Case CXXXV

In October, 1833, a woman, aged twenty-eight, born in Piedmont, went to a village-ball; she danced during three days in a sort of frenzy, and afterwards heard, without cessation, the melodies which had charmed her. They were Montferrines, and each gave place successively to the other. This hallucination affected the vital functions, and terminated in nervous consumption. Dr. Brosserio observed that the musical sounds increased with the disease, and did not abate, until they ceased in death.†

Case CXXXVI

Tasso, whose passion for the Princess d'Este was the origin of all his misfortunes, finally believed that there was a familiar genius who delighted to converse with him; he pretended to have learned things from it, which he had neither read nor heard, and which none had known before him. J. B. Manso, his friend, said that, being one day at Bisaccio, near Naples, he endeavored to convince him that he labored under an illusion; when the poet replied: " Since nothing that I can say will satisfy you, you shall be convinced by experience, and you shall sec, with your own eyes, that spirit of which I speak." - "I accept the offer," said Manso, and on the following day the friends, being seated near to the fire, he turned his eyes towards a window, on which he fixed them so attentively that he ceased replying to my remarks, and, in all probability, no longer heard them.

"At length, he said: 'There is my familiar spirit, who is so polite as to come and converse with me; look at him, and witness the truth of what I told you.' I turned my eyes towards the spot pointed out, but saw nothing but the rays of the sun streaming into the room. Whilst I gazed all around, and could not discover anything unusual, I perceived that Tasso was engaged in a deep conversation; for, although I only saw and heard him, his discourse was arranged as though two persons were conversing; he alternately interrogated and replied. The subjects of his conversation were so exalted, the style so sublime and so extraordinary, that surprise set me beside myself. I neither dared speak to him, nor inquire where the spirit was with which he had spoken.

* Esquirol, Dos Maladies Mentales, 2 vols. 8vo. fig. 1838. † Journal de Paris, 23d Aug. 1831.

"Astounded at that which passed beneath my eyes, I remained for a length of time entranced; doubtless, until the departure of the spirit. Tasso aroused me by inquiring: 'Have you at length dismissed your doubts?' 'Far from it,' I replied; 'they are but strengthened; I have heard wonderful things; but I have not seen what you led me to expect.' "*

Causes apparently slight may favor the development of hallucinations. Those which we will now mention, have been pointed out by different authors. Reading and conversation, at night, on very striking subjects, prolonged unreasonably, have frequently occasioned in impressible persons, restlessness, terrors, and even visions. Conolly speaks of children, who, under these circumstances, have wakened up from fearful dreams, and with whom false impressions of surrounding objects have continued for some time. We attended a very enlightened man, who, for several years subsequent to a severe fever, was attacked every night with inexpressible agonies of terror, momentarily expecting to see apparitions. He recognized this state as a consequence of his illness, but as soon as darkness came on all his firmness vanished.