Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1900-01-25
AUNATICS' LEGAlCTES.

Perhaps one of the saddest things in
connection with lunacy is the tendency
Of the insane patient to make his will
and his requests usually take a very
extraordinary form Needless to say,
the documents become mere waste pa
per so far as their legality is concern
ed but the doctors, in order to humor
the afflicted ones, treat the wills in
question with the greatest respect
A patient confined a a large asylum
near London drew up an elaborate
will, by which he left a section of his
property to the Mikado of Japan, on
condition that he (the Mikado) visited
the testator's grave once every year,
and plant it with chrysanthemums.
The remainder of the estate was to be
handed over to an imaginary charity
called the Brotheriy Love and Bounty
Society.
Rather ludicrous, perhaps, was the
bequeSt Of the lunatic who had been in
Partisan asylum for many years. He
devised that the whole of his fortune
(and he possessed a considerable
amount should be divided between
the possessors of Roman noses resid-
ing in and near Paris. He himself
possessed a rather handsome nose Of
the shape in question, which nose he
was constantly admiring. and he
therefore made the will mentioned
Somewhat similar was the bequest of
patient in the same retreat, who left
his property to one of the attendants
har1ngn hn hn o1io
organ which he (the testator) had ever
seen. One might laugh heartily at such
vagaries as these were it not that the
sad condition Of mind which prompted
them forbids any semblance of mirth
In large asylum in the Midlands
there was lunatlc who believed that
he had been confined in the establish
ment uniastly, and he would con-
stantly assert that he was as sane as
the doctors themselves. One day, feel
ing somewhat indisposed, he resolved
to make his will, and after many
hours work he produced an elaborate
document, by which he devised his
property to the Commissioners of
Lunacy to enable them to engage a
large staff of men for the purpose Of
visiting asylums with a view to dis
covering whether any sane patients
were retained there.
He declared that the staff of people
appointed for the work of visiting in
sane establishments was not adequate
for the work, and that If proper body
of men were engaged there would be
less chance of sane individuals being
kept in durance vile. This legacy GER
tainly seemed reasonable enough, and
it was indeed far more reasonable
than the testator whose peculiar delu-
sion was that he was the pope.
When lunatics' wills take more
sensible shape, they are chiefly dis
tinguished by their disproportionate-
ness. A certain insane patient, when
making his will, left several thous-
and pounds 60 his mother-in-law Ga
person whom, by the way, he had dis
liked heartily when in the land of the
sane), and the sum of sixpence to his
brother, to whom he had been devoted.
Equally extraordinary was the testa-
ment of the gentleman who directed
that the bulk of his imaginary prop
erty should be handed over to his at
tendant at the asylum, while he de-
sired that the doctors at the same
place should merely receive the inter-
est on the said amount Strange, very
strange, and extremely sad!-Tit-Bits