Louise Lateau of Bois d'Haine : her life, her ecstasies, and her stigmata, a medical study / by F. Lefebvre ; translated from the French ; edited by J. Spencer Northcote.

  • Lefebvre, Ferdinand J. M., 1821-1902.
Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Louise Lateau of Bois d'Haine : her life, her ecstasies, and her stigmata, a medical study / by F. Lefebvre ; translated from the French ; edited by J. Spencer Northcote. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    obeys a law of which we haye ah-eady spoken; namely, that when in the human economy a disturbance takes place sufficient to cause a spontaneous haemorrhage, the blood always escapes by the vessels of which the coats are tliinnest and least supx^orted. The cases which I have just cited fully confirm this law. They may be divided into two distinct groups. The first four are cutaneous haemorrhages or sweats of blood. We have ah-eady had occasion to remark that the sudoiiferous glands are rich in cai)illaries; that these small vessels have extremely thin coats; that adliering to the internal surface of the tube which constitutes the gland, they are but Httle or not at all supported; that the clear and transjDarent liquid filling this tube off'ers no resistance to the issue of the blood. The remaining six liEemorrhages took place fi*om the mucous mem- branes. We have seen that the capillaries of these membranes are easUy ruptured, and have joointed out the causes of this. I have- quoted examples Of haemorrhage from the principal mucous mem- branes in consequence of moral causes. It would be easy to multiply these cases; but I have not met with a single instance of haemor- rhage proceeding from the suirface of the derma, hke the stigmatic haemorrhages of Louise Lateau. xni. Case 1. Lambecius relates that he saw a j^oung girl in whom^ during several years, fits returned periodically on Friday and Satur- day. ^^ Case 2. Dionis relates the history of a young woman who became subject to fits of catalex^sy in consequence of menstruation being suxd- pressed from taldng cold. The attack returned daily towards night,, and lasted several hours.^^ Case 3. F. Nasse recounts the following case: a young girl was sub- ject to attacks of catale]3sy, which returned at variable intervals. She was x)laced under the influence of animal magnetism. From that day forward she Avas able to announce the time of her attacks, wliich re- ciu'red with regularity on certain days.^^ Case 4. Sauvages relates that a woman, twenty-four years of age, having been insulted by a j^easant, from that moment suifered from attacks of catalepsy, wliich returned regularly each day, and lasted from liaK an hour to an hour. She suddenly lost all sense of seeing, hearing, and feehng. Her limbs remained fixed in any position in 2* Comment. Bihliotec. Ccesar, vol. ii. p. 688. 2 Dissertation sur la mort subite. 20 Hufeland's Jo^irn., b. 38, st. 1. •