now the case in almost every European country, at least with regard to particular Christian communions and to the Jews. The Lutherans and Calvinists have chapels in almost every Roman Catholic state. But this toleration is not a legal right; it is only granted during pleasure to certain nations and sects, and it applies only to foreigners and by no means to natives. Even during the rule of the Inquisition in Spain, English, Dutch, and other Protestant merchants were allowed to reside in the seaport towns, but only so long as they gave no scandal or offence to the Roman Catholic faith, and their position was therefore extremely delicate and insecure.

Liberty of conscience applies to natives as well as foreigners, and in the country where it is recognised, no one can be molested for his religious opinions or 'private religious practice. But the law regulates whether and under what conditions chapels or places of religious worship may be opened which dissent from the established church of the country. Much is left to the discretionary power of the executive. Thus in France, wherever there are in a town a certain number of Lutherans or Calvinists, they are allowed to have a place of religious worship, subject to certain regulations of the local authorities. Liberty of conscience is only found in countries where a considerable part of the population dissent from the established church; it does not exist in countries exclusively Roman Catholic. All the Protestant states of Europe allow liberty of conscience.

Full religious liberty is said to exist when not only every man may hold what opinions he pleases, but when every Christian sect may openly profess its faith and perform publicly its rites; and this not by especial permission, but as a matter of legal right. This is the case at present only in England and its colonies, and in the United States of North America. But even those countries cannot be said to have unlimited religious liberty, for this would mean that any one might set up any form of worship that he pleased. Now it cannot be believed that Fetish or other pagan rites would be publicly allowed in England or America. Therefore the religious liberty of England and America can only be said to extend to the various Christian and Jewish communions. And indeed it is questionable whether religious liberty in its full unlimited extent could exist in any orderly community of which the majority believe in any religion whatever; for what would be called liberty by some, would appear offence and scandal to the rest, or contravene the common law of the land: as in the case of the Mormons, were they openly to inculcate the doctrine of polygamy. Besides which the danger of proselytism must necessarily complicate the question still more. Mohammedans tolerate Christians and Jews, but will not allow any one to apostatise from the Koran. In the case however of countries in which penal statutes exist against heretics, it is still an important question how and when and by whom those statutes are to be enforced. We have seen how the Inquisition did enforce them, and the general opinion of Europe, not merely of Protestant but of Roman Catholic Europe, has reprobated and rejected its practice. The secular power has now taken into its own hands criminal jurisdiction in all its branches in every European state, with the single exception of the Papal State, where, the government being in the hands of ecclesiastics, the jurisdiction of the canon law is kept distinct from that of the civil law, and has its own courts, of which that of the Inquisition is the principal. It is an error to suppose that intolerance is peculiar to the Roman Catholic church; all churches and religions, Jews, Mohammedans, and heathens, Arians and orthodox, Greeks, Latins, and Protestants-all have persecuted in turn; but no other church or sect ever invented or enforced for centuries a permanent system of persecution that can be in any respect compared with that of the Inquisition.

INSANITY, in Law. [LUNACY.]

INSANITY, mental alienation, lunacy, "folie" of Esquirol, &c. Of the various ills to which man is subject none are more dreaded, and few so little understood, as that which involves the loss of his intellect. Nor can we wonder at our ignorance of the nature of this malady when we remember what mystery hangs over the workings of the mind in its healthy state. But even while our knowledge of the nature of the mind and its operations, and therefore of the exact condition on which insanity depends, remains so limited, much, it is to be hoped, may be done towards alleviating the miseries which mental disease induces by investigating the causes which influence its prevalence, by inquiring into the best mode of restoring the mind to its healthy condition, and lastly, by learning to distinguish between those slight forms of mental disorder which amount to scarcely more than eccentricity or hypochondriacal fancies, and the more important states of disturbance of the intellect which render the subjects of them dangerous to themselves or others, and justify their seclusion from society and confinement in a lunatic asylum.

After a few words relative to the history of insanity, we shall consider its varieties and the characters which each presents, its causes, nature, and the definitions proposed to characterise it, the means of recognising it, and lastly, the mode of treatment.

