THE "PHANTOM ANESTHETIST" OF MATTOON:A FIELD STUDY OF MASS HYSTERIA *

BY DONALD M. JOHNSON

University of Illinois

THE story of the "phantom anes-thetist" begins in Mattoon, Illinois,on the first night of September,

1944, when a woman reported to thepolice that someone had opened herbedroom window and sprayed her witha sickish sweet-smelling gas which par-tially paralyzed her legs and made herill. Soon other cases with similarsymptoms were reported, and the policeorganized a full-scale effort to catch theelusive "gasser." Some of the Mattooncitizens armed themselves with shot-guns and sat on their doorsteps to waitfor him; some even claimed that theycaught a glimpse of him and heard himpumping his spray gun. As the num-ber of cases increased—as many asseven in one night—and the facilitiesof the local police seemed inadequateto the size of the task, the state policewith radio-equipped squad cars werecalled in, and scientific crime detectionexperts went to work, analyzing strayrags for gaseous chemicals and check-ing the records of patients recentlyreleased from state institutions. Beforelong the "phantom anesthetist" of Mat-toon had appeared in newspapers allover the United States, and Mattoonservicemen in New Guinea and Indiawere writing home anxiously inquiringabout their wives and mothers. Afterten days of such excitement, when all

* The writer is indebted to the Research Boardof the University of Illinois for financial supportof this project, and to Police Commissioner T. V.Wright for his friendly cooperation during thefield work at Mattoon. Dr. R. P. Hinshaw kindlylooked over the manuscript.

victims had recovered and no substan-tial clues had been found, the policebegan to talk of "imagination" andsome of the newspapers ran columnson "mass hysteria"; the episode of the"phantom anesthetist" was over.

Journalistically the story died in afew weeks. In the police records thelast attack was reported on September12. Scientifically, however, the episodedemands attention as a fascinating psy-chological phenomenon. Only one caseof a "mental epidemic" has been re-ported in recent years: an outburst ofhysterical twitching in a Louisiana highschool was described by Schuler andParenton (7). They were unable tofind any reference in the standardsources to hysterical epidemics in theUnited States for over forty years, andthey raise the question whether thesephenomena are disappearing. Thewriter, therefore, undertook an investi-gation of the Mattoon case, with twogeneral aims: (i) to preserve, for thesake of the record, an accurate accountof the events, and (2) to attempt ananalysis of the psychological factors in-volved in these events. The investiga-tion consisted chiefly of an analysis ofthe records in the Police Departmentand interviews with those who reportedphysical symptoms from the gas. Thestudy was begun in the middle of Sep-tember and continued until the end ofthe year, but most of the interviewingwas done in October. All the workwas done by the writer, who assumesresponsibility for this report.

175

176 DONALD M. JOHNSON

THE FACTS OF THE CASE

Mattoon is a small Illinois city,located about 50 miles southeast of thecenter of the state. The population,according to the 1940 census, was 15,827,of which 98 per cent were native-bornwhite. It is surrounded by rather pros-perous farm land, and its economy islargely determined by this fact. Inaddition, it is a junction for the IllinoisCentral and the New York Centralrailroads, both of which maintain re-pair shops at this point. There are afew small industries, a shoe factory, afurniture factory, Diesel engine works,a foundry, and the like. All in all it isa fairly typical midwestern city. As aresult of the war it has enjoyed a mildboom, but not an upsetting one.

The outlines of the story can bequickly set down as a background fordiscussion of specific questions. OnSeptember i about midnight Mrs. Ahad a friend telephone the police thatshe and her daughter had been gassed.The police found no signs of an in-truder, but Mr. A reported that, whenhe came home about two hours later, hesaw a man run from the window. Thepolice were called again, and again theyfound nothing. The next evening theMattoon Daily Journal-Gazette carrieda front-page story on the "gas attack"and a headline: "ANESTHETICPROWLER ON LOOSE."

On the following day, Sunday thethird, Mr. B reported to the police thathe and his wife had had a similar occur-rence. In the middle of the night ofAugust 31—the night before Mrs. A'sattack—he woke up sick, and retched,and asked his wife if the gas had beenleft on. When she woke up she wasunable to walk. At first they hadattributed these symptoms to hot dogseaten the evening before. About thesame time Mr. C, who works nights,

told the press that his wife and daugh-ter had likewise been attacked. Thedaughter woke up coughing and, whenMrs. C got up to take care of her, shecould hardly walk. They did not sus-pect gas until they read the papers nextday. These two accounts appeared inthe Mattoon paper on September 5,since no paper was printed on Sundaythe third or Labor Day the fourth.

