Fortunately the physicians at Rochefort were familiar with the efficacy of the contact of metals in provoking transfer of hysterical hemiplegia from one side to the other.

They tried various metals in turn on Louis V.Lead, silver, and zinc had no effect.

Copper produced a slight return of sensibility in the paralysed arm, but steel applied to the right arm transferred the whole insensibility to the left side of the body.
"Inexplicable as such a phenomenon is, it is sufficiently common, as French physicians hold, in hysterical cases to excite little surprise.
What puzzled the doctors was the change of character which accompanied the change of sensibility.

When Louis V.issued from the crisis of transfer with its minute of anxious expression and panting breath, he might fairly be called a new man.

The restless insolence, the savage impulsiveness, have wholly disappeared.