Diseases of the Internal Senses. 731 



past. That is to say, the stimulus which causes a man to explode with 

 wrath to-day, is counteracted and moderated by stimuli to which he has 

 been exposed in days gone by. 



An insane impulse is the impulse of any idea not properly neutralized 

 and balanced by others. When any part of the cerebral cells becomes 

 functionless from disease, embolism, or any cause, the rest receive un- 

 due stimulation, and give rise to dominant ideas. These may be inno- 

 cent hobbies, or they may be insane impulses, depending on what cells 

 are stimulated. There are whimsical ideas passing through our brains 

 every hour in the day, which, if allowed to govern our conduct, would 

 be called insane. In fact, the most of our thoughts and suggestions if 

 taken singly and carried into action would be insane. Looking over a 

 lofty precipice or high bridge is apt to suggest to everyone the possibil- 

 ity of falling over, and to many the idea of jumping over. If such 

 idea were not counteracted by others of a conservative nature, it would 

 become an insane impulse. Those who become, as it were, unwound 

 and let down morally are subject to the domination of unbalanced ideas, 

 which are therefore insane ideas, and result in criminal impulses. 



In the case of emotional insanity it usually happens that some one of 

 the emotions is dominant. Its impulse is a constant incentive to per- 

 form some abnormal, improper or criminal act. The fact of insanity 

 presupposes the withdrawal or . weakening of those conservative and 

 subjective stimuli, which arise from the stock of correct and wholesome 

 ideas constituting the internal senses of every man who has been pro- 

 perly educated by exposure to all the influences of a healthy environ- 

 ment. These wholesome restraints withdrawn, the impulse constitutes 

 the controlling element of the will. As pointed out elsewhere, an emo- 

 tion can be worked off by muscular action. If, therefore, one of these 

 insane impulses should result in some eccentric, absurd or criminal act, 

 the impulse, for the moment, would be satisfied and eliminated from the 

 active stimuli, leaving the conservative and healthy ideas dominant for 

 the time being. The victim is then full of regrets, repentance, and res- 

 olutions of amendment. But after a time the collapsed brain cells, 

 which constitute the anatomical seat of the insane impulse, become 

 again distended and erethised by the constant!}' accumulating nervous 

 energy, the tension of which finally becomes too great to be restrained 

 by the conservative elements, and it goes off like a spouting geyser, 

 currying everything before it. 



The insane impulse, whatever it may be, is in all cases to be regarded 

 as the abnormal outgrowth of a dominant idea. It is evident that those 

 reflex actions which involve only the spinal cord, can never become ex- 

 cessive or abnormal from use or self-abuse, since their action depends 

 upon external stimuli at every stage, and ceases the moment the stim- 



