CURABILITY AND TREATMENT OF ANIMAL INSANITY. 349 



motor or mental, may thus be proved to be merely functional, 

 temporary, and removable. 



In other cases again, the use or application of tartar 

 emetic as a calmative or depressant ; of narcotics or other 

 calmatives ; of counter-irritation by cauterisation or blisters ; 

 and of the trephine, the latter in traumatic cases, has been 

 advocated, but, it must be added, mainly by authors belong- 

 ing to the ' old school.' 



Nowadays, prevention ought to be regarded as better 

 than cure, and protection as more important than drugging. 



Animal insanity may be practically divided into that 

 which is 



1. Natural, and presumably non-preventible ; and that 

 which is 



2. Artificial, and therefore as certainly preventible. 

 The latter category, again, includes cases in which 



a. Insanity has been intentionally or deliberately 



produced by man for instance, by narcotics or 

 otherwise for the purposes of experimental 

 study ; as well as those in which 



b. It results, unintentionally or accidentally, from 



man's ill-usage in some of its varied forms. 



In all cases of active treatment, time, as an element in 

 recovery, must always be kept in mind. 



Thus the artificial insanity, produced in horses by fraudu- 

 lent purchasers, by poisons of the narcotic class is, as a rule, 

 detectable by time, along with isolation, observation, and 

 the prevention of tampering (Pierquin). 



The importance of simple isolation and quiet, as the 

 obvious rational plan of treatment, is conspicuous in the 

 case of ephemeral insanity, of momentary or passing morbid 

 impulse, of transitory furiosity or mania. In relation to 

 such cases the adage holds especially good, that ' time tries 

 all.' Had man only patience and common sense in such cases, 

 a correct diagnosis would be formed, and there would be no 

 ground for public dread the fruit of public ignorance. 



All the foregoing remarks are obviously condemnatory of 

 the present unjust and barbarous, impolitic and absurd treat- 

 ment of animal insanity by man of the poleaxe, shooting, 



