INSANITY. 



INSCRIPTIONS. 



senses J Many writers, led by some observations of Mr. Locke, have 

 mid that " the insane reason correctly from erroneous premises." lint 

 tUi definition include* those only who ore the aubject of some delu- 

 sion, while there are many lunatic* who hare lot the power of 

 reasoning correctly, hence some author* have added to the above 

 definition the sentence " or erroneously from correct premises." The 

 definition, founded oa Mr. Locke's remark, applies very well to the 

 late of mind of many monomaniacs, who frequently net quite reason 

 ably on the supposition of the mbject of their delusion being a fact ; 

 it i in their believing what a sound man must perceive to be fait* 

 that their insanity consists. Thus many persons tinder the influence 

 of particular states of the brain or the senses, of vision have seen 

 iiieuUei, but, not believing in their actual existence, were not mad. 

 The belief in thing* inconsistent with the laws of nature, with the 

 combined evidence of all our senses, or with other known facts, shows 

 a want of iBsenning power, or, according to Dr. Conolly, a want of 

 " the comparing power ; " the lunatic does not compare the evidence of 

 one sense with that given by other senses, or with past impressions ; if 

 he did so, he would detect his error. A madman fancies his legs are 

 jade of butter, and accordingly protects them from the sun and 

 external force ; but if he used his senses of touch and sight, and com- 

 pared their evidence with the sensation which excited the erroneoiu 

 idea, or with the idea itself, he would perceive its falsity. There are, 

 however, as we have said, many other coses in which, whether combined 

 with delusions or not, there is a defect of the reasoning power, the 

 degrees of which vary from the state of the persons who are regarded 

 merely a somewhat silly, to that of the imbecile or fatuitous. There 

 is, however, another less frequent form of insanity, which depends 

 neither on reasoning from erroneous premises, nor on defect of the 

 reasoning faculties ; we allude to the state in which the moral feelings 

 are *o deranged or excited as to lead to acts which may be called 

 insane, since the win has no longer the power of regulating them, and 

 the individual cannot be looked upon as an accountable being. The 

 definition adopted by Dr. Spurzhcim and the phrenologists will include 

 this last form of insanity. Insanity is by them stated to be " an aber- 

 ration of any mental power (an intellectual faculty, a moral feeling, or 

 a propensity), from the healthy state, with an inability on the part of 

 the individual to discern its unhealthineas or to resist it." 



In deciding what is and what is not insanity there will not be much 

 difficulty if any illusion exist in the patient's mind, and it* nature be 

 known to the examiner ; and when there is general derangement nr 

 defect of the reasoning powers, a careful examination will surely 

 detect it. It is much more difficult to decide an to the existence of 

 moral insanity when unattended with delusion or defect of the 

 reasoning faculty, though the decision is here often of the greatest 

 importance, as the honour or life of the individual depends u]x>n it. 

 No rules can be laid down for determining whether eccentric acts, or 

 the commission of homicide, be the effect of an irresistible impulse or 

 not ; in all such riim however, the history, the dress, gestures, and 

 manner of speaking, and the expression of the features of the indi- 

 vidual, should be carefully attended to. In almost all insane persons 

 there will moreover be found either symptoms of vascular excitement 

 boat the head, or an unhealthy state of the skin and of the different 



There are however, as Dr. Conolly observes, two questions to be 

 decided in every inquiry relative to the sanity of an individual. The 

 first relate* to the existence of unsoundness of mind; the second 

 regards the treatment required, and especially the necessity of re- 

 straint, and the degree and nature of the restraint. With reference to 

 the second question, the chief point to be considered is whether the 

 patient be likely to injure his own person or that of others, or hi* own 

 property or that of other*. Medical treatment may be required in 

 any ease of insanity ; but on the decision of the second question above 

 indicated depends whether the patient shall be confined and deprived 

 of control over his property. It is from confounding the question of 

 the existence of madness with that of the necessity of confinement 

 that so much injustice has been committed ; to prove a man insane 

 ha* been synonymous with condemning him to imprisonment. But 

 though a man believe his legs are not his own, or that he was present 

 at the destruction of Jerusalem, he may be a perfectly harmless and 

 even useful member of society : shall he therefore be deprived of I, is 

 liberty and of the management of his property merely on account of n 

 ingle delusion F [LcKACT.] 



The linahimul of Insanity resolves itself into the medical ami the 

 The medical treatment indicated and required at the com- 

 nt of the disease consists chiefly in the attempt to rr-ln.-.- 

 , vascular excitement or slight inflammatory action. It is 

 that any violent antiphlogistic measures are required. The 

 treatment may be called for during the course of the disease if 

 the symptom* of ceiebial excitement or inflammation return. Some- 

 times want of deep is the most marked symptom, and opiates are 

 given with benefit. In the more chronic conditions of the di*oase the 

 - ' -t is chiefly directed to the restoration and maintenance 



of a healthy state of all the functions of the body, particularly of the 

 secretions. A strengthening diet is requisite In some canes ; clean- 

 liness, frenh sir, and exercise in all. The beat asylums afl'nnl tho 

 mean* of employment for the insane in the open air; but thin 

 important requisite is still neglected in *otnc large public institutions. 



