GEN. VI. Origin and use of the generic term. Employed hitherto in different significations: with much confusion to medical nomenclature. Derivatives from the common root. How distinguished from the preceding genera. GENUS VI. MÓRIA. Fatuity. DEFECT OR HEBETUDE OF THE UNDERSTANDING. MÓRIA is a Greek term from μágos, "stultus, fatuus." It is here limited to its proper signification. Vogel employs it, though with a different termination (morosis instead of mória) in the same or very nearly the same sense; but he is almost the only medical writer that does so. By Nenter and Sauvages mória is used to denote melancholia complacens (self-complacent melancholy), while by others it is employed synonymously with anœa or idiotism. To complete the confusion, morosis (amentia Morosis) is the name given by Sauvages to mental imbecility (mória imbecillis), though, as already observed, he had just before used mória in the sense of melancholy. It is precisely in the signification now offered that the term is employed by Erasmus, in his celebrated treatise entitled "Morice Encomium" or "The Praise of Folly," which he dedicated to Sir Thomas More. Mora, moror, morosus, morositas, are derived from this common source; and uniformly import "waywardness, tardiness, dulness, impediment ;" though the lexicographers, not having hit upon the right path, have wandered in different directions without being able to. satisfy themselves. In Sauvages and Sagar, morositates are in fact "corporeæ moriæ," defects or hebetudes of the bodily faculties. The preceding genera are founded upon a morbid perversion or misrule, a diminished or excessive excitement of one or more of the powers of the mind operating upon the mind itself or upon the body. The present is founded upon a natural or permanent dulness, or hebetude of GEN. VI. Mória. one or more of the same powers, producing a deficiency in the understanding, which, however, may be regarded as Fatuity. the general frame or constitution of the mind, in the same manner as the body is the general frame or constitution of the organs which form its separate parts. Mória thus explained, will be found, as a genus, to embrace the two following species:— THE DEFECT OR HEBETUDE PARTIAL, OR CONFINED TO : or SPEC. I. We have already observed that all the faculties of the GEN. VI. mind are as subject to a diseased disturbance as the General gans of the body and hence all of them are liable to be remarks. affected by the present species. The whole of the varieties, therefore, under which mental imbecility is capable of being contemplated might form an extensive list: but it will be sufficient to confine ourselves to the four following: a Stupiditas. Stupidity. B Amnesia. Forgetfulness. 7 Credulitas. Credulity. Dulness and indocility of the ap- mory. Weakness and undue pliancy of a M. imbe cillis Stupi ditas. Stupidity. Generally other facul ties besides tion and ap- obtuse in this sion, its rela use. Instability and irresolution of the will. In STUPIDITY there is generally a dulness in several of the faculties besides the apprehension and the imagination; and sometimes, perhaps, in all of them: but then it originates in these, and the rest are for the most part only secondarily dull, as not being furnished with a suffithe imagina- cient number of ideas or in sufficient rapidity for their Thus the judgement of a heavy or stupid man is often as sound in itself as that of a man of capacious comprehension; and more so, perhaps, for a reason we have judgement already observed under alusia facetosa, or crack-brained often sound wit, than that of a man of facetious quickness of parts: though slow: but the heavy man requires time and patience to collect and even his ideas, and compare them with each other; for they sounder than in facetious are neither furnished to him in a free current from his quickness. memory or his imagination, nor does he readily apprehend Explained. or lay hold of them as they are offered from external obApprehen- jects to his perception, which, in effect, is little more than a synonym for the apprehension-the appréhension being perception. the perception in a state of exercise, or exertion. There is hence a material difference in physiology, though, perhaps little in practice, between ignorance and stupidity. The former is want of knowledge from want of its ordinary means; and by the use of such means may, perhaps, soon be gotten the better of: the latter is dulness in the use of such knowledge as by ordinary means has been acquired and exists in the sensory, though in a state of Exemplified stagnation or dormancy. Mr. Locke has made the same from Locke. distinction, though he has justly enough observed that, for all practical purposes the man of stupidity had almost as well be without his knowledge as with it." He," says this admirable writer, "who, through this default in his memory, has