The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-03-14
A MODERN MALApY.

According to DR.. Charles L. Dana,
the distinguished authority on nervous
and mental diseases, people who are
excessively fond Of animals are vic
Tins of psychasthenia or obsessive psy-
Ghosts, which is modern malady. The
persons afflicted are not really insane,
but at the same time are disordered,
both mentally and bodily. Passing up
the technical description of the disease
and the jaw-breaking terms used in
connection Herewith, some of the ex-
amples used by the scientist are ap-
pended:
A lady about 40 years old, married but
childless and not DESTROYS of children.
lived with her husband and sisteI in a
quiet suburb Of a large city. Her interest
in life lay, TO some extent, in her sister
and husband and house. but it was most
ly in sick cats. She could not bear to
have a cat suffer. She made her home
hospital for stray, sick cats; and the
house was always full of them. If she
heard ''meowing'' at night she was un-
happy and would awake her husband and
make him go out and catch the animal. If
he could, and bring it home, The mans
life was made utterly wTetched by this
condition of affairs, and / was consulted.
This is an example of fine feelings
gone wrong, the result of overgrown
sentimentality, according to the doc
tor. The next case was as follows:
They Raymond and Janet) give the
history of a woman who became obsessed
with remOrse because she had given away
her cat. and the animal had later died.
She had the usual train of symptoms go
ing with the obsession; defect of attention,
brooding, inability to work, and insomnia
She had another symptom almost as bad
as the despair, viz. an impossible love of
animals pushed to the degree of disease, a
zoophilie She was always surrounded
by four cats. which she loved and looked
after more than her children. She lost a
child and did not much mind it. She lost
cat and was melancholy for eight
months.
Then came a man who so distressed
himself over the lack of care given
horses that his health failed. He did
not care so much for dogs, and could
not sympathize with the sufferings of
humanity. His mind ran entirely 10
horses. Such instances are not by any
means rare. As the world grows more
civilized greater care is bestowed upon
the domestic animals. 1.-THE merciful
Ailoti - ttitiG4AGl " llto UtdSts UNN tiit-1
really isn't any necessity for carrying
a fad to the verge of insanity. There
is much sorrow and suffering in the
world. and some of the sympathy vast
ed on the lower animals would brighten
the skies for many a poor child of mis-
fortune and many a tottering pilgrim
would be lifted out of the Slough of
Despond.
The Countess of Blessington, the
friend Of Lord Byron, is said to have
observed that the more she saw of
men the better she liked dogs. But
the countess had a special grievance
against mankind, and her conclusion
is not mportant She wasn't insane.
but her moral faculties were somewhat
blunted. Lord Byron himself was de-
voted to his dog, and if the wife of his
bosom is TO be believed the gifted poet
was mentally unbalanced. He was
merciful to his beast, but a terror to
the human race.
II is all very well TO care for the cute
little doggies and Tables, but the ami
NAL pets can never fill the place Of
children in the heart and brain of the
normal man or woman.