The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1908-11-21
INSANE
EXHIBITS
Things That French Lanatics In
Captivity Have Made.

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One Of the most interesting of the
Paris museums is that Of the insane,
established by DR.. Marie, bead sur
geon Of the mems section OF the asy-
lum at ViHejuif. Dr. Marie is the
physician who introduced the system
by which the harmless lunatjc 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
- doctors and nurses Is to distract
their patients krom the fixed idea"
When gentle treatment, Indulgence
and the required regime have reduced
the patient to relative calmness he
b encouraged to make himself at
homo, to act freely-N his impulses
are harmkss-and to do any kind Of
work that may please his fancy. As
the result Of this wise system most Of
DR.. Aarae's patents toatow some
fancdel trade. Men Of ertisttc instinct
model Ia clay, paint or carve wood.
In a study 0 hlnecy Dr.. Maris -
ciares that his experiments have Con-
WINGED Mm that che Of die best ways
Of reooocihng . mailman to captivity
3 to encourage IA him the develop
Dent Of his natural gtfts. A mind
forgets ats ohsessing evtl when -
tent on an agreeable task.
A few years ego the first prize
offered by the Academy q Sciences
fell to q man confined IN the mad
house At Charenton: at another time
an engineer IN the lunatic asylum
It Vnlejuh was second in the open
competition for the design of the
Metropolitan Railway station in Paris.
Usually the art Of madmen b in
lantt3s. It Is often melancholy and
almost always irrational. The chief
infect Is greater Or less hack Of per
spective and proportion. For in
stance, an architect who has lost
kis reason often imagines that house
ouQht to be broader at the top than
1t the bottom.
A sense Of art is often developed
Tor the FIRST time in the insane. Men
who have never drawn q line dis
cover the artistic instinct as soon as
they have been placed in confne-
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 making a 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 tie centuries to encourage
men to kill one another.
One Of the patients, an insane ex-
physician. manufactures bludgeons
and 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-
CURED 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.
It Is impossible to watch an ingenious
lunatic so we'll that he will not pick
up something at some time to shape
into 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 . "panfacatien
machine by combining a bottle, a.
plank and small metallic tubes, to
which he had fitted faucets. Having
vet up his machine he produced baves
u bread the size Of a mans head.
The bread was good-so good that it
was decided to make the machine
known One day when It was in &C.
lion the doctor suggested taking
Of it. The inventor watch
ID him As II petrhied for a moment;