gaps in his ideas, and those inconsistencies of conduct which convey the impression of mental derangement. Coincident with the failure of the memory, or very shortly afterwards, there is a diminution of the ordinary ability of recognizing external objects, which arises not so much from weakness of the organs of sensation, as of the organs of perception within. That is, the impressions of sound, light, touch, etc., are well enough received, but the qualities of form, size, weight, color, etc., are imperfectly discerned. Objects not very different are mistaken for one another, from an inability to perceive at the first sight the qualities that distinguish them, though the individual may recognize his mistake when it is pointed out to him.

§ 287. Thus far there is nothing that can properly be called mental derangement; the pathological changes in the brain have only occasioned a diminution of the natural power and activity of the mind. The first symptom indicative of derangement (and it is the next which is observed), is a degree of incoherence in the ideas, like that of dreams. It may not appear for days or weeks together, or only on certain occasions. The above symptoms increase in intensity more or less rapidly till complete dementia is produced, when all the moral and intellectual powers are involved in this state of decay and derangement. The memory of recent impressions fades away as fast as they are formed, and the past is beheld with considerable indistinctness and confusion, though events and acquaintances of early life are not yet forgotten. The patient is often at a loss to know where he is, or thinks himself at home when in another house, and wonders why he is not engaged in his usual occupations. Places, times, and circumstances are forgotten, or incorrectly remembered. His friends are not easily distinguished; morning, noon, and evening, yesterday and to-morrow are being constantly blended together; and he will get up in the night, mistake the light of candles for that of day, and persist in calling it morning. Objects the most dissimilar are mistaken for one another, and consequently his notions are often the most grotesque and absurd. The intellect gradually becomes

incapable of discerning the relations of cause and effect, and of comparing ideas together; in short, any thing like an effort of reflection is beyond its powers. The person is unable to follow the conversation, unless it be of the simplest ideas, and particularly addressed to him.

§ 288. Although such is the ordinary course of senile dementia, it sometimes begins with a general nervous excitement, accompanied by an excitement of some particular function which is exerted with a new and unaccustomed energy that deceives the old man and imposes on his friends. Thus, some are irritated by the slightest circumstances, and are very active and ready to undertake any thing. Others experience venereal desires that have been long since extinguished, exciting them to conduct directly contrary to their ordinary habits. Others who had previously been temperate and sober, manifest an appetite for high-seasoned dishes and intoxicating drinks. These symptoms of excitement, however, are soon succeeded by those of dementia, and the transition is sometimes quite sudden, especially when the patient is restrained from gratifying his unreasonable desires.

§ 289. The same decay which the bodily powers exhibit as they proceed to their natural termination in death, is always participated by the mental; but it sometimes happens that the latter are irretrievably affected long before the former have shown any symptoms of faltering in their course. The causes of this inversion of the natural order of decay, so far as they are external, are to be found probably in the great irregularity of exercise, both of kind and duration, to which the brain is subjected by the habits and wants of a highly civilized condition, whereby its healthy elasticity and vigor are so impaired, that it needs only the first touch of decay to lose forever the nicely adjusted balance of its faculties. The transition from the greatest mental exertion to the most tedious inactivity, from the various phases of excitement to the irksome sameness of ennui, from the stimulus afforded by the performance of a thousand duties, and the glow that is constantly kindled by the hopes of the future, to the monotony too often occasioned by the loss of business, friends,

and the cares of long-accustomed pursuits, is of such frequent occurrence, that every thing like regular and proper exercise which is as indispensable to the health of the brain as it is to that of every other organ, is but imperfectly practised by a large proportion of men.

