bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Mental Epidemics among the Lower Animals
Authors: Lindsay W. Lauder
Published: August 2008

In supplement of my paper on “The Physiology of Mind in the Lower Animals,” and in anticipation of the correlative essay, which I hope by-and-bye to contribute to the “Journal of Mental Science,” on “The Pathology of Mind in the Lower Animals,” I am desirous—so long as the whole British public has a vivid memory of certain signal illustrations of the fact, or phenomena—to direct attention to the circumstance that the lower animals, in common with man, are subject to certain forms of Epidemic Mental Derangement. I allude more especially, at present, to that form thereof which is popularly known as Panic, and technically described as Timoria or Panphobia; an affection that is very properly included among “Epidemic Mental Diseases” in the short account given of them by Dr. Browne, ex-Commissioner in Lunacy for Scotland, in “Chambers's Encyclopædia” (vol. iv, 1862, p. 92). The illustrations to which I would specially draw attention, in the case of the lower animals, are to be found, on the one hand, in the notorious Stampedesof Cavalry Horses, which characterized the well-known “autumn manóuvres” at Aldershot, about the end of August and beginning of September, 1871, as well as the later military manóuvres near the Russian capital (in September, 1871); and on the other hand, the Stampedes of other domestic and wild animals, during the more recent devastating conflagrations of Chicago, and of the prairies or forests of Michigan and Wisconsin, (in October, 1871.)
A Medico-Legal Possibility
Authors: Needham Frederick
Published: August 2008

In a certain section of the public mind the impression seems somehow to have taken root that in a well-regulated asylum no accident can ever occur without affording evidence of want of care and forethought on the part of the responsible officers.
2. French Psychological Literature
Authors: Gasquet J. R.
Published: August 2008

Considering the history of France for the last eighteen months, there would have been little reason for surprise if our brethren there had entirely ceased to contribute their share to the literature of psychological medicine. They have, however, continued to write and to publish, although three numbers of the “Annales” were published during the siege of Paris, and one under the reign of the Commune, when Paris was cut off from the rest of the world. The “Journal de Médecine Mentale” seems to have been more unfortunate, as only one number was published for the last four months of 1870, since which we have received no more.
The Madmen of the Greek Theatre
Authors: Gasquet J. R.
Published: August 2008

I fear that the subject which I have undertaken will seem a very useless one to most of the readers of the “Journal of Mental Science.” As several of our systematic treatises on insanity contain very full accounts of the opinions and treatment adopted by the ancient physicians, it will naturally be supposed that the subject is either exhausted, or at least has no further practical interest. This is, however, by no means the case. As far as the statement of general principles goes, there can be little doubt that the passages scattered amongst the works of Aristotle which refer to insanity are of much greater value at the present day than any of the treatises of the classic psychiatrists.
Tumours of the Brain and their Relation to its Mental Functions
Authors: Clouston T. S.
Published: August 2008

Tumours of the brain have long been recognised as a cause of insanity, but different authors have regarded them in very different lights. Arnold quotes Morgagni and Bonetus, that tumours are one of 47 pathological changes found in the brains of the insane. Esquirol mentions them as among the morbid conditions found in the brains of the insane, but did not connect them with any particular symptoms. According to French statistics they occurred in the form of cancer in 22 out of 8,289 cases, that is, about 2·7 per 1,000. Dr. Sutherland mentions that he found 4 in 200 cases, or 20 per 1,000 cases. Tuke and Bucknill say that they only found 1 tumour in 400 autopsies, or 2·5 per 1,000. Leubuscher found tumours of the brain in four cases out of 358 autopsies, or at the rate of 11 5 per 1000. Fischer found not one case of tumour in 318 autopsies at the Prague Asylum. At the Carlisle Asylum we have performed 214 autopsies, and there have been 6 cases of tumours of the brain, which is at the rate of 28 per 1,000 cases.
The Madmen of the Greek Theatre
Authors: Gasquet J. R.
Published: August 2008

Euripides introduces the story of Orestes into three of his tragedies, which were written at different times, and on no common plan; but they, nevertheless, follow the same general manner of treating the subject. Sophocles had apparently felt that he coxild best introduce novelty into the treatment of a subject already dramatized by the master hand of Æschylus, by bringing into prominence the sufferings of Electra, and her delivery by her brother Orestes. Euripides followed the same idea, and went farther.
The Madmen of the Greek Theatre
Authors: Gasquet J. R.
Published: August 2008

The most perfect specimens of the Greek drama which time has spared to us, the tragedies of Sophocles now extant, contain, unfortunately, little to my purpose. We shall hereafter see that those plays have been unfortunately lost in which insanity must have been a prominent feature; but it also seems likely that Sophocles was intentionally sparing in his introduction of madness on the stage. We have had one instance of this in the case of Orestes, who is the most prominent mad hero of Æschylus and Euripides, and yet is portrayed by Sophocles as perfectly sane; and the story of Hercules, in its different treatment by Sophocles and Euripides, is another example.
Tumours of the Brain in the Sane and the Insane
Authors: Boyd R.
Published: August 2008

