insane 
H, sound, sane: see stnir.] 1. Not sane; 
unsound or deranged in mind ; crazy. 
Soon lifter Dryden's death she [Lady Elizabeth] became 
insane, and was confined under the care at a female at- 
tendant. Malone, Drydcn. 
2. Characteristic of a person mentally de- 
ranged; hi'ucc, wild; insensate; senseless. 
The crowd, that If they find 
Some stain or blemish In a name of note, . . . 
Inflate themselves with some t/ix/i/i. delight. 
Ti'nnymn, Merlin and Vlvleu. 
3. [Attrib. use of insane used as a noun in 
the pi.] Devoted to the use or care of the iii- 
sane: as, an insane asylum. 4f. Making in- 
sane ; causing insanity. 
Or have we eaten on the innaiie root 
That takes the reason prisoner? 
Shak., Macbeth, 1. ::. 
Syn. 1. Crazed, lunatic, demented, maniacal. 
insanely (in-siin'H), adv. In an insane man- 
ner; madly; without reason, 
insaneness (in-san'nes), . Insanity, 
insaniatet (iu-sa'ni-at), r. t. [Irreg. < L. ii- 
Kdiiirc, bo insane, < iiisanus, insane: see insane.] 
To make unsound, distempered, or insane. 
Does not the distemper of the body ituaniate the soul? 
!' IHi'iHi. Resolves, i. 64. 
insaniet (in-sa'ni), . [< OF. insanic = Sp. Pg. 
It. iiisania, < L. insanui, unsoundnesa of mind, 
insanity, < insanus, insane: see insane.] In- 
sanity; madness; insane folly. 
Heclepethacalf, cauf ; . . . Thisisabhominable(whlch 
he would call abominable) ; it insinuate!!) me of insanit. 
Shale., L. L. L., v. 1. 
In the days of sixth Henry, Jack Cade made a brag, 
With a multitude of people ; but in the consequence, 
After a little innanir. they tied tag and rag, 
For Alexander Iden he did his diligence. 
Wilfred Holme, Fall and Evil Succease of Rebellion. 
insanify (in-san'i-fi), r. t. ; pret. and pp. insaiii- 
fied, ppr. insanifying. [< insane + -i-fy.] To 
make insane ; madden. [Rare.] 
There may be at present some very respectable men at 
the head of these maniacs, who would insanify them with 
some degree of prudence, and keep them only half mad if 
they could. Sydney Smith. 
insanitary (iu-san'i-ta-ri), . [< - 3 + /- 
tary.] Not sanitary; hot salubrious ; violating 
sanitary rules or requirements. 
Misery, insanitary dwellings, and want of food account 
for this high mortality. Eneyc. Brit., XXI. 81. 
Mr. Punch draws attention to the insanitary state of 
London slums. Fortnightly Rev., N. >. . \ I 04. 
insanitation (in-san-i-ta'shon), n. An insani- 
tary condition ; lack of proper sanitary arrange- 
ments. {Rare.] 
Insanitation, he said, did not cause the disease [chol- 
era]. The American, IX. 26. 
insanity (in-san'i-ti), n. [= P. insanttt, < L. 
