continued to preside over a great portion of my uneasy dreams."

He passed from the High School to the care of a clergyman of the episcopal church in Scotland; but both master and pupil were idle, and he says he learned little there.

In his thirteenth year he began to visit his father's patients. In his fifteenth he attended medical lectures at the university of Edinburgh, and finding himself as well acquainted with medical subjects as some fellow-lodgers at a boarding-house, who were qualifying themselves for the doctorate, he presented himself for examination by the professors when they did, and obtained a medical degree in his nineteenth year.

He obtained soon after an appointment to a military regiment, as assistant surgeon. After serving for two or three years in various parts of England he came over to Ireland, and was present with his regiment at the actions with the rebels at Ross and Vinegar Hill in 1798. His life in the army he describes as one of complete dissipation of time, in which he learned nothing but "ease and propriety of behaviour." Of this sort of life he became naturally impatient, and returned to Scotland 1799, when he was appointed to the charge of the ordnance hospital in Leith Fort, and recommenced his practice among his father's patients.

The details of the next nine years of his industrious life could not be abridged with any advantage to the general reader, and the physician will do well to consult the volume itself; suffice it to say that he formed an intimate acquaintance with Sir Charles Bell, who was then laying the foundation of future eminence in the diligent study of pathology-that he formed the determination to fix his residence in some great city, and devoted every leisure hour to preparation for future success-that in his comparative obscurity he often reflected on the various avenues to success-that he distinctly saw, however many might be the modes of obtaining popularity, it could not be preserved but by the man who preserved the respect of his own profession-and for the sake of the young physician we find him recording that he "was led carefully to study and liberally to construe that part of medi

cal ethics which regulates the conduct of physicians towards each other."

After making many inquiries in vain in every part of England for a situa. tion suitable to his purposes, he was led to select Dublin as his residence, in consequence both of the high estimation in which the medical profession was there held, and by the prospect of an open in the profession for a physician at a time when, from many circumstances, the purely medical practice of Dublin was passing into the hands of the surgeons.

The two first years of his residence in Dublin gave but little encouragement. His fee-book for six months of the second year showed his receipts, from November, 1810, to May, 1811, to be but three guineas. At this time he obtained the situation of physician to the Meath Hospital, and soon after was appointed to a lectureship on the practice of physic at the College of Surgeons. These appointments showed unequivocally the opinions entertained of him by the professional bodies in: whose gift they were, and gave him the opportunity of evincing attention and knowledge of disease. His practice increased, and in 1812 his fees amounted to £472.

His successful progress was now uniform. In 1815 he was appointed one of the physicians to the House of Industry, and in 1820 physician-general to the army in Ireland. This appoint. ment was regarded as conferring the highest medical rank in the country. At this time, and for ten years afterwards, Dr. Cheyne's practice yielded an annual average of £5000.

Dr. Cheyne refers his success to his good arrangement of time, to punctuality, to attention to the interests and feelings of his professional bre thren, and prudence; and by the same means that his eminence was attained, he sought to preserve it.

His chief employment was as a consulting physician. He returned home from his morning visits to form new engagements, and when he set out from home left no account of his route. When his route was tracked it always led to inconvenience, as may be easily imagined: disappointment to the patients and their medical attendants who were waiting for him necessarily occurred from every interruption of his own arrangements of

his time, and worst of all, a ruffle of the spirits very unfavourable for the consideration of a difficult case-was sure to arise, and continue for several hours.

Besides its manifest effect on his own interests, Cheyne felt punctuality in the keeping of appointments to be a compliment expressive of respect for his professional brethren, and of attention to their feelings and occupations.

In 1825, in his forty-ninth year, Dr. Cheyne was affected with nervous fever. Dublin was, in the autumn of that year, visited by a dysentery, which proved in many cases fatal. This, together with anxieties of a different kind, harassed and oppressed his spirits. He struggled for two months, and then went to England, where he recovered his strength, and too soon resumed his professional labours. On his return he found one

of his "most esteemed" professional friends, the father of fifteen children, labouring under a disease which proved fatal. "He had," says Dr. Cheyne, "awaited my return in order to put himself under my care. His sufferings proved a weight on my spirits, which strangled every cheerful thought. I now began to comprehend the nature of my Own illness -a climacteric

disease was forming, which ever since

has been slowly executing its appointed

commission."

