AND LUNATIC ASYLUMS. 63 



The test ought to be as general as possible, and to have reference, 

 not to the abstract question of what Insanity is, but to the probable 

 consequences which may accrue from the declaration that it exists 

 in every case. Entertaining these opinions, then, in place of en- 

 deavouring to define, I have described the different forms which In- 

 sanity assumes, believing that by such a course the interests of Sci- 

 ence and Humanity will be better served, than by straining after 

 what the failure of all previous writers nearly proves to be a nonen- 

 tity." 



Considering that an enlightened system of classifying lunatics 

 must depend on the accuracy of the classification of the varieties of 

 the disease with which they are afflicted, Mr. Brown exhibits three 

 different arrangements — Arnold's, Heinroth's, and that which he 

 himself has carefully constructed. He distributes the diversities of 

 Insanity into four closses — Idiocy, Fatuity, Monomania, and Ma- 

 nia, and these he establishes with an abundance of concise and per- 

 spicuous illustrations. 



Idiocy. — This class comprehends four states or gradations : — 

 First — that wherein neither sensation nor reason appears to have 

 been bestowed ; where the imperfect being seems not to be conscious 

 of light, or of sound, or of hunger ; and where sleep alternates with 

 a swaying motion of the body, during the protracted life-time which 

 the unhappy idiot is often left to endure. Second — that where the 

 external senses exist without the co-existence of any faculty by which 

 the sensations thus obtained can become objects of reflection. Such 

 individuals prefer light to darkness, experience pleasure from odours, 

 and occupy much time in moving their hands along smooth surfaces. 

 Tliird — that wherein the patients, besides exercising their senses, are 

 able to contract attachments, to display desires, and to feel the first 

 throbs of ambition. Fourth — that in which, additionally to these 

 feelings, there is a certain but very limited power of ratiocination, a 

 facility in acquiring a mechanical art, or an aptitude for arithmetical 

 or mathematical studies, without any corresponding evolution of the 

 other powers of mind. Mr. B's. remarks on this four-fold distinction 

 of Idiocy, are apposite and useful. 



Fatuity. — This, as a class, is generally an effect of apoplexy, 

 chronic inflammation of the membranes of the brain, or of some sig- 

 nal alteration in the texture of its nervous substance. The malady 

 is often slow, always insidious, in its advances. Half a life-time may 

 elapse, with gradually increasing inconsistencies and imbecility, be- 

 fore the understanding is suspected to be undermined, or the glaring 