In the July number of the “Journal of Mental Science” is a paper of considerable interest by Dr. Clouston on “Tumours of the Brain and their Relation to its Mental Functions.” Only a few cases are there recorded. The following contribution is submitted to the members of the Medico-Psychological Association:—

During my residence in the St. Marylebone Infirmary, in three years and a-half, there were in 1039 post-mortem examinations 22 cases of tumours of the brain; one of these was transferred to the insane ward, and two were in a state of fatuity, leaving 19, or at the rate of about 18-3 per thou sand, in whom no mental derangement was observed.
“Eugene Aram,” a Psychological Study
Authors: Browne J. H. Balfour
Published: August 2008

The spiritual history of a man is never without interest to his fellows. How a great man lived and moved and had his being; how he met and faced this cunning, cheating world; how he bore himself to his fellows, and how he accomplished the work that lay to his hand; these are matters which are fall of deep interest, of true pathos to men who are amongst their fellows; to men who are striving to live justly and honestly in this present world. Each other life that we come to know and feel with, has not lived for itself, but for us. Other men have suffered that we may be free from pain. The victory of another may be ours through the magic of sympathy. There is a deep perennial truth in this matter of vicarious suffering. We find it illustrated in the sacrifices of all religions, and in the central doctrine of Christianity itself. It is in this aspect that hero-worship is excellent. “We may make our lives divine,” and the way to succeed in that endeavour is by means of a thorough knowledge of, a deep and noble sympathy with, that which is divine in our fellow men. The examples such men leave are indeed noble benefactions to the race. A Peabody bequest is a small thing in comparison with the living records of a life well spent. That being so, the value of biography can be understood, and if the infinite significance of a true life of a real man is appreciated, the sorrow which must be felt on account of the rarity of such works cannot but be great. True there is no lack of so-called “Biographies,” but these fall far short of the requirements of the perfect record of a life. In these, for the most part, we find not the life of a man but a number of the circumstances which he lived through. How these modified him, how he moulded the iron of circumstance, for the most part, we hear not.
2. American Psychological Retrospect
Authors: McDowall T. W.
Published: August 2008

American Journal of Insanity, Vol. xxviii., January to April, 1872.
Notes of a Case of Insanity dependent on Syphilis
Authors: Newington H. Hayes
Published: August 2008

I have designated the case, a description of which I have the honour of laying before you, as one of Insanity dependent on Syphilis, discarding the generally used term—Syphilitic Insanity. It will be better to state the reasons for so doing after I have given you an account of the patient. I will, however, premise that the Diagnosis is that of a syphilitic tumour or other affection, acting as a foreign body within the cranium. To substantiate this fairly, it seems to me that the presence of intercranial disorder should be made out, and then evidence be sought to determine the nature of that disorder. I have, therefore, endeavoured to classify symptoms as much as possible in accordance with this plan. The general history is as follows:—
Case of Idiopathic Acute Mania
Authors: Chapman Thomas A.
Published: August 2008

S. S., æt. 28. F. Admitted on the 28th July, 1873.
2. French Retrospect
Authors: McDowall T. W.
Published: August 2008

Influence of the Events of 1870-71 upon the Development of Mental Disease in France.
The Diagnosis of Insanity
Authors: Bucknill John Charles
Published: August 2008

No class of diseases with which man is afflicted are so various in their manifestations as those known under the general term of insanity. No diseases present such an infinite variety of light and shade belonging to their own nature, or to their intermixture with other maladies, or to the influence of temperament, of individual peculiarities of habit, or of social position; and therefore the diagnosis of no other class of diseases taxes nearly so much the ingenuity and the patience of the physician. The Diagnosis of almost all other diseases depends principally upon weighing the evidence afforded by physical signs and symptoms, upon evidence addressed to the senses; but in mental disease, it is for the most part dependent upon evidence which is cognizable by the intellect alone, and upon data which the senses furnish to us only at second hand. The physician is compelled to bring to this investigation, not only a knowledge of those functions which are subservient to the vegetative and animal life of the individual, but also a clear and analytical conception of those which collectively constitute mind. He must not only be a physician, but a metaphysician; not indeed in the almost opprobrious sense of the term, but in that better sense which designates a lover of truth, seeking to ascertain not the essence of mind or any other unattainable abstraction, but the laws of mind which are as regular as any other natural laws, and the knowledge of which offers to philosophy a wholesome and legitimate object of research.
The Morbid Psychology of Criminals
Authors: Nicolson David
Published: August 2008

Is a given prisoner fit, so far as his mental condition is concerned, to undergo the discipline to which his sentence of imprisonment commits him?

