Smyrna times., 1868-11-25
A WILD THEORY OF INSANITY.

In PUtndnlS Mdgdzine for November is an
interesting article by George NJ Beard NJ. D.,
on the subject, "Who are the Insane?" in |
which he contends that 'ungovernable attacks |
of passion, violent temper and unnatural cruel
ty are the results of insanity far more frequent
ly than will probably be admitted by those who |
have not given this subject close and special
attention. Their disease has its exacerbatiOns,
its parOxysms of attack, and during the inter
walls their bearing may be entirely courteous
and their whole disposition sweet and tender"
He adds:
" Howard, the philanthropist, who crossed
seas and mountains to relieve the distressed,
was brute and tyrant in his own family. DR..
WinsOw says of him: His cruel treatment
caused the death of his wife. He was in the
habit for many years Of doing penance before
her picture. He had an only son whom for the
slightest otfense he punished with terrible Sc
verify, making him stand for hours in grotto
in the garden. The son became a lunatic as
the result of this brutal treatment | am
strongly inclined to the opinion that even the
extraordinary benevOlence of Howard was one
of the symptoms of the disease in his brain,
for insanity may have good as we'll as vile
manifestations, and such exceptional self-sacri-
flee rs his->O blind, SO persistent, so lifeen-
durlng-ls just as liable to proceed from a
morbid state as the directly opposite qualities
OF unguvernable rage, intense hate, or cruelty
There lsa point beyond which not only forbear-
ance, but also the manifestations of benevo-
lence, self sacrifice, devotion, spirituality-Of
all the higher and nObler qualities of humanity
may cease to be virtues.
:" Very much Of the cruelty that we meet
with IN everyday life is the work of the par
TALLY insane. | know some really good men
who sometimes, under peculiar circumstances,
act more like lunaticS than reasonable beings.
L knew farmer conscientious and worthy
man, who was at times attacked with parox
ySms of rage SO violent and irresistible that he
would beat his oxen most numerically, and
without prOvocation. An acquaintance Of
mine told me that his father, who was one Of
the kindest of men in his family, very often
whipped his children almost to death, and that,
too, despite the fearful appeals of his wife, to
whom he was most devotedly attached"
The Baltimore SaH says "Dr. Beard then
proceeds to give his opinion that much of the
tyranny and dcspotsm of the world have been
the result Of cerebral disease and if Justice
had been done, not few of the rulers of his
tory would have been confined in asylums for
the Insane. Among these he classes Caligula,
NcIo, DOmitian, Ileliogobalus all of them mon
sters of cruelty; Alexander the Great, in the
latter days of his reign Robespierre, and some
of the other leaders Of the French revolution
Queen Christina, IF Sweden; Frederick Viii
liam, of Prussia; and Catharine dc Medici.-
1t is also the opinion of Dr. Beard that Theo-
dore, the late King Of Abyssinia, Was probably
a mailman, which may very likely have been
the case, especially when Gen. Napier got after
him; and finally, ascending to the pinnacle of
the temple of human iniquity, the Doctor sug-
gests, that cerebral disease may account for
what he calls the Inconsistencies of President
Johnsons administration, as it also may
; though that is not pointed out, for the vaga-
rieS of Sumner and Butler, and possibly for the
crack Drained theories of DIR. Beard himself
2 1.-The philosopher, Emerson, has said tha
there is a crack in everything human anC
therefore, all mankind may be lunatics to
+: greater or less extent. Physical organization
, and the state Of the system may have more tt
do with temper and other passions equally in
G furious to those who indulge them than is gen
l. orally supposed. But the acceptance of tn
!. principal that ungoverned passions are Otter
the results of lunacy would seem to militat,
y y against the moral superiority of man. In ap
plying the phrase ungOvernable to rage, o
$ any other passion, man is converted into
S S mere crazy machine which goes wrong becaus
it cannot help it. Every man of common sens
Ii knows the contrary from his own consciousness
!, Every such man knows that the most viOlen
ID passions can be resisted and overcome Dr
Beard would substitute punishment in the lu
1s natc asylum for the class of offenders he speak
y of instead of the punishment provided by tn
laws. There would have to be good man
n lunatic asylums, then. These unfortunate
ciTr can be healed of their diseases good de;
ed more economically than that. Even dog VIII
or is supposed to have no reason, can be cured G
e. dishonesty by sound faggelation, and me
sfT who have not reason enough to respect tn
" rights of others have generally caution enOug
a. not to interfere with them where a severe pei
Of atty is certain to follow If that kindest
80 men, for example, who very often whippe
or or his children almost to death, despite the tea
Il; full appeals of his wife, had been subjected
lsl Sl the experiment of being whipped almost
ne fragrant inhumanity, with certainty of rep
IN tition as often as he was guilty of the san
ed outrage, he would have been restored to
nd better mind, and ceased to be a hypocrite al
id id humbug."