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.

    209/240 (page 197)
    'which they were placed, and by her mnrmurs, words, and even by her gestures, she expressed the idea that occupied her mind, and wliich appeared to be always that of her enemy.^^ Case 5. De Lagarde relates a case of catalepsy in which the fits recurred with gTeat regularity four times a day.-^^ Two other interesting cases of periodical catalepsy may be read in the Revue medicale francaise et etrangere, t. iii. p. 152, and in the Bihliotheque medicale nationcde et etrangere, t. v. p. 33. I will not sto]3 longer on the question of periodical catalepsy. Whenever this disease takes an intermittent tj^pe, whether more or less regular, it still preserves the clearly distinctive features which distinguish it from the ecstasy of Louise Lateau. XIV. The following cases of natural somnambuHsm have been selected from amongst those wliich in some points resemble ecstasy : Case 1. Lorry relates that a woman, in a state resembling som- nambulism, was in the habit of conversing aloud with absent persons whom she thought she saw. She was so insensible to external im- pressions that if pinched or pricked she did not manifest the sHghtest pain. In this condition she perceived distinctly the objects with wliich her mind was occupied. Her arms and fingers remained in any position in which they might chance to be, until some involun- tary movement of the Hmbs gave them a fresh direction. When the paroxysm was over she had no recollection of what had taken jDlace.^^ Case 2. The same author gives the following case: a woman, duiing fits of somnambulism, was in the habit of speaking to some person whom she evidently beheld; her conversation alwaj^s turned upon the thought which preoccupied her. In this state she was no longer aware of the presence of those around her; she neither saw nor heard them. The mother of this woman died suddenly, and the daughter, in her paroxysms, continued to speak to her as if stni living.^* Abercrombie relates a series of interesting cases. We will take two of them only. 3^ Nosologie methodique—Catalepsie. 22 Revue medic, franc, et etrang., t. iii. p. 152. 3^ Lorry, De Melancholia et Morbis MelanchoUcis, vol. i. p. 73 and fol. Lutetise Parisiorum, mdccclxv. 2* Lorry, loc. cit.