Nuggets, Gold and Other Dust From Various Diggings
18 Art. II.? New Zealand.
We have to thank Dr Frederick Skae, Inspector of Lunatic Asylums, New Zealand, for his Report, dated 1877, on Lunatic Asylums, presented to both Houses of the General Assembly of that country by his Excellency the Governor. That the philanthropy of the colonists, or the progress of the public authorities, have scarcely kept pace with the rapid prosperity of this rich and virgin land, may be inferred from the following extracts. The appointment of an officer of such ability and experience as Dr Skae, formerly Medical Superintendent, Stir- lingshire District Asylum, N.B., affords a guarantee that sounder views as to the claims of the insane upon the justice and bene- ficence of the community are about to prevail.
I. Of the Auckland Asylum it is said: ” Properly speaking it is only capable of affording accommodation for 50 patients, that being the number for which it was intended. It now contains 163. The great majority of them are simply prisoners, who are not, and in the present circumstances of the asylum cannot be, subjected to any system of treatment either curative or palliative. The condition of the patients, generally speaking, its deplorable.”?(P. 1.)
II. The Napier Asylum, ” though a separate building from the gaol, is in some respects merely an extension of it. It is under the superintendence of the gaoler, and is situated close below the gaol, on the slope of the hill on which that building stands. It is a small wooden one-storied house, with accommoda- tion for sixteen men and six women, and for the married couples, who are in immediate charge as attendants under the keeper. It is very bare and comfortless. The patients are almost entirely restricted for exercise to exceedingly small airing-yards, which are enclosed with high wooden fences, and are over- looked by the gaol sentry, who is thus made to supplement th small staff of the asylum.”?(P. 2.)
III. ” The Wellington Asylum stands upon a fine healthy site in the outskirts of the city, and has about seventy acres of land attached to it for the use of the patients. The main building, which is intended to accommodate fifty patients, con- sists of a central administration block of two stories, and a mule and a female wing, one story high, each of which contains a wide corridor with single sleeping-rooms opening on to it, a day-room, two dormitories, bath-room, store-room, lavatory, and closets.” … ? ” The remaining part of the asylum, which ls intended for violent and dirty patients, consists of outhouses, badly constructed single sleeping-rooms, and a range of build- ings at the back which were originally intended, and are still urgently required, for washing-house, laundry, and workshops. All this portion of the asylum is of a very inferior, and indeed in some respects quite disgusting, description. It is almost im- possible to treat patients properly in this wretched ‘back ward.’” (P. 2.)
IV. The Nelson Asylum.?”At the date of my visit, it was extremely bare, alike of furniture and ornament, but this has since, to a considerable extent, been remedied. Till recently its Management has been very slovenly ; but a few months ago was placed under the charge of a new keeper, who though without any experience, is intelligent and zealous, and is rapidly improving its condition.”?(P. 3.)
V. The Christchurch Asylum.?” The male department is calculated to accommodate about sixty patients, and now contains 121. It is in many respects very badly constructed, and owing to this defect, and to the dreadful degree in which it is now crowded, it is almost a mockery to call it an asylum at all.” . . ” But it is obvious that its utility as a place of treatment is greatly impaired by the fact that much of the time of the staff is occupied in guarding against accidents and disasters, which it is a matter of astonishment are not of almost daily occurrence.” Vn. ” There is a detached building in the grounds which is intended for inebriate patients; but it is also used for private patients of a better class.”
Vc. ” The new asylum, though there are some inconvenient faults in the plan of its construction, is a fine commodious building, admirably adapted for its purpose, and of which any county in England might justly be proud.”?(P. 3.) VI. The HoJcitilca Asylum.?”There is one drawback to the amenities of the situation, and it is that that of the asylum is alongside that of the gaol. The plan on which the building is constructed is far from being in all respects of the most approved kind, but its defects are almost entirely overcome *>y good management.”? (P. 3.)