It is probable that many of the unfortunate persons who are described in the Old and New Testament as possessed by evil spirits were the subjects of insanity. The same may also be said of the soothsayers and ecstatic priestesses of Egypt and Greece. In later times the dependence of insanity on a diseased state of the mind, or rather of its

seat and instrument, the brain, has been generally recognised, but the sense of horror originally excited by the idea of the possession by a demon still influences in some degree the feelings with which the insane are regarded. But it is gratifying to find, that, with the extension of real knowledge, views at the same time more philosophic and more humane are beginning to be adopted in relation to lunacy. The variety of the forms of insanity is almost endless, but they may conveniently for the purpose of description be collected under the following heads:-1. Disorders of the feelings and propensities. 2. Delusions or hallucinations. 3. General derangement of the reasoning faculties. 4. Mixed forms, in which two or more of the preceding are combined; and 5, the state of imbecility or fatuity in which other kinds of mental disorder frequently terminate.

1. The first principal form which we have indicated constitutes what is termed "moral insanity" by Dr. Prichard, who describes it as "consisting in a morbid perversion of the feelings, affections, and active powers, without any illusion or erroneous conviction impressed upon the understanding; sometimes co-existing with an apparently unimpaired state of the intellectual faculties." The character of the affection varies with the degree in which the different feelings are affected : sometimes jealousy and suspicion are the prevailing passions, causing their subjects to shun their dearest relatives and to live in constant misery, though at the same time they are able to reason correctly on any topic, and at times confess that their suspicions are groundless. Other persons are tormented by a constant fear and apprehension of some undefined danger or misfortune; and with this there is often a feeling of despair, a settled melancholy, frequently of a religious character. This state of despondency (combined with delusions, one of the most frequent kinds of insanity) is at its commencement often in a considerable degree under control, and may be removed from time to time by the substitution of more cheerful feelings; but if the circumstances to which the individual is subjected be of a nature to depress or alarm, it becomes so aggravated as to lead to a loathing of existence and to suicide. The states which we have considered are generally marked by depression, but they are not unfrequently interrupted by fits of violence and preternatural excitement of short duration. In other cases this last state chiefly characterises the disease. There is then a want of self-government; the expressions are unguarded and the conduct violent. M. Pinel records a characteristic instance of this, which he terms "emportement maniaque sans delire." It is a good example of moral insanity unattended with derangement of the intellect. "A youth, the only son of a weak and indulgent mother, was the subject of uncontrolled caprice and passion. He was excited to acts of fury by any kind of opposition or remonstrance; he put to death dog, horse, or any other animal which offended him; and excited broils in every public meeting which he joined. But when not led by his passion he enjoyed sound judgment, was fully competent to discharge all his duties, and was humane. At length he threw a woman, who had offended him, into a well, was prosecuted, and condemned to perpetual confinement in the lunatic asylum Bicêtre." An inordinate degree of pride and vanity is often the prevailing characteristic of the feelings of a disordered mind; and it is generally attended with some delusion. A propensity to mischief, the destruction of all surrounding objects, is not uncommonly displayed by the insane; another degree of the same affection is the impulse to the destruction of life. Persons affected with this morbid excess of the destructive propensity have without doubt frequently suffered the punishment due to wilful murder; many persons have been known to complain of the impulse they felt to kill, and have even begged to be confined lest they should injure others. The propensity to theft also sometimes constitutes a marked feature of insanity. Dr. Prichard mentions having seen a lunatic who would only eat when he had stolen food, and whose keeper made it a constant practice to put into some corner within his reach various articles intended for his sustenance, in order that he might take them furtively. This propensity to steal is well known to have brought disgrace on members of rich and honourable families. It is probable that in many such cases there is an uncontrollable impulse to the act, independent of any anticipation of pleasure from the subsequent possession. An excess of the sexual feeling, from a want of control over the expressions, is occasionally a source of great misery. A female modest at other times will in a state of insanity use indecent language and by her conduct discover the grossest desires.

Though we have thus described disordered states of some of the feelings and propensities as varieties of "moral insanity," it must be remembered that generally the prevalence of any of these feelings in a morbid state is attended with some delusion or disorder of the intellectual faculties; while on the other hand it is exceedingly rare to meet with instances of delusion or of general insanity with a perfectly calm and natural state of the affections; when there is not a marked derangement or excited state of any one feeling or propensity in such cases, there is a strange perverseness of temper and disposition. The modification of madness which occurs in old people, and is designated "senile madness" by Dr. Burrows, who has accurately described it, is a species of moral insanity. The moral feelings are perverted, and some of the passions in a state of excitement. "The pious," says Dr. Burrows, " become impious; the content and happy, discontented and miserable; the prudent and economical, imprudent and ridiculously

profuse; the liberal, penurious; the sober, drunken." Passions which had long been dormant resume their sway, and cast shame mingled with pity over the years of declining age.

