NOTES ON THE NATURE OF INSANITY. 245 



death has been occasioned by derangement of the nervous circula- 

 tion — for the most part, by nervous congestion in one or more of 

 the cerebral organs. As long then, as the nervous principle shall 

 remain invisible and impalpable, so long will the traces of its fatal 

 misagency continue to elude detection in the brain and in every 

 system of the animal economy. 



Some pathologists have contended that Insanity is not a disease 

 of the brain, but of the mind itself; and that, in the same way as 

 fever is but an attendant on fractures and various bodily diseases ; 

 so the unhealthy cerebral states that accompany insanity are but 

 consequences from the diseased mind. Against this notion, many 

 unanswerable arguments can be produced : thus, if such were the 

 case, in the same way as fever would not of itself bring on a frac- 

 ture, so insanity ought never to ensue where disease in the other 

 parts of the body has caused disease in the brain by sympathy. But 

 there are many cases wherein insanity has arisen entirely from 

 abdominal disease affecting the brain by sympathy, and in which 

 the insanity subsided as soon as the abdominal organs were restored 

 to their healthy state and ceased to irritate the brain. Others main- 

 tain the notion, that there are cases where insanity must be consi- 

 dered solely as a disease of the mind, because instances occur where 

 insanity is cured instantaneously by the operation of moral causes. 

 Now, had we no cases where diseases universally allowed to be 

 bodily were as instantaneously brought on, and cured also, by the 

 influence of moral causes as those which are reckoned purely mental, 

 this argument might be perfectly valid. But cases of this kind, as 

 in asthma, toothache, and gout, are so frequent as to be familiarly 

 known : by their occurrence therefore, the previous notion is dis- 

 proved. Equally untenable is the statement, that insanity cannot 

 be a bodily disease, because it is often determined by joy, grief, or 

 any powerful affection of the mind. But we know full well, that 

 each of these will not only produce bodily diseases instantaneously ; 

 we have also numerous authentic cases which show that even 

 death may result from the effects of violent mental emotion. If it 

 be urged that insanity is not a disease of the brain, because disease 

 of the brain may exist without it, to a great extent, the objection 

 may be thus answered. We know that a disease of the lungs has 

 existed to such an extent as would have been most painful to some 

 individuals ; nevertheless, so far from the usual signs of consump- 

 tion being exhibited, no disease of the lungs whatever was suspected. 

 Yet, from this, no one would argue that consumption is not a dis- 

 ease of the lungs. By parity of reasoning, then, we have no right 



