QUEER PATIENTS AND QUEER PHYSICIANS. 



JAMES WEIR, JR., M.D. 



When we wish to study, understandingly, 

 the mental habitudes of the lower animals, 

 both in sickness and in health, we must dis- 

 miss from our minds that false doctrine 

 which teaches that man is a special and indi- 

 vidual creation and not the last link in an 

 evolutionary chain which reaches back to 

 primordial protoplasm — a formless mass of 

 " first matter," in which, not even the cell, 

 the most primitive form of organized mat- 

 ter, can be discovered and differentiated. 

 Man has so long arrogated to himself the 

 title of " thinker," thereby placing himself 

 on a pedestal far above the levels of the, 

 so-called lower animals, that he is loth to 

 abandon the idea that he alone of all creat- 

 ures, possesses mind and intellect. Yet it 

 can be clearly demonstrated that not only 

 do the lower animals possess mind, but also 

 that their minds are subject to the same 

 derangements (in kind if not in degree) that 

 make themselves evident in the insanities 

 of human beings. Epilepsy, locomotor 

 ataxia, paresis, apoplexy, delusional and il- 

 lusional insanity (temporary as well as per- 

 manent), erotomania, acute and chronic 

 mania, imbecility and idiocy are, by no 

 means, of infrequent occurrence among the 

 lower animals. 



Instances of acute mania or frenzy in 

 horses or cattle are daily happenings — the 

 newspapers throughout the country chron- 

 icling one or more at almost every issue. 

 Several months ago I saw a cow with acute 

 mania, the attack having been brought on 

 by fright. She was a country-bred animal 

 and had been driven into the city to be sold 

 for beef. The noise of the streets, together 

 with the unmerciful lashings of the drover's 

 whip, induced a wild and ungovernable ter- 

 ror in the animal. Suddenly this terror 

 changed into murderous frenzy, and this 

 hitherto docile creature became a raging, 

 maddened beast seeeking to do violence to 

 all things. She lowered her head, and, with 

 a loud bellow, ran full tilt against a brick 

 wall, the violence of her impact breaking 

 off one of her horns and bringing her to her 

 knees in an almost unconscious condition. 

 She next tossed a dog high into the air, 

 having first disembowelled him with her re- 

 maining horn. Then she started down the 

 street after the man who had been driving 

 her. Thus the driven became the driver, 

 not much to my sorrow be it confessed. 

 The cow finally ran through an open gate 

 into a yard that was surrounded by a high 

 fence. Some one closed the gate, the in- 

 sane animal thus becoming imprisoned and 

 incapable of doing further damage. A 

 policeman was about to kill her, when I 

 suggested that she be allowed to remain in 



the yard until night. By that time her fren- 

 zy, in all probability, would have passed 

 away, the streets would have become quiet 

 and she might be driven to her destination 

 without further trouble. This was done 

 and all came about as I had predicted. 



Again, certain of the lower animals, not- 

 ably the sow and the bitch, are frequently 

 the victims of puerperal mania, or the in- 

 sanity that sometimes follows the birth of 

 young. In the human female puerperal 

 mania very frequently leads to infanticide. 

 The sow and the bitch when afflicted with 

 this form of insanity not only kill their 

 young, but frequently devour them. Many 

 animals are born idiots or imbeciles. Dar- 

 win describes a dog which he terms a 

 semi-idiot, noting particularly its "senseless 

 habit of rotation or gyration," a common 

 symptom of insanity in the animal accord- 

 ing to Lindsay, another careful observer. 

 A French scientist, Pierquin, describes an 

 imbecile pup whose mother recognized the 

 unfortunate condition of her offspring long 

 before man, with all his vaunted intelli- 

 gence, had the slightest inkling of it. This 

 dog devoted the greater portion of her time 

 to the care of her imbecile son, thereby neg- 

 lecting the remainder of her litter. A 

 friend of mine, a sportsman and breeder of 

 fine dogs, says that on more than one oc- 

 casion imbecile puppies have been born in 

 his kennels, and that the mother-dogs seem 

 to recognize the lack of mental power 

 in the young ones so affected, almost as 

 soon as they are born. 



Animals frequently lose their mental 

 equipoise and sink into imbecility after hav- 

 ing been subjected to surroundings in 

 which their terror and alarm have been 

 greatly incited. " A parrot," says M. Pier- 

 quin, " noted for its intelligence and vi- 

 vacity, was owned by a captain of a French 

 man-of-war. During a naval combat this 

 bird showed its terror by cowering. It be- 

 came insensible to the usual civilities of- 

 fered to it, acquired a dull, stupid look and 

 made monosyllabic replies to questions. 

 This condition of mental imbecility became 

 permanent." Bees at the time of swarming, 

 unquestionably " lose their heads," the 

 queen being the first to become non compos 

 mentis. She suddenly leaves the royal cell 

 and runs hither and thither throughout the 

 hive creating turmoil and confusion. The 

 worker bees seem to catch the contagion of 

 her madness and rush about in a tumult- 

 uous and disorderly manner. Finally, the 

 queen in her insane wanderings, approach- 

 es the entrance of the hive, through which 

 she passes, followed by a vast multitude of 

 her seemingly maddened and mentally ir- 



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