Having, in a previous number, furnished a brief sketch of the phenomena,
purely physical, which characterized the epidemic of St. Médard, it
remains to notice those of a mental and psychological character.
One of the most common incidents connected with the convulsions of that
period was the appearance of a mental condition, called, in the language
of the day, a state of _ecstasy_, bearing unmistakable analogy to the
artificial somnambulism produced by magnetic influence, and to the
_trance_ of modern spiritualism.
During this condition, there was a sudden exaltation of the mental
faculties, often a wonderful command of language, sometimes the power of
thought-reading, at other times, as was alleged, the gift of prophecy.
While it lasted, the insensibility of the patients was occasionally so
complete, that, as Montgéron says, "they have been pierced in an inhuman
manner, without evincing the slightest sensation";[15] and when it
passed off, they frequently did not recollect anything they had said or
done during its continuance.
At times, like somnambulism, it seemed to assume something of a
cataleptic character, though I cannot find any record of that most
characteristic symptom of catalepsy, the rigid persistence of a limb in
any position in which it may be placed. What was called the "state of
death," is thus described by Montgéron:--
"The state of death is a species of ecstasy, in which the convulsionist,
whose soul seems entirely absorbed by some vision, loses the use of his
senses, wholly or in part. Some convulsionists have remained in this
state two or even three days at a time, the eyes open, without any
movement, the face very pale, the whole body insensible, immovable, and
stiff as a corpse. During all this time, they give little sign of life,
other than a feeble, scarcely perceptible respiration. Most of the
convulsionists, however, have not these ecstasies so strongly marked.
Some, though remaining immovable an entire day or longer, do not
continue during all that time deprived of sight and hearing, nor are
they totally devoid of sensibility; though their members, at certain
intervals, become so stiff that they lose almost entirely the use of
them."[16]
The "state of death," however, was much more rare than other forms of
this abnormal condition. The Abbé d'Asfeld, in his work against the
convulsionists, alluding to the state of ecstasy, defines it as a state
"in which the soul, carried away by a superior force, and, as it were,
out of itself, becomes unconscious of surrounding objects, and occupies
itself with those which imagination presents"; and he adds,--"It is
marked by alienation of the senses, proceeding, however, from some cause
other than sleep. This alienation of the senses is sometimes complete,
sometimes incomplete."[17]
Montgéron, commenting on the above, says,--"This last phase, during
which the alienation of the senses is imperfect, is precisely the
condition of most of the convulsionists, when in the state of ecstasy.
They usually see the persons present; they speak to them; sometimes they
hear what is said to them; but as to the rest, their souls seem absorbed
in the contemplation of objects which a superior power discloses to
their vision."[18]
And a little farther on he adds,--"In these ecstasies the convulsionists
are struck all of a sudden with the unexpected aspect of some object,
the sight of which enchants them with joy. Their eyes beam; their heads
are raised toward heaven; they appear as if they would fly thither. To
see them afterwards absorbed in profound contemplation, with an air of
inexpressible satisfaction, one would say that they are admiring the
divine beauty. Their countenances are animated with a lively and
brilliant fire; and their eyes, which cannot be made to close during the
entire duration of the ecstasy, remain completely motionless, open, and
fixed, as on the object which seems to interest them. They are in some
sort transfigured; they appear quite changed. Even those who, out of
this state, have in their physiognomy something mean or repulsive, alter
so that they can scarcely be recognized.... It is during these ecstasies
that many of the convulsionists deliver their finest discourses and
their chief predictions,--that they speak in unknown tongues,--that they
read the secret thoughts of others,--and even sometimes that they give
their representations."[19]
A provincial ecclesiastic, quoted by Montgéron, and who, it should be
remarked, found fault with many of the doings of the convulsionists,
admits the exalted character of these declamations. He says,--"Their
discourses on religion are spirited, touching, profound,--delivered with
an eloquence and a dignity which our greatest masters cannot approach,
and with a grace and appropriateness of gesture rivalling that of our
best actors.... One of the girls who pronounced such discourses was but
thirteen years and a half old; and most of them were utterly
incompetent, in their natural state, thus to treat subjects far beyond
their capacity."[20]
Colbert, already quoted, bears testimony to the same effect. Writing to
Madame de Coetquen, he says,--"I have read extracts from these
discourses, and have been greatly struck with them. The expressions are
noble, the views grand, the theology exact. It is impossible that the
imagination, and especially the imagination of a child, should originate
such beautiful things. Sublimity full of eloquence reigns throughout
these productions."[21]
To judge fairly of this phenomenon, we must consider the previous
condition and acquirements of those who pronounced such discourses.
