Note 151 — PART II. OF DISEASES. (continued 6)

When hysteric fits are occasioned by sympathy, they may be cured by exciting an opposite passion. This is said to have been the case of a whole school of young ladies in Holland, who were all cured by being told, that the first who was seized should be burnt to death. But this method of cure, to my knowledge, will not always succeed. I would therefore advise, that young ladies who are subject to hysteric fits should not be sent to boarding schools, as the disease may be caught by imitation. I have known madness itself brought on by sympathy.