Note 526 — MEDICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL ILLUSTRATIONS OF INSANITY.

Religious fanaticism is so frequently attendant upon mania, that a question has arisen respecting their relative dependance upon each other, as to whether the former be the cause or the effect of the latter? It seems probable that both these opinions are correct, for, as Dr. Burrows very justly observes that, as religion influences the internal man more than all the passions collectively, so it may be a cause of insanity; while, on the other hand, there is no doