The Newtown bee., 1880-11-03
Kleptonianiaes.

Among tue various kinds of insanity which are pleaded in courts of justice as an excuse for the commission of crimes is that irresistible propensity to pocket articles, or, more correctly, to steal, which has been elegantly denominated kleptomania Aceofding to authentic testimony, this mental disease Is far more prevalent than is generally sup posed, ant the recorded instances of various kinds and degrees of such are both numerous and peculiar
 With regard to the intensity of the dis position to commit thefts, this is often so great as to become incurable. A case is related of a man who would not eat unless his food was stolen; in conse- quence of which his attendant humored him by placing his food in a corner, where it appeared hidden, but could easily be, so to speak, purloined. A so strongly that upon her trial for theft she stated that she had such mad long, ing to possess he self of everything she saw that if she was at church she could | not refrain from stealing from the altar. A famous physician informs us that a ] woman who was exemplary in her obedience to the moral law, except the | eight commandment, was so addicted to | larceny that, when she could take noth- i ing more valuable, she would often at 1 the table of friend secretly fill her pockets with bread. LaVater states l that doctor of medicine could not leave his patients room without taking some thing away unobserved; and his wife searched his pockets, and returned to | their owners the knives, thimbles, scis- sors, etc., which her husband had ab- | stracted. The wife of another physician had so strong propensity to steal that on making purchases she endeavored to take something away that did not be- | long to her; and two German countesses appear to have been guilty of the same vice. The almoner of a regiment of Prussian cuirassierS, a well-educated man, frequently on parade stole the | handkerchiefs of the officers; and one unfortunate man was so far under the | influence of kleptomanta that, being nigh unto death, he actually secreted the snuff-box of his confessor!
 We knew parish clergyman, says | Chambers Jou71laG, who. stole every article he could lay his hands on. Il out at dinner, he pocketed scraps oi bread, table napkins, or anything. | When lodging at hotels be carried of pieces of soap and the ends of candles 1 from his bedroom. His larcenies became so notorious that he was ultimately brought before the church courts and | turned out of his living. The London | Tunes, few year ago, in commenting upon the subject of ' lady kleptomaniac being prosecuted for stealing eambriC | handkerchiefs in a draper's shop, stated that every one who is acquainted with London society could at once furnish 8 dozen names uf ladies who have been notorious for abstracting articles o' trifling value from She shops where they habitually dealt. Their modtis operandi was so well known that on their return from their drives their relatives took care to ascertain the nature of their paltry peculations, inquired from the coachman the houses at which he had been ordered to stop, and, as s matter of course, reimbursed the tradesman to the full value of the pill fered goods. In other cases a hint was | given to the various shopkeepers al whose establishments these mono maniacs made their purchases, and they
 were simply forewarned to notice what was taken away, and to furnish the bill, which was paid for as soon as furnished
 and as matter of course by the pill ferer herself, without any feeling o shame or emotion of any kind.n 1t is also stated in the Qnarsserly ReUieJc il
 1856, in an article upon the metropolitan police, that "the extent of piltel ing carried on even by ladies Of rank anc position is very great; there are person: possessing a mania of this kind so wei known among the shopkeeping com l munity that their addresses and deScrlp tions are passed from hand to hand fol mutual security. The attendants allow them to secreIe what they like withou
 seeming to observe them, and afterwart send bill with the prices of the good purloined to their houses"
 Abnormal conformations of the heat accompanied with an imbeeile under
 standing are often the cause ot klepto mania Gall and Spurzheim saw il is described as "ill organized am rickety,n 5 who could never avoid steal ing. An ex-commissary Of police a
 Toulouse was condemned to eight years
 imprisonment and hard labor and to tn
 pillory for having stolen some plat
 while in office. He did not deny tn
 crime, but persisted to the last in
 singular kind of defense. He attribute
 the crime to a mental oerangemen
 caused by wounds he had received s
 Marseilles in 1915. Another case is r' lated of young man who, after bein
 severely wounded in the temple fo
 which he was trepanned, manifested 3
 uuconquerable propensity tor thef
 which was quite against his naturs
 disposition. He was imI risoned fo
 larceny after having committed sever. l robberies, and had not medical test
 mony been produced to show that | was insane, and which attributed h kleptomania to disorder of the brail
 he would have been punished accordin to law.