346 CURABILITY AND TREATMENT OF ANIMAL INSANITY. 



of rabies, which, according to the majority of veterinarians, 

 is virtually incurable. These two facts the curability of 

 insanity and the incurability of rabies have to be con- 

 sidered in relation to this third fact, the comparative fre- 

 quency of insanity and infrequency of rabies. 



Recovery sometimes occurs from ordinary forms of in- 

 sanity when unlocked for, even, for instance, when the disor- 

 der appears to have become chronic, confirmed, or permanent : 

 a circumstance of importance in stimulating all efforts at 

 cure, and in giving ground for hopefulness as to the result. 

 Thus Gall gives an instance of sudden recovery in a bitch 

 from melancholia of two years' duration. Pierquin records 

 instances of recovery from mental imbecility marked by in- 

 ability to learn. But it is just possible these may have been 

 cases simply of improvement with age, or by kind treatment, 

 to the extent of docility, or capacity for education. 



It is important to distinguish between cure and recovery. 

 The former implies efforts on the part of man and the success 

 of his efforts ; while the term recovery does not necessarily 

 involve man's agency at all. Eecovery is the natural ten- 

 dency of mania and other forms of insanity. Man may assist 

 recovery, or may hasten it, by judicious protection or treat- 

 ment. But it will also take place spontaneously perhaps 

 in the majority of cases if the animal is simply left to itself. 

 The very different results of meddlesome interference on the 

 one hand, and of simple non-interference on the other, is most 

 frequently seen in the case of cattle that suddenly become 

 maniacal while being driven to the shambles through the 

 streets of our large cities. 



Animal insanity is, therefore, by no means incurable, as 

 a rule, though certain forms of it are so. When it has 

 become incurable, where recovery is hopeless, the reason has 

 frequently or generally been, either that no treatment was 

 attempted, or that the treatment attempted was improper. 

 It is quite as important to realise the incurability of certain 

 forms, as the curability of certain other forms of mental or 

 moral defect, peculiarity, or disorder. 



Congenital mental defect belongs necessarily to the in- 

 curable category, though, just as in man, amelioration is 



