then, can the product of two such brains-mind-be alike in both?

But mind is not a fluid secretion, to be compared to the gastric juice. It is a force produced by nervous action. As a galvanic battery evolves galvanism, so the brain evolves mind. If the battery is good, the galvanism is good; if the battery is bad, the galvanism is bad. If the gas is good, we get a good light; if the gas is bad, we get a bad light. And, if the brain is good, the mind will certainly be good; and, if the brain is bad, the mind will just as surely be bad. As no two persons ever looked exactly alike, it would be the height of absurdity to expect that any two hearts, or livers, or stomachs, or brains, would be alike.

It would be difficult to find a passage of the same length containing more erroneous statements and false inferences than the following: '

"If thought is a pure material secreted by the brain, the product should not be capable of causing a complete disorganization of the human body. Neither the pancreatic juice nor the other visceral secretions ever produce a sudden disorganization. How can the materialistic atheists (matérialistes-athées) explain certain facts with which every one is familiar?

"A father, for example, has an only son whom he tenderly loves. This son belongs to an army in the field. The father reads one day that this son has been killed in battle. The intelligence produces in him such a disturbance that he dies suddenly, as if struck by lightning.

"Every sensation, whatever it may be, causes a thought in the brain. The news has caused a thought in the brain of the father, and this thought has instantly deprived him of life. Was this thought pure matter? and why did it cause the father to pass from life to death? How can it be that the brain can secrete such murderous thoughts?"

If M. Simonin is not totally ignorant of all vital phenomena, he must know that, in such a case as the one he supposes, the heart has stopped beating in consequence of the overpowering effect of a strong emotion. I have seen rabbits and birds die in like manner from fear, and M. Simonin denies that they have souls.

And he ought to know that the secretions do, under certain circumstances, become so poisonous as to cause instant death.

The milk of a nursing mother may, through the influence of great grief, kill the sucking infant with as much suddenness as the father was killed when he heard of his son's death. Thus, Bouchut' cites the case of a woman who, much excited by the danger which her husband incurred during a quarrel with a soldier, who was about to use his sword, gave her breast a short time afterward to her child, aged eleven months, and in good health. The infant took a few mouthfuls of her milk, was seized immediately with trembling and panting, and died in a few minutes.

Dr. Carpenter' quotes from Mr. Wardrop the case of a mother from whom he had removed a small tumor. All went on well until she fell into a violent passion, and the child, being suckled soon afterward, died in convulsions. Many additional instances might readily be adduced.

It is well known, also, that the saliva of man may, through the power of strong emotions, like anger or terror, become so venomous as to cause death to those on whom it is inoculated.

Finally, it might be suggested to M. Simonin, and those who think with him, that it is no more surprising for death to be caused by a strong emotion originating through the action of the brain than it would be for a like fatal result to come from a murderous soul.

There are differences, therefore, in the minds of men depending upon differences in their brains. These may be inherent in the individual, reaching him through a long line of ancestors, or they may be acquired through the action of extraneous influences upon him; or, again, they may be such as normally act upon him in the due and regular course of his life. Thus, the brain of a man is different from that of a woman, and there are differences in the resultant mental products. The brain of a child varies in many essential respects from that of an adult, and, as a consequence, the mind is different. Some persons are what is called eccentric, others have peculiar habits and idiosyncrasies, others are geniuses. Temperament, hereditary influence, and constitution, are likewise disturbing factors. So long, however, as the individual peculiarities of mentality are not directly at variance with the average workings of the human mind, or with the person's "Hygiène de la première enfance," etc., Paris, 1862, p. 177.

"Cyclopædia of Anatomy and Physiology," vol. iv, Part I, art. "Secre tion," p. 465.

own methods of normal mind-action, he is sane. at variance, he is insane.

If they are

But, within the limits of mental health, marked irregularities are met with in the action of different parts of the mind. Thus, some persons are noted for never perceiving things as the majority of people perceive them. Others are weak in judgment, defective in memory, feeble in powers of application, or vacillating in their opinions; others have the emotional system inordinately or deficiently developed; others, again, are lacking in volitional power-in the ability to perform certain acts, or to refrain from others, which their reason tells them should be accomplished or omitted, or to follow a definite course of action which they know to be expedient and wise.

In works on insanity, the several influences and conditions to which I refer have not, it appears to me, received due attention. I propose, therefore, to bring the chief of them to the notice of the reader, premising that no factor which can even in a remote degree influence the mental processes of an individual and no state of being which is liable to develop into insanity are unworthy the consideration of those who propose to study the subject of mental aberration.

