9 



FORMS OF MENTAL DEFECT AND DERANGEMENT. 53 



erethism in the mare or other female animals passes into, if 

 it do not in itself amount to, what is technically known as 

 nymphomania. Occasionally nymphomania and hysteria are 

 confounded with, or mistaken for, each other; or equally 

 probably the two are associated in the same individual at the 

 same time (Pierquin). Satyriasis in the male dog has been 

 described by Hildebrandt, in the male mandrill and horse by 

 Pierquin. 



The latter author speaks of nymphomania in the female 

 ape, and points out that among its other dangers or disabili- 

 ties in the mare and cow, it leads frequently to abortion. He 

 mentions what he calls erotic delirium in a menagerie ele- 

 phant, and amorous or erotic melancholia which is obviously 

 what other writers describe as literally the ' consuming pas- 

 sion ' of unrequited or un gratified love a bodily consump- 

 tion, waste or decline, a fatal marasmus, resulting from a 

 purely moral cause, in female animals, especially mares. 



Erotomania is perhaps most familiar in animals of the 

 deer family at the period of the rut. But it occurs in a great 

 variety of other animals, especially cattle, horses, dogs and 

 cats, usually as the result of over-gratification or non-grati- 

 fication of the sexual instinct. It may be induced, however, 

 by a considerable variety of other causes. Thus it has been 

 described as occurring in a monkey as the result of fear, 

 caused by an eclipse of the moon ; and it is an accompaniment 

 of phthisis pulmonalis in the monkey and rabbit (Pierquin). 

 On the other hand, it may be simply an exaggerated libidi- 

 nousness or a morbid salacity. It may be acute and suddenly 

 developed, sometimes markedly so in the satyriasis of the 

 horse, or it becomes chronic and habitual, or breaks out only 

 now and then. 



The term erotomania, whether as applied to man or other 

 animals, is misleading, in so far as it is apt to suggest the 

 idea that furiosity is a necessary feature of the disease. So 

 far is this from being the case, that, as we have already seen, 

 the form the disorder assumes, when most serious in its 

 results, is melancholia. Erotic insanity would therefore be 

 a better term, as more comprehensive and less misleading. 

 This erotic insanity, however, is more frequently accom- 



