ANOMALOUS NERVOUS AND MENTAL DISEASES. 4 page

susceptibility and the same fears. Sometimes she could tell the

approach of a storm by her nervous symptoms. Caligula, Augustus, Henry

III, and other celebrated personages, were overcome with fear during a

storm.

Mysophobia is a mild form of insanity characterized by a dread of the

contact of dirt. It was named by Hammond, whose patient washed her

hands innumerable times a day, so great was the fear of contamination.

These patients make the closest inspection of their toilet, their

eating and drinking utensils, and all their lives are intensely worried

by fear of dirt.

Hematophobia is a horror of blood, which seems to be an instinctive

sentiment in civilized man, but which is unknown among savages. When

the horror is aggravated to such an extent as to cause distressing

symptoms or unconsciousness, it takes the name of hematophobia. There

are many cases on record and nearly every physician has seen one or

more, possibly among his colleagues.

Necrophobia and thanatophobia are allied maladies, one being the fear

of dead bodies and the other the fear of death itself.

Anthropophobia is a symptom of mental disease consisting in fear of

society. Beard, Mitchell, Baillarger, and others have made observations

on this disease. The antithesis of this disease is called monophobia.

Patients are not able to remain by themselves for even the shortest

length of time. This morbid dread of being alone is sometimes so great

that even the presence of an infant is an alleviation. Gelineau cites

an instance in a man of forty-five which was complicated with

agoraphobia.

Bacillophobia is the result of abnormal pondering over bacteriology.

Huchard's case was in a woman of thirty-eight who, out of curiosity,

had secretly read the works of Pasteur, and who seemed to take

particular pleasure in conning over the causes of death in the

health-reports. Goyard mentions an instance in a Swiss veterinary

surgeon.

Kleptophobia, examples of which have been cited by Cullere, is the fear

of stealing objects in view, and is often the prelude of kleptomania.

The latter disease has gained notoriety in this country, and nearly

every large store has agents to watch the apparently growing number of

kleptomaniacs. These unfortunate persons, not seldom from the highest

classes of society, are unable to combat an intense desire to purloin

articles. Legal proceedings have been instituted against many, and

specialists have been called into court to speak on this question.

Relatives and friends have been known to notify the large stores of the

thieving propensities of such patients.

Le Grande du Saulle has given to the disease in which there is a morbid

doubt about everything done, the name folie de doute. Gray mentions a

case in a patient who would go out of a door, close it, and then come

back, uncertain as to whether he had closed it, close it again, go off

a little way, again feel uncertain as to whether he had closed it

properly, go back again, and so on for many times. Hammond relates the

history of a case in an intelligent man who in undressing for bed would

spend an hour or two determining whether he should first take off his

coat or his shoes. In the morning he would sit for an hour with his

stockings in his hands, unable to determine which he should put on

first.

Syphilophobia is morbid fear of syphilis. Lyssophobia is a fear of

hydrophobia which sometimes assumes all the symptoms of the major

disease, and even produces death. Gelineau, Colin, Berillon, and others

have studied cases. In Berillon's case the patient was an artist, a

woman of brunet complexion, who for six years had been tormented with

the fear of becoming mad, and in whom the symptoms became so intense as

to constitute pseudobydrophobia. At their subsidence she was the victim

of numerous hallucinations which almost drove her to the point of

suicide.

Spermatophobia has been noticed among the ignorant, caused or increased

by inspection of sensational literature, treatises on the subject of

spermatorrhea, etc. Ferre mentions a woman of thirty-six, of intense

religious scruples, who was married at eighteen, and lost her husband

six years afterward. She had a proposition of marriage which she

refused, and was prostrated by the humid touch of the proposer who had

kissed her hand, imagining that the humidity was due to semen. She was

several times overcome by contact with men in public conveyances, her

fear of contamination being so great. Zoophobia, or dread of certain

animals, has been mentioned under another chapter under the head of

idiosyncrasies. Pantophobia is a general state of fear of everything

and everybody. Phobophobia, the fear of being afraid, is another

coinage of the wordmakers. The minor 'phobias, such as pyrophobia, or

fear of fire; stasophobia, or inability to arise and walk, the victims

spending all their time in bed; toxicophobia or fear of poison, etc.,

will be left to the reader's inspection in special works on this

subject.

