Cases of periodical jactitation, or chorea / by Robert Watt, M.D.

  • Watt, Robert, 1774-1819.
Date:
1814
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Cases of periodical jactitation, or chorea / by Robert Watt, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    she ultimately recovered completely. 1 have been informed of a third in the neighbourhood of Air, but of her case I have heard no particulars. A very remarkable ease, perhaps somewhat similar to the one I have described, occurred at Bargar- ran, in Renfrewshire, in 1696. The patient’s name was Christian Shaw, a girl of eleven years of age: she is described as having had violent fits of leaping,- dancing, running, crying, fainting, &c., but the whole narrative is mixed up with so much credulity and superstition, that it is impossi¬ ble to separate truth from fiction. These strange fits continued from August 1696, till the end of March in the year following, when the patient re¬ covered. An account of the whole was published at Edinburgh, in 1698, entitled, ^ A True Nar¬ rative of the Sufferings of a Young Girl, who was strangely molested by Evil Spirits, and their in* sfcruments, in the West, collected from Authentic Testimonies.” The whole being ascribed to witchcraft, the clergy were most active on the occasion. Besides occasional days of humiliation, two solemn fasts were observed throughout the whole bounds of the presbytery, and a number of clergymen and elders were appointed in rotation, to be constantly on the spot. So far the matter was well enough. But such was the superstition of the age, that a me¬ morial was presented to his Majesty’s most honor¬ able privy council, and on the 19th of January,