K;0 Of the Physiology of certain Disorders of Health. 



of two or more separate faculties ; what are the mutual influences 

 of the diflferent faculties ; and lastly, what external stimuli, or 

 what ))articular stages of digestive disorder and bodily ill-health 

 in general, excite particular sentiments and propensities of the 

 mind more than others. At present our knowledge of these 

 data is very imperfect ; and consecjuentiv our view of the aber- 

 rations of mind is very limited, and the little knowledge gained 

 from the experience of apparently incongruous and unananged 

 particulars forms as yet the basis of tlie medical treatment of 

 maniacs. My own very limited knowledge of their diseases 

 prevents me from applying the knowledge of the organs and func- 

 tions of the brain, which I have obtained from continued obser- 

 vation, to the elucidation of madness on such an extensive scale 

 as might be practical for many others, whose experience of the 

 conduct and history of madmen might enable them to be of 

 .great .service in elucidating their sort of diseases ; if they would 

 patiently investigate the facts whereon the new views of the 

 cerebral functions are estabHshed, I shall proceed to mention only 

 a few considerations of som.e common disorders of mind, which re- 

 flection and observation of the connexion Iietween the forms of the 

 brain and the disorders it occasions the .subject of have suggested. 

 W'e cannot describe manias without adverting to the passions of 

 \\hicii they are frecjuently exaggerations, differing also in the mode 

 of the affection. Maniatal furv, for example, seems a disordered 

 action of the organ of combativeness, more or less catenated 

 with disorders of other organs. When tlie organ of destructiveness 

 is much excited in niadness, it causes many of those horrible 

 minders and acts of destruction committed by the insane, of 

 which cases are familiar to all keepers of them. Pride is often 

 strongly excited in madmen, when the organ of haughtiness is 

 largely developed. In short, where there is a decided character 

 iii'the mania there is a large development of the corresponding 

 organ. There are instances of men mad in the organ of bene- 

 volence, who give away all to the poor. In the organ of religion 

 there are innumerable maniacs, as there are likewise in my- 

 sticism. The great development then of particular organs points 

 out the particular nature of many lunatics; while ideality pro- 

 duces the strange imaginationi*; of all. There i^ the late well known 

 instance of a person mad from constructiveness, who imagined 

 machines constructed under ground to destroy him. Madness 

 too may be only on one side of the head in some cases ; as in 

 that related by Dr. Spurzheim. I merely hint at those things 

 now, for subjects of future observation. I shall conclude 

 with an ol)servation I have made on melancholy and hvpchon- 

 driasis. Melancholy seems to be a disordered action of the 

 organ of cautiousness 5 we always find it accompanied with fear 



and 



