Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 46.djvu/849

Rh An interesting discussion upon the subject of communicated insanity was brought out at the meeting of the Association of Asylum Superintendents in 1887 by the reading of the history of the Pocasset letter-carrier. Freeman, who, with the consent of his wife, who had become possessed of his same fanatical ideas, offered up their son as a sacrifice, in the manner of Abraham. The insanity of the mother was not detected at the time, but in a month she became manifestly insane. As will be seen, this case can not be considered a typical one of communicated insanity, for the remorse and grief which necessarily followed the participation in her husband's fanatical act were sufficient to account for her insanity aside from any influence which he might have had over her. The discussion, however, brought out the interesting fact that several of the superintendents present had had experience with cases which would appear to justify the use of the term "communicated insanity," although others objected to its adoption. One particularly interesting instance was related by Dr. Fletcher, of Indiana, where two brothers and a sister, living on a farm isolated from the rest of the community, became, one after the other, controlled by the same insane delusion. They were Germans, industrious and thrifty, but uneducated and superstitious. The elder brother conceived the idea that the devil had taken possession of their farm and was secreted under a certain bowlder in the barnyard. He imagined that no good crops could be raised until his Satanic majesty had been unearthed. He began searching, and worked for several days rolling up great bowlders until the younger brother, and finally the sister also, became possessed of the same idea, and lent their assistance. They all worked for about six weeks, making an excavation about twenty feet square and fifteen feet deep. They worked so hard and became so emaciated that the neighbors interfered and had them sent to an asylum, where, happily, under the influence of treatment, change of surroundings, and good diet, they ultimately recovered.

Within the past year two sisters have come under my observation whose histories support more fully than any cases with which my reading or observation have made me acquainted the theory that under certain conditions the insane mind may mold the sane mind just as is common with those that are working normally. These two sisters were aged respectively forty-three and thirty; both were unmarried, and, unlike the cases reported by Dr. Fletcher, they were quite well educated and possessed of some literary taste, and were more than ordinarily accomplished in music, both instrumental and vocal. The elder was large, somewhat masculine in appearance, rather aggressive, and possessed of considerable personality. The younger, on the contrary, was