Demonomania is a form of madness in which a person imagines himself

possessed of the devil. Ancient records of this disease are frequent,

and in this century Lapointe reports the history of demonomania in

father, mother, three sons, and two daughters, the whole family, with

the exception of one son, who was a soldier, being attacked. They

imagined themselves poisoned by a sorceress, saw devils, and had all

sorts of hallucinations, which necessitated the confinement of the

whole family in an asylum for over a month. They continued free from

the hallucinations for two years, when first the mother, and then

gradually all the other members of the family, again became afflicted

with demonomania and were again sent to the asylum, when, after a

residence therein of five months, they were all sufficiently cured to

return home.

Particular aversions may be temporary only, that is, due to an existing

condition of the organism, which, though morbid, is of a transitory

character. Such, for instance, are those due to dentition, the

commencement or cessation of the menstrual function, pregnancy, etc.

These cases are frequently of a serious character, and may lead to

derangement of the mind. Millington relates the history of a lady who,

at the beginning of her first pregnancy, acquired an overpowering

aversion to a half-breed Indian woman who was employed in the house as

a servant. Whenever this woman came near her she was at once seized

with violent trembling; this ended in a few minutes with vomiting and

great mental and physical prostration lasting several hours. Her

husband would have sent the woman away, but Mrs. X insisted on her

remaining, as she was a good servant, in order that she might overcome

what she regarded as an unreasonable prejudice. The effort was,

however, too great, for upon one occasion when the woman entered Mrs.

X's apartment rather unexpectedly, the latter became greatly excited,

and, jumping from an open window in her fright, broke her arm, and

otherwise injured herself so severely that she was confined to her bed

for several weeks. During this period, and for some time afterward, she

was almost constantly subject to hallucinations, in which the Indian

woman played a prominent part. Even after her recovery the mere thought

of the woman would sometimes bring on a paroxysm of trembling, and it

was not till after her confinement that the antipathy disappeared.

Circular or periodic insanity is a rare psychosis. According to Drewry

reports of very few cases have appeared in the medical journals. "Some

systematic writers," says Drewry, "regard it as a mere subdivision of

periodic insanity (Spitzka). A distinguished alienist and author of

Scotland however has given us an admirable lecture on the subject. He

says: 'I have had under my care altogether about 40 cases of typical

folie circulaire.' In the asylum at Morningside there were, says Dr.

Clouston, in 800 patients 16 cases of this peculiar form of mental

disease. Dr. Spitzka, who was the first American to describe it, found

in 2300 cases of pauper insane four per cent to be periodic, and its

sub-group, circular, insanity. Dr. Stearns states that less than

one-fourth of one per cent of cases in the Hartford (Conn.) Retreat

classed as mania and melancholia have proved to be folie circulaire.

Upon examination of the annual reports of the superintendents of

hospitals for the insane in this country, in only a few are references

made to this as a distinct form of insanity. In the New York State

hospitals there is a regular uniform classification of mental diseases

in which 'circular (alternating) insanity' occupies a place. In the

report of the Buffalo Hospital for 1892, in statistical table No. 4,

'showing forms of insanity in those admitted, etc., since 1888,' out of

1428 cases, only one was 'alternating (circular) insanity.' In the St.

Lawrence Hospital only one case in 992 was credited to this special

class. In the institution in Philadelphia, of which Dr. Chapin is the

superintendent, 10,379 patients have been treated, only three of whom

were diagnosed cases of manie circulaire. Of the 900 cases of insanity

in the State Hospital at Danville, Pa., less than four per cent were

put in this special class. There are in the Central (Va.) State

Hospital (which is exclusively for the colored insane) 775 patients,

three of whom are genuine cases of circular insanity, but they are

included in 'periodic insanity.' This same custom evidently prevails in

many of the other hospitals for the insane."

Drewry reports three cases of circular insanity, one of which was as

follows:--

"William F., a negro, thirty-six years old, of fair education, steady,

sober habits, was seized with gloomy depression a few weeks prior to

his admission to this hospital, in September, 1886. This condition came

on after a period of fever. He was a stranger in the vicinity and

scarcely any information could be obtained regarding his antecedents.

