deavoured to plunge his head under the water, in order, he said to hasten his death. The maniac resisted, and declared he would prefer being burnt to death. "You shall be gratified," said Mr. Higgins, and instantly applied a lighted candle to his flesh. "Stop, stop," said he, I will not die now;" and never afterwards attempted to destroy himself, nor even expressed a wish for death.

Zacutus relates the history of a hypochondriac who had made several unsuccessful attempts to destroy himself by fire. His physician, in order to cure him, wrapped him in a fresh sheep skin, which he had previously wetted with spirit of turpentine. He applied fire to this skin, which instantly enveloped him in a blaze, that so terrified him, that he never attempted afterwards to put an end to his life.

In the memoirs of count Maurepas, it is related of the same prince of Bourbon who fancied himself to be a plant, that he sometimes supposed himself to be dead, at which time he refused to take any food, for which he said he had no further occasion. To cure this alarming delusion, they contrived to disguise two persons who were introduced to him as his grandfather, and marshal Luxemburg, and who, after conversing with him for some time about the shades that inhabited the place of the dead, invited him to dine with marshal Turenne. The prince followed them into a cellar prepared for the purpose, where he made a hearty meal, which immediately restored him to the belief that he was alive.

We invite the attention of our readers to the following extracts, as containing truths which are curious and important in themselves, and may prove interesting, in no ordinary degree, to the cause of humanity. They tend to exculpate from the charge of vice, individuals who are only subject to the most deplorable of misfortunes-they justly represent as under the inAluence of mental delusion, persons, who are oftentimes stigmatized as abandoned to habitual falsehood.

Amenomania is a common form of partial insanity. We see it in the enthusiastic votaries of all the pursuits and arts of man. The alchymists, the searchers after perpetual motion, the astronomers, the metaphysicians, the politicians, the knight errants, and the travellers, have all in their turns furnished cases of this form of derangement. I once met with a striking instance of it, from alchymical pursuits, in a gentleman, at the table of Mr. Wolfe, in London. He related the issue of several experiments, in which some of the base metals had been converted into gold, and he declared, further, his belief, that there was at that time a man living in India, whose life had been prolonged above 600 years by an elixir that had been discovered by an alchymist. Upon other subjects he was rational and well informed. Dr. Johnson has

given a just picture of this disease in the character of an astronomer, in his Rasselas, prince of Abyssinia. Several of the nations of Europe have lately furnished instances of men deranged, from a belief in the possibility of producing perfection in human nature, and 'in civil government, by means of what they absurdly called the omnipotence of human reason. But we see this disease of the mind most frequently in the enthusiasts in religion, in whom it discovers itself in a variety of ways; particularly,

1. In a belief that they are the peculiar favourites of heaven, and exclusively possessed of just opinions of the divine will, as revealed in the scriptures.

2. That they see and converse with angels, and the departed spirits of their relations and friends.

3. That they are favoured with visions, and the revelation of future events. And,

4. That they are exalted into beings of the highest order. I have seen two instances of persons, who believed themselves to be the Messiah, and I have heard of each of the sacred names and offices of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, having been assumed at the same time by three persons, under the influence of this partial form of derangement, in a hospital in Mexico.

Some

Our author's extensive knowledge of insanity has enabled him to depict it in all its different varieties and forms. of the extraordinary effects of this disease he thus describes:

From a part of the brain being preternaturally elevated, but not diseased, the mind sometimes discovers not only unusual strength and acuteness, but certain talents it never exhibited before. The records of the wit and cunning of madmen are numerous in every country. Talents for eloquence, poetry, music, and painting, and uncommon ingenuity in several of the mechanical arts, are often evolved in this state of madness. A gentleman whom I at. attended in our hospital in the year 1810, often delighted, as well as astonished, the patients and officers of our hospital, by his displays of oratory, in preaching from a table in the hospital yard every Sunday. A female patient of mine, who became insane after parturition in the year 1807, sang hymns and songs, of her own composition, during the latter stage of her illness, with a tone of voice so soft and pleasant, that I hung upon it with delight, every time I visited her. She had never discovered a talent for poetry nor music in any previous part of her life. Two instances of a talent for drawing, evolved by madness, have occurred within my knowledge; and where is the hos pital for mad people, in which elegant and completely rigged ships, and curious pieces of machinery, have not been exhibited, by persons who never discovered the least turn for a mechanical art, previously to their derangement. Sometimes we observe in mad people an unexpected resuscitation of knowledge; hence we hear them describe past events; and speak in ancient or

modern languages, or repeat long and interesting passages from books, none of which we are sure they were capable of recollecting, in the natural and healthy state of their minds.

Again,

Not only the ravings of mad people, for the most part, accord with their habitual tempers and dispositions, and the causes of their disease, but their conduct corresponds in like manner with their habitual occupations. The lawyer, the physician, and the minister of the gospel, frequently employ themselves in the exercises of their several professions. The merchant spends much of his time in making out invoices, and in writing letters; the politician devours a daily newspaper; the poet writes verses; and the painter draws pictures upon the walls of their respective cells: the mechanic cuts out houses, ships, carriages, and bridges, from pieces of sticks, with his penknife; the sailor heaves his log or his line, and the soldier goes through his manual exercise with a cane, and never fails to salute his visitors by lifting the back of his hand to the side of his head.

The professor introduces the chapter in which he treats of the "remedies for madnesss," by setting forth the various means necessary for establishing a complete government over patients afflicted with that disease." Of these directions all are, no doubt, practically useful, and, to most readers, some of them will have the additional merit of appearing curious and new. Of the latter description is that which relates to the influence of the eye.

