Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine [228]
France, being under constant agitation and emotion, sank under a disorder which was accompanied by an exudation of blood from every pore of his body. This was taken as an attempt of nature to cure by bleeding according to the theory of the venesectionists. Fabricius Hildanus mentions a child who, as a rule, never drank anything but water, but once, contrary to her habit, drank freely of white wine, and this was soon followed by hemorrhage from the gums, nose, and skin.
There is a case also related of a woman of forty-five who had lost her only son. One day she fancied she beheld him beseeching her to release his soul from purgatory by prayers and fasting every Friday. The following Friday, which was in the month of August, and for five succeeding Fridays she had a profuse bloody perspiration, the disorder disappearing on Friday, March 8th, of the following year. Pooley says that Maldonato, in his "Commentaries of Four Gospels," mentions a healthy and robust man who on hearing of his sentence of death sweated blood, and Zacchias noted a similar phenomenon in a young man condemned to the flames. Allusion may also be made to St. Luke, who said of Christ that in agony He prayed more earnestly, "and His sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground."
Pooley quotes the case of a young woman of indolent habit who in a religious fanatical trance sweated blood. The stigmatists were often imposters who artificially opened their scars, and set the example for the really peculiar cases of bloody sweat, which among ignorant people was considered evidence of sympathy with the agony of the Cross.
Probably the best studied case on record is that of Louise Lateau of Bois d'Haine, which, according to Gray, occurred in 1869 in a village of Belgium when the girl was at the age of twenty-three; her previous life had offered nothing remarkable. The account is as follows: "One Friday Louise Lateau noticed that blood was flowing from one side of her chest, and this recurred every Friday. On each Thursday morning an oval surface about one inch in length on the back of each hand became pink in color and smooth, whilst a similar oval surface on the palm of each hand became of the same hue, and on the upper surface of each foot a pinkish-white square appeared. Examined under a magnifying glass, the epidermis appeared at first without solution of continuity and delicate. About noon on Thursday a vesicle formed on the pink surfaces containing clear serum. In the night between Thursday and Friday, usually between midnight and one o'clock, the flow of blood began, the vesicle first rupturing. The amount of blood lost during the so called stigmata varied, and some observers estimated it at about one and three-quarter pints. The blood itself was of a reddish color, inclining to violet, about the hue therefore, of capillary blood, coagulating in the usual way, and the white and red corpuscles being normal in character and relative proportion. The flow ceased on Saturdays. During the flow of the blood the patient was in a rapt, ecstatic condition. The facial expression was one of absorption and far-off contemplation, changing often to melancholy, terror, to an attitude of prayer or contrition. The patient herself stated that at the beginning of the ecstasy she imagined herself surrounded by a brilliant light; figures then passed before her, and the successive scenes of the crucifixion were panoramically progressive. She saw Christ in person--His clothing, His wounds, His crown of thorns, His cross--as well as the Apostles, the holy women, and the assembled Jews. During the ecstasy the circulation of the skin and heart was regular, although at times a sudden flash or pallor overspread the face, according with the play of the expression. From midday of Thursdays, when she took a frugal meal, until eight o'clock on Saturday mornings the girl took no nourishment, not even water, because it was said that she did not feel the want of it and could not retain anything upon her stomach. During this time the ordinary secretions were
There is a case also related of a woman of forty-five who had lost her only son. One day she fancied she beheld him beseeching her to release his soul from purgatory by prayers and fasting every Friday. The following Friday, which was in the month of August, and for five succeeding Fridays she had a profuse bloody perspiration, the disorder disappearing on Friday, March 8th, of the following year. Pooley says that Maldonato, in his "Commentaries of Four Gospels," mentions a healthy and robust man who on hearing of his sentence of death sweated blood, and Zacchias noted a similar phenomenon in a young man condemned to the flames. Allusion may also be made to St. Luke, who said of Christ that in agony He prayed more earnestly, "and His sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground."
Pooley quotes the case of a young woman of indolent habit who in a religious fanatical trance sweated blood. The stigmatists were often imposters who artificially opened their scars, and set the example for the really peculiar cases of bloody sweat, which among ignorant people was considered evidence of sympathy with the agony of the Cross.
Probably the best studied case on record is that of Louise Lateau of Bois d'Haine, which, according to Gray, occurred in 1869 in a village of Belgium when the girl was at the age of twenty-three; her previous life had offered nothing remarkable. The account is as follows: "One Friday Louise Lateau noticed that blood was flowing from one side of her chest, and this recurred every Friday. On each Thursday morning an oval surface about one inch in length on the back of each hand became pink in color and smooth, whilst a similar oval surface on the palm of each hand became of the same hue, and on the upper surface of each foot a pinkish-white square appeared. Examined under a magnifying glass, the epidermis appeared at first without solution of continuity and delicate. About noon on Thursday a vesicle formed on the pink surfaces containing clear serum. In the night between Thursday and Friday, usually between midnight and one o'clock, the flow of blood began, the vesicle first rupturing. The amount of blood lost during the so called stigmata varied, and some observers estimated it at about one and three-quarter pints. The blood itself was of a reddish color, inclining to violet, about the hue therefore, of capillary blood, coagulating in the usual way, and the white and red corpuscles being normal in character and relative proportion. The flow ceased on Saturdays. During the flow of the blood the patient was in a rapt, ecstatic condition. The facial expression was one of absorption and far-off contemplation, changing often to melancholy, terror, to an attitude of prayer or contrition. The patient herself stated that at the beginning of the ecstasy she imagined herself surrounded by a brilliant light; figures then passed before her, and the successive scenes of the crucifixion were panoramically progressive. She saw Christ in person--His clothing, His wounds, His crown of thorns, His cross--as well as the Apostles, the holy women, and the assembled Jews. During the ecstasy the circulation of the skin and heart was regular, although at times a sudden flash or pallor overspread the face, according with the play of the expression. From midday of Thursdays, when she took a frugal meal, until eight o'clock on Saturday mornings the girl took no nourishment, not even water, because it was said that she did not feel the want of it and could not retain anything upon her stomach. During this time the ordinary secretions were