There are instances
on record in which fear and other similar emotions have caused a
sweating of blood, the expression "sweating blood" being not
uncommon.
Among the older writers, Ballonius, Marcolini, and Riedlin
mention bloody sweat. The Ephemerides speaks of it in front of
the hypochondrium. Paullini observed a sailor of thirty, who,
falling speechless and faint during a storm on the deck of his
ship, sweated a red perspiration from his entire body and which
stained his clothes. He also mentions bloody sweat following
coitus. Aristotle speaks of bloody sweat, and Pellison describes
a scar which periodically opened and sweated blood. There were
many cases like this, the scars being usually in the location of
Christ's wounds.
De Thou mentions an Italian officer who in 1552, during the war
between Henry II of France and Emperor Charles V, was threatened
with public execution; he became so agitated that he sweated
blood from every portion of the body. A young Florentine about to
be put to death by an order of Pope Sixtus V was so overcome with
grief that he shed bloody tears and sweated blood. The
Ephemerides contains many instances of bloody tears and sweat
occasioned by extreme fear, more especially fear of death.
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