Literary Notices. cxxxiii 



had amblyopia. She had not used tobacco, but had been working in 

 It from five to six years. Few of the men drank. The men were 

 mostly flabby and anaemic. The majority of the 150 had both pupils 

 contracted ; 45 showed amblyopia, 30 being well-marked ; 30 had 

 gradual failure of vision. Some smoked 20 cigars a day. Three- 

 fourths were over 35, the oldest being 61. Those affected had dis- 

 turbed sleep, their muscles were eas'ly tired, and their hands trembled 

 on holding a book or pen. One young man of 19 was affected. 

 Noyes has recorded the case of a boy of 15 who exhibited similar 

 symptoms from cigarette-smoking. With chewing the effects were 

 more intense. On ophthalmoscopic examination the papillse of the 

 optic nerve were seen to be abnormally reddened at first, later 

 anaemic, ending finally in atrophy of the disc. 



Ruuniiig Aiiiuck.' 



A Malay who runs amok is always in a state of furious homicidal 

 passion, and runs armed through the most crowded street or village 

 stabbing right and left at man, woman, or child, relation, friend, or 

 stranger. So common was this habit or mama that sixty years ago 

 long poles with prong-like ends were kept in all villages, with which 

 the amoker should be pinned to the ground when the dread cry, 

 " Amok " was raised. When caught the amoker was either ruthlesely 

 slaughtered, like a mad dog, or judicially executed, or, if wealthy 

 and not sold into" slavery, he was sometimes ransomed and set at lib- 

 erty. 



The author shows that an idea, in some quarters prevalent, that 

 the amok is an institution of the Mohamedan religion, is false. It is 

 confined to the Malay and must be regarded as a race perversion. 



The diseased condition is essentially a depressed state of vitality, 

 giving rise to a species of emotional exaltation comparable to that 

 which in other races gives rise to suicide. The religious beliefs and 

 traditions of the Malay oppose suicide and his passion leads him to 

 seek death at the hands of others. After the amok the person is con- 

 fused and describes the period as a blank preceded by deep depres- 

 sion. Very often everything turns black or red and memory ceases. 

 The author believes the amok to be a genuine impulsive insanity — a 

 " fulminating neurosis," with its predisposing cause in racial idiosyn- 

 crasies. Malays are disposed to a form of melancholia called " sakit 



1 Ellis, W, G. The Amok of the Malays. The Jourji. of Mental Science, 

 XXXIX, 166, July, 1893. 