2. The term monomania has been proposed by M. Esquirol, and adopted by most writers on mental disorders, to designate those cases of insanity in which the mind is occupied by some illusion or erroneous conviction, the individual still retaining the power of reasoning correctly on matters unconnected with the subject of his delusion. The word "melancholia" has been used in the same sense, which has given rise to the erroneous notion that insanity of this kind is necessarily of a gloomy character. It is rarely that the mind of the monomaniac is otherwise perfectly sound; there is generally combined with the delusion a morbid state of the moral feelings, and in many instances a great weakness of the reasoning faculty. The subject of the delusion is very various. It may have reference to the condition of the individual's own person; thus, some fancy that they have lost their head, others that their legs are not their own, but belong to some other person, others again that they have the devil or some animal within them, that they are dead, or that they are changed to some other form, &c. Monomaniacs subjects of the last delusion are thus described by Pope,

"Unnumbered throngs on every side are scen,

Of bodies changed to various forms by spleen;
Here living tea-pots stand, one arm held out,
One bent; the handle this, and that the spout;
A pipkin there, like Homer's tripod walks;

Ilere sighs a jar, and there a goose-pic talks."

It is probable that in many cases of delusion regarding the condition of the body there is some morbid state of the nerves, causing a sensation which excites in a mind prone to insanity an idea which the reason is unable to correct. Another kind of delusion is that which characterises the "demonomania" of some writers. It consists in a belief in the presence of invisible beings whom the lunatic sees, hears, and converges with. Religious delusions are frequently of this character: the maniac sees and communes with the Almighty or with angels. Such ideas, being very often combined with despondency, lead to suicide. Others who are subjects of such delusions fancy themselves constantly followed by some person who has the purpose of injuring them. A third kind of delusion refers to unreal events which the individuals believe to have occurred, or consists in a belief in some absurdity which has no foundation except in the patient's imagination. Such a monomaniac was the gentleman who thought he had been confined in a castle, and corresponded with a princess by writing letters in cherry-juice. The delusions which most frequently take possession of the thoughts of the proud or vain madman are referrible to the head of those which arise from abstract ideas conceived in the mind being mistaken for realities. An ambitious dreamer may for a moment imagine himself a king, but it is only a lunatic who fails soon to perceive that he is such only in his own thoughts.

There is generally some connection to be traced between the nature of the illusion and the former occupation of the monomaniac, or the ideas which have chiefly engaged his mind. Thus a butcher is said to have fancied that he had a leg of mutton hanging from his nose; a youth, the son of an attorney, fancied himself suspected of a horrible crime, and that the officers of justice were following him; persons who have had their thoughts much directed to religious subjects imagine when they become insane that they have received a charge from the Almighty; that they are persecuted by the devil, &c., &c.

3. General derangement of the intellect presents many varieties and degrees; but the distinguishing character is that the faculties of the mind generally are disordered; the patient will not speak on any subject long without betraying the defect of his reasoning power. This will in one person merely lead to strange irrational conduct and conversation-its necessary consequences; in another it will be attended with loud and violent raving (mania); in a third there will be singing, and a gay cheerful air; while a fourth case will be characterised by a low muttering incoherence. This general insanity is most frequently attended with disturbance of the bodily health. The symptoms of mental excitement frequently increase in violence for a short time, then gradually subside into a more quiet state, which too often terminates in mental imbecility.

4. The mixed forms of madness are by far the most frequent. Moral insanity, the disturbance of the moral feelings and propensities, is generally attended with some degree of weakness of the reasoning powers, or with some delusion. The general derangement of intellect has combined with it an excited state of some of the feelings; and monomania in the pure form, a mental delusion without further disorder of intellect, is very rare.

