Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1884-04-23
MURDER0US IMPULSES.
Men Who Are Suddenly = rtLcd with
Desire to Hill Somebody.

come under the notice of experts in
nervous diseases" a distinguished
specialist remarked to a New York
Sun reporter, "it is wonder to me
that SO few tragedies from that source
really happen. Last week business
man in this city, who owns hand
some country residence on the IIud-
son, and would be regarded by his ac-
quaintances az the last person in the
world to be possessed by such whim,
came to Inc in great worry of mind
and told me he had something to COM
municate that must be held strictly in
violate. The story was typical. l
have heard it with triling variations
thousand times in five years. lie had
not been feeling very well-rather
nervous and i'll at ease-for some days.
That morning, as he left the house to
take the train for New York, he hap
pened to pass his gardener who was at
work on the grounds, and stopped to
talk to him minute. The man was
STOPPING over clump of ornamental
shrubbery, thinning out the dead
stalks with pruning knife. A spade
was leaning against the trunk of tree
Just at his hand. 'Ihad never had any
quarrel or misunderstanding with the
man. said this patient, telling his
story But the impulse was upon me
in an instant to seize that spade and
brain the poor fellow on the spot
trembled all over like leaf, with a
kind of nervous terror that | can
scarcely describe to you, Doctor.
Finally, not daring to trust myself
longer, turned and walked away as
fast as my legs could conveniently
carry me. lbeleve, sir, that | should
have killed the man if | had fingered
five minutes longer. Now what is to
he done%'
The doctor advised his patient to
avoid temptation for a few days, turn
his mind resolutely to something else,
and gave him a sedative prescription
--bromides, of course-with instruc-
tions to call again in a day or two
The man was sensible enough to act
on the advice, and on the fourth day
he dropped in and told the doctor that
the trouble had passed off, and he felt
like himself once more. And so a
tragedy was ayerted, probably.
The physician went on to say that
he had no less than nine cases of homi-
cidal or suicidal impulse then under
treatment. OF these seven were sui
cidal and the other two homicdal-
| One of the latter had been on his hands
for three weeks. The patient, man
of some note in literature, had been
sleepless for several weeks before the
impulse manifested itself. lie was a
married man, and loved his wife de-
votedly. One night, after doing
few minutes with terrible dreams, he
awoke with a strange presentiment of
impending disaster. His wife was
sleeping quietly. The moonlight,
struggling through the window-pane,
fell upon her face and white, shapely
throat. AS sudden as the leap of
tiger, the impulse seized him to cut the
woman's throat, and he was actually
out of bed and hunting for his razor in
the bureau drawer before any reali2-
ing sense of the enormity of the deed
that he was about to perpetrate inter-
posed to prevent the tragedy. lie re-
turned to bed, and lay in a tremble till
daylight. His wife never knew how
near she had been to death. lie had
had no wish to kill anybody else as
yet.
"One of my suicidal patients" con-
tinued the doctor, was first seized
with the impulse on Brooklyn ferry
boat. lie hal been across the river
on business, and was on his way back
lie went on board one of the boats at
the Fulton Ferry, and stood gazing
listlessly at the rampant of business
houses extending far to the right on
Furman street. The boat started sud
denly as he stood Illuminating. He in
sists that the impulse had its origin in
irritation of the retina caused by the
movement Of the sunshine.fooded sur
faces of brick across the optic field, and
very likely he is right. For an in
stant,' he says, 4 was wild; and when
l came to myself my hand was Oh the
railing, and couple of stalwart pas
sengers had collared me. l had never
thought of such thing as committing
suicide except as towards resource
Now," added the doctor, "this man
was no more mad than am; it was
typical case of suicidal impulse, caused,
perhaps, by long nervous tension"
In point OF fact, both suicidal and
homicdal impulses appear to lie far
less frequent with women than men,
In all his experience, the Doctor has
treated only five cases Of the impulse
in women, while of the sterner sex his
patients have been numbered by scores.
He inclines to the belief that the habit
contracted by men of business of always
being in a hurry, engaged, occupied, is
one of the principal instrumeDtilities,
next to malaria poisoning, in producing
this type of nervous disturbance. And
| imagine" he concluded, that our
former Commissioner of Lunacy, DR..
CrdronnauX, was not far out of the
way when he declared that one man in
every hundred who walks the streets
is potentially a murderer or a suicide;