THE GREAT ABNORMALS

Evening Star, Issue 19143, 9 January 1926, Page 22

THE GREAT ABNORMALS

ME WE ALL SLIGHTLY MAB? Some time ago a serious writer in a self-respecting philosophical magazine pointed out that insanity and suicide are increasing in Europe aud America to such an extent as to suggest that tho white race is “ under sentence of death,” thereby supporting Mr Chesterton’s paradoxical claim that “a man who believes in himself ends either in Hell or in llanwcll.” Many years ago (ho same idea was put forward by Max Nordau, who diagnosed one of the troubles uf onr times as M.ogaloinania, a nice long word for the Swollen Hoad. The whole subject is Ticing popularly explored by Dr Theodore H. iH.slop. The first class of Swollen Headed people be examines are tho tyrants and despots the world lias known, Ire in Saul, the first king of Israel, who was subject to fits of depression, suspicion, and lialliifinnlion (think of ihc witch of Endor episode), down to homn. red tho other Russian Toms o’ Bedlam.

lie reminds us that .Alexander the Great suffered from a contraction of tho muscles on one side of his neck, wlucli made his head appear inpsidul. Homan emperor alter Roman empoior developed strange, aberrations, the most familiar of all being those of Nero.

Almost, every dynasty in the v.orld lias had its tyrants, displaying all forts of silly and cruel ideas. For example, Frederick the Great so detested new clothes that during his whole life h u had only three new coats, though he lived to be over seventy. Some dynasties, like that of Bavaria, have all been mad and have had to be deposed at times, and even put away in asylums, the most remarkasle modem example being that of Bavaria, where one of the kings dressed hi?).self up like Lohengrin and failed about on the back of n silver swan ou the roof ol one of his castles. Apart from individual nbnormals there have constantly boon ;ra;-.y movements of whole populations among which Dr Hyslop classes the Grusades, with witch-hunting erase, and all manner of “ epidemic manias.’' in this connection Dr Hyslop might very well cite jazz and tango. Another epidemic mania at all times popular has arisen round the end of the world. In 1736 James Weston stated that the world was going_ to come to an end on a certain date in October, and on the day vast crowds betook themselves to the heights of London so that they could get a good view of the destruction of the city. In 1806, a hen near Leeds laid some eggs with the words “ Christ is coming ” inscribed on them. Crowds hastened to examine the eggs, and firmly believed that the day of judgment was at hand. Later it transpired that the eggs had been fettered in corrosive ink and forced into the body cf the unhappy hen. Having exhausted the tyrants and despots, and explored what is sometimes contemptuously called the “psychology of the herd,” Dr Hyslop comes to geniuses of the world and catalogues the peculiarities of all sorts of clever people, a survey of which can be prolonged indefinitely, _ for some people regard genius and insanity as synonymous terms, ” Take the cases of swollen-headed vanity. Chateaubriand grew terribly angry if anyone received praise in his presence, even if it were only one of his own tradesmen. Hegel, the philosopher, was convinced of _ his own divinity, and always began his 'ecturos with the remark, “I may say with Christ that not only do I teach truth but that I myself am truth.” Byron was tremendously proud of his aristocratic birth and his handsome features, but he loathed his deformed foot. Balzac was so vain that he could do little else but speak about his own work. Ho frequently asked advice from little children, but seldom waited for a reply, or else opposed their remark's with the supremest contempt. Thou some geniuses have had strange methods of working. Giovanni, the Italian musician, who died the year after Waterloo, was unable to compose unless he lay between six quilts in the summer and nine in the winter. Schiller, on the other hand, had a habit of putting his feet in ice when ho was working. NEIGHED LIKE A HOUSE.

Bonnie Prince Charlie’s Polish greatgrandmother delighted in out fn the pouring rain in magnificent clothes, and if she knew that one of her Ministers hated getting wet she invariably asked him. Baudelaire amused himself by throwing pots from his house and by breaking shop windows. Richelieu at times imagined _ himself to be a horse, and neighed, trotted, and jumped like one. Louis the XV. used to read sermons to his mistresses. Peter 111 of Russia, the wretched grandson of Peter the Great, wished for a perpetual noi.se of cannons. He once gave orders for 100 largo guns to be fired simultaneously, ancf was dissuaded only on the representation that such an explosion would shake his capital to pieces. Buffon, the naturalist, was so al>sontmiuded that ho one day ascended a tower and instead of returning by the winding stairway, slid down by some ropes, quite unconscious of what ho w r as doing. The peculiarities of the great abnormols are indeed endless, hut alienists like Dr Hyalop are inclined to believe that each of us is “abnormal” in some way or other, though it is increasingly difficult to decide what is exactly the “ borderland ” of Bedlam. ~J. M. Bullock, iu him ‘ Sunday Chronicle, ■