On the evening of September 5 twonew attacks were recorded. Mrs. Dcame home with her husband about10.30, picked up a cloth from the porch,smelled it, and reported that the fumesburned her mouth and lips so badlythat they bled. Mr. E, who worksnights, reported that his wife heardsomeone at the bedroom window,smelled gas, and was partially paralyzedby it.

On the sixth three more cases oc-curred, according to the police records.On the seventh, none; on the eighth,four; on the ninth, five; and on thetenth, seven. This apparently was theclimax of the affair, for no cases werereported on the eleventh, only one onthe twelfth, and none thereafter.

The symptoms reported were nauseaand vomiting, palpitations, paralysis ofthe legs, dryness of the mouth andthroat and, in one case at least, burnsabout the mouth. All cases recoveredrapidly, hence there was little possibilityfor outside check on the symptoms.Four cases were seen by physicians, whodiagnosed all cases as hysteria.

In at least three cases, so the testi-mony goes, the family dog "must havebeen gassed also" since he did not barkat the intruder.

Those who reported smelling the gasdescribed it as "a musty smell," "sick-ish," "like gardenias," or "like cheapperfume." In some cases, thoughsymptoms were reported, the gas wasnot smelled.

THE "PHANTOM ANESTHETIST" OF MATTOON 177

Police activity took several directions.Most important, probably, was theattempt to catch the "mad gasser" inflagrante delicto. The police answeredall telephone calls as soon as possibleand, when the state police came intothe picture with modern radio equip-ment, were often able to surround ahouse, in the words of the Commis-sioner of Police, "before the phone wasback on the hook." Despite all thisand despite the amateur efforts of anexcited citizenry no one was ever appre-hended "in the act." Less direct pro-cedures revolved around examinationof a few objects found near houseswhere attacks had been reported, par-ticularly chemical analysis of the clothfound by Mrs. D, and the usualround-up of suspicious characters. Theresults of these attempts were also nega-tive. On the eleventh the Commis-sioner of Police put a note in the paperrequesting that "roving bands of menand boys should disband," and thatguns be put away "because some inno-cent person may get killed." Aboutthe same time the police adopted thepolicy of having the victims sent to ahospital for examination.

GAS OR HYSTERIA?

Obviously something extraordinarytook place in Mattoon, and for its ex-planation two hypotheses have beenadvanced. The "gasser" hypothesisasserts that the symptoms were pro-duced by a gas which was sprayed onthe victims by some ingenious fiendwho has been able to elude the police.This explanation was disseminated bynewspapers throughout the country, atthe beginning of the episode at least,and it is widely believed in Mattoon atpresent. The alternative hypothesis isthat the symptoms were due to hysteria.

The evidence for the "gasser" hy-pothesis comes from the reports of the

victims concerning their symptoms, re-ports which are notoriously difficult tocheck. The fact that vomiting didoccur was authenticated in a few casesby outside testimony but, since vomit-ing could be produced by gas or hys-teria or dietary indiscretions, this factis not crucial. There is plenty of evi-dence from the police and other ob-servers that the victims were emotion-ally upset by their experiences, but thistoo is not a crucial point.

Another difficulty with the "gasser"hypothesis is the self-contradictory de-mands it makes on the gas. In orderto produce effects of the kind reportedwhen sprayed through a window itwould have to be a very potent stableanesthetic with rapid action, and at thesame time so unstable that it would notaffect others in the same room. Itwould have to be strong enough to pro-duce vomiting and paralysis, and yetleave no observable after-effects. Studyof a standard source on anesthetics andwar gases (3) and consultation withmedical and chemical colleagues at theUniversity of Illinois indicates that theexistence of such a gas is highly im-probable. Chemists are extremely skep-tical of the possibility that such anextraordinary gas could be producedby some "mad genius" working in abasement.

Several people reported seeing aprowler who might be the "anesthet-ist." This too is not an important mat-ter since prowlers have been reportedto the police in Mattoon once or twicea week for several years. And, ofcourse, prowlers do not produce paraly-sis or dry throats.

A minor weakness in the gas hy-pothesis is the lack of a motive. Nomoney was stolen, and the circum-stances were such that there would belittle gratification for a peeper.

