Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 30.djvu/124

112 and do the most insane acts, then resume a degree of sanity that corresponds with their previous character. Thus, a prominent clergyman of wealth and high standing in the community, who was a wine-drinker, suddenly began a series of Wall Street speculations of the most uncertain, fraudulent nature. He implicated himself and a large number of friends, and finally was disgraced. A judge, occupying a most enviable position of character and reputation, who had used spirits and opium for years at night for various reasons, suddenly gave up his place and became a low office-seeker—was elected to the Legislature, and became prominent as an unscrupulous politician. A New England clergyman, after thirty years of most earnest, devoted work, renounced the church and became an infidel of the most aggressive type. Later it was found that he had used chloroform and spirits in secret for years. A man of forty years, of tested honesty and trustworthiness, proved to be a defaulter. It was ascertained that he used choral and opium in secret.

Hardly a year passes that bank defaulters, forgers, and swindlers do not appear among men whose previous character has given no intimation of such a career. When their secret history is ascertained, the use of alcohol, opium, and other drugs is found to be common.

Another class of previously reputable, sane men suddenly commit crimes against good morals. The unusual boldness of their acts points to insanity, and it is then found that they are secret or open drinkers, using alcohol or compounds of opium. Such men come into politics with a most insane ambition for office and childish delirium to appear in public as, great men. They often become enthusiastic church and temperance men, acting along very unusual lines of conduct, and doing unusual things. Signs of mental failure are clearly traced in the childish credulity, or extraordinary skepticism, or extreme secretiveness, which are all foreign to the history of their past. Then, at last, such men leave strange wills, with strange bequests. They are contested; the expert is called in; and, while he is certain of insanity and irresponsibility of the testator from the history, he can not make it appear clearly to the court. These cases are more or less familiar to every one, yet the history of drinking or using narcotics is concealed. In an instance of recent date, the will of a very rich man contained a large bequest to the Freedman's Bureau. This was a very strange and unusual act; but the heirs, rather than expose the secret drinking of the testator, let the will stand. To history this was a very generous deed, but in reality it was the mere freak of a maniac.

These persons appear to all general observation sane and fully conscious of the nature and character of their acts; yet they are in a state of intellectual delirium and instability, which comes out prominently in the strange, unusual conduct. The co-ordinating brain-centers are