FORMS OF MENTAL DEFECT AND DERANGEMENT. 61 



Enfeeblement of will occurs from fatigue of body, want of 

 sleep, hunger and thirst, excessive heat or cold, in short, 

 from all kinds of bodily privations or sufferings (Houzeau). 

 And it is a usual concomitant of many forms of insanity 

 especially those such as imbecility, juvenile or senile 

 which are characterised by defective mental action. 



It has already been shown, moreover, that the presence 

 or absence of will, of the power of control by its means, 

 determines frequently the question of insanity. There is an 

 obvious difference, however, which must always be borne in 

 mind, between feeling or emotion, which in its intensity or 

 nature is uncontrollable by any effort of will, and that which 

 is simply uncontrolled, though controllable. In the one case, 

 mental disorder or defect presumably exists, involving irre- 

 sponsibility and rendering punishment useless ; while in the 

 other there may be perfect mental health with corresponding 

 responsibility, and punishment may be not only permissible, 

 but desirable ; for in other animals, as in man, the power of 

 will may be developed, and it may be directed into proper 

 channels, by suitable education. 



It has thus been shown and it may be said, in general 

 terms that the lower animals, or certain of them, are 

 subject to nearly all the forms of insanity that afflict man, 

 by whatever names these forms maybe designated: affective, 

 instinctive, emotional, volitional, impulsive, moral, as well 

 as intellectual, the insanity of thought as well as of feeling 

 and action. 



The insanity of thought involves delusion an important 

 subject to which a special chapter has been devoted, and it 

 includes even, in the parrot and other talking animals, 

 insanity of speech or language. The latter again implies 

 verbal incoherence, rambling or repetition of words and 

 phrases, and of the ideas which they represent: there is, in 

 short, utter confusion in the verbal expression of ideas. 