The best evidence for the hysteria

178 DONALD M. JOHNSON

hypothesis is the nature of the symp-toms and the fact that those cases seenby physicians—though there were onlyfour—were diagnosed as hysteria. Allsymptoms reported are common inhysteria and can be found in the medi-cal literature for many years back. Forexample, here is a description of a mildhysterical attack dated about a hundredyears ago. Janet (4) quotes it fromBriquet:

I choose, for an example, what happens toa woman somewhat impressionable who ex-periences a quick and lively emotion. Sheinstantly feels a constriction at the epigas-trium; experiences oppression, her heartpalpitates, something rises in her throat andchokes her; in short, she feels in all herlimbs a discomfort which causes them in away to drop; or else it is an agitation, anecessity for movement, which causes a con-traction of the muscles. This is indeed theexact model of the most common hystericalaccident, of the most ordinary hystericalspasm, (pp. 376-377)

The hypothesis of hysteria accountsfor the rapid recovery of all victims andthe lack of after-effects. It explainswhy no "gasser" was found in spite ofmobilization of local and state policeand volunteers. It accounts for the factthat nothing was stolen and that dogsdid not bark. The objections to thehypothesis of hysteria come from thevictims themselves—quite naturally—and from others who do not realize theintensity and variety of effects whichare produced by psychological forces.

Some who like compromises mayargue that these two explanations arenot exclusive, that there may have beena "gasser" at first even though the laterspread of the symptoms was an hysteri-cal phenomenon. The "anesthetist"soon become scared and ceased hisfiendish activities. We may grant thecharm of compromise as a generalthing but insist that the above argu-ments still hold—for the first part ofthe episode as well as the last. The

hypothesis of hysteria fits all the evi-dence, without remainder.

QUANTITATIVE DATA ON CHRONOLOGYIf we consider the whole affair as a

psychogenic one, as a "mental epi-demic" due chiefly to suggestion, thesequence of events takes on a particularsignificance, and fortunately a more-or-less objective chronology of the case isfurnished by records of telephone callsto the Police Department. In theMattoon Police Department the desksergeant regularly records the date andtime of all calls and a brief note of thenature of the call and subsequent policeaction. From these records calls specifi-cally reporting a "gassing" were easilysegregated. Another category of calls,usually designated as "prowler calls"by the police, was found to be useful.This designation means that someonephoned and reported that a man wasacting strangely on the street, or thatnoises were heard on the back porch,and that, when the police answered thecall, they could find no evidence of anydamage or break-in. The records werebroken down in this way for the periodof the excitement and a few weeksbefore and after.1 Figure i shows thetrends which appear when these dataare grouped into weekly intervals.

The "gasser" curve starts from zero,reaches a peak rapidly, and rapidlyreturns to the baseline, as one wouldexpect. (The decline is actually quitesharp, as noted earlier, though in thefigure it appears more gradual than therise because of the grouping into weeklyintervals.) The "prowler" curve risesand falls with the "gasser" curve, aparallel which' cannot be merely coinci-dental. Since the police do not list acall as a "prowler" call if they findevidence of damage or entry, it is likely

1 The writer is very gratefifl to Sgt. EdwardDavidson for carrying out a day-by-day analysisof these records.

THE "PHANTOM ANESTHETIST" OF MATTOON 179

that these calls result, in many cases atleast, from psychological causes operat-ing in a vague or ambiguous perceptualsituation. Thus, during a period ofgreat excitement like a manhunt, whenanticipation is intense, the number of"prowler" calls would increase. Simi-larly, as the excitement subsides, thenumber of such calls would subside.

13 20 27 3 10 17 24 I B 15 ZZAUG. SEPT OCT.

FIG. I. ANALYSIS OF RECORDS OF TELE-PHONE CALLS TO THE MATTOON' POLICE DEPARTMENT

Gasser calls begin on September 2,increase rapidly, and decrease rapidly tozero. Prowler calls, which develop outof an unstructured situation, begin in thisgraph at their average level, rise with theexcitement of the gasser episode, and fallto zero as contra-suggestibility develops.Total calls at the police station begin atthe average level, rise with the increase ingasser activities, decline as contra-sug-gestibility develops, then return to theaverage level.

The most striking fact is that therewere so few "prowler" calls in the lastpart of September and none whateverin October until just before Hallowe'en.This is very unusual, according to thepolice, and a check of the records forthe same months in 1943 discloses nosimilar fluctuations. The only plausibleexplanation is that the lack of "prowler"calls results from the development ofcontra-suggestibility. After hearing ofthe "phantom anesthetist" and thenof "imagination" and "hysteria," thepeople who ordinarily would havecalled the police when they heard a

suspicious noise became critical andinhibited their "imagination."

