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OR. J. G.
DUSSER
NEW
de QARENME,,
"
HAVEN, CONN. s*
THE
DR. J. G.
DUSSER
NEW
dc 3/
THE
By
HENEY MAUDSLEY,
ri
M.D. Lond.
D.
NEW YOEK.
APPLETON & COMPANY,
90, 92
&
94
GRAND STREET.
1871.
HAVEN, CONN.
!NNE
"HCtoi
bum
3393
"
PREFACE.
The aim which
first,
to
view
and,
stances
secondly,
presented
interpretation
Indeed
order to
it
metaphysical point of
of
has
to
from
problems
obscure
my
been
put a happy
desire
end
the
to
mental science.
of
do
to
to
what
" inauspicious
reconciliation
science.
When
between
I
first
hand some
surprise
work
phenomena from
of mental
treat
could
in
divorce
to effect
these
and discouragement
to
find,
it
was no small
no discoverable
relation
the
to,
facts
that
daily
came
fullest
if it
entirely
distinct
Eound mind.
was
information concern-
belonged to a science
fail
to
produce
PREFACE.
vi
my
endeavour on
rise to the
and
disquietude,
mental
immediate
an
ultimately
give
to
and the
function,
may
work
It can claim
be contained in
sound
of the
phenomena
of the
relation
The
it.
First
and
to
is
due
is
such truth as
Part, resting as
it
does
who put
gating self-consciousness;
it
ings
present state of
who
Mr.
the
causes,
diseases,
varieties,
apart
from
its
own account
pathology,
all
physiological
Bain,
Professor
as
question
and
as a treatise
treatment
of the proper
of
who
on
mental
method
who
in physiology,
to those
to
Even
self-consciousness
it
to
madman's mind.
not only of
havm"
work
to deviate
physiology,
and pathology
the results
of the
science
into
any
respectively.
cultivation
sort
of
of these
harmony,
it
In order to bring
different
branches of
not to travel too far on paths which diverged more and more
PREFACE.
many
interesting questions
metaphysics, and
space in
discussions
which were
at
have
many
omitted
deliberately
large
In like manner,
of the book.
vii
it
seemed
when
desirable,
treat-
to
Lastly, the
subject.
throwing
much
light
diseases,
could not find fitting place, and was after some hesitation
to prevent the
as
may
preserve
order to
sacrificed, in
of design,
difficult to
harmony
the
been throughout
and
Indeed,
far
more
in,
actually
used in
execution.
its
am
fully sensible
knowledge on the
may
which he
many
many
of the
an amount of
things
may
assertions unwarrantable.
appear
It
may
looking at the
work from
his particular
defective.
it
Whoso-
the
fail
to
recognise
and con-
its
If
the work
aim,
it
will
now
offered
to
make
evident
how
the
public be
indispensable
PREFACE.
viii
is
most
In conclusion, I
to
how
full it is
of promise of the
fruitful results.
my
friend Dr.
am
Blandford, for
his
advice
and assistance
CONTENTS.
PART
I.
I.
man in the infancy of thought ; whence superstitions feelings and fancies regarding nature.
As these disappear metaphysical
entities are assigned as natural causes, and man deems himself the "measure
Finally, the interrogation and interpretation of nature,
of the universe."
Is the
after the inductive method, begin fruitful results of this method.
inductive method, objectively applied, available for the study of Mind ?
Development of biography, and
Difficulties in the way of such application.
absence of any progress in metaphysics are evidence of its value. Psychological
method of interrogating self-consciousness palpably inadequate ; contradictory
Self-consciousresults of its use, and impossibility of applying it inductively.
ness unreliable in the information which it does give, and incompetent to give
any account of a large part of mental activity gives no account of the mental
phenomena of the infant, of the uncultivated adult, and of the insane ; no
account of the bodily conditions which underlie eveiy mental manifestation
no account of the large field of unconscious mental action exhibited, not only
in the unconscious assimilation of impressions, but in the registration of ideas
and their associations, in their latent existence and influence when not active,
and in their recall into activity ; and no account of the influence organically
Incompetency of selfexerted upon the brain by other organs of the body.
Physiology
consciousness further displayed by examination of its real nature.
cannot any longer be ignored henceforth necessary to associate the PhysioloThe study of the plan of development
gical with the Psychological method.
of Mind, the study of its forms of degeneration, and the study of its progress
and regress, as exhibited in history, should not be neglected. The union of
empirical and rational faculties, really advocated by Bacon as his method, is
strictly applicable to the investigation of mental as of other natural phenomena. The question of relative value of inductive or deductive reasoning
often a question of the capacity of him who uses it ; difference between genius
and mediocrity.
Conclusion
Page
CHAPTER
37
II.
Mind" used
The term
force;
entity.
and in
its
CONTENTS.
With increasing complexity of organization, a corresponding complexity of the nervous system. Organs of special senses appear
corresponding central nervous ganglia
in very rudimentary form at first
Rudiments of cerebral hemispheres
constitute entire brain in Invertebrata.
and rudimentary ideation in fishes. Convolution of the grey matter of the
hemispheres in the higher mammals, and corresponding increase of intelligence in them. Differences in the size of the brain, and in the complexity of
the
its convolutions, in different races of men, and in different individuals of
same race corresponding differences in intellectual development. Human
embryonic development conforms with general plan of development of Verte(b)
Discrimination of nervous centres (a) primary, or Ideational
brata.
CHAPTER
Spinal cord
III.
CHAPTER
IV.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER
xi
V.
CHAPTER
VI.
ON EMOTION.
Relation of emotion to idea. Influence of the state of nerve-element on emotion.
Idea favourable to self-expansion is agreeable ; an idea opposed to self-expanAppetite or desire for agreeable stimulus, and repulsion or
sion disagreeable.
avoidance of a painful one, as motives of action.
Equilibrium between individual and his surroundings not accompanied with desire.
Intellectual life
furnish
impulses
action,
but
the
desires do.
Character of
does not
the
to
emotion determined by the nature of external stimulus, and by tire condition
Ccenaisthesis. Nervous
of nerve-element, original, or as modified by culture.
emotions as many and various as
centres of ideas and emotions the same
ideas.
Psychical lone ; how determined ? The conception of the ego and the
moral sense. Intimate connexion of emotion with the organic life ; illustraPrimitive passions, according to Spinoza.
tion of their reciprocal influence.
Difficulties of the psychological method of studying emotion.
Hereditary
Law of progress from the
action in the improvement of human feeling.
general to the special, exhibited in the development of the emotions.
:
Page 129145
CHAPTER
VII.
ON VOLITION.
will not a single, undecomposable faculty of uniform power, but varies as its
differs in quantity and quality, according to the preceding relleccause varies
tion.
According to the common view of it, an abstraction is made into a
metaphysical entity. Self-consciousness reveals the particular state of mind
The
hence
of the moment, but not the long series of causes on which it depends
Examples from madman, drunkard, &e. The
the opinion of free-will.
design in the particular volition is a result of a gradually effected mental
organization
a physical necessity, not transcending or anticipating, but conforming with, experience. Erroneous notions as to the autocratic power of
will.
Its actual power considered (1) over movements, and (2) over the
mental operations. 1. Over movements (a) no power over the involuntary
movements essential to life (b) no power to cli'ect voluntary movements
(c) cannot control the means, can
until they have been acquired by practice
(a) the formation of ideas,
2. Over mental operations
only will the event.
it
(b)
its impotency in the early stages
independent
of
and of their associations
(c) cannot call
of mental development in the young child and in the savage
tip a particular train of thought, or dismiss a train of thought, except through
;
CONTENTS.
xii
As
associations of ideas that are beyond its control, and sometimes not at all.
many centres of volitional reaction in the brain as there are centres of ideas.
the
Volition built up from residua of previous volitions of a like 'kind. Jo
of ideas
freest action of the will there are necessary an unimpeded association
and a strong personality. Character not determined by the will, .but deterWill the
Relation of emotion to volition.
it in the particular act.
its highest function creative initiating a new
highest force in nature
Page 146168
development of nature
mining
CHAPTER
VIII.
ON ACTUATION.
leave behind them residua iu the motor centres, whence a repository
Motor residua or intuitions intervene beof latent or abstract movements.
tween motive and act, and are related to conception on the reactive side as
ctuation proposed for the psychological
sensation is on the receptive side.
Motor intuitions mostly innate in animals,
designation of this department.
acquired in man. Illustrations from vision, speech, the phenomena of hypnoMuscular hallucinations. Co-ordinate convultism, paralysis, insanity, &c.
sions.
The muscular sense its relation to the motor intuitions, and the
The will acts upon muscles
necessary part which it plays in mental function.
Orderly subordination of nerindirectly through the motor nervous centres.
vous centres in the expression of the will in action. Natural differences
between different persons, in the power of expression, by speech or otherwise.
Movements
Page 167181
CHAPTER
IX.
an organic registration of
exists in every organic element of the body
No memory of what we have not had experience, and no expeimpressions.
Physiological ideas of assimilation and differenrience ever entirely forgotten.
Power of imaginatiation necessary to the interpretation of its phenomena.
tion built up by the assimilation not only of the like in ideas, but also of the
Its productive or creative power is, in its highest display,
relations of ideas.
it is the supreme manifestation of organic
involuntary and unconscious
The action of imagination.
evolution.
Relation of memory to imagination.
Manifold disDifferences in the character. of memory in different persons.
The memory of early youth and of old
orders to which memoiy is liable.
Page 182 194
age.
No exact memory of pain why?
Memory
PART
II.
I.
CONTENTS.
xiii
CHAPTER
II.
LIFE.
CHAPTER
III.
2.
4.
Page 294367
CHAPTER
IV.
CONTENTS.
xiv
properties of nerve,
nervous function ; time-rate of conduction electro-motor
Katelectrotonus and Aneand the changes produced by the electrotonic state
activity.
2. Indivilectrotonus chemical changes produced by functional
between the individual
duality of nerve element considered functional relation
circulation during
element and its supply of blood; state of the cerebral
and ot the erteets
results of the extreme exhaustion of nerve element,
sleep
by the habit of exercise through the
;
its modification
of poisons upon it
pathological
3. Reflex pathological action or
residua of previous activity.
products,
sympathy illustrations. Morbid anatomy of insanity (1) Morbid
mental symptoms,
such as Tumour, Abscess, Cvsticcrcus, &c. iutermittence of
;
Morbia
and extreme incoherence of them when they occur in such cases. (2)
chronic inappearances in the Brain and Membranes-in acute insanity; in
Weight and specific
sanity ; in general paralysis ; in syphilitic dementia.
Microscopical researches, and interpretation
gravity of the brain in insanity.
Summary of the kinds of degeneration met with in
of the results of them.
tissue
(a) Inflammatory degeneration : (J) Connective
the brain after insanity
degeneration
degeneration; (c) Fatty degeneration ; (d) Amyloid and colloid
(3) Morbid con(e) Pigmentary degeneration; (/) Calcareous degeneration.
the abdominal
ditions of other organs of the bodyoi the lungs, the heart,
Page 68 408
Concluding observations .
organs, and the sexual organs.
:
CHAPTER
V.
Dr.
detection of general paralysis in its earliest stages.
mode of conducting the examination of an insane patient .
CHAPTER
Bucknill, on the
.
Page 409
416
VI.
of a fatal termination.
Insanity reduces the
The probability of recovery depends on the form, the duration, and the cause
of the disease. Melancholia the most curable, acute mania coming next. The
indications of recovery.
The prognosis very bad in chronic mania, monoThe causes of the
mania, and moral insanity, but good in acute dementia.
The age most favourable to recovery. The
disease influencing the prognosis.
Evil effects of injudicious
proportion of recoveries, relapses, and deaths.
Page 417 421
interference
CHAPTER
VII.
The
difficulties in the
the Lunacy Acts the
public horror of insanity, and the social prejudices regarding it.
The practice
The true principle to have in
of indiscriminate sequestration unjustifiable.
argument
in
favour
of
The
treatment
view
it.
of the insane in private
dwellings.
Condition of the Chancery patients.
The evils of monstrous
asylums. Necessity of early treatment. Moral treatment of insanity change
of residence, occupation, amusements, &c.
Medical treatment warm and
blood-letting
counter-irritants
cold baths
diet
stimulants the use of
opium ; digitalis hyoscyamu3, hydrocyanic acid and bromide of potassium
Concluding remarks upon the treatment of chronic insanity.
tonics.
;
Page 422442
PAET
I.
I.
,,
II.
,,
III.
,,
of Mind.
IV. Secondary
on Nervous
Sensorium
Hemispheres
Ideational Nervous Centres
Nervous Centres Intellectorium Commune.
;
Primary
,,
,,
,,
VI.
The Emotions.
VII. Volition.
VIII.
IX.
THE
PHYSIOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY
OF THE MIND.
CHAPTER
I.
Und
rings
umher
FaxiM.
THE
right
ever been to
tainty.
man
feels
himself so
little
that he falls
various powers.
trembling
ruins
and
feet,
and
The
down
indifferently
life
;
the furious
and famine or
stalks
down
sufferings
pitiate the
he
deifies the
altars to pro-
sacrifices
of that
most dear to him, even his own flesh and blood, hopes
to mitigate the fury of Phoebus Apollo and to stay the dreadful
clang of his silver bow. Everything appears supernatural because
which
is
ON THE METHOD OF
[chap.
it
Through familiarity, however, consternation after a while suband the spirit of inquiry follows upon that of reverence
the prostrate being rises from his knees to examine into the
sides,
Experience, sooner or
causes of events.
to pass
later, reveals
the unifor-
he learns more or
vation avoid
that he
much
can,
of the
by attending
to their laws,
he has a
much
Now
less of
by
obser-
suffered
that
man
profit
begins
and he
whom
he had hitherto believed as the sacred prowhom his fears had fashioned. When his
gods
pitiators of the
as a pure philosopher
man
apxv common to him and the rest of nature. This slow and
method was soon, however, abandoned for the easier and
cpiicker method of deduction from consciousness
abstractions
were made from the concrete by the active mind; and the abstracthe
tedious
tions,
name
realities,
were looked
Anaximander,
it
outwards, was
l]
things
it
to
3
be the true origin of
further into
still
Thus
it
was
of things.
by
own
own
thoughts
such motives as he
felt to
influence
As
the child
its
human
development.
must plainly be fruitless of real knowledge there could be no general agreement among men when
each one looked into his own mind, and, arbitrarily making what
But
it
was a
state that
own
consciousness.
words when words have not definite meanings and the unavoidable issue must be Sophistry and Pyrrhonism the history of the
human mind does, indeed, show that systems of scepticism have
;
empty
and wild
ideas
those barren
to be the
fancies,
motion
of offspring.
Fruitful of
its
down from
it
and applied
ON THE METHOD OF
4
it to
the conduct of
site
as
human
life
[chap.
vagueness of the
common
expressions of the
of
human
phenomena
and
objectively,
as
it is
As
is
it
with
life,
so
is
life
is it
:
in
a continuous differen-
tiation, first of
synonymes
and superfluous words are taken up by new developments and combinations of thought.
How, then, was it possible that a one-sided
method, which entirely ignored the examination of nature, should
do more than repeat the same things over and over again in
again disappear, each getting
its
special appropriation,
words which, though they might be different, were yet not less
The results have answered to the absurdity of the
?
method for, after being in fashion for more than two thousand
indefinite
;
asserted once
a question
is
still,
been established by
it
what was
fed."
still,
is
is
( )
Perhaps,
south,
lence,
they were brought face to face with nature in the rugged north,
and were driven to force by persevering labour the means of
subsistence from her sterile bosom, then there arose the necessity
striving, as
development
it
;
down
who
method of
systematized
I.]
richest abundance.
It
men
How
came
it to
pass that
organic nature, as
evident throughout
is
Had
it ?
larised this
which he did
Had
not, there
metaphysical
or subjective method,
of
to descend to
erroneous conceit not only affected his conception of his relation to the rest of nature, but permeated his social nature, and
of the
sical
so
much
ON THE METHOD OF
[chap.
Can we wonder,
erroneous method was triumphant in Greece in the fourth century before Christ,
when
it
is
The
is
still
most precious
evil of the
trearelic
metaphysical
error.
The adoption
is
which makes
man
the
mind
it
is
and the
result is a victory
by obedience, an individual
who
is
knowledge,
is
less
The mental
who
is
have uniformly corresponded with the invention of some instrument by which the power of the senses has been increased, or
their range of action extended.
Astronomy
is
;
the revelations of
constitution
of
and the
intellect
knowledge entered;
I.]
and complication
thereof.
of this relation
we
and art.
Thus much concerning the historical evolution of the inductive method.
But now comes the most important question,
whether it is available for the study of the whole of nature.
Can we apply the true inductive and objective method to the
or science
it is still
a question what
In the
but in the
method should
by simple
phenomena; the
defect of
individual
If
we
call to
and vague
ill-defined terms
It
and
fail to
its
by
processes
of
for
mental phenomena.
it
method that method of interrogating self-consciousness which has found so much favour at all
times.
Before making any such admission, let this reflection be
weighed
that the instinctive nisus of mankind commonly
precedes the recognition of systematic method
that men,
without knowing why, do follow a course which there exist very
good reasons for. ISTay more the practical instincts of mankind
often work beneficially in an actual contradiction to their professed doctrines.
When in the middle ages faith was put in the
philosophy of the schools, the interrogation of nature by experiment was going on in many places and the superstitious people
recourse to the psychological
ON THE METHOD OF
[chap.
still
One
no
is
that
is,
is
profit in it
it
is
it is
who
the
is
ambitious youth
of these
held,
or
if
who
life is
by
are engaged
maintained, but
by any
others,
by the
physical dabblers
who
life.
second
fact,
man
first
As
the business
in the world
is
action of
I.J
life as
human
It
life,
is,
in fact,
it
No
The
request.
more
its
instincts of
mankind
On
him
man
as
an
as a certain constant
abstract
quantity,
and thereupon confidently enunciates empty propoThe consequence is, that metaphysics has never made
sitions.
any advance, but has only appeared in new garb nor can it in
some great addition is made to the inborn
power of the human mind. It surely argues no little conceit in
any one to believe that what Plato and Descartes have not done,
;
same method,
and elegance of
will do.*
and unsurpassable
making
its
may
well,
mind than
his
quate representative of
tells, to
to a people
is
" " It would be an unsound fancy and self-contradictory, to expect that things
which have never yet been done can be done, except by means which have never
yet been tried." Nov. Org. Aphorism vi.
t " There still lives, and it is a singular fact, au old parrot in Maypurcs which
cannot be understood, because, as the natives assert, it speaks the language of the
Atures " an extinct tribe of Indians, whose last refuge was the rocks of tlio
foaming cataract of the Orinoco.
Humboldt Views of Nature, I. p. 172.
ON THE METHOD OF
10
Fchai-
Its
sufficiently
following reasons
(a.)
It
may
then
Is the foundation
well be doubted
and
the
for
phenomena
to the succession of
who
in their
intro-
with success by those only who have learned the terms, and been
imbued with the theories, of the system of psychology supposed
to be thereby established.
(b.)
There
is
culti-
vation and capacity will, with the utmost sincerity and confi-
down
dence, lay
it
It is not
might be in a
To
particular state of
cut
it off
from
mind
As
be observed.
is to isolate
its relations,
its
;
own
to observe.
objection
validity
if
action,
and yet
it is
it is
the pause
is
is
to
a question
is
still,
and
only fixed
2
( )
fed.
(d.)
mind
and
unnatural.
it
of activity
is
sciousness.
sition of
J.]
distinctly conceive,
and
was true
if
there
is
it is
W. Hamilton
of which, Sir
On what
it
happens that
advance
made;
is
or
to
be the true
It is not
it
that
of a large
it
but
it is
it is
it
activity
its light
then
Its evidence
ditions
which
because
its
it
testimony
up
invoked.
is
is
1.
being
it
is
of
little
value,
May we
It is the
self-
that
but
fix,
consciousness
building
is
nowise helps us to
it
fundamental
maxim
gation of self-consciousness
a method which
is
fulfil this
applicable only to
How
mind
at a
It is
high degree of
development, so that
instances
securest information.
In this
it
stars, fell
for
if,
as
ON THE METHOD OF
12
says, "
Bacon
Tchap.
stars
in the water, but looking aloft he could not see the water in the
stars."( 3 )
Where has
of psychology
development
is
commonly
many important
lected,
may
be
said,
and
it
has been
Certainly
the
phenomena
and misinterpreted, and
many
of the mental
phenomena
which
of the
child,
the mental
mind
is
as necessary to a true
development confessedly
is to
an
life.
Certainly
it
may be
said,
But
it
is
I.]
nomena
are
that
health
that
no
it
13
that
it is
not inductive
it
In reality
namely,
for they
cannot be made
science.
The laws of
now indeed
it is
element
there
is
may
is
notably
then have
sway
may
and that
feeling
is
ing
and
characters,
ON THE METHOD OF
14
for the treatment of
As
mind."( 4 )
[chap.
psychology
is
is
positively contradicts
As
is
of
theoretical system.
When
the theologist,
who
suous, has said all that he has to say from his point of view
principles
which the
in turn exhaustively
must be
to the physician,
who
through his ground only can the theologist and jurist pass
from him
generation
for it is not
light of
know-
how furiously
new truth. Hap-
advent of
man
lies
the salvation
of truth.
3.
mind
There
is
or brain,
As
the various
organs of the body select from the blood the material suitable to
their nourishment, and assimilate it, so the organ of the mind
it
manner may he consciously arrange the cirwhich he will live, but cannot then prevent the
organism, in like
cumstances in
I. J
Not only
movement
[5
slight habits of
who
so that
is
not at
and
feeling
changed.
many
priations
of.
the day.
of the servant-girl
the
way in which
and
it
of
life,
mind
of
certain that
much
is
unconsciously
It is a truth
that consciousness
first
its
mind.
moment
is
From
the
life.
it
and
to re-act thereto in
Thus
it is
is
being
mind
is
The preconscious
Germany have called it, and the unconscious action of the mind,
which is now established beyond all rational doubt, are assuredly
facts of
sciousness
is
ON THE METHOD OF
16
mind
or brain,
time.
described as a residuum, or
potential, or latent, or
-
[chap.
however, but
relic,
dormant idea
memory
all affections
and
it is
on the existence
Not only
depends.
definite ideas,
them
leave behind
their residua,
which were first consciously performed by dint of great applicaideas, which were at first
tion, become by repetition automatic
;
any consciousness,
man of large
of the
them
leave behind
as
we
up without
worldly experience
and
feelings,
once active,
feeling, are
generated as the
Consciousness
is
not able
school feelings
of his life
seems to
flash in
one
is
moment
consciousness.
It has
synonymous
Descartes
on that
dream in sleep, because the mind, being spiritual, cannot cease
for non-activity would be non-existence.
to act
Such opinions
resting
how
only illustrate
always
of the
mind
YJ
each
moment
Mental power
is
may
mind being
ministers to
its
manifestations,
it is
plain that
if
we
ever are to
idea calls another into activity, and has no control whatever over
active
into the
memory.
name
In composition the
writer's consciousness is
engaged chiefly with his pen and with the sentences which he is
forming, while the results of the mind's unconscious working
flow, as it were,
are
by
its
Not only
is
consciousness.
by an
way under
in
by which general
two perceptions
differ is neglected, it
is
appropriated,
would seem
to be
first
impression, have an
the cell
ON THE METHOD OF
18
[chav.
and so ministering takes to itself that which is suitwhich it can assimilate, or make of the same kind with
while it rejects for appropriation by other cells that which
so modified
able and
itself,
is
Now
takes place, like the organic action of other elements of the body,
quite out of the reach of consciousness
we
is
is
an unconscious elaboration of
the result.
how
sort of nutri-
mind
When the
in the making.'
stituted one,
individual brain
like intuitions
of a
dream
is
a well con-
sometimes appear
oi'ttinies are, to
them. -rHence
it
life
present will.
But the process of unconscious mental elaboration is suffiIn dreams some can
compose vigorously and fluently, or speak most eloquently, who
can do nothing of the sort when awake schoolboys know how
much a night's rest improves their knowledge of a lesson which
they have been learning before going to bed great writers or
great artists, as is well known, have been truly astonished at
their own creations, and cannot conceive how they contrived to
produce them
and to the unconscious action of the mind is
owing, most probably, that occasional sudden consciousness, which
ing,
mind
i.l
fortune
unconscious
19
commonly
is
the most
of creative activity
concerned,
being
that
must be
it
dictated
so
to.
as consciousness
so far
is,
If
we
reflect,
we
shall
is
see
come
forth,
is
"The
necessary.
unknown
to the
Jean Paul, speaking of the poet's work, " must appear living before
you, and you must hear it, not merely see it it must, as takes
place in dreams, dictate to you, not you to it
and so much so
that in the quiet hour before you might perhaps be able to foreA poet who must reflect whether
tell the what but not the hoiv.
iu a given case he shall make a character say yes or no
to the
devil with him he is only a stupid corpse."*
If an inherited excellence of brain has conferred upon the individual great inborn capacity, it is well but if he has not such
heritage, then no amount of conscious effort will completely make
up for the defect. As in the germ of the higher animal there is
the potentiality of many kinds of tissue, while in the germ of the
lower animal there is only the potentiality of a few kinds of
;
tissue
so in the
man
there
is
man
of low mental
endowment there
is
But
ment.
it is
much
in productive activity
is
man
of genius
is
whosoever expends
in
by appropriation;
To
believe that
any
one,
how
great soever his natural genius, can pour forth with spontaneous
ease the results of great productive activity, without correspondis no less absurd than it would be to
grow into the mighty monarch of the
and light, and without the kindly influence of
the
without air
eoil.
* jEsthetik.
[chap.
ON THE METHOD OF
20
It
has been previously said that mental action does not necesimply consciousness, and again, that mental existence does
sarily
mental science
it
which
As
it
receives uncon-
unconscious cerebral
moment
when
life
of inspiration
the poet
is
must
mind.
but
after great
pains,
more favourable
is
fruitless
disposition of
most marked
it
depression,
sion.
which ultimately condenses into some definite deluits influence is no less manifest
for he who
In dreams,
;;
I.]
21
he
thwarted, he
is
sentence of death
he
is afflicted,
;
is
in
is
the cause
at school again, or
his
under
personality
is
'
woman
by a beautiful
which gently raised her eyelids and looked silently at her,
but which disappeared for ever after delivery.* Whatever then
a pregnant
child,
may be
life, it
must be admitted
that he therein
is
it
activity,
expressing the
phenomena
it
in
organ
1.
what
as
it
an organ.
Let ns
are.
The brain
a relation with
()
and
(b)
a rela-
tion with the other organs of the body, through the nervous
tion afterwards.
immer
verschwindet. "
ON THE METHOD OF
22
2.
call
a vegetative
it,
[chap.
In this
life.
true organic
its
we might
so
there
life
is
by the
cell,
which the
activity of
nutritive attraction
active idea.
it
may
is
obtrude
conscious-
as the function of
is
of
so the
life
of the brain,
but
it is
displayed in the
life.
by reason
Thus
it is
that
would
control.
fail
to arouse,
Whosoever
will cannot
repress nor
own
consciousness,
they come
( ).
this
life
i.]
23
healthy thought.
to
ness.
and superstition
error
its
theology
is
confessedly
now
human
best sup-
ported by those
God
its
its
On
own consciousness
is
who should go
A reflection
opinion.
Whoever
it
nowise so
is
word might imply. Metaphysicians, faithful to the vagueness of their ideas, and definite only in individual assumption,
are by no means agreed in the meaning which they attach to it
and it sometimes happens that the same metaphysician uses the
word in two or three different senses in different parts of his
book
it is at one time synonymous with mind, at another
time with knowledge, and at another time it is used to express
the
upon which
must be allowed
What
to
consciousness
little
is
closely
ON THE METHOD OF
24
[chap
ing from the particular phenomenon and of taking full and fair
observation of
it,
Consciousness
is
it
and
may be
it
may
is
it is
consciousness
it is
is
What
then,
else,
share
whose character
although
for
it testifies
when
must needs
morbid
of his
it
witness
is
In so
mental activity
but
exist in differ-
absent altogether.
also.
own
delusion,
is
affected
by the
taint
and
and
insists that
its reality
as
and he
is
right
A man may
to
act,
he cuts himself
from
and on
off
it,
by a pretended
It is as if
for it
it
it
we should be
content to rely entirely on its evidence in the complex phenomena of our highest mental activity ? The truth is,
that what has very often happened before has happened here
:
office of
I.
passing judgment
;;
i]
25
upon its nature. Descartes was in this case the clever architect
and his success has fully justified his art while the metaphysical stage of human development lasts, his work will doubtless
:
endure.
to
is
it is
self-
worthless
sufficiently established.
for
when
not strained
'
of his
own
consciousness
for
of
for
referring to savages
most
was the result of the employment of the inductive or rather objective method.* Nay
more if any one will be at the pains to examine into the history
of the development of psychology up to its present stage, he may
lasting addition to knowledge, really
though
it
history of psychology
its
as a systematic method.
The past
it is
no
studied objectively.
ON THE METHOD OF
2(i
less
its
[chap.
present
proves the
state,
still sufficiently
Let
it not,
moreover, be
it
advanced to
be based upon
forgotten, as
it is
its
so apt
Above
all
things
it is
now
ception of
those
up
is
self-
its
out with his pernicious breath the all-inspiring light of the sun
as to extinguish
No
its
many
years to
can at present do
is to
all
come
that
false psychology.
De Augmentis
Seicntiarum, B.
iv.
I.]
27
the absurdity of these opinions," said Bacon, " that has driven
men
is
that
to the diurnal
most false."*
mind
is
the
What
last,
I am
vjhich,
convinced,
is,
mind
are really
no grounds
present
sciences
is
necessary
for
and, as
is
well known,
it
at
only lately
is
physics,
sciences, after
more than
have attained to
fancies,
certain principles.
from the
fog,
keep
it
which should be in
this
But
let it
only one
(I.)
is
and instead of
That, therefore,
spirit.
The study
method
is
is
and the
as essential to a true
mental science as
knowledge
means we get at the deep and
true relations of phenomena, and are enabled to correct the
erroneous inferences of a superficial observation by examination
of the barbarian, for example, we eliminate the hypocrisy which
is the result of the social condition, and which is apt to mislead
the study of
its
development confessedly
By
is
to a full
that
The study
^^CixX^^-t
"
and
insanity, is indispensable as
it is
Dc Augmentis
Scientiarum, B.
iii.
ON THE METHOD OF
28
misinterpreted
by the
[chap.
Had
by the
false
by the professed inductive psychologists, truer generali-zations must perforce ere this have been formed,end fewer
ir responsibl e lunatics would have been executed as responignored
sible
criminals
subjective
Why
method do
those
reject
who put
so
much
faith
in
the
as exhibited in history,
human
is,
mind,
cannot be
which on a national
biography of
summed up in the
many disturbing
great man.
its
much with
may perhaps
laws of
human
Newton discovered
in vain
fall
May we
is
human
for
the investigation of
manifestations
of
is
furnished
by the mental
degenerate, or cultivated
1.1
man; but
it
is
29
man
explain
we
that
a strong inclination
men now
wrote of
To
this there is
It
simply to
ness
is
reflect
themselves
whereas every
state of conscious-
mind and
What Bacon
strove
"
fit)
is
b,
quam
ut rerum
not intelligible
This
not
meaning.
if
He had objected to all before him that some had wrongly regarded the sense as
the measure of things, while others, equally wrongly, " after having only a little
while turned their eyes upon things, and instances, and experience, then straight-
" I, on the contrary, withfrom them no further than may suffice to let the images and
rays of natural objects meet in a point, as they do in the sense of vision."
According to this interpretation, if there really is any meaning in it the images
and rays of objects express the same thing. Mr. Wood's translation, in Mr.
" We abstract our understanding no further from them
Montagu's edition, is
than is necessary to prevent the confusion of the images of things with their
radiation, a confusion similar to that we experience by our senses." This is worse
still
ut possint coirc means, certainly, that they may come together, not that
they may not mingle or may be prevented from mingling. After all, the 95th
aphorism furnishes the clearest and surest commentary on the passage " Those
edition of Bacon's works, translates the passage thus
my intellect
draw
ON THE METHOD OF
30
[chap
man, not
to
assert
to the universe
method
is
and
it is
a great
error, therefore, to
But hy
his
of effecting, as
between the subjective and objective, he hoped to have " established for ever a true and lawful marriage between the empirical
and the rational faculty, the unkind and ill-starred divorce and
separation of which has thrown into confusion
the
human
family."
is
in
the affairs of
all
by
its force.
A contemplation of the
as exhibited
earliest stages of
human
development,
man
mind
in the
to external nature
fundamental
ment.
In virtue of
who have
up
the
stores
impulse of
its
being
The empirics,
gathering her
field
I.]
31
knowledge of and
adaptation to external nature, until that which has been insensibly acquired through generations becomes an inborn addition
to the power of the mind, and that which was unconsciously
mankind
in our thoughts
undergoing her
growth, as
we
scientifically trace
it,
lies
meaning.
suffice to reveal to
latest
In reality we do not
fail
whose organic
it
might
So has
mind.
it
at
first
was an
there
human
race strug-
it
it
its
ego ;
becomes, as
is
fire
about the
size of a cheese,
is
not a
We
ON THE METHOD
32
get a just
and
Tchap.
OJT
works without
and unknown regions, and in thus aiding the conscious estabman and
The
nature*
who
man
of genius,
Far wiser
But
if
harmony
mind
is
necessary, if the
of subjective
mind
activity.
own
mind
of
is
when
it is
actually uttered.
In order to
life
and men,
may
is
be made
most
here,
power is acquired by intending the mind to external realities, by submitting the understanding to things.
as elsewhere,
different matter
its
own
said,
to
an
artificial
mind is produced, and a tortured selfan individual put to the torture, makes
of
state
consciousness,
like
of his inner
life,
or the sincere
and
man
of great natural ability and good training, are the highest truths
what Plato has written is of eternal interest ; but the con-
Deun wo Natur im
Faust.
I.]
33
tradictory
professed psychologists
are
which a tenacious
world.
as
with
long-suffering
like success.
it
may
be well distinctly to
is
little
speed:"
it
the
is
"
with
difference
between the b^^tterfiy which flies and feeds on honey and the
Men, ever eager
caterpillar which crawls and gorges on leaves.
to " pare the mountain to the plain," will not willingly confess
this
nevertheless
it
is
most
true.
Eules and
systems are
it
to gather together
what manner
of
man
who
it is
who
is to
itself into a
use them
and
question as to
who
has senses
and a soul
34
ON THE METHOD OF
[chap.
anything of inspiration in
made
it is
So
rarely,
accepting
them
men
when they do
much
as visits of angels, or
as Plato accepted
manner
their
of working.
come
genius
at
own
it is
It is not
self-consciousness that
its
It is
tious labour of each one, after the inductive method, in that little
that
a con-
starts forth.
work
how
is
he
reflects
when
the metamorphosis
is
is completed
supremely astonished at
THE STUDY OF MIND.
']
35
saddening,
because individually he is annihilated, and all the toil in which
he spent his strength is swallowed up in the product which,
;
now by
epigenesis ensues.
is
one, great or
blossom but at
little, fret
The genius
it is
himself, as indi-
birth of
When
he
is
is
a true
is
of originality, strains
Whosoever, in a
foolish
after
and perhaps obscure labours of others who have prewho are contemporaneous with him whosoever,
scattered
ceded him, or
less
an abortive monstrosity
as
is
we must
do,
intimate
nature,
we may
rightly
method of
thyself"
6
( )
NOTES,
l
once
(p. 4),
is
asserted
still,
is
asserted
a question
and
still,
fed."
ON THE METHOD OF
36
2
10).
(p.
The received
[chap.
psychology M. Comte
calls
an "illusory
by contemplating
effects."
Miss
it
in itself; that
is,
by separating
it
The
12).
(p.
stances
this
the
if
to
its
Ibid. p. 11.
absurdity."
3
results
it is
yet
"But
the truth'
is,
common
as is expressed,
he gazed upon the stars, fell into the water ; for if he had looked
down he might have seen the stars in the water, but, looking aloft, he
could not see the water in the stars."
i
(p. 14).
mind and
section of
cular
better
we may have
Be
mind."
Scient. B. vii.
22)."
(p.
a scientific and accurate disand the secret dispositions of partiand that from the knowledge thereof,
characters,
Augment.
It is to be regretted that
it
what has not been well denominated obscure perceptions or ideas that is,
acts and affections of mind, which, manifesting their existence in their
effects, are themselves out of consciousness or ap>perception.
The fact
of such latent modifications is now established beyond all rational
doubt and on the supposition of their reality, we are able to solve
various psychological phenomena otherwise inexplicable.
Anion"
;
these are
many
Sir W. Hamilton,
in
nicht bewusst
warum
sie
ist,
Denker.
108 and
Auswahl
p. 115.
Fichte, in his
man
sich
Bestimmung
des
Menschen
Leibnitz
G. Schellin".
P.
ihrer
l]
37
denken."
Sammtliche Werke,
ii.
178.
mental action
views
6
is
is to
A summary
(p. 35).
Since this
Psychological Method.
made
In his
criticism of
Comte
in the Westminster
of his
all
W.
Hamilton's
Physiological Method.
"System
of Logic,"
many
and he
years ago in
is
now
only
Mr. Mill cannot but experience regret to see him serving with so much
Physiology seems
zeal on what seems so desperately forlorn a hope.
never to have been a favourite study with Mr. Mill, for
it is
hardly
possible to conceive any one really acquainted with the present state of
this science, disparaging it as
psychological
method
of investigating mental
However,
so directly opposed to the method of positive science.
though one may suspect Mr. Mill to be entirely mistaken in his
estimate of the physiological method, one cannot fail to profit by the
study of his arguments on behalf of the- psychological method, and by
is
heen convincing,
may
refer
of Sir
for
W.
