The Rhode Island Republican

INSANITY.
There is no end to the false impressions and delusions with which the mind may be affected. A physician was once called to see a man laboring under the fancy that he was converted into a tea-pot. And when the physician endeavored to ridicule him out of the idea, he indignantly replied,"I am a tea-pot," and forming a semi-circle with one arm by placing his hand upon his hip, he said, "there is the handle,"and thrusting out the other arm, "there is the spout." Men have believed themselves converted into barrels rolled along street. One case is recorded of a man who believed himself a clock. and would stand for hours at the head of the stairs. clicking with his tongue. A respectable tradesman in England even fancied himself metamorphosed into a seven shilling piece, and took the particular favor of his friends, that if his wife should present him in payment, they would not give change for him. Some have supposed that many armed knights were engaged in battle with them. A sea captain in Philadelphia, believed for many years that he had half a wolf in his liver: A madman in the Pennsylvania hospital believed that he was once a calf. and mentioned the name of the butcher who killed him, and the stall in Philadelphia market on which his flesh was sold, previously to his animating his present body. One man believes his legs made of butter and with the greatest caution avoids the fire; another imagines them to be made of glass, and with extreme care wraps them up, and guards them in wooden boxes when he goes out to ride. A prince of Bourbon, often supposed himself to be a plant, and taking his stand in the garden, would insist upon being watered in common with the plants around him. A French gentlemen imagined himself to be dead, and refused to eat. To prevent his dying of starvation, two persons were introduced to him in the character of illustrious dead, like himself. and they invited him, after some conversation respecting the world of shades, to dine— with another distinguished but deceased person, Marshall Turenne. The lunatic accepted this polite invitation, and made a very hearty dinner. Every day, while his fancy prevailed, it was necessary to invite him to the table of some ghost of rank and reputation. Yet in the other common affairs of life the gentleman was not incapacitated from attending to his own interests.