The relationship existing between the mental constitution of prisoners, and the active and passive penalties which go to make up their prison experience, requires some notice before we can recognise how a special class of weak-minded criminals arises apart from those who are positively insane.
Red Cotton Night-Cap Country, or Turf and Towers
Authors: Browne J. H. Balfour
Published: August 2008

Everything that Mr. Browning writes has claims upon the attention of those who study the philosophy of mind. There may be some difference of opinion as to Mr. Browning's position as a poet; it may be argued that, simply regarded as possessed of poetical faculty, he must be looked upon as inieriorto many other writers of poems in these fecund days; that much that he has written in rhyme would have been as readily communicable in prose; but there can be no difference of opinion as to Mr. Browning's exceptional mental vigour and calibre, nor can it be denied that very few men of equal capacity have either in this or in other ages devoted themselves to imaginative literature.
Remarks on a Case of Syphilitic Insanity
Authors: Tuke J. Batty
Published: August 2008

The details of the case I now propose to speak of have been published in the January and July numbers of “The Journal of Mental Science” of this year. In the January number the clinical history was reported as far as it went; shortly after its publication the patient died, and in the July issue the further progress and termination of the case were given, and the result of the post-mortem examinations detailed. I will not now detain you by reading the full report, but in order to carry you with me it will be necessary to recapitulate the main features of the case, supplementing them by a few particulars which have been evolved by further study of the pathological appearances presented in microscopic sections.
The Mental Aspects of Ordinary Disease
Authors: Fothergill J. Milner
Published: August 2008

The relations of body and mind are becoming not only much more comprehensible, but even much better understood, since science has shaken off the incubus of theological teaching as to the severance of soul and body. As long as the mind was something separated from the body, or only united to it by slack and loosely fitting ties, mental phenomena could have nothing to do with bodily conditions—insanity was a disease of the soul; and the monk, standing over a miserable lunatic chained to a staple in a wall, and flogging him in order to make him cast his devil out, was a logical outcome of this hypothesis, however repugnant to more recent and correcter views. The baneful psychology of theologians is now thoroughly undermined, and the erroneous and mischievous superstructure is cracking and gaping on every side, and ere long the ground occupied by a crumbling ruin will be covered by a gradually growing erection based on a foundation of facts, and reared by an expanding intelligence. The union of psychology and physiology is the closing of the circuit, in one direction, of the pursuit after knowledge, and forms the initiation of a rational and intelligible comprehension of the mind and of its relation to corporeal conditions. How such mistaken and false ideas of the word melancholia, as those entertained by the monk as an alienist physician, could have attained their sway in the face of such maxim as mens sana in corpore sano, only becomes intelligible when we remember the ignorance, the superstitious prejudices, the contempt for the knowledge of the natural man, which ever characterise the theological mind, and which found their highest expression during the monkish supremacy of the dark ages—that interval of black ignorance which intervened betwixt the decadence of Latin civilisation and that intellectual evolution, the Renaissance, which indicated the advent of the reign of human intelligence. Slowly but surely was the emancipation of the intellect from the fetters of priestly tyranny achieved, as death thinned the ranks of its opponents, and the grim despotism of Torquemada and his coadjutors waned into the pettier and less terrible persecution of more recent ecclesiastics, and the tremendous grip of hierarchical supremacy gradually merged into the palsied, nerveless grasp of a doting and dying theology, the mere spectre of its former self. Curious men were the Church's leaders of the middle ages. In their cathedrals the light of day was only permitted to enter to a limited extent, and that too through the medium of coloured glass, so as to produce the “dim religious light,” while artificial lights burnt up before their altars; so were their minds closed to the natural light of the human understanding, and artificially illumined by the creations of their diseased imaginations, amidst whose coloured rays the white light of truth was always obscured, if not rarely utterly lost. But in the mortality of man lies the hope, the salvation of truth.
2. French Retrospect
Authors: McDowall T. W. , McDowall J. G.
Published: August 2008

This great subject is treated by Dr. “Vedie by giving very shortly:—

1.—

A resumé of those psychological facts which bear most upon the subject.

2.—

An examination of physiological phenomena connected with the former. Then shall become evident the laws which govern all psychological and physiological phenomena.

3.—

The application of these laws to pathology and therapeutics; or, what is equivalent, an examination of the pathological and therapeutical phenomena produced by mental causes. The question of miracles naturally falls to be discussed in connection with this part of the subject.