The curve for total calls is similar.Police business in general increasedsharply during the "gasser" episode,then declined for a few weeks beforecoming back to normal.

In the light of the evidence presentedthus far it seems proper to speak of awave of excitement or a "mental epi-demic" sweeping through Mattoon.The people who succumbed to the epi-demic can be grouped into three classesaccording to the intensity of their re-sponse. In the first class are thosewho merely put off their evening strolland locked their windows more care-fully than usual. Such conduct wouldof course be called "sensible" andhardly requires any explanation, but itmust be remembered that there weremany in Mattoon—perhaps a ma-jority—who completely ignored theincident. In the second class are thosewho reported to the police that theysaw or heard a prowler. A report ofthis kind indicates a higher level ofsusceptibility since it means that sug-gestion enters into and complicates per-ception. The third class is made up ofthose who reported physical symptomsfrom "gassing." The occurrence of thephysical symptoms indicates a highdegree of suggestibility, on the averageat least, and perhaps some constitu-tional predisposition to physical com-plaints as well.

AGENCIES OF COMMUNICATION

How was the suggestion carried toall these people so quickly and uni-formly? There are three possibilities:direct face-to-face contact between vic-tims, indirect conversation or gossip,and the newspapers. In talking to thevictims the investigator attempted todetermine when and how each had firstheard of the "phantom anesthetist."

i8o DONALD M, JOHNSON

The replies gave very little evidence offace-to-face contact. With the excep-tion of four cases in which two peoplelived together and were "attacked" atthe same time it seems that the victimswere practically unknown to each other.The possibility of indirect contactthrough neighborhood chatting is amore likely one, and one which is diffi-cult to check. The chief argumentagainst this avenue of communication isthat it takes time, and the "epidemic"spread rapidly. The cases were widelyscattered throughout the town, and, aswe shall see later, only about a third ofthe victims had telephones.

As a means of communication thenewspaper is, of course, the most effec-tive. According to 1941 figures (9) 97per cent of Mattoon families read theMattoon Daily Journal-Gazette everyevening except Sunday. This is theonly paper with a large circulation inMattoon, and obviously it is the sourceto which most residents would turn forinformation in a case of this kind. Itis necessary, therefore, to examinethe Journal-Gazette's treatment of thestory and to analyze its psychologicalinfluence.

The Mattoon Daily Journal-Gazette,which usually runs to about eight pages,resembles other small newspapers bothin size and in editorial policy. In gen-eral its treatment of the news is con-servative, and one would expect that itsreaders have confidence in its reliabil-ity. No one would consider it a "sen-sational" paper. When a headline,"ANESTHETIC PROWLER ONLOOSE," appeared, therefore—as itdid Saturday evening, September 2—itwas no doubt taken at face value. Thestory, which ran on the front page in afull column headed "Mrs. (A) andDaughter First Victims," was writtenas a straightforward news item. In-cluding the headline it covered 47

square inches.2 In retrospect it makesrather interesting reading. The carefulreader's eye is caught particularly by theword "First" in the heading, since onlythe one case is mentioned. Whetherthis was an instance of prophetic in-sight or merely an error is not known,but the word does now, and probablydid then, arouse a tingle of anticipation.

• On the next two days, Sunday andLabor Day, no paper was printed, buton Tuesday, the fifth, 26 square inchesappeared on page six. On the sixththere were 40 square inches, includinga headline, on the front page. On theseventh 29 square inches were used,including a headline, "MAD ANES-THETIST STRIKES AGAIN." Noheadline was used on the eighth andonly 28 square inches of space. Objec-tively and in terms of newspaper spacethe excitement seemed to be dyingdown. But note the first paragraph:

Mattoon's "mad anesthetist" apparentlytook a respite from his maniacal foraysThursday night and while many terrorstricken people were somewhat relieved theywere inclined to hold their breath and won-der when and where he might strike next.

Several attacks were reported thatnight, and on the evening of the nintha three-quarter-inch headline was used,crowding the war news to a secondaryposition. In all, the story took up 51square inches of space. Evidently theclimax is approaching. Up to thispoint the reader is treated to an ab-sorbing horror story—with a mysteri-ous marauder whose "maniacal forays"increase in a fantastic crescendo, afrightful new scientific device for gas-

2 Measurement of newspaper space, as for ourpurposes, is not well standardized. In the presentanalysis the square inch is used, and the figuresgiven include headlines and photographs as wellas text. Those who like to think in terms of thecolumn inch can halve these figures and get thelength of a standard two-inch column whichwould contain the material.

