Morbid Psychological Heredity. 



that, in the midst of the conversation she had held with M. de 

 Soubise, her own double had appeared to her in the mirror before 

 her. She saw herself wrapped in a shroud, over which was a black 

 cloth sprinkled with white tears : at her feet was an open coffin. 



' A month after this occurrence, M. de Soubise received a letter 

 informing him that this mysterious premonition had been proved 

 true by the event' l 



It is natural to suppose that these sudden visions are due to a 

 certain mental constitution hereditarily transmitted : imagination 

 does the rest, and on the appointed day brings about the catas- 

 trophe, which is thus an effect, not a cause. 



IV. 



Mania consists in a total derangement of the intellectual and 

 affective faculties. ' The maniac,' says Esquirol, ' only lives in a 

 chaos. His wild and menacing purposes show the disordered 

 state of his mind ; his actions are mischievous ; he would injure 

 or destroy everything ; he is at war with every one. To this 

 pitiable state, if the patient does not recover, succeeds a calm that 

 is a thousand times more painful to behold : the maniac becomes 

 demented ; he drags out stupidly the remnant of material life, 

 without thought, without desires, without regrets, sinking gradually 

 into death.' ' Chronic mania,' adds the same author, 'is a chronic 

 affection of the brain, ordinarily unattended by fever, and charac- 

 terized by perturbation and exaltation of sensibility, intellect, and 

 will. Maniacs are noted for their illusions and hallucinations, and 

 for their faulty associations of ideas, which spring up with extreme 

 vivacity, and without any coherence.' 



The heredity of this mental affection is very frequent : according 

 to figures collated by Esquirol, about fifty per cent of the cases 

 are hereditary. At the Salpetriere, in 220 cases he found 88 

 hereditary ; and in his own establishment 75 out of 152 cases 

 were hereditary. 



The mental diseases that remain to be considered represent 

 the extreme forms of intellectual decay, viz. dementia, general 

 paralysis, and idiocy. 



1 Bricrre de Boismont, Des Hallucinaticns, p. 536. 



