ject for confinement.

Therefore he was hanged. This procedure was unavoidable under the circumstances of the case, and in the present state of our laws; but it constitutes a painful fact, considering, that education at present affords no preventive to such criminality.

Those, who have perused the Essay quoted in this chapter, may observe some discrepancy in the views adopted in the present work from those expressed in the Essay.

That moral state, which in both works is termed Brutality, is brought forward in the Essay, as a form of Insanity. Farther consideration has satisfied me, that to class the former under the latter head, will be loose and unphilosophical.

The moral symptoms of insanity, as described in the early part of this work, are a very important subject; the more important as they occur at an early period of the disease, and afford at that time the only clue to its existence. But brutality is a distinct state from this. It implies destitution of principle, while insanity implies perversion of tendencies and want of self-control. In the latter case, the patient cannot hear the voice of conscience; in the former case, he has no conscience to hear.

CHAPTER XI.

IDIOCY.

Idiocy analogous to Brutality, as bearing the same relation to the understanding, which Brutality bears to the heart; - points of difference affecting the restraints applicable to these states. - Idiocy congenital, or supervening on other states;-illustrative cases. The least decided cases, the most difficult of management.-General principles of treatment, moral and medical. - Remarkable case, illustrating the danger of precipitate conclusions as to the existence of confirmed Idiocy.

It will readily be admitted, that the predominant phenomena of Idiocy are mental, though, like the other mental diseases which I have considered, it is accompanied by much physical affection.

Idiocy is analogous to Brutality, as it implies a deficiency or abolition of natural properties. In this respect it bears the same relation to the understanding, which brutality bears to the heart.

There is, however, this remarkable advantage in Idiocy over Brutality relatively both to private and to public interests; that it is comparatively easy to check the extravagancies of the Idiot, and to defend both society against the patient, and the patient against himself; while the Brutal person, though destitute of those moral sentiments, which direct the understanding to salutary purposes, may be fully competent to use it, so far as to secure himself against the coercion which his case demands. He is only restrainable when he has become the subject of penal measures; and these, in private life, are inflicted by the law. To persons whom circumstances have placed beyond the reach of law, the preventive punishment comes later, and often not till they have compelled its infliction by strange atrocity. Such was the fate of the Emperor Paul, of Nero, of the Duke de Valentinois.

Idiocy, our present subject, is either congenital, or a state supervening upon some noxious influence subsequently applied. In the latter case, when it occurs in childhood, it retains the name of Idiocy; when it occurs at a more advanced period, it has been called, by French writers, Démence.

In early life, Idiocy supervenes upon various

forms of cerebral disease, and the liability to it is greatly increased, if the patient is treated harshly, or with ill-regulated indulgence, or if his intellect is over-stimulated. The following case, from Dr. Nesse Hill,* illustrates the miserable results of early mismanagement.

"T. T-, a weak, feeble child, at nine years, was on this account kept at home, and foolishly accustomed to every indulgence. His nurse always burnt a light in his room till he was asleep, entertaining him with stories of ghosts, bugbears, &c. He was, at the above age, sent to a country school to receive the first rudiments of education under a crabbed old woman. His intellects, at this time, were not inferior to those of children of the same age. For some trivial offence, she one day bestowed several heavy thumps on his head, and thrust him into a dark hole. He became petrified with terror, so that, when taken out, he more resembled a statue than a human being. He continued stupid, and this being called obstinacy, his punishments were augmented, until idiocy seemed to overwhelm his reason. his return home, to a numerous family, he was imprudently exposed as a butt to them; he was now pale, emaciated; had sunken, restless eyes,

* Essay, &c. p. 440.

On

sordid, irregular appetite, hectic flushings; often uttered piercing shrieks, especially in the night, beating his head violently with his hands; somnambulism rendered him very troublesome. Still many persons thought that all this arose more from perverseness of temper than any thing else ; hence these vented their disapprobation by a push or a blow, and oftenest on the head.

"Thus he lived in continual fear, mechanically bowing his head, and shrugging his shoulders, to receive the coming insult, when any one approached him hence he has been observed to crouch, and draw himself into himself, as it were, when no one has been near him, merely from some distant noise. This association being always accompanied by pain, became very durable: it has continued twenty years: his faculties are still deranged."

The general characters of confirmed, and wellmarked idiocy are powerfully given by M. Fodéré; and the various minor degrees in which this defect of intelligence may exist, are admirably developed in the late work of M. Esquirol.*

The following case is a well-marked one, though far removed in degree from the cretins

* Esquirol des Maladies Mentales. Tome ii. p. 316.