hallucinations of smell are allied to
reversions. (G.H. Savage, "Smell, Hallucinations of," Tuke's
_Dictionary of Psychological Medicine_; cf. the same author's
manual of _Insanity and Allied Neuroses_.) Matusch, while not
finding olfactory hallucinations common at the climacteric,
states that when they are present they are connected with uterine
trouble and sexual craving. He finds them more common in young
women. (Matusch, "Der Einfluss des Climacterium auf Entstchung
und Form der Geistesstoerung," _Allgemeine Zeitschrift fuer
Psychiatrie_, vol. xlvi, ht. 4). Fere has related a significant
case of a young man in whom hallucinations of smell accompanied
the sexual orgasm; he subsequently developed epilepsy, to which
the hallucination then constituted the aura (_Comptes Rendus de
la Societe de Biologie_, December, 1896). The prevalence of a
sexual element in olfactory hallucinations has been investigated
by Bullen, who examined into 95 cases of hallucinations of smell
among the patients in several asylums. (In a few cases there were
reasons for believing that peripheral conditions existed which
would render these hallucinations more strictly illusions.) Of
these, 64 were women. Sixteen of the women were climacteric
cases, and 3 of them had sexual hallucinations or delusions.
Fourteen other women (chiefly cases of chronic delusional
insanity) had sexual delusions. Altogether, 31 men and women had
sexual delusions. This is a large proportion. Bullen is not,
however, inclined to admit any direct connection between the
reproductive system and the sense of smell. He finds that other
hallucinations are very frequently associated with the olfactory
hallucinations, and considers that the co-existence of olfactory
and sexual troubles simply indicates a very deep and widespread
nervous disturbance. (F. St. John Bullen, "Olfactory
Hallucinations in the Insane," _Journal of Mental Science_, July,
1899.) In order to elucidate the matter fully we require further
precise inquiries on the lines Bullen has laid down.
It may be of interest to note, in this connection, that smell and
taste hallucinations appear to be specially frequent in forms of
religious insanity. Thus, Dr. Zurcher, in her inaugural
dissertation on Joan of Arc (_Jeanne d'Arc_, Leipzig, 1895, p.
72), estimates that on the
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