60 FORMS OF MENTAL DEFECT AND DERANGEMENT. 



tion of life, and it is sometimes so intense as to culminate 

 in murderous or homicidal mania, or less commonly, in 

 suicidal melancholia. Impulsive ferocity of a dangerous 

 kind is frequent, for instance, among menagerie carnivora. 



What may be considered a natural impulsiveness some- 

 times leads to acts of so serious a character as murder., or to 

 others of a minor kind, regretted by the animal in its calmer 

 moments. Passion, for the moment, overcomes judgment 

 and good- feeling, even in naturally well-behaved animals: 

 anger gets beyond control of the will, and hurries them 

 into some most undeliberate, unintended act of revenge or 

 punishment. 



No doubt impulse natural or morbid is the basis of 

 much eccentricity of conduct that is otherwise unintelligible, 

 or inexplicable (Pierquin). We speak, then, correctly of 

 impulses in animals, of a good or bad impulse to virtue or 

 vice, to right or wrong action. It is impulse that almost inva- 

 riably regulates or determines the action of masses devoid 

 of organisation whether these masses be human witness 

 the various revolutions in Paris, or animal witness the 

 frequent stampedes of cavalry horses. But, as in man, 

 these impulses can generally be, and are, regulated and 

 restrained by the judgment and the will, and it is only when 

 they pass, by reason of their intensity, duration or other 

 characters, beyond, and defy, such control, that they are to 

 be regarded as morbid and referable to the category of 

 moral or volitional insanity. 



Certain forms of insanity in man have been described as 

 volitional, the main characteristics of which are morbid will, 

 morbid either in its defectiveness, perversion, or exaltation. 

 In the lower animals, as in man, the power or force of will 

 is shown in every degree of feebleness or strength -in 

 vacillation or helplessness, or in the utmost determination 

 of purpose. As in man, the weaker will constantly becomes 

 subservient to the stronger, so that one animal becomes 

 obedient to another, just as the dog and horse become sub- 

 missive to man. It is by force of will that one animal 

 subjects another to its service : as the ape does in riding the 

 pig or dog, or the ant in milking aphides. 



