the larger life of the whole, of which it is in reality a part, and may draw psychical or spiritual energy from the common store more freely than is possible in normal conditions.

That some such far-reaching hypothesis would be needed for the explanation of the facts is indisputable, if any large part of the mass of supernormal phenomena reported by careful and credible observers should be finally established-telepathy, clairvoyance, expression of knowledge possessed only by deceased persons, and so forth. Those who attempt to explain all the facts of hypnosis in terms of the hypothesis of the division or dissociation of the normal mind generally ignore or repudiate the alleged super-normal phenomena as the products of fraud or error. The decision as to the type of theory which must eventually gain general acceptance for the explanation of hypnosis thus depends upon disputed questions of fact in that obscure and difficult province of investigation in which the Society for Psychical Research has now for a generation been actively engaged.

LITERATURE.-J. M. Bramwell, Hypnotism: its History, Practice, and Theory, London, 1903; C. L. Tuckey, Treatment by Hypnotism and Suggestions, do. 1913; A. Moll, Der Hypnotismus, Berlin, 1889 (Eng. tr., London, 1901); art. Hypnotism,' in EBrll; several artt. in Proc. of Soc. for Psychical Research, especially those by E. Gurney, in vols. i.-v. W. MCDOUGALL. HYPOCHONDRIA.-In the literature and practice of medicine, hypochondria is regarded as one of the many forms of mental affection embraced under the term 'melancholia.' Any uneasiness or disease of the regions on either side of the abdomen beneath the cartilages of the false ribs, of the hypochondriacal regions in short, was, from the earliest times, associated with those feelings of profound depression and sense of ill-being which constitute the basis of the affection. This is well illustrated in the old Folio frontispiece of The Anatomy of Melancholy, where Hypochondriacus is depicted leaning on his arm:

'Winde in his side doth him much harm

And troubles him full sore, God knows, Much pain he hath and many woes.' Underlying all signs of hypochondria are functional disorders, less frequently organic disease, of any portion of the intestinal tract from the stomach downward or of the larger secretory glands in the abdomen, especially the liver and the sexual organs, or a combination of these conditions. Consequent on deranged chemical processes initiated by the abnormal functioning of the abdominal organs and the absorption of poisonous products thus elaborated into the blood system, all parts of the body may be functionally disturbed, and more particularly those organs and tissues which are predisposed. There is a consensus of opinion that hypochondria is induced by poisons arising from the deranged chemical processes above mentioned (metabolic origin); but recent researches suggest that the virus in the blood may be due to the presence of micro-organisms, which find a footing in the disordered walls of the intestinal tract; cases of hypochondria have been recorded in which the mental affection has disappeared with the elimination of such organisms under appropriate treatment (microbic origin).

Sense impressions received by way of the several intestinal and abdominal organs do not intrude on the mind in healthy states save as vague, and not clearly distinguishable, pleasurable emotions. Where disordered or diseased functioning occurs, the affective or emotional elements of mind are of a more or less painful nature. Further, where there is an insane or neurotic inheritance, such as is commonly found in hypochondria, varied manifestations of this malady are excited by worry, shock, or mental stress and strain of any kind. Hypochondria is more prevalent in men than in

women, and is usually met with in middle age; it is rarely seen in persons under thirty. It is preceded, as a rule, by dyspeptic and anæmic conditions, is insidious in its origin, and develops slowly. The attack may be slight, and take the form of mild depression. In such circumstances it does not interfere with one's occupation, and ends in recovery after a few weeks or months of proper attention. In many cases, especially where there is a hereditary taint, the disease develops and may pass the limits of sanity. Here the disturbed general sensations already referred to force themselves on the attention, gradually arrest it, and occupy the whole mental domain. The affected person becomes fearful and anxious. There is marked mental inhibition and particularly of will power. The sensations perceived are much exaggerated; thus excessively painful spots are pointed out, shooting pains are complained of, and loud lamentations are made of loss of power or want of sensation in various parts of the body. The trouble grows worse until the hypochondriac thinks of nothing but his many ailments, and believes he is the subject of some frightful malady. He seeks relief in all sorts of remedies, and consults all kinds of persons in the hope of finding help. He is constantly searching his excretions for signs of serious disease; he reads medical and quack literature in order to diagnose his condition. Any mild disorder he has, or change in his appearance, is magnified into a grave malady; spots on his skin are signs of syphilis; vague pains and throbbing in the head tell him that his brain is dissolving or breaking up. He points to well nourished limbs and says they are wasted or dead. He believes he is the source of infectious disease, and recounts all his ailments in endless variety. The sensations arising from the disordered or diseased organs of the body are falsely interpreted, and are, therefore, to be classed as illusions. These illusions constitute prominent symptoms of hypochondria, and the most striking examples of the serious effects of illusion are seen in this connexion. The misinterpretations thus referred to pass insensibly into false conceptions and judgments. Hallucinations, i.e. the experience of sensations, when the terminal sensory organs are not excited, are not common. When they do occur, they are generally auditory and incidental (see, further, art. HALLUCINATION).