January 1866.
and why
CHAPTEE
II.
rpHE
-L
ridicule to those
who have
not received
it is
it
the facts one may rightly admit the brain to be the principal
organ of the mind, without accepting the fallacious comparison
;
fusion
is
bred by the
common
Here
as elsewhere, con-
"
secretion " to
express not only the functional process but the secreted product,
In the
first
natural force,
we mean by mind.
mind, viewed in its scientific sense as a
cannot be observed and handled and dealt with
place,
as a palpable object
* "
du Physique
ct
qu'il fait
du Moral
de
I'
any other
Homme, par
P. J. G. Cabanis.
chap.
ii.J
it
is
now be found
to
39
its
Few
manifestation.
will
that
is
functional activity
muscle
idea, as in the
in the performance of an
is
a retrograde
is at
the cost of the highly-organized matter, which undergoes degeneration or passes from a higher to a lower grade of being
and
is at
nearly the same. While the contents of nerves, again, are neutral
state,
regard to muscle.
the same
is
exercise are
while
it
rial
plain that the tangible results of the brain's activity, the waste
matters which pass into the blood for ultimate excretion from
the body, might not less rightly be called the secretion of the
THE MIND
40
really a general
It is
[chap.
phenomena:
phenomena and appro-
by such observation
priate abstraction
lization,
from them we
An
as
an ultimate genera-
The steam-engine
construction and mode of
mean.
very
get,
of mind.
idea,
of the particular
who know
action of
but
little,
what we
is
it
we
conceive
it, is
different
By
of the
observation
it
essential
which, as our
its very nature as such, conColeridge would have said, " the inmost principles of
possibility as a steam-engine."
we
by observation
out of the
of
them and
more existence
mind
to
make
human
at the
sophy, this general conception has been converted into an objective entity,
and allowed
to tyrannize
mind and of
most certainly dependent for its every manifestation on the brain and nervous system
and now that scientific research is daily disclosing more clearly
the relations between it and its organ, it is plainly most desirable
that there
to
is
common
it
is
II.]
SYSTEM.
41
liver,
common with
born equal,
it is
of animal
life,
them,
its
it
its
ever ministers
for while,
man
as the organ
Though the
tion.
it
brain, then,
is
organ
special
is
which
is
life,
and, as
is
How
any com-
parison between
Nevertheless,
it
it
brain, are
the walls of the intestines, or the structure of the heart, are centres
and we may
which are not
observation and experiment, have a like
simdarly amenable to
function.
self-
themselves
nerve
a correlative
cell thus
becoming, so long as
its
equilibrium
is
preserved,
The
THE MIND
42
[chap.
it is
mind
statical
is tlie
con-
the manifestation
The nerve
or,
more
So
the brain,
cell of
statical thought,
it
might in
far
fact
be
said, represents
now
cell,
cell.
is
the function of
is
we
If
mode
of
appearance,
existence in
its
we
it is
them allows
of
if
trace
physiology
if
we
a centre of mental
force.
seem
to produce
little
life
exist.
The
would
relations of its
amount
to the sensible
when
the fibrine
foreign
substance.
creature
is
is
of
Graham
into
n.]
43
we must
of energy
is
of
its
unknown
With the
inert
its larger
of organization,
by a
nerve-cell
as
simple conductors, and might be roughly compared to the conducting wires of a telegraph, while the
which nerve
force is generated,
graphic apparatus
in
it
may
cell,
be compared to the
tele-
efferent nerve,
monad
motion, as by an infection, from particle to particle in the hete* Philosophical Transactions, 1862.
THE MIND
44
[chap.
is
and
made
and
different organs.
it
it is
manifest in
its
by the extent
first,
To
highest.
of
its
life
in all
its
almost instantly
With
any
felt at
forms, but
most
made
at
by
its
one part
distance.
which marks
in other words,
scale of animal
life,
there
The
fibres
tors,
central
of impression that
thereto.
is
is
perceived,
Accordingly,
we
is
It is not
known with
certainty
when
the
ii.]
SYSTEM.
45
first
make
very rudimentary
their first
but
it
is
certain that special structures, adapted to the reception of particular impressions, as of light, of sound, of touch, render the
Not
till
we
singular Amphioxus, do
we
of_
nerves
so
far there is
now
a dis-
by
manent in
so
many
artificial state of
things which
in a higher animal
is
may
by depriving
of function manifest
is
it
strictly
life
be produced experimentally
of
its
hemispheres.
The kind
When
replace
it.
on an impression communicated to their organs of touch or simple sensatell, for instance, the approach of a carriage in the street
without seeing it before it was taken notice of by persons who had the use of nil
On the Intellectual Powers. Kruse, who was completely denf,
their senses."
nevertheless had a bodily feeling of music and different instruments affected
him differently. Musfcal tones seemed to his perception to have much a nalogy
with colours. The sound of a trumpet was yellow to him that of a drum, red
Early History of Mankind, by J. B. Tylor,
&c.
that of the organ, green
In his Reminiscences of the Opera, Mr. Lumley tells of a friend who used to
rently,
tion.
They could
distinscarlet
A***"
Q^/,^
THE MIND
46
[chap.
when
suspended.
Here
let
us
make
a reflection
how
important
it is
clearly to
What
are confounded
loose
way
of using the
The
sensible of a stimulus
no nervous
word
to suffer, to
speak of
to
man
be sensible of pain
while
be
it is
may be and, if
common enough
;
term
sensibility
tissue, is said to
made
example,
by the
If
we use the
generic
is
it
special differences;
is
we have taken
is
the
So far
form of reaction, or
called sensorial.
It is in fishes that the rudiments of cerebral hemispheres first
appear.
by
in the
we ascend
to cover
in the scale of
of
lives
Tho Perenni-branchiate
;
life,
the higher
it is
all their
ii.]
SYSTEM.
47
them.
may
brain
all
the vertebrata,
As
the
secondary, be
it
primary in dignity we
may rightly conclude their function to be secondary to that which
the primary constituents or sensory ganglia fulfil.
The impressions received by the sensory centres when they do not react
directly outwards, as they may do where hemispheres exist, and as
they must do where hemispheres do not exist, are in fact passed
onwards in the brain to the cells which are spread over the
hemispheres, and there further fashioned into what are called
Here then we come to another kind of senideas or conceptions.
sibility, with its appropriate reaction, to which a special nervous
centre ministers and it is known as perception, or, more strictly,
As the hemispheres have this function,
ideational perception.
and are not necessary to sensory perception, it is tpiite in accordance with what might be predicted, that, as experiments prove,
they are insensible to pain, and do not give rise to any display
of that kind of feeling when they are injured.* They have,
noted, in the order of development, but
them
so
own to
may
that these
skin
greater
animal a hen, for example which makes violent movements while the
heing cut and the roof of its skull removed, remains quite quiet while its
An
is
much
t Emotion
is strictly,
hit.
THE MlND
48
[chap.
may be
and those who teach them know how much different birds
Nor are simple emotional
differ in intelligence and temper.
evident at times is the
them
very
amongst
wanting
exhibitions
there are undoubted
and
in
canaries,
feeling of rivalry or jealousy
has owed its life to
bird
instances on record in which an orphan
the kindly care of birds of a different species* In Mammalia a
lous,
up
manifestations
may
wisdom which
Consider
intelligence.!
how
human
movement,
strong impulse to do
is
moral
displayed
feeling,
animals.
if
climb a
tree, like
But the
fox, like so
scheming
efforts
how
limited
the cat,
is
of thought,
It
lead us to predicate,
gence
Ar arious
many men,
it is,
to
it.
plotters, it
which a
little
unnecess ary.
Mammals
that
ii.]
in different animals
SYSTEM.
49
and
cat,
and the
But the
dog.
must be taken
The volume of a body such
which increases in
and the
as the brain,
Now
size,
body
of the
head to
its
same
relation to the
It follows,
then,
that,
the
and
that,
fashioned, then
Gratiolet has
two hemispheres,
"
such as
is
lower animals.
development
white
who
is
" it
men
arrived at
truth,
idiotic
in the
it
THE MIND
50
[chap.
than, those
Among Europeans
alike, the size of
it is
found
that, other
circumstances being
Thurnam prove
Europeans
is
that,
49
oz.,
that of distinguished
is
men
is
54'G
oz.t.
On
in idiots
the parts being not only smaller, but less complex, and the convolutions in particular being simpler and less developed.
Mr.
Man's Place
On
Mental
in Nature.
Human
Brain,
Professor
by John Thurnam,
Wagner has
M.D.Journal
carefully figured
of
and described
the brains of five very distinguished men.
The extremely complex arrangement
of the convolutions was most remarkable. The Convolutions
of the Human
Cerebrum, by W. Turner, M.B. 1866.
n.
51
In
fact,
there are
from
true that
development of the cerebral hemispheres and the degree of intelwhen we examine the different races of men, as we do
ligence,
')..-
embryonic development of
type.
It
man
it is
man
transitory conditions in
At
ment, again, no
and, as
distinguish the
it
proceeds to
its
its
develop-
human ovum
destined end,
it
That which
is
* "
more or
less structureless,
may be
body
The brain of the
is
all microscopic,
not very well defined membrane, containing a soft semione end, of which lies a delicate vesicle in
is
No
doubt
many
persons will be
struck with the close resemblance of the structure of this body to that which
possessed
You might
by the ovum.
is
and the
while the semi-fluid sarcodic contents might be regarded as the yelk, and the
outer
too
membrane
far,
but
membrane.
any rate interesting
as the vitelline
it is
at
resemblance between one of the lowest of animals, and that form in which
higher animals
commence
their existence."
all
the
THE MIND
52
human
week
[chap.
the largest.
quadrigemina
ventricle,
development proceeds, becomes covered, as do the corpora quadby the backward growth of the hemispheres in front of
rigemina,
it.
At
human
brain of the
fish,
week
About
a great resemblance
is
much
size,
manent
Mammalia.
in the Marsupial
early part of the fifth month, the middle lobes develop back-
and, subsequently,
backwards so as
the Archcncephala
but
it
has
as far
an
may
much
and
leave
it
very
back
as they
arrest of
do in man.
some of
It is easy to
development of the
human
brain
it is
idiots
As man
is
Thomas Browne has it, in the cosmothe different modes of nervous action are
graphy of himself,
all
of
his
organism.
The
so-called
"]
irritability of tissue,
SYSTEM.
53
whereby
help of nerve,
may
muscle, or within
it,
when
all
it is
not dis-
nervous influence
sufficient to
cells
the heart's
the tissues
it
of the
structure
are in
him
and, conformably to
its
still
greater specialization
of
is
summed up
* It has recently been maintained by Bilharz and KUhne, that the nerves pass
by continuity into the muscular substance, as in the electric organs of the fishes
found also that the nerves to the glands penetrate the walls of the
in the nuclei. Pfliiger,
Pfliiger
cells,
has
and end
THE MIND
54
man we
[chap.
sort of analysis of it
for in
centres
1
tuted
2.
action, constituted
4.
centres, as
system.
Each
above
it,
but
is at
its
immediately
supreme
centre.
its
own without
The organization
is
is
the inter-
such that a
The ganglionic
cell of
separate ele-
witnessed a further
centres are similarly
is
Theory
AND THE NERVOUS
ii.]
SYSTEM.
55
it
Were
is.*
not well
it
if
man
in his social
life
could
nerve
rest
On
Anatomical Evidence.
its
researches,
connexion with a
cell,
and
till
no
lately
such connexion had been distinctly seen but it has now been
observed in many instances, and all competent investigators
;
believe that neither in the brain nor in the spinal cord does
This
is
cell at all,
such, if supposed to be
its
than an observed
fact
it is
less certainty
travel round the world in order to feel sure that the heavens are
everywhere above
it.
fibre
with the
cell,
are
it
between an
infinite
multitude of
shape
goes on to say
und
Geschopf
ist
dem Ganzen.
Je volkommener des Geschopf wild, desto unahnlicher werden die Theile einander.
Je iihnlicher die Theile einander sind, desLo wenigcr sind sie einander subordinirt.
THE MIND
56
[chap.
mind
is
Bear
thickly
But
if
the
cells,
,\ b
th to -g^th of an inch.
so small
and apparently so
like,
have such
must be
likely
such
Most
differences in their structure or composition.
differences there are, though we have not yet means subtle
enough to detect them. Mr. Clarke has, however, found some
different functions, it is
more
peculiar
cells
end of the
process,
Those
only marked
straight
lost in the
cell
off four
tapering into a
surrounding network.
between them
pedunculated
organ pipes
cells,
is
a regular series of
As
the result of
an industrious
lifetime, he
wherever there are differences of function,
there differences of structure and composition and connexion
do exist
Die
1863.
und Therapie der Geisteskrankheiten auf AnatomischGnmdlage. Von J. L. C. Schroeder van der Kolk, 1863.
Pathologie
Physiologischer
xii.
it.]
SYSTEM.
57
application, or until
of pene-
who may be
d ispose d to think
might
it
Those
with advantage on the various undetectable conwhich may confessedly exist in the minutest organic
reflect
ditions
matter
more wonderful
still,
bility of sense to so
the marvellous
minute agents.
human
discriminating suscepti-
we
are
no more entitled
to speak
ignorance
that a thing
is
impossible because
it
appears to be
inconceivable.
(6)
differ-
more properly
may
Let
it
suffice here to
be destroyed by injury to
its eyes.
ment
Physiological Evidence.
of develop-
cells.
differences
in the
made manifest by
this
THE MIND
58
cnAP
the
effect
flashes of light
spectrum of
remains, which, as
it
it
sun a
may
be
the
evident
in fact,
may
senses
conveyed to them.
capable of affecting
electric stimulus
bral hemispheres.
sion of
n.]
acquires
reacts
it
59
SYSTEM.
were,
new
their
artificial senses, so
and complex
special
relations therewith.
If cortical
more
cells
of
it
is
it is
contrary to
also
the
all
an unintelligible
which
(d)
detail
are
Pathological Evidence.
at
a later
period.
This
Let
it
here to
say,
that
and
when
that,
intellec-
more firmly connected with the pia mater, or softened in melancholia, on the other hand, where the feelings chiefly are excited
;
memory
fails,
In old
age,
when
the
atrophied.
The very many and various disorders to
which the memory is liable, failures of every possible degree and
character, which can only be described by being given in detail,
surely indicate in no uncertain way the different nature of difvisibly
Thus much,
then,
by way
easily be discredited.
What
is
which
will not
If the psychologists
when
THE MIND
GO
[chap.
wondrous
entity, the
self-suffi-
most needful,
It is
often-made
error,
if
we would
once for
all to
c-f
nature.
its
corresponding force or
of living matter
to rest content
trace,
with attentive
So only shall
we
the relations of
The
ii.]
SYSTEM.
61
force,
chemical force
sents a
number
below
in dignity.
it
If
and a greater
constitution,
we suppose
its
matter, with
ceded
it
it is
is
most dependent
really the
so dependent, that
it
in
man
it is
its
evolution.
As
the
"What
is
is
manifest on survey-
first
dialogue
man
arrive at
In the
series of
that Nature
Every
poet,
a hitherto
place,
unobserved relation
aiding
the
in
nature,
onward progress;
in
is,
his
each
art
in
nature
his
is
* For the further development of this view of life, I may refer to an article
on the " Theory of Vitality," in the British and Foreign Mcd.-Cltir. Review,
October, 1863.
02
undergoing
in
evolution;
is,
more
[chap, il
or
regenerate.
Him
to
return,
Such to
refined,
more
spirituous,
and pure
More
airy, last
flowers
and their
Reason
receives,
and reason
Discursive or intuitive
is
fruit,
scale sublimed,
sense,
the soul
her being,
discourse
most
is
ours,
Paradise Lost, E. v.
less,
CHAPTER
III.
OMITTING
for
the present
very
little
is
because something
Passions
we go
cord.
definitely
large
'will
first,
and,
because
secondly,
treating of the
human
part of
activity
without any voluntary control, or even without any consciousness on the part of the individual
is
may be
When
of
human
more
illustrated both
phenomena
still
life.
it is
mother's
womb,
or the
A decapitated
frog, to
certain
movements
if
for the
of copulation, be cut
its
paw
off,
be further cut
is
is
the animal
off,
makes
and
still
if
64
reflex
movements, but
designed actions.
it is
Pfliiger
internal condyle
its
[chap.
OR,
he thereupon cut
unquiet, " as
at last it
or
it
though
either
it
were searching
made use
for
So
it
succeeded in wiping
much was
means
to
Pfliiger
it
impressed by
an end in a headless
animal, that he actually inferred that the spinal cord, like the
Others, who would
possessed of sensorial functions.
I brain, was
scarce admit the supposition to be true of man, have thought
that
it
man on
by
the lower animals, they applied to the lower animals their sub-
experiment
No
doubt there
is
still there,
As
continuance of an
irritation,
which
human organism
at first
its
the
III.]
reflex action,
may
or convulsions
ETC.
65
which has
now
gives
still
its brain.
In the
irritation deter-
mines the extent of the activity. But this takes place without
consciousness and all the design which there is in the movement is of the same kind as the design which there is in the
;
tree.
crystal cannot overstep the laws of its form, nor can a tree
up
into heaven
assume
then, to
and thus
that,
Are we,
manifest design.
strictly
and yet
grow
is
conscious-
Certainly not
to such
The design
of an act
is
nothing
exactly that
amount
of design
which
lie
brings with
him
the
faculty of seeing.
Much
fruitless
if
the real
The notion
that the soul works unconsciously in the building up of the
organism, which has at different times been so much iu fashion,
rests entirely upon the assumption that an intelligent principle
or agent must be immanent in organic matter which is goin<x
through certain definite changes. But if in the formation of an
organ, why not also in the formation of a chemical compound
with its definite properties ? The function is the necessary result
nature of design had been kept distinctly in mind.
of the
intestines,
which serve
66
"Where, then,
ever design
and
the design of their disastrous continuance ? Whatrecognise is really an idea that is gradually formed
in our
Any
is
we
of intolerable suffering
[chap.
OR,
mind
enter.
would then
It will
way
in
desire something
which we
living matter.
is
all.
in
is
it
is
to
in inorganic nature.
be so
in
What
and
is
is
is
much tempted
doctrine of final
Mindful of
this
maxim we
shall not
as
does
it
its
own
this, or
way
to superadd its
own
created
it,
proceeds straight-
has not yet been found to maintain that the final cause of the
moon is to act as a " tug " to the vessels on our tidal rivers ?
There can be no
in.]
ETC.
67
in
its
memory
it
displays,
from
it
unmodified after
its
of energy there
is
element
force has
been expended.
by the
some extent
realized or
residuum, or
as, so to
movement
the faculty of
it,
without consciousness
matic
acts, as
comes so
described
by
Hartley.( 3 )
may
even
abstraction
effort or
man
in a profound
is
going,
68
seized
him
[chap.
OR,
wound
his fingers
with the awl as he went on with his work during the attack,
and on one occasion walked into a pond of water during the
and a woman whom Schroeder
suspension of consciousness
;
van der Kolk knew, continued eating or drinking, or the occupation she was about, being quite unconscious on recovery of
what had happened. In fact, if we attend to our ordinary
actions during the day,
portion of
them
of
them
will be surprising
it
how
how
small a pro-
large a proportion
organism.
It is
cord
are, for
built
up by
human
in their forma-
adaptation to external
nature.
It is true that the capability of certain associated
voluntary
it
is
effect, or as
it is
very evident.
As
its
is
movements necessary
capable of
to crying,
man.
Not only
does the analogy of the lower animals favour the original exist-
is,
the
The Senses and the Intellect, 2d ed. It has long heen distinctly recognised
when a moderate stimulus excites several motor nerves,
these are physiologically connected
first, inasmuch as all the fibres going to a
*
movement
of the
muscle does not take place secondly, as the regular reflex activity implicates
such muscles as are functionally co-ordinated, the associated action of which
produces certain physiological effects e.g. coughing, sneezing.
;
in.]
movements.
associate
however, to attempt to
we must view
It
it
69
would be a
fix the,
ETC.
obviously rather
is
The
it is
it
is
Of
may
do so
movements of
claimed
all that is
is,
that
by
acquire
assimilation
of the influence
of the
is
individual's
plainly a most
useful, as
sion to
its
accomplishment,
it is
A man
that
no
might be
his exertions.
plished with
comparatively
little
weariness
in
this
regard
Schroeder van der Kolk, after saying that the production of harmonized
is due to the ultimate connexion of certain groups of ganglionic cells
"It has always been incomprehensible to me,
in the spinal cord, goes on to say
how any one could ever have referred it (coordination) to the cerebellum. If the
movement
centre of co-ordination
any
real scientific
against
it.
ii.
p. 6S.
70
[chap.
Oli,
approaching the organic movements, or the original reflex movethe conscious efforts of the will soon produce exhaus-
ments
tion.
spinal cord
without
incapable of culture
a degenerate
nervous
it
in reference to
surroundings that
its
shall act
it
The phenomena
to exhibit the true
life.
mode
well serve
of origin
It is here observably
design.
may
it
its
mani-
its
way
nature.
phenomena
of
life, is
but another
we
In the
faculties of so
we
many
animals
If
it
but which
been gradually
nervous centres
is itself
words of the
we can only
merely a statement in other
is
of Spinoza,
into "
it
in.]
ETC.
Jl
mammary
ill effects
instead of definite
due
tion
that
" a
is,
why
rhythmical nutri-
therefore,
to a
nerve-force." f
when
It is intelligible,
acting naturally
on nutrition
for the
the struc-
by the ordinary
activity of
some reason
is
centres
is,
and there
The unconscious
which the automatic action of the spinal centres
is performed, though in one way or another the work is continuous during waking, might seem at first sight to render no
cessation of action necessary but a little reflection shows that
here, as elsewhere, the expenditure of force must be balanced by
If no rest be allowed, the exhaustion
a corresponding supply.
or closely related to, the time-rate of nutrition.
quiet manner
in
evinced,
is
*
They
first,
much
words,
movements,
destiny in other
as the healthy
their
72
most
[chap.
OK,
delicate or
in
A reflection which occurs, in considering the organic mechanism by which the action and reaction between the individual and
nature take place,
is
is
In the
we account
first place,
for this
the central
is
that which
is
perceived, as
actual impression
effect
made upon
enough how
is
Is it not plain
it
it
and
not the
it is
the
cell or cells.
By
by a change of the
metrical display.
There
is
universe
process
it is
by a steady
and
its
it
Slowly and, as
it
of vitality, does
organic element
position in the
what manner of
were, laboriously,
many
gradations
complex and
quickly and easily does
arrive
at the
in.]
its
ETC.
73
upon
upon
made
its
education.
it,
slowly-
is
as
to
it
its
faculties.
to
to
relation
acquired;
these
skill
much
force
testify to the
up
expenditure of so
laid
as statical
of the
cord,
and we may
is
due to a gradually
innate or acquired.
The way
in
is
and the
to external nature
or,
which
to
appearance of nerve
it
be a development of them,
force,
or,
as in the
74
[chap.
OR,
life of
who
but a
is
link in the chain of organic beings connecting the past with the
the present indifuture, that we shall come at the full truth
;
vidual
the
is
inevitable
we
arrive at
us, then,
having
much
is
innate.
which pass
to or
was
in a condition to give
cells of its
grey substance
nervous
cell
an
and
isolated apolar
For
From
activity travels.
and thus, forming a conthem to act together hunyoked together by such anastomoses,
cells,
is
By
of different nervous
of
it
may
or
it
may
in.]
cells,
upon a system
ETC.
75
or,
lastly,
may
it
To
law of simultaneous
They
are
The
1.
When
When
and
2.
its
continuance or
its
reflex action.
movements on one
side,
side,
affected.
is
owing no doubt
spondmg
3:
The
upon the
upon the
the roots of both sorts of nerves are placed nearly upon the
same
a
little
nerve.
diation
motor nerve
lies
afferent
way
of irra-
downwards
to the
medulla oblongata
stimulation of
iris.
In the
When
it
But
if
the reflex
the medulla.
it
may
"6
5.
The
OR,
[chap.
produced by the
reflex action
lie
(a) It
(b)
As an
is
It
may have
a greater
may be
Or the
evil
may
be
less serious,
but there
is
an absence of
When,
therefore,
to this
its
ill
parent becoming
its
The degeneration
we have
development of
power.
its
Each
an unstable equilibrium of
its
organic
constitution.
and
in.]
much
like
an individual in a
of madness,
Not
own
its
social
account,
it is
very
is
only, however,
may an
by reason
77
outwards on
ETC.
cell,
but
it
may
be defective also
and want
of power
In congenital idiots the central cells of the
cord do plainly sometimes partake of the degeneracy of the
brain, and are idiotic also
they are incapable of receiving
impressions with any vividness, and of retaining the traces or
residua of such as they do receive.
Spasms of the limbs, sometimes limited to the toe, to one arm or leg, at other times more
of assimilation
general
make
as to
met with
all
In some
is
not so extreme,
it
cases, in
still
not impossible to
is
common work
of
life.
It
may
way
in
which those
idiots
and ease of
their
movements
who have by
the machine-
serves
to display
hemispheres
2.
is
almost excluded.
The functional
may
but must take in from one quarter what it gives out in another
and, if due time be not allowed for tbe development of its highly
vital structure by assimilation of matter of a lower quality, it is
78
[chap.
OR,
terioration
the
first
symptoms
is
loss, in
limbs,
may
and the
follow,
partial contractions
of certain muscles
of things
is
When
assimilate impressions
in
whom
which
failure
the
is
startings of the
lessly fancied,
condition
The
the
memory
decayed, there
is
hence
ganglionic
it is
such a morbid
is
necessarily a
to receive
cells
and
is also
of
may by
own
The supply
made
persevering training be
useful in
whom
of blood
it
are manifestly
The grey matter of the cord is very richly supplied with capilthe end that there may be a quick renewal of blood
ministering to the active interchange that goes on between the
ganglionic cell and the nutrient fluid the enormous expenditure
of force implied in nervous function demands such an abundance
laries, to
Schiff, the
nervous activity
is
presently paralysed,
When
and
rigor
is
in.]
as
in
into
arm
the stiffened
~[)
warm
blood
As
hility.
is
irrita-
paralysis of
it fitted
exhibited
is
irritability,
by
such deteriora-
and in a disposition
spasms or convulsions- an
is sometimes inherited.
to
The
state
of the blood
may
it
or
cells.
all
There
is
much
blood
may
paralysis.
or hyperaemia.
properly and
more
fully
by con-
However,
considered
be more
when we come
to
the
pathology of nerve.
4.
The existence
effect
upon a
It is necessary to distinguish
two kinds
THE SPINAL CORD ;
80
action
or,
[chap.
OR,
The
rise to
irritation of a
is
or to blindness
or deafness, all
The
irritation,
is liable to,
to the
derangement
may be supposed
to
mark
its constitution.
and
to our organic
a periodical function
When,
therefore, a
it
life,
exists,
if
cells, as
appears as
life
life,
Thus, in
is destroyed, and they discharge themSomething of the same kind takes place in the
down
in.]
ETC.
fcl
without harm
after
which the
susceptibility again
becomes so
life, is
deranged,
The
effect will
Nume-
nerve
some
irritation of a centripetal
ptyalism
is
rise to
someis
by
mucous membrane
of the vagina
and menstrua-
of
to
in the congestion of
due to displacement or
and in many other instances too numePfluger quotes from Dieffenbach a
rous to be mentioned.
striking case, which admirably illustrates the effects of an
eccentric irritation upon the spinal cord. A young girl fell upon
a wine-glass, and cut one hand with a piece of the broken glass
severe
neuralgia
the paraplegia
in
After removal of
82
[chap.
OR,
the glass, the neuralgia and epilepsy disappeared, and the girl
and
When
a nerve
is
some degree
ration is not
still
owing
takes place
takes place
much
when
less
the
nerve
it
is
brain in the lower animals increases the ease with which reflex
May we
is
exercised
from such
facts
upon
movements which
way
of the stimulus,
is
cut
off.
now
Such theory
is
in.]
ETC.
83
truly a diminution
is
Has
reflex acts
brain
that
to exert an inhibitory
is
lie
below
it,
just as
effective
man
by cutting
off
function of the
ration:
it is
democracy
without a head.
Such, then, are the disturbing causes which
may
affect the
and
we
reflect
as
an
When
No
however
action
strong,
when a
has,
It
in
that
is
well-organized
is
soon
felt
"When any
there
is
is
meaning of the
and utter
and
centres
disorder
of
the
spinal
accompany
which
lassitude
reaches the supreme authority.
That
is
the
of
84
muscles are the
signs of a
first
coming
rebellion.
riot
may
If the warnings
easily
become a
when
rebellion; for
[chap.
OB,
Not only
is
there
is
pro
and
finally
wakes up
to find his
nervous system
state,
way
of destruction.
So
is it
with the
so here there
lower dignity
and of
upon the well-being and contenthumbler workers in the spinal cord, which do so
The form of government
great a part of the daily work of life.
is that of a constitutional monarchy, in which every interest is
duly represented through adequate channels, and in which, conviduals are entirely dependent
ment
of the
sequently, there
is
I have lingered thus long upon the spinal cord, because most
of what has been said with regard to
its
distinct
and alone
mental science.*
*
by
mode
of
indeed the
is
it
is
an indispensable pre-requisite
of the higher
Any
displays
whereon
to
of nervous
to build a true
"
in.]
ETC.
85
nature herself protests against it with energetic eloquence when she makes, as she unquestionably sometimes does,
morbid action of the cells of the cerebral hemispheres vicarious
:
NOTES.
He
conscious.
rubhed
it
lad rubbed
it
with his
left
when Pfliiger
hand.
and the
it,
nostril,
the boy
first
made
left
hand.
by M.
I will only
now add
"Personne, en
Saisset.
encore ce dont le
l'experience ce que le corps peut faire et ce qu'il ne peut pas faire, par
les seules lois
de
determination."
la
" This
functions of the
"
;
" toutes
choses qui
for 1854,
cannot forbear quoting here the appropriate words of Mr. J. S. Mill. After
it is not likely that the direct employment of mathematics will be
available to any great extent in the achievements yet to be effected in scientific
I
saying that
generalization, he adds
itself
the
deductive investigation of
to disentangle the
phenomena
can be so explained, and putting in evidence the nature and limits of the irreducible residuum, so as to suggest fresh observations preparatory to recommencing
the same process with additional data this is common to all science, moral and
metaphysical included and the greater the difficulty, the more needful is it that
the inquirer should come prepared with an exact understanding of the requisites
of this mode of investigation, and a mental type of its perfect realization."
;
THE SPINAL CORD,
86
montrent assez que
corps
un
d' operations
un
associating link of
nervous
the
many movements
conformation of
lit.
objet d't5tonnement
du corps humain
humaine." The
[chap.
le
d'une foule
est capable
ETC.
centres
as, for
plainly
the -wisdom
example,
exists in the
or
design
is
rule, minister to
the further-
well-being.
its
(p. 66).
"And
therefore
it
was made by one who when they showed him hanging in a temple
who had paid their vows as having escaped shiphim say whether he did not now acknowledge
a picture of those
Ay,' asks he
'
again,
(p. 67).
and from
philosophy."
3
actions
'
'
falls
man
this source
Speaking of
"
final
xlviii.
which
are
set of associations,
mind
scarce regards, or
Hence
it
is
moment
of which the
as it were,
mind
scarce conscious,
is
without any
and
effort
i.e.
head of automatic
action.
them automatic motions of the secondary kind to distinguish them from those which are originally automatic, and from the
voluntary ones; and shall now give a few instances of this double
I shall call
transmutation of motions,
viz.
learn,
and
chord, &c.
especially the
"
The
automatic motions
way we
doctrine
of vibrations
of
in which children
,39.
Human
Mind, edited bj
CHAPTER
IV.
rpHE
*-
of motional reaction.
the floor of the lateral ventricles, they include the optic thalami,
the corpora
striata,
may
surely as
be destroyed by injury to
by
actual destruction of
duced by injury
its
Any
one of the
sensory ganglion as
its
organ; blindness
is
pro-
by destruction of the
olfactory bulbs.
out, the
to those
they are
many
In
of the
brain consists of
The ganglionic
commune
are formed
88
An
[chap.
OR,
All that
we
are certain of
cells, as
is,
may be most
in this
way
the
facial,
the
glossopharyngeal, the vagus, the spinal accessory, and the hypoglossal receive
communications from
it.
form and
size
We
we should d
them
appear.
priori expect,
it
excited.
is
Charged
with their proper force during the assimilating process of nutrition it exists in
them
is
is,
and
when a
certain
stimulus
there
is
may
commune, the
in
answer
to
sensation,
SENSORY GANGLIA,
it.]
just
ETC.
89
as
The ganglionic
spinal
of the
cells
and give
When
man
movements
lies
of their own.
is
unconscious.
When
man
lies
movements
with no paralysis
of his limbs, but with a perfectly sound spinal cord, the sudden
application of a hot iron to his foot or leg will give rise to a
movement
Had
sensori-motor.
is
lysed limbs, no
when
hemispheres
is
pendent reaction
station
on the
line
is
a centre of inde-
when
when
eyelids
to be found in the
the
conjunctiva
it is
is
in the dis-
in the
which take place when the nipple is put between the infant's
and in yawning on seeing some
in coughing and sneezing
lips
'
Innumerable
Mr. James Mill clearly recognised this class of movements.
adduced to prove that sensation is a cause of muscular
After instancing, as examples, sneezing, coughing, the contracaction," p. 258.
'
authorized, therefore,
by the
;
fullest evidence,
to
eyelids,
90
Illustrations of acquired
walk
[chap
OR,
movements of
to the
this class
music of a military
of which
we
sity of which,
them,
many
other of the
common
actions of
The
actively conscious.
instinctive
the instinctive life is extremely limited in man, but sensorimotor action plays a large part in such manifestations of it as
are witnessed
tion, like
movements
of mastica-
thing
may be
is not,
common
as the
sense
is
and
quality.
The sensation
through experience
of each
matured
is
is
a very
was restored by
is
nothing of wine
toto ccdo
man who
full
use
SEXSOKY GANGLIA,
iv.]
ETC.
91
word
it is
2
( )
All that
is
innate
is
receive
is
an acquired
by
virtue of
its
"Whether, as
some
form and
may
it
is
by
itself
certain that
But
not so in
it is
animals
the
little
down
life
experience
it
many
its
first.
is
It
is,
however, conformable
should be acquired by
man
and
instructive.
is
When
i3
thereby increased,
is,
scope furnishes.
92
marks
how much
interesting to observe
even he
is
\cuat.
OR,
most
Still it is
indebted to original
it is
And
man.
while
we
man,
it
definite
much
is
due
not long
and
not an inborn
movements
The idea
to
deration of the
phenomena
necessary to
its
life, is
and
The mind is not like a sheet of white paper which receives just
what is written upon it, nor like a mirror which simply reflects
more or less faithfully every object, but it implies a plastic
power ministering to a complex process of organization, in which
what is suitable to development is assimilated, what is unsuitable
is
rejected.
By
exists, latent or
acquire, as
we might
say,
and
as
we
happens, as
we
ideational centres.
is
appropriated by other
basis, of the faculty of
cells,
SENSORY GANGLIA,
iv.J
which
lated
is
ETC.
93
by another
kind.
cells,
is
assimi-
senses, then,
in other words, a
The process
illustrates the
of childhood in
man
is
catenation of sensations.
In animals
among
man
is,
is certainly
difficult to
in the taking of
consensual
where
there
secondarily automatic, as
is
others
are
acquired or
94
[chap.
OR,
of the individual
comparable to
lid
cells
ministering to
notion exactly in
compound
fail at
perhaps miserably to
kill
times to
make
it listeth ;*
to
accord-
terrible mistakes,
and
When the
in animals, as
acts abide
takes no notice
it flies
light,
if
on
laid
if
its
if
Schiff,
removed
the sensori-motor
in a sleep or dream,
it
gets
up
and
air,
it
will dress
" Whoever
will
expressions of bodies
and how well soever we know the contrary, speak of them as voluntary agents,
exercising powers of their own
thus it is said that the wind bloweth where it
listeth, and we say of water, that it will not mingle with oil, that it will force its
;
way, &c.
exercised
by man."
tho<<e
it.]
95
felt
one who has walked through a parrot house, and heard the
fear-
ful noise
is
made by
on an animal-like look.
in the mental nature of man at the
when
the
effected
which in
less degree is
common
into
functional
physiological effect
And
human development
96
stumble at the
stairs,
positions of objects.
but
But
some new
if
OR,
[chap.
movements
to the
piece of furniture be
placed in a part of the room where there was nothing before, the
it,
until,
by
familiarity
a corresponding movement.
when
the
It will
sometimes happen
when coming
way be
took.
we have
movement acquired by
more
any of
by education between
established
is
complex movements
social
is
sensual acts.
these
streets
that,
when
sound means
there
;
is
sufficiently easy to
what
is
Dr.
in
question in German, or to a
German
question in English.
With-
out doubt the child connected definite ideas with the words used
it
sound over the articulating movements the mechanical connexion established between sensation and movement. Language,
difficult as it is of acquisition,
reflex act,
and
so
many
ultimately gets
all
the ease of a
by some who,
talking
Consciousness
may be
is
conscious, semi-
particular habits
iv.]
How many
under
of the
this category,
SENSORY GANGLIA,
ETC.
common
man's everyday
actions of
97
life fall
meaning and
full
real hearing
From
distinctly realized.
new
entirely
order of ideas
is
viewed
commonly
as
a mental faculty, an
supervenes, and
it
appears
innate,
Then, again,
almost impossible to
it is
is
not
years of experience.
make
those
who
take the
which
is
certain movements,
automatic
whereby these
is
finally
become mechanical
accomplished, they
fail
or
not instantly
not necessary
to assign consciousness,
is
to repeat here
treating of the
spinal cord
it
contains, is the
merely organic
apparatus
and the
com-
fixed,
and then
as
with
it.
must continue
to struggle fruitlessly in
An
SECONDARY NERVOUS CENTRES;
98
OR,
[chap.
coming from the higher nervous centres, may act upon the
ganglionic secondary centres, and call forth those movements
which are commonly reflex to impressions from without. In
will,
such case
it is
movement
potentiality of the
brium, and, as
cells of
fibres,
but indirectly
it
it
is
in
it,
were,
equili-
movement
just as the
execute any
it
some kind
sensation of
we
new move-
gradually effected special adaptation of their reactions, are necessary antecedents, essential pre-requisites, to the due formation
and operation of
fact,
will.
represents, in
whether
this ascend
hemispheres.
with the
It is
some
difficulties,
when we come
'
will.
portionate
amount
movement which
much
it
to deal
as
what was
is
mas-
strictly applicable to
investigation
is
A special
here, as elseAvhere, to
adduce
And now
let
As
may
SENSORY GANGLIA,
iv.]
ETC.
99
Such fault
some nervous
of nature
commonly owing
is
to the existence of
centres to another.
