"
Pooley quotes the case of a young woman of indolent habit who in
a religious fanatical trance sweated blood. The stigmatists were
often imposters who artificially opened their 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.
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