A practical manual of mental medicine / by E. Régis ; with a preface by M. Benjamin Ball ; authorised translation by H.M. Bannister.
- Date:
- 1895
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A practical manual of mental medicine / by E. Régis ; with a preface by M. Benjamin Ball ; authorised translation by H.M. Bannister. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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![This phenomenon bears the name of echo of thought. The direction of the voices is very variable. Tliey may come from above or below, from one side or the other, from before or behind, and even from the patient's body itself. In the last case they have sometimes the effect finally to give rise in the patient's mind to the idea that he is double, and thus originate that curious condition known as duplication of the personality. The distance from whence they come is also variable, and the hallucinated individuals are (piite certain as to their distance, they estimate it sometimes as a metre or two, sometimes hundreds of kilometres. The voices are so natural and the conviction of their existence is so irresistible, that very intelli- gent patients, physicians and alienists themselves, will not suffer a doubt, and have recourse, in explain- ing tlieir existence, to all kinds of absurd and incredi- ble interpretations; for example, to the intervention of various forces, electricity, acoustic tul)es, the telephone, ])honograph, etc., etc. The language of the voices is usually the ordinary one, and the words those of the current vocabulary. Nevertheless they may be in a foreign or unknown tongue. The well-known case reported by Es(iuirf)l is in point, of an insane ])olyg]ot who heard them speak many languages, but become confused when they used one with whicli he was little acquainted. Ball has reported an analogous case. Finally the](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21963009_0089.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