5. The duration of insanity has no certain limits; the attack may last but a few weeks, or it may continue many years. It is not uncom inon to meet in lunatic asylums with persons who have been insane twenty or thirty years. When the disordered state of the mind is thus protracted, it usually terminates in loss of the intellectual faculties. The state of imbecility, dementia, or fatuity, which then succeeds, has many degrees. It commences by the loss of memory, particularly for more recent events; the mind receives impressions and perceives them, but the faculty of retaining them seems to be lost. It is this state which so frequently attends the advance of years, and gives warning of

approaching decay, when the mind is otherwise sane. In the latter instance the faculties are exercised in a sound manner when the atten tion is roused; but frequently the words which were spoken but a few minutes previously are forgotten, though the memory for the events of youth is quite distinct. In a second degree of imbecility the power of directing the thoughts is lost; ideas come and go without order and independently of the will; questions are still heard and attempts are made to reply to them, but before the answer is half completed the train of thought is lost, and the mind and tongue wander to other subjects. In proportion as the mind becomes more and more weakened the external senses also become deadened; there is a carelessness of all that is going on around; life is reduced to the state of that of brute animals; the instincts alone guide the actions. The features are void of expression, the countenance vacant, the eyes wandering. At last even the instincts are lost; the miserable creatures seem almost unconscious of life; careless of the calls and wants of nature, they sit or lie motionless in one position, and frequently lose even the use of their limbs.

Disease in the brain may thus go on to the abolition of all the functions by which mind is manifested, without interfering with those other functions of the body on which mere existence depends. Insanity cannot be regarded as a very fatal disease. Of the lunatics at the asylum Bicêtre in the year 1822, one patient had been there 56 years; 3 had been confined upwards of 40 years; 21 more than 30 years; 50 upwards of 20 years; and 107 more than 10 years. Of those in Salpetrière seven cases had been admitted from 50 to 57 years. It is difficult to ascertain the proportional number of recoveries from insanity, so different are the statements made by different writers. While some authors have reported the cure of nearly 5 in 6 cases, others have estimated the proportion cured as less than 5 in 10; some have stated it to be as low as 5 in 15. The chance of recovery, however, varies very much according as the insanity is complicated or not with other disease; it is also influenced by the form of the disease, the period of its course, the age, sex, and constitution of the patient. Of the diseases which occasionally complicate insanity, epilepsy and paralysis are the most important. Whether paralysis affect the motion of the limbs or the speech only, the case is generally considered hopeless. The complication with true epilepsy, not mere convulsion from temporary cerebral excitement, is nearly equally unfavourable. It appears that the general derangement of the intellect is more curable than monomania, more especially in men. The state of imbecility is almost certainly incurable. The period of the disease at which it is brought under treatment has a very important influence on the chance of recovery. Of those who enter asylums soon after the commencement of the malady, 7 out of 8, or even 9 out of 10, recover; while after the third year the probable proportion of cured is not more than 1 in 30. The mean duration of cases terminating favourably seems to be from 5 to 10 months. The age most favourable for recovery from insanity is the period from the 20th to the 30th year; few recover after the 50th. Insanity is generally more curable in women than men. is more hope of recovery when some secretion of the body is suspended which may be restored by medicine, or when a critical period, such as that of the appearance or cessation of the catamenia in women, is at hand; at such periods as those last referred to insanity has ceased after having persisted for many years.

There

During the period of convalescence there is great liability to relapse, but this diminishes with the increasing length of time during which the patient manifests no symptoms of unsoundness of mind. The more complete the recovery, the more likely it is to be permanent; if the judgment be strong, and the feelings neither depressed nor irritable, relapse is much less to be feared.

Causes. Some individuals appear to be so prone to insanity that very slight causes are sufficient to induce it in them; or it is probable indeed that there is always some peculiarity in the constitution predisposing to it, since the apparent causes do not differ from those which, acting on other persons, produce other diseases and not insanity. Be this as it may, a tendency to mental and other cerebral afflictions is often observed to prevail in families, and to be transmitted from parents to offspring. An attack of insanity not only produces such a change in the system as to render it more prone to the disease than before, but the condition of the body, or rather of the brain, thus induced, may be transmitted to the children. This fact is so well known that it is unnecessary to insist further upon it. The hereditary predisposition is said to be stronger when both parents have been insane. A remarkable circumstance relating to the hereditary transmission of insanity is that the form of the disease which affects different individuals of a family is often the same, and that it attacks them about the same age. It is an opinion generally adopted that intermarriage in families gives rise to the predisposition to mental disorder, as it certainly does to weakness of body and mind. Intermarriage must tend to strengthen or maintain original peculiarities of constitution, and therefore any predisposition to disease which may exist. It is almost impossible to ascertain the proportion of cases connected with hereditary predisposition, so much is it the desire and interest of families to conceal such a circumstance.

