Page:Medical Inquiries and Observations Upon the Diseases of the Mind - Benjamin Rush.djvu/30

 the brain to a tendency to schirrus, such as succeeds morbid action or inflammation in glandular parts of the body, and particularly that early grade of it which occurs in the liver, and which is known by the name of hepitalgia. The brain in this case loses its mobility so as to become incapable of emitting those motions from impressions which produce the operations of the mind.

3. We sometimes discover preternatural softness in the brain, in persons who die of madness, similar to that which we find in other viscera from common and febrile diseases. This has been observed to occur most frequently in the kidneys and spleen. The brain in this case partakes of its texture and imbecility in infancy, and hence its inability to receive and modify the impressions which excite thought in the mind.

4. and lastly. We sometimes discover a preternatural enlargement of the bones of the head from madness, and sometimes a preternatural reduction of their thickness. Of 216 maniacs whose heads were examined after death, Dr. Creighton says, in 160 the skull was enlarged, and in 38 it was reduced in its thickness. Now the same thing succeeds rheumatism, and many