ODDITIES OF INSANITY.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume L, Issue 8999, 23 January 1906, Page 2

ODDITIES OF INSANITY.

STRANGE EXAMPLES FROM A DOCTOR'S REPORT.

In his annual report on Stirling District Asylum, Dr Robertson, the medical superintendent, says: On© reason assigned as the cause of insanity of three women, admitted within a week of one another shortly after the term time, was "the flitting." A man was admitted who had become excited, amd ultimately developed acute mania after listening to a street preacher. In another case, a man who was praying in public witli great fervor, a reflex of the Welsh Revival, suddenly passed into a condition of religious <lev;i tion and ecstacy, in whioh he became oxcited and lost touch with the commonplace realities of life. Dr Robertson, concludes by relating the case of a young man. who was admitted last year. ' While in' perfectly good healtli, and at a time when no one suspected him to be suffering from insanity, and when totally abstaining from alcohol, this patient believed he heard the voice of God commanding him to marry at a certain date a certain woman, who was a complete stranger to him. He was naturally very much affected by this Divine command, and as the time for fulfilling it approached he became restless and unsettled, till finally a fortnight before the date fixed for the wedding he became so excited and acted so peculiarly that it was thought right to send him to the asylum. While in the asylum the patienh remained unsettled till the time fixed for the wedding passed, but after that he rapidly (recovered, his peace of mind. Such a case as this, Dr Robertson suggests, brings home to one bow /little respect we pay to such "communications" compared with the importance attached to them in the past. It also suggests the thought that, had this "Divine message" been a command to devote himself to a life of good works, and had it fallen on the ears of a person naturally gifted, this trick of the brain might have acted as a motive such as migfit have developed to spirit of a martyr and been of incalculable Benefit to mankind.