Arizona republican., 1895-03-31
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 1n 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 q will" that power which summons, suspends or dis misses as another Frenchman, Renou- v1er, 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 a 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 desire to act, but they cannot make 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 a speaker, who was seized with mo- nomania in consequence of certain troubles of the mind. He regained his reason, but would not 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:
 II know that ought to do so, but l am unable. Your advice is very good, and 1 wish 1 could follow it. It is cer- tain that have no will save not to will, , for | have my reason unirnpaired. I know what 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. II. Bennett of a 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 will was i'm 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 its 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 o1 his moral sensibilities or aspirations He wishes and longs as earnestly as ever to realize what he believes to be possible and feels to be exacted by duty But his intellectual apprehension o. what is possible infinitely outruns it: power, not of execution only, but ever the power to attempt"
 Another curious instance quoted by Dr. Billiod of Nancy is that of g mar who was greatly frightened at thirt, years of age by certain civic tumults il which he, unfortunately, became in volved. Thereafter, though he retained perfectly his mental balance, he would not remain alone, either on the stree or in his chamber, but was always ac companied. If he went out it was i'm possible for him to return alone.
 ''Whenever he went out alone, whicl he rarely did, he would soon halt ol the street and there remain indefinite ly, neither going on or turning back unless some one led him.
 s'He seemed to have will, but it wa that of those around him. Wheneve the attempt was made to overcome thi resistance of the man he would fall int s,@wco&."
 There are. dozens of persons wh every year take refuge in asylums be cause they are. tormented all the tia with the impulse to kill those who ar dear to them
 Sometimes" says Ribot, fixed idea 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 passin into acts"
 WestDhal tells of a man who wa