chiatry to the University of Pavia. His introductory lecture, "Genius
and Insanity," showed the close relationship existing between genius and
insanity; and the theme proved so absorbingly interesting to him that he
threw himself into the study of the problem with all the ardour of which
he was capable.

Those who have never come into contact with mentally deranged persons
may deem it absurd to mention genius and insanity in the same breath,
and still more absurd to seek to demonstrate the existence of flashes of
inspiration in insane persons. In the minds of most people, the word
_lunatic_ has from earliest childhood conjured up the vision of an
incoherent, stupid, or demented being, with wildly streaming hair,
raging in paroxysms of maniacal fury, or sunk in imbecile apathy; not,
certainly, a sharp-witted individual capable of reasoning logically. But
the briefest of visits to an ordinary asylum will make it plain to any
observer that such extreme types form only a very small minority. The
greater number, when drawn outside the small circle of their delusions,
often reason with greater acumen than normal persons; and their ideas,
unhampered by stale prejudices which hinder freedom of thought, are
remarkable for their originality. Fine fragments of prose and poetry and
really beautiful snatches of melody, the work of inmates of lunatic
asylums, were collected by my father and published, as special
monographs, in _The Man of Genius_; and his museum at Turin contains
specimens of embroidery of marvellously beautiful design and execution,
and carvings of extreme delicacy.

The well-known cases of mathematical, musical, and artistic prodigies
and somnambulists with prophetic gifts, who nevertheless appear to be
perfectly imbecile apart from their special talents, are interesting
examples of the transition from madness to genius. The solving of
equations of the fourth and fifth degree or mental calculations
involving the multiplication or division of a large number of figures,
are difficult operations for normal persons; yet individuals barely able
to read and write, and often afflicted with insanity or imbecility, have
been known to possess marvellous mathematical faculties. Imualdi was a
cretin, and Dase, Juller, Buxton, Mondeur, and Prolongeau, men of feeble
intellect. Among the inmates of asylums, we may find cretins and idiots
that are able to play on a whistle any melody they have heard. The
drawings of cats, execute