Two of the most extraordinary recent cases are those of Palma d'Oria and Louise Lateau. These have become stock cases in books and dissertations on the subject under consideration, and therefore the briefest accounts of them will be all that is required. Palma in 1871 was sixty-six years old, humpbacked, thin, small, and with light expressive eyes. It is important to note that she had seen Louisa Lateau in ecstasy. Wonderful accounts are given of her performances—eating the Host in the presence of the priest; having visions of the devil with a little horn on his forehead; on another occasion Jesus Christ himself bringing to her the communion; seeing the Host flying through the air before entering her mouth. After the communion, usually when others were not present, the stigmatization occurred. Bleedings from the forehead or near it, and hemorrhagic spots on various parts of the body of various shapes, as of hearts and of the cross, appeared. Examination of the skin subsequently showed it to be intact, except that she had a hole in the cranium, which Hammond suggests was of syphilitic origin. Plates are given in the work of the credulous Imbert-Gourbeyre representing these figures.
In most respects the most celebrated of all cases of stigmatization is that of Louise Lateau—celebrated because of the investigations which have been made of her case; because of the amount of literature, theological, scientific, and medical, which has been devoted to her; because of the conflict of opinions even among medical observers in regard to the true explanation of the phenomena she exhibited. Louise Lateau was a Belgian peasant-girl, born January 30, 1850. Her parents were poor. She suffered the hardships of her class, and was as badly nourished and educated as a poor Belgian peasant-girl is likely to be. During the cholera epidemic of 1866 she nursed kindly and patiently many of the victims. In 1867 she became weak, pale, and neuralgic, and sometimes spat blood. On Friday, April 24, 1868, she for the first time noticed blood immediately below the left breast; the following Friday it appeared at the same place, and also on the back of the left foot; later, it oozed from the left side and both feet, from the palms and backs of the hands, and from the forehead. Some weeks after this she began to exhibit the phenomena of ecstasy; and subsequently for months and years, regularly on every Friday, she had a recurrence of the stigmata and ecstasy, with accompanying phenomena, sometimes varying a little in detail. Some of the accounts given by Lefevre and others of her seizures are beautiful descriptions of attacks of ecstasy. She stated that during her attacks she had a distinct vision of the whole scene of the crucifixion.
Numerous experiments, some of them cruel in character, were performed to test the genuineness of her conditions of unconsciousness and insensibility. Sight, hearing, and touch were tested. The mucous membrane of the nose was tickled; strong hartshorn was applied to the nostrils; she was pricked and stabbed with needles, pins, and even penknives; painful currents of electricity were used. To none of these did she respond. During her attacks her pulse was thready, ranging from 120° to 130° and upward; respiration sometimes could be scarcely detected, and sometimes fell as low as 10; body-heat was also much diminished. She recollected everything which passed during the attack. Different from Palma d'Oria, the examination of her skin revealed certain appearances. Between Saturday and Thursday oval spots and patches of rosy hue were to be seen on the backs and palms of the hands and on the backs and soles of the feet. They were very much in appearance as if the epidermis were thinned or scraped. The marks on the forehead were not permanent; the chest was only examined during the ecstasy. Before the bleedings blebs began to rise at the position of the spots. The bleeding commonly began in the night between Thursday and Friday. From the forehead of the girl blood sometimes oozed from minute points, which looked as if they had been made by microscopic leeches.
As regards the phenomena presented by Louise Lateau, various hypotheses have been advanced; the chief, however, are the three following: (1) The theological view—namely, that the stigmata were genuine miraculous performances, the blood flowing by supernatural command. (2) The view that the stigmata were genuine pathological phenomena, vaso-motor in character—that the bleedings were in some way similar to attacks of purpura hemorrhagica or to hæmidrosis or bloody sweat. (3) The view that the stigmata were produced by deceit—that in all probability, in order to excite the sympathy and astonishment which are so dear to the hysterical mind, the girl in some way caused the bleedings. The carefully detailed accounts of the phenomena seem to lend the strongest support to the last view.
A good test was employed for the detection of simulated stigmatization in the following case,17 which came under the care of Mr. Henry Lee at St. George's Hospital, London. An unmarried seamstress aged sixteen had on the outside of her right leg above the ankle a discolored patch, from which she said that every month for two years there had been a discharge of about a tablespoonful of blood. The patch was covered with minute red spots resembling flea-bites. Fresh red spots and effusion of blood were seen at succeeding visits. Lee ordered a sheet of lead to be applied over the bleeding surface, to be secured by a starched bandage. On the next visit, when the dressings were removed, a few spots and a little blood were found, but the sheet of lead was pierced with holes large enough to admit a needle. When asked how this had happened the girl was silent, and was discharged as a convicted impostor. In Lefevre's experiment with Louise Lateau he placed a leather glove upon one hand, tying and sealing it at the wrists; but it is easily to be seen why this test was not as thorough as that with the lead.
17 British Medical Journal, vol. i., 1871, p. 479.
Another case of ecstasy with stigmatization is cited by Bourneville and Hammond from Magnus Huss of Stockholm—a servant-girl twenty-three years old who was subject to convulsions, and also to hemorrhages, which usually came on as the result of great emotional disturbance. In her case examination showed no cicatrices. The hemorrhages occurred from the scalp, the eyes, the face around the eyes, the left ear, and the stomach. Her menstruation went on regularly during the attacks: sometimes she had ecchymoses and apparent bruises on the left half of the body, the limbs of which were semi-paralyzed for short periods. The attacks occurred with convulsions and unconsciousness, which usually lasted about half an hour, and from which she awakened as if from a long sleep.
Autographic Women.
Certain peculiar phenomena have been described under the head of femmes autographiques, or the autographic women, and are worthy of note. Dujardin-Beaumetz18 in a case of well-marked hysteria with loss of general sensibility reports that he was able to write or trace with a needle or pointed instrument on the skin. Within a space thus traced the skin was elevated in a white patch or plate. After some five minutes the line would show itself more and more in relief, until it attained from one and a half to two millimeters in thickness. It would remain from three to six, and sometimes twelve, hours. He varied the experiments in many ways, executing upon the skin designs, tables, and names of from ten to fifteen letters. He detected in the centre of some of the spaces traced a marked elevation of temperature, sometimes appreciable to the hand. This woman was known by the name of femme diche, or the autographic woman.
18 Bull. et Mém. Société médicale de Hôpital de Paris, 1880, 12, xvi. 197-202.