The Dickinson press., 1910-03-12
JOY THAT BRINGS WOE
Shock Of Sudden Glad Tidings at
Times Turns the Brain.
HAS DRIVEN PEOPLE MAD.

Some Of the saddsst Cases Of lunaey
Are Those Where the. Mind 10 Un.
able to Stand the Strain Of Nsws Of
Unexpected Good Fortune. II
It is no exaggeration to assert, said
an asylum doctor Of long and varied
experience, that there are scores Of
men and women In insane asylums
who have literally been gent there
through excess Of JOY. Many of these
cases which are, in my opinion, the
saddest Of all have come under my
own observation.
I remember in the very first asylum
with which 1 was connected one of
the patients was a strikingly hand
some and very well educated man,
who a as sane as you or I except
on one point. He was really a man of
considerable wealth, but his delusion
was that he was a pauper, and he
would tell the most pitiful tales Of his
restitution, begging, with tears in his
eyes, for a few coppers with which to
buy bread.
According to the story told me, he
was the only son Of a wealthy ,mer-
chant. In his youth he had fallen
among evil companions and had led
such a dissolute life that his father
not only threatened to disinherit him,
but forbade him ever to enter his
house again. After that he seems to
have sunk into the lowest depths of
poverty until he was glad to earn a
few coppers by selling papers or
matches in the streets. i
It was at this last and lowest stage
that news came to him that his IA
Their had died 1ntestate and that he
was heir to all his vast fortune. The
sudden news completely turned the
mans brain and brought on such a
condition Of excitement that he had
to be sent to an asylum, and when he
Gained down again he had lost all
recollection Of his good fortune, and
nothing could shake his delusion that
he was on the verge of starvation.
Another patient in the same asylum
was a young and in his lucid moments
a most intelligent fellow, whose brain
was turned" as the saying is, on learn
ing that he had passed an examina-
ton. He had sat for the matriculation
examination at the University Of Lon
don, on passing which he had set his
heart and had asked a friend in Lon
don to wire the result as soon as the
names were screened at Burlington
House.
About three weeks later came a ia
tai telegram, "Failed-sorry," which
sent the young man into the lowest
depths Of despair, for he was too old
to sit again. Not many hours later,
however, came another telegram,
"Passed honors-very sorry crush SO
great did not see name this morning"
The revulsion of feeling was so. great
that the students reason gave way,
and he became so violent in his ex-
citement that he had to be confined.
Fortunately he "a not with us long
and is now, I am glad to know, doing
very we'll as a solicitor.
Disappointed love sends many people
to asylums, but it is very seldom that
success in wooing drives a man mad.
It had this strange effect, however, on
one Of my late patients. The girl he
loved had gone out to India to keep
house for her brother before he had
screwed up his courage to the point of
proposing to her, but all offer followed
by mail very quickly after her.
Weeks and months passed and no
answer came to the impatient lover
until, after waiting two years in de-
SPAR, he became engaged to a girl who
had nothing but her money bags to
recommend her and for whom he had
not a particle Of love. Scarcely, how
ever, was his fate. sealed than he re
ceived the long despaired Of letter
from India, accepting his offer and ex,
planning that the girls brother had re-
ceived and mislaid the letter, which
had only just been found and had
come into her hands.
Within an hour of the receipt Of this
letter the man was a raving maniac,
and, although his condition is improv.
ed, I doubt whether he will ever re.
cover his reason.
In another remarkable case it vas
the joy at seeing her husband again
that robbed a lady patient of her rea'
son. Her husband was the captain OF
a merchant ship which was reported
to have gone down with all hands
The widow. had deeply mourned hel
husband for nearly a year when one
day on returning from a walk she
found him sitting in the drawing room
as hale and robust as ever. !!
With a shrek she fell unconscious
on the floor, and when she recovered
her reason was gone. 1t seems tina,
her husband, after floating for SOM
time, had been picked up by a passing
"tramp" ard had been landed on tbt
west coast of Africa; from which b.
had returned home by the first avail
able vessel.-London Spectator.
Charitable. assi2