thrown into shade, and the human mind becomes exhibited to the sagacious observer in its true colours; whatever original constitution, education, and habit, have made it, all is now laid bare, every latent thought is sooner or later disclosed with undisguised truth; hence it is that attendants upon lunatics make discoveries of thought, intentions, and correspondent actions, of which they had no previous knowledge, or even apprehended had an existence!' p. 39.

We think this statement is, in some measure, erroneous; and it is most assuredly inconsistent with the writer's own notions respecting the production of the disease. Arrant hypocrisy we allow to be too characteristic of man Sin has so marred creation, that the very essence of society-of polished society in particular-has come to be made up of artifice, and concealment, and fraud: still we cannot be brought to consider the maniacal, to be the real state of the mind. Let the above statement be contrasted with the following extract, and Mr. Hill, to be consistent with himself, must allow the retiring modesty of the accomplished woman,' mentioned in the last paragraph of the extract, to be a mere cloak to conceal the basest propensities of human nature.

That the general symptoms mentioned above will terminate in a Sthenic attack, is known by an unusual and remarkable inequality of temper and spirits, or a manifest tendency to an exactly opposite conduct to the accustomed one. In males from temperance to excess, from a mild demeanour, to a lofty, overbearing, dictatorial manner; from civility of manners, to hauteur and self-consequence; from avarice, to generosity, and vice-versa; from energy, and fearlessness of conduct, to indecision and latent cowardice. In females, the change is marked from their habits of seclusion, and domestic occupancy, being converted into a rambling visitation of all their intimates, and a disposition to convert a very slight acquaintance into an intimate friend. An increasing boldness, and unseemly audacity usurps the place of that retiring modesty, which heretofore endeared the conduct of the accomplished woman. A coarseness of manners bordering on indelicacy is gradually evolved.' p. 242.

In justice to ourselves, we must remark that the want of consistency displayed in these two accounts, is not noticed in the spirit of hypercritical cavil, but with a view to obviate any distressing misconception in the mind of an individual, which might happen upon the supposition that a person had not assumed his genuine character till the mask of sanity had been torn away :that he was not a true man till he had become a maniac!

So widely indeed does fact differ from the above representation of our Author, respecting the development of latent disposition during insanity, that the exact contrary is a matter of almost universal notoriety. It happens especially to medical practitioners, often to witness, that, even in the delirium and

temporary insanity accompanying febrile and some other acute diseases, the whole man shall be totally transformed. We have ourselves seen instances of a delicacy which had been carried to an almost morbid extreme, being converted, under the circumstances supposed, into grossness and indelicacy, both of demeanour and expression; and we have had still more lamentable occasions to observe even exemplars of morality and religious rectitude, changed, by mental disorder, into revellers, so to speak, in vicious and profane discourse. So precarious is the tenure of the most noble possession of man! So much does it behove him to put the talent intrusted to his use, to a good account," while it is called to day!" and so cruelly harsh, we may add, are those inferences which are sometimes made of what the man has been, from what he is now! The athletic and robust, by fractured limbs, or diseased bodies, are rendered equally impotent, with the feeble and delicate; and what can be expected from the acutest understanding, or most correct mind, when that mind has become disjointed and broken?

We now proceed to some observations on our Author's second division of his subject.

We are happy in having it in our power to recommend an attentive perusal of the first section of this second chapter, to all who are attached to the system of venesection, which has, we are sorry to say, become too prevalent in the modern practice of medicine. The two states of Sthenia and Asthenia, are here, as in other parts of the work, marked out with a degree of precision, which is, in some respects, perhaps, unfounded and deceptive; yet still we feel conscious, that much and serious mischief, has grown out of the neglect to notice the prevailing diathesis in mental sufferings. Mania and melancholia, however, we deem improper, and practically injurious designations, of the Sthenic and Asthenic states. These two conditions of the same disease not only alternate their states in a manner different from the frequent conversion of Sthenia into Asthenia, but the highest and most obstinate degree of Melancholia, is often grafted upon a system where great and Sthenic excitement prevails.

Two succeeding sections of this chapter are devoted to the description and history of the Sthenic, or high form of insanity; and the features of the dreadful malady are evidently delineated by the hand of an able and very experienced artist So much were we struck with the fidelity and force of some of the colouring in this part of the work, that, had it been consistent with our limits, we should here readily have transcribed several pages of description..

From the Sthenic, our Author proceeds to an account of the Asthenic, or Melancholic, species of the disease; and here again

we detect the prevailing tendency of his mind to attribute all to organic læsion, raising this from its frequent situation of effects into the rank of cause. Debility,' he says, 'with the læsion of some important organ, is the foundation of this form of mental aberration. Many of our readers are aware, that on the cir cumstance of that visceral affection which accompanies the complaint, being a precursor or successor of the attack, has been founded the distinction of the schools between Hypochondriasis and Melancholia-vera; a distinction which the present Author's principles would lead him to disregard, but which, we think, notwithstanding, to be founded on truth.

