Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1880-05-01

The lecturer described other forms OF
delusion. One was that of man who
thought himself irresistibly captivating:
He was not happy until it was admitted
or supposed that every fresh woman
with whom he came in contact had
fallen victim to his charms. Another
thought himself so light as to be tit to
fiv; his levity being imputed by him to
the circumstance that the interior of his
body was occupied by angels, so that,
if he chose, he could move about IN
space with all the celebrity of MIR. ID. ID.
Home or any other past master in the
art. Still another person used to knock
women down and take off their slip
pers: his bureau drawers being found
at last to be filled with these curious
trophies. What is called kleptomania
is, indeed, one of the commoneSt forms
of paralytic insanity; and cases OF this
sort are heard of every day.
Now, without going into further de-
tails, more than to observe in passing
that relative enlargement of one Of the
pupils of the eye and shufiling OF the
/ feet are named as among the most ire
ouent indications of this cerebral disor-
} der, what is chiefly impressed upon the
mind by DIR. Hammond's lecture Is the
extension that it denotes of the field OF
INSANITY, with the host of dangers to
society and prosperity that this extern
sion implies. II the representations
now made are to be accepted without
qualification, it seems to follow that
many persons are punished rs criminals
who ought to be shut up as lunatics
Rufus ChOate some years ago, In BoS'
ton, made an astonishingly able defense
of Albert j. Tirrell, charged with tht
murder of Maria Bickford. The de
Tense was founded on the plea of som
nambulism. The advocate owned tina
his client had killed the woman, bu
claimed that he was walking in his sleel
when he did it. But, if what we under
stand to be DR.. Nammond's facts an,
differences are to be received implicitly
Mr.. Choate would in our day have |
much easier time of it; since the token
of incipient alteration as just laid dow
are so many and so various that it !
scarcely an exaggeration to say that TO
any individual to be sane in Sivel
community may soon be set down as
remarkable exception; and this refec
ton makes the dangers we have hinte'
at sufficiently palpable.
II all persons who are habitually ex
, travasant, or incorporate, or who g
, about buying useless things, like Mrs
Toodles, or who, as members of fam
ily, are chemically willful, disobedien
and regardless of the rights of others, o
, who take things, small or great, that d
: not belong to them, or who, which
the same thing, incur debt that the
{ can not pay, are to be adJudged out G
, their minds, it is clear that lunatic asy
lums will have to be greatly increase
: in number, and that society must suit
init to serious depopulation. Yet,
this is objected to as sweeping, who
, to indicate the boundaries of exceptio
, or to declare the locality of the "thi
; partitions which those bounds divide
I'VE may perhaps be told-for the new
est revelations in cerebral science pOlr
! to such dictum-tfat perfect sanity
human beings is as rare as perfet
i physical health; and there is certainl
room, according to these lights, to al
prehend that, in the multiplicity
, symptoms and the alleged increase gel
: orally of cerebral disease, the huma
race is threatened with ills once con
. comparatively unknown, while pr
a fessed alienists are likely to attain ha'
!. ardous and unprecedented power.
4 For our own part, however,, an
: speaking with all the respect that snoul
!. animate laymen when dealing with e
e perts, we are so old fashioned as to b
s lieve that in large number OF cases
+ alleged insanity there is too much met
. cd in the madness to warrant waiv'
of responsibility We believe that
n large portion Of the thieves, drunkard
= prodigals, braggarts and other persol