Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1884-04-30
Fa nous Lunafics.

Famous Lunatics.
Howard, the philanthropist, who
crossed seas and Tountains to relieve
the distressed, was brute and tyrant
in his own family. DIR. WinslOw saws
of him: ''His cruel treatment caused
the death of his wife. He was in the
habit for many years, of doing penance
before her picture. He had an only
son, whom for the slightest offense, he
punished with terrible severity, making
HIM stand for hours in a grottO in the
garden. The son became lunatic as
the result of this brutal treatment. l
am strongly inclined to the opinion that
even the extraordinary beneyolence of
Howard was one of the symptoms of
the disease in his brain for insanity
may have good as well as evil NANTES
tations, and such exceptional self-sac-
rifice as his-so blind, SO persistent, so
| life-enduring-is Just as liable to pro-
ceed from a morbid state as the directly
opposite qualities of ungovernable rage
intense hate or cruelty.
Alexander the Great behaved like a
Iunatic in the latter days of his reign,
and the suppoSitioH is plausible that if
he had survived a few years longer he
might have become most implacable
and capricious tyrant. From being
very abstemious he gave himself UP to
dissipation. His lust for power became
a disease, and he stroye for gigantic
impossibilities. Robespierre and some
of the other leaders in the French Rev
olution, were probably made more or
less insane by the exciting events In
which they took part. 1t is certain
that Robespierre was originally kind
hearted and conslderate, for lie began
life by endeavoring to procure the
abolition of capital punishment.
Louis NJ OF France was insane, both
in his despotic cruelty and his caprices.
He shut up his mobiles in cages or hung
them on the trees of the forest. He
lived in the constant fear of death, kept
in seclusion in his castle. was on init
mate terms with his hangman, amused
himself 10y watching battles between
rats and cats, drank the blood of young
children. and tried various and abomi-
nable compounds in order 10 lengthen
his life.
King Frederick of Prussia, without
i any reason whatever, treated his son
and sister for long time with the most
unnatural and brutal severity. He
kicked them about the room, pommeled
their heads with chairs, compelled them
to eat the most repulsive food, and in
every way made their lives wretched.
His insanity, III this respect, was abso.
lutte, and should have sent him to the
mad-house. But his unnatural and
whimsical treatment of his family was
only one of the symptoms of his mad
ness. lie was inconsiStently aaricious,
scrutinizing every household expense
with absurd attention, and lavishing
fortunes on his army of giants. He
would run through the streets Gaming
the loungerS and woTkmen who fell III
his way until they roared for mercy.
DR.. johnson was hypochondriacal,
and in various ways gave evidence of a
morbid condition of the brain. At the
early age of twenty he became the vic
tim of melanchOlic delusions, and from
that time forward was never happy.
On one occasion he exclaimed, despair.
ingly; II would consent to have an
arm amputated TO recover my spirits. -
Wr etchedness like this, when it Is tenn
porary or spaSmodic, may signify but
little; but when 1t Is persistent and
lifelong, it must be regarded as the
symptom of cerebral disease that may
and often does advance to absolute
madness. The violent impetuosity OF
DIR. Johnson, his unreasonable, almost
furious pTejudices, may be accounted
for on the same theory.
Pascal was one of the most origina
thinkers of France, but no inmate OF
any asylum ever presented more ndis
putable proofs of mental disease than
those which characterized his whole
career. All his life he walked in dark
ness, knowing not at what he stumbled
in constant fear both of the preseut anC
the future, He was the victim of ab,
surd delusioDs, was harrassed by exces
lSiye nervousness, and was the slave OF
uncomfortable eXcentrlcitieS. On eX
animation after death his brain wa:
found to be seriously diseased.
Our American poet, James Gate!
Percival, was troubled, think, with
slow and chronic type of cerebral dis
ease. 1t would be hard, indeed, to fnC
ony theory on which to account for thu
thousand and one eccentricities and
inconsistencies of his enlgmatlcal ca
reer. His absurd fear of women wa
certainly full evidence of monomanld
but when we take this fact in connec
tion with his lifelong melancholy, nj
early and repeated attempts at self
destruction, his unnatural ingratitud'
to those who befriended him in distress
and his anomalous love of solitude, VT
find it impossible to accept any othel
Interpretation of his life than that h
was never an absolutely sane and re
sponsible being.
The gifted poet Collins was at time
a sad and moaning lunatic. The ex
) centricIties and melancholy of Lort
Byron were probably the uncontrollabl
manifestations of disease, and during
his short and brilliant career he CAV
sufficient evidence of insanity. Nothing
seems clearer than that the irrltablllty
hypocbondria and meanneSS OF AleXan
der Pope were the results OF organl
cerebral conditions which he could N
more control than he could remedy hi
physical deformity. Il shall die al Tn
top first" calculated Dean Swift, as b
sadly gazed on a tree whose branche
were decaying, and he realized his ter
rible prediction. He was more or les
insane during all his active life.
Tasso was a positive maniac, and
, like many other unbalanced genlrses
believed that he was attended by
, familiar spirit. Madame de Stael ma
: a masculine and powerful intellect, bu
she was slave to idle fears and Sill
: eccentri cities that in ordinary person
would certainly have been regarded a
symptoms of disease of the BRAIN. CaI
dinal Richelieu was subject to maniaca
attacks, during which he lost all III
, self-control and behaved like a sill
child. When the attack was over, b
bad no recoIlection of what ha