I am now only addressing myself to the results of diseased brain, and disordered mind. There are, of course, often witnessed many sad exhibitions of depraved thought, and vitiated taste, the effect of a voluntary and sinful abandonment of the reason and passions to gross habits of sensuality, vice, and even crime. These melancholy manifestations of perverted intellect have no necessary relation to the conditions of diseased mind, of which I am now particularly speaking.

There are, however, other sources of moral contamination and mental deterioration in operation, which the most vigilant parents are not always able to detect or guard their children from. I refer to the pernicious example, and wicked suggestions of depraved, irreligious, and profligate servants (a frightful cause of moral pollution, as well as of mental idiocy in early life,) occasionally, unhappily, admitted into the bosom of families by false characters, (alas! too easily procured,) to a perusal of vicious books, surreptitiously smuggled into the nursery, as well as of the details of gross acts of impropriety and indecency, made matters of judicial investigation, so minutely and faithfully reported in some of the ordinary channels of communication. These frightful records of vice and crime, so palpably exposed, elaborately and artistically developed, in all their naked depravity and deformity, are fearfully and fatally suggestive to the minds of the young.

Apart altogether, however, from this view of the question, we are bound to consider the effect of a morbid exaltation (as the effect of diseased brain, as well as of other organs) of natural instincts, inciting prematurely into activity feelings and inclinations normally (until a certain period of life) in a torpid, and latent state. We may hence account, pathologically, for the development of natural physical tendencies, usually manifested at, and after the age of puberty, but it does not explain the actual know

S

ledge and use of particular prurient phrases and obscene modes of expression. This phenomenon can only proceed, either from the parties having heard the identical words used by persons with whom they have unfortunately associated, or from having seen them in print, or heard them uttered in the public streets.

Let me not be misunderstood. In many cases of sad mental alienation, the unhappy patient, although a prey of distressing delusions, often exhibits great elevation of sentiment, exquisite taste, profound elevation, and purity of thought. The insane are frequently heard giving utterance to expressions that would reflect the highest honour upon healthy and cultivated understandings. The light of reason is occasionally seen permeating with undimi nished lustre, the dark cloud that has threatened, for a time, altogether to overshadow, if not to eclipse, its effulgence. Natural sweetness, unaffected gentleness, and marked amiability of disposition, are often witnessed triumphing over fearful types of mental disease, struggling to crush the lofty inspirations of the mind, obliterate kindly sympathies, and to pervert and paralyze the noble aspirations of the heart.

The unselfish consideration which the insane so frequently manifest towards persons temporarily deprived, like themselves, of unrestrained freedom of action;-the affectionate and assiduous attention they pay to their companions in affliction and sorrow ;-their endeavours to assuage their bitter anguish, by repeated assurances that their removal from home (although apparently an act of unnecessary harshness, and unkindness, on the part of their relatives) could not, under the circumstances of their illness, be avoided, and would ultimately tend to their advantage, conclusively establish, that insanity often leaves intact some of the best principles that ennoble and dignify human nature. I have known men

and women decidedly insane, although not conscious of the fact, thus administer comfort and consolation to the wounded spirits of those recently admitted as patients within an institution in which they themselves were most unwillingly confined I have heard the insane, with a view of soothing and mitigating the sorrows of those about them, freely admit that they had, like others, been mentally afflicted, but had recovered, or were convalescent from the symptoms of the malady, and although, at the commencement of their illness, they were firmly persuaded that they were perfectly sane, and ought never to have been removed from home to an asylum, they were now fully satisfied of having been deranged, and felt grateful to their friends for recognising the fact, and placing them under moral control and medical treatment. I have had the pleasure of hearing the insane pray by the bedside of other patients when afflicted with severe and dangerous bodily illness, and do so, too, with pious fervour, and great propriety of language, never once making the slightest allusion to their own unhappy and disordered thoughts.*

