CHAS. W. PILGRIM, M. D. 39 



XXI, we read that " he scrabbled upon the doors of the 

 gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his beard." 



Of Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon, it is written 

 that " he was driven from men and did eat grass as oxen 

 and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his 

 hairs were grown like eagles' feathers and his nails like 

 birds' claws" (Daniel IV, 33), and at the end of seven 

 years he recovered (569-563 B. C), and was re-established 

 upon his throne. 



Up to the time of Hippocrates, who was born 460 B. 

 C, insanity was generally looked upon as being due to 

 " diabolical possession." Probably the most important 

 work of the Hippocratic school was the apparent recog- 

 nition by the "Father of Medicine" of the physical 

 basis of insanity. Hippocrates taught, in a misty way 

 to be sure, that the brain was the organ of the mind, and 

 he regarded it as the site and starting point of most 

 forms of insanity, although their causes were sought in 

 irritation supposed to be due to morbid changes in the 

 principal secretions, such as bile, mucus and water. 

 With the recognition, even in this imperfect way, of the 

 great truth of the physical basis of mental disorders, the 

 first attempt was made to withdraw from the hands of 

 the priesthood the treatment of the insane. Instead of 

 conjurations and magic remedies, we find the gradual 

 substitution of rational and sedative measures, such as 

 warm and cold douches, rest, diet and exercise. It is 

 true that the treatment was quite uniform, for the dis- 

 tinctions between the different kinds of insanity were not 

 recognized, and mania and melancholia were classed as 

 one. 



The followers of Hippocrates were so generally his 

 imitators that but little was done to add to the knowl- 

 edge of insanity during the next three centuries. What 

 is generally known as the Alexandrian period is without 

 special interest and is merely the connecting link between 