Again, there
to
may
ganglia.
smell
is
ciently developed
and the
absent, or
from
it is
injuries.
filthiest
or the
most pungent
sometimes extensively
The
class
little
pain
have usually no
by
unrest,
Dulness of
idiotic
degeneration,
acquisition
sensibility
is
bite, as
sensibility,
is
when not
but,
100
is
is
persistency
appropriated
is
beyond a certain
is
the sensibility
if
may even be
point, there
[chap.
an impediment to assimilation,
commonly retained with great
OR,
is
intensified
is
It is of
place.
no small importance that these natural differences in the constitution of the ganglionic cells should be plainly recognized, for
they unquestionably are at the root of certain differences in
character and intellect.
2.
intervals of rest,
the matter
is
may
sense
power of reaction
here, as
be maintained.
to
must be
and
some time.
if
the paralysis
itself
it
sun remains
we have
may persist
for a
when an image
has disappeared, as
is
ceased to look at
it,
Such per-
when
while
of the
there
convey a
hallucination
is
otherwise caused.
3.
The
known, gives
known
that,
movements responsive
tions
may
take place.
to,
but
not so generally
it is
Nevertheless, they
may
as the sensory
is
may
they
co-ordinate
Of
violent,
SENSORY GANGLIA,
rv.]
we
ETC.
101
fits, and
which I take leave to describe as in great part a true sensorial
insanity.
The patient's senses are possessed with hallucinations,
fire,
horribly transformed
noise, or
is
are, like
stifling
destructive motion,
this matter.
sensory centres.
senses
disturbances,
;
many anomalous
proves
is
which disappear
women
sensations
is
the
and motor
A perverted
its
hallucinations.
we have
in the hallucinations
them
donna and
which markedly
and
which appears
In
action upon the sensorium commune.
aconite,
affect
the senses
fluid,
movement
air,
being
suffi-
102
4.
An
irritation operating
wound
undoubtedly the
reflex action is
Pressure upon or
sensorial disturbance.
cause of
occasional
by
[chap
OR,
paralysis of sensibility
a bad tooth
may
testified
by
effects
in his bedroom.
On
and
His father caught hold of him
and put him back into bed, where at once the boy became composed, but did not seem at all conscious of what he had done.
On getting out of bed he had felt something odd, he said, but he
his son in his shirt, violently agitated, talking incoherently,
was quite
well.
surgeon,
who was
sent
found him
for,
still
but on putting
and standing up, his countenance instantly
changed, the jaw became violently convulsed, and he was about
to rush forward, when he was seized, and pushed back on to the
bed.
At once he became calm again, said he had felt odd, but
was surprised when asked what was the matter with him. He
had been fishing on the previous day, and having got his line
entangled, had waded into the river to disengage it, but was not
aware that he had hurt his feet in any way, that he had even
scratched them. " But on holding up the right great toe with
my finger and thumb, to examine the sole of the foot, the leg
was drawn up, and the muscles of the jaw were suddenly convulsed, and on letting go the toe these effects instantly ceased."
if
cuticle.
On
compressing this
there
SENSORY GANGLIA,
iv.]
ETC.
103
returned*
feeling
organic processes
which
is
results
fact,
organically
felt,
it
the
organic
stimuli
happens in
do
disease,
force
then
themselves into
it is
consciousness,
are, in reality,
as
is felt.
not unlike
it
Consequently
the cause.
attribute the
insides.
5.
Whether any
beneficial
influence
is
exerted
upon the
commune by
the centres that lie above it, must remain uncertain. ~No trustworthy conclusions can be drawn from experiments in which the
cerebral hemispheres have been removed, for the mischief done
It is certain that a
is far too great to warrant any inference.
centre of morbid activity in the cerebral hemispheres
injuriously
centres,
and give
rise to
may
act
secondary
is then most
morbid centre
104
OR,
[chap.
In concluding
nervous centres,
we
seizes
demonstration.
violent
in
on the
cells of
the sensorium
control
as
is
is
owing to
NOTES.
1
(p. 89).
It
ought not
to
settle
on
dislodge
my
it
forehead, 'whilst I
with
the train of
my
my
manner
am
(i.e.
intent on
ideas."
Zoonomia,
vol.
i.
Many common
by
sensation).
actions of
If a fly
my present occupation, I
my attention or breaking
p. 40.
those of the sphincter of the bladder and anus, and the musculi
attention to
these circumstances
'
et
primis
women
etiam ab incunabulis
nondum
expergefacto.'
So
become turgid by irritation,
be excited by the pleasure of
are liable to
painful ones
And
"
SENSORY GANGLIA,
nr.]
ideas
and actions of
petually produced
ETC.
105
by
Ibid., vol.
i.
p. 184.
Alciphron
(p. 91).
" If vision be only a language speaking to the eyes,
when
many
did
men
To
the making up a
signs as go to
But
difficulty.
will
"
If
we have been
language,
is
a work of some
at pains,
if
this language
first
earliest infancy,
whenever
seem
asked,
Kg wonder we
the eyes of
may be
it
Euphranor
men
it
their
doth not
And
if
we
same throughout
the whole world, and not like other languages, differing in different
places,
it
will not
connexion between the proper objects of sight and the things signified
by them
to
Hence
seems easy to
it
of vision the signs with the things signified, otherwise than they are
wont
nations of men."
by the
vol.
i.
several
p. 393.
CHAPTER
V.
of ideas,
the matter.
added in
man and
two
represent, in reality,
by
tion of the
individual
history of
organic beings.
So exquisitely
delicate,
all
the different
'
'
'
'
'
HEMISPHERICAL GANGLIA,
chap. v.J
ETC.
107
yet
now demonstrated
that
resolve.
The anatomists
the nerve fibres which ascend from the spinal cord through the
new
fibres starting
from these
cells,
and radiating
to the
centres.
There
is,
then, a
sufficient
is,
act directly
through the
medium
but only
It is
life
but
classifi-
lobes have
more
veloped in
women
parts to be proportionately
than in
men
the most convincing proofs that the anterior lobes of the brain
upper
was the
seat of
HEMISPHERICAL GANGLIA;
108
language
contrary to the
first
are
observations
contradictory
directly
OR,
[Chap.
are
unsatisfactory,
overlooked, and
it
is
language,
and defined a
fessed that, so
On
we have
the whole,
it
of the
cerebral
convolutions.
lution as peculiar to
man
ali
is,
that
woman, a glow
movement
of retaliation
of amatorial passion
the idea
the idea of a
the idea of an
Most
of the earlier
the
mind
of the patient
is
motion by them.
set in
him
occasions on
upon
judgment inadvisable.
Hallam, Introduction
to
own
Those who
thoughts, and
acknowledge that an
movement without
History of Europe.
there
IDEATIONAL CENTRES.
v.
which
first
many
arouses consciousness,
it,
if it is
life,
109
the effect being that
aroused at
How
all.
we
reflect.
ideational nerve
out consciousness.
As
so is
it
it
and sensory
The notion
innate.
meaning of the
is
innate
is
by
centres,
( )
But
if
by
phenomena
of a man's
what
is
preformed.
is
life,
It is necessary
an organic evolution in the appropriate nervous centres, a development which is gradually completed in consequence of
The impressions of the
successive experiences of a like kind.
different properties or qualities of an object received through the
different senses, are combined in the compound idea of it which
is gradually matured in the mind, and henceforth we can make
assertions concerning
sense.
The
cells of
sensory perceptions
and suppressing
it
as a unity,
when
it
is
not present to
is essential
in them,
mould them by
an idea, in accordance
Every idea is thus an intuition, and
more than could be explicitly dis-
played in
comprises far
it.
law of organic development as manifest everywhere, and as previously illustrated in the development of nervous element itself.
Whosoever, biassed by the metaphysical conception of mind,
finds it difficult to realize this process of the organic growth of
idea, let
him
reflect
of organic growth
which
embodiment. As language
is
HEMISPHERICAL GANGLIA;
110
OR,
[chap.
lan-
custom
to
it
Certain ideas
mind by the
is
The ideas of
which the Australian savage confessedly has
text of his own.
To acquire those
civilized.
2
( )
physicians
make
so
is
owing
to the
IDEATIONAL CENTRES.
v.]
become
endowments
fixed as
by
faculty,
virtue
man and
by the assumption
Having
new
their absolute
But
of an organic process.
new
said thus
much
and render
4
( )
idea,
an un-
sense conferred
of
when
active,
may
now remains
statical, it
ways
in
be displayed
to consider it
in actual energy.
a.
The
may be
an ideational nerve-cell
called ideomotor
and in the
may
with
thus give
The energy
upon the volun-
tary muscles
may
movements. t
peristaltic
"
We
hasten vomiting
man
can conceive ourselves as endowed with smelling and not enjoying any-
We
as hearable,
till
we have
Ibid. p. 274.
established,
by
HEMISPHERICAL GANGLIA;
112
OR,
him from
copulation
and there
is
[chap.
may
incapaci-
a very remarkable
man who
These are
however,
is
the immediate
will,
they are automatically accomplished, like the actions of the sleepwalker, in obedience to an idea or series of ideas, of which there
is
no active consciousness.
them
It
may
which
paradoxical to assert,
may seem
exist in the
they
may
but
may
that an idea, or a
unquestionably so
But
attended to
become automatic.
Persons
who have a
have now
habit of talking to
movements.
* "There is an instance told in the Philosophical Transactions of a man who
could for a time stop the motions of his heart when ho pleased ; and Mr. D. has
often told me he could so far increaso the peristaltic motion of his bowels by
voluntary efforts as to produce an evacuation by a stool at any time in half-anhour." Zoonomia, vol. i. p. 39.
IDEATIONAL CENTRES.
v.]
It
is
surprising
how
113
may be made by
now Temember.
There
fied,
an
ness
but
sufficient to react
effort, as it
produce a feeling of
consciousness,
when
Let a quick-tempered
him
man
conceive
man engaged
muscular energy
The
(b)
is
weakened, and he
is
Let
:
his
an ideational nerve-cell
reflex action of
a.
in a
may
operate
not only downwards upou the muscular system, but also down-
As
the idea
is
excited into
activity
of a nauseous taste
may
to produce vomiting
as
the images of
who
The
celebrated Baron
illustrates this
von
kind of ideational
action
by many
instances, "
HEMISPHERICAL GANGLIA;
114
The action
of idea
of our mental
life
OR,
[chap.
a regular part
is
tion.
is
image of
it
in the
mind
we
;
some
sort of
is
Men
differ
much
in the
various transformations, as
it
were, before
by
his
least,
his ideas.
eyes
Shelley
the victim of
have only
thing
is
to
done,"
To render
and to give
some sensible image of them must be
represented to the mind.
The great writers whose vivid descriptions of scenery or events hold our attention and stir our feelings,
have this power in high degree they create for themselves a
world of sense by the influence of idea, and then strive to present
vividly to us what they have thus represented to their own minds.
Natural endowments being equal, those writers who have the
greatest number of residua stored up in consequence of much
and varied experience, are best qualified to call up vivid images,
and best qualified to call up such as are truly representative of
fit
expressions to them,
nature
if
he
had been viewing any interesting object in the course of the day, as a romantic
ruin, a fine seat, or a review of troops, as soon as evening came
the whole scero
was brought before him with a brilliancy equal to what it possessed in daylight,
and remained visible for some minutes." Abercrombie, Oil the Intellectual
rowers.
Sir I. Newton could recall an ocular spectrum of the sun when he
went into the dark and directed his mind intensely, "as when a man looks
earnestly to sec a thing which is difficult to be seen."
IDEATIONAL CENTRES.
v.]
is
115
sensory representations.
however,
one
who
we then
by means
of
who has
not.
is
between
The
latter,
racterised
subject,
may
prevail,
and from
be educed
truly
One man
first
it,
he would, were he
time, describe
it
set
as a bright disc
with
it.
in scientific inquiries.
how
if
they
HEMISPHERICAL GANGLIA;
116
intellectual
OR,
[chap.
turn effects
cell in
its
is
When
This secondary
centres.
some
at the burrow,
it is
image of the
rabbit,
is
of smell
is
and in
when
insanity,
is
the rela-
by
reflection, are
of ideas.
by the evidence
sometimes due
is,
of unaf-
to the influence
an exagge-
The idea
ration of a process
which
cannot receive
can
react directly
it
and in
its
important, though
may operate,
is
effect
its
origin
recognised,
of nutrition
acts, as is
its
nerves, or whether
may
nutrition.
way
in which
and secretion.
probable, directly upon the organic
little
of saliva
both in
life.
A third
(c)
idea
its
is
it is
it
acts indi-
certain that
The idea
it,
by a
and the
par-
WJ
IDEATIONAL CENTRES.
v.]
one
who
Bacon
means to
And
"
tion."
here,"
he
would have us
and exalt the imaginacomes in crookedly and danger-
rightly, therefore,
" fortify
says, "
For
magic.
it
may
and the
like,
do not
nation of him
(d)
take.
There
is
who
uses them." *
may
which was over and above what passed directly outwards in the
upwards to the sensorium commune and
excited sensation and as in sensori-motor action the residual
force which was over and above what passed outwards in the
reaction travelled up to the cortical cells, and gave rise to idea
so, in ideational action, the force which does not pass, or the
residual force which may be over and above what does pass,
reaction travelled
cell to cell.
no
There
is
kind to which
it
of mental activity
itself
only
there
is,
it
instead,
its
own
disappearance, as
this,
which
is
perhaps
5
( )
p.
HEMISPHERICAL GANGLIA;
118
now come,
cell to cell
[chap.
moment
OR,
or the
cell,
with consciousness.
active, is attended
We
there
that
may be
its
force of
may be
no, consciousness of
it is
it
is
in order that
there
is
and
is
may be
very
may
appear as
difficult,
if
to,
so
it
how many
it
was evolved.
In the
The
going
we may
say,
suddenly strike us
nicated immediately to
new
He
continued consciousness."
a conception, after
"Wo
thought that
it
itself
complex group.
compare,
we
choose,
in
Sir W. Hamilton
which might exist in consciousness at the
same time and Mr. J. S. Mill, in his Examination of Sir W. Hamilton's
Philosophy, allows a " great multitude of states, more or less conscious, which
On this question Sir H. Holland has some excellent
often co-exist in the mind/ "
remarks in his " Chapters on Mental Physiology " and for a fuller net'ee cf it
than would be proper here, I may refer to a review of Mr. J. S. Mill's criticism of
Sir W. Hamilton in the Journal of Mental Science for January 1SC6.
different objects
number
of objects
::
IDEATIONAL CENTRES.
v.]
119
persistence at
A conception
firmly organized in the nervous centres, so that they are henceforth automatically performed, will he found most serviceable in
Like
by an appropriate stimulus
may
demand an
like them,
when
and, like
time necessary
an idea
is
really
sometimes not
It is
less
for, as
Nay, an idea
how many
may even
eyelid
Darwin has
is
require
times in a day do
to play, in
The
is often an actual
)
impediment in the association of ideas, as it notably is to the
performance of movements that have attained the complete ease
It happens that we try hard to
of an automatic execution.
remember something, and are unable by the utmost effort of
thought.
volition,
interference of consciousness
we thereupon
something
else
expect to happen
it
out.
That
is
which we
exactly what
we might
ANQUA;
HEMISPHERICAL
120
degree of
hindrance
persistent
to,
[chap
OR,
which
of,
or
is effected
by a transformation
of energy
purpose
is
that he
is
is
by the
organic action of
it is
transference of
Attention
is
its
energy to another
the arrest
the
reflection of
it.
o_f
cell
cell,
Bear in mind
te nsio n.
an idea and of the manner
of its gradual organization in the nervous centres, and the applicability of the term deliberation to a process of thought, as a
weighing or balancing of one reason against another, will be evident.
Or we if prefer the term ratiocination, we may say, with
Hobbes, that by it is meant computation. " Now to compute is
either to collect the sum of many things that are added together,
or to know what remains when one thing is taken from another.
Ratiocination, therefore, is the same with addition and subtracSubtract the energy of an opposing idea from a more
tion."
powerful one, and the energy left represents the resultant force
of impulse after deliberation add the energy of a like idea to
another, and the sum represents the force of the resolution.
what was
of a particular
may
Though
we have
complex equation
ability, the
set us.
reflection is a process of
how
limited
is
itself,
when
fairly
mind over
its ideas.
range of consciousness
the idea,
when
and
it
may
even be made
active,
IDEATIONAL CENTRES.
v.]
121
its states is
The power
it.
of the
mind over
the succes-
herein
life,
To make
intermixed.
states of
synonymous with
states of consciousness
unwarrantable than
would be
it
assume
to
all
scarcely less
is
bodily acts to be
conscious acts.
association of ideas.
of a nerve-cell
and
extent of
its
action
upon other
cells
for it
may
be deemed
tole-
communicated
to another
is
vidual
life
experience.
succeeds indifferently
;"
and surroundings.
be rendered impossible
if
we
Social
life
would simply
man
it
as well as out of
would be
all
him
one as
idea does
if
if
one
one event
That one
HEMISPHERICAL GANGLIA;
22
the
in,
first
man up
justifies us,
or disruption
of,
we
in a lunatic
is
OR,
[chap.
asylum
and one of
an unaccountable change
which he
surrounded
is
when he
chooses rather to work upon the stone and iron of the one, than
upon the
thus as
much
associated in the
mind by physical
yet,
necessity as
because sometimes
it is
deliberation
cmly this
is
Necessity
is,
it
life.
specific nature as a
human
linked together in
ways.
We
of
human
men
by
social state.
by
his
dif-
original nature,
and partly by
IDEATIONAL CENTRES.
v.]
ideas, is
123
an
object,
is
mind
skilful in discernment,
and susceptible
and fond
in
of natural history
fact,
to the pleasurable
and
is
mind
and
effect
and
abstract truth, to
ments.
life,
at its
Special adaptations
and conduct. The successful tact or skill of one man in circumstances in which the awkwardness or failure of another is
striking,
which
so
has,
much
the
is
familiar,
In such case
though
such
+ "Not only do simple ideas, by strong association, run together, and form
complex ideas hut a complex idea, when the simple ideas which compose it have
;
it
is
HEMISPHERICAL GANGLIA;
124
[chap.
OB,
correct
When
formed,
it
is
we
a man's character
is
completely
definite combinations
inner nature of
of thought
diction which, as
it is,
who know
those
man
to
it
upon any
individual.
Once more,
then,
is
it
rendered evident
is
how
necessary to
the consideration
of the circumstances in
which he has
lived,
and in relation
to
Two
also of
IDEATIONAL CENTRES.
v.]
of thought, feeling,
ideas
and
language,
and
action.
said of
their associations, it is
when used by
125
must often be
it
by
it.
( )
it
is
as
meaning of German
philosophy as it is to express adequately, by the corresponding
German words, the exact meaning of the French names for
different shades of elegant vice or elegant cookery.
And whosoever enters upon the study of psychology with the assumption
that an idea deemed or called the same has always the same
constant value in different people of the same nation, will be led
adequately in the French language the
by
Do
not
How
come
signified
an idea
at
to
when by
its
is
frequently
evolution
their association
may
still
activity.
When
it
is volitional
action: the
HEMISPHERICAL GANGLIA;
126
ganglionic cerebral
We
cells.
OR,
rise gradually
[chap.
up
to this highest
and ideo-
motor
action.
some
action of will
evil to
desire of a
be shunned,
is
good to be obtained, or of an
it
To them,
there-
NOTES.
1
(p. 109).
then
to natural,
all
meant by innate
is
If innate be equivalent
mind must be
we
If
is
uncommon,
seems to be frivolous
nor
is it
artificial,
or mira-
Again, the
Now,
to
Essay concerning
2
(p. 110).
belief
the
" I
Human
not innate
"
%
Hume,
set
down
namely,
is
Understanding.
Happy Hunting-grounds
work
in a future
of the Fathers
lowers."
"
Spirit," exists
fire,
everywhere
are
;
;
it
is
obliged to
is
a manitou in water,
..." I
Christianized
" It
human
is
soul."
Christian.
operation."
fol-
translate
He must
;
first
be humanized, then
(p. 110).-^"
IDEATIONAL CENTRES.
7.]
VJ?
by,
{p. 111).
the senses
with
first
that I
make
is
natural senses.
all
perfect
iii.
"The
life,
wanting?
sight, others
For
if
man be
who
live
without hearing
many
a doubt whether or no
some without
whether to us
consideration I have
furnished
an entire and
;
other senses
who knows
may not be
any one be wanting, our examination cannot dis" 'Tis the privilege of the senses to be the utmost
beyond them
not by
its
power introduce an
infinite
number of knowledges.
If
we
voice, it
science
man
standing
imagine
human
defect
would bring upon him, what a darkness and blindness in the soul ; he
will then see by that of how great importance to the knowledge of
two or three, should
"We have formed a truth by the conbut, perhaps, we should have the consent
we be
so deprived,
would
be.
to
make a
certain discovery of
it
in its
Montaigne's Essays.
of the motion
sensible
(p. 119).
Leviathan, ch.
vi.
as that taken
up
is
likewise
musician can press the keys of an harpsichord with his fingers in the
HEMISPHERICAL GANGLIA,
E>8
ETC.
[chap.
little
v.
time as he
is
Zoonomia,
{p. 125).
"It
associations
vol.
i.
p. 24.
which adhere
to
one
may be
translated into
any
other, so as to
whence any
They
in general, and yet not with perfect precision and exactness.
must resemble one another because the phenomena of nature, which
they are all intended to express, and the uses and exigencies of human
But then,
life, to which they minister, have a general resemblance.
as the bodily make and genius of each people, the air, soil, and
climate,
commerce,
arts,
science,
&c.,
religion,
and nations,
it is
make
considerable
Hartley's Theory of
"Wherefore, as
men owe
the
Human
all their
Mind, by Dr.
Priestley.
understanding of speech, so also they owe their errors to the misunderstanding of the same
and
as all the
man
also is derived
it
web
(as it
through them."
Hobbes, voL
i.
p. 36.
CHAPTER
VI.
TEE EMOTIONS.
MAN
is
he
of a
if
more
some
and
feeling,
special character,
is
it is
is_ obscured,
and the
state of
mind is then
As
When
they
defi-
indifferent
more or
will, in fact,
with the
be more or
less emotional.
is
is
but
is
little
emotion. Q)
It
is
their functions
it
will
now
10
is
of
still
THE EMOTIONS.
130
men
[chap.
much
is this
tinguishing
men by
we
man
one
as timid
quick-tempered
of another as courageous
One
of
symptoms
of
It is
feeling,
or the affective
life,
that
The
able
first
to
occurring observation
is,
that an idea
of the
which
is
individual,
favourto self-
expansion,
opposed
to the
expansion of
self, is
conditions,
passion by
by
speak,
its
decay
its
its
suffering or
ance of
its gratifi-
by a pleasant emotion
to the further-
unfavourable stimulus.
Even
it
suffers
from an
blame*
Among
scornfully to
For every
"Vorgestellte
man
sich
is
desirous of
Uerbart.
THE EMOTIONS.
vi.]
what
is
131
is
evil,
pleasurable, a good.
mind
It is necessary to bear in
moderation gives
when
emotion, will,
it
but
is
it is
element of that
is
consciousness
exhibits,
mulus.
whatever deeper
the
an
impulse or
immanent
is
instinct,
which,
existence
condition of its
essential
sti-
is,
organic
as
element.
the
not
is
latter,
in
when,
in
again,
an
as
outward
it
occurs
desire, craving,
fact,
it
is
impulse,
satisfy
appetency,
There
appetite.
3
( )
demands
then
there
of
is
by the nervous
striving,
revealed to
which,
us
as
difference, indeed, as
desire,
desire
except in so far
is
self-conscions
thing, therefore
because a thing
or desire for
or
is
no
is
the
inadequate,
consciousness,
or appetite.
organically
a hemispherical nerve-
to
to
thus
affinity or attraction
its
in
matter
of
force
sufficient
the manifestation of
centre,
properties
combined.
cell
the
of
it.
we judge
is
it
to
be good:
it
certainly is not
is
an exact correspondence
TEE EMOTIONS.
132
[chap.
we
Because the
are prone,
when observing
it,
to transfer our
own
states of
on
all
by means
occasions as striving,
of a self-conservative
an acid
for
an
alkali, of
there
was no stimulus,
we
us as to what
is
ganglionic cells
of
the brain.
its
ill
and consciousness
is
something
The
striving
glionic cell in
its
satisfying
is
of action, but
how they
how
desires
desired,
though
is
necessarily
it
is
some
at times a
idiot,
we
in good health
itself is unconscious,
appetites.
In the desire of
what
sort of conception of
is
but in
which
a want, or of
man
THE EMOTIONS.
i.j
an
the organic
Most
of the
evolution of organic
life
example
striking is that
consciousness which
into
life
when new
133
ill-understood
is
desires
obscure impulses that have no defined aim, and produce a restlessness which,
when
how
little it is
misapplied,
man
first
only necessary to
it is
sort of satisfaction, in
dreams before
it
a natural
is
reflect that
its
the
But to prove
subsequent development,
in
often mischievous
is
even
aim, and to a
does so in real
This
life.
how
far
life.
Given an
makes
its
is
state is
ill-constituted
when
the sexual
the result
None
other than that which happens with the lower animal, where
love
is
naked
lust,
desire
cation.
its basis
a complex
those delicate, exalted, and beautiful feelings of love that constitute the store of the poet, and play so great a part in
human
happiness and in
What, however,
sorrow.
fitly said,
be temperate and
in tumult
staid, if
and perturbation
sities
by
" or,
it
" life is a
passion."
is
human
true of
When
is
it fails
Or, adopting the language proper in such case to the highest relations of
man, there
is
is
there a feeling
THE EMOTIONS.
134
[chap.
continue an enjoyment
is
As
there
ho outward striving or
is
upon other
ideas,
in other words, in
intellectual development.
is
becomes
organized
definitely
when
little
may
often
we
affirm, as
not being of
reflection,
May we
then justly
ward
actions,
not
understanding, or reason,
it
life
whatever
for,
first
it
is
or
is
is,
and again, in
a conception of something desired.
;
is
not
commonly
that the
Men
of great reasoning
them outweighs
of
come
to
no decision:
In fact,
is
inhibi tory
and
is
exhibited
its
As
there are
to the production of an
emotion
depend greatly
THE EMOTIONS.
vi.]
may, in
fact,
When some
without.
135
morbid
is
qualities,
commonly
though
indifferent
it
just
by
accom-
is
is
an idea
as
when a
sensory ganglion,
its
how much
bodily states
mind
his tone of
at a certain stage
varies according to
paralytic,
whose supreme
by great
characterised
is
The general
feeling of well-being
condition of
all
the organs
of
which
the
results
from a healthy
is indeed
body, which
life, is
known
in which
an idea that
will be
arises
pleasantly emotional,
On
pleasurable.
is
upon a visceral disturbance or any other cause, is a conwhich activity of any kind will be rather painful than
otherwise there is a restricted or hindered personality, and an
It plainly amounts
idea arising is apt to be gloomily emotional.
acts upon the
the
same
thing,
whether
an
excessive
stimulus
to
stable
and healthy state, and pronervous element when in a
duces suffering or whether a natural stimulus acts upon it when
in an enfeebled or unstable condition, and similarly gives rise
follows
dition in
to suffering
is,
more
lution of
is,
stable
in both cases,
is
the cry
THE EMOTIONS.
136
[chap.
and an
state;
it
how
it is
is
for the
in the determination
of the
special
character of the
higher
life.
Much
is
is
it
of the emotion
it is
it
is
certainly
or pain
such feeling
many and
shown
various as ideas.
( )
of the idea
life
It
which determines
is
determined by the
now
is
it
centre
this
containing
THE EMOTIONS.
ti.J
As
137
there are subjective
emotional
subjective
states.
It
depends upon the nature of the fundamental elements, the internal reacting centre, and the external impression, whether in
a given case
we
shall
we
so
is
shall
almost lost in
cells
sensibility of their
own
to ideas,
little
no emo-
or
The hemispherical
it.
fain;
still
they have a
manner
of their affection
is
As we
variations of
may
which
fairly also
its
speak of a psychical
supreme nervous
it
appeared
tone,
as
much
reactions are so
when
by the
we
affected, so
of which so greatly
And
its
original nature
tone of
it
and
actions,
This
is
affections
the
is
and
individual's
reflects
the
ego,
women,
it
and experience
if less
to
is
life.
self
may
The education
By
TEE EMOTIONS.
138
[chap.
from any
be
those,
there
is
lively feeling of
much
become a
sort of instinctive
qualities.
Reflect,
again,
of that harmonious
indefinite
TEE EMOTIONS.
vi.]
them
dim presentiment
or a
relations
these
139
of evil oppresses
them under
summate
different
that in
reality
fear,
secretions
and the
all
these evince
display
it is
only
when
that the power exists to retain the emotional energy within the
it
life
now been
sufficiently
demonstrated, by observation and experiment, that the cerebrospinal system does exercise an influence over the ganglia
diately concerned in the
phenomena
of the organic
life
immeand
it
is
of the
In
manner of
small arteries
*
It is
and those of
hard to conceive
how
it
Lister,
should
fail to
by an actual continuity
so, if it is
of substance, as
is
end
now main-
THE EMOTIONS.
140
pigment granules in the
[chap.
may
be
Though a moderate
it
admits of no
produce an inhibitory
we may
wherein, again,
is
elsewhere, to be
is
their functions
which
And
upon
effect
weak
be miserable, the
is to
effect of
subject of
any
local idiosyncrasy
it
more
a passion
by one who
is
the
easily sympathises
sympathy.
effects of
It is true that, in
but the
less
the cul-
of convulsions.
But there
is
our emotions.
When we
in
passion
is
life
any particular
which
it
hypnotism, that
by inducing
attitudes of
body natural
We
to certain
perceive, then,
how
as deliberative, controls
and
It
THE EMOTIONS.
vi.]
141
that
life
moved Bichat
to locate the
is
now
But although
there was the just acknowledgment of a truth in this view, it was
sometimes done, in the organs of the organic
only part of a truth
organic
for,
life.
life
life,
are concerned
quently,
found
it is
by the victim
felt
by an
a depressing passion
weak
brain
Conse-
the brain.
weak
or diseased organ
is
organ, so
is felt
in the
The phenomena
may be thought, perhaps, that it would not be amiss if somenow said of the difference between passion and emotion,
thing were
inasmuch
as the terms
ferently.
a veritable passion.
them
less
when
If
it
is
be, the
altruistic character of
them
becomes
would
indif-
it
doubt-
egoistic or
self
and
Spinoza, whose
and certainly
and
desire,
(a)
all
whence
it is
(b)
Joy
is
the passage
and accompanies,
Sorrow
is
evil.
all acts
that are
THE EMOTIONS.
142
already said,
how much
[chap.
Here, again,
how
rendered evident
is
it
impossible
is
it
to
is
In the
development.
study of
its
classification of the
plan of development
is
its
now acknowledged
to
be
in like
mind
of
Whosoever
aspires to give
an adequate account
of the
members of the
the
woman and
him who
is
in his right
and
is
series so that
by com-
incli-
thus formed as
aim
is
end of wealth
attained, so that
formations
the
give enjoyment
"
THE EMOTIONS.
vi.]
143
As
many
it is
slight effects
in the individual, so
human
of the
as those
who
new
or as the
young fox
acquired
by experience
ment
its
or
young dog
ancestors have
inherits
slowly
man
all
is
not less
only
is
Nemo
is
....
" Custom
To govern
Biographic/, Litcraria.
THE EMOTIONS.
144
[chap.
Thus
it is
by virtue of the
is,
lose sight of
Certainly not
the
may
of
mankind through
by a slight
In the exaltation
in the dete-
mankind, as exhibited in the downward course of insanity proceeding through generations, one of
rioration or degeneration of
symptoms
is,
as
we
And
to trace a process
NOTES.
1
(p. 129).
passions
savoir
certaines passions."
5
(p. 131).
of
men do daily
is
so far
so
I.
THE EMOTIONS.
vi.
man
desirous of
is
what
good
is
145
for him,
(p. 131).
"Le
II resulte
pas qu'on
desir, ce n'est
l'effort, le vouloir,
l'effort, le
l'appetit, le
ait
mais, au
meme
contraire,
tend par
p. 8.
ii.
qu'on y
(p. 134).
human
progression.
the intellectual
mind
deliberative
is
{p. 136).
Mind must
but
can
it
it,
real office of
affairs
" For
ii.
it is
p.
that
is,
to
habitual impulsion."
its
Comte,
210.
handle the nature of light can be said to handle the nature of particular colours
as light
and pain
for pleasure
to particular colours."
is
" Autant
y a d'espece
il
les passions
Scient.
de desir
celles-la,
de toutes
Bacon, De Augment.
;
et
comme
surprenant que
en
conijoit
il
la fluc-
la haine,
la tristesse
mauvais,
d'appeler
faut
138). "Mais
(p.
il
en general
effet
et
accompagne tous
la joie
tous
les actes
ceux qu'on
qu'on a continue
nomme
bons.
On
depend surtout de
Les parents, en blamant certaines actions, et reprimandant souvent leurs enfants pour les avoir commises, et au contraire
en louant et en conseillant d'autres actions, ont si bien fait que la
l'education.
tristesse
accompagne toujours
celles-la
uns
memes pour
est profane
pour
tous les
et la joie
hommes
un
autre peuple.
toujours
La coutume
11
no
Chacun
se repent
Passions, p. 159.
celles-ci.
et la religion
done ou
so
Spinoza, Dei
CHAPTER YIL
VOLITION.
" Les hommes se trompent en co point qu'ils pensent toe litres.
Or, en quoi
une telle opinion? En cela seulement qu'ils ont conscience de leura
actions et ignorent les causes qui les determinent.
L'idee que les hommes so
font de leur liberie vient done de ce qu'ils ne connaissent point la cause de leurs
actions, car dire qn'elles dependent de la volonte, ce sont la des mots auxquels on
n'attache aucame idee.
Quelle est en effet la nature de la volonte, et comment
meut-elle le corps, e'est ce que tout le monde ignore, et ceux qui elevent d'autres
pretentions et parlent des sieges de l'ame et de ses demeures pretent \ rire ou
consiste
1'ont pitie."
"En
un mot,
ouverts."
TT
J-
Spinoza.
tout ce que je puis dire a ceux qui croient qu'ils peuvont parler, se taire, en
strange to see
is
lame,
e'est qu'ils
Ibid.
argument
how
some,
cause.
As thus
were
if it
self-deter-
is
we
considerations
actions, proceeding
life is
;
consider-
confessedly due to
while
many
of
VOLITION.
chap, vii.]
volitional, are really
just discrimination
147
is,
This
those
the understanding.
no other relation
man
an ideal will, unaffected by physical conditions, as existing apart from a particular concrete act of will,
which varies according to physical conditions. "When a definite
act of will
is
an available or a liberated
munication of activity from one
cally
cells or
groups of
Any
spheres.
cells
force,
it
represents physi-
cell or
group of
cells to other
On
vous substratum.
if
we speak
psycholo-
gically, the definite will is the final issue of the process of reflec-
tion or deliberation,
capable
of,
an
must needs
it is
and quantity,
'
'
Appetite, therefore, and aversion are simply so called as long as they follow
not deliberation.
it
be appetite,
is
But
if
"Holbes.
it,
if
VOLITION.
148
[chap.
is
temporarily modified by
fails to
When
tions.
necessarily wants
is
know
what he
which
Because, however, he
sight.
knows not
lacks,
Were an
upon any one, it would doubtless soon teach him how much
might yet be added to the will, how little his boasted freedom
is, and might, perhaps, make him wonder much that he should
ever have thought himself
When
with
full
dreaming.
man
man
free.
is it
that
It
may be
is
at
ing
way
man
it
this
elicit
is
less free
at the time
or that
is
when he is elated
event, when he is
when he
prostrate
how a madman
much certainty
often predict
rOLITION.
vii.]
known law
of nature,
madman ?
from this
149
that
mind of the moment, but does not reveal the long series of causes
on which it depends. It is a deliberate fooling of one's self to
say that actions depend upon the will, and then not to ask upon
what the will depends It is as though, says Leibnitz, the needle
should take pleasure in moving towards the pole, not perceiving
the insensible motions of the magnetic matter on which it
depends. As in nature we pass from event to cause, and from
this cause again to an antecedent one, and so on till we are
!
driven to a great
we
mind,
first
see that
or motive, which
another,
and
so
it is
is
on
till
we
call
given act of will must, like the design displayed in the function
of the spinal cells, or the cells of the sensory centres, be a
such a conception
as
the con-
The
which a looker-on discovers in any act of will and,
remembered, there is no actual volition apart from the
design, then,
be
it
may become
it.
is
The
in conformity
is
VOLITION.
150
[chap.
depend upon the nature of the individual whom he is ohserving, as that nature has been inherited,
and subsequently developed by the experience of life. The
idiocy of any one, or his congenital inability to adapt himself
particular volition
will
external relations
to
by correspondences
there
is
of internal cerebral
idiot's
by defect
and cannot,
is,
therefore,
physical necessity
already
set
forth,
supreme nervous
mind
been
organized as
a development
and according
to the extent
particular volition
folly or design, is a
and whatever
it
any
contains,
reflection
end to be
The
of the
act of will.
whether of
all
former
it
nature of design.
logical consequences,
result
were pressed to
Nothing less
1
VOLITION.
vii.]
than
this,
that
animal, with
the
151
marvellous instinct of
its
is
to the acquired
when
Design, therefore,
culture.
its
nature
fairly analysed,
is
so far
an insensibly organized
varying value.
sufficient reasons to
but,
we may proceed
to cousider
upon
is
in conformity with
observation teaches.
man
what psychological
fact,
and
actually has
by antecedent
it
life.
mode
what power
it
autocratic power
windy nonsense has
its
little
been written concerning its authority. Assuredly it is no irresponsible despot in any mind, but is ever most obedient where
it
sider
(2)
it
conquers by obeying.
movements, and
rule is
felt.
its
152
VOLITION.
Ichap.
1. (a) The will has no power whatever over certain movements that are essential to the continuance of life. Not only do
such motions as those of the heart and the intestines go on
without any co-operation of the will and in spite of any interits part, but movements that are only microscopically
such as the contractions of the small arteries, which are
of so great importance in nutrition, are not under its direct
influence.
Nature has been far too prudent to rely upon such
vention on
visible,
an uncertain
of
life,
movements
asphyxiate himself by
let
man
try to
phenomena.
movements
We
The
will has no
power
to effect
movements that
are con-
by
practice.
skill of
movement
it,
be carried
out, in
obedience to the
commands
of the so-called
all
unaware of
"We
know how
man
its
impotency,
commands
a result which
still
not shrink
VOLITION.
vii.]