4.—

The reasons why some educated people and even physicians err in their views concerning miracles, and misunderstand the natural laws which regulate these phenomena.
On the Family Care of the Insane in Scotland
Authors: Jolly Friedrich
Published: August 2008

The treatment of the insane in families, and the system pursued at Gheel, are generally regarded as identical. The experiment which has been going on for centuries in the little Belgian town appears to satisfy all the requirements of a crucial experiment; and it is supposed that it furnishes in its results a demonstration of the worth or worthlessness of the family system of treatment. Friends and foes have long been accustomed to investigate the matter at Gheel, and to found their respective verdicts on the system which they may have observed there.
The Morisonian Lectures on Insanity, for 1873
Authors: Skae David
Published: August 2008

Anæmic Insanity.—This is the variety of insanity produced by exhausting discharges, loss of blood, or starvation, and takes its name from the condition of anæmia that precedes and accompanies it. Dr. Aitkin says that “any acute disease which occurs in an anæmic individual assumes a peculiar character.” Now this is precisely what occurs when such an individual becomes insane. There are two very distinct kinds of anæmic insanity, which may be called the chronic and the acute. The chronic results from anæmia produced gradually by exhausting discharges or such slow processes. Its symptoms are precisely those that Dr. Skae described as occurring in the insanity of lactation without the sexual characteristics of the latter, so that I need not occupy your time in describing them. The most important characteristics are the premonitory giddiness, flashes of light, singing in the ears, headache. The acute variety follows great and sudden losses of blood or starvation. It is most typically seen in the latter condition. At first there is a state of mental prostration, with pale and cadaverous countenance, wild and glistening eyes, severe pain in the epigastrium, and an intense thirst; then the mind becomes quite imbecile, so that the patient will make no effort for his own benefit, and after this a state of maniacal delirium, with hallucinations of the senses, comes on. The patient sees ravishingly cool and limpid streams and green fields, which if he is at sea he will at once jump overboard to reach, he tries to sing, and converses with imaginary friends. This is soon succeeded by coma or convulsions and death. But if food is given before this, the patient often remains for a long time delirious or imbecile in mind, cannot get rid of his hallucinations, and cannot exert his mind in any way.
On Syphilitic Affections of the Nervous System
Authors: Jackson J. Hughlings
Published: August 2008

I wish here to give as briefly as possible an account of the pathology of the nervous symptoms which result from syphilis. Of necessity there is considerable recapitulation from former papers I have written. For syphilis produces very different affections of the nervous system, and I have therefore had to speak of syphilis when considering Amaurosis, Epileptiform seizures, Hemiplegia, &c. It is, however, justifiable to bring together the conclusions one has arrived at about syphilitic nervous affections from the study of nervous affections in general.
Can Unconscious Cerebration be proved?
Authors: Ireland William W.
Published: August 2008

Unconscious cerebration is regarded as so important a discovery that two well-known scientific men have contended for the priority of its publication, and while some people are anxious to give it fresh applications and illustrations, others proclaim it to the public as a new demonstration of science, accepted by physiologists, and stable enough to uphold new theories founded upon it. After having carefully considered the evidence upon which the theory of unconscious cerebration is supposed to rest, I am disposed to think that the facts, or assumed facts, may be explained in a simpler manner, and that the theory itself is superfluous and unproved. For an exposition of what is understood by unconscious cerebration, and on what grounds it is believed to exist, I have used a work called, “The Principles of Mental Physiology,” by Dr. Carpenter, the well known physiologist, who claims to have worked out the theory in his own mind, without knowing that any other had preceded him, and whose recognised reputation is a sufficient guarantee that the argument, in his hands, is sure of being well stated. The term itself seems far from being a happy one. Dr. Carpenter tells us that it has been found readily intelligible; he objects to “unconscious reasoning” as a contradiction in terms, and yet his own description seems either to imply unconscious reasoning, or unfelt feeling; and the difficulty of finding an appropriate term for this class of operations, is really owing to the difficulty of conceiving what these operations really are. In fact, to state them clearly, is to render the theory incredible. To call thought cerebration, may show the desire of a writer to assign thought as the product of brain action; but it is neither warranted by true philosophy, nor by the popular and scientific uses of speech. When the liver secretes bile, one does not say that it hepatates; or when a man breathes, we do not say he pulmonates.
On Mental Strain and Overwork
Authors: MacCabe Frederick
Published: August 2008

In that general process of evolution by which the human ace, as well as the individual, is governed, each age appears to possess some distinguishing feature which stamps it with a special character. In all those branches of study and of speculation which, from the earliest dawn of mental cultivation, have engaged the attention of mankind—in theology, in history, in philosophy, in law, in science, and in medicine—the student, looking back upon the progressive achievements of his race, recognizes certain well-marked eras. These, although chronologically distinct, afford landmarks when reviewing the progress of the human intellect in its search after that perfect knowledge which stimulates, but ever eludes, the efforts of its votaries. To more than one period the student can point and say: These were days of deep theological disputes, and the schools of divinity attracted the best intellects of the age. of another period he may say: Historical research was here predominant. of another the remark would be true that, while it lasted, the different schools of philosophy divided the intellectual world. And again: Here was an age of great legists; at such a period constitutional and international law gradually acquired shape and recognition. At all periods, whether of intellectual progress or stagnation, the fascination of numbers has thrown its spell over some of the most gifted minds; and, in the exact science of mathematics, the student has enjoyed this singular advantage, that every theorem proved, every problem solved, has been a step gained once for all—alone among the sciences this, within its range, has been permitted to afford a convincing answer to the ever-perplexing question, “What is truth ?” As physicians, we should be ungrateful if, in the most cursory retrospective glance, we omitted to notice those votaries of science, whose patient search for the realization of the alchemist's dream led to so many discoveries in chemistry, and laid the foundations'of that modern science that has numbered among its disciples some of the most brilliant intellects of recent years. The study of medicine has passed through various gradations according to the theories that were predominant; until, in recent years, the cultivation of our art has become so interwoven with scientific investigation, so allied with strict inductive reasoning, and so associated with other and collateral branches of study, that the student of medicine may now be said to embrace in his curriculum the whole scope of scientific teaching, as well as the purely professional practice of the healing art.
Report of Three Cases of Short Attacks of Insanity with some Remarks on the Discharge of Recovered Patients
Authors: Campbell J. A.
Published: August 2008