VII. The Dunedin Asylum.?” The extreme publicity of the situation, and the small amount of ground (ten acres) avail- able for the use of 236 patients, render it impossible to conduct the management of this institution in accordance with modern ideas of the treatment of the insane.” ” Some parts of the building are exceedingly gloomy and prisonlike. The great mass of the male patients are entirely restricted for exercise to the airing-yards, where they present a very dismal spectacle. Many of them are violent and dangerous, and the fear of fights and serious accidents causes mechanical restraint and seclu- sion to be used to an extent which it is distressing to witness, and which no one would think of justifying in a properly constructed asylum.” …. ” This does not apply to the female department.” …” There is a separate house within the grounds which affords accommodation of a rather poor kind for a few private patients, and two or three attendants have houses within the grounds.” It would appear that at the date of Dr Skae;s report there were 783 patients secluded in the asylums enumerated, and that these were in the proportion of 1 to 509 to the general population. The document concludes with an earnest protest against a proposal for the construction of a large central estblish- ment for the whole colony, and the recommendation that several smaller asylums should be substituted.
The Appendix contains plans of the asylums already in existence.
UNITED STATES.
Dr Curwen, Medical Superintendent Harrisburg Asylum, Pennsylvania, writes to us (24th September 1877) to the fol- lowing effect: ” The commissioners appointed to select a site for a hospital for the south-eastern counties of this State, studiously ignoring all the propositions of the Association of Medical Superintendents connected with asylums, propose to build on their own plan, which, so far as they can explain it, consists of cottages or detached buildings, on a cheap plan, scattered over twenty acres of grounds.”
From a copious abstract of the ” Proceedings of the Asso- ciation of Medical Officers connected with Asylums,” at their meeting, 29th May 1877, at St. Louis, published in the Oc- tober number of the American Journal of Insanity, it would appear that this subject was introduced, but was not fully dis- cussed. The Rev. F. H. Wines, secretary of the Board of State Charities of Illinois, is reported to have said : ” In regard to the Eastern Hospital, I wish to say that the Legislatuie appointed a special committee to report on the necessity for additional provision for the insane of the State, and that com- mittee made a report which carried the measure. In their report they reopened the much-vexed question of the adoption of the cottage or village system of caring for the insane. They said: ‘ We hope that the trustees may be able to asoertain and demonstrate the feasibility of a reform in the mode of construc- tion, by the adoption of the village plan of construction, with detached buildings, erected at less expense, and affording a greater measure of comfort to the inmates.’ The thoughts of the general population are running much on the question of cheapening the cost of taking care of the insane.”?(P. 189 American Journal of Insanity.)
At a subsequent stage, Dr Bucke, Ontario, states: ” In my own asylum, at London, we have 332 beds for males and 302 for females. The reason of this difference is that an old building which used to be occupied by the idiotic is now turned into a cottage for quiet male patients. This gives us room for all the male patients who apply for admission, but at present we have some twenty or thirty female applications on tile, this side of the building being quite full. There is one feature in the London Asylum different from most asylums on this continent. ^ e are introducing the cottage system in connection with the large asylum. Our asylum, when finished, as I expect it will be next year, will consist of?1st. A central asylum, with a capacity of 544 beds. 2nd. A refractory asylum, with 140 beds. 3rd. Three cottages, containing sixty beds each. In every instance half of the building is for males and half for females. ^7e shall therefore have a total capacity of 864 beds. The cottages are all built on the same plan; the patients like them exceedingly, and removal from them is regarded by them as a punishment for violation of rules.”?(P. 197 American Journal ?f Insanity.)
N.B.?This is not an illustration of the cottage or village, but of the separate block, system, which, upon a smaller and therefore better scale, and one really deserving the title of an innovation, has long existed in connection with the Essex County Asylum and elsewhere.
FRANCE.
