drawn apart as far as possible, and rendered stiff as sticks She did not now, as she did afterwards, dance upon her feet. After remaining in this situation about an hour the fit began to abate. She was now able to regulate the motions of her hands, and to speak, though indistinctly.

She was in this situation when I was desired to approach her, that I might witness something still more extraordinary than a disorder for which music was the only remedy yet found

out.

Her eyes had not been open since I came into the room; and, to my surprise, without opening them, and by feeling only, she accurately told the colour of the different garments I had on!

This faculty she possessed in such an eminent degree as to be able to point out different colours upon one piece of cloth, cotton, linen or woollen, and to be able to discover different kinds of materials when wove into one piece, as woollen, silk and cotton. More exquisite still was this sensation: After feeling my hand some minutes with great attention, she would afterwards tell that things received from my hand belonged to

me.

This cost her more time and study than the other; and I observed that, in order to determine this, she put those substances on her cheek, as she had done my hand before them.

Did holding a substance in one's hand make a slight alteration in its surface, which her extreme sensibility of feeling could discover? And having before felt that hand, could she perceive the similarity? I was led so to conclude, or to leave the phenomena unaccounted for.

I was strengthened in this opinion by what further happened. I held a piece of money some time in my own hand, and then gave it to another person to hand to her. This appeared to puzzle her very much; and after feeling of it for some time with great attention, she accidentally let it drop, and then said she believed that it belonged to the person who passed it from me to her; but upon its being put into her hand again, she put it to her cheek, and determined that it was mine. Perhaps it will be said that by my own reasoning she ought to have adjudged it to the person who last held it: but I must remark that I held the piece longer than the other person, who, as he passed it from me to her, only slightly touched it. If, therefore, holding it in one's hand altered the surface in a slight degree, it was probably altered most by my hand. Her putting it on her cheek was probably owing to the sense of feeling being more acute there than in her fingers, she

having been accustomed to use her fingers when in health. I have observed persons to do the same when they wished to perceive a slight degree of warmth in any body, or the smoothness or softness of any material.

I should not relate things so much surpassing common credibility as those I have related, and am hereafter, in this account, to relate, let my senses confirm them ever so unequivocally, out of sight of credible witnesses. But these, and the other circumstances which I shall mention, were all observed in open day, and in the presence of persons whose testimony is not to be doubted.

All this time she was partly in a fit. She soon after came entirely out of it; was rational as when in health; and all this magic sensibility vanished; she remembering nothing of what had happened during the paroxysm.

I was now led to consider her disorder a real tarantismus; and, upon inquiry, she related the history of the spider, and the affection of her arm the same day, as above related. The partiality which she had formerly shown, when in her fits, for her father, had now begun to abate, and even to be changed to an aversion; but she still evinced a peculiar regard for her relations more remote, as cousins, &c.

Upon the back of the hand of one of those she chose to play with her fingers in following the music; and I now made the same experiment which Dr. Perry had done early in her illness. I put my hand, at the instant that both her's were lifted up, in the place of her relation's. The consequence was as before: immediately upon the ends of her fingers touching it, she endeavoured to remove it, and felt for the other!

I did not see her again until the twelfth week from the commencement of her illness, but received frequent intelligence from her. Her fits returned at unequal periods during that time. Sometimes these intervals were protracted two or three days, in which she enjoyed good health, which was usually the case in the absence of the fits; some irregularity of the menstrua only excepted.

The reports spread about the country of her strange illness, and surprising faculty of distinguishing colours by the touch, which some vulgarly attributed to witchcraft, drew together a great many people to see her. The throng of spectators, and the extreme attention she was obliged to make use of in order to distinguish colours, appearing to fatigue her, her parents were advised to prevent her being put upon the trial,

which was accordingly done. I did not now put her upon any trial of this kind; but the sensation appeared to continue as acute as ever; for she readily distinguished her relations by the touch; to all of whom she now manifested as great an aversion as she had before shown fondness. None of them were able to touch her, when in her fits, without aggravating every symptom, and bringing on the most violent spasms. And it was even said she could ill bear the room in which her father was, and could tell if he was in the room, though ever so dark, by the effect it had upon her disorder.

The salutary effect of music still continued; and she now danced upon her feet with as much accuracy as she had before shown in following the tune with her hands. Her propensity for this was discovered by her movements with her feet as she lay on the bed.

It was in the fore part of the day when I called to see her. She lay in a motionless state upon the bed, every nerve and muscle being contracted. In this situation she had been from the early part of the preceding evening; not having spoken, nor taken any notice of the music, which was now made by an excellent performer on the violin; singing having before this time lost its influence upon her. It was only of music of this kind that she would take any notice.

