298 STUDIES IN LIFE AND SENSE. 



subject on the shores and amid the quicksands of the unreal. Dr. 

 Tanner, in his careful general summary of insanity and its condi- 

 tions, distinguishes thus between an " hallucination " and a "delu- 

 sion " : " Almost every insane patient labours under hallucinations of 

 one or more of the senses he sees or converses with imaginary 

 beings. When he is satisfied by the evidence of his other senses 

 that what he sees and hears is only an illusion^ he is said to labour 

 under an hallucination whereas, when he believes in his false per- 

 ceptions, the hallucination becomes a delusion." The objection to 

 Dr. Tanner's definition is, that he starts apparently with the assump- 

 tion that all persons who surfer from illusions and hallucinations are 

 necessarily insane. The difference, however, between the two 

 latter conditions of mind is clearly and distinctly inferred in the 

 definition just recorded. An "illusion" may best be defined as a 

 disturbed state of the mental faculties, wherein the subject, sooner or 

 later coming to test his thoughts and impressions " by the evidences 

 of his other senses," determines that these impressions are unreal. 

 The " hallucination," on the contrary, is not so corrected, and the 

 belief in the appearances seen or heard being sustained, the hallucina- 

 tion deepens and merges into the "delusion." An "illusion" as 

 above defined, therefore, does not include or imply insanity. The 

 very fact that the powers of reason are brought into play to correct 

 the phantasies of the mind places the illusion beyond the sphere of 

 the maison de sante. Hence Dr. Tanner may be held to correct the 

 impression which his own words are calculated to convey when he 

 says, " Illusions are frequently observed in a state of mental health, 

 being thus corrected by the reason." 



But over definitions, save for the purpose of defining the use 

 of the terms in question, it is needless to delay. Suffice it to 

 remark that the two may gradually be merged together, just as 

 the "hallucination" in its defined place may be said to link the 

 "illusion" of the sane with the mad thoughts, delusions, and 

 visions of the really insane. With the explanation of the latter 

 we have nothing at present to do. The person who wrote to Dr. 

 Conolly, demanding "A Holy Bible with engravings, &c., a Con- 

 cordance, a Martyrology with plates, some other religious books, 

 a late Geographical Grammar, a Modern Gazetteer, newspapers, 

 magazines, almanacks, &c., of any kind or date; musical instruments 

 and music ; large plans, guides, maps, directories," and many other 

 works; ending his epistle with a demand for " wines, fruit, lozenges, 

 tobacco, snuff, oysters, money everything fitting to Almighty God," 

 and who concluded his letter with the remark, " Answer this in three 

 days, or you go to hell. P.S. A portable desk and stationery, and 

 a dressing-case " such a correspondent a monomaniac no doubt 

 suffered from hallucinations, but of a type in which they had become 



