Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1908-08-08
INSANE
EXHIBITS
Things Thst French fanatics in
Captivity Have Made,
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geOn of the mems section of the asy-
lum at ViHejuif. DR.. Marie is the
physician who introduced the system
by which the harmless lunatic and the
idiot are separated from the more
violent types and permitted to fol-
low their harmless pursuits in the
belief that they are living at home in
freedom.
Under this system the first task of
the doctors and nurses is to distract
their patients from the fixed idea"
When gentle treatment, Indulgence
and the required regime have reduced
the patient to relative calmness he
II encouraged to make himself at
home, to act freely-if his impulses
are harmless-and to do any kind of
work that may please his fancy. AS
the result of this wise system most of
DR.. Marie's patients follow some
dancied trade. Men of artistic instinct
model in clay, paint or carve wood.
In a study of lunacy Dr. Marie de-
clares that his experiments have con-
WINGED him that one of the best ways
Of reconciling a mailman to captivity
is to encourage in him the develop
ment OF his natural gifts. A mind
fOrgets its obsessing evil when IN
tent on an agreeable task.
A few years ago the first prize
offered by the Academy of Sciences
fell to a man confined in the mad
house at Charenton; at another time
an engineer in the lunatic asylum
at Villejuif was second in the open
competition for the design of the
Metropolitan Railway station in Paris.
Usually the art of madmen is in
fantile. 1t is often melancholy and
almost always irrational The chief
defect is greater or less lack of per-
spective and proportion. For in
stance, an architect who has lost
his reason often imagines that house
at the bottom.
A sense of art is often developed
for the first time in the insane. Men
who have never drawn a line dis
cover the artistic instinct as soon as
they have been placed il confine-
ment. But their work is always SIM
liar to the attempts Of primitive races.
Thus an apache" or thug of Paris
made a sketch of his life as he under
stood it. He began by mixing pic
ture Of the woman he had loved.
Then he remembered that before he
met her he had lived in Africa. Africa
made him think of palm trees and
pyramids: and pyramids made him
think of Napoleon. His picture was
an extraordinary mixture Of palm
trees, negroes, pyramids and Napoleon
invoking the centuries to encourage
men to kill one another.
One Of the patients, an insane ex-
physician, manufactures bludgeons
end hatchets resembling the weapons
used in prehistoric times. As he is
too violent to be trusted with any
sharp instrument, he makes his tools
BY breaking one piece Of flint against
another or by rubbing two pieces to-
gether to wear them down to the re-
quired shape. Having shaped them
TO. his intention, he fixes them in
handles made of pieces of jasmine
vine, or between strips made from
the soles of old shoes. Some of the
ingenuity exhibited by the violent in
sane gives cause for grave anxiety.
1t is impossible to watch an ingenious
Iunatic so we'll that he will not pick
up something at some time to shape
snto a dangerous weapon. Some of
the harmless cases demand surveil-
lance by night and day.
Some of the inventions OF the in
sane are of scientific value. A patient
villeiuif invented a "panifcation
machine by. combining a bottle,
plank and small metallic tubes, to
which he had fitted faucets. Having
set up his machine he produced loaves
Of bread the size of mans head.
The bread was goOd-so good that it
was decided to make the machine
known. One day when it was in &C
tion the doctor suggested taking a
photograph of it, The inventor watch
ed him as if petriied for moment;
then he fell upon the machine, wrench
ed it apart and trampled it under
foot The invention-an exceedingly
useful one-was lost, because no one
had seen him make it and no one
dares speak of it to him To allude
to it is to bring on a furious attack.
Most lunatics. no matter how con-
tented they may be, generally Cherish
a furtive longing to escape. TG9y
collect wax from the polished floors.
take the Impressions of locks and
make keys from empty sardine boxes.
spoon handles or anything to be
found. Dr. Marie's museum includes
a collection of knives of strange and
unheard-Of shapes. Some of them
have blades made from pieces of glass
or slate and set in handles OF corset
steels. Objects harmless in them