The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1888-07-19
FREAKS OF INSANITY.
Singular Delusions-Tact Required
in Dealing with Lunatics,

As q rule insane men either die or are
cured in the course of a few years, and
Of the former probably ninety per cent.
do Of general paralysis. 1t is the re-
suit either Of overwork or bodily ex-
ccsses. and generally attacks man
between the ages of thirty or forty.
4 The premonitory symptoms are extreme
exaltation and buoyancy Of feeling.
fhe victim is immensely powerful, he
Is an irresistible Adonis, he is the most
brilliantly Intellectual man of his day,
or he is many times millionaire and
has an infallible recipe for making
colossal fortunes on the shortest pcssi-
bic notice. A case is related of Low
Church clergyman who imagined him.
self asort of assistant to the Trinity. and
died perfectly happy in the belief that
be was helping the Godhead by his
ministrations, and thrusting into outer
darkness all those whose tenets were
at variance with his own. The physi-
dan of French lunatic asylum says:
lam frequently followed by a General
who declares that he had just fought
great battle, and left $4,000 men dead
on tho field. At my side is monarch
xAo talks of nothing but his subjects
Ind provinces. Over there is the
prophet Mohammed in person, de-
nouncing in the name of the Almighty;
and next him is the sovereign of the
universe, who could with 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
shs men, not only because they are so
iohg-lived, but also because they are
70 seldom cured. Insanity differs ac-
eording to temperament. Pritchard
nys: "Choleric persons, or those who
have black hair and eyes. with warm,
vigorous constitutions, become vio-
lently maniacal, but have a shorter or
more acute distemper. more frequently
terminating in marked crisis than
others; the sanguineo-phlegmatic, Or
persons of pale complexion with flaxen
hair, fall more readily into a chronic
dsease; the dark-haired are gloomy
monomaniacs; red-haired are violent,
asacherous and dangerous" Excess
oiself-love, by the way, is an ingredient
all cases of monomania.
There is no end to the curious tales
told OF the illusions of insane people,
snd the inmates of lunatic asylums are
Is incongruous in their variety as the
aaemocracy of genius. In the asylum
nave in mind there is an old lady who
aoes not believe in death. She sees in
aef fellow-patients her father and
motner, her husband and children, her
oro'hers, sisters and her cousins, and
aef aunts." and imbues each with the
"ennty of some one of her relatives,
Ucaslonally with most embarrassing g
results.
another woman imagines that she
van not SIT down, and suffers excrucia-
ang tortures if she is forced into a seat.
another disfigures her hands with all
sOls OF cabalistic signs and figures in
INK which, she says, are the Psalms.
Sas claims that she can write much
De''er on her skin than on paper, and
.us'sss upon the necessity ofcontinually
.,cofoing the Psalms, because nobody
.l'e knows them. and her memory is
poor that she is afraid to trust it.
Ses'des which. if she did not renew the
'scotd from time to time, her body
S0uid absorb them, and then the doc
y S's would have to dissect her to find
them again.
another woman has worn her fingers
ss sssa 70 the top joint by necessarily tele-
s.apnlng on the walls to her dead hus-
saa0. A case is recorded of a woman
-. ny thought her bones were luminous,
~ ready to take fire. but who was
,.;V u oy rubbing her skin with oil con-
h.g ag phosphorous. and pretending
ns. acs the light Among the male
- hcs is one with the delusion that
Rrain OF corn. A casual visitor