Through the kindness of M. Billod, physician of the asylum if Vaucluse, Seine-et-Oise, we have received an account of the installation of a colony of idiots, in connection with his estab- lishment, from which we translate the following paragraphs :? ” The colony of idiot children of Vaucluse was opened on the 1st of July last. Thirty young boys, chosen by the administration from the Department for Idiots, of Bicetre, as fulfilling the conditions of the programme of admission, were the first occupants. The young colonists celebrated their arrival by a festival. The fresh air, the bright sky, and the beauties of the spot have exercised upon their enchained spirits a delightful and elevating gaiety.” … ” During the last three years the Prefet of the Seine has been negotiating with the authorities of the asylum for the appropriation of 140 to 150 beds of the farm buildings, and of a large portion of unreclaimed ground, in order to meet the pressing necessities of the lunatics of the department.” ” It was finally deter- mined that these concessions should be devoted for the reception of imbecile youths, who would there be subjected to treatment and training, thus supplying a great want from which France has hitherto suffered.”
N.B.?This step appears to suggest the solution of various difficulties which are presented in the disposal of those affected with the various forms of mental disease and infirmity in Britain?
1st. Might not idiot schools be connected with public asy- lums for the insane ? In such a connection they could be pro- vided with special instructors, and all the moral and physical machinery supposed to be essential to their progressive develop- ment ; while they would have the additional benefit of the super- intendence and advice of a highly cultivated psychologist. Nor is it unworthy of public consideration that the succursal buildings provided for them should be of the same plain, sub- stantial, comfortable kind inhabited by lunatics, and not of that extravagant and palatial character which has been hitherto aimed at, but which the inmates can neither appreciate or enjoy. 2nd. Or, should even the proximity of the insane be regarded as injurious, and point to the creation of distinct institutions, while education, properly so-called, is attempted, might not the large numbers of idiots and imbeciles which now crowd the wards of asylums and impede the discipline therein, be placed in simple, inexpensive buildings near to county asylums, and capacitated merely for residence and detention, into which might likewise be received such adult idiots as have exceeded the age assigned for education, and have consequently been dis- charged from school; both of these classes being virtually lunatics, passive, pliable, and potentially industrial, who require the oversight but not the interference of a physician familiar with mental diseases ?
3rd. Might not the semi-punitive, semi-preservative, semi- curative hospitals for habitual drunkards and dipsomaniacs, which have so long and so visibly loomed in the far distance, be likewise realised in connection, but not identified, with public asylums, where they would have all the advantages of treatment from a physician whose studies had embraced their special afflic- tion, but where they might be protected from the contact and contamination of the insane by circumvallation, spacious grounds, and other conservative surroundings ?
SCOTLAND.
The following petition, signed by twenty-one medical gentle- men?all of those connected with the treatment of the insane in Scotland?was recently presented to the Lord Advocate, the chief legal officer connected with the Government in that portion of the empire, by a deputation, which was introduced by professors ?f the Universities of Edinburgh, members of the governing hoards, &c. &c. &c.:?
” Unto the Eight Honourable the Lord Advocate for Scotland.
” The Petition of Superintendents and other Officers of The Scottish Royal, District, and Parochial Asylums for the Insane, adopted at a Meeting held in the Hall of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons, Glasgow, on the 21st February 1877, Humbly Sheweth:
” I. That provision has been made by the Legislature for granting superannuation allowances to the officers and servants of the County and Borough Asylums in England, and the District Asylums in Ireland.
” II. That in the Act 29? and 30? Vict. cap. 51, sect. XXV., the directors of the Chartered Asylums in Scotland were em- powered to grant superannuation allowances.
“III. That while, under these provisions, the number of pensions has not been relatively large, or the cost great, their effect has been to promote the efficiency of the service. ” IV. That there is no such provision for the same classes of officers in the District and Parochial Asylums of Scotland, however long or meritorious their services may have been, or however much they may be incapacitated by injury, accident, or otherwise.
