We look upon each of these cases as the voluntary abandonment of self to appetite as progressive drunkenness, producing what might be well anticipated by vicious self-indulgence, namely, the loss of selfcontrol, and the gradual but sure degradation, and final demoralization of the individual. There can be no doubt that intemperance produces insanity; but this temporary form of it should never be encouraged by admitting that it is in any degree excusable. True insanity is not characterized by "an irresistible impulse to self-indulgence, disregard of consequences, and general demoralization;" on the contrary, "insanity," says Dr. Gray, "is an immolation of self. An irresistible tendency exists to thoughts, feelings and actions at variance with the demands of the appetite, and the course of life is anything but promotive of self-gratification. In insanity there is but an apparent and temporary demoralization, induced by beclouding of the mind in its knowledge of the relations of things, and the consequent loss, more or less complete, of the abstract ideas of right or wrong. In insanity, the irresistible tendency has a motive or purpose in view above the simple gratification of appetite; and here disregard of consequences is the result of an absorbing active delirium, or a conviction that the wrong is, under the circumstances, right. We do not desire to withdraw sympathy from the unfortunates who have fallen under intemperance, but merely to disavow the theory that it is a form of insanity. Moral and Physical Effects of Intemperance.-M. Morel says: "One class of men arrive, at length, by a series of well-marked lesions, physical and intellectual, at general paralysis." Another class, although profoundly affected, as regards the innervation, remain stationary at a point of invalidism, leading a miserable existence, characterized physically by a special condition of cachexia and marasmus, morally by a manifestation of the worst tendencies and the lowest brutishness. In these melancholy cases we see displayed the capa city of this potent agent in causing degeneration of all the tissues, including the brain and nerves; even when it is not carried so far, similar symptoms are conspicuous "The hands tremble, especially in the morning; at a later period the tremors continue through the day, being increased by slight exertion, and only relieved by alcoholic stimulants. There is dimness of sight, as if a veil were suddenly passed before the eyes; the tongue is tremulous and speech is indistinct; the patient is troubled with frightful dreams; sensation of insects creeping over the skin; tremors and shuffling gait when walking; diminished muscular power in the lower limbs, finally, in every part; diminished sensibility of the skin; vertigo, staggering; hallucinations * On the Physical, Intellectual, and Moral Degenerations of the Human Race p. 113 30 startling and exciting as to banish sleep altogether. He imagines that he sees persons or objects, or hears voices; the pupils become dilated and less sensible than in health." 19-* "The drainer of oblivion, even the sot Beholds blue devils in his morning mirrors; The deleterious effects of alcohol are transmitted, like other blight. ing influences, to successive generations. M. Morel says, he never witnessed a cure of the disease caused by alcohol in a patient who derived the tendency to alcoholic excesses from hereditary predisposi tion. In one family he noticed that habitual intemperance in a greatgrandfather, entailed upon the first generation : "immorality, depravity, intemperance and brutish disposition; in the second, hereditary drunkenness, attacks of mania, general paralysis; in the third, sobriety, hypochondriasis, lypomania, systemic ideas of persecutions, homicidal tendencies; in the fourth generation, intelligence was but slightly developed; access of mania at sixteen years of age, stupidity running into idiocy, and into a conditio.. involving the extinction of the race." Similar remarks have been made by Drs. Cox, Adams, and Whitehead.† M. Morel, after showing that the use and effects of alcoholic drinks are rapidly extending in the various countries of Europe, as England, Scotland, Ireland, Prussia, and also in the United States, and in Central and South America, thus sums up their degenerative influences on the race: "They have invariably the same character in all latitudes. New maladies are generated and old ones take on increased fatality; the average duration of human life is lessened; the vitality of new-born children is less to be depended on, and the disturbances of the moral and intellectual nature become at length signalized by the highest rates of insanity, of suicide and crime." (p. 389.) The effect of habitual intoxication on the mind is thus described by a distinguished politician of this country, who suffered it: "In that world of all that is high and noble, the human heart; that consecrated temple of 'glorious hopes, and generous purposes, and god-like aspirations and countless joys, known only to the heart of man, the alcoholic poison breaks up the fountains of the great deep of human passion, and converts the mind into a wild and distorted receptacle of passions, lashed into monstrous and phantom forms, by flames, which distil the fountains of human love, and charity, and chastity, and kindness, into the red lava of hell's worst hate.' And that bright princi * Dr. Huss. † On Hereditary Diseases, p. 31. ple of the human intellect, which comprehends the laws that govern the universe and our own mysterious being, instead of being blotted out in darkness, is transformed into the wild architect of a world distorted and ideal, peopled with fiends, such as perverted mind alone can conceive, and fraught with sufferings and agonies for which breathing nature furnishes no type nor parallel." Treatment, see Delirium Tremens. GENUS III.-ALUSIA.-HALLUCINATIONS. 1. Alusia Elatio. Sentimentalism. Mental Extravagance. 2. A. Hypochondriasis. Low spiritedness. 3. A. Hallucinations. Illusions. Dr. D'Boismont gives the following classification: 1. Hallucinations which co-exist with a sound state of mind. Facts are adduced which serve to prove that the reproduction of cere bral images may take place without deranging the intellect; and these serve to explain the hallucinations of those illustrious men who have been charged with insanity. 