EXACTLY HOW PEOPLE GO MAD. SOME TELL-TALE TRIFLES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2319, 11 August 1898, Page 55

EXACTLY HOW PEOPLE GO MAD. SOME TELL-TALE TRIFLES.

It is the general, but mistaken, belief that madness breaks out as suddenly as a thunderstorm. In reality it creeps on a man so slowly and stealthily that it is impossible as a rule to say when he crosses the borderland. In fact, your best friend may be" in his second or third year of incipient lunacy, although doing his daily work, and appearing as sane as anybody else. Doctors detect many of this sorfc. They can tell by the way a man walks, dances, or takes soup or pronounces words, that he is bound to lose his reason entirely as soon as he meets with any great family trouble or money loss. And, although the signs are somewhat vague, if you watch your acquaintances carefully, you will often observe ominous mannerisms that will set you thinking. Of course, scarcely any two people go mad in precisely the same way, and the reason is this. Madness is simply The Brain Out of Working Order, and the nature of the madness will depend on the part of the brain affected. For in-

stance, when one particular spot in the brain . begins to give way, the finger-tips become very irritable. At firftt- their unfortunate , owner will be seen rubbing his digital apjjendages along his coat or over the table. Then he begins to bite his nails. After a while he begins to suck his fingers. If he happens to be a bank clerk, he grows to dislike counting money, he loses his temper and becomes quarrelsome. And so things progress, going from bad to worse, until it is perfectly obvious that he is mad. When another part of the brain gives way the signs show themselves in the ear. Fifpt; there is only a humming, or singing, or buzzing. You will see the unfmtunate individual so afflicted pressing his hands to his ears, as this gives him temporary relief. After a while the noise is so great that be becomes confused, and makes mistakes in Ms work. Then the humming changes to voices speaking. You will see him while reading a, newspaper in a room suddenly look round to find out who spoke ; or, when walking with you, he will during prof ou id silence blurt out: "What did you say'/" Sometimes in the streets you will, to your surprise, see A Man Look at You Angrily. He has heard a loud voice say something insulting to him, and, as you are the nearest individual, he believes it is you who have addressed him. Many an unprovoked assault arises in this way. At home the victim of this strange hallucination does the queerest things imaginable. He puts his ear to the wall to listen to the people in the next house abusing him ; he opens the window to see who is calling him from the street ; he is always changing his quarters, if he docs not even leave the country altogether, to get away from insulting neighbours. And, finally, he finds his way to the asylum. In another case, the nerves of the nose and mouth become affected, and the victim find 3 a queer odour and taste about everything. At first he merely grumbles about the tea at breakfast, or begins to use perfumes because of the bad smells. He takes to blowing his nose a good deal. Soon he can't find any tobacco to suit him, and may turn to snuff. This sort of thing cannob continue for long without upsetting a man's equilibrium. Perhaps he reads in the newspapers about a great poisoning case, and the thought Hashes across him that Someone Is Trying To Poison Him, At first he laughs at the notion; but, after reasoning it out, he says to himself that it is as likely someone should poison him as anyone else. Then he thinks that his wife may be anxious for him to die,' in order that she may get the money his life is insured for ; or, if he lives in a boardinghouse, he thinks his landlady may be suffering from homicidal mania. ;' or he may conclude that his office friend who lunches with him wants to step into his shoes. Now he is on the high road to madness.' He is pretty sure to take to breakfasting and dining in restaurants. But after a while he will never dine twice at the same place if be can help it, because he thinks that anyone bent on poisoning him will be rertain to follow him, and bribe the cook or ■waiter to put the deadly stuff in his foo:l. Then, as he finds the odours particularly offensive when he is going to sleep, he begins to think that chemicals giving off poisonous .vapours have been placed under the floor ; so'iie pulls up the boards. Soon after he becomes wholly irrational. Ho pastes paper over the keyhole and al! the chinks to keep out the deadly vapour which he jy *\nr> people , 'c Mowing 'n ; he stuffs 1-ho dummy ; In. b\inv; his clothes because someone lins inipic.L'na'j'd them with poison, and perhaps hawh < > ;■ distant town for new opes ; hi stoiu having his underclothing willed, as Ihe Lnimlress is sure

to be in the plot; ho won't hays his hair cut lest the barber sprinkle poison on his head. And if he is not placed under restraint at this stage, there will one day be one of those terrible murders that we read of so fremiently. There are innumerable Other Ways In Which a Person Loses His

Or Her Reason,

but the first step is always a trifling one. One man for instance will begin by talking less than usual, gradually growing more silent, till he scarcely ever speaks. Then you think him sullen and bad-tempered. But the thoughts that are in his mind would astonish you. One man will become silent because he believes he has committed some unpardonable crime ; another ha-s such strange delusions— such as that his face looks backwards or his brain is composed of gold — that he remains silent in order to conceal them ; another doesn't speak because he thinks his tongue is soluble, and wears away every time he utters a word ; and so on. All the time these unfortunate individuals are doing their work just like yourself. On the other hand, some people have such a flow of ideas that they cannot give utterance to them all, and* they will talk so rapidly that you cannot get a word in edgeways.

Have you anj r one among your acquaintances who is beginning to develop immoderate conceit? If so, thank your stars you are not he. This is one of the straightest roads to the asylum. When a reasonably modest young man takes to constantly twirling his moustache, wearing brilliant neckties, adorning himself with rings and gold chains, carrying elaborate umbrellas, and looking at himself in every mirror he conii?s across — there is every chance that in 3 r ears to come lie will rig himself out in royal robes and fancy himself a king. Suppose his name is William Smith, you will some day get a letter from him signed Avilh a plethora of flourishes, and a little later you will be startled to find that your correspondent is "William Smith, alias William Earl of Mar, alias King William 111, alias William Emperor of the Sun."

One other mode of going mad is worth mentioning, as it is the route over which so many stockbrokers travel to the asylum. The disease is softening of the brain, and it first shows itself in forgetfulness of names and loss of memory generally

As a matter of fact, quite an appalling number of us' are showing the above and other signs of insanity. Considering the large number of people who go staring mad every year, and the fact that it often takes 20 years from the beginning to the consummation, there must be several hundred thousand embryo lunatics mingling with theic fellow-men and women every day.