Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1876-01-28
yegaries of the Brain.

OnsOuhdness OF Dfaln Is oIten Known
only to its possessor. There is a stage OF
consciousness in which person may be
necessarily at war with himself, and with
the prompiings of double mind urging
him to do and say things abhorred by
his better self
T" i am not conscious of the decay"
wrote patient to his adviser, or sus-
picious Of any of the powers Of the
mind. l am as we'll able as ever | was
to attend to my business, My family
suppose me in health, yet the horrors of
mad house are staring me full in the
face. am martyr to species OF per-
secution from within which is becoming
intolerable. | am urged to say the most
shocking blasphemies, and obscene words
are ever on my tongue. Thank God, |
have been able to resist; but i often
think | must yield at last, and then l
shall be disgraced and ruined" The
famous Bishop Butler is said to have
been engaged in such conflict for the
greater part of his life.
Akin to this phase of unsoundness is
the desire so commonly felt to throw
ones self from height, or to give utter
ance at inappropriate times, as when
Charles Lamb burst out laughing at
funeral. In such moments of tempta-
ton the mastery of reason over the in
clination distinguishes the sane from the
insane, and it is only the sustained &c
centricity of thought and mode of life
which points to condition of the brain
betokening insanity.
Very noteworthy are some of the early
symptoms of disorder. OF one of these,
the undue exaltations of the senses, an
instance 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 at a distance which he could
not ordinarily see the hands.
Sometimes incipient disease is indicat-
ed by a perversion of the sense of touch,
as 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
hand writing, the use of wrong words in
conversation, and double vision.
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 advantage.
One man who lost half his brain through
suppuration of the skull, preserved his
intellectual faculties to the day of his
death and the brains of soldiers have
been known to carry bullets without APP
parent inconvenience, and to undergo
operations for the extraction of 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 the body, and rem
der him speechless, retained possession of
his reasoning and calculating powers un-
til he died. One of three brothers, all
idiots, after receiving a severe injury on
the head gained his senses, and lived to
be clever barrister A stable boy of
dull capacity and subjected to fits, had
his wits sharpened by the kick Of a
horse, which necessitated the abstraction
of portion of his brain and no less
parsonage than Pope Clement VI, owed
the improvement of his memory to a
conclusion of the brain