The TREATMENT consists in caring for the comfort of the patient, which can usually be done at home or at least in a private family, unless there are persistent impulses requiring the control of an asylum. The preparations of opium are useful to control extreme restlessness, and may be given freely, avoiding narcotism. A bland diet of fattening food is best suited to the wants of the aged. A simplified life often serves every purpose, especially in the quiet of the country, although it is best not to remove them from familiar scenes unless as a matter of necessity. Complicating Insanities. Complicating insanities simply add to the usual symptoms of the special forms of mental disease many of the characteristics of the particular disease, rheumatism, gout, phthisis, organic diseases of the heart, etc. Choreic movements depend upon the same pathological changes as are found in the sane, and certain diseases are attended with such profound changes in the nutrition of the brain as to give rise to mental impairment, which amounts to almost extinction of the mind, such as myxœdema and chronic nephritis. Acute mania occurs in the last stage of Bright's disease, which may be difficult to differentiate from uræmia. Mania, melancholia, and delusional insanity occur in the course of acute febrile diseases or appear during the period of convalescence; in the latter case the prognosis is much more unfavorable than in the former. The close {175} alliance between insanity and pulmonary consumption is a matter of frequent observation. The two diseases are interchangeable, and they often coexist. The relation between rheumatism and insanity is less close. Insanity from Specific Poisons. Maniacal symptoms have been reported from the use of various drugs, including iodoform, mercury, etc. Hasheesh dementia is not uncommon in the East. Acute delirium arises from hydrate of chloral and the preparations of opium analogous to acute alcoholic mania from excessive drinking, and chronic impairment from their prolonged use. Bromide of potassium rarely produces symptoms similar to those of mania; taken for a long time in even moderate doses, it tends to mental sluggishness, and in long-continued large quantities given uninterruptedly there is a danger of well-marked dementia. All of these conditions may be prolonged beyond the usual action of the particular drug or give rise to symptoms in excess of those usually observed. The characteristic indications of the particular drug, sometimes marked by the combined use of several, will be found if they are carefully looked for. The TREATMENT consists in breaking off the bad habit gradually or abruptly as each case may require, and in otherwise treating the persisting symptoms in accordance with the general principles already stated in considering the various mental diseases. ALCOHOLIC INSANITY includes mental disorder from the use of alcohol in both the acute and chronic forms.