The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1888-10-25
SINGULAR MoNoMANiAs,
The Strange DeIusions with which Some
People are Affected.

Among the instances of singular
monomanias which have discovered
is that of an important officer of
state government of New England,
writes the New York correspondent of
the PtttsbUrgh Post His special delu-
sion is that the other members of the
family are insane and are plotting to
injure him, and that they ought to be
put in an insane asylum. He is an
able and even celebrated lawyer, and
conducts eases with marked effective
ness and success; his briefs and argu-
ments show an unusual vigOr and con-
tinulty of thought Nobody knows of
his mental condition outside of his own
family and few intimate friends to
whom they have said cOnfidentially:
''If any of us should disappear sudden
ly, look for us in an asylum"
Another most curious case is that of
wealthy banker in New York city,
who fancies that he is ripe cherry
that the birds are anxious to pick He
has terror of all fruit-eating birds,
and seldom walks or appears anywhere
i'll the open air. He makes trips to
and from his bank in his carriage, and
keeps the doors and windows always
shut tight lest n sparrow should get in
and swallow him. He knows very we'll
that the preposterous belief would dam
age and probably ruin him if it were
generally known that he harbored it,
so he cOnceals the consciousness of his
fearful peril from his business associ-
ates, and contents himself with keep
ing carefully out of the way of birds.
An interesting society lady of Troy
imagines that a big Newfoundland dog
always accompanies her. walks when
she walks, stops when she stops. II
know perfectly we'll that it is not
there" she says. .'but always see it,
and that is what troubles me. When I
go to bed it always lies down upon my
feet
There is lady who has been q
teacher for the last twelve years in the
schools of New York city, and is still
so employed, who imagines herself q
wheclbarrow. Il know l am not q
wheelbarrow, of course" she says to
her physician, DIR. Hammond, .'but
that certainly makes indifference with
the appearance and my sensations. ,
When in school am always a wheel
barrow, and my feet are the handles
and my head is the wheel, and 1 seem
to be trundling myself down the aisles
and painful, and mortifying, but,
though | know it is the result of a
nervous disease, l can not shake off
the hallucination."
W. A. Croffut, journalist and sue
cessful mesmcrist. gives me the follow
ing opinion: ''HallucinatiOns are evil
IDENTIFY closely akin to dreams. l can
fill any one of my sensitives full of de-
lusions in Il minute; can make him
think he is Washington, or Grant, or
Victoria, peddler, an opera singer, q
teacher of languages, rooster, or a
telegraph pole, and can Danish the de-
lusion in two seconds. Now, it seems
to me that this hallucination is exactly
of the same kind as hallucinations of
lunatics, or the dreams of those who
sleep, the only difference being that
the sleeper holds the key of dreamland
and the operator holds the key of the
similar trance called mesmerism, while
to the permanent trance called mono
mania the key is lost. / have won
dered if it might not be possible to re-
cover the lost key-to often waken
the insane from their dream, as SOM
nambulists and the mesmerized are
awakened"