Tregear. — Inaugural Address. 619 



If we visit a lunatic asylum, and find there the victim of 

 erotic mania, shall we not, if we inquire far enough, find in 

 that victim one who has given his thoughts too full and con- 

 tinual play on forbidden subjects ? If we find, too, in that 

 asylum the wrecked slave of alcohohsm, is not in many in- 

 stances the history of such a case the history of one who, 

 little by little, allowed his thoughts to wander away into love 

 of the brain-excitement caused by daily-increasing draughts 

 of a stimulant ? If we could look inside the brain of such a 

 man during his early stages of mental disease we should find 

 him occupied with vivid flitting pictures which alcoholism in 

 its early beginnings induces; and a similar position is held by 

 every one of us who allows his thoughts to run wild instead of 

 keeping them under control. 



Those of us who have suffered from insomnia know that 

 the effect of that malady is to present continuous pictures to 

 the mind — the mind that turns restless from subject to subject 

 without rein or guidance — till sleep appears impossible, and if 

 too long continued "that way madness lies." But this tor- 

 ture is only an exaggeration of what is passing in the mind of 

 every one in lesser degree who does not keep conscious control 

 over the centres of thought. This waste of the intellectual 

 forces weakens and wears the body, fatigues it to no purpose ; 

 it is itself the outer gate of insanity, however disinclined we 

 may be to acknowledge it to ourselves. It is a morbid state, 

 and under it one part of the body at least suffers perceptible 

 decay — that is, the brain — even if no other part of the body is 

 apparently affected. How inany old people, or people hardly 

 past middle age, we see whose doddering minds have sunk 

 into senility long before the general organs of the body yield 

 themselves to dissolution. 



There is scarcely, perhaps, a dominant state of feeling that, 

 if persisted in, does not bring about a functional disturbance. 

 It is stated that one of the early symptoms of general para- 

 lysis is the morbid vanity and boundless self-esteem exhibited 

 by the patient. Is the converse of the proposition not a pro- 

 bable truth — viz., that years of intense self-esteem and 

 colossal egotism — even if concealed — may engender the con- 

 dition that results in paralysis? Nay, may we not, by in- 

 dulging in such diseased imaginings, be preparing maladies 

 that, if not evident in our own short lives, may accumulate 

 and be handed on to appear as curses in the lives of our 

 children's children? 



It may be affirmed that although the effect of sickness in 

 producing mental depression is common enough, yet that the 

 reverse action has not been noted. If this is so, it is surely 

 only from want of observation and inquiry. We hear of 

 people dying of a "broken heart"; many such cases are 



