It is not our purpose to give a detailed account of catalepsy: this would be foreign to the objects of this work; but we shall treat it only as a collateral branch of our subject. The distinction, however, between catalepsy and other affections likely to be mistaken for it, will be examined and pointed out.

The physical diagnostic of catalepsy is a wax-like flexibility of the voluntary system, so that in whatever position the body or limbs may be placed, if within the base of sustentation, it will be retained while the paroxysm continues. The psychological condition is marked by an entire disassociation of the mind with external things. The result of such a combination is perfect rest of the locomotive apparatus, absence of external sensation, loss of consciousness of surrounding objects, and obliteration of memory for the time being.

There is a large class of nervous affections which in some particulars resemble catalepsy, and are so often confounded with it, that its pathognomonic character is not unfrequently lost sight of. Trance, incubus, epilepsy, hysteria, revery, and several other anomalous affections, are frequently regarded as cases of this disease.

For instance, "A lady, the mother of an adult family, and inclined to obesity, had acquired the reprehensible custom of exclaiming upon the most trifling occasion, oh Christ! - and it happened one day, sitting alone at work as was her custom, she dropped her thimble, and in stooping to pick it up overbalanced herself, and nearly fell on her face, when she uttered the words oh Christ! On regaining her seat, she felt that the blood' had flown to her head, and put up. her hands to her eyes, and closed them to relieve herself. On opening them, she saw, immediately sitting before her, a figure like a human creature; but, instead of hair growing from each side of the head, long fleshy strings knotted here and there like stems of parsley, depended to its shoulders and chest; and as it leaned the head upon the hands, the elbows of which rested on its knees, it rocked itself backwards and forwards, exclaiming every time it stooped, oh Christ! She became instantly transfixed, and remained in that position probably half an hour, when the servant entered and found her limbs rigid, and her eyes wide open, and staring as if at some object before her. Her screams procured assistance; and active remedies being employed, she recovered her senses, and related what we have just mentioned. For a long time afterwards, we believe for fire orsix years, at the same hour every day, if sitting down, she was seized in the same manner, and saw the same horrible apparition before her."

The case of this "lady," given in the books as catalepsy, we conceive to be an instance of hallucination, induced by cerebral congestion, somewhat resembling the character of that with which the poet Tasso was afflicted, but associated with involuntary muscular contractions. It was not catalepsy, because consciousness, sensation, and memory were present, and the muscular system was rigid.

"Dr. Gooch met with a case, supervening on puerperal melancholia, in a female debilitated by repeated miscarriages. The trunk, as she lay in bed, was raised to an obtuse angle, and retained this painful posture; the limbs remained in any position in which they were placed ; and if set on her feet, the slightest push threw her off her balance, nor did she make any effort to regain it. The eyes were open, and the pupil, though dilated, contracted on the application of a strong light. She had three of these attacks, each of which lasted several hours, and recurred at intervals of one or two days." These symptoms correspond with the essential character of catalepsy, and it was undoubtedly a genuine instance of the disease.

A case of catalepsy, induced by Animal Magnetism, an account of which we published in the "American Journal of the Medical Sciences," in 1842, we here transcribe.

The subject was a female, sixteen years of age, sanguineo-nervous temperament, in good health, who had passed the change of puberty without derangement of constitution, and is competent to perform the amount of labor that falls to the lot of persons in an humble station in society.

Lest the imputation of sustaining the many wild vagaries of Animal Magnetism should be attributed to this article, it will be necessary to remark, that such is not its object. The permanent existence of that subject of research must stand or fall on its own merits; but the admission of individual facts, established by concurrence of a plurality of the senses, and which are necessary to elucidate important phenomena, is the province of true philosophy.

Its influence in this instance was to produce the diagnostic symptoms of complete catalepsy. The patient, after having submitted to the manipulations of the magnetizer for the space of fifteen minutes, was in a state of sleep so deep, that all the stimuli that could with safety be applied to the senses, did not disturb the profundity of her slumbers. The needle was applied to the dermoid texture, torpedoes were repeatedly discharged within a few feet of the organs of audition lights were presented to the apparatus of vision - the vapor of ammonia inhaled in respiration, and general concussion applied to her whole system, without eliciting any acknowledgment. During this condition, her extremities could be placed in any position, which their waxlike flexibility would maintain; and an erect posture was secure without extraneous support, when the feet were so placed as to bring the centre of gravity within the base of sustentation. The respiration resembled that of ordinary-sleep, and the arterial action was a little excited. The eyelids, when separated, exhibited the globus oculi under the control of the inferior oblique muscle; and upon removing the fingers, the lids would immediately close. The lower jaw retained the position in which it was placed by force.