Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1907-01-17
lNSANlTIEs OF THE SANE
Queer Decisions Described by
a Hypnotic Expert.
FOOD ADULTERATIoN A CAUSE.

4
FOOD ADULTERATION A CAUSE.
Life For Whole Trouble-TaIlks OF I
Suggestion and Mental Ills 1t Can
Cure-YaIe Mans Predicament In |
Mailing Letter-Sad Case Of Wo- !
man Prepared to Receive a Proposai.
DR.. John ID. Quakenbos, the eminent
specialist on the treatment Of nervous !
diseases, recently told the Entertain /
ment club Of New York at the Wal.
dorf- Astoria hotel how easy it is for /
perfectly sane people to get insane at
times and how wheels in the head may
be removed by mental suggestion, says
the New York Sun. ~
Y Delusions Of the sane are matter
OF nerves and twentieth century siren
uosity, said the doctor. IL you play
bridge or poker too much, play the
races, speed an automobile, dabble in
Wall street, work or play too much
by electric light, live in a fiat, eat adul-
terated food or breathe bad air you are
liable to imagine that microbes are
playing tag on your coat sleeve or if
you happen to keep bees in your eel
lar you may be afraid to go into that
cellar for fear of eating bee. These
are merely mild FRANKS of the delusfon-
( al bug, but if you have bad case you
may be scared to death Of lemons.
/. Among my patients, said the doc
tor, have been persons who dared not
cross the threshold Of their homes and
had not been out of their houses for
months, who could not force themselves
on car or wash and dress themselves
or shake hands or sleep under q bed
quilt. Some have diseases that no one
ever had before Wheels go around in
their ears, they see birds and the fut-
tering of wings, footsteps follow them,
strange things crawl through the key
hole, faces stand out on the wall, and
flies whisper secrets to them. Many
have baseless fear Of insanity, and
one lady sought position in an asy-
lum so as to be on hand when the day
Of alteration should arrive. Lots of
people come to me saying they are be-
Witched, an exceedingly common delu-
believes she is under the hypnotic pow
er of a doctor who comes into her room
disguised as a cloud and flaps his as
trail wings underneath her bodice"
II, DR.. Quakenbos told stories about a
woman who could not sit in theater
for wanting to fire pistol at the per-
son in front Of her, Of woman who
saw a coarse word scrubbed on a
fence and couldn't help saying it her
self and of man who developed a
mania for going to law and in one in
stance pursued an executor with per-
sistent malignity during five years Of
controversy only to be defeated ip
court twenty times in succession:
4 "A common delusion of the sane, said
| DR.. Quackenbos, Is morbid horror of
dust and disorder (mysophobia). One
| patient feared that il the cups and sau-
| GERS were displaced they could never be
put back and spent the greater part of
a night keeping them on the shelves.
| The sight Of goblet upside down
threw him into frenzy. Cases like
these are promptly cured by sugges-
| ton, said the doctor. what has been
| wrongly called the insanity Of indie
cision manifests itself In decisions Of
doubt. The subject will go back sew
eral times to see il the gas has been
turned off properly or the stock certifi-
Gates returned to the safe. A neuras-
thenic Yale graduate of my acquaint-
ance have known to stand on the
front steps undecided as to whether to
Fifth avenue or the next corner in
Madison avenue until the mental CON
| fict precipitated an attack of hysterical
| weeping. .:s
| There is humorous as well as pa
thetic side to some of these abnormal
thought forms. A physician recently
under my care imagined that his cloth
| ing was covered with microbes. He
was constantly brushing them off. He
soiled fifty napkins day in desperate
efforts to brush them off the tableware
His wife was unable to keep servant
| in her employ, and his practice went
| by the board. 50
| A gentleman brought bis wife to
me few years ago suffering from a
postgrippal delusion that her skin was
covered with worms. The wrinkles in
her dress were worms. Her finger tips
were worn sore from looking for worms
In her clothing. At the third treatment
made bold to declare that Il had cap
tured the last worm, when my sleeping
patient retorted, There Is one left, doc
tor clutched the last imaginary Of
fender and said in a firm voice: Il have
got 1T You will be troubled no more
She was completely cured.
Even hard headed business men be-
come the victims of ludicrous obses-
sions. A young man applied to me last
autumn for the cure of an irresistible
impulse to throw himself into the arms
Of every corpulent woman he saw and
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