iiixnint(i(t-)s, unsoundness of mind, insanity, < 
iiixaiuix, insane: see insane.] A seriously "im- 
paired condition of the mental functions, involv- 
ing the intellect, emotions, or will, or one or 
more of these faculties, exclusive of temporary 
states produced by and accompanying acute in- 
toxications or acute febrile diseases. From the 
denotation of the word are also usually excluded mental 
defect* resulting from arrested development and idiocy, 
and such conditions as simple trance, ecstasy, and cata- 
lepsy, and often senile dementia. The forms of mental 
disease are very varied, anil no dassillcation is universally 
accepted. The following is that of Kralft-Ebing (1888): 
A. Mental disease in the developed brain, (a) Function- 
al psychoses, or mental diseases without recognisable ana- 
tomical lesion. (1) Psychonouroses, mental diseases de- 
veloped in brains not congenitally weak, nor impaired by 
early disease, such as meningitis ami other cerebral dis- 
cuses, including melancholia, mania, mania hallucinaturia, 
acute dementia. (2) Psychical degenerations, diseased 
states developing in brains weak from birth or from early 
disease, including reasoning mania, paranica, periodical 
insanity, and insanities consequent on certain neurotic 
conditions, as neurasthenia, hypochondria, hysteria, or 
epilepsy, (h) Mental diseases with recognized anatomi- 
cal lesions, including delirium acntum, dementia paraly- 
tica, senile dementia, cerebral syphilis. To these may be 
added, as constituting, however, a link between a and b, 
mental dcnumement forming part of chronic alcoholism 
and morphinism. B. Mental defect from arrested develop- 
ment, or idiocy. Insanity develops at all ages, but most 
fmuicntlj in women between twenty-five and thirty-live, 
and in men between thirty-five and flfty. The age of pu- 
berty, the menopause, and old age are times of peculiar 
liability to mental disease. Among the factors of insan- 
ity may be mentioned congenital predisposition ; the ner- 
vous strain of modern liie; luck uf re-t and amusement, 
and consequent indulgence in stimulants of various kinds ; 
Cr food; severe illness; failure of ornans otlierthan the 
in. resulting in pndnnL'cd cerebral anemia and toxe- 
mia; poisons, such as alcohol, opium, ergot, chloral, ab- 
sinthe, lead, and mercury ; se\n:tl exeesses ; child-bearing 
and lactation; injuries to the head; and severe and de- 
pressing emotions. Ordinarily several of these factors 
combine to produce the dcr.ingemcnt. The percentage 
of cures varies in different hospitals from 20 to 00. de- 
pending largely on the classes of cases which predomi- 
nate. 
3113 
All power of fancy over reason IB a degree of insanity. 
Johnton, Kasselas, xlill. 
The frenzy of the brain may be redrew'd, 
By mcd cine well applied; but, without grace, 
The heart's intanity admits no cure. 
''r, Tak, \i. :,_'.:. 
Insanity is an expression only of functional and organic 
disorder ; remove t lie disorder upon which the intanity 
depends, and the return to mental soundness is secured. 
Alien, and Xeunl., VI. MS. 
In Its legal use, insanity consists In the lack of such mental 
soundness as renders a person criminally responsible, or 
capable of making a valid contract, conveyance, or will, 
or of managing his own affairs. There is great differ- 
ence of opinion as to what extent of disease or imperfect 
development, and what, if any, aberrations of mind not 
traceable to disease or imperfection of the brain, should 
be regarded as constituting this degree of mental unsound- 
ness. The tendency of legal opinion has long been to en- 
large the scope of the word, and extend the rules as to In- 
sanity to derangements not recognized in earlier times, 
when iiaane was used as the equivalent of mad or l>:na- 
tie, and inmnity generally implied furor or mania, or, at 
least, obvious forms of total defect of responsible under- 
standing. What constitutes legal insanity that is, exon- 
erative or incapacitating insanity in doubtful cases is 
now universally regarded as depending upon the relation 
between the defect in the particular mind and the nature 
of the act in question. Thus, insanity, as a defense in crim- 
inal law, means, according to the rule In England and in 
many of the United States, incapacity to distinguish be- 
tween right and wrong, in respect to the act in question, or 
incapacity to be conscious of acting contrary to law ; while 
by some authorities inability to control the will (irresist- 
ible morbid impulse) also is recognized as Insanity. Insan- 
ity In reference to the law of contracts Is generally under- 
stood to mean such a defect as incapacitates from a ration- 
al assent, considering the nature of the contract, whether 
marriage, partnership, sale, etc. Insanity (or, as moreeom- 
monly expressed, unsoundness of mind) In reference to the 
law of wills is generally understood to mean such a defect 
as incapacitates from knowing or collecting in mind the 
facts respecting the property to be disposed of and the per- 
sons naturally and justly to be considered in its disposal, or 
from making an intelligent and rational choice as to its 
disposal. It has often been defined too narrowly, as con- 
sisting only in delusion. It is a disputed question whe- 
ther the existence of disease or defect in the brain itself 
is an essential fact. Home of those who hold that one or 
the other always characterizes insanity are understood to 
assert that the disease or defect may be Inferred from the 
irrationality of conduct, without other independently ade- 
quate evidence. 
That insane persons accused of crimes sometimes feign 
insanity has long been recognized, and the examiner must 
remember that the discovery of deceit on the part of a sus- 
pected feigner is not proof of sanity. 
Bucks Handbook of Med. Sciencet, IV. 8S. 