” V. That this is not only an injustice to such officers and servants, but it is directly calculated to impair the efficient working of the asylums, by drawing away the staff to more favoured institutions.
” VI. That there is reason to believe that when the Act alluded to in Clause II. was passed in 1866, provision would also have been made for pensions in district asylums, had they not been at that time few in number and only recently estab- lished in Scotland. Now, there are eleven district and six parochial asylums, some of which have been in operation for nearly fifteen years.
“VII. That the opinions of the General Board of Lunacy, as published in their Ninth Annual Report (1867), are in favour of such a provision being extended to all Scottish asylums, and that a committee of your petitioners had similar assurances at a recent interview with the General Board.
” Your petitioners would therefore humbly pray that sect. XXV. of the Act (Lunacy, Scotland) 29? and 30? Vict., cap. 51, be repealed, and that the following be substituted: “’ It shall be lawful for the directors or managers of any Royal asylum, and for the District Boards and Parochial Boards in the case of District and Parochial Asylums in Scotland, to grant, out of the moneys lawfully applicable to the building or repairing of such asylums, a superannuation allowance to any officer or servant who shall have been in office not less than fifteen years; and the said superannuation allowance not to exceed two-thirds of the total money value of the appointment held by such officer or servant at the date of superannuation ; and it shall also be lawful for the said directors, boards, or managers, to grant, out of the funds above mentioned, a super- annuation or other allowance, of such amount, on such condi- tions, and for such periods as to them may seem fit, to any officer or servant who, having held office for less than fifteen years, may nevertheless have peculiar claims for such allowance, on the ground of injury, ill-health, or otherwise.’
Dr M’Intosh, Medical Superintendent, Perthshire District Lunatic Asylum, in delivering this document, mentioned that the members of the Board of Lunacy, Scotland, while approv- ing of its prayer, had declined to take any active part in pro- moting the object in view. This course must have originated in the delicacy and difficulty felt by public officials in moving, ultra vires, and even in approaching their superiors; but we feel assured that, with this exception, the suffrages of every member of the medical profession will be exercised in support of this appeal for justice. It is most painful for us, acciden- tally placed upon the south side of the Tweed?we had almost written, it is monstrous?-to think that our northern brethren should be treated as step-children by our great mother country. It is scarcely credible that highly-cultivated physicians, with qualifications from our best Board, many of whom have sought for information and experience from continental schools; many of whom have enriched our scientific, and particularly our special literature, with the fruits of their observations; and all ?f whom spend the most active and vigorous portion of their lives, their talents, their sympathies, in the care and cure of the most intractable diseases, in the midst of dangers, difficulties, and a morbid moral atmosphere unknown to practitioners in the external world, in a dignified but depressing banishment from many of the solaces which society affords, should be poorly rewarded??500 per annum in cash being the average salary in ?North Britain?while they are able to toil and suffer and bear the burdens of a heavy and irksome responsibility, and should, when old, broken down, perhaps, by the weight of their duties, and unable for further toil, run the risk of resigning their aPpointments without a retiring allowance, however small; without even the solatium, it may be, of a vote of thanks. I he Lord Advocate received the deputation most graciously, promised due consideration of the claims laid before him when- ever any change in the lunacy laws was introduced; and, from a knowledge of his lordship’s character, as well as from the clemency of the appeal made to him, we entertain no doubt but that this stigma upon our national sense of justice and benefi- cence will be speedily removed.
FRANCE.
Double Life, or Divided Consciousness.