The proportion in which the sexes are affected with insanity varies very much in different parts of the world. In Great Britain and Ireland the proportions of males to females insane is stated to be as

13 to 12. In Italy also the number of male lunatics is greater than that of the females. But in France there are more females than males insane, in the proportion of 14 to 11. Calculating from statistical accounts derived from different parts of the globe, M. Esquirol found that the proportion of men to women insane is nearly as 37 to 38. The concurrent testimony of French and English physicians tends to show that the number of the male sex affected with lunacy, as compared with the female sex, is greater in the higher than in the lower ranks of society.

manner.

Insanity is rare, though it sometimes occurs, before the period of puberty. It is from the age of 14 to 17, when a great change is taking place in the system, and when the passions begin to be more active and more liable to excitement, that insanity becomes frequent. The liability to the disease increases up to the age of 40; and although the absolute number of persons in lunatic asylums of different ages from 40 upwards becomes less and less, yet if we take into consideration that the number of persons living at the more advanced ages is also much less, we shall be led to infer, not that the liability to insanity diminishes in old age, but, on the contrary, that it rapidly increases. An excellent paper by M. Esquirol on the statistics of insanity, in which the number of insane persons at the different ages is compared with the population of the same ages, shows this in a very striking Of the causes which excite the development of insanity in individuals predisposed to it, those which act on the mind are the most efficient. It will most frequently be found that immediately before the attack the patient has suffered some severe vexation or disappointment from family troubles, pecuniary embarrassment, &c. We have seen that insanity rarely shows itself before the age in which the mind is susceptible of strong feelings, and in which the passions are excited by strong interests. A calculation made by M. Pinel represented the proportion of cases produced by moral causes, as compared with those due to physical causes, to be, in a space of five years, as 464 to 219. In one of the largest of our English asylums the proportion of cases ascertained to have been excited by moral causes was, during the years 1831 to 1836 inclusive, 431; those ascribed to physical causes, 291. The proportional influence of moral causes is, however, probably much greater than is here indicated; for in 454 cases admitted into the asylum to which we refer during the six years, no cause was assigned, and of these it must be presumed that a large number were due to moral influence. It is the slow and constant action of the depressing passions that is most instrumental in disordering the mental faculties; the violent and sudden passions much less frequently have this effect. Of the 431 cases produced by moral causes in the asylum from which we derive these facts, 289 were ascribed to trouble of mind from pecuniary distress or family disasters, grief, jealousy, disappointment, &c. Religious impressions are frequently instrumental in exciting complete derangement of the intellect in minds already sensitive and weak; 43 cases out of the 431 were traced to religious excitement. The other causes acting directly on the mind, which are more or less active in exciting insanity, are disappointed love (a not unfrequent cause in young females), fright (also acting chiefly on females), excessive study, and political excitement, which during the Revolution and succeeding years was a productive source of mental alienation in France; but cases from that cause are now comparatively rare even in that country, and of upwards of 1200 cases admitted during six years into an English asylum, two only were traced to political causes.

races. A less highly developed and less active condition of the brain may render it less prone to disease.

