nolency, which came upon her suddenly during the day, and from which she could, at first, be roused by shaking, or by being taken out into the open air. She soon began to talk a great deal during the attacks, regarding things which seemed to be passing before her as a dream; and she was not at this time sensible of any thing that was said to her. On one occasion she repeated distinctly the baptismal service of the Church of England, and concluded with an extemporary prayer. In her subsequent paroxysms she began to understand what was said to her, and to answer with a considerable degree of consistency, though the answers were generally to a certain degree influenced by her hallucinations. She also became capable of following her usual employments during the paroxysm; at one time she laid out the table correctly for breakfast, and repeatedly dressed herself and the children of the family, her eyes remaining shut the whole time. The remarkable circumstance was now discovered that during the paroxysm she had a distinct recollection of what took place in former paroxysms, though she had no remembrance of it during the intervals. At one time she was taken to church while under the attack, and there behaved with propriety, evidently attending to the preacher; and she was at one time so much affected as to shed tears. In the interval she had no recollection of having been at church; but in the next paroxysm she gave a most distinct account of the sermon, and mentioned particularly the part of it by which she had been so much affected.

This woman described the paroxysm as coming on with a cloudiness before her eyes and a noise in the head. During the attack her eyelids were generally half-shut; her eyes sometimes resembled those of a person affected with amaurosis, that is, with a dilated and insensible state of the pupil, but sometimes they were quite natural. She had a dull va

cant look; but, when excited, knew what was said to her, though she often mistook the person who was speaking; and it was observed, that she seemed to discern objects best which were faintly illuminated. The paroxysms generally continued about an hour, but she could often be roused out of them; she then yawned and stretched herself, like a person awaking out of sleep, and instantly knew those about her. At one time, during the attack, she read distinctly a portion of a book which was presented to her; and she often sung, both sacred and common pieces, incomparably better, Dr. Dyce_affirms, than she could do in the waking state. The affection continued to recur for about six months, and ceased when a particular change took place in her constitution.

Another very remarkable modification of this affection is referred to by Mr. Combe, as described by Major Elliot, professor of mathematics in the United States' Military Academy at West Point. The patient was a young lady of cultivated mind, and the affection began with an attack of somnolency, which was protracted several hours beyond the usual time. When she came out of it, she was found to have lost every kind of acquired knowledge. She immediately began to apply herself to the first elements of education, and was making considerable progress, when, after several months, she was seized with a second fit of somnolency. She was now at once restored to all the knowledge which she possessed before the first attack, but without the least recollection of any thing that had taken place during the interval. After another interval she had a third attack of somnolency, which left her in the same state as after the first. In this manner she suffered these alternate conditions for a period of four years, with the very remarkable circumstance that during the one state she retained all her original knowledge; but during the other, that only which she had acquired since

the first attack. During the healthy interval, for example, she was remarkable for the beauty of her penmanship, but during the paroxysm wrote a poor awkward hand. Persons introduced to her during the paroxysm she recognised only in a subsequent paroxysm but not in the interval; and persons whom she had seen for the first time during the healthy interval she did not recognise during the attack.

In reference to this very curious subject, the author is induced to add a fact which has been recently communicated to him. A young woman of the lower rank, aged nineteen, became insane about two years ago; but was gentle, and applied herself eagerly to various occupations. Before her insanity she had been only learning to read, and to form a few letters; but during her insanity she taught herself to write perfectly, though all attempts of others to teach her failed, as she could not attend to any person who tried to do so. She has intervals of reason, which have frequently continued three weeks, sometimes longer. During these she can neither read nor write; but immediately on the return of her insanity she recovers her power of writing, and can read perfectly.

Of the remarkable condition of the mental faculties, exemplified in these cases, it is impossible to give any explanation. Something very analogous to it occurs in other affections, though in a smaller degree. Dr. Prichard mentions a lady who was liable to sudden attacks of delirium, which, after continuing for various periods, went off as suddenly, leaving her at once perfectly rational. The attack was often so sudden that it commenced while she was engaged in interesting conversation; and on such occasions it happened, that on her recovery from the state of delirium she instantly recurred to the conversation she had been engaged in at the time of the attack, though she had never referred to it during the con tinuance of the affection. To such a degree was

this carried, that she would even complete an unfinished sentence. During the subsequent paroxysm, again, she would pursue the train of ideas which had occupied her mind in the former. Mr. Combe also mentions a porter, who in a state of intoxication left a parcel at a wrong house, and when sober could not recollect what he had done with it. But the next time he got drunk, he recollected where he had left it, and went and recovered it.

III.-INSANITY.

Reason we have considered to be that exercise of mind by which we compare facts with each other, and mental impressions with external things. By means of it we are enabled to judge of the relations of facts, and of the agreement between our impressions and the actual state of things in the external world. We have seen also that peculiar power which is possessed by the mind in a healthy state, of arresting or changing the train of its thoughts at pleasure, of fixing the attention upon one, or transferring it to another, of changing the train into something which is analogous to it, or of dismissing it altogether. This power is, to a greater or less degree, lost in insanity; and the result is one of two conditions. Either the mind is entirely under the influence of a single impression, without the power of varying or dismissing it, and comparing it with other impressions; or it is left at the mercy of a chain of impressions which have been set in motion, and which succeed one another according to some principle of connexion over which the individual has no control. In both cases the mental

impression is believed to have real and present existence in the external world; and this false belief is not corrected by the actual state of things as they present themselves to the senses, or by any

facts or considerations which can be communicated by other sentient beings. Of the cause of this reniarkable deviation from the healthy state of the mental functions we know nothing. We may trace its connexion with concomitant circumstances in the bodily functions, and we may investigate certain effects which result from it; but the nature of the change and the manner in which it is produced are among those points in the arrangements of the Almighty Creator which entirely elude our researches.

It appears, then, that there is a remarkable analogy between the mental phenomena in insanity and in dreaming; and that the leading peculiarities of both these conditions are referable to two heads :

1. The impressions which arise in the mind are believed to be real and present existences, and this belief is not corrected by comparing the conception with the actual state of things in the external world.

2. The chain of ideas or images which arise follow one another according to certain associations over which the individual has no control; he cannot, as in a healthy state, vary the series or stop it at his will.

In the numerous forms of insanity, we shall see these characters exhibited in various degrees; but we shall be able to trace their influence in one degree or another through all the modifications; and, in the higher states, or what we call perfect mania, we see them exemplified in the same complete manner as in dreaming. The maniac fancies himself a king possessed of boundless power, and surrounded by every form of earthly splendour; and, with all his bodily senses in their perfect exercise, this hallucination is in no degree corrected by the sight of his bed of straw and all the horrors of his cell.

From this state of perfect mania the malady is traced through numerous gradations to forms which exhibit slight deviations from the state of a sound mind. But they all show, in one degree or another,