The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-06-29
o11nDR nnIIIsIoNs.


 are persons living whose lives are dominated by the delusion that they have never been born. Yet @ man died in Brighton asylum not long ago who had an idea that he was never born, and and would never die. The delusion took possession of him so tempted to take his life. At last he threw himself from local station platform and was cut to pieces by train. His delusion was not a common one, but it is not unknown among doc tors, and several similar instances might be quoted. An equally uncom- mon delusion among lunatics Is the be- lief that dire poverty stare9 them in the face when they may be the unhap- py possessors of huge wealth. Singular ly enough, an incident Illustrating this occurred at Brighton at about the same time as the one already recorded, retired paymaster of the Royal Navy, who was very comfortably off, commit ting suicide in the popular watering place under the delusion that he was poor The most remarkable case of this kind, however, happened in Paris about a year ago. It is singular fact that the victims of these delusions gen. orally attempt to take their own lives and the case in question came under public notice by the deluded man throwing himself on the tram lines near the church of St. Augustine. Fort | unately the man was rescued by a po- liceman, who, on making inquiries, was amazed to find that his prisoner was | nobleman of great wealth, and vis- count in rank, who had suddenly gone mad under the delusion that he had be- come a pauper. It was explained by | the viscount's friends that it was inn | possible to induce him to accept money which he emphatically refused to carry | If .banknotes were given him he invari- l ably burned, them, and gold pieces he l as invariably threw out of the window, | generally remarking something to the | effect that he was "being made a fool | of" as he knew he was pauper with out a penny in the world. The poor man appears to have been amazingly conscientious, for since overtaken by the delusion that he was a pauper he had refused to eat anything at all, and had been fasting two days when pick ed up on the tram lines.
 | A girl in Worcester recently sacri- | feed her life to the delusion that wax candles are good for the complexion. She died in the local infirmary from the effects of eating the candles. Her case was much more rare than that of the servant maid at Continental ho- l tel who, some time ago. set fire to her room and burned herself to death, de- claring that the Almighty commanded her to do 1t. The poor girl was the vic- tim of religious mania, and her delus- ion was, perhaps, the most common of all. A London barrister was the victim of much more unusual mania. He imagined that crowd of people were throwing billiard balls at him, and at the inquiry into his death not long ago, 1t was stated that on one occasion the deceased applied for police protection, asserting that a crowd followed him about assaulting him with billiard cues In his chambers the unhappy man jumped about from one room to an- other, shouting that he had been turn ed out of his lodgings, and that "they had given him box full of stones and straw, and told him he was not fit to occupy bed room." More distinguish ed persons have been subject to delus- ions as, for example, the explorer Ross
 who "discovered' and actually named a range of mountains which never ex- isted. Ross was in command of an ex- petition to make the northwest pass age through Davis Strait, and on com ing back reported that the mountains had blocked his way.-Londen Stand ard.