810 OP THE FUNCTIONS OP THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 



can usually be done by way of direct attack upon them ; and the most efficacious 

 treatment consists in the encouragement of the general habit of self-control, and 

 in the withdrawal of the mind, so far as may be possible, from the morbid 

 state of action, by presenting to it other sources of interesting occupation. 



834. Returning now from the consideration of these Pathological conditions of 

 Mind (as they may be not unfairly designated) to the examination of the Psychi- 

 cal constitution of Man in the state of normal activity of all his faculties, we 

 shall find that very important data may be drawn from these sources, with re- 

 gard to the modus operandi of the Will, and the manner in which our conduct 

 is determined. For we have seen that, in so far as the directing influence of 

 the Will over the current of thought is suspended, the individual becomes a 

 thinking automaton, destitute of the power to withdraw his attention from any 

 idea or feeling by which his mind may be possessed, and as irresistibly impelled, 

 therefore, to act in accordance with this, as the lower animals are to act in ac- 

 cordance with their instincts. In so far, therefore, as this directing influence 

 is not exercised, the succession of trains of thought which occupy the conscious- 

 ness (associated, or not, with feelings that give them an emotive character) must 

 be considered as dependent on the " reflex action" of the Cerebrum } the nature 

 of this action being determined, not merely by the original constitution of the 

 organ, but by the mode in which it has been subsequently exercised ; its nutri- 

 tion taking place in such conformity to the impressions made upon it, and to the 

 modes in which it is habitually directed by the Will, that it grows to these, so 

 that a new organization thus comes to be established, by which habits of thought 

 are determined, such as would not have arisen from its original constitution. 1 



prevent or control insanity." It may be well for the Author to state, that he was led, 

 several years since, to the formation of the view above enunciated with regard to the emo- 

 tional source of most if not all the delusions of the Insane, by the careful observation of a 

 case in which the gradual formation of such delusions could be traced, and in which the 

 varying tenacity of their hold over the belief (which sometimes appeared disposed to get 

 rid of them) corresponded exactly with varying degrees of intensity of the dominant emo- 

 tion. Having been led, by his interest in this case, to make particular inquiries as to the 

 point in question, among those whose experience of Insanity has been far more extensive 

 than his own, he has obtained from them full confirmation of the view above expressed. 

 It is not a little interesting, in this connection, as well as in the additional relation which 

 it indicates between Insanity and the various phases of Dreaming, Delirium, &c., that the 

 particular delusion seems often to be suggested by accidental circumstances, the mind being 

 previously under the influence of the morbid tendency which gave the peculiar direction to 

 the thoughts. Thus we find it mentioned in the "Morningside Report," from which we 

 have already quoted, that the Queen's public visit to Scotland seemed to give a special 

 direction to the ideas of several individuals who became insane at that period, the attack 

 of insanity being itself in some instances traceable to the excitement induced by that event. 

 One of the patients, who was affected with puerperal mania, believed that in consequence 

 of her confinement having taken place on such a remarkable occasion, she must have given 

 birth to a person of royal or divine dignity. During the religious excitement which pre- 

 vailed at the time of the "disruption" of the Scotch Church, an unusually large number 

 of patients were admitted into the various asylums of Scotland, laboring under delusions 

 connected with religion ; the disorder having here also doubtless commenced in an exaggera- 

 tion of this class of feelings, and the erroneous beliefs having been formed under their in- 

 fluence. Again, in the Report of the same Institution for 1851, it is stated that, as in 

 former instances, "the current topics of the day gave coloring and form to the delusions 

 of the disordered fancy. We have thus had no less than five individuals admitted during 

 the year, who believe themselves the victims of Mesmeric agency" a sort of " Mesmeric 

 mania" having been prevalent in Edinburgh during that period "three of the inmates 

 talked much of California, and of the bags full of gold which they had obtained from the 

 diggings ; and one ^f them arrived at the persuasion that his body was transmuted into 

 gold." 



1 See Dr. Laycock's Essay " On the Reflex Function of the Brain," in the "Brit, and 

 For. Med. Review," vol. xix. p. 298. If it be thought that, in the above expressions, 

 there is too much of a Materialistic character, the author would beg to refer back to the 