In Turkey, Spain, and Italy, insanity is comparatively less prevalent, if we may judge from the imperfect reports obtained from those countries, than in the more northern European nations and the United States of America. The proportion of lunatics to the population in England and France is, according to the calculations of Sir A. Halliday and M. Esquirol, about 1 to 1000. In Prussia the proportion, as stated by M. Jacobi, is about the same. But in Wales the proportion of insane to the population was estimated by Sir A. Halliday to be as high as 1 to 800, and in Scotland 1 to 574. În Norway too, a country somewhat similar in its physical character and in the condition of its inhabitants to Scotland, the estimate of the proportion of lunatics given by Dr. Holst is 1 to 551. A great and surprising difference is found to exist in the proportional number of insane in manufacturing and agricultural districts of England; the number being greater in the agricultural counties. This is an analogous fact to the prevalence of the disease in Wales and Scotland. There is certainly less call for the exertion of the intellectual faculties in the agricultural than in the manufacturing counties, and in Wales than in England; an explanation of the facts must therefore be sought in other circumstances. In the statistical calculations are included not merely the insane, but the idiotic from birth, and the excess in the number of unsound in mind in Wales, Scotland, and Norway, as compared with France and England, is due to the greater number of idiots, of which we can find some explanation in the hardships to which the poor of those mountainous and partly barren countries are exposed; idiotcy being a disease dependent on imperfect formation of the brain, and generally attended with other marks of an ill-developed organisation. The greater liability of the agricultural population of England to insanity is less easily accounted for. The much greater degree in which insanity presses on the lower than on the higher classes of society, is another important consideration. One cause of this is undoubtedly the much less check which is put upon the spreading of the disease by marriage with individuals whose families have the predisposition in the lower than in the higher classes. Another may be the deprivations to which parents, and particularly pregnant females, are exposed. A third is the prevalence of intemperance among the poor. The opinion has prevailed in France as well as in England, that insanity is on the increase, but the data on which this supposition is founded cannot be implicitly trusted, for the greater number and better management of lunatic asylums at the present day cause many more persons to be conveyed to them, and thus placed within the reach of statistical research; while formerly many lunatics were allowed to wander about as beggars; many from shame, or fear of the horrors of the asylum, were concealed in private families; and some, from ignorance, were punished as criminals.

The principal means of checking insanity, which the facts above detailed seem to suggest, are, 1, the prevention of the marriage of individuals predisposed by inheritance to the disease; 2, the improvement of the physical condition of the poor; 3, the encouragement of intellectual cultivation and amusements among the lower classes, as a means of checking intemperance and sensual indulgence generally; 4, a better education of the moral feelings in all classes of society, so as to discipline the passions and enable the mind to resist their disturbing influence.

Closely connected with the subject of the causes of insanity, and of equal importance, are the statistics of the disease. If we could ascer tain all the important circumstances which accompany its greater or less prevalence in different countries, we might hope to be able to combat in some measure the evil, by adopting preventive measures. A general result, which appears to rest on correct information, is, that insanity is extremely rare in uncivilised nations, as among the natives of Africa and America. This cannot arise solely from passion less frequently disturbing their moral feeling and affections, though this is undoubtedly an influential circumstance. There seems to be an absence of the predisposition to many diseases among the uncivilised

Before entering on the consideration of the mode of detecting insanity, it will be necessary to inquire into the probable nature of the disease. We will first state the facts on which is founded the opinion that it is dependent on some disease in the brain. It is not requisite to offer any proof that the brain is, in the healthy state, the seat of the mental operations, the organ or instrument by which the mental principle, whatever it be, acts. Admitting this, we may naturally suppose that the cause which disturbs the functions of the mind has its seat in the same organ. Then again, although in many cases no change of structure can be found in the brain after death (which cannot surprise us if we remember the delicacy of the organ, and the slight change that would be sufficient to disorder its action), yet it is certain that morbid appearances are found much more frequently in the brain than in any other part of the body of the insane after death. The commencement of the disease is generally accompanied by pain and other symptoms of inflammation or vascular fulness of the head. In some cases we perinsanity, as where the latter affection supervenes on epilepsy or apoplexy. The physical causes too are in many instances such as act directly on the brain; we allude to blows on the head, inflammation of the brain, coup de soleil, &c. Even the moral causes of insanity afford an argument in favour of the cerebral pathology of the disease; for the inordinate action of the brain which must attend the long continuance and great violence of a particular passion would be likely to excite diseased structure of the organ. The diseased states of other viscera, those of the abdomen for example, can only be regarded as consequences of the insanity, or as accidental complications, or if they stand at all in the relation of causes, as acting only through the medium of the brain.