Affective insanity, moral Insanity. Circular insani- 
y. See circular. Communicated Insanity, insane 
elusions communicated by an insane person to a person 
, 
ty. See circular. Communicated Insanity, insane 
delusions communicated by an insane person to a person 
predisposed to Insanity, who thereby becomes insane. 
, . 
Emotional insanity, derangement of the emotional 
powers, or inability to control one's impulses. Homi- 
cidal Insanity, an irresistible desire to kill. Impul- 
sive insanity, instinctive monomania. Insanity of 
action, moral insanity. Insanity of adolescence, he- 
bephrenia. Insanity of doubt See the extract. 
The peculiar borderland of insanity known as the tn- 
ganity of doubt. The patient has a morbid impulse to do 
things over and over again, for fear they are not done ex- 
actly right. Science, X. 53. 
Insanity of grandeur, megalomania. insanity of 
persecution, insanity in which delusions of being perse- 
cuted arc prominent features. Insanity of puberty, 
hebephren la. Kata tonic insanity, katatonia. Mora] 
Insanity, irresistible inclination to perverse and illegal 
action. 
What is most difficult to deal with In the way of legal 
responsibility Is the state tenned moral insanity, where 
the subject is not beyond being Influenced by motives of 
prospective pain or pleasure, but has contracted such a 
furious impulse towards some one crime that the great- 
est array of motives that can be brought to hear is not 
sufficient. A. Bain, Emotions and Will, p. 490.* 
Partial insanity, monomania. Pellagrous Insanity, 
Insanity appearing as a feature of pellagra.- Periodical 
Insanity, a form of mental degeneration In which similar 
periods of mania or melancholic condition recur at regular 
Intervals. Between such attacks the nervous system shows 
more or less extensive departure from a normal condition. 
It Includes circular insanity. Primary delusional In- 
sanity, a primary derangement characterized by some- 
what fixed, systematized, and limited delusions. There is 
little or no mental enfeeblement at first. - Primary In- 
sanity, paramra. Secondary delusional Insanity, a 
form of insanity characterized by the presence of delusions 
with mental enfeeblement, and developed out of various 
other fonns of derangement, such as mania or melancholia, 
It either constitutes the final term in the mental decline, 
or is succeeded by terminal dementia. Suicidal insan- 
ity, a form of Instinctive monomania characterized by an 
intense desire to commit suicide. = Syn. Insanity, Lunacy, 
Derangement, Craziness, Madne**, Mania, Frenzy. Deliri- 
um. Insanityis the sclent iflc and colorless word for marked 
disturbance of the mental functions as above described. 
Its various forms are enumerated in the classification 
given, and will be found defined under those names. Lu- 
nacy, aside from its derivation, suggests a condition of 
some permanence, and is in literary and legal use. De- 
rangement is a softened form of expression for insanity. 
Crazinfxi expresses the same thing as inmnity, but with a 
suggestion of contempt and an implication of peculiar and 
absurd behavior. It seems to imply a certain amount of 
incoherence and dementia. Maanf**, as far as It goes 
l>c\ .mi! the generic meaning of insanity, suggests violence 
in act or expression ; so too, and to a greater degree, dp 
mania (especially in its popular use) and frenzy. Deliri- 
um indicates a lack of attention to surrounding things and 
insatiety 
the presence of accredited Illusions and hallucination*, 
with more or less extensive delusions. It is applied espe- 
cially to temporary states, as in fevers. Most or all of 
these words may be used by hyperbole to denote foolish 
or peculiar actions not indicative of insanity. 
Blasting the long quiet of my breast 
With animal heat and dire insanity? 
Tennyson, Lucretius. 
I have found 
The very cause of Hamlet's lunacy. 
Shale., Hamlet, II. 2. 40. 
The wretch who neglects or maltreats the unfortunate 
subject of mental derangement intrusted to his care. If not 
himself insane and irresponsible, should be regarded with 
universal contempt. 
Chambers, Library of Universal Knowledge, VIII. 41. 
There Is no crasinetse we feel, that Is not a record of God's 
having been offended by our nature. 
Up. Mountatrii, Devoute Essays, II. x. 1. 
Madness in great ones must not unwatched go. 
Shale., Hamlet, IIL 1. 1IW. 
It is perfectly certain that the brain of a man suffering 
from melancholia differs altogether from that of one In 
acute mania. (Juain, Diet, of Med., p. 71. 
Demoniac phrensy, moping melancholy, 
And moon-struck madness. Milton, P. L., xl. 485. 