The first object of a physician, when he enters the cell, or chamber of his deranged patient, should be to catch his EYE, and look him out of countenance. The dread of the eye was early imposed upon every beast of the field. The tyger, the mad bull, and the enraged dog, all fly from it: now a man deprived of his reason partakes so much of the nature of those animals, that he is for the most part easily terrified, or composed, by the eye of a man who possesses his reason. I know this dominion of the eye over mad people is denied by Mr. Halsam, from his supposing that it consists simply in imparting to the eye a stern or ferocious look. This may sometimes be necessary; but a much greater effect is produced, by looking the patient out of countenance with a mild and steady eye, and varying its aspect from the highest degree of sternness, down to the mildest degree of benignity; for there are keys in the eye, if I may be allowed the expression, which should be suited to the state of the patient's mind, with the same exactness that musical tones should be suited to the depression of spirits in hypocondriasis. In favour of the power of the eye, in conjunction with other means, in composing mad people, I can speak from the experience of many years. It has been witnessed

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by several hundred students of medicine in our hospital, and once by several of the managers of the hospital, in the case of a man recently brought into their room, and whose conduct, for a considerable time resisted its efficacy.

The COUNTENANCE of a physician should assist his eye and voice in governing his deranged patients. It should be accommodated to the state of the patient's mind and conduct. There is something like contagion in the different aspects of the human face, and madmen feel it in common with other people. A grave countenance in a physician has often checked the frothy levity of a deranged patient in an instant, and a placid one has as suddenly chased away his gloom. A stern countenance in like manner has often put a stop to garrulity, and a cheerful one has extorted smiles even from the face of melancholy itself.

Under that class of remedies which Dr. Rush recommends as acting on the body through the medium of the mind, we solicit the attention of our readers to a few quotations.

A sudden sense of the ABSURDITY, FOLLY, OF CRUELTY of certain actions, produced by conversation has sometimes cured madness. The cure in this case bears a resemblance to the sudden reduction of a dislocated bone. Some years ago a maniac made several attempts to set fire to our hospital. Upon being remonstrated with, by Mr. Coats, one of its managers, he said, “ I am a salamander;"" but recollect (said Mr. Coats) all the patients in the hospital are not salamanders;" that is true, said the maniac, and never afterwards attempted to burn the hospital. Many similar instances of a transient return of reason, and some of cures, by pertinent and well directed conversations, are to be met with in the records of medicine.

Great care should be taken by a physician, to suit his conversation to the different and varying states of the minds of his patients in this disease. In its' furious state, they should never be contradicted, however absurd their opinions and assertions may be, nor should we deny their requests by our answers, when it is improper to grant them. In the second grade of this disease, we should divert them from the subjects upon which they are deranged, and introduce, as if it were accidentally, subjects of another, and of an agreeable nature. When they are upon the recovery, we may oppose their opinions and incoherent tales by reasoning, contradiction, and even ridicule. I attended a lady some years ago in our hospital, in whom this practice succeeded to my wishes. In the first and raving state of her disease, she said the spirit of general Washington visited and conversed with her every night. I took no notice of this assertion, but prescribed only for the excited state of her pulse. After this was reduced, I entered into conversation with her, and instantly obtruded a subject foreign to the nightly visits of the spirit of general Washington, whenever she mentioned it. One day, when she appeared rational upon all the subjects upon which we conversed, she lifted up the skirt of her silk gown, and said, "See what a present general Washington made me last

night!" O! fie! said I, Madam, I thought you had more understanding than to suppose general Washington would leave his present abode, to bring a silk gown to any lady upon the face of the earth. She laughed at this rebuke, and never mentioned the name of general Washington to me afterwards, nor discovered any other mark of the remains of her disease.

TERROR acts powerfully upon the body, through the medium of the mind, and should be employed in the cure of madness. I once advised gentle exercise upon horseback, in the case of a lady in Virginia who was deranged. In one of her excursions from home, her horse ran away with her. He was stopped after a while by a gate. The lady dismounted, and when her attendants came up to her, they found her, to their great surprise and joy, perfectly restored to her reason, nor has she had since the least sign of a return of her disease. The fall down a steep ridge cured a mania of twenty years continuance. Dr. Joseph Cox relates three cures of madness by nearly simi. lar means. Dr. M. Smith, of Georgia, informed me that a madman had been suddenly cured in Virginia, by the breaking of a rope, by which he had been let down into a well that was employed as a substitute for a bathing tub. He was nearly drowned before he was taken out.

(To be concluded in our next.)

C.

Hubert and Ellen. With other Poems.-The Trial of the Harp-Billowy Water The Plunderer's Grave-The Tear-Drop-The Billow.-By Lucius M. Sargent. Chester Stebbins, Boston, pp. 135.

ACCUSTOMED as we are to regard with very peculiar interest the progress of our national poetry, there could be nothing more attractive than a volume of American poems by a gentlemán whose reputation as an elegant scholar had induced us to indulge very sanguine hopes of his success. These anticipations, we confess, have not been completely realized, and we are obliged to return our thanks to the author not so much for the gratification of perusing this volume, as for the hopes it inspires of a higher eminence, which we think he is destined to attain. Throughout the whole collection there may be found, abundant evidence of poetical genius, which greater experience in composition and more maturity of taste may render honourable to the author and to his country. But we cannot conceal our conviction that in the present publication, he has not done himself justice-that he is qualified for higher efforts and that if instead of confining himself to so desultory and languid a flight, he had ventured on a more daring excursion and spread a bolder wing, he