11 



be cured except by the usual medical and 

 moral management I am not able to com- 

 prehend. The object of the former is to 

 tranquillize or remove that state of nervous 

 irritation or disease which may have led to 

 the establishment of insane ideas ; whilst 

 that of the latter is to weaken and annul 

 these irrational ideas by so occupying the 

 mind, as to prevent their recurrence. Nor, 

 in my opinion, could the medical profession 

 wish for a better illustration of what may 

 be termed the moral treatment of insanity 

 than that which Doctor Johnson has laid 

 before the public in his Rasselas, shew- 

 ing by what means the Prince and his 

 sister effected the cure of the insane 

 astronomer. 



The views which Drs. Gall and Spurz- 

 heim have taken of the nature of the dis- 

 positions and faculties of man and animals 



