Chapter 1 - Page 2

part of North America, which is equal in
latitude to the Canary and Madeira Islands. At the furthermost limit
of the park lay the wide estuary of the Neuse, swept by the cool
breezes of Pamlico Sound and by the winds that blew from the ocean
beyond the narrow _lido_ of the coast.

Healthful House, where rich invalids were cared for under such
excellent hygienic conditions, was more generally reserved for the
treatment of chronic complaints; but the management did not decline to
admit patients affected by mental troubles, when the latter were not
of an incurable nature.

It thus happened--a circumstance that was bound to attract a good deal
of attention to Healthful House, and which perhaps was the motive
for the visit of the Count d'Artigas--that a person of world-wide
notoriety had for eighteen months been under special observation
there.

This person was a Frenchman named Thomas Roch, forty-five years of
age. He was, beyond question, suffering from some mental malady, but
expert alienists admitted that he had not entirely lost the use of
his reasoning faculties. It was only too evident that he had lost all
notion of things as far as the ordinary acts of life were concerned;
but in regard to subjects demanding the exercise of his genius, his
sanity was unimpaired and unassailable--a fact which demonstrates how
true is the _dictum_ that genius and madness are often closely
allied! Otherwise his condition manifested itself by complete loss
of memory;--the impossibility of concentrating his attention upon
anything, lack of judgment, delirium and incoherence. He no longer
even possessed the natural animal instinct of self-preservation, and
had to be watched like an infant whom one never permits out of one's
sight. Therefore a warder was detailed to keep close watch over him
by day and by night in Pavilion No. 17, at the end of Healthful House
Park, which had been specially set apart for him.

Ordinary insanity, when it is not incurable, can only be cured by
moral means. Medicine and therapeutics are powerless, and their
inefficacy has long been recognized by specialists. Were these moral
means applicable to the case of Thomas Roch? One may be permitted
to doubt it, even amid the tranquil and salubrious surroundings of
Healthful House. As a matter of fact the very symptoms of uneasiness,
changes of temper, irritability, queer traits of character,
melancholy, apathy, and a repugnance for serious occupations were
distinctly apparent; no treatment seemed capable of curing or even
alleviating these symptoms. This was patent to all his medical
attendants.

It has been justly remarked that madness is an excess of subjectivity;
that is to say, a state in which the mind accords too