GEN. I. SPEC. II. Ecphronia Madness. four years, eleven hundred and nineteen women were ad- different Of the above 92 cases, 8 were idiotic, 35 melancholic, Effects on and 49 maniacal. The respective ages were as follows: habits and 22 from 20 to 25 years; 41 from 25 to 30 years; and ages. 12 above 30. Fifty-six out of the ninety-two were entirely cured, and thirty-eight of these within the first six months. Fright was the most frequent cause *. cause: from Kem I have said that a virtuously restrained orgasm in a Restrained full habit, and where no steps have been taken to reduce orgasm a the entonic vigour, has occasionally induced mania. strikingly There is a curious instance of the powerful effect of such illustrated a state related by Kemnesius in his History of the nesius. Council of Trent, which though it did not terminate in madness proved quite as fatal. In the year 1419, Rossa, nephew to the King of Portugal, and Archbishop elect, of Lisbon, was taken seriously ill at Florence. His physicians told him that his disease proceeded from an excessive irritation of the genital organs, and that he would certainly die unless he committed fornication or married. With a courage worthy of a happier issue, he Tesolved on death, and met it without breaking his vow of celibacy +. The following instance, however, will prove that mania Additional 98. Quarterly Journal of Foreign Medicine, No. I. p. + Kemnes. Concil. Trident. Part III. De Cœlibatû sacerdotum. example in the author's own prac tice. GEN. I. SPEC. II. Eephronia Mania. Madness. itself is sometimes a consequence of the same firmness of mind. A clergyman of exemplary character, and one of the most distinguished preachers I have the pleasure of being acquainted with, was many years ago very unexpectedly attacked with a paroxysm of mania, the cause of which it seemed impossible to unfold. He recovered in about six months, and returned to a regular and punctilious discharge of clerical duty. He is a man of exquisite taste, warm imagination, exalted and highly cultivated mind. With these qualifications, in less than a year after his recovery, he married his maid servant, and the world imagined he was gone or going out of his senses a second time. A confidential statement of his situation soon proved to myself that nothing could be more prudent or praiseworthy than the step he had thus taken, and which had excited so much astonishment among his friends. He was fully convinced, he said, though he had never communicated it to any one, that the cause of his unfortunate malady was a genital irritation, exciting to a constant desire of matrimony, which he was not in a situation to comply with, and which compelled him to exercise from day to day a severe restraint upon his feelings. On being fully restored to health, he found the same morbid propensity beginning to return. I felt, said he, it would again drive me mad if I did not relieve it, and my principles forbade me to think for a moment of relieving it immorally. To what respectable family could I now offer myself, having so lately been discharged from private confinement? The servant who lived with me was a very excellent young woman: her disposition was amiable, her mind well capable of cultivation, and her form and manners by no means unpleasing: and hence, after mature deliberation, I determined upon marrying her if she herself would venture upon so perilous a risk. He married her accordingly ;-has ever since, for upwards of twenty years, enjoyed an almost uninterrupted share of health, and has been more than ordinarily happy in his family. Other examples of a like kind are to be GEN. I. SPEC. II. Ecphronia found in Paullini *, Martini †, and Vogel; but it is Madness. causes of other kinds of trans It is from a like sympathy of action between the brain Accidental and other parts of the body, that we meet with instances of the one or the other species of disease before us, produced occasionally, and, perhaps, in habits of great action. sensibility, by suppressed irritations of much smaller moment, as those of herpes, scabies, tinea §; a suppressed hemorrhoidal flux ||; suppressed perspiration; suppressed plica ¶, or an ulcer of long standing suddenly dried up **. ferox. madness. commences FURIOUS MANIA, constituting the first variety, some- a E. Mania times makes its attack very abruptly, and commences with Furious the patient's being sensible of some indescribable movement in his head, which excites him to loud and sudden Sometimes shrieks, at the same time that he runs up and down the suddenly. room, and mutters something to himself that is altogether unintelligible: though the symptoms even in this abrupt and violent attack admit of much diversity. 