But, perhaps, the most remarkable epidemic nervous disorder which has ever appeared was that which prevailed among the Jansenists. Jansenius was born in Holland in 1585, became a devoted student, and was eventually made bishop of Ypres. He had peculiar doctrines in regard to the nature of free will, and although his opinions were regarded as unorthodox, he carried quite a large party with him. After his death his disciples continued to expound his views.
Chief among these was François, deacon of the diocese of Paris. On the 2d of May, 1727, he was buried in the cemetery of St. Medard, and very soon his tomb became celebrated for the wonderful cures performed upon those who made visits to it. Those afflicted with nervous disorders had especial confidence in its virtues, and thus the cemetery was run down with people suffering from epilepsy, neuralgia, paralysis, contractions of the limbs, rheumatism, sciatica, and various forms of insanity.
In the year 1731, it became noised abroad that a sick man who had laid himself down on the tomb of the venerable deacon, had been seized with convulsions of a very unusual character. At the same time similar convulsive attacks broke out as an epidemic in Paris.
The Jansenists took advantage of the circumstance to extol the holiness of their patron, and they spread far and near the story of the wonderful event which had taken place at the tomb of the most devoted of the disciples of Jansenius. Thousands flocked to the cemetery of St. Medard. The great majority, as soon as they touched the tomb, were violently convulsed in all their limbs, their hearts palpitated, and they uttered loud and inarticulate cries. The cemetery was filled with old men and old women, boys and girls, rolling over the ground in their contortions. Even the streets and the cabarets of the vicinity were crowded with these convulsionnaires.
The phenomena manifested were, in the first place, altogether of an hysterical character, but many, from super-excitation of the nervous system, became affected with acute cerebral disorders which soon proved fatal.
As to the kind of people who became convulsionnaires, they did not differ, so far as education, intelligence and position in life are concerned, from those who in our day go into trances and spasms at "revivals" and "great awakenings." Carré de Montgeron, who visited the place, who firmly believed in the miraculous character of the manifestations, and who cannot be suspected of wishing to underrate their importance, in his work entitled "La Verité des Miracles Opéres par l'intercession de M. Paris," says:
Among the multitude of persons suddenly affected with convulsions, accompanied with miracles, were some who, in every sense of the word, were respectable. But it must be admitted that, in general, God selected the convulsionnaires from the common people; that young children, principally girls, have composed the greater part; that almost all had lived in ignorance and obscurity; that many were deformed from birth, and that there were not a few who, when out of their supernatural condition, appeared to be imbecile.
In many cases the convulsions occurred at regular intervals after the subjects left the tomb. Sometimes the sufferers were seized with fits of barking and howling, and at others they discoursed with great enthusiasm on religious subjects.
At last a new phase occurred. The desire to undergo bodily torment became manifested, and spread with surprising rapidity through the sect. Calmeil, who, in his treatise, "De la Folie Considérée sous le point de vue Patholo-
