Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 September 1901 — MEGALOMANIA. [ARTICLE]

MEGALOMANIA.

h a Malady Otherwise Known as BigHeadedneas. A special cablegram to one of our daily papers informs the readers of , that journal that a celebrated professional man in Paris had ‘been sent to some place of confinement because he had become “a victim of the mental disease known as megalomania.” It was further told as illustrating the symptoms of this mysterious disease that “hewouldnot tolerate theslightest opposition.” The correspondent may or may not have known, says the the Chicago Inferior, that his mental aberration translated into modern English is simply “big-headedness.” And it is a very serious ailment in grown people. In children it is cured by the repeated applications of a slipper. Employes in minor situations can be cured, when they get it, by firing them promptly from their jobs. Pugilists are very apt to contract it, but a knock-out blow from the other fellow is a good comctive. But when a professional man, a minister or a college president, we maysay, is subject to it, the disease must run its own course. We only wish that the dispatch above alluded to had told us the character of the confinement to which this party was subjected, and who passed sentence; because we have pretty bad cases of it in this country, and it is likely to spread. In view of our confessed inability to deal with it, it is hoped the readers'will be on their guard and deal with it promptly should they discover any symptoms manifest themselves in intolerance of other people's opinions, unwillingness to accept other people’s plans and a general inability to fit themselves cheerfully into their environment. In its first stages “megalomania” is ea*y to deal with, but in its advanced conditions, incurable. —Chicago Interior.