power of consciousness to recognise our various acts of perception and reasoning as having a home and agency in our own bosoms. Self is destroyed; and the mental acts which are appropriate to self are mere entities, float ing about, as it were, in the vacuities of space, without the possibility of being assigned to any locality or ascribed to any cause. The instance, therefore, mentioned in the preceding section, which may be regarded as of a mixed kind, (that is to say, showing a perplexed action, both of Original Suggestion and Consciousness,) will serve to illustrate what is said here.-Another instance, not less striking, is that of a celebrated watchmaker of Paris, who became insane during the period of the French Revolution. This man believed that he and some others had been beheaded, but that the heads were subsequently or dered to be restored to the original owners. Some mis. take, however, as the insane person conceived, was committed in the process of restoration, in consequence of which he had unfortunately been furnished with the head of one of his companions instead of his own. He was admitted into the hospital Bicêtre, "where he was continually complaining of his misfortune, and lamenting the fine teeth and wholesome breath he had exchanged for those of very different qualities."

Instances also have probably, from time to time, occur red, in which, although the conviction of personality and personal identity has remained, et in the fixed belief of the insane person the bond of onnexion between the mind and its powers has been dissolved; and the memory perhaps, or the reasoning, or the imagination, which once belonged to himself, has been transferred by some mysterious agency to an intellect more favoured than his own

€ 232. Insanity of the judgment or relative suggestion.

Pursuing this subject in its connexion with the powers of the Internal Intellect in the order in which they presented themselves to our notice in the Second Part of this Division, and which seems to be essentially the order of nature, we next proceed to Relative Suggestion. The power of Relative Suggestion, like that of Original Suggestion, is exceedingly simple in its action, being limited

to the mere matter of perceiving relations; but it is dif ferent in this respect, that while mental disorder but sel dom reaches original suggestion, there is scarcely an instance of decidedly disordered intellect, in which relative suggestion (that is to say, JUDGMENT in its simplest form) is not affected in a greater or less degree. And this seems to be unavoidable. For relations always imply the existence of something else, of other objects. And if mistakes, in consequence of a wrong mental action in other respects, exist in regard to those other things, whatever they may be, they necessarily either annul or greatly perplex the results of the power by which such relations are perceived. Besides this, the power in its own nature, and independently of perplexities from other sources, is liable to be, and is in fact, sometimes disordered. But as this subject is closely connected with that of reasoning, and as they reciprocally throw light upon cach other, we shall say nothing further here.

§ 233. Disordered or alienated association. Light-headedness

The laws of the mind, the great principles which regtlate its action, as well as its mere perceptions or states, may be disordered; for instance, the law of association The irregular action of this important principle of our intellectual nature is sometimes greater, at others less. There is one of the slighter forms of mental alienation from this cause, which may be termed LIGHT-HEADEDNESS; otherwise called by Pinel, demence, and by Dr. Rush, dissociation. Persons subject to this mental disease are sometimes designated as "flighty," "hair-brained;" and when the indications of it are pretty decided, as a "little cracked."-Their disorder seems chiefly to consist in a deficiency of the ordinary power over associated ideas. Their thoughts fly from one subject to another with great rapidity; and, consequently, one mark of this state of mind is great volubility of speech and almost constant motion of the body. This rapid succession of ideas and attendant volubility of tongue are generally accompanied with forgetfulness in a greater or less degree. And as the subject of this form of derangement is equally incapable of checking and reflecting upon his present ideas,

and of recalling the past, he constantly forms incorrect judgments of things. Another mark which has been given is a diminished sensibility to external impressions.

§ 234. Illustrations of this mental disorder.

Dr. Rush, in his valuable work on the Diseases of the Mind, has repeated the account which an English clergyman who visited Lavater, the physiognomist, has given of that singular character. It accurately illustrates this mental disorder.-"I was detained," says he, "the whole morning by the strange, wild, eccentric Lavater, in various conversations. When once he is set agoing, there is no such thing as stopping him till he runs himself out of breath: He starts from subject to subject, flies from book to book, from picture to picture; measures your nose, your eye, your mouth, with a pair of compasses; pours forth a torrent of physiognomy upon you; drags you, for a proof of his dogma, to a dozen of closets, and unfolds ten thousand drawings; but will not let you open your lips to propose a difficulty; and crams a solution down your throat before you have uttered half a syllable of your objection.

