Insanity in Paris.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 219, 10 September 1887, Page 8

Insanity in Paris.

Thk increase of insanity in Paris and its suburbs is exciting a great deal of comment, the more so as it has been obs ervd that the sufferers from this reigning mania are chiefly to be found in literary, financial and political circles. Life at tho French capital its as a maelstrom, whether in the chambers, on the Bourse, among the journals or at the clubs, that engulfs thousands e\ cry year in its hidden depths. A few weeks since Adolph T\acot, a well-known political writer belonging to the stafi of " Le Figaro," was at tho Theatre Francais, when between the acts ho suddenly began to talk at random about political subjects. He was eventually taken to the A&ylum of St. Anne, where after a period of raving modness he expired peacefully. Keen observers note also a vein of political mania in Paris just at present. The wildest utterances aro common among apparently intellectual people, and war excitement would undoubtedly increase the number of cases of madness similar to that of which M, Racot was a victim. In club life the gambling is very high, and when a player has had a turn of luck and is umble to meet his debts, he generally prefers death to dishonour. In speculative circles it is the some story of the steel wearing out the scabbard, and tho mania is not confined to the male sex, as half a dozen women who escaped from tho burning Opera (Jomique have since lost their senses in brooding over the horrors of tho scene. It would appear as if an arctic douoho was necessary to bring tho Paiisiana to a state of mental equilibrium.