It being thus premised that the brain is the seat of the disease, can we recognise any particular character in the disordered reasoning and feelings of the insane which will afford us a means of defining it, and enable us to distinguish it from other disturbed states of the mind and

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senses? Many writers, led by some observations of Mr. Locke, have said that "the insane reason correctly from erroneous premises." But this definition includes those only who are the subject of some delusion, while there are many lunatics who have lost the power of reasoning correctly, hence some authors have added to the above definition the sentence or erroneously from correct premises." The definition, founded on Mr. Locke's remark, applies very well to the state of mind of many monomaniacs, who frequently act quite reasonably on the supposition of the subject of their delusion being a fact; it is in their believing what a sound man must perceive to be false that their insanity consists. Thus many persons under the influence of particular states of the brain or the senses of vision have seen spectres, but, not believing in their actual existence, were not mad. The belief in things inconsistent with the laws of nature, with the combined evidence of all our senses, or with other known facts, shows a want of reasoning power, or, according to Dr. Conolly, a want of "the comparing power; the lunatic does not compare the evidence of one sense with that given by other senses, or with past impressions; if he did so, he would detect his error. A madman fancies his legs are made of butter, and accordingly protects them from the sun and external force; but if he used his senses of touch and sight, and compared their evidence with the sensation which excited the erroneous idea, or with the idea itself, he would perceive its falsity. There are, however, as we have said, many other cases in which, whether combined with delusions or not, there is a defect of the reasoning power, the degrees of which vary from the state of the persons who are regarded merely as somewhat silly, to that of the imbecile or fatuitous. There is, however, another less frequent form of insanity, which depends neither on reasoning from erroneous premises, nor on defect of the reasoning faculties; we allude to the state in which the moral feelings are so deranged or excited as to lead to acts which may be called insane, since the will has no longer the power of regulating them, and the individual cannot be looked upon as an accountable being. The definition adopted by Dr. Spurzheim and the phrenologists will include this last form of insanity. Insanity is by them stated to be " an aber ration of any mental power (an intellectual faculty, a moral feeling, or a propensity), from the healthy state, with an inability on the part of the individual to discern its unhealthiness or to resist it."

In deciding what is and what is not insanity there will not be much difficulty if any illusion exist in the patient's mind, and its nature be known to the examiner; and when there is general derangement or defect of the reasoning powers, a careful examination will surely detect it. It is much more difficult to decide as to the existence of moral insanity when unattended with delusion or defect of the reasoning faculty, though the decision is here often of the greatest importance, as the honour or life of the individual depends upon it. No rules can be laid down for determining whether eccentric acts, or the commission of homicide, be the effect of an irresistible impulse or not; in all such cases however, the history, the dress, gestures, and manner of speaking, and the expression of the features of the individual, should be carefully attended to. In almost all insane persons there will moreover be found either symptoms of vascular excitement about the head, or an unhealthy state of the skin and of the different secretions.

There are however, as Dr. Conolly observes, two questions to be decided in every inquiry relative to the sanity of an individual. The first relates to the existence of unsoundness of mind; the second regards the treatment required, and especially the necessity of restraint, and the degree and nature of the restraint. With reference to the second question, the chief point to be considered is whether the patient be likely to injure his own person or that of others, or his own property or that of others. Medical treatment may be required in any case of insanity; but on the decision of the second question above indicated depends whether the patient shall be confined and deprived of control over his property. It is from confounding the question of the existence of madness with that of the necessity of confinement that so much injustice has been committed; to prove a man insane has been synonymous with condemning him to imprisonment. But though a man believe his legs are not his own, or that he was present at the destruction of Jerusalem, he may be a perfectly harmless and even useful member of society: shall he therefore be deprived of his liberty and of the management of his property merely on account of a single delusion? [LUNACY.]

The treatment of insanity resolves itself into the medical and the moral. The medical treatment indicated and required at the commencement of the disease consists chiefly in the attempt to reduce increased vascular excitement or slight inflammatory action. It is seldom that any violent antiphlogistic measures are required. The same treatment may be called for during the course of the disease if the symptoms of cerebral excitement or inflammation return. Sometimes want of sleep is the most marked symptom, and opiates are given with benefit. In the more chronic conditions of the disease the medical treatment is chiefly directed to the restoration and maintenance of a healthy state of all the functions of the body, particularly of the secretions. A strengthening diet is requisite in some cases; cleanliness, fresh air, and exercise in all. The best asylums afford the means of employment for the insane in the open air; but this important requisite is still neglected in some large public institutions.

