ts color is brown, and you cannot prove to him that he is wrong,
because he is color-blind. Green and brown appear alike to him. This
is mental disorder, but not insanity. Again, a friend will explain to
you how he can make a large profit by investing his money in a certain
way. He does so invest it and loses it, because he has overlooked
certain factors, has not given proper weight to certain influences,
and has ignored probable occurrences, all of which were apparent to
you. He was a victim of his mental disorder, his judgment, reason, and
conception being faulty; yet he was not insane. Again, you answer a
letter from a correspondent, copying on the envelope the address you
read at the head of his letter. A few days later your answer is
returned to you undelivered. In astonishment, you refer to his letter
and find that you have misread the address he gave, mistaking the
number of his house. This was an instance of mental disorder in your
not reading the figure aright; but it was not insanity.
_What Autopsies of the Brain Reveal_
The changes in the brain accompanying or resulting from disease, as
found in some chronic cases of insanity in which autopsies are made,
consist largely in alteration of the nerve cells of the brain. The
cells are smaller and fewer than they should be, they are altered in
shape, and their threads of communication with other cells are
broken. Nerve cells and often large areas of gray matter are replaced
by connective tissue (resembling scar tissue), which grows and
increases in what would otherwise be vacant spaces. All areas which
contain this connective tissue, this filling which has no function, of
course, cease to join with other parts of the brain in concerted
action, and so the power of the brain is diminished, and certain of
its activities are restricted or abolished.
_Curious Illusions of the Insane_
In the normal brain certain impressions are received from the special
senses: impressions of sight or of hearing, for example. These
impressions are called conscious perceptions, and the healthy brain
groups them together and forms concepts. For instance, you see
something which is flat and shiny with square-cut edges. You touch it,
and learn that it is cold, smooth, and hard. Lift it and you find it
heavy. Grouping together your sense perceptions you form the concept,
and decide that the object is a piece of marble. Again, you enter a
dimly lighted room and see a figure in a co
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