Letters on demonology and witchcraft. Addressed to J. G. Lockhart, Esq / by Sir Walter Scott, Bart.
- Walter Scott
- Date:
- 1831
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Letters on demonology and witchcraft. Addressed to J. G. Lockhart, Esq / by Sir Walter Scott, Bart. Source: Wellcome Collection.
42/428
![the truth, or (hsceraing the falsehood, of external appearances, by an appeal to the organ of sight. Unfortunately, however, as is now universally known and admitted, there certainly exists more than one disorder known to professional men, of which one important sj'mptom is a disposition to see apparitions. This frightful disorder is not properly insanity, although it is somewhat allied to that most hor- rible of maladies, and may, in many constitutions, be the means of bringing it on, and although such hallucinations are proper to both. The difference I conceive to be, that, in cases of insanity, the mind of the patient is principally affected, while the senses, or organic s)^stem, offer in vain to the lunatic their decided testimony against the fantasy of a deranged imagination. Perhaps- the nature of this collision—between a disturbed imagination and organs of sense possessed of their usual accuracy —cannot be l)etter described than in the embar- rassment expressed by an insane patient confined in the Infirmary of Edinburgh. The poor man’s malady had taken a gay turn. Tlie house, in his idea, was his own, and he contrived to account for all that seemed inconsistent with his imaginary right of property ;—there were man}' patients in it, but that was owing to the benevolence of his nature, which made him love to see the relief of distress. Pie Avent little, or rather never, abroad —but then his habits Avere of a domestic and rather sedentary character. He did not see much company —•])ut he daily received visits from the first charac- ters in the renowned medical school of this city; and he could not therefore be much in Avant ot](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22029667_0044.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
