The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1875-11-12
THE BRAIN.
Vagaries and Peculiarities of that Delicate e
Organ.


Organ.
Unsoundness of brain, says Hdr7)er'S
B0zar, is often known only to its pos
SCISSOR. There is stage OF conscious
ness in which a person may be inces-
sanity at war with himself, and with the
promptings of q double, urging him to
do and say things abhorred by his better
self. am not conscious of the de-
cay" wrote patient to his adviser, A" or
suspension of any OF the powers of the
mind. | am as well able as ever l was
TO attend to my business. My family
suppose me in health, yet the horrors Of
Il mad-house are staring me in the face.
am martyr to species OF persecution
from within, which is becoming intoler-
able. / am urged to say the most shock
ing blasphemies, and obscene words are
ever on my tongue. Thank God, have
L must yield at last, and then L shall be
disgraced and ruined" The famous
Bishop Butler is said to have been en-
gagged in such a conflict for the greater
part of his lite. Akin to this phase of
unsoundness is the desire so commonly
felt to throw ones self from height, or
to give utterance at inappropriate times,
as when Charles Lamb burst out laugh
ing at q 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 svmp-
toms of disorder. OF one of these. the
undue exaltation of the senses, an in
stance is given, where the patient felt
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. Some
times incipient disease is indicated by a
perversion OF the sense of touch rs in
the case OF patient who, from the fancy
that everything he touched was greasy,
was continually washing his hands. Other
well-marked symptoms are the loss of
memory, deterioration in handwriting,
the use of wrong words i'll conversation
and double vision. Kleptomania, the
habit of secretly purloining articles, Is
now recognized form of brain disease.
OF another more terrible form of mad
ness, dipsomania, it is curious to read
that its victims will drink backing,
turpentine 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
III the same person under very odd cir
cumstances. Thus it is recorded of one
man that when drunk he always stole
Bibles ; of another, spades while a
third individual invariably purloined
tub.
Delicate as the organization of the
brain must be, it is surprising to read of
the hard knocks it can bear, not only
without injury, but even to its advan-
tage. 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 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 calculating powers
until he died. One of three brothers, all
idiots, after receiving severe injury ON
the head, gained his senses, and lived to
be clever barrister. 4 stable boy of
dull capacity, and subject to fits, had his
wits sbarpened by the kick of a horse,
which necessitated the abstraction of
portion of his brain and no less a per-
sonage than Pope Clement VI. owed the
improvement of his memory to slight
of the brain.