On the Scientific Study of Human Nature. 473 



the new spirit of modern times, and drawn to the investiga- 

 tion by the necessities of their profession, entered earnestly 

 upon the study of the body, that views were reached which 

 have revolutionized and humanized the treatment of the 

 insane. Discovering that the mind is dependent upon the 

 organism, and that its disordered manifestations are the 

 results of organic derangement, they found that insanity is 

 not a devil to be exorcised but a disease to be cured. 

 After a sharp struggle with popular ignorance and tradi- 

 tional prejudice, the better views have triumphed, and 

 society is beginning to reap the beneficent consequences 

 of their labours : the stern and violent measures, that 

 served but to aggravate the malady, have given place to 

 gentle and kindly treatment, which is found to be of itself 

 a most potent means of restoration. 



The management of the idiotic, or feeble-minded, 

 equally illustrates the argument. Throughout the past 

 no movement was made for the relief of this wretched 

 class, and no one dreamed that anything could be done 

 for them ; but the progress of Physiology has made a new 

 revelation in this field also. Dr. Edward Seguin, in his 

 recent able work upon The Treatment of Idiocy by the 

 Physiological Method, observes : " Idiots could not be 

 educated by the methods, nor cured by the treatment, 

 practised prior to 1837 ; but most idiots, and children 

 proximate to them, may be relieved, in a more or less com- 

 plete measure, of their disabilities by the physiological 

 mode of education." 



These facts have a profound significance. They not 

 only show that to be practicable which the world had never 

 suspected to be possible, and that science is true to her 

 beneficent mission in the higher sphere as well as in the 

 lower ; they not only show that a change of method in the 

 study of human nature ended some of the grossest barba- 

 risms of the past, but they involve this deeper result that 



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