In 1831 he retired from business, at a time when his professional income was larger than at any former period. Life was spared for four years more, and how that time was passed, we cannot better relate than in his own words :

"Being of the opinion of those who think it better to wear out than to rust out, and seriously apprehending the consequences of want of suitable occupation to a mind which had been long in a state of excessive activity, I no sooner found myself in a country village in England than I devised such employment as might not be inconsistent with health slowly declining, and with diminished power of application. Three mornings in the week I went to a neighbouring cottage and saw the sick villagers, giving them advice and dispensing medicines which were prepared in my family; and thus many an attack of illness was nipped in the bud, and much suffering lessened. On a fourth morn

ing the sick came to me from distant parts of the country, for whom I prescribed; and, as there was no physician within twelve miles of the post town nearest to my house, I was occasionally consulted by some of the more respectable families in the neighbourhood.

"A charge is often brought against physicians, that after they have gathered in their own harvest they never think of showing how the ground may be culti vated by others: I wished to prove that I still retained an interest in my profession, even after it had ceased to yield me emolument, and therefore I gladly undertook to write some articles for "The Cyclopædia of Practical Medicine," in compliance with the request of Dr. Tweedie, one of the editors of that work. I was thus again led to the use of my pen, and began to extend my inquiries to other subjects, recollecting and recording facts and reasonings, which in the hurry of business I had almost let slip: but an end was soon put to my employment by the formation of a cataract in my right eye in the beginning of 1833, which soon deprived me of the use of that organ, and since that period the eye has become so dim and my strength so much exhausted, that I have altogether ceased to exercise my profession.

"Sherington, October, 1835."

The Essays "On Partial Derangement of the Mind," contained in this volume were prepared for publication by Dr. Cheyne himself—they were intended by him to be published anonymously-first, because they were written in the country, where he had no opportunity of consulting books-and secondly, because, in addition to the fact of declining health, they were produced under the pressure of severe domestic anxiety, and his editor tells us were, in fact, written for the purpose of diverting his thoughts from subjects which weighed heavily on his mind. "They were produced when one of his sons was in the balance between life and death, reduced to that state by the effect of a gunshot wound intended for another, and whilst he himself was rapidly advancing to the termination he had so long and clearly foreseen :"

"His own sketch leaves but little of his biography untold. In a very few months after he had made his last corrections in the manuscript of the following work, the general breaking up of his constitution, which hitherto had been

secretly progressing, exhibited itself definitively in mortification of the lower extremities; and after a confinement to his bed of six weeks, he died on the 31st of January, 1836.

Thoroughly aware of the nature of his case and its probable result, yet calm and collected in the contemplation of it, he prepared during his illness ample directions for the conduct of his family after his departure; showing, in his last act, that consideration for the welfare of others, which under all circumstances had characterized his conduct through life.

"From what source he derived support and comfort, whilst contending with pain and languor on his death-bed, may be gathered from the following unfinished letter addressed to his valued friend, the Rev. Peter Roe, of Kilkenny:

"MY DEAR FRIEND-On a bed of languishing, from which I know not that I shall ever rise, I write a few lines once more to thank you for the seasonable visit which you paid to Sherington in the summer, and to assure you that my regard for yourself, Mrs. R., and your child is unabated. I earnestly pray that all of you may have an abundant supply of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

"You may wish to know the condition of my mind. I am humbled to the dust by the consideration that there is not one action of my busy life which will bear the eye of a holy God. But when I reflect on the invitation of the Redeemer, (Matt. xi. 28,) and that I have accepted that invitation; and moreover, that my conscience testifies that I earnestly desire to have my will in all things conformed to the will of God. I have peace-I have the promised rest -promised by Him in whom was found no guile in His mouth.'