Montgéron, while declaring that among the convulsionists there were
occasionally to be found persons of respectable standing, adds,--"But it
must be confessed that in general God has chosen the convulsionists
among the common people; that they were chiefly young children,
especially girls; that almost all of them had lived till then in
ignorance and obscurity; that several of them were deformed, and some,
in their natural state, even exhibited imbecility. Of such, for the most
part, it was that God made choice, to show forth to us His power."[22]
The staple of these discourses--wild and fantastic enough--may be
gathered from the following:--
"The Almighty thus raised up all of a sudden a number of persons, the
greater part without any instruction; He opened the mouths of a number
of young girls, some of whom could not read; and He caused them to
announce, in terms the most magnificent, that the times had now
arrived,--that in a few years the Prophet Elias would appear,--that he
would be despised and treated with outrage by the Catholics,--that he
would even be put to death, together with several of those who had
expected his coming and had become his disciples and followers,--that
God would employ this Prophet to convert all the Jews,--that they, when
thus converted, would immediately carry the light unto all
nations,--that they would reëstablish Christianity throughout the
world,--and that they would preach the morality of the gospel in all its
purity, and cause it to spread over the whole earth."[23]
Montgéron, commenting (as he expresses it) upon "the manner in which the
convulsionists are supernaturally enlightened, and in which they deliver
their discourses and their predictions," says,--
"Ordinarily, the words are not dictated to them; it is only the ideas
that are presented to their minds by a supernatural instinct, and they
are left to express these thoughts in terms of their own selection.
Hence it happens that occasionally their most beautiful discourses are
marred by ill-chosen and incorrect expressions, and by phrases obscure
and badly turned; so that the beauty of some of these consists rather in
the depth of thought, the grandeur of the subjects treated, and the
magnificence of the images presented, than in the language in which the
whole is rendered.
"It is evident, that, when they are thus left to clothe in their own
language the ideas given them, they are also at liberty to add to them,
if they will. And, in fact, most of them declare that they perceive
within themselves the power to mix in their own ideas with those
supernaturally communicated, which suddenly seize their minds; and they
are obliged to be extremely careful not to confound their own thoughts
with those which they receive from a superior intelligence. This is
sometimes the more difficult, inasmuch as the ideas thus coming to them
do not always come with equal clearness.
"Sometimes, however, the terms are dictated to them internally, but
without their being forced to pronounce them, nor hindered from adding
to them, if they choose to do so.
"Finally, in regard to certain subjects,--for example, the lights which
illumine their minds, and oblige them to announce the second coming of
the Prophet Elias, and all that has reference to that great
event,--their lips pronounce a succession of words wholly independently
of their will; so that they themselves listen like the auditors, having
no knowledge of what they say, except only as, word for word, it is
pronounced."[24]
Montgéron appears, however, to admit that the exaltation of intelligence
which is apparent during the state of ecstasy may, to some extent, be
accounted for on natural principles. Starting from the fact, that,
during the convulsions, external objects produce much less effect upon
the senses than in the natural state, he argues that "the more the soul
is disembarrassed of external impressions, the greater is its activity,
the greater its power to frame thoughts, and the greater its
lucidity."[25] He admits, further,--"Although most of the convulsionists
have, when in convulsion, much more intelligence than in their ordinary
state, that intelligence is not always supernatural, but may be the mere
effect of the mental activity which results when soul is disengaged from
sense. Nay, there are examples of convulsionists availing themselves of
the superior intelligence which they have in convulsion to make out
dissertations on mere temporal affairs. This intelligence, also, may at
times fail to subjugate their passions; and I am convinced that they may
occasionally make a bad use of it."[26]
In another place, Montgéron says plainly, that "persons accustomed to
receive revelations, but not raised to the state of the Prophets, may
readily imagine things to be revealed to them which are but the
promptings of their own minds,"[27]--and that this has happened, not
only to the convulsionists, but (by the confession of many of the
ancient fathers[28]) also to the greatest saints. But he protests
against the conclusion, as illogical, that the convulsionists never
speak by the spirit of God, because they do not always do so.
He admits, however,[29] that it is extremely difficult to distinguish
between what ought to be received as divinely revealed and what ought to
be rejected as originating in the convulsionist's own mind; nor does he
give any rule by which this may be done. The knowledge necessary to the
"discerning of spirits" he thinks can be obtained only by humble
prayer.[30]
The power of prophecy is one of the gifts claimed by Montgéron as having
been bestowed on various convulsionists during their ecstatic state. Yet
he gives no detailed proofs of prophecies touching temporal matters
having been literally fulfilled, unless it be prophecies by
convulsionist-patients in regard to the future crises of their diseases.
And he admits that false predictions were not infrequent, and that false
interpretations of visions touching the future were of common
occurrence. He says,--
"It is sometimes revealed to a convulsionist, for example, that there is
to happen to some person not named a certain accident, every detail of
which is minutely given; and the convulsionist is ordered to declare
what has been communicated to him, that the hand of God may be
recognized in its fulfilment.... But, at the same time, the
convulsionist receiving this vision believes it to apply to a certain
person, whom he designates by name. The prediction, however, is not
verified in the case of the person named, so that those who heard it
delivered conclude that it is false; but it _is_ verified in the case of
another person, to whom the accident happens, attended by all the
minutely detailed particulars."[31]
If this be correctly given, it is what animal magnetizers would call a
case of imperfect lucidity.
