Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-01-18
DISEASES OF THE WILL.
Some Strange Manifestations of
 Mental Alteration.
Persons Who Wish to Do the Simplest Acts of Everyday Life Are Stopped by a Falling Will Power-a Man Who
 Couldn't Put on His Coat

I1OuS S1dc or 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.
 Esehewing all research as to first causes Ribot takes vo1ition as q form of activity and studies it in a purely path ological sense. That strange power in Ells which every day says q will" that power which summons, suspends or dis misses" as another Frenchman, Renou- vier, defines it; that force in us and be- hind 1ls which, in it's ultimate pessibili- 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 to theirs before they can act. This common phase of q weak will is accen- ,tuated in disease to degree hardly ideemed possible by the nonobservant. Persons suffering from this form of sdiseased volition can will themselves according to the dictates of reason. They can feel desire to act, but they cannot make a move toward that end. They are power1ess to translate that idesire into an act.
 Esquirol mentions in this instance the case of Q magistrate highly distin- Iguished 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 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-negleeted affairs he would say:
 T know that I ought to do so, but I am unable. Your advice is very good. and 1 wish could follow it. It is cer- tain that have no will save not to will. for 1 have my reason uninpaired. I know what I ought to do, but strength fails mo when ought to act"
 The case of the magistrate, however. Is hardly as strange us that recorded by Prof. J. II. Bennett of man who gould 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 q 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 overcane the difficulty, seized the glass and drank down it's contents. He described his feelings afterwards aas if another person had taken posses sion of his will.
 The abuse of opium produces Q sone- what similar condition. De Quincey says: "The opium eater loses none of 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 exactcd 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- .~Dlxyc1 ri1,o,oo f4o,. 41,,,7er1, I,o perfectly his mental balance, he would not remain alone, either on the street or in his chamber, but was always ae- 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 sly, neither going on or turning back, unless some one led him.
 tsIIe seemed to have a 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 a swoon."
 There are dozens of persons who every year take refuge in asylums be- cause they are tormented all the timo with the impulse to kill those who are dear to them.
 Sometimes" says Ribot, 'sfxed ideas of q 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 acts,
 Westphal tells of man who was haunted by the thought that he might perchance commit to writing that he had been guilty of some crime and lose the paper. s'He accordingly care fully preserves every bit of paper he finds and even picks them up on the street and examines them" He knows 1t is folly, but he is powerless to dis miss it.
 Lesion of the brain will sometimes cause loss of will. A man who had re- ceived violent blow which destroyed part of the frontal convolutions lost all will power. When an operation waa performed and the pressure of the skull on the brain was removed he completely recovered
 
 Romans and Garthaginians.
 At the battle of Thrasymene between 41. r,....-..r o,,d (1o o~fb a c~iylianS there