We may here complain of a want of definition of madness, founded upon its peculiar characteristics; and although to describe, is, in the general way, better than to define, yet still,. neglecting to point out the essentials of the insane state, may lead to serious error; when it is our wish to determine on its actual existence. It is often, as we shall see hereafter, of great moment to be able to draw the line with decision and nicety, between the sound and the unsound mind; and towards enabling us to effect this, it will then appear how important an accurate definition of the constituents of the state may sometimes prove. One clew, however, to this secret, is furnished by the following statement. A renewed impression, without the presence of the original object in a sane mind, is never so vivid as the original, but in an insane mind, the reverse is the fact. And again

They (the subjects of the disease) take no note of time, for this is an act of sanity; but time passed during insanity is a period of non-existence. These are statements which stand confirmed with melancholy force by the two following cases; the one extracted from a periodical publication, the other narrated by the Author himself

"A gentleman on the point of marriage, left his intended bride for a short time; he usually travelled in the stage coach to the place of her. abode; the last journey he took from her was the last of his life. Anxiously expecting his return, she went to meet the vehicle. An old friend announced to her the death of her lover; she uttered an involuntary scream and pitcous exclamation," he is dead." From this fatal moment, for fifty years, has this unfortunate female daily, i all seasons, traversed the distance of a few miles to the spot where she expected her future husband to alight from the coach, uttering in a plaintive tone, "he is not come yet-I will return top. 105.

morrow."

A young robust divine was one wintry day employed in snipeshooting with a friend: in the course of their perambulations, a high hedge intervened between the companions. The friend fired at a bird which sprang unexpectedly up, and lodged a part of the shot in the forehead of the clergyman; he instantly fell, and did not recover,

the shock of (for) some days, so as to be deemed out of danger; when he was so, it was perceived that he was mentally deranged. He was to have been married two days subsequent to that on which the accident happened; from this peculiar combination of circumstances, the phenomena of the case appeared to arise, for all sanity of mind seemed to make a full stop as it were at this spot of the current, and he soon became a mild, pleasant, chronic lunatic. All his conversation was literally confined to the business of the wedding; out of this circle he never deviated, but dwelt upon every thing relating to it with minuteness, never retreating or advancing one step further for half a century, being ideally still a young, active, expecting, and happy bridegroom, chiding the tardiness of time, although it brought him, at the age of eighty, gently to his grave. This sufferer was never known to complain of heat or cold, although his window was open all the year round.'

It may be noticed, as we proceed, that one of the above cases, appears to acknowledge a purely mental origin; the other was engendered in a mixed way. The injury done to the brain, in the last instance, would most probably have been insufficient to the production of lunacy, had the subject of the disease been in different circumstances of mind.

On the subject of predisposition to insanity, our Author has been guilty of the common error, especially in medical writings, of clothing common-place, self-evident truisms, in the garb of pompous, high-sounding words; and thus deceiving himself into a supposition that he is advancing new and important truths. Dr. Cullen's long dissertation respecting excitement and collapse, has always appeared to us to be of this nature; and Mr. Hill, with different terms, has pursued the same track. Predisposition, the whole section says, and it says nothing more, is predisposition!

The proximate cause of insanity, we are told, consists in a peculiar or specific change in the power of accumulation, and subsequent action of the subtle matter of nervous influence. Such may be the case; but as this subtle matter has not yet assumed a sensible, tangible shape, it would have been more consistent with the simplicity which philosophy requires, to have talked of irregularity in distribution of power, rather than of matter.

The cloven foot of materialism is, as might be expected, fully displayed, while treating of the exciting causes of the insane state. The absence of brainular appearance correspondent to symptoms of diseased brain during life, has been reinarked by all the writers who have treated of the subject of mental hallucination. Mr. Hill is exceedingly anxious to shew that such want of sensible, is no want of actual proof, that brainular changes had taken place; for morbid dissections of other parts, even of the lungs, have often, he says, displayed a very different

state of things from that which the anatomist had anticipated. In this part of the treatise, our Author evidently exhibits a disposition to mould his facts into the form of his theory.

This attachment to system at the expense of fact, again breaks out, when our Author comes to the consideration of the much agitated inquiry, respecting the hereditary nature of the malady in question. It might have been expected from a thoroughbred Brunonian, who talks of Sthenia and Asthenia, as states always regular and minutely recognizable, that he would enter the list with those who fall into the vulgar notion of hereditary predisposition. But to deny the fact of constitutional similarity between parent and progeny, is, assuredly, to fly in the face of truth. Philip's father having been arthritic, Philip will, in the general way, be more predisposed to gout than another; and it will behove him to be more careful in avoiding exposure to the exciting causes of gout. Nay, further, the son will sometimes inherit the patrimonial malady in spite of all his precautions. Constitutional bias, both mental and physical, is, in many instances, early discoverable; and in both cases, it becomes a part of the moral duty devolving upon the individual, sedulously to counteract evil tendency, by a timely and prudent employment of preventive measures. A special and strong guard ought always to be kept, at the most vulnerable parts. To question the enemy's power, or to deny his existence, is not the way successfully to oppose his machinations. Let it never be forgotten, that the mind religiously disciplined, and duly regulated, has a certain degree of command over constitutional bias, and original temperament. If we endure the tortures of the gout, we must, before we complain of the legacy left us by our parents, first institute a self-inquisition as to our own share in producing the expansion of the latent germe; and the same principle must be pursued with respect to other tendencies. Natural disposition will prove troublesome, or otherwise, in proportion to its being, or its not being, permitted an uncontrolled reign. That I am of an evil temper, is an illegitimate plea before conscience and my Maker, for evil conduct. We are not passive bodies, impelled by pure necessity. Moral responsibility is not a name without meaning. But to return to our Author.

The fourth and last chapter of the work, brings us to the treatment, preventive and curative of the complaint; and here we have to remark, in the first place, that the Author deals too much in the language both of censure and of confidence. He is too free with the conduct of others, and perhaps too positive in favour of his own principles. We are no enemies to decision, nor do we think it necessary to conceal our sentiments on the misconduct of others; but, in the present instance, we think the