QUEER FREAKS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXVIII, Issue 8336, 25 November 1887, Page 6

QUEER FREAKS .

A labourer in Paris, returning home from his work one evening, was seized with an unconquerable desire to run. He rushed upon the quay which goes from the Louvre to the Greve, overcoming every obstacle. Many attempts were made to stop him, but without success, and he continued running, irresistibly impelled, and yet desiring to stop, until he engaged one arm in the wheel of a carriage. Thus retained, bo recovered his breath, and walked away as if nothing had happened. He was frequently seized with this propensity to run, and was at length confined in the hospital, when it was discovered that he had a disease of the spinal marrow. A similar case is recorded. One day a man rushed down to the parapet of the Pont Neuf and threw himself into the Seine. Some of the bystanders saw him and dragged him out. On being questioned as to his motive for acting in so strange a manner, he replied; ,c I cannot give any account; lam in the happiest situation in the world; I have never been ill; I have no present troubles, nor, to my knowledge, approaching ones. I can only recollect my arrival on the Pont Ncuf, and being dragged out of the water.’' A very unaccountable outrage is recorded of Charles Matthews. He had lived for some days a very restless and inactive life. In this state of mind a party of gentlemen called upon him and proposed a day’s excursion. “ My husband’s depressed spirits,” says Mrs Matthews, “ were exhilarated by the beauty of the weather, and the prospect of a day’s pleasure in the open air. lie had not ridden out of the city for some weeks, and was in a state of childish delight and excitement. At this moment his eyes turned on one of the party, a very little man, who was perched on a very tall horse, and who seemed unusually grand and important. Mr Matthew looked at him for a moment, and the next knocked him off with a smart blow, felling him to the ground. The whole party was struck with horror, but no one felt more shocked than ho who had committed the outrage. He dismounted, picked un the little victim, and declared himself unable to give any motive for the action, but that it was an impulse he could not resist.” A man, apparently in perfect health, was attacked with a sudden disposition to destroy. He took up a stick and, without discrimination, broke everything that presented itself before him. After a short time, he calmed down and appeared to be restored to himself. Ho knew nothing of What he bad done, and became much irritated when shown the remnants of the shattered articles. He was again seized with the same frenzy and committed a murder. A woman, who had an irresistible propensity to destroy, going into a room once whilst tea was being prepared, could not resist the temptation to sweep the contents of the table on to the floor. Another woman, who became afterwards an inmate of one of the metropolitan hospitals, had a propensity to hack herself all over with any sharp instrument she could lay her hands on. It was not her purpose to kill herself; only she said she experienced a fascinating pleasure whenever she succeeded in drawing blood. A lady going out to the East Indies was often hoard to express a wish to expericnee the sensation of drowning. One morning, after gazing for some time into the water, she did actually jump overboard. Lucidly for her the vessel was lying becalmed, and a dozen willing men jumped in to save her. The case is recorded by Tissot of a young woman in whom the imitative faculty was so strongly developed that she could not avoid doing everything she saw others do. Babanis has an account of a man similarly disposed, and who "experienced insupportable suffering” if prevented from yielding to the impulse. ; A barber, every time he applied a razor to a customer’s throat, fancied he heard Within him a voice which said, " Kill him ! kill him ! ” One afternoon an elderly gentleman came in to be shaved; towards the close of the operation the barber was seized with the desire, and, unable to repress it, gave his customer’s throat a |remendous gash. -I! A monomaniac heard a voice within him repeat these words: " Kill thyself ! kill thyself !” and committed suicide in obedience to this supernatural order. Another monomaniac felt impelled to go up to a man in the street of whom he was entirely ignorant, and accost him with the information that he was born to bo hanged. Some years ago a criminal was executed at Paris for an atrociously cruel murder. Not long afterwards another was committed, and when the prisoner was asked to state his reason for the crime, he replied that he was not instigated by any malice j but, having witnessed the execution, he felt a desire, which he could not crush, to commit a similar crime, and had no rest until he had done so. Much similar is the following, which we give on Gall’s authorityA gentleman, on reading in the newspapers of a murder perpetrated under barbarous circumstances, was instantly seized with a desire to murder his servant, and the man had to be sent away to prevent the crime. A Frenchwoman was possessed with a desire to commit suicide. She made several attempts, but all proved abortive. At length she told Esquiral, a well-known physician, that she intended to try again, and promised that that attempt would be successful. " Now, do not tell me anything about it,” said Esquiral to her, “for I don’t care whether you do or not. But it will be a grand thing for your husband if you do for then he will be rid of a shrew.” Strange to say, she did not follow out her intention.