Thoughts on the causation of insanity / by John P. Gray.

  • Gray, John P. (John Purdue), 1825-1886.
Date:
[1872?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Thoughts on the causation of insanity / by John P. Gray. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    This was undoubtedly an important step toward the systematic study of the disease. The general division into mania, melancholia, dementia and idiocy, were the generic forms, under which were grouped all the vari- ous manifestions of mental disturbance and defect. While this division was perhaps adequate for the purposes of Medical Jurisprudence to determine the question of responsibility, it was found too general for scientific classification. It was found, for instance, that these forms often shaded into each other, that in the same individual melancholia and mania alternated ; that persons, admitted into asylums in apparent dementia, frequently passed into a condition of maniacal excite- ment, and that in the progress of all cases where re- covery did not occur, dementia was the final condition. However all attempts to improve a system of classi- fication by a subdivision of these original forms were still unsatisfactory. A second classification, also suggested by the phe- nomena of disease was based upon its physical origin, and this has been steadily gaining ground. In 1863, Dr. Skae, of Edinburgh Eoyal Asylum, proposed a classification before the Medico-Psychological Associa- tion, based on the bodily causes and natural history of the disease; and in 18G9, a committee of that associa- tion recommended this classification, and also one pro- posed by an inter-national congress of alienists, held in Paris in 1867. The latter proposed to arrange cases according to the causation, as for instance: Insanity of pregnancy, of childbirth, of lactation, climacteric, from uterine disorder, tuberculosis, masturbation, alco- holism, post febrile, and the like. The method of classification according to the pathological cause, is both clinical and scientific, and conforms to that adopted in the study and treatment of other diseases. This i?