153
certain nerves,
manner
of
will.
movements,
is
which
movement
immediate operation
the
are, in
this should
be
so, if
we
will,
how
one
is
alike
upon ganglionic
cells,
other the
centres of movements.( 2 )
(a)
As
the
is also
plain that the will does not determine either the material of
it
must accept
and the
As with movements,
manner
of their association.
will has
new
thoughts
first link,
however
so here, the
works
it
it
it
it
being in the
originated,
is
cannot
determine a
is,
so to
an order
The
cultivation.*
will
" Deliberation and investigation are like the hunting of a hound he moves
sniff's about by his own activity, but the sceut he finds is not laid, nor the
trail he follows drawn by himself.
The mind only begins a train of thinking, or
keeps it in one particular track, but the thoughts introduce one another sue*
and
VOLITION.
154
[ohap.
mind,
series in
must
definitely
Certainly
other.
more than
it is
and
suclittle
it is
it
by
recognition
it
duce secondarily considerable modification of their action
thus avail itself of them for its own profit, using their
;
may
True
it
to aid its
Milton expresses
liberty, as
development
in the
'
'
the instances of
to insist
its
simplest manifestations.
upon a reference
to
mind
to
Is
mental development?
its
(c)
But
its
....
as
mind.
thought, so likewise
eessively
child or
mind
earliest stages of
are excited in
young
of the genesis of
and
for a correct
in the idiot
development of
induction.
It is simple justice
an idea or a train of
when
the mind, and which they do not derive from its action, nor will lay aside
its command." Tucker's Light of Nature, vol. i. p. 14.
upon
VOLITION.
vii.]
rience
155
into con-
just as a
command which
different times,
man
man may
and one
is
it,
The
very different at
some reflection when another cannot for the life of him do so.
"We can give no exact reasons for these variations the causes of
them lie deeper than consciousness can reach or will control. So
far, then, from the will being autocratic, it is at the mercy of unknown conditions, which may seriously affeet at any moment its
power or energy. Moreover, when an unwelcome idea is dismissed from the mind, it is not done by a simple despotic order
of the will but by fixing attention on some other idea which
;
arises
by maintaining the tension of it, the latter is made conand as two ideas cannot exist in consciousness at the
sciousness
;
same
time, or at
any
implies the dismissal of the former idea into the background and
the initiation of a
such
case,
new
however,
is
a current
current of reflection
not
uncommonly
which refuses
to
interrupted
become
that in
by the
irrup-
latent or dormant.
may
be
active.
one idea
it is
many
some
bility of
calls
Locke
is
admitted to have
when he demonstrated
made
plainly
there
is
difficult
when
is,
volition
fested itself.
fix that
It
would be a very
might be acknowledged
if
the
to
first
would
stant quality,
Why
is
it
and never
that
we
falling
first
VOLITION.
156
volition
i.
[chap.
is
many
nervous centres,
many
There
act.
and
to
will is
entities
the
It is utterly at variance
an idea
although
ing
it,
then
when
if
there is
As
some
it
volitional,
then ensues.
same
"
thing,'' is
it,
before passing
we commonly
describe
plain that
become
consciousness of
we cannot
may
definitely
be supposed to
The
will
and the
and the
nervous centre;
and
when
first
to leave, as
it
will do, a
residuum in
its
re-
formed in
its
the
When
first.
the
first
it will,
instead of
which
is
inhibitory or preventive.
of volition
That
is
FOLITION.
vii.]
157
the
when
modified in a
and by
their persistence
and
feeling,
action,
is
Not
much
Every one
disagreeable and
in fact invariably
disagreeable
less
act lose its painful qualities, but all acts of a like kind are
easier; and our manner of feehng with regard to them,
and even our judgment concerning them, are greatly modified.
Though we can give no explanation of the way in which we
are aided by the traces of past volitions, it is plain enough that
we are so aided; conscious acquisition becomes unconscious
power; and by an organic assimilation of some kind, the will
even becomes in certain relations automatic.
Three conclusions are then to be distinctly established from
made
and constant
first,
is
not an innate
from the
and an
and
the
thirdly,
not denote any actual entity, but simply expresses the due coordinate activity of the supreme centres of mental force, not
its
will
in
the
man.
VOLITION.
158
When
and
[chap.
we
by virtue
stinctively, it does so
of an
endowment
centres,
which
it,
of
its
nervous
human
is original in
and which,
It
if
we
may
sometimes
would
less belie
To the
obviously necessary
first,
may
ego, is
indirectly
by determining the
it
life,
we may
but
all
result,
mankind, we
agents, in the same person,
discourses of
shall find
'
resisting, counteracting, overpowering, and controlhence the so usual expressions of the spiritual and carnal wills,
man and tho beast, of self-will and reason, of denying our wills, subduing
our passions, or being enslaved by them, of acting unwillingly or against the
will, and the like.
All which takes rise from a metonyme of the cause for the
of the
eifect
apart."
Light of Nature,
i.
desires,
547.
VOLITION.
vii.]
159
and while
a combination which
complex.
That
all
is
it differs
its
in
and in con-
life,
another man,"
When
be " regenerate."
influence
religious
the ego
is
or
may
be
transformed
may
little
but
sometimes be effected by
new
as, for
ideas
and an equilibrium
revolution in the ego
When
established.
is
is
completed
it is
nothing
is
more dangerous
to
its
He who,
it
having unexpectedly
life, is
new
made mad by
not
position for
some
time,
is
mad
the trans-
VOLITION.
160
[chap.
and a
nor
less
is
neither more
slight shoot
first
and sure conception which every one has of the ego, is not
surprising, inasmuch as it is the most frequently active idea,
being concerned with more or less consciousness in every event
of his life, being that to which every action has fundamental
reference.
The fashioning of the will is the fashioning of the
character and that can be done only indirectly by fashioning
the circumstances which determine the manner of its formation.
But however formed, it is the character which determines what the
judgment shall decide to be most eligible, the inclination prompt
as most desirable, and the will effect. If it were possible for anyone
;
and
not only to predict his Line of action on every occasion, but even
work him,
to
an automaton, by
is
But the
able.
ciation
may
be avail-
ease, completeness,
depend,
as
suffer
in their
irregular
and independent
spinal centres
vulsion sensue
is
;
And
so in the
as,
reactions,
when
is
revealed the
co-ordination
supreme ganglionic
is lost
cells of
Volition
VOLITION.
vii.]
as
is,
it
which
it is
of white light
may he decomposed
161
there
will,
is
of inferior activity.
It is
gone
to
form
it
and, going
still
in
life
which the
character of his
It will
ego, implies.
it.
it
so
is
far
weakens the
will
Before
many
it
young child
or
where the
state of
and in the animal, the emotions excited immeexpend their energy in outward manifestation and when
in the cultivated adult there exists, from some cause, an unstable
condition of nervous element, or when the tension of the emotion
or passion is exceedingly great, it will also react directly outward
in spite of the will the law, admitting this, would count it
therefore no great crime for a husband tohave slain a man whom
as in the idiot
diately
But
whosoever takes careful note of his own mental states may call
to mind occasions on which an emotion suddenly excited strongly
prompted a particular
for
action,
if
The
12
VOLITION.
162
ness
[chap.
indiscretion
failed.
much
man beware
Only
imposes upon
allowing
others,
let
it
and pervert
and co-ordinated in
that,
it is
weak minds
however he
judgment
his
apt to do that in
but,
duly subordinated
reflection, it
all
Re-
most potent
force
it
is
were, to
it
An
effects in
it
commonly
the
that
gives
to
is,
reformers
But an
these advantages,
right
for,
is
that there
is
their
evil,
abandonment,
often outweighing
It is certain that
violent,
and
beings, it
phenomena
power of
reflection is often
is
But
for a reformer
who
retically desirable
men
feeling
in
by
what
is
theo-
VOLITION.
til]
163
social conditions
if
he
He
more
or less
his principle.
apt to treat
is
will, in
any
case, operate
upon
which may he a
very just one, into the world not sufficiently prepared for
it,
its
highest development
as opposed
to
But
as the
all
is
we may
easily understand
in motion
to
is
some
how
feeling or desire of
good to be attained, or of
by an inadequate
conditions, is able
to
act
reflection
upon
ill
Then
all
the
intelligent,
VOLITION.
164
last
consummate blossom of
all
[chap.
her marvellous
The
efforts.
and completest
reflection,
it
man
which he moves. If we
upon the manner in which the actions of the different
nervous centres of the body are subordinated and co-ordinated in
manifestation,
its
how there
and concentration of
are, as it were, a
conception,
by help
gathering together
of
we may be
mode
of
able to form a
observe, of the
mode
of
nature which
By
we cannot
the power of
follow through
its
inmost processes.*
a well-fashioned will
man
reacts
with
intelligent success
in
it is
initiated a
new development
of nature
it
adumbrates
it
itself
If
in this
which
nature.
NOTES.
1
(p. 147).
will appears to
At
primarily or secondarily.
The
use of language.
is
will
least it appears to
word
is,
mechanically,
it
Theory of the
Human
* Transpeciation
is
a word used
the
factitious
p.
not automatic
may he justified by
will
and generated by
Mind,
is
common
all desire
me
is
mechanical
which
and hatred,
association,
also."
i.e.
Hartley's
205.
by
Sir
"
VOLITION.
vii.]
165
But
then the
last act of
Neither
unwillingness
willing greater in
there
if
be appetite,
it, if it
man than
is
is
For where
is
And,
from necessity
But
beasts.
by
liberty
we
vol.
i.
(p. 153).
whensoever
Leviathan,
to
to
fears,
is
continued
that
we
call
Hume
command
entirely
to
We only feel
of an idea, consequent to a
which
is
it is
vii.
or of
p. 409.
1. "But do we pretend
human soul, and the nature
is
it,
Deliberation."
men
will,
is,
what they
and,
that
is
if
power by which
it is
in
produced,
"
another
3.
is
" Self-command
is
Can we
Is there not
mechanism
or structure of parts,
effect
some
secret
depends, and
will.
which
this is effected,
the
extraordinary an operation
diately
conscious,
that
it
must
we
are so far
for ever
escape
inquiry."
itself,
VOLITION.
166
[chap.
vi.
but through certain muscles and nerves, through which the motion
successively propagated, he asks
that the
power by which
this
whole operation
is
performed, so far
the
mind
is
to ourselves,
and
Human
Understanding.
unintelligible.
totally different
(he
and
Here
unknown ;
is
till,
produced."
is
produced.
at last,
through a
Inquiry concerning
CHAPTER
VIII.
TPHUS
-*-
far
by the organization
of
is,
in apprehen-
is,
by
in comprehension
complex
But it is not man's function in life
inner life he must express or utter in action
volition as the result of the
interworking of conceptions.
merely to think
of
some kind.
his
actions.
left
behind by movements or
by a par-
ticular nervous centre do, like the idea, leave behind their residua,
henceforth be automatic.
There
is
movements may
volitional impulse
motor residua, in
If recourse be
had
latent, or potential
to physiology,
it is found that,
conformably with what psychological analysis teaches, there are
irritation of
artificially excited.
168
[chap
it,
this
how
It
may
life.
The sensory
the organic
life,
body
activity of the
essential to its
is
is
life
enters essen-
due
effectuation.
How
Germany,
is
The motor
movements.
intuition, furthermore,
intervenes
between sensation and the motor reaction thereto, and even between the stimulus and the resultant reflex action so that the
;
term intuition
is
duce confusion.
More
may
perhaps pro-
It contains the
definite
or preventive of motion,
reflex
movements.
However
it
OR MOTORIUM COMMUNE.
Tiu.]
mined and
series of
and that in
169
it
movements.
determine the
result,
why
It is evident, then,
and
action of a particular
All
it
can do
is
and
is
After repeated
movement
trials,
is
henceforth automatic,
it is
we
only because of
its
being
speaking psychologically
other faculties,
mental
Our
faculties.
manner in which we
are indebted to
a life-experience
but
it is
when
it
begins to
intuition of
fly as it is after
170
[char
In the
first
tell
how
far off or
eyes
is
Now
of the object.
it is
well
known
first
now
so
much
so that a con-
But these accommodating movements are not determined by any act of will, nor are they within
cause of squinting in children.
consciousness
and strictly comparable with the inmovements of the animals. It is not the visual sensation directly which gives us the idea or intuition of distance, but
the motor intuition of the accommodating movement which,
though uncertain and confused at first in man, soon gets precision
and distinctness^ 1 ) In this example we have a type of that
which happens, with greater or less rapidity, in the case of every
movement in the body. The infant at first kicks out his leg
whether from a so-called spontaneous outburst of energy, or by
reason of some organic or external stimulus, matters not and
bringing it in contact -with some external object, gets thereby a
to the visual sensation,
stinctive
sensation, in respondence to which, as in the consensual accommodation of the eyes, adaptations of movements take place, and
muscular intuitions are more or less quickly and completely
organized.
Consider,
if
of the complex
OB MOTORIUM COMMUNE.
vin.]
\"J\
movement
to him, but
to his assistance,
there certainly
is
upon
to look
certain
which
movements, those of the
commonly
latter, as is
done,
we
is
mental
has
its
life.(
mind
when
the design
nervous element.
is
successive
palate, the
of which
complex movements which the could never
consciousness,
and
before
or no
which human
we have
be abundantly evident how much
ingenuity
mute and
will
effect,
little
is
we depend
But
let it
it
will
not be overlooked,
it,
of motor intuitions.
172
[chap.
represent what
centres
that
is
what
is
is,
consciously or unconsciously,
life.
by
certain
if
This
is
in accordance with
mind
in
mind the
correlative idea
intuitions generates in consciousness a false conception, or delusion, as to the condition of the muscles, so that
an individual
air,
In dreams we
when
the sensorial
may sometimes
ob-
tions,
motor intuition
is
into consciousness
irregular
generated.
or
if,
as
may
happen, and
convulsive
is
OR MOTOBIUM COMMUNE.
Km.]
The phenomena
to exhibit the
173
may
may be
occur as a convulsive
no
an
sound
the
individual
in
As
act,
4
)
when
there
is
is
often
the
In cases
of
cerebral
haemorrhage,
it
sometimes
Consciousness
act,
is
not
always
entirely
abolished
and then
which insti-
resist.
known
in
man
effect
Let a
a certain movement,
174
knowing what
is
instruments which he
actin" or not
[chap.
is to
use
cannot
tell
may
the muscles.
Any
muscular feeling are rendered needless by pathological experience, which plainly proves that, when the muscular
sense is paralysed, the movements cannot be performed except
this guiding
some other sense come to the rescue. The sense of sight usually
does this
a woman, whom Sir Charles Bell saw, who had lost
:
the muscular sense in her arm, could nevertheless hold her child
eyes
upon
it;
instance
recently
syphilis,
who had
of
woman,
lost the
moment
but the
she turned
consequence of
in
epileptic
left
arm, and
who
did not know, except she looked at the limb, whether she
had got hold of anything with her hand or not if she grasped
;
but
she looked
if
it
it
it,
tactile sensation.
tactile sensation
vier details
correct estimate
The physician
sion
at the
observed by Marcet,
of the right side,
who was
was
its
frequency
Dorsalis
loss of
muscular feeling
phenomenon
is
is
not Tabes
co-ordination of the muscles, and the morbid appearances are those of degeneration
yf the posterior columns of the spinal cord
the motor repository or centres of
OR MOTORIUM COMMUNE.
vin.
extreme
is
regulators or feelers,
their eyes are shut or
if told to
175
fall
down,
when
to the will
sight.
is
the desire to
motor intuition of the movement necessary to the end desired, but there is wanting the
guiding sensation of the muscular sense and accordingly the
action cannot be done unless the sense of sight takes upon it
the function of the defective muscular sense.
What relation has the muscular sense to the motor intuition 1
It is not an easy question to answer either from a psychological
The relation appears to be not
or from a physiological basis.
effect a certain action, there is the
corresponding idea
sense
is
not necessary to
its
of
its
is
receptive
it
to external nature
and distance,
;
and in the
co-ordination of the
movements
Hence the
of the limbs.
is
different diseases
;
not affected.
so that the
disease is
now more
its
is
place,
176
[chap.
any one
is
Consider
how awkward
time
Observations
lectual
at so simple a matter as
is
may
intel-
sight,
touch.
of our experience,
sive,
it is
not
difficult to
them by
deceive
It is well
fore-finger
and a pea or a
like
So
closely,
however,
may
instead
of,
and correcting
first
he exclaimed, on taking
it
shown
to
an eminent philosopher,
how heavy
The
it is " and yet potassium is so light as to float on water.
metallic appearance had suggested a certain resistance, or the
putting forth of so
moment
and
was deceived
as previous experience
as the
man
is
who
OR 1I0T0RIUM COMMUNE.
vni.]
observed
it
in a great
many
of a
body suspected
who
to
The
must always
instances
177
exist because
lias
when
for
he
life,
has
its
but, like
due part
life.
two prominent
characteristics
the
the second
it
first is
is
and
It is a
A tailor
one another.
in
some degree of
who
make you
will promise to
is
caiisal
connexion
to
if
the
It is
not improbable that, deceived by his quiet assurance, and knowis his business, you believe that he may make
But in a little while you will find that his
stitches are most unequal in size, and are placed in the most
disorderly way
and it is made clear that, whatever he himself
the waistcoat.
may
He
lectual or
bodily
so the general
paralytic,
whose defective
it
As
it is
may easily
to the
be understood that,
when
it is
deficient throughout
178
intelligent accord
[chap.
life
rela-
To the action
of the result
is essential,
for
movement,
motor
action,
we do
movement
is
we
is
when
it is
operate
may
do, as not
directly
it
movement which
medium
of the
same motor
is
latent.
we
should not
intuition as
them
that,
a sensa-
movement
tion alone
that
Now
movement.
is
When
in so-called sensori-
fail to
If
we
could
and injuring
movements.
we
Speaking
Thus, then,
itself
in the
it
reflected in ideomotor
action
so in the reaction of
man
downwards through
the
OB MOTORIUM COMMUNE.
tiii.]
179
the
further transforma-
its
it
intuition,
organized,
is
demands
for its
Viewing the
department of nature.
ceive that chemistry
physiology
and
is
dependent on che-
is
per-
is
is
we
is
science
revealed in every
is
different sciences,
is
is
indepen-
mental
life
ideo-
motor action dependent on sensori-motor action, while sensorimotor action is independent of ideomotor action; the will
dependent on ideomotor action, while ideomotor action is independent of the
will.
as in
man
there
is
and
it is
is
many
to conception,
Ave
may
to
properly be
named
this as of other
We
much
differ
mental
have only
faculties.
great intellectual power, never can attain to the ability of successfully expressing themselves
other hand,
fluency.
The
it,
on the
most facile
others,
in eloquence of action,
faculty for
is
one which,
if
there
its
is
not an innate
highest perfection
180
unseen
[chap.
falls
what they would say, and the best will to say it, there is
something wanting in the region of actuation, whereby they are
prevented from doing justice to their thoughts, and are comof
" There
Aaron
is
instead of
iv. 16).*
NOTES.
1
(p. 170).
"The
is
of the greater
The
movement of visual objects depends as well upon the
the image upon the retina as upon the sensations of the
consequence,'' says
perception of the
progress of
The
eye, in close
is
but the
almost with every movement the patient loses this facility of accurately
discriminating.
weight, tension, and fatigue, iu the orbital and frontal regions, force
i.
p. 92.
The condition
is
if
Diseases of the
doubtless attributable
accommodate themselves.
to
(j>.
171).
Though
it is
speak, yet
it is
"
And
man
greater than
speaks."
dumb, and
On
it is
able to
is
dumb people,
deaf,
who was
it
of
as
OR MOTOSIUM COMMUNE.
vin,]
initial
movements
Man,
p.
39
"Herein
till
he has
set
it
forth
same time,
to
is
out of
as
the
lies
Thought
necessity of utterance,
himself.
181
first
comprehension of himself,
in setting forth out of himself the contents of his mind, and in this
his
'
He
I.'
comes
first
himself,
since," Dr.
face,
from
and
On
patient
free
his body,
his
the knowledge of
production he comes to
free
thinking
He
cations before the eyes, painful sensations in the head, often being
associated with them.
no
In dreams, and
time
and the
Romberg
173).
spasm in a
girl of
them
conscious,
what he
calls rotatory
met with an
an irresisin the intervals he
instance in a boy
tible desire to
was
affected
cet.
six,
with chorea."
who was
Vol.
ii.
p.
In certain
169. Consciousness
cases
of cerebral
may
or
may
haemorrhage,
CHAPTER
IX.
tell
me
extensive canvas
it
consists
hung up
of images
Where
or pictures of things.
is this
?
or to what else in
That pleasing picture of objects represented in miniature on the retina of the eye
seems to have given rise to this illusive oratory. It was forgot that this repreand may with
sentation belongs rather to the laws of light than to those of life
equal elegance be seen in the camera obscura as in the eye and that the picture
vanishes for ever when the object is withdrawn." Dr.. Darwin, Zoonomia.
are deposited
rpHOUGH
J-
Memory
It
may be
desirable,
nervous
cell,
none the
it.
is
memory
in every
The permanent
effects of
has suffered
the
scar
on a
which
child's finger
out,
that the organic element of the part does not forget the impression
that has been
made upon
it
and
all
which
lie
memory
body cannot
fail
and in the
intestinal walls, in
those that are collected together in the spinal cord, in the cells
of the sensory and the motor ganglia,
MEMORY AND
chap, ix.]
when
IMAGINATION.
183
by some ex-
when
memory
When
or recollection.
by some
excited
an
we do
it is
is
cause,
internal
as
entirely unconscious.
when
a beginner
to
is
so
it is
with
many
ideas,
which are so
The organic
life
upon our
nervous centres, by which the mental faculties are built up, and
by which memory
is
rendered possible,
is
memory
There can be no
life.
of
what we
and nothing of
which we have had experience can be absolutely forgotten.
But it is most mischievous to regard mental phenomena as mere
pictures of nature, and the mind as a vast canvas, on which
they are cunningly painted.
Such representation, as Darwin
;
life;
ceivable only
is
by the aid
and
There
Differentiation.
is
there
there
is
is
the assimila-
there
is
in the production or
unlike ideas
and
In
fact,
no limit
combinations which
for
may
is
assignable
to
the
complexity of
go to the formation of an
idea.
Take,
it
184
new
to pass that a
nature answers,
that
hy which
the mind.
By
effected?
which nothing
and general or
abstract
which
in
ideas formed.
most abstract
is
[chap.
new
out-
creations of
is
the development of a
There
concept.
is,
as
it
were, an extrac-
new world
which these
essential ideas supersede the concrete ideas, the power of the
mind is most largely extended. Although there is no concrete
concrete
by the
and,
creation of a
in
none the
when
less,
and
real subjective
Thus
of the plant.
man
it is
that
idea of virtue
we can make
use of the
make
bered again,
we have
Herein, be
it
remem-
the acquired
movements through which complicated acts are automatically performed, and we are able to do,
almost in the twinkling of an eye, what would cost hours of
labour if we were compelled on each occasion to go deliberately
faculty of certain co-ordinate
is
by which
the equivalent, on
so
much
is
time and
an internal
is,
Creation
as every
is
new phase
not by
fits
and
of development
starts,
but
it is
is,
new
continuous
in nature.
But
general or abstract
ix.]
dent on memory,
tive,
is it not,
185
is it not, it
in fact, productive
Productive,
we
reply, as to
When
is
continually doing,
which
by
concrete,
observation, he has,
it
new forms
new embodiment.
when he
upon nature, to a
cultivated, and is enabled
ceeds to react
fully
new
creations.
scientific
to construct
wonderful works of
What
pro-
of,
nature
true
imagination but the nisus of nature's organic development displaying itself in man's highest function
'
man ?
There
What
is
is
human
art
going on a recrea-
This
Which
The
does
mend
nature
is
change
art,
an art
it,
rather
Winter's Tale.
but
186
[chap.
The productive
or creative
first
true concepts, or as
or
is
the individual
tion
it is
is
is
or is not in
according,
harmony with
nature.
imagina-
so the well-grounded
in fact, as
As
is
we
are remembering,
moment, and not able to reproduce the feelings of the past, misremembering. The faculty by which we recall a scene of the
past, and represent it vividly to the mind, is at bottom the same
faculty as that by which we represent to the imagination a scene
which we have not witnessed. " For (pavrdfycrOi and mcminissc,
fancy and memory, differ only in this, that memory supposes
How much of our
the time past, which fancy doth not."
perception even is actually imagination
The past perception
!
act,
What
shall be
entirely
admitted as a
upon
is
So strong
two
ideas, that
there
is,
demand
we
are
a discri-
indeed, almost as
is
"All power is of one kind," says Emerson, " a sharing of the nature of the
The mind that is parallel with the laws of nature will be in the current
world.
One man is made of the samo stuff of
of events, and strong with their strength.
which events are made is in sympathy with the course of things, can predict
them."
;
ix.]
in reasoning.
If a
new
187
by.
But
if
isolated as
it,
appears
connecting
it
in knowledge, and
mind
is
martyrdom
after a while,
of thus
however,
it,
in the
felt
is
it
it
organically to unite
distant
ideas.
It is
is
bering wrongly
is
"
" the
to
true to
mental development.
if
as,
what they
our mental
life is
As
so
it is
188
[chap.
there
following Schelling,
for imagination,
Its highest
affords us
process
named
is
it,
indicated
whosoever has
it
not will do
"What an amount
has been unwisely written by the sedulous followers of a socalled inductive philosophy in
and
disparagement of imagination
says Bacon,
"
woman
Men
should consider,"
in iEsop,
eggs a day
who expected
would lay two
man
were
It
to load his
excellence of
its
Because the least things and the greatest in Nature are indis-
bound together
as equally essnetial parts of the mysteharmonious whole, therefore the intuition into one
pure circle of her works by the high and subtle intellect of the
solubly
rious but
it.
investigation of a
law of them
itself
in the
Hence
new
will, as
mind
it
order of events
by a
by such an
intellect, the
after comparatively
few observations
the
mind manifests
its
ix.]
189
effort
food
is.
Mischief
is
capacity, nor a
mind
whom
who
those
possess an
its
who
human knowledge
as a
development that
it
is
conformable
should be, coincidently with advance, a retrograde metamorphosis, degeneration, or corruption of that
for assimilation,
dies
and which
is
which
ultimately rejected
its
life,
is
:
not fitted
as the
so false theories
body
and
That there
is
led astray
it
is
prevents the
It is not,
a mani-
human
doctrines,
and
however, in the
190
[chap.
mind may be
better
traced.
any other of the so-called mental faculties, the complex organization which mind really is.
It remains only to add here, that
the manifold disorders to which memory is liable illustrate in
Its disorders are
the most complete manner its organic nature.
numberless in degree and variety for there is not only every
degree of dulness, but there is met with eveiy variety of partial
;
loss, as of syllables in
names.
it
any system, although it is probable that a careful classification of them might be very usefid.
All that we can at present conclude from them is, first, that
memory is an organized product; and, secondly, that it is an
to
memory
soning power, or
is
is
no way remarkable
for rea-
the
regis-
plished
ticular
isolated facts
already appropriated, or
to recollect
them
memory
they
power of
principle, if he
is
is
well effected, so
generalization.
for par-
relation to ideas
The
latter is
of nervous element.
to
is
efforts
ix.]
any
by
first to attest
their sufferings
Long
before there
is
any palpable
before an individual
is
191
loss of
memory
in insanity, even
is
qualities
"he
is
his character is
not himself."
proceeds,
we
more or
element
memory
namely,
whence follow
finally,
memory.
understand
how
it
inco-
it,
is
past,
present.
The
man
and
it
vivacity,
and there
and
is less
and
less capacity to
is
a dulness of
Meanwhile,
and may be
is
sufficiently
less
how
it is
idea,
The
best possible
residua of impressions
memory
is
indeed
for the
young children
fallacious, and,
is
of
oilman and
fail in
judgment
The
he has forgotten more or less of the past, and has lost the
standard by which to measure the present perception, or because
he cannot take in the present perception and measures
by the past
it
it
entirely
192
Lastly,
it
[chap.
pain
is
not possible.
reason,
we cannot
emotion in which the idea or the form has been almost entirely
commotion where, in fact, the storm among the
lost in the
When we
admirably
it is by vivid representation
secondary
excitation of it: we
consequent
and
of its cause,
idea
generates
the emotion or the
and
the
remember the idea,
very
different matter
pain
is
a
But the sensation of
sensation.
it
is
How,
zation.
then, should
it
be accurately remembered
NOTES.
" The truth that memory comes into existence when the
connexions among psychical states cease to be perfectly automatic is in
complete harmony with the obverse truth, illustrated in all our experience, that as fast as the connexions of psychical states which we form
in memory become, by constant repetition, automatic, they cease to be
1
(p.
183).
We
part of memory.
relations
we remember
absolute.
which become
~No one
at
which he
is
not yet
is
looking
of the visual
moving about
is
a living animal.
It
1*-]
similarly, though,
when
words was
of successive
memory
at first a
yet
now
193
process as that
which we
(p. 186).
remem-
call
551.
p.
"The
in the
mouth of the
actors the
not he them
The
is
prompt him,
can
in no
manner
we
Werken
die
Brown
what he
constitutional
though we attribute
Again
und
gute
Laws
die hose
The
200),
the
tendencies in
is
differences of
some minds
when enumerating
much stress on
of Suggestion, lays
differences in individuals
to suggestions of analogy.
which
Temper, or Disposition.
it
JSsthetil;.
the Secondary
calls
fire,
welches seinen
we
is
Genius,
are wholly to
a powerful tendency
new
all to
There would be
were to suggest only, according to proximity,
nothing
new
if objects
co-existed with
when
them
is
we
are
14
194
Hence
succession."
He
mind
[chap. ix.
the
poetry
and spontaneously
suppose that
we can
will directly
will.
It is absurd,
any conception,
he
since, if
says, to
we know
what we
if backed by
happy genius, will be able skilfully, felicitously, and approximately,
and agreeably to the truth, to distribute its analyses into series, to
adjust and conclude them, of many analytic conclusions again to form
new analyses, and in the end to evolve its ultimate analyses."
Swedenborg's Animal Kingdom, vol. ii. p. 348.
In a note he adds
" This
is
corroborated by the
common
opinion,
that a powerful
memory.
memory
is
memory
But
it
Tor the
An
edifice
and the
materials.
These and
skill
this,
by an
ability, or
must be tasked
tiles,
PAET
II.
I.
II.
III.
IV.
.,
V.
i,
VI.
,,
VI I.
On the
On the
On the
On the
On the
On the
On the
Causes of Insanity.
Insanity of Early Life.
Varieties of Insanity.
Pathology of Insanitt.
Diagnosis of Insanity.
Prognosis of Insanity.
Treatment of Insanity.
CHAPTER
ON THE
I.
OF INSANITY.
CAliSES
are
THE causes of insanity, as usually enumerated by authors,
matter
so general
to settle in the
difficult,
insanity,
and vague as
But
really are.
it is
hardly less
and, there-
is
placed,
consequences in another.
would alone
of his insanity.
If all
it
is
ON THE CAUSES OF
198
INSANITY.
of causation,
its
gunpowder may be
which it is
The germs
might be gene-
traced to
it
(.chap.
and the
final
outbreak
rations.
When
time,
easy to perceive
it is
how
may
little is
life-
taught by specifying a
which may
symptoms of the
more of its real causa-
and often
is,
one of the
earliest
disease.
Do we not, in sober truth, learn
tion from a tragedy like " Lear " than from all that has yet been
An
artist
like
individual,
is
amidst so
much
apparent
Because of these
my
task
by
however,
in order to
afterwards.
Certainly,
ON THE CAUSES OF
i.]
INSANITY.
199
and the
it
of a moral nature,
of cases in
evidence of a successful adaptation to the conditions of existence, implies the preservation, well-being,
and development of
and
Now
death.
it
is
and
between the organism and the external world, which is the condition of health, may be disturbed either by a cause in the
organism, or by a cause in the external circumstances, or
by a
When
other.
it is
power which
it
itself,
it is
permanently the
relation,
when unfavourable
and
action
mental
to initiate
disease.
But
and a
discord, or
madman,
said, it
is
produced.
it
cannot con-
There
it
was
distinctly
them
shown that
certain residua
ON THE
200
C'A USES
OF INSANITY.
[chap.
life.
summate exaggeration
it
first
causes.
PrcdisjMsing Causes.
There
religion, the
form of
its
government and
its
inhabi-
which are not without influence in determining the proportion of mental diseases amongst them.
Eeliable statistical
tants,
it
has
increased with the progress of civilization has not been positively settled.
it is
a rare
disease amongst barbarous people, while, in the different civilized nations of the world, there is, so far as can be ascertained,
an average of about one insane person in five hundred inhabitants.
Theoretical considerations would lead to the expectation
of an increased liability to mental disorder with an increase in
the complexity of the mental organization as there is a greater
liability to disease, and the possibility of many more diseases, in
a complex organism like the human body, where there are many
kinds of tissues and an orderly subordination of parts, than in a
simple organism with less differentiation of tissue and less com:
plexity of structure;
with
so in the
manifold, special, and complex relations with the external, which a state of civilization implies, there is plainly the
favourable occasion of many derangements. The feverish activity
of
its
life,
on the causes of
l]
strain of
INSANITY.
201
may
There
is
a penalty
The
sort of insanity
It
plainly impossible,
is
he must
an intelligent European
first
convey
insane,
development
come under
care
risen to 30,869.
Now
it is
under observation
of paupers,
who
longation of
life
(2) to
are
now
in those
the larger
number
sent to asylums
of insane, especially
and
(3) to
the pro-
proper
202
[chap.
In
fact, it
or
But,
when
must be
it
of insanity,
the struggle of
life
beings in nature.
They
thrown up by the
silent
but strong current of progress they are the weak crushed out
by the strong in the mortal struggle for development they are
;
always "
to
be weak
is
by vigorous mental
which they testify. Everywhere and
to
off
be miserable."
this
the
almost entire
however,
women
are
ON THE CAUSES OF
i.]
INSANITY.
203
they are not
life,
and dependence.
for her
find no opening
by
is
yet
selling
the charms of her person to gratify the lusts of her lord and
master.
Under the
and ministering, in a
who
silent
aims and
manner, to the
Practically, then,
woman
has no honourable
if that aim
Through generations her character
has been formed with that chief aim it has been made feeble
by long habit of dependence by the circumstances of her
is
missed,
all else is
missed.
expense of the
life
intellectual.
is
much
Now,
therefore,
are so
life
when
many and
is
the luxuries
costly that
outward
to
an unsatisfied sexual
instinct.
Disturbances of
all sorts
ensue,
and social customs debar them from the means of relief which
men
have both in active employment and in unmarried sexual indulMasturbation is undoubtedly sometimes provoked, and
gence.
aggravates the evil for which
sexual passion
it
was sought
all
woman's thoughts,
is
as a relief.
Let
it
and actions
the
ON THE CAUSES OF
204
as soon as
it
life,
INSANITY.
it
[chap.
them
whole system
in restlessness
and
feels
irritability,
the
and
effects,
in a morbid
exhibits
self-feeling
aim
of the
of
which there
is
notion.
of the health of a
Not
towns.
which
occasions in
it
and
and transmitted
acquired
ill
offspring.
as evil heritages
generations
to future
the
some kind
is
but
it
chapter of his
and, on
It
is
between phthisis
of a family,
it is
it
occurs,
when
its
members
i.]
When we
205
has taken
spirit,
from healthy
less degeneration
it,
life
whole,
will
it
one part
be
may
next generation
mined in
its
to
special
external conditions of
life.
least,
of the
ill
effects
which come from some of the conditions of our present civilization is seen in the general dread and disdain of poverty, in
The practical -gospel of the
the eager passion to become rich.
age, testified everywhere by faith and works, is that of moneypetting
men are estimated mainly by the amount of their
wealth, take social rank accordingly, and consequently bend all
their energies to acquire that which gains them esteem and
;
influence.
The result is that in the higher departments of trade
and commerce speculations of all sorts are eagerly entered on,
and that many people are kept in a continued state of excitement and anxiety by the fluctuations of the money market. In
the lower branches of trade there is the same eager desire for
petty gains
and the continued absorption of the mind in these
small acquisitions generates a littleness of mind and meanness
of spirit, where it does not lead to actual dishonesty, which
are nowhere displayed in a more pitiable form than in certain
petty tradesmen. The occupation which a man is entirely engaged in does not fail to modify his character, and the reaction
upon the individual's nature of a life which is being spent with
the sole aim of becoming rich, is most baneful.
It is not that
the fluctuations of excitement unhinge the merchant's mind and
;
maniacal
lead to
happen
it is
outbreaks,
that also
is
although
that
does
sometimes
occasionally witnessed;
crisis
it is
egoistic
ON THE CAUSES OF
206
INSANITY.
[chap.
tion of instances,
it is
that
it is
;
that, in fact, it is
man
extremely likely
In several
which the father has toiled upwards from poverty
to vast wealth, with the aim and hope of founding a family, I
have witnessed the results in a degeneracy, mental and physical,
of his offspring, which has sometimes gone as far as extinction
transmitted as an evil heritage to his children.
instances in
When
the evil
moral conception or
of a true
altruistic
feeling.
may
capacity
Whatever
hold, I cannot
but think, after what I have seen, that the extreme passion
getting rich, absorbing the whole energies of a
Without going on
to
and appear
may
so far predispose to
in the future.
arise out
insanity directly,
it is
to moral
life.
ration
-either
for
does pre-
defect, or to
insanity,
life,
it
it
is
shall be predetermined
necessary to bear in
people
mean
is
particular
is
If this be so,
is after all
is
may we
not then
a testimony of deve-
ON THE CAUSES OF
i.]
out of good
may we
not, indeed,
INSANITY.
207
Sex.
Esquirol
"
there be evil in the city, and the Lord have not done
it
"
Shall
frequent occurrence
now
is
true.
Dr.
Thurnam
affirms
men
to be
Eecently
If
my
more
it
has
liable to suffer
about
five
women*
On
whichever
lies, it is
side,
probably incon-
there
is
by the puerperal
state,
and
at the
It
population slightly exceeds that of men, and that general paralysis, which
particularly fatal, is almost confined to men.
is
ON THE CAUSES OF
208
INSANITY.
