A Singular Case of Monomania

become his own. According to Broussais, every man was under the influence of the idee fixe, and, by his first question to the patient, he was invariably determined as to the direction in which it lay. "Are you feverish?" would he say to the sick man who came to consult him. " Very," was most frequently the reply. " Restless, hey??fidgetty at night, hey ??tormented and uneasy, hey ?" To all this the patient would, of course, assent. " Then, monsieur, you have surely got some idee fixe! Ah ! prenez garde a V idee fixe!" It is a curious fact that, however strongly the supposition was denied at first, Broussais seldom failed to elicit something like an avowal of some pet anxiety or other, which by its nature he pretended to trace either to the brain, the stomach, or the bowels. Monsieur A , the patient who has just died at Beaujon a martyr to the idee fixe, was -formerly an employe in the Tuilcries under Charles the Tenth, and held a post of high trust and confidence. In July, 1830, when the mob entered the palace, so great was the respect and consideration in which he