THE SERPENT OF ÆSCULAPIUS AND SNAKE-WORSHIP.

1023 limbs. On Tuesday, after some violent exertion, he had several more fits of similar character but remained free until Thursday, when he had a very violent fit, after which he was seen by Dr. Howells for the first time, who found him conscious and coherent but very tender about theÆSCULAPIUS AND OF SNAKETHE SERPENT right groin, palpation in this region inducing a fit. WORSHIP. Between Thursday evening and the following Sunday IT has been pointed out by Dr. Boudinthat the worship 80 more or less severe fits occurred, all presenting: of the serpent was so universal in antiquity that all temples the same general features. The attacks were readily However excited came to be known as "draconia," serpent houses. the administration of food, drink, or mediby that may be, serpents were kept in many of the temples of cine, by the striking of a clock, and by any noise. Theantiquity, notably in those of Apollo, whose son Æsculapius tongue was not bitten in the fits and there was no involuntary’ is represented in ancient statuary carrying a serpent micturition or defæcation. The sequence of the fits was as entwined round a staff or round his arm..The serpent, follows. There was first a period of semi-consciousness and indeed, came in time to be the special mystical emblem or simulated catalepsy followed by an interval with hysterical; symbol of the Æsculapian art. The serpents of the ancient manifestations. During this period the pupils were dilated,. Greek temples were in all probability relics of that primitive afterwards they gradually contracted and the eyes rolled serpent-worship which was at one time universal among slowly upwards, ushering in the stage of violent convulsions. prehistoric peoples and has not died out among There was usually marked opisthotonos and sometimes the many savage races at the present day. As "Voodoo" body would assume an arc of a circle towards the right. Theor "Obi" serpent-worship is still said to linger in the convulsive stage was followed by a period during which theWest Indies among the descendants ofthe less civilised made curious pantomimic gestures "illustrative of patient negro slaves. In Hayti especially, where negroes were his Bohemian life." After the Sunday evening no furtherdumped down from Africa by the old slave-traders and were attacks occurred. The patient was able to talk intelligently kept in reserve before being sold to masters in the surround- but appeared to have no recollection of his attacks. A few ing islands, Voodoo has defied Roman Catholic missionaries days afterwards he was able to proceed home. Dr, Howells and priests for ages. A French naval officer who visited the saw him some months later but the man then said that court of the Haytian potentate Soulongue in 1849 describes he had no recollection of having seen him before, nor did a Voodoo ceremony where cannibalistic and other orgies were he remember his illness or even the place at which it;; indulged in. It is noticeable that the cock and black goat occurred. He seems to have also forgotten his pecuniary which were solemnly eaten on this occasion were both of indebtedness to his medical attendant. Subsequently he them sacred to Æsculapius. Hence we may infer that the enlisted in the army and was killed while serving in the Æsculapian cultus was originally an innocent form of Voodoo South African war. During the 72 hours of his convulsive and at the same time a primordial religion. The extreme period he was given 14 drachms of potassium bromide, 11 antiquity of serpent-worship seems, indeed, to be hinted at drachms of bromidia, and 4 of paraldehyde, without any in Genesis, where the Devil appears in the guise of the snakeprejudicial effects. Dr. Howells rightly points out that the god intent on the ruin of man. In the story of the Brazen term I I hystero- epilepsy"is a misleading one to apply to Serpent healing qualities are attributed to the image. these cases, which should be described as hysteria major or as he would prefer, convulsive hysteria. He also draws attention to some of the special features of the case under HYSTERO-EPILEPSY IN A YOUNG MAN. his care and notably to the marked immunity shown by his THE condition described in great detail by Charcot and his during the convulsive period to the effects of power pupils under the name of hystero-epilepsy is one but rarely patient ful depressant narcotic drugs. met with in this country and even in some of the cases recorded the phenomena did not follow the typical sequence. We have received a copy of a paper by Dr. W. Howells, read A NEW OPEN SPACE FOR LONDON. before the North Glamorganshire and Breconshire division WE have already endorsed the appeal issued by the comof the South Wales branch of the British Medical Associa. mittee the object of which is to preserve part of the Grove tion, describing an example of this condition observed in a Hall Park Estate, Bow, E. This piece of ground, the last The patient was of young man in his twenty-first year. available open space in a district where the provision of fresh healthy appearance and of muscular build. He was appa- air is greatly needed, is a portion of a site which originally rently of somewhat erratic and unstable temperament, his consisted of about 12 acres of ground planted with trees. memory was very defective, and he was at times passionate about three and a half acres now remain, the larger part and vindictive. Having worked for two years as a miner Only been cut up for building land. The London County having he became subsequently baggage porter to a travelling Council has promised towards the laying out of this spaceconcert troupe. He was of Bohemian and licentious as a public park and children’s playground the sum of £4500, habits and of sensual aspect. The family history besides offering to maintain the property when acquired, revealed that his maternal grandmother was alcoholic while the borough council has contributed .f.2250. The:and also violently hysterical, stigmata which were transremainder, about £2250, with the exception of .&200 which mitted to the mother of the patient who, however, are now urgently required to save the space from thewas himself not intemperate in regard to alcohol, being builder, has been made up by public subscriptions. The practically an abstainer. About four months before he was of London and have given their hearty seen by Dr. Howells he had two fainting fits but otherwise The of the neighbourto the manufacturers appeal. he had not suffered from any serious illness. He showed no support hood have given their practical support and financial aid indication of organic visceral disease and very few hysterical towards the carrying out of the objects of the committee, stigmata, the only conditions found being defective vision recognising as business men as well as generous donors that with the right eye and some deficiency in the colour sense. the health of the people is an excellent investment in the The attack which Dr. Howells saw occurred after excessive As only £200 remain to be subscribed to save the run. sexual indulgence and was ushered in by a slight fit on long in question from being appropriated by the builder we Monday, in which he arched his back and stretched out his space cannot believe that those who have at heart the health and

for other climes she has as much to dread as (for instance) the abandonment of the Brindisi route " for that other one by the Balkan States and Salonica.

Stepney

Bishops

1

Études Anthropologiques,

1864.

well-being of

our

great and growing metropolis will allow