| Fortunately the men came at a run, and were just... 189 |
[Jan. 27th, 2010|02:07 am] |
Fortunately the men came at a run, and were just in time, for at the stroke of noon he became so violent that it took all their strength to hold himIn about five minutes, however, he began to get more quiet, and finally sank into a sort of melancholy, in which state he has remained up to nowThe attendant tells me that his screams whilst in the paroxysm were really appallingI found my hands full when I got in, attending to some of the other patients who were frightened by himIndeed, I can quite understand the effect, for the sounds disturbed even me, though I was some distance awayIt is now after the dinner hour of the asylum, and as yet my patient sits in a corner brooding, with a dull, sullen, woe-begone look in his face, which seems rather to indicate than to show something directlyI cannot quite understand it-Another change in my patientAt five o'clock I looked in on him, and found him seemingly as happy and contented as he used to beHe was catching flies and eating them, and was keeping note of his capture by making nailmarks on the edge of the door between the ridges of paddingWhen he saw me, he came over and apologized for his bad conduct, and asked me in a very humble, cringing way to be led back to his own room, and to have his notebook againI thought it well to humour him, so he is back in his room with the window openHe has the sugar of his tea spread out on the window sill, and is reaping quite a harvest of fliesHe is not now eating them, but putting them into a box, as of old, and is already examining the corners of his room to find a spiderI tried to get him to talk about the past few days, for any clue to his thoughts would be of immense help to me, but he would not riseFor a moment or two he looked very sad, and said in a sort of far away voice, as though saying it rather to himself than to me
"All over! All over! He has deserted meNo hope for me now unless I do it myself!" Then suddenly turning to me in a resolute way, he said, "Doctor, won't you be very good to me and let me have a little more sugar? I think it would be very good for me
"And the flies?" I said
"Yes! The flies like it, too, and I like the flies, therefore I like it And there are people who know so little as to think that madmen do not argueI procured him a double supply, and left him as happy a man as, I suppose, any in the worldI wish I could fathom his mind-Another change in himI had been to see Miss Westenra, whom I found much better, and had just returned, and was standing at our own gate looking at the sunset, when once more I heard him yellingAs his room is on this side of the house, I could hear it better than in the morningIt was a shock to me to turn from the wonderful smoky beauty of a sunset over London, with its lurid lights and inky shadows and all the marvellous tints that come on foul clouds even as on foul water, and to realize all the grim sternness of my own cold stone building, with its wealth of breathing misery, and my own desolate heart to endure it allI reached him just as the sun was going down, and from his window saw the red disc sinkAs it sank he became less and less frenzied, and just as it dipped he slid from the hands that held him, an inert mass, on the floorIt is wonderful, however, what intellectual recuperative power lunatics have, for within a few minutes he stood up quite calmly and looked around himI signalled to the attendants not to hold him, for I was anxious to see what he would doHe went straight over to the window and brushed out the crumbs of sugarThen he took his fly box, and emptied it outside, and threw away the boxThen he shut the window, and crossing over, sat down on his bedAll this surprised me, so I asked him, "Are you going to keep flies any more?"
"No," said he"I am sick of all that rubbish!" He certainly is a wonderfully interesting studyI wish I could get some glimpse of his mind or of the cause of his sudden passionThere may be a clue after all, if we can find why today his paroxysms came on at high noon and at sunsetCan it be that there is a malign influence of the sun at periods which affects certain natures, as at times the moon does others? We shall seeSEWARD, LONDON, TO VAN HELSING, AMSTERDAM
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