Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1888-06-14
FREAKS OF INSANITY.
Singular Delusions-Tact Required
in Dealing with Lunatics.

in Dealing with LunaticS,
As rule insane men eithcrdie or are
cured in the course of 4 few years, and
of the former probably ninety per cent.
die of general paralysis. 1t is the re-
suit either of overwork or bodily ex-
cesses, and generally attacks 4 man
between the ages of thirty or forty.
The premonitory symptoms are extreme
exaltation and buoyancy of feeling.
The victim is immensely powerful, he
is an irresistible AdOnis, he is the most
brilliantly intellectual man of his day,
or he is many times a millionaire and
has an infallible recipe for making
colossal fortunes on the shortest posi-
bic notice. A case is related of Low
Church clergyman who imagined him.
self sort of assistant to the Trinity. and
died perfectly happy in the belief that
lie was helping the Godhead by his
minis:rations, and thrusting into outer
darkness all those whose tenets were
at variance with his own. The phySi-
clan OF French lunatic asylum says:
II am frequently followed by a General
who declares that he had just fought a
great battle, and left 10000 men dead
on the field. At my side is monarch
who talks of nothing but his subjects
and provinces. Over there is the
prophet NOhammed in person, de-
10 90 ha A
and next him is the sovereign of the
universe. who cOuld with a breath an
initiate the earth"
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 in
surance risk. In almost every lunatic
asylum the women greatly Outnumber
the men, not only because they are so
long-lived, but also because they are
so seldom cured. Insanity differs ac-
cording to temperament. Pritchard
says: 'Choleric persons, or those who
have black hair and eyes. with warm,
vigorous constitutions. become vio-
more acute diStemper. more frequently
terminating in marked crisis than
others; the sanguinPo-phlegmatic, or
persons of pale complexion with tlaXen
hair. fall more readily into a chronic
disease; the dark-haircd are gloomy
monomaniacs; rcd-haired are violent,
treacherous and dangerous" Excess
of self-love, by the way. is an ingredient
in all cases of mOnomania.
There is no end to the curious tales
told of the illusions of insane people,
and the inmates of lunatic asylums are
as incongruous in their variety as the
democracy of genius. In the asylum
l have in mind there is an old lady who
does not believe in death. She sees in
her fellow-patients her father and
mother, her husband and children. her
brothers, sisters and her cousins, and
her aunts," and imbues each with the
identity of some one of her relatives.
occasionally with most embarrassing
results.
Another woman imagines that she
can not sit down, and suffers eXcrucia-
ting fortunes if she Is forced into a seat.
Another diSfigureS her hands with all
sorts of cabalistic signs and figures in
ink. which, she says. are the Psalms.
She claims that she can write much
better on her skin than on paper. and
insists upon the necessity of continually
recording 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 10 time. her body
would absorb them, and then the doc
tors 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 hus-
band. a case is recorded of woman
who thought her bones wers luminous,
and ready to take fire. but who was
cured by rubbing her skin with oil con-
tanning phosphorus. and pretending
to extract the light. Among the male
lunatics is one with the delusion that
he is a grain of corn. A casual visitor
would never dream that the man was
insane, unless chicken should happen
along. when the grain of corn would
suddenly be seized with the direst kind
of panic and try to hide itself in the
visitors pocket Another thinks he is
a teapot and that his 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 forhis keepers interference.
Not 50 Mr. Adam. who. if he had hi.
waT. would neither be ''clothedh nor
Gin his right mind. I"
One patient imagines that his ra-
tional soul has gradually persisted
under the displeasure of God. 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 wolf ia his
stomach. One man who thought that