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YET THERE ' S METHOD IN IT." 247
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
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assures us ; and in so far differ totally from the incidental subjects of feverdelirium , or sudden mental overthrow . It is a deep , a
, dangerous , and often unrecognised form of misfortune which lie classifies under the following heads , each supported by examples .
The first we will take is one which comes under the head of monomaniacs as that they , or insane are " perpetuall people possessed y persecuted of some " or one et have delusive invented idea , such
per-, petual motion , " or can raise the dead , or are owners of a great fortune ; are kings , princes , gods . Many such , says M . Trelat , are
abroad in the world ; are married , and are parents of families ; conducting their affairs in an ordinary manner .
Mademoiselle M was the daughter of an officer killed m battle ; she was intelligent and highly educated ; but her family
being poor , and having exhausted their resources in the education of herself and her brother , she was subject in her youth to extremes
of privation . In 1850 this lady obtained a situation as post-mistress ; which for many years she filled with honor , until a deficiency
in her accounts caused vigorous measures to be taken against her , involving , of course , the loss of her position . She was about to be
tried , when the authorities bethought them of sending her to M . Trelat for examination . Shortly after her arrival at the Salpetriere
Mademoiselle M wrote him a clear and spirited letter ; in which _^ after explaining to him what she considered satisfactory reasons for
the monetary deficiency , and detailing * plans hy which she had intended to replace the missing sum , she appeals urgently against
being shut up as insane . " Who , " she emphatically asks , " who has dared to sign an order for my sequestration in an asylum , and
in so doing has signed a warrant for my moral death , and perhaps for the dishonor of my family ? Who are they who stifle all my appeals ,
and seem to wish to bring about the very malady of which they accuse meand to dispossess me of that health and reason which
, hitherto has succumbed to no suffering * , to no trial ? You have yourself had a mother , a wife , a daughter . Which of these ladies
would you not have preferred to see in her grave rather than condemned to a fate like mine ? You will allow , Sir , that at this date
such , facts are of the utmost gravity /' " I have the honor to enclose copies of my various appeals ; be so
good as to submit the facts which they affirm to a serious examination ; and if your own position does not authorize you directly to
restore my liberty or send me before court , be kind enough to let me knowand I will send you a complaint addressed to M . le
Procureur Imp , _erial , and a petition for the Emperor , trusting to your kindness in seeing that each arrives at its destination . "
Shortly afterwards Mdlle . M wrote to her brother in language equally clear , and breathing a spirit of vigorous independence ,
mixed with a touching sisterly affection . In a letter addressed to the Directeur Generale de 1 'Assistance Publique is the following
sentence : " I have never weighed upon the resources of my own .
Yet There ' S Method In It." 247
YET THERE ' S METHOD IN IT . " 247
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), June 1, 1862, page 247, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01061862/page/31/
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