fastened together, to kick a hole in the fireguard and thrust his feet into a quick fire, which he made more fierce by tearing up a book and thrusting the leaves in. He was found a few minutes after, sitting very composedly in this position. His toes and part of one foot were severely burned; the other escaped with a smart scorching. In the burned foot inflammation, extensive and deep eschars, and mortification, with sloughing of the muscles and tendons, followed. And, finally, all the bones of the toes, and some of the metatarsal bones, sloughed away. The cure of this foot occupied more than a year; the scorched one soon got well. But neither during the combustion of the toes, nor for months afterward, upon removing the diseased parts or dressing the wound, was any pain expressed. But when the mind improved and the desire of suicide diminished, which it did long before the wound healed, he complained violently of the pain he suffered from it or when it was dressed."

This case seems to show (and it is what the analogy presented by the irregular action of the other senses would lead us to expect) that disordered tactual sensations do not depend exclusively upon a disordered condition of the bodily organ; but also, and perhaps in an equal degree, upon an irregular or abnormal action of the mind. In many cases there is probably a combined sensation, the corporeal combining itself with the mental. A case mentioned in Dr. Brewster's Work on Natural Magic is one of this character, presenting the results * Burrows's Commentaries on Insanity, Part ii., Com. ii., p. 290.

of a morbid state of the body operated upon by an inordinately excited state of the mind. It is the ac

count of a lady who was subject to spectral illusions, of whom it is expressly said that she possesses a "naturally morbid imagination, so strongly affecting her corporeal impressions that the story of any person having suffered severe pain, by accident or otherwise, will occasionally produce acute twinges in the corresponding part of her person. An account, for instance, of the amputation of an arm, will produce an instantaneous and severe sense of pain in her own arm.’

§ 52. Other cases illustrative of Disordered Sensations and Perceptions.

There are some cases of tactual disorder still more striking than those which have been mentioned. It is not unfrequently the fact, that persons have very peculiar tactual sensations existing, not in a particular part merely, but over the whole body. One, for instance, has a sensation which conveys to him the idea of great bodily enlargement or diminution. Another has a sensation of lightness, as if he were composed of feathers. Another experiences a feeling of weight, as if he were made of lead. And others, again, have a strong and indescribable sensation, which they indicate by saying, it seems to them as if they were made of glass or of some other substance.

Some very marked cases of insanity have a connexion with the facts which have now been alluded The organ of touch, for instance, throughout I

to.

the physical system is so disordered as to give a person the distinct sensation of brittleness or of being made of glass. The sensation, we will suppose, is so distinct and so strong as to control this person's belief; and that he actually believes himself to be made of glass. This, certainly, is possible. The state of mind, it will be recollected, which is called belief, is not, strictly speaking, a voluntary one; but has its laws, which necessarily determine it. And we cannot be surprised, therefore, that, under the circumstances supposed, he should have a full persuasion that he is physically in this condition. In other words, he is, in his own view and practically, a man of glass, and regulates his conversation and his conduct in consistency with this fundamental error. We have here a full and marked case of insanity; one which is universally acknowledged to be so; but which, in its origin, appears to be founded exclusively upon a disordered condition of the sense of touch. And the same of other cases.

§ 53. Application of these views to the Witchcraft Delusion in New-England.

The statements of this chapter will help to explain one of the leading features of the witchcraft delusion, which prevailed in New-England about the year 1690. The feature we refer to was this. The unfortunate subjects, as they were supposed to be, of diabolical arts, often complained that they were pricked with pins, or pierced with knives, or struck with blows. And all by the means and through the

The simple fact

agency of some invisible hand. probably was, that they were merely the subjects of disordered or alienated sensations and perceptions of the touch. They felt something, undoubtedly. And the sensation was very much such a one as would have followed the prick of a pin, the wound from a knife, or the infliction of a blow. But there

was, in fact, nothing more than what can be easily explained on natural and philosophical principles. There is no need to suppose the introduction of invisible and external agency. Dr. Cotton Mather, who is the principal historian of those remarkable events, furnishes one fact that throws some light upon this point. Speaking of the bewitched persons, he 66 says: They often felt the hand that scratched them, while yet they saw it not; but, when they thought they had hold of it, it would give them the slip. Once the fist beating the man was discernible, but they could not catch hold of it."*

We admit, however, that the principles of this chapter are not sufficient to explain all the facts which are said to have occurred in that remarkable period of delusion. We shall hereafter, probably, have occasion, in connexion with other forms of disordered mental action, to refer to the subject again.

* Mather's Magnalia, book vi., ch. 7.

CHAPTER V.

DISORDERED SENSATION AND PERCEPTION.

(IV.) THE SENSE OF SIGHT.

$54. Of the Outward or Physical Organ of the Sensations and Perceptions of Sight.

FOLLOWING the plan of inquiry which we have marked out, we proceed now to the consideration of disordered mental action as it exists in connexion with the sense of sight. The organ of this sense is the eye. The medium on which this organ acts are rays of light, everywhere diffused, and always advancing, if they meet with no opposition, in direct lines. The eye, which may be regarded as a sort of telescope, having its distinct parts, and discovering throughout the marks of admirable wisdom, not only receives externally the medium on which it acts, but carries the rays of light into itself; and, on principles purely scientific, refracts and combines them anew. If they were to continue passing on precisely in the same direction, they would produce merely one mingled and indistinct expanse of colour. In their progress, however, through the crystalline humour, they are refracted or bent from their former direction, and are distributed to certain focal points on the retina, which is a white, fibrous expansion of the optic nerve. As soon as the rays of light have been distributed on their distinct portions