334 



NATURE 



{August 7, 1879 



which has taken place since the impulse it received long 

 ago from Descartes ; the more immediate causes being 

 the greater development which biology has undergone, 

 through both induction and deduction ; and especially the 

 advances made in the physiology of the nervous system, 

 by which a clearer understanding has been obtained of 

 the correspondence between consciousness and bodily 

 state. It has come to be perceived that mind, instead 

 of being considered as a substance superadded to the 

 body, or even as the power of consciously knowing and 

 acting, is better regarded as the power, more extensive 

 than the field of reflection, which highly organised beings 

 possess, of performing their most complex actions ; this 

 regulation of action being vested in the nervous system as 

 its peculiar function. Thus, mind appears homogeneous 

 with life — being power similar in kind, but differing in 

 degree of speciality. Still, the eternal mystery of the connec- 

 tion of consciousness with the objects of consciousness 

 remains almost the same ; the gulf still gapes widely, and 

 cannot be bridged, though perhaps its borders may be a 

 little more clearly defined. Also, it may still be open to 

 discussion whether an organism possesses these remark- 

 able powers necessarily — i.e., in virtue of its organisation. 

 The development of the science having proceeded so 

 far, it might be considered not unreasonable to look for 

 fruit on it already, in the shape of immediate practical 

 application ; and the belief that this search had been 

 successful was the raison d'etre of the first appearance of 

 this work, as the author explains in his preface. Certainly 

 some may consider the fruit as yet unripe, or at any rate 

 the seed it contains unready for germination, but this 

 would be matter of individual taste. For it is at least 

 extremely probable that if mind be a function of the 

 body, its health will depend on laws and condit ions similar 

 to those of the other vital functions ; and that when 

 disordered, similar methods of restoration will be service- 

 able in either case. But the common psychological doc- 

 trines were, till lately, quite inadequate to show in what 

 mental disease consisted. Certain affinities with other 

 diseases had long been recognised, e.j^., its dependence 

 upon certain general bodily states, or being induced by 

 definite causes ; also the prominent features of pain, exci- 

 tability, and weakness, separately or together, frequently 

 characterised the derangement of other functions also. 

 The author shows that the correspondence may be traced 

 still further : that, like many other morbid conditions, 

 insanity consists essentially in failure to attain to, or 

 retrograde departure from, the normal stage of develop- 

 ment. But in one respect especially the present edition 

 claims and is entitled to some degree of novelty, 

 or even originality ; namely, in the recognition of 

 the particular mental faculty which suffers lesion in 

 insanity. Until pointed out by Comte, Spencer, and 

 Lewes, how large a proportion of our total environ- 

 ment is constituted by society, sufficient attention had not 

 been paid to the extensive position occupied by that faculty 

 of the mind employed in regulating our actions in relation 

 to the social medium. Just as the motion of a planet may 

 be resolved into a purely individual movement of rotation, 

 and an orbital movement which it performs as member of 

 a system, so the activities of the human mind are partly 

 concerned with the individual alone, partly dependent on 

 the presence of other members of a system. The latter 



class absorb by far the greater part of the total activity, 

 and really constitute the chief differentia between the 

 mind of man and that of animals, comprising those al- 

 truistic impulses which are the highest development 

 of our activity, as is well shown in Spencer's " Prin- 

 ciples of Psychology " ; but, like all recent highly 

 developed faculties, they do not appear in the in- 

 dividual completely; formed at first, but in a germi- 

 nal state, requiring training and exercise to bring 

 them to the condition of full perfection ; and be- 

 cause of their difficult development are more prone to 

 suffer degeneration. This notion forms the foundation 

 of the theories of education and of insanity, the latter 

 showing that when the higher functions fail to be deve- 

 loped, or fall into abeyance, their place is taken by less 

 developed faculties, which preceded them in order of 

 evolution ; or, to return to the analogy employed above, 

 the rotatory gains at the expense of the orbital move- 

 ment. This view of faculties of higher and lower faculties, 

 i.e., of greater and less perfection, and their somewhat 

 mutual opposition, is essentially the same as Spinoza's 

 theory of ethics. It is the key-note of the present volume, 

 the substance of which consists of the attempt to show its 

 existence in nature. 



If the execution of the book were as satisfactory as its 

 conception, it would indeed deserve most unqualified 

 praise ; but it is impossible not to feel, on perusal of the 

 work, that in many respects there is much shortcoming, 

 leaving room for further improvement, the aim not being 

 realised owing to the difficulty of the passage from the 

 abstract to the concrete. For though the highest gene- 

 ralities appear correct, are clearly stated, and well en- 

 forced, yet there is much dearth of the less general laws— 

 the "middle propositions" which Bacon describes as of 

 such importance in understanding the details of a subject, 

 and of such value in practice — the absence of which is 

 acknowledged by the author, when he says that we do 

 not at all know why the disease should present different 

 aspects in different cases. Also, different parts of the 

 book are of unequal value, the best decidedly being those 

 devoted to pure psychology and mental pathology, in 

 which varieties of character, morbid tendencies, and the 

 various motives, impulses, feelings, &c., are discussed, the 

 author finding abundant occasion to display his talents as 

 a moralist and eloquence as a writer. Next in order of 

 merit come the sections on the phenomena and treatment 

 of insanity ; the foiTner of these, though clear, correct, 

 and tolerably full, do not add much to what has been 

 written by previous observers. Lastly comes the physical 

 aspect of the subject, which seems decidedly weak ; foi" 

 though this is undoubtedly most obscure, yet there is 

 much repetition of somewhat crude theories of the corre- 

 spondence of physical with psychical states. The general 

 pathology, too, is but feebly represented ; it may, perhaps, 

 be no worse than is usual in modern text-books, but its 

 usefulness is greatly impaired by want of those invaluable 

 " middle propositions" which are created by clinical genius 

 and communicated by tradition. 



The first chapters are new, and are devoted to the con- 

 sideration of sleep, dreaming, somnambulism, hypnotism, 

 &c., which, being states analogous to insanity, though more 

 open to observation, might be looked to for illustration 

 and explanation of the leading problems of the disease, 



