Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1907-04-12
INSANITY AND BUSINESS
Desire for Speed a Mania
With Some People.
FREAKS OF THE MIND
Many Insane Men Conducting Large
Entcrprises-one Woman Sane
on All subjects Except Water
Effects of Modern Life - The
Speed Mania OF Automobiles.

Insanity" said DR.. John d.
Quackenbos. a recognized authority
on brain diseases and especially on
abnormal mental manifestations,
implies a brain defect which shows
itself in discordant language or con-
duet. The causes of insanity may be
hereditary faint. or the strain on the
brain or nervous system due 10 erief,
worry, disappointed love, fright,
shock, injuries. excessses, poison.
drugs or alcohol Alcohol IS said TO
be the most prolific cause OF insan-
fly, for Il causes about 20 per cent
of all cases Ia the insane hospi-
tails
There Is much In the life of to-
day which contributes to insanity,
for now the human brain is UNDER
going strain which it was never In
tended that Il should meet. Bad air,
bad food, are large factors. Much OF
the food which we obtain has been
robbed OF its elements by adultera-
ton. The fiat life. the noise, the dust
ia the air, the strain on the eyes from
electric lights. which finds a reflex
action on the nervous system-all
these things make the nervecells un-
stable and lower the nerve tone. The
tear and rush of modern life has so
increased that In order to meet Il
business man may have TO reduce
their working days to four or five
a week and seek repose and mental
refreshment on farms or in other
quiet places outside the metropolis.
Among the symptoms Of insanity
usually given are slowness and difh-
Guilty in thought processes, peculiar
restlessness. insomnia and fixed de-
lusions. One of the most common de-
lusions In this age is that OF persecu-
ton, which fills the sufferer from It
with the idea that all the world is
plotting against him. Another is the
delusion OF grandeur, manifest in
self-exaltation, in a desire to become
q Lorenzo the Magnificent, and an
uncomfortable tendency for extrava-
CANT expenditure. Meaningless ex-
travagance is nearly always associa-
ted with a tendency TO insanity VIII
liam Il. Gladstone furnished exam
pies OF this in his later years when
his splendid powers were undergoing
decay.
~ happened to be travelling in the
same railroad carriage with him only
a few months before his death and
had an opportunity of observing
some OF those symptoms. He went
TO store in Edinburgh, l recollect,
and purchased hat which he said
suited him so we'll that he ordered
nifty more like IL to be sent to his
hotel. They we're sent back by Mrs.
Gladstone.
"Loquacity and continued chatter
ing on unimportant subjects, which
have no apparent connection, are
frequently observed in the earlier
stages OF insanity.
"Delusions are not confined to the
insane, however, for the sane may
have them as well. The person who
Is still OF sound mind is able to rec
ognize that his delusion is unreal,
while the lunatic lives it. The crea-
tions Of his disordered brain take
such possession of him that they
gradually shut out all other impress
sions which come TO him from the
outside world. Yet there are many
men In active work who on some
subjects are insane, for their delu-
sions have become fixed.
pac41nco0aoy r,,aufa1 die
turbance indicate insanity. II the
strict Interpretation of the symptoms
we're applied many man who goes
through the country In an automo-
bile at mile a minute, more or less,
would be locked up as stark mad. 1t
was only few months ago that an
automobilist dashed through the
large towns of Massachusetts, in
search of a record.
IL know" said he, that they Will
have gates down at Springfield, but
I'll go around that town, will. I
know a way where, II do run down
anybody, / won't have to stop"
Insane restlessness. Yet he was
the director OF a great business en-
terprise. and when seated at his
desk was the acme of orderly per-
lection. Speed mania is form OF
the restless activity, the desire for
motion and rapid change that accom-
panies insanity.
II have in mind a woman who
owns and manages three large laun-
dries who believes that she is a hu-
man telephone and that from time to
time persons are talking through
her brain, to her great inconveni-
ence / know another woman who
believes that a relative in a distant
part OF the world is sending ennis
saries to this city who are constantly
poisoning the whole Croton water.
shed in order to kill her and her
children. Yet in other respects she
is entirely normal"
If the chattering test or that Of
loquacity we're generally employed
the asyiums OF the country would be
filled with loquacious captains OF in
dustry and financiers who on some
subjects cannot be restrained from
continual conversation.