The case as to the gift of tongues is still less satisfactorily made
out. A few, Montgéron says, translate, after the ecstasy, what they have
declaimed, during its continuance, in an unknown tongue; but for this,
of course, we have their word only. The greater part know nothing of
what they have said, when the ecstasy has passed. As to these, he
admits,--
"The only proof we have that they understand the words at the time they
pronounce them is that they often express, in the most lively manner,
the various sentiments contained in their discourse, not only by their
gestures, but also by the attitudes the body assumes, and by the
expression of the countenance, on which the different sentiments are
painted, by turns, in a manner the most expressive, so that one is able,
up to a certain point, to detect the feelings by which they are moved;
and it has been easy for the attentive observer to perceive that most of
these discourses were detailed predictions as to the coming of the
Prophet Elias," etc.[32]
If it be presumptuous, considering the marvels which modern observations
disclose, to pronounce that the alleged unknown languages were unmeaning
sounds only, it is evident, at least, that the above is inconclusive as
to their true character.
Much more trustworthy appears to be the evidence touching the phenomenon
of thought-reading.
The fact that many of the convulsionists were able "to discover the
secrets of the heart" is admitted by their principal opponents. The Abbé
d'Asfeld himself adduces examples of it.[33] M. Poncet admits its
reality.[34] The provincial ecclesiastic whom I have already quoted says
that he "found examples without number of convulsionists who discovered
the secrets of the heart in the most minute detail: for example, to
disclose to a person that at such a period of his life he did such or
such a thing; to another, that he had done so and so before coming
hither," etc.[35] The author of the "Recherche de la Vérité," a pamphlet
on the phenomena of the convulsions, which seems very candidly written,
acknowledges as one of these "the manifestation of the thoughts and the
discovery of secret things."[36]
Montgéron testifies to the fact, from repeated personal observation,
that they revealed to him things known to himself alone; and after
adducing the admissions above alluded to, and some others, he
adds,--"But it would be superfluous further to multiply testimony in
proof of a fact admitted by all the world, even by the avowed
adversaries of the convulsions, who have found no other method of
explaining it than by doing Satan the honor to proclaim him the author
of these revelations."[37]
Besides these gifts, real or alleged, there was occasionally observed,
during ecstasy, an extraordinary development of the musical faculty.
Montgéron tells us,--"Mademoiselle Dancogné, who, as was well known, had
no voice whatever in her natural state, sings in the most perfect manner
canticles in an unknown tongue, and that to the admiration of all those
who hear her."[38]
As to the general character of these psychological phenomena, the
theologians of that day were, with few exceptions, agreed that they were
of a supernatural character,--the usual question mooted between them
being, whether they were due to a Divine or to a Satanic influence. The
medical opponents of the movement sometimes took the ground that the
state of ecstasy was allied to delirium or insanity,--and that it was a
degraded condition, inasmuch as the patient abandoned the exercise of
his free will: an argument similar to that which has been made in our
day against somewhat analogous phenomena, by a Bostonian.[39]
In concluding a sketch, in which, though it be necessarily a brief one,
I have taken pains to set forth with strict accuracy all the essential
features which mark the character of this extraordinary epidemic, it is
proper I should state that the opponents of Jansenism concur in bringing
against the convulsionists the charge that many of them were not only
ignorant and illiterate girls, but persons of bad character,
occasionally of notoriously immoral habits; nay, that some of them
justified the vicious courses in which they indulged by declaring these
to be a representation of a religious tendency, emblematic of that
degradation through which the Church must pass, before, recalled by the
voice of Elias, it regained its pristine purity.
Montgéron, while admitting that such charges may justly be brought
against some of the convulsionists, denies the general truth of the
allegation, yet after such a fashion that one sees plainly he considers
it necessary, in establishing the character and divine source of the
discourses and predictions delivered in the state of ecstasy, to do so
without reference to the moral standing of the ecstatics. When one of
his opponents (the physician who addressed to him the satirical letter
already referred to) ascribes to him the position, that one must decide
the divine or diabolical state of a person alleged to be inspired by
reference to that person's morals and conduct, he replies,--"God forbid
that I should advance so false a proposition!" And he proceeds to argue
that the Deity often avails Himself, as a medium for expressing His
will, of unworthy subjects. He says,--
"Who does not know that the Holy Spirit, whose divine rays are never
stained, let them shine where they will, 'bloweth where it listeth,' and
distributes its gifts to whom best it seems, without always causing
these to be accompanied by internal virtues? Does not Scripture inform
us that God caused miracles to be wrought and great prophecies to be
delivered by very vicious persons, as Judas, Caiaphas, Balaam, and
others? Jesus Christ himself teaches us that there will be workers of
iniquity among the number of those who prophesy and of those who will
work miracles in his name, declaring that on the Day of Judgment many
will say unto him, 'Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy
name done many wonderful works?' and that he will reply to them, 'Depart
from me, ye that work iniquity.'"
And he proceeds thus:--"If, therefore, all that our enemies allege
against the character of the convulsionists were true, it does not
follow that God would not employ such persons as the ministers of His
miracles and His prophecies, provided, always, that these miracles and
these prophecies have a worthy object, and tend to a knowledge of the
truth, to the spread of charity, and to the reformation of the morals of
mankind."[40]
These accusations of immorality are, probably, greatly exaggerated by
the enemies of the Jansenists; yet one may gather, even from the tenor
of Montgéron's defence, that there was more or less truth in the charges
brought against the conduct of some of the convulsionists, and that the
state of ecstasy, whatever its true nature, was by no means confined to
persons of good moral character.
