638 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



All alienists are now agreed that occupation, no matter what 

 form it may assume, is one of the most important measures in the 

 treatment of the insane ; and, if the school does nothing more, it 

 fills out a portion of the day, relieves to some extent the tedium 

 of asylum life, and turns for a time at least the patient's morbid 

 thoughts into healthier channels. Pascal says : " Whence comes 

 it that thisman who has lately buried his only son, and who this 

 morning was so full of lamentation, at present seems to have 

 forgotten all ? Be not surprised," he replies ; " he is altogether 

 taken up with looking which way the stag will turn which his 

 hounds have been pursuing so hotly for the past six hours. He 

 needs no more. However full of sadness a man may be, he is 

 happy for the time if you can only get him to enter into some 

 diversion." 



The same writer also says, " Without diversion no joy, with 

 diversion no sorrow " ; and if this be a truth applicable to the 

 sane, who will doubt that it applies with equal force to those of 

 unsound mind ? 



The treatment pursued in cases of bodily disease has been not 

 inaptly used to illustrate this system. To deprive the stomach 

 altogether of food in case of trouble in that organ would be fatal ; 

 instead, by administering suitable foods, varied, simple, and in 

 limited quantities, we may overcome the disease and bring about 

 a healthy condition ; so, too, in disease of the brain, if intellectual 

 food be given in suitable quantity and form, why should we not 

 expect equally good results ? 



While I would not exaggerate the importance of this system, 

 my experience leads me to believe that much is to be expected 

 from its conscientious and persistent use, and I would fain hope 

 that the time is not far distant when, in every well-organized hos- 

 pital for the insane, a school will be considered one of the essen- 

 tial features in " ministering to the mind diseased." 



Some novel instances of intelligence and human-like traits in animals have 

 recently come under our notice. A terrier dog at Yverdon, Switzerland, pays 

 regular visits at Lausanne, going over and returning by train, and always getting 

 out at the right stations. A cat at Montreux, which can open doors, heard another 

 cat outside mewing to get in. No one answering the request, it rose from the 

 chair on which it was sleeping, walked across the room to the door, opened it, 

 and let its friend in. A tow-horse on a Boston street car, when his turn to work 

 is about to come, quietly drops back behind his fellows, so as to be last in the line 

 and evade the work he was to do. A horse, stabled with his mate and a third 

 horse, stole hay from the stranger to give to his mate, while he was contented 

 with the ration that had been allotted him ; and a horse in a team, nibbling some 

 rich grass on his side, gave at intervals mouthfuls of it to his companion, which 

 could not reach it. 



