Arizona republican., 1895-03-15
DISEASES OF THE WILL.
Some Strange Mamie stations Of
 Mental liberation.
Persons Who Wish to Do the Simplest Acts Of Everyday Life Are Stopped by Falling Will Power-a Man Who
 Couldn't Put on His Coat.

Persons who are interested in the cu- rious side of human nature should look into the work of the French doctor and scientist Ribot on the diseases of the human will, where are to be found some extraordinary instances of men and women losing their powers of volition in regard to certain acts while they keep fully active and healthy in all others.
 Eschewing all research as to first causes Ribot takes volition as form of activity and studies it in purely path ological sense. That strange power in us which every day says T will,'' that power which summons. suspends or dis misses as another Frenchman, Renou- vier, defines it; that force in us and be- hind us which, in it's ultimate possibili- ties, can hardly be limited, is shown in this work to be subject to the strangest diseases and to be modified in the most peculiar manner.
 There are some persons, says the Chi cago Times, and they enter into all the daily circle of life, whose wills are so soft and pliant that they need the strength of another will to be joined to theirs before they can act. This common phase of weak will is accen- tuated in disease to a degree hardly deemed possible by the nonobservant. Persons suffering from this form of diseased volition can will themselves according to the dictates of reason. They can feel a desire to act, but they cannot make a move toward that end. They are powerless to translate that desire into an act
 Esquirol mentions in this instance the case of a magistrate highly distin- guished for his learning and his powers as speaker, who was seized with mo- nomania in consequence of certain troubles of the mind. He regained his reason, but would rot go into the world again, though he acknowledged him self to be in the wrong in not doing so. When advised to travel or to attend to his much-neglected affairs he would say:
 T know that I ought to do so, but I am unable. Your advice is very good, and wish l could follow it. It is cer- tain that 1 have 10 will save not to will, for | have my reason unilnpaired. I know what l ought to do, but strength fails me when ought to act.''
 The case of the magistrate. however, is hardly as strange as that recorded by Prof. J. H. Bennett of man who could not carry out what he wished to perform, even to the simplest acts of daily life. T~- ...-.
 Often, on endeavoring to undress, this man was two hours before he could get his coat off All his mental facul- ties were perfect, but his will was in- paired. Once he ordered a glass of water. When the servant brought it he was utterly unable to take it off the tray, though he was most anxious to do so. The servant waited half an hour before him, at the end of which time the man overcame the difficulty, seized the glass and drank down it's contents. He described his feelings afterwards ''as if another person had taken posses sion of his will"
 The abuse of opium produces a some what similar condition. De Quincey says: ''The opium eater loses none of his moral sensibilities or aspirations He wishes ard longs as earnestly as ever to realize what he believes to be possible and feels to be eXacted by duty. But his intellectual apprehension of what is possible infinitely outruns it's power, not of execution only, but even the power to attempt"
 Another curious instance quoted by Dr. Billiod of Nancy is that of man who was greatly frightened at thirty years of age by certain civic tumults in which he, unfortunately, became in- volYed. Thereafter. though he retained perfectly his mental balance, he would not remain alone, either on the street or in his chamber, but was always ac- eompanied. If he went out it was i'm possible for him to return alone
 Whenever he went out alone, which
 he rarely did, he would soon halt on the street and there remain indefinite. Iy, neither going on or turning back unless some one led him.
 He seemed to have will, but it was that of those around him. Whenever the attempt was made to overcome this resistance of the man he would fall into Ss5woo=."
 There are dozens of persons whc every year take refuge in asylums be cause they are. tormented all the tine with the impulse to kill those who are dear to them
 Sometimes" says Ribot, fixed ideas Of a character frivolous or unreason able find lodgment in the mind, which though it deems them absurd, is pow erless to prevent them from passing into . o4- T