please-at the same time you tell him that, in order to judge correctly of their advice, he will need a great deal of preliminary instruction-you give him the result of your own knowledgeyou tell him what to do, and what to abstain from—and you, above all, command an entire change of habits, and the relinquishment of all those vicious indulgences which you know to have been the cause of his disease.

"But it is especially amongst persons of imperfect mindsof beings who have but a glimmering of the real nature and consequences of sin-whose weak intellects, in attempting to comprehend things beyond their mental powers, have lost all selfcontrol, and, if not stopped short in their endeavours to comprehend the incomprehensible, rapidly pass on into a confusion of mind which must end in insanity. To set such persons upon a task which requires all the faculties in health would be destruction. They have not lost their feelings of devotion, which are, perhaps, in excess-they are not incapable of self-control in the absence of excitement. To these unhappy beings we prescribe a course of prayers and ceremonial religious observances which tranquillize their minds, occupy their time and thoughts, and produce the soothing satisfaction of duties fulfilled-and thus they escape the insanity which would have been the effect of permitting theological studies by disordered minds."

I endeavoured to shew that judicious clergymen of the Church of England took the same view of incipient insanity; but my collocutor denied that such a plan could possibly be practised by Protestants, and said that the statistics of England shewed the contrary.

It is evident that much must depend on the discretion of the clergy of both systems; but with ignorant preachers, amongst the uneducated especially, every medical man must have seen examples of quiet delusion transformed into confirmed insanity, and fanatical devotion (the result of cerebral disturbance) encouraged by such men as a manifestation of Divine Grace. I am sorry to say that some of the clergy take a similar view

436

INFLUENCE OF RELIGION ON INSANITY.

of the matter in discussion, and that they concur in opinion of the utility of the study of theology by such persons, than which nothing can be more fatally mischievous. I have some hope that the remarks on which I have ventured may tend to convince them of the danger of such undue excitement of brains requiring absolute repose. It must be evident from the whole scope and tenor of my work, that I am a sincere friend to the Establishment, and hold the clergy in the highest veneration; my sentiments, therefore, ought to have some weight. My predominant wish, indeed, in writing this book, was not merely to avoid offence, but to induce them to take it up as an auxiliary and introduction to the study of moral philosophy, to which, in fact, it seems to me that a correct (even if limited) knowledge of the functions of the brain in health and disease is an essential preliminary.

437

APPENDIX II.

CONJECTURES ON THE NATURE OF THE MENTAL

OPERATIONS.

IN the preceding pages, while deprecating every attempt to describe the nature or mode of action of the SOUL, which indeed can be comprehended or even conceived only by direct revelation, it is, I think, proved, that the production of MIND is not only through the instrumentality of the brain, but that every manifestation of the mind is immediately caused by a direct and physical action of that organ, however difficult it may be to conceive the mode of such action, still more to assign a name to it from any analogy with the actions known to us-as contraction, dilatation, vibration, oscillation, circulation, and many others; or even to such as are less obviously material, as electricity, galvanism, and magnetism. However difficult it may also be to describe or to name such action, it is clear that some action, some movement, some change, must take place on these occasions. That such action takes place, not in the whole brain, at every impulse, thought, reflection, or idea, is also evident; because we see that injuries of different parts of the organ, and different degrees or kinds of injury, distort or destroy parts only of the mind, leaving the remainder in the ordinary state, and capable of the ordinary functions. One kind of blow on the head shall annihilate the knowledge of a language-another shall produce a permanent irritability-another a torpid and almost imbecile amiability; one kind of injury shall change love into hatred-another transform a sober, steady, and wise man, into a vain and chattering fool; one shall excite all the

mental functions into undue and brilliant activity and power, while another shall annihilate all the higher intellectual faculties, and leave none but the instincts of the animal. Disease in a very small and circumscribed portion of the brain shall utterly distort the judgment and the power of combination and comparison; or leave all these perfect, except on one single topic. All the varieties of insanity--the absurd reasoningthe base and disgusting propensities-the ferocity of the beast of prey-the extravagant and incongruous feelings of devotion or sexual fondness-all arise from the mode of action of the organ, or rather organs, which create the mind.

The soul—the immortal, immaterial principle itself, cannot be sometimes good and sometimes bad, sometimes vicious and depraved, sometimes amiable and virtuous. It is the gift of the Creator! and did it not leave the hands of the Maker pure and perfect, it would be tyrannous to exact from us a good and virtuous life. Revelation tells us its exalted nature, and that it is man alone who dims its lustre, and destroys its original brightness.

This, however, is a subject too profound to be discussed in a work like the present. It is for theologians alone, and to them I leave it.

The modes and manifestations of mind are strictly within the bounds of physiology and pathology, and belong specifically and exclusively to the medical philosopher. The immediate physical movement of the intellectual organs by which they are enabled to manifest their specific functions, it is not only permitted, but it is a duty to investigate; and let us push our researches as far as we may in the ascending series, we shall never arrive at the first principle, the primum mobile, by any other road than a Revelation.

The many forms of imbecility and insanity which are permitted to exist by the will of the Creator, and which it would be monstrous to subject to responsibility, are proof incontrovertible that the due and proper influence of the soul upon intellect and moral conduct can only be exercised through a healthy brain; and that when, from any cause, that brain is

incapable of correct reasoning, all the future actions of that individual are absolutely exempt from moral responsibility. For the acts which led to that state of brain, as (for example) intoxication and gross indulgences, the individual is, however, justly answerable. The investigation of the physical action of the brain, in producing the effects we call mind, is then not only a laudable effort, but a very important aid to religion, and the physician who enters upon it ought to receive every encouragement from the professors of the sacred science; for, if he can point out the physical state which leads to vice and crime, it is reasonable to believe that he may essentially aid in anticipating or removing it.

I beg the reader to bear in mind the title of this chapterCONJECTURES. It is only as conjectures that I offer my speculations on this mysterious subject. I do not expect them to be accepted, but I do expect that they may lead others to a much more advanced position than that occupied by the suggester; just as the "Scantling, No. XCV.," of the Marquis of Worcester's "Century of Inventions," led distinctly and clearly to the discovery of the steam-engine.

Preparatory to an attempt to explain the modus operandi of the brain, I will beg leave to introduce a trivial anecdote, which may tend to facilitate the comprehension of it by analogy.

I was sometime ago at Liverpool, and, in consequence of the excessive heat of the weather, passed a considerable part of the day in going backwards and forwards across the river in the steam-boat, where alone the atmosphere was breathable.

A man on board was engaged in amusing the company by ventriloquism, and depended on the casual pence of the passengers for his remuneration. He took out of his pocket a little doll, dressed as a sailor, and in a low and vulgar dialogue of much wit, so completely established the deception, that I observed several persons approach the man who did not dare to touch the puppet, because of the screams which were uttered the moment a hand came near him. I had heard Alexander, and many of his predecessors, but none of then. came up to the startling fidelity of this entirely uneducated man. I watched