* Magnan, Annales Midico-Psychologiques, 1887 5 Lombroso, Tre
Tribuniy pp. 3-9, 16-23, 148-150; Saury, Etudes Cliniques sur la
Folic Hiriditaire, 1886. ' Psychologic du Ginic, 1883.
^ i



PREFACE. vii

If Richelieu had not on one single occasion been caught
in an epileptic fit, who could ever have guessed it ? If it
had not been for the recent works of Berti and Mayor,
who would have believed that Cavour twice attempted to
kill himself? If Taine had not been one of those rare
writers who understand what help psychiatry can give in
the study of history, he would never have been able to
surprise those characteristics which make Napoleon^s
moral insanity manifest to all. Carlyle's wife wrote the
narration of her tortures ; few wives do as much, and, to
tell the truth, few husbands are anxious to publish such
narratives. Many persons still regard as an angelic being
the celebrated painter Aiwosowski, who succoured hundreds
of poor persons and left his own wife and children to
die of hunger.
It must be added that moral insanity and epilepsy
which are so often found in association with genius are
among the forms of mental alienation which are most
difficult to verify, so that they are often denied, even
during life, although quite evident to the alienist. There
are still many estimable persons who doubt the insanity
of King Ludwig of Bavaria, and even openly deny it.*

There are, also, no individual cases in nature ; all
particular cases are the expression and effect of a law.
And the fact, now unquestioned, that certain great men
of genius have been insane, permits us to presume the
existence of a lesser degree of psychosis in other men of
genius.
