This hallucination may be compared with those experienced by women they precede the development of insanity, so that they may be considered as causes; but in a great number of cases, appear devoted to the worship of the mother of the gods, who heard continually the sound of flutes and tambourines, saw the merry dances of fauns and satyrs, and felt inexpressible pleasures. - Euslbe Salverte, p. 295.

The aspirants to initiation, and those who came to demand omens of the gods, in dreams, partook, after a prescribed fast, of food expressly prepared for them; and above all, of mysterious beverages, such as the waters of Lethe, and the waters of Mnemosyne, in the grotto of Trophonius, or the Ciceion, in the Eleusinian mysteries.

Of the substances intended to produce the most important effects in occult ceremonies, the soporific were the simplest and the most common. Plutarch has preserved a description of the mysteries of Trophonius, written by a man who had passed two days and two nights in the grotto. They appear more like the dreams of a man intoxicated by a powerful narcotic, than any real scenes. Timarchus, the name of the initiated, experienced a violent headache when the apparitions commenced, or, what is the same thing, when the beverage began to affect his senses; and when the apparitions vanished, that is, when he awoke from his delirious sleep, the same pain occurred.

Timarchus died in three months after. Doubtless the priests used very powerful drugs. - Plutarch, De Doemonio Socratis.

Varron, quoted by St. Augustin, says that the Italian sorceresses enticed the too confiding travellers to follow them, and made them eat of a cheese containing a drug, which changed them into beasts of burden. They then loaded them with their baggage, and, at the end of the journey, changed them again into their natural forms. Under these figurative expressions, copied from Varron, who surely quoted his own experience, it is evident that the mind of the traveller was so disturbed by the drug he had taken, that he blindly submitted to its singular influence until the magicians put an end to it by administering an antidote. - St. Augustin, De civitate Dei, lib. xviii. cap. xvii., xviii. See La Traduction de M. Moreau, edition Char-pentier, 1843.

We will not refer to the enchantments of Circe, their authenticity not being established; but there is no doubt that, in that far distant period, the properties of certain poisonous plants were understood. A. Laguna, in his commentaries on Dioscorides, mentions a kind of solanum, the root of which, taken in wine, a drachm to a dose, fills the imagination with the most delicious illusions. - Dioscorides, lib. 70, cap. iv.; cit6 par Llorente, Hist, de L'lnq., p. 457.

In collating the various opinions on the Nepenthes of Homer, M. Virey discovers it in the hyoscyamus datura of Forskal, which is used throughout Egypt and the East in an analogous manner; and this writer points out several substances capable of producing effects no less wonderful. - Virey, Bulletin de Pharmacia, t. v. Feb. 1813, pp. 49, 50.

Pliny says that the "potomantes, or thalassegle, grows on the banks of the during the mental malady, when they are but an effect, a symptom, a result. Here, several questions present themselves: Does hallucination depend on organic derangement brought on by disease? Is it united to the psycho-cerebral excitation which has caused insanity - in a word, is it physical or moral? The distinction is often very difficult; nevertheless, the nature of the hallucination, and its direct connection with the cause of the insanity, is authority for believing that it is often owing to moral excitement. With these reservations, we think that the action of mental diseases, although not sufficiently understood, should none the less be classed amongst physical causes.

In treating of hallucinations as combined with insanity, we have shown that they are very common; so also are illusions in monomania, stupidity, and mania. We have equally observed them in puerperal mania, dementia, and even general paralysis with dementia. We conclude, from analogy, that they may possibly exist in some degrees of imbecility. For farther information, we refer to the different chapters on alienation.

Those hallucinations which show themselves with nervous diseases other than madness, are classed under the fourth section - such as catalepsy, epilepsy, hysteria, hypochondria, and frenzy.* To this section belong certain nervous conditions which, without being completely morbid, have more than one root in pathology; such are nightmare and ecstasy. We will here repeat the remark made in the preceding chapter; it is not always easy to separate the two influences (moral and physical); for example, ecstasy is very often due to the first of these causes, and hypochondria, as has been proved by M. Dubois of Amiens, in his work, submits equally to its action. We must not, however, attach more importance to classifications than they merit; they are artificial assistants to the mind, and incessantly present exceptions to the rule. In collecting facts of hallucinations as developed in nervous diseases (madness excepted) into a single group, we know very well that many of these states were determined by moral causes; but our object was to make a single section of these maladies, and to exhibit their morbid influence on the production of hallucinations. As to the developments which comprise the subject of this fourth division, they will be found sufficiently illustrated elsewhere.