THE "PHANTOM ANESTHETIST" OF MATTOON 181

sing the victims, and a succession oftantalizing clues. His interest may bearoused to the point where he partici-pates in the manhunt—vicariously,through reading about the scientific in-vestigations of the state crime-detectionexperts or trying out his own hunches,or actually, by following the police carsor patrolling the streets. In other casesit was not the thrill of the chase whichwas aroused but apprehension and fear.It was in these people that the hysteri-cal symptoms appeared.

On the eleventh (the tenth was Sun-day) the tone of the story changes.Although 62 square inches were givento the story, the headline contained thephrase "few real" and the treatment iscritical. No headline was used on thetwelfth and the keynote phrase was"hysteria abates"; the story took up 28square inches. The next evening acomical twist is given to the affair,expanding it to 59 square inches abouttwo false alarms which turned out tobe a black cat and a doctor trying tobreak into his own office after he hadforgotten his keys. On the fourteenththe account falls to 19 square inches,and next evening it is put back onpage six with only 14 square inches,although a box of 10 square inchesappeared on the front page telling howwidely the story had been circulated.

The Journal-Gazette dropped theaffair from this point to the twentieth,when an editorial was printed, appar-ently in reply to some ribbing by aDecatur paper. The editorial assertedthat, although much of the excitementmay have been due to hysteria, therereally had been some odors in Mat-toon—perhaps blown up from Decatur.With this epilogue the drama takes itsleave from the columns of the MattoonDaily Journal-Gazette.

Of the out-of-town newspapers theChicago Daily Tribune and the Chicago

Daily News have the largest circula-tions in Mattoon, with coverages of 24per cent and 20 per cent respectively (9).The Tribune started the story on thesixth with 10 square inches and gave it20 to 30 square inches each day there-after until the fifteenth. The editorialviewpoint of the story became skepticalabout the twelfth. The Daily News'treatment was similar except that it ranphotographs and did not question theauthenticity of the "anesthetist." Thesepapers have enough circulation in Mat-toon to have an important influencebut, since they came in late and sincetheir readers read the local paper also,their influence was probably merely oneof emphasis and reinforcement.

The Chicago Herald-American,though its coverage in Mattoon is onlyabout 5 per cent (9), handled the storymost thoroughly and most sensation-ally. Its text and photographs wereoften cited to the investigator. Itstarted late—on the eighth—with 41square inches, including a photograph.The opening paragraphs of the front-page storv which appeared on the tenthare worth quoting.

Groggy as Londoners under protractedaerial blitzing, this town's bewildered citizensreeled today under the repeated attacks of amad anesthetist who has sprayed a deadlynerve gas into 13 homes and has knocked out27 victims.

Seventy others dashing to the area inresponse to the alarm, fell under the influ-ence of the gas last night.

All skepticism has vanished and Mattoongrimly concedes it must fight haphazardlyagainst a demented phantom adversary whohas been seen only fleetingly and so far hasevaded traps laid by city and state police andposses of townsmen.

By the eleventh the story was up to71 square inches, including a i^-inchheadline: "STATE HUNTS GASMADMAN." On the twelfth it wasgiven 95 square inches, with pictures ofcrying babies on the front page. After

182 DONALD M. JOHNSON

that the account becomes somewhatcritical but continues to carry hints thatthe "gasser" may be a woman, or anapeman, and the like. On Sunday, theseventeenth, however, after the otherpapers had dropped the story, theHerald-American printed a long inter-view with a psychiatrist, Dr. HaroldHulburt, beginning at the top of thefront page above the headline, andcovering 196 square inches, with severalphotograph's. This article discusses thedynamics of hysteria in general andincludes some sympathetic conjecturesregarding unconscious motives of Mrs.A. Further articles resulting from theinterview with the psychiatrist ap-peared on the eighteenth and thetwentieth. On December 3 The Ameri-can Weekly, a Sunday supplement ofthe Herald-American, carried a full-page article by Donald Laird entitled"The Manhunt for Mr. Nobody."

The story was carried by the pressservices and was used or ignored bynewspapers throughout the countryaccording to their editorial policies.The New Yor^ Times, for instance, didnot refer to it, while PM had 12 squareinches on the seventh and 5 on thetwelfth. The Stars &• Stripes (LondonEdition) carried 7 square inches on theeleventh. Among the weeklies, News-wee\ for September 18 carried 20square inches, while Time for the samedate carried 26. Both of these accountswere skeptical—Time was even sar-castic—but neither dared come to anydefinite conclusions. Time elevated thenumber of cases at the peak from sevento seventeen. Dispatch, a weekly of thePersian Gulf Command, gave it 13square inches on the eighteenth.3

3 Radio treatment of the story was not consid-ered important enough to warrant study. Thereis no radio station at Mattoon, and no one inMattoon or elsewhere mentioned a radio accountto the investigator. In general, radio editors treatthese stories conservatively.

