The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1897-05-17
HALLUCINATIONS.
SOME OF THE CURIOUS EXAMPLES
RECORDED IN HISTORY.

The Lives of Many Great Men Have Been
Influenced by Visions Frequently They
Have Been Prophetic; at ether Times
They Have Caused Tragedies.
The Importance of the part played by
dominant Authorizations i'll the history
Of the world can scarcely be overrated.
Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, Soc
rates, Luther, Ignatius Loyola, are but
a few of the great men whose lives were
intimately entwined with ruling delu-
sions. In these GASES 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, 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 grinning
skeletons. In this he seems to have fore
stalled Herr ROentgen, for the skeletons
were in the exact positions of the MEM
bers of the audience and changed their
pastures with every variation of their
positions. 1t was to this grisly house"
that the great actor delivered some Of
his grandest histrionic efforts.
Goethe, as might be expected, called
up pleasanter and more peaceful visions.
At will he could see a flower in the Gen.
ter of his visual field. He thus described
it: This flower does not for a moment
preserve it's form; it is generally decom-
posed, and from its interior are born
other flowers with colored, or sometimes
green, petals. These are not natural
flowers, but fantastic, nevertheless regu-
lar, figures, such as the roses Of sculp-
tors"
The capacity for thus producing at
will a lovely object had, however, the
disadvantage described by Abercrombie
in his famous Inquiry Concerning the
Intellectual Powers" hat they We're
not as a rule dismissible at pleasure.
Blake, after studying a model seated in
achair, 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 highly
feed models. The CHASTITY case described
by Sir Walter Scott of the man who
knew that he vas dying, and knew
equally well 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
W words, mo household cat, but a
bubble Of the elements which has no
existence" This animal was as COM
pick in form as the seer's metaphor, for
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 a power Of conjuring
up, often without voluntary effort, two
or more charming dancing girls, and the
antics Of these nymphs continued until
sleep came to the rescue. The old fellow
was of a particularly pious and proper
turn Of mind, so that their %gratuitous
ballet was presumably wasted on him.
Nicolai Of Berlin, a very level headed
savant, was troubled for two months
with the vision Of a corpse. The hallu-
cinatiOn lasted as a rule exactly eight
minutes, and the body was apparently
always steady at a uniform distance Of
about ten feet from the observer.
This trouble supervened suddenly
after q violent quarrel in which NicOlai
had been engaged. Ultimately the
corpse and all the poor mans other de
luslOns were driven back to their own
sphere by the prosaic attacks Of leeches
O the temples. This treatment was
also most effective in dispelling the vi
sions Of a certain clergyman III 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.
DIR. Bostock, the psychologist, saw the
heads CT his friends Tin relief, like
medallions. Curiously enough, he
could never c~onjure up their bodies.
The great Napoleon was, ms is gen
orally known, Invariably attended by a
star. This story was implicitly believed
at the time, and it is said to have been
first related by General Rapp, who, on
visiting the monarch's tent at night,
found Bonaparte excitedly pointing to
corner Of the tent, crying: do YOU
see that-my star: 1t is shining there
before YOU" At the period Of the ref
ormation wrestling with the evil one
IN propria persona was by no means al
uncommon exercise. Luther several
times INDUCED in these combats. Mr..
Lecky tells us Of the young monk who
rushed up to SITS. Pachonius and
Palamon in the, desert and told them
excitedly of the beautiful woman >whc
had tempted him III his cell and, ''hav.
ing worked her purpose, " had vanished
miraculously in the air, leaving hin
half dead upon the ground. The story
goes on 10 say that the young monk
with. a wild shrek, broke away from
his sanity listeners and rushed
across the desert till he arrived at tn
next village and there leaped into tn
open furnace Of the public baths ant
persisted in the fiames."
CaZoftp waS yapprfal IN hoya hahit