This man is not more of an idiot than the one just described, yet there
is much less appearance of mind about him; but his mental powers had not
formerly been so much evolved and improved by education; and the mind,
like the soil we tread on, once properly broken up and cultivated, will,
in defiance of neglect, long retain traces of its former improved state.
Besides his want of early culture, being one of the middle class of
patients, he was wholly left without mental food or exercise. There was,
under the old system, a complete sacrifice of the lowest, utter neglect
of the middle, for the sake of the higher class of patients; so that
there was, with the middle class, for the most part, no intellectual
interest excited by social converse and attention; nor, on the other
hand, were the malignant passions kept alive by brutal treatment: and
hence we now find amongst this class, the greatest proportion {117} of
those whose minds have sunk into torpid inactivity; and not so much
because they are lost, but because, from their want of excitement, they
have too long continued in this motionless state. It is true, that their
minds may, by the first attack, have undergone some great shock, to
derange or paralyse the more perfect performance of its functions; but it
is certain, that afterwards, no means were used to resuscitate or feed
the powers of the mind into renewed vigour and activity. Few, even in
the perfect possession of their faculties, could bear to be excluded from
the air and sunshine of social life, and mingle only with beings in this
melancholy state, without feeling its effects upon them. We are not to
wonder, then, that those whose spirits have thus been prematurely
entombed within them, should have become almost as dead to themselves and
the world, as if the soul had already left them. To prevent these
consequences, I shall state all that I think ought to be done, in another
number of this work; which I conceive is the most interesting part in the
treatment of insanity.
_No._ 3.—_Admitted_ 1787.
There is nothing on record about this case, nor have I been able to
obtain any information of his previous history.
His mind is not in so defective or deranged a state, as strangers and
superficial observers are, from appearances, apt to imagine. It is true,
he seems stupid and churlish, always silent unless spoken to, and then he
answers with abruptness and impatience, in a murmuring, grumbling, and
almost unintelligible manner, putting his words oddly together, like a
child, or one unused, or too lazy, to articulate, and not that his
answers are absolutely irrational.
[Picture: No. 3 page 118]
He plays well at draughts and whist, but his doing so appears to depend
more on old habits, {119a} than on the present exercise of his faculties;
which, though, as already observed, they are not wholly lost, yet, from
his torpor, age, and the natural obstinacy of his disposition, he is
disinclined to exert himself out of his usual course: and though his
constant habits of employment and amusement in the house, make up for him
a considerable stock of felicity, and aid in procuring the degree of
health and spirits he enjoys, and the degree of mind he still possesses;
yet he is so extremely obstinate and tenacious of his own mode of
procedure, that any attempts to oppose him, will arouse his temper into
fits of angry passion. {119b}