in his famous Inquiry Concerning the
Intellectual Powers" that they were
not as Il rule dismissible at pleasure.
Blake, after Studying "A 11odel seated in
achair, could continue seeing hcrclearly
when the chair was empty. This must
have Leen an economical way CT hiring
a subject by the hour ard would be ali
acceptable talent in these days of highly
feed models. The ghastly case described
by Sir Walter Scott of the man who
knew that he was dying, and knew
; equally we'll that there wa 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 q
bubble Ct tie elements which has &c
oxistcrtc." : his animal was as cCni-
pick i'll form IS the scer's metaphor, tC1
il would turn suddenly into a court
usher. ard the usher in his turn would
become u skeleton. This man showed 70
symptoms Ct insanity aid was fully
aware CT the urreality 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 a power Of %conjuring
up. often without voluntary effort, two
or moro charming dancing girls, and the
antics OF these Eymphs continued until
sleep came 10 the rescue. The old fellow
was CT a particularly pious and proper
turn Ct mind, so that their gratuitous
ballet was presumably wasted Oh him.
NICOLA Ct Berlin, Il very level headed
savant, was troubled fer two months
with the vision CT a corpse. The hallu-
~cinaticn lasted as a rule exactly eight
minutes, and the body was apparently
always steady ut a uniform distance OF
about ten feet from the observer.
This trouble supcrvened suddenly
after a violent quarrel in which Nicolai
had been engaged. Ultimately the
corpse and all the rCor mans other de-
Iusiors were driven back to their own
sphere ly the prosaic attacks of leeches
on the temples. This treatment was
also most effective in dispelling the vi
sions CT a certain clergyman in Hamp.
shire late i'll the last century. He habit
ually engaged in personal encounters
with the devil, until the leeches drove
the foul fiend out of his visual field
DR.. Bostock, the psychologist, saw the
heads Ct his fricnGs "in relief, like
mcdallions." Cariously enough, he
could never conjure up their bodies.
The great Napoleon was, as is gen
orally known, invariably attended by a
star This stcry was implicitly believed
at the time, ard il is said to have been
first related ~ General Rapp, who, on
visiting the mCDarcn teht AT hlsh''
found Icnaparte cXcitedly pointing to
Il ccrnor OF the tent, crying: do you
zee that-rey star? 1t is shining there
lefcre your At the period of the ref
,rmation Wrestling with the evil enc
in propria persona was by no means an
exercise. Luther several
times INDUCED I'll these ccmbats. MI
Lecky tells us Of the young monk who
rushed up to SITS. Fachonius II
Palpmon in tie desert and told them
nrciteGiv Of 1he beAutiful woman who