348 CURABILITY AND TREATMENT OF ANIMAL INSANITY. 



Moral means are sometimes quite sufficient and efficient, 

 as in the case of a cat restored to its mistress's favour, men- 

 tioned by Pierquin. The important influence of kindness in 

 the treatment, however otherwise varied, of almost every 

 form of insanity, illustrates forcibly the utility and success 

 of moral measures, e.g., in the mania of the cow and horse. 

 Indeed, it may become important above or in addition to all 

 other measures of whatever kind, or it may prove a satisfac- 

 tory substitute for them. 



Kindness should be applied by man in order to the de- 

 velopment of confidence and attachment on the part of the 

 animal patient. It is a remedy that is equally applicable, 

 in one form or other, to the treatment of all morbid states, 

 whether of mind or body. 



Fears are sometimes, in their early stages, easily calmed, 

 for instance by a master's voice ; whereas if unattended to, 

 they are only too apt to pass into mania on the one hand, or 

 melancholia on the other, with or without delusions. Even 

 in the abject terror of rabies, confidence or re-assurance 

 is frequently at once produced by the soothing sounds of a 

 kind master's voice. 



In certain cases in the horse, as in man, change of 

 air and scene, involving travel, and novelty of residence, 

 associates, associations and guardians, is often efficacious 

 (Pierquin), consisting as it does of conjoint moral and physical 

 treatment. 



Air, moreover, acts as a natural calmative to the mental 

 excitement of bees in swarming. 



In other cases, as has already been shown, drugs and 

 drugging are indicated, for instance, in insanity from intes- 

 tinal worms, when purgatives at once effect a cure. In such 

 a case there is an intelligible, demonstrable, single cause ; 

 and the cure, with its modus operandi, is equally intelligible, 

 demonstrable, and direct. 



Purgative treatment, therefore, is always desirable to 

 begin with; for instance, when a dog is suspected of (1) 

 rabies ; (2) cerebral disease ; or (3) permanent organic para- 

 lysis; inasmuch as the alarming symptoms or phenomena, 



