The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-08-15
THE PAsTIMEs OF MADDEN.
Ways i'm Which the Har1nlessIy Insane Are Amused.

Are Amused. Harper's Weekly.
 Paris museums is that of the insane, established by Dr. Marie, head surgeon of the mems section of the asylum at Villsiuif. pr. Marie Is the physician who introduced the system by which the harmless lunatics and the Idiot are separated from the more violent types, and permitted to follow their harm less 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 calmnes, he is en- couraged to make himself at home, to act freely--if his impulses are harm less-and to do any kind of work that may please his fancy. As the result of this wise system most of pr. Marie's patients follow some fancied trade. Men of artistic instinct model in clay, paint or carve wood. In a study of lunacy, Dr. Marie declares that his experiments have convinced him that one of the best ways of reconciling a lnadman to captivity Is to encourage him In the development of his natural gifts. 4 mind forgets its obsessing oFh when Ahtent oh ah dsESSaDlS task.
 A few years ago the first prize off, fered by the Academy of Sciences fell to a man confined in the madhouse at Charenton; at another time an engineer in the lunatic asylum at Villejulf was second in the open competition for the design of the Metropolitan Railway Sta- ton in Paris.
 Usually the art of madmen is infan4 ia al most always irrational The chief de- feet is greater or less lack of per spective and proportion. For instance, an architect who has lost his reason often imagines that a house ought to be broader at the top than at the bot tom.
 A sense of art Is often developed for the first time in the insane. Men who have never drawn a line discover the artistic instinct as soon as they have been placed in confinement. But their work is always similar to the attempt or primitive races. Thus an Apache" or thug of Paris made a sketch of life as he understood 1t. He began by ma king a picture of the woman he had loved. Then he remembered that before he had met her he had lived in Africa Africa made him think of palm trees and pyramids; and pyra- mids made him think of Napoleon. His picture was an extraordinary mixture of palm trees, negroes, pyramids and Napoleon invoking the centuries to en- courage 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 vio- lent to be trusted with any sharp in- strument, he makes his tools by break inc one piece of flint against another or by rubbing two pieces together to wear them down to the required shape. Having shaped them to his intention, he fixes them in handles made of pieces oe jasmine vine, or between strips made from the soles of old shoes, Some of the ingenuity exhibited by the vio- lent insane gives cause for grave anx- iety. It is impossible to watch an in- genious lunatic so well that he will not pick up something at some time to shape them into dangerous weap- on. Some of the harmless" cases de- mand surveillance by night and day.
 Some of the inventions of the insane are of scientific value. patinet at Vtllejuif invented a 'pacifcation ma chine" by combining bottle. plank and small metallic Vube. to which he had fitted faucets. Having set up his machine, he produced loaves of bread thA size of a mans head. The bread was good-so good that 1t was decided to make the machine known. One day when 1t was in action the doctor sug- gested taking a photograph of it. The inventor watched him as If petri1ed for a moment; then he fell upon the ma chine. wrenched 1t apart and trampled if under foot The inventlon--an ex- ceedinsly useful one-was lost. because m one had seen him make 1t. and no one dared to speak of 1t to him. To allude to 1t is to bring on a furious attack.