The Progress. [volume] (White Earth, Minn.) 1886-1889, 1888-07-14

MN IS OF course represented. but his
yagaries are of a mild order and
rarely call for his keeper interference.
Not so Mr.. Adam, who, if he had his
way, would neither be '.clothed'' nor
Sin his right mind.''
One patient imagines that his ra-
tional soul has gradually persisted
under the displeasure Of Tod, and that
an animal life merely is left to him, in.
common with the brutes. Another.
fancies that his head has grown larger.
than his body, that his legs are made
OF glass, or that he has a wolf in his
stomach. One man who thought that
Charles l. was hiding in his stomach
was temporarily cured by putting 4
large blister on his abdomen; at the
instant it was dressed ard the ycsicated
skin shipped, . dressed up figure was
thrown from behind him, as if Just ex-s
tracted from his body. The patient
believed in the performance, and was.
filled with Joy at first, but an attack
OF indigestion returning, which lie had
associated with the delusion, he thought.
the wretched Charles had reached his
old hiding-place again, and suffered a
relapse.
Whenever it is possible, doctors
always humor the delusions Of insane
people. and SO whena woman who was
suffering with deliriunl tremens de-
clared that the boys were fishing for
her through the window, and implored
the doctor to clear the fish hooks out
of her bed. he readily complied. But
the lunatic who insists that there is a
plot to poison her is not so easily
satisfied, and she is common charac-
ter in all insane communities. A pro-
pensity to theft is often feature of
moral insanity, and sometimes lis the
sole characteristic. In an English
asylum some years ago there was a
lunatic who would not eat unless he
had stolen his food, and his keeper
used to put his meals into corner, so
that the lunatic could discover and
take them furtively.
A curious case is related of a man
who had a mania of putting things in
order. If articles of ladies' work or
books were left on table, he would
surreptitiously put them all in order,
spreading the work smooth and put
ting the other articles in rows. He
stole into other peoples bedrooms to
arrange them, and was kept so busy
running from one room to another that
he hadn't time to dress for meals, and
sat down to dinnerin his dressing-gown.
Frequently he took a walk in the even
ings with a lantern. because he had
not been able to get ready earlier in
the day. If it happened to be a STAR
light night, the disorder of the heavens
would drive him wild.
Another eccentric character made it
q practice to open his window at a Ger.
tain hour every night, and cry out
murder exactly twelve times; also to
go every day after dinner into the mid.
die of the quadrangle of the asylum and
throw his hat into the air twelve times,
vociferating: at each throw. His motive
was q notion that by this consistency
and uniformity Of conduct he afforded
proof of his sanity. When his
physician approached him, he recoiled
with horror, exclaiming, IF you were
to feel my pulse, you would be- lord
paramount over me the rest of my
life. -
Some lunatics never have any one
permanent delusion. One man who
fairly revealed in the art of lying
always had a false report ready about
his keepers-they ate his food, wore
his clothes. and stole his tobacco. Once
a week the lining OF his clothes was
unpicked, the bed ticking opened, and
the head of the bedstead removed in
q search for the knives and forks, the
handkerchiefs, and brushes and combs
which he had stolen from his fellow
patients, and tile half-picked bones
and pieces of bread which he had fur
lively distracted from their plates. His
madness mainly consisted, however, in
q morbid love of being noticed.
A story is told of an eccentric gem
tleman who went around with a knife
grinders outfit, and exulted in the
havoc he made in the cutting instru-
ments intrusted to him. firing of this,
he started as an old-clothes. dealer
and this getting irksome, he returned
home, but instead of going in at the door,
hcmade a hole in the roof and entered
that way. He amused himself at night
by driving a pig tied to u cord through
the village, upon whose nose some
thing had been fastened to make him
squeak. He varied this performance
by exchanging the farmers cattle and
removing their gates, etc.
1t commonly surprises visitors to a
lunatic asylum to find that insane peo-
pie are not for a moment deceived by
the delusions of their felIow-patients.
Each will think himself perfectly sane
and healthy, while knowing that all
the others are hopelessly mad. AL
though a lunatic' mental freedom may
be destroyed, it does not follow that
his consciousness is abolished. A minis
ter who was called ul,On once to nroa ri, ~