The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-07-09
SOME TYPES OF INSANITY.
The Professor Talks of the Varia-
ti0ns of Paranoia and Mania.

lions OF PaEIEO1zl anu Mania.
AT the Post Graduate Medical school
few days ago a well known professor
of nervous and mental diseases, who
testified as an expert at the trial of
Mrs Fitzgerald for the murder of Mrs
Pearsal, delivered a lecture on insanity
in it's relation to homicide, during which
he alluded to Mrs. F'itzgerald's case.
The various types of insanity, said he,
all breed homicides, but some more
than others. His classification of the
various forms of insanity was as fol-
lows, and any phase of mental dis
order, he said, would be found to fit I'M
der one head or the other: Mania, mel
ancholia, dementia, paronia, and pare
sis.
The victims of melancholia are most
subject to homicide or suicidal out
breks Paretics are least to be feared.
Melancholia is often the result of bodily.
ailment, or disappointed ambition may
cause this morbid and dangerous state
of mind Under the head of ''melan-
choia'' 1 place Mrs. Fitzgerald.
Insane homicidal outbreaks could not
occur in perfectly healthy pei sons. They
might be apparently sane, and be sud-
denly seized with an irresistible i'm
pulse to kill someone or to commit sui
eide, but there must be a groundwork
of melancholia, or some other unhealthy
mental state to incite this passion.
doctors now declare" the professor
continued that there is no such thing
as emotional insanity [ believe the
word was not USED at all during the
Fitzgerald trial, and L doubt if any ex-
pert would take the stand and testify
| that such a condition as emotional in
sanity ever exists
to- &c T16 n~1 IN,
USE" said the professor to the young
doctors. ''as it enables you to classify
your cranky acquaintance. Monomania
| is the older name for the same peculiar
Titles. The condition often manife5ts it
[ self by a fear of going to some particu-
lar place, by dread of crossing d street,
or by similar eccentricities. The sub
ject is usually possessed of single de-
| fusion; perhaps has an exaggerated
| idea of his own greatness or is about
/ to convulse the world by a wonderful
| invention. There is frequently, too,
some physical peculiarity-as bad
shaped head or peculiar shaped ears or
deformity of the jaws"
| The professor grouped the paranoiacs
! together under several heads-the para
noia religiosa, the crank who talks and
thinks of nothing but religion; paranola
| inventoria, the victim of which is full
| OIL 1OOllSn SCHeneS, a. CI1Ih VI tliC OOA-
lionel Sellers type; paranoia ltigiosa, OF
IIitigous paranoiacs, who are forever
bringing suits in the courts, frequently
for the most trivial causes.
"Cranks of this kind said the pro-
fessor, ARE, l believe, more numerous
lin Europe than in the United States,
though the west produces good many
In one notable instance whole county
was engaged in a fight over turkey
in which a few dollars were at stake.
Under the head of paranoia reform
atoria comes a more obnoxious class OF
lmonomaniacs-pol Offenders an
larchists and bomb-throwers, who are
convinced that only by the murder OF
a few crowned heads, princes, presi-
dents. senators and millionaires. ano
the destruction of property, can the eX-
listing state of affairs be changed fol
the better"
i Guiteau the professor mentioned a.
one of the extraordinary cases of HON
icidal paranoia. Prendergast, the muir
derer of Mayor Harrison, was another
i From mania all types of insanity
may develop. Excitability and gen
orally happy, careless frame of mine
characterizes this phase of lunacy
: though the mental state of the victim:
} runs the whole gamut of the emotions
Homicidal and suicidal outbursts art
frequent.
"Dementia' is a somewhat dangerou!
form of insanity. Its victims have NJ