AND LUNATIC ASYLUMS. 67 



his phrenzy : he strips himself of his clothes, and he starves for days 

 together, in order to supply the fancied wants of his associates : his 

 mind teems with projects to alleviate their condition, or he wanders 

 about declaring that his whole kindred is in misfortune or has been 

 destroyed, and he searches for their mangled bodies in every hole 

 and crevice. He is too often rendered unhappy by the delusions of 

 wretchedness which are ever before him ; or, torn by apprehensions 

 for the misfortunes of friends, by disappointment from their want of 

 affection, and by grief for their ingratitude, he commits suicide and 

 expires. 12. Monomania of Misperception of Relations of Ideas ; 

 with accurate perceptions, clearness and fidelity of the senses, regular 

 suggestions or impulses of the feelings ; but without ability to ar- 

 range, contrast, compare or analyze the ideas that are acquired ; and 

 this is the error which constitutes the present form of monomanical 

 derangement. It results from disorder of the intellectual faculties, 

 whose office is the association or separation of ideas ; and, when this 

 disorder becomes predominant, the power of reasoning rightly is 

 overturned or extinguished. The total absence of concord, connexion 

 or sequence in the thoughts, the inability to assort or methodize, 

 before the mind, the classes of ideas according to their qualities and 

 natural order, is the principal feature of this kind of insanity. The 

 incoherence of irrational persons often depends on this cause ; but it 

 is the plausible incoherence which seems to have a meaning, could 

 this only be discovered. Men so affected, may continue to mingle 

 with society and to be useful citizens ; when confined, so much of the 

 mind remains sound and vigorous, that they may be entrusted with 

 responsible situations in the establishment to which they are con- 

 signed. 13. Monomania of Misperception of Relations of External 

 Objects ; with an intellectual inability to take a right cognizance of 

 these, as reported to the mind by its external senses. It is in com- 

 bining the faithful communications of sense, that this kind of mono- 

 maniacal infidelity is committed : thus, for instance, the idea of a 

 house encompassed with woods may be well defined, but the idea of 

 the relation which the house bears to the surrounding trees, is vague, 

 indistinct or erroneous ; the true idea is disfigured by a misconcep- 

 tion. 14. Monomania of Misperception of Qualities of External 

 Objects; with incapability of perceiving these under their natural 

 conditions, or with the power of doing so entirely suspended : for ex- 

 ample, a mind otherwise unimpaired sees a hunting-field where the 

 dogs, horses and sportsmen arc all of gigantic or microscopic size, 

 they resemble mammoths or nuts at full speed ; and the colouring of 



