24 INSANITY IN THE LOWER ANIMALS. 



pets, than among country-bred denizens of the farmyard. 

 The probability is as is shown more fully in the chapters on 

 c The Etiology of Insanity ' that the artificial luxurious life 

 of city pets, or the compulsory confinement of menagerie 

 animals, produces a much larger proportion of cases of men- 

 tal aberration than the free, natural life of the wild state. 



In the study of animal insanity we must not forget to 

 make all due allowance for the disadvantage at which we are 

 placed by the absence in the lower animals of speech and 

 writing, and the want therefore and thereby of that assistance 

 which in man spoken and written words afford us in the 

 diagnosis of insanity. But, on the other hand, too much 

 stress must not be laid on what is or arises from an anatomi- 

 cal and physiological difference ; for in man himself there are 

 large numbers of persons insane, imbecile, idiotic, deaf-mute, 

 or aphasic, as well as children and the aged who afford no 

 clue to their insanity either by speech or writing, many being 

 unable to articulate sounds in the form of words, others being 

 ungifted with the power of writing, while others, again, pos- 

 sessing both sets of powers, make practical use of neither. 



In such cases we must judge, as in animals, from the 

 character of action, which may appropriately include not only 

 gestures, attitudes, movements, gait, carriage, conduct, but 

 looks, and voice- sounds such as murmurs and cries. Every 

 physician who is experienced in the observation of the phe- 

 nomena of human insanity, who is acquainted especially with 

 its medico-legal aspects with those cases of disputed or 

 doubtful insanity which so frequently become the subjects of 

 actions at law knows full well the absurdity or fallacy of 

 basing a judgment sometimes on mere speech or writing, 

 conversation or letters. In truth, it happens too frequently, 

 both in sane and insane life among men, that speech and 

 writing are used to conceal, not to expound or exhibit the 

 real feelings or ideas. From, this and other causes it happens 

 that no insanity may appear in the conversation or letters of 

 an otherwise insane man, who has sufficient intelligence and 

 self-control to know the effect of unguardedly giving utter- 

 ance to certain opinions, of the rectitude of which he is 

 nevertheless quite convinced, and to guard his expressions 



