* Michea, op. cit. p. 102, et seq. † Psycho-sensorial hallucination.

Leuret relates, in his Fragment Psychologiques sur la Folie, that Friar Gilles, disciple of Saint Frarcois, and Saint Louis the King, conversed a long time with extreme consolation of mind, and without the aid of words, which, says Friar Gilles, would more have impeded than assisted us, by reason of the sweet peace which our souls experienced.

Patients of this class pretend that there are invisible interrogators within them, who speak with them, in thought, mind to mind, by intuition, magnetism, and idea; they hear internal voices. On this subject, the very curious case of Noel, detailed by Gazauvielh, may be consulted.*

An insane woman, in the Saltpdtriere, always replied to the questions addressed to her by Dr. Leuret; when the physician ceased speaking, she continued the conversation, and gave answers to fresh questions which she imagined were addressed to her, but which had no connection with each other. "To whom are you talking?" inquired Leuret; "I am not speaking to you." - "I hear," she replied, "your thoughts, and I do not know why." A reply exactly similar to that of the seer, Blake.

The cases in which the hallucinated hear voices in the epigastrium, and receive communications by a sixth sense, still appear to belong to the same class. Sometimes it is not in the epigastrium alone that a part of their thoughts seem to dwell; it appears to them that their entire minds are exercised on the point. Van Helmont experienced this under the influence of the poisonous action of aconite.

Finally, it is necessary to remark that patients sometimes use the word voice, for want of another expression, to convey their feelings.

Independently of the phenomena peculiar to each sense, there exist others common to the whole group.

General Symptoms. - In the study of hallucinations, a fact is revealed which appears specially to belong to insanity. The man who perceives the first dawnings of hallucination has often the power to conceal it; so that it is only when the evil has burst forth that he is constrained to acknowledge it. Psychological researches of the highest interest might be made of the method in which a false idea, at first slight and fugitive, traverses the brain like lightning, to reappear at some moment when least expected. It would be very curious to examine how this impalpable idea, whose existence is only indicated by the associations which it calls forth, is colored, pictured, and, finally, assumes a body, which places itself before its victim, and pursues him everywhere like his shadow. When the hallucination occurs in this manner, before insanity is discovered by parents or friends, who perceive no disorder either in words or actions, then, most frequently, a change is observed in the conduct and affections of the party attacked. Hallucinations may have no influence on the conduct, either because the individual is conscious of the morbid phenomena which he experiences, or that he does not allow his actions to be influenced by them. This state is sometimes greatly prolonged, and is in nowise incompatible with the free exercise of reason.

* Du Suicide et de 1'Alienation mentale dans les Campagnes, p. 1GG.

When the sufferer has once yielded to the power of the hallucination, his conviction in its reality is profound; nothing can persuade him that it is a sensorial error. Some cases, indeed, are quoted in contradiction of this doctrine; but, whilst we admit such, we look on them as exceptions. It is to the firm persuasion which the hallucinated have of the existence of their visions, that the heroic patience with which sorcerers supported the tortures imposed by their ignorant judges must be attributed. The gift once accepted, it was to them what the philosophic idea was to Savanarole, Campanella, Vanini, and so many others who died in its defence on the scaffold. Perhaps, also, this deep conviction may be attributed to the remark they would naturally make, that they could judge of real objects as correctly as other men. This rule is not without exception, for there are some hallucinated persons who are conscious that they are delirious, and are aware that their sensations are false, and this conviction is even mingled in the hallucinations of their dreams.

The hallucination which, under some circumstances, has shown itself as a predominant symptom, may be marked or enfeebled by other forms of mental alienation, or may reappear, and exist after the termination of the malady.

One of the most decisive symptoms is to see a patient in the midst of a walk, or an animated conversation, suddenly stop, listen, even move aside to reply to the voice which questions him, to look at the object presented, to inhale odors, taste food, or become irritated by blows. Whilst I am writing, I observe one who has kept silence for two years, but whose pantomime is most expressive; he questions, replies, accuses, defends himself, and addresses reproaches. His conversation with imaginary beings are very frequent. Esquirol suggested that these symptoms may be noticed in all insane persons;. but, he adds, that individuals who, prior to the malady, were ruled by passion or exposed to powerful struggles of mind, are more liable to them than others, above all if they have applied to abstruse and speculative studies. We see patients daily who gesticulate, talk with imaginary beings, and appear very much absorbed in listening to them, so that this disposition appears to us rather applicable to the major part of the hallucinated, than to a particular section.

The different forms of alienation impress their character on hallucinations. In lypemania, the apparitions, voices, odors, etc., are most usually those of wretched-looking figures, monsters, menacing words, which excite to evil, and mephitic emanations. If the insanity leans particularly towards religious subjects, then the patients see devils or angels. In erotomania, they are handsome youths or beautiful girls. When suicidal and homicidal monomania prevail, they then hear voices exciting them either to kill themselves or others. In general, the hallucinations of monomania vary but little, and are observed long after the outbreak of the malady. In the melancholy form, the cerebral disorder sometimes commences with an hallucination, but most frequently the monomania is developed by a passion, an exclusive idea to which hallucination unites itself; and results in a personification of that idea which augments still more the conviction of the alienated. In stupidity, hallucination is premonitory, and frequently accompanied by mental alienation.