indicates its presence by intemperance and inebriety has become all the easier of solution since we have become cognizant of some of the facts which go to establish the belief in the existence of the kindred diseases just considered. Indeed it would be illogical to admit that, although a certain class of acts might be a symptom of insanity, (for example, that pilfering might be regarded in that light,) another class of acts could not, under any circumstances, be the equivalent indication of morbid mental conditions. We know how constantly intemperance is the only cause of insanity, and we have here to consider whether it may not under certain circumstances be looked upon as the only symptom of insanity. We have already seen how men may by habit incapacitate themselves from exercising the ordinary human freedom of choice. Such individuals are, when they have lost the power of choice in relation to the pleasures derived from excessive use of spirituous liquors, properly called habitual drunkards. But it would, it appears to us, be utterly absurd to regard such persons as, in consequence of their habit, insane. They may, and often do, become insane in consequence of a constantly-indulged craving for stimulants, but that the fact of the existence of such a craving should be looked upon as a conclusive proof of the existence of insanity is an unwarranted assumption. Who that has "made a night of it" has not felt the craving for stimulants upon the morning following? and is the dry mouth, the hot thirst, the headachy giddiness, and the wish for brandy and soda to be looked upon as satisfactory evidence of a diseased impulse? You say, "No, it is not a habit; but when it is a habit a man is a child in its hand, and therefore irresponsible and mad." And when does this habit become so strong, and who shall decide that for us? Is it after ten or fifty debauches? And are we to allow habit to be pleaded in proof of insanity? If so, a man whose virtue has grown easy with wear a man who has a habit of saying his prayers night [14 and morning, and does not like to go without these religious gymnastics with dumb-bell sins--the man who has an irresistible desire for a cup of coffee after his dinner-these men are not sane! But our true guide must not be the simple existence of a habit which has been made by indulgence:

such a habit can be unmade by a reverse process. If a man willingly and knowingly forms a habit, he is liable to the consequences of having done so, just as the man who opened the door of the cage of the lion that killed the man is guilty of murder. Simple habit must not of itself protect. But if the man did not start fair, if we may so say-if mental delusion, weakness, or disease deprived him of his power of choice, and if we can say that, but for the presence of those morbid conditions, the habit never would have been formed, there would then be some reason for looking upon excessive intemperance as due to mental disease. The psychological history of the case will always enable us to come to some conclusion as to this important question. There is some reason for pausing before we pronounce upon the viciousness of the indulgence of a man's propensity if we discover that his father died in a lunatic asylum. Where the history of the genesis of the symptom is not that which it would be in the case of a mere habit, there is another reason for care in our examination. Oinomania not unfrequently appears under circumstances which negative the hypothesis of habitual drunkenness; as, for example, in early youth or in old age, after a life of trials withstood, after a life of temperance and sobriety.

216. Practical Rule as to Diseased Propensity and Habit. Sir Robert Christison lays it down "as a practical rule for both lawyer and physician that when in a particular case the avidity for strong liquors has reached such a height as (1) to cease to be controllable by every plain and powerful moral and religious consideration, (2) to overwhelm the mind in frequent or continued intoxication, and (3) to occasion danger or actual damage to one's affairs or family, or both, it ought to be regarded as a disease, and treated as an insanity." This is, on the whole, a good practical rule. We know that no physician who has had any experience would now deny that there is a morbid impulse to drink, just as there is, as we shall hereafter see, a morbid tendency to selfdestruction; and it is our duty to consider the various forms that it may assume, and the various circumstances under which it is most likely to arise. It may be (1) acute, (2) periodic or recurrent, (3) chronic.

2217. [145] Acute dipsomania ought scarcely to be regarded as a kind of dipsomania at all. It arises where it is only the most ready excess that the individual has an opportunity to indulge. Men who have found out the "world's villainy"-men who have learned that "moth and rust do corrupt" the treasures we have stored in our homes and our hearts-men for whom of a sudden the world, and flesh, and devil, which the lawyers, doctors, and clergy try to protect us from, have proved too strong-drink, glad to lose the dire reality of to-day in the reeling dreams of drunken sleep. Such men would, ostrich-like, plunge their head into any ambush vice, and hide the world and forget the pursuit. But such excuses ought not, it appears to us, to be regarded as due to the influence of disease. And it is only out of respect to the authorities which have mentioned it as one form of dipsomania that we have alluded to it in this place.