A lady known to the writer, when labouring under hypochondria in an advanced stage, believed that an egg, which she had partaken of, had developed into a chicken. She heard the chirp gastrium. As the chicken grew the chirp was no longer heard, of this chicken for some days coming from the region of the epiand the beliefs changed into ideas based on the illusion that a fowl was located somewhere in the intestine, and that, whenever of picking were graphically described. The gnawing pains of an food was taken, this bird picked it up. The sensations of the act ulcer, subsequently discovered in this patient, accounted for the sensations and the beliefs experienced, as they disappeared with the surgical treatment of the ulcer.

The mental pain felt by the hypochondriac is more apparent than real. He may look the picture of grief when detailing his distresses, but, unlike the true melancholic, he can for the moment be diverted from his troubles to talk rationally and act brightly. Defective will power and loss of memory are associated with hypochondria. The memory defect is due to the concentration of the mind on the bodily troubles. All other thoughts for the time are excluded, and so the experience of recent events not obtruding on his limited mental outlook is lost.

Hypochondria is not easily confused with other mental affections. Though it differs in degree only from true melancholia, which is more concerned with morbid thoughts than morbid sensations, there are obvious differences: the hypochondriac is restless, always seeking for sympathy and the ear of one to whom he may detail his sorrows; the

melancholic generally keeps to one place and one attitude, and does not dwell on his mental state unless under pressure. The frequency of suicidal attempts, which are generally openly made, is to be explained by the desire of the hypochondriacal to elicit sympathy and not from any impulse to self-destruction, though it has to be noted that in a few cases such attempts may be accidentally successful. The suicidal attempts of the melancholic are generally deliberate and secretive.

The condition known as 'psychasthenia' has been confounded with hypochondria. In this disease, there are irrepressible thoughts, fears, and impulses, and an absence of those morbid sensations which are the central theme of hypochondria. Hypochondriacal symptoms not infrequently arise in the course of many forms of mental disease; they are generally of a temporary nature, and due to the same causes as are at the basis of the real affection.

This intense eagerness to conform can easily be seen in such arrested civilizations as those of the East. The hardening of the cake of custom became too much for India, and men were so stereotyped by this hardening that they were unable to break through it. There is a tendency in descendants to differ from their progenitor, but the Indian discouraged variation from the original type. Among successful peoples the differers dissembled at first, until they became strong enough to soften the cake of custom, though they pretended to themselves that they had changed nothing.

LITERATURE.-D. Hack Tuke, art. Hypochondria,' in Dict. of Pyschol. Medicine, London, 1892; chapters in the many works on Mental Disease, such as T. Clouston's Clinical Lectures on Mental Diseases 4, do. 1896, Hygiene of Mind, do. 1906, and Unsoundness of Mind, do. 1911; H. J. Berkley, Mental Diseases, do. 1900; W. H. B. Stoddart, Mind and its Disorders, do. 1908; L. C. Bruce, Studies in Clinical Psychiatry, do. 1906; A. Church and F. Peterson, Nervous and Mental Diseases, New York, 1905; Eugenio Tanzi, Mental Diseases, Eng. tr., London, 1909; Ernesto Lugaro, Modern Problems in Psychiatry, Eng. tr., Manchester, 1909.

