The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-01-27
DO GENIUS AND
 INSANITY D|FFER2 Dividing Line Is Dim and Hard to Distinguish
  FRENCH SCIENTISTS VIEW Professor eraese Says Nearly Every One Has Little Streak of h. sanity and Points Out Diff
 ferent Brands.
FRENCH SCIENTISTS VIEW

From the New York World
 One feature of nearly every important murder trial nowadays in which the de- fense rests on plea of insanity is the presentation of expert medical testimony, pro and con, to show first. that the ac- cused is insane, and, second that he is not
 Newspaper readers who have closely followed the testimony taken at one of these trials have learned a great deal about different brands of insanity and their distinguishing characteristics It Is even possible that many readers with reputation for sanity have discov- erty that if the occasion arose, they could plead insanity with excellent prospects of being able to prove it, too.
 Still newer and even more important light has just been thrown on the sub juct of insanity and semi-insanity by Dr. Joseph Grasset, professor of chem 1 cal medicine at the University of Montpelier, and member of the | French Academy of Medicine, in re- markable book, entitled "The Semi-In- sane and the Semi Responsible, which Dr. Smith Ely Jelliffe, Ph. D., profes- sor of mental diseases at Fordham
  lated for publication in this country. l A careful study of Prof, Grasset's ] remarkable book on the "demi-fous' leads to two very decided and consol- ing conclusions: First, that all great men are more or less insane, and sec ond, that 1t is not such very dreadful thing to belong to the "demi-fous, v after | alL
 No Distinguishing Line.
 There is not, as Prof. Grasset points out, any way in which to draw 8 distin- gushing line between sanity and insan- ity. The shades, or brands, of one over lap and are interwoven with the other to such a degree that it is impossible to show where the one ends and the other begins In other words you, for instance, can be both sane and insane at the same unexpectedly sane on certain subjects, but insane, or partly so, on at least one other. There are so many brands of in sanity that, fortunately, not all of us are 1 insane on the same subject
 "Between calm cold reason and a trans port of passion" says Prof. Grasset be tween originality and eccentricity, be- l tween nervousness and agitation be- tween a person who is slightly touched and one who is demented, there are all degrees of transition, and it is impossi- ble to say where insanity begins"
 Admitting for the moment, then, that everybody is more or less insane, it is not a question OI Just HOW liSdilf pel- son is, but of the particular brand of in- sanity he has inherited or acquired.
 Brands By the Score.
 The brands may be counted by the score Some of them are of real value, especially to a man of genius. Others are case may be.
 The erotomaniac for instance, falls in love. But that is mot all He may love two sisters with equal love at the same time, and no matter how hard he may try. he cannot make up his mind which to marry It is impossible for him to bear the thought that either of the young women he loves should become the wife of another. He generally solves the prob lem by giving them both up and marry ing third.
 The dipsomanac, who must not be classed with the habitual drunkard, suf- fers from an affiction which impels him to drink whenever an attack come on.
 Then there are the kleptomaniacs. Prof. Grasset describes them as sick people, who are driven, in spite of themselves, to take what does not belong to them, just as we have seen that dipsomaniacs are driven by an irresistible power to drink"
 Among other brands of hemi-insanity may be mentioned sitomania pyromania, monomania, and megalomania. Then there are other brands which are charac- terized by illusions, hallucinations, jeal- ousy, conceit. boastfulness, rashness, in- ertness impulsveness. timidity, and many forms of eccentricity.
 Insanity of Some Great Men.
 Prof. Grasset cites the cases of many great men of past and present times whose brands of insanity were manifest ed in various ways. Pascal, for instance. "could not stand seeing water without falling into a perfect fit of passion" Then Auguste Comteo who has exerted vast and lasting influence on the philo- sophical position of the savants of the nineteenth century, was undoubtedly | semi-insane when he was not wholly in- sane He wrote incoherent letters. While he was taking a walk one day he wanted to drag his wife with him into the Lake d'Enghlen. During his meals he would try to drive his fork into the table, like Walter Scott's Highlander, and he would order the succuent back of a pig and re- cite bits of Homer.'
 Og Gorky, Prof. Grasset writes that he made an attempt to commit suicide at the age of eighteen and belongs to the category of the seml-nsane who have been termed vagabonds or wander ers."
 Maupassant Saw His Double.
 Guy de Maupassant died insane. He had often confessed to Paul Bourget that he frequently saw his double. In going into his own room he would see himself seated upon his own sofa. The roots of QlSedSe the very qualities of his talent" Vile main had ideas of persecution. Jean I Jacoues Rousseau was excessively clock maker. mountebank, music master, paint CT and servant, and then followed the paths of medicine, music, theology and botony He used to meditate bare-head- ed in the sun at midday. He fell In love Ia at eleven. He would suddenly depart from an inn, leaving his hunk behind him.
 Gerard de Nerval the political writer and poet, was subject to Authorizations. He would be found on tke street corner, his hat in his hand, lost in a sort of ecstacy. In the Tuileries he saw the gold fish in the big fountain. putting their heads out of the water trying to entice him to follow him to the bottom The Queen of Sheba was waiting for him, they said He was found at the Palais Royal dragging live lobster along at the end of blue ribbon. He tried to fly like the birds, and one day, at a moment, in one of the streets of Paris, when he waited with his arms spread out for his soul to mount to star. he was gathered | in by a gendarme because he had pre- pared for this ascension by taking of his terrestrial garments
 "The Beauty of Life." Baudelaire dyed his hair green. He was an epicure of odors, and used to say that his soul scared upon perfumes as the ~f .4l. o-A1 .s>