Such are the alleged facts, physical and mental, connected with this
extraordinary episode in the history of mental epidemics.
* * * * *
On the perusal of such a narrative as the above, the questions which
naturally suggest themselves are,--To what extent can we rationally
attach credit to it? And, if true, what is the explanation of phenomena
apparently so incredible?
As to the first, the admission of a distinguished contemporary
historian, noted for his skeptical tendencies, in regard to the evidence
for these alleged miracles, is noteworthy. It is in these words:--"Many
of them were immediately proved on the spot before judges of
unquestioned integrity, attested by witnesses of credit and distinction,
in a learned age, and on the most eminent theatre that is now in the
world; nor were the Jesuits, though a learned body, supported by the
civil magistrate, and determined enemies to those opinions in whose
favor the miracles were supposed to have been wrought, ever able
distinctly to refute or detect them."[41]
Similar is the admission of another celebrated author, at least as
skeptical as Hume, and writing at the very time, and on the very spot
where these marvellous events were occurring. Diderot, speaking of the
St.-Médard manifestations, says,--"We have of these pretended miracles a
vast collection, which may brave the most determined incredulity. Its
author, Carré de Montgéron, is a magistrate, a man of gravity, who up to
that time had been a professed materialist,--on insufficient grounds,
it is true, but yet a man who certainly had no expectation of making his
fortune by becoming a Jansenist. An eye-witness of the facts he relates,
and of which he had an opportunity of judging dispassionately and
disinterestedly, his testimony is indorsed by that of a thousand others.
All relate what they have seen; and their depositions have every
possible mark of authenticity; the originals being recorded and
preserved in the public archives."[42]
Even in the very denunciations of opponents we find corroboratory
evidence of the main facts in question. Witness the terms in which the
Bishop of Bethléem declaims against the scenes of St. Médard:--"What! we
find ecclesiastics, priests, in the midst of numerous assemblies
composed of persons of every rank and of both sexes, doffing their
cassocks, habiting themselves in shirt and trousers, the better to be
able to act the part of executioners, casting on the ground young girls,
dragging them face-downward along the earth, and then discharging on
their bodies innumerable blows, till they themselves, the dealers of
these blows, are reduced to such a state of exhaustion that they are
obliged to have water poured on their heads! What! we find men
pretending to sentiments of religion and humanity dealing, with the full
swing of their arms, thirty or forty thousand blows with heavy clubs on
the arms, on the legs, on the heads of young girls, and making other
desperate efforts capable of crushing the skulls of the sufferers! What!
we find cultivated ladies, pious and of high rank, doctors of law, civil
and canonical, laymen of character, even curates, daily witnessing this
spectacle of fanaticism and horror in silence, instead of opposing it
with all their force; nay, they applaud it by their presence, even by
their countenance and their conversation! Was ever, throughout all
history, such another example of excesses thus scandalous, thus
multiplied?"[43]
De Lan, another opponent, thus sketches the same scenes:--"Young girls,
bareheaded, dashed their heads against a wall or against a marble slab;
they caused their limbs to be drawn by strong men, even to the extent of
dislocation;[44] they caused blows to be given them that would kill the
most robust, and in such numbers that one is terrified. I know one
person who counted four thousand at a single sitting; they were given
sometimes with the palm of the hand, sometimes with the fist; sometimes
on the back, sometimes on the stomach. Occasionally, heavy cudgels or
clubs were employed instead[45].... Some convulsionists ran pins into
their heads, without suffering any pain; others would have thrown
themselves from the windows, had they not been prevented. Others, again,
carried their zeal so far as to cause themselves to be hanged up by a
hook," etc.[46]
Modern medical writers of reputation usually admit the main facts, and
seek a natural explanation of them. In the article, "Convulsions," in
the great "Dictionnaire des Sciences Médicales," (published in 1812-22,)
which article is from the pen of an able physiologist, Dr. Montègre, we
find the following, in regard to the St.-Médard phenomena:--"Carré de
Montgéron surrounded these prodigies with depositions so numerous and so
authentic, that, after having examined them, no doubt can remain....
However great my reluctance to admit such facts, it is impossible for me
to refuse to receive them." As to the _succors_, so-called, he frankly
confesses that they seem to him as fully proved as the rest. He
says,--"There are the same witnesses, and the incidents themselves are
still more clear and precise. It is not so much of cures that there is
question in this case, as of apparent and external facts, in regard to
which there can be no misconception."
Dr. Calmeil, in his well-known work on Insanity, while regarding this
epidemic as one of the most striking examples of religious mania,
accepts the relation of Montgéron as in the main true. "From various
motives," says he, "these theomaniacs sought out the most frightful
bodily tortures. Would it be credible, if it were not that the entire
population of Paris concurred in testifying to the fact, that more than
five hundred women pushed the rage of fanaticism or the perversion of
sensibility to such a point, that they exposed themselves to burning
fires, that they had their heads compressed between boards, that they
caused to be administered on the abdomen, on the breast, on the stomach,
on every part of the body, blows of clubs, stampings of the feet, blows
with weapons of stone, with bars of iron? Yet the theomaniacs of St.