Case 1st.—H. J. M. Admitted July 29th, 1872; female; 18 years; single. Hereditary predisposition existed in family; she had at one time been excited for a day or two, and been treated at home; she had lately been subject to considerable anxiety, and had to sit up frequently at night nursing a sick relative. Ten days ago became excited, talking much incoherently; was sleepless, and took food ill. For the two days previous to admission had got worse, more excited, had attacks of hysterics, and did not sleep at night. She had not menstruated for two months.
Observations on the Brain of the Chacma Baboon
Authors: Major Herbert C.
Published: August 2008

An opportunity having been afforded me, through the kindness of Mr. A. H. Garrod, of examining the brain of a fine specimen of the Chacma Baboon (cynocephalus porcarius) from the Zoological Society's Gardens, London, I purpose, in the following pages, to record, so far as I may be able, the minute structure of the convolutions in the various parts of the cerebral hemispheres. It will be my endeavour in this inquiry to study the nerve elements of the cortex step by step, and layer by layer, and thus gradually to unfold its structure; to analyse and compare the varying appearances in different situations; and finally, collecting and arranging the facts thus elicited, to place them side by side with those derived from a study of corresponding parts in the human organ, and ascertain, if possible, the relations which exist between them.
The Hypodermic Injection of Morphia in Insanity
Authors: Diarmid John M.
Published: August 2008

In 1843 the subcutaneous injection of morphia was introduced into this country by Dr. Alex. Wood, of Edinburgh, as a means of treating nervous disease. He found it remarkably efficacious in relieving neuralgia, but believed its action to be almost, if not entirely, local. His results as to the relief of pain have received almost universal confirmation; but subsequent experiments have shown that the drug acts on the nerve-centres, and thus indirectly soothes the pain of an irritated nerve, and not by causing direct anæsthesia of the seat of pain. To Dr. C. Hunter is due the credit of having first demonstrated that local injection is not necessary for the relief of local pain. He employed the hypodermic injection of morphia very successfully in controlling the spasms of chorea, in subduing the excitement and overcoming the sleeplessness of Delirium Tremens and Acute Mania, and in alleviating the restless wakefulness of traumatic inflammation. (His experiments were published in the “Med. Times and Gazette,” for 1859.) Two years later, in 1861, Dr. W. C. McIntosh, now Superintendent of the Perth District Asylum, then Assistant Physician of Murray's Royal Asylum, Perth, employed morphia, subcutaneously, in almost all forms of insanity, and found it, to use his own words, “a sedative to the furious, a calmative to the depressed and despairing.” His observations were published in the “Journal of Mental Science” for 1861; and although this mode of using morphia rapidly became known, employed, and esteemed in many asylums, and by many alienists, the results, so far as I am aware, were published only as isolated notes till Dr. J. B. Ward's paper appeared in the “West Biding Asylum Medical Reports” for 1871.
Notes on Lunacy in British Guiana
Authors: Donald James S.
Published: August 2008

Few countries, if any, afford better opportunities for the study of insanity, as exhibited among different races, than British Guiana. Here, gathered together in one asylum, are West Indians, Coolies from India, Chinese, Portuguese, and Africans; and, although the types of insanity are very similar in all, yet there are some distinctive features, worthy, I think, of being noted. Many difficulties arise in investigating the subject, owing, principally, to an inability to converse personally with some of the patients, more especially with Chinese. Consequently, a refinement in classification is unattainable; the strongly-marked features of the case alone giving an index to the form of mental disorder.
Kalmuc Idiocy: Report of a Case with Autopsy
Authors: Fraser John , Mitchell Arthur
Published: August 2008

