AND LUNATIC ASYLUMS. 61 



display sound feeling, perceiving or reflecting by means of an un- 

 sound or defective brain. Insanity being strictly a bodily disease, 

 its nature, intensity and aggravations must be regulated in a great 

 degree, Mr. B. judiciously observes, by the relations of the brain to 

 the other organs of the body, and the relations of both these to ex- 

 ternal agents ; and farther, if such a dependence does exist, an 

 equally intimate connexion must obtain between the state of these 

 organs and external agents, and the remedies exhibited for curing 

 the disease. 



Dr. Haslam, whose head was the receptacle of some practical 

 knowledge concerning Insanity, is said to have repeated these miser- 

 able conceits in a court of justice, — that he " never saw any human 

 being who was of sound mind," and that he " presumed the Deity is 

 of sound mind." Mr. Browne discerns the just value of this va- 

 pouring nonsense, and proceeds to remark : — 



" This is next to asserting that no palpable distinction exists, no 

 line of demarcation can be traced, between the sane and the insane. 

 The line is either ideal or purely geometrical. If the two most 

 widely separated conditions of mind — its greatest strength and sere- 

 nity and its abject imbecility — be contrasted, the distance appears 

 enormous and impassable ; but, if we gradually recede from these 

 extreme points towards the median, it will be found, so impercep- 

 tibly do the distinctive marks disappear, and so insensibly do eccen- 

 tricity on the one hand and enthusiasm on the other, blend together, 

 that the task of declaring this to be reason and that to be insanity, 

 is exceedingly embarrassing, and to a great degree arbitrary. Peo- 

 ple have puzzled themselves to discover this line, a terra incognita 

 which does not exist ; the mind being susceptible of as many shades 

 of difference is the strength and relations of its powers as is the 

 body. Another enigma has been propounded — to establish a defini- 

 tion of insanity ; that is, to discover one form of words expressive of 

 the nature of a hundred different things." 



In being a state having degrees inimitably various, the lowest of 

 these can be detected only by the most experienced and vigilant 

 observers, while the highest are usually distinct and evident to 

 every beholder of their manifestations. This being the case, it is 

 quite clear that the definition of a state so comprehensive cannot 

 usefully embrace more than the chief characters whereby each of 

 its diversities is invariably distinguished. Accordingly, it may be 

 enough to say — Insanity is that preternatural state wherein a per- 

 son displays inordinate motives, or practises inordinate actions, inju- 

 rious to himself or others ; and the extent to which his motives or 



