The most perfect specimens of the Greek drama which time has spared to us, the tragedies of Sophocles now extant, contain, unfortunately, little to my purpose. We shall hereafter see that those plays have been unfortunately lost in which insanity must have been a prominent feature; but it also seems likely that Sophocles was intentionally sparing in his introduction of madness on the stage. We have had one instance of this in the case of Orestes, who is the most prominent mad hero of Æschylus and Euripides, and yet is portrayed by Sophocles as perfectly sane; and the story of Hercules, in its different treatment by Sophocles and Euripides, is another example.

In the following observations I propose to describe a feature in the mental condition of Epileptics, which, to the best of my knowledge, has not attracted that attention to which its frequency entitles it. I refer to the exaltation of the religious sentiment. Irritability, suspicion, impulsive violence, egotism, strong homicidal propensities are among the most commonly observed characteristics in the insane epileptic; but in strange contradiction with these we very frequently find combined a strong devotional feeling, manifesting itself, it may be, in simple piety or in decided religious delusions. I do not pretend that the forms of religious insanity to be afterwards noticed are peculiar to epilepsy, but they are very frequently found in connection with it, and, I believe, I have only to describe a few illustrative cases to bring to your recollection numerous others which have occurred in your own experience. The causes which combine to develope a devotional frame of mind in Epileptics are probably numerous. In congenital cases or those arising from diseases of childhood education no doubt exercises a powerful influence. The epileptic child is necessarily less able to join in the amusements and occupations of healthy children, and a large share of his time and attention may be devoted at home to religious instruction. The mysterious nature of the disease, the consciousness of infirmity and helplessness developes a craving for sympathy in the epileptic which we rarely see in other lunatics. In the wards and airing-courts of our asylums, epileptics may be distinguished from their fellow-patients by the fact that they are generally found associating in little groups of twos or threes. They sympathize with each other, lean on each other for help in the time of trouble, and however much they exhibit violence and viciousness to others, they rarely attack each other. Along with this desire for sympathy, the epileptic is mercifully endowed with strong hope. He is always getting over his trouble, he thinks the turns are less severe, and will tell you perhaps the day before a fatal seizure that he thinks he will have no more fits. We all know how much hope has helped the physician in his efforts to combat this disease with a whole battery of drugs, each of which in its turn seems for a time to promise success, only too surely to fail in the end. This craving for sympathy finds a deep response in the highest development of hope—religion; and the sufferings of this life are assuaged by the assurance of sympathy and aid from heaven, and of a blessed future where suffering and sorrow are no more.

Some months ago, in an article on “Colonial Lunacy Boards,” [in the number of the “Edinburgh Medical Journal” for March, 1872,] I had occasion to announce that the New Zealand Government had put upon paper certain “Resolutions” regarding Lunacy-Reform in the Colony, including a proposal forthwith to appoint at least one Commissioner in Lunacy, who should act as adviser to Government in all Lunacy matters, as well as supervise all the Lunatic Asylums of the Colony. I expressed a fear that the intentions apparently embodied in the said resolutions were “too good news to be true,” and that they would prove but formal suggestions—to be laid upon the table of the House of Assembly, there to remain [shelved] for an indefinite period, just as similar proposals for Lunacy Reform have been treated in the sister colony of New South Wales. Unfortunately for the insane, and for the Lunatic Hospitals, of New Zealand, my surmises have proved to be only too correct —my fears only too well founded. By the August mail (1872) I received two letters from tne Honourable Dr. Buchanan, of Dunedin, Member of the Legislative Council, and mover of the Parliamentary Resolutions above referred to. That the proposals which these resolutions contained, have not yet been adopted, is certainly no fault of his; for of his hearty interest and honest intention in the matter there can be no question. In his letters he gives the following most unsatisfactory account of the present state of affairs in New Zealand in regard to Lunacy Progress or Reform—a state of affairs which I quite agree with him in considering discreditable and disgraceful to its reputation as a British Colony!

In the July number of the “Journal of Mental Science” is a paper of considerable interest by Dr. Clouston on “Tumours of the Brain and their Relation to its Mental Functions.” Only a few cases are there recorded. The following contribution is submitted to the members of the Medico-Psychological Association:—

During my residence in the St. Marylebone Infirmary, in three years and a-half, there were in 1039 post-mortem examinations 22 cases of tumours of the brain; one of these was transferred to the insane ward, and two were in a state of fatuity, leaving 19, or at the rate of about 18-3 per thou sand, in whom no mental derangement was observed.

Having recently admitted into the West Riding Asylum no less than three general paralytics, who either came from prison, or had undergone imprisonment not long previous to admission, on account of the commission of larceny; and being of opinion, considering the stage at which, in each case, the disease had arrived on admission, that its commencement must have dated prior to the commission of the crime;—I have been led to make further enquiry as to these and other similar cases which have occurred within the experience and recollection of the present medical officers of the West Riding Asylum. The result is, that I am now enabled, by the kind permission of Dr. Crichton Browne, to record short details of six cases of general paralysis, all males, and admitted during the last four years, in which it appears to me the commission of the crime was a manifestation of the earlier mental symptoms of the disease. Such being the case, the patients ought not to have been held responsible for their actions. I feel it, therefore, a duty, to call the attention of medical officers of prisons, and “all whom it may concern,” to these facts, and to urge upon them the necessity of instituting a more searching enquiry into the mental condition of such cases, and also of cultivating a more extended acquaintance with the symptoms—especially the earlier ones—both mental and physical, of that very common and peculiar disease usually termed “general paralysis of the insane;” and this I would do in no dictatorial spirit, for I am well assured that those to whom my remarks are addressed are susceptible to the influence of that humane sentiment which leads us to shrink from inflicting punishment for crime committed by persons who are of unsound mind and consequently not legally responsible for their actions.

At a meeting of a Society such as ours, where everything which has the remotest tendency to promote or aid the recovery of patients who labour under mental alienation, becomes an object of interest, I feel no hesitation in bringing forward a short paper on the use of cold water applied to the human body in the form and much after the same fashion as that in which nature finds it most beneficial to the vegetable kingdom.