[71] “Lettres au sujet de la magie, des malefices et des Sorciers,” Paris, 1725. [72] Remigius, “Demonolatriæ libritres,” Lugd, 1595, p. 55. [73] Thomas Erastus, “De Lamiis.” [74] Nider: “In malleo maleficorum.” [75] The ecstasy takes a sublime and contemplative character if, during watchfulness, the soul looks upwards to the Divinity; the hallucinations are erotic, on the other hand, if the mind and heart dwell on dreams of love; when the thoughts are obscene during the wakeful period, lascivious sensations are apt to follow. With irritation of the sexual organs, male or female, come illusions, which are mistaken for diabolical practices on the part of demons. (See Esquirol.) There is considerable of a correlation between chronic metritis and obscene dreams. [76] Mental suggestions. [77] F. Willis observed a similar outbreak in 1700 in a convent at Oxford, England, where the barking fit was followed by convulsions and finally pronounced mania. Reulin and Hecquet described a similar epidemic in 1701, characterized by meowing like cats, which were heard every day at the same hour among a crowd of nuns in a convent of Paris. These nuns all suddenly ceased meowing when they were accused and told if the thing re-occurred they should all be taken out and horse-whipped by a company of soldiers, who were stationed at the convent door to carry out the order. See “Traite des affections vaporeuses.” [78] Mind reading? [79] “Histoire des Diables,” p. 57 et 58. [80] That is to say, particular states of sensation among certain beings, conditions which may be produced artificially, with the development of lucidity, in proportion to the power of the hypnotizer. [81] Manuscript in the Bibliotheque Nationale. Published for the first time by M. A. Benet, Paris, 1883. [82] For full report the reader is referred to the original French.—TRANSLATOR. [83] Zoellner, “Wissenschaftliche Abhandlungen,” 1877 and 1881. [84] When we question the Fakirs of India as to the phenomena of _Spiritualism_, they answer that they are produced by spirits. “The Spirits” they say are the Souls of our ancestors, serving us now as _mediums_; we loan them our natural fluid to combine with theirs, and by this mixture they establish a _fluid body_, by the aid of which they act on matter, as you have seen.” (Paul Gibier, “Le Spiritisme.”)