Striking evidence of the interestaroused by these accounts comes fromthe large number of letters and tele-grams—estimated at about 300—whichwere received by Mattoon officials fromall over the United States. The writerexamined a sample of 30 of these andfound half of them more-or-less sen-sible, though ill-informed, containingsuggestions for capturing the "menace."The other half could be judged psycho-pathic—on the basis of ideas of self-reference, intensity of affect, and thecombination of poor judgment withgood vocabulary and expression. Para-noid trends were common.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SUSCEPTIBLESAMPLE

Thus far in our investigation we havetreated the Mattoon affair as a socialphenomenon. The next question, andperhaps the most important, concernsthe individuals in the affair. Whywere some people susceptible whiletheir nextdoor neighbors were not?Phrased in more workable form thequestion becomes one of finding differ-ences between the susceptible sampleand the rest of the population of Mat-toon. The experimental literature onsuggestibility and the clinical literatureon hysteria offered several attractivehypotheses for check, but the nature ofthe case put a distinct limitation on themethods which could be used. It wasapparent from the first few interviewsthat the victims, while they would talkabout the "gassing," and their symp-toms, and similar superficial matters,would not be willing to cooperate inany inquiry directed toward, forexample, unconscious motivation. Theyhad been victimized twice: once by theconcatenation of factors, environmentaland personal, which produced thesymptoms, and later by publicity andgossip, which carried the implication

THE "PHANTPM ANESTHETIST" OF MATTOON 183

that people who have hysterical attacksare more peculiar, or less sincere, thantheir neighbors. For these reasons thebest one could hope for was a descrip-tion of the sample in respect of a fewobjective characteristics.

The 1940 Census Reports (8) givedata on. a number of characteristics ofthe Mattoon population; getting thesame data for our sample would permita comparison in these respects. Thosecharacteristics were selected whichseemed easy to verify and of possiblesignificance for the present problem:age, sex, schooling, economic level, andoccupation. Age was estimated and, indoubtful cases, checked by the estimatesof acquaintances. To get a picture ofthe economic level of the sample fourconveniences were used as indices:radio, mechanical refrigerator, elec-tricity, and telephone. Percentages forthe first three are given in the CensusReports. The number of residentialtelephones in Mattoon was kindly fur-nished by the manager of the local tele-phone agency, and the percentage com-puted in reference to the number ofoccupied dwelling units given in theCensus Reports. The Census Bureau'sdescriptions of their occupational cate-gories were studied before the inter-viewing began so that the necessarydata could be obtained. For example,the Reports state specifically that rail-way brakemen are classed as "Opera-tives" while locomotive engineers andfiremen are classed as "Craftsmen,Foremen and Kindred Workers." Fur-thermore in a small town like Mattoonthe variety of jobs is limited and cross-checking is relatively easy. Henceplacing the occupations of the sampleinto the Census Bureau's categoriesoffered less difficulty than might be ex-pected. A woman's occupation wasused if she worked, otherwise her hus-band's. (Only two women had hus-

bands in military service. One of theseworked, hence her own occupation wasused. In the other case the husbandhad been inducted only recently so hiscivilian occupation was used.) All thesedata are brought together in Table ifor comparison with similar data forthe total population of Mattoon.

TABLE i

THE SAMPLE OF "GASSER" VICTIMS COMPAREDWITH THE TOTAL POPULATION OF MAT-

TOON IN RESPECT TO CERTAINOBJECTIVE CHARACTERISTICS

SexWomen

AgeBelow jo10-1920-2930-3940-4950-5960-69Over 70

EducationGrade school onlySome high schoolSome college

Indices of Economic LevelElectricityRadioMechanical refrigeratorTelephone

Occupational CategoriesProfessional and semi-professionalProprietors, managers, and officialsClerical, sales, and kindred workersCraftsmen, foremen, and kindred

workersOperativesLaborers, farm laborers, and farm

foremenDomestic service workersService workers, except domestic

PERC

ENTA

GE

OF

SAM

PLE

93

00

371621

1610

0

7129o

80802833

o1632

537

JO00

PERC

ENTA

GE O

F 1

POPU

LATI

ON

|[

52

M1817151310

76

583210

95914660

71321

1624

559

Statistically speaking, the sample issmall; the number of cases on whichthe percentages in Table i are based

