Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1902-01-02
GENIUS A DISEASE.
Scientists Find That Malformation
of Brain Causes Brilliancy.
OverdevelOpment of One Part Fol-
lows Injury to Another Portion
-WOrk of Celebrities Under
Affection.

That disease and d%eformities due
to accident or prenatal conditions
develop genuine genius along certain
lines is a theory formulated and late
ly announced by cablegram from
Paris, where psychologists have been
making experiments in that field.
Chicago physicians who have given
the subject attention say that the
theory is undoubtedly correct, re-
lates the Chronicle, of that city. The
experiments of psychologists and the.
research work of alienists point to
the same conclusion. Many eminent
examples are at hand to demonstrate
that the theory is correct. Experi-
ments of this nature are in their in
fancy so far as specifically directed
work is concerned. Some phenOm-
ena of this kind have been discov-
cred at times in the past, but the
doctrine has never been formulated
to show that a mans genius lies in
a certain scope according to his de-
formity until the French psychol-
ogists made their announcement.
An eminent psychologist in Paris
recently examined the brain and
works of NJ. Berthelot, the renowned
chemist, to ascertain the cause of
his intuitive discoveries. 1t is an
nounced that M. Berthelot had ma
larial fever when but five years old
and that two years later he struck
his forehead a stunning blow against
a milestone. This blow depressed the
Uranium and irradiated the frontal
lobes of the brain. The peculiar
genius of the great French chemist is
said to be due to this accident.
Nerve and brain specialists say
that such an accident would no doubt
cause the entire strength of a man
to go to another part of the brain
and thus develop the w~ell-nurtured
part ~abnormally. In other words, a
blow or a sickness may result in the
lopsided development of the brain,
thus rendering a mar peculiarly
bright on a certain subject.
1t is pointed out that Milton wrote
his paradise Lost" while he was
blind, and it is said that the blind
ness confined his mind to q certain
scope in a manner that made it pos
sible for him to evolve the great
epic.
Cases of a somewhat different ma
ture are shown in the elegant writ
ings of Thomas De Quincy and Sam
uel Taylor Coleridge, both OF whom
had brains in which the excessive
use of opium had made havoc. De
Quincy describes his horrible expert
ence with opium taken in the form of
laudanum in his Confessions of an
English Opium-EaterI"
Lord Byron, who wrote so beauti-
fully that even the French made his
works a favorite and lauded his ideas
to the skies, probably never would
have developed the genius necessary
to thus charm nations if he had not
had a club foot. Nearly all of Sir
Walter SCOTS late novels were die
tated from a sickbed, and they dis.
play a peculiar genius.
Mozart and Wagner both had de-
formed brains, said to have been due
to disease and bumps while they
were children. Prof. Hertyl, of Der.
lin, who was formerly professor in
the University of Leipsic, has the skull
and brain of Mozart, and it shows Pc
culiar deformities which differ but
slightly from the malformation of the
skull of Richard Wagner. Dean Swift
also suffered from an incurable disease
which the theorists say inspired his
works.
"The formulated theory that disease
develops genius is new to most per-
sons" said DR.. Francis w. Mcnamara,
"but it is old in its ragged conceptions,
That is to say, the alienists have no.
ticed that men of genius often have had
peculiarly shaped brains and skulls
No one has heretofore given the matter
so broad a scope as to say that all gen.
ius is the result of a malformation due
to disease, drugs or accident. 1t is nc
doubt true that a mar cannot be
genius in more than one line. Their
why should one mar take to one sort
of occupation while another man with
similar environments seeks for an out.
let for his energy in an entirely differ
ent line? It is undoubtedly because
the condition of his brain, due to the
stunning of some parts, is developed in
one particular direction. I do not be.
lieve that it will be possible to make a
man what you will by pounding his
head into a certain shape or by expos
ing him to certain diseases"