A new view of insanity. The duality of the mind proved by the structure, functions, and diseases of the brain, and by the phenomena of mental derangement, and shewn to be essential to moral responsibility.

496 Pages·1844·15.372 MB·English

by  Arthur Ladbroke Wigan

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HISTORICAL LIBRARY
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A NEW VIEW OF INSANITY.
THE
DUALITY OF THE MIND
PROVED BY THE
STRUCTURE, FUNCTIONS, AND DISEASES
OF THE BRAIN,
AND BY THE
PHENOMENA OF MENTAL DERANGEMENT,
AND SHEWN TO BE ESSENTIAL TO MORAL RESPONSIBILITY.
WITH AN APPENDIX:
ON THE INFLUENCE OF RELIGION ON INSANITY.
1.
CONJECTURES ON THE NATURE OF THE MENTAL OPERATIONS.
a.
ON THE MANAGEMENT OF LUNATIC ASYLUMS.
3.
BY A. L. WIGAN, M.D.
TheundevoutAnatomistismad.
Zwei Seelenwohnen, ach! inmeineGroBertuhset..
LONDON:
LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS,
PATERNOSTER-ROW.
1844.
LONDON:
PHINTEU BY MANNING AND MASON, IVY-LANE, ST. PAUL'S.
TO
A PROFOUND THINKER AND ABLE PHYSICIAN,
A SCHOLAR, A PHILOSOPHER, AND A GENTLEMAN-
TO
HENRY HOLLAND,
DR. F.R.S.
PHYSICIAN TO THE QUEEN,
THIS BOOK IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED,
BY THE AUTHOR.

PREFACE.
In looking over the following pages for the purpose of
making an index to their contents, I am struck with
the conviction, that (were it now to be commenced) it
would be easy to execute the task much better. There
are occasional negligences which ought to have been
avoided, and tautology that in offending the ear is not
compensated by additional force and clearness. There
are also some errors in the succession of the paragraphs
and chapters, and repetitions of inferences which had
been already drawn and established.
The last fault, however, is not always unintentional;
whenever the facts, arguments, and illustrations, seemed
to lead naturally to the conclusion, I have not hesitated
to proceed to it at once, although aware that, in other
chapters of the book, I had already drawn the same
inferences, perhaps in the same terms, from dissimilar
facts, imparallel arguments, and totally different illus-
trations.
I know, by experience, that works of this kind are
rarely read consecutively, and therefore do not trust
to the desultory reader the task of drawing the conclu-
sion from the whole collocation of evidence. The few
men of science who may carefully peruse the book
from title-page to colophon, will, I hope, see enough
VI PREFACE.
to convince them that the defects arise rather from an
unpractised pen, than from ignorance of the subject, or
of the proper mode of treating it, did time and leisure
admit of recasting the whole. Should the public be
sufficiently interested by the novelty and importance of
the theory to call for a second edition, I will endeavour
to remove them.
The eminent geometricians who were employed on
the trigonometrical survey of the country some years
ago, did on one occasion lose their way, and were set
right by a ploughman. I do not fancy myself capable
of making a trigonometrical survey even ofthe depart-
ment I have selected, but shall be satisfied with the
concession of the ploughman's degree of merit, if it be
found that I have liberated investigators from the
quagmires and obscurities of the jungle, and pointed
out a clear and practicable road to the object of their
hitherto confessedly futile pursuit.
Lest howeverthe possession of this degree ofmodesty
be denied me, I will use another and a different illus-
tration.
If to the rope by which the animal is tethered to
the spotwe makean addition equal onlyto one-halfofits
original length, we have more than doubled the space
to which he was previously confined. In like manner
if I have added but a few links to the short and
galling chain that binds us to the earth, I shall have
largely increased the field of discovery, and paved the
way, I hope, for better workmen. The only limit to
our researches on the nature of the mind, will ulti-
mately be the boundary fixed by the Almighty to the
—
powers of the human intellect a point from which we
are yet immeasurably distant. When we shall have