Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1875-12-15
vagarfes Of the Brain.

tnsoundness of brain is often known
only to its possessor. There is a stage
of consciousness in which a person may
be necessarily at war with himself, and
with the promptings of double, urging
him to do and say things abhorred by
his better self. 81 am not conscious OF
the decay" wrote a patient to his ad-
wiser, cor suspension of any of the
powers of the mind. l am as well able
as ever / was to attend to my business.
My family suppose me in health, yet
the horrors of a mad house are staring
me in the face. l am a martyr to a
species of persecution from within
which is becoming intolerable. / am
urged to say the most shocking BIAS
phemies, and obscene words are ever on
my tongue. Thank God, have been
able to resist; but | often think must
yield at last, and then l shall be dis
graced and ruined" The famous Bishop
Butler is said TO have been engaged in
such a conflict for the greater part of
his life. Akin to this phase of unsound-
ness is the desire so commonly felt to
throw ones self from a height, or to
give utterance at inappropriate times,
"a when Charles Lamb burst out laugh
ing at funeral. In such moments of
temptation the mastery of the reason
over the inclination distinguishes the
sane from the insane, and it is only the
sustained eccentricity of thought and
mode of life which points to a condition
of the brain betokening insanity. Very
noteworthy are some of the early symp-
toms of disorder. OF one of these, the
undue exaltation of the senses, an in-
stance is given, where the patient felt
such an extraordinary acuteness of hear
ing that he heard the least sound at the
bottom of his house, and was able to tell
the hour by his watch at distance at
which he could not ordinarily see the
hands. Sometimes incipient disease is
indicated by a perversion of the sense
of touch, as in the case of patient who.
from the fancy that every thing he
touched was greasy, was continually
washing his hands. Other well-marked
symptoms are the loss of memory, de-
terioration in handwriting, the use of
wrong words in conversation, and dou-
Bile vision. kleptomania, the habit of
secretly purloining articles, is now a
recognized form of brain disease. OF
another more terrible form of madness,
dipsomania, it is curious to read that its
victims will drink shoeblacking, turpen-
tine, and hair-wash, when they can get
nothing else TO satisfy the demon that
possesses them. Sometimes these two
forms of mania are seen co-existent in
the same person under verv odd circum-
stances. Thus it is recorded of one man
that when drunk he always stole Bibles !:
of another, spades; while a third in
dividual invariably purloined tub.
Delicate as the organization of the
brain must be, it is surprising to read of
the hard knocks ii bears, not only with
out injury, but even TO its advantage
One man who lost half his brain
through suppuration of the skull, pre-
served his intellectual faculties to the
day of his death: and the brains of SOL
diers have been known to carry bullets
without apparent Inconvenience, and to
undergo an operation for the extraction
of the foreign bodies without loss of
power. A physician who was afflicted
with an abnormal cerebral growth
which pressed upon the cavities of the
brain, so as to paralyze one side of his
body and render him speechless, retained
possession of his reasoning and calcu-
lating powers until he died. One of
three brothers all idiots, after receiving
a severe injury on the head, gained his
senses, and lived to be a clever barrister.
A stable boy of dull capacity, and sub
ject to fits, had his wits sharpened by
the kick Of horse, which necessitated