Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 26.djvu/376

362 defines as cutaneous perspiration intermixed with blood, has taken place during vehement terror, and not unfrequently during the agony of hanging, or the torture. It is said, also, in some instances, to have occurred in new-born infants, probably from the additional force given to the circulation in consequence of a full inflation of the lungs, accompanied with violent crying.

The following remarkable case is related by Hebra, in his work on "Diseases of the Skin": "The patient was a young man, strong and well-nourished, who was attacked repeatedly by hæmorrhage from the surface of the lower limbs. This generally occurred during the night, so that he first became aware that the bleeding had taken place by finding the sheets stained with spots of blood when he awoke. I once, however, saw blood flow from the uninjured back of the hand of this patient while he was sitting near me at table. The blood formed a jet, which would about correspond in size to the duct of a sweat-gland. This jet had also a somewhat spiral form, and rose about one line above the surface of the skin." An exceedingly interesting case was reported by Dr. Hart, in the "Richmond and Louisville Medical Journal," January, 1875, p. 98.

The most recent case that I have found is the following from an informal "Report of the Proceedings of the King William County (Virginia) Medical Association," by George William Pollard, M. D., and published in the "Virginia Medical Monthly" for January, 1880, p. 816: "Among a number of interesting cases reported at the last meeting of the King William County Medical Association, was one by Dr. R. G. Hill, of bloody sweat, the subject being a boy four years of age, suffering from malarial fever.

"During each sweating stage, blood oozed from the face and neck. Febrifuges followed by quinine afforded relief; but two months later he was taken with hæmorrhage from the bowels. This condition was accompanied with vomiting of blood, from which he died."

I have been able to collect in all forty-seven cases of this strange and interesting disorder; and, when we consider the long period over which this research extends and the tolerable certainty that every case of this kind has found its way into print, this number may surely be received as an indication that it is extremely rare. One of the lower animals, the hippopotamus, sweats blood, at least when brought to this country and kept in a state of confinement, as I myself have witnessed; the instance thus seen occurred during hot weather in the latter part of summer.

As already stated, sweating of blood has been simulated by religious enthusiasts, the following instructive example of which is taken from Hebra: "More than ten years ago there lived in a village not far from Vienna a woman who was said to take neither food nor drink, and who asserted that every Friday, between the hours of 10 and noon, hæmorrhage occurred spontaneously from her skin at