[chap.
is
in
woman, by
men and
little,
as the
Next
to the inherited
life
good or
life;
evil nature,
and which,
may
be fostered or
therefore, according
How
for ever.
condemned
often one is
to see,
mischief!
the young
to its
is
mind
is
is
when
taint, evil
may
still
less pernicious
learns the
life.
is
Where
there
germ
of future
repressing the
child's
brooding, or to
need of
when
be wrought by enforcing an
disease.
taint or vice of
development
no innate
and by a
its evil
love,
it
never
of a beneficial kind.
feeling,
life,
and by an
By
egoistic
development in
all
self-
the relations of
ON THE CAUSES OF
I.]
that insanity
is
INSANITY.
200
it,
while every step taken in such deterioration will so far predispose to insanity under adverse circumstances of
It is hardly necessary to point out
how
ill
to store the
is
mind with
purposes of female
As
greatest condemnation.
is its
life.
life
useful
It is peculiarly
;
hut that
the education of
it is
so
women
is
mode
to be
Religion.
is
The
is
money-getting
Now, without
Christianity.
rich
fail
beneficial.
guiding gospel of
real
most
it
honestly,
that
is,
life
becomes a systematic
With
a profession of
man
to
conform
to.
Such persons
life
demand any
it
is
and of a respectable
belong to
it
does not
is
its
members;
it
desires to
it
is
it
aims at the
Rut
it
may
be
15
210
really influencing
life,
when we have
weigh
to
in
some
Eoman
of its forms.
religious
on cha-
practically to
the
its effect
we have
deal with
[chap.
life,
of
cause of insanity.
fail to
life
having of necessity
much
self-feeling,
they naturally
fly to
a self-brooding and
attracts to
functions, is
awakened
to self-consciousness
own
one's
purposes of one's
predisposing to insanity.
that
live,
morbid
How
only
fly for
direct
ourselves.
is
feelings
way of
we truly
To
it
It is
only in actions
easy to perceive.
come under
my
Among
some
in
those
members
of the
England who are so much addicted to playing at Eoman Catholicism, the most baneful effect is sometimes produced on women
through the ignorant influence and misapplied zeal of priests,
who mistake for deep religious feeling what is really sometimes
a morbid self-feeling, arising out of an unsatisfied sexual instinct,
tl
cannot, I
religion
211
be
believe,
justly-
who
have been born and bred up within its pale. On them its effect
is rather to arrest mental development by imposing the divine
mind
in leading-
strings.
habit of
But the
by some of the
life is
influence of
Eoman
Catholicism, as represented
degree mischievous
it is
in the highest
is
of those
who
who
becomes the
and
selfish
and relations,
and are ever eager for change, excitement, and attention, at
whatever cost. Without doubt a hot religious perversion, and
the earnest display of a feverish religious zeal, are, in some
instances, really a phase in the manifestations of a morbid
disposition, not unlikely to pass at some time into actual mental
are unable to conform long to their social duties
derangement.
In weighing the
is
effect
necessary to bear in
mind
religion, it
is
some extent the result of his character and mode of development. The egoist whose vanity and self-love have not other
to
extreme
The victim
of a
morbid
self-feeling, or
an
is
ignorant.
over-reaching and
it
their
deceiving others,
in the
we
lives.
When
it
issue of the
mode
of
ON THE CAUSES OF
2]2
INSANITY.
[chap.
with
collected
Whether
a par-
whether those
liable to
greater
activity
that should be
insanity
it
so.
conceivable
it is
how
certain that
is
the married.
it is
may
lysis,
mon form
Life.
Insanity
life.
rare
is
it,
before
Idiocy
is
puberty,
and even
in children partake a
its
degene-
many
mock
Hereditary Predisposition.
ON THE CAUSES OF
i.]
INSANITY.
213
The
main
many
is
increase of
is
the
Moreau
This proportion
as high as nine-tenths, by
is
as
fix it as
Of
fifty
whom I was
was strongly
there was the positive
that
is,
in fourteen
them
Two
consequence of degene-
important considerations in
first,
degrees of intensity, so
certain
more
as,
may be
them
of very different
on the other
parents, but
hysteria,
may
then,
may
predispose
"Whatever,
predisposition
is
positively ascertained,
.
it
may, I think, be
or
some remoter
relative,
how
impossible
men
and has
notably
it is that statistics
are, it is
easy to perceive
here, as in so
many
ON THE CAUSES OF
214
INSANITY.
[chap.
is
tigation.
the
attention to the
fail to attract
metamorphoses -which diseases undergo in hereditary transWe certainly dismission, as a matter demanding exact study.
tinguish in our nomenclature the different nervous diseases, but,
as we actually meet with them in practice, the disorders of the
different nervous centres
may
monly regarded
enough in individual
life, is
Now
as typical.
much more
when
plainly displayed
we scan
If,
processes
neously
then
it is
made
sufficiently evident
how
how
the
child
may be
the
one
member
afflicted
not
uncommon
to find
disease,
and
and when
it
More than
may modify in
the
mode
this
an innate taint
manner
a striking
ON THE CAUSES OF
i.]
INSANITY.
215
and the
upon the weak part,
and
offspring:
diabetes,
scrofula, syphilis,
phthisis,
may
The
of
interesting researches
by better
unless counteracted
what form
soever,
is
impossible.
Indeed, insanity
may
tally
unsound persons
may
summed up
First
thus
generation.
degradation.
Immorality.
Hereditary
Sobriety.
Second generation.
tacks.
may
be
Alcoholic
excess.
drunkenness.
Brutal
Maniacal
at-
General paralysis.
Third generation.
Systematic mania.
Fourth generation.
Hypochondria.
Lypemania.
Homicidal tendencies.
Feeble
intelligence.
Stupidity.
First
ON THE CAUSES OF
216
INSANITY.
[chap.
movement which
retrograde
we have
is
external,
varieties
fit
For, in truth,
we may
not im-
is
a retrograde metamorphosis
we have examples
of the
morbid
social fabric
and
death,
from
on the
in the
way
of
if
inevitably engender
it,
stability.
high
are themselves
varieties
but, if
But, however
disorder incompatible
with
its
estate,
animal, though he
may
spoken of by some
degeneration,
it
writers, signifies
As
no more than a
among plants, where degeneration of species notably gives rise to a new morbid kind, so
lunatics and idiots represent new morbid kinds
it is in man
resemblance to the animals.
it
is
is
wrecks.
insanity descends
suffer
it
remains
now
or predisposing causes of
In doing
this it will
ON THE CJ OSES OF INSANITF.
I.]
217
other words, to treat of the causation of insanity from a pathological point of view.
PROXIMATE CAUSES OF DISORDER OF THE IDEATIONAL NERVOUS CENTRES, THE SUPREME GANGLIONIC CELLS OF THE
CEREBRAL HEMISPHERES, THE INTELLECTORIUM COMMUNE.
T1IE
1.
vous Centres.
differences
ment
It is
between
men
complex circumstances of
civilized
And
if
a person,
briefly indicated
divisions
(a)
here
as falling under
arrest of cerebral
218
idiots
men
and in
of intelligence,
[chap.
to be less
there were no posterior lobes, the cerebellum being only halfGratiolet found in the
idiot,
much
carefully examined,
(Ateles)."
Though he
"f"
an increase of
cerebra are
much
size gene-
Consequently the
and deeper.
Not only
is
the brain-weight in
tables of Dr.
to
body
is "
more
1 to
14 respectively.
Philosophical Transactions,
loc. cil.
ON THE CAUSES OF
I.]
INSANITY.
219
development,
is
strict
wild men, as of Peter the Wild Boy, and the young savage of
In
pathological specimens*
condition
is
than the
and lead
and a con-
various kinds.
hindered by
Of
evil,
and give
is
is
morbid influence which is the cause of cretinism, whether malarious or not, it can admit of no question that it acts upon the mother
perniciously,
(c)
It is
child.
may
And
birth.
although an objection might here again be made to the description of such a defect as original, yet if
we
reflect that
the
life,
we may admit
development impossible to
*
be,
heim, M.D.
By
J. S.
Spurz-
ON THE CAUSES OF
220
There are
original.
many
INSANITY.
idiots in
body-
development after
through
its
epilepsy
is
birth, while
as well as
are those in
and which
is
is
In any large idiot asylum there are to be found some who, without any particular deformity, without any observable disease of
brain or defective development of
it,
be,
may
ON THE CAUSES OF
I.]
INSANITY.
221
is to draw from them the certain conby reason of unknown conditions affecting
be every degree of imperfect development of mind and
here
body down
When
all.
abundant room
its
The exceeding
made
still
sensibility of
at
one point
is
almost instantaneously
of delicate, active,
is
without
felt at
is still
say what
is
life
of nature
most subtle
inquiries.
Who
can
and smells
Could
indeed
it
and
and developed, we
may
second reason
why
there
serious
It
would
certainly be
so to speak, that
men
succeeded, after
between the
cells.
The
different nerve-cells,
infi-
communication
fibres and
communication in the
supreme centres would simply render impossible a certain association of ideas, or the transference of the activity of the idea to
a nerve fibre
Thirdly,
it
must be admitted
of defect cf
ON THE CAUSES OF
222
INSANITY.
[chap.
changes which,
still
less discoverahle than physical changes in so complex a compound. Examine the cells of a man's brain at the end of a day
and
at the
what
difference
an incapacity of function.
It is beyond question then that there
may
be modifications
its
of
chemical
by us, do nevertheless
most gravely affect function, and are thus most surely testified.
To affirm, then, that all men are born equal, as is sometimes
heedlessly done,
to
is
sition as it is possible to
is
of faces or of
voices
as
is the innate incapacity of any developand between the two extremes every gradation exists.
ment
is
is
quick
is
that,
with difficulty
though
whde
in
by which the reaction is exactly adequate to the impression, and the consequent assimilation is most complete.
These
natural differences in the talcing up of impressions plainly hold
good also of the further processes of digestion and combination
exists
ON THE CAUSES OF
i.]
we
INSANITY.
223
the quality of
it is
wonderful
indeed
how
becomes
it
difficult it is to
accept
heartily,
it
to overlook it habitually
how
easy
but as soon as
we
have attained
to a
is
certain
character.
But,
now that observation reveals more and more clearly every day
how much the capacity and character, bodily and mental, of the
dependent upon his ancestral antecedents, it is imdeny that a man may suffer irremediable ill through
the misfortune of a bad descent. Each one is a link in the chain
individual
is
possible to
the idiot
is
unaccountable casualty
as elsewhere
in
nature.
Viewed on
its
physical side, as
predisposition to insanity
it
means nothing
less
there
is
an
The
retro-
and proceeding
examples of dementia,
is
224
the infertile
idiot's brain,
[chap.
and
which they
constituted
is
the same, as
appears to be
it
and
are
but so long as we
it.
tive,
he
is
him
liable to
although he
give
it, is
unstable or defec-
man
events.
we
may
it
may
while an extra-
or diathesis, as in algebra
unknown
quantity,
it
that
is,
is
reaction outwards
there
is,
as
it
an inability of calm
its
energy
is
dissipated in
Here, as
ness.
power, innate
elsewhere, co-ordination
or
acquired,
of function signifies
development.
Is
any
it
how
impossible
it
is to
do
by considering him
full justice to
as
an
isolated
ON THE CAUSES OF
i.]
INSANITY.
225
scious
life.
like
No
one, be
consti-
he ever so cunning in
himself
which fundamentally
When
it is
all
rest,
the substratum in
conscious mental
radically defective,
it
were as hope-
less to
for a cottage as to
upon the
implies
when
Any mental
and cannot
fail to
be a
that he
is
evolution, it transforms
entity,
2.
known
to
when comparison
is
there
is
obviously an
16
active
interchange
of
ON THE CAUSES OF
226
INSANITY.
[chap.
chemist
is
an
it,
act
When
there
is
The
thought
turn
is
is
to
effect of active
function.
of blood degene-
may
easily
prolonged, or
when
is
too
much
an inability to
think, and confusion of thought, emotional depression and irritability, swimming in the head, disturbance of sight and of hearing,
testify to a morbid condition of things.
It is striking how comcongestion
is
mental
thereby
activity,
:
an
and how
is
accompanies the
stag-
in vivid affright
of his intellect.
passive,
when
is
maintained in health
the
is lost,
ON THE CAUSES OF
i.]
INSANITY.
is
movements
With
sions.
227
or convul-
is
necessarily abolished
and such
by the morbid,
dictated
Some
active inflammation
than as
if
mental
activity, as
as
its
of
not otherwise
or as
full of
it is
safe
sound and
fury,
activity.
is
too
it
has been
known
that
when
little
pains and
swimming
sequence of congestion.
nerve-cell,
hindered
appears to be so different.
not so different
In
reality,
when we proceed
to
stasis
reparative material
is
by reason
and
little
deficient circulation
is
it
is
is
and
wanted,
of a defective blood
irregularities in the
it
off
Temporary
not carried
spot where
brought to the
is
its
entrance
is
prevented.
nervous centres may, and often do, pass away without leaving
any
ill
quently,
lasting, their
disappearance
is
fre-
by
ON THE CAUSES OF
228
INSANITY.
[chap.
physiological action.
to give timely
gives
but
it
heed to the
is
earliest
importance
a marked
upon the function of the supreme cerebral cells. The
influence of alcohol upon the mental function furnishes the simeffect
we have
The
is
here,
of alcohol
is
to pro-
mind
sometimes
after this
some
and
last
we have
is
we may
Or
acted.
if
may
still
more slowly
of his descendants
for the
it
life,
we
lives
if
ON THE CAUSES OF
i.
It is
INSANITY.
229
how
man
another
its
of one
it
An
exact differential
Many
as opium, belladonna,
stimulate and ultimately derange the function of
Indian hemp,
It is deserving of
we are unable
may be also that there is shadowed
It
latter.
their effects proves that the combination which they form with
nerve element is temporary, it must be borne in mind with
so that
more
when
they are
efficient to initiate
230
something bred in
or
it,
by reason
[chap.
of the retention in
it
it.
of some
Without
may
tions, the
imaginable
he
will again have a different aspect, yet for the time being he
is
the victim of a
is
of no avail
and which
is
conceptions.
to a
cholia of insanity.
its
it
may
The mental
manifestations.
rium,
may be due
to the non-evacuation
but as
we know
very
little at
we must
menses
at their
on
my
care,
the
fits
In one
always came
ON THE CAUSES OF
i.J
INSANITY.
231
no
fits
record,
When we
fluid, that,
blood
" burnished
is itself
a living, developing
it
circulates
and
it
to those parts
where
it
may
either be appropriated
it is
plain
There
metastasis.
is
that
its
existence
a continued
is
may
as
not reach
some
its
its
complex
may
its
The blood
itself
formation,
or,
wretched conditions of
life
still
there
is
further back,
by reason of
in consequence a defective
and easily exhausted. In the condition known as anaemia, we have an observable defect in the blood and palpable
headaches, giddiness, low
nervous suffering in consequence
spirits, and susceptibility to emotional excitement reveal the
morbid effects. Poverty of blood, it can admit of no doubt,
feeble,
it
It is in this
way probably
that
ill
conditions of
232
existence,
ance,
as
overcrowding, bad
air,
[chap.
thereof,
as physical deterioration
of the race.
There
is
That these
organic
is proved by
and small-pox. Now,
the general laws observable in the actions of morbid poisons
fippear for the most part similar to those which govern the
and as the Woorara poison
action of medicinal substances
completely paralyses the nerves and does not affect the muscles,
or as strychnia poisons the spinal centres, and leaves the cerebral centres unaffected, so it may be presumed that a particular
organic virus may have a predominant affinity for a particular
nervous centre, and work its mischievous work there. It is
certain that in some states of the constitution an organic virus
is generated in the blood, or elsewhere in the organism, which
the
symptoms
element
which
fatal as a
is,
indeed, as
the
life
of
nervous
surely,
passing into
it,
may
act, is
which the
been time to
feel
the
of malignant typhus
when
rise to
concentrated may,
when
severely at one
instances
its
it
period or other of
its
action;
less
but in some
again, in
The
system more or
its
action
upon
it,
so
appeared as the
inter-
ON THE CAUSES OF
i.]
INSANITY.
233
symptoms the
patient has
tertian or
for inter-
mittent fever*
less
sometimes predispose to an
still
Not only may a morbid poison thus attack the nervous system,
or a part of it, but it should be borne in mind that a particular
virus will most likely produce
its
effect
by which a perverted
irri-
may
irritability or
derangement,
at the
more.
same time, he had a similar attack, and again a third, after three days
He was cured by quinine. Die Palhologie und Thcrapie der psychischen
Krankhcitcn.
Von
Dr.
W.
Griesinger.
ON THE CAUSES OF
234
INSANITY.
[cnAr.
as melancholia, or
designate mania.
Though
greater irritability
there
may be no
itself,
fail to feel
any external
mind
happens
But
as there is
but in
its
between the
an
irresistible
our mental
life
we
make
commonly
continually
states, it
an internally-caused emo-
an objective cause of
it,
and, thinking
harmony with
of a surrounding in
it,
his inner
it
life.
by creation
The form
crystallization or
morbid emotion
which prevails, or it may be suggested, as it often is, by some
prominent external event. What we have to bear in mind with
condensation, so to
speak, of the
particular
morbid action
now
is,
that a series of
morbid growth
there.
may
completely
nerve-cell, as elsewhere, in
of.
Thus, then,
it
is to
is
first effect
ON THE CAUSES OF INSANITY.
I.]
of
continued action
some kind
third effect of
its
is
235
;
more acute
But a
is to
active delirium
is
upon the
good hope of
is
its
the delirium
passing away.
is
can pass away save with life itself, is the natural issue of longcontinued chronic morbid action in the supreme centres it is
:
mental disorganization.
mention
it
that the relation between the supreme nervous centres and the
blood
is
parts of the
body and
we
some
and recognise it as
the definite expression of a certain form of morbid action in
certain of the supreme centres, neither more nor less wonderful
than the persistence of a definite morbid action in any other organ.
If there is defective or disordered nutrition of the brain, and some
striking event or some powerful shock produces a great impression
on the mind, constraining it into a particular form of activity
in other words, engrossing its whole energy in a particular gloomy
of the body,
abstract, ideal,
and incomprehensible
entity,
236
Reflex Irritation.
3.
Like
like
ideational centres
may be
effect
centre,
or
of the
cells
Why
such morbid
is
[chap.
how
it is
is
it
that a
wound
in the
hand
it
or
why
epilepsy should be
fever,
delirium,
stomach
and worms
occasion a surprising
variety
of
symptoms."*
These
effects
Amongst many
modern
reflex irritation.
illustration of this
manner of pathological
by Baron Larrey
is
a striking example.
soldier,
who had
on the
which passed inwards and towards the left. When a
sound was introduced into this opening and made to touch the
been shot in the abdomen, had a
fistulous
opening
right side,
first
fell
of the limbs
wound
or Hysteric Orders.
1765.
Von
J.
L. C. Schroeder
1S63.
i.]
237
After a
it nervous, would not sanction any purging.
continuance of the fever for two days, hallucinations of vision
occurred he Saw a multitude of people around him, although
deeming
These continued
greatly
by means
Many
of male fern*
;
but
it
worm
like cases
is
upon the
brain,
Azam
M.
there was
neck and ulceration of the inferior lip, in one case
in three cases there were
fungous and fibrous growths of the uterus and in one case
there was painful engorgement of it with leucorrhcea. Schroeder
its
who
suffered at
uteri,
and in
whom
Hemming
relates
moved
aiid I
* Griesinger
accidental
wound
Hcrzog
Jordens
tells
woman
after
an instance of insanity
of a boy who was attacked
relates
foot,
ON TEE CAUSES OF
238
two
INSANITY.
[chap.
woman
and,
being rational.*
which
health and in
action
is
life
reflex
both in
disease.
is
afforded
by the
On
diseases.
of this intimate
sympathy
is
mental disposition
when
may unquestion-
it is
primary and of
if
mind favourable
In any case
it
constitutes a frame of
rangement.
It is uncertain
whether
no doubt of the
it
this
is
kind of sympathetic
some other way but there can be
acts in
fact that a
by
woman
may
fall
is different
Shenck
bare
arm
two from his arm. He mentions another pregnant female, who had such an
urgent desire to eat the flesh of her husband, that she killed him and pickled the
Mesh, that
it
might serve
for several
I.]
239
after
and
more different still from that mental disorder occurring some
weeks or months after, and due seemingly to the exhaustion produced by lactation, together with depressing moral influences.
The earliest and mildest effect of sympathetic morbid action
delivery,
and which
will be, as
it is
is
with the
is
produce a
functionally
then
is
morbid cause.
When,
for
example, a
woman
with morbid
irrita-
when
it
There
is
the
the brain
and
is
declaring
it
directly in consciousness.
fail,
much
when
rightly appre-
organic motion, visible or invisible, sensible or insensible, ministraut to the noblest purposes or to the humblest aims, does not
pass
away
thrills
issueless,
but has
its
due
effect
"
Man
is all
symmetric,
And
all to all
Each part
life.'*
ON THE CAUSES OF
240
INSANITY.
[chap.
or
when
it is
when
it
by pain
or
declaring
some more
special
when
its
energy
in the sensational
itself
anomalous
and
feeling,
in
It often
for
are,
is
far advanced,
while there
is
and
then
it is
entire unconsciousness
and an
entire un-
may
delusion, or
whole
belly the
who,
when
woman who
Esquirol gra-
of apostles, prophets,
tribe
by melancholia,
disorder.
got a
man
attempts,
by vomiting and
purgative, however, he
is
After a
way
upon by
secret
my
fire,
to
care
inter-
of
some form of
by the occurrence
It is
by
virtue of this
ON THE CAUSES OF
u]
INSANITY.
241
sufficiently
marked
awaken any
more
to
when
When
examples of
this
After
is
recalled
all,
kind of action in
the
waking con-
its
met
these
which prevails
illustrating
whom
St.
salacious delusions
derangement of the
by
and in some of
women
their lovers,
these, as in
is
is
is
by the
there
sexual system.
who
nuda etiam
and the sense of touch has close relations with the ccenaesthesis.
In insanity we find these physiological relations become some*
"And
as love
and beauty
unresisting beauty."
17
it
stir
up heat
proceeds,
IIobbtA.
some
ON THE CAUSES OF
242
INSANITY.
[chap.
organs, perverting the taste, gives rise to the delusion that the
food
is
poisoned
and more or less loss or perversion of sensiwhich is not uncommon amongst the insane,
A woman
tells,
asked
how he
if
he were
out real anger, but with an energy of language that was habitual
to him,
got
ON THE CAUSES OF
I.]
he'll
take
my
243
is
INSANITY.
Landahly anxious
to give
due weight
made
five
to defects of sensibility
fre-
The first of
these is the 'prmcordial form, where there are morbid sensation,
sense of pressure, or pain about the epigastrium, from which
follow fear and mental anguish, with corresponding ideas and
habits of thought.
The second is the vertiginous form, in which
some anomaly of muscular sensibility exists. In the third,
which he calls the paraesthetica! form, there are anomalous sensations in different parts of the body, attributed by the patients
commonly to external machinations. The fourth is the anccsthctic form, in which absence of sensibility is often the cause of
self-mutilation.
Lastly, there is the hallucinatory form, which
obviously needs no explanation here.
portant to say further
is,
All that
seems im-
it
phenomena
made
in the First
The centre
of
life.
morbid
irritation
by
which
is
so apt at times to
not
time
it
uncommon
and
symptoms
it
of
When
all
their gravity.
it,
and
it
is
in the brain
may
may
but they
sympathetic or reflex
action,
derangement of function
thus
without
warning.
ON THE CAUSES OF
244
INSANITY.
[chap.
sciousness, or a
Furthermore
it
is
a matter of observation
it
is
of things
is
mind by
of a limited local
analogy of what
we
have occasion
describe
to
is
first
in strict
observe elsewhere.
This baneful
effect
we
shall
as
some convulsive
and the convulsions
and, conversely, the convulsions shall supervene and the
Dr. Darwin long ago observed,
" in
cease
delirium cease."
It is
between the degrees of secondary pathowhich a morbid cause may give rise. The
sudden way in which extreme mental symptoms appear, and the
equally sudden way in which they sometimes disappear, as in
abscess of the brain, prove that extreme derangement may be
centres, to distinguish
logical disturbance to
what
is
called functional
for it is impossible to
suppose that
Although,
assumed
to
may
he
experiments of
Du
Bois
Eeymond and
The induction
may
of recog-
ON THE CAUSES OF
i.]
by
function
INSANITY.
245
constitution
in the physical
and
modifications
by causes which
they were
if
artificial.
This
fail, if
disease, just as
when long
enduring,
The longer a
the more danger
is
allowed to continue,
and
this serious
effect
4.
function
is
As
it
is
the manifestation of
obvious that,
if
the due
as surely as if
it
it
force the
The
is
restoring as statical
break down
and one
is
is
of the first
sleeplessness.
falls into
To provoke repose
finally raves.
the power of
it
abused nature
" of
nervous
element.
It
is,
however,
when
mind
is
accompanied with
most enervating when the
intellectual activity is
it is
exhausted.
What
its
energy
is
soonest
ON THE CAUSES OF
246
INSANITY.
[chap
life
rest.
The same
objects or events
it
at the time
according
as some-
If
psychical tone by
excite
indifferent, will
up congenial
ideas
of a
event
is
by reason
some morbid
degeneration of insanity.
a
is
man
may
lead to the
is
nervous centres
bility
is
when
increased,
differ
from the
inferior
better
movements
is
an exmanifest
conducive to
and
its
health,
ill-regulated
mind
ON THE CAUSES OF
i.]
INSANITT.
247
mind temporarily
prostrate.
properly
fall
reflections that,
from a patho-
may
the
mind
is
wounds
Thence
do.
it
When
by
its
finally
it
may
still
act mischievously
life,
and thus
men
to
mental derangement,
it
248
[chap.
but
it
exhibits
its
A fatal drain
may
upon the
physical function
by
by the excessive
exercise of a
the cause
is
in continual operation,
may end
if
in inflammation
hallucinations,
and
when
ill
consequences,
may
still
lead
ON THE CAUSES OF
I.]
INSANITY.
249
either
by
causing, as
gave
rise to
which
been
made
is
The
caries of the
bones of the
by extension
are,
may
skull,
which
tion of the
diffuse exudation in or
is
now known
to lead
may lead
membranes of the
or less defined
an occasional
of
of a grave kind
is
to secondary
may
mental disease
by a low
tumour {syphiloma)
The
syphilitic
xiii.
1857), has
Out
men and
women).
Ill
mental disorder to
complete unconsciousness after the accident in 16, some insensibility and conIn 19 cases the mental disorder
fusion of ideas ; in 12, simple dull headache.
;
came on in the course of a year after the injury, but not till mnch later in many
In most of the cases the
and in 4 cases after more than ten years.
patients were disposed to congestion of the brain and emotional disturbance, from
the time of the injury, on taking a moderate quantity of spirituous liquor
frequently there was singing in the ears or difficulty of hearing and very commonly the disposition was changed, and the patient was prone to outbursts of
anger or excesses. The prognosis was very unfavourable the issue in 7 cases was
dementia with paralysis, while 10 went on to death.
others,
250
[chap.
the connective tissue which exists throughout the brain, and the
destruction of the nervous cells being secondary.
more
But
of this,
hereafter.
CONCLUDING KEMAEKS.
Aii important, but obscure question, of which
ever taken now,
as
what
takes.
is
is
not so
much what
is
little
tbought
is
rise to
different forms
temperament
will, it
insanity, the
On
rangement.
may be
of disease
the melancholic
for the
organic
itself,
Furthermore,
it is
of processes and
faculties
even
its
easily understood
and disorder of
how
its
morbid
action.
The
may
it
will then be
be the confusion
and in
we
will
there
ON THE CAUSES OF
I.]
INSANITY.
251
phenomena
of an
and more varied than the ruins of a log hut. Tor the same
reason the insanity of early life always has more or less of the
character of imbecility or idiocy about
the depth, as
the development so
is
it
is
as
is
the height so
is
The
the degeneration.
development of the sexual system at puberty, and the great revolution which is thereby effected in the mental life, must needs
often give a colour to the
phenomena
During the energy of mental function in active manhood mania is the form of degeneration which appears most
frequently to occur, while as age advances and energy declines
melancholia becomes more common.
Because no two people are exactly alike in mental character
and development, therefore no two cases of mental degeneraThe brain is different in the matter of
tion are exactly alike.
its development from other organs of the body; for while the
development and function of other organs are nearly alike in
different individuals, and the diseases of them accordingly have
a general resemblance, the real development of the brain as the
organ of mental life only takes place after birth, and, presenting
puberty.
may
insanity
Insanity
will
is
an example of individual
degeneration, and represents individual mental life under other
;
we
is
typical.
Weigh carefully
the
may be
deficient
(c)
of degree of degeneration.
(b)
after birth,
of
and
another
infinite
so that
no
varieties
man
where
ON THE CAUSES OF
252
INSANITY.
[crjlv.
is
The
insane or not.
most
difficult
responsible for
sane people
one
who under
majority of cases
are certainly
do, and,
are
who
what they
when his
he knows
madman
is
interest specially
notably capable of
demands
it
in the
between
right
knowing the right, he is instigated by the impulses of his morbid nature to do the wrong, and is not held in
check by those motives which suffice to restrain the sane portion
of the community.
and wrong
but,
made
is
commonly done.
it is
man and
his surroundings
he
Now, whosoever
to circumstances.
either
is
unequal to the
human
life,
immanent
must fall by
is
away
like
amongst nations individuals decay and perish in crowds as the dead leaves fall from
the living branches.
Nature indeed counts individual life very
cheaply in the development of vegetable and animal life she
sacrifices numberless seeds and germs, of fifty bringing but one
dead branches from the living
tree, so
to bear,
sacrifices
pass
behoves us not to
let
conveys
life."
lesson
which
their
fitted to
history
teach the
ON THE CAUSES OF
I.]
INSANITY.
When
he
is
253
APPENDIX.
la order
insanity, I
my
under
A captain
in the army,
he died.
His
became partner
in a great manufacturing business, and, having amassed enormous
his family,
grandfather began
made
wealth,
life
as a
common
a great display in
as
porter, ultimately
aim of his
life
anxieties.
The mental
An
connexion with a
cesses,
with
woman
death
of his
free indulgence in
wife,
formed a
of loose character.
general paralysis.
4.
A conceited Cockney,
London
and
and with
masturbation, and
Hopelessly addicted to
tailor
spirit,
such cause.
Two
suffered
A bad organization,
6.
An unmarried
excesses,
training.
though of good
social position
and coarsest
and of independent means
254
gaol.
No aim
extreme
7.
egoistic
development in
publican,
own
woman,
set.
nor occupation in
little for
life,
but
stupify
bar-parlour.
furious
it
ascertainable,
all regards.
had done
31,
set.
[ciiap.
Recovery.
life,"
Eecovery.
9.
unmarried.
Second
attack,
set.
First attack,
set.
38,
when
before
in fact, hypochondriacal
positive insanity.
10.
ill,
Eecovery.
A married lady,
set.
self-
feeling.
a disappointment
acute dementia.
12.
of
A married woman,
came
13.
her affections.
Recovery.
set.
At the
" change
of
life "
had never
profound melancholia
on.
to
peculiar,
He became
profoundly melancholic,
Refusal of food.
abdominal
disease,
Death
from ex-
haustion.
14.
bookseller,
set.
He
him on the
paralysis.
i.]
The bodily
earliest
15.
disease
and thus
character,
seemed
to
to
married man,
;
by a former
form
inability to
A single lady,
be
to
altruistic
conceptions. Recovery.
set.
seemed
and natural
Second attack.
great self-feeling,
Profound
rct.
refusal of food.
disposition established
16.
its
symptoms.
melancholia
self,
255
in a state of clairvoyance,
till it
1 7.
anxious
lady,
life.
set.
maniacal
Quasi-hysterical
&c.
Irregularity of menstruation,
and suspected
Hereditary predisposition
self-abuse.
much
Here softening
death.
older,
change of
having had an
life
melancholic
Convulsions, paralysis,
was preceded
of the brain
exacerbations.
Eecovery.
for
some weeks by
mental symptoms.
18. Hereditary
Great
predisposition.
intemperance.
General
paralysis.
19. Habitual
alcoholic
excesses
pecuniary
The
side,
disease
depression, occasioned
mania.
disposition to insanity.
difficulties
Exhaustion produced by
Eecovery.
21. Third
woman, aged
or fourth attack
40.
in a
Whenever
it
to
disorder
by former
attacks.
Eecovery.
paralysis.
23.
to the absence of
of
much
speculation in Australia.
General paralysis.
not due
moral element.
life
(?).
ON THE CAUSES OF
256
24.
A widow,
set.
INSANITY.
who made
so that his
[chap.
life
as a
He
daughter, brought
up
as a rich
person, but without social cultivation, did not get opportunely married
as
expressed in the North, " she was too high for the stirrup, and
it is
When
manner of
50 years
life
old, she
married an
He died, and left her the income of a large property for her
She now got suspicious of his relatives, to whom the property
was to revert on her death, was harassed with her money, which she
did not know what to do with, but fancied others had designs on,
and finally went from bad to worse until, believing all the world was
conspiring against her, she got a revolver, and threatened to shoot her
to him.
life.
fancied enemies.
25.
The daughter
of a
common
set.
labourer,
32, single.
Her
very rich
sensational novels.
only, but
to
suicidal
insanity.
an
in-
Steady, quiet drinking, on all posThe "ne'er-do-weel" of the family, having tumbled
about the world in Mexican wars and South American mines, and in
other places, as such persons do.
Feebleness of mind and loss of
memory. An uncle had been very much the same sort of person, and
had died in an asylum.
27. A married woman, aged 49, gaunt, and seemingly of bilious
26.
sible occasions.
temperament.
&c.
Eecovery within a
28.
Dementia
fortnight.
period.
sister
catamenial
her disposition.
29.
was removed by a
established,
and in
anxieties brought
30.
addicted to preaching.
He had
ON THE CAUSES OF
I.]
had
and
INSANITY.
257
Indigestion,
infinite self-feeling.
that he
man,
and
for example,
This
eating,
31.
married
woman,
ast.
32.
A young man,
33.
Issue of the
education.
tradesman's daughter,
35.
woman,
taint.
set.
much
ret.
24, brought
30, Wesleyan,
is
unknown.
in idleness.
Eecovery.
Suicidal melancholia,
single.
lost.
up
Mania.
after marriage.
case
aggravated by injudicious
Menstrual irregularity.
Eecovery.
A
36.
young woman,
same probably
37.
25,
single,
Wesleyan.
Mania.
Cause,
Eecovery.
Wesleyan, a
attack.
'ast.
teetotaller,
General paralysis.
38.
sober,
Slight hereditary
General paralysis.
predisposition.
and
severe.
39.
woman,
ee,t.
32.
after
childbirth.
40.
lady,
xt
18
Amenorrhoea.
Eecovery.
ON THE CAUSES OF
258
41.
42.
Amenorrhcea.
pated
-with a family,
of mania, after
Eecovery.
set.
office
duties.
man
married
[chap.
Sudden outbreak
an
INSANITY.
he kept a mistress, however, and lived a rather dissiOutbreak of acute mania, with a threatening of general
Secretly,
life.
paralysis.
Eecovery
for a time at
any
One
Death
or
a year
and a
epileptiform
in
rate.
Softening of the
Excessive sexual
indulgence.
44.
who
married woman,
44,
ret.
who
Maniacal incoherence
child.
Eecovery.
45. Hereditary
predisposition.
old,
He was
Dissenter of
married
child.
when
extreme views,
thirty-six years
Eecovery.
Complete
of
failure
loss of
in
intelligence,
An
singer at
of them.
48.
Sexual excesses.
General paralysis.
set.
27.
epileptic
fits.
fol-
Eecovery.
of
self,
peculiar.
Hereditary predisposition.
by
is lost
CHAPTER
II.
INSANITY OF EARLY
LIFE.
met with
where no
be manifest.
in
them.
While
it is
found to be in
if
fail to afford
commonly thought
strict
strong support to
and belonging
law
as though to call a
from the domain of natural
it
limb brings
it
in contact with
and
one of the
plished.
first
If
we
is
one another
in fact organized,
and
discussing actuation,
it
INSANITY OF EARLY
260
LIFE.
[chap
was shown, in the case of the eye, for example, that a sensation
was the direct cause of a certain accommodating movement, and
that the
we may
perceive
how
intuition of distance,
The extent
after birth,
what
sort of insanity
must
it
exhibit?
does by
young mind.
immediately
act,
which, as
almost nothing.
is,
by reason
of a
by the
we have
facts
bad descent
seen,
agree
or of
external circumstances,
form,
it
its
life,
at this
is
those
;
might,
the
in-
it is
impossible,
by reason
the infant
exists
to
the
fix
entirely reflex.
It
its
which then
functions are
is
is
An
earliest
commonly
the
impression on
by sensations testify to the disorder of the sensorial and corresponding motor centres, as convulsions testify to the disorder of
the centres of reflex action.
The phenomena of a true sensorial
insanity are intermixed with the morbid manifestations of the
lower nervous centres, and to every impression made upon the
infant there is irregular and violent reaction, sensori-motor and
INSANITY OF EARLY
jl]
reflex.
LIFE.
261
certainly rare
been recorded.
was born.
"
woman, about
who
mad
as soon as it
and
enjoyed the very best health, was, on the 20th January, 1763,
who was
"When he was brought to our workhouse, which
was on the 24th, he possessed so much strength in his legs and
arms that four women could at times with difficulty restrain him.
These paroxysms either ended in an uncontrollable fit of laughter,
for which no evident reason could be observed, or else he tore
in anger everything near him,
clothes, linen, bed furniture, and
brought to bed, without any assistance, of a male child
raving mad.
him
it.
We
to be alone, otherwise he
however,
first,
that
the mother of the child was herself peculiar, so that her infant
inherited an unstable condition of nervous element, and con-
does,
man
acts,
such as
Many
young animals are born with the power of immediately coordinating their muscles into definite action, and the human
infant is not destitute of the germ of a like power over voluntary
muscles, while it has complete the power of certain co-ordinate
automatic acts
it
is
actions
may be
displayed in
have
INSANITY OF EARLY
262
LIFE.
