Mademoiselle X: Living While Dead

In 1882, a French Neurologist first recognized an … unusual illness

FRENCH NEUROLOGIST DR. JULES COTARD had to be surprised and confused by the female patient (known only as Mademoiselle X) brought to his office at the Pitié-Salpêtrière University Hospital in Paris one afternoon in 1882. The 43-year-old described a peculiar set of symptoms: she claimed she had “no brain, no nerves, no chest, no stomach, no bowels — that there was nothing left of her but the skin and bones.”

Also, she claimed she had no soul, that there was no God and no devil, and that overall she was nothing but “a disorganized body.” With no internal organs, she claimed to not need to eat anymore. Further, she expressed her belief in her immortality, noting that she could not die a natural death, but “will live forever unless she is burnt, fire being her only possible end.”

A century earlier …

Intrigued by the woman and her ominous indications, Cotard did some research and discovered that a Swiss scientist, Charles Bonnet, had in 1788 reported a curious case of an elderly woman whose descriptions were eerily similar to those of the woman brought to his office.

Bonnet had recorded that the woman was preparing a meal when she felt “a draft” then fell paralyzed…