of some danger, like a fire, reach safety, and thereafter are well.

Similar in type to the paralyses are losses of sensation in various
parts of the body,--losses so complete that one may thrust a needle deep
into the flesh without pain to the patient. In the days of witch-hunting
the witch-hunters would test the women suspected with a pin, and if they
found places where pain was not felt, considered they had proof of
witchcraft or diabolic possession, so that many a hysteric was hanged or
drowned. The history of man is full of psychopathic characters and
happenings; insane men have changed the course of human events by their
ideas and delusions, and on the other hand society has continually
mistaken the insane and the nervously afflicted for criminals or
wretches deserving severest punishment.

Especially striking in hysteria are the curious changes in consciousness
that take place. These range from what seem to be fainting spells to
long trances lasting perhaps for months, in which animation is
apparently suspended and the body seems on the brink of death. In olden
days the Delphian oracles were people who had the power voluntarily of
throwing themselves into these hysteric states and their vague
statements were taken to be heaven-inspired. To-day, their descendants
in hysteria are the crystal gazers, the mediums, the automatic writers
that by a mixture of hysteria and faking deceive the simple and
credulous.

For, in the last analysis, all hysterics are deceivers both of
themselves and of others. Their symptoms, real enough at bottom, are
theatrical and designed for effect. As I shall later show, they are
weapons, used to gain an end, which is the whim or will of the patient.