and temples; and so intense were her sufferings that she was unable to bear the weight, or even the touch of glasses which she was accustomed to wear.*

The mind occasionally exhibits evidence of aberration in the precursory stage of cerebral, as well as mental disease, particularly in congestive and inflammatory conditions of the brain and its meninges. Illusions of the senses, as well as delusions of the mind, are sometimes noticed among the incipient symptoms of acute affections of the encephalon.

A state of mental terror and alarm, vague, shadowy, and undefined notions of approaching evil, very frequently precede actual aberration of intellect, the patient imagining that some dreadful, inexplicable, and mysterious doom is impending, or that some serious catastrophe is about to occur.

A gentleman, a few days previously to an attack of apoplexy, could not dispossess his mind of the idea, that he had committed a grave moral offence, for which he was to be tried in a court of law. He could not be reasoned out of this delusion.

In another case, the patient was subject to distressing phantasms. These symptoms have been observed as precursory of acute softening of the brain, as well as of cerebral hemorrhage. A patient conceived, for many weeks prior to an apoplectic seizure, that he was pursued by a spectre.

Inflammation of the brain is often preceded by a perversion of the sense of smell, and illusions of sight and touch. Bouillard, Parent Duchatelet, and Martinet, relate several interesting cases illustrative of these phe

nomena.

An eminent artist died of softening of the brain. The cerebral symptoms exhibited themselves several

* "Phrenological Journal," vol. xiv. PP. 77-8.

years previously to the attack in the form of flashes of light before the eyes-and to these were afterwards added, pains in the head, and diminished distinctness of vision. This last symptom gradually increased till his sight was totally destroyed. The morbid phenomena, however, which chiefly annoyed this unfortunate gentleman consisted in a series of the most dazzling images, perpetually playing upon the optical apparatus, by day and by night. Their brightness was unspeakably distressing. Sometimes they would assume the forms of angels with flaming swords, every motion of which seemed, like an electric flash, to blind the eye and sear the brain by the intensity of their light. The forms and shades, however, of these spectral images were perpetually changing, but without any mitigation of the sufferings which they produced. With the exception of some irritability of temper, there was not the slightest affection of the intellectual powers. The memory, imagination, and the judgment were unimpaired. He was led about the streets by one of his servants; and he attended to all matters where his sight was not engaged, with the greatest punctuality. The eyes themselves presented no physical appearance of disease.

The symptoms above-mentioned were mitigated, from time to time, by counter-irritation to the nape of the neck, leeches to the temples, and aperient and diuretic medicines. In the spring of 1835, however, he was seized with all the usual symptoms of apoplexy. He lay in bed in a motionless and insensible state. The pupils were dilated, and the power of speech paralyzed. To the astonishment of his medical attendants, he rallied from this condition of severe cerebral disorder; and, after a few weeks, he was able to walk to the city, and transact business as usual! But the spectral images, of dazzling

and exquisitely painful brightness, returned, with, if possible, increased intensity.

In the month of August, he was suddenly seized again with the apoplectic symptoms above-mentioned, and, notwithstanding the same means were employed as on the former occasion, he died at the end of three or four days from the commencement of the apoplectic invasion.

The body was examined on the day after his death. There was nothing unusual in the membranes of the brain. The right lateral ventricle contained nearly two ounces of clear fluid. The left ventricle was occupied by a series of hydatid-like cysts of various sizes, and filled with fluids of various consistencies and colours. This cluster sprung from the floor of the ventricle, by a kind of peduncle, and penetrated into every sinuosity of the cavity, pushing its branches anteriorily, so as to pass over and before the thalamus nervi optici of that side, and even into the opposite hemisphere of the brain, destroying those portions interfering with its march. Both thalami were reduced to a pulp, as was, indeed, the whole of the anterior lobes of the brain, which would scarcely bear the slightest handling without falling into a state of deliquescence. The optic nerves were pressed upon by the cystic or hydatid mass, and reduced to little more than the size of threads, and these of very soft consistence. There was no change in the coats or humours of the eye.

The most remarkable phenomenon in the above melancholy case, was the intensity of brightness which always accompanied the spectral images. Whatever were their shapes, the dazzling and painful splendour never forsook them. These symptoms rendered his life, for some years, a scene of dreadful suffering.

It was considered remarkable that the intellectual

faculties should have remained entire, while the anterior lobes of the brain were undergoing the process of softening which they displayed on dissection! "Did this ramollissement take place," asks the narrator of the case, "during the three or four days of apoplexy prior to death? If it existed long before the fatal event, there will be some difficulty in accounting for the integrity of the intellectual faculties up to the time of the apoplectic seizure. Was the serous effusion into the right ventricle the cause of the apoplexy? or the consequence of it?— or was it a gradual accumulation, and not mainly instrumental in the final catastrophe? What was the cause of the first attack of apoplexy, and why did he recover from it ?"*

A farmer in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, accustomed to drink freely, was invited to the funeral of a friend. He took a dram before he left home, and another at the house of his deceased friend. He had some of his acquaintances at dinner, with whom he continued to carouse until late at night. On the following morning, he imagined he heard five hundred people talking at once. He compared what he heard to the confusion of tongues at Babel. Portending the utmost danger from this sensation, he hurried across the farmyard, and desired the surgeon who attended his family to be sent for without delay, and soon afterwards he became insensible. When the surgeon came, he bled him freely, and sent to Edinburgh for a physician. When that gentleman arrived, the patient was a little relieved, but still he laboured under considerable stupor; he was again bled, and a third time next morning; and in a day or two, he felt himself restored to good health.†

A lady, a few days previously to an attack of paralysis,

* Recorded by Dr. James Johnson, in the "Medico-Chirurgical Review." + "Cases of Apoplexy and Lethargy." By J. Cheyne, M.D. p. 83.

was thrown into a state of great terror by an apparition that she had fancied appeared to her in the night.

A young child, a short period before being seized with acute meningitis, imagined that a brother who had been dead for several years re-appeared to him. In a case of fatal hydrocephalus, the first symptom that directed attention to the state of the child's brain, was a sudden expression of intense alarm which he exhibited, occurring during the evening, arising from an impression that an apparition was in the room, and near the bed. In another case, an attack of meningitis was ushered in by an illusion of the senses, the patient fancying that the ghost of a deceased relative was gliding about the room!

Morgagni mentions the case of a man who, working at night in a cesspool attached to a hospital, suffered from an hallucination. He fancied he saw a spectre clothed in white. On his death, which quickly supervened, it was discovered that he was labouring under venous congestion, and cerebral softening.

"Some months ago," says Dr. Alderson, "I attended a patient, who had been attacked, during a voyage from America, with violent headache. He was relieved by the formation of an abscess beneath the integuments of the skull; his breathing was somewhat affected by other tumours which had formed in the throat. He complained of having fatiguing dreams, and even of dreaming when awake. A short time afterwards he told me that for the space of an hour or two he thought he saw his wife and family, although convinced by his reason that they were in America. The impression on his mind. was so strong, and the conversation he had held with his son so circumstantial and important, that he could not resist telling it in all its details to his friends on the following day. He also desired to be informed if his wife and family had not arrived from America, and