ON INSANITY IN THE DOMESTICATED QUADRUPED. 269 
certain derangements of the cerebral functions will also be found, 
if we will take the trouble to look for them? 
Besides, the disordered motions—‘the unaccustomed, and, as it 
were, involuntary actions—the fury—the caprices more or less 
sino^ular—the unusual vices—the unaccustomed exertion of mus- 
cular strength, &c., which are seen in horses in certain violent 
inflammatory diatheses—in frenzy, vertigo, and some varieties 
of apoplexy, &c., are they not in the highest degree analogous to 
certain acts of insanity in man, and especially to that furious 
delirium which constitutes some maniacal affections, and accom¬ 
panies others? Finally, the acute delirium, characterized in the 
horse by certain errors of the will and the natural propensities and 
desires, may it not sometimes be seen in other graver affections, 
and degenerate into a continued chronic delirium, which is, in 
truth, actual insanity, and not incompatible with the free exercise 
of the vital functions, and with the continuance of health ? 
M. Lessona has remarked*, that morbid irritation of the brain 
and its meninges, becoming of a chronic nature, may be the fre¬ 
quent cause of the vices which many horses display, whether 
under the form of starting, restiveness, impatience, biting, kick¬ 
ing, and rushing on persons without provocation. 
The remarkable fury w’hich some animals, gentle in every 
other respect, shew at the sight of one object, and one alone, and 
which makes them quite beside themselves whenever they see 
that object, is it not in some cases true monomania? The pecu¬ 
liar eagerness wdth which certain females, that before had been 
good mothers, search out and pursue their own off spring in order to 
destroy them, and the evident delight (which we cannot behold 
without horror) with which they devour them, is not this insani¬ 
ty ; and so much the more distinctly characterized when we com¬ 
pare it with that natural instinct for the preservation of their 
young ones, and their attachment to them, and the unwearied 
care with which they nurse them, the observation of which so 
much delights us? 
Fear ! are there not many examples of its having produced the 
most remarkable effects upon animals which, from their cause, 
their character, and their duration—even as long as the life of the 
animal—bear much resemblance to insanity in the human being? 
It is not because the derangements in the cerebral structure and 
function which take place in the human being cannot happen in 
the quadruped that the history of veterinary medicine does not 
afford cases of insanity so marked and perfect as those that are 
observed in man; but because, our domesticated quadrupeds 
not having the gift of speech, we are deprived of one of the surest 
* Propai>(itore iW 182/. 