not the ideas that are really preserved there, ready at hand when need and occasion call for them, were almost as good be without them quite, since they serve him to little purpose. The dull man, who loses the opportunity whilst he is seeking in his mind for those tion to the Difference between stupidity and ignorance. ideas that should serve his turn, is not much more happy in his knowledge than one that is perfectly ignorant. It is the business of the memory to furnish those ideas which it has present occasion for, and in the having them ready at hand on all occasions, consists that which we call invention, fancy, and quickness of parts Causes of stupidity, some idio pathic affec tion. other dis ease. Stupidity or dulness of apprehension may be idiopathic; but it may also proceed from want of education, or education irregularly conducted; for all the faculties of the mind, like the muscles of the body, become invigorated and are rendered more alert by a well disciplined exercise. proper eduAnd hence stupidity is a natural result of idleness; as it cation. is more particularly of idleness in conjunction with an undue use of wine and fermented liquors, which have a proverbial power of besotting the understanding. It is also Local or produced temporarily or habitually by various corporeal diseases; as hemicrania, chronic inflammation or dropsy of the head, gout in the head, and sometimes repelled cutaneous eruptions or habitual discharges. Stupidity, like wit, is propagable; and hence we fre- Is propagable. quently see it run from one generation to another; and not unfrequently it forms a distinctive mark in the mental character of districts or nations: in many cases, indeed, where they border closely on each other. The Dutch have Illustrated. at least as much solid sense as their neighbours the French; but they are certainly less quick; or, in other words, they have a duller fancy and apprehension. Boeotia in respect to chorography was merely separated from Attica by Mount Citharon; but in respect to genius the two countries were as far apart as the poles. So in the Pacific Occan, the natives of Otaheite learn every thing with facility; the natives of New South Wales have no aptitude, and learn nothing. The residence of a few missionaries amongst them for a short term of years, has nearly civilized the former; the actual possession of the country for a far longer period, by a British public and a British government, with a perpetual intercourse, and the kindest Essay concerning Hum. Underst. B. II. Ch. x. Sect. 8. GEN. VI. encouragement, has made little or no impression upon the SPEC. I. 6 M. imbecillis Am nesia. Forgetful ness. vion. Obli A worse evil than stupidity. The memory in some per sons strongly retentive. Newton. Pascal. Retention of memory, how differs from quick ness. latter. A FAILURE OF MEMORY, however, which forms the SECOND SPECIES of mental imbecility before us, is a far severer evil than dulness of perception with poverty of imagination for as all the sources of information to which we have been privy cannot be always immediately before us to excite the perception, we must necessarily draw upon our recollection for those which are not so, and whose ideas or impressions we stand in need of. And hence the memory is the great storehouse of intelligence; and in one sense at least the Platonic doctrine is universally true that "all knowledge is reminiscence". There are some minds in whom this faculty has been peculiarly retentive, as that of Newton, who made it answer the purpose of intuition; and of Pascal, who is said never to have forgotten, till his health failed him, any thing he had ever done, read, or thought of. Retention of memory, however, is a different property from that of quickness. They may and often do co-exist; but they are also found separate: for there are many persons who can well catch hold of an entire song, an entire sermon, or a series of speeches in parliament, and can recite them almost, if not altogether, verbatim immediately afterwards, but who lose all recollection of them in a day or two while there are others who are obliged to pause over the subject submitted to them, or to have it repeated for several times before they can get it by heart, yet who, when they have once fixed it in the memory, retain it as Examples. long as they live. Mr. W. Woodfall, the celebrated reporter of the parliamentary debates, was an instance of the former of these talents, in regard to his powers of apprehension; the well-known Jedediah Buxton of the latter: though it should be remarked that Mr. Woodfall retained with as much ease as he first fixed speeches in his memory. Failure of memory + Failure of memory takes place in a variety of ways. shows itself It is sometimes general, and extends to every subject; but it is frequently far more manifest on some subjects in various ways. |
