been nearly healed, and had already existed more than six months without causing any great pain, began to extend and to assume a gangrenous appearance. Under all this the patient's strength gradually sank; the power of speech, previously very limited, latterly was altogether lost; the lungs filled with mucus, which, in consequence of incipient paralysis of the muscles of respiration, could only, with increased difficulty, be expectorated; and, on the 8th of July, at eight o'clock in the morning, his Majesty quietly expired, supported in the arms of his Royal Consort, who, during his more than two years' illness, never left his side, and surrounded by all the other members of the Royal Family, kneeling with her and weeping bitterly around the death-bed of the neverto-be-forgotten and long-tried head of their illustrious House.

"The first trace of the nervous disease, the development of which I have now described, and which brought the late King to the grave, manifested itself long since, although it was not until within the last six or eight years of his Majesty's life, that, as we have seen, it occurred with more definite, and at last with such threatening symptoms. No one who had the good fortune to approach his Majesty's person, and who had an opportunity of observing him during a long period in his daily intercourse, could avoid being amazed at the very extraordinary power his Majesty always exhibited of retaining in his memory the most varied details, or could cease admiring the rapid apprehension, the unerring judgment, and the singular clearness of statement which were exhibited whenever he spoke. But at the same time he would not fail to recollect how his Majesty sometimes, in the middle of a conversation to which he was directing all his attention, would of a sudden appear to be abstracted, and would really transfer his thoughts to some other subject on

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which, unless he might be disturbed, he would allow them to rest, usually only for a few moments, but sometimes for many minutes; after which the conversation would be resumed, as if it had not been interrupted. The peculiar expression of his Majesty's features, particularly his look assumed on such occasions, and the spasmodic state, or the involuntary movements which at the same time took place in one or other part of the muscular system, render it probable that this distraction, which at times was of frequent recurrence, was due to an incipient affection of the central organ of thought. This symptom, referrible to the most important organ of the nervous system, was of late years accompanied, as has been already mentioned, with increasing weakness in the muscles of the lower extremities, and with uncertainty in the combination of movement, probably depending on a commencing organic change, either in the organ alone, on which the power of motion depends, or else in that by which the co-ordination of movements is effected."*

of

I was consulted in the spring of 1857 in the case of a gentleman, connected with the Stock Exchange, who was suspected to have disease of the brain. His symptoms, at the time of my first seeing the case, were as follow: general muscular weakness, occasional paroxysms severe headache, slight paralysis of the superior palpebræ of the left eye, occasional sensation of numbness in the right foot. The mind was not, apparently, at all impaired. He continued up to the period of my being consulted fully competent to discharge all his commercial duties, attended to his accounts, and wrote letters of business with his usual ability and clearness. His brother informed me that, at times, he was greatly abstracted, and distracted; that whilst engaged in conversation, he would

The Post Mortem examination of King Oscar revealed extensive disorganization of the brain,

suddenly pause, put his hand to his head, and appear vexed with himself at having lost all consciousness of what he was saying. This symptom was observed two years before any question arose, or suspicion existed, as to the state of the brain! The family, judging from the subsequent progress of the case, were of opinion that the cerebral disorder was first exhibited by the sudden lapses. of thought, to which he was subject for many years previously to the manifestation of other and more unequivocal symptoms of brain disease. Such, also, was my opinion. In a few weeks, I lost sight, altogether, of this case, as the patient was removed to the continent, under the idea of trying the effect of one of the Spa waters. In about a year and a half from my being consulted, I was informed that this patient died quite paralytic. Considerable organic disease of the brain is said to have been discovered after death.

A member of the Irish bar, who became insane whilst at Paris, during the autumn of 1856, and died three months after his return to England, complained to his friends, and subsequently to the surgeon who attended the family, three years previously to his attack, of an inability to collect his thoughts whilst addressing the courts of law. He was, occasionally, observed to stop whilst speaking, as if his ideas were momentarily paralysed. So marked was this symptom that a professional friend, often associated with him in the conduct of legal matters, considered it his duty to direct the attention of the gentleman's wife to the fact, considering that such attacks of distraction, on occasions when it was of essential importance for the mind to be in a state of continuous activity, looked suspicious, and, according to his judgment, were not consistent with a healthy state of the brain.

This patient, about two years after this morbid abstraction, or transient loss of consciousness was observed,

had a slight epileptiform seizure whilst at his chambers, during a very hot day in the month of July. As this attack was considered to have been one of syncope, and to be caused by the then high state of temperature, little or no notice was taken of it. Previously to proceeding on the continent, he had been working unusually hard, eating and drinking very sparingly, sitting up late at night, and rising early in the morning. In fact, he acted with great indiscretion and imprudence, and the result was, an acute attack of brain disease affecting the mind, a fortnight after his arrival in Paris. There was found, after death, chronic disease of the membranes of the brain, supposed to have been of long existence.

CHAPTER XIII.

Morbid Phenomena of Memory.

THIS section will embody an analysis of,

1. Acute Disorders of Memory.

2. Chronic (Modified) Affections of Memory. 3. Perversion of Memory. 4. Exaltation of Memory. 5. Memory of the Insane.

6. Psychology and Pathology of Memory.

The memory may, as the effect of natural decay, accident, or disease, be,

a. Disordered.

B. Weakened.

7. Lost.

S. Perverted.
e. Exalted.

I propose to consider in this section, somewhat in detail, not only the impairment and aberration of memory which may properly be considered symptomatic of acute disease of the brain and disorder of the mind, but those singularly obscure, and inexplicable cases of total and modified paralysis of the faculty, consequent upon injuries inflicted on the delicate nerve vesicle, either by inflammation resulting in adventitious depositions in the substance, or on the surface of the brain and its