* I had a patient under my care who suffered from great dejection of mind, associated with a delusion, that he had committed the unpardonable sin, and was, in consequence, forsaken of God. This gentleman had always been remarkable, previously to his illness, for his orthodox views, and strict attention to religious duties. Before I was consulted, he had made an ineffectual attempt at suicide. This patient took an affectionate interest in another invalid confined like himself in the institution. They were generally engaged several hours during the day in close companionship and conversation. In fact, they were almost inseparable. This gentleman was seized with an attack of dangerous bodily illness, threatening life. His friend took a deep and kind interest in his case, and was rarely absent from the sick chamber. On one occasion I asked him to offer up a prayer at the bedside of his friend. The request appeared somewhat to stagger him. He was evidently most anxious to comply with my wishes, but was afraid of committing himself. After a little hesitation he fell upon his knees, and prayed with great force of expression, and with touching tenderness. There was not the slightest indication in the prayer (which was extemporary), of his own morbid religious hallucinations. He told me some time after his recovery, when referring to this, circumstance, that he experienced considerable difficulty in

The state of unhealthy feeling, previously described, as often symptomatic of incipient insanity, is occasionally observed in certain anomalous conditions of the nervous system allied to hysteria, and may exist apart altogether from any actual disorder, or even a tendency to derangement of mind. These distressing nervous symptoms sometimes are seen in young girls, when passing at the age of puberty into womanhood, and occur to females of a mature age at the critical period of life. This morbid exaltation of the nervous and mental functions is generally found associated with visceral complications, easily curable, however, in many cases, by remedial measures. In some patients, these symptoms are the effect of longcontinued and neglected stomach and hepatic derange ment. In other instances, the uterine system is the seat of the mischief; and in some types of the malady which have come under my observation, the condition of mind could be traced to irritation and congestion established in the brain itself. In one remarkable case, the patient was tortured by an intense fear of losing his senses, combined with confusion of ideas, strange dislikes to his relatives, and a disposition to conceal himself from his family. He had for some time suffered from headache, and a

avoiding (whilst praying on this occasion), alluding to his own unhappy state of mind. The case of Simon Brown, as recorded in "The Gentleman's Magazine" for 1762, illustrates the point referred to.

Simon Brown was a dissenting minister of great intellectual powers. He became insane. His delusion was that he had fallen under the sensible displeasure of God, who had caused his rational soul gradually to perish, and left him only, in common with brutes, an animal life; that it was therefore profane in him to pray, and incongruous to be present at the prayers of others. In this opinion he was inflexible. Being once importuned to say grace at the table of a friend, he repeatedly excused himself, but the request being still repeated, and the company kept standing, he discovered evident tokens of distress, and after some irresolute gestures and hesitation, expressed with great fervour this ejaculation: "Most merciful and Almighty God! let thy spirit which moved upon the face of the waters when there was no light, descend upon me, that from this darkness there may rise up a man to praise thee!"

general feeling of malaise. This gentleman soon recovered after a few ounces of blood were taken from his head, and two or three active calomel purges administered. In less than three weeks from the time he placed himself under treatment, he was able to resume his ordinary occupations. In the case of a lady, presenting the same symptoms, great congestion was discovered in the neighbourhood of the cervix uteri. This morbid state of the vessels was removed by the local application of leeches. The blood so abstracted, conjoined with other treatment, entirely relieved the mind of all fear and apprehension of insanity. In another case, the mental disturbance could be clearly traced to engorgement of the liver, consequent upon a long residence in a tropical climate. Calomel, taraxacum, nitro-muriatic acid, internally, combined with a persevering use of the "nitro-muriatic bath," as recommended and described by Mr. Ranald Martin, in his able treatise, very speedily dissipated all mental despondency, and morbid anxiety, as to the existence or approach of mental derangement.

*

Closely allied to the state of conscious insanity of which I have been speaking, or, to use the language of Coleridge, "the mind's own anticipation of madness," is, what may be designated a morbid presentiment of threatening and approaching alienation of mind. This condition of disordered thought is occasionally recognised in cerebral, as well as in mental diseases. The patient has, in a few instances that have come under my observation, exhibited in the early stage of brain disease, a mysterious prophetic power, a singular presentiment or warning of his cerebral and insane attacks. In one case, the patient assured his friends, for some weeks prior to an apoplectic seizure, that he should soon be the subject of the malady, and that it would be fatal!

"Diseases of Tropical Climates," by J. Ranald Martin, F.R.S. 1859.