KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



233 



spair, and which has made me attempt the de- 

 struction of my own life." 



Another madman experienced paroxysms of 

 rage, which were periodically renewed for six 

 months of the year. The patient himself felt 

 the decline of the symptoms toward the end of 

 the paroxysms, and the precise period when they 

 could without danger restore him his liberty, in 

 the interior of the hospital. He himself requested ( 

 to have his deliverance deferred, if he felt that 

 he could not yet govern the blind impulse which 

 led him to acts of the greatest violence. He 

 confessed, in his calm intervals, that while the 

 paroxysm continued, it was impossible for him 

 to repress his fury ; and then, if any one appeared 

 before him, he imagined that he saw the blood 

 flowing from that man's veins, and experienced 

 an irresistible desire to taste it, and to tear his 

 limbs with his teeth, to render the suction easier. 

 We see that these examples refer themselves at 

 once to what I have said of reasoning madness, of 

 excitement, and of the manifestation of malevolent 

 propensities and of partial alienation. 



In reasoning madness, the subjects know their 

 situation, and judge with accuracy of the disorder 

 which reigns in their propensities, sensations, and 

 ideas ; they even experience remorse, immediately 

 after the malevolent action. "A young mad 

 woman," says M. Pinel, " experiences even- 

 morning the access of maniacal delirium, which 

 leads her to tear everything she lays her hands 

 on, and to exercise acts of violence on all those 

 who approach her, so that they are forced to confine 

 her with the straight jacket. This kind of control 

 soon calms her violence; but she preserves so 

 painful a recollection of her past extravagance, 

 that she testifies the greatest repentance, and 

 believes herself to have merited the severest 

 punishment." 



In a species of periodical madness, in which the 

 subjects are drawn irresistibly to murder, M. 

 Pinel remarks, as diagnostic signs, that these 

 subjects have the consciousness of the atrocity 

 of their actions, that they answer correctly the 

 questions put to them, and show no derangement 

 in their ideas or in their imagination. Thus a 

 consistent manner of acting, a capacity of main- 

 taining correct conversation, just answers, whether 

 in the lucid periods or at the moment of the 

 illegal act — do not prove the absence of all 

 insanity. 



The most embarrassing cases are those in 

 which the alienation manifests itself without the 

 symptoms which usually accompany it, such as 

 convulsion, heat, thirst, redness, fury; for then 

 the faculties of the mind and soul do not appear 

 at all deranged. A young man, having received 

 a considerable wound near the temporal bone, was 

 trepanned by Acrell. When the wound was 

 cured, he could not abstain from theft, though 

 before he had no such propensity. Acrell knew 

 that it was only to be attributed to the lesion of 

 the head, and had him released from prison. 

 This phenomenon is not rare in pregnancy. We 

 know four examples of women, who, in their 

 ordinary state, have not the least propensity to 

 theft, but who, during pregnancy, are impelled to 

 it by violent inclination. 



As the nature of reasoning madness is not very 

 generally known, it happens that malefactors, who 



belong to this class, and who are seen to act and 

 reason in a consistent manner, are in some 

 countries condemned to imprisonment or death, 

 while in others they are consigned to insane 

 hospitals. 



Of Madness, accompanied with Visions and In- 

 spirations. 



Mental alienation sometimes is accompanied 

 with visions and inspirations ; and this peculiar 

 symptom shows that the malady has acquired its 

 greatest degree of exaltation. The unfortunate 

 subjects conduct themselves in the most consistent 

 manner in the pursuit of the project they have 

 formed ; they act, as M. Pinel remarks, with a 

 firm determination, and in the most uncontrollable 

 manner. Such a madman, conscious of the sup- 

 port of a higher power, despises all the efforts 

 made to dissuade him from his purpose, and places 

 himself above all human considerations. His 

 conduct is often calm : he hardly judges other men 

 worthy of being the confidants of his secret 

 motives. He hopes nothing from their assistance ; 

 he fears not their threats. He who has experi- 

 enced, were it only for a moment, the effect of 

 visions and inspirations, and who is not very 

 familiar with the knowledge of nature, can hardly 

 be persuaded, when he returns to a regular state, 

 that all he has experienced is unreal. Do these 

 visions continue ? Does the madman hear inces- 

 santly, or at different times and places, this 

 imagined voice of authority which, addresses him ? 

 How shall we, then, find means to restrain him, 

 except by relieving the irritation and the derange- 

 ment within ? 



ANOTHER SONG IN PRAISE OF SPRING. 



When the wind blows 



In the sweet rose tree, 

 And the cow lows 



On the fragrant lea, 

 And the stream flows 



All bright and free, — 

 'Tis not for thee, 'tis not for me ; 

 'Tis not for any one here, I trow : 

 The gentle wind bloweth, 

 The happy cow loweth, 

 The merry stream flowcth, 

 For all below ! 

 0, the Spring ! the bountiful Spring ! 

 She shineth and smileth on every thing ! 



"Where come the sheep?" 

 To the rich man's moor. 

 " Where cometh sleep?" 

 To the bed that's poor. 

 Peasants must weep, 

 And kings endure ; 

 That is a fate that none can cure. 

 Yet Spring doeth all she can, I trow ; 

 She brings the bright hours, 

 She weaves the sweet flowers, 

 She dresseth her bowers 

 For all below ! 

 0, the Spring ! the beautiful Spring, 

 She shineth and smileth on every thing. 



Barky Cornwall. 



