[13] For this term the indulgent reader must give the author credit, because he finds himself unable adequately to explain it.--It is a complex _term_ for many ideas, on which language has not as yet, and perhaps will never be imposed. Very unfortunately there are many terms of this nature, equally incapable of description--a smile, for instance, is not very easy to be defined. Dr. Johnson calls it "a slight contraction of the face" which applies as properly to a paralytic affection. He also states it to be "opposed to frown." If curiosity should prompt the inquisitive reader to seek in the same author for the verb, to frown, he will find it "to express displeasure _by contracting the face_ to wrinkles." He who would "Finde the minde's construction in the face" must not expect to be able to communicate to others, in a few words, that knowledge which has been the slow and progressive accumulation of years. [14] These are the usual terms employed by writers on this subject, but the propriety of their use must be left to the judgment of the reader. Every person will occasionally hesitate whether certain occurrences, said to be causes, ought to be referred to one class, in preference to the other. They are loose and vague names: for instance, a course of debauchery long persisted in, would probably terminate in paralysis; excessive grief we know to be capable of the same effect. Paralysis frequently induces derangement of mind, and in such case it would be said, that the madness was induced by the paralysis as a physical cause. But it often happens that debauchery and excessive grief are followed by madness, without the intervention paralysis. Moral, in this sense, means merely habitudes or customs, reiteration of circumstances confirmed into usage; and these may be indifferently accounted physical or moral. [15] "----nessun maggior dolore, Che ricordarsi del tempo felice Nella miseria."--_Dante._ [16] The Jews also were particularly instrumental in the practice and propagation of medical knowledge at that period. [17] Cogitatio, (hic minime praetereunda) est motus peculiaris Cerebri, quod hujus facultatis est proprium organum: vel potius Cerebri pars quaedam, in medulla spinali et nervis cum suis meningibus continuata, tenet animi principatum, motumque perficit tam cogitationis quam sensationis; quae secundum Cerebri diversam in omnium animalium structuram, mire variantur.--_Tolandi Pantheisticon, p. 12._ [18] 1796, 1797. [19] Vide Report, Part II. p. 25. [20] Report, p. 59. [21] Ibid, 57. [22] Report 54.