On the reciprocal agencies of mind and matter, and on insanity : being the Lumleian lectures, delivered at the Royal College of Physicians, A.D. 1851 / by J.C. Badeley.
- John Carr Badeley
- Date:
- 1851
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: On the reciprocal agencies of mind and matter, and on insanity : being the Lumleian lectures, delivered at the Royal College of Physicians, A.D. 1851 / by J.C. Badeley. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![tural feelings, affections, and habits, witli- out any assignable cause [which the same author calls moral insanity] ; or, an entire absence of reason, in wliich the mind is more or less annUiilated—in other words, dementia. The usual divisions are mania, melancholia, and idiotcy. These three deviations from a healthy or normal condition of mind admit of varied divisions and subdivisions, according to the predominant form or character of the dis- ease. The human mind is such a hetero- geneous mass of ideas and propensities, that when reason has lost her control, they break forth in various forms and degrees, rendering thereby a lunatic asylum a chaos of imgovemed passions, hallucinations, and delusions. Thus, under one roof, we find one man singing, another reciting, another standing apparently absorbed in thought, another melancholy and mute, another walking hurriedly, and muttering incohe- rently to himself, another full of tricks and mischief,—all and each of them regardless and imconscious of the absurdity of their deportment, and holding no intercourse with their companions, but each playing a part in the waking dream of his own dis- ordered imagination. You are in a group of wakeful somnambuUsts : some will an- swer you if spoken to ; others will remain obstinately silent; some wiU give not only a rational but a shrewd reply. Nor do madmen always lose the power of reason- ing ; on the contrary, they are frequently most acute, but their Data are erroneous : tliey labour under delusions,—and their imaginations convert fancies into reaUties, and so betray the imperfection of their in- tellect ; for, being regardless of censure or of ridicule, they have no concealment, and therefore reveal their hallucination, and ai c; kings, or deities, or statesmen, or poets, w anytliing else that may be prompted by their visionary impression; and it is in vain to attempt by force of argument io controvert the impression. This tyranny of fancy's reign is most vividly pour- trayed by that transcendant delineator of the human mind, Hogarth, who, in his last painting of the Rake's Progress, lias represented the diversity with painful fideUty. Can we, then, approach any nearer to a definition of insanity, asks Dr. ConoUy (an authority which admits no question and requires no praise), than by saying that it is the impairment of any one or more of the faculties of the mind, accompanied with, or inducing, a defect in the compar- ing faculty. These self-styled kings, or statesmen, or whatever be their delusion, are unable to compare theu- assumed con- dition with the dress, or the society, or tlie situation in which they exist. Their rea- soning faculty may not be wholly lost, but they are blind to the absurdity of their assumption. Their data are erroneous, and what reasoning powers they may pos- sess are exercised on the vision of their imagination. Converse with them on other topics, and they may appear very rational beings ; yet in each case there is a diseased state of nund; and this insane beUef (arising as it does from a want of power to compare things which are with things which are not) constitutes their in- sanity. Dr. MilUngen attended a judge ui < lie West Indies who fancied himself a turtle! This ridiculous impression did not prevent](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22281563_0038.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
