A treatise on the diseases of the nervous system . ts that Father Santerre was at least a good symptomatologist, andof the absolute identity of the phenomena cited, in all essential char-acteristics, with those which in our day are said to be of mystical origin,but which in reality are hysterical or hysteroid. We might reproachFather Santerre and his coadjutors more forcibly, if we had not our-selves killed witches and presided at the birth of spiritualism. No one has written with greater effect in regard to the manifesta-tions of hysteria and hystero-epilepsy than Charcot. As a most strik- 79
A treatise on the diseases of the nervous system . ts that Father Santerre was at least a good symptomatologist, andof the absolute identity of the phenomena cited, in all essential char-acteristics, with those which in our day are said to be of mystical origin,but which in reality are hysterical or hysteroid. We might reproachFather Santerre and his coadjutors more forcibly, if we had not our-selves killed witches and presided at the birth of spiritualism. No one has written with greater effect in regard to the manifesta-tions of hysteria and hystero-epilepsy than Charcot. As a most strik- 790 CEREBRO-SPIXAL DISEASES. ing case of the latter affection, I cite from him the following instance1already referred to in another connection under the head of ecstasy. Ler., aged forty-eight years, is a patient well known to all physi-cians who visit the Salpetriere as one of the most remarkable instancesextant of hystero-epilepsy. Her menstruation has ceased for fouryears and yet all the neurotic symptoms persist. She is a demoniac, a Fig. jDossessecl, and presents a striking example of that type of hysteriamanifested by the Jerkers in Methodist camp-meetings, and whoexhibit in their paroxysms the most frightful attitudes. The probable origin of these nervous phenomena in Ler. deserves tobe noted. She has had, as she says, a series of frights. At eleven}^ears of age she was terrified by a furious dog. At sixteen she was 1 Lecons sur lesmaladies du systemenerveux faites a la Salpetriere, Faris, lS72-73,p. 301, ei seq. IIYSTERO-EPILEPSY. 791 frightened at the sight of the corpse of an assassinated woman, andagain about the same time, when going through a wood, by robbers whoattacked her and took her money. With her there are local hysterical manifestations consisting ofhemi-anaesthesia, ovarian tenderness, paresis, and at times contractionof the limbs on the right side. Sometimes these symptoms are shownon the left side also. The attacks, which are announced by a well-mar
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