hus delaying the crisis of the malady, and
were obliged at last to save themselves from a miserable death by
submitting to the unwelcome but sole means of cure. Thus it appears that
the age was so little favourable to freedom of thought, that even the
most decided sceptics, incapable of guarding themselves against the
recollection of what had been presented to the eye, were subdued by a
poison, the powers of which they had ridiculed, and which was in itself
inert in its effect.

SECT. 5--HYSTERIA

Different characteristics of the morbidly excited vitality having been
rendered prominent by tarantism in different individuals, it could not
but happen that other derangements of the nerves would assume the form of
this whenever circumstances favoured such a transition. This was more
especially the case with hysteria, that proteiform and mutable disorder,
in which the imaginations, the superstitions, and the follies of all ages
have been evidently reflected. The "Carnevaletto delle Donne" appeared
most opportunely for those who were hysterical. Their disease received
from it, as it had at other times from other extraordinary customs, a
peculiar direction; so that, whether bitten by the tarantula or not, they
felt compelled to participate in the dances of those affected, and to
make their appearance at this popular festival, where they had an
opportunity of triumphantly exhibiting their sufferings. Let us here
pause to consider the kind of life which the women in Italy led. Lonely,
and deprived by cruel custom of social intercourse, that fairest of all
enjoyments, they dragged on a miserable existence. Cheerfulness and an
inclination to sensual pleasures passed into compulsory idleness, and, in
many, into black despondency. Their imaginations became disordered--a
pallid countenance and oppressed respiration bore testimony to their
profound sufferings. How could they do otherwise, sunk as they were in
such extreme misery, than seize the occasion to burst forth from their
prisons and alleviate their miseries by taking part in the delights of
music? Nor should we here pass unnoticed a circumstance which
illustrates, in a remarkable degree, the psychological nature of
hysterical sufferings, namely, that many chlorotic females, by joining
the dancers at the Carnevaletto, were freed from their spasms and
oppression of breathing for the whole year, although the corporeal cause
of their malady was not removed. After su