served. Many insane, as we have already shown, manifest their aberration only under certain circumstances and on particular occasions, and appear quite correct at all other times. Many, too, whose insanity is recognized by every body who knows them, never evince it in their discourse, but solely in their ways and habits. If, on the other hand, the prisoner is feigning insanity, he will summon all his powers to produce the requisite impression at these interviews which, being short and few, the difficulty of his task is much lessened. To ascertain satisfactorily the mental condition of a prisoner suspected of being insane, he should be placed where the expert may be able to see him often, and at times when he is not aware of being observed. His words, and acts, and movements, his manners and habits should be systematically watched, and a single day of such observation would often throw more light on the case than many formal interviews. We see no difficulty in so changing our modes of criminal procedure, that when the court shall be satisfied that there are reasonable doubts of the prisoner's sanity, it may be authorized to postpone the trial, and place him, in the mean time, in the charge of an expert-for which our hospitals for the insane furnish a convenient and suitable opportunity -whose report shall be received in evidence at the trial. This is substantially the course adopted in France, and nothing short of its adoption with us, will render the plea of insanity powerless for evil, and remove the suspicions of the community on this point.

§ 46. If the above hasty review of the judicial opinions and practices that have hitherto prevailed relative to insanity, have left the impression, that this disease is as yet but imperfectly understood, as well in the medical profession as out of it, an explanation of this fact may perhaps be demanded; but as it would be hardly relevant to the present purpose to enter largely into a discussion of this point, nothing more will be attempted than merely to indicate what seems to have had the principal share in producing it. To explain the little progress, comparatively speaking, that has been made by medical men in the knowledge of insanity, it is too

much the fashion to allege, that they have neglected the study of mental philosophy, or that of mind in the healthy state, which is indispensable to correct notions on the disordered condition of mind. So far, however, is the fact here indicated from being true, generally, that one cannot hesitate to say, that the result in question has been owing to the undue account that physicians have made of the popular philosophy of mind, in explaining the phenomena of insanity, and that they have failed in consequence of studying metaphysics too much instead of too little. While it is admitted that the knowledge of healthy structure and functions is necessary to a thorough understanding of diseased structure and functions, there is every reason to believe, that the converse of the proposition is equally true; neither can be successfully studied independently of the other. In the prosecution of psycholog ical science, this latter truth has been almost entirely disregarded, and therefore it is, that we see the metaphysician looking for his facts and his theories in the healthy manifestations of the mind, and directed in his course solely by his own self-consciousness, while the student of insanity, after collecting his facts with commendable diligence and discrimination, amid the disorder and irregularity of disease, resorts to the theories of the former, for the purpose of generalizing his results, instead of building upon them a philosophy of his own. Metaphysics, in its present condition, is utterly incompetent to furnish a satisfactory explanation of the phenomena of insanity, and a more deplorable waste of ingenuity can hardly be imagined, than is witnessed in the modern attempts to reconcile the facts of the one with the speculations of the other. In proof of the truth of these assertions, it is enough barely to mention, that the existence of monomania, as a distinct form of mental derangement, was denied, and declared to be a fiction of medical men, long after it had taken its place among the established truths of science; because, probably, it was a condition of mind not described by metaphysical writers. All this, however, is in accordance with a well-known law of the human mind, which resists important innovations upon the common modes of thinking till long

after they shall have been required by the general progress of knowledge. The dominant philosophy has prevailed so long and so extensively, and has become so firmly rooted in men's minds that they who refuse to take it on trust and who seriously inquire into its foundations, and after finding them too narrow and imperfect, are bold enough to endeavor to remedy its defects by laying foundations of their own, are stigmatized as visionaries, and overwhelmed with ridicule and censure. The only metaphysical system of modern times which professes to be founded on the observation of nature, and which 'really does explain the phenomena of insanity with a clearness and versimilitude that strongly corroborate its proofs, was so far from being joyfully welcomed, that it is still confined to a sect, and is regarded, by the world at large, as one of those strange vagaries in which the human mind has sometimes loved to indulge. So true it is, that, in theory, all mankind are agreed in encouraging and applauding the humblest attempt to enlarge the sphere of our ideas, while, in practice, it often seems as if they were no less agreed to crush them by means of every weapon that wit, argument, and calumny can furnish. In the course of this work, the reader will have frequent occasions to see how the popular misconceptions, which are too much adopted by professional men of the nature of various forms of mental derangement, have been produced and fostered by the current metaphysical doctrines, and thus may have some means of judging for himself, how far the imperfect notions of insanity, that are yet prevalent, may be attributed to the cause above assigned.

CHAPTER I.

MENTAL DISEASES IN GENERAL.

§ 47. CORRECT ideas of the pathology of insanity are not unessential to the progress of enlightened views respecting its legal relations. If it be considered as withdrawn from the influence of the common laws of nature in the production of disease, and attributed to the direct visitation of God; if the existence of physical changes be overlooked or denied, and be referred exclusively to some mysterious affection of the immaterial spirit for its cause; then is it in vain to hope, that such a condition can ever be the object of discriminating, salutary legislation. In the prevalence of such views in past times, however, we may look for the cause of much of the error and absurdity that pervade the law of insanity, and that are equally at variance with the principles of science and the dictates of humanity. It is an undoubted truth, that the manifestations of the intellect, and those of the sentiments, propensities, and passions, or generally, of the intellectual and affective powers, are connected with and dependent upon the brain. It follows, then, that abnormal conditions of these powers are equally connected with abnormal conditions of the brain; but this is not merely a matter of inference. The dissections of many eminent observers, among whom it is enough to mention the names of Greding, Gall and Spurzheim, Calmeil, Foville, Falret, Bayle, Esquirol, and Georget, have placed it beyond a doubt; and no pathological fact is better established-though its correctness was for a long while doubted than that deviations from the healthy structure are generally presented in the brains of insane subjects.

In the few cases where such appearances have not been observed, it is justly concluded that death took place before the deviation was sufficiently great to be perceptible,—a phenomenon not rare in affections of other organs.

§ 48. These pathological changes are not sufficiently definite to admit of classification, or of practical application in the treatment of the various kinds of insanity. To us they are chiefly valuable, as showing the frequent liability to disease, either from excessive exertion or disuse of its own powers, or from its proneness to be affected by morbid irritations that radiate from other parts of the body. We learn from them, also, that changes of structure may proceed in the brain, as in other organs, to an incurable degree, without giving rise to much, if any, very perceptible disturbance of its functions, until some striking and unexpected act leads the enlightened physician to suspect its existence, and draws down upon the unfortunate subject the restraints and penalties of the law.

§ 49. A natural classification of the various forms of insanity, though of secondary importance in regard to its medical treatment, will be of eminent service to the legal inquirer, by enlarging his notions of its phenomena, and enabling him to discriminate, where discrimination is necessary to the attainment of important ends. The deplorable consequences of knowing but one kind of insanity, and of erecting that into a standard, whereby every other is to be compared and tested, are too common in the records of criminal jurisprudence; and it is time that it were well understood, that the philosophy of such a method is no better than would be that of the physician who should recognize no diseases of the stomach, for instance, but such as proceeds from inflammation, and reject all others as anomalous and unworthy of attention. The various diseases included in the general term insanity, or mental derangement, may be conveniently arranged under two divisions, founded on two very different conditions of the brain; the first being a want of its ordinary development, and the second, some lesion of its structure subsequent to its devel