The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-04-21

first instance, because they suppose It to give their complexion an attractive paleness. It only does so because 1t IS sapping the life out of them, and after "a while they sometimes, in bad cases, fall hopeless victims to the craze Tor It,
 and many eat a pound or two III the course of a day. Some results Tn tnls
 direction have been of very distress
 ing character. In one case lady $ constitution, originally robust, was so undermined that she was palpably at the mery of any disease that attacked her. All efforts to break her of the rice mania failed. She was swallowing 1t
 secretely at very opportunity, and five
 years from the time she contracted the
 habit she died as the indirect result of it.
 'The continual nibbling of dry tea
 leaves has in several instances become a mania in the same way. Two or three
 years ago a medical friend of mine hd to deal with the case of a young woman who had become almost hopeless in this
 respect. Every means of stopping her from the injurious habit was tried with
 out success, and the only thing to do with her at the finish was to send her
 away somewhere in the care of strict attendant. who never left her day or
 night. She was kept in this custody for
 six months, and at the end of that pe- riod, when it was thought she might be trusted alone once more, she was most
 strictly enjoined never to take tea in
 any form again. A spoonful might kin dle the old and dangerous passion, and
 so warm milk has taken it's place on all occasions.
 Some people with knowledge of hu-
 man idiosyncrasies may think they un- derstand crazes of this sort, however foolish they appear. But there are oth-
 CTS which are entire mysteries. Thus, I
 had once a patient the exact character
 of whose troubles baffled me to the ut
 most. Once perfectly healthy, he was now weak and ill., and though I saw him
 three or four times a week, and made all kinds of examinations and inquiries, I could not discover the reason. Then
 one day was talking to him in my room, and saw him toying with an en- velope in his hand. He seemed thought lesslyeto tear off a piece of the paper, roll it up into a little ball, and put it into his mouth. Don't eat paper like that I said 1t is not good for you.
 Oh, I'm lways doing it. he replied, non chalantly. It's quite habit of mine
 ''In second my suspicious were aroused, and then l found out that my
 patient had an absolute mania for the
 practice, and was at it the whole day through unceasingly. He had been told
 before of the injury which might be
 caused him through the foolish habit,
 but either could not or would not break himself from it. Of course, paper is full of all kinds of ingredients which, if not lactually poisonous, are at least very in- furious and it was evident, and was proved, that this habit was the cause
 of the increasingly bad health which
 had puzzled me.
 Tn another case which came to my
 knowledge the victim was young man who had developed q mania for eating
 nothing else than pickles! He was eat ing them by the bottleful all through the day, and invariably carried small case in his pocket containing them.
 His stomach was reduced to frightful state. It was decided to try to cure him
 by ridicule, and the attempt succeeded. l Every one of his friends was quietly told of the weakness and enjoined to
 make mocking and contemptuous jest of 1t whenever in his presence This had the desired effect, which other means might have failed. d.'"-Casselrs Journal.