60 OBSERVATIONS ON INSANITY 



lowest only of the mental manifestations, and these but feebly, can 

 be exhibited; and that, if the brain should be injured by accident or 

 disease, these manifestations are diminished in number, impaired in 

 strength or annihilated. 



Mr. Browne abstains from inquiring — in what manner the con- 

 nexion between Mind and Matter, is effected ; and he thinks it pro- 

 bable, that the link will ever escape human research. This state- 

 ment of his, and his distinction, constitute an essential principle of 

 the Truth which is universal and eternal : they shew, that Mind is 

 one thing, and that Matter is another different thing ; and they 

 shew, that these two distinct things are connected by a third thing 

 or link which, in Mr. B.'s mind, is all but inscrutable. He might, 

 however, have advanced one step farther, and recognized the propo- 

 sition — that the third distinct thing, the connecting link, is Life 

 which unites Matter and Mind in one form of co-existence, and 

 thus makes every animated being a threefold individual, endowed 

 with three distinct, though correlative, kinds of energy and power. 

 He goes on to say, with a praise- worthy earnestness : — 



" Enough has been disclosed to teach us the importance of recog- 

 nising the connexion between Mind and Matter, and of making it 

 the foundation of all inquiries into the nature of mental alienation, 

 and of all attempts to improve the condition of the insane. From 

 the admission of this principle, derangement is no longer considered 

 a disease of the understanding, but of the brain, the centre of the 

 nervous system, upon the unimpaired constitution of which the ex- 

 ercise of the understanding depends. The brain is at fault, and not 

 the mind. The brain is oppressed with blood ; it is irritated ; it is 

 softened ; and the ideas are confused, the feelings exalted, because 

 those parts of the system with which their healthy manifestations 

 have been associated in this world have undergone an alteration; 

 But let this oppression be relieved, this irritation he removed, and 

 the Mind rises in its native strength, clean and calm, uninjured, 

 immutable, immortal." 



Seeing the absolute truth of this doctrine, and the positive cer- 

 tainty of the facts which establish it, that the Mind's native strength 

 can be neither injured nor changed, what again is Insanity ? Mr. 

 B. replies, it is inordinate, irregular or impaired action of the Mind, 

 depending upon and produced by an organic change in the brain 

 which is the Mind's instrument ; and the extent of the disease cor- 

 responds to the extent of the injury or destruction of the cerebral 

 structure. Precisely as a perfect hand cannot make good writing 

 with a bad pen, so the uninjured and immutable mind can never 



