, "».* 



[ 303 ] 

 LV. tylemoirs of the late Erasmus Darwin, M. D. 



[Continued from vol. xxxii. p. 336.] 



DARWINIANA. . , 



JVJ.adness. — Tn every species of madness there is a peculiar 

 idea either of desire or aversion, which is perpetually excited 

 in the mind with all its connections. In some constitutions 

 this is connected with pleasurahle ideas without the exertion 

 of much muscular action, in others it produces violent mus- 

 cular action to gain or avoid the object of it, in others it is 

 attended with despair and inaction. Mania is the general 

 word for the two former of these, and melancholia for the 

 latter ; but the species of them are as numerous as the desires' 

 and aversions of mankind. 



In the present age the pleasurable insanities are most fre- 

 quently induced by superstitious hopes of heaven, by senti- 

 mental love, and by personal vanity. The furious insanities 

 by pride, anger, revenge, suspicion. And the melancholy 

 ones by fear of poverty, fear of death, and fear of hell ; with 

 - innumerable others. 



Cjuiajuid agunt homines, votum, timor, ira, voluptas, 

 Gaudia, discursus, nostri est farrago libelli. 



Juven. i. 85. 



This idea, however, which induces madness or melan- 

 choly, is generally untrue; that is, the objefct is a mistaken 

 fact. As when a patient is persuaded he has the itch, or 

 venereal disease, of which he has no symptom, and becomes 

 mad from the pain this idea occasions. So that the objeet 

 of madness is generally a delirious idea, and thence cannot 

 be conquered by reason ; becaue it continues to be excited 

 by painful sensation, which is a stronger stimulus than vo- 

 lition. Most frequently pain of body is the cause of con- 

 vulsion, which is often however exchanged for madness ; 

 and a painful delirious idea is most frequently the cause of 

 madness originally, but sometimes of convulsion. Thus I 

 have seen a young lady become convulsed from a fright, and 

 die in a few days ; and a temporary madness frequently ter- 

 minates the paroxysms of the epilepsia dolorifica, and an 

 insanity of greater permanence is frequently induced by the 

 pains or bruises of parturition. 



Vol. 33. 5s T o. 132. April 1809. U Where 