HAMILTON MARR. HYPOCRISY.-Primitive man was so much a member of the society to which he belonged that he was unable to conceive of any existence apart from it. It was all-important to him that there should be a body with power to regulate his habits. What he wanted most urgently was to be disciplined, and early society undertook this task with a will. What he got was a comprehensive rule binding men together, making their conduct in similar matters the same, moulding them, as it were, into a common pattern. The rules evolved covered the whole field of life as completely as a modern bureaucrat could desire. There was no room left for individuality, for conduct in every respect must conform to the common type. Primitive man, too, was most anxious to comply perfectly with the rules laid down for him; he was afraid of the wrath of the gods incurred by any departure from them. The element of fear bulked largely among the motives controlling his life. Like ourselves, from this point of view, he hated trouble, and chose-though he was barely conscious that he made a choice-the line of least resistance. In tropical Africa the country is covered by a network of narrow footpaths, made by the natives. These paths seldom run straight, and their flexuosities witness to small obstacles, here a stone and there a shrub, which the feet of those who first marked the path avoided. To-day one may perceive no obstacle. The prairie which the path crosses may be smooth and open, yet every traveller follows the windings, because it is less trouble to keep one's feet in the path already marked than it is to take a more direct route for oneself. The latter process requires thought and attention; the former does not. Primitive man instinctively felt this, and discouraged all independence of judgment. He was most desirous of creating what Bagehot called a cake of custom' to bind all his actions into a whole that would commend itself to his community. Consequently, hypocrisy was an idea outside his line of action, for he wanted to conform.

This course, however, was the exception, not the rule; for the propensity of man to imitate what is before him is one of the strongest parts of his nature. In early times it was a case of that which hath been is that which shall be; and that which hath been done is that which shall be done : and there is no new thing under the sun' (Ec 1o). This extreme propensity to imitation forms one observer notices among savage nations. No barbarian can bear to see one of his nation deviate from the old barbarous customs and usages of his tribe. All the tribe would inevitably expect a punishment from the gods if any one of them refrained from what was old or began what was new (cf., further, art. CUSTOM). Comparative sociology at once reveals a substantial uniformity of genesis. The habitual existence of chieftainship, the establishment of chiefly authority by war, the rise everywhere of the medicine-man and the priest these are evident in all early organizations. It is true the old order changes-leaving some room for dissemblers-yielding place to the new, but the new does not wholly consist of positive additions to the old; much of it is merely the old very slightly modified, very slightly displaced, and very superficially re-combined. 'If you want,' remarked Swift, to gain the reputation of a sensible man, you should be of the opinion of the person with whom for the time being you are conversing.' It is obvious, then, that all primitive men were profoundly sensible. When Lord Melbourne declared that he would adhere to the Church of England because it was the religion of his fathers, he was acting upon one of the most deeply rooted maxims of his ancestors.

Conduct in the olden days was never individualistic; it was always corporative. To early man all his acts were tribal, for all the acts of the tribe involved him in their consequences. Hypocrisy to him was abhorrent, for he could not bear any divergence from the observed ritual. When the street statues of Hermes were mutilated, all the Athenians felt afraid; they thought that they would be ruined because one of their corporate body had mutilated the image of a god. The mind of the citizen had been so permeated by the ideas of the day that they were part and parcel of its mental furniture. His brain, not merely his actions, was so cut and marked as to conform to the orthodox type. His habits, his superstitions, and his prejudices were absolutely those of his fellow-tribesmen. In the Fiji Islands, for example, a chief was one day going over a mountain path followed by many of his people, when he happened to stumble and fall. All his followers, save one, also stumbled and fell. Immediately they beat the defaulter, asking him whether he considered himself better than the chief.

The Greeks and the Romans possessed the seed of adaptiveness, and were, therefore, able to free themselves from the cake of custom. This freedom, however, made possible the existence of the hypocrite, and Eschylus (Agam. 788 ff.) analyzes the traits in his character:

a noble part in Jewish life, but their hypocrisy (cf. the seven classes of Pharisees, of whom five are hypocritical or foolish, Sotah 226) had destroyed their usefulness. They had been truly patriotic, truly scrupulous, but their social ritual forced them to become unscrupulous. It is the degeneration of the best which makes the worst, and the sincere observer of the Torah in the days of Ezra left for his successors in the days of Christ the most insincere of men.

on.

(ib. 482; Remains, 200). John Woolton notes their observance of rites and ceremonies (The Christian Manual, Cambridge, 1851, p. 45). William Tindale observes that they extol their own works above the law of God (Expositions, do. 1849, p. 127), notes their alms, prayers, and fastings (ib. 78), their desire to be praised of men (Doctrinal Treatises, do. 1848, p. 73), their (Expositions, 26, Doctrinal Treatises, 496), their faith (Exposi outward abstention from sin (ib. 80), their impurity in heart tions, 11, 130), their judgment of others (ib. 112), that they have the world on their side (Doctrinal Treatises, 133), that they must be rebuked (Expositions, 44), and their wisdom must be turned to foolishness (Doctrinal Treatises, 134).

careful treatment.

