THE CEREBRUM, AND ITS FUNCTIONS. 807 



counted for on any known principles of psychical action. All this may occur 

 with or without emotional excitement ; not unfrequently the latter occurs in 

 paroxysms, which interrupt the otherwise tranquil life of the subjects of this 

 form of Insanity, and it is not at all incompatible with this condition, that there 

 should be a special excitability upon some one point, which, owing to the anni- 

 hilation of the Volitional controlling power, acquires a temporary predominance 

 whenever it is called into play. It is the general characteristic, however, of 

 this form of Insanity, that there are no settled delusions; the mind not being 

 disposed to dwell long upon any one topic, but wandering off in a rambling 

 manner, so as speedily to lose all trace of the starting-point. Such patients 

 are unable to recollect what passed through their thoughts but a few minutes 

 previously ; if any object of desire be placed before them, which it requires a 

 consistent reasoning process to attain, they are utterly unable to carry this 

 through ; and the direction of their desires is perpetually varying, and may be 

 readily altered by external suggestion. Cases of Intellectual Insanity, depend- 

 ing (as this form of the disease usually does) upon structural disorder of the 

 Cerebrum, are less amenable to treatment than are those of the other forms pre- 

 sently to be described; and their tendency is usually towards complete fatuity. 

 832. There may, however, be no primary disorder of the Intellectual facul- 

 ties ; and the Insanity may essentially consist in a tendency to disordered 

 Emotional excitement ; which affects the course of thought, and consequently 

 of action, without disordering the reasoning processes in any other way than by 

 supplying wrong materials to them. Now the emotional disturbance may be 

 either general or special; that is, there may be a derangement of feeling upon 

 almost every subject, matters previously indifferent becoming invested with 

 strong pleasurable or painful interest, things which were previously repulsive 

 being greedily sought, and those which were previously the most attractive 

 being in like manner repelled; or, on the other hand, there may be a peculiar 

 intensification of some one class of feelings or impulses, which thus acquire a 

 settled domination over the whole character, and cause every idea with which 

 they connect themselves to be presented to the mind under an erroneous aspect. 

 The first of these forms, now generally termed Moral Insanity, may and fre- 

 quently does exist without any disorder of the Intellectual powers, or any 

 delusion whatever ; it being (as we shall presently see) a result of the gene- 

 rality of the affection of the Emotional tendencies, that no one of them main- 

 tains any constant hold upon the mind, one excitement being (as it were) 

 driven out by another. Such patients are among those whose treatment 

 requires the nicest care, but who may be most benefited by judicious influences. 

 Nothing else is requisite, than that they should exercise an adequate amount of 

 self-control; but the best directed moral treatment cannot enforce this, if the 

 patient do not himself (or herself 1 ) co-operate. Much may be effected, however, 

 as in the education of children, by presenting adequate motives to self-control ; 

 and the more frequently this is exerted, the more easy does the exertion become. 

 The more limited and settled disorder of any one portion of the Emotional 

 nature, however, gives an entirely different aspect to the character, and pro- 

 duces an altogether dissimilar effect upon the conduct. It is the essential 

 feature of this state, that some one particular tendency acquires a dominance 

 over the rest; and this may happen, it would seem, either from an extraordinary 

 exaggeration of the tendency, whereby it comes to overmaster even a strongly- 

 exercised Volitional control; or, on the other hand, from a primary weakening 

 of the Volitional control, which leaves the predominant bias of the individual 



1 This form of Insanity is particularly common among females of naturally "quick 

 temper," who, by not placing an habitual restraint upon themselves, gradually cease to 

 retain any command over it. 



