The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-06-19
FREAKS OF INSANITY.

From the Neto York Evenin0 Post
An interesting fact In connection with the
insane is the great age to which SO many
female lunatics live. A madwoman Is really
first class insurance risk. In almost every
lunatic asylum the women greatly out
number the men, not only because they are
SO long-lived but also because they are 81
seldom cured Insanity differs according tc
temperament. Pritchard says: "Cholerlc
persons, or those who have black hair and
eyes, with warm, vigorous constitutions,
become violently maniacal, but have
shorter or more acute distemper, more ire
quently terminating in marked Crisis imam
others the sanguineo- phlegmatlc, or persons
of pale complexion with fiaxen hair, fall
more readily into a chronic disease; the
dark-haired are gloomy monomaniacs; red
haired are violent, treacherous and dan
gerousn Excess of self-love, by the
way, is an ingredient in OIL cases of mono
mania.
There is no end to the curious tales told OF
the illusions of Insane people, and the in
mates of lunatic asylums are as lncongru-
GUS In their variety as the democracy OF
genius. In the asylum have in mind there
is an old lazy who does not believe in death
She sees in her fellow patient her father I'D
mother, her husband and children, her
brothers, her sisters, and her cousins, and
her auntsn and imbues each with the fden-
ity of some one of her relatives, occasion
ally with most embarrassing results. An
other woman lmagnes that she cannot sit
down. and suffers excruciating tortures II
she is forced into seat Another dlsilgures
her hands with all sorts of cabalistlc signs
and figures in ink, which she says are the
Psalms. She claims that she can write much
haitian har 81 in than and
slsts upon the necessity of continually re-
cording the Psalms, because nobody else
knows them, and her memory Is so poor
that she is afraid to trust it. Besides which,
if she did not renew the record from time to
time, her body would absorb them, and then
the doctors would have to dissect her to find
them again.
Another woman has worn her fingers
down to the top joint by necessarily tele-
graphing on the walls to her dead husband
case is recorded of a woman who thought
her bones were luminous, and ready to take
fire, but who was cured by rubbing her skin
with oil containing phosphorus, and pre-
tending to extract the light. Among the
male lunatics is one with the deluSion that
he is grain of corn. A casual visitor would
never dream that the man was insane I'M
less chicken should happen along, when
the grain of corn would suddenly be seized
Will buc hluNl vi u pdillC anu VI w
hide itself in the visitors pocket. Another
thinks he is teapot and that bis proper
place is on the stove. The man who thinks
every woman he meets is in love with him
is OF course represented, but his vagaries
are of a mild order and rarely call for
his keepers interference. Not 80 Mr..
Adam, who, if he had his way, would
neither be clothed" nor ''in mis- right
mind.n
One patient imagines that his rational soul
has gradually persisted under the displeas-
ure of God, and that an animal life merely
is left to him, i'll 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 wolf in his stom-
ach. One man who thought that Charles
l. was hiding in his stomach was temper
arily cured by putting a large blister
his abdomen; at the instant it was dressed
and the vesicated skin shipped, a dressed-up
figure was thrown from behind him. as if
Just extracted from his body. The patient
believed in the performance, and was filled
with JOY at first, but an attack of indigeS-
ton returning, which he had associated with
the deIusion. he thought the wretched
Charles had reached his old hiding place
again, and suffered relapse.
Whenever it is possible, doctors always
humor the decisions of insane people, and
so when woman who was suffering with
delirum tremens declared 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 q common character in all insane
communities. A propensity to theft is often
feature of moral insanity, and sometimes
it is the sole characteristic. In an English
asylum some years ago there was a lunatiC
who would not cat unless he had stolen hi:
food and his keeper used to put his meals
into q corner so that the lunatic could dis
cover and take them furtively. A curious
case is related of a man who had a mania
for putting things in order. If articles OF
ladies' work or books we're left on table
he would surreptitlously put them all in
order, spreading the work smooth and put
ting the other articles in rows, He stole in
other peoples bedrooms to arrange them
and was kept SO busy running from one
room to another that he hadn't time t,
dress for meals, and sat down to dinner il
his dressing-go frequently he took {
walk in the evenings with a lantern, be
cause he had not been able to get read,
earlier in the day. If it happened to be
starlight night, the disorder of the heaven
would drive him wild.
Another eccentric character made it
practice to open his window at a certain
hour every night, and cry out murder OK
actly twelve times; also to go every day afte
dinner into the middle of tn
| quadrangle of the asylum anC
| throw his hat into the air twelve times
vociferating at each throw. His motive wa
a notion that by this consistency and uni
| formity Of conduct he afforded proof o
| his sanity. When his physician approache.
him, he recoiled with horror. exclaiming
"If you were to feel my pulse, you woul,
! be lord paramount over me the rest of m
| life" Some lunatics never have any on
| permanent delusion. One man who fairl
revealed in the art of lying always had
| false report ready about his keepers-the'
| ate his food, wore his clothes, aud stole hi
| tobacco Once week the lining of hi
clothes was unpicked, the bed-tickinj
| opened, and the head of the bedstead re
| moved in a search for the knives and forks
the handkerchiefs, and brushes and comb
which he bad stolen from his fellow-pa
teuts, and the half-picked bones and piece
| of bread which he had furtiYely abstracte
from their plates, His madness mainl
consisted, however, in a morbid love O
being noticed. A story is told of an eccen
trio gentleman who went around with
knife grinders outfit, and exulted in tn
havoc he made in the cutting instrument
iutrusted to him. firing of this, he starte
as an old clothes dealer, aud this getUin
irksome, he returned home, but instead c
going in at the door, he made hole in tn
roof and entered that way. He afnuse
himself at night by driving pig tied to