Médard braved all these tests, sometimes as proofs that God had rendered
them invulnerable, sometimes to demonstrate that God could cure them by
means calculated to kill them, had they not been the objects of His
special protection, sometimes to show that blows usually painful only
caused to them pleasant relief. The picture of the punishments to which
the convulsionists submitted, as if by inspiration, so that no one might
doubt, as Montgéron has it, that it was easy for the Almighty to render
invulnerable and insensible bodies the most frail and delicate, would
induce us to believe, if the contrary were not so conclusively
established, that a rage for homicide and suicide had taken possession
of the greater part of the sect of the Appellants."[47]
Though I am acquainted with no class of phenomena occurring elsewhere
that will match the "Great Succors" of St. Médard, yet we find
occasional glimpses of instincts somewhat analogous to those claimed for
the convulsionists, in other examples.
In Hecker's "Epidemics of the Middle Ages" there is a chapter devoted to
what he calls the "Dancing Mania," the account of which he thus
introduces:--"So early as the year 1374, assemblages of men and women
were seen at Aix-la-Chapelle, who had come out of Germany, and who,
united by one common delusion, exhibited to the public, both in the
streets and in the churches, the following strange spectacle. They
formed circles hand in hand, and, appearing to have lost all control
over their senses, continued dancing, regardless of the bystanders, for
hours together, in wild delirium, until at length they fell to the
ground in a state of exhaustion. They then complained of extreme
oppression, and groaned as if in the agonies of death, until they were
swathed in cloths bound tightly round their waists; upon which they
recovered, and remained free from complaint until the next attack. This
practice of swathing was resorted to on account of the tympany[48] which
followed these spasmodic ravings; but the bystanders frequently relieved
patients in a less artificial manner, _by thumping and trampling upon
the parts affected_. While dancing they neither saw nor heard, being
insensible to external impressions through the senses, but were haunted
by visions." And again,--"In Liege, Utrecht, Tongres, and many other
towns of Belgium, the dancers appeared with garlands in their hair, and
their waists girt with cloths, that they might, as soon as the paroxysm
was over, receive immediate relief from the attack of tympany. This
bandage, by the insertion of a stick, was easily twisted tight; _many,
however, obtained more relief from kicks and blows_, which they found
numbers of persons ready to administer."[49]
Physicians of our own day, while magnetizing, have occasionally
encountered not dissimilar phenomena. Dr. Bertrand tells us that the
first patient he ever magnetized, being attacked by a disease of an
hysterical character, became subject to convulsions of so long duration
and so violent in character, that he had never, in all his practice,
seen the like; and that she suffered horribly. He adds,--"Here is what
happened during her first convulsion-fits. This unhappy girl, whose
instinct was perverted by intensity of pain, earnestly entreated the
persons present to press upon her with such force as at any other time
would have produced the most serious injury. I had the greatest
difficulty to prevent those around her from acceding to her urgent
requests that they would kneel upon her with all their weight, that they
would exert with their hands the utmost pressure on the pit of her
stomach, even on her throat, with the view of driving off the imaginary
hysterical _ball_ of which she complained. Though at any other time such
treatment would have produced severe pain, she declared that it relieved
her; and when the fit passed off, she did not seem to suffer the least
inconvenience from it."[50]
The above, connecting as it does the phenomena exhibited during the
St.-Médard epidemic with those observed by animal magnetizers, brings us
to the second query, namely, as to the cause of these phenomena.
And here we find physicians, not mesmerists, comparing these phenomena,
and others of the same class, with the effects observed by animal
magnetizers. Dr. Montègre, already quoted, says,--"The phenomena of
magnetism, and those presented by cases of possession and of
fascination, connect themselves with those observed among the
convulsionists, not only by the most complete resemblance, but also by
the cause which determines them. There is not a single phenomenon
observed in the one case that has not its counterpart in the
others."[51]
Calmeil, while admitting that the "nervous effects produced by animal
magnetizers bear a close resemblance to those which have been observed
at Loudun, at Louviers, and during other convulsive epidemics," offers
the following, in explanation of the physical phenomena connected with
the "Great Succors":--
"The energetic resistance, which, in the case of the convulsionists, the
skin, the cellular tissue, and the surface of the body and limbs offered
to the shock of blows, is certainly calculated to excite surprise. But
many of these fanatics greatly deceived themselves, when they imagined
that they were invulnerable; for it has been repeatedly proved that
several of them, as a consequent of the cruel trials they solicited,
suffered from large ecchymoses on the integuments, and numerous
contusions on those portions of the surface which were exposed to the
rudest attacks. For the rest, the blows were never administered except
during the torments of convulsion; and at that time the tympany
(_météorisme_) of the abdomen, the state of spasm of the uterus in women
and of the alimentary canal in both sexes, the state of contraction, of
orgasm, of turgescence in the fleshy envelopes, in the muscular layers
which protect and inclose the abdomen, the thorax, the principal
vascular trunks, and the bony surfaces, must essentially contribute to
weaken, to deaden, to nullify, the effect of the blows. Is it not by
means of an analogous state of orgasm, which an over-excited will
produces, that boxers and athletes find themselves in a condition to
brave, to a certain point, the dangers of their profession? In fine, it
is to be remarked, that, when dealing blows on the bodies of the
convulsionists, the assistants employed weapons of considerable volume,
having flat or rounded surfaces, cylindrical or blunted. But the action
of such physical agents is not to be compared, as regards its danger,
with that of thongs, switches, or other supple and flexible instruments
with distinct edges. Finally, the contact and the repeated impression of
the blows produced on the convulsionists the effect of a sort of
salutary pounding, and rendered less poignant and less sensible the
tortures of hysteria. It would have been preferable, doubtless, to make
use of less murderous succors; the rage for distinction as the possessor
of a miraculous gift, even more perhaps than the instinctive need of
immediate relief, prompting these convulsionary theomaniacs to make
choice of means calculated to act on the imagination of a populace,
whose interest could be kept awake only by a constant repetition of
wonders."[52]
Calmeil, of all the medical authors I have consulted, appears to have
the most closely studied the various phases of the St.-Médard
epidemic.[53] Yet the explanations above given seem to me quite
incommensurate with the phenomena admitted.
