CLIMATE, SEXES, AGES, COMPLEXION,

&c.

Insanity, especially of the melancholy kind, is supposed, by many, to prevail so much more in England than elsewere, that foreigners call it the English-disease. Arnold thought there was some foundation for the supposition. Sauvages, among the species of melancholy, has one under the title, Melancholia Anglica, and says, "It differs from all others, in being unaccompanied by fury, owes its existence to weariness of life, and leads to suicide." This impression has been strengthened by an assertion of Dr. Powell's, in his official tables, in which he says, "Insanity appears to be considerably on the increase;" and shows an increase, in a given time, in a proportion of 129 to 100. That insanity is a disease peculiarly prevalent in England, seems to rest on no established basis; and the suicides of Paris, Berlin and Copenhagen, are in proportion to the relative population of London, as five to two for the first, five to three for the second, and three to one for the third.

Pinel thought there were more maniacs in England, than in France; and complimented Willis on his power of controlling maniacs by his penetrating eye. But Haslam ridicules both sups positions, and adds, "However Dr. Pinel may be

satisfied of our superiority in this respect, it is but decorous to return the compliment; and, if any influence were to be gained over manaical patients by assumed importance, protracted staring, or a mimicry of fierceness, I verily believe that such pantomine would be much better performed in Paris than in London."

Shakespeare ridicules this prejudice in the play of Hamlet.

Grave-digger. He that is mad and sent into England. Hamlet. Ay, marry, why was he sent into England? Grave-digger. Why, because he was mad; he shall recover his wits there; or, if he do not, 'tis no great matter there. Hamlet. Why?

Grave-digger. "Twill not be seen in him there; there the men are as mad as he.

Insanity, in England, is more prevalent among women than men, and is so far distinguishable from most other diseases, common alike to male and female. This singularity may be accounted for by the natural processes which women undergo previous to conception, at parturition, and when preparing nutriment for children. Indeed the diseases to which they are subject at those periods, are generally remote causes of insanity.

Puerperal Mania will be treated of in a subsequent chapter.

Insanity seems to be more frequent with persons between thirty and forty than during any other

equal period of life; the period between twenty and thirty is next in order, and then between forty and fifty. The French and English observations agree in this classification. The sufferers recover in proportion to their youth, and the disease is rarely cured at an advanced period of life.

Patients who are in a furious state recover in a larger proportion than those who are depressed and melancholic.

There is a marked distinction between derangement and decline of intellect: the former may frequently be remedied; the latter admits of no assistance from art. Where insanity commences with a loss of mental faculty, and gradually proceeds with increasing imbecility, the case may be considered hopeless.

All authors agree respecting the difficulty of curing religious madness.

The life of an insane or idiotic person cannot be considered even under the best system of regulation, cæteris paribus, equal in the probability of its duration to one of sound mind. There are indeed instances of lunatics attaining the age of eighty years-of idiots there is no such record; and it is probable that such insane persons had been seized with mental affection at a late period of life, and might have had a still longer existence, had not insanity supervened. Insanity tends to propel an undue quantity of blood to the brain,

and in the majority who have died, the termination of existence has been considerably hastened by paralytic affection or apoplexy.

From observations worthy of confidence it would seem, that persons of dark complexion and black hair are more generally the subjects of mania than those of fair skin, with light, brown, or red hair, in the proportion of 132 to 30; and it has been thought that the mania of the former is characterized by violence, while the latter sinks into gloom and incurable fatuity.

Of the organs of sense, which become affected, in those labouring under insanity, the ear more particularly suffers. Few lunatics are blind, but numbers are deaf. It is also certain, that in these persons, more delusion is conveyed through the ear than the eye, or any of the other senses. Indeed in the soundest state of our faculties we are more likely to be deceived by the ear than through any other organ of sense.

It is not unusual for those who are in a desponding condition, to assert that they distinctly hear the devil urging them to self-destruction.

A considerable portion of the time of many lunatics is passed in replies to something supposed to be uttered.

Insane people will often for a short time conduct themselves, both in conversation and behaviour, with such propriety that they appear to have the just exercise and direction of their faculties;

but if the discourse be protracted until the favourite subject shall have got afloat in the madman's brain, his disease will instantly become palpable.

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A beautiful illustration of this is contained in the writings of Dr. Johnson, where the astronomer is admired as a person of sound intellect by Imlac, who always finds information and delight in his society. At length, he gives Imlac his unbounded confidence, and imparts to him the momentous secret: Hear, Imlac, what thou wilt not, without difficulty, credit. I have possessed, for five years, the regulation of the weather, and the distribution of the seasons. The sun has listened to my dictates, and passed from tropic to tropic, by my direction. The clouds, at my call, have poured their waters, and the Nite has overflowed at my command. I have restrained the rage of the Dog-Star, and mitigated the fervour of the Crab. The winds, alone, of all the elemental powers, have hitherto refused my authority: and multitudes have perished by Equinoctial tempests, which I found myself unable to prohibit or restrain. I have administered this great office with exact justice; and made to the different nations of the earth, an impartial dividend of rain and sunshine. What must have been the misery of half the globe, if I had limited the clouds to particular regions, or confined the sun to either side of the Equator?"

To attempt an arrangement of the various theo