90 INSANITY 



INSANITY. 



There is no doubt that the animals which we have subjugated 

 possess many of the same mental faculties as the human being 

 — volition, memory, attachment, gratitude, resentment, fear, and 

 hatred. Who has not witnessed the plaui and manifest display 

 of these principles and feelmgs in our quadruped dependants ? 

 The simple possession of these faculties implies that they may 

 be used for purposes good or bad, and that, as in the human 

 being, they may be deranged or destroyed by a multitude of 

 causes which it is not necessary to particularize. 



The conduct of the horse laboring under insanity, is highly 

 analogous to certain acts of insanity in man. 



Professor Rodet, of Toulouse, gives an account of a horse re- 

 markable for an habitual air of stupidity, and for a wandering ex- 

 pression of countenance, that when he saw or heard any sudden 

 or unusual noise, or even when his grain was thrown into his 

 manger without speakmg to him or patting him, was frightened 

 to an incredible degree ; he recoiled precipitately, every limb 

 trembled, and he struggled violently to escape. If unable to do 

 BO, he became so enraged that it was dangerous to approach him. 

 This was followed by dreadful convulsions, which did not cease 

 until he got free. He then would become calm, and suffer him- 

 self to be led back to his stall. 



Professor Rodet also speaks of a mare belonging to a soldier, 

 that had not the slightest fear of the sights and sounds of a field 

 of battle, but had an insane aversion to paper I She distin- 

 guished it at once from all other objects, and even m the dark, 



which -was owing to the fact that the outer metacarpal nerve sends off a 

 branch which passes obhquely over the back sinews, and joins the other 

 several inches lower down ; so that the section is made on one side below 

 the place where the branch nerve leaves, and on the other above the spot 

 where it joins the nerve ; thus feeling is readily kept up by means of this 

 branch nerve. Sometimes the operation is performed below, or immedi- 

 ately upon the fetlock joint ; the effect of which is, that feeling is preserved 

 to the front of the foot by means of two small branch nerves which are 

 given off above the fetlock joint, whilst the navicular joint is deprived of all 

 feeling. This would be a very desirable mode of performing the operation, 

 were it always successful ; but it often happens that, after some time, lame- 

 ness again follows from the mischief extending itself within the sphere of 

 the nerves that remain. In some instances, however, where the disease is 

 entirely confined within the navicular joint, the horse has continued sound, 

 and still preserved a certain degree of feeling. Another mode of operating 

 is, to excise the nerve on the inside above the fetlock, and, on the outside, 

 upon it ; by which means a slight degree of feeling is preserved on the out- 

 eide and front of the foot, and there is no danger of injury from cutting 

 which is the case when the operation is performed immediately on the fftt- 

 lock joint on both sides of the leg. 



