Indeed, the number of Convulsionists greatly
increased after the cemetery was closed, extending to those who had no
ailment or bodily infirmity.[7]

The symptoms, though varying in different individuals, were of one
general character, partaking, especially as to the muscular phenomena,
of the nature of hysteria, or hystero-catalepsy. The patient, soon after
being placed on the revered tomb, or on the ground near it, was commonly
attacked by a tumultuous movement of all his members. Contractions
exhibited themselves in the neck, shoulders, and principal muscles all
over the body. The nervous system became dreadfully excited. The heart
beat violently, and the patient, sometimes retaining partial
consciousness and suffering extreme pain, could not restrain violent
cries. He usually experienced, also, a tingling or pricking sensation in
any diseased member. Those who from birth had been afflicted with
paralysis, or partial paralysis, of a limb, or one side of the body,
felt the convulsions chiefly in that limb or side. The convulsions were
often so violent that numerous assistants could scarcely restrain the
patient from seriously injuring himself by dashing his body or limbs
against the marble.[8]

The Demoiselle Fourcroy, alleged to have been suddenly cured, on the
fourteenth of April, 1732, by means of these convulsions, of a confirmed
anchylosis, which had deformed her left foot, and which the physicians
had pronounced incurable,[9] thus describes, in her deposition, her
sensations:--"They caused me to take wine in which was some earth from
the tomb of M. de Paris, and I immediately engaged in prayer, as the
commencement of a _neuvaine_" (that is, a nine-days' act of devotion).
"Almost at the same moment I was seized with a great shuddering, and
soon after with a violent agitation of the members, which caused my
whole body to jerk into the air, and gave me a force I had never before
possessed,--so that the united strength of several persons present could
scarcely restrain me. After a time, in the course of these violent
convulsive movements, I lost all consciousness. As soon as they passed
off, I recovered my senses, and felt a sensation of tranquillity and
internal peace, such as I had never experienced before."[10]

It was usually at the moment of recovery from these convulsions, as
Montgeron alleges and the certificates published by him declare, that
the cures deemed by him miraculous were effected. Sometimes, how