My attention was directed to this case by Dr. Arthur Mitchell, Commissioner in Lunacy, in the course of his official visit last spring. He informed me that it was one of so-called Kalmuc idiocy, a form of idiocy rarely met with in asylums, but nevertheless not really uncommon. Dr. Mitchell pointed out in this case the distinguishing physical characters of this class of idiots. Some of the more prominent of these are obliquity of the eyes and palpebral slits, shortness and flatness of the nose, depression at its root, broadness or squatness of the hands, transverse fissuring of the tongue, shortness of stature, disproportion between different parts of the limbs, smallness of the head, and shortness of its antero-posterior measurements. Certain mental characteristics are said to be very constantly present, and these will be referred to in the details of the case. The peculiarity of the eyes and nose give the face a Kalmuc look, and hence the name.
On the Measurement of the Palate in Idiots and Imbeciles
Authors: Shaw T. Claye
Published: August 2008

There is a general idea expressed in text-books, and more or less freely asserted in practice, but which I shall prove to be a fallacy, that a high-arched palate is so frequently met with in idiocy and imbecility that it may be taken as a sign of their existence. Indeed, when a case of this kind is brought forward the patient is made to open his mouth, under the conviction that a high palate will be found as certainly as a superficial alteration of the tongue in gastric disturbance. We shall see that the connection is an accidental one; and there is, in reality, no relationship between the development of the intellect and the height and width of the palate. If we consider that the bones of the cranium are developed in a different manner from those of the face, and that ossification at the base is complete long before that of the bones forming the palate, it is clear that there can be no primâ facie reason for thinking that because a person has an imperfect brain he should therefore have an imperfect palate; yet such an interdependence is held. It is quite true that a constitutional taint, such as rickets or syphilis, which affects the ossification of the bones generally and the cranial sutures, would probably affect the palatine bones, and hence it is that many idiots and imbeciles are found to have high or imperfect palates: but on the other hand some modifying taint may dwarf the height of the body, may affect the shape of the head to such an extent as to make an idiot of the microcephalic type, and yet leave the palate untouched, perfect in all conditions of width, height, number, quality, and regularity of teeth.
On the Prevalence of the Causes of Insanity among the Ancients
Authors: Tuke D. Hack
Published: August 2008

The relative extent of the causes of mental disease in ancient and modern society is a problem of profound interest. The study of it is one mode of approaching the consideration of the question of questions for medicopsychologists—whether among the peoples of the highly civilized portions of the globe at the present day more persons do or do not become insane than among the nations of antiquity. The inquiry involves the search after and the marshalling of some facts which are not in themselves medical or psychological, but facts, nevertheless, which lead up to the directly medical and psychological result indicated by the title of this article.
Cerebral Vibrations and Thought
Authors: Taine H.
Published: August 2008

I.—“I believe,” says Professor Tyndall, “that all the great thinkers who have studied the subject are ready to admit the following hypothesis, that every conscious act, whether in the domain of the senses, of thought, or of emotion, corresponds to a certain definite molecular state of the brain; that this relation of the physical to consciousness invariably exists, so that, given the state of the brain, we may deduce from it the corresponding thought or feeling; or given the thought or feeling, we may deduce from it the state of the brain. But how to make this deduction ? At bottom it is not a case of logical deduction; it is, in fact, a case of empirical association. It may be replied that very many of the deductions of science have this empirical character; such is that by which it is affirmed that an electric current circulating in a given direction will make the magnetic needle deviate in a definite direction. But the two cases differ in this, that if the influence of the current upon the needle cannot be shown, it can at least be imagined, and that we have no doubt whatever that ultimately the problem will be mechanically resolved, while we cannot even picture to ourselves the passage from the physical state of the brain to the corresponding facts of feeling. Let it be admitted that a definite thought corresponds simultaneously to a definite molecular action in the brain. Well, we do not possess the intellectual organ, we have not even the rudiment apparently of the organ, which would enable us to pass by reasoning from one phenomenon to the other. They are produced together, but we know not why. If our intelligence and our senses were perfect enough, vigorous enough, enlightened enough to enable us to see and to feel the actual molecules of the brain; if we could trace all the movements, the groupings, the electric discharges, if they exist, of these molecules; if we knew perfectly the molecular states which correspond to this or that state of thought or of feeling, we should be still as far as ever from the solution of the problem: what is the connection between this physical state and the facts of consciousness? The abyss which exists between these two classes of phenomena will be always intellectually impassable. Let us admit that the feeling of love, for instance, corresponds to a spiral movement of the molecules of the brain to the right, and the feeling of hate to a spiral movement to the left, we should know that when we love, a movement is produced in one direction, and that when we hate, a movement is produced in another direction; but the why would remain still unanswered.”∗
Note on the Comparative Mortality of different Classes of Patients in Asylums
Authors: Chapman T. A.
Published: August 2008

