Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-11-21
! A PHYSICIAN ALIVE IN HIS COFFIN


Monti, the Turin insanity expert, ply
had an experience which his colleague,
Lombroso, says is worth recording In a
book of 500 pages. Owing to various ex-
and SORROWS in the course of a
day, DR.. Monti had a nervous collapse.
In the middle of a lecture on insanity he
suddenly cried out: Run for yourlives,
I, too, am insane" 'V ~
Reviving, he found himself in bed and
in a condition of absolute a~sphyXia. His
body was dead, but his mind kept on
working. After a while something heavy
was carried in: it was his coffin. He
had to listen to the rude jokes of the UNI
dertaker's men, knowing all the time that
his face and body exhibited the Ssymp-
toms of one dead. AS they were about to
screw o n the lid a girl, Months first love.
fought her way into the room to gaze
upon him once more. Her loving eyes
acted like magnets upon his own. He
made a last supreme effort. a tremor
running through his body, his face
twitched. There We're cries of He
moves" He is alive" Monti awoke.
Here follows his story in his own words:
The air had been hot with a fiery
breath Of the sorocco for three days
and my nerves were unstrung on ac-
count of the heat, of worry and excite
ment. My general practice II my va
rious other duties allowed me not a
free minute in the day; the sick n
suffering sent for me at all hours of the
night. When 1 jumped into the car
riage to go to the university, there to
deliver a m~uch-advertised lecture on
insanity, somebody handed me a tele-
rig m A1ocl pop,. Erroilir INV frinn1
and patient was dead.
Under ordinary circumstances, the
lecture room is to me a place for intel
lectual recreation. Today, when my
whole bodily and mental system de-
manded absolute rest, the very thought
of standing up before a room full of peo-
pie appalled, me. When it was found that
1 had left the notes for my lecture in the
cab my excitement increased. 1t was too
late to hunt for them, and, nervous as I
was, I ran over the letters and papers in
my pocket for material.
"Of what follows I haven't got a very
clear conception. I remember. though.
that I was loudly a%pplauded on as
cending the platform, and that it cost
me almost superhuman effort to utter
the Introductory remarks. What I. had
never done before suffered and hest
tated after every word. But the respect
full silence of my audience. the attention
with which the students followed my
labOred discourse, gave me back self
confidence after a little while. My
memory that I had always found rather
torpid and unreliable, suddenly changed
into a faithful friend and ally. Cases of
insanity which 1 hadn't thought of since
the days of my youth came back to me
as vivid Illustrations of the hypothetical
cases under discussion. -
Then, when all my intellectual re-
sources-memory, the power of discern
ment, the gift of criticism, and the
knowledge of curious and strange cases
were working at fever heat. a feeling
of instructive horror seized me. AS this
feeling grew on me and finally overcame
me the proud editice of my rhetOrics be-
gan to tremble, my seemingly inexhaus-
tible flow of thoughts crumbled away, the
wings of my genius became lame. Yet
there was a last flare up of imaginative
powers. Now like a thunderbolt from
the blue heavens an odd idea came crash
ing through my brain. I felt my face
twitch, convulsive laughter o my
frame. Before I knew what I was abou,
I uttered these words. Run for you
lives; l, too. am mad"
II saw my audience rise as one man
All before me We're pallid faces, excite
ment, gesticulations, cries of surprise
and of horror. Then l lost conscious.
ness. When I came to I was in bed-my
bed recognized the furniture in the
room. Evening was approaching. They
had deserted me; a deadly silence pre-
vailed throughout the house. When l. be.
gan to examine the reasons of my lying
in bed at this unusual hour a weakness
overcame me-. I closed my eyes and
tried to sleeep. The arrival of my friend
DR.. Forcas, awakened me. He regarded
me for some minute with a steady gaze
and / saw that he changed color as the
nature of his observation became clear
to him. His hand trembled when he fell
my pulse, and With Il voice full of sad.
ness he BY the Virgin, how
he has changed in little more thar ar
hour
My wife tiptoed into the room. Al
she bent over to kiss me hot tear.
dropped upon my forehead. She tool
my hand in hers, pressed it caressingly
and with her lips to my ear asked me il
a faltering voice: DO you recognize me
!, Carlo?' I tried to speak. 1t was impos
sible. l tried again. I kept on trying fo1
five or six minutes. Then my slow work
ing brain suggested that I make signs t,
her. But I couldn't raise nor move
muscle. At last Maria got up, holdins
both hands to her face. He doesn.
know me any more: it's all up with him,
she sobbed. Forcas took her gently y.
the hand and drew her toward the door
2 No, no. she pleaded, Il want to be Will
@~ ~ -