184 DONALD M. JOHNSON

varies from 14 for schooling to 29 forsex. The table includes, however,nearly all the cases in which physicalsymptoms were reported. The investi-gator checked police records and news-paper accounts for names and found afew others while interviewing. Twopeople could not be found at homedespite repeated calls. Three had lefttown. One would not talk to the in-vestigator. Some of the data on thesewere obtained from acquaintances.Table i gives us at least a partial de-scription of the people who were mostintensely affected by the excitement.

To begin with, the sample has amuch greater proportion of womenthan the general population of the city.This is in agreement with the labora-tory studies on suggestibility (:) andthe clinical reports on hysteria (5, 6).All of the cases have been married butone, who was about twenty years old.As to the age data a word of explana-tion is necessary. In three cases mothersreported that their children had been"gassed." Since the investigator didnot talk to the children apart fromtheir mothers, these cases were elimi-nated. In two of these cases themothers reported symptoms for them-selves also, hence it is only the age datawhich are affected. Aside from theabsence of children the most noticeabledifference between the sample and thepopulation is the surplus in the agegroup 20 to 29. The significance ofthis, if it is not accidental, is notobvious.

Since children are more suggestiblethan adults (i), why were there notmore children in the sample? Manychildren probably did accept the sug-gestion in the sense that they reportedto their parents that they saw the"gasser" or smelled the gas. While thedynamics of symptom-formation arenot well understood and may be differ-

ent in each case, it does seem likely thatadults would be more inclined to thewithdrawing, incapacitating sort ofsymptoms which appeared in this "epi-demic" than children. In the casereported by Schuler and Parenton (7)among high-school children the symp-toms were of a more positive, livelynature.

In education the sample is below thetotal population. This too might havebeen predicted from the literature onsuggestibility.

From the economic indices it seemsclear that the sample is less prosperousthan the population at large, at least inrespect to these four conveniences. Theinvestigator also classified the sampleinto the economic groups A, B, C, andD, according to a widely used schemebased on the location and appearance ofthe home, occupation, conveniences,and the like. (The investigator has hadsome experience in using this schemein consumer research for the Psycho-logical Corporation.) In terms of thesecategories the sample was about equallydivided between the C and the Dgroups. There were two cases whichcould possibly have been put into theB group. It is noteworthy that noattacks occurred in either of Mattoon'stwo high-income areas.

Our sample, then, is characterized bylow educational and economic level.These two characteristics go together inour culture. In a study similar in somerespects to the present study Cantril (2)found that those people who were moststrongly influenced by the Orson Welles1938 broadcast, "War of the Worlds,"were likewise of low educational andeconomic level. No doubt it is educa-cation which is more directly related tosuggestibility. Cantril found that thebetter educated were more critical inthat they made more and better outsidechecks on the authenticity of the broad-

THE "PHANTOM ANESTHETIST" OF MATTOON i85

cast and thus were less frequentlypanicked.

The data on occupation are not clear-cut since the categories used by theCensus Bureau were not constructed forstudies of this kind. As the number ofcases on which good occupational datawere available was only 19, the numberin some categories was small, and somerearrangement was advisable. Thecategory "Farmers and farm managers"was eliminated as there were none inthe sample and less than i per cent inthe general population. Professionaland semi-professional classes were com-bined. "Laborers, except farm" wascombined with "Farm laborers andfarm foremen." The category "Pro-prietors, managers, and officials" is abroad one which could include a widevariety of people, hence it is of littleuse to us. The proprietors in oursample were proprietors of small shopsand rooming houses.

As it stands Table i shows a lack ofany professional or semi-professionalpeople, which agrees with the data oneducational level. A fairly clear-cutvertical comparison can be made if weconsider the craftsmen and foremen asskilled workers, the operatives as semi-skilled, and the laborers as unskilled.The proportion of the sample in thesethree groups decreases—in comparisonwith the proportion in the populationat large—as the amount of skillincreases.

It is hard to account for the lackof service workers and domestic serv-ice workers in the sample. The sus-ceptibility of domestics might be in-fluenced by their living arrangementsand by contact with their employers,who in general are in the educated,high-income group. As to the otherservice workers, one explanation is thatpolice, firemen, and hospital workerswere in a sense "on the inside." Also,

it is known that, while there has beenlittle change in the Mattoon populationin general since 1940, jobs connectedwith the servicing of automobiles havedecreased considerably. But none ofthese "explanations" is very convincing.

