Thieving Mania.

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 164, 31 December 1872, Page 3

Thieving Mania.

Dr Gall mentions haviug seen a person in Friburg, who bad set tire to his house | four times in succession; and who, afterj he had set fire to it, tried to put it out. Some have an irresistible desire to steal, without any mark of insanity. Call says that the first King of Sweden was always stealing trifles. Instances are mentioned! of a German who was constantly pilfering; and of another who, having the desire to I steal, entered the army, hoping the severe I discipline would restrain him. But he gave way to the propensity even there, and wasvory near hanged. He then became a friar, with the. same hope ; but lie still felt the same desire, and carried all; the things he conld to his cell ; but as he could only get trifles, he was not noticed. Gall also mentions that a person at Vienna, in the habit of stealing,-hired a lodging in which to deposit his thefts, and when he' got a stock he sold them. He stole only ' household matters. The wife of a celebrated physician at Leyden never went into a shop to buy anything without stealing ; and a countess at Frankfort had the same propensity. Another lady, notwithstanding the care with which she had been j brought up. had tho same desire to pilfer, j And you will find it related of a physician, i that his wife was always obliged to exa- j mine his pockets in the evening, an 1 re- j store to his patients the tilings she found ! there. He always took something as well I as his fee. Mcrritz speaks of a criminal who, at the moment he was about to be executed, stole the confessor's snuff-box. j Dr Burner, who was one of the physicians to the King of Bivaria, speaks of a person who enjoyed abundance, and had been wt il educated, but who, notwithstanding, was always stealing, and was made a soldier by j his father, and at last gnt hanged. The | son of a celebrated and learned man—lain- | self very clever, and respectably connected ' in every respect -could not resist this propensity ; and I could go on to furnish you with instances without end of individuals who have acted thus (as it would appear) trora insanity—not from any ciinnnnl'motive, but front a blind desire too strong for them to resist.— Dr Eiliutsun.