When admitted he was in a state of melancholic hypochondriasis; he was

the very picture of abject misery. Many imaginary ills troubled his

peace of mind. He spoke of committing suicide, but evidently for the

purpose of attracting attention and sympathy. On one occasion he said

he intended to kill himself, but when the means to do so were placed at

his command, he said he would do the deed at another time. The most

trivial physical disturbances were exaggerated into very serious

diseases. From this state of morbid depression he slowly emerged, grew

brighter, more energetic, neater in personal appearance, etc. During

this period of slow transition or partial sanity he was taken out on

the farm where he proved to be a careful and industrious laborer. He

escaped, and when brought back to the hospital a few weeks subsequently

he was in a condition of great excitement and hilarity. His expression

was animated, and he was, as it were, overflowing with superabundance

of spirit, very loquacious, and incessantly moving. He bore an air of

great importance and self-satisfaction; said he felt perfectly well and

happy, but abused the officers for keeping him 'confined unjustly in a

lunatic asylum.' It was his habit almost daily, if not interfered with,

to deliver a long harangue to his fellow-patients, during which he

would become very excited and noisy. He showed evidences of having a

remarkable memory, particularly regarding names and dates. (Unusual

memory is frequently observed in this type of insanity, says Stearns.)

He was sometimes disposed to be somewhat destructive to furniture,

etc., was neat in person, but would frequently dress rather

'gorgeously,' wearing feathers and the like in his hat, etc. He was not

often noisy and sleepless at night, and then only for a short time. His

physical health was good. This 'mental intoxication,' as it were,

lasted nearly a year. After this long exacerbation of excitement there

was a short remission and then depression again set in, which lasted

about fifteen months. At this time this patient is in the depressed

stage or period of the third circle. So, thus the cycles have

continuously repeated their weary rounds, and in all probability they

will keep this up 'until the final capitation in the battle of life has

taken place.'"

Katatonia, according to Gray, is a cerebral disease of cyclic symptoms,

ranging in succession from primary melancholia to mania, confusion, and

dementia, one or more of these stages being occasionally absent, while

convulsive and epileptoid symptoms accompany the mental changes.

It is manifestly impossible to enter into the manifold forms and

instances of insanity in this volume, but there is one case, seldom

quoted, which may be of interest. It appeared under the title, "A

Modern Pygmalion." It recorded a history of a man named Justin, who

died in the Bicetre Insane Asylum. He had been an exhibitor of wax

works at Montrouge, and became deeply impressed with the beautiful

proportions of the statue of a girl in his collection, and ultimately

became intensely enamored with her. He would spend hours in

contemplation of the inanimate object of his affections, and finally

had the illusion that the figure, by movements of features, actually

responded to his devotions. Nemesis as usual at last arrived, and the

wife of Justin, irritated by his long neglect, in a fit of jealousy

destroyed the wax figure, and this resulted in a murderous attack on

his wife by Justin who resented the demolition of his love. He was

finally secured and lodged in Bicetre, where he lived for five years

under the influence of his lost love.

An interesting condition, which has been studied more in France than

elsewhere, is double consciousness, dual personality, or, as it is

called by the Germans, Doppelwahrnehmungen. In these peculiar cases an

individual at different times seems to lead absolutely different

existences. The idea from a moralist's view is inculcated in

Stevenson's "Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde." In an article on this subject

Weir Mitchell illustrated his paper by examples, two of which will be

quoted. The first was the case of Mary Reynolds who, when eighteen

years of age, became subject to hysteric attacks, and on one occasion

she continued blind and deaf for a period of five or six weeks. Her

hearing returned suddenly, and her sight gradually. About three months

afterward she was discovered in a profound sleep. Her memory had fled,

and she was apparently a new-born individual. When she awoke it became

apparent that she had totally forgotten her previous existence, her

parents, her country, and the house where she lived. She might be

compared to an immature child. It was necessary to recommence her

education. She was taught to write, and wrote from right to left, as in

the Semitic languages. She had only five or six words at her

command--mere reflexes of articulation which were to her devoid of

meaning. The labor of re-education, conducted methodically, lasted from

seven to eight weeks. Her character had experienced as great a change

as her memory; timid to excess in the first state, she became gay,

unreserved, boisterous, daring, even to rashness. She strolled through

the woods and the mountains, attracted by the dangers of the wild

country in which she lived. Then she had a fresh attack of sleep, and

returned to her first condition; she recalled all the memories and

again assumed a melancholy character, which seemed to be aggravated. No

conscious memory of the second state existed. A new attack brought back

the second state, with the phenomenon of consciousness which

accompanied it the first time. The patient passed successively a great

many times from one of these states to the other. These repeated

changes stretched over a period of sixteen years. At the end of that

time the variations ceased. The patient was then thirty-six years of

age; she lived in a mixed state, but more closely resembling the second

than the first; her character was neither sad nor boisterous, but more

reasonable. She died at the age of sixty-five years.

