fallen under my observation. CHAP. III. ON THE CAUSES OF INSANITY. When patients are admitted into Bethlem Hospital, an enquiry is always made of the friends who accompany them, respecting the cause supposed to have occasioned their insanity. It will readily be conceived that there must be great uncertainty attending the information we are able to procure upon this head: and even from the most accurate accounts, it would be difficult to pronounce, that the circumstances which are related to us have actually produced the effect. The friends and relatives of patients are, upon many occasions, very delicate upon this point, and cautious of exposing their frailties or immoral habits: and when the disease is a family one, they are oftentimes still more reserved in disclosing the truth. Fully aware of the incorrect statement frequently made concerning these causes, I have been at no inconsiderable pains to correct or confirm the first information, by subsequent enquiries. The causes which I have been enabled most certainly to ascertain, may be divided into _physical_ and _moral_. Under the first are comprehended _repeated intoxication_; _blows_ received upon the head; fever, particularly when accompanied with delirium; mercury largely or injudiciously administered; the suppression of periodical or occasional discharges and secretions; hereditary disposition, and paralytic affections. By the second class of causes, which I have termed _moral_, are meant those which are applied directly to the mind. Such are the long endurance of grief, ardent and ungratified desires, religious terror, the disappointment of pride, sudden fright, fits of anger, prosperity humbled by misfortunes[4]: in short, the frequent and uncurbed indulgence of any passion or emotion, and any sudden and violent affection of the mind. There are, doubtless, many other causes of both classes which may tend to produce the disease. Those which have been stated are such as I am most familiar with; or, to speak more accurately, such are the circumstances most generally found to have preceded this affection. The greatest number of these moral causes may, perhaps, be traced to the errors of education, which often plant in the youthful mind those seeds of madness, which the slightest circumstances readily awaken into growth. It should be as much the object of teachers of youth, to subjugate the passions, as to discipline the intellect. The tender mind should be prepared to expect the natural and certain effects of causes: its propensity to indulge an avaricious thirst for that which is unattainable should be quenched: nor should it be suffered to acquire a fixed and invincible attachment to that which is fleeting and perishable.