Medical Inquiries and Observations, Vol. 2: The Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged by the AuthorRush, Benjamin
Science
Medical Inquiries and Observations, Vol. 2: The Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged by the Author
Rush, Benjamin
Medicine; Yellow fever -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia
8. Do we ever observe a partial insanity, or false perception on one
subject, while the judgment is sound and correct, upon all others? We
perceive, in some instances, a similar defect in the moral faculty.
There are persons who are moral in the highest degree, as to certain
duties, who nevertheless live under the influence of some one vice.
I knew an instance of a woman, who was exemplary in her obedience to
every command of the moral law, except one. She could not refrain from
stealing. What made this vice the more remarkable was, that she was in
easy circumstances, and not addicted to extravagance in any thing. Such
was her propensity to this vice, that when she could lay her hands upon
nothing more valuable, she would often, at the table of a friend, fill
her pockets secretly with bread. As a proof that her judgment was not
affected by this defect in her moral faculty, she would both confess and
lament her crime, when detected in it.
9. Do we observe the imagination in many instances to be affected with
apprehensions of dangers that have no existence? In like manner we
observe the moral faculty to discover a sensibility to vice, that is by
no means proportioned to its degrees of depravity. How often do we see
persons labouring under this morbid sensibility of the moral faculty,
refuse to give a direct answer to a plain question, that related perhaps
only to the weather, or to the hour of the day, lest they should wound
the peace of their minds by telling a falsehood!
10. Do dreams affect the memory, the imagination, and the judgment?
Dreams are nothing but incoherent ideas, occasioned by partial or
imperfect sleep. There is a variety in the suspension of the faculties
and operations of the mind in this state of the system. In some cases
the imagination only is deranged in dreams, in others the memory is
affected, and in others the judgment. But there are cases, in which the
change that is produced in the state of the brain, by means of sleep,
affects the moral faculty likewise; hence we sometimes dream of doing
and saying things when asleep, which we shudder at, as soon as we awake.
This supposed defection from virtue, exists frequently in dreams where
the memory and judgment are scarcely impaired. It cannot therefore be
ascribed to an absence of the exercises of those two powers of the mind.
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