ART. III. Essays on Insanity. Hypochondriasis, and other Nervous Affections. By John Reid, M. D., &c. 8vo. pp. 272. 9s. Boards. Longman and Co.

ALTHOUGH this volume treats on a medical subject, and is written by a physician, it can scarcely be called a medical book; since it contains no facts or observations that tend to throw light on the medical or pathological nature of the complaints which it discusses, nor does it lay down any professional regulations for their management. The view which Dr. Reid takes of these mental disorders, or rather his method of writing about them, may be best learned from the titles of the several sections; the first twelve of which are as follow. On the influence of the mind upon the body; the power of volition; the fear of death; on pride; remorse; on solitude; excessive study or application of mind; vicissitude a cause and characteristic symptom of intellectual malady; want of sleep; intemperance; the excess of abstinence injurious; morbid affections of the organs of sense. From these heads of reference, which comprize the contents of about one half of the volume, the reader will perceive that the parts of which it is composed have but little connection with each other; and that they might, with equal propriety, have been placed in an order very different from that which they now occupy. They are indeed designated by the author himself as distinct essays; and, as far as their independence on each other is concerned, they have a full claim to this title. Considering the work, therefore, rather as a collection of separate parts than as one connected whole, we must confine our office to that of giving our readers an idea of the manner in which it is written, and of the way in which the author treats the different topics as they successively come into view.

Dr. Reid's style is very peculiar, and indicates considerable ability, with some practice in the art of writing: but it is rather brilliant than correct, and seems more calculated to produce effect than to convey important truths, or to illustrate a train of argument. It is shrewd, sententious, and aphoristic, but it not unfrequently degenerates into mere point, if not flippancy:-it abounds in antithesis and metaphor, but the contrast is not always apposite, and the allusions are rather fanciful than illustrative, while their frequency renders them occasionally obtrusive. The general cast of the writer's mind indicates a greater fondness for metaphysical than for physical truths; and he always prefers to enforce his arguments by considerations drawn from the general prin

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ciples of the human mind, rather than to undertake the much more difficult task of employing specific observations. Yet, although he refers so much to general principles, we do not think that he writes like a man who is intimately acquainted with the foundation on which they rest: his knowlege seems not to arise from the generalization of particular facts, but to have been gleaned from an acquaintance with books, and an intercourse with the world. It is to be observed, indeed, that the authors whom he quotes, or those to whom he apparently alludes, are not numerous, and are of very common occurrence. Johnson's Rasselas seems to be one of the principal sources of his knowlege of the human mind and its faculties; and very few medical and scarcely a single physiological or anatomical writer is mentioned, whose opinions or observations are deemed of sufficient importance to cast any light on the subject. Respecting Dr. Reid's mode of treating insanity we can say nothing, because his remarks are so scanty and indefinite that we can scarcely suppose he intended them to be considered as a specimen of his mode of practice; unless, indeed, he has so little confidence in the power of art over mental diseases, as to imagine that it is most advisable to leave them to the operations of nature.

Notwithstanding these remarks, which may appear severe and hyper-critical, we shall strongly advise our readers to peruse the present volume; and this recommendation we give to the unprofessional equally with the professional. In fact, we believe that the former will profit by it more than the latter; since, although the work contains little either of learned research or scientific investigation, it exhibits a number of useful truths, placed in a striking light; and it contains many apophthegms which may prove valuable in the conduct of life, delivered in such a manner as to impress themselves forcibly on the memory. We shall exemplify our remarks by a few quotations, which we shall endeavour to select so as to present a fair average of the whole production.

The second essay, on the power of volition, commences with the following observations:

• Nervous diseases, from their daily increasing prevalence, deserve at the present time a more than ordinary degree of attention and interest on the part of the medical practitioner. Yet nothing surely can surpass the inhumanity, as well as folly, with which patients of this class are too frequently treated. We often act upon the ill-founded idea that such complaints are altogether dependent upon the power of the will; a notion which, in paradoxical extravagance, scarcely yields to the doctrine of a modern, though now obsolete writer, on the Philosophy of Morals, who

asserted

asserted that no one need die, if, with a sufficient energy, he determined to live. To command, or to advise a person laboring under nervous depression, to be cheerful and alert, is no less idle and absurd, than it would be to command or advise a person, under the direct and most intense influence of the sun's rays, to shiver with cold, or one who is "wallowing naked in December's snows" to perspire from a sensation of excessive heat. The practice of laughing at, or scolding a patient in this class, is equally cruel and ineffectual. No one was ever laughed or scolded out of hypochondriasis. It is scarcely likely that we should elevate a person's spirits by insulting his understanding. The malady of the nerves is in general of too obstinate a nature to yield to a sarcasm or a sneer. It would scarcely be more preposterous to think of dissipating a dropsy of the chest, than a distemper of the mind by the force of ridicule or rebuke. The hypochondriac may feel indeed the edge of satire as keenly as he would that of a sword; but although its point should penetrate his bosom, it would not be likely to let out from it any portion of that noxious matter by which it is so painfully oppressed. The external expression of his disorder may be checked by the coercive influence of shame or fear; but in doing this, a similar kind of risk is incurred as arises from the repelling of a cutaneous eruption, which, although it conceal the outward appearance, seldom fails still more firmly to establish the internal strength, to increase the danger, and to protract the continuance of the dis ease. By indirect and imperceptible means the attention may, in many instances, be gently and insensibly enticed, but seldom can we with safety attempt to force it from any habitual topic of painful contemplation. In endeavouring to tear the mind from a subject to which it has long and closely attached itself, we are almost sure to occasion an irreparable laceration of its structure.' The effects of intemperance are thus described:

"Living fast," is a metaphorical phrase which, more accurately perhaps than is in general imagined, expresses a literal fact. Whatever hurries the action of the corporeal functions must tend to abridge the period of their probable duration. As the wheel of a carriage performs a certain number of rotations before it arrives at its destined goal, so to the arteries of the human frame we may conceive that there is allotted only a certain number of pulsations before their vital energy is entirely exhausted. Extraordinary longevity has seldom been known to occur, except in persons of a remarkably tranquil and slow-paced circulation.

