SECTION III.-OF CERTAIN PHENOMENA WHICH SEEM TO BE RE1 SOLVABLE, IN PART, INTO THE FOREGOING PRINCIPLES.1

The contagious nature of convulsions, of hysteric disorders, of panics, and of all the different kinds of enthusiasm, is commonly referred by medical writers to the principle of Imi

tation; and it seems, indeed, to have a very intimate connexion. with that part of our constitution. Among these various phenomena, however, there are some which depend also on a combination of very powerful causes of another description ;on the influence, for example, of Imagination, and of those passions which are apt to be kindled wherever men are assembled in a crowd: And therefore, to refer them all to imitation alone, implies either an error in point of theory, or an unwarrantable latitude in the meaning annexed to that word. To draw the line, indeed, accurately, between the causes which, in these instances, conspire in producing the same effect, is not an easy task, nor do I mean, on the present occasion, to attempt such an analysis. It is sufficient for me to remark, in general, that although, in this chapter, I have adopted the common arrangement of physiologists, by introducing the following discussions under the title of Imitation, I would not be understood to overlook those other circumstances which may have their respective shares in producing the phenomena we are about to consider. For thus stopping short at facts, without a

escaped me at the time, I would not have failed to have quoted it there, at the end of the note. I shall, therefore, though somewhat out of place, transcribe it here: Nor shall I suppress the wild hypothesis to which this great man plainly had a leaning, which would resolve the phenomena of Imitation into a transmission of spirits from one person to another. The very extravagance of this theory renders it highly worthy of notice, as it proves, indirectly indeed, but with the force of demonstration, that Bacon was fully aware of (what no succeeding inquirer seems to me to have perceived) the great, or rather the insurmountable difficulty of the problem which he was anxious to resolve. Nothing else could have led him to avail himself, on such an occasion, of a magical transmission of spirits from body to body. "It is a thing strange in nature, when it is attentively considered, how children

and some birds learn to imitate speech. They take no mark at all of the motion of the mouth of him that speaketh; for birds are as well taught in the dark as by light. The sounds of speech are very curious and exquisite; so one would think it were a lesson hard to learn. It is true that it is done with time, and by little and little, and with many essays and proffers; but all this dischargeth not the wonder. It would make a man think, (though this which we shall say may seem exceeding strange,) that there is some transmission of spirits; and that the spirits of the teacher put in motion, should work with the spirits of the learner a predisposition to offer to imitate, and so to perfect the imitation by degrees. But touching operations by transmissions of spirits, (which is one of the highest secrets in nature,) we shall speak in due place; chiefly when we come to inquire of Imagination."

more diligent investigation and separation of general laws, the only apology I shall offer is the practical applications of which the facts themselves are susceptible, abstracted from all consideration of the laws to which they ought ultimately to be referred; and my anxiety, on a subject of such peculiar importance, rather to add a little to the history of the Human Mind, than to indulge myself in speculations and conjectures of more questionable utility.1

To that class of facts of which I am now to treat, a valuable addition was made in the course of the philosophical inquiries which took their rise at Paris, in consequence of the cures pre

1 Dr. Gregory, in his philosophical and elegant work, entitled Conspectus Medicina Theoretica, while he adopts the common language of physiologists concerning Imitation, hints very explicitly, with his usual sagacity and caution, that the various classes of phenomena referred to this principle, have only a certain degree of affinity. The whole passage well deserves to be quoted.

"Porro, sola Imitatione multa facimus, multa discimus. Imitatur nondum conscius infans quicquid vel videt vel audit: et vir adultus, et suæ spontis, inscius vel forte invitus, tantum adhuc imitatur, ut hominum quibuscum versatur mores et sermonis prolationem, quamvis sæpe nolens, acquirat. Omnem sermonem infans imitando discit, aliter, ut quibusdam persuasum est philosophis, mutum et turpe pecus fu

turus.

"Huic quodammodo affinis est, altera illa, subita, et vehementior Imitatio, quæ, dementiæ instar, non singulos tantum homines, sed totos populos, nonnunquam rapuit. Hac tanquam contagione, varii animi affectus, tristes, læti, ridiculi, ab unius vultu per omnium pectora dimanant. Ardor pugnæ, et plus quam spes victoriæ, ab alacri ducis, cui confidunt milites, vultu, totam aciem dicto citius pervadit, et multa millia

pectorum pariter accendit: iidem vero milites, victoria jam parta, unius vel ignoti hominis terrore perculsi, turpiter terga dederunt, nulla auctoritate, nulla vi coërcendi.

"Quin et fanaticorum quorundam furor, simili modo aliquando diffusus est: hominesque se sanos credentes, qui talem insaniam tempsissent et irrisissent, solo visu et auditu furentium ipsi dementiæ facti sunt participes.

