Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1886-11-25
INSANITY.
Traits of 1t in Men Not Regarded as Actually
Mad-Eccentricities of People Celebrated in
War, Literature, Philosophy and Politics
Queer Mental Twists.

inps declared In one OF those rhymlng
aphorisms of which they possess such an
abundance that we have all got something
of the physician, something of the poet
and something of the lunatic in our com
position
De medico, poets, loco
TodOs tenemos un POGO.
A large and important sect of phiIoso-
pliers in ancient times went even still
further, and manifested without periph-
rasis or qualification that all men were
mad. There are probably philosophers
at the present day who share this opinion;
and 1t is said to be favored by not a few
of the men of science who devote them
selves to the study and treatment of in
sanity. One of them, however-Prof.
Ball, of Paris-took more cheerful views
of our mental condition in brilliant in
augural address which he delivered year
or two ago, and which was largely noticed
in the French press, tn 0ugh he qualified
it with a statement calculated to suggest
serious misgiVings to nervous people.
While readily admitting that the great
majority of mankind stood IN no need of
the administrations of himself or his
cOnfrCres he affirmed, nevertheless, that
the number of persons absolutely free
from any faint of mental disorder is very
much smaller than is generally supposed.
There are millions of people In the world,
he declared, suffering forms of insanity
whose sanity no one thinks of calling in
question. Perfectly rational In all essen
tial respects, the weak spot in their men
tai organization never manifestS itself in
trlhing eccentricities of toe common and
harmless character to attract serious
notice. Borrowing an illustration from
political geography, he describes persons
of this class as inhabiting a sort of Dor
derland or neutral zone lying between the
confines of sanity on one side and those
of insanity on the other. In strict theory
they are all maniacs; but their mania is
of SO mild type as in no way to disqual-
ify them for the discharge of their duties
of their sphere, still less to constitute a
danger of society, or to call for the in
tervention of their friends, in whose
eyes, as in those of the world at large,
they pass for perfectly sane, though sci
ence recognizes no other difference be-
tween their case and that of the unhappy
sufferers who people the asylums but a
simple difference of degree.
The crazes of this class of persons take
various forms. For an illustration of the
mental twist which manifests itself in
simple eccentricities of behavior we need
not go beyond the familiar case of DR..
Johnson. Everyone knows of his Singh
lar tricks of habit, his practice of touch
ing the posts, his avoidance of certain
streets, his strange grimmaces and gestur-
es, his mutterings, his occasional ejacula-
tiOns of scraps of prayer in crowded
drawing rooms, his mysterious boarding
of bits of orange peel. The leXicOgra phi
er's name would probably figure in any
lnllf
zone, for in spite of the fact that John
sons really strong point was his immense
fund of common sense, it is greatly to be
doubte& if any scrupulous mental pathO-
logist would give him clean bill of men
tai health. In another class of sufferers
the mental faint shows itself in the form
of morbid IMPULSES of one sort or other.
Of these the impulse which prom pts per-
fectly honest people to appropriate their
nelghbOr's goods may serve as a type.
kleptOmania is often set up as a genuine
species of mental infirmity or craze there
can be no doubt whatever. Numerous
and we'll authenticated cases of unduubted
kleptOmania are to be found in all the
treaties. Peddie, for instance, mentions
the case of an old lady noted for her
piety who acquired large library of
bibles by the wholesale plumber of her
neighbors. She, it is clear, was wholly
stranger to the sOrdid motives which &C
tuate the vulgar thief. The wealthy
baronet mentioned by DR.. Bucknel who
stole SO much old iron ahd worthless
crOckery in the course of a continental
tour that no fewer than eleven tons of
this strange brio a brac was presented to
the custom-hOuse afficers on his return
was madifestly a leptOmaniac-not a
thief. Physicians themselves have been
known to suffer from the
propensity, one of the cases cited
in the books being that of an eminent
practitioner who stole his patients table
cloths whenever he got chance. With
these uncomfortable prOmptings may be
compared that distressing species of
mental obsessiOn known as the tyranny
of a fixed idea. The sense Of lumber,
for instance, exercises such sway over
certain minds as to create a yeritable
species of mania which impels the per-
son affected by it to busy himself in num-
ercial calculations and computations
Whenever the accidents of his external
surroundings furnishes matter for the in
stinct of faculty to work upon. If he
enters a room he at once proceeds to
count the chairs, tables, and other arti-
Giles of furniture, and not till he has made
an accurate enumeration of everything
he sees to the very buttons on his hosts
waistcoat, is his mind at rest. Napoleon
seems to have suffered from this descrip-
ton of craze at one period of his life. 1t
is recorded of him that in his early sub
altern days he could never pass a house
without counting every window IN it.
Another variety of cerebral trouble from
which persons who pass for being in full
possession of all their wits are sometimes
known TO suffer is thar which gives rise
to or takes the form of Authorizations.
DR.. johnson declared that he once heard
his mother, who, as he knew, as miles off
at the time, distinctly calling him by
name, and it would be easy to name 9th
ers not less noted for mental and intel
lectual vigor than Johnson who have had
similar experience.
All the ghost stories and tales of second
sight are simply so many histories of
Authorizations, and the visions of the
saints and of the mystics of all sects who
IL r.