AND LUNATIC ASYLUMS. 65 



sciousness of personal identity. 4. Monomania of Vanity ; with an 

 irrepressible craving for applause, homage and admiration : this crav- 

 ing is the germ of the disease ; but, from it, there spring a thousand 

 grotesque manifestations of the appetite and the modes in which it 

 requires gratification : with the vain monomaniac, the mind's errors all 

 tend towards the excitement of wonder and approbation : he is a 

 cringing beggar for the smallest mite of praise or deference* 5. Mo- 

 nomania of Timidity ; with vague, exquisite terror for its essence : it 

 may be definite and have an object, real or imaginary, frightful or 

 unalarming ; or it may have an insuppressible apprehension of present 

 or prospective evil, without any conception of what is feared or why 

 it is feared ; and the object dreaded, when there is one, is external 

 and connected with certain persons or events or influences, or it is 

 internal making a part or condition of the disordered mind itself ; 

 hence, there is the fear of some persecutor, plot or awful calamity ; 

 or the distracted sufferer quails at his own resolves, at what he is, at 

 what he may become. Fear renders the system defenceless against 

 the virulence of contagious diseases ; and, while it actually causes 

 many attacks of Insanity, it predisposes to a still greater number. 



6. Monomania of Cunning ; with the wish to conceal, mystify or 

 deceive, impregnated with the suspicion that treachery is practised or 

 designed against the crafty lunatic : he places no confidence in any 

 one friend ; he sees a sinister meaning in every act ; he gathers insi- 

 nuations from every word ; he is the victim of some plot, the meshes 

 of which surround him, but which he will break through and baffle ; 

 he will outwit all machinations ; he glories in concealment and insin- 

 cerity, in circumventing and in assuming an aspect different from 

 the true expression of his feelings ; his friends are his dupes ; and, 

 while he writhes under the idea of their falsehood and connivance, 

 his delusions revert to schemes by which they may be deceived in re- 

 taliation. When cunning is associated with malicious or suicidal in- 

 tentions, the case is distressing : the design can seldom be frustrated. 



7. Monomania of Superstition ; with an engrossing sentiment of 

 blind devotion and awe, delusions resting upon the relations which 

 the patient holds to the Deity and to supernatural beings, acts of 

 worship really solemn or extravagant or horrible, vision-seeing, mira- 

 cle-working, and claims to the possession of divine inspiration : the 

 philanthropic monomaniac believes that, as a missionary or a preacher 

 or a prophet, he is destined to achieve the conversion and regenera- 

 tion of mankind ; while, with him that is selfish, his own personal in- 

 terests and salvation are the cherished concernment : there are few 



vol. vwi , no. xxm. 10 