He had, in vain, tried to rouse her during the night. I desired him to make a further trial, by putting the instrument near her ear, and playing a brisk air. This had the de

sired effect. I soon observed her fingers, and then her eyelids, to relax. As she opened her eyes I discovered nothing but the white; the whole cornea, or coloured part, was turned over upwards into the socket, by the violence of the spasm upon the muscles of those parts.

She then began to follow the tune with her fingers, and shortly after came out of the fit, got up, walked about, and adjusted her dress. We remained out of the room a few minutes: when we went in she had thrown herself upon the bed, and was in the same motionless, contracted state, as when I first came in.

She remained thus until the violin was brought. After the music began, she made motions first with her hands and then with her feet. This was the signal for helping her up. A young man, not one of the family, but a distant relation, happening that instant to enter, attempted to assist her; but the moment he touched her she shrunk back with a seeming horror, although her eyes were closed, and would have gone into violent

convulsions, if he had not desisted, by desire of the musician. I not being related, helped her on her feet. She soon commenced dancing, in which exercise she remained near an hour and an half, with very little intermission. She danced with all her might, jumping a considerable distance from the floor, and continued the exercise so long that, being entirely exhausted, she would fall, without attempting to prevent it, like a log upon the floor. After panting with great emotion a few seconds, she would resume the exercise.

After having kept her dancing till she refused the exercise any longer, she was again laid on the bed, and fell into the same state of stupor as before.

Whilst dancing, her eyes all the time were closed, which appeared to proceed from the violence of the spasms; as tó me, indeed, did all her motions. The conjecture may be too bold, but I will venture to suggest it-that those spasmodic affections which were so violent were brought into a system of regularity by the power of music upon the auditory nerves, and sympathetically communicated from them to the other nerves of the body; and thus was her whole dancing spasinodic and involuntary.

One circumstance, among others, which corroborates this opinion, is, that in a very violent paroxysm, when the music would for some time lose its effect, and her spasms were so excessive that her friends were apprehensive they would prove fatal, when first the music would make an impression, it would cause the motions of her body, in dancing, to be as extravagant as the spasms had been violent.

No one would pretend that the spasms which preceded her dancing, and into which she would fall in case the music ceased, were dependant upon the will. And it appeared very evident that her dancing was nothing more nor less than a modification of those spasms, one terminating in the other, and vice versa.

When I left her, I recommended to her friends to keep her dancing as long as possible when she once began, and to trust to it as a principal remedy. It was my opinion that nature in this way pointed out relief.

I was afterwards informed that this advice was followed, and it was attended with this effect: it protracted the space between her fits to a longer period than ever before it had been. When they returned they were as severe as ever, though the interval was lengthened from days to weeks.

The next time I saw her I observed a surprising acuteness

in her olfactory nerves. She had manifested a partiality for the smell of certain odoriferous substances. Essence of le mons was one of those she liked best. She was in a partial paroxysm when a vial of it was introduced, and held towards her. She drew in the scent by an incessant and con vulsive kind of snuffing. It was afterwards carried out of the room, and she, with her eyes shut, directed her head toward the passage the person went out at, still snuffing. Before it was carried out, the musician rubbed the end of his finger around the mouth of the vial. He did not turn it up, and there was not the least particle of the essence, in a fluid state, upon that part. There was the remains of the oil, having a yellowish appearance, the thin part being entirely exhaled.

After the vial was removed, he put his finger under the bed on which she was lying, about half way between it and the floor. She instantly turned over on her face, applying it to the bed, that she might be able to inhale the beloved odour in a right line, which she did with the greatest eagerness. As she emerged still more from the fit, so as to open her eyes, she discovered a remarkable partiality for certain colours, and an aversion to others. Green and red were among the former; white and black, and their mixtures, among the latter. If the agreeable colour was presented, and moved or shook in her sight, it appeared to produce the greatest pleasure, which she evinced by a convulsive kind of laughter, very hearty, yet not natural. If white or black was presented, she would turn away her head with a marked aversion and seeming hor ror. The sight of any thing transparent, and water slowly poured from one vessel into another, produced the same effect as her favourite colours.

After this visit I frequently called to see her, as my profes sional avocations led me into her neighbourhood.

Every new paroxysm was attended with some variation; but the most striking phenomena were a repetition of what I have already related: the others were referable to the same cause in a less degree, that is, increased sensibility.

She continued to have her fits return at irregular periods, sometimes with intervals of four or five weeks, until the month of August, 1802: She was then seized, whilst from home, with a pain in that hand upon which the spider had crawled the December before; and the spot where she said the spider had bitten her soon became red. The pain increased for two or three days, when a spot, as large, or a little larger