"Par ratio est affectionum quarundam nervosi generis; oscitationis, hysteria, epilepsia, quæ solo visu mirum in modum sæpe propagantur."-Consp. Med. Theoret., Sects. 345-348. Edin. 1782.

In Sir Gilbert Blane's medical writings, he has repeatedly touched upon the subject of Imitation. See in particular his Dissertation on Muscular

Motion.(Select Dissertations on
Several Subjects of Medical Science,
pp. 268-270.) See also his Elements of
Medical Logic, 2d edit. p. 260.

Of the professional merits of these works I am not a competent judge; but without being accused of an undue partiality to one of my oldest and most valued friends, I may be allowed to say, that I know of no medical publications where the practical discussions of the healing art are more agreeably and instructively blended with the lights of sound philosophy.

tended to be effected by means of Animal Magnetism. The following quotation from the Report of the Commissioners employed by Louis Sixteenth to examine the pretensions of Mesmer and his disciples, contains some of the most interesting conclusions from these inquiries; and, although it involves too many theoretical expressions, it will convey a sufficiently distinct idea of the nature of the subject, to the illustration of which this section is allotted.1

After observing how inconsiderable the effects were which isolated patients exhibited, in consequence of all the attempts made to operate on their imagination, the commissioners proceed to remark, that, even in the public process, the crises do not commence in less than the space of two hours. "By little and little," I quote at present their own words, "the impressions are communicated from one to another, and reinforced in the same manner as the impressions which are made by theatrical representations,-where the impressions are greater in proportion to the number of the spectators, and the liberty they enjoy of expressing their sensations. The applause by which the emotions of individuals are announced, occasions a general emotion, which every one partakes in the degree in which he is susceptible. The same observation has been made in armies upon a day of battle, where the enthusiasm of courage, as well as the impressions of terror, are propagated with so amazing rapidity. The drum, the sound of the military musical instruments, the noise of the cannon, the musquetry, the shouts of the army, and the general disorder, impress the organs, and exalt the imagination in the same degree. In this equilibrium of inebriation, the external manifestation of a single sensation immediately becomes universal;

1 This Report is known to have been drawn up by the illustrious and unfortunate Bailly; and, notwithstanding its great merits, is somewhat infected with that predilection for figurative language which is characteristical of his style, and which was particularly unsuited to his present subject. A few of the most

exceptionable of these expressions I shall distinguish in the paragraphs which I am to quote, by printing them in Italics. I have availed myself of the English translation published by Johnson, St. Paul's Church-yard, 1785, to which is prefixed a valuable Historical Introduction.

it hurries the soldiery to the charge, or it determines them to fly. In a numerous assembly, individuals are more subjected, than on other occasions, to their senses and their imagination; and less capable of consulting and obeying the dictates of reason. Hence the origin of that religious frenzy, which formerly affected so powerfully both the minds and the bodies of the enthusiasts of the Cevennes; and hence the acts of insanity into which public bodies are apt to be hurried, in times of political revolution. On this principle, it has been usual to forbid numerous assemblies in seditious towns, as a means of stopping a contagion so easily communicated. Everywhere, example acts upon the moral part of our frame; MECHANICAL IMITATION upon the physical. The minds of individuals are calmed by dispersing them; and, by the same means, spasmodic affections, which are always infectious in their nature, may often be removed. Of this a recent example occurred in the young ladies of St. Roch, who were thus cured of the convulsions with which they were afflicted while assembled together.1

"The magnetism, then," the commissioners continue, "or, rather, the operations of the imagination, are equally discoverable at the theatre, in the camp, and in all numerous assemblies, as at the bucket; acting, indeed, by different means, but

"On the day of the ceremony of the first communion, celebrated in the parish church of St. Roch, a few years ago, (1780,) after the evening service they made, according to custom, the procession through the streets. Scarcely were the children returned to the church, and had resumed their seats, before a young girl fell ill and had convulsions. This affection propagated itself with so much rapidity, that, in the space of half an hour, fifty or sixty girls, from twelve to nineteen years of age, were seized with the same convulsions; that is, with a contraction of the throat, an inflation of the stomach, suffocation, hiccups and spasms, more or less considerable. These accidents reappeared

in some instances in the course of the week; but the following Sunday, being assembled with the dames of St. Anne, whose business it is to teach the young ladies, twelve of them were seized with the same convulsions, and more would have followed, if they had not had the precaution to send away each child upon the spot to her relations. The whole were obliged to be divided into several schools. By thus separating the children, and not keeping them together but in small numbers, three weeks suf ficed to dissipate entirely this epidemical convulsive affection."-[A pendant to this is Boerhaave's case of the girls of Haarlem.-Ed.]