The DeLamar nugget. [volume] (DeLamar, Idaho) 1891-1900, 1895-09-28
DISEASES OF THE WILL.
Some Strange Mantle stations of
Mental Alteration.
Persons Who Wish to Do the Simplest
Acts of Everyday Life Are stopped bv
Failing VIII Power-a Man Who
Couldn't Put on His Cont

Persons who are interested in the Gu
-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
illogical sense. That strange power in.
us which every day says 81 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 its ultimate POSSIBLE
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 plant that they need the
strength of another will to be Joined
ito theirs before they can act This
common phase of weak will is accen-
tuated in disease to degree hardly
deemed possible by the nonobscrvant.
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 not gointo 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:
II know that l ought to do so, but 1
am unable Your advice is very good,
and | wish could follow it. 1t is GER
tain that have no will save not to will,
for [ have my reason unimpaired l
know what l ought to do, but strength
fails me when ought to acs"
The case of the magistrate, however,
is hardly as strange as that recorded
by Prof. J. H. Bennett OF d man who
could not carry out what he wished to
perform, even to the simplest acts of
daily life
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 viii was i'm
paired. Once he ordered a glass of |
wafer. 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 ovcrcame the difficulty, seized
the glass and drank down its contents.
He described his feelings afterwards
S.as if another person had taken posses
sion of his viii"
The abuse of opium produces some
what similar condition De Quincy
says: "1he opium eater loses none of
his moral sensibilities or aspirations.
lie wishes and longs as earnestly as
ever to realize what he believes to be
possible and feels to be exactcd by duty.
But his intellectual apprehension of
what is possible infinitely outruns its
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
volved 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-
If he went cut it was inn
possible for him to return alone.
'yYhenever he went out alone, which
he rarely did, he would soon halt on G
the street and there remain indefinite
ly, 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
,he attempt was made to overcome this
-esistance of the man he would fall into
; swcos."
There are dozens of persons who
very year take refuge in asylums be-
,ause they are. tormented all the time
With the impulse to kill those who are
lear to them.
Sometimes, - says Ribot, ''fixed ideas N
# character frivolous or unreason- ~
bile find lojgment in the mind, which, 70
hough It deems them absurd, is pow
rless to prevent them from passing !"
nto acts. CT
Westphal tells of man who was
aunted by the thought that he might
commit to writing that he
ad been guilty of some crime and
use the paper. "IIe accordingly care
ILL., ,,,.,eo,.,,es a,ro,.,, Ia &c $780,. -