The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1891-09-18

reality. There is no essential differ
ence between the simpler forms of il
fusion and complex forms of hallucina-
ton, save that sensation, the direct
factor of perception, is more and more
su oordinated, and the indirect, or rep
resentative elements of perception, are
more and more accentuated. In severe
forms of hallucination of the insane,
where the amount of sensuous impress
sion is practically evanescent, the inn
agination and representative elements
of cognition are engaged in the associa-
ton of images having all the force of
actual percepts This is equally so
with alcoholics, although with these
latter it is even more difficult than with
the insane to say how far the elements
of sensation enter into the composition
of the hallucination. The following are
accounted by Griesinger the proxiln ate
causes of hallucination: A state of
deep, mental and bodily exhaustion;
local diseases of the organs of sense;
morbid emotional States, as fear; the
outward calm, between sleeping and
waking, and the action of certain
poisOns, as opium, belladona, or can
nabis indica. In alcoholismus the
mental disturbances are manifestly
due to either the first or last mentioned
of these cause.-the state of deep,
bodily and mental exhaustion which
the condition of inebriety engenders,
or the toxic action of the drug on the
central nervous system. Various the
cries have been advanced in eXplana-
ton of the origin of hallucination. These
for all practical purposes are, however,
reducible to four, the peripheral of
sensory, the psychical, the psycho-sen-
sorry, and that one which relying large
ly upon most recent acquisitions in
cerebal physiology and pathology attri-
butes all hallucination to super-eXcita-
ton of the perceptive centers of the
cortcx There is a daily increasing
amount of evidence in favor of the
cortical origin of hallucination. Ac-
cepting this latter theory, we may
still preserve the convenient if incom-
plete distinction established by Bail
larger and divide Authorizations into
psycho-sensory, or those having an
originating impulse in the peripheral
sense organs, and psychical hallu-
cinationS, those due to automatic irri-
tation of the central perceptive mech
anism. To these the Saltpetrere
schools, inspired by the fertilizing re-
searches of Charcot and his associates,
have recently added what they term
a psychic motor hallucination, one
arising by analogous process to the
sensory ones in the cortical motor
centers. Among the insane, auditory
Authorizations are the most prevalent,
but most of the writers on alcoholismus
have considered the most frequent
Authorizations to be those of vision.
The visual hallucinations of alcoholics
are exceedingly varied. They may
be hideous, grotesque or awful, or
they may be gorgeous, splendid or
inspiring. Unpleasant features usual
ly predominant, and the patient is
puzzled and tormented by the pres
ence of rats, mice, beetles, worms,
fleas and other insects The snake
hallucination is difficult to explain.
The usual causes of this hallucination
existing imaginative impulse. Why
should this impulse assume the snake
form? May not the explanation lie
in the facts of nascent consciousness?
We know that stimuli cannot be CO.
ordinated without some ganglion
through which they are brought into
relation. In 'effecting this coordina-
nli 11y
be subject to the influence of each
stimulus and must undergo a sue
cession of changes. This action and
its reaction, implying perpetual ex
perience of resemblances and diff
ferences, constitutes, according to
psychologists, the raw material of
consciousness. Therefore, as corol-
asserts that as consciousness is de-
veloped, some kind of instinct be.
comes nascent." That there is mas
cent instructive dread of the serpent
in man and monkey is obvious. En-
periments point to the conclusion
that the fear of the serpent became
an instinct in some far-distant pro-
SSShiIOA vi iilhI ny lCuoOh VI lollS
exposure to death in a horrible form
from bite. What we know of the
facts of hereditary transmission en-.
courages the belief that under excep.
tional circumstances latent ancestral
experiences can be revivitied. What
therefore, more likely than that when
reason lies exhausted at the feet OF
sensual excess mans consciousness. de.
prived of higher inhibitions, should re.
vert once more to that epoch when the
common progenitor of Homo and
Pithecus lived in perpetual awe ano
labored in continual warfare with om
old enemy, the serpent.-Dr. L. w.
Mann, in Journal of Inebriety.
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