Qu. cxi. art. i. asks, 'Is all simulation sinful?" Simulation,

we learn, is properly a lie enacted in certain signs, consisting of outward actions; and it makes no difference whether one lies in word or in action. Hence, as all lying is sinful, so also is all dissimulation. As one lies in word when he signifies that which is not, but not when he is silent over what is-which is sometimes lawful; so it is simulation when by outward signs, consisting of action or things, any one signifies that which is not, but not when one omits to signify that which is; hence without any simulation a person may conceal his own sin.

Art. ii. Is hypocrisy the same as dissimulation?' Augustine says: As actors (hypocritæ, vпокpiтaí) pretend to other characters than their own, and act the part of that which they are not; so in the churches and in all human life, whoever wishes to seem what he is not, is a hypocrite or actor; for he pretends to be just without rendering himself such.' So, then, hypocrisy is simulation, not, however, any and every simulation, but only that by which a person pretends to a character not his own, as when a sinner pretends to the character of a just man. The habit or garment of holiness, religious or clerical, signifies a state wherein one is bound to works of perfection. And, therefore, when one takes the holy habit intending to betake himself to a state of perfection, if afterwards he fails by weakness, he is not a pretender or hypocrite, because he is not bound to declare his sin by laying the holy habit aside. But if he were to take the holy habit in order to figure as a just man, he would be a hypocrite and pretender.

Art. iv. Is hypocrisy a mortal sin? There are two things in hypocrisy, the want of holiness and the state of possessing it. If, therefore, by a hypocrite we are to understand one whose intention is carried to both these points, so that he cares not to have holiness but only to appear holy-as the word is usually taken in Holy Scripture-in that understanding it is clearly a mortal sin; for no one is totally deprived of holiness otherwise than by mortal sin. But if by a hypocrite is meant one who intends to counterfeit the holiness which mortal sin

makes him fall short of, then though he is in mortal sin, still the mere prudence on his part is not always a mortal sin, but is sometimes only venial. To tell when it is venial and when mortal, we must observe the end in view. If that end be inconsistent with the love of God and of one's neighbour, it will

be a mortal sin, as when one pretends to holiness in order to dissemble false doctrine, or to gain some ecclesiastical dignity of which he is unworthy, or any other temporal goods, placing his last end in them. But if the end intended be not inconsistent with charity, it will be a venial sin, as when one finds pleasure not belong to him: of such a one it is said that there is more vanity than malice in him.'

and satisfaction in the mere assumption of a character that does

This analysis is noteworthy because it is the presentation that dominated medieval life, and in the Summa Theologica Latin Christianity received a definitive form, covering all the transactions of life. The separation between law and custom, thought and action, lies at the very root of all forms of hypocrisy, and literature bears witness to

this divorce of creed and life.

The poem Piers the Plowman exposes the corruption of the times, while Chaucer's Canterbury Tales does not overlook the ecclesiastical courts. In The Scourge of Villanie, Marston analyzes the most offensive forms of the hypocrisy of the sensualist. The Reformers devote much attention to this

particular vice. Bradford describes a hypocritical profession of the Gospel (Sermons, Cambridge, 1848, p. 436 f.). Ridley shows that hypocrisy is a double evil (Works, do. 1841, p. 60). Becon points out its prevalence (Early Writings, do. 1843, p. 40), analyzes it (Prayers, do. 1844, p. 610; cf. Bullinger, Decades, v. [do. 1852] 11 f.), exposes the dislike of God's word (Catechism, do. 1844, p. 468), the liability to fall away in time of persecution (Prayers, 263), and the vainglory of its prayer (Early Writings, 130). Bullinger compares hypocrites to chaff and rotten members (Decades, v. 12-13). Latimer emphasizes the difficulty in knowing them (Remains, Cambridge, 1845, p. 62), dwells on their salutation and conduct (Sermons, do. 1844, p. 289) and their desire to sell their works, their 'opera supererogationis

