The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-03-24
DEFORMED FROM R
THE AFFLICTION FROM WHICH GER
MANY' WAR LORD SUFFERS.
Besides u Withered Arm. the Kaiser
Has an Affection of the Ear Which
Is "a Constant Torture.
New York World.
Is the Emperor of Germany insane?

III Is alleSeQ IN the latest news from btl
lin that the Emperor's demeanor. hither-
TO commonly described as eccentric only.
has presented itself in the new and more
definite phase of fits of mental alteration,
mot ~distinguishable from madness
This is only an indefinite way of saying
that he is insane, since ii an alteration
cannot be distinguished from madness 1t
must affect the thoughts. actions and whole
life exactly as they would be affected by
madness itself.
Extravaganza has been the keynote of the
Emperor's life from the first ever heard Of
him by the world outside his nursery. and
every phase of his career since has strik-
ingly indicated a total absence of that
fair balance of the faculties in which the
force of even the most exuberant vitality
is modified in proportion to the mans rea-
soning capacity-which balance is the sign
of the sound mind.
He has roared Understanding phrases TO
his army and his court, associating himself
with God in the government of the universe
and he has been the poor little tool of all
the i%ntrigues, first OF bismarck against his
father, later Of his wife's family against
Bismarck. But every man who believes
himself very great, yet is in fact very
small. is not therefore insane.
William III is not physically a sound man,
and this fact is worth particular attention,
considering his parentage.
No more splendid specimen of physical
manhood probably ever trod the earth than
William lis father-the Emperor Freder-
lex. They who saw him on any grand oc-
casion-as upon the Queens jubilee-could
easily forgive the common German people
If they accepted the theory that sucn a
man as he was might be a cousin of the
gods. And Williams mother. the daughter
of Queen Victoria, was at least a woman
of sound health. for though the Coburgs
have defects enough they are physically
fairly sound.
William. the son of such a father and
such d mother. might have been expected
TO possess at his birth the ordinary human
assortment of fully formed arms and legs.
and 10 have the ordinary health OF a we'll
born baby. He had, however, with two
good legs. only one good arm, the other
being VIA the people call a "withered
arm. This defect was not due to injury,
but TO arrested development, and that ar
rest of development was due to a common
welI-known cause that is a prolific source of
such evils IN all civilized countries-a maliS-
nant disease planted in his system before
birth.
TO ACCOUNT FOR DEFORMITIES.
An effort was made to conceal this fact
under cover of the story of an unskillful
accoucheur, and a great deal of passion had
been expended in Germany at the princess.
who insisted upon having an English doctor
with her at the time of her confinement.
Germans were angry at her for this fragrant
exhibition of want of confidence in their
skill, and they have even cultivated this le-
gend as a treasure of retributive Justice
a evidence against a British
bungler. But the maladroit medical attend
ant was a story of the court invented for
a purpose.
In fact. the trouble is not only an
a%trophled or undeveloped arm. The hand is
malformed and the fingers are rudimentary:
that is to say, there are no fingers. but lit
tie stumps that would have become fingers
but for the arrested development.
Emperor Frederick's early death threw
light upon the disease that had cQntaminat-
ed the system of his son. For, though there
was here again an English doctor and "a
theory 10 throw dust in mems eyes the
dust was easily enough seen through. Nor
rell Mackenzie was taken to Germany only
to support with the credit of a very repu-
table name the contention that the disease
in the Emperor's throat was cancer. while
all the German doctors maintained that IT
was another disease. In those days. also,
il was suggested that the Emperor should
be deposed as the victim of an incura BILE
disease, and the present Emperor was With
those who made the proposition.
Besides the ~atrophied arm the Emperor
has had all his life a bad ear. Every poor
mother in the slums who wears away her
life caring for her scrofulous baby with a
gathering in its ear may know that even
i'm palaces they are not always happy, for
this imperial baby was just like hers as to
this one afhiction.
But this scrofulous disease is one Of the
most virulent scourges of humanity. for it
assails the bones. and thus reaches the
deeper tissues that are part OF the essential
vital organs.
In ordinary ear cases. due to blows or
TO cold or to certain feverS, the dischITge is
maintained and the child gets we'll, for the
tendency is towards health in the absence
OF any malignant constitutional disease.
But with such a disease. though the keep
ing up of the discharge prevents a rapid
progress. cure does not follow. for the
bones are involved from the beginning, and
the disease, though 1t responds for a time
to treatment, gnaws its way forward.
In the EmperorNs case there have been
several times apparent mitigations of this
evil. with corresponding aggravations at
other times. At one period it was officially
announced that he had had no trouble for
four years. But In the spring of 1892 he had
so bad a time with Ii that it was then re-
ported he was insane.
Now. the internal part of the ear-the
bony box in which is inclosed the beauti-
Is in immediate contact with the men,
branes OF the brain, and there. cannot be
any considerable disease of the internal
amount Of meningitis; that is to say, in
fammatfon of the tissues which inclose the
brain as i'm so many wrappers: And as the
Inflammation I'm the bones extends TO the
membranes the Inflammation is extended
still further. and the brain itself-the es-
| Sentidl cerebral substances involved III
the trouble.
INCESSANT TORTURE.
But this Is a progress that may involve
many years-and during all those years
the combined evils would stand only for
the permanent torture of a horrible irri-
tation that would never leave the man a
single hour of tranquility. He would be
like any one in the mythology followed by
the furies and the harpies, or any other
of the forces in which imagination has Civ
en- form to whatever keeps a man in a
| state of permanent unrest-extravagances.
| eccentricities-anything wild. strange or
furious in conduct would be To him ineffec-
tive satisfaction TO impulses he could not
restrain
And that is the way in which William
| has lived nearly all the time the world has
known him.
But suppose this sort of torture went on
for years and produced at last a violent
meningitis or cerebritis-either of these
probably would be fatal, but neither would
be insanity.
Would they produce insanity? In this case
they probably would. unless at the last the
progress toward the Ultimate end was un-
uSually rapid.
Any great and continued irritation of the
brain will produce insanity where there is
a hereditary predispoSition to that disease.
This is the case with the Emperor. who
derives an inheritance of insanity from both
sides of his family.
Indeed, this present reigning family came
to the throne only through the removal i'm
consequence of insanity of Frederick Will
lam ". of Prussia, Williams great uncle.
the brother of the old Kaiser William and
the insanity of that particular Hohenzollern
was not greater than that of two-thirds of
the family. differing only i'm being estab-
rsGha1 hr on official dpnla ra tfnn