128 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



in each which are preferred to deductions 

 in nervous exhaustion and anaemia, in af- 

 fections of the uterus and other internal or- 

 gans, in local neurasthamia, in affections of 

 the central nervous system, in writer's cramp 

 and allied affections ; in neuralgia, periph- 

 eral paralysis, muscular rheumatism, muscu- 

 lar rupture, elephantiasis, oedema, scoliosis ; 

 in sprains and affections of the joints; in 

 disorders of the head, face, eyes, ears, and 

 throat, and in catarrhal affections. 



Sanity and Insanity. By Charles Mer- 

 cier. Contemporary Science Series. 

 New York: Scribner & Welford. Pp. 

 395. Price, $1.25. 



The author has endeavored, not so much 

 to describe and enumerate, as to account for 

 the phenomena of insanity. It is agreed 

 that certain occurrences are occasional, oth- 

 ers common, and others invariable in insan- 

 ity, and that certain occurrences are fre- 

 quently associated ; but why such connec- 

 tions should exist has never been explained, 

 nor, so far as the author knows, inquired 

 into. Many hypotheses are experimentally 

 applied in the pursuit of the inquiry thus 

 outlined, without claiming that they are the 

 true explanations of the facts, but because 

 " at any rate, they are explanations of some 

 kind," the author believing that the state of 

 our science "has reached a point at which 

 some explanation of the facts of insanity 

 has become desirable, and that any hypothe- 

 sis, even if erroneous, is a step toward the 

 attainment of truth, and is better than a 

 mere unorganized accumulation of facts." 

 A more clear distinction is insisted upon than 

 is observed by some physio-psychological 

 writers perhaps the careless ones between 

 nervous processes and the mental states that 

 accompany them. While there is no thought 

 or mental condition without a nervous pro- 

 cess, the relation between the two is like 

 that of a shadow, equivalent, obverse, or ac- 

 companiment of inexplicable association. It 

 is found, in the search for a definition of in- 

 sanity, that in every case of the affection 

 three factors are present " disorder of the 

 highest nerve arrangements, disorder of con- 

 duct, and disorder of consciousness ; and in 

 every case the disorder of consciousness in- 

 cludes disorder of thought and of feeling, of 

 self-consciousness, and of consciousness of 



the relation of self to the surroundings. In 

 no two cases, however, are these various fac- 

 tors combined in quite the same way, and 

 thus no two cases precisely resemble one an- 

 other. On the way in which they are com- 

 bined depends the form which the insanity 

 assumes." Among the causes of insanity 

 are those arising from heredity, which may 

 work under the law of inheritance or under 

 that of sanguinity, in which are involved the 

 effects of different degrees of similarity or 

 dissimilarity in parents ; direct stress, or the 

 action of noxious agents immediately on the 

 nerve-centers; and indirect stresses which 

 are of internal origin when the agent is some 

 commotion in the organ itself, as in the case 

 of morbid affections ; or of external origin, 

 when the agent is some commotion in the 

 environment, as when cares of family or 

 business or social and political relations 

 worry. The forms of insanity are various, 

 and are hardly susceptible of a fixed classi- 

 fication. They may be arranged from dif- 

 ferent points of view, and may run into one 

 another. The author treats idiocy, imbecil- 

 ity, sleep, old age, and drunkenness as being 

 marked by one or more of the features that 

 may enter into insanity, and discusses the 

 forms of the real affection under the heads 

 of melancholia, exaltation, and dementia. 

 The discussion of the points brought up is 

 lively and bold, and the observations upon 

 them are pungent and often witty. 



The Antiquities of Tennessee and the Ad- 

 jacent States, and the State of Ab- 

 original Society in the Scale of Civili- 

 zation REPRESENTED BY THEM. By GATES 



P. Thruston. Cincinnati : Robert Clarke 

 k Co. Pp. 369, with Plates. Price, $4. 



The author is Corresponding Secretary 

 of the Tennessee Historical Society. He 

 does not in this work expound a theory, 

 but presents a series of historical and ethno- 

 logical studies, very largely his own, but 

 with those of others often brought in for 

 illustration and comparison, the aim of which 

 is to exhibit precisely the evidence which 

 the mounds and their contents afford of the 

 degree of civilization attained by the build- 

 ers and the character of their social life. 

 The book has grown out of the author's 

 labors in describing the fine types of pottery 

 and other objects found in the large abo- 

 riginal cemetery which was discovered near 



