The indicator., 1897-02-13

leU kltploLldnlh III
its stead. Mrs. Castle of San Francis
co is not conveyor but kleptoman-
lac. For kleptomana, we are told. ts
form of insanity which renders Its
victim irresponsible. Nice distinctions
OF this sort were not known to our an
cestors. In their simpler view a lun-
atlc was q raving manfac-a person
who did not know the nature and con-
sequence OF mis- acts On this point
law and medicine were fully agreed
But medicine has advanced far more
rapidly than law and Is gradually
teaching Its sister science that a luna
tic need not rave and rage in order to
be morally Irresponsible that from
that extreme point there are numer-
Gus gradations toward the normal state
till we reach a class on the borderland
between sanity and insanity of whom
II Is difiicult to decide the exact de-
gree of their responsibility. In one
light they may be insane and ire
sponsible, although in all other rela-
tions of life they may be absolutely
sane and responsible A kleptomaniac
Tor example, is a person who may be
perfectly rational under ordinary cir
cunstances yet when placed under the
stress of temptation is irresistibly i'm
PEELED to steal. Medical records are
full of illustrative cases. There was
the man who would not eat unless his
food was stolen. His attendant hu-
mored him by hiding his food in a cor
ner, so that he could imagine he was
purloining 1t. There was the fash
ionable lady who at her trial for theft
confessed to so wild a longing to pos
sess everything she saw that at church
she could hardly refrain from rfling
the altar. There was the woman men
toned by DR.. Rush. exemplary in the
obedience to all the commandments
save only the eighth. who. when there
was nothing else to lay her hands up
on, would often at the table of
friend secretly fill her pockets with
bread. Even before DR.. Rush's time
the German Lavater had chronicled
similar instances. He mentions doe
tor of medicine who could not leave
his patients rooms without taking
something away unobserved His wife
would make 1t practice to search his
pockets whenever he returned home
and would find and restore to their
owners the knives, thimbles, scissors
and other knick-knacks with which
they were stuffed He makes a rec
ord of still more curious case, the |
almoner of regiment of Prussian |
curassiers, well-educated man. who |
frequently on parade stole the hand |
kerchiefs of the officers. But what are |
all these cases to that of the penitent |
whose kleptomaniac passion asserted |
itself on his death bed so that he |
quietly distracted the snuff box of the |
holy father listening to his confession? |
So long ago as 1856 the Quarterly Re
view of London in an article on the |
metropolitan police. noted the fact that |
the extent of pilfering carried on even |
by ladies of rank and position is very |
great. There are persons possessing |
a mania of this kind so well known |
among the shopkeeping community |
that their addresses and descriptions |
are passed from hand to hand for mu-
tual security. The attendants allow |
them to seCrete what they like with
out seeming to observe them and after ,
ward send bill with the prices of the |
goods purloined to their houses"
Twenty years later the London Times |
repeated the charge. Every one who |
is acquainted with London society. it |
said. could at once furnish dozen |
names of ladies who have been motor
ious for abstracting articles of trifling
value from the shops where they hab- |
itually dealt. Their modus operandi |
was so well known that on their re-
turn from their drives their relatives
took care to ascertain the nature of
their paltry peculations; inquired from
the eoachman the houses at which he
had been ordered to stop and, as a mat
ter of course. reimbursed the trades |
men to the full value of the pilfered |
goods. In other cases a hint was Civ |
en- to the various shopkeepers at whose
establishments these monomaniacs |
made their purchases and they were
simply forewarned to notice what was |
taken away and to furnish the bill. |
which was paid as soon as furnished,
and, as matter of course. by the pill
ferer himself, without any feeling of
shame or emotion of any kind. 1t is
only recently that kleptomania has be-
come recognized by the courts.