Show FREA FREAKS OF INSANITY A DISEASE MORE PREVALENT AMONG MEN THAN WOM ML aw BF insanity is a peculiar disease more prevalent among men than women As a rule insane men either die or are cured in ake be course of a few ye arsand of the former probably 90 per cent die of general paralysis it is id the result either of overwork over work of bodily excesses and generally sener ajl attacks a man between the ases ages of 30 and 40 an interesting bactin fact in connection with the ins insane anels is the grgat grat age to which so many female lunatics live A madwoman isreal is really lya a first class insurance risk in almost every lunatic asylum the women great gabat ly outnumber the men inen not only because they are so lon long lived but also because they are so seldom cured it commonly surprises visitors to a lunatic asylum to io find and that I 1 insane people are not for a moment deceived by the delusions of their fellow patients each will think perfectly sane and healthy while knowing that all the ot others hers are hopelessly mad although h IL a lunatics mental f freedom may be destroyed it does not follow that his consciousness ness is abolished A minister who was called upon once to 16 preach to a congregation of lunatics naties lu treated them to a sermon he had written for children much to to his surprise he be received an indignant letter one of his listeners afterward re reminding minging him that while they might be insane they were not idlet sand that many of them were fully his bis equals in education sad aid intelligence it is a novel experience to attend a religious service at an insane asylum imagine a congregation of lunatics lanati cs and imbeciles imbe ciles men on one side women on the other her in all stages of physical decay addea 11 and all degrees 0 of f madness helpless old gray haired laired fellows fellow with staring ihuken sunken eye sand hollow cheeks mumbling and groaning to themselves in i utter notter unconsciousness of their surroundings roun dings gaunt looking wild eyed women Ill with nothing human about hem but their vanity wellington and aad napoleon elizabeth and mary queen ot of scots catherine de medicis and diana 1 lana oi of poitiers in full costume coi tume facing each other rod god and the devil side by side restless girls who make air their handkerchiefs into dolls and rabbits ind and talk baby tally talk to them occasionally casio nally beating them and tsong tossing them in the air interspersed throughout this motley crowd are bright keen young faces with no apparent trace of their terri terii be ble corse curse to any butan but an expert observer refined and cultivated women who in their lucid intervals are as pure and spiritual minded as angels and yet are like the devil incarnate when the mania seizes them fine manly looking gentlemen devout ut dignified and scholarly today to day to morrow like the herd of swine into whom the evil spirit spirl enters on either side of the chapel sit the keepers alert and watchful in case of an emergency eRier geney facing them to is the chaplain a stupid listless looking man rele relegated a to this depressing depre g field by his bis 0 own n lazy in inefficiency all I 1 writers rite on disorders of the mind have found it difficult to define insanity in medical jurisprudence illusions of ansin delusions hallucinations incoherence and aad delirium are all phases of insanity the christian science people say that all sin and all sickness are insanity insane people frequently reason correctly but bat from erroneous premises A delusion is not nothing hing butt but a false premise the conclusions drawn from it may be entirely logical there is no reason why a man who thinks he be has legs of glass and aed in other respects is in possession po session of all his faculties should not be capable of making contracts coa tracts and responsible tor for legal acts which have no connection with the tae subject of his madness such a species of insanity seldom prevents a aman man from froin managing his own affairs affair 8 or undertaking guy any legal relations for others most people are prone to delusions or illusions of some form or other many people never see things exactly as aney are it delusions and hallucinations are a test of insanity hall half the world would be in iu lunatic batic asylums it is an ala interesting fact recorded by pritchard and others that among savage nations mental diseases are almost unknown they come forward with the dawning of civilization and keep pice with the advancement of mental culture the restraints imposed by social order the diversity ot of interests the pressure of universal competition overwork anxieties and disappointed hopes the artificial life of cities are among the causes most in fluent ial among civilized people in the development develop meat of insanity among weak minded and naif half educated people emotional religious revivals also operate to a great extent in the opposite extreme is found for while indifference to religion saves the people from religious insanity peat geat numbers lose their reason tb through rough the vices for which their low moral standard is responsible it is a curious carious fact that raying baying maniacs are never attacked by any contagious disease even consumptive disorders drop sies and octher chronic maladies have disappeared on the accession of violent insanity |