I.—It is well known that the very different death-rates obtaining in different asylums depend much more on the different classes of patients they contain, than on any differences in the hygiene, or other conditions of the asylums themselves. Very little has, however, been done to obtain any accurate measure of the mortality rates that obtain amongst different classes of patients. The statistical tables of this association, which have now been used in the annual reports of asylums for a dozen years, contain much material that may be used for elucidating the matter. It is somewhat surprising that the valuable statistics contained in these tables have not been made use of to any extent either for this or any other purpose; the impediment, probably, is the considerable labour involved in any extensive analysis of their numerous data.
Two Cases of Homicide in Asylums
Authors: Yellowlees D.
Published: August 2008

The good order, quietness, and contentment of a modern asylum for the insane are apt to appear to outsiders mere matters of course. Alike at employment, exercise, and recreation, the patients behave so well that it seems as if they could never do otherwise, and the occurrence of any casualty among them is apt to excite surprise and dissatisfaction, as if it could only have resulted from mismanagement or carelessness.
Morison Lectures on Insanity for 1877
Authors: Sibbald John
Published: August 2008

The first and one of the most important questions to be determined in dealing with the subject of insanity is the meaning which we ought to attach to the word insanity itself. The condition which the word is supposed to indicate has most important relations, both social and scientific. It is a frequent subject of popular discussion, and it forms an important element in many enquiries—philosophical, medical, and juridical. Speaking generally, it may be said that it invariably signifies a marked abnormality of mental condition. But it is frequently necessary that we should be able to form a much more precise idea of the degree as well as the kind of abnormality that it implies. And a very superficial examination is sufficient to show that the degree and the kind vary greatly, according to the point of view from which the subject is regarded.
Unilateral Sweating in General Paralysis of the Insane
Authors: Mickle W. Julius
Published: August 2008

In this communication it is proposed—

(I.) To relate three cases of general paralysis in which localized copious perspiration affected one side only of the
face and head, and to mention a fourth case in another insane patient.

(II.) Next to refer to some other cases of unilateral sweating mentioned by authors, but not occurring among the insane; and

(III.) Lastly, to speak of the pathology of this symptom. I. By reference to the subjoined notes, it will be seen that
the unilateral perspiration of the face occurred under dissimilar conditions in the three cases of general paralysis; in
one, without any local paralysis or convulsion, but associated with old-standing disorganisation of the eyeball of the same side; in another, occurring sometime after a peculiar change in the mental state, and at first with very slight and very transitory unilateral facial paralysis; while in the third the unilateral perversion of secretion accompanied unilateral convulsions and hemiplegia of the corresponding side. All these patients were soldiers.
On the Composition of the Urine of the Insane
Authors: Rabow  , McDowall T. W.
Published: August 2008

The urine of the insane has been hitherto comparatively seldom the subject of minute examination, because, independent of the numerous opposing difficulties, no special importance was attached to it. And yet, more exact observations of the quantity of urine secreted by this class of patients should claim our interest on several grounds. This subject, moreover, cannot be ignored if we desire to penetrate the darkness which surrounds, especially in the insane, the complicated processes of chemical change; for it is in them that such peculiar and obscure phenomena of vital chemistry and nutrition occur. We see how other internal maladies, injuries, and wounds, without any treatment, are cured surprisingly quickly; how the insane, independent of the amount of food consumed, often undergo in a very short time, an astonishing increase or decrease of weight, and endure total abstinence from food incomparably longer than other individuals. Cases in point are recorded, which almost exceed belief. Thus, Wigand (Ueber Wahnsinn. Kempten, 1839), relates the detailed history of a lunatic who ate nothing for 62 days, and died in the hospital at Kempten, on the 63rd of starvation. In Henke's Medical Jurisprudence there is a similar case, where death occurred on the 64th day under violent convulsions.
President's Address, read at the Annual Meeting of the Medico-Psychological Association, held at the Royal College of Physicians, London, August 2nd, 1877
Authors: Blandford G. Fielding
Published: August 2008

Gentlemen,—At various times since you did me the honour to elect me your President for the coming year, I have considered what should be the subject of the address which custom demands that I should this day deliver. You have listened to addresses on the prevention of insanity, the treatment of insanity, the care of the insane whether recent or chronic—in fact, as every year brings its address, I felt that it was difficult to choose a theme that had not already engaged the attention of far abler and more experienced Presidents. When, however, the Parliamentary Committee, which has so long been sitting, commenced its labours, and heard the evidence of so many witnesses on the various points which they have brought before it, it seemed to me impossible that I could pass over such an event without notice, and I determined to lay before you some remarks on the Report of that Committee, and the evidence there received. Yet, although the Committee commenced its sittings in the beginning of March, it has not yet presented its report, consequently I am not able to lay any portion of the latter before you on this 2nd of August.
On the Best Means of Providing for the Care and Maintenance of Pauper Lunatics of the Demented and Imbecile Class
Authors: Rogers Thomas L.
Published: August 2008

I feel that an apology is almost needed for introducing the subject that I bring before you to-day—that of the best means of providing for the care and maintenance of the large and constantly increasing number of pauper lunatics of the demented and imbecile class, which gradually accumulates and fills up the available space in our County Asylums; often to the exclusion of recent cases requiring immediate medical care and attention.
The Pathological Significance of False Membranes under the Dura Mater in Insanity
Authors: Clouston T. S.
Published: August 2008

