action is not a natural, Persons under the inaction of the principle

others of the same class, although not generally in so marked a degree, will sometimes manifest itself under such circumstances, and in such a manner, as obviously to show that its regular, or healthy action. fluence of the disordered which is connected with the preservation of life multiply, as they would be naturally disposed to do, images of danger and terror which have no existence, nor likeness of existence, except in their own disordered minds. They not only see perils which are invisible to others, but are led to take a multitude of precautions which, in the estimation of those around them, are altogether unnecessary, and even ridiculous.

Pinel, under the head of Melancholy, mentions a case which may be considered as illustrating this subject: "A distinguished military officer" (he says), "after fifty years of active service in the cavalry, was attacked with disease. It commenced by his experiencing vivid emotions from the slightest causes; if, for example, he heard any disease spoken of, he immediately believed himself to be attacked by it; if any one was mentioned as deranged in intellect, he imagined himself insane, and retired into his chamber full of melancholy thoughts and inquietude. Everything became for him a subject of fear and alarm. If he entered into a house, he was afraid that the floor would fall and precipitate him amid its ruins. He could not pass a bridge without terror, unless impelled by the sentiment of honour for the purpose of fighting."*

* Pinal, as quoted in Combe's Phrenology, Boston ed., p 241

§ 173. Other disordered forms of the Self-preservative principle.

The Propensity of Self-preservation, or desire of the continuance of existence, is generally, and, as we suppose, very correctly, considered an original or implanted principle of the human mind. As such it unquestionably has its distinctive nature, adapted to the precise object for which it was implanted. We must suppose, therefore, that it has a regular or normal action, as well as an irregular or abnormal one. And it is deviation from the regular action which constitutes irregularity of action. This irregularity, therefore, may show itself either in the form of excess of action, or of defect of action, or, what amounts to nearly the same thing, by too great energy or too great weakness of action. The instance which has been given from Pinel shows a disorder or irregularity of the action of this principle in excess. There are other cases, which seem not less clearly to show, that the form or shape of the disorder may sometimes be that of inordinate weakness or defect. We shall proceed here to introduce

one or two cases of this kind.

We find the following statement in the Commentaries on Insanity of Dr. Burrows (p. 440): "Harriet Cooper, of Haden Hill, Rowley Regis, aged ten years and two months, upon being reproved for a trifling indiscretion, went up stairs, after exhibiting symptoms of grief by crying and sobbing, and hung herself in a pair of cotton braces from the rail of a tent-bed

A girl named Green, eleven years old,

drowned herself in the New River, from the fear of correction for a trivial fault."

"A French journal" (says Dr. Ray, in his valua ble Treatise on Medical Jurisprudence, p. 375) "has lately reported the case of a boy twelve years old, who hung himself by fastening his handkerchief to a nail in the wall, and passing a loop of it around his neck, for no other reason than because he had been shut up in his room, and allowed only dry bread, as a punishment for breaking his father's watch. The same journal gives another case of a suicide committed by a boy eleven years old, for being reproved by his father; and several more of a similar description are also recorded."*

The records of such cases, melancholy as they are, might undoubtedly be very much multiplied. We have ourselves known a lad, about fourteen years old, on the occasion, as was supposed, of some trifling disquietude or offence similar to those which have just been mentioned, go out of the shop where he worked, and, in the light and pleasantness of a summer's day, put an end to his life by hanging himself from a tree in a neighbouring garden.

174. Explanation of the above-mentioned cases. Attempts have been made to trace the origin of all such cases exclusively to some form of disease existing in the physical system; to a disease, for instance, of the thoracic or abdominal viscera, or somewhere else; but, so far as we have been able to perceive, not with entire satisfaction. In many

* Medico-Chirurgical Review, No. 8, vol. xxvii., p. 212.

cases, undoubtedly, the cause of mental disorder is to be sought in the previously disordered condition of the body, particularly the nervous system; but it does not appear that this is always the fact. Not unfrequently, in cases of suicide, there is no perceptible change, no morbid developement in the body, which can furnish an explanation of that peculiar, and, for the most part, insane state of mind which leads to self-destruction. This is acknowledged, if we may rely upon the statements of Dr. Burrows in the case, by a number of distinguished physicians. "The same" (says Burrows, Comm., p. 416) " is observed in all cases of Insanity where the patient dies from any accident soon after he has become insane. The maniacal action [by which he means the disorder existing mentally] has not had time to take deep root, and no visible change in the intellectual organ [the brain] is therefore detected. This is additional testimony, which leads to the natural inference, that, when morbid changes are discovered in the brain, they are generally the consequences, and not the causes of mental derangement."

What view, then, shall be taken of the cases which have just now been mentioned, and others like them? If physical disease, so far as we can judge, will not account for all of them, what further can be said? The simple fact seems to be, that frequently, in the instance of such persons, the principle of self-preservation, which in almost all cases binds men so strongly to the present life, either does not exist at all, or exists in very much diminished strength. If a man may be born destitute, in a great

degree, of some of the appetites or affections, or destitute of all powers of reasoning, as in the case of idiots, why may he not also come into the world with the propensity of self-preservation inordinately weak, so much so as scarcely to have any influence over his actions?

§ 175. Further remarks on this subject.

This view is confirmed not only by the consideration that, in many cases of suicide, medical philosophers themselves being the judges, there is no pretence at all of there being any disease or lesion of the physical organs; but also by the fact, although this circumstance might not of itself alone be a decisive one, that the tendency to suicide appears frequently to be hereditary.-"I have had several members of one family under my care" (says Dr. Burrows), "where this propensity declared itself through three generations. In the first, the grandfather hung himself; he left four sons. One hung himself; another cut his throat; and a third drowned himself in a most extraordinary manner, after being some months insane; the fourth died a natural death, which, from his eccentricity and unequal mind, was scarcely to be expected. Two of these sons had large families. One child of the third son died insane; two others drowned themselves; another is now insane, and has made the most determinate attempts on his life.-Several of the progeny of this family, being the fourth generation, who are now arrived at puberty, bear strong marks of the same fatal propensity."