The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1901-12-08
ROYALTY'S DOOM OF MADNESS
NO KING CAN BE ENTIRELY SANE,
SAYS A PARIS DOCTOR.
faint OF insanity In Royal Blood. and
why IL should lie There-Mad King
Otto different In Degree Only From
Other European acknowledgements
and Meiancholia Among Rulers.

Nv rocldi ktNHtlsuk
the other day a reference TO the report that
mad King Otto Of Bavaria had shown
signs Of returning sanity led one OF those
present to say:
Madness. In one form or another, Is
the special distinction and hallmark OF
aris,ocracies. We all have a mad drop
in our blood /! we have any blood worth
mentioning"
There was a moments pause, then a
serious-looking young man spoke up with
the quiet authority which thorough knowl-
edge Of a subject gives TO the possessor.
Madness Ia. as any rate. the doom OF
royalty he said, 1T is almost inc yitahle.
in fact. that royal blood should be tainted
with the beginnings Of insanity. II NAV
or may not. be true that n King can do
no wrong, but 1t is all but certain that he
can never he entirely sane
The speaker was DR.. de la Vaudriere,
probably the most eminent. as no Is GER
tainly the most fashionable specialist in
Paris on nerve diseases and maladies Of
the brain. He began his career some
twenty years ago, IA one of the ~faNorite
pupils Of the famous Charcot of the Sal
" here: studied later in Italy under IOm-
hroso. passed All Unusual sort of wear in
Ireland inquiring into the curious outbreak
Of ether jntoNication in Ulster, and the tea
drinking mana in Connaught: then re-
turned TO Paris to write remarkable treat
isas on all these things.
His reputation was soon made; only his
commercial fortune lay ahead of him. He
is now laying hold Of the dollars by treat
ing the nerve maladies. real or imaginary,
Of the new millionaire quarter around
the Pare Monceau.
DIR. de la Naudrierc followed up his re-
mark about royalty and madness by citing
some well-known facts about European
royalty, But he did not exhaust the sub
ject by any means.
To begin with the unfortunate King
Otto. the royal house Of Bavaria. seems
to be under some curse. Among The Kings
and Princes Of Bavaria. for centuries hacks
insanity Is always seen cropping up; some
times skipping a generation, sometimes
marking down W or even three Princes
IN one grim year.
King Otto, for example. is successor 10 his
brother, Louis H., who was deposed from
the throne a. a hlnatic and flung himself
into the nsh pond Of Berg Castle, shrieking
that ii they would not let him I've Kim
OF tho Bavarians, al least they should moi
prevent him from ruling over The carp and
gold fish.
For twenty-five years Otto has reigned.
nominally, from the royal madhouse at
furstenreid, sometimes raving mad. some
times brooding mad, sometimes pathetically
gay. singing, like Ophelia, snatchcs Of plain
tive peasant songs, sometimes wailing for
hours like n sick baby, but always mad,
stark. staring mad.
Even If he should definitely regain his
reason. As his physicians seem to expect.
the period of luCidity will probably prove
TO he the last sputter OF reason before IL
sinks in its socket forever. That, at any
rate, is DIR. de la Vaudriere's opinion. And
he adds:
The mere ghastliness of Otto's return TO
an exalted station after twenty-five years
Of oblivious idiocy would in itself suffice
TO turn his brain again. | am not thinking
merely Of the appalling sense of sham"
that would almost certainly helm
him and work morbidly upon his over
wrought nerves.
Il mean that he must be infinitely more
susceptible than the average type TO the
conditions which tend almost fatally to
create insanity in any man placed in the eN-
traordinary and utterly abnormal position
of a reigning prince. Even n King OF
Bavaria. administering a little kingdom
as vaSsal to a great Emperor. il. within
his own borders, treated with all the slavish
subservience that waits on the Emperor al
Berlin.
1t takes a strong head and a sound svs-
tenn 20 keep i'~ halan"" amid these COndi-
tons. How can n broken mind like that OF
otto withstand them.
In a hundred ways kings are loss likely
TO ENJOY physical health and nerve tom"
than the pluughboy In the fields Their
blood generally comes To them polluted
and snfcebled bv the most unnatural mar
riages among their ancestors.
Their childhood hAr never had any
natural unrestrained gayoty in II, their
education ha- been forced beyond the
hearing point from an az" when happier
children have not left ~ making mud ples
a. they grow up there comes the terror
Of assassination Almost always thpr"
l. heavy grief IA their families, scandals
stifed crimes. heart breaking marriages
dictated by stat" rra~on~, a thousand
circumstances 81 which We, who haN" the
fortune not a. b. king. can form uu ldca
Almost inevitably they are OVerstraln"d,
the result h almost certainly murhldusSs
81 On. kind or another, madness M the
germ OF iu the terrible reality
How far H. TIL theory borne out by the
NaN1 II royAi a. r,unr nov playing Their
part pu "a. world stage Emerson Va pue
81 iIs essays make thr statement that ia
lSli every legitimate rrigulhg monarch
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