Many of the well-known pathological appearances found in the brain in insanity will, I doubt not, be found to have much more significance than they are thought to have at present, when the general physiology and pathology of the organ is better understood. It cannot be that such serious and enduring marks of morbid action in the parts supplied by the internal carotid and vertebral arteries as thickened and condensed cranial bones, adherent and thickened membranes, congested and toughened vessels, pia mater adherent to convolutions, and atrophied convolutions; all appearances, one or other of which are found in the majority of the insane, and treated almost as matters of course in the asylum dead house—could have arisen without intense disturbance in the working of the delicate neurine that those structures envelop and subserve. We as yet don't fully know what those things mean, as regards the previous condition of the brain. We talk of over-action, congestions, and brain excitement, but such terms are but vague expressions when we closely analyse what they mean. I think we are entitled to conclude that if such things are the accompaniments and effects of the storm on the bulwarks and sails of the vessel, the state of matters in the ship itself, while the tempest was at its height, must have been disturbed enough, could we only have had the means to see it. I have scarcely any patience in arguing with those who will say that there are no pathological changes left in the brains of those who have died insane, when such things are commonly met with, and can be seen by any tyro. It is our capacity to draw conclusions from such things that is at fault; and our means of observation as to the real condition of the minute brain structure. Conceive what dynamical disturbances must have occurred in the working during life of a most highly organised, yet infinitely delicate, jelly-like convolution supplied by a twig of a meningeal artery, during the long period when that twig was becoming thickened in its coats, overstrained at one time by intense congestion, its perivascular space alternately blocked up by débris, and by the overloaded vessel, its blood current now rushing at twice its usual speed, and then in a state almost of stasis. It is vain for anyone to say that such conditions can lead to an organic alteration in the coats of the vessel, and yet that the neurine may be left normal. The fact that all those vascular disturbances and changes were, probably, the result of the morbid vital action in the nerve tissue, and not its cause, were the result of the mere straining of the supply pipe from the irregular demands of the part supplied, should make us realize very vividly the intensity of the pathological disturbance that goes on in the convolutions of a brain that is acutely maniacal.
Apoplexy, Aphasia, and Mental Weakness
Authors: Savage G. H.
Published: August 2008

In asylums, we are used to find but small changes in the nervous centres in our dead patients, and these changes are often of so general a character, that no assistance is given towards clearing up the question of localisation of function in brain-centres.
German Retrospect
Authors: Ireland William W.
Published: August 2008

Since writing the portion of the German Retrospect in the last number of the Journal, the following periodicals have been received:—
Spurious Hydrophobia in Man
Authors: Lindsay W. Lauder
Published: August 2008

Metropolitan (English) cases of spurious hydrophobia are both less numerous and less instructive than those that occur so frequently in the Midland counties and their great cities, especially in Lancashire, Yorkshire, Warwickshire, Derbyshire and Staffordshire. But some of the London cases are, nevertheless, full of interest. Thus, death from a cat-bite formed the subject of an inquest at the St. Pancras Coroner's Court, in April, 1877. The deceased was a woman of 64, who was described as naturally irritable and nervous, and who was sent to the insane ward of the St. Pancras Workhouse in a “state of mania…… on account of her madness.” And there she “died from congestion of the lungs, brought on by hydrophobia”—said the verdict.
On Thought without Words, and the Relation of Words to Thought
Authors: Ireland William W.
Published: August 2008

Part I.—On Wordless Thought.—The object of this essay is to enquire how far thought can go on without language, and what is the nature of its association with words, or other symbolic means of expressing or communicating ideas ?
The Measure of Individual and Social Responsibility in Criminal Cases
Authors: Nicolson Dav.
Published: August 2008

In the absence of all medical testimony, opinion respecting the man's mental condition during the period in question must be based upon the ordinary evidence brought forward at the inquest. And it so happens that, notwithstanding the remarkable finding of the jury, the conclusion at which most people would arrive, after perusing the evidence and the in coherent statement found in the handwriting of the deceased, insonsi-mprpolfeesseionnoaulgh, opiannidon.quitTehuws, iththine “the DeailsycoTpeeleogfrapohrd,” inaryin reference to the case, relates the circumstances and the evi dence, and then says : “After all this, it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that the assailant of Mr. Hamburger was not altogether responsible for his actions. We may even go further, and say, although the jury were of the opinion tmhiantd, thethreat wtahse nodeceevaisdeedncewatos sdheocwidedwlyhat inwsaanse” his wshtaetne hoef attempted to murder Mr. Hamburger. It is sufficient for my present purpose to affirm the correctness of the opinion here qiioted from a lay paper, without entering into such details of the evidence as might be taken either for or against that opinion.