A , the daughter of a somnambulist, the granddaughter a paralytic, was a backward child, and did not speak till five years old. At thirteen suffered from headache, gastralgia, vomiting, followed by chlorosis, delirium, delusions, and hyste- rical, or, at all events, involuntary gesticulations and gyrations. Conjoined with general constitutional disturbance there existed inability to see, although the pupils were dilated, and to hear; on one side sensibility was impaired; on the other, so exalted that slight friction produced irritation. She read without seeing the hand that held the book; she could hear the song of birds, but not the voice of those around; the room being dark- ened, she perceived a pin under the sideboard, although she did not see those who watched her. Rising from bed, and making her toilet, she talked in a wild monologue, in which she con- stantly repeated two surnames, Pouf and Conseil, the former referring to herself, the latter to other persons, which occurred constantly in her harangue and in a manner incomprehensible to strangers. For example, she affirmed that Conseil B.
thought of placing her in St. Anne’s Asylum; that the priest had made so many visits, that her grandmother had sent her so many gifts, etc., all these statements being made while she was unconscious of the presence of those seated beside her. Then, taking an album, she criticised justly and satirically the artist of the pictures; then, reading a fable of La Fontaine, she, naturally of mediocre talent, interrupted the recital by acute and clever remarks; then, taking Racine, she declaimed pas- sages with a histrionic skill which would have done honour to actors of the French comedy. Engaging in a game of chess, she played well, but as if she was ignorant of the presence of an adversary. Suddenly she uttered a cry, placed her hand upon the pericordial region, wept, gazed around, and curtsied gracefully. Apparently awakening from a modified sleep, she asked the hour, and seemed astonished by the rapid passage of time. Those around questioned themselves as to the condition from which she had emerged, what really had occurred to her nervous system ? Was the passage of time with her such that she retained no recollection of the paroxysm ?
The medical reporter has seen this habitually modest girl dress herself in his presence, arrange the furniture of her cham- ber, perform duties in the kitchen, and correctly and delicately set a timepiece, all this being done under the impression that she was alone. Concurrent with these manifestations there appeared physical derangement; there was local paralysis, ano- rexia, disturbed sleep, loss of flesh and strength, and actual blindness took place. At a more advanced stage this loss of vision was replaced by illusions of sight, when natural impres- sions were transformed into monsters, inspiring her with such terror that she could not see those who addressed her. At other times the figures of those around seemed to be enveloped in a dark cloud, which prevented her from recognising them; and in order to do so, she was compelled to call in the aid of touch, passing her hands over the head, hair, dress, of her interlocu- tors, in the manner resorted to by the blind.
Subsequently, the articulation became affected, first in hesi- tation and then in the inability to pronounce certain words. -I he senses acted unilaterally and paraplegia appeared. The prognosis of the physician that these phenomena would disappear was realised; for, on three several occasions, by the employment of remedies calculated to establish or restore the catamenia, the health was nearly if not altogether confirmed. The reporter remarks, in conclusion, that such cases are ex- tremely rare, and that he cannot recall any examples in which the external senses received impressions from the half or a part only of the objects represented, where the patient passes a por- tion of her life in a normal and another portion in an anormal condition, an alternation of which she had neither consciousness nor recollection, except cases described by M. Ferrus {Annales Medico-Psychologiques, October 1857, p. 612), and those re- corded more recently by MM. Argam and Dufay {Annates Medico-Psychologiques, September 1877, p. 201).
Illustrations of this mental duplicity may be multiplied by reference to Dr Dye in the Philosophical Transactions ; Major Wlicott in Mr. Combe’s ” System of Phrenology,” 3rd edition; Dr Dewar in Abercrombie’s ” Inquiries concerning the Intellec- tual Powers ;” Dr Wigam in his ” Duality of Mind,” and Phre- nological Journal, July 1847.
In a long disquisition, containing many cases in illustration, ?n the contagion or communication of certain forms of alien- ation, not epidemically, but sporadically, from one to another individual, or, as the transmission has been designated, ” folie a deux, ou folie communiquee,” MM. Laseque and Fabret have arrived at the following conclusions:?
