Remarks on insanity / by George Parkman, M.D.

  • Parkman, George, 1790-1849.
Date:
[1818?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks on insanity / by George Parkman, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

    10/18
    Some will not be clad, others inadvertently kick off the bed- ding. If crawling infants play as long as they please in parts of a room distant from the fire, in severe weather, their fingers, ears and nose will be half-frozen, without interrupting their pastime. Intermittent fevers present opposite extremes of tem- perature showing little connexion with atmospheric influence. Some who have been insane and relieved never recover their force of mind, as some who have had bodily disease never recover their firmness. Those who have been insane are very susceptible to exciting causes, as those who have had bodily disease. # # # had an epileptic fit at a lecture in C. When it had subsided he knew not the place he was in, nor how he came there. Presently he remembered, in the order of occur- rence, coming to C,—for a lecture,—entering the chapel,—the prayer,—text,—introduction of the lecture. Painful dreams seem to result generally from baneful habits, ill health, or a mind disturbed when awake. CAUSES. In taking charge of insane persons, their friends' conjectures of the cause of the ailment have sometimes been given me. In 33 cases, physical causes have been mentioned ; in 29, moral. With the origin of each of at least 24 other cases, physical and moral circumstances seemed intimately connected. At least 33 cases imputed by friends to hereditary influence have been presented to me ; 2 others combined with other or additional moral circumstances. 1 » » » j> » j» physical „ 3 „ „ „ „ „ and moral „ Any exciting or depressing cause, acting on persons predis- posed to insanity, may be followed by action of the predisposi- tion. This remark seems applicable to some cases of insanity imputed to avarice, disappointed love, and religious enthusiasm. Three insane persons have been committed to me, because their presence showed ill effect on some of their family. A person told the physician of an asylum I visited,—with a near prospect of marriage, he thought of one or two instances of insanity among his relations, he had painful doubts as to the propriety of fulfilling his marriage contract.—He now inhabits that asylum, perhaps from dread of insanity, from painful scruples, from disappointment, from reproaches or suspicions of his intended relations, aggravated by maniacal predisposi- tion. This is not a solitary case.