Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-09-10

complicated soups, which are invented simply
for the purposes Of gluttony. There are ever,
persons who put together beans, peas, barley,
herring and desh meat, making something which
| IL chaos itself. This may do in the house, OF
the pope, or Of the emperor or king, or Of bish-
ops or secular princes, all Of which are places
people must remember that gluttony IL one OF
the deadly sins.
/ ADVICE TO PARENTS.
Again, parents who wish to get rid Of their
children should not induce them to enter .
convent by saying that they will there always
| eat their fill Of good peas. Doubtless monks
| and nuns like to have conserves OF pears and
| cherries and to eat peas, but one should not
| enter the convent for the sake Of delicate food
The Franciscan friar, Berthold Of Ratfsbon,
| who died In 1872, directs his warnings against
merchants who sell spoiled meat and rotten
fish: "You rogue and rascal, You keep meat
till it is spoiled under the skin: this ia not
seen at first glance, and 30 along comes q brave
man who believes it 10 fresh, whereas 1t is
rotten; and therefrom he has his death or takes
some grave malady. Begone, rogue and rascal.
| you are an assassin Such other people are
the butcher who sells rams meat for good NUT
ton, the merchant who puts water in his wine,
the fnnkeeper who poisons his guests with
mody soup. They are all disloyal to God, to their
Christian brethren and to their own souls. 1t
| Ia all the same to them that man should die,
provided they gain few pence. These ser
mons, rs the compiler remarks. form only a
| small part of the many religious threads By
which the priests led their people. Certainly
no fin de steele pulpit even could explain TO
young men and Young women all that Herr
hotelmann has here gathered together.
HYsrERIA II BABES.
But by way Of contrast, nothing can be more
chic for the ordinary reader than .he title OF a
memoir recently read before the session of the
French Academy of Medicine, on ''Hysteria in
Babes" 1t is based on the observation OF over
zoo cases. and purports to show how common
hysteria may be at q very tender age. The
writer attributes to it nluch Of what ia called
ill-nature in young child. often showing itself
by unusual cries followed by trembling and
rolling as in rage upon the bed. or again in
those bursts Of laughter for which the young
are corrected. and i'll nigh. terrors.
That hysteria is disease of the day comes
out very plainly from another medical report
just published. In 1890. a special medical serv-
ice was organized for the great Palais de justice
in Paris. with its assemblage Of courts Of law.
DR.. Floquet has been the Official physician from
that time and is il constant attendance during
| the sessions of court. He has been called on to
care for $500 patients, who have given him
400 crises Of hysteria. During the late trial
of a notorious abortionist he was in constant
attendance for fifteen days OF the Cour d'As-
sises There was not single day when one
other OF the fifty accused persons was not seized
by a nervous attack. He has also been called
on to treat congestion of the brain, apoplexy,
| fractures, with fifteen attempts at suicide, two
at murder and one assault with vitri0l.
HYPNOTIC SUGGESTIONS.
DR.. Charcot, who is the great authority on
hystera, is also specialist in regard to certain
mental diseases which have been greatly stud
led of la.e years Ho is supposed to have
greatly added t. the proof tina. what was once
considered witchcraft and sorcerv was at most
nothing more than the effect of hypnotic sug-
/ q Dall n mic.
has hunted out that another Charcot. in the
year 1900, declared himself to have been
attacked in plain BY an innumerabie army Of
dIabollcal cats. the result Of sorcery. and he
got rid of them only By using certain powerful
eAorclsrls. which were more potent than the
witches charms. A late article in the Century
has rather startled Europeans bv the Statement.
that q majority OF Americans still hold to the
belief in witchcraft Perhaps. after all. it is
more comfortable belief than the fin de steele
attribution OF everything to hvsleria. hypnot-
ism or madness. The recent misfortune of W.
Guy de naupassant has drawn general attention
to the mental status Of writers in particular.
DR.. Charcot has been interviewed on the subject.
AID his reply, though brief, IL startling. Men
| OF letters. poets, musicians all OF them are
crazy. What astonishes me is that any of them
wander about at liberty. But the turn Of each
viii come How can you wish that talent should
| SO along with a well-5alanced head? They will
an pass my way The only same people are
tiose VINO eat uflnk ana sleep. he fecen.
work OF Lombroso. the celebrated italian stu
! dent of criminal and abnormal psychology on
| 'Tenius and Madness has been greatly talked
! of. and late number of the N0urelk Rerue
has published what he has to say on neurosis in
| three women Of genius.
NOT CoNsoLINd To GENIUsEs.
One Of these women is Marie Dashkirtitef
After bringing forward reasons for considering
her genius genuine. the professor considers cer-
tain qualities which accompanied il. three Of
which he declares to be the basis Of moral follv
| They are the oddness OF her character, her lack
OF affection and her immense vanity. He ren-
ders the picture more striking by summing up
the morbid heredity of this gifted girl All
this is decidedly not consoling to people who
consider themselves genuises. for the things he
notes NAV DE found more or less in every char
acter and every family. One writer has made a
pertinent summary of the whole thought of the
Paris press on This subject. He declares that
LOmbroso himsCif is most certainly an unbal-
| anced man, and that he is off with the determi-
| nation Of finding madness everywhere. While
keeping to himself the secret of wisdom, the
| conclusions OF hi. book will torment many men
Of talent and others. without really demonstrate
| ing anything in regard to them. Hence this
sensible advice: Dear comrades. be without
fear for yourselves. The asylum is not wait
ing for you. Do not read Lombroso. / beseech
Of you. Do not generalize what is really an
| isolated case. Do no. feel the pulse Of your
brain while it is in the pangs of travail
POLITICAL MADNESS.
In his turn NJ. Bal. the eminent a!ienist, has
given a very interesting conference on political
madness. His end was to show the danger to
weak brains Of frequonting public meetings and
especially Of the discussion of legislative mat
tiers. Among many curious facts which he
brought up from his own experience he de-
tailed at length the history of lie Clou whom he
had carefully examined. 1t will be remem-
bered that this unhappy not only perse-
cuted deputies and municipal councillors. but
imagined himself 10 be constantly prosecuted
by them. He made himself candidate at the
last elections and gained certain renown by
demanding to be paid by the hour. NJ. Bal
says tina. the things which lie Clou gives out
have perfect sense when taken separately, and
that only the connection between them is in
sane The newspapers here are saying that
they have never had the slightest doubt Of the
truth OF the teachings OF the eminent professor
concerning political madness.
| For twenty-four years DR.. Magnan has been
at the head OF the immense asylum OF Sainte
| Anne and 80 600 patients have passed through
his hands. He says: at is a curious thing that
the diseases OF which the cause Is best known to
us arc not those on which We have the most in
fuence. We know very well that lesion Of the
brain which causes general paralysis, yet in
this kind of cases we obtain only feeble anchor