scars, and set the example for
the really peculiar cases of bloody sweat, which among ignorant people
was considered evidence of sympathy with the agony of the Cross.

Probably the best studied case on record is that of Louise Lateau of
Bois d'Haine, which, according to Gray, occurred in 1869 in a village
of Belgium when the girl was at the age of twenty-three; her previous
life had offered nothing remarkable. The account is as follows: "One
Friday Louise Lateau noticed that blood was flowing from one side of
her chest, and this recurred every Friday. On each Thursday morning an
oval surface about one inch in length on the back of each hand became
pink in color and smooth, whilst a similar oval surface on the palm of
each hand became of the same hue, and on the upper surface of each foot
a pinkish-white square appeared. Examined under a magnifying glass, the
epidermis appeared at first without solution of continuity and
delicate. About noon on Thursday a vesicle formed on the pink surfaces
containing clear serum. In the night between Thursday and Friday,
usually between midnight and one o'clock, the flow of blood began, the
vesicle first rupturing. The amount of blood lost during the so called
stigmata varied, and some observers estimated it at about one and
three-quarter pints. The blood itself was of a reddish color, inclining
to violet, about the hue therefore, of capillary blood, coagulating in
the usual way, and the white and red corpuscles being normal in
character and relative proportion. The flow ceased on Saturdays. During
the flow of the blood the patient was in a rapt, ecstatic condition.
The facial expression was one of absorption and far-off contemplation,
changing often to melancholy, terror, to an attitude of prayer or
contrition. The patient herself stated that at the beginning of the
ecstasy she imagined herself surrounded by a brilliant light; figures
then passed before her, and the successive scenes of the crucifixion
were panoramically progressive. She saw Christ in person--His clothing,
His wounds, His crown of thorns, His cross--as well as the Apostles,
the holy women, and the assembled Jews. During the ecstasy the
circulation of the skin and heart was regular, although at times a
sudden flash or pallor overspread the face, according with the play of
the expression. From midday of Thursdays, when she took a frugal meal,
until eight o'clock on Saturday mornings the girl took no nourishment,
not even