Insanity

a disordered condition of the mind. The ancients considered a loss of mind due to the bewitching influence of Luna, or the Moon, hence the words lunacy and lunatic. Loss of mental power is due to any one of many causes and takes many forms. Insanity may or may not be accompanied by wasting away of the brain, that is to say, a breaking down of cells. Popular names for insanity consisting merely of derangement are melancholy, stupor, hallucination, mania, epilepsy, and hysteria. Melancholy is accompanied by depression; mania by unusual exaltation or similar mental acuteness. A third class of cases is entirely distinct from these mentioned. Weak-mindedness, idiocy, and imbecility are due to an undeveloped brain. We cannot speak of loss of mind in these cases, for the patients have never possessed well ordered minds. The American Indian considered a weak-minded person as having been touched by the great spirit. In his Last of the Mohicans Cooper introduces Hetty, a weak-minded girl, whom the hostile Indians permitted to wander at will in their encampment without molestation.

In other forms of insanity there is a breaking down and wasting away of brain cells. The dementia sometimes noticed in extreme old age is of this sort. Certain grievous diseases bring about the same result. Insanity may be produced by sickness or a disease; it may be the immediate result of a mental shock, such as comes from loss of property, grief, fright, shame, religious enthusiasm, or political excitement. Some people-go insane from living too much alone; others keep their minds too active, and are stimulated by overstudy or the excitement of society. The study of the various forms of insanity is one of the profoundest and most difficult subjects of medical inquiry. No reputable physician will claim to have mastered more than one form of insanity.

The condition of the insane was formerly wretched in the extreme. If accounts may be credited, places of detention were once little better than pens for dangerous beasts. The more enlightened common-wealths have now made generous provision for the care and, if possible, cure of the insane. Public asylums are maintained at great expense. Trained nurses are in attendance, as well as a corps of physicians. Great progress has been made in the adaptation of diet, exercise, and labor. Some patients require society, others solitude; some rest for the body, others rest for the mind. Some require exercise for both.

In order to prevent injustice the laws of most countries require that a patient shall be examined by competent medical authority in the presence of an officer, usually the probate judge. With this precaution it is difficult for over zealous friends or eager relatives to hurry a patient away to an asylum when there is no proper reason for it.