Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1886-11-19

The Spauiards, a people noted for
the shrewdness of their proverbial say
| ings, declared in one of those rhyming
| 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 medieo, poets, ' loco
Todos tenemos un POGO.
large and important sect of philoso-
| 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 ough he qualified
| 1t with 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
confreres 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
| tlal respects, the weak spot in their men
| tai organization never mauifests itself in
| trlfIng eccentrlcltles of too common and
| harmless a 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-
! lfy 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 eccentrlcltleS of behavior we need
| not go beyond the familiar case of DIR.
| johnson. Everyone knows of his singu-
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 eiacula-
! tions of scraps of prayer in crowded
drawing rooms, his mysterious boarding
of bits of orange peel. The Photograph
er's name would probably figure in any
COM lete bensus of Prof. Balls frontier
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
| doubted If any scrupulous mental Patio
logist would give him a 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 prompts per
fectly honest people to appropriate their
nelghbor's goods may serve as q type.
! kleptomanla is often set up as a genuine
species of mental intirmity or craze there
can be no doubt whatever. Numerous
ana well authenticated cases of undoubted
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 DIR. Bucknell who
| stole so much old iron ahd worthless
crockery III the course of a continental
| tour that no fewer than eleven tons of
this strange brio brac was presented to
| the custom house atficers on his return
was madifestly EleptOmaniac 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 Il chance. With
these uncomfortable promptings may be
compared that distressing species of
mental obsession known as the tyranny
of fixed idea. The sense of l.umber,
for instance, exercises such a sway over
certain minds as to create a veritable
species of mania which impels the per
son affected by it to busy himself in mum
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-
cles 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
have claimed the direct communication
with the supernatural world are no doubt
to be explained in the same way.
Genius VIGOROUSLY exhibits tendency
sanity. St. Augustine said many cen
turtles ago that there was never a great
intellect without some alloy of insanity,
and it is certain that some of our most
gifted species including not a few of the
most highly gifted of our species includ
ing not few of the master minds which
have moved the world have not escaped
the suS Diciou of such faint. The two
greatest religious reformers whom the
world has seen, Mohammed and Luther,
Columbus the grandest of all discoveries;
the mlghtiest captains, Alexander the
Great, Charles MI, Napoleon; the Lor-
raine peasant girl who restored her fallen
country to its place among the nations;
Rousseau, the precursor of the French
revolution: Parcal, the victorious assail- |
ant of Jesuitism-these were one all re-
puted more or less insane by their con
temporaries. Some of them were mad be |
yond doubt others only showed the faint |
by slight sympathetic traits, like those |
We have been speaking of, while in the |
case of all it is evident that we were con
fronted by very exceptional institutions |
with natures totally uninhuenced by !
the restraints of vulgar prudence and the |
calculations of vulgar wisdom. 1t may |