ring to have lost all control
over their senses, continued dancing, regardless of the bystanders, for
hours together, in wild delirium, until at length they fell to the
ground in a state of exhaustion. They then complained of extreme
oppression, and groaned as if in the agonies of death, until they were
swathed in cloths bound tightly round their waists; upon which they
recovered, and remained free from complaint until the next attack. This
practice of swathing was resorted to on account of the tympany[48] which
followed these spasmodic ravings; but the bystanders frequently relieved
patients in a less artificial manner, _by thumping and trampling upon
the parts affected_. While dancing they neither saw nor heard, being
insensible to external impressions through the senses, but were haunted
by visions." And again,--"In Liege, Utrecht, Tongres, and many other
towns of Belgium, the dancers appeared with garlands in their hair, and
their waists girt with cloths, that they might, as soon as the paroxysm
was over, receive immediate relief from the attack of tympany. This
bandage, by the insertion of a stick, was easily twisted tight; _many,
however, obtained more relief from kicks and blows_, which they found
numbers of persons ready to administer."[49]

Physicians of our own day, while magnetizing, have occasionally
encountered not dissimilar phenomena. Dr. Bertrand tells us that the
first patient he ever magnetized, being attacked by a disease of an
hysterical character, became subject to convulsions of so long duration
and so violent in character, that he had never, in all his practice,
seen the like; and that she suffered horribly. He adds,--"Here is what
happened during her first convulsion-fits. This unhappy girl, whose
instinct was perverted by intensity of pain, earnestly entreated the
persons present to press upon her with such force as at any other time
would have produced the most serious injury. I had the greatest
difficulty to prevent those around her from acceding to her urgent
requests that they would kneel upon her with all their weight, that they
would exert with their hands the utmost pressure on the pit of her
stomach, even on her throat, with the view of driving off the imaginary
hysterical _ball_ of which she complained. Though at any other time such
treatment would have produced severe pain, she declared that it relieved
her; and when the fit passed off, she did not seem to suffer the least
inconvenienc