| | | [293] Idem, p. 260. | | | | [294] Idem, p. 261. | | | | [295] _Ferdinand._ p. 256. | | | | [296] Idem, p. 258. | | | | [297] Idem, p. 257. | | | | [298] Idem, p. 256. | | | | [299] De Contag. Lib. III. ch. 2. p. 212. Opera Lugdun. 1591. 8vo. | | | | [300] De Contag. p. 254. | | | | [301] Idem, ibid. | | | | [302] Idem, p. 262. | | | | [303] Idem, p. 261. | | | | [304] “The imaginations of women are always more excitable than | | those of men, and they are therefore susceptible of every folly | | when they lead a life of strict seclusion, and their thoughts | | are constantly turned inwards upon themselves. Hence in orphan | | asylums, hospitals, and convents, the nervous disorder of one | | female so easily and quickly becomes the disorder of all. I have | | read in a good medical work that a nun, in a very large convent | | in France, began to mew like a cat; shortly afterwards other nuns | | also mewed. At last all the nuns mewed together every day at a | | certain time for several hours together. The whole surrounding | | Christian neighbourhood heard, with equal chagrin and astonishment, | | this daily cat-concert, which did not cease until all the nuns | | were informed that a company of soldiers were placed by the police | | before the entrance of the convent, and that they were provided | | with rods, and would continue whipping them until they promised not | | to mew any more. | | | | “But of all the epidemics of females which I myself have seen |