Hence the insane, during violent paroxysms, bear the want of sleep and food, resist the action of severe cold, and the effects of large doses of strong medicines. In most cases their minds are so absorbed or suspended during their paroxysms that passing and external events are wholly excluded, and though some few, after their recovery, vividly remember their dreadful dreams; to others, all has been a blank, and they feel just as a person feels respecting that section of the country in which he happens to sleep as he travels; but all these things, (which I intend shall be noticed more particularly hereafter,) are not peculiar to the insane, as has been held by some; they are equally the case with patients during the paroxysms and delirium in the inflammatory stage of fevers. Indeed, the same principle is exemplified in the cases of men of spirit or energy, who, during the excitement produced by the achievement of some difficult enterprise, bear the want of food and sleep, and resist the effects of cold and exhaustion, to an extent which would seem to have exempted them from the common laws of humanity, and these are the incidents in life which are never forgotten; but then, as with the insane, this extraordinary expenditure of the cerebral energy leaves the system exhausted, and it requires all our art and care to recover the enfeebled powers. It is this critical period of convalescence which is so important, and so difficult in the management of the insane. I further observe, that the variation of temperature of the system, observed during paroxysms of insanity, is more like that produced by the passions in a state of excitement than that which accompanies inflammatory fever. It appears to fluctuate in quantity, and to be tumultuous in its distribution, in proportion as the exciting and depressing passions are active and contending with each other. In proof of the truth of this, I need only mention that every thing which excites the malignant passions, or produces misery and distraction of mind, increases these appearances. I allude not merely to the expression of the countenance, but to the absolute heat of different parts of the system,—of different parts of the head in particular, of which they complain and to which they point distinctly, being often sensible to the external touch of another. It is to be remarked, that the changes and unequal diffusion of heat in other parts of the body correspond with the general and particular state of the mind: indeed the condition, (as it regards health or disease) of each part of the bodily system, directly or indirectly, corresponds with, and indicates states of the mind: but this truth requires more than an observation to do it justice; I make the remark, however, in the mean time, because there is no better guide to us in our treatment than this knowledge, and it explains this temperature as one of the corresponding effects. And though I shall not now enter on