New York Daily Tribune

Millerism and Insanity.—We lately published a statement that a Mr. Shortridge, of New-Hampshire, had run mad with Millerism, and attempted to ascend to Heaven from an apple-tree, but found the attraction of gravitation too strong for his celestial aspirations, and came to the ground with such momentum as to cause his death. We have just seen two letters of late date from different sources in Portsmouth, N. H., stating that letters had been received there from this same Mr. Shortridge, making no mention of his 'ground and lofty tumbling' or death—circumstances so remarkable that they could hardly have escaped his notice had they actually occurred. We have heard from another source that this same Mr. S. was crazy ten years ago. So in the case of the woman who poisoned her children and attempted to commit suicide some weeks since—her insanity was attributed to Millerism, but entirely without reason. Doubtless the like has been the case in many other instances. Those who know any thing of Insanity are aware that it very commonly takes its hue from the most exciting topic of the hour, so that hundreds of persons have been reported as victims of 'religious mania,' when in fact their insanity was caused by functional disorders, often having its seat in the digestive organs and only by sympathy affecting the brain. Of those who are currently reported as rendered insane by 'Revivals' or "Millerism,' a great portion would be found, on due inquiry, to have been constitutionally disposed to insanity, and often to have inherited that malady. In other cases, physical derangement consequent on personal excesses, such as intemperance, gluttony, and other forms of sensuality, was the true cause.—We cannot exclude from our columns accounts of remarkable casualties, but our readers will know how to make due allowance for the causes to which they are often mistakenly attributed.