STRANGE DELUSIONS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XIII, Issue XI, 15 September 1894, Page 244

STRANGE DELUSIONS.

Cases where persons who are apparently sane otherwise

persist in believing that they are somebody or something else are by no means un common; and such delusions are exceedingly difficult to cure. A case noticed in the medical press not long ago showed how a gentleman, his mind unhinged by sudden trouble, fancied he was a steam roller, and with his attendant used regularly to plod around the square where he resided in the idea that he was levelling the surface of the ground as he passed over it. Endeavouring to root out this mania the doctor laid down some large flints in his patient’s back garden and asked him to observe that he could not be a steam roller, because after he had passed over them the stones did not sink into the ground. • That’s because I’m not heavy enough,’ replied rhe madman, and proceeded to fill his 1 ockets with heavy weights aod carry others in his arms’ Sometimes the mania is cured by accident An old lady, who fanned that she was made of china, wore thickly muffled shoes and lived in a padded room for fear of breakage, and wo ild ne er drink anythin? warm for fear she should crack. One morning, coming down stairs, she fell and rolled down alsngthy flight. and finding that she bad suffered nodamage but a few bruises.saw clearly that the idea she had formed of her own composition must be a mistaken one.