These lines were penned with a trembling hand, but they breathe a composed spirit: and the friend, for whose satisfaction they were written, proved the estimation in which he held such a record of a dying Christian's hope, by carrying the letter constantly

about him.

"The following memorandum, drawn up by Dr. Cheyne not long before his decease, will convey to the reader the best idea of his character and state of mind at the time.

"DIRECTIONS RELATIVE TO MY BURIAL, ETC.

"My body, attended only by my sons, is to be carried to the grave by six of the villagers, very early on the fourth or fifth morning after my decease. I would have no tolling of bells, if it can be avoided. The ringers may have an VOL. XXII.-No. 130.

order for bread, to the amount usually given upon such occasions; if they get money they will spend it in the alehouse; and I would have them told, that in life or death I would by no means give occasion for sin. My funeral must be as inexpensive as possible: let there be no attempt at a funeral sermon. I would pass away without notice from a world which, with all its pretensions, is empty." Tinnit, inane est."

666

Let not my family mourn for one whose trust is in Jesus. By respectful and tender care of their mother, by mutual affection and by irreproachable conduct, my children will best show their regard for my memory.

"My decease may be announced in the Irish newspapers in the following words" Died at Sherington, Newport Pagnel, Bucks, on the day of Dr. Cheyne, late physician-general to the forces in Ireland." Not one word more: no panegyric.

"I believe there is a vault belonging to the manor, but if it be under the church I should not wish my body to be laid in it, but in the churchyard, two or three yards from the wicket which opens from the path through the fields. I pointed out the spot to ―, and chose

it as a fit place for a rustic monument, without marble or sculpture, a column such as is represented in the accompanying sketch, about seven or eight feet high. On the column, on hard undecomposing stone, are to be engraven the following texts-St. John iii. 16, "For God so loved the world," &c.; St. Matthew xi. 28, 29, 30, “Come unto me, all ye that labour," &c.; Hebrews xii. 14, "Follow peace with all men,"

&c.

"As these texts are meant to rouse the insensible passenger, they must be distinctly seen. The following inscription is to be engraven on the opposite side of the column:

Reader the name, profession, and age of him whose body lies beneath, are of little importance; but it may be of great importance to you to know, that, by the grace of God, he was brought to look to the Lord Jesus, as the only Saviour of sinners, and that this "looking unto Jesus" gave peace to his soul.

Reader! pray to God that you may be instructed in the Gospel, and be assured that God will give his Holy Spirit, the only teacher of true wisdom, to them that ask him.

"If any objection be made to the spot pointed out for the interment of my body, let some other be chosen where the inscription on the column to be erected over me may be seen to advantage. The monument is for the benefit of the living, and not in honour of the dead.

"I wish the inscription to be pre2 K

Dr. Cheyne expresses his conviction that each of those propositions might be supported with such fulness of evidence as would amount to demonstration, but he complains of writing where he has no opportunity of referring to books. He pleads also his not having been in the habit of recording his observations in writing, and that his power of application is injured by decaying health. These apologies look like a consciousness that his case is not fully sustained, and while we are satisfied that the reproach against religion. as generating insanity, is wholly undeserved, we cannot think the three first of Dr. Cheyne's propositions tenable. With the first proposition, as laid down in terms in this passage, we are not disposed to quarrel, but through the work, in every argument, it assumes somewhat a different shape,

and mental disease is regarded as invariably originating in bodily ailment. That mind and body so act and re-act on each other as that there may be no case of mental disease unaccompanied with bodily ailment, we can well believe; but from this admission, the consequence, which Dr. Cheyne would draw, does not legitimately follow, that the first effort should be to remove the bodily disease before the mind is addressed by religious considerations. Suppose partial insanity produced by any misdirected passion—by avarice or ambition-by inordinate grief or disappointed affection-suppose, in such case, the body to participate in the disease of the mind, shall we wait for the return of bodily health before we present to the thoughts of the unfortunate man distracted with love or grief, or the disappointment of some project of the worldly mind, the only considerations which seem to have any chance of restoring peace? Our belief in such case is, that the disease is from the first, mental-that compel ling the mind to behold the comparative worthlessness of the objects to which it had been before directed, gives the best, if not the only chance of recovery; that, remove the cause of uneasiness, and often, very often, the bodily disease will pass away so instantly, as to have the relief seem almost miraculous. We do not believe that persons are speaking with conscious ill will when they tell us of the hearers of a Cecil or a Newton being excited to madness by the preacher; but for one equivocal instance of such results, what thousands are there of passions being calmed, and distraction of spirit ceasing, and perfect peace of heart succeeding the bitterest afflic tion, when the only medicine administered to the wounded heart was the counsel or the consolation of some religious man?