$290. In the later periods of life, and particularly if the constitution be weakened by sickness or dissipation any exertion of the mind far beyond its power to sustain, is liable to be rapidly followed by a state of dementia. The same effect is produced when after many years of unremit ting attention to certain pursuits, the mind is suddenly deprived of the objects on which it rested, and thrown upon itself to furnish the means of excitement in the declining years of life, when novelty presents no allurements, and the circle of earthly prospects is being constantly narrowed. Take an individual from the stir and bustle of a city residence; from the unceasing strife of competition in the pursuit of wealth or honor; throw down the goal on which for years his eye has rested, though ever receding from his grasp; place him in the country, at a distance from familiar faces and scenes; and unless his mind be informed with various knowledge, or warmed by an interest in the moral concerns of his fellow men around him, it will sink into that state of inactivity so favorable for the operation of the predisposing causes of this disease.

§ 291. It must not be supposed that old age is subject to no other kind of insanity than that of dementia, for mania, even of the severest description, is not uncommon at this period, and the importance of distinguishing between them, in a legal point of view, must be immediately obvious. Not only may the mind remain competent to the discharge of some of the civil duties of life, in mania, but there is always a prospect of its restoration to health. The characteristic symptoms, as well as the exciting causes that we have described above, if carefully observed, will generally prevent us from committing the serious mistake of confounding them together, as is too often done, with scarcely a thought of the impropriety of the practice.

CHAPTER X.

LEGAL CONSEQUENCES OF DEMENTIA.

§ 292. In its last stages, dementia does not differ, of course, in respect to its legal relations, from general intellectual mania. It is only while the mind is in its transition-state, if we may use the expression, passing from its sound and natural condition to the enfeeblement and total extinction of its reflective powers-and the entire change may occupy months and years in its progress-that its legal capacity is ever called in question. The successive steps of this disorder are so gradual and oftentimes affect the powers so unequally, that it is not strange that so much diversity of opinion should arise respecting the capacity of the mind which is the subject of it, or that groundless suspicion of improper influence should be so frequently excited. It must be considered, too, as a circumstance calculated to favor this effect, that the judgment is debarred from forming an unbiased decision, by suggestions of interest or jealousy which leads it to see lapses of the mind that would otherwise have appeared to be nothing more than that natural loss of energy, suffered by the mind as it "draws near to its eternal home." Most people, too, are so little accustomed to observe and analyze the mental phenomena, and so little acquainted with the physiological laws that govern their manifestations, that circumstances are often adduced as indications of unequivocal insanity, which only evince some normal peculiarities of the senile understanding. They need only to be put on the proper bias, to confound the natural decay of the mental faculties with that derangement that depends exclusively on pathological affections; so strongly do they resemble each other to

the superficial observer. By how many would Bichat's beautiful picture of the closing scenes of old age, be mistaken to represent the defaced and shattered temple that has been prostrated by the touch of disease. "Seated near the fire and concentrated within himself, a stranger to every thing without him, he passes his days there, deprived of desire, of passion, and sensation; speaking little, because he is determined by nothing to break his silence, yet happy in feeling that he still exists, when almost every other sentiment is gone." 1 Far greater, then, must be the necessity of caution in distinguishing between such degrees of capacity as exist in the early and those of the later stages of dementia, and where, too, the causes of error are so much more numerous. The deafness that generally accompanies the early stages, disables the individual from participating in or listening to the conversation of those around him, and thus gives to his countenance an expression of dulness and stupidity that might easily mislead one not particularly acquainted with him, while in fact he needs only to be properly addressed, to display a mind that has not yet ceased to think with some degree of accuracy and vigor. The latter fact, however, will be known only to his intimate friends, while the former is conveyed to the mass of common observers who are always ready to decide upon a person's mental capacity, from an occasional glimpse of his manner, or a few remarks on the most ordinary topics.

§ 293. A judge is seldom required to decide questions of more delicacy,-questions that demand such nice and cautious balancing of evidence, such penetration into motives and biases, such a profound knowledge of the mental manifestations as affected by disease, than those of mental capacity in old age, where the mind is confessedly laboring under some kind or degree of impairment. The standard by which witnesses' opinions are formed in such cases is so different, and the pertinacity with which each one clings to his own conclusions, in proportion generally to his igno

1 Sur la Vie et le Mort, pt. 1, c. x.