[chap.
at a later stage of
" uncontrollable
As
fits
a general
animals
way with
all
mind corresponds in
mind of those
it
is
In both cases
phenomena
is
"That they do
mechanism
I
am
by
this
fully persuaded
as I
instinct,
am
and children
and bulls push with
dogs
bite,
whom
arms
of
as naturally
Mandeville's Fable
" was a
little girl
INSANITY OF EARLY
ii.]
LIFE.
263
insanity,
follows a succession
When
attacks.
of epileptic
the furious
maniac
strikes
him
perish before
explosion.
all his
And
energy
is
aimlessly, but
as
and any
is
real object
which
ness of
it
paroxysm
as there
is
is
over there
is
and
complete forgetful-
An
epileptic,
under
my
care, usually
He thought at
fits,
was fighting
and
to
commit
terrible
with a
liou.
INSANITY OF EARLY
264
LIFE.
[chap.
hallucinations
in the
motor
centres,
No
one
who
fall
short
of.
when suddenly
awaking out of sleep but must have noticed that he has had
He
at
has heard
and on
tive
or he has
waked up
in the night
When
for a time to
has perhaps
laid
so.
If
we could imagine
we should
to
which
is
in sensorial insanity.
have been so
it
its
sensa-
nervous centres
power of definite
Suppose now that some morbid cause, such
sensory perception.
an answering motor
reaction.
and give
may
it
an epileptiform character
or
INSANITY OF EARLY
il]
265
LIFE.
A variety
tions occur,
but choreic.
imaginary object
is
some internal
cause,
and bodily
tempo-
disease.
wanting
is
not
months and a
half,
hallucinations of sight
fright,
is
commonly
state,
all
memory.
certainly passed
how
state
of vivid hallucination in
beyond ordinary
;
:
INSANITY OF EARLY
266
may
have,
when awake,
LIFE.
[chap.
positive hallucinations.
by the
ill-grounded
assumption that a hallucination must have some necessary conCertainly it must be, and it is, rare
meet with positive delusion in young children, inasmuch as
that time idea has not been fashioned in the mind but the
moment
for it to
possible
it is
have a hallucination.
with physiological principles,
by
the infant
is
it
it
is
smiling
and
we meet with
Dr.
Whytt
relates the
fits
for
morbid
many
days.
fall,
had
After a time
which he
fell
into convulsions.
He
recovered on
"
sometimes
fits
it
shifted,
of involuntary laughter."
Ultimately
It is always
make
a close
it
cit. p.
144.
INSANITY OF EARLY
ii.]
with more or
less
LIFE.
267
has re-
it
to epilepsy,
may be
it
Perhaps no more
present
phenomena
the
fitting
of
which
illustrate in a
striking
manner
that
which plays
centres
life
adult.
An
life
of the
awake
his highest
and control of
But
the
man's
senses
these supreme
are not entirely
asleep, and the organized motor reactions to impressions on these
senses are not asleep he is a sensori-motor being, and very much
skilful as if
centres.
movements
or very
much
somnambulism
in a
in the position
come
into action.
young woman
suffering
from consumption,
through a sustained
to
morning
after
such
feats,
would appear
which
fit
in the night.
prostrate
mother, therefore, and told her to say, should the lady send for
it.
ill
to see
how much
still
remained
268
when
finished
up
it
[chap.
was found
to
be
had completed her task. Soon the long day's task of life
and she will sleep well where no troubles
more can reach her, and no dream of work or sorrow disturb
one,
her slumbers.
If
it
were possible
artificially to
bulist,
and corresponding motor centres of the somnamsuch as would give rise to hallucinations and answering
motor
in the sensory
remained in abeyance,
man
had been
Suppose,
fits, is
however,
posed upon by the false sensations, and his thought thus share in
the disorder of his sense
or his reflection
very
much
cinations
of the nature of
any
serious disturbance
Thus
far,
then,
in a child before
it
it
is
certain that
hallucination
may
With
occur
each
INSANITY OF EARLY
ii.]
LIFE.
269
made by
more combined,
it
so that
is at last
organized
when
it
not present
it is
of
it
when
another
it
is.
is
idea after
ideas have
their happiness or
the idea or
directly uttered in
it is
and
to the
its
is
call
natural to
met with
in
up
outward
idiocy, or
it
an arrest of
So soon as a
mind a
delusion
been organized
But as ideas are
possible.
in the child's
at first
com-
INSANITY OF EARLY
2J0
As
[char
LIFE.
by
itself
imagined,
it
the hallucination
is
whether
it is
which have no
real existence,
most
owing to some organic cause affecting directly the sensory
ganglia.
But when a child of eight or nine years old, whose
as little reason as they
came
likely
head has been wickedly filled with foolish and dangerous notions
concerning the devil and hell, suddenly sees the frightful face of
a devil appear and threaten to eat him up, and shrieks in terrified
agony, then the hallucination is undoubtedly secondary to the
wilfully implanted delusion.
disappears,
its
composure.
This sort 01
strikingly illustrated
by the occurrence
of phantasms before
what they think that they actually see. Accorddrama is evolved before their eyes, and they live
for the time in a scene which is purely visionary as though it
were quite real. " What nonsense are you talking, child ? " the
mother perhaps exclaims and thereupon the pageant vanishes.
In delicate and highly nervous children, affected with mesenteric
their
minds
ingly a sort of
tubercle
and, perhaps,
also
way
is
it
some-
when
outer objects
INSANITY OF EARLY
II.]
LIFE.
271
as if they
of them.
then a condition
of things
is
initiated
it is
and should
react
Men
like
centre
is
will,
because
prematurely
that
so
was
said to be
when
talent,
it
was
'You
;
know, dear, the first time you saw God was when you were four years old, and He
put His head to the window and set you screaming.' " Gilchrist's Life of Blake.
INSANITY OF EARLY LIFE
272
and
that,
may
by an orderly
nation
The
[chap.
training, this
may
to
of
be moulded
harmony with
nature.
it
mental faculty
insane, child
it
a physiological lesson,
its
participate
INSANITY OF EARLY
II.]
common
are its
marking disorder
LIFE.
273
disordered
movements which
characteristic, there
hallucinations
often
are
sensation, or
cination,
now
Let us
When a mor-
bid idea or delusion reacts downwards, but not upon the sensory
ganglia in the
partial
sort of
some
It
monomania which
act of violence
is
the kind
of disease in
an
irresistible
Examples
impulse
is
of children thus
treated
afflicted
need
it
kindly
for,
or
in children.
of,
what
it
was
steal
without having
had
stolen
another
fire to
monomania, kleptomania, pyromania, and suicidal monoLet the psychologist explain them how he will, they are
and their occurin strict accord with physiological observation
rence at so early a period of life, where some morbid taint,
cidal
mania.
19
INSANITY OF EARLY
2/4
LIFE.
[chap.
is
a strong argu-
ment
again,
moved them
of the Crusades,
when
hands of the
and
who
at the time
Children,
devil,
the
who marched
a host of children,
met with
There
is
which appears
to be the exact counterpart of the choreic spasms that occur.
"What is sufficiently striking, even to an ordinary observer of this
delirium, is its marked incoherency, and the manifestly automatic
a choreic delirium sometimes
character of
It might, indeed,
it.
own
its
cell,
in children,
cells or
groups
boy of about
a slight
incoherent utterances.
As
far as could be
made
out, there
was
body.
passed
off,
who was
affected all
life to
he had attempted
INSANITY OF EARLY
it.]
when put
me
kill
and
in the
my
Dash
brains out
his head
was
He
sleep.
LIFE.
and
Oh, do
275
crying
floor,
let
me
die
way
tried in every
"
"
Oh, do
He
kicked
to kill
himself
few days.
These two cases will
it is
there
mania
are
Halluci-
take in childhood
this
Catalcptoid Insanity.
3.
may
is
the
little
sometimes there
is insensibility to
in
raving;
may
there
strange postures;
actual incoherent
These attacks are of variable duration, and are repeated at varying intervals
body
becomes an automatic instrument of their activity, while all
"While, on the one hand, there
voluntary power is in abeyance.
are intermediate conditions between this form of disease and
chorea, its attacks, on the other hand, sometimes alternate with
true epileptic seizures, and at other times pass gradually into
them. In a girl who came under Dr. West's treatment at the
of certain nervous centres, so that for a time being the
any obvious
cause,
first
an attack
when
to
she was
occasional
months
which she stood immoveable for one or two minutes, staring wildly or fixedly, and
murmuring unconnected words that had reference to any object
which she might happen to see. About eleven months from the
there
was a
commencement
they
INSANITY OF EARLY
276
became truly
between the
epileptic,
seizures,
the
LIFE.
[chap.
child's
how
illustrate
related
closely
are
of the
disorders
different
Epileptic Insanity.
epilepsy
met with
Not
of
that
early
life.
children,
epilepsy
and more or
less dementia.
is to
produce
loss of
memoiy
girl,
aged
mischievous
tempting to
little
seize,
nowise content
at-
with
what she caught hold of, but throwing it down directly she
had got it, and struggling for something else; not amenable
to correction or instruction, and demanding the whole energies
of one person to look after her
she was an automatic
machine incited by sensory impressions to mischievous and
:
destructive acts.
As
furor transitorius,
may
of,
an attack
epilepsy.
Children
masked
when they
rage,
seizures
of
Morel has met with two cases in which children fell into
convulsions and lost the use of speech in consequence of a great
* Uober Epilepsie, Blddsinn und Irrsein dcr Kinder, von Charles West,
M.D. Journal fiir Khidcr/crankhcitcn, vol. xxiii. 1854. See also a paper by
M. Delasiauve in Annales Midico-Psijcholoyique, vol. Vli. 1856.
INSANITY OF EARLY
n.]
fear
277
aged
LIFE.
old,
epilepsy followed
One
child
being
was
up
to quiet
him but he
;
With some
he was got to bed a true epileptic attack followed
and in the morning he knew nothing whatever of what had
happened, but felt weary and exhausted, f
and, but for assistance, would have strangled him.
difficulty
may
excitement
record
follow epilepsy.
Many
of insanity,
convulsions,
Margaret
B.,
set.
11, of a passionate
disposition,
but a pious,
*
girl,
11,
who had
+ Ueber Mania
Transitoria,
INSANITY OF EARLY
278
LIFE.
[chap.
girl,
In
its
all
questions
What, however, gave a distinctive character to its expressions was the moral or rather
immoral tone of them the pride, arrogance, scorn and hatred
" I am the Son of
of truth, God, Christ, that were declared.
were answered by
it
coherently.
me
God and
all
that
is
sacred,
blasphemy
all
these
"
this girl,
thou unclean
spirit.''
it is
possible for
mania
testinal
it
to occur
of
It is
certainly surprising
how
young brain is
children will
recover without any bad symptoms from an injury which would
greatly tolerant of injury the
INSANITY OF EARLY
ii.]
LIFE.
2J9
into a
pond in her
and it is
:
incredible,
She recovered
when
fever,
diseases,
as
all
example typhus,
for
may
after a
Certain
failed.
acute
This
Melancholia.
form of depression
is
met with in
or morbid
of disposition
medical advice
either
calms
for, as
by night
it
there
she complains,
or day,
is
it
is
it
thrives not,
it rests
not
no living with
it,
and she
is
so
is
painful
and, according to
At any
inherited syphilis.
rate
many
my
instances
No
may
With
the
behaviour, standing
still
may
be asso-
some kind.
his
when aged
delusions of suspicion.
He was
and
to
be done
if
INSANITY OF EARLY
280
LIFE.
[chap.
he kicked a
if
stone,
he
may be
regard to religion
is by suicide.
So strange and
seem that a child of eight or nine
itself
it
its
own
life,
that one
is
hereditary taint
is
Affective Insanity, or
instances
life.
Moral Insanity.
described as hereditary
In
the majority of
might justly be
but there are some cases in which
life
t Etude suv
le
is
itself
Suicide chez
Mtdko-Psychologique, 1855.
les
Enfants,
Annates
INSANITY OF EARLY
H.]
habits
all
term
is
word
LIFE.
affective to
of
281
self-abuse.
It
is
of hereditary
the word
insanity.
it
does, a conscious-
the
and always objectionable
on the other hand, mirrors the real
nature of the individual the term affective insanity will, therefore, appropriately express the fundamental vice of nervous
element in such case.
The examples of affective insanity in early life fall naturally
(a) the first includes all those instances
into two divisions
in which there is a strange perversion of some fundamental
instinct, or a more strange appearance of some quite morbid
ness,
often inappropriate,
is
affective
life,
or feeling,
impulse
and
(b)
all
those cases
the
Instinctive Insanity.
mankind ?
The
What
instinct of self-conservation,
which
is
truly the
life,
and
is,
therefore, in
some
conservation
is
manifested
not
a secondary manifesta-
sort
Now
the instinct of
only by
self-
individual organic
it
or
unconscious
all
is
manifest
in
:
self
or
are painful to
self.
all
it
the
is,
as
produce
Children are of
whereby what
is
whereby what
is
is
INSANITY OF EARLY
282
breast
if
it
by
The infant
[chap.
milk
from some
grateful to
LIFE.
it strives to
is
not
get rid of a
impulses which
beasts
A boy,"
"
passion.
"
By
untaught."
man
move
or again, as
wicked,
actually
it
the
impulses
it
are
is
is
selfish
better
of
unborn than
his
and
of interest
foresight;
current in every
very turbulent
as vice is
life,
way
in
we know good by
much
by what
is
rather
contrary
her whiteness
is
trial is
a young-
bring im-
and
is trial,
virtue, not
we
is
it,
is
that
but a blank
ventitious whiteness."
When
met with
what we do
as
we may,
in
is
the
in the
adult under
the
;;
INSANITY OF EARLY
ii.]
perverted action
have fashioned
its
is
its
283
the child
indulges
LIFE.
little
As
is
which
what
may
and reveals
as the animal,
is
in the
the effort to
become
and unceasing appropriation of whatever it sees, and in destructive attacks upon
whatever it can destroy.
Eefuse it what it grasps at, and it
will scream, bite, and kick with a frantic energy give it the
object which it is striving for, and it will smash it if it can
it
is a destructive little machine which, being out of order, lays
hold of what is suitable and what is unsuitable, and subjects
reject or destroy
is
not agreeable,
its
disease, if it
both alike to
this
its
kind in a
Haslam
desperate action.
girl,
reports a case of
become mad
at
small-pox.
kicked
if
Her
sort of food
with her
fire
anywhere.
idiot,
though
who had
appetite
without discrimination
fingers,
improved*
The most striking manifestation of the destructive impulse
which sometimes reaches such an extreme degree in the madness
of childhood is afforded by the instance of homicidal impulse.
"
A girl,
mother,
aged
five years,
brother, both
of
we
it is
whom
she
and
to her little
repeatedly attempted to
kill."
"f"
Observations on Madness.
t Esquirol, Traite des Maladies Mcntales.
INSANITY OF EARLY
284
LIFE.
l chap.
appreciate
a natural instinct
is
manifestation
cumstances
is
stepmother as
its
it
is
by
accidents of external
cir-
kill
often determined
the child
would
the convulsion of
its
limb
is
canary bird or
strive to kill a
much
Many
its
to
master as
Because of the variety of forms which the morbid manifestations of perverted instinct
does in
it
its
much
may
take,
resembles a
it
sometimes happens
monkey in
face.
with
all
conduct,
its
It
may
dis-
skill in lying
which
is
quite natural to
poets
it
may
Though we
it.
Of the
conditions of disease
it is
it is
in
the
in chil-
Let
me now
It is necessary first to
by the
manifestations of
its
is
not mani-
existence throughout
early
life,
both in
little
makes
its
own
early
life.
Whosoever
avers
n.]
through the
in like
manner
its
as,
285
in the course of
which
finally
means
development
im-
is
human consciousness.
As we have exhibitions of this blind impulse
lution within
manifestations of
meet with
These
it
in the healthy-
is
we do
not
fail to
greatly shocked
by
them
were
as if they
which
sees in
them valuable
who
instances
man, not
as
on
an ideal
for 1745,
the account of a boy, aged only two years and eleven months,
who
the case of a
girl,
most indecent
who was
attitudes,
Esquirol quotes
constantly putting
and used
to practise the
At
it,
first
the
means in
their
power
to
prevent
it,
but without
avail.
In
The
in a general spasm.
them
as
regular nymphomaniac.
The
greatest salacity
examples of this
adduced.
import of
The
its
afflicted child
precocious acts
Other similar
might easily be
certain attitudes
and movements
and
more than an organic machine automatically impelled
les
INSANITY OF EARLY
286
LIFE.
[chap.
viciousness to
of a farmer, in
At
own
clean clothes."
cry bitterly, and express her fears that she would become like
her aunt,
who was
a maniac.
In addition to all these indihad stolen everything which she thought would be
and either hid or destroyed it and swore in language
cations she
cared
for,
insanity of early
il]
life.
disease."
287
After two months
she recovered*
Haslam
'
'
On
the Different
Prichard,
Forms
M.D. 1842.
p. 313.
by
J.
C.
INSANITY OF EARLY
288
violence,
and
was
and
natural.
LIFE.
[chap.
The
might go as
we were
able
far as murder."
when
it
is
met with
in the adult.
is
and wilful
vice, will
be prepared
to
mind
effects.
Instead of
any definite
most necessary to strive to get
precise ideas as to its nature and causation, so that, in the event
of a similar effect being at some time observed, there may be
light thrown upon the hidden causes and true relations, in
place of vague or unfounded assumption agreeable only to
or morbid, without being at the pains to attach
meaning
such words,
to
it
is
ignorant prejudice.
What
is
As
the nature of
that which
it
now
man
by a
is
mind
in all
fashioning through
by a retrograde descent may it pass backwards to a lower stage the degeneration which the individual
who becomes insane without having had any predisposition to
insanity represents, may observably become the inherent defect
generations,
so
acquired
or,
as
it
INSANITY OF EARLY
ii.]
289
LIFE.
is
the
human
between
man and
Now
nature.
this
which an hereditary
we have
for it implies, as
Accordingly, there
action.
is
to
its acts,
either a congenital
In the
fered with.
loss of its
and accordingly
living
its
degeneration
its
perversions
degenerate
means the
taint implies
child's
is
appetites
abolished.
and
The strange
instinctive strivings
what
and
injurious
is
the repulsion of
of life
we
describe
assimilation
and
rejection
as
we
rise
life
higher
still
the attraction
is desire
or
love,
the repulsion
is
dislike
or hate, although,
if
there
is
20
INSANITY OF EARLT
290
is
[chap.
constitution
LIFE.
individual
with eager appetite the greatest trash, and rakes out the
with
its fingers
what
for
detrimental to
is
and
it,
suitable,
and
desires passionately
it
rejects or destroys
what
is
be agree-
constituted,
rightly
it
fire
frantically struggles
it
By
it is
reason of
its
physical consti-
and
all its
later, assimilate
it
and nature
it.
must be
social organism, it
isolated or
removed
for the
good
of
the organism.
As
mad
the
generate
state
acts
mark a
de-
itself represents a
human
being.
one
superficial
still
all
never anything
the special
more or
differ-
less apparent,
still
may
remain.
The
idiot,
does
not get
its
psychical
characters
he
is
not
adapted
human
monkey
a degenerate kind of
human
being
INSANITY OF EARLY
ii.]
may be
produced, but
it is
LIFE.
291
upward
aspirations of
man and
his conscious
aspirations.
meet among
idiots
Man
in an intimate
exists
in
is,
it
and therefore
flourishes well
at
its
of surrounding nature,
under
is
not
and
is
If
it
man
to the
monkey
level
it
would
man
ages before
natural outgrowth.
monkey
monkey was
type,
the
and every
ment
not pass by in their decay, however, without their uses, that we,
profiting
form
conduct of
ment.
By
life,
may
how
best to promote
Do
intelligible
how
it is
that
we sometimes
human
constitution is
it
sufficiently
Innate in
in
it
is
its
monkey
INSANITY OF EARLY
292
[chap
LIFE.
is
:
human nature
in perverse action,
Humanity
of vice.
is
we have an example
word
to
action, which, so
mark
prematurity
and in these
humanity under-
as in one
human
seem
of
self-sufficing, there is
are
Both in his knowledge and in his nature each one is the inTake the word which
heritor of the acquisitions of the past.
represents the subtle
and, as
it
resolve
what a
gradual
what
succession of human experiences is unfolded
a
process of growth, rising in speciality and complexity up to that
organic evolution which the word now marks, is displayed
Take, in like manner, the individual being, and trace back
its genesis,
it
nature as
child
it
is
human
in
experiment thus obtruded on
and there will then be no cause
this
nature
the attention by
and which, so
There
is
the
rapid undoing of what has been slowly done through the ages,
fullest
of early
life,
pathological principles
the aim
to establish, enforce,
it
has been
INSANITY OF EARLY
it]
LIFE.
293
NOTE.
"While this sheet was in the press, I have seen an interesting case
girl, set. 14, who is lively, pretty, and intelligent.
She suddenly jumps up in a paroxysm of excitement, exclaims,
" Mother, I'm dying!" and begins praying frantically. The paroxysm
lasts for three or four hours, and leaves her pale, cold, exhausted, and
of insanity in a
trembling like a
leaf.
A brother
afflicted.
carrying her she had a terrible fright from seeing one child accidentally killed,
and this
girl
ments, which lasted for six months after birth. Before these paroxysms
of excitement
came
depression with
less
on, she
much weeping
left
temple.
CHAPTER
III.
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
rPHERE
J-
scarcely
when
sibility is concerned.
notably
may be
Neurosis spasmodica.
1.
characterised
ing,
and
by
action.
tuted that he
is
It is
mad, but he
is
do in a different
way from
is
all
What he
it
If he
under strange
and novel relations, which would not have occurred to an ordinary person his feeling of an event is unlike that which other
people have of it. He is sometimes impressionable to subtle and
usually unrecognised influences; and now and then he does
whimsical and apparently quite purposeless acts. There is in
the constitution an innate tendency to act independently as an
;
mark
great self-feeling
and vanity.
is
a personal gratification
VARIETIES OF INSANITY
chap, in.]
social
295
This peculiarity of temperament, which undoubtedly predisposes to insanity, does nevertheless in some instances border
which
it is
is allied to
by
it
thin par-
titions.
may
not so well
as, all
He
may
from
differ
the world
is
is
all
but because he
right,
is right,
wrong.
rity of one
it
is
and
finality, strives
with
zation to crush
it out.
the weight of
all
a mino-
must
After
is
all
the world
is at first in
all
is
all,
wrong, and
is
Mr.
eccentricity should
is
effected
and sneered
a reproach,
J. S.
exist*
at as
may
if possible,
The genius
is
in that wherein he
age,
and
tical or
is
often
mad
defects
that
in
man
is
in connexion with
which there
is
of
an observation of
its
century only by
not genius.
Certainly the
Essay on Liberty.
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
296
from his
differ
Accordingly,
age.
many
or,
man
[chap.
of genius
who
organism has reached that stage of evolution reprehas been forgotten, having most likely been
sented by him
social
thought more or
usually gets
an epoch in
sets forth
that
less
is,
mad
in his lifetime
unconsciously pursuing
much
the
for
An
man
him
to surfer greatly,
and
an
to react
with corresponding
force,
comfort.
nality
is
dissatisfied
Consider, however,
what an amount
of innate
power
Many
away by it, so blind to the force of the circumwhich they have had to contend, so one-sided and
idea, so carried
stances with
fanatical, as to
madmen
are
and
rela-
accor-
dingly they have often been called, and sometimes perhaps Avere,
mad.
insight, patience,
and capacity
taken
FJRIETfES OF INSANITY.
JII.J
and external
to circumstances
It is
true, that
while another
no more
undoubtedly
family, one
conditions.
is
297
insane or epileptic
under
different
outward
Now we may
first,
as
regards
In the
events of a calm
down under
life,
and,
first
case,
is
And
nervous susceptibility
and subtler
different
reception of impressions;
the
delicacies of feeling
The
some respects
an advantage, although a rather perilous one, for it may approach
the edge of madness such men as Edgar Allan Poe and De
Quincey illustrate this great subtlety of sensibility, amounting
almost to disease, and so far give some colour to the extravagant
assertion of a French author (Moreau de Tours), that a morbid
rously constituted being
is.
defect, then, is in
not be
It
for
should
is
no-
he lacks, by reason
fall
which, in
fact,
like,
is
by which the
accomplished,
by
might be
is
said, then,
to
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
298
[chap.
satisfaction
much one
by
a feel-
not
other-
The
difference
to
and the
desires
the incipient
which
and violent
madman,
is
indeed very
much
acts of
harmony between
in the latter,
it is
is
the
no
less
madman
will be apparent
when we look
The
to the
difference is not
may
is between a quiet aim-working voliand a spasmodic movement. The acts of the genius
lished system;
but,
however
appear to those
who
are, as it were,
of
*
and an
"So
there are in
them an
intelligent respondence to
far
from
tlio
and
startling they
may
social organization,
well-formed design
original
intuitive recognition
outward relations
in other
modern way of speaking) has a necessary alliance with insanity, the greatest wits,
on the contrary, will ever be found to he the sanest writers. It is impossible for
Tho greatness of wit, by which tlio
the mind to conceive of a mad Shakespeare.
poetic talent
balance of
all
is
the faculties.
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
in.]
299
" tyrant
custom
"
which
consciousness
forth into
of
is
men
in the inspira-
who has
elements
that
whole manner
new combination
may
its
The
acts
satisfaction of
destruction.
uncommon
may
be an
but in
through a
new mould
is
man
of deep insight
beneath the masks of things, and see into the real nature of
many
may
but he
is
existing
phenomena,
not having
many
these apparent
shams
lies
in
"
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
300
when he
pated
vagant
is
through which he
self-feeling,
comedy
of
[chap,
is
the
life,
there
is
its possessor,
self-
ridiculous
Where
man
the
it
will
stances
it
may
singular caprices
but
if
the individual
is
young
girls
is
The great
of violence.
at the
internal
time of puberty
commotion produced
is
well
known
to
in
be an
ment
and
exists.
may
give
ingly wilful.
The
any other
meet with a
On
this matter,
said,
when
of
that
what
its
nations of those
cases the
FARIETIES OF INSANITY.
in.]
301
beauty
head;
there
is,
is
not
uncommon
convulsions
may
occur
in
early
mon
is
life,
among
those strongly
the average.
tion:
marked by
than
Morel of Eouen, to
whom we
most indebted
are
for the
memory
for
details
'"
certain to break
down
researches,
varieties
of degenerate beings
observed amongst
all
is
to
be
ties,
tendencies.
they
fall
is
:
VARIETIES OF INSANITY
302
all
mode
mode
of feeling, the
entirely
changed
by
events,
More
closely scanning
it
is
majority of cases
with the
it
latter
during
"
then declared
moral alienation
of mental derangement."
whom
it is difficult to
are none in
its
course
and that
persists for a
is
exists
life is
derangement predominates.
intellectual
[chap.
whom
find
"
it
Esquirol rightly
to
any
it co-
frequently
says, " in
To
exception."
insist
criterion of insanity is
2.
the individual
action spring
control.
life,
The
it
is
is
whole manner of
feeling, the
mode
of his affection
the patient's
by
just
as,
events,
;
is
and the
when
there
is
is
may
be
ment,
it
will be
insanity of early
(a)
life,
instinctive insanity,
Impulsive Insanity.
Fixing
their
impulsive
attention too
or
much
obscure varieties of
mental disorder.
Already
first
it
has been
symptom
of an
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
in.]
in
feeling
is
303
an
mode of affection
this is the
of the individual
fundamental
fact,
to fix in the
by events
is
mind
manner of
is
entirely
that the
changed
The
the
mode
of feeling of impressions
spondent
desire,
felt
is
is
may
alter
is to
facts
appetites, therefore,
as a good,
it,
and
evil.
desires,
woman and
may
and
feelings of the
hysterical
manner
of feeling
and
desire,
which
is
cidal act to satisfy his unnatural craving; or, again, such insanity
as that of the father or
purpose of sending
form
it
may
it
to heaven.
symptom
of
may
at
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
304
[chap.
moral shock, or by some cause of bodily disturbance intemperance, sexual exhaustion, masturbation, or menstrual disturbThere are women, sober and temperate enough
ance.
times,
who
at other
In
fact,
where there
is
a condition
By
stances.
speech
and
it is
circum-
man
utter
mode
of expression as
most dangerous
himself; gesture-language
form of
by
its stability,
similar
is
as natural a
most dangerous
indeed,
because so expressed.
impulse
The
it
shall
old,
was
for
months
an instance of
is
who had
afflicted
of the intellect.
first
my
irre-
kind
it
to
so
On
to her friends.
service of the
morbid impulse.
it was
She had as
any
were unceasing.
quite cheerful, so as
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
hi.]
to
with
305
an attendant was
attempt
to
close by,
them.
and it was
The anxiety
food,
life
and
after this
life.
strong,
and writhed
21
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
306
her
down
[chap.
I told you;
you would not believe how bad I was." No one could detect any
delusion in her mind the paroxysm had all the appearance of
a mental convulsion and had she unhappily succeeded in her
frantic attempts, it would certainly have been impossible to say
honestly that she did not know that it was wrong to strangle
her daughter. In fact, it was because of her horrible propensity
to so wrong an act that she was so wretched.
It is a sufficiently
striking commentary on the present state of the English law to
add that, had this patient succeeded in taking her daughter's
life, sentence of execution must have been passed, and might
have been carried into effect, notwithstanding she was so entirely
insane and irresponsible.
;
kill,
or rather (for
it
took a
A young
many
act,
there
was not
good appear-
ance and manners, and well connected, was, after long patient
trial at
From
now
described as
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
in.]
307
if
her inclina-
understood
although
when
in a better
mood
if
scarcely able
high
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
308
[chap,
for
to
a certain distance.
there were good natural endowments and general correctness of thought with hopeless dementia
of action
any one living with her for a time could not fail to
that she ailed anything at all
perceive
how
Although
it
in the
mind
it
came
appeared
mental
one's
life
life,
life.
The
idea
it
dictated
The foregoing
cases
may
commonly
is
in this
may
give
positively detectable.
produce severe disorder of nerve element, giving rise in one person to hysterical convulsions or hysterical mania, in another to
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
in.]
309
The
by
habits of self-abuse,
were
afflicted
The most desperate examples of homicidal impulses are undoubtedly met with in connexion with epilepsy. Sometimes an
attack of mania notably precedes an epileptic
epileptic
fits
but
it is
fit
or a series of
derangement so occurring
may have
them
trious.
fits,
and was
to severe
but in the intervals he was sensible, amiable, and indusOne day, when in the gloomy and morose frame of mind
whom
He had
fits,
fit
and
for
severe.
In such
often sudden
cases, as
to
be frequent and
Again, the
mashed epilepsy,
A peasant,
may
appear as
must
kill
some
one,
were
it
"
and had
seizes me,"
slight convulsive
ses
cried, " I
sleep, felt
much
he
he could not
it
only a child."
When
Rapports avec
les
Questions MMieo-judiciaires,
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
310
which
[chap.
commonly been
so completely
overlooked, attention
act,
he
is
it may at any
and hurry him into a deed
which he dreads, yet cannot help dwelling upon. So desperate
sometimes is the fear of yielding to the morbid impulse, so
intense the horror of doing so, and so extreme the mental suffer-
escape from
and
it,
moment prove
is
kill
her child,
up other
ideas to counteract
it,
warns
bis
but at
last,
perhaps from a
fatal
predominance
the tension
it
idea
as suffering
when he
and sometimes
many
The
is
fact that a
his
person so
afflicted
to think,
be successfully
resisted.
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
in.]
subjection, or
By an
action.
movement
of his limbs
when
3J
realize its
may
energy in
prevent involuntary
when
by strychnia
phenomena
entirely
men
by
would be
to
cease to regard
will
Such practice
sciousness.
men
at present
adequate ideas of
long as
increased
mental diseases
is
or disease.
is
it
movements.
Once more
let it
violent deed
is
is
anything
more than
wilful
authority
we
symptoms
any
are exhibited
the
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
312
duct.
is
[char
cognition,
there
may judge
patient
he cannot truly
and
and conduct in regard to
In a great many cases, where this
less false.
himself is
disordered condition of mind is met with, it will be found to
precede an outbreak of unquestioned insanity indeed, we might
almost say that in more or less marked form it precedes nearly
his whole
manner
more or
of thought, feeling,
it
will be found
The
when
sign of convalescence
When
moral insanity
stitute the
is
thought to exist by
disease, as it certainly
unjustifiable to
may
itself,
do, it
act or crime,
in the previous
and motives.
desires
first
"
There
is often,"
who
viously suffered from an attack of madness of a decided chathere has been some great moral shock, as a loss of
racter
;
fortune
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
in.]
313
of society
there
would
his relations
it
classes.
is
would
Between
individuals, as elements
is
we have
latter case,
may be
it is
an epithelial
cell
we
when
and a nerve
cell
life.
when
As it
dealing with
is chiefly
in
symptoms of
moral insanity declare themselves, it is plain that the most
typical forms of the disease can only be met with in those who
have had some social cultivation.
The following cases, which came under my observation and
the degeneration of the social sentiments that the
treatment,
which
it
insanity
may
to describe as other
than moral
Miss A.
B.,
Her father
social position and wealthy.
was harmlessly insane, nearly imbecile, and it was necessary,
after every means of controlling her at home had been tried
in vain, to send her to an asylum.
She was completely given
over to drinking spirits when she could get them, and would
bribe the servants or any one else she coidd bribe to buy spirits
for her: nor was she capable of any self-restraint in other
parents,
in high
regards,
making no
scruple
to
When
excited she
by J.
was extremely
C. Prichard,
M.D.
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
314
violent in conduct,
her father's
life
[chap.
with a
When
pistol.
spirits,
In the
injustice done to her, and truly intolerable.
asylum she was the cause of endless disturbances, continually
making complaints against the attendants, ingeniously perof the
verting
and exaggerating
so as
real facts
to
make
them
of
for
on just as
before,
with a
common
pawning her
fellow,
whom she
burn
little articles,
mode
When at home,
No appeal was of
of
life.
she
any
fire,
it,
pane of
glass.
When
them
to
be very absurd,
FARIETIES OF INSANITY.
in.]
315
about them, as though she were not responsible for them, but
and spoke of
it
air of
an innocent victim.
The more
amongst
angry with
her, because
poor
girl,
"
know what
knows
quite well
but Miss
made
know
whom
it if
And
Her
sensible
because,
it
scious reflection,
Miss
Her natural
feelings
and
affections
under the protection of an officer, and that she would let him
know that she was a gentleman's prostitute. Of truth she
seemed quite unable to form a conception, while lies, mischief,
to her nature.
When
was too
that she
ill
prevented from
lie all
day on the
316
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
[chap.
women,
punishment had no
for
any length
it was a
except in so far as
effect,
of time
restraint
wrong
reason such patients feel no shame, regret, nor remorse for their
conduct, however flagrantly unbecoming and immoral it may
have been, never think that they are to blame, and consider themselves ill-treated by their relatives when they are interfered
with.
They
are
phosis of mind.
the course of
effort of
ration,
examples
feeling has
and
mark a
metamor-
mental evolution
we
The moral
as the highest
stage in the
downward
course.
may be
and yet
or disease of
of the head;
the
to insanity signifies
fact.
unknown
it is
some
or in-
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
in.]
phenomena
317
and seemingly
dividual
may sometimes
own
devices, or place
him
acts.
He
perpetrates
some singular
act of eccentricity
because all the world will censure it, or even commits a murder
It is worse than useless
for the sole purpose of being hanged.
for a sound mind to attempt to fathom the mad motives which
spring
actions
of sane self-consciousness
to do so is
madman
really
When
there
what a
is.
dency, from which recovery has taken place, the patient gets an
attack of genuine moral insanity, which
may
many
and
lied
made
He
his escape
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
318
or was discovered, in a
most wretched
in the
state,
[cuap.
when he was
of the
earlier part
forty-eight years
stealing.
He
company
In the
could
In the asylum
make
excellent
management, and
suggestions, and
was very acute in detecting any negligence or abuse on the part
of the attendants, when they displeased him but he was always
write out admirable rules for its
when
and blasphemous in
and delighted to
draw abominable pictures of naked men and women, and to
exhibit them to those patients who were addicted to self-abuse.
He could not be trusted with female patients, for he would
attempt to take indecent Liberties with the most demented
creature.
In short, he had no moral sense whatever, while all
the fault that could be found with his very acute intellect was,
that it was entirely engaged in the service of his depravity.
It
may, no doubt, be thought that he was a desperately wicked
criminal, and that his proper place was the prison.
But the
prison had been tried many times, and tried unsuccessfully.
And there was another reason why prison-discipline could not
rightly be permitted to supersede asylum treatment.
At long
intervals, sometimes of two years, this patient became profoundly
melancholic for two or three months, refused to take food, and
was as plainly insane as any patient in the asylum. It was in an
attack of this sort also that his disease first commenced.
detected,
He was
his language.
foul,
something of an
artist,
been more oT
less congenital
moral
defect,
perhaps at the menstrual periods, perhaps after severe disappointAgain, moral insanity
ment.
it is
the
first
may
some form
of brain disease
in some
it
with which
lepsy
it is
a so-called
But the
disease
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
in.]
310
and of periodical
coming on regularly for months,
who have
less
their place.
studied mental
unaccountable
it,
Whatever name
it
may
ultimately be
drawn from
it
its
is
own
life,
known by
all
the
experience to be
shamelessly vicious,
At any
rate
it
fact, of right
weaken
or abolish the
sciousness.
Fortified
power of volition, without affecting conby this just principle, we shall be far
false principle.
3.
Ideational Insanity.
Under
this
general
name may be
Forme de
Dc'lire
Mentale d'fipileptiques.
1860.
J. Falret,
De
l'tat
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
320
Mania
or Melancholia
[chap.
is
feeling
ment
two principal
accompanying
is
Cases of
expression of
it
The former
of the patient.
latter to
Mania,
of ideational insanity,
tellectual
acute or chronic.
it is
so that
siderable doubt
it is
morbid ideas,
and kind of passion,
from the rapture of the exalted monomaniac to the deep gloom
and accordingly it is not always
of the profound melancholic
of emotional perversion as there are varieties of
different patients exhibiting every degree
possible,
factorily
satis-
melancholia.
furnish the
to
examples
of
monomania.
Another reason
run insensibly
into
they are
classified as
caprice or accident.
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
in.]
classification
that
is,
it
32 J
ment
and the
real
manner of commence-
But
it,
many
is,
cases.
in every case.
not over-
that there
is
not
(a)
which
who have
only
of depression
;
traceable in very
it
What
is
life
and
life,
so to speak,
also (b) a
is
an
maniacal
affective insanity
is
it is
affective melancholia
is,
the patient.