1. That this communication is of rare occurrence between lunatics, and does not occur between the insane and the sane. 2. That the exceptional circumstances under which such infection takes place are, that the one individual or factor is more active and energetic than the other ; that the former may be said to create the delirium, and to impose it upon the other as a passive element, who, however, in resisting or rectifying the impressions imparted may modify the mental condition of his companion; that these results must take place between persons living together, amid the same surroundings, and par- ticipating in the same opinions, hopes, fears ; and lastly, that the delusions or delirium passing from the one to the other should possess a character in common, should originate in the same course, and should be directed to similar objects in the future.
3. This contamination invariably presents itself under the circumstances above stated, and whatever sex or age it may involve.
4. Most frequently observed among females; it affects the other sex likewise.
5. Hereditary tendency may contribute to such a result when the morbid influence is propagated from a parent to a child; between two sisters, a brother arid a sister, or an aunt and a niece, but cannot, of course, co-operate where the indi- viduals affected are not relatives, as in the instance of a husband and wife.
6. The main therapeutic indication in such cases is to separate the two individuals implicated, when the second, or passive, participator in the contagion generally recovers. 7. The latter is generally less affected than his corrupter, acts rather under moral pressure than from conviction or con- version, arid can scarcely be regarded as a lunatic in the legal sense of the word. Seclusion is necessary in the former, but not in the latter case.
8. It may occur in certain cases where the morbid pressure proceeds from strength of character or force of will; the vitiation may extend to a number of individuals of weaker or more impressionable or imitative mental type. The withdrawal of the vitiating force is, in such a dilemma, the only curative and conservative course required.?Annates Medico-Psychologiques, p. 321, November 1877.
(Many examples of this insanity by reflexion have come under our notice. The most curious of these was where a chronic female lunatic believed that she was our Saviour; where another of the same sex believed that she was John the Baptist; where each admitted the validity of the claims of the other, and where both acted in conformity with these delusions, so far as the narrow precincts of an asylum day-room and airing- yard permitted.)
ENGLAND.
It must have come within the knowledge of many readers that certain periodicals, conspicuously, the Nineteenth Century and the Contemporary Review, have recently served as stages for the representation of monologues of the convictions of many writers of high culture and sound principles. It must have been observed at the same time that these vehicles have been con- verted into cloaca maxima for the rash speculations?we shall not say, the refuse or the rubbish?of another class of writers, likewise of high, but, we conceive, of imperfect mental culture. Mr. Harrison is found writing as follows (” Symposium,” Nine- teenth Century, October 1877, pp. 531-534): “It does not surprise me so much as it might, to find Professor Huxley slipping into really inaccurate definitions in physiology, when I remember that hallucination of his about questions of science all becoming questions of molecular physics. The molecular facts are valuable enough, but we are getting mole- cular mad if we forget that molecular facts have only a special part in physiology, and hardly any part at all in sociology, history, morals, and politics” … ” When I have traced out the molecular facts, I have built up a physical theory of moral phenomena.”
