CHAPTER XV.

INSANITY, 320

Two classes of causes—those which act upon the mind, and those which act upon the body. Insanity always, strictly speaking, a disease of the organization. Too much disposition to look to some one thing as the cause. Tables of causes in Hospital reports. Form of the insanity not necessarily indicative of its cause, or of the character of the patient. CAUSES OF INSANITY. Indulgence of passions. Wrong views of life. Exclusive and prolonged attention to one subject. Insanity rare among savages, and those under despotic governments. Great prevalence in this country. Religious excitement. Debilitated system predisposing to insanity. Intemperance. Children seldom insane, though very liable to temporary derangement in sickness. Foundation of insanity, however, often laid in childhood. Forms and signs of insanity. Cases in which the disease comes on slowly. Monomania. Moral insanity. Treatment of the insane. Change produced by Pinel. ADVANTAGES OF RETREATS OR HOSPITALS. 1. Removal of patient from the associations under which his insanity originated. 2. Judicious medical treatment. 3. Better mental and moral management than can have among his friends. Mistakes of friends of the insane in their management. Reasons why insane apt to dislike their nearest friends most. Helplessness of insane poor. Duty of the State in regard to them. Legal relations of insanity. Absurd and inconsistent opinions and practices of our courts of justice. Professional evidence in France, and in this country, when prisoner suspected of insanity. Insane often been executed. Plea of insanity. Importance of preventing the acts for which the insane are brought before our courts as criminals. Laws deficient at this point. Necessity of a commission of lunacy.