CHAPTER IV.

ECCENTRICITY.

PERSONS Whose minds deviate in some one or more notable respects from the ordinary standard, but yet whose mental processes are not directly at variance with that standard, are said to be eccentric. Eccentricity is generally inherent in the individual, or is gradually developed in him from the operation of unrecognized causes as he advances in years. If an original condition, it may be shown from a very early period of life, his plays, even, being different from those of other children of his age. Doubtless it then depends upon some peculiarity of brain structure, which, within the limits of the normal range, produces individuality of mental action.

But eccentricity is not always an original condition, for, under certain circumstances, it may be acquired. A person, for instance, meets with some circumstance in his life which

tends to weaken his confidence in human nature. He accordingly shuns mankind, by shutting himself up in his own house and refusing to have any intercourse with the inhabitants of the place in which he resides. In carrying out his purpose he proceeds to the most absurd extremes. He speaks to no one he meets, returns no salutations, and his relations with the tradesmen who supply his daily wants are conducted through gratings in the door of his dwelling. He dies, and the will which he leaves behind him is found to devote his entire property for the founding of a hospital for sick and ownerless dogs, "the most faithful creatures I have ever met, and the only ones in which I have any confidence."

Such a man is not insane. There is a rational motive for his conduct-one which many of us have experienced, and which has, perhaps, prompted us to act in a similar manner, if not to the same extent.

Another is engaged in vast mercantile transactions, requiring the most thorough exercise of the best faculties of the mind. He studies the markets of the world, and buys and sells with uniform shrewdness and success. In all the relations of life he conducts himself with the utmost propriety and consideration for the rights and feelings of others. The most complete study of his character and acts fails to show the existence of the slightest defect in his mental processes. He goes to church regularly every Sunday, but has never been regarded as a particularly religious man. Nevertheless, he has one peculiarity. He is a collector of Bibles, and has several thousand, of all sizes and styles, and in many languages. If he hears of a Bible, in any part of the world, different in any respect from those he owns, he at once endeavors to obtain it, no matter how difficult the undertaking, or how much it may cost. Except in the matter of Bibles he is disposed to be somewhat penurious-although his estate is large-and has been known to refuse to have a salad for his dinner on account of the high price of good olive-oil. He makes his will, and dies, and then it is found that his whole property is left in trust to be employed in the maintenance of his library of Bibles, in purchasing others which may become known to the trustees, and in printing one copy, for his library, of the book in any language in which it does not already exist. A letter which is addressed to his trustees informs them that, when he was a boy, a Bible which he had in the breast-pocket of

his coat preserved his life by stopping a bullet which another boy had accidentally discharged from a pistol, and that he then had resolved to make the honoring of the Bible the duty of his whole life.

Neither of these persons can be regarded as insane. Both were the subjects of acquired eccentricity, which, in all likelihood, would have ensued in some other form, from some other circumstance acting upon brains naturally predisposed to be thus affected. The brain is the soil upon which impressions act differently, according to its character, just as, with the sower casting his seed-wheat upon different fields, some springs up into a luxuriant crop, some grows sparsely, and some, again, takes no root, but rots where it falls. Possibly, if these individuals had lived a little longer, they might have passed the border-line which separates mental soundness from mental unsoundness; but certainly, up to the period of their deaths, both would have been pronounced sane by all competent laymen and alienists with whom they might have been brought into contact; and the contest of their wills, by any heirs-at-law, would assuredly have been a fruitless undertaking.

They chose to have certain ends in view, and to provide the means for the accomplishment of those ends. There were no delusions, no emotional disturbance, no hallucinations or illusions, and the will was normally exercised to the extent necessary to secure the objects of their lives. At any time. they had it in their power to alter their purposes, and in that fact we have an essential point of difference between eccentricity and insanity. We may regard their conduct as singular, because they made an unusual disposition of their property; but it was no more irrational than if the one had left his estate to the "Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals,” and the other had devoted his to sending missionaries to Central Africa.

Two distinct forms of eccentricity are recognizable. In the one, the individual sets himself up above the level of the rest of the world, and, marking out for himself a line of conduct, adheres to it with an astonishing degree of tenacity. For him the opinions of mankind in general are of no consequence. He is a law unto himself; what he says and does is said and done, not for the purpose of attracting attention or for obtaining notoriety, but because it is pleasing to himself. He does