Page:Illustrations of Madness.djvu/52

Rh Thigh-talking.—To effect this, they contrive so to direct their voice-sayings on the external part of the thigh, that the person assailed is conscious that his organ of hearing, with all its sensibility, is lodged in that situation. The sensation is distinctly felt in the thigh, and the subject understood in the brain.

Kiteing.—This is a very singular and distressing mode of assailment, and much practised by the gang. As boys raise a kite in the air, so these wretches, by means of the air-loom and magnetic impregnations, contrive to lift into the brain some particular idea, which floats and undulates in the intellect for hours together ; and how much soever the person assailed may wish to direct his mind to other objects, and banish the idea forced upon him, he finds himself unable ; as the idea which they have kited keeps waving in his mind, and fixes his