1822.) 
cranium to the size of an inch in diameter; 
during the time this took in healing, he 
was indignant about it, and endured life, 
but soon afterwards shot himself.” 
~ Now, is not the designating such cases 
as the above insanity, (however the prac- 
tice might be sanctioned by the decision 
of a Kent coroner,) calculated to effect an 
abundance of mischief? Was not the 
tedium vite here rather of a moral than 
of a medical nature, and did not the notion 
of having recourse to remedial measures in 
the way described, imply a lax miscon- 
ception of the individual’s state and re- 
quirements. In fact, there was here no 
insanity, because there was no delusion; 
no madness, inasmuch as irresistible im- 
pulse was not present and operative, for 
when these two conditions are absent, viz. 
misconception, and impulse to act beyond 
voluntary control, madness is not present. 
Amidst many others of a minor nature, 
three distressing instances of self-destruc- 
tion have, within the few past years, called 
loudly and lamentably upon public atten- 
tion and sympathy; and in these awful 
proofs of the fragility of mental possession, 
- there appears to have been actual delusion, 
and, therefore, positive insanity; but to 
admit that want of success in worldly 
affairs, or disgust at the monotonous re- 
currence of idle days, justifies an individual 
in shortening his life, under the assumption 
that the organic particles of the brain 
were not at the time of the act in due ad- 
justment, is to admit a principle which the 
“ straitest sect” of physical reasoners ought 
equally to condemn, with thdse who think 
there is something in man beyond what 
mere physical philosophy dreams of. Or 
else, let jails be converted into hospitals, 
and the lord ehief justice chosen from the 
Report of Chemistry and Experimental Philosophy. 
167 
College of Physicians. No, no, we are 
moral, we are accountable creatures, and 
then only lose that accountability whe. 
disease produces delusion. At this poimt it 
is (allowedly most difficult in many cases 
to mark with accuracy,) that commisera- 
tion is to take tie place of condemnation, 
and the moral energies of our nature to be 
declared vanquished in the great struggle 
between passion and principle. And here 
let the writer take occasion to say, how 
imperative it is on individuals to recollect 
that there is a limit to human capacity and 
powers; that the brain, no more than the 
stomach, will bear, with impunity, to be 
constantly overladen; that gigantic mental 
efforts are calculated to prove destructive 
of their own designs; or, as beautifully 
expressed by a modern author, “to wear 
a channel in the brain, through which 
imagination rushes and bears down all 
before it.” Unorganic as is the writer of 
this paper in his creed and sentiments, he 
has often been impressed with the foliow- 
ing forcible statement of the momentary 
dependence of mental health, upon the 
strict integrity of physical function. 
“Foi qui dans ta folie prends arrogam- 
ment le titre de Roi de la nature; toi qui 
mesures et la terre et les cieux; toi, qui 
par ta vanité s’imagine que le tout a été 
fait, parce que tu es intelligent; il ne faut 
qu'un léger aecident, qu’un atome déplacé, 
pour te fair périr, pour te dégrader, pour 
te ravir cette intelligence dont tu parois 
si fier!” 
The Reporter has only left, himself room 
to say, that nothing has occurred among 
the diseases of the preceding month that 
calls for any particular animadversion. 
Bedford-row ; D. Uwins, M.D, 
Angust 20, 1822. 
REPORT OF CHEMISTRY AND EXPERIMENTAL PHILOSOPHY. 
— 
R. Orsers decides that there are no 
volcanoes in the moon, and that this 
phenomenon is capable of another expla- 
nation. It was situated, he observes, 
either in or near the spot marked Aristar- 
chus, which is always enlightened by the 
earth, in the dark portion of the moon 
when three or four days old, and is distin- 
_ guishable from all the other spots in the 
moon by its brightness. 
The phosphorescence of glow-werms 
has been treated of by M. Macair, ina 
Memoir published in the Bibl. Univers. 
Solar light appears to have a constant in- 
fluence on these animals.. Some were put 
into boxes, from. which the light was shut 
out, and when the boxes were opened in 
the evening, they rarely. gaye any light; 
but the same worms, in the same boxes 
with glass tops, and placed in the sun- 
shine, shone. brilliantly in the ensuing 
evening. Heat caused these animals to 
“l ~ 
became luminous, and they remained so 
as long as the heat was continued ;-it be- 
gan at 81°, was brightest at 106° F.; the 
insect then soon died, but the light conti- 
nued. When the animals were thrown 
into water 111° or 122°, they died in- 
stantly, but the light continued brilliant ; 
at 30° higher all light was extinguished, 
and could not be restored. Cold, on the 
contrary, destroys the luminousness of the 
insect. .When the luminous part of the 
animal is cut off, the light diminishes, and 
in four or five minutes is gone. Ina few 
minutes the rings move, and the light re- 
appears, but more weakly, and then fades 
away. This continues two or three days, 
bunt the light is, faint ; if the part be. warm- 
ed, then the light is brilliant, and by re- 
newing it may be restored for two or three 
days. together as often as is desired.— 
When the abdomen of a worm.is opened, 
the luminous matter is found within, form- 
ed 
