Hysterical laughter was a grotesque manifestation often witnessed. The holy laugh began to be a part of religious worship. Dancing, barking, and otherwise acting like dogs, were still other manifestations. It is remarkable that, according to Yandell, no instance is recorded in which permanent insanity resulted from these terrible excitements.
The absurd and extraordinary exhibitions witnessed among the Shakers belong to the same category, and have been well described by Hammond and others.
In a History of the Revival in Ireland in 1859, by the Rev. William Gibson, instances of excitement that fairly rivalled those which occurred in our Western States are given. Cases of ecstasy are described.
The religious sect known as the Salvation Army, which has in very recent years excited so much attention, curiosity, and comment both in America and England, has much in common with the Jumpers, the Jerkers, and the Convulsionnaires. The frenzied excitement at their meetings, with their tambourine-playing, dancing, shouting, and improvising are simply the same phases of religio-hysterical disorder, modified by differences in the age and environment.
In 1878, in the district of Tolmezo, Italy, an epidemic of hysteria which recalls the epidemics of the Middle Ages occurred. It has been described by M. Léon Colin.54 It was reported to the prefect of Undine that for three months some forty females living in the commune of Verzeguis had been attacked by religious mania. “From the report it appears that the first was in the person of a woman named Marguerite Vidusson, who had been the subject of simple hysteria for about eight years. In January, 1878, she began to suffer from convulsive attacks, accompanied by cries and lamentations. She was regarded as the subject of demoniacal possession, and on the first Sunday in May was publicly exorcised. Her affection, however, increased in severity; the attacks were more frequent and more intense, and were especially provoked by the sound of the church-bells and by the sight of priests. Seven months later three other hysterical girls became subject to convulsive and clamorous attacks. Here, again, an attempt was made to get rid of the supposed demon. A solemn mass was said in the presence of the sufferers, but was followed only by a fresh outbreak. At the time of the visit of the delegates eighteen were suffering, aged from sixteen to twenty-six years, except three, whose ages were respectively forty-five, fifty-five, and sixty-three years. Similar symptoms had also appeared in a young soldier on leave in the village.” During the attacks the patients talked of the demon which possessed them, stated the date on which they were seized by it, and the names of the persons who were possessed before them. Some boasted of being prophetesses and clairvoyants and of having the gift of tongues. In all, the sound of church-bells caused attacks, and religious ceremonies appeared not only to aggravate the disease in the sufferers, but also to cause its extension to those not previously attacked. M. Colin points out that the soil is particularly favorable for the development of an epidemic of this nature. The people of Verzeguis are backward in education and most superstitious. Functional nervous diseases are common among them. The inhabitants of the village are largely cut off from intercourse with the adjacent country in consequence of comparative inaccessibility and the frequent interruption of communications by storms and floods. Craniometric observations on twelve of the inhabitants seemed to show that the brachycephalic form of skull predominated, and that the development of the cranium was slightly below the average. The epidemic proved extremely obstinate.
54 Annales d'Hygiène, quoted in Lancet, Oct. 16, 1880.
In Norway and New Caledonia similar hysterical outbreaks have been observed in recent times.
An endemic of hysteria from imitation occurred in Philadelphia in 1880. Some of the cases fell under my own observation. A brief account of them is given by Mitchell in his Lectures. The outbreak occurred in a Church Home for Children, to which Dr. S. S. Stryker was physician. The Home contained ninety-five girls and six boys; all of them were well nourished and in good condition. The epidemic began by a girl having slight convulsive twitchings of the extremities, with a little numbness. Attacks returned daily; respiration became loud and crowing. She soon had all the phenomena of convulsive hysteria. Many of her comrades began to imitate her bark. Soon another girl of ten was attacked with harsh, gasping breathing, with crowing, speechlessness, clutching at her throat, and the whole series of phenomena exhibited by the first girl attacked. Nine or ten others were affected in like manner, and many of the remaining children had similar symptoms in a slight degree. At first convulsions occurred irregularly; after a while they appeared every evening; later, both morning and evening. The presence of visitors would excite them. Many interesting hysterical phases occurred among the children. One night some of them took to walking about on their hands and knees; others described visions. The girls often spoke of being surrounded by wild beasts, and one child would adopt the fiction which another related in her hearing. The cases were scattered about in different hospitals, and made good recoveries in from one to two months.
The Jumpers or Jumping Frenchmen of Maine and Northern New Hampshire were described by Beard in 1880.55 They presented nervous phenomena in some phases allied to hysteria. In June, 1880, Beard visited Moosehead Lake and experimented with some of them. Whatever order was given them was at once obeyed. One of the Jumpers, who was sitting in a chair with a knife in his hand, was told to throw it, and he threw it quickly so that it struck in a beam opposite; at the same time he repeated the order to throw it with a cry of alarm. They were tried with Latin and Greek quotations, and repeated or echoed the sound as it came to them. They could not help repeating any word or sound that came from the person that ordered them. Any sudden or unexpected noise, as the report of a gun, the slamming of a door, etc., would cause them to exhibit some phenomena. It was dangerous to startle them where they could injure themselves, or if they had an axe, knife, or other weapon in their hands. Since the time of Beard's observation accounts of their doings have now and then found their way into newspapers. One recent account tells of one of these peculiar people jumping from a raft into the Penobscot River on an order to jump.
55 Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases, vol. vii., 1880, p. 487.