New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1878-12-04
HALLUCINATIONS.
Two Somewhat Remarkable Cases of
Self-delusiOn.
From the Fortnightly Review

From the Fortnightly Review
There are great many persons in the
world who, suffering under some form or
other of nervous disorder, habitual,y see
figures or face s, hear threatening or in
sulting voices, even feel blows and taste
poisons, which have no existence outside
their own minds; and neither argument
or demonstration of the mposibility of
what they allege they perceive will shake
their convictions in the least. sYou as
sure me-" they Will say, ''that I am mis-
taken, that there are no such persons as
l see, no such voices as I hear; but I
protest to you thatI see and hear them
as distinctly as see and hear you at this
moment, and that they are just as real to
me- What are we to reply? I have re-
piled sometimes, s'that as YOU are alone
on one side in our opinion, and all the
world is on the other side, must needs
think either that you are an extraordi.
nary genius, far in advance of the rest of
the world, or that you are a mailman a
long way behind it; and as I don't think
you to be a genius, I am bound to con-
clude that your senses are disordered.n But
the argument does not produce the least
effect. Let me give an example or two
OF the character Of those hallucinations,
and OF their persistence in minds that
might be thought sane enough to correct
them. The first shall be that Of an old
gentleman who was much distressed be.
cause of an extremely offensive smell
which he imagined to proceed from all
parts of his body. There was not the least
ground, in fact, for this imagination. He
was scrupulously clean in person, ex-
tremely courteous in manner, thoroughly
rational in his conversation on every 9th.
er subject, shrewd and clever man of
business; no one talking with him would
tor moment have suspected him of en-
tertaining such extraordinary fancies.
Nevertheless, his life was made miserable
by them, be would not go into society,
but took solitary rambles in the country.
where he might meet as few persons as
possible; in his own house he slept for
the first part of the night on the ground
floor, mounting up higher at a later period
of the night, and this he did to prevent
the bad odors from becoming too con
centrated in one room. He believed that
the people in the next house were irrita-
ted and offended by the emanations, tor
he often heard them moving about and
coughing; and when he passed cab
stand in the street he noticed that even
the horses became restless and fidgeted,
he used to hang his clothes out Of the
window at night that they might get
pure. anti his housekeeper put stop to
the practice by telling him that the ex-
hibition OF them would excite the notice
and comment of his neighbors.
All the while he was conducting
his business with propriety and success:
his own partners had no suspicion of his
condition. Knowing this, / asked him
how it was that no one of the many ner-
sons who he met daily in business had
ever complained of any bad smell, and
the answer he made was that thew were
al too polite to do so, but he could see
they were affected nevertheless, as thew
sometimes put their handkerchief to their
nose-no doubt for quite innocent pur-
pose. Another gentleman was the .ictim
OF very common hallucinstion; he was
much afflicted by voices, which were con
hnually speaking to him at all times and
All places-in the quietude Of his room
and IN the crowded streets, BY night and
by day. he had come to the conclusion
that they must be The voice Of evil spirits