St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-07-17
MAD KINGS.
The Rulers Who Have Conc CraZE
Before Louis of Bavaria.

Ihe fSUIerS VINO Have Gone CraZE
Before Louis of Bavaria.
Medical Record.
The late King Louis II. of Bavaria was
of a mad family. If accounts are correct
his father was of unsound mind, and hif
brother is known to be an imbecile.
DR.. Ball, in his 'Lecons sur les Maladiea
Mentales," describes form Of insanity
that very well fits the case of King Louis.
There is, he says, a kind of maniacal excis
tation and disordered action of all tho
faculties, without any clear arrangement
Of intelligence. Ideas are quickly flowing
and exaggerated, but there is no incOher-
ence The patients often show remarka-
bic development of certain intellectual
powers, especially in poetic or artistic di-
rections. Their minds are filled with
speculations and new projects, and ting
moral sense is greatly weakened or per-
verted. Dr.. Ireland finds another royal
Illustration of this psychosis in Mohammed
Toghlak, sultan of India, in the fourteenth
century. and, as we will show later. it has
plainly affected one of the czars of Russia.
and very likely members of other royal
families.
The German writers have given to this
form of insanity the name of paranoia, and
this was the diagnosis made by the late
kings physician.
In earlier times there were many royal
families in whom mental disease and decay
showed itself Uncontrolled exercise of
power, the free opportunity for the in.
diligence of every appetite and caprice,
seem surely to bring on disease either in
the individual himself or his descendants!
In modern times monarchs have to regulate
their conduct and restrain their passions
much more than formerly, and in conse-
quence royalty is much more healthful
occupation than it used to be.
In the Claudian-J Julian family, beginning
with Julius Caesar himself and ending with
Nero, we have an almost unbroken line Of
neuroses. Caesar himself was an epileptic,
but probably the disease developed late in
life from exposure and excuses, and did
not much affect his health. Augustus. his
granddaughter, had, it is believed, writer's
cramp; Julia, his daughter, seems to have
been little better than nymphOmaniac.
She had an imbecile son. Tiberius was
man naturally heartleSS, cruel and, licen-
tious. In his later years he seems to have
lost all moral sense. and illustrated the
most shameless sensuality and cruelty.
Caligula, reputed great-grandson of Angus,
tus, was epleptic as boy, badly formed
and weak minded as man. He suffered,
was luSOlullC, dIlu apparently ldu ndllU-
cinationS. Claudius was also weak minded,
timid and credulous, with unsteady gait,
week knees, shaking head and dribbIing
lips.
In Russia, the present house of Romanoff
has shown plain evidence of the develop
ment of mental weakness and defects, The
sister OF Peter the Great was a brilliant
woman, but his two brothers were weak
minded and had physical defects. Peter
himself, though a man of genius bore
traces of the family reurOsiS. He had, at
times, commissions, and was when young
the victim of a morbid antipathy to the
water. Peters daughter, Elizabeth. was
dissolute and hard-drinking woman. His
grandson was weak-minded, coarse and eX-
tremely licentious. The Emperor Paul. who
succeeded Catherine L., was according to
DR.. Ireland, unquestionablY deranged. His
whims and fits of unreason were much
more coarse and brutal in their tendency
han those of King Louis, but they suggest
the same malady implanted On man of
less refined nature and duller sensibiiities.
Paul was treated finally in much the sama
way as King Louis, only, as the former re-
fused to abdicate, he was summarily
strangled. The house of Ramanof has inn
proved in the last three generations, as a
result, doubtless, of the constant infusion
of Teutonic blood.
A study of the royal families Of France
and of England would bring to light some
interesting neuroses, but we have said
enough to Illustrate our subject.