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PATMORE

material position. Such impulsive inclinations often exist throughout life, but oftencr occur at intervals — as for instance during puberty; in women, not infre- quently only (iuriiiK menstruation, or during preg- nancy. In all these forms, as also in rases of so-calleil moral insanity, one must he unusually sceptical if one is to avoid favouring the introduction of the mo.st dangerous abtises into the administration of justice.

(14) Sexual PsijchtiiHtlhy. Anixualkx of the Sexual Life. — The pathological abnormalities of the sexual impulse belong to the most melancholy chapters of psychn-jiathology, and the horror that ari,ses from the study of llie.-'e occurrences can only be mitigated by the knowledge that what is so frequent is not always a disgusting vice and depravity, but often a mental disorder. But, as has been already said, we should be exceedingly cautious in assuming the existence of mental disturbance in cases which naturally lead to criminal prosecution, and where there is of course fre- quently a tendency to simulation.

IV. Fkeedom of the Will and Responsibility. — In the question of moral responsibility or liability (from the theological or legal standpoint) a further and very important question arises. Mental sound- ness implies freedom of the will, while mental disease destroys it. In nature, however, there are no rigid, definite boundaries between disease and health, but only gradual transitions. We meet with so-called "border-land" cases between health and disease, a well-recognize<l example being weakmindedness. While the difTcrence between the two ex-tremes (an animal-like idiot, on the one hand, and, on the other, a Newton, a Pasteur, etc.) is at once palpable to all, where are the sharp boundaries between the moder- ately serious and mild forms of imbecility, between these latter and the very mildest forms, and finally between the.se and simple, but in no wise pathological, stupidity? The same may be said of moral imbeciUty, which passes by insensible gradations from the un- doubtedly healthy to the irresponsible, superficial, sensual, and violent individual. The same may be said of menstrual psychosis, which shows its physio- logical roots in the increased general nervousness of every woman at the menstrual period. In short, in the entire domain of psycho-pathology one often meets with these borderland conditions, and the question of freedom of will cannot be answered by a simple yes or no, but requires a strictly individual weighing of all of the conditions of the concrete act. Not infrequently the psychopathic changes constitute, not indeed a total exculpation, but a mitigating circumstance. Or the matter may be such that one and the same indi- vidual, by reiison of his mental abnormality, may be completely responsible for one crime, and irresponsible for another. \ kleptomaniac, for instance, certainly commits a theft in a condition of irresponsibility; he must be held to answer, however, for another type of crime, for instance, an act of immorality. Even indi- viduals, who are continuously free from characteristic psj'chopathic traits of a general nervous order, may by a combination of a number of definite external dis- turbances develop psissing conditions of irrcsponsi- biht}'. The so-called ■pnlhuhfiiral affects belong to this class. By reason of the simultaneous combina- tion of long-continued depressing influences (trouble, care, etc.), of fatigue, sleeplessness, exhaustion, hun- ger, digestive disturbances, and pain, a normal emo- tional activity may reach a pathological or diseased height, accompanied by impulsive violence, and fol- lowed by dreamy or incomplete memory.

V. P.\THOLOGICAL ChANOES IN THE BraIN STRUC- TURE. — Constant and definite changes in the brain we know to be proved at the present time only in such forms of mental disease as accompany defective states, either of congenital (e. g. idiocy) or acquired origin (e. g. senihtj', paresis etc.). The weight of the brain remains considerably under normal in these condi-

tions. In contrast to the average of 13G0 grammes for males, and 1230 grammes for females (the weight of tiauss's brain was 1492 grammes; of TwigenielT's, 2120 grammes), in full-grown idiots we find weights of 417 to 720 grammes (in one case only 21)0), and in paretics weights of about 1000 granunes. \\ ith the naked eye one can sei> in jKircsis, in .s<'nile dementia etc., the great diminution and disappearance of the cerebral cortex, adhesions between the cortex and the brain coverings, oedema of the ventricles, scars, shrinkages, softenings, changes in the blood-vessels, etc. In idiots one observes in addition the most vari- ous congenital malformations (re.-;eml)laiii(' to lower animals, or jiersistence of embryonal stages, etc.), the remains of intiammatory processes, etc. The patho- logical lindings by t he microscope of fine changes in the brain cortex (in the ganglion cells, nerve fibres, etc.) are even richer.

In all the other forms of mental disease pathological anatomy has failed to give us any information. Autopsy either reveals no abnormal conditions in the brain, or the changes that are found are either incon- stant or have no particular relation to the psychosis, as for example the very fine alterations of the cortical cells, which modern microscopy has proved to exist in acute psychosis, can be induced also by other bodily diseases which cause death. Our knowledge in this field is still very hazy.

Marie. Traite international de psychologie pathotogique (Paris, 1910); Kraepelin, Lelirbucli der Psyctiiatrie (8th eel., Leipzig. 1909); PiLcz, Letirbucti der gerichtlictien Psyctiiatrie (Vienna. 1908) ; Bessmer, Stiirungen im Seelenleben (2nd ed.. Freiburg im Br., 1907). A. PiLCZ.

Patmore, Coventry, one of the major poets of the nineteenth century, in spite of the small bulk of his verse, b. at Woodford, Essex, 23 July, 1823; d. at Lymington, 26 Nov., 1896. His father was a man of letters, and a writer of ability and fancy, who lived among writ- ers, making one of the compan\- that included Lamb, Hazlitt, Leigh Hunt, "Barry Corn- wall", and others of less well-re- membered names. Meeting with financial reverses late in life, P. G. Patmore unavoid- ably left his son carefully educatec but unprepared for any profession, Coventry Patmore

to gain a difficult livelihood. Coventry Pat more mar- ried, in his early twenties, Emily Augusta Andrews, daughter of a Nonconformist clergyman who was Rus- kin'stutorin Greek berore the young student went to the university. Monckton Milnes (later Lord Hough- ton), meeting Coventry Patmore at Mrs. Proctor's house, and interested by his intellectual face and his evident poverty, recommended him for emplf)yment in the Hril ish Museum Library, and this it was that made hismarriagei)ossil)le. Coventry Patmore'searly poems were ijublished by the zeal of his father, and gained prophecies of future greatness from Leigh Hunt and others. In 18,'')3 was published his first mature work, "Tamerton Church Tower and other Poems", and in 18.54 appeared the first part of a more deliberate work, "The Angel in the House", a versified love-story of great simplicity, interspersed with brief meditations,