The Canton mail. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 18??-1882, 1876-01-01
Strange Mental Faculties in Disease


There are certain mental mysteries
associated with peculiar states of dis
ease, and especially with low, nervous
diseases, which discover unexpected
powers of mind, and which illustrate
some of the conditions on which hui
man life depends, and the laws that
govern its continuance. Among these
are certain enlargements of the per-
which the mind seems to possess of act
ing independently of its organs.
Our attention was recently called to
the subject by the mental condition of
near relative, suffering from extreme
nervous debility. 81 am in constant
fear of insanity" she said to me one
day, "and 1 wish 1 could be removed
to some retreat for the insane. l I'M
derstand my condition perfectly; my
reason does not seem to be impaired,
but | can think of TWO THINGS AT THE
SAME TIME. This is an indication of
mental unsoundness, and is terror to
me. l do not seem to have slept at all
for the last six weeks. If sleep, it
must be i'm succession of vivid dreams
that destroy all impression of somno-
lence. Since have been in this con-
dition, seem to have very vivid i'm
pressions of what happens to my
children who are away from home, and
| am often startled to learn that these
impressions are correct. | seem to
have also a certain power of antici
pating what one is about to say, and to
read the motives of others. | take no
pleasure in this strange increase of
mental power; it is all unnatural; /
cannot live in this state long, and l
often wish that l were dead"
The faculty of memory is one of the
first to be obviously affected by disease.
When disease for a time seems to sus-
pend the action of this faculty, or Wis
IDLY to diminish it, the result is not
locked upon as phenomenal, for it is
common and expected. But when dis
ease increases the power of this faculty,
Il thing not uncommon, the patient is
not unfrequently regarded as possessing
more than human wisdom, and the case
usually excites comment as one of great
mystery. DIR. Steinbech mentions the
case of a clergyman who, being sum-
mOned to administer the sacrament to
an illiterate peasant, found the patient
praying aloud in Greek and Hebrew.
The case was deemed wellnigh miracu-
lous. After the PEASANTS death, it was
found that he was accustomed in youth
to hear the parish minister pray in
those languages, and it was inferred
that he must have been repeating re-
membered words without understand
ing their meaning. DIR. Abercrombie
relates the circumstances of Il more re-
markable case. A poor shepherd girl
was for time accustomed to sleep in a
room adjoining that occupied by an
itinerant musician. The man was an
artist by education, lover of his pro-
fession, and often spent a large portion
of the night in practicing difficult COM
positions. The violin was his favOrite
instrument. At last the shepherd girl
fell i'll, and was removed toa charitable
institution. Here the attendants were
amazed at hearing the most exquisite
music in the night, in which were re-
cognized finely rendered passages from
the best works of the old masters. The
sounds were traced to the shepherd
girls's room, where the patient was
found playing the violin in her sleep.
Awake, she knew nothing of these
things, and exhibited no capacity for
music.
A late number of the London Med
leo Chirurgical Review, in an article on
apoplcxy, speaks of vivid dreams as a
common warming in the first and often
unrecognized stages of insanity, heart
disease, and phthisic, and one that it
would be well to better understand and
heed. Vivid dreaming, which in some
cases seems to be mental iIlumina-
ton, and in others Il prophecy of i'm
pending i'll, precedes many diseases
long before the victim is aware of his
condition. These dreams sometimes
take forms of waking fancies, double
con> ciousness, and what is He'd mystic
memory. In February, 1929, when
Sir Walter Scott was breaking himself
down by severe and protracted literary
labor, and was suffering the first mva-