may be correct, but an importance is attached to it disproportioned to its true tendency; or consequences are deduced from, and actions founded upon it, which would not be warranted in the estimate of a sound understanding. It is often difficult to draw the line between certain degrees of this condition and insanity; and, in fact, they very often pass into each other. This will be illustrated by the following example:

A clergyman in Scotland, after showing various extravagances of conduct, was brought before a jury to be cognosced; that is, by a form of Scotch law to be declared incapable of managing his own affairs, and placed under the care of trustees. Among the acts of extravagance alleged against him was, that he had burnt his library. When he was asked by the jury what account he could give of this part of his conduct, he replied in the following terms:"In the early part of my life I had imbibed a liking for a most unprofitable study, namely, controversial divinity. On reviewing my library, I found a great part of it to consist of books of this description, and I was so anxious that my family should not be led to follow the same pursuit, that I determined to burn the whole." He gave answers equally plausible to questions which were put to him respecting other parts of his conduct; and the result was that the jury found no sufficient ground for cognoscing him; but in the course of a fortnight from that time he was in a state of decided mania.

It is, therefore, incorrect to say of insanity, as has been said, that the maniac reasons correctly upon unsound data. His data may be unsound, that is, they may consist of a mental image which is purely visionary, as in the state of perfect mania lately referred to; but this is by no means necessary to constitute the disease; for his premises may be sound, though he distorts them in the results which he deduces from them. This was remarkably the case in the clergyman now mentioned. His premises were sound and consistent, namely, his opinion of the unprofitable nature of the study of controversial divinity, and his anxiety that his family should not prosecute it. His insanity consisted in

Case of the clergyman. His defence before the jury. Erroneous theory of insanity Dlustrated by the preceding case.

the rapid and partial view which he took of the means for accomplishing his purpose,-burning his whole library. Had he sold his library or that part of it which consisted of controversial divinity, the measure would have been in correct relation to the object which he had in view; and if we suppose that in going over his library he had met with some books of an immoral tendency, to have burnt these to prevent them from falling into the hands of any individual would have been the act both of a wise and virtuous man. But to burn his whole library to prevent his family from studying controversial divinity, was the suggestion of insanity, distorting entirely the true relation of things, and carrying an impression, in itself correct, into consequences which it in no degree warranted.

A remarkable peculiarity in many cases of insanity is, a great activity of mind, and rapidity of conception,—a tendency to seize rapidly upon incidental or partial relations of things, and often a fertility of imagination which changes the character of the mind, sometimes without remarkably distorting it. The memory, in such cases, is entire, and even appears more ready than in health; and old associations are called up with a rapidity quite unknown to the individual in his sound state of mind. A gentleman, mentioned by Dr. Willis, who was liable to periodical attacks of insanity, said that he expected the paroxysins with impatience, because he enjoyed during them a high degree of pleasure. Every thing appeared easy to me. No obstacles presented themselvés, either in theory or practice. My memory acquired all of a sudden a singular degree of perfection. Long passages of Latin authors occurred to my mind. In general I have great difficulty in finding rhythmical terminations, but then I could write verses with as great facility as prose." "I have often," says Pinel, stopped at the chamber door of a literary gentleman who, during his paroxysms, appears to soar above the mediocrity of intellect that was familiar to him, solely to admire his newly acquired powers of eloquence. He declaimed upon the subject of the revolution with all the force, the dignity, and the purity of language that this very interesting subject

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Examination of his reasoning. Remarkable effects of insanity in some cases. Case mentioned by Dr. Willis? By Pinel?

could admit of. At other times he was a man of very nary abilities."

ordi

It is this activity of thought and readiness of association that gives to maniacs of a particular class an appearance of great ingenuity and acuteness, Hence they have been said to reason acutely upon false premises; and one author has even alleged that a maniac of a particular kind would make an excellent logician. But to say that a maniac reasons either soundly or acutely is an abuse of terms. He reasons plausibly and ingeniously; that is, he catches rapidly incidental and partial relations; and from the rapidity with which they are seized upon, it may sometimes be difficult at first to detect their fallacy. He might have made a skilful logician of the schools, whose ingenuity consisted in verbal disputes and frivolous distinctions; but he never can be considered as exercising that sound logic, the aim of which is to trace the real relations of things, and the object of which is truth.