The natural result of Dr. Cheyne's theory would be, wherever we find mental disease, to search out its causes in the animal machine-not to commence with what is called moral treatment till the physician has abandoned all hope of cure. We cannot go this length, but are, however, convinced with him, that medical treatment of the disease has been, of late years, too little regarded. The second of the propositions which we have tran

scribed, is expressed in language so ambiguous, that it may either mean that, the rest of the mind being in health, and but one of its many faculties becoming diseased, the disease of such faculty may originate religious insanity and this will probably at first view, be regarded as Cheyne's meaning by most of his readers-or, it may mean, that there is only one power of the mind, the diseased state of which, can be properly regarded as religious insanity. The latter is probably Dr. Cheyne's meaning, but of the proposition in either view of it, we do not find any sufficient evidence offered in the book, although-on Cheyne's supposition of the faculties being distinct it would be a subject of the very utmost importance. To ourselves, who find a real difficulty in thus thinking of the mind-although when accuracy is not required, the popular language, which would represent the operations of the mind as if they were so many actors playing their parts more or less perfectly, does well enough it is a real loss that our author has not given us cases to illustrate his meaning.

The reader of the Essays should, in considering any part of Dr. Cheyne's reasonings, distinctly bear in mind that the subject of general insanity is not any where treated of by Dr. Cheyne; that not only in the title of the essays, but in the introductory chapter, where he gives the arrangement of his subject, he expressly confines himself to the consideration of such varieties of derangement as do not include "mental derangement arising from groups of faculties and affections being disordered, thereby involving derangement of the whole mind." The subject of his essays is, in his own words, "mental derangement, arising, first, from a disordered condition of the organs of sense; secondly, from a disorder of one or more intellectual faculties; thirdly, from a disorder of one or more of the natural affections and desires; and fourthly, from a disorder of one or more of the moral affections."

He tells us that "such derangements of the understanding as are attended

with insane speculations on the subject of religion, are generally in the first instance perversions of only one power of mind;" and in another part of his work he says, that "the mutual influence of the mental powers being still but little known, there is often great difficulty in discovering the faculty primarily disordered, a point, which, unless we can ascertain, we need scarcely hope to understand any case of insanity. This it is also which renders the treatment of such cases so difficult." The author had before told us that "were the principles he wishes to establish to be acted on, more immediate attention would be paid to the disorder of the body which supports the derangement of the mind, and more frequent removal of the latter might be expected." We transcribe another sentence, which seems coloured with the language of the phrenologists: "In a person devoted to religion who may have become insane, it is desirable, as in every other case of insanity, to ascertain what faculty, affection, or sentiment is primarily disordered. If we find that all right religious feeling is in abeyance, while through exaggerated pride, selfishness, or imaginativeness the mind becomes deranged, surely the case ought not to be ranked under the head of madness from religion." Granted! But as to the question of treatment? as to the means of cure? If for the purpose of understanding and treating the case, it is desirable we should ascertain what faculty is disordered, is not the importance of this information rather on the supposition of our being able in some way to deal with the mind than to aid us in removing the bodily disease which supports the mental one? On this point, repeatedly introduced in the course of these essays, we are left altogether without assistance from our author. He tells us that "the disturbance of one faculty sometimes affects all the rest; universal derangement ensues, and the case is hopelessly complicated." On the system of moral treatment we can perfectly understand such a difficulty, or rather, we can see how the hope of making the mind itself the instrument of its own cure