In

2218. Periodic or Recurrent Oinomania is not unfrequently found in individuals who have suffered from injuries to the head, and sometimes in women during pregnancy. It is to be observed that in many cases the relation of the individual to the stimulants is peculiar, in so far as the quantity of the stimulant is related to the extent of the result. some cases, owing to constitutional idiosyncrasies of the individual, a very small quantity of alcohol has an effect utterly disproportioned to the cause, if we judge of the proportionate relation from an ordinary experience of mankind. In such cases, although a strict moral code would enforce entire abstinence, a somewhat lenient mercy might find an excuse for some occasional excesses. It is sometimes found that this sensitive liability to be affected by stimulants is associated with the form of dipsomania at present under consideration. The recurrent or periodic form has very often a family tree of disease. We are all proud if we can trace our name back for a century or two. Old blood is thought a grand thing, but what can trace back its family like disease? When William came over, it was with him, but it was here too. It fought on both sides. Where Adam was, it was. This form of

Whether there is such mental disease and whether defendant had that disease were said to be facts for the jury in State v. Pike, 49 N. H. 429. Contra as to oinomania, Choice c. State, 31 Ca. 271.

oinomania comes, as its name indicates, in paroxysms. For weeks or months the individual may be entirely free from any tendency to exceed, or may even abstain with loathing from all forms of stimulants. Yet, upon that (146) account it is not to be confounded with the occasional fall of a quasi-virtuous man, whose citadel-will holds out long, but gives in to great temptation. It is more analogous to that form of disease which is characterized by lucid intervals. Those impulses which are only felt at certain times, like the east wind of this country, and are not like the chronic trade-winds of the south, to a great extent resemble those intermittent attacks of disease which give place to tracks of time characterized by calm and perfect health. "It is related," says the writer of a paper already quoted, "that a merchant of capital always got into a state of delirious intoxication from autumn to spring, but was most exemplary during the rest of the year: he was cured by being sent to the warmer climate of Italy during the winter.”1 A somewhat curious mode of treatment, and one which seemed to look upon the disease as due to the effects of cold! To whatever cause such periodical recurrences of the disease can be ascribed-and we fear that it does not, like green peas or oysters, come round with the seasons-it is certain that, if the tendency is unchecked, it will in time either become chronic or will lead to imbecility or mania. The chances of recovery are not by any means great. It is a difficult thing to break the back of a habit, even when in a healthy man, where its power is at its minimum, but to break the back of such a habit in a man diseased, where it has been formed because there was no human strength of good purpose to resist, is much more difficult. Resolutions during the lucid intervals which occur between the attacks are as numerous in the air as swallows in summer, but they disappear as fast, and are forgotten until the calm comes again. Promises thought to be binding are proved to have no force. The man is as pithless to resist as a straw in a river.

the

219. Chronic Dipsomania.-The healthy condition of is to have the sensation we call light in relation with

eye

1 On some Varieties of Morbid Impulse, Journal of Mental Science, Jan. 1866

certain motions of an imponderable ether, but a blow in the eye will make it "flash fire," and give a similar sensation to that we experience when the eye is in light, although the blow may have been inflicted in the dark. The healthy choice, the exercise of will, seems to us to bear a relation to the impulsive choice, or exercise of will under the influence of disease, which we have already described, very similar to that which is borne by ordinary consciousness of actually stimulating light and 14the extraordinary consciousness of light in consequence of the immediate effects of violent mechanical force. We are, in our present circumstances of health, which "holds the balance true," scarcely in a position to judge of the temptations of those whose scales are all awry, or of those who have no scales at all. Did you ever try to weigh two articles whose size, material, etc., gave no indications of their weight, with your two prejudiced hands? If you have, you will know what a liar the flesh is, with its muscular sense of touch notwithstanding. But the illustration between the flash of light as produced by a blow and the light as produced by undulations of an imponderable ether seems to us to be calculated to impress the distinction between material impulse and mental or motive weighing choice more clearly upon the mind of the reader. In the case, then, of chronic oinomania, the winds of capricious impulse, which generally blow where they list, have got a charter, and can't tack about as they like. Hereditary taint, injuries to the head, disease of the heart, and habitual intemperance, all, at various times and in various degrees, influence the formation of this persistent habit. In this form of the disease, the sufferer is always gnawed by a craving for stimulants. And we may here mention that this disease may manifest itself in relation to any of those substances which induce a present pleasure, to be followed by a future pain, which can be relieved by recourse to the original bane. On this form of dipsomania serious brain disease is almost certain to supervene, and during its continuance a gradual deterioration of all moral tone is observable. Reverence for truth is very quickly parted with, and the respect which is due to the property of a neighbor and strongest religious dictates do not keep the hands of the oinomaniac from pick