_Hysterical Paralysis and Contractions._ In December 1851, I administered chloroform in Charing Cross Hospital to a young woman about twenty-five, a patient of Dr. Chowne. She kept her left knee in a semiflexed position, and would not allow it to be moved. She had been in bed in the hospital for two months. She inhaled the chloroform reluctantly, and, after becoming unconscious, she breathed and sobbed in a hysterical manner. When insensible, the limb went down flat on the bed, the knee being quite movable. A straight splint was applied, and the limb was secured to it with bandages. I was informed that in a few days she contrived to get her leg bent again. She was the domestic servant of a nobleman. It was evident that there was nothing the matter with her limb, and that it was only influenced by her volition, which was perverted by the hysteria under which she was labouring. In November, in the same year, I administered chloroform in the same hospital to another patient of Dr. Chowne, whose case was more obscure and complicated. The patient was a woman, aged thirty-three, who represented that for several months she had been unable to open her mouth, or to speak, and that she had, for the same length of time, been paralyzed in the left arm and leg. The affection, it was said, came on suddenly, in a kind of fit, which was followed by unconsciousness for three or four weeks. It was also said, that she had one or two fits the previous year, after which she was unconscious for a long time. The patient was quite conscious before inhaling the chloroform, and replied to questions by nodding or shaking the head, or by writing on a slate. She was unmarried, and had not menstruated for some months past. The chloroform was administered with a view to ascertain whether or not she was feigning. On first becoming unconscious, the patient breathed in a sobbing and hysterical manner. The chloroform was given very gradually; and as she became more affected, there were some struggling and rigidity, when the right arm and leg were moved about a good deal. The left arm and leg were also distinctly moved, but not above a tenth part as much as the extremities of the opposite side. When the patient was quite insensible, the limbs being relaxed, the pupils turned upwards, and the conjunctiva insensible, attention was turned to the jaws, which were still firmly closed, but they were opened by using a moderate degree of force with the fingers. The effect of the chloroform having been allowed in a great measure to subside, it was again administered, when the movements of the limbs recurred, and there was the same difference between the motion of the right side and that of the left, as before. When I left the patient, more than half an hour after the chloroform was discontinued, she had not opened her eyes or answered questions; and she did not do either for six days. I saw her five days after the chloroform. The pulse was very rapid on my first going to the