216 THE YOUTH'S CABINET.

mer was confined had a periodical disor-
der of this sort; every year he had some
different whim. One time he conceived
himself changed into a pitcher of oil;
another time he thought himself a frog,
and began to leap as such ; another time,
again, he imagined he was dead, and it
was found necessary to humor his conceit
by making a show of burying him. At
length he thought himself a bat, and
when he went to take a walk, he some-
times made just such a noise as bats
do; he likewise used gestures with his
hands and body, as if he were going to
fly.”

Noses have been known to be partic-
ularly troublesome to hypochondriacs.
One man fancied that his nose was of
a ludicrous length, and consequently
kept backing off as his friends approached
to hold a parley with him, fearing that
he should put their eyes out. It is said
that frequently this same deluded pos-
sessor of a long nose might have been
seen going along the street guiding his
nose with his hand, to keep it from
breaking the shop windows.

A young man had a strong imagina-
tion that he was dead, and earnestly
begged his friends to bury him. They
consented, by the advice of the physi-
cian. He was laid upon 4 bier, and
carried upon the shoulders of men to
church, when some pleasant fellows, up
to the business, met the procession, and
inquired who it was; they answered.
« And a very good job it is,” said one
of them, “for the world is well rid of a
very bad character, which the gallows
must have had in due course.” The
young man, now lying dead, hearing
this, popped his head up, and said they
ought to be ashamed of themselves in

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 

Freaks of Imagination.

viprus mentions & painter, who

verily believed that all the bones

of his body were so soft and flex-

ible, that they might easily be

crushed together, or folded one within
another, like pieces of pliable wax.

A Lusitanian physician had a patient
who insisted that he was perpetually
frozen, and would sit before a great fire
even in dog-days. ‘The Portuguese doc-
tor made him a dress of rough sheep-
skins, saturated with aqua vite, and set
him on fire. He then said he was quite
warm, rather too much so, and so was
cured.

Galen and Avicen make mention of
people who have fancied themselves
earthen pots, and therefore have care-
fully avoided being touched for fear they
should be broken.

Then there is the case of the insane
watch-maker, mentioned by Pinel, who
insisted that he had been guillotined, and
that another head had afterward, by
mistake, been put on his shoulders, in-
stead of his own. “ Look at these
teeth,” he would say; “ mine were eX-
tremely handsome—these are decayed.
My mouth was sound and healthy ; this
‘s foul. How different is the hair from
that of my own head !”

Mr. Haslam, in his work on insanity,
mentions a case of one, who insisted that
he had no mouth, and when compelled
by force to swallow, declared that a
wound had been made in his throat,
through which the food had been intro-
duced.

Benvenuto Cellini, the celebrated Flo-
rentine artist, in his Life, says, that “ the
governor of the castle in which the for-