The second case was that of an itinerant Methodist minister named

Bourne, living in Rhode Island, who one day left his home and found

himself, or rather his second self, in Norristown, Pennsylvania. Having

a little money, he bought a small stock in trade, and instead of being

a minister of the gospel under the Methodist persuasion, he kept a

candy shop under the name of A. J. Brown, paid his rent regularly, and

acted like other people. At last, in the middle of the night, he awoke

to his former consciousness, and finding himself in a strange place,

supposed he had made a mistake and might be taken for a burglar. He was

found in a state of great alarm by his neighbors, to whom he stated

that he was a minister, and that his home was in Rhode Island. His

friends were sent for and recognized him, and he returned to his home

after an absence of two years of absolutely foreign existence. A most

careful investigation of the case was made on behalf of the London

Society for Psychical Research.

An exhaustive paper on this subject, written by Richard Hodgson in the

proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, states that Mr.

Bourne had in early life shown a tendency to abnormal psychic

conditions; but he had never before engaged in trade, and nothing could

be remembered which would explain why he had assumed the name A. J.

Brown, under which he did business. He had, however, been hypnotized

when young and made to assume various characters on the stage, and it

is possible that the name A. J. Brown was then suggested to him, the

name resting in his memory, to be revived and resumed when he again

went into a hypnotic trance.

Alfred Binet describes a case somewhat similar to that of Mary

Reynolds: "Felida, a seamstress, from 1858 up to the present time (she

is still living) has been under the care of a physician named Azam in

Bordeaux. Her normal, or at least her usual, disposition when he first

met her was one of melancholy and disinclination to talk, conjoined

with eagerness for work. Nevertheless her actions and her answers to

all questions were found to be perfectly rational. Almost every day she

passed into a second state. Suddenly and without the slightest

premonition save a violent pain in the temples she would fall into a

profound slumber-like languor, from which she would awake in a few

moments a totally different being. She was now as gay and cheery as she

had formerly been morose. Her imagination was over-excited. Instead of

being indifferent to everything, she had become alive to excess. In

this state she remembered everything that had happened in the other

similar states that had preceded it, and also during her normal life.

But when at the end of an hour or two the languor reappeared, and she

returned to her normal melancholy state, she could not recall anything

that had happened in her second, or joyous, stage. One day, just after

passing into the second stage, she attended the funeral of an

acquaintance. Returning in a cab she felt the period coming on which

she calls her crisis (normal state). She dozed several seconds, without

attracting the attention of the ladies who were in the cab, and awoke

in the other state, absolutely at a loss to know why she was in a

mourning carriage with people who, according to custom, were praising

the qualities of a deceased person whose name she did not even know.

Accustomed to such positions, she waited; by adroit questions she

managed to understand the situation, and no one suspected what had

happened. Once when in her abnormal condition she discovered that her

husband had a mistress, and was so overcome that she sought to commit

suicide. Yet in her normal mind she meets the woman with perfect

equilibrium and forgetfulness of any cause for quarrel. It is only in

her abnormal state that the jealousy recurs. As the years went on the

second state became her usual condition. That which was at first

accidental and abnormal now constitutes the regular center of her

psychic life. It is rather satisfactory to chronicle that as between

the two egos which alternately possess her, the more cheerful has

finally reached the ascendant."

Jackson reports the history of the case of a young dry-goods clerk who

was seized with convulsions of a violent nature during which he became

unconscious. In the course of twenty-four hours his convulsions abated,

and about the third day he imagined himself in New York paying court to

a lady, and having a rival for her favors; an imaginary quarrel and

duel ensued. For a half-hour on each of three days he would start

exactly where he had left off on the previous day. His eyes were open

and to all appearances he was awake during this peculiar delirium. When

asked what he had been doing he would assert that he had been asleep.

