ARTIFICIAL INSANITY. 77 



' are sometimes much fiercer and more pugnacious than at 

 other times. But you can always, by teasing them with a 

 straw, or otherwise, make them do battle' (Gillies). 



There is, then, a large proportion of animal insanity 

 that is directly or indirectly artificially produced by man. 

 Whether it be the result of intention to create insanity, or 

 of deliberate cruelty, provocation, or ill-usage, or the out- 

 come simply of thoughtless ignorance, it is not the less 

 preventible. 



It is interesting to note that the same kind of mental 

 effects that are producible in other animals, are producible 

 also in man, when the same substances have been self- 

 administered, a circumstance that has been known from very 

 early times. Thus Theocritus points out that delirium or 

 furiosity was equally produced in man and other animals by 

 certain gaseous poisons. Goats were intoxicated by the 

 fumes of the Delphic Grotto. Erotomania of an inter- 

 mittent, periodic, or continuous kind, is producible equally 

 in man and other animals by the same toxic agents 

 (Pierquin). 



Homicidal mania in the East is equally producible in 

 man and other animals by the use of bhang, betel and opium 

 (Cursiter). It used to be also produced in their war oxen 

 by the Hottentots (Pierquin) ; but we are not informed as to 

 the nature of the means employed, though it was probably 

 some indigenous vegetable excitant. 



In connection with the various forms of mental derange- 

 ment, artificially produced in other animals by man, it is 

 further of interest to consider the kinds of insanity that are 

 artificially created in and by man himself. His object is 

 usually, either in order to 



1. Impose, for his own purposes, on popular credulity; 

 or 



2. For the production of warlike courage, to substitute 

 an artificial and spurious bravery for natural, moral, or 

 physical courage, both of which are wanting; 



And frequently the physician, physiologist, or patho- 

 logist 



3. Experiments upon himself, in order to the perfecting 