LITERATURE.-J. Lubbock, The Origin of Civilisation 7, London, 1912; W. Bagehot, Physics and Politics, new ed., do. 1896; H. S. Maine, Ancient Law, new ed., do. 1906; E. Schürer, HJP, Edinburgh, 1891; R. T. Herford, Pharisaism, London, 1912; F. Weber, System der altsynag. paläst. Theologie, Leipzig, 1880; J. Wellhausen, Pharisäer und Sadducäer, Greifswald, 1874; W. Bacher, Die Agada der Tannaiten, Strassburg, 1884-90; D. Chwolson, Das letzte Passamahi Christi und der Tag seines Todes, St. Petersburg, 1892 (contains an essay on the Pharisees); M. Friedländer, Die religiösen Bewegungen innerhalb des Judentums im Zeitalter Jesu, Berlin, 1905; J. Earle, Microcosmographie, reprint, London, 1868 (contains an essay on 'A she-precise Hypocrite '); Jeremy Taylor, Ductor Dubitantium, ed. A. Taylor, do. 1851-55; J. Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress, ed. C. H. Firth, do. 1898; S. Butler, Hudibras, ed. A. R. Waller, Cambridge, 1905, Characters, ed. A. R. Waller, do. 1908; J. B. Mozley, University Sermons 2, do. 1876, p. 25; J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, i. [new ed., do. 1868], sermons x.-xii.; T. de Quincey, Works, viii., Edinburgh, 1890, p. 310.

ROBERT H. MURRAY.

HYSTERIA.-Hysteria (voτépa, 'the womb') is a psychical, or at any rate a functional, nervous disease, which is so much more frequent in women that its consideration as regards the male sex may for the present be omitted. The chief clinical feature of the disease, which, however, is not manifested by the majority of the subjects of the affection, is the hysterical fit; the other symptoms are either preliminary or subsequent to the fit, or they occur as isolated symptoms with a tendency to culminate in the fit. The fit may succeed a period of great excitement, or it may come on spontaneously, but it never occurs suddenly, as is the case in epilepsy; and it usually takes place when other people are present. Consciousness is never entirely lost, as may be ascertained by touching the conjunctivæ, when a protective spasm of the eyelids will at once occur. The eyeballs are always turned up, so that the pupils are concealed under the upper eyelids. The hands are clenched, and the thumbs inverted. There is usually clonic spasm of the muscles, and the patient struggles and throws herself about. She may moan or cry and breathe stertorously, but there is no biting of the tongue or bloody froth about the mouth, as in the epileptic fit. The paroxysm generally terminates with crying, laughing, sighing, or yawning, and is followed by a feeling of exhaustion. Various mental, motor, and sensory symptoms appear in hysterical subjects, subsequent to the fit, associated with it, or independent of it.

1. Mental symptoms.-The subjects of hysteria are neuropathic, and a hereditary tendency to insanity or the neuroses is usually present in their family history. They manifest prominently those symptoms of instability which are described by modern writers as mental degeneracy. Chief among these are a want of intellectual vigour, excitability, ostentation, vanity, deficient selfreliance, and a craving for sympathy and notoriety. The subjects are extremely susceptible to suggestion by stronger wills than their own, and exhibit

a feeble resistance to various instinctive promptings or temptations to which they may be subjected. At the same time, they are by no means deficient in intelligence, and the ingenuity they display in attracting attention to their supposed maladies, or in simulating diseases, is often phenomenal. Upon such a psychical basis it is easy to see that the diseased mental symptoms may assume many and diverse forms. Some of the patients are depressed and moody; others gay, excited, and reckless in their conduct. Many of them are restless, irritable, impatient, and difficult to manage or to live with. The morbid ambition of others leads them to such means of attaining notoriety as prolonged fasting, the invention of improbable tales of assault upon themselves-usually of an indecent nature-or the simulation of various forms of obscure diseases, of which paralysis of motion is the principal.

2. Motor symptoms.-It is a mistake, however, to suppose that true hysterical paralysis is a simulated affection. This paralysis is distinguished from ordinary organic forms in so far as sensation in the paralyzed limb is never abolished, and the nutrition of the affected part is not impaired. In hysterical hemiplegia the face and tongue are rarely implicated, while in hysterical paraplegia the two lower limbs are usually unequally paralyzed.

3. Sensory symptoms.-The principal sensory disturbance is a condition of hyperesthesia, or over-sensitiveness, which involves both the special senses and the general sensibility of the patient. Slight sounds, bright lights, or a small degree of cutaneous pressure produce undue and exaggerated effects upon the nervous system. Neuralgic pains in various parts of the body are often complained of. One of the most common symptoms is the globus hystericus, described as a choking feeling or & constriction in the throat or chest, as if a ball were passing up or down the cavity. Anæsthesia of different parts of the body, sometimes involving one whole side, is not an unusual symptom in advanced cases. The patient may be unaware of the presence of the symptom, and the anesthesia may be either complete or partial. Generally speaking, in hemianæsthesia the condition is permanent, but fluctuates in degree from time to time. Charcot attached great importance to tenderness of the ovary, usually the left, in hysteria. The ovarian hyperæsthesia is indicated by pain in the lower part of the abdomen, corresponding in site to the position of the affected Ovary. This pain may be so extremely acute that the slightest touch on the part is dreaded, while in other patients firm pressure is required to elicit it. Firm pressure has usually a decisive effect in checking the advent of the hysterical fit. In other cases it tends to bring out certain sensations which are known as the aura hysterica, prominent among which is the globus hystericus already referred to. The hyperæsthetic ovary is usually upon the same side of the body as is affected by the various sensory and motor disturbances which have been mentioned.