His language assumed a refinement above his ordinary discourse. In

proportion as his nervous system became composed, and his strength

improved, this unnatural manifestation of consciousness disappeared,

and he ultimately regained his health.

A further example of this psychologic phenomenon was furnished quite

meetly at a meeting of the Clinical Society of London, where a well

known physician exhibited a girl of twelve, belonging to a family of

good standing, who displayed in the most complete and indubitable form

this condition of dual existence. A description of the case is as

follows:--

"Last year, after a severe illness which was diagnosed to be

meningitis, she became subject to temporary attacks of unconsciousness,

on awakening from which she appeared in an entirely different

character. In her normal condition she could read and write and speak

fluently, and with comparative correctness. In the altered mental

condition following the attack she loses all memory for ordinary

events, though she can recall things that have taken place during

previous attacks. So complete is this alteration of memory, that at

first she was unable to remember her own name or to identify herself or

her parents. By patient training in the abnormal condition she has been

enabled to give things their names, though she still preserves a

baby-fashion of pronouncing. She sometimes remains in the abnormal

condition for days together and the change to her real self takes place

suddenly, without exciting surprise or dismay, and she forthwith

resumes possession of her memory for events of her ordinary life.

During the last month or two she appears to have entered on a new

phase, for after a mental blank of a fortnight's duration she awakened

completely oblivious of all that had happened since June, 1895, and she

alludes to events that took place just anterior to that date as though

they were of recent occurrence; in fact she is living mentally in July,

1895. These cases, though rare, are of course not infrequently met

with, and they have been carefully studied, especially in France, where

women appear more prone to neurotic manifestations. The hypothesis that

finds most favor is that the two halves of the brain do not work in

unison; in other words, that there has been some interference with the

connections which in the ordinary normal being make of a wonderful

composite organ like the brain one organic whole."

Proust tells a story of a Parisian barrister of thirty-three. His

father was a heavy drinker, his mother subject to nervous attacks, his

younger brother mentally deficient, and the patient himself was very

impressionable. It was said that a judge in a court, by fixing his gaze

on him, could send him into an abnormal state. On one occasion, while

looking into a mirror in a cafe, he suddenly fell into a sleep, and was

taken to the Charite where he was awakened. He suffered occasional loss

of memory for considerable lengths of time, and underwent a change of

personality during these times. Though wide awake in such conditions he

could remember nothing of his past life, and when returned to his

original state he could remember nothing that occurred during his

secondary state, having virtually two distinct memories. On September

23, 1888, he quarreled with his stepfather in Paris and became his

second self for three weeks. He found himself in a village 100 miles

from Paris, remembering nothing about his journey thereto; but on

inquiry he found that he had paid a visit to the priest of the village

who thought his conduct odd, and he had previously stayed with an

uncle, a bishop, in whose house he had broken furniture, torn up

letters, and had even had sentence passed upon him by a police court

for misdemeanor. During these three weeks he had spent the equivalent

of $100, but he could not recall a single item of expenditure. Davies

cites a remarkable case of sudden loss of memory in a man who, while on

his way to Australia, was found by the police in an exhausted condition

and who was confined in the Kent County Insane Asylum. He suffered

absolute loss of all memory with the exception of the names of two men

not close acquaintances, both of whom failed to recognize him in his

changed condition in confinement. Four months later his memory returned

and his identity was established.

In the Revue Philosophique for 1885 there are the details of a case of

a young man who seemed able to assume six states of what might be

fairly called different personalities. The memories attached to each of

these states were very different, though only one was completely

exclusive of the others. The handwriting varied from complete

competence to complete incompetence. His character varied between

childish timidity, courteous reserve, and reckless arrogance; and to

four of his conditions there was a form of hysteric paralysis attached.

Mere suggestion would not only induce any one of these varied forms of

paralysis, but also the memories, capacities, and characters habitually

accompanying it.

A young man named Spencer, an inmate of the Philadelphia Hospital, was

exhibited before the American Neurological Society in June, 1896, as an

example of dual personality. At the time of writing he is and has been

in apparently perfect health, with no evidence of having been in any

other condition. His faculties seem perfect, his education manifests

itself in his intelligent performance of the cleric duties assigned to

him at the hospital, yet the thread of continuous recollection which

connects the present moment with its predecessors--consciousness and

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