New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-10-13
SINE OR JNSANEY

SANE OR JNS4NEf
DIR. Forbes WinsOw is an authority upon
the subject of insanity, and his opinion, al
though it may not be unreservedly adopted,
is entitled to the most respectful consideration.
Yet when lie says, in discussing Lady Byrons
soundness of mind, "Where are we to fix the
point dappui of the IunacyT we are tempted TO
ask if that is not precisely the question which
has to be considered in at least large MAJOR
ity of cases of hallucination? There is no
difficulty when the mania is marked, decisive,
and unmistakable, manifesting itself IN delu-
sions of unquestionable absurdity, or in acts OF
extreme violence. But it seems to us that be-
tween this well-recognized form of the disease
and absolute cerebral health there Is wide
opportunity for a condition of the mind In
which, while maintaining its equilibrium upon
most of the affairs of life, it may be
still incapable of just Judgment upon special
topics. Every asylum will furnish frequent in
stances of patients who are perfectly capable OF
copyers;ng nationally about most matters, and
who might pass hours in the company OF stran-
gers without betraying, except by accident,
their infirmity. 1t is the knowledge of this
fact which has ameliorated the treatment of the
coats, the chains and the handouts, the gloomy
cell with its bed of straw, and the scourge
which once was so freely resorted to. Indeed,
we believe we are not speaking with sclen-
tific naccuracy when we say that no MIND
ever becomes upon all sides aberrant Ot
course We are not speaking OF cases or
idiocy, or of that gradual decay of tho
powers, both mental and physical, which
epilepsy long continued invariably induces
Here the brain becomes dull and stag
nant blank, unenlivened by memory, unaroused
by the present, and unstrred by anticipation
This condition is precisely the opposite of in
sanity, for insanity is oftenest the result OF an
inordinate mental activity. There is no lack OF
force, but it is force instructed, those faculties
which are still healthy being domineered over,
and, as it were, subjugatcd by those which are
diseased, while at intervals they reassert them
selves and the patient becomes calm, and, for
the time, comparatively rational. "What
drought you here7n was asked of the great
Robert Hall, when he was in an asylum. "What
"wil never bring you here" answered the
finest pulpit orator of his time" too much
"brain!n There was sufficient sanity i'll his an
swer.
Now notifying as it is to the pride OF hui
man nature, it must be admitted that there Is
no lack in society of men and women going
about without the least restraint managing
their affairs without interference, welcomed, per-
haps, into all companies, but who have, each of
them. n private bee in the bonnet. That is to
say they cherish and hug delusons about their
neighbms, about their families, about them
selves-delusOns the absurdity of which Is
patent to everybody else, but out of which
| they cannot be reasoned or persuaded.
| In such cases. to borrow the phrases
| of DRYDEN, there is but thin par
! tition between "great wit" and "mad-
| "ness.n Sometimes we call man with his
| mind thus warped eccentric" and ecccen-
strictly" is a convenient word to apply to
| that which we cannot at all comprehend.
| Take the case of q miser, who, although
| extremely opulcnt, lives in unmitigated squaor,
| and hides his coin in the chimney or in the
crevices of the wall. Take the case of an old
| maid who leaves legacies to her cats or her
canary birds. Take tho innumerable cases of
| hypOchondriacs, who, with every organ of the
| body sound have simultaneously all the
rarest and most complicated diseases.
| If one wishes to know how far the
4
mind may become diseased without lapslng
into confirmed insanity, let him read
the English Ecclesiastical Reports--the most
absolutely distressing record Of human inirm-
| ity which ever came from the press If it had
been possible to fix the point dappui upon
which DR.. Forbes Winslow lays so much stress,
nine tenths of these difficult and tedious inves-
| LEGATIONS might have been avoided; for it has
required all the acrmen of the Judge, all the
sagacity of the jury, and the examination of
| scores Of witnesses, to find ont whether q tes-
tatOr was mad or not. Now, we argue that the
| very fact of legal investigation shows that
there is often condition of mind in which it
is vibrating between sanity and insanity, or in
which it may bo sane upon one point and
insane upon another. We remember to
have been present when the elder Booth,
the greatest tragedan of his day, was
asked his opinion Of tho madness of Ham
let "About half and half,r responded the man
who could play Hamlet 30 beautifully