Some of the patients, he says, suffered from ecchymosis and contusions.
In plain, unprofessional language, they were beaten black and blue. That
is such a result as usually follows a few blows from a boxer's fist or
from an ordinary walking-stick. But when the weapon employed is a rough
iron bar weighing upwards of twenty-nine pounds, when the number of
blows dealt in succession on the pit of the stomach of a young girl
exceeds a hundred and fifty, and when these are delivered with the
utmost force of an athletic man, is it bruises and contusions we look
for as the only consequence? Or does it explain the immunity with which
this frightful infliction was received, to call it a salutary pounding?
The argument drawn from the turgescence of the viscera and other organs,
from the spasmodic contraction of the muscles and the general state of
orgasm of the system, has doubtless great weight; but does it reach far
enough to explain to us the fact, (if it be a fact, and as such Calmeil
accepts it,) that a girl, bent back so that her head and feet touched
the floor, the centre of the vertebral column being supported on a
sharp-pointed stake, received, day after day, with impunity, directly on
her stomach and bowels, one hundred times in succession, a flint stone
weighing fifty pounds, dropped suddenly from a height of twelve or
fifteen feet? Boxers, it is true, in the excited state in which they
enter the ring, receive, unmoved, from their opponents blows which would
prostrate a man not prepared, by hard training, for the trial. But even
such blows, in the end, sometimes prove mortal; and what should we say
of substituting for the human fist a sharp-pointed rapier, and expecting
that the tension of the nervous system would render impenetrable the
skin of the combatant? Finally, it is to be admitted, that flexible
weapons, especially if loaded, as the cat-o'-nine-tails, still used in
some countries as an instrument of military punishment, occasionally is,
with hard, angular substances, are among the most severe that can be
employed to inflict punishment or destroy life. But what would even the
poor condemned soldier, shrinking from that terrible instrument of
torture which modern civilization has not yet been shamed into
discarding, think of the proposal to substitute for it the andiron with
which Montgéron, at the twenty-fifth blow, broke an opening through a
stone wall,--the executioner-drummer being commanded to deal, with his
utmost strength, one hundred and sixty blows in succession, with that
ponderous bar, (a bar with rough edges, no cylindrical rod,) not on the
back of the culprit, but on his unprotected breast?
No wonder that De Gasparin, with all his aversion for the supernatural,
and all his disinclination to admit anything which he cannot explain,
after quoting from Calmeil the above explanation, feels its
insufficiency, and seeks another. These are his words:--
"How does it happen, that, after being struck with the justice of these
observations, one still retains a sort of intellectual uneasiness, a
certain suspicion of the disproportion between the explanation and the
phenomena it seeks to explain? How does it happen, that, under the
influence of such an impression, many suffer themselves to be seduced
into an admission of diabolical or miraculous agency? It happens,
because Dr. Calmeil, faithful to the countersign of all learned bodies
in England and France, refuses to admit fluidic action, or to make a
single step in advance of the ordinary theory of nervous excitement. Now
it is in vain to talk of contractions, of spasms, of turgescence; all
this evidently fails to reach the case of the St.-Médard _succors_. To
reach it we need the intervention of a peculiar force,--of a fluid which
is disengaged, sometimes by the effect of certain crises, sometimes by
the power of magnetism itself. Those who systematically keep up this
hiatus in the study of human physiology are the best allies of the
superstitions they profess to combat.... Suppose that study seriously
undertaken, with what precision should we resolve the problem of which
now we can but indicate the solution! Habituated to the wonders of the
nervous fluid, knowing that it can raise, at a distance, inert objects,
that it can biologize, that it can communicate suppleness or rigidity,
the highest development of the senses or absolute insensibility, we
should not be greatly surprised to discover that it communicates also,
in certain cases, elasticity and that degree of impenetrability which
characterizes gum-elastic."[54]
De Gasparin further explains his theory in the following passage:--"The
great difficulty is not to explain the perversion of sensibility
exhibited by the convulsionists. Aside from that question, does it not
remain incomprehensible that feeble women should have received, without
being a hundred times crushed to pieces, the frightful blows of which we
have spoken? How can we explain such a power of resistance? A very small
change, operated by the nervous fluid, would suffice to render the
matter very simple. Let us suppose the skin and fibres of the
convulsionists to acquire, in virtue of their peculiar state of
excitement, a consistency analogous to that of gum-elastic; then all the
facts that astonish us would become as natural as possible. With
convulsionists of gum-elastic,[55] or, rather, whose bony framework was
covered with muscles and tissues of gum-elastic, what would happen?"