I do not pretend here to discuss the bearing of such ob- servations upon philosophy and physiology generally,nor even the foundation of moral phenomena upon a physical basis, and shall confine my remarks to the narrow portion of psychology in- volved, indeed to whatever may be included under the words ” molecular facts.” It is perfectly intelligible that the authors who bandy about such terms as they would a tennis ball, or as if they already possessed a logical or mathematical definition, which they do not, employ them in contradistinction to molar and appreciable actions and forces when they desire to get before a beginning, or coeval with the beginning of spontaneity, and where they approach the obscure or the unknowable, or, at all events, what is beyond the ken of demonstrable science. It is often ungracious to suggest difficulties, but obstructions have been popularly called the steps of the ladder to know- ledge ; and before admitting that the existence of molecules or their movements had been proved, which they have not yet, receiving such instruments, and the machinery connected with them, as modes of solving psychological problems, it would be well to ascertain in what way it is asserted or presumed that such agents can act in consciousness, or to substitute what appears to be, but is not, a more precise expression in its ideagine strata, not so much in stimulating or actually pro- ducing thought or feeling, but in the contest, the conflict, between thought and feeling in the formation of opinion ; for instance, in the resistance of judgment to passion in the varying, often contradictory, instigations of will. This difficulty does not touch the point where molecular force evolves, or is evolved, into mind?for this obstacle seems insurmountable?but the mode in which such a process begins and progresses. This difficulty is confined to the operations which take place in what we shall venture to call, with Lord Blachford, the material principle. But greater perplexities arise when these molecular actions are supposed to take place, and positively to be traceable in material organs?the pathways of the external senses, for example, along which the materials necessary for the building up of mind itself are supposed to be conveyed. Experience will convince any person at any moment, that by placing the finger in contact with a moderately heated body many, perhaps innumerable, pieces of intelligence reach consciousness; first there is the sensation of resistance, of different degrees?it may be of roughness, smoothness, etc. ; secondly, of heat; thirdly, of pain; and fourthly, contempo- raneously, and therefore instantaneously, the finger is removed. Now, it is assuredly justifiable to demand the manner in which these molecular actions, these currents, impulses, waves, vibra- tions, are propagated from the extremities to the centre, not merely individually, but together ; not merely proceeding in the same, but in contrary directions, as in the case of a dis- agreeable sensation and volition; not merely at the point where the impression is made, but at some other point after the apparently percipient finger has been destroyed by disease or operation. It cannot be regarded as impertinent to crave that a new hypothesis?new, at least, in the recent application? should be reconciled, or should be made apparently reconcileable with palpable phenomena. But more crucial inquiries arise. It is possible, and it would be convenient, could such mole- cules, endowed with such functions, be proved to exist outside life and beyond vital influences ; but cannot merely the scaffold- ing, but the superstructure, of vast and important subjects within the domain of physiology be allowed to rest upon a mere inference, that hypotheses should be built upon hypo- theses, as the only means of ascent to truth ? What is the response of the facts ? J. Muller, a high authority as to the points at which inorganic passes within the sphere of organic matter, says : ” Here only the case of the motor organ is at- tached. By the motion of the contractile fibres, and especially by muscular motion, solid parts of the body are approximated to each other, or fluids are impelled onwards in muscular tubes. By the motion of celia, fluids and minute microscopic particles of solid matter are merely made to move over the surface of membranes; the fluids do not here fill the entire cavity of the tubes, nor do the membranes themselves contract.”?(Muller’s Physiology of the Senses, p. 849.)
But what is the verdict of Dr J. H. Bennett, a still higher authority upon the subject, and who may be styled the apostle of the molecular formative theory ? After enumerating several facts which seemed to adumbrate spontaneous action in the motes or moles, which may be popularly described as the solid masses unconnected with cell life seen under the micro- scope, he writes : ” We see molecules, therefore combining in the forms of crystals and nucleated spliericles, and inasmuch as we have discovered the physical conditions on which they depend and can produce them artificially, we have no difficulty in classi- fying these among purely ‘physical phenomena, even when they occur in the interior of animals.” ” For minute spherical particles, as so many gravitating points, will be drawn towards each other with a force varying inversely as the squares of the distance between their respective centres. But when other molecules unite to form nuclei, cells and fibres, and these arrange themselves into tissues and organs to produce plants and animals, we are ignorant of the conditions by which these results are brought about, we cannot imitate them artificially, and we are content to call them vital” (Textbook of Physiology, 1870, p. 45); and this is nearly all that can be predicated of those supposed molecular actions upon which life and all its phenomena, development, growth, reason, responsibility, etc., are made to depend.
SCOTLAND.
Dr Cameron, Medical Superintendent, District Lunatic Asylum for Argyllshire, in July 1877, in compliance with the statutes of the University of Edinburgh, laid before the Medical Faculty a thesis on Dipsomania (unpublished). In this mono- graph, which treats the affection as a distinct form of the neurosis, but makes no ambitious pretensions to pathological ?r other discoveries, I find the following sensible remarks: ” Bucknill and Tuke, in their Psychological Medicine, include among all dipsomaniacs those persons who are addicted to the abuse of non-alcoholic intoxicants, such as opium and hashish; but this class will not be here referred to, although in *ny experience all dipsomaniacs will have recourse to other intoxicating agents or narcotics where they cannot obtain alcohol in any form.”
