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Supernormal faculties in Man- Dr Eugene Osty

A quotation from Dr. Comar's "L'auto-representation chez hysteriques (Presse Medicale, Jan. 17, 1900) will give some idea of the precision that the brain can obtain concerning the organism with which its nerves connect it.

(Major hysteria.) M-, a patient whom I was treating by mechano- therapy to reawaken normal sensibility, was suddenly taken ill with fever. The temperature went up to 40 degrees C., the only symptom being pain in the right iliac region. . . . In the absence of anything that could explain such a temperature, I expected to find hysterical fever, with some peritonitis in the coecal region.

The febrile condition subsided in three weeks. During this time the patient (under hypnosis) spoke to me several times of the little skin surrounding the intestines, which was very red, especially in one place. With rest and ice the symptoms abated; the patient got up, but did not return to normal food.

I left her on liquids, and after some days the same symptoms reappeared more strongly, with nausea, swelling of the abdomen, constipation, lancinating pain at the level of the appendix, and fever.

When the temperature rose to 40 degrees C. I put her into a cool bath.

The movements caused an increase of pain, and on the third day a paroxysm, in the course of which the patient told me that the little skin was redder than ever, and that the little end of the intestine was very bad.   I availed myself of the hypnotic state to question her, and ask her what she saw.

 "I do not see the little end very well, I don't know where it ends"

 "Why don't you see it?"

 "I cannot see it because I don't feel it. I see my bowel and the skin around it because I feel them, but I have never felt that little end."

 "Well," I said, "feel it."

She made abdominal movements accompanied by sharp pain, outcries, and words that I transcribe.

 "Oh, it will be pierced, it is very thin; the little skin sticks, it is double; and between the folds there is a sort of thick, dirty liquid; it sticks and unsticks when I move ; it will come apart, it is like a whitlow on the finger, it suppurates ; that gives me fever, and all round that place is red. All the little skin is red in the whole belly, but especially on the right side."

 I said, "Feel more."

 She made more movements; the pain seemed to increase, and she said,

"Oh! the little end is full of dirty matter ; oh, how dirty! but it has been like that a long time. It is what hurts me ; it can't get away.", . .

"Feel more." . . .

"Ah! I see the end now."

She made a quick movement and stopped on a sudden, saying, "It pricks me." . . .

"What pricks you?" . .

"There is something in the end." . . .

 "What?" . . .

"I can't see very well, it is buried in dirty stuff; it hurts me, and I dare not move lest it should burst." .

 "Lest what should burst?"  . .

"'Why, the little end; there is some pointed thing irritating it, but it is full of dirt, and I can't well see what it is, but if I move I am afraid that the point may pierce the bowel." . . .

"Well, go on feeling slowly, taking care that the point does not pierce." . . .

She then continued to make gentle abdominal movements which she had previously made to feel the bowel, and said,

" It is moving; the little end of the bowel twists about like a worm, it moves the stuff in it . . . that goes up . . . it scrapes me in passing ; now it is out of the little end . . it is in the large bowel."

She continued to make some movements, but stopped, saying that it hurt her too much. I thought it inadvisable to go further on that day, fearing more serious developments; and since the patient stopped of herself, I thought it better to follow than to guide her. Having no proof that what she had said was false, I thought it more prudent to take it for true.

In the evening the temperature had gone down two-tenths. Next day I put her under hypnosis again and asked if she could still see the intestine. She said,

"Yes; and the little point that hurt me yesterday is still in the same place" ...

"Well, wake up your bowel". .. She then made fresh movements, and said that the whole intestine was moving, that the little point was displaced, and the dirt round it less thick. . . .

"Feel more” . . .

A moment later she said," I begin to see better, but I only see one end-it is like a bit of bone about a centimetre long pointed at one end"

She then indicated a place corresponding to the transverse colon. . . 

"Feel more" . . .

The movements went on. . . .

“Where do you see it now?" . . .

She indicated her left iliac fossa. . . .

"Are you sure?" . . .

 "I see it quite well" . . .

"Then stop, and don't try to feel more" I then administered an injection of water while she was still under hypnosis. On filtering the water I found a small piece of bone of the form and size that the patient had described. I then asked her if she still saw the little point.

 "No," she said," it has gone out with the water."