INOCULATION 



2997 



INSANITY 



Innsbruck possesses many splendid palaces, 

 the oldest of which was erected in the thir- 

 teenth century; the Tyrolese National Mu- 

 seum, containing a picture gallery and a library 

 of about 30,000 volumes, and imposing munici- 

 pal buildings. Foremost among its educational 

 institutions is the University of Innsbruck, 

 founded in 1677 by Leopold I, and having a 

 student body of over 1,300. In the outskirts 

 of the city are the beautiful and historic Isel 

 Mountain and the famous medieval Ambras 

 Castle, with a celebrated collection of weap- 

 ons. Cotton and wool spinning, glass painting 

 and the manufacture of mosaics are important 

 industries. The city is the seat of the Court 

 of Appeals for Tyrol and the neighboring 

 crownland of Vorarlberg. Estimated popula- 

 tion in 1914, 57,300. 



INOCULATION, in ok u la' shun, in medical 

 practice, the injection of a preparation into 

 the tissues or fluids of the body, for the pur- 

 pose of preventing or curing certain diseases. 

 The material injected consists usually of a 

 weakened culture of the germs causing the 

 disease, called virus, and it acts by destroying 

 the bacteria which are then or may later be 

 present in the blood. Preventive inoculation is 

 illustrated by vaccination to protect from 

 smallpox, and by the injection of antitoxins to 

 ward off diphtheria, lockjaw, typhoid fever and 

 other infectious diseases. Curative inoculation 

 consists in injecting the virus after the disease 

 has started. The protection afforded by pre- 

 ventive inoculation does not continue indefi- 

 nitely, but must be repeated in a variable num- 

 ber of years according to the disease. Inocula- 

 tion was used with remarkable results in the 

 War of the Nations, which began in 1914; in 

 spite of the vast numbers of men engaged, 

 serious outbreaks of epidemic diseases were 

 prevented by its use. See ANTITOXIN ; VACCI- 

 NATION; DISEASE, subhead Germ Theory oj 

 Disease. S.C.B. 



INQUISITION, inkwizish'un, a tribunal in 

 the Roman Catholic Church, known officially 

 as the Holy Office, whose function was the dis- 

 covery, suppression and punishment of heresy. 

 From the time of the Emperor Constantine 

 (274-337), the teachings of .the Christian Church 

 were regarded as the foundation of law and 

 order, and heresy was therefore deemed an 

 offense against the state, as well as against the 

 Church. Constantino's zealous efforts to sup- 

 press all forms of unbelief were continued for 

 several centuries by his successors who cooper- 

 ated in this work with the bishops. 



In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the 

 activities of such heretical sects as the Al- 

 bigenses and Waldenses (see ALBIGENSES ; WAL- 

 DENSES) aroused the Church authorities to the 

 need of increased vigilance, and from the year 

 1227 the suppression of heresy was intrusted to 

 a permanent tribunal, under the special direc- 

 tion of the Dominican Order. The Inquisition 

 was thereafter a general court instead of a local 

 tribunal. 



Its mode of procedure was essentially as 

 follows: The person suspected of heresy was 

 arrested and brought before judges to be tried, 

 the proceedings being usually conducted in 

 secret. The accused had the right to make 

 known his enemies, whose evidence would be 

 excluded. Though a confession of guilt was 

 sometimes extorted, such a confession, to be 

 accepted, had to be repeated afterwards with- 

 out compulsion. As a punishment, those con- 

 victed had to make pilgrimages, wear a badge 

 (such as the yellow cross) as a sign of dis- 

 grace, or be sentenced to imprisonment and, in 

 extreme cases, to death. The death penalty, 

 however, could be inflicted only by the state, 

 and was resorted to in comparatively few cases. 

 Between 1308 and 1322 only forty persons of 

 636 convicted of heresy were condemned to 

 death. 



The Inquisition as it developed in Spain met 

 the condemnation of Protestants and Catholics 

 alike. As reorganized under Ferdinand and 

 Isabella, who used it as a weapon to suppress 

 the conspiracies of the Jews against the gov- 

 ernment, the Holy Office became a state tri- 

 bunal controlled entirely by the royal power. 

 Many of the cases that came under its jurisdic- 

 tion were crimes such as are to-day tried by the 

 civil courts. Its work began in 1486, and 

 though several times suppressed, it was not 

 abolished until 1834. During this period many 

 executions took place, but the number has 

 doubtless been exaggerated. A conservative 

 estimate places the number at 4,000. Heresy 

 was rarely, if ever, punished by death at Rome. 

 There the Congregation of the Holy Office still 

 exists, but its chief work now is the suppression 

 of heretical writings (see INDEX EXPURGATO- 

 RIUS). G.W.M. 



INSANE ASYLUM. See INSANITY, subhead 

 Insane Asylums. 



INSAN'ITY, from a Latin word meaning 

 unsound, is a general term applied to various 

 forms of mental disorder, produced by defects 

 or disease of the brain, the organ of the mind. 

 These forms of mental unsoundness are divided 