” Of the fifty-seven cases alluded to above, all without exception were typical dipsomaniacs ; that is, they drank under the influence of an uncontrollable desire for alcoholic stimulants and in solitude, while in every instance they were quite unfit to carry on any occupation continuously. The ordinary drunkard drinks for pleasure, in the company of boon com- panions, and at irregular intervals, or, to quote the words of Trelat, whenever an opportunity presents itself. The dipso- maniac, on the other hand, drinks in obedience to an impulse which he cannot control, even though the wish to refrain may exist.”
Commenting on the difficulty of obtaining information as to the causes of dipsomania, either from patients or their relatives, he says: ” Eight of the fifty-seven cases referred to were those of persons who had lived for some time in tropical countries; and in every one of these the drink craving was said to have been due to sunstroke?a statement that might, of course, have been true?but it is well-known that drunkards are more liable to insolation than temperate people, and less likely to avoid exposure to the exciting cause of the disease.” The greater number of these unfortunate people therefore laboured under the ” tyranny of a bad organisation,” and the drink craving must be regarded as the result of a constitutional tendency to disease of the nervous system which in their case took the form of dipsomania; but which under different ex- citing circumstances might have developed into one or other of the ordinary forms of legally recognised insanity. “The calls of religion, honour, or duty have no power to restrain or reform him. He (the chronic dipsomaniac) is utterly unprin- cipled, without affection for his species, and a monster rather than a man.” He has observed ” that the epileptiform or convulsion seizures which occur in dipsomaniacs rarely exceed one or two in number, and that these more generally follow debauches in whisky than in brandy.” Confirmed dipsomaniacs are as a rule sterile. If children have been born to them, they are in the majority of instances few in number, rarely exceeding one or two, and the longer the drinking habit has been indulged in before marriage the less is the chance of the marriage proving fruitful. These remarks apply equally to men and to women. Of twenty-five married dipsomaniacs notes of whose cases I have taken, seven men and five women had no offspring, six men and three women had families numbering one or two; while the remainder, viz. two men and two women, had each more than two children.
I would especially direct attention to the following table as one of the first of the kind which has been attempted. ” The family history of twenty-three patients was ascertained more or less completely, and the results are here tabulated.”
Family History I. & II. (Brothers) III. IV. & V. (Two brothers and sister) VI. & VII. (Brother and sister) VIII. IX. & X. (Brothers) XI. XII. XIII. XIV. XV. & XVI. XVII. XVIII. XIX. XX. XXI. XXII. XXIII.
Father a dipsomaniac, grandfather very excitable and ec- centric, and a drunkard. A brother insane, maternal aunt a dipsomaniac, parents temperate. Father an habitual drunkard, paternal uncle a dipsomaniac, another paternal uncle weak-minded, sister a dipsomaniac and a thief, two cousins-german dipsomaniacs. Father an habitual drunkard, brother an idiot, cousin-german insane. Mother a dipsomaniac, maternal aunt a dipsomaniac, maternal uncle an habitual drunkard. Father insane. Brother a dipsomaniac, mother insane. Sister committed suicide. Father, a brother and sister, and soveral cousins, drunkards or dipsomaniacs. Paternal aunt insane, maternal grandmother insane, mother a dipsomaniac.
Mother of Nos. XV. and XVI Brother a general paralytic, sister eccentric and weakminded. Father was insane and committed suicide in an asylum. Uncle and cousins dipsomaniacs. Father and mother temperate, family strumous. Father and mother temperate, family history good. Parents and rest of family temperate. PART I. VOL. IV. NEW SERIES.
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