Indus, and the gelatophellis near Bactria. Infusions of these two plants, made into a drink, cause delirium; the one causes extraordinary visions, the other excites continual laughter." * Sandras, Traite pratique des maladies nervcuses, 1851, p. 360.

The fifth and last section comprehends hallucinations which occur in inflammatory, acute, and chronic diseases, and in several other affections. Acute delirium, to which subject we invited attention in a paper read to the Royal Academy of Medicine, has appeared to us to establish a natural transition between the preceding divisions, and this one, by reason of its double element, nervous and inflammatory.* The febrile state is that which presents the most hallucinations. They are equally noticed in some congestions and inflammation of the organs. They are not unusual in typhoid and intermittent fevers. Some authors have related remarkable instances of their occurrence in the gout. Certain dispositions of the body, such as the last stages of hectic diseases, abstinence, and convalescence, syncope, and prolonged watching, are all favorable to their production. Becker relates that thirty-two shipwrecked mariners, after a lengthened watch, believed that they saw sloops, and fishermen drying their nets, with Moors and Dutchmen of their acquaintance, whose clothing they perfectly distinguished, † Finally, they have been observed in some constitutions subject to peculiar atmospheric influence.

We have endeavored, to the best of our power, to explain the causes of hallucinations. We do not flatter ourselves with having brought them all into notice; but we believe that our work will provide useful materials for the etiology of this affection. It now remains to draw up a succinct summary.

Recapitulation. - The etiology of hallucinations and illusions has never been the subject of a special work, because all authors have looked upon them as an adjunct of madness.

Former hallucinations, those compatible with reason - isolated hallucinations, and those which are united with diseases, may furnish useful instructions on their etiology.

Hallucinations appearing with mental diseases, their division

* Brierre do Boismont, Du Delire aigu observe dans les etablissements d'alienes. Ouvrage couronne" par l'lnstitut de France, 1845, 4to. † Le Monde Enchante, t. iv. pp. 55, 56.

• into moral and physical causes may also apply to them. The mode in which hallucinations are developed in epidemic illusions evidently applies to moral influence.

Education, credulity, the dominant ideas of the epoch, and different states of society, should be the objects of special study in the research for causes.

Amongst the moral causes which have exercised a great influence on hallucinations, may be placed the belief in the power and co-operation of spirits, demons, sorcery, magic, lycantrophy, visions of souls in punishment asking for prayers, of spirits who make revelations, announce an approaching death, return to fulfil a compact, vampirism, ecstasies, etc.

All passions, fixed ideas, and great preoccupation, may be a source of hallucinations. Remorse must especially be noted.

A great number of hallucinations are occasioned by physical causes.

The principal physical causes which influence the development of hallucinations may be classed under five heads: -

To the first belong inheritance, the sexes, the times, temperament, professions, physiological causes, seasons, climate, and places.

The second comprehends mechanical causes, fermented liquors, alcoholic beverages, certain gaseous and narcotic substances; poisons, such as opium, haschisch, datura stramonium, belladonna, and several others.

The third head embraces hallucinations attendant on mental alienations; whether preceding them, occurring during their course, or succeeding them.

Under the fourth head may be ranked hallucinations which show themselves with catalepsy, hysteria, hypochondria, rage, nightmare, sleep, and ecstasy. These different states present distinctions; thus, sleep, a physiological phenomenon, is only placed in the catalogue on account of nightmare, and because the hallucinations observable in it are often the commencement of disease, or at least of an abnormal disposition. Ecstasy, we have only brought into the group on account of the pathological state which it may determine; but we have elsewhere observed that the hallucinations which it occasions are often due to moral causes.

Finally, around the fifth and last head, are grouped hallucinations remarked in acute, chronic, and other diseases. In this section, we have placed those occurring in acute delirium, the diseases of the brain, fever, congestions, inflammations of the organs, typhoid and intermittent fevers, gout, pellagra, chlorosis, the last stage of chronic diseases, abstinence, syncope, convalescence, and some constitutions under atmospheric influence.

It is probable that hallucinations have been seen in other forms of disease; but in order to appreciate their mode of action, it is sufficient for us to notice those in which they are most frequently exhibited.