able trespass on the space allotted to other subjects, enter on the remaining topies of Sir W. C. Ellis' most valuable and interesting book. We have passed more lightly than we could have wished over those parts, which, from their subjects, are most likely either to instruct or awaken the attention of our unprofessional readers. Yet it would be unjust to our author not to say that the remaining parts are by far the most valuable, as they present to the public the fruits of the long and tried experience of one practically engaged in the study and treatment of insanity. On this subject the reader will find grati fication in the humane and skilful treatment which affords the utmost hope of cure and the best alleviation of which this deplorable ailment is susceptible. Happily the callous brutalities of the old practice of mad doctors, who for the most part were not physicians, and which degraded below the level of the caged monster of a bear-garden, the hapless subject of mental disease; happily they have been exploded and are replaced by systems of treatment so gentle, considerate, and humane, that insanity is no longer to be reckoned as the most fearful visitation by which humanity can be struck down. Sir W. gives at the commencement of his book a plan of the institution under his care, and at the end the regulations by which it is governed. They will be inspected with the general approbation of every judicious person. We shall conclude these observations with some notice of a subject on which we lightly touched in the be ginning, but which from its importance to the public seems to demand a little further attention. In considering the measure of aberration to which it should be judged fit to apply constraint, the steps to be taken must depend on the consideration of the character, the degree, and the progress of the disease. It must be considered whether or not the person so affected, is by the nature of his delusion, or the tendency of its manifestations, unfit for the conduct of his affairs, or whether his own safety or that of others is likely to be endangered. Another consideration, is the danger likely to arise from the future progress of an increasing malady. On this Sir W. will be heard as an authority. "But as according to the general opinion respecting insanity, every insane person is totally unfit to manage his af fairs, and dangerous to society; we will next endeavour to show that there are as many degrees of insanity as there are of other diseases; and that in the same way as some bodily diseases are too trifling to interrupt the ordinary course of a man's pursuit, so there are states of insanity which neither require restraint nor incapacitate a man for the various duties of life. The measure of insanity that must exist before an individual ought to be precluded from all the comforts of social life, virtually consigned to a civil death, and exempted from the punishment atcrimes, will be the object of our most tendant on the commission of great serious inquiry. "But before we proceed, I would again urge the necessity and importance of remembering, that to constitute insanity there must be an alteration. For a man of a weak intellect, but perfectly capable of managing his affairs, may be taken by interested relatives to a medical man; who, from having fixed in his mind some vague or arbitrary standand of sanity, to which the person examined does not come up, will, without any inquiry as to his previous state, or upon a hasty examination, give, uninfluenced by improper motives, but simply from ignorance or carelessness, a certificate of his insanity. Again, a perfectly sane man of ordinary, or even more than ordinary, powers of mind, may from some unaccountable eccentricities, which not unfrequently attend genius, be put into confinement solely quired into his previous habits. Another from the medical person not having in reason will naturally suggest itself to us, no less powerful than those we have just brought forward, in showing the necessity from neglecting it, those, who have been of attending to this distinction, viz. that really insane and dangerous, have been merely considered eccentric, and have not been put under proper restraint, until some melancholy catastrophe has been the re. sult. This we find to be the case in all ranks of society. The history of the few last years will unfortunately bring to our recollection too many fatal incidents, which have arisen from individuals of the most exalted rank, not having been properly confined, solely because, in their insanity, they have exhibited intellectual powers greater than those which are usually found amongst mankind; although if their previous habits and capacities had been attended to, such an alteration would have been seen as would have proved the necessity for confinement. And every medical practitioner will recollect cases, which have fallen under his own observation, in the humbler walks of life, where families have been thrown into the deepest affliction, from a father, a mother, or a child having become the victim of unrestrained insanity. "Let us now return to the consideration of the extent of the alteration, which must exist before it becomes requisite to treat the patient as insane. It is quite evident that this alteration may exhibit itself in various modes, both as it regards the intellectual manifestations, the sentiments, and the passions. The powers of perception alone may be affected. An individual may erroneously think that he sees various forms and substances which do not exist except in his own imagination; but as long as his reason is sufficient to correct these false impressions, and he is himself conscious that they have no real existence, he is not a fit subject for confinement. Nay more, even if his reason be not sufficient to