1828.] Insanity. , 455 
protected, whilst the Protestant, with our freedom of discussion, is pre- 
eminently exposed to it. The Methodists are charged with making more 
lunatics than any other sect ; but the truth seems to be—which explains 
the matter very satisfactorily—their converts are more numerous than 
those of any other sect, in the class to which such doctrines are mainly 
directed, and they have had, besides, we take it, almost a monopoly of the 
weaker heads, in that class. 
Emotions, then, of every kind, are capable of disturbing the organs 
and functions of the body, and thus causes, in their origin moral, become 
physical in the course of their operations. These, all of them, in their 
excesses, lead or may lead to insanity ; not by direct impressions, but 
through the morbid changes which they gradually bring about in the 
organs of the body. The more frequent the impressions, the greater, 
of course, is the effect in producing the tendency to derangement. 
But these moral causes—numerous as they are, and capable of excit- 
ing lunacy to a fearful extent—are very far from being the most general 
causes of insanity. It is only where the frame is highly susceptible, or 
where the cause is vehement or excessive, that morbid effects are pro- 
duced by them. The direct physical causes are far more extensive in 
their occurrence, and among these the very chiefest is hereditary predis- 
position. Esquirol—a man of no slight authority in these matters— 
assigns 150 out of 264, in his private practice ; and Dr. Burrowes—of 
at least equal weight and experience—says, he has clearly ascertained 
this predisposition in six-sevenths of the whole of his patients, and 
scarcely seems to doubt its existence in many of the remaining seventh ; 
but the difficulty of ascertaining the hereditary source is often great, 
from the perverse concealments of the friends. And, indeed, so gene- 
ral is the internal conviction, if not the professed belief of the reality 
and extensiveness of hereditary influence, that nothing is more frequent 
than the remark, when eccentricities are observed in individuals, “ there 
is madness in the family—the father or mother was insane.” Constitu- 
tional peculiarities, which physicians, after their learned manner, call 
idiosyncracies, are, in numerous respects, of the commonest occurrence, 
and need only to be alluded to, in a few particulars, to convince us they 
are more extensive than seems to be generally supposed, though every 
body’s actual experience must furnish him numerous instances. Shell- 
fish are offensive to some stomachs—some fruits in like manner—the 
odour of particular flowers—and these peculiarities are known to descend 
through successive generations. It is quite a common thing to hear a 
person say—I cannot bear such or such a thing, nor could my father 
before me. One man, again, inherits gout, another consumption, another 
_ serofula, another apoplexy, and propagates it. Peculiarities of form, 
feature, complexion, are all notoriously transmissible. “ Whatever 
> y : 
assumes a constitutional character,” said John Hunter, “ may be given 
_ toa child, and then it becomes what is called hereditary.” That insanity, 
also, is hereditary, is equally well established, nobody, now-a-days, pro- 
bably doubts. Every day’s experience brings to the observer new con- 
victions. Diseases, too, propagate themselves—the case of syphilis is 
an obvious instance. Liability to mania, fatuity, epilepsy, in successive 
generations, is an opinion confirmed by the experience of all ages. Some 
physicians have encouraged the notion that hereditary disorders, and 
Insanity among them, appear only in every other, that is, in every third 
individual in lineal descent, but apparently without authority. Here 