4. It is necessary to refer briefly to three phenomena which are associated with hysteria. These are: (1) catalepsy, (2) trance, and (3) ecstasy. These three phenomena are so intimately associated with one another that the one may merge into the other in the same subject. In catalepsy there is a condition of stupor, accompanied or not with loss of consciousness, and followed or not by a recollection of what took place during the condition. The will to move is in abeyance, and the muscles are rigid. When a limb is moved passively by an observer, it remains in any position in which it may be placed. In the state of trance the patient lies as if dead-some persons have even

VOL. VII.-5

been laid out' as dead in this state; the skin assumes a deathly paleness; and the functions of respiration and circulation are so attenuated as to be almost imperceptible. In the ecstatic state the patient becomes so vividly hallucinated that complete scenes which she is able to describe fluently pass in sequence before the mental vision. The nature of the visions' changes according as the mental condition of the patient varies emotionally from grave to gay. The ecstatic state is accompanied by posturing and gesturing of an exaggerated character, which not infrequently terminate in dancing movements such as are practised by certain religious communities.

5. Estimated by its universal diffusion over the world and by the frequent references to it in the writings of travellers, lay and medical, hysteria must be the most common of all the neuroses. In the very oldest Brahmanical writings, which precede the Christian era by thousands of years, mention is made of it among the diseases of the nervous system (J. Jolly, Medicin [GIAP iii. 10 (1901)], p. 119). The origin of the word, derived from the writings of the Greek physicians, is also very ancient. Coming down to comparatively modern times, we find it constantly referred to in the writings of travellers. Judging from the comparative frequency of these references, we can form the opinion that one of the principal seats of the malady is the group of countries in the Arctic latitudes of the Eastern Hemisphere, including Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Lapland, and the parts of European and Asiatic Russia in the extreme north. From the last of these we have information of the truly endemic prevalence of hysteria among the women of the Samojeds. . . and of the Jakutes and other Siberian tribes, as well as among the inhabitants of Kamschatka. thus hysteria is unusually common among the women of the Baltic Provinces, and among those of Viatka, Simbrisk, Samara and the Kirghiz Steppes' (A. Hirsch, Geog. and Hist. Pathol., Eng. tr., London, 1883-86, iii. 519). Among the inhabitants of the Malay Peninsula a peculiar manifestation of the disease, known as latah, is very common, of which an excellent description has been given by Ellis (Journ. of Mental Science, 1897, p. 32).

6. When we turn from endemic to epidemic hysteria, a wide and difficult field of inquiry presents itself. As hysteria is a hereditary disease, it must be latent in otherwise apparently normal populations to an enormous extent. This latent potentiality may suddenly become active, under the influence of any powerful excitant, moral or spiritual, acting on a people. It is generally believed that these powerful emotional excitants sharply delimit the neuropathic from the normal elements in a population. The history of religious hysterical epidemics is inextricably associated with the history of the human race, so far as we know it, and can be traced, through the records of the Asiatics and other Eastern races, down to the accounts of the Mad Mullahs of our own day. In Europe, during the Christian era, the most remarkable instance of it was the dancing mania' of the Middle Ages. An account of it given by Raynald, as it was witnessed at Aix-la-Chapelle in 1374, is as follows:

"They formed circles hand in hand, and appearing to have lost all control over their senses, continued dancing, regardless to the ground in a state of exhaustion.... While dancing they of the bystanders, for hours together, until at length they fell neither saw nor heard, being insensible to external impressions through the senses, but were haunted by visions, their fancies conjuring up spirits whose names they shrieked out.... Where the disease was completely developed, the attack commenced with epileptic convulsions. They foamed at the mouth, and

...

suddenly springing up began their dance amidst strange contortions' (quoted from J. F. C. Hecker, Epidemics of the Middle Ages, Eng. tr., London, 1844, p. 87).

Those interested in this peculiar form of psycho