cor rect these false impressions, if they be of such a nature as not to interrupt his ordinary pursuits, or to render him obnoxious to society, as for instance, if he imagines that he sees or converses with spirits, but is not influenced by them, it would be unjust to lock him up in a madhouse; though it is almost unnecessary to say, that it is of the highest impor tance that in both instances proper steps should be resorted to, before these erroneous impressions have been too much confirmed by time to be incapable of removal. For although, in the first instance, these effects may be harmless, yet, viewing them but as the symptoms and results of diseased action of the brain and nervous system, which may, if allowed to continue, cause organic disease, it is evidently desirable to use the most expeditious means to restore a healthy state of action in these organs. But if the diseased perceptions be of such a kind as to render him incapable of the management of his affairs, or to make his conduct injurious to himself or others, confinement ought immediately to be resorted to." The perusal of Sir W. C. Ellis' book may be strongly recommended to parents, as strongly impressing the importance of early discipline, vigilant watchfulness, and careful and conscientious instruction in the truths of the gospel. The indulgence of every vice which enervates body or mind, will find some salutary warnings in pages, which with impressive evidence and distinctness describe their consequences. SONNET BY COUL GOPPAGH. A spirit haunteth me: I cannot fly And it disturbs my peace, though not with dread- As in some deep, clear fountain's gleamy bed, As the pure fountain moves it. They do vary, LETTERS ON PARAGUAY. THE Volumes which we purpose introducing to our reader's notice, in the present article, may be considered as affording the most interesting and faithful account of an highly important portion of the globe that has for some time been brought before the public. Without professing to give a regular book of travels, and, consequently, without entailing upon their readers the necessity of wading through a "made up" book, the authors have combined together excellencies which few modern novel-writers attain to; they have given us little else than the rough notes of their first impressions in travelling through the most interesting portion of the South American republic, and consequently enable us to feel all the interest created by the first impressions in visiting a new or little explored country. In wandering with them through their letters we feel as if travelling over the Pampas, or sailing on the sea-like rivers of the mighty southern continent, and though we find much that more care would have avoided or supplied, yet the very redundancies or omissions add to the confidence we feel in these travels as the faithful description of what the authors felt and saw. The Messrs. Robertson were induced to visit America in consequence of the glowing accounts conveyed to this country after the capture of Buenos Ayres by Marshal Beresford. Mr. J. P. Robertson having sailed from England in the year 1806, and Mr. W. P. Robertson in the year 1813, induced by the representations of his brother also to push his fortunes in that distant clime, to the former we owe the letters contained in the first volume and part of the second, and the latter has given us only a few letters in the second volume. We shall, therefore, for the present confine our observations to the letters of Mr. J. P. Robertson, who, as we have already stated, left England in 1806, and arrived at Buenos Ayres in time to find that it had been recaptured by the Spanish forces, and that he must transfer his expectations of successful mercantile establishment to Monte Video, which city was then in a state of siege by the troops commanded by General Auchmuty; a few days after the arrival of his ship at this roadstead the town was captured, and our author disembarked on the conquered shores of the La Plata, to commence the series of wanderings detailed in his letters. We should however state here, that our author was obliged again to return to England, in consequence of our giving up Monte Video after the failure of the unfortunate expedition against Buenos Ayres, under General Whitelocke, the vacillation and ignorance of this worst of commanders, compelling us to desert a country which had cost us so much of the blood of our bravest soldiers. Our author, however, took ship for Portuguese America, where the royal family of Portugal sailed for Rio de Janeiro in 1808, and arrived with the fleet which conveyed the House of Braganza to their foreign possessions in October of the same year. The description of the arrival of this fleet at this place, and the impressions produced upon our author at the time, we shall here lay before our readers. The "When we first got soundings, we knew from the chart that we must be at the mouth of the entrance to the harbour, but we had not yet seen land. The ship lay for two days motionless outspread upon the water, and shut up our upon a sea like glass, a dense fog was view within a very narrow space. air was so sultry as to be scarcely supportable, and the act of breathing was diffi cult almost to suffocation. Every living thing on board panted, and sought in vain a breath of air to relieve it from the intolerable weight of the heated atmosphere. Towards the afternoon a gentle breeze came rippling along the surface of the water. The air grew comparatively cool, and the vessel began to move; the mist, in some places, gently faded away; in others, it rose in a dense mass up from Letters on Paraguay, comprising an Account of a few Years' Residence in that Republic, under the Government of the Dictator Francia, by J. P. and W. P. ROBERTSON. 2 vols. 8vo. London, 1838. |