The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1884-08-29
A WRECKED INTELLECT
The Proprietor of The Chicago Times
Declared Insane.
Testimony of the Physicians Who
Examined the Eminent Editor
His PitiabIe Condition.
Verdict of the Jury,

CHICAGO, Aug. 29-At 1918 a. m Judge
knickerboeker asked of the lawyers in the
famous Storey case if there was anything to
be done before the impaneling of the jury
aud the answer being in the negative they
We're called as follows: j. s. Hoffman,
Ambrose Plamondon, j. s. Ingraham, Henry
Jampolis, John C. Ross, A. G. SelIeck,
George NJ Brown, E. Griswold,
o. NJ. Turner j. c. Shirra, Edward A.
Brown, X. Joyce. Henry Plamondon not
answering to his name, W. H. Duncan was
called. The jury was then swoln, and the
inquiry INTO the sanity of Wilbur F. Storey,
proprietor Of The Chicago Times, was begun.
There was ii very large audience present,
and included many prominent lawyers, doe
tors, and all the parties interested in the
case
AT the opening Of the proceedings Judge
knickefboeker asked Judge Tree to formally
represent Wilbur F. Storey There was
some objection to this, but the judge insisted
that it was purely formal matter, and that
no harm would come to either side of it.
Thereuron Wilbur f. Storey was twice
called by the crier. No response coming
from any quarter, Judge Tree, who had
arisen, was directed by the court to formally
represent and watch the interests of this
great man whose insanity was to be inquired
into.
The first witness called was Austin L. Pat
terson, business manager of The Times who
testified To the beginning of the illness of Mr.
Storey, his efforts to recover his health, and
his failure and final lapse into imbecility OF
chil,lishness
DR. Lyman, who with Dr. Baxter made an
examination of Mr. Storey on last Saturday
then took the stand and said:
In the first place, l took notice of his
personal appearance. He was sitting in a
CHAIR placed on rollers-an ordinary invalid's
rolling chair. He was sitting there with his
mouth partly opened, the lower Jaw fallen
and it remained SO. Ills color was of a some
what purplish sutfused character, showing
that there was a feeble circulation of blood
in the skin, and that the blood did
not receive sufficient amount of oxy-
gen. His hands were in similar
condition They were cooler than natural:
cool, and damp, and purplish, in conse-
quences of this sluggish circulation in the
skin | spoke to him, but he made no answer
except little gurghng in the throat, the
mouth being still open, unclosed with smile
without any meaning, meaningless smile on
his cOuntenance. l then felt of his pulse, and
found that 1t presented no very marked char
acteristics, moderately slow, and not
very strong. then undertook to
investigate his sense of s;-ht. and
took from the table a small pin-cushion.
held it up before him, and asked him to
Eive ME the name of that article He simply
smiled in vague way, his mouth open, and
made the gurgling, but made no further an
swer than that. | asked him what the color
was with the same result, Then l took from
the table an ordinary silver plated table
knife, held it up before him dssasked swhat
that was, and he made no further answer
than to smile in that same way, and the CUR
Cling in his throat, but made no articulate
sound. | asked what it was used for
with the same result. | then asked him to
squeeze my hand, put my hand in his, and
he returned feeble pressure. | took an in
stument that is called a dynamometer, a
steel spring with an index attached to it so
as to show the degree Of pressure. l put it
in his hand, fixed In such way that he
could hold it, and asked him to pull it, and
he did so. / then tried it with the other
hand. | found with his best hand the
pressure was about what it should be
IN a naturally healthy condition, with
the other hand it was only half
what it was with the first hand. So there
was considerable difference between the
hands, being about ne-fourth of the strength
dition in all ordinary man of his size [ then
attempted to ascertain what the condition of
his lower limbs might be, and desired him to
stand upon his feet and walk but he made
no effort to respond, and Mrs. Story immed-
ately begged that he would not make any
s9ich attempt, as she said it would be very
difficult for him to do SO without assistance,
and it was evident that that would be the
fact, so We did not push that endeavor any
further. | then tried the temperature of his
head applied what is called a surface thor
mometer to the surface of his skull upon
ither side. l found the temperature upon
one side little higher than natural. There
was a difference, if | remember rightly, of
about two degrees and a half or three de-
grees between the two sides of the head, as
tested. / asked him how long it was since
he returned from Europe. He made no an
swer to this, other than he smiled i'll tina un-
meaning way he had before, and when !
pressed the question-repeated it-he
wrinkled up his face and his eyes closed, and
he seemed to be laughing and crying at once,
as he had several times when he was pressed
urgently for an answer, he seemed to he
laughing and crying at once, which is a
characteristic Of the disease from
which he is suffering. There were
one or two other tests which | tried
| asked him if he could hear my watch tick
when placed it near his ear He nodded
his head and smiled as he had done before.
Then removed it to distance and asked
him if he could hear it, and he smiled in the
same way. Then l carried it long distance
off, SO far that nobody could hear
it, and he still made the same
response ] tried the same on the
other side, with the same response.
1t made no difference where the watch was
placed, the same half smile and half crying
tears came to his eyes, The only articulate
sound he made was an answer to a question
that was put by Mrs. Storey, whether he
wished to write, and he gCf out a sound
like "yeh" something like that. That was
the only artIculate sound he made. / then
made test of his ability to write. A pen
Gil was placed in his fingers and he was
asked to write He put his hand upon the
paper, apparently not knowing whether his
hand touched it OF not with the paper pro-
jecting partly over the edge of the table. He
made no effort to adjust his hand in proper
Iosition for writing, but let the point of the
pencil on the paper as it projected over the
edge of the table and wrote little DR..
Baxter then adjusted his arm more con
venently upon the table in a natural posi-
ton, but there was no better result. The re-
suit was all unintelligible scrawL Nobody
could decipher it, or tell what it was in
tended for.
DR. Lyman further said in answer to ques-
tions that Mr. Storey had no intelligent COM
prehension of the meaning of the questions
put to him; that he was in the condition of
an automatom; that he was approaching the
conclusion Of his disease; that it must have