Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 49.djvu/366

348 of hysterical blue œdema occupying the entire extremity of the upper limb and making the hands appear swollen, bluish, cold, contrasting in the highest degree in volume, temperature, and coloring with the hand of the opposite side. He then exhibited. in the auditorium a patient suffering from major hysteria who was hypnotizable. The following suggestions had been given her during the hypnotic sleep for four or five days: She was told her right hand was puffing out, becoming larger than the other; that it was getting blue, becoming red, then violet; finally, that it was hard and was getting colder and colder. Under the influence of these suggestions, repeated at five or six hypnotic sittings, the right hand became enormous very rapidly, almost double the volume of the other; it was really much discolored and of a true cyanic tint; it was hard to the touch, and the finger would not sink into it; finally, its temperature was three degrees (centigrade) below the normal temperature of the rest of the body. In a word, it resembled in every respect the hand of another hysteric who was suffering from a spontaneous blue œdema. It was, then, possible to produce and localize in the hand by means of simple suggestions lasting disorders of nutrition and circulation of such a character that the hand became half again as large, more colored, and much colder than the other hand."

Another curious vasomotor phenomenon is the "bloody sweat." It is sometimes found occurring spontaneously without visible reference to mental states. Such a case is reported by Dr. Ernoul, of St. Malo. A hysterical girl whom he observed had bleeding spots on various parts of her body which appeared and disappeared in most unaccountable fashion. A somewhat similar case was observed by Drs. Artigalas and Rédmond, in which the bleeding could be produced by suggestion. The patient was a young married woman, twenty-two years of age. She entered the hospital October 31, 1891, for various troubles requiring surgical treatment. Later she complained of pain in the ears, and had several hæmorrhages from them. On the 23d of November and the seven subsequent days she at times wept bloody tears. She called the doctors' attention to this on the 27th; they could find no injury in the eye, but learned that she had had in childhood frequent hæmorrhages from the nose and one from the stomach. A careful examination showed many hysterical symptoms. She was hypnotized, but it was not possible to check the bloody tears by direct suggestion; they could, however, be occasioned by suggestion at any time. "On December 1st, Prof. Artigalas put her again to sleep, and suggested to her that the hæmorrhages from the eye would not recur, but that she would bleed from the hollow