The moral treatment is now recognised as an important part of the 

 management of the insane. Formerly a lunatic was regarded with 

 horror, a* a being who had lost all relation to society, and was to be 

 treated as a wild beast ; he was confined in a gloomy filthy cell, was 

 loaded with chains, and shut out from all influences which could cheer 

 his mind or lead it from the subject of its delusion. The first step in 

 the great amelioration which has taken place was effected by the efforts 

 of M. Pinel in France, and the Quakers in England. The insane are 

 now treated with humanity. The power of moral influences in restor- 

 ing the healthy tone of the mind has been recognised as a prim 

 carrying out which the chief means adopted are the follmving : 1 . 1 M 

 many cases seclusion from society, chiefly with a view to remove the 

 patient from the influence of the circumstances which produced the 

 disorder, or which might keep up unhealthy trains of thought ; but 

 when the insanity in partial, consisting in a single delusion, this men- 

 11 scarcely be recommended, as it might, by shocking the mind, 

 increase the malady. 2. Occupation and amusement of the mind in 

 various ways, so as to divert the thoughts : this is an important circum- 

 stance in the treatment, though until the lost few years little attended 

 t". Kvrrything calculated to remind the patient of his state should be 

 avoided ; the apparatus of confinement kept from his sight, and the 

 appearance of all objects rendered as cheerful as possible. 3. The 

 moral influence of the physician has a powerful effect on the n 

 the insane ; kindness will gain their confidence, while a firm though 

 mild manner is often sufficient to restrain the most violent outbreaks 

 of rage, and render other means of restraint unnecessary. Chains are 

 now generally discarded from the apparatus of the lunatic asylum, and 

 even strait waistcoats and straps are seldom required. But while 

 measures of bodily restraint should be avoided as much as possible, it 

 is a safe and imperative rule to remove hurtful weapons and means of 

 mischief from the reach of the insane. All irritation of miml by 

 threats, &c., should be avoided. 4. Tho convalescent should be sepa- 

 rated from the other patients in the asylum. ;">. The insane 

 be classified, so as to separate the quiet and timid from the nni 

 violent. 



In the preceding portion of this article we have not made idiotcy the 

 subject of separate consideration. It in scarcely necessary to say that 

 \\ln\i-fatuity is the state of defective intellect produced by disease late 

 in life, idiotcy is the original want or deficiency of mental power, .lust 

 as the imbecility of old age has various degrees, so there are various 

 degrees of idiotcy. One of the worst forms is that presented by tin' 

 Cretins, the deformed and imperfectly organised idiots met with in 

 the valleys of Switzerland. [Ciu:Tixs,J Idiotcy generally depot; 

 congenital disease, but sometimes it is produced by diseases affecting 

 the brain in very early infancy. The more remote causes are probably 

 imperfect nourishment of the parents, or some noxious influences acting 

 on the mother during pregnancy ; the same hereditary predinp. 

 which gives rise to insanity seems also sometimes to be productive ,,f 

 idiotcy. The form and size of tho head in idiots may be quite natural ; 

 in many cases however it is large and deformed ; in others remarkably 

 small, particularly in the region of the forehead. The bones of the 

 head are sometimes very thick ; the brain itself disorganised, or its 

 cavities distended with fluid. LIlYMiorKi'H.u.fs.] 



(Prichard, Conolly, Burrows, and Uaalam, On Iiwanit;/ ; Pinel, 8<tr 

 VAlifnu >; Esquirol, $ir la Maladiei mentalct; U> 



8r la Folic ; Heinroth, lilt Sloningtn da Setlmltbau ; Jacobi, .- 

 lungen far die ffeilkunde der demUthskranH-heiteit ; and Uucknill and 

 Tuke, Manual of Psychological Mediant.) 



INSCRIPTIONS (Inicriptiona), that is, records of public or private 

 occurrences; of laws, decrees, and the like, engraved on stone, metal, 

 and other hard substances, exhibited for puMic inspection. Th 

 torn of making inscriptions was far more general in the gtatos of 

 antiquity than ill any modern country, as we sec from the innumerable 

 inscribed monument* which still exist in Persia, Egypt, Greece, Italy, 

 and other countries subject to or colonised by the Greeks and Romans. 

 A great number of inscriptions, especially those recording great i 

 laws, or decrees of the government, which it WOM important for 

 citizen to know, supplied to some extent the want of i i utinj?. 



When, for example, the laws of the twelve tables at Home were set up 

 in public, this public exhibition was equivalent to their publication by 

 means of the :n-i of printing; for every Roman might go and rend 

 them, and, if he liked, take a copy of them for his pnv.it" use. 

 violin to the invention of the art of printing, inscriptions set up in .1 

 public place were the most convenient mean* of %t\ in.: pub! 

 that which it was necessary or useful for .ite to 



know. Inscriptions, therefore, are, ne> ,,f the 



ancient*, perhaps the most important source* from \\hi< 

 our knowledge of their public, religious, social, and private lite, and 

 their study i indispensable for those who desire to beconi 

 acquainted with the history of antiquity. For the history 

 languages they are also of very great though not of equal , 

 After the overthrow of the Homnn empire in the 

 still continued to be nnde very frequently ; but as the ignorance of 

 the middle ages increased, and as all knowledge became more and more 



confined to the priesthood, the en.-t >t mnkiiiR <-<''taiu things known 



by moans of inscriptions gradually fell into disuse, until the art of 

 printing did away with it almost entirely. 



In order ( render inscriptions as permanent as possible, the ancient* 



