Cheyenne transporter. [volume] (Darlington, Indian Terr.) 1879-1886, 1881-08-25
Curiosities Of kIeptomania,

are mentioned in Chambers Journal:
\ lady was affected with this mono
mania so strongly, that, upon her trail
for theft, she stated that she had such
a mad longing to possess herself of
everything she saw, that if she was at
church she could not refrain from
stealing from the altar. DR.. Rush, the
American physician, informs us that a
woman who was exemplary in obedi-
ence to the moral law-except the
eighth communicative so addicted
to larceny, that, when she could take
nothing more valuable, she would often,
at the table of a friend, secretly fill
her pockets with bread. L.avater also
states that a doctor Of medicine could
not leave his patients room without
taking something away unobserved;
and his wife searched his pockets and
returned to their owners the knives,
thimbles, scissors, etc, which her hus-
band distracted. The wife of an
other physician had SO strong a propen-
sity to steal, that on making purchases
she %endeavored to take something away
that did not belong to her; and two
German countesses appear to be guilty
of the same vice. The almonor of a
regiment of Prussian cuirassiers. a
well-educated man, frequently on pa
rade stole the handkerehiefs of the
officers; and one unfortunate man was
so far under the influence of klepto-
mania that, being nigh unto death, he
actually secreted the snuff-boX Of his
confessor.
AS to modern instances of this spe-
cies of insanity, we knew a parish
clergyman who stole every article he
could lay his hands n If out at din
ner. he pocketed scraps of bread, table
napkins, or anything. When lodging
at hotels he carried off pieces of soap,
and the ends of candles from bis bed
room. His larcenies became so notori-
Jus that he was ultimately brought be-
fore the church courts and turned out
of his living.
DR.. Gall mentions an instance of two
citizens of Vienna, who, on becoming
insane, were well known in the hospi-
tai for an extraordinary propensity to
steal, although they had before lived
ir|reproachable lives. They wandered
about from morning to night and pick
ed up whatever they could lay their
hands on, which they carefully hid in
their rooms. Abnormal conformations
of the head, accompanied with an i'm
becil understanding, are often the cause
of kleptomania. Gall and Spurzheim
saw in Berne prison alloy twelve years
old, who is described as ill organized
and rickety," who could never avoid
stealing. An eX-commissary of police
at Toulouse was condemned to eight
years Imprisonment and hard labor,
and to the pillory for having stolen
some plate while in office. He did not
deny the crime, but PERSISTED to the
last in a singular kind of defence. He
attributed the crime to a mental de,
rangement, caused by wounds he re-
ceived at Marseilles in 1915.
Another case is related of a young
man, who, after being severely wound.
ed in the temple, for which he was
%trepanned, manifested an unconquer.
able propensity for theft, which was
quite against his natural disposition.
He was imprisoned for larceny after
having committed several robberies
and had not medical testimony been
produced to show that he was insane
and which attributed his kleptomania
to a disorder Of the brain, he would
have been punished according to law.
Several ingenious but improper de.
lenses have been made by persons pos,
sessed of good pecuniary means, and
holding a respectable social position.
with a view of escaping Imprisonment