394 PLAIN FACTS FOR OLD AND YOUNG 



his mind on the subject of religion his friends attrib- 

 uted his peculiar actions, which soon became so strange 

 as to excite grave fears that his mind was seriously 

 affected. At times he was wild, showing such unmis- 

 takable evidences of insanity that even his poor mother, 

 who was loth to believe the sad truth, was forced to 

 admit that he was deranged. 



After a few months a change came over him, which 

 encouraged his friends to think that he was recovering. 

 He became quiet and tractable, never manifesting the 

 furious symptoms before observed. But the deception 

 was only temporary; for it was soon evident that the 

 change was simply the result of the progress of the 

 disease, and denoted a failure of the mental powers 

 and the approach of imbecility. In this condition was 

 the young man when he came under our care. We felt 

 strongly impressed from our first examination of the 

 case that it was one of sexual abuse; but we were 

 assured by his friends in the most emphatic manner 

 that such was an impossibility. It was claimed that 

 the most scrupulous care had been bestowed upon him, 

 and that he had been so closely watched that it was 

 impossible that he should have been guilty of so gross 

 a vice. His friends were disposed to attribute his sad 

 condition to excessive exercise of mind upon religious 

 subjects. 



Not satisfied with this view of the case, we set a 

 close watch upon him, and within a week his nurse 

 reported that he had detected him in the act of self- 

 pollution, when he confessed the truth, not being yet 

 so utterly devoid of sense as to have lost his apprecia- 

 tion of the sinfulness of the act. When discovered, he 

 exclaimed, * ' I know I have made myself a fool, ' ' which 

 was the exact truth. 