Delirium this is call'il which is mere dotage, 
Sprung from ambition first. 
Ford, Lover's Melancholy, ill. .:. 
insaporyt (in-sap'o-ri), n. [< L. in- priv. + 
sai>or, taste (< sapere, taste, know), 4- -y'.] 
Tasteless; wanting flavor ; insipid. 
However Ingrate or insaiiory it seems at first, it becomes 
grate and delicious enough by custom. 
Sir T. Herbert, Travels In Africa, p. 311. 
insatiability (m-sa-shia-bil'i-ti), n. [= F. in- 
satiabilite = Sp. insaciabilidati = Pg. insacialiili- 
d<tde=lt. insaziabilitn, < LL. insatiabilita(t-)s, < 
L. insatiabilis, insatiable : see insatiable.] The 
state of being insatiable ; unappeasable desire 
or craving ; insatiableness. 
He [Mr. SverdrupJ is believed to recognize the folly of 
Radical inmHnbility, and the mischief that would result 
were Norway to Insist on measures which Sweden thinks 
it Impossible to accept. Xinetrentk Century, XXIII. 61. 
insatiable (in-sa'shia-bl), a. [= F. insatiable 
= Sp. iiiMteiable = I 'jr. iimaeiarrl = It. insa:ia- 
bilr, < L. insatiabilis, that cannot be satisfied, 
< in- priv. + 'satiaotiis. that can be satisfied: 
see satiable.] Not satiable ; incapable of being 
satisfied or appeased; inordinately greedy: as, 
insatiable desire ; insatiable thirst. 
She was a rhymer at the age of ten. . . . Apparently, too, 
she had a mind of that fine northern type which hungers 
after learning for its own sake, and to which the study of 
books or nature is an instinctive and insatiable desire. 
Stedman, Viet, Poets, p. 116. 
The populace are instinctive, free-lxmi. insatiable beg- 
gars. Lathrup, Spanish Vistas, p. 57. 
Syn. I'nappeasable, unquenchable, voracious, 
insatiableness (in-sa'shia-bl-nes), n. Insatia- 
bility ; unappeasable craving or greed. 
As the eye In its owne nature is covetous, in that It is 
not' satisfied with seeing (Eccl. i. h), so the eye of the cov- 
etous hath a more particular insatiablenessp. 
Bp. Hall, Fashions of the World. 
insatiably (in-sa'shia-bli), (/(. In an insatia- 
ble manner; so as to be insatiable. 
We lounged about the gentle close, and gazed insatitiblii 
at that most soul-soothing sight, the waning, wasting after- 
noon light. //. James, Jr., Pass. Pilgrim, p. 44. 
insatiate (in-sa'slriat), n. [< LL. iiistitiatun, 
unsatisfied, < L. in- priv. + sattatus, pp., satis- 
fled: sec satiate.] Not to be satisfied or sated ; 
insatiable: as, insatiate greed. 
The mxrtri'arf' couetons men are neuer content, nor wyll 
open their affection, but locke vp theyr treasures. 
Golden Boot, xvli. 
Hate 
Bred in woman is intntiate. 
Lust'* Dominion, II. S. 
fnxatiats. archer! could not one suffice? 
Thy shaft flew thrice : and thrice my peace was slain. 
Young, Night Thoughts, i. 212. 
insatiately (in-sa'shiat-li), <i<lr. In an insa- 
tiate manner; so as not to be satisfied. 
But youth had not us therewith to suffice ; 
For we on that in*atiately did feed 
Which our confusion afterwards did breed. 
Drayton, Pierce Gaveston. 
He (Mahomet] was so insatialrly libidinous that he is 
not ashamed to countenance his Incontlnency by a law. 
Sir T. Herbert, Travels In Africa, p. 321. 
insatiateness (in-sa'shiat-nes), n. The state 
or quality of being insatiate or insatiable. 
llnile'/, 17:27. 
insatietyt (iu-sa-ti'e-ti), it. [= OF. insatiete, < 
L. ignliftii(t-).i. < in- priv. + satieta(t-)s, satie- 
ty: si'i- wtVty.] Absence of satiety; unsatis- 
fied desire or demand. 
A confirmation of this intatiety. and consequently un- 
profitableness by a cause thereof : " when goods increase, 
they are Increased that eat them." 
Granger, On Ecclesiastes (1621), p. 12S. 
