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Thomas Cooper, a merry, upper-educated intellectual called “a
learned and talented mapcap” by none other than John Adams, wrote from his
secure chair South Carolina College a translation of a rather individual effort
in explaining insanity’s connection with moral outrages. The work, published in
and introduced an unusual, foreign
approach to the connection between sanity and malevolence. Brousssais’ work may not have required such
attention.
He wrote, for example:
"The causes of this morbid state consist always in
irritation of the trisplanchnic apparatus, and especially in that of the
stomach, acting on the brain. [Italics mine] This last viscus, may be such, by its normal
constitution, as to give a propensity to cruelty ; but in the morbid state it
is a sense of uneasiness perceived through the whole splanchnic apparatus,
comprehending the brain itself, which renders ideas of murder predominant in
spite of reason. This horrible perversion may be considered, as well as that of
suicide, as a species of chronic anger or hatred, which impels the individual
sometimes against himself, sometimes against other men or against inanimate
objects. We have already considered it under a subacute form in furious mania ;
but in the modification in which we now describe it, it is entirely
chronic and apyretic. In fact it may be extremely obstinate, and conceal itself
under the appearances of calm, of joy, of benevolence, until the lunatic finds
the opportunity of executing his horrible project."
“Such is M. Broussais' theory of these phenomena. It must be allowed that various irritations, and especially those in the digestive organs, often give rise to irritability of temper; but that any such state as that .which M. Broussais has described is a cause, and even the principal cause, of moral insanity, and in particular of that intense excitement of malevolent propensity which leads to murder and suicide, is a position which, before it can be admitted, requires proof; and no such proof has been afforded by the ingenious writer who has advanced this hypothesis. It must be confessed that this subject is as yet enveloped in obscurity.”
As it turns out Broussais recommended courses of bleeding, diet, soothing drinks, applications of cold and mild purgatives to treat insanity. This went somewhat against the established regimen of treatment (but of different philosophical and theoretical approach to the idea of insanity) of Benjamin Rush, who practiced all of the above but of harsher application and with more force. Broussais at least advocated a more temperate approach to bleeding, that it not be "severe", and that the strength of the insane not be completely diluted by massive exposures to dunking and the cold. The translator Cooper, however, disagreed with the milder treatments, establishing for the record that the hotter and harsher temperatures of the South required harsher and colder treatment. From page vi of Cooper's [reface we read: “The Southern climate of the United States
Such was the spirit of the day. Broussais is not even a shadow, today: he tried to establish a connection between gastrointestinal distresses and insanity, and that was seen as futile even by immediate contemporaries. Cooper survives because of his far reach into many disciplines--his treatment of Broussais, well, is memorable for his appeal to treat the insane differently in courts of law because of what he viewed as their diminished capacities.
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