DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70266#0212
184
kirby’s wonderful museum,
She slept little and eat less, either through loss of appetite^
or to bestow the means of her subsistence in alms for her
success.
She was very apprehensive, however, that the determina-
tion of the court would not be favourable to her; and about
five the evening before her cause was to come on, she fell
into a kind of fit, which was taken for an apoplexy, and M.
Attalin, professor of physic at Besan^on, was sent for in all
haste, who brought Fac/zer, chirurgeon of the city hospital,
along with him.
They found the lady on a settee, quite motionless, her
eyes fixed upwards sparkling, the eye-lids open, her arms
lifted up, and the hands joined, as tho’ she had been in an
ecstasy. Her countenance, which before was sad and wan,
was now florid, gay and pleasant; her respiration free and
even, and the muscles of the abdomen seemed to act with
ease; her pulse was slow, soft, and pretty full, like that of
a person in a sound sleep ; her limbs suple and flexible any
way, without resistance, for the main characteristic of her
disorder was, that they were too passive, never altering the
position they were put in.
Upon pressing the chin downwards, the mouth opened
and continued so ; if one arm was lifted up, and then the
other, neither of them dropped down; if they were turned
backwards, and then raised upright, a posture that the stout-
est man could not long have maintained, they remained so
as long as they were suffered.
She was raised from her seat, that the like trial might be
made on her legs ; and both legs and arms at once were put
into postures seemingly difficult to support; for it may be
easily imagined, that not only a desire of the knowledge of
so odd a case, but the curiosity natural on such occasions,
would suggest many hints. The patient, like soft wax, re-
tained the last attitude that was given her, and, which- is
most of all surprising, the body, though variously inclined,
kirby’s wonderful museum,
She slept little and eat less, either through loss of appetite^
or to bestow the means of her subsistence in alms for her
success.
She was very apprehensive, however, that the determina-
tion of the court would not be favourable to her; and about
five the evening before her cause was to come on, she fell
into a kind of fit, which was taken for an apoplexy, and M.
Attalin, professor of physic at Besan^on, was sent for in all
haste, who brought Fac/zer, chirurgeon of the city hospital,
along with him.
They found the lady on a settee, quite motionless, her
eyes fixed upwards sparkling, the eye-lids open, her arms
lifted up, and the hands joined, as tho’ she had been in an
ecstasy. Her countenance, which before was sad and wan,
was now florid, gay and pleasant; her respiration free and
even, and the muscles of the abdomen seemed to act with
ease; her pulse was slow, soft, and pretty full, like that of
a person in a sound sleep ; her limbs suple and flexible any
way, without resistance, for the main characteristic of her
disorder was, that they were too passive, never altering the
position they were put in.
Upon pressing the chin downwards, the mouth opened
and continued so ; if one arm was lifted up, and then the
other, neither of them dropped down; if they were turned
backwards, and then raised upright, a posture that the stout-
est man could not long have maintained, they remained so
as long as they were suffered.
She was raised from her seat, that the like trial might be
made on her legs ; and both legs and arms at once were put
into postures seemingly difficult to support; for it may be
easily imagined, that not only a desire of the knowledge of
so odd a case, but the curiosity natural on such occasions,
would suggest many hints. The patient, like soft wax, re-
tained the last attitude that was given her, and, which- is
most of all surprising, the body, though variously inclined,