2. Simple Hallucinations. associated with a greater or less amount of mental derangement. The sufferers are convinced that they see, hear, smell, and taste or touch things imperceptible to others. It is remarkable that these false impressions may exist, even where the organs of some of the senses are defective. Thus the Blind will say that they have seen angels and devils; and the Deaf repeat conversations which they profess to have overheard, and so on. 3. Hallucinations associated with another affection of the senses, to which the name of Illusions is given. Its objects exist, but they produce impressions different from the reality. 4. Hallucinations combined with monomania. 5. Hallucinations that occur in delirium tremens. 6. Those associated with catelepsy, epilepsy, or hysteria. 7. Those accompanied by night-mare, or dreams. 8. Ecstacy. 9. Those complicated with fevers and other chronic diseases. 10. Epidemic hallucinations. 1. ILLUSIONS OF THE SENSES. Optical illusions are so common that men of science have been often perplexed in endeavoring to account for all the remarkable cases on scientific principles. Dr. David Brewster remarks that, "When we look with one eye there is some object to which we are perpetually blind. With the right eye this point is about fifteen degrees to the right of the object looked at. Place two white wafers three inches apart, on a black ground, at twelve inches distance. Look at the left wafer with the right eye alone, and the other wafer will disappear. This illusion is caused by the parts of the retina, where the optic nerve enters, being insensible to light." He supposes by this fact may be explained some of the cases of vanishing spectres. Of such cases we shall here only notice such as are obviously connected with disordered health. A literary lady saw illusions of her husband, of distant friends; she saw a coach driving up, and then the whole company it contained changed into skeletons and ghostly visages, and then vanished. At the time of seeing any of these phenomena she felt a pecular sensation in the eyes, and during the six weeks, within three of which these illusions were seen, she was much reduced by a cough; and long experience proved that they were caused by disorder of the digestive organs. She was naturally morbidly sensitive. She could feel pain, sympathetically, in a part in which others said they suffered pain; and can feel pain in the limb which she is told is amputated. She talks in her sleep, repeats long passages of poetry when in ill health, never failing to quote lines beginning with the final letter of the last line, till her memory is exhausted. She thinks she understands the philosophy of her own case. A gentleman, of Edinburgh, believed that he was, regularly every day, exactly one hour after eating, knocked down by an old witch-looking hag, like one of those that haunted the heath of fairies. Dr. Gregory watched him after he had dined at five o'clock. Exactly at six P. M., the doctor saw him fall into a fit of apoplexy, which always recurred at that hour. ease. A gentleman of the law was wearing down under an imaginary disHe at first thought he saw constantly near him a black cat. At a later time, he saw always at his side a gentleman usher, dressed as if to wait upon the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland; this change was followed by another more unwelcome-it was a human skeleton. And when his physician placed himself in the spot where the skeleton was seen, the patient said he still saw the ghost peeping over the physician's shoulder. At this the man of science was startled also, at the thought of the ghost so near. He resorted to other means of cure, but the patient died, having sunk into deeper and deeper dejection. Gleiditsch, the botanist, having charge of the Cabinet of Natural History at Berlin, entering the Hall of the Academy one day, saw the apparition of Maupertois, who he knew was dead. Dr. Brewster says Maupertois had long been President of the Academy, and much favored by Frederick II., till he was overwhelmed by the ridicule of Voltaire. He then retired almost in disgrace to Switzerland, and died in the family of Bernoulli, the mathematician. And now Gleiditsch per ceives him as well defined and as perfect as he ever saw him in the body, appearing to one who appreciated him in life, in the hall of his former greatness. Illusions of the Ear.-These are alluded to by Milton as "The airy tongues that syllable men's names, In groves and desert lands and wildernesses." The "Wild Huntsman," was an imaginary sound resembling that of hounds and the noise and other accompaniments of hunting heard in the forests of Germany. That alluded to in a poem of unknown authority called Albino, is something of the same kind among the Scots. The hunter imagines he hears the sounds of huntsmen chasing the deer, but can see nothing. "Nor knows, o'erawed, and trembling as he stands, To what or whom he owes his idle fear. To ghost, to witch, to fairy or to fiend, But wonders and no end of wondering finds." A case of illusion is given by Dr. Wigan,* of a man who was convinced that he was haunted by a kind of second self, who "would argue with him pertinaciously, and to his great mortification sometimes refute him, which, as he was very proud of his logical powers, humiliated him exceedingly. In sitting by his side, I sometimes heard him exclaim 'well that takes me quite aback, I must consider a little for an answer." The mental hallucinations caused by exhaustion of the nervous en ergies from starvation, exposure and loss of sleep, are well shown in the cases related of persons shipwrecked. Of 150 persons who in 1816 abandoned the wreck of the French ship Medusa, west of Africa, and embarked on a raft, nearly all found their senses strangely disordered. M. Sauvigny twice saved his friend who rushed past him to throw himself into the sea. He says: His eyes closed involuntarily, drowsiness came over him, and the most delightful visions floated before his imagination. He saw around him a beautiful country covered with the scenes of happy life. Having still enough of reason left he took some wine and restored himself to a degree of consciousness of the real situation. Some of the party speedily became furious; others threw themselves into the sea, bidding farewell to their comrades with the utmost coolness. Some said "fear nothing, I am going to get assistance for you, and will quickly return." Some rushed on their companions sword in hand, demanding food to appease the hunger that was consuming them; others sought repose in their hammocks, thinking they were still on board the Medusa. One calls out that he sees ships riding in the harbor of a magnificent city which would speedily be reached. M *On the Duality of Mind, pp. 459, London, 1844. |