6io THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



from responsibility. This is seen in the adoption of the terms mono- 

 mania, moral insanity, insane impulse, insane delusion, and in the addi- 

 tions made from time to time by writers to the varieties of monoma- 

 nia, among which are placed kleptomania, pyromania, erotomania, 

 theomania, dipsomania, homicidal mania, suicidal mania, etc. 



Spitzka, in his recent treatise on "Insanity," which work has at 

 once taken rank among the highest authorities upon this subject, 

 speaking of monomania, says : " Here those alienists who delighted in 

 burdening the infant science of psychiatry with new systems of classi- 

 fication, found a fruitful field for innovation. Whatever the direction 

 in which a lunatic manifested his most prominent symptoms, that direc- 

 tion determined the coining of a new term. . . . The designations 

 * Gamomania,' or ' the insane desire to marry,' or ' Frauenschuhstehl- 

 monomanie,' or ' the mania for stealing women's shoes,' are imperishable 

 monuments of this folly," To which judicious remarks I will add that, 

 if such acts or mental conditions are to constitute a basis for the clas- 

 sification of insanity, I see no reason why it should not extend to every 

 faculty, sentiment, or emotion of the mind, and to every act of eccen- 

 tricity or of viciousness which disfigures human conduct. 



Rush, the author of "Medical Inquiries and Observations on the 

 Diseases of the Mind," has been quoted as having said that all men 

 were insane on some subject. To the same conclusion it would seem 

 that certain alienists ai'e inclining. If this be true, then the whole 

 matter we have been considering becomes greatly simplified. All men 

 are insane, and all are irresponsible. 



It would be unjust to Dr, Spitzka, in whose opinions I have ex- 

 pressed a concurrence, as well as to myself, if I did not state that Dr. 

 Spitzka is willing to retain the name monomania when the use of the 

 term is accompanied with certain reservations and restrictions, " with 

 the limitation that the prefix shall be understood to denote that the. 

 insanity extends in a special direction across the mental horizon." He 

 justifies the continued use of the term, but not its abuse. 



It is upon this point alone that our opinions diverge. I can not 

 think it advisable to retain the term monomania, or any of the subor- 

 dinate terms, either for purposes of classification or for the conven- 

 ience of clinical description. Most alienists are agreed that, even when 

 they use these terms for classification, they do not mean to say that 

 the subject is insane upon only one point, but this is exactly what the 

 term means, if it means anything. It is true that different alienists 

 offer different explanations or definitions of the term, but nearly all 

 admit that it does not mean insanity upon a single subject ; and every 

 one must have seen that, with or without explanations, the use of this 

 term by writers and by expert witnesses renders it difiicult, if not im- 

 possible, for the reader, the public, or the jury to distinguish in many 

 cases between acts of moral obliquity, eccentricity, or viciousness on 

 the one hand, and actual insanity on the other ; between responsibility 



