A MIND DISEASED 53 



CANST THOU NOT MINISTER TO A MIND DISEASED? 



By Dr. SMITH BAKER 



UTICA, N. T. 



WITH respect to this most pathetic question of the sick-room, the 

 good Doctor in " Macbeth " seems to have exhausted the med- 

 ical possibilities of his time, in his answer, " Therein the patient must 

 minister to himself." Moreover, had he tried, though never so de- 

 votedly, to remove from Lady Macbeth's mind the "thick-coming fan- 

 cies that kept her from her rest," he would have almost ignominiously 

 failed, not only to " cure her of that," but equally to 



Pluck from memory a rooted sorrow, 

 Eaze out the written troubles of the brain, 

 And with some sweet oblivious antidote 

 Cleanse the stuff 'd bosom of that perilous stuff 

 Which weighs upon the heart; 



and all this, in spite of the dangerous gravity of the case, and his royal 

 employer's urgent need. 



Indeed, not only then but always, even until now, has the skill requi- 

 site "to purge to sound and pristine health" the mind thus seriously 

 troubled been so generally wanting, that it does not now seem amiss to 

 point out once more some of the difficulties which lie in the way, and 

 likewise to indicate wherein, to some extent at least, surer and more 

 permanent means of success than those heretofore used may be looked 

 for, if not just now, then in the near future. 



In this worthy undertaking, even Macbeth himself, by his remark- 

 able diagnosis, may help us to make a more promising beginning than 

 his contemporary physician could possibly make, at that time, and with- 

 out necessarily becoming involved in so many of the mistakes which 

 otherwise might seriously obstruct vision and paralyze action as well. 

 To the king, stunned, remorseful, apprehensive as he was, the case pre- 

 sented, notwithstanding, certain very definite characteristics, which, in 

 his rather picturesque classification, may be noted as "thick-coming 

 fancies," " rooted sorrow," " written troubles," and the " stuff'd bosom " 

 that "weighs upon the heart." Looked at in the light of modern 

 knowledge, this list of insistent ideation, deep grief, visual hallucina- 

 tions, morbid apprehensions and fears, guilty conscience and depressed 

 emotions, are seen to make up still a very large percentage indeed of the 

 sufferings of those who are looked upon as having either potentially or 



