INSANITY INSCRIPTION. 



9? 



to acts of fury. Adults arc the principal subjects. 

 A nervous temperament, an irritable constitution, 

 predispose to it. Females are more exposed to it 

 than males, particularly at the period when menstru- 

 ation begins or ceases, during pregnancy, and after 

 delivery. Violent emotions, a dissipated life, excess 

 in any indulgence, sometimes produce it. The dis- 

 order of the intellectual faculties is manifested by 

 extravagant, gay, gloomy, or furious emotions ; the 

 gestures and words seem automatic. Sometimes the 

 conversation is rational, but the patient bursts out, at 

 intervals, into paroxysms of rage, attacking every 

 thing which he meets ; the moral affections also seem 

 deadened, and the most ferocious hatred is displayed 

 towards the most natural objects of love. It is 

 sometimes cured, but sometimes remains stationary, 

 and sometimes is converted into demency. Repeated 

 bleeding, hellebore, cold water poured upon the head, 

 scourging, and other means of terror, were formerly 

 employed as remedies. At present, solitude, warm 

 baths, low diet, &c., are more commonly applied. 



Melancholy (from pi^as, black, and x, bile), 

 called also monomanie (Greek, p.ovn, only, and pavm, 

 madness) ; a species of mental disorder, consisting 

 in a depression of spirits. Some dark or mournful 

 idea occupies the mind exclusively, so that, by de- 

 grees, it become unable to judge rightly of existing 

 circumstances, and the faculties are disturbed in their 

 functions. The powers of the soul become weakened, 

 we might say crippled. If these feelings are allowed 

 to attain a height at whicli the power of self-control 

 is lost, a settled gloom takes possession of the mind. 

 Consciousness, however, may still continue ; the per- 

 son knows his state. But if consciousness is also lost, 

 and this state becomes continual, the melancholic 

 patient is insensible to the world around him ; he 

 only lives within himself, and there only in the circle 

 of one fixed idea. In this disordered state of the 

 iV'clings, the other faculties may still continue to act, 

 although the mode and result of their operation will 

 necessarily be influenced by the existing disease. 

 There may be reflection in the actions of the patient, 

 but the reflection proceeds from false premises. 

 Several kinds of melancholy are distinguished ; the 

 ilictinctions a re founded, however, mostly on the cause 

 of the disease. A very common cause of melancholy 

 is love. He who loses the great object of his wishes 

 and affections, which has absorbed, we might almost 

 say, the whole activity of his soul, feels more than 

 jealousy at the success of a fortunate rival ; existence 

 appears to him a blank, and himself the most unhap- 

 py of men. Another frequent cause of melancholy 

 is gloomy views of religion. A constant excitement 

 of the feelings by the awful picture of the eternal 

 punishment of sin, often produces absolute despair. 

 The use of such means, to prepare the mind for the 

 reception of deep religious principle, has not unfre- 

 quently led to distraction and suicide. Repeated 

 failures in enterprises pursued with anxious zeal, may 

 also reduce the faculties of a man so much, that he be- 

 comes wrapt up solely in the idea of his misfortune. 

 Melancholy patients often flee from men, haunt soli- 

 tary places, such as graveyards, and are given to 

 nocturnal rambles. The course of the disease is va- 

 rious ; sometimes it lasts a series of years ; some- 

 times it ceases of itself, or is cured by medical aid ; 

 more frequently it passes over into other kinds of in- 

 sanity, or into bodily diseases, as dropsy of the chest, 

 consumption, dropsy in the head, apoplexy, &c. It 

 is said that melancholy people rarely suffer from the 

 gout, or are attacked by epidemic diseases. Several 

 physical causes are enumerated as inducing it, parti- 

 cularly a superfluity of black bile (hence the Greek 

 name). Various derangements in the physical system 

 tend to occasion it, as debility of the nerves, violent 



flow of the blood to the heart, superfluity of thick 

 blood. (For the light in whicli the law regards me- 

 lancholy patients, see the article Non Compos.) 

 Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy consists chiefly of 

 extracts from ancient authors, illustrating the causes, 

 effects, and cure of that morbid affection. The au- 

 thor's own reflections are few, but they are original, 

 ingenious, and striking. The subject of insanity is 

 fully treated in the following works : Burrow's Com- 

 mentaries on the Causes, Forms, Symptoms, and Treat' 

 ment of Insanity (London, 1828) ; Pinel, Traite sur 

 V Alienation Mentale ; Voisin, DCS Causes Morales 

 et Physiques des Maladies Mentales (1826) ; Willis, 

 Treatise on Mental Derangement (1823). 



INSCRIPTION, in archaeology, is used to desig- 

 nate any monumental writing, intended to commemo- 

 rate some remarkable event, to preserve the name of 

 the builder of a monument, or of the person in whose 

 honour it was erected, &c. Inscriptions are one of 

 the most important sources of history, particularly for 

 the earlier periods of nations, when other written 

 documents are rare or entirely wanting, and tradition 

 is the only medium of historical knowledge. After 

 the invention of the alphabet, the earliest application 

 of the art of writing is by engravings on wood, stone, 

 or metals ; and, after other and more convenient 

 materials have come into common use, this method is 

 still preferred for many purposes, on account of the 

 greater durability of the material. We have inscrip- 

 tions, therefore, from all nations who have arrived at 

 a certain stage of civilization, on walls of temples, 

 tombs, triumphal monuments, tablets, vases, &c. , con- 

 taining laws, decrees, treaties, religious legends, moral, 

 philosophical or scientific precepts, chronological 

 tables, &c., generally contemporary with the events 

 they commemorate. Indian, Persian, Egyptian, 

 Phoenician, Etruscan, Grecian, Roman, &c., inscrip- 

 tions, have been diligently studied, and have made im- 

 portant revelations in the hands of learned and ingeni- 

 ous men. The Egyptian monuments are numerous, and 

 covered with inscriptions, which the learned have only 

 recently been able to decipher. They are in the hiero- 

 glyphic, hieratic, and demotic characters, in the Cop- 

 tic or old Egyptian language, and have already served 

 to throw much light on the imperfect accounts of his- 

 torians, and to supply many deficiencies in our know- 

 ledge of Egyptian history. (See Hieroglyphics.) The 

 Phoenician monuments, bearing inscriptions, are few. 

 The language was employed on the medals of the 

 Phoenician cities till the time of Alexander, and was 

 carried to Carthage, Cadiz, &c., by this commercial 

 people. Barthelemy (Mem. de I'Acad. des Belles 

 Let(res,tom. xxxii.),Swinton, Chishull, have written 

 on this subject, but it is still involved in obscurity. 

 The inscriptions on the ruins of Pasargadze, Babylon, 

 and Persepolis (q. v.), are in the arrow-headed cha- 

 racter, of which there are two kinds, the Persian and 

 the Babylonian: the former consists of three sorts of 

 characters, all of which are commonly used in the 

 same inscription. The Persian inscriptions, so far as 

 they have been deciphered, appear to contain merely 

 names of the kings, with wishes for their welfare. 

 The Babylonian characters are of two sorts, and are 

 sometimes called nail-headed, in distinction from the 

 Persian. The little that is known relating to the 

 arrow-headed characters may be found in Heeren's 

 Jdeen, i, 1 ; Hager's Diss. on tlie Babylonian Inscript. 

 (London, 1801) ; Von Hammer's Fundgruben des 

 Orients, iv. 4 ; Alexander's Travels from India to 

 England (London, 1827). The ancient Arabic in- 

 scriptions are in the Cufic character (see Cufic JVrit- 

 ing), and the old Hebrew are in the Samaritan 

 cliaracter. Greek art was carried from its native 

 soil into all the countries around the Mediterranean, 

 by commerce and colonies .and, by the arms of Alex- 



