Women whom it has attacked will
suddenly fall down, toss their arms about, writhe their bodies
into various shapes, move their heads suddenly from side to side,
and with eyes fixed and staring, utter the most dismal cries. If
the fit happen on any occasion of pubic diversion, they will, as
soon as it has ceased, mix with their companions and continue
their amusement as if nothing had happened. Paroxysms of this
kind used to prevail most during the warm months of summer, and
about fifty years ago there was scarcely a Sabbath in which they
did not occur. Strong passions of the mind, induced by religious
enthusiasm, are also exciting causes of these fits, but like all
such false tokens of divine workings, they are easily encountered
by producing in the patient a different frame of mind, and
especially by exciting a sense of shame: thus those affected are
under the control of any sensible preacher, who knows how to
"administer to a mind diseased," and to expose the folly of
voluntarily yielding to a sympathy so easily resisted, or of
inviting such attacks by affectation. An intelligent and pious
minister of Shetland informed the physician, who gives an account
of this disorder as an eye-witness, that being considerably
annoyed on his first introduction into the country by these
paroxysms, whereby the devotions of the church were much impeded,
he obviated their repetition by assuring his parishioners that no
treatment was more effectual than immersion in cold water; and as
his kirk was fortunately contiguous to a freshwater lake, he gave
notice that attendants should be at hand during divine service to
ensure the proper means of cure.
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