But if intemperance merely curtailed the number of our days, we should have comparatively little reason to find fault with its effects. The idea of " a short life, and a merry one," is plausible enough, if it could be generally realized. But, unfortunately, what shortens existence is calculated also to make it melancholy. There is no process by which we can distil life, so as to separate from it all foul or heterogeneous matter, and leave nothing behind but drops of pure defecated happiness. If the contrary were

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the case, we should scarcely be disposed to blame the vital extravagance of the voluptuary who, provided that his sun shine brilliant and unclouded as long as it continue above his head, cares not although it should set at an earlier hour.

It is seldom that debauchery separates at once the thread of vitality. There occurs, for the most part, a wearisome and painful interval between the first loss of a capacity for enjoying life, and the period of its ultimate and entire extinction. This circumstance, it is to be presumed, is out of the consideration of those persons who, with a prodigality more extravagant than that of Cleopatra, dissolve the pearl of health in the goblet of intemperance. The slope towards the grave these victims of indiscretion find no easy descent. The scene is darkened long before the curtain falls. Having exhausted prematurely all that is delicious in the cup of life, they are obliged to swallow afterwards the bitter dregs. Death is the last, but not the worst result of intemperance.'

In some of the remarks on the hereditary nature of madness, we think that all our readers will not be disposed to coincide with Dr. Reid:

"To be well born" is a circumstance of real importance, but not in the sense in which that expression is usually employed. The most substantial privileges of birth are not those which are confined to the descendants of noble ancestors.

The heir of a sound constitution has no right to regret the absence of any other patrimony. A man who has derived from the immediate authors of his being, vigorous and untainted stamina of mind as well as of body, enters upon the world with a sufficient foundation and ample materials for happiness. Very different is it with the progeny of those who are constitutionally diseased in any way, but more especially with the progeny of persons who are radically morbid in intellect. No wealth, which it is in the power of such parents to bequeath, can compensate the probability of evil which they entail upon the creatures and the victims of their selfish indulgence or their criminal indiscretion.

Nothing can be more obvious than that one who is aware of a decided bias in his own person towards mental derangement, ought to shun the chance of extending and of perpetuating, without any assignable limit, the ravages of so dreadful a calamity. No rites, however holy, can, under such circumstances, consecrate the conjugal union. In a case like this, marriage itself is a transgression of morality. A man who is so situated, in incurring the risk of becoming a parent, involves himself in a crime, which may not improbably project its lengthened shadow, a shadow too which widens in proportion as it advances, over the intellect and the happiness of an indefinite succession of beings.

The ruffian who fires at the intended object of his plunder, takes away the life of him only at whom his aim is levelled. The 'bullet which penetrates the heart of the unfortunate victim does in general no farther mischief. But, he who inflicts upon a single individual, the worse than deadly wound of insanity, knows not

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the numbers to which its venom may be communicated; he poisons a public stream out of which multitudes may drink: he is the enemy, not of one man, but of mankind.

In cases of disease which are more strictly corporeal, the risk as well as evil of engendering them is smaller, not only because they are less serious in their character and consequences than mental maladies, but also, because they are more within the scope of management and possible counteraction.'

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After all, I would be understood to inculcate, that strictly speaking, it is the tendency only to insanity that is inherited, or, in other words, a greater facility than ordinary, to be acted upon by those external circumstances, that are calculated to produce the disease,

It might not perhaps transgress the exactness of truth to assert, that the external circumstances and accidents of a man's life, and, what is more important, his physical and moral habits are calculated to have a greater efficacy than any seeds of disorder that may lie concealed in his original organization. That therefore one, who under a fear of radical predisposition, should, from early youth, adopt a counteracting regimen, as it relates both to the body and the mind, would often be in less danger of being affected by intellectual malady, than another, who, confiding in a constitutional immunity from this form of disease, should continually and carelessly expose himself to its predisposing and exciting causes.'

In the last chapter, on Occupation, Dr. R. considers the moderate and sensible employment of the mind, and proper bodily exercise, as among the best remedies for hypochondriasis. Here many of his opinions are given in a very aphoristical style: for example: A man who is continually feeling his pulse is never likely to have a good one.'

The hypochondriac who is in the habit of weighing his meals, will generally find that they lie heavy on his stomach. If he take a walk or a ride with no other view than to pick up health, he will seldom meet with it on the road,' &c. &c.

ART. IV. Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin, LL.D. F.R.S., &c. Minister Plenipotentiary from the United States of America at the Court of France, and for the Treaty of Peace and Independence with Great Britain, &c. &c. Written by himself to a late Period, and continued to the Time of his Death by his Grandson, William Temple Franklin. Now first published from the Original MSS. Comprising the Private Correspondence and Public Negotiations of Dr. Franklin, and a Selection from his Political, Philosophical, and Miscellaneous Works. 4to. pp. 547. 21. 12s. 6d. Boards. Colburn.

1818.

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THE most valuable and interesting part of these memoirs, which contains the more early life of Dr. Franklin, has been already for many years before the world, though never

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