The peculiar character of insanity, in all its modifications appears to be that a certain impression has fixed itself upon the mind in such a manner as to exclude all others; or to exclude them from that influence which they ought to have on the mind in its estimate of the relations of things. This impression may be entirely visionary and unfounded; or it may be in itself true, but distorted in the applications which the unsound mind makes of it, and the consequences which are deduced from it. Thus a man of wealth fancies himself a beggar, and in danger of dying of hunger. Another takes up the same impression who has, in fact, sustained some considerable loss. In the one, the impression is entirely visionary, like that which might occur in a dream; in the other, it is a real and true impression, carried to consequences which it does not warrant.

There is great variety in the degree to which the mind is influenced by the erroneous impression. In some cases it is such as entirely excludes all others, even those immediately arising from the evidence of the senses, as in the state of perfect mania formerly referred to. In many others,

Results of this in many cases. The reasoning of a maniac. Peculiar character of insanity? Examples. Changes of character effected by it.

though in a less degree than this, it is such as to change the whole character. The particular manner in which this more immediately appears will depend, of course, upon the nature of the erroneous impression. A person formerly most correct in his conduct and habits may become obscene and blasphemous; accustomed occupations become odious to him; the nearest and most beloved friends become objects of his aversion and abhorrence. Much interesting matter of observation often arises out of these peculiarities; and it is no less interesting to observe during convalescence the gradual return to former habits and attachments. A young lady, mentioned by Dr. Rush, who had been for some time confined in a lunatic asylum, had shown for several weeks every mark of a sound mind except one, she hated her father. At length, she one day acknowledged with pleasure the return of her filial attachment, and was soon after discharged, entirely recovered. Even when the erroneous impression is confined to a single subject, it is remarkable how it absorbs the attention, to the exclusion of other feelings of a most intense and powerful kind. I knew a person of wealth who had fallen into a temporary state of melancholic hallucination, in connection with a transaction in business which he regretted having made, but of which the real effect was of a trifling nature. While in this situation, the most severe distress occurred in his family, by the death of one of them under painful circumstances, without his being affected by it in the slightest degree.

The uniformity of the impressions of maniacs is indeed so remarkable that it has been proposed by Pinel as a test for distinguishing real from feigned insanity. He has seen melancholics confined in the Bicetre for twelve, fifteen, twenty, and even thirty years; and through the whole of that period their hallucination has been limited to one subject. Others, after a course of years, have changed from one hallucination to another. A man, mentioned by him, was for eight years constantly haunted with the idea of being poisoned: he then changed his hallucination, became sovereign of the world and extremely happy, and thus continued for four years.

The sudden revival of old impressions, after having been

Dr. Rush's patient. Uniformity of the impressions of maniacs.

long entirely suspended by mental hallucinations, presents some of the most singular phenomena connected with this subject. Dr. Prichard mentions an interesting case of this kind from the American Journal of Science. A man had been employed for a day with a beetle and wedges in splitting pieces of wood for erecting a fence. At night, before going home, he put the beetle and wedges into the hollow of an old tree, and directed his sons, who had been at work in an adjoining field, to accempany him next morning to assist in making the fence. In the night he became maniacal, and continued in a state of insanity for several years, during which time his mind was not occupied with any of the subjects with which he had been conversant when in health. After several years his reason returned suddenly, and the first question he asked was whether his sons had brought home the beetle and wedges. They, being afraid of entering upon any explanation, only said that they could not find them; on which he arose from his bed, went to the field where he had been at work so many years before, and found where he had left them the wedges and the iron rings of the beetle, the wooden part being entirely mouldered away. A lady, mentioned in the same journal, had been intensely engaged for some time in a piece of needlework. Before she had completed it, she became insane, and continued in that state for seven years, after which her reason returned suddenly. One of the first questions she asked related to her needle-work, though she had never alluded to it, so far as was recollected, during her illness. I have formerly alluded to the remarkable case of a lady who was liable to periodical paroxysms of delirium, which often attacked her so suddenly, that in conversation she would stop in the middle of a story, or even of a sentence, and branch off into the subject of her hallucination. On the return of her reason, she would resume the conversation in which she was engaged at the time of the attack, beginning exactly where she had left off, though she had never alluded to it during the delirium; and on the next attack of delirium she would resume the subject of hallucination with which she had been occupied at the conclusion of the

Revival of old impressions. Story of the beetle and wedges. The piece of needlework. Other cases.