It is
the parsimonious
becomes extravagant, the modest man presumptuous and exand indifferent there
is great liveliness of manner, or a restless activity as of one
half-intoxicated; an overweening self-esteem is very evident,
and an extravagant expenditure of money, an excessive sexual
The tone of the
indulgence, or other intemperance, is common.
acting, the affectionate parent thoughtless
mental nature
is
profoundly deranged
is
often practically
the disease,
action
is
when
cases there
may
be
nessed in
In some
92
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
322
precedes a series
epileptic
of epileptic
or takes
fits,
[cha?
the
place of an
fit.
So soon as we have recognised the existence of a deep perversion of the feelings, sentiments, and acts, having a brisk maniacal
rather than a
not to perceive
how
closely
it
is
how
it
is
Mania
of Esquirol, the
de'lirc
al
1
.
Though an
earlier stage of
tendency
is
but in actions.
It is a condition
tion
is,
directing
the
power of the
harmony
effects
will, yet,
of parts, the
when
disease
has disturbed
its
which
is
an entirely
fictitious exactness,
If
and
if
made
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
in.]
exist, is a positive
323
follow
that
One
fail to
is,
have
AFFECTIVE OR PATHETIC
I.
II.
IDEATIONAL INSANITY.
INSANITY.
1.
of
the
Mania
sine
Maniacal Perversion
Affective Life.
1.
a.
Delirio.
2.
b.
proaching
this,
The
is
Melancholia,
Acute and
Chronic.
Partial.
a. Monomania.
3.
b.
Mania.
2.
cholia.
3.
General.
Melancholia.
4.
General Paralysis.
5.
Temperament.
which
for practical
affec-
under one or other of its aboveof them dangerous impulses are apt
mentioned
to arise,
varieties
and
to
in all
and,
itself
internal derangement.
they are consequently sometimes found intermixed, replacing one another, or succeeding one another, in the same person.
life
There
is
in the
make
human mind
divisions in
made from
Article
" Insanity,"
in
ii.
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
324
tyrannise
to
L CHAP
typical example of
madness might be described as one in which the disorder, commencing in emotional disturbance and eccentricities of action
in derangement of the affective life, passes thence into melancholia or mania, and finally, by a further declension, into demen-
tia.
This
is
may have
space of a single
life,
why
may
when
Although then we
they
for not
ties
(a)
This
division will
corre-
passion
monomania proper
by a sad and
oppressive
In the
ing self-esteem
or grandeur,
it is
to testify
an overween-
of the patient,
is
transformed accordingly
in
agency, demonic or
sins.
the
human,
by some
external
with oppression of
with
self
self,
in
in the other
Pathologically, there
is
a systema-
Similarly, the
FdRIETIES OF INSANITY.
in.1
may
supersede
it,
325
up other
its
which
becom-
ideas
itself
abstraction
able,
we
made
cannot be
is
of the
is
not assimil-
dominating influence
it
represents a partial automatic
morbid action, like a spasm beyond the control of volition,
its
A young man,
sciousness.
a few epileptic
fits,
house
he made frequent attempts to escape from it,
and the precautions taken to prevent his escape only served to
strengthen his delusion.* Seasoning with him was of no use, for
the notion was not explicable on any reasonable principles if a
looker-on could truly enter into the steps of the mental processes
by which such a delusion was generated, he would be as mad as
father's-
the patient
and
if
why
element
is
when
mad
at
It is the patient's
all.
then
it is
De
la
if it
Monomauie Homicide.
1836.
32j
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
prepare us to look
for, at
[ckap.
them
from
false premisses
manner
of action
disease of
is
more or
less incoherent,
when
man
is
sound
mechanism
of mental action
is
engendered and
point,
is
is
therefore,
In vain do men
a symptom.
is
persist.
Moreover,
bid action.
when
the delusion
is
by
putting it in quarantine as it were, preserving all other mental
processes from infection
on the contrary, the morbid centre
reacts injuriously on the neighbouring centres, and there is no
guarantee that at any moment the most desperate consequences
may not ensue. That was precisely what did happen in the case
which we have taken for illustration the young man, whose
father was a butcher, becoming calmer after a time, and being
thought trustworthy, was permitted at his own request to be
present at the slaughter of an ox but, when all was finished, he
did not wish to return home. His friends, however, pressed him,
and two of them, taking him by the arm in a friendly manner,
accompanied him towards his home but, just as he approached
the door of his house, he suddenly drew out a butcher's knife
which he had concealed, and stabbed to the heart one of them,
fleeing immediately to the forest, where he passed the night.
Next morning he went to the house of a relative who lived
some distance off, and said that he had run away from home, as
is
it,
and
thus,
they wished to
kill
him
there.
had a discoverable
insane one
is
VARIETIES OF 1NSJJSITY.
in.]
?<2~
make known
may
subsequently
The
signification of
a persistent delusion
the mind, in
in
first,
delusion betokens a fundamental disorder in the organic processes as the condition of its existence, the extent of such dis-
production; secondly,
its
centres,
in
them
and, thirdly,
may become
irresistibly
hurry the patient into some insane action instiIn other words, psychologically speaking, the existence of a delusion indicates fundamental disorder of mental
uttering
itself,
by
gated
it.
action
radical insanity;
secondly, the
riously
interfering secondarily
while
it
cannot be subordinated to
phenomena
reflection,
and, thirdly,
the individual
may
any moment be subordinated to it, and ant under its instiThe mind then which suffers from positive ideational
gation.
insanity, however seemingly partial, is, being unsound, not to be
disease is going on in
relied upon, nor to be held responsible
it, and it does not depend upon the individual wishes or will
what course it shall take or what height it shall reach, any more
than the health of a man bodily sick depends upon the desire
which he may have to rise, take up his bed, and walk.
Certainly, in some cases of so-called monomania or partial
at
met with
in
is
removed
;
;
;
VARIETIES OF INSANITr
328
of
life
all
and
to
stress
[chap,
to return to active
life,
general excitement,
if
it.
They
will mostly
tolerate with great composure the annoyances of their fellowpatients, because they look clown upon them with pity as mad
;
but once
let
It is necessary to
may accompany
may be no
and events
he
is
delusion
may
In cases of
the patient's
be perverted so that
he
feels
in his affairs
he
is
all day.
may
may
may
be quite
strive to conceal
it
an idea springs up in
his mind that he is lost for ever, or that he must commit suicide,
or that he has committed murder and is about to be hanged
the vast and formless feeling of profound misery has taken form
from his
friends.
as a concrete idea
Suddenly,
is
dered of
it,
be,
it
now being
condensed into
the expression of
is
precipitated, as
it
woe
were, in a
;
and
it
mind
it.
is
engen-
saturated with
The
social,
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
in.]
some cases
it is
striking
how
329
is to
the extreme mental anguish, the patient assigning the most ridi-
is
damnation
is
In
all
exists, the
external agency
intensifies
mind
and
as the existence of
an idea that
congruous with
is
wretched
to some
any passion notably
it,
due
whether excited by some external event or some internal commotion when vehement and long continued, they are apt to end
;
in
some
it
positive delusion.
ambitious passion
that he
is
may
after a
unable to see
some
the
man
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
330
[chaf
happen in it.
The following briefly reported
that
ideational insanity,
of partial
tions
cases
may
serve as illustrations
36, married,
set.
gious character
mind
of
avoid them
blasphemous ideas in
he was greatly
afflicted
by
gloom
increased,
fearful that
was very
he should die
feeble,
and
his
and
it
to
the depressing effects of the morbid idea upon the organic functions, all
less in the
prostration.
His
all
But the moment his attention was no longer diverted from his
own suffering, and otherwise engaged, the morbid idea returned
in all its force, entirely occupied consciousness, his countenance
became
overcast,
and he
just
now
so cheerful
presented
it
as
the
He
a sound, reasonable
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
in.]
being,
and
as a
bis affliction,
it
331
as a
man might
reason
true nature
its
He
was made
by
by external
it
that he
manner
avoid society
and
to
be alone.
At
to
and insane.
Now
energies,
indeed, reli-
illness,
which
not
and ate
eat.
well,
though he professed
listless,
lost.
at times that
He
slept
he could
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
332
[chap,
dying.
me how
am
you know I'm dying." Apart from the delusions as to his soul
and his body, he was intellectually rational, although his affective
life was much perverted.
After a month's residence, there was
some improvement in his state he walked outside the grounds
he was more
after having been almost forced to go once or twice
cheerful too, and would talk a little.
It was thought that he
was going on very favourably. One night, however, without
any warning, he suddenly started out of his bed, rushed at a
window, through which it would have been thought impossible
that a man of his size, or indeed of any usual size, could have
got, struggled through it, and fell from a height of twenty feet,
fortunately on his feet, so that he was only grievously shaken.
;
He
me
seized
come
go, let
him
to
me
go
"
weeks
He became
he began to improve.
frantically,
after
talkative, cheerful,
which
and
inter-
ested in his family, though maintaining for a time, for the sake
of consistency seemingly, that he
ing himself
was no
better,
it
may be
own
life
expected that,
the delusion
if
is
one
The following
attacks
of
Miss
F.,
xt. forty-one,
always been a
finally sent to
before, in
little
queer.
is
described as having
The melancholy
for
consequence of a supposed
offer of
FARIETIES OF INSANITY.
m.]
333
in
she would
seemed
to
most
natural, conversed
No
sensibly,
one
might be observed
to
Good God
"
occasions, to
them at the time, and without memory of them afterwards. The psychologist would be a bold, as he certainly would
be an ignorant and mistaken man, who should assert that the
frenzy might have been controlled because there was usually a
ness of
persistence of reason.
It
reflex
is
plete
so.
may
Thus one of
my
patients,
who
suffered
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
334
of a
woman with
[chap.
is
condition of nerve-element
is
far
that
the
may
soon pass away, not unlike, perhaps, the electrotonic state that
may
produced in nerve.
twenty-two was rather a good-looking young
lady, though with an irregularly formed head, and a deformity
of one ear, and with a strangely wandering and occasionally
be
Miss
artificially
S.,
ajt.
vacant look.
Her family
is
is
moaning
continually,
but conclude that she was not really so miserable as she looked,
that her distressing actions were in great part automatic.
And
them beginning.
"
Oh God
"
Reminded of her
inconsistency,
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
lit]
335
she sank into the deepest self-accusation and abasement, said she
utterly wretched on account of her deceitfulness
was
ness,
occupation, but
when she
help,
sat
down
to write
home
returned,
what they have done, and, if they are conscious of their crime,
never think they are to blame for the automatic activity of their
morbid nature has surprised them, and when they reflect upon
the act of violence, if they do so, it is as upon an act done by
;
it
usually
afflicted, it
double beings
they are
sound being is
day, the unsound being
"
Now
am
on
as conscious
One
exclusive action
another
different occasions
clay the
now with
the
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
33(5
[chat.
upon sensation
and secretion
upon the
upon the move-
secondly,
and, thirdly,
commonly much
affected in melancholia.
may
There
significance.
are frequent
may
These
lost, sees
the devil
poison in his food, a fourth hears voices which revile and accuse
it
may be
to imitate
Abraham and
colour
the menstruation
is
when they
refreshment therefrom.
may
is
common and
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
Hi.]
337
may
it
by
from heaven.
the
is
cataleptic rigidity
the patient, as
if in
and persons
consciousness of
is
lost
intermediate stage.
movement
mental
by
in melancholia it
suffering, or to the
suicide
there
is
is
common attempt
to escape
from
it
is
ment
are different.
to,
The behaviour
nutrition.
sufficient
reveal his
one
may
while another
is
23
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
338
new and
else,
[chap.
for him.
makes perhaps
third
The courses which melancholia and monomania run respecIn melancholia remissions are common,
but complete intermissions rare. It is striking in some cases
tively are different.
how suddenly
a great change
may
take place
Griesinger, as
already said, quotes one case in which there was a perfectly lucid
interval for the space of a quarter of an hour
and
have more
as
bad
as ever.
It
cheerfulness.
When
in half or even
to
does
it
of melancholia,
it is
it is
cardiac, or abdominal,
melancholies
who had
The course
it
of
towards recovery.
the
first place,
cholia,
is
It
was
in
monomania, once
The reasons of
monomania
is
established,
is
very seldom
often secondary to
in
mania or melan-
to phthisis.
commonly the
place,
when
exaggeration
of
developed.
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
in.]
much
the body,
is
339
less so in
to,
or change
in,
the system
whether
emotional, or
As
teric period.
a general rule
when
When
may
it
it
is
so
much more
favourable
ill
partial
system
and
painfully sensible of
the
feels
abundantly
its
satisfied
with
condition, gay,
its
latter it is
and sensible of
nothing to amend.
(b)
all
This
many
commonly
evidence of
much mental
under melancholia.
draw the
In
fact,
it
is
we may
for
although
mania an excitement
the expression of which takes
is
in acute
who
sings, dances,
declaims, runs about, pulls off his clothes, and in all ways acts
may
witched or
lost,
shall be frenzied
who
believes
himself be-
They
all,
however,
In most
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
340
a premonition of
it
outbreak tbere
is,
a precursory stage of
[chap.
depression, of shorter
upon
sleeplessness, restlessness,
excitability,
and hallucinations
degeneration
is
exist.
The
is
destroyed by
is
shall give
an example of each
and
to
may
W. .P. was
commen-
nature,
energy- of character,
who became insane, after making a consiown abilities. His mother had
died insane.
business,
to his usual
manner
and extravagances of behaviour, with which was assounaccustomed liveliness in fact, he acted very much
he were intoxicated, turning certain pictures with their
tricities
ciated an
as
if
about
the
garden
bareheaded
and
positions, walking
singing
altogether
was
and
satirical,
he
If spoken
laughing with
still
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
in.]
341
filthiest
kind
he mastur-
swallowed his urine, and painted himself with his feces, chanting
In
not
all.
and a capa-
fail to
do with him.
As
various delusions
who had
to
as that
were exhibited
previous experience,
and a
agencies, as they
conscious
life
lasted for
and delusions disappeared, there ensued a state of the profoundest moral disturbance. He was possessed with a great
hatred to all those who were especially his friends was sullen,
;
memory
of
him
and
he had an
as a violent cruelty
refused his
although
food or
took
it
seemed
most capriciously
to
and,
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
342
[chap.
times did,
all restraint
all
the
again,
of
sanity less,
until
the disease
dementia.
In this case we
neration was
depression,
may
first
and of unaccountable
occur
to
in
the
great
it
is,
as
it
were, the
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
hi.]
343
dowing gloom
overflow of
life.
we cannot hut
of this excitability,
is
it
kinds of organic element that have been chemically or mechanically injured passes into inflammation and purulent degene-
ration
to
it is
that which
the
is
condition
of
mildest forms
the
of
is
is
This
apt to grate so
it,
sensibility,
"
he
is
"
When
man
here, that
in
almost
dis-
a lunatic,"
is
"
he
is
I cannot help
VARIETIES OF INSANITT.
344
especially
in insanity,
symptoms
in
there
are
[chap.
many
great
unobtrusive
the
impossible in
many
whether
at
any
think
is suicidal,
by
an
for oppor-
opportunities.
racter of
not
is suicidal
that, like
it
of pain, as
well as in the character of those manifold modifications of sensibility which fall short of pain, all which have their specific
meanings had we but the knowledge to interpret them. Two
circumstances, noteworthy in many cases of insanity, were
marked
and
testinal excretions.
the bouquet
des malades of
Manifestly there
is
altered
in
composition by
mentioned
passion
and the
result
whole bodily
life,
any case
The
more than
of
which
it is
by the
patient was
of a certain
amount
of self-consciousness,
This
is
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
m.]
345
responsibility sanctioned
lawyers.
do before attendants
bility
had been
man, suffering
As
ishment.
we might
by the
not only of morbid
is,
ideas,
From
a stage characterised
well-marked stage of
some time
The
disappeared.
suffering, affords
which
after
result
an excellent
is
and
when
At
original affections.
the
the
went on this interval became less eviwas omitted altogether so that, instead of a
recurrent mania, there was a continued mania established,
with regular stages of exacerbation and decline, and a steady
new
dent,
and
at last
declension
towards
the
last
stage of
all,
that of
dementia,
took place.
Now
if
we
choose to suppose, as
we might
we
to constitute his
by this patient
permanent state
to
if
tions instead of
life
met
with.
;
in
delirium of thought,
FARIETIES OF INSANITY.
346
chronic or acute
affective disorder.
we
If
is
[chap
a predominance of the
thoughts to be constrained by
it,
we may
certainly be enabled to
more
briefness
in
character assigned to
interpretation
by a consideration
the individual.
apprehended,
it
it
Had
may
its right
this principle
been
at
all
times clearly
to
and angry
feeling.
its
characterised
by
unconsciousness of what
ness
is
restless-
A cook
The following example will serve to illustrate it
plainly
in a gentleman's family, whose age was not known, though
between forty and fifty, was rather suddenly attacked with acute
mania. Nothing was known of her previous history, but she
had been considered by her fellow-servants to be a little peculiar,
and she had suffered from a chronic erysipelatous inflammation
of one leg, which had disappeared a short time before her attack
of insanity. She had been ill seven days when admitted into the
hospital, and during the whole of that time had been noisy,
violent, and utterly incoherent
and she had taken no food for
On admission her state was one of the extremest
several days.
death.
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
m.]
maniacal excitement
347
to take food,
still
rolled
on the
floor,
her clothes.
milky opacity
was bulged at the sulci
The ventricles were filled with
it
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
348
[chap.
was seen
Had
by a competent
structure
cortical layers
visible
teresting,
of litter helplessness
during
An
life.
fail to
dis-
pearing from the surface of the body had selected for attack the
Though the
delirium
it
is,
it
is
not so in
all cases
now
its
occasional intrac-
tableness,
issue was
of acute maniacal
may
fatal
supervene.
because of the fixed mental suffering that accompanied the incoIt was of a very extreme kind, and
what an amount of consciousness may sometimes coexist with the most desperate insanity. A young woman, set.
24, whose parents were Dissenters in a respectable position, had
she had been much engaged in
been religiously brought up
Sunday-school work, and had written several little tracts of more
When first seen by me she was said to have been
or less merit.
for
two
months,
but there was some probability that she had
ill
suffered for a longer period.
She was miserably restless and unhappy, and wandered about moaning and exclaiming, " My poor
father
My poor father " She also spoke incoherently of the
house being burnt down, and of every one in it being lost and
she
made
became
still
worse
After a
little
while she
and
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
in.]
349
nightdress,
it
led
to.
time for sleep, but for the awakening of a more disgusting frenzy.
"Withal
it
was
and
knew what
control herself in
some measure
for a
dis-
time
like, for
means
of treatment
had
a calming effect
upon
On
her.
motive was excited, she could sometimes restrain the automatic utterance of her convulsive frenzy. Had the supremely
making a
mind
desert of the
there
As
in the
FARIETIES OF INSANITY.
350
so maniacal fury
is
[chap
In
in
it is
We
frenzied actions.
is,
know
why
not
it
should be
but so
so,
it
activity of
The more
their delusions
movement
there
is,
how complete
memory of the
It is striking
insanity
is
the
in
in
the case
ideational
it
has passed
off;
all
but
a dream
is
forgotten,
though he
again
attack
common enough
still
more
so;
whom
strange
they really do
odours, or feel
may
be owing
to
much
varieties of insanity.
IIL]
351
known
Even where
its
no
movements in acute insanity, the rapidity,
confusion, and incoherence of them attest not less certainly the
derangement of the motor centres the movements are not willed,
nor do ideas of them consciously precede their accomplishment,
but the motor intuitions, excited into activity by disease, instigate
them the moment they rise not resting there, moreover, these
there
is
actual illusion of
life,
In the early
affected.
stage,
may
when
be a
there
little
The temperature
is
quicker, but
it
after-
is
of the
body
but in cases of a
may
it
dard.*
is
to
Weber
some other
disease, or
harsh, but
is
is
made
serious.
supposed
it
we may then
a tendency to
were
this true, it
might be
to
Constipation
M.D.
Brit,
and
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
352
common, but
is
the bowels
in
[chap.
an obstinate relaxation of
is
Acute insanity
is
its
course
When
the attacks
we
get
new name
for it
insanity
may be
for hours
it
the outbreak
is
impossible to doubt
is
considered,
Recovery,
inexplicable.*
or months,
when
is
occasional
does
it
its
take
place,
usually
occurs within the year, and sooner and oftener in the melancholic than the maniacal
form
it
is
rare after
which
where there
ment.
is
When
is
lasts,
the worse
the
excite-
may
is
Death
who
escaped.
He
seized a knife,
and rushed
at
arming him, for he defended himself with the knife. His face was flushed, his
full and frequent, and his body covered with perspiration. In the afternoon
he became calm, and slept heavily. When he awoke in the evening he was quito
himself, and remembered nothing of what had passed."
Oazauvieh, Dc la Mouomanie Homicide, 1836. See also Virchow's Archiv, vol. viii. p. 192; Ueber
Mania Transitoria, von Dr. Ludwig Meyer and cases in Marc's work, De la
Folio consideree dans ses Rapports aveo les Questions Medieo-judieiaircs.
pulse
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
m.]
pleurisy or pneumonia.
It
353
many
original cause,
When
is
power apart from the delusions, or even manifested in the display of them
the case may
then properly fall under partial ideational insanity. When the
disease has been produced by a physical cause, or has followed
usually considerable
intellectual
is
is
and examples perpetually occur that render the establishment of any definite line of division impossible. On the one
ration,
The principles
or melancholia; on the otlier, into dementia.
which guide the prognosis in these forms of mental disease will
apply to it. To give an account of chronic insanity would be
simply to describe, in tedious and useless detad, the physical
and mental characteristics of numerous individual cases. It is
important only to bear in mind, that an excellent memory and
much intellectual power may co-exist with numerous extravagant
delusions.
A lady under my care, who fancied that not an event
in Europe happened which had not some hidden relation to her
and her
affairs,
24
who
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
354
[cHAr.
her
and
it
but threatened
conduct,
whom
became necessary
she thought to be
under care
to put her
control.
Dementia.
4.
ration,
and
it is
mental degene-
may, how-
for a
fol-
series of
fits
and in one case which came under my observation
was strong reason to believe that a masked epilepsy appeared in that guise. A man of epileptic visage, and said to have
had "fits" occasionally, was suddenly, after some faintness, affected
with a blank confusion of mind, entire incoherence, and complete inability to recognise anybody or anything
to remember
epileptic
there
he was, in
completely
fact,
demented.
well.
rheumatism,
may
it
by a
Lastly,
it
great moral
a primary disease of
as
in
my
ill
for a week.
food,
eyes were
intelligent perception,
There was a
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
in.]
355
Before
She had suffered some disappointment of her affections menand acute dementia followed. Another
struation had ceased
somewhat similar case was that of a young gentleman, et.
19, of pale, delicate appearance, with large prominent grey
He had for some time been worked rather hard in an
eyes.
;
office,
out of
life
it,
mind
attacked with a
fusion of
he neither uttered nor expressed otherwise anyown mind, and he showed no sign
what was
said
by
others.
He
prognosis.
get well.
is the form of dementia which we most
meet with, and we meet with every degree of mental
Chronic dementia
often
decay in different
cases.
many
times visible
The
seems to
have been sapped, and, though perception appears to be sufficiently acute, there is
finer
feelings,
some want
moral and
physiognomy has
aesthetic
of
power of
especially,
reflection
are
gone
the
the
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
356
[chap.
may
is
regained, or
of
life.
In the
are apt to
it
may
come on
at uncertain intervals,
and
to issue finally
In a lady under
my
care,
in complete dementia.
suffered
This
insanity
completely arrested
who had
when only fifteen
mind seemed
to have been
and though she had during that period three more acute attacks
of derangement, these resembled in character those that occur
They represent
in undistinguishable varieties
Three main
groups of them
those
who
may
perhaps be made.
The
first
will consist of
automatically expressed
lies or inspires
which under-
when
care,
utter-
if
The paths
for
of mental
association are broken up, so that the delusions are cut off from
any active influence upon such mental functions as are left,
and all real interest in the past or the present is abolished.
The actions of the patient exhibit a corresponding imbecility.
Many of them are incapable of employing themselves in any
useful
way
a few
may
occupation, or to do a little
work
of a
manual kind
while the
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
in.]
industry of others
as, for
is
Strange propensities of
pieces of paper.
357
all
on a par-
with feathers or
depressed,
flowers.
or brisk
and
exalted,
or placid
and cheerful
it
of the patient.
woman under my
care
used to think she ate different people in her food, and when she
saw them alive still could not be persuaded that she had not
another woman may lovingly nurse as her long
eaten them
dead child a lump of wood decked in rags a fourth person, whose
singular movements seem unaccountable, is busy spinning
sunbeams into threads a fifth continues violent movements of
his arms in order to prevent his blood from coming to a standstill.
The bodily health is usually good, the patients frequently
improving in this regard as the active symptoms of mania or
:
has advanced so
the
mind broken
disorganized.
Consequently there
is
memory
an entire incapacity of
senses, as
There
is
is
or there
may
about, for
no
and fury
J. B.
was a
intelligible
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
358
[chap.
upon some
one,
who perhaps
The bodily
health
some
and remain
so
till
an out-
break of excitement and agitation, to which they are periodically liable, reduces them.
The physiognomy is blank and
expressionless, especially
when
the patient
is
addressed
it is
is
whom
the
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
in.]
indeed, little
off
359
are,
much
they are
exposed.
long time,
last for a
The
habits,
much improved by
suffering
from
it
or to atrophy of
it is
it
is
may
often be
When
it
condition,
or
produced by accidental
disease, as
tubercle or pneumonia.
Now
we have sketched
that
gradual processes of
lution of
its
its
its
mentia,
the progress of
call attention to
results of
movements
its
is
first
of the limbs,
When
when
last
So
manifestations
of
diseased
mind
there
morbid
with regard to the
is first a loss of power of co-ordinating the ideas and feelings, a
certain incoherence of mind at a more advanced stage there are
convulsive mental phenomena, or fixed morbid ideas, comparable
of
all,
of
ing
how
how
mena by
necessary
face to
it is
and in making
mental pheno-
;;
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
360
phenomena
affords us,
no amount of
[chap.
iteration
now
will avail to
much
defective
manner
in
which
General Paralysis.
5.
it
lie
is,
not so
as in the
It is a
necessary to
it is
an
commonly from
so fatal
by
it,
is it, too,
that
"
but
it
may
it
The most
it is
the best
frequent cause of
sexual
that
who seem
marked examples
occurred in teetotallers,
enough
be present.
to
of the disease
which
Two
of
have seen
addicted to alcoholic
with the supposition that the sole cause of the disease may
sometimes lie in the agitation and anxieties incident to the most
active period of
lysis
men
life.
Women
seldom
suffer
much
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
in.]
It has
the mental
appears
361
first
paralysis
whether
the
is
paralysis, or
the insanity
and main
primary
is
whether the
latter
the
insanity
any
many
is
trace
visible;
positively;
which the
symptoms were
earliest
beginning in the cord, and one or two similar cases are on record.
is
in 27
no evidence of
the patient
when emotionally
then there
may
which
not at
is
visible
when he
is
perfectly
calm and
collected.
has to execute so
many
are
first
delicate
pulled to
one
side.
muscles of expression
There
is
when they
a tremulousness
but
also
it is
not
in the
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
362
As
[onAP.
in walking, the
feet are not quietly raised and firmly planted on the ground
drunken man.
staggers like a
it
the
when going
straight forward, he
Nevertheless he
earnestly, as if
if
it
may
be energetic
unaware of his
deficiencies,
ment, such as
automatic
is
acts, is lost.
As
the disease
still
advances, the
arti-
is
not
uncommon
the disease.
muscular sense
is
The
power of executing the more delicate and complex movequite unaware of his impotence, and deems himself not
The special senses are
less skilful than when at his best state.
not usually affected until near the end, when smell and taste are
diminished or lost, and vision fails. One patient under my care,
who at times used to fancy himself blind, had vivid hallucinaon one occasion he had a glorious vision of
tions in the night
angels descending from heaven on ladders of gold, and on
another, an agonizing vision of his own wife in the act of
lost all
ments,
is
adultery.
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
m.]
363
feeling of personal
marked change
of character
and habits
the patient exhibits unwonted perversities of feeling and conduct, such as surprise
he breaks out
or orders
numerous valuable
what
for, or steals
which he
strikes his
fancy.
he
is
the impossible
he is painfully
and confused in his thoughts,
As the mental disorder increases,
troubled about
little
things, dull
"
how
him."* Delusions of a
terrific character,
when
she
with accompanying
depression
and a day of
intervenes in the
ii.
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
364
first,
is
in
fact,
[chap.
a gradually increasing
decay
found
is
to
"As
be increased.
life,
the dementia
is
its
last stage of
is
may
General paralysis
is
as
affected
is
plain enough,
it is
;
we
for
is
insanity, without
Nor do
anything
lost
In
fact,
what
is
or actuation
ail
further diseased
the
is
is
quite clear
are affected
lectual
life,
which
the
the
earliest
symptoms
of general
paralysis
is
the
difficulty
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
in.]
noticed in giving
some
of
outward expression
fit
365
to the ideas,
affection of
by reason
But the
by the
life,
Now
a delusion
is
it is
well
known
that,
when
it
it
is
its
own
surroundings
by the
in
influence
made more hopeless, is in fact pracby the failure of the muscular sense thereby,
indeed, the avenue by which are acquired the notions of the
size, form, and position of objects in space is closed, and the
of external circumstances is
tically cut
patient
off,
is left
an easy prey
manent
and, whether the recovery in such cases has been peror not, there can be
must be pronounced
On
it
loss
In the more
of consciousness with
It
may
to
have increased.
It has
been
means
of
physical
VARIETIES OF INSANITY.
066
[chap. hi.
is
it
rises
convulsion, there
temperature
but
it
when
attacks,
there
generally
is
During the
so-called
is
considerable rise of
was
for
some time
98,
day to 106*, the patient dying in thirty-six hours from the com" In the last miserable stage of all,
of the attack*
mencement
when
life
flickers
before
expiration, large
sloughing bedsores
life.
for 1864.
NOTE.
The
many
I.
II.
III.
classification of
is
as follows
mental diseases
now
Die Diepressionzustande.
1. Die Hypoehondrie.
2. Die Melancholie.
Die Exaltationzustiinde.
1. Die Tobsucht.
2. Der "Wahnsinn.
Schwachezupsychischen
Die
I.
II.
Conditions of Depression.
1.
Hypochondria.
2.
Melancholia.
Conditions of Exaltation.
1. Acute Mania.
2.
III.
Monomania.
Conditions
stande.
of
Mental
Weak-
uess.
1.
Die Verriicktheit.
1.
Craziness or Incoherence.
2.
Der Blodsinn.
Idiotismus und Cretinismus.
2.
Dementia or Fatuity.
Idiocy and Cretinism.
3.
IV.
3.
CHAPTER
IV.
BEFOEE
it
will
a
Already the absence of any physical appearances where psychical disorder has existed, has been dwelt upon
general character.
some
A patient
and there is
no reason disclosed by pathological observation why he should
have died.
Is it a right inference, then, that nerve element
at
length.
is
affected
Certainly not
when
we know nothing
not affected
is
at present
mode
and
it
Where
human
we have
beyond doubt
is
may
take place in
investigation, to conclude
deaf
human thought
to
if
the
and
to
other.
We
is
of necessity
we
are
none the
discover
due time
368
of nerve
life,
[chap.
its
functional manifestations.
facts available to
may
which may be
so
is
is
the individual
is,
power of
and yet neither
so far as
;
made
sistently irritated so as to be
shock, the
excessive
exhausted, and
it
to give forth
shock
it
after
utterly
tion have restored its power; the nervous centres have plainly
it.
heavily charged with carbonic acid, and the victim of the expe-
but
who can
tell
by our
but
senses.
it is
for
tive effect
is
recog-
some
in-
The expetissue,
but
iv.]
369
may
difference
The
and
it.
life
death,
change.
known
that
when
its
greatest intensity
and so
by the means
of investigation
when
which we now
possess,
may
or long continued.
1.
The im-
to
It
is,
indeed, of the
first
moment
is
not
that a distinct
Because nerve
is
looked upon as
mind has
reflected on its functions a sort of spirituality and unand has, consciously or unconsciously, caused them to be
set apart from the category of like organic processes. The metaphysically minded have not been content to declare the mind to
exist independently of all the physical processes which determine
the mode of its manifestations, but they have actually imposed
metaphysical conceptions on nervous function as the instrument
However, the regions of the wonderful
of so exalted a mission.
reality,
are.
becoming
there
less
and
less as science
advances
its
and
means of
lines
vous function.
With
it
may
cannot be doubted
;:
3/0
[chap.
an element as
A definite
it is
period of time
is
as essen-
is
central
its
at the
is
and
This time-rate
at different periods
if the
is
very regular.
if
But,
great
of conduction
by nerve
is
it is
THE PATHOLOGY OF
iv.]
comparatively moderate
less
INSANITY.
371
travels.
is
its
which
a.
essentially requisite.
made
may
made, we
activity.
At any
rate,
is
by
same
Such variations may depend upon
or they may be due to transitory conditions
cannot get
"
it
it
mental suffering
is
is,"
will boggle
a step forward
There
restiveness in almost
and
at another
no holding
is
Sometimes, without
and stand
it
in."
still,
time
it
and one
will press
The oppression
of
defective association
is
sort of association is
In many cases of
from apoplectic seizure, a
considerable time must elapse between a question asked of the
patient and his reply there is, as it were, a sluggishness of the
mind, which perceives and reacts more slowly than natural.
together in the most incoherent rhymes.
affection of the brain, as in recovery
Such
facts,
proving beyond
all
activity
which
is
the condition of
it.
3/2
Du
Bois
Reymond
in
it.
When
[chap
the nerve
is
circulating
its
been supposed by
It has
is
but,
although that
assumption
when
It is to
when
it
it
the
electro-motor
properties of
But there
If a constant gal-
lies
it is
between the
found
poles, but
is
increased
in the
The former
trotonus.
state
A given tract
the
latter, Anelcc-
production of katelectrotonus and the disappearance of anelectrotonus, but not through the disappearance of katelectrotonus and
is
iv.j
condition of
it
and
when
373
The diminution
it.
of
so
nerve
is
distinguished
by a
and by
These
excitability,
and a retardation
changes
all
of
conducting power.
its closure,
and with
the poles.
investigations
by an electric stream,
and chemical changes
is
it is
of
poles,
of conduction is
a result are quite different at the negative from what they are at
the positive pole
in
between the
which one kind of
other.
it is
not impos-
passes
through which
then be the
would resolve
and the
electric excitation
The analogy
weakened by the
after it has
been in an electrotonic
time
is
is
of
not
required by a nerve,
374
full
power of conduction*
Still it
[chap.
would be unwarrantable,
in
its
use
is
its
full exposition of
of
must wait
the complex phenomena of nerve
is
The
function
is
to
and
citation,
it is
scientific
shown
its
is
diminished during
its
ex-
and
we only
in the
electric force is
phenomena
The
relation
probably nowhere
been shown that with nerve as with muscle the chemical reaction becomes acid after activity, owing to the production
seemingly of lactic acid
and the results of the waste through
It has
are found
by the waste
to
resemble very
of muscle:
much
they are
vital tissue,
known
is
and muscle.
By means of the thermo-electrical apparatus Becquerel and
Breschet have shown that a muscle rises one degree in temof the similar electrical relations of nerve
Ludwig
fiber die
Electrisclie
Erregung der
;;
iv.]
of its
oxygen
and
375
clearness.
portion to the
sum
contraction*
made
am
made
but one
electrical properties
the appeal
is to
the chemist to
make known
may
much
for
to
many
scattered
At
It
morbid
is
that
a distinct sensation of smell is produced by aoooo gr. of sulphuretted hydrogen, by T ^hnT g r of bromine, by -onrJinnr gr.
of oil of resin, and by even a still smaller quantity of musk
-
and yet men familiar with these facts have thought it no inconsistency to look with the naked eye for the physical condition
of delicate psychical disorder.
2.
electrical
Mechanische Leistung. Wiirmeentwickclung und Stoffumsatz bei der Jluskelvon Rudolf Heidenhain.
thatigkeit,
3J6
changes during
niical
but
it
itself,
its
who have
garded by those
would be no
[ciiap.
injustice
to
that
assert
nerve element
The main
agents in initiating
that the
is
if
they
first
entirely secondary.
directly injured
and
early steps of
of Professor Lister
of mechanical or
of the tissue are
life,
The
dilatation of the
vessels
nervous system.
is
Mr.
cause
little
ment
tional
in the cells
activity
loss of
to
which
"the
accompanying,
if
not
preceding,
the
earliest
arterial dilatation.
it
recovered after
its
action of cilia
" tissues
possess,
action,
IV.]
from
point."*
inflammation
earliest condition of
power of recovery
beyond a certain
intrinsic
irritation,
is
377
carried
are
is
in health.
it
who
to
effects
development of
primordial
the
in
increased
the
of
action
when
kidney
one
the other
and
is
and
parts,
sequent
the
in-
destroyed or rendered
incompetent.t
how damage
caused
whether
it
elements of the
nerve
the
to
disordered function
lower state of
brain,
however
life,
and manifests
its
is
brought to
And
as in inflammation a
its
corpuscles follow
the local mischief, so here a disturbance of the circulation inevitably follows, and in
mischief.
its
perceive also
how
it
is
that
when
is
of
nerve
element
fashion to
On
as
assert
individual.
that
there
t General Pathology, by
J.
Simou, F.E.S.
I'.lt.S.
Philosophical
378
[chap.
man
that
the brain sank during sleep, and swelled up with blood when he
awakened but the investigations of Mr. Durham, who removed
portions of the skull in different animals, have distinctly shown
;
that there
its
is
it
element as the
If,
we
attention on
fix
.active cause to
will be seen
it
why
The
is
is to
may take
an organ of animal
sleep
the organic
The function
place.
life,
life
is
of
life
made "actual"
in future
moderate when
it is
in abeyance.
when
the energy
If the thoughts of
is
the stimulus of
any one
is great,
and
this
of
the difficulty
Indeed,
it
with regard
to the extent
and degree
Guy's Hospital Reports. Dr. Hammond, in an article on " Sleep and InNew York Medical Journal, vol. i. 1865, confirms Mr. Durham's
somnia," in the
iv.]