He then proceeds to admit that "a vigorous thrust with a rapier, or
stroke with a sabre, as such thrusts and strokes are usually dealt,
would doubtless penetrate such an envelope"; but, he alleges, the
St.-Médard convulsionists never, in a single instance, permitted such
thrusts or strokes, with rapier or sabre, to be given; prudently
restricting themselves to pressure only, exerted after the sword-point
had been placed against the body. He reminds us, further, that neither
razors nor pistol-balls, both of which would penetrate gum-elastic, were
ever tried on the convulsionists; and he adds,--"Neither flint stones
nor andirons nor clubs nor swords and spits, pressed against it, would
have broken the surface of the gum-elastic envelope. They would have
produced no visible injury. At the most, they might have caused a
certain degree of internal friction, more or less serious, according to
the thickness of the gum-elastic cuirass which covered the bones and the
various organs."[56]
I am fain to confess, that this imagining of men and women of
gum-elastic, all but the skeleton, does not seem to me so simple a
matter as it appears to have been regarded by M. de Gasparin. Let us
take it for granted that his theory of a nervous fluid, which is the
agent in table-moving,[57] is the true one. How is the mere disengaging
of such a fluid to work a sudden transmutation of muscular and tendinous
fibre and cellular tissue into a substance possessing the essential
properties of a vegetable gum? And what becomes of the skin, ordinarily
so delicate, so easily abraded or pierced, so readily injured? Is that
transmuted also? Let us concede it. But the concession does not suffice.
There remain the bones and cartilages, naturally so brittle, so liable
to fracture. Let us even suppose the breast and stomach of a
convulsionist protected by an artificial coating of actual gum-elastic,
would it be a safe experiment to drop upon it, from a height of twelve
feet, a flint stone weighing fifty pounds? We are expressly told that
the ribs bent under the terrible shock, and sank, flattened, even to the
backbone. Is it not certain, that human ribs and cartilages, in their
normal state, would have snapped off, in spite of the interposed
protection? Must we not, then, imagine osseous and cartilaginous fibre,
too, transmuted? Indeed, while we are about it, I do not see why we
should stop short of the skeleton. Since we understand nothing of the
manner of transmutation, it is as easy to imagine bone turned to
gum-elastic, as skin and muscle and tendon.
In truth, if we look at it narrowly, this theory of De Gasparin is
little more than a virtual admission, that, during convulsion, by some
sudden change, the bodies of the patients did, as they themselves
declared, become, to a marvellous extent, invulnerable,--with the
suggestion added, that the nervous fluid may, after some unexplained
fashion, have been the agent of that change.
For the rest, though the alleged analogy between the properties of
gum-elastic and those which, in this abnormal state, the human body
seems to acquire, is, to a certain extent, sustained by many of the
observations above recorded,--for example, when a sharp-pointed rapier,
violently pushed against Gabrielle Moler's throat, sank to the depth of
four finger-breadths, and, when drawn back, seeming to attach itself to
the skin, drew it back also, causing a trifling injury,--yet others seem
to prove that there is little strictness in that analogy. The King's
Chaplain and the Advocate of Parliament, whose testimony I have cited,
both certify that the flesh occasionally reacted under the sword,
swelling up, so as to thrust back the weapons, and even push back the
assistants. There is no corresponding property in gum-elastic. And
Montgéron expressly tells us, that, at the close of a terrible succor
called for by Gabrielle Moler, when she caused four sharpened shovels,
placed, one above, one below, and one on each side, of one of her
breasts, to be pushed by the main force of four assistants, a committee
of ladies present "had the curiosity to examine her breast immediately
after this operation, and unanimously certified that they found it as
hard as a stone."[58] If this observation can be depended on, the
gum-elastic theory, even as an analogically approximating explanation of
this entire class of phenomena, is untenable.
