crossed myselfe and durste not heare and se such matters, for it was to stupendious and above all reason yf I shulde wryte it; and in this matter I dyd marvell of an other thynge; if the efficacitie of such makynge one whole, dyd rest in the vertue that was in the pyller, or els in the wordes that the preest dyd speake. I do judge it shulde be in the holy wordes that the prest dyd speak, and not in the pyller; for and yf it were in the pyller, the Byshops, and the Cardinalles that hathe ben many yeres past, and those that were in my tyme, and they that hath bin sence, wolde have had it in more reverence, and not to suffre rayne, hayle, snowe, and such wether to fal on it, for it hath no coverynge, but at laste when that I did consyder that the vernacle, the phisnomy of Christ, and scarse the sacrament of the aulter was in maner uncovered and al St. Peters Churche downe in ruyne, and utterly decayed, and nothing set by, consideringe in olde chapels, beggers and baudes, hoores and theves dyd lye within them, asses and moyles dyd defyle within the precincte of the Churche, and byenge and sellynge there was used within the precinct of the sayde church that it dyd pytie my harte and mynde to come and se any tyme more the sayde place and churche."--_Andrewe Boorde,[2] the seconde Boke of the Brevyary of health, 1557, fol. 4th._ To return from this digression. Dr. Ferriar, whom to mention otherwise than as a man of genius, of learning, and of taste, would be unjust, has adopted the generally accepted division of insanity into mania and melancholia. In mania he conceives "false perception, and consequently confusion of ideas, to be a leading circumstance." The latter, he supposes to consist "in intensity of idea, which is a contrary state to false perception." From the observations I have been able to make respecting Mania, I have by no means been led to conclude, that false perception, is a leading circumstance in this disorder, and still less, that confusion of ideas must be the necessary consequence of false perception. By perception I understand, with Mr. Locke, the apprehension[3] of sensations; and after a very diligent enquiry of patients who have recovered from the disease, and from an attentive observation of those labouring under it, I have not frequently found, that insane people perceive falsely the objects which have been presented to them. We find madmen equally deranged upon those ideas, which they have been long in the possession of, and on which the perception has not been recently exercised, as respecting those, which they have lately received: and we frequently find those who become suddenly mad, talk incoherently upon every subject, and consequently, upon many, on which the perception has not been exercised for a considerable time.