300 DISEASES CLASS 111. 1. 2- 



ORDO I. 



Increased Volition. 



GENUS II. 

 With increased Actions of the Organs of Sense. 



IN every species of madness there is a peculiar idea either of 

 desire or aversion, which is perpetually excited in the mind with 

 all its connections. In some constitutions this is connected with 

 pleasurable ideas without the exertion of much muscular action, 

 in others it produces violent muscular action to gain or avoid 

 the object of it, in others it is attended with despair and inaction. 

 Mania is the general word for the two former of these, and melan- 

 cholia for the latter; but the species of them are as numerous as 

 the desires and aversions of mankind. 



In the present age the pleasurable insanities are most frequent- 

 ly induced by superstitious hopes of Heaven, by sentimental love, 

 and by personal vanity. The furious insanities by pride, anger, 

 revenge, suspicion. And the melancholy ones by fear of poverty, 

 fear of death, and fear of hell; wiih innumerable others. 



Quicquid agunt homines, votum, timor, ira, voluptas, 

 Gaudia, discursas, nostri est farrago libelli. 



JUVEN. I. 85. 



This idea, however, which induces madness or melancholy, 

 is generally untrue; that is, the object is a mistaken fact. As 

 when a patient is persuaded he has the itch, or venereal disease, 

 of which he has no symptom, and becomes mad from the pain 

 this idea occasions. So that the object of madness is generally 

 a delirious idea, and thence cannot be conquered by reason; be- 

 cause it continues to be excited by painful sensation, which is a 

 stronger stimulus than volition. Most frequently pain of body 

 is the cause of convulsion, which is often however exchanged 

 for madness; and a painful delirious idea is most frequently the 

 cause of madness originally, but sometimes of convulsion. Thus 

 I have seen a young lady become convulsed from a fright, and die 

 in a few days; and a temporary madness frequently terminates 

 the paroxysms of theepilepsiadolorifica,and an insanity of greater 

 permanence is frequently induced by the pains or bruises of 

 parturition. 



Where the patient is debilitated, a quick pulse sometimes at- 