66 More commonly, however, the disease is the work of time, and its growth is thus admirably described by Dr. Monro in his reply to Dr. Battie. High spirits, as they are generally termed, are the first symptoms of this kind of disorder. These excite a man to take a larger quantity of wine than usual, and the person thus afflicted, from being abstemious, reserved, and modest, shall become quite the contrary, drink freely, talk boldly, obscenely, swear, sit up till midnight; sleep little, rise suddenly from bed, go out a hunting, return again immedi ⚫ Cent. I. Obs. 14. ‡ Beobachtungen, p. 9. scottes, Journ. de Med. T. LXVI. † Observationi, ch. m. 10. Act. Nat. Cur. Vol. VIII. Obs. 28. De- Sanctacrux, De Melancholia, p. 29. Lentilius, Miscell. 1. p. 36. Cent. 1. 11. Obs. 35. ** Forestus, Lib. x. Obs. 24. Eph. Nat. Cur. More comshows itself gradually. Origin as described by Monro. monly GEN. I. SPEC. II. ately, set all his servants to work, and employ five times E. Mania the number that is necessary. In short, every thing he ferox. Furious madness. says or does, betrays the most violent agitation of mind, which it is not in his own power to correct. And yet, in the midst of all this hurry, he will not misplace one word or give the least reason for any one to think he imagines things to exist that really do not, or that they appear to him different from what they do to other people. They who see him but seldom admire his vivacity, are pleased with his sallies of wit and the sagacity of his remarks; nay, his own family are with difficulty persuaded to take proper care of him, till it becomes absolutely necessary from the apparent ruin of his health and fortune." This picture is drawn from a rank of life something above that of mediocrity, but its general features of ebullient spirits, and hurry and bustle, and "much ado about nothing", will apply to every rank. Such a person, says Sir A. Crichton, in allusion to the present descripProgressive tion, cannot be said as yet to be delirious, but that event symptoms. soon follows, and he has then the symptoms common to the disease, symptoms which only differ from a difference in the train of thoughts which are represented in his mind. He begins to rave and talk wildly, and incoherently: swears as if in the most violent rage, and then immediately afterwards bursts into fits of laughter, talks obscenely, directs offensive and contemptuous language against his relations and those around him; spits at them; destroys every thing that comes in his way; emits loud and discordant screams and continues this conduct till he is quite exhausted. The state of rest which follows is generally short and sleepless; the patient is obstinate; he will not speak a word; and clenches his teeth if any thing be offered him to swallow; or else cunningly pretends to drink a little, but immediately squirts it out on the person who offers it. Instantly he again breaks out into all the wild and extravagant language and actions he committed before. If kept in strict coercion he has GEN. I. SPEC. II. often so much command over himself as to behave mildly and modestly; and were it not for the general expression & E. Mania of his countenance, and the peculiar glistening appearance ferox. and rapid movement of his eyes, he might impose on madness. many of the bye-standers, and make them imagine that the frenzy was over. The length of the paroxysm and Length of of the interval varies greatly in different individuals. Paroxysm But, generally speaking, the more violent the fit the variable. sooner it ceases from exhaustion; and hence sometimes it ceases in a day or two, and sometimes runs on to a month or even more: returning at the distance of a few weeks or at certain periods of the year. and interval exultans. thoughts frequently relates to the pursuits life. Phantoms sureable kind; often of a plea In the SECOND VARIETY OF ELEVATED MADNESS, the ß E. Mania passions, and especially the irascible ones, are less busy, Elevated and the imagination is chiefly predominant, and at work madness. without ceasing. It is here we most frequently trace Train of something of the ruling pursuit of their former lives, so that the covetous man is still conversant about purchasing lands and tenements, and amuses himself with perpetually of former augmenting his possessions: while the devotional character is for ever engaged in a routine of prayers, fastings and ceremonics, visions and revelations, and fancies himself to be inspired and lifted into heaven. The phantoms are all of a pleasureable kind, and mostly such as afford the deluded sufferer a vast opinion of his own rank or talents. Donatus gives the case of a lady at Mantua, who conceited she was married to a king, and would kneel down and affect to converse with him as if he were present with his attendants; and if she found by chance a piece of glass in the street, she would hug it as a jewel sent her from her royal lord and husband. He relates another case from Seneca of Senecio, a madman of considerable wealth, who thought himself and every thing about him great; that he had a great wife and great horses, and could not endure little things of any kind; so that he would be served with great pots to drink out of; great hosen, and great shoes amorous. Illustrated. * De Hist. Med. Mirab. Lib. 11. Cap. I. |