"He is as meager as the picture of famine; his nose and chin almost meet. I read him in my turn, and found little difficulty in discovering, amid great genius, unaffected piety, unbounded benevolence, and moderate learning, much caprice and unsteadiness; a mind at once aspiring by nature and grovelling through necessity; an endless turn to speculation and project; in a word, a clever, flighty, good-natured, necessitous man."

235. Of partial insanity or alienation of the memory.

Among other exhibitions of partial insanity, using the terms in the manner already explained, we may include some of the more striking instances of weakened and disordered memory. Every other part of the intellect may be sound and regular in its action, (for it will be recollected that we confine ourselves here to the disorders of the INTELLECT, without anticipating those of the Sensibilities and the Will,) the powers of perception, of association, of imagination, of reasoning, at least so far as they are able to act independent of the memory, while

the action of the latter power is either essentially obliterated, or is the subject of strange and unaccountable deviations. From the plan of this work, we are obliged to content ourselves with the briefest possible notices; and can therefore only refer to one or two instances in illustration of what has been said. The instances of weakened and perverted memory are of three kinds; (1.) those where there is a general prostration, caused in various ways, such as grief and old age; (2.) those where there is a sudden and entire prostration extending to particular subjects, or through a particular period of time, generally caused by some sudden and violent affection of the body; and, (3.) those where there is not so much an inordinate weakness or obliteration of the power under consideration, as a singularly perverse and irregular action of it.It is probably not necessary to say anything of the firs class. Of the second class is the case mentioned by Dr. Beattie, of a gentleman who, in consequence of a vio lent blow on the head, lost his knowledge of Greek, but did not appear to have lost anything else. Another instance is that mentioned by Dr. Abercrombie, of a lady who, in consequence of a protracted illness, lost the recol lection of a period of about ten or twelve years; but spoke with perfect consistency of things as they stood before that time. Of the third class is the case of a man who always called tobacco a hogshead; and of another man who, when he wanted coals put upon his fire, always called for paper, and when he wanted paper, called for coals; and of another, who could not be made to understand the name of an object if it was spoken to him, but understood it perfectly when it was written. These three cases will be found more particularly detailed in Dr. Abercrombie's Inquiries into the Intellectual Powers. A case perhaps still more interesting is found in Dr. Conolly's Indications of Insanity, as follows:

"A gentleman of considerable attainments, after longcontinued attention to various subjects, found himself incapable of writing what he sat down to write; and, wishing to write a check, could get no farther than the first two words; he found that he wrote what he did. not mean to write, but by no effort could he write what he

Intended. This impairment of his memory and tention lasted about half an hour, during which time is external senses were not impaired, but the only ideas which he had were such as the imagination dictated, without order and without object. He knew also, during this time, that when he spoke, the words he uttered were not the words he wished to utter. When he recovered, he found that in his attempt to write the check, he had, instead of the words 'fifty dollars, being one half year's rate,' put down 'fifty dollars through the salvation of Bra.' 999

236. Of the power of reasoning in the partially insane.

It will be noticed, so far as we have gone in the examination of the subject of insanity, that we have considered the powers of the mind separately. Probably every power of the mind, but particularly those of the intellect, may become more or less disordered. Having considered sensation, perception, original suggestion, consciousness, judgment, association, and memory, we propose, as coming next in order, to examine the subject in its connexion with the reasoning power.-In some cases of insanity there is a total inability of reasoning. There is no pow er of attention, no power of comparison, and, of course, no ability in the mind to pass from the premises of an argument to the conclusion. We have already had occasion to refer to the power of relative suggestion, by means of which comparisons are instituted. Whenever this power is disordered and fails to perform its office, such is the close connexion between it and reasoning, the operations of the latter are disturbed also. In such cases the inability to reason is total; that is to say, it extends to all subjects alike. But it is more frequently the case, that the alienation of reasoning is not so extensive, but exists chiefly in relation to certain subjects, in respect to which the belief is affected. When the train of reasoning leads the person within the range of those particular subjects, whatever they are, we at once discover that the intellect is disordered. And this view has led to the common remark, which is obviously well founded, that the more common form of insane or alienated reason does not con

Y