When,
however, that powerful cause of nervous disorders takes the lead,
we find far more remarkable symptoms developed, and it then
depends on the mental condition of the people among whom they
appear whether in their spread they shall take a narrow or an
extended range--whether confined to some small knot of zealots
they are to vanish without a trace, or whether they are to attain
even historical importance.
5. The appearance of the Convulsionnaires in France, whose
inhabitants, from the greater mobility of their blood, have in
general been the less liable to fanaticism, is in this respect
instructive and worthy of attention. In the year 1727 there died
in the capital of that country the Deacon Paris, a zealous opposer
of the Ultramontanists, division having arisen in the French
Church on account of the bull "Unigenitus." People made frequent
visits to his tomb in the cemetery of St. Medard, and four years
afterwards (in September, 1731) a rumour was spread that miracles
took place there. Patients were seized with convulsions and
tetanic spasms, rolled upon the ground like persons possessed,
were thrown into violent contortions of their heads and limbs, and
suffered the greatest oppression, accompanied by quickness and
irregularity of pulse.
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