MENTAL ASPECTS OF ORDINARY DISEASE. s?l 



relatives and the overworked paid nurse do not possess the qualities 

 requisite for correct observation of this complex condition, even if 

 they could be induced to make the nature of the delirium the object 

 of their attention. The impressions remaining on my own mind of my 

 thoughts during a pretty sharp and well-sustained delirium, due to a 

 grave attack of scarlatina, are that there were two leading ideas dom- 

 inant in my mind: the one in relation to my surroundings, the other 

 in relation to my aims and my occupation. The first, though less pre- 

 dominant, were distinctly the more vivid impressions, and they were 

 not only very unpleasant, but their remembrance is ineffaceable. They 

 arose chiefly through the weakened senses, especially the sense of 

 sight. The bedroom I had occupied for years had been rearranged 

 to adapt it to the necessities of a sick-room, and, on waking, the eye 

 did not immediately recognize it. This at once gave a direction to 

 the wandering thoughts, and the leading idea was to get home. The 

 opposition offered to my attempt to escape seemed to me so unjust and 

 improper that violence must be resorted to in order to overcome it, 

 and then followed a wild, delirious struggle, terminating in complete 

 exhaustion. This opposition engendered a strong feeling of personal 

 dislike, blended with suspicion toward those around me, and their kind 

 attentions were interpreted by the reeling brain as unjustifiable inter- 

 ference with natural and intelligible wishes. The remembrance of the 

 feeling of dislike thus originated remains sufficiently strong to occa- 

 sionally tint the thought yet ; for the residua remaining in the cere- 

 bral cells exercise an influence on the thought-currents when passing 

 over them. 



The other source of disturbance was the influence of the lines of 

 thought which were predominant in the mind ordinarily. These formed 

 the chief subject of my wanderings during the delirious period. At 

 times, the impression that certain patients ought to be seen would be- 

 come so vivid that I desired to be dressed in order to pay the required 

 visits. Opposition to this, of course, aroused indignation and resent- 

 ment, and strengthened the suspicions already excited by the restraint 

 exercised to prevent, as I imagined, my returning home. 



The remembrance of the condition is still sufficiently vivid to ex- 

 plain the mental attitude of those whose intellect is waning, either 

 from dotage or from a like condition of brain-failure inaugurated by 

 acute disease. Why their relations, who attempt to contradict or to 

 control them not always with the happiest tact are objects of dis- 

 like and suspicion, is intelligible enough ; as also why attendants who 

 humor and cajole them are thereby endowed with a potential, undue 

 influence. The brain, becoming less and less functionally capable, is 

 more and more unequal to the correction of its ill-founded or unjust 

 dislike. 



There is nothing monstrous in the mental products ; there is just 

 that deviation from the rule that might be anticipated when the func- 



