so powerful is habit,
begin to look upon them pleasurably. Our ideas of beauty are, in truth,
less referrable to a _natural_ than an _artificial_ standard, varying
in every country according to what the eye has been habituated to, and
fashion prescribes.--_Cunningham's Two Years in New South Wales_.

* * * * *

THE LECTURER.

* * * * *

MENTAL DERANGEMENT.

The term _melancholia_ is applied to _insanity_, when attended with
depression of spirits, arising commonly from some supposed impending
evil; but sometimes it takes place without any such error of judgment,
and is altogether unaccountable. As far as I have seen, this depression
of spirits is in no wise essentially connected with, far less dependent
upon, bodily weakness, as its cause. On the contrary, you will often
find such patients to be of full habit, and complaining of throbbing
headach, with flushing of the face, a full and strong pulse, though
sometimes the pulse is preternaturally slow; the tongue is often white
and dry, as in inflammation in general. These symptoms, considered in
themselves, would call for _antiphlogistic_ measures, such as
_bleeding_ and _purging_; and these are not at all the less
necessary because the patient is in a low and desponding state of mind.
In short, I know of no difference in the medical treatment of _mania_
and _melancholia_, merely as such; you must look to the state of
vascular action, both local and general, in order to lay down a proper
plan of cure.

_Hypochondriasis_ is a still slighter form of _mental derangement_,
and which is characterized by a preposterous anxiety and solicitude with
regard to the patient's own health, which in these cases is often little
if at all disturbed, with the exception of occasional uneasiness at the
stomach, arising from flatulency and other effects of indigestion. This
disorder in the state of the digestive function, is generally considered
by the patient as the real and primary disease, though 99 times in 100
it is merely secondary, the result of torpor of the alimentary canal
altogether. This torpor is the consequence of an oppressed condition of
brain, proceeding, for the most part, from increased arterial action in
this organ. Thus the effect is taken for the cause, and a treatment
directed in conformity with this mistaken notion. Happily, the practice
usually pursued on those occasions, and which is directed