Spasms of the pharynx and laryngeal muscles: coughs, screams and barks of the prodromic period to convulsive attacks.
Vaso-motor disturbances, in the cutaneous marks, which are attributed to the Devil, but are simply produced by contact with some foreign body.
Somnambulism, in the execution of movements (sometimes in opposition with the laws of equilibrium), in a lucid state of mind, outside the condition of wakefulness, with or without mediumistic faculties and the conservation of memory; in the perception of sensations, without the intervention of the senses; in sensorial hallucinations produced by a simple touch; in ecstasy, with loss of tactile sense and hallucinations of vision.[75]
Suggestion, unconsciously provoked in rapid modifications of sensibility, in alterations of motility, in automatic movements executed in imitation (one form of suggestion), or by the domination of a foreign willpower, and, in general, in the penetration of an idea or phenomenon into the brain, by word, gesture, sight, or thought.[76]
Catalepsy, in the immobility of the body, the fixity of the regard, and the rigidity of the limbs in all attitudes, that we desire to place them (a very rare phenomenon).
Lethargy, in the depression of all parts of the body, and a predisposition on the part of the muscles to contract.
Delirium, finally, in the impossibility of hoping to discern false from true sensations.
We find, after this, that in analyzing the principal symptoms of hystero-demonomania, we easily note the characteristics of ordinary hysterical folly; we see that it always attacks by preference the impressionable woman. She who is fantastic, superstitious, hungry for notoriety, full of emotions,—one who possesses to the highest degree the gift of assimilation and imitation,—the subject of nightmare, nocturnal terrors, palpitations of the heart; a woman fickle in sentiment, one passing easily from joy to sadness, from chastity to lubricity,—a woman, in a word, who is capable of all manner of deceit and simulation, a natural-born deceiver.
The attacks of delirium among hystero-demonomaniacs have always a pronounced acute character; but, although violent and repeated, they are liable to disappear rapidly, and are often followed by relapse. These attacks of delirium are observed:
1. Before the convulsive attacks, under the form of melancholia or agitation, with hallucinations of sight and hearing.