The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1916-07-18
WAR LUNACY
DECREASING
SAY EXPERTS
Statistics Show That First Re,
ports Of Cases Were Very
Greatly Exaggerated.


tlstics thus far show that the first re-
ports Of men going crazy under the
internal fire Of modern artillery were
exaggerated.
DIT. G. Dumas, who has treated all
the cases Of mental trouble in one OF
the French armies, says that his data,
covering the first ten months Of 1915,
agrees with the reports Of German
doctors concerning madness among
combatants.
He finds the cases Of insanity caused
directly or indirectly by the war In
France are quite as few in proportion
as those in Germany and offers the
figures as refutation Of the theory of
German specialists that the Teutonic
race is showing greater nervous re-
sistance than the Latin
Dr. Dumas's report covers LBS
cases Of arrangement of which only
three and one-half per cent were cases
Of general paralysis while in most asy-
lums in time of peace the proportion is
fifteen per cent. This he takes as con-
elusive evidence that the fatigues and
connexions of war have no influence
upon the development of this form of
insanity,
Rave About War.
General paralytiCs, however, when
they become delirious, rave about the
war, the same as cases in which the
symptoms are quite different and DR..
Dumas concludes that the life of the
cOmbatant often simply gives a war
color to delirium that would have eX-
listed under normal circumstances, but
in a different form.
Horror. inspired by battle scenes,
sometimes works directly on the
nervous system, developing symptoms
such as hysteria, speechlessness, deaf
ness loss of the sense of feeling, fits
Of mental confusion or paralysis, not
always accompanied by Authorizations
or delirium.
Optimism Of the most exaggerated
type is the dominating note in the
Authorizations of the paralytics and
DR.. Dumas considers it a wonder that
officers do not in fits Of eXaItation give
absurd heroic orders that lead to dis
astcrs.
In one case lieutenant who de-
clared to the doctor that he had
cleaned out a German trench with
two machine guns that he had carried
on his back from a point several miles
in the rear" had remained in command
Of his section until forty-elght hours
before he was examined. A few days
later a captain was brought to DR., Du-
mas, fresh from the command Of his
company, suffering from an equally
radical At Of exaggerated optimism"
"ReasOning Madness
Dr.. Dumas reports seventeen cases
of what he calls reasoning madness"
in which the fatigue and connections
of war have had no influence, but in
which Authorizations previously exist
ing were applied to the war. An ar
tilleryman who. before the war mag
incd that he was charged with the de-
Tense of the Radical and Socialist mem
bers of parliament against what he
considered the caluminies Of the
Royalists and Nationalist of the
fright" was brought to a hospital SUI
fering from a tumor. He Immediately
divided the nurses of the hospital into
two parties, the left and the right and
would have nothing to do with the lat
ter while he began to fall in love with
one after another Of the nurses Of the
left
The mentally dcbilitated are largely
represented in the statistics. OF 1855
cases, 40 were sent to the rear as be-
ing permanently inapt for further
armed service and fifty-fve who pre-
scented symptoms of delirium were in
termed. Several of these, DR.. Dumas
says, owe their mental condition to
fatgues and connections of war and
all Of them derive the themes of their
delirium from their experiences at the
front. There are among them Mes
siahs come to announce the final vic
tory, messengers designated by Joan
Of Arc to show the way to success,
spirituaists who have acquired occult
knowledge of the plans Of the enemy.
Alcoholic Cases.
Alcoholics were numerous in the
first month of the war among the de-
ranged soldiers, but have since been
remarkably few. In August, 1914, 1871
cases were brought to Val de Grace of
which thirty-one were suffering from
alcoholism; in another hospital there
were thrty-eight out of siXty-fve OF
these sixty-nine cases eighteen had
delirium tremens and eleven Of them
died. They were all confrmd drinkers
who had exaggerated their propensi-
tics during the exciting days of the
mobilization.
The number diminished rapidly after
the first month. not single case Of
alcoholism being reported during Sep
TENDER from one Of the most fortified
places and only 1862 developing in an
entire army during the first ten months
of last year. All OF the 1862 were re-
servists and in so far as their history
could be learned we're old drinkers,
Nearly all Of them resumed their SER
vice after taking the milk cure.
The tendency Of the alcoholics was
to dream Of battle and to see Germans