379
that
we
same sense
phenomena
of sleep afford of
is
All
the con-
If
it
exhaustion.
tible sleep.
A man
will sleep
occurs
is
is
an
When
all organic
a dog
is
is
life.
it
may happen
that
body
but
if
is
Now
and perhaps
the congestion
upon
which the strychnia directly acts. Here, in fact, is the abstract
and brief chronicle of what happens in many cases of insanity.
Transfer the convulsive action from the spinal nerve-cells to the
cortical cells of the hemispheres, the result is an acute and violent
mania, in which the furious morbid action of the directly poisoned
nervous centres initiates an acute determination of blood. Let
the disease be supposed to become chronic, the congestion of the
blood-vessels may become chronic also.
The common error has
been to discover the pathological cause of the insanity in the
congestion, in spite of the observation that it was not the way of
In what
congestion, otherwise caused, to give rise to insanity.
is described as Mania transitoria, it sometimes happens that an
of the intensely morbid activity of the nerve elements
even
380
homicidal tendencies
is
his face
is
flushed, his
[chap.
man
is
After
himself again,
scarcely conscious of
to look
reason to believe
but there
is
it
the attack
is,
in truth,
an epilepsy
of the cerebral centres, and the congestion takes place not other-
wise than as
it
be distinctly
At
realized.
it is
important not
to
may be
Whatever
terial to
interferes
is
may
known to
action.
produce
serious
every one
but
disturbance of
it is
its
functions
how
functional
It is
is
rarely conges-
itself,
gives rise
itself,
THE PATHOLOGY OF
iv.]
weak, and
to
quench
its life
less able to
do
it
it
it
381
little fitted
gathered around
consequently miserable
it is
and threaten
and yet it is
INSANITY.
evils cluster
has more
difficult
is
tc
It is
it.
around
work
it,
to do,
May we
activity is extin-
it is
tion of blood
beneficial
how
if
its
in certain cases
natural sleep
in a condition of
rest
it is
during
One more
To surgeons it is well known that after an injury eryand phlebitis, which are blood-diseases, are most apt to
insanity.
sipelas
Mr. Paget
And
relates, for
example,
how he
but soon a vivid red eruption appeared at and about the wound.
This was measles, earliest and most intense at the seat of the
weak
part,
Morel mentions the case of a man, aged 55, who -was hemiplegic after
His intelligence was sound, but he was morose and
Periodically, however, he was subject to attacks,
irritable, and weary of life.
in which he complained of blood rising to the head ; his heart beat violently
the fingers of the paralysed side contracted; he was unspeakably dejected at
then became furious, threw himself on his wife or
first, saying that he was lost
Blood-letting and cold to the
children, and several times attempted suicide.
head produced immediate calm. Trails des Maladies Menlales, p. 138.
*
cerebral hemorrhage.
382
[chap.
left
behind
by-
less
is
itself in insanity.
3.
In
set forth
to
which diseased action of one nervous centre is somefact, which has lately
attracted new attention, was long since noticed and commented
" In some convulsive diseases," he writes,
on by Dr. Darwin
" a delirium or insanity supervenes, and the convulsions cease
and, conversely, the convulsions shall supervene, and the delirium cease. Of this I have been a witness many times a day in
the paroxysms of violent epileptics which evinces that one kind
of delirium is a convulsion of the organs of sense, and that our
Miss G., one of his
ideas are the motions of these organs."
patients, a fair young lady, with light eyes and hair, was seized
with most violent convulsions of her limbs, with outrageous hie-
manner
in
iv.]
383
"After
having carefully considered this disease," he says, " I thought the
convulsions of her ideas less dangerous than those of her muscles,"
first
of the muscles
and then of the ideas, returned twice a day for several weeks."
" Mrs. C," again, " was seized every day, about the same hour,
with violent pains in the right side
of-
till it
fell
became
into convulsions,
mon
epilepsy
at other times a
which
totally intolerable.
which termicom-
stertor, as in
vation such as
lie
Indeed, a
to the reflex or
sympa-
When
how commonly
the morbid
action of
life, it
it is,
in fact, in
Zoonomia, vol. i. pp. 25, 26. Broclie relates the case of a lady who suffered
from persistent spasmodic contraction of the sterno-cleido-mastoid
after
this lasted a j'ear
suddenly it ceased, and she fell into a melancholy
which she recovered mentally, hut the cramp of the muscle returned, and
In another case of his, a neuralgic condition of
lasted for many years.
*
for a year
the vertebral
Nervous
A feet ions.
certain Local
384
not an
the
to
uncommon
phenomena of
[chap.
The most
interesting
action,
of morbid
transference
or of the
of epilepsy.
sions, there is a
in
France as
epilepsie larvae
fits
from the
interval one
at a considerable
On
other.
his
the
hospital
in
strait-waistcoat.
he was in
in the afternoon he
fits
'.slept
what position
On awaking he had
his sleep
On
was a
fit.
true
is
differently
described
as maniacal
mania, or
insanity.
In such
cases, after
or
fury, or periodic
suicidal,
or moral
years,
iv.]
make
385
and supply the
their appearance,
which
its
internuncial function
ence of an impression
to a
more distant
and, therefore,
made
at one spot
How
part.
sympathy or consent of
tity.
may
it
by any
not;
ascribe
to a
it
infection,
unknown quan-
serve to express an
It is utterly impossible
we know
an induction, or an
parts, or to
an algebraic symbol,
quickly communicated
is
much whether we
matters not
it
by
is
tract;
how
is
it
that,
contraction
stimulated, the
is
electrotonic condition.
when
extends
along the
actually altered
It is
none the
electricity actually
a point in a muscle
when
nor
fibre,
it is
is
how
put into an
important
motions in sensible
insensible
results.
There
is
some
reason to hope, however, that further researches into the electrical relations of
nerve
may throw
moment what
light
action.
is
There
elec-
some
is
its interior,
modification
may
in the secretion
cular
activity
finally
be expressed,
in,
a palpable chang8'
26
386
sensation
call
and
if
it,
[chap,
not
which
secrete,
we
not
is
is
intercommunicating nerve,
it
certainly
movement should
But disturbance
neither
more nor
less
is
which sympathetic or
would appear
that,
reflex
wherever there
is
commonly used
it
It is true that
continuity of nerve-struc-
is
from
may
but there
sometimes take
felt
the tickling in the throat after long speaking, and the increase
by muscular
of facial neuralgia
exertion,
lieterogeneous
may be shown
also
be homogeneous
hip-joint
which Henle
of the
same kind,
that
be
felt
one eye
produced by toothache
may
or the pain
which
is
is, it
may
When
by nerves
facial neuralgia is
of toothache
carious.
it
Henic,
whose
left leg
and
Ollivier has
side
Pathologic, 1S4U.
had been
w.]
387
leg
little
turned out
if
movement by sympathetic
When
examples
and in
mental emotion causes the
is
when
rectly
with in insanity, I
now
of pathological observation
it
and
spherical
cells,
&c.
which,
commonly do
if
so
they do
indirectly;
as tumours,
affect
2,
the hemi-
those direct
make in the
ing, is
the absence of
symptoms
of
mental disturbance.
The
fact
388
may
seem
at first
[chap.
much
dis-
After giving a
An
examination of the
by the morbid
action
in spite of
it.
it
is
accommodate
itself to
nervous centre
new
the
may be
conditions
and a
closely adjacent
is
in close proximity to
An
observation, therefore,
which Dr.
it is
is
not
Whatever
tumour may
ration
may
soften
of a single
symptom
who
amount of
and undergo purulent degene-
It
Brain.
t
see a paper
rv.]
when
339
a sudden and quick death has proved at the same time the
and the injustice done to the
Two
quite central.
things will
while
and
(2)
may
The
(1.)
symptoms of
mind
for, if
The disturbance
is
in reality secondary
it is
and
it
may
This
is
is
consequently come
why
it is
is
not permanent
we
when once
are to say
why
produced,
we
are no
more
is
the character of
it
for
mental
it is
dis-
manifest
as
it
which
*
A systematized mania or
A rchiv
vol. x.
S56.
390
[chap.
character, a definite
of disorder
it
we have now
to do, indicates,
is
mind
be very
commonly extremely
active, it is
by the communicated
strangely shattered
and
is
may
incoherent, exhibits an
imbecility,
when
from without.
it is
The want
of
which occur in
local
diseases of the brain, not the direct result of the disease, but a
secondary or reflex
When
effect.
of intelligence, there
how
remarkable
it is
disorder, although
are
IV.]
on,
voluntary muscles
ears,
and more or
391
greater
In another
case, in
brain,
with paralysis.
It is necessary to
may
be
well
known
that a person
may
any mental
suffering.
It is
and yet
may be
cut
away without
There
fully conscious.
one hemisphere
may sometimes do
the
it,
though he
is
work
This being
so, it is
easy to
perceive how direct encroachment by disease on the hemispherical grey layers may in some cases be unattended with any
mental disorder.
2.
Morbid Appearances in the Brain and Mcmlrancs. The
disease
and the
and
me
"More than
to
thirty years'
an entirely opposite
392
observed during
to foretell
On many
life.
what we should
The broad
undoubtedly
result
is,
was
occasions, I
able accurately
find."*
by pathological
established
observation
affect
met
[chap.
Of these changes
it.
is
and
essential.
The
met with
is
commonly enough
who have
how
perceive
this
may
In the
happen.
exists
place,
he has
when
first
scarcely affected in
and the heart substance remains sound, notwithstanding acute pericarditis and exudation into the pericardium.
peritonitis
So
it
is
effusion
may
take place in
it,
is
not
mind the
mater: Schroeder van der Kolk found that, while most of the
arteries pass
are
there
down from
it
distributed, the
and
membrane by a corresponding
series
may
On
p. 231.
iv.]
every one
subject,
is
As
element.
it is,
without effect
39S
sensibility of
of unusual irritability
passion
and
nerve
by a
feeling
to excitement
and
is
it.
suffers
when
the
for,
ment
or maniacal delirium
less
stains with
pink hue
substance.
As
commonly
patients do not
met with
and
it is
is
not often
If
we
call to
to the blood-supply,
may
it
when hyperemia
is
met
how
with,
this
it is
it
may on
instructive
347,
may
insanity.
394
The
are wanting
are rare
which
[chap.
anatomical lesions
all
is
less firmly
cannot then be
it
inflammatory condition
fully described
a like interpretation.
brain
frequently in
and
owing
ment
of the
ventricles,
and serous
exudations, as described
its
is
common, and
substance, enlarge-
effusion.
Diffuse pachy-
membranes
or the layers of
certainly
more
but
th'ey
uniform character
in
iv.]
395
cases.
to the grey
in the other
matter occurred
It
is,
The symptoms
are intolerable
and more or
less
is
and
the
found to be softened.
was not
cause,
is
rare.
A remarkable
circumstance in regard to
its course,
it
the patient
On
der
Kolk
must
ances described by him
be admitted
but
it
membranes must
morbid appearwhich have since
On
the Pathology of
G eneral
Paresis.
Journal of Menial
Science, 1814.
396
exudation
is
of a tumour
[chap.
and
may
it
it is
called,
may
take place as a
according to Virchow,
it
the cells are spindle-shaped, or have the stellate form of the cells
of connective tissue, or the round form of granulation
cells.
There certainly
is
no character whereby
it.
this albumino-fibroid
The
bercle.
it
and
from tu-
shown by
Virchow
valents
which
this
syphiloma
is
its
equi-
The form
stage
careful observation
who have
*
are found
sypliiUtische Neubildung,
IV.]
397
stage.
There
inflammation.
is
some
mater, the vessels of which are strongly injected, from the surface
of the brain
away with
More
it.
or less exudation
opaque
scarcely visible.
is
After a
still
cular injection.
pia mater
The
may even
may
form a
layer,
longer duration,
when dementia
is
and the
the
and the
membrane
is
declared during
life
by
weight of the brain, and also upon the specific gravity thereof
but further experiments on these points are yet
in the insane
needed. Dr. Skae and Dr. Boyd have found the absolute weight
;
increase
of the brain to be slightly increased in the insane, the
The
paralysis.
general
bein" greatest in mania and least in
Dr. Sankey
the brain in the insane was found by Dr. Skae and
sane the
the
that
in
with
compared
as
increase
an
to exhibit
;
though
still
epilepsy.
It
393
who
Dr. Bucknill,
mode
[chat.
1030 to
was T040, and in
and in paralysis ter-
1'046
by coma
in paralysis terminating
some acute
cases
it
The
it
it
varied from
1036
to
1039.
inflammatory
was
ascribable in
state.
its
severity
of cerebral disorder,
compared
A fibrinous
a,
when
slight
or albumino-fibroid
is
manifestly not
it
disturbance
is,
iv.]
only
of
is
and
399
it is,
even when
When
it
its vital
power
is
lowered and
changed
its
but when,
function dis-
surroundings are
its
dilate,
of
an
inferior activity.
prolong
testifies
vital degeneration
in
The increase
more marked.
indeed
to the manifestation
it,
and
other
are
life
mental
and in the difference of dignity between the nervecell and connective tissue corpuscle there is a gap as great as
that between sound mental activity and dementia.
Recent microscopical examinations of the brain after insanity
have added something to our knowledge of its pathology. The
elements,
is
incoherence
to establish the
exuberant produc-
in general paralysis.
It is
now known
that there is a
homo-
geneous matrix of connective tissue lying between and supporting the nerve elements of the brain, and continuous with the
ependyma
of the ventricles;
it
an undue
triment of the proper elements of the part. The researches ofRokitansky and Wedl into the morbid changes in general paralysis
make known
amounting
to a
some
more
400
aneurismal dilatation
[chap.
is
Bound
the
and more
may
may have
tissue
its starting-point,
growth of connective
the walls of the blood-vessels, but also from the proper nuclei of
As
the brain-substance.
a consequence of
its
exuberant increase,
jured or destroyed
"
undoubtedly
torn,
and
it
is
certainly
is
not so in the
common
In connexion with
and
fatty granules
ways
in
the product of a
all
There
however, two
are,
:
first,
process,
there
is
whereby the
nerve
when we
is
part.
connective
tissue instead of
The process
is
essentially one of
and,
The
in a case in
!]
401
seemed to hegin in the vessels, as the walls of them were enormously thickened by a number of cells and nuclei, and their
diameter was increased
and
hyperemia.
The
he considers the
neuroglia, or hyaline
'
atrophy,
lose
their
and appear
medulla,
to
it,
consist
of axis
As they disappear,
Hound
The
still
mole-
Eokitansky holds
to
Avith
So also
amyloid corpuscles
the
is it,
that
in Eindfleisch's
found
are
the
and
closer together,
(1)
(2)
atrophy
27
growth of connective
402
tissue (Eokitansky)
and
[chap
(3)
made by Wedl.
met with
as
In the
wavy
its
Other
and
capillaries
substance containing
some
for
distance.
many oval
the
dis-
all
to
mind the
is
of
is
common
occurrence in cerebral
There can be
little
doubt that
and in congenital
idiocy.
Yirchow's
Archiv,
u.
Kiickenmark,
b. vi.
iv.]
403
degeneration that have been met with in the brain after insanity,
end that the nature of the retrograde changes may be
to the
more evident
There
is in the most acute form of insanity an acute hyperan early stage of inflammatory degeneration.
Dr.
Tigges has recently described an increase of nuclei in the
ganglionic cells, and he believes the numerous scattered nuclei,
(a)
cemia, or
matory degeneration.*
(6) There is that degeneration which consists in the increase
of connective tissue and in the atrophy of the nerve elements.
Whether
called sub-inflammatory,
we keep
in
mind the
is
and described
not of
as the result of
much moment
so long as
inflammatory process.
It
the brain
may
parenchyma of
The
more
duced.
is
When
the degeneration
is
greater and
more
active, as it
still
are
met
met
brain,
the
Fatty degeneration
with.
It
may
is
new morbid
products.
In what
is
known
as white softening
404
morbid products*
[chap
In the
retro-
Amyloid
(d)
degeneration.
corpora amylacea, or
little
It admits of
starch-like
Wedl
colloid corpuscles,
exudation which
and regarded
may
fleisch,
Rindhe has
cells of
origin
Pigmentary degeneration
(e)
met with
is
and
partial
cells, filled
to this
what
called
is
Retinitis pigmentosa,
there are found scattered over the fundus ocull irregular figures
of deep black colour, consisting of
is,
that
A point
Grafe
More
.4"cAi'!>,
pigmentary degeneration of the cells. In the Journal of Mental Science, Oct. 1866,
there is an abridgment of Dr. Meschedo's paper, with notes, by Dr. Blandford.
iv.]
405
and the
occasional.
no
as
Pigmentary degeneration
less certain
it is
may
surely be accepted
view*
left
Hydrochloric
is
it,
in
t Journal
406
[chap.
must be constrained
to
admit that the difference is not less great than the difference
between dementia and sound mental action, and cannot venture
to assert that the morbid appearances throw no light whatever
Diseases cf Lung.
pneumonia of low
is
who
made
in three years,
and fever are often entirely absent there is prostration, and the
extremities are cold the complexion is dusky red, or cyanotic
;
extreme weakness
is
increased
by
diarrhoea,
Almost every writer on insanity calls attention to the frequency of phthisis puhnonalis among the insane, although there
is far from being an agreement as to the proportion of cases in
which
it
asylums
occurs.
statistics of several
one-fourth of the
deaths
were
attributed
to
phthisis
this
iv.]
Out
4ffJ
Asylum from
Workman, 27 per
cent, of the
Dr.
carefully
women,
in
that
in little
is
about twice as
fre-
latter.
Observers, agreed
as to the frequency
Esquirol found
them
which
in one-fifteenth of his
The most
reliable ob-
commonly assumed
Vienna Asylum,
very
slight.
Diseases of the
of the intestinal
insane.
It is
408
[chap.
iv.
maniacal or melancholic.
especially noted
lies in the
is
cases,
stomach,
cases
may
peculiar delusions
of
may
disease.
Eemember only
that,
by
produce insanity.
CHAPTER
V.
TT
might seem
to
J-
man's mind
is
in
some cases
be no
difficult
as
is
as difficult
So imperceptibly does
easy in others.
is
it
physiological function pass into pathological function throughit is impossible to say where one ends
and the other begins in the case of any organ disease is not
any mischievous entity that has taken possession of the body,
and must be driven out of it as the evil spirit was driven out
of the demoniac it is simply vital action under other conditions
than those which we agree to call natural or typical. Unsoundness of mind is that degree of deviation from healthy mental life
which it is agreed by the common consent of mankind to regard
That there should be extreme uncertainty in deas morbid.
ciding in particular cases, arises from the fact that various
acts which may be the results of insanity may also be the acts of
vicious or criminal persons, in whom there is no inclination to
suspect disease. It
will not,
however,
actions
for,
in the
first place,
suffice to
man
is
there are
make
it
the posi-
unquestionably insane
actions, if
they have a
who
sufficiently strong
who
motive to do so
there
who
410
class.
[chap.
many
for Scotland, as
much
larger proportion
cases
among
at large*
which
it
is
punish as criminal.
It is not so plain,
that a rough
is
correct
common
sense
is
best
concerning
it
he expressed, thought
it
and official position to condemn " the evil habit which had
grown up of assuming that insanity was a physical disease, and
not a subject of moral inquiry," and to affirm that it was not
necessary " that a man should have studied the subject of
insanity in order to form a conclusion whether a man was or
was not a lunatic." It may well be doubted whether a Lord
Chancellor ever before gave utterance to so
chievous,
It
erroneous, mis-
falling
fail to
example
be
of
Acute mania is not likely to be overlooked, or to be confounded with any other disease. The only doubtful question in
regard to it will be in the event of an impostor attempting to
Certainly
simulate it, or of a drunkard actually simulating it.
he must be a clever impostor who can simulate the wild restless
eye, the ceaseless movements, the quick fragmentary associations
of ideas, and the volubility of utterance of acute mania so as to
deceive an experienced observer
an actor, pass days without sleep, and even weeks with only a
few hours'
sleep,
*
v.]
4H
maniac does. The skin in acute mania is dry and harsh, or cool
and clammy, but the skin of a pretender who tries to keep up
a prolonged muscular agitation will hardly fail to be hot and
Delirium tremens will be distinguished by its own
symptoms
the muscular tremors, the peculiar
fearful illusions and hallucinations, the cold skin, feeble pulse,
and the white and tremulous tongue. But there are cases in
sweating.
characteristic
by a very
drunk
maniacal
little liquor.
may
perpetrate crime,
still
administration of justice
the
common
if
ably worked
effect of
active
much
a debauch
mischief.
may
It admits of
Chronic mania
with
skill
the imposture
may
to
be feigned, and
if
feigned
412
acts his part
does, while
he
he
is
falls
[chap.
He
rants,
is
widely
and pro-
and
acts foolishly
who was
real lunatic
intelligently.
If a suggestion be
of the case,
of the disease
made
to exhibit,
and especially
he
incidentally of
may
of the
mode
its
some
development, will
may
he
is
v.]
though they
may
413
conceal
some will
them away as jokes, when they suspect the acknowledgment of them would be injurious. If the patient's self-love is
grievously wounded, and he is made extremely angry, he may
all
cases
explain
Or
if
is
any hereditary
taint,
and
what degree
ment
of
it
is
not mad.
enough
with
it
and instances have happened in which this simubeen successful, and homicide or suicide has
been the result. Here a lawyer might argue that the deliberate
concealment of the morbid impulse was ample proof of a knowledge of its nature, of a consciousness that it was wrong, and there
propensities
to the
further conclusion that the act is therefore a crime, and the doer
of it fully responsible, it is not a logical inference, but a theo-
presumption, unfounded and unphilosophical. It confounds consciousness of an impulse or act with power of will
over it, and ignores the most dangerous and the most lamentable
retical
form of insanity.
When
necessary to observe him carefully for a considerable time before coming to the conclusion that it has left him
impulse,
it is
414
when
may
[chap.
A question
sometimes arises in
civil
and criminal
trials as to
Now between
is
a wide
the confounding of
slavish conformity to
he knows that
the world has ever censured great works at their birth, and
would gladly have uprooted them during their early growth, and
is not therefore greatly moved by its multitudinous outcry
he
has broad and original views and great moral courage he differs
from the majority, perhaps, because he has outgrown the habits
and superstitions to which it is in bondage. Such a man has
nothing insane about him, nor is he ever likely to become insane.
There is, however, a weak affectation of eccentricity which is not
unlikely to end in madness " with it are infected certain feebleminded beings, often badly bred or badly trained, who are empty
of any true individuality, but inflated with an excessive vanity
who have a small intellect, which they use in the service of their
passions who do silly and eccentric things, not unconsciously
;
as the
when they
up
mas-
turbators."
When
called
upon
of moral insanity,
it
to give
is
mental
disease,
may be
No
v.]
415
more
to
be positive
must be traced
chain of morbid symptoms, marking the existence
proof of insanity
to connect
it
with disease
it is
it
important, there-
in order to discover
life,
cause of disease.
It is
most necessary
also to
have
When
sanity.
cannot
in-
fail to arise
some
and
as a matter of
fact it will
other early
symptoms
In another
of general paralysis.
In a
case,
an
may
be finally
third,
perhaps a
been observably
brought into mischievous activity by recognisable mental or
strong hereditary taint, hitherto latent, has
bodily causes.
There
after it
is
no
difficulty
has passed
" It is
married foolishly
entirely
by reason
of the
disease.
It
is
sleepless night,
and
under excite-
to attend to the
great
416
[chap.
v.
is
to
disease."*
NOTE.
In an excellent chapter on the Diagnosis of Insanity in the Manual
of Psychological Medicine, Dr. Bucknill makes the following remarks
faculties,
memory and
recollection,
He may
subjects.
his
means
property
of livelihood,
in rank or
He may
near relatives and friends, and especially respecting his birth and
parentage, stress being laid
his actual
and
real parents.
upon
his belief
towards those
opinion
cises
If the patient
is
politics
an educated man,
and
science.
it
If he
any delusions, he must either retain the power of hiding them, or they
must exist in some obscure corner of the brain, from which they are
little likely to influence,
with any
force,
the conduct.''
=
ii.
CHAPTER
VI.
is to life,
is
of
it is
directly dangerous
to
commencement.
Now
its
it
lias
very much
case being
When
degrees
during the
natural standard.
28
It
exacerbations,
sinking
afterwards to
if
its
convulsions
418
[ciiap.
Any
an end comes.
of evil
is
omen
but an attack of
is
not so as regards
Where
life.
there
is
nothing in
the patient
life,
may
still
suicidal impulse,
as
many
of
them
an unremitting and
are,
What
probability there
is
it,
it
disease,
As
takes.
is
expectation of which,
it
is
hardly as
much
as
one to four
Undoubtedly there
when
a pathological habit
continues almost
it
that melancholia
in order.
When
is
is
good
if
the patient
is
if,
in
disorder.
is
is
of intellectual derangement
been insane
if this
is
is
may be
looked
for.
a return to the
And
place,
a recur-
a periodica] recur-
vi.]
419
attacks
very unfavourable.
is
In rare instances
it
may
may
some intercurrent
Where
disease.
there
is
a fixed delusion in a
unfavourable
is
who
who
seldom recovers,
suicidal attempt.
in
is
but
it is
some
more
believes
while the
effects of
patient
suicidal
some
serious
and
generally does
but successful
all
is
bad
the
symptoms commonly indicating the tyranny of a bad organizaAcute primary dementia is in most cases curable by
tion.
proper treatment applied in due time.
When insanity has been slowly developed, the prognosis
less favourable
than when
it
when we
reflect that
it
is
is
The
usually,
when
definite
when suddenly
may
indicate no
symptoms
persistence
in a
For a
of active disease
particular
THE PROGNOSIS OF INSANITY.
420
[chap.
by habits
but the
all
earliest
but
outlook
disposition
Where
may
recovery
outbreak,
where
unfavourable in
is
stages.
VvTien
by sexual
of self-abuse or
is
very unfavourable.
The prognosis
hysterical insanity
it
favourable in
is
is
Indeed,
is
hallucination, as
is
when
is
good hope
mind may be
that,
restored also.
is
the
respiratory
organs,
The most
among which
most
life
phthisis
is
there
anaemia,
is
;
When
unfavourdiseases of
holds the
first
asylums.
it
after fifty
as
many
life,
was
a proportion of
much
less
is
vi.]
421
The
liability,
their lives
later.
Of the
it
In concluding
may be
after
die.
remarking that in
circumstances
the
who
by extraneous
are
of no doubt that in
affliction to
most
whom
dear.
*
On
M.D.
they were
CHAPTER
.
VII.
TT may be safely
-*-
only
difficulties
for
by the frequent concealment and misrepreand unwitting, on the part of the friends
by the unsatisfactory character and position of the
it
sentation, witting
of a patient
persons
and, in
some measure
also,
little
The
from popular
practical result of
The land
way
No
one
who
has
all
it is
would not be
difficult to
who
are incurable.
iniquities practised
chap,
vii.]
cruel sufferings
423
Whether
public mind.
still
infect the
suffice it to
and,
if possible,
thought to
justify,
tion,
on account of the real horror of the insane which is still felt, and
to condone past sins, does not conduce altogether to their best
interests.
attach to insanity
still
was permitted
to
make
humane system
benevolent feeling,
THE TREATMENT OF INSANITY.
424
[chap.
umphant
victory.
What
onward
it
hanged forthwith
of being
tri-
is
to
now raised by an
when some poor madman who has
a terrible outcry
unhappy
life
How many
is
permitted to
in confinement instead
veritable lunatics are
When
the super-
does
it
and hastens
how
frequently
rises in rebellion,
sorious of those
who have
if
they were so
sentiment goes,
is
to
be cut
many
and mothers
To be a lunatic, as public
from humanity. With
off socially
insane,
can
it
be
possible
approbation should be
of society.
own
til]
exceptions,
we ought
act
to
425
principle
'
of
depriving no one of his liberty, and of then making the numerous exceptions which will undoubtedly be necessary in the
of insane persons, as in the cases of criminals.
We
imprison criminals in order to punish them, to reform them if
cases
possible,
and
the insane,
who
are
in dealing with
we
confine
them
no
in order to apply
if
possible
and,
who
and who might very well be at large. But they are kept in
asylums because they have been once put into them because it
is sometimes desirable that their existence should not be known
because they cost less there than they would if in
to the world
;
private houses
it is
it is
because
no injustice to confine
them thus so long as the)' are mad and for many other like
But the fundamental reason which inspires all these
reasons.
other reasons, and without which they would want firm root, is,
that the world has grown to the fashion of thinking that madmen
;
possibility of a
may
be
made
propounded.
It
may be
to say exactly
426
it
may be assumed
whom
be, of
said of
it
can be
said,
with as
much
[chap.
certainty as
is
not,
and never
secondly, that
so great
it is
and wide
no more
diffiralty to
to
can be
it
is
is
is
if it
were proposed
and
sort of care
ducted asylums.
taints it
those
with suspicion
who
now
I never heard
it
of things.
it
appear to
fail entirely to
the
are,
human
breast
and
as I feel
appre-
which there
is
in
I should
water only for food, than to be clothed in purple and fine linen
and
to fare
his
at all against
to those
who
lay stress
I would put
on the comforts of asylums, whether
cannot
where
fail
all
to
sorts
is
occur, notwithstanding
vnj
THE TREATMENT
OF- INSANITY.
together?
What,
man who
management cannot
And
life
afflicting to a
left,
than the
might go on
miseries of
more
427
to
made me
sick at heart.
is
act,
regard the
and
system,
is
justifiable for
one
it.
who
It is natural
demerits.
being what
This cannot
it is
fail to
should not a
be more or
man most
less so,
human
distrust himself
nature
when
he
is
keep them: the most sincere person cannot help being unconI am not ignorant, however, of
sciously biassed in such case.
the fact that there are some chronic lunatics who have been in
asylums for so many years that it would be no kindness now to
condition but the future welfare of the insane that is the matter
Human nature is so constituted that it grows to the
in hand.
conditions of
life
in which
it
is
placed
it
to
428
[chap.
him
Suppose
asylum.
this
much
as
were granted,
by putting him
is
it
open
still
into an
to us to
by
all
of private life,
understood that I
am
not
now advocating
Let
is
am
in such
its
worst form
that he would
But
be clearly
it
off in the
worst
afflicted
member
is
by no means equal
be.
of
it
In such
to that in
an
All
this, it
may be
said, is plausible in
theory
but, practically,
Is there, then,
WJ.]
429
let it
is not is shown
by the reports of the Scotch Deputy CommisLunacy on the condition of the pauper insane in
That there
satisfactorily
sioners in
Now, however,
all this is
instruction
might
and such as it
Every patient is
visitors,
where,
is
it
eminently satisfactory,
who have
if
impossible
is
by one
upon
of the Chancery
Nor would
it
first
place,
though this
is
for,
great in
in
so in
their
them
*
in practice.
Scotland, 1866.
for
430
No
[ciiaf.
many
who
are not
Chancery
of
patients,
for,
would be in asylums.
neigh-
its
some Chancery
patients,
and others
not,
who
are ex-
what insurmount-
able impediment
we
cannot
be,
needed
relief of
For the reasons adduced, I cannot but think that future proimprovement of the treatment of the insane lies in
gress in the
Many
life,
is
own
interests,
vn.]
Teceive
them
into
their
houses,
to
secure for
then also
431
them proper
-will
asylums,
or secretaries*
it
beneficially
is
to investigate care-
Not the
least of the
It
would not
men
medical
lunatics in
* Of this reform my friend Baron Mundy, M.D. has long heen the earnest and
unwearied advocate, having devoted to it, in a purely philanthropic spirit, many
years of energy, and a great part of his income.
432
individual character,
is
Herein
the attendant.
[chap.
lies
a reason
why
is
to
And
can certainly
call to
of
his reason.
it is
before
all
is
chief
is
might be arrested
means
at once adopted,
at the outset.
many
by
it
until
the disease has been firmly established, and the hope of recovery
and
all
hope gone in
others.
When
is
the disease
is
well estab-
own
tinually finds
new
sometimes of
An
entire
if
the patient
is
melan-
*"]
433
may
Travelling
follies."
who can
afford
be recommended in
it,
in order to secure
The
condemned except
as
certainly to be
is
a temporary expedient
those
who
are
who
something by
evil behaviour.
can be taken, or
if
the patient
And
is furious,
it
or desperately suicidal,
necessary to send
will be
in choosing an
No
him
a real feature.
is
beneficial
change
There
reform.
is
it
but
life.
it
from the
frailties
human
incident to
of
its
nature,
and of pre-
pilgrimage through
manager
and energy in the economical management of
proprietor and
attention
it
to the
ment
of disease
29
is
434
[chap,
manner, as an
keep lunatics, while
may
It
all.
it
might be
it
much
if
as
it
to the
England
Of course
of
proprietors of asylums.
equally well,
if
it
it is
all
its
loss,
healing function
now
who
are
this
so
him
itself
have a beneficial
it
as to
effect.
upon
a child,
melancholic
and
who
in
finds
and
done will of
often have
vii.]
435
This
is
best done
feeling will not fail in its turn further to favour the decay of
Avould be almost as
east
much hope
of an
in other thoughts as
much
as possible,
the
it is
made
should be
to
when
it
it
it
is
by
is
is
in a minority of
though a person in a minority of one may perchance be a genius in advance of the rest of mankind, it is
infinitely more likely that he is a madman far behind it.
one,
and
that,
Treatment.
Medical
truly
scientific
treatment will be
436
necessary, therefore, to
when
[chap
there
may be no
cough, no expectoration,
advancing
phthisis.
General blood-letting
is
now abandoned
in the
most acute
insanity, as not
positively pernicious.
does not
mean
by draining
may
blood
disease
is
dementia.
mind
is
by
violent
symptoms
In some
cases,
in
to
be great
by means
lies in
warm
a maniacal type.
is
coarse mustard,
body
produced.
In France the
warm
for
and
three or four hours, and in
many
an
marked tranquillizing effect, a bath, conby Professor Hebra, in which patients may be kept
night and day at a definite temperature.
It is obviously necessary to avoid any such use of the bath where the pulse is very
feeble, and where there is anything like commencing paralysis
and it can be of no avail in cases of chronic insanity.
cases with a
structed
vii.]
437
fail to
but
its
for more than three minutes, and it should not be with the aim
of producing any special effect, but on the general principle of
improving the bodily health. The advocates of the Turkish bath
have vaunted its beneficial effects in insanity, as in every other
disease but no discrimination of the cases in which it is useful
has hitherto been made. I should be disposed to put more faith
in the use of the Russian vapour-bath, which might not improbably be of real service in some cases of mania and melancholia, where the skin is dry and harsh, and its secretion
Packing in the wet sheet, after the hydropathic
disordered.
fashion, and as recommended by Dr. Eobertson of the Sussex
Asylum, is undoubtedly a useful remedial means in some cases
;
of acute excitement
it
effect of itself,
it, but, by
and excited patient quiet, it enables sedatives
to take effect when they would be perfectly useless if no such
means were used. On one occasion T was roused hastily to see
a girl who had suddenly been attacked with acute hysterical
mania, to the great consternation of the whole household, and to
keeping a
restless
who
Schroeder
438
[chap
beneficial results
I have seen in one case a wonderful temporaryproduced by a blister to the nape of the neck a young
lady who had appeared demented for months, and who had not
spoken during that time, woke up out of her usual stupor the
delusion.
effect
day
after a blister
had been
and inclined
excited,
life
to
applied,
and spoke
as rationally as
be
violent,
and
much
result,
effect of
first
Not-
occasion.
which might well seem to indicate a valuable therapeutical remedy, I have not been able to satisfy myself of much
permanent good ever having been done by blisters or setons in
insanity.
If they are useful, they are most likely to do good in
melancholia with stupor and in acute dementia.
"After errors of digestion and secretion have been duly
attended to, the diet of the insane should be good and it will
be desirable in most chronic cases and in many acute cases, to
allow a liberal use of wine. There can be little doubt that an
attack of insanity might sometimes be warded off by a generous
diet and a free use of wine at a sufficiently early stage.
It is,
at any rate, a truth -worthy of all acceptation, that energetic
an
effect
may be
Leeches
kept on low
may be
diet, in
may
enema
eschewed in
all
subdue
forms of insanity.
much
favoured,
is
now
quite
vn.]
by
regulated
means
dietetic
and,
if
a purge
is
439
needed, a dose
every purpose
fail."
The present bodily
and the history of the causation of his
malady, must be weighed in determining whether wine is to be
of the patient,
state
may
insanity,
drug
is
little
we may speak
first
of the virtues
of opium.
This
When
of opium.
It is
when
it
should be
given in doses of one or even two grains twice a day, and continued steadily for weeks, notwithstanding an apparent want of
success at
If
first.
it
may be
with two or three grains of
aloine, or
Where
there
is
is
of
may
no
It
rance, in the
mania
puerperal mania
but
it is
and in
440
[chap.
sequently increased,
bear clearly in
if
mind
It is important, however, to
necessary.
that neither
by
fatal collapse or
coma.
produce good
effects in tranquillizing
The
the patient.
excite-
may, by repeating the dose, be kept for some time at a standard below the
average. In the attacks of excitement which occur in the course
ment
abates,
falling in frequency,
drachm
it
had
to drop
down
may
be safe while he
or runs about in
Hyoscyamus
is
lying down, he
fatal collapse if
he
starts up,
an excited manner.
is
much
it is
of no use in
Hydrocyanic
acid,
efficacy,
but
it
there
is
I have tried
it
have no
effect
its
good
whatever.
moved
to
effects in epilepsy,
vii.]
441
is
when given
In
all
demanded by the
and
quinine
is
may
be given
and one
of the best
ways
iron and
of giving
them
chloride of iron,
and
cbloric ether.
In some cases
it
happens
and
must
be
used
stomach-pump
then the
fail,
if
persuasion
to administer
and overpower them. The monomaniac, who has deluhe is watched continually, or otherwise persecuted,
must always be deemed dangerous to others for at any time he
may become so impatient of his sufferings as to make a fatal
surprise
sions that
442
attack
upon
Those who
[chap. vti.
suffer
from moral
hut
it
will
to the responsibilities
social position in
which
he was born
tions of a
stratum."*
It is not because a
The
him
it is
justi-
quotations are from the Author's article on " Insanity," already referred to.
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Physiology and pathology of th9 mind.
Call no.
WuWfT^^T^-
cNNKUffl