458 Insanity. | Nov. 
choleric, to mania and melancholy, and sometimes to fatuity—the apo- 
plectic, with a large head, to fatuity ; but this seems putting the matter 
too generally, though, doubtless, constitutional peculiarities announce 
the nature of approaching diseases. 
Of the influence, again, of the planets and the moon—notwithstanding 
the name of lunatics, and the vulgar impressions—no proof whatever 
exists. Yet physicians of eminence—Mead even—have said, “the 
ravings of mad people kept lunar periods, accompanied by epileptic 
fits.” The moon, apparently, is equally innocent of the thousand things 
ascribed to her. Whenthe paroxysms of mad people do occur at the 
full of the moon, Dr. B. inclines to explain the matter thus—“ Maniacs 
are, in general, light sleepers; therefore, like the dog which bays the 
moon, and many other animals, remarked as being always uneasy when 
it is at the full, they are disturbed by the flitting shadows of clouds, 
which are reflected on the earth and surrounding objects. Thus the 
lunatic converts shadows into images of terror ; and, equally with all 
whom ‘reason lights not,’ is filled with alarm, and becomes distressed 
and noisy.” 
But there are still other physical causes which demand our notice, 
and among these the most conspicuous are disorders of circulation— 
totally distinct from disorders of circulation originating from without— 
when the blood is either excessive or defective. Of the likelihood of such 
extremes to produce madness, nobody will feel disposed to doubt. 
Blood may be driven to the head with extraordinary velocity, but be as 
readily returned by the veins—this is simply accelerated motion, and is . 
called determination ; or it may be sent with the natural velocity, or 
greater or less, but, from obstructing causes, not wholly or duly returned 
by the veins, and then there is accumulation—this is plethora.. The 
latter tends to apoplexy, and indirectly to insanity ; the former directly 
and originally to insanity. 
External heat—coups-de-soleil—violent exercise—spirits—stimulating 
aliments, and medicines—mechanical injuries—all excite the circulation. 
Any of these stimuli are capable of producing the diseases usually called 
nervous—most of which probably originate in a disordered state of the 
circulation, and lead, first or last, to perfect insanity. On the other 
hand, if the circulation be defective, the functions of the brain cannot 
properly be performed. Such is the condition of those who are in a 
state of fatuity. All extenuating diseases—excessive or long-continued 
evacuations, from hemorrhage, diarrhoea, urine, perspiration, or saliva, 
predispose to this lamentable condition. The deficiency first deterio- 
rates the corporeal, and then the mental faculties, and finally extinguishes 
both. 
Here then is a view—imperfect confessedly—of the main causes of 
insanity—consisting, first, of moral causes, that is, chiefly of excessive 
emotions, which operate, sooner or later, upon the circulation, and are 
thus eventually physical ones; next of what are originally physical— 
hereditary predisposition, which seems to amount to constitutional sus- 
ceptibility—sympathies, that is, local and organic disorders, which con- 
secutively affect the brain—and, finally, disorders of the nerves and the 
circulation. 
The medical man, who contents himself with observing—above all 
who renounces the mental theory, and gives up the expectation of 
curing madness, by reasoning is apparently in the right course. The 