It is further to be remarked, that one of the positions assumed by M. de
Gasparin, as the basis of his hypothesis, does not tally with some of
the facts detailed by Montgéron. It was _pushes_ with swords, the former
alleges, never _thrusts_, to which the convulsionists were exposed. I
have already stated that this was _usually_ the fact; but there seem to
have been striking exceptions. On the authority of a priest and of an
officer of the royal household, Montgéron gives us the details of a
symbolical combat of the most desperate character, with rapiers, between
Sisters Madeleine and Félicité, occurring in May, 1744, in the presence
of thirty persons. One of the witnesses says,--"I know not if I ever saw
enemies attack each other with more fury or less circumspection. They
fell upon one another without the slightest precaution, thrusting
against each other with the points of their rapiers at hap-hazard,
wherever the thrust happened to take effect. And this they did again and
again, and with all the force of which, in convulsion, they were
capable,--which, as all the world knows, is a force far greater than the
same persons possess in their ordinary state."
And the officer thus further certifies:--"After the combat, Madeleine
took two short swords, resembling daggers, and, holding one in each
hand, dealt seven or eight blows, pushed home with all her strength, on
the breast of Félicité, raising her hands and then stabbing with the
utmost eagerness, just as an assassin who wished to murder some one
would plunge two daggers repeatedly into his breast. Félicité received
the strokes with perfect tranquillity, and without evincing the
slightest emotion. Then, taking two similar daggers, she did the very
same to Madeleine, who, with her arms crossed, received the thrusts as
tranquilly as the other had done. Immediately afterwards, these two
convulsionists attacked one another with daggers, as with the fury of
two maniacs, who, having resolved on mutual destruction, were solely
bent each on poniarding the other."[59]
It is added, that "neither the one nor the other received the least
appearance of a wound, nor did either seem at all fatigued by so long
and furious an exercise."
It is not stated, in this particular instance, as it is in others, that
these girls were examined by a committee of their sex, before or after
the combat, to ascertain that they had under their dresses no concealed
means of protection; so that the possibility of trickery must be
admitted. If, as the officer who certifies appears convinced, all was
fair, then M. de Gasparin's admission that a vigorous sword-thrust would
penetrate the gum-elastic envelope is fatal to the theory he propounds.
Yet, withal, we may reasonably assent to the probability that M. de
Gasparin, in seeking an explanation of these marvellous phenomena, may
have proceeded in the right direction. Modern physicians admit, that, at
times, during somnambulism, complete insensibility, resembling hysteric
coma, prevails.[60] But if, as is commonly believed, this insensibility
is caused by some modification or abnormal condition of the nervous
fluid, then to some other modification or changed condition of the same
fluid comparative invulnerability may be due. For there is connection,
to a certain extent, between insensibility and invulnerability. A
patient rendered unconscious of pain, by chloroform or otherwise,
throughout the duration of a severe and prolonged surgical operation,
escapes a perilous shock to the nervous system, and may survive an
ordeal which, if he had felt the agony usually induced, would have
proved fatal. Pain is not only a warning monitor, it becomes also,
sometimes, the agent of punishment, if the warning be disregarded.
But, on the other hand, we must not forget that insensibility and
invulnerability, though to a certain extent allied, are two distinct
things. Injury the most serious may occur without the premonitory
warning, even without immediate subsequent suffering. A person in a
perfect state of insensibility might doubtless receive, without
experiencing any pain whatever, a blow that would shatter the bones of a
limb, and render it powerless for life. Indeed, there is on record a
well-attested case of a poor pedestrian, who, having laid himself down
on the platform of a lime-kiln, and dropping asleep, and the fire having
increased and burnt off one foot to the ankle, rose in the morning to
depart, and knew nothing of his misfortune, until, putting his burnt
limb to the ground, to support his body in rising, the extremity of his
leg-bone, calcined into lime, crumbled to fragments beneath him.[61]
Contemporary medical authorities, even when they have the rare courage
to deny to the convulsions either a divine or a diabolical character,
furnish no explanation of them more satisfactory than the citing of
similar cases, more or less strongly attested, in the past.[62] This may
confirm our faith in the reality of the phenomena, but does not resolve
our difficulties as to the causes of them.
It does not fall within my purpose to hazard any opinion as to these
causes, nor, if it did, am I prepared to offer any. Some considerations
might be adduced, calculated to lessen our wonder as to an occasional
phenomenon on this marvellous record. Physiologists, for example, are
agreed that the common opinion as to the sensibility of the interior of
the eye is an incorrect one;[63] and that consideration might be put
forth, when we read that Sisters Madeleine and Félicité suffered with
impunity swords to be pressed against that delicate organ, until the
point sank an inch beneath its surface. But all such isolated
considerations are partial, inconclusive, and, as regards any general
satisfactory explanation, far short of the requirements of the case.
More weight may justly be given to another consideration: to the
exaggerations inseparable from enthusiasm, and the inaccuracies into
which inexperienced observers must ever fall. As to the necessity of
making large allowance for these, I entirely agree with Calmeil and De
Gasparin. But let the allowance made for such errors be more or less, it
cannot extend to an absolute denial of the chief phenomena, unless we
are prepared to follow Hume in his assertion that what is contrary to
our experience can be proved by no evidence of testimony whatever,--and
that, though we have here nothing, save the marvellous character of the
events, to oppose to the cloud of witnesses who attest them, that alone,
in the eyes of reasonable people, should be regarded as a sufficient
refutation.[64]
The mental and psychological phenomena, only less marvellous than the
physical because we have seen more of their like, will, on that account,
be more readily received.