THE CEREBRUM, AND ITS FUNCTIONS. 809 



or to himself. This state bears a close resemblance to that of the "biologized" 

 subject, who is peremptorily told: " You must do this," and does it accordingly 

 ( 825) ; and it is one that is particularly liable to be induced in persons who 

 habitually exercise but little Volitional control over the direction of their 

 thoughts, by the influence of suggestions from without, and especially by oc- 

 currences which fix themselves strongly upon their attention. 1 



833. Now although the existence of any morbidly exaggerated impulse, 

 leading to the commission of acts which must be regarded as truly Insane, may 

 be fairly considered as constituting Monomania, yet that term is usually re- 

 stricted to those forms of Insanity in which there are positive delusions or hal- 

 lucinations, that is to say, fixed beliefs which are palpably inconsistent with 

 reality. These delusions are not attributable to perversions of the reasoning 

 process, but arise out of the perverted Emotional state. This gives rise, in the 

 first place, to a misinterpretation of actual occurrences in accordance with the 

 prevalent state of the feelings ( 796) ; but, when the disorder has lasted some 

 time, ideas which the imagination at first presents under a very transient aspect, 

 are habitually dwelt upon in consequence of the interest with which they are 

 invested, and at last become realities to the consciousness of the individual, 

 simply because he has not brought them to the test of actual experience. When 

 the mind has once yielded itself up to the dominance of these erroneous ideas, 

 they can seldom be dispelled by any process of reasoning ; for it results from 

 the very nature of the previous habits of thought that the reasoning powers are 

 weakened, and that the volitional control, through want of exercise, can no 

 longer be exerted. And consequently, although a vigorous determination to 

 get rid of the ideas which are felt to be erroneous, and to keep down the emo- 

 tional tendency whose exaggeration is the essence of the disorder in other 

 words, a strong effort of self-control may be effective in an early stage of this 

 condition, 2 yet, when the wrong habits of thought have become settled, little 



1 To this condition are to be referred many of the insane actions which are commonly 

 set down to the account of Imitation. This term would be best restricted to that state of 

 mind, in which there is an intention to imitate; for what is called "involuntary imitation" 

 is merely the expression of the fact that the consciousness of the performance of a 

 certain act by one individual gives rise to a tendency to its performance by the other. 

 Thus the excitement of the act of yawning by the sight or the sound of it in another, is 

 a simple phenomenon of consensual movement proceeding from an exciting sensation. And 

 in like manner, the commission of suicide or homicide, after an occurrence of the same 

 kind which has previously fixed itself strongly upon the attention, is an ideo-motor action, 

 prompted by a suggesting idea. Thus, it is well known that after the suicide of Lord 

 Castlereagh, a large number of persons destroyed themselves in a similar mode. Within a 

 week after the "Pentonville Tragedy," in which a man cut the throats of his four chil- 

 dren and then his own, there were two similar occurrences elsewhere. After the trial of 

 Henriette Cornier for child-murder, which excited a considerable amount of public dis- 

 cussion on the question of homicidal insanity, Esquirol was consulted by numerous 

 mothers, who were haunted by a propensity to destroy their offspring. The following is 

 a remarkable example of the sudden domination of a morbid impulse, to which no tendency 

 seems to have been previously experienced, and which appears to have been altogether devoid 

 of any emotional character. Dr. Oppenheim, of Hamburgh, having received for dissection 

 the body of a man who had committed suicide by cutting his throat, but who had done this in 

 such a manner that his death did not take place until after an interval of great suffering, 

 jokingly remarked to his attendant: "If you have any fancy to cut your throat, don't do 

 it in such a bungling way as this ; a little more to the left here, and you will cut the 

 carotid artery." The individual to whom this dangerous observation was addressed was 

 a sober, steady man, with a family and a comfortable subsistence ; he had never mani- 

 fested the slightest tendency to suicide, and had no motive to commij it. Yet, strange to 

 say, the sight of the corpse, and the observation made by Dr. 0. suggested to his mind 

 the idea of self-destruction; and this took such firm hold of him that he carried it into 

 execution, fortunately, however, without duly profiting by the anatomical instructions he 

 had received ; for he did not cut the carotid, and recovered. 



2 See an excellent little essay by the Rev. J. Barlow, on "Man's Power over himself to 