The interviews, one can easily realize,were conducted under rather unfavor-able conditions. It was not possible toget any insight into personality makeupof the victims except in a very super-ficial way. But it was possible usuallyfor the investigator to work in a fewgeneral questions about the victim'shealth. In only fourteen cases was anyinformation obtained in this way, but,of these, eight, or over half, replied withsuch phrases as "always been nervous,""never sleep much," and "doctoring fornerves." We have no control data forthe total population, but the percentagedoes seem extraordinarily high. Theinterview data do not go far, but theyreinforce the diagnosis of hysteria andshow, as far as they go, that, extraordi-nary as the Mattoon affair may be onthe surface, psychologically it follows afamiliar pattern.

CONCLUSIONSAnalysis of records available at Mat-

toon together with the results of inter-views with most of the victims leads tothe conclusion that the case of the"phantom anesthetist" was entirely psy-chogenic. There is always the possi-bility of a prowler, of course, and it isquite likely that some sort of gas couldbe smelled at various times in Mattoon.But these things do not cause paralysisand palpitations. Hysteria does. Thehypothesis of a marauder cannot besupported by any verifiable evidence.The hypothesis of hysteria, on the otherhand, accounts for all the facts.

What, then, produced this mass hys-teria? There are some gaps in thestory, to be sure, but a fairly clear pic-

i86 DONALD M. JOHNSON

ture can now be drawn. Mrs. A had amild hysterical attack, an event whichis not at all uncommon, which is, onthe contrary, familiar to most physi-cians. The crucial point is that herinterpretation of her symptoms wasrather dramatic—a quick look throughany textbook (e.g., 5, 6) will convinceany reader that hysterical symptomsusually are dramatic—arousing the in-terest of the press, with the result thatan exciting uncritical story of thecase appeared in the evening paper.As the news spread, other people re-ported similar symptoms, more excitingstories were written, and so the affairsnowballed.

But such acute outbursts are neces-sarily self-limiting. The bizarre detailswhich captured the public imaginationat the beginning of the episode becamerather ridiculous when studied moreleisurely. The drama of the story lostits tang with time and the absurditiesshowed through.' For example, thevolatility of the gas, which was such anasset in penetrating physical barriers,became a liability when anyone tried tocapture the gas and examine it. Thefacts seemed to evaporate as rapidly asthe agent which produced them. Atlast the failure of the police and volun-teers to find anyone or anything tan-gible (the best the news photographerscould do was to pose women pointingat windows, babies crying, and menholding shotguns) combined with thestatements of city officials in the paperproduced a more critical public attitude.The attacks ceased. The critical atti-tude increased and spread, however;

police business struck a new low. It isproper to say that the wave of suggesti-bility in Mattoon left a wave of contra-suggestibility in its wake. Objectiverecords document this generalization.

Naturally the more suggestible peopleaccepted the story at face value. Ofthese only a small percentage reportedphysical symptoms from "gassing,"presumably because of some personalmotivation toward, or gratificationfrom, such symptoms. As might bepredicted from psychological and psy-chiatric literature, those who succumbedto the "mental epidemic" were mostlywomen and were, on the average, belowthe general population in educationaland economic level. This supports theabove analysis and puts the "phantomanesthetist" of Mattoon, in some aspectsat least, into a familiar psychologicalpattern.

REFERENCES

1. BIRD, C. Social psychology. New York:Appleton-Century, 1940.

2. CANTRIL, H. The invasion from Mars.Princeton, N. J.: Princeton Univ. Press,1940.

3. GOODMAN, L., & GILMAN, A. The pharmaco-logical basis of therapeutics. New York:Macmillan, 1940.

4. JANET, P. The mental state of hysterical.New York: Putnam's, 1901.

5. ROSANOFF, A. J. (Ed.) Manual of psy-chiatry. New York; Wiley, 1920.

6. SADLER, W. S. Theory and practice of psy-chiatry. St. Louis: Mosby, 1936.

7. SCHULER, E. A., & PARENTON, V. J. A recentepidemic o£ hysteria in a Louisiana highschool. /. foe. Psychol., 1943, 17, 221—235-

8. U. S. BUREAU OF THE CENSUS. i6th censusof the United States. Washington, D. C.:U. S. Govt. Printing Office, 1942.

9. Illinois Daily Newspaper Markets. Paul L.Gorham, Leland Bldg., Springfield, 111.