The Delusions of the INSANE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume 4, Issue 152, 5 June 1883, Page 3

The Delusions of the INSANE.

Three strange cases of hypochondria came into the dispnnsary m Thirty fourth- street for treatment on pne day . John Wilson wanted his brains taken out, washed, and pntin again. Another man, whose name is Burk, was under the impression that he had no stomach. " Then where does the medicine go that I give you ? "asked the doctor. if I don't know, but not into my stomach . I think it must lodge m the spine.'' Dr HammoEd, of the Post Graduate Medical School, treated a man who is haunted by a most singular delusion. For tbe^paat eight months this patient .has imagined that his left ear is growing to an enormous mze. He brought with him a diary of more than two hundred' pages, m which be had recorded almost hourly, and sometimes every ten mm!- i tttes, the state of his case. One paragraph runs :— " Monday morning, J9 L o'clock; i Went upstairs to measure it ( again. My God, it's growing visibly jl! lam not a man ; I am an elephant. Tomorrow I shall have the lug of Jumbo. \\ Ten -minutes after he madje this- entry ; — " Took another lookafcifc, JFery much larger. When somebody spoke outs de I saw it prick up like that of a hound." A Lumber of religious outbursts followed this discovery. Nearly a month later he recorded a fresh impression. " Mly powers of hearing increßse.with the size. Last night I caught the tones of several Chinamen talking on the Pacific Slop?, and though a storm was raging m the Rocky Mountains I could tell what they said. When a man gets to the base of sounds ha can understand all languages.'' New York Herald. ;: , i