INSANITY IN THE LOWER ANIMALS. 21 



objectionable in so far as it is equally applicable to bodily as 

 to mental unsoundness, to cases where the mental disorder is 

 j_n'imary or idiopathic. Practically these two classes of mor- 

 bid mental phenomena the primary and secondary have 

 hitherto been confounded, a proof whereof is to be found in 

 the synonymy of animal ' madness,' which includes : 



1. Franticness, frenzy, fury, ferocity, furiosity. 



2. Delirium and raving. 



3. Kabies and hydrophobia. 



4. Vice and viciousness. 



In the middle, and probably also in the earlier ages, the 

 insanity of the lower animals was recognised; but it was as- 

 cribed to 



1. Demoniacal or diabolic possession, or diabolism. 



2. Witchcraft or witchery. 



3. Sorcery or spell- casting. 



4. Or to other forms of supernatural agency. 

 Bewitched or possessed animals seem to have been mostly, 



if not always, of a black or dark colour of skin or its appen- 

 dages, a circumstance associated with the nervo-sanguine 

 temperament, which has been described as one of the predis- 

 posing causes of insanity in animals for instance, in the 

 Arab horse (Pierquin) . 



( Possessed ' animals included especially the cat, horse, dog, 

 sheep, goat, pig, and cattle, and indeed almost all the do- 

 mestic animals (Pierquin). Of these the poor cat appears to 

 have been a peculiarly suspected animal, especially if black ; 

 and, as already stated, it was in black animals generally that 

 evil spirits or demons were believed to reside. Insanity in 

 them, in the form of possession, was considered a proof of 

 sorcery by man a superstition that gave rise to many a fatal 

 result equally to suspected men and animals. 



But in those days human insanity was equally supposed 

 to be a sort of demono-mania a possession by the devil the 

 result of magic, witchcraft, sorcery, incantation, or charms. 

 Demonology became quite a popular science. Visions of the 

 devil were readily and voluntarily produced by drugs, such as 

 mandragora, poppy, or hyoscyamus. Sorcerers' ointments, 

 too, were in great repute. 



