CHAPTER III,

GENERAL ARRANGEMENT OF THE SUBJECT.

28. The Classification of Insane mental action should be predicated on that of Sound mental

action.

WE wish to embrace one other topic, and only one, in this Introduction. It will be our object in the present chapter to give a concise view of the general plan which we propose to pursue in the investigation of the subject before us. The general outline which has been given of the Philosophy of the Mind, helps us very much here. In truth, it indicates very distinctly the course which ought to be taken. We have already had occasion to remark, that the Philosophy of Insanity (using the term in the broad sense) is parallel with that of Sanity; and we mean to intimate by this, not only that they occupy the same wide field, and proceed side by side in the more general sense, but that they are parallel with each other, and are mutually correspondent in their subordinate divisions.

In writing this Treatise on Insanity, we propose, therefore, to pursue the same course, to follow the same order of in vestigation, as if we were endeavouring to prepare a Treatise on the Philosophy of the Mind. The plan, accordingly, is clearly indicated

in what has already been said in relation to the Outlines of Mental Philosophy. We feel the more satisfaction in taking this course, because the writers on this subject seem, as a general thing, to have failed more in the matter of arrangement than they have in the detail of facts, or in the philosophical reflections to which their facts have given rise. Perhaps, however, we ought not to speak of their Works as a failure, even in this respect; if it be true, as it undoubtedly is, in respect to some of them, that their great and leading object was, not to frame a system, but merely to collect facts and to ascertain the statistics of Insanity, preparatory to the labours of others, who, they anticipated, would arise in due time to impress order and philosophic symmetry upon the mass of valuable but chaotic materials. They laboured well in their vocation, and have merited high praise. So true is this, that all which seems to be wanting at the present time is to take the materials, which are furnished ready at hand in great abundance, and arrange them according to the relations they sustain to the immutable principles of Mental Philosophy.

§ 29. Defects in early Classifications and Im

provements of them.

The plan of this work will perhaps appear to some as a novel one, and as wanting, more than ought to be the case, in the supports of authority. But, in point of fact, the plan, in its leading features, has already been sanctioned to some extent by some writers of no small name. In the time of Mr. Locke,

and during all antecedent periods, so far as we know, it was a common doctrine, that insanity is exclusively predicable of the perceptive or intellectual part of man, and does not exist in the affections, In other words, it consists in a lesion or injury of the intellect, and not of the heart. Pinel (an honourable name even among those who have been most distinguished as the benefactors of their race) proposed the extension of the doctrine of insanity, so as to include the moral or affective part of man's nature as well as the intellectual, The proposition was regarded at first as a startling one. Nor does Pinel appear to have understood distinctly, and in its. details, what may properly be included under the head of the moral or affective faculties. Nevertheless, he illustrated and confirmed his doctrine in its general form by such an array of facts, gathered from his widely diversified experience, that it has ever since been accredited by the leading writers, The sagacity of Pinel, sanctioned by the facts which came under his notice, led him to conclude that the doctrine of insanity ought not to be limited to the intellect, We may now go farther, and say that it ought not to be limited to anything short of the length and breadth, and the heighth and depth of the whole mind. It is a source of pleasure, therefore, to notice that a recent German writer, Professor Heinroth, has taken this ground. As it has not been in our power to gain access to Prof. Heinroth's work, we are indebted for what little we know of it to the recently published and very valuable Treatise of Dr. Prichard on Insanity. "The disor

ders of the mind, according to this writer" (says Dr. Prichard)," are only limited in number and in kind by the diversities which exist in the mental faculties." He gives us to understand farther, that Prof. Heinroth divides the mental operations into three different departments, viz., the Understanding, the Feelings or Sentiments, and the Will. Dr. Prichard had adopted a somewhat different arrangement before the Work of Heinroth came into his hands; nor did he find sufficient reason for altering his arrangement in the views which were presented in that work. But he has the candour to say expressly, that "no systematic arrangement of mental disorders can be contrived more complete than that of Professor Heinroth." And again, "His scheme is the most complete system that can be formed; and I have laid the outline of it before my readers, as it may tend to render more distinct their conception of the relations of the different forms of insanity to each other." Dr. Prichard gives a short account of the minor divisions of Heinroth's classification, which we do not consider it necessary to repeat, as it furnishes no important suggestion (although, if we had the original work before us, perhaps it would be otherwise) which we shall deem it necessary to adopt in what follows.

§ 30. The Inquiry naturally begins with the External Intellect.

The first step to be taken will be to give an account of insanity or unsoundness of mental action, as it exists intellectually; that is to say, as it exists

in the Intellect or Understanding. And here we are to keep in view the natural order of the mind's action. If we begin with the intellect, it does not follow that we may begin with any portion of it indiscriminately. This would evidently be inconsistent with the details at least of philosophic arrangement. We commence, therefore, with the External Intellect, or that portion which, in consequence of its connexion with external things, is first brought into action. Accordingly, it will be our object, in the first place, to give some account of Disordered Sensation and of Disordered External Perception, which will open at once a broad and interesting field of inquiry.

In this part of the subject we shall find, for the most part, that the disordered mental action has its basis in disordered physical action, particularly in an irregular or abnormal condition of the nervous system. And here, perhaps, more than anywhere else, it will be necessary to keep in mind the general principles in relation to the connexion between the mind and body which have been brought forward in the preceding chapter.

In treating of sensation and external perception, it will be proper to consider the senses, which are the instruments of this form of mental action, separately from each other, at least as far as it can conveniently be done, and also with reference to some definite principle of arrangement. Under the head of Disordered Visual Sensations, the interesting subject of Apparitions will appropriately have a place. Furthermore, there are some states and powers

of