The sun., 1892-03-06

the many men Of letters who ha 20 died insane
in France arc specifically mentioned Brihauit
and Laurent; the latter. It seems. was at
tackled by veritable mania OF caiumny.
Among women G1nderode. StieRlitz lboth OF
whom committed suicide with great delibera-
tionh Brachmann. and 1. r. Landon were
at one period or another OF their lives
insane. Montanus. n victim to solitude and
distorted imagination. was convinced that
he had become grain ofwheat. He refused to
move for fear Of being swallowed by birds. Hnr-
rington is said to have imagined that diseases
took the form of bees and flies. and for this
reason no retired to cabin armed with n
broom to disperse them Haler believed that
he was prosecuted by men and damned by
God on account OF the vileness OF his soul and
his heretcal works. He could only soothe his
excessive terror by enormous doses OF opium.
Ampere burned a treatise on the future OF
chemistry. believing he had written 1t by
Satanic suggestion. Tho great Dutch artist.
Van Goes. thought he was possessed. Carlo
Dolce. prey to religious monomania. vowed
only to paint religious pictures. On his we'd
ding day he alone wrs missing. After some
hours he was found Frustrated before the
altar OF tho Annunciation. Charles Lamb In
early life hud an attack OF insanity which was
hereditary in his family. Writing OF this to
Colerldge he said II look back upon it ut
times with gloomy Kind OF envy. for while 1t
lasted had many. many hours Of pure happi-
ness. Dream not Of having tasted all the
grandeur and wildncss OF fancy till You have
gone mad
Robert Schumann. tho precursor OF the
music OF the future. became subject
to melancholia al the ago Of %. Sub
seducntly hs imagined himself pursued
by turning. tables. and heard sounds which
layalopob MI and into
whole compositions. He declared that
Beethoven and Mendelssohn dictated musi-
cal compositions to him from their
tombs III 1854 he threw himself into the
Rhine: he was rescued. but died two years
later in a private asylum at Bonn. The au-
topsy revealed osteophytes. thickeninR OF the
craninl membranes. and atrophy OF the brain.
Gerard do Nerval was a victim Of the form OF
dementia known as Jolie circuldire. with alter
nate periods Of exaltation and depression.
During his stay at IN asylum he i'm
agined that it was the superintendent,
who was out OF his mind. Toward tho
end Of his life the delusion known
as giandiose monomania took almost
complete possession Of him. He would
talk about his chatesux. which existed only in
imagination. and Of his physical beauty. which
lie declared was astounding. Nerval was only
a pseudonym. yet he bought up coins OF Nerva
on the ground that he did not wish the name
OF his ancestor to circulate as money Finally
there came a winter when. in spite Of the low
temperature. he refused to leave Off his
summer clothes Gold" he said. is tonic
and tho Lnpps arc never ILL.," few days
after he hanged himself
Baudeaire is brought forward NJ the type of
lunatic possessed by the delirium Of grandeur.
Ho was descended from family OF
;r,o 81 To-
hood he was subject to hallucinations.
and long before he fell into manifest de-
mcntia he committed extraordinary acts. Sent
out to India in order to be put to business. he
lost everything and only brought back from
his voyage negress to whom he dedicated
erotic poems. He desired to be original at all
costs. gave himself to excess in wine before
high personages. dyed his hair green. wore
winter garments in summer. and vice versa.
He experienced morbid passions In love. He
loved ugly and horrible women. negresses.
dwarfs and giantesses. To very beautiful
woman he expressed desire that he
might see her suspended by the hands to
the ceiling that he might kiss her feet.
Kissing the naked foot appears In one Of
his poems as the equivalent Of the sexual act.
Baudelaire died OF the progressive general
paralysis characteristic OF tho insane. Of
which his excessive vanity and ambition were
forerunning symptoms. Concato. ono OF the
greatest OF European physicians. was the son
OF IL victim OF grave cerebral affection. Dur
ing many years Concato was himself subject
to various forms OF insanity. He would never
allow an officer to enter his house with his
sword by his side. and even in old age
trembled at tho sight OF the city guards. One
night he dreamt that he had committed
homicide. and for many days he remained q
20 .Ar
claustro-phobia: woe to whomsoever tried to
lock him up in O carriage or a room. He was
SO irascible that he used to say that. to be in
good health. one must be angry at least once
4 day. The philosopher Mainlander had a
grandfather who carried religious mysticism
to the extent Of insanity. and died OF infam-
nation OF the brain at the ago OF 33. A brother.
also insane. wished to embrace Buddhism.
Mainlander himself. az youth. looking at the
sea at Sorrento. felt lmpelled to throw himself
in. On the day when his celebrated treatise Die
Phiosophie der Erl6sung was published he
hanged himself. the better to confirm a pas
sage which said: I'm order that man may be
redeemed. it is necessary that he should rec
ognize the value OF not-being and desire in
tenscly not to be-"
by mental disorder. In 1893 he is re-
ported to have talked so strangely and
incoherently that his friends were seriously
alarmed. Aboutthe same time he wrote two let
ters which. in their confu sed and obscure form.
seemed to show that he had been suffering
from delusions OF persecution. In the case Of
Dean Swift. brain disease lasted for over
fifty years. and he died In o state OF complete
denentia. The later writings Of Rousseau give
most vivid idea OF the mental tortures OF
a monomauiac. Numerous passages In the
Confessions and In Grimm's letters about
him alludo to certain physical afflic-
tions which probably originated In the
spinal cord and which certainly aggra-
waited his melancholla. Auvuste Conte.
the propounder OF the positive philoso-
ply. was for ten years under the care OF Es-
quirol. the famous alienist. In his works may
be found genuinely maniacal Ideas. as. for
example, tho prophecy that one day women
will be formulated without tho help
OF the males. Passing over tho two