San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1878-12-14
extraordinary Halhtcinations.
[F0rtnightly Review.


[Fortnightly Review.]
There are great many persons in the
world who, suffering under some form
or other of nervous disorder, habitually
see figures or faces, hear threatening or
Insulting voices, even feel blows and
taste poisons, which have no existence
outside their own miHfls; AMI neither
argument nor demonstration Of the i'm
possibility of what they allege they per-
ee;ve will shake their convictions in the
least. "You assure me-" they will say,
athat I am mistaken; that there are no
such persons as I see, no such voices as
I hear; but I protest to you that L see
and hear them rs distinctly as ] see and
hear Won at this moment, and that they
are lust as real to me- What are we
to reply? I have replied sometimes,
that as you are alone on one side IN
YOUR opinion, and all the world is op
the other side, must needs think
either that you are an extraordinary
genius, far in advance Of the rest of the
world, or that you are mailman a long
way behind it; and as I don't think you
to be genius, am bound TO, conclude
that your senses are disordered. " But
the argument does not produce the least
effect Let me give an example or two
of the character of those Authorizations,
and of their persistence in minds that
might be thought sane enough to COR
rect them. The first shall be that OF
an old gentleman who was much dis
tressed because of an extremely Often
sive smell which he imagined to pro-
coed from all parts Of his body; there
was not the least ground, in fact, for
this imagination. He was scrupulously
clean in person, extremely courteous
in manner, thoroughly rational in his
conversation ON every other subject, a
shrewd and clever man of business; no
one talking with him would for a mo-
ment have suspected him Of entertain
ing such extraordinary fancies; Never
theless, his life vas made miserable by
them; he 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 PEI
Rod of the night; and this he did to
prevent the bad doors from becoming
too concentrated in one room. He be-
ieved that the people in the next house
we're irritated and offended by the en,a--
nations, for he often heard them NOV
ing about and coughing; and when he
passed cabstand in the street, he no
tced that even the horses became rest
less and fdgeted-. He used to. hang his
clothes out Of the window at might that
they might get pure, until his house
keeper put stop to the practice by
telling him that the exhibition OF them
would excite thernotice and comment
Of his neighbors,, All the while ne was
conducting his business with propriety
and success; his own partners had no
suspicion of his condition. knowing
this, 1 asked him how it was that nocne
Of the many persons whom he met daily
In business had ever complained OF any
bad smell, and the answer he made was
that they were all too polite to do SO,
but he could see they were affected new
ertheless, as they sometimes put their
handkerchiefs to their noses-no doubt
ior quite innocent purpose. Another
gentleman was the victim of very COM
mon hallucination; he MAS much affiict-
ed by voices, which were continually
Speaking to him at all times and all
places-in the quietude Of bis room and
IN the crowded streets, by night and by
DAY. He had come to the conclusion
That they must be the voices Of evil
sTnrlts in the air which tormented him.