The moral treatment is now recognised as an important part of the management of the insane. Formerly a lunatic was regarded with horror, as a being who had lost all relation to society, and was to be treated as a wild beast; he was confined in a gloomy filthy cell, was loaded with chains, and shut out from all influences which could cheer his mind or lead it from the subject of its delusion. The first step in the great amelioration which has taken place was effected by the efforts of M. Pinel in France, and the Quakers in England. The insane are now treated with humanity. The power of moral influences in restor ing the healthy tone of the mind has been recognised as a principle, in carrying out which the chief means adopted are the following:-1. In many cases seclusion from society, chiefly with a view to remove the patient from the influence of the circumstances which produced the disorder, or which might keep up unhealthy trains of thought; but when the insanity is partial, consisting in a single delusion, this mea sure can scarcely be recommended, as it might, by shocking the mind, increase the malady. 2. Occupation and amusement of the mind in various ways, so as to divert the thoughts: this is an important circumstance in the treatment, though until the last few years little attended to. Everything calculated to remind the patient of his state should be avoided; the apparatus of confinement kept from his sight, and the appearance of all objects rendered as cheerful as possible. 3. The moral influence of the physician has a powerful effect on the mind of the insane; kindness will gain their confidence, while a firm though mild manner is often sufficient to restrain the most violent outbreaks of rage, and render other means of restraint unnecessary. Chains are now generally discarded from the apparatus of the lunatic asylum, and even strait waistcoats and straps are seldom required. But while measures of bodily restraint should be avoided as much as possible, it is a safe and imperative rule to remove hurtful weapons and means of mischief from the reach of the insane. All irritation of mind by threats, &c., should be avoided. 4. The convalescent should be separated from the other patients in the asylum. 5. The insane should be classified, so as to separate the quiet and timid from the noisy and violent.

In the preceding portion of this article we have not made idiotcy the subject of separate consideration. It is scarcely necessary to say that while fatuity is the state of defective intellect produced by disease late in life, idiotcy is the original want or deficiency of mental power. Just as the imbecility of old age has various degrees, so there are various degrees of idiotcy. One of the worst forms is that presented by the Cretins, the deformed and imperfectly organised idiots met with in the valleys of Switzerland. [CRETINS.] Idiotcy generally depends on congenital disease, but sometimes it is produced by diseases affecting the brain in very early infancy. The more remote causes are probably imperfect nourishment of the parents, or some noxious influences acting on the mother during pregnancy; the same hereditary predisposition which gives rise to insanity seems also sometimes to be productive of idiotcy. The form and size of the head in idiots may be quite natural; in many cases however it is large and deformed; in others remarkably small, particularly in the region of the forehead. The bones of the head are sometimes very thick; the brain itself disorganised, or its cavities distended with fluid. [HYDROCEPHALUS.]

(Prichard, Conolly, Burrows, and Haslam, On Insanity; Pinel, Sur l'Alienation mentale; Esquirol, Sur les Maladies mentales; Georget, Sur la Folie; Heinroth, Die Störungen des Seelenlebens; Jacobi, Sammlungen für die Heilkunde der Gemüthskrankheiten; and Bucknill and Tuke, Manual of Psychological Medicine.)

INSCRIPTIONS (Inscriptiones), that is, records of public or private occurrences, of laws, decrees, and the like, engraved on stone, metal, and other hard substances, exhibited for public inspection. The custom of making inscriptions was far more general in the states of antiquity than in any modern country, as we see from the innumerable inscribed monuments which still exist in Persia, Egypt, Greece, Italy, and other countries subject to or colonised by the Greeks and Romans. A great number of inscriptions, especially those recording great events, laws, or decrees of the government, which it was important for every citizen to know, supplied to some extent the want of the art of printing. When, for example, the laws of the twelve tables at Rome were set up in public, this public exhibition was equivalent to their publication by means of the art of printing; for every Roman might go and read them, and, if he liked, take a copy of them for his private use. Previous to the invention of the art of printing, inscriptions set up in a public place were the most convenient means of giving publicity to that which it was necessary or useful for every citizen of the state to know. Inscriptions, therefore, are, next to the literature of the ancients, perhaps the most important sources from which we derive our knowledge of their public, religious, social, and private life, and their study is indispensable for those who desire to become intimately acquainted with the history of antiquity. For the history of the languages they are also of very great though not of equal importance. After the overthrow of the Roman empire in the west, inscriptions still continued to be made very frequently; but as the ignorance of the middle ages increased, and as all knowledge became more and more confined to the priesthood, the custom of making certain things known by means of inscriptions gradually fell into disuse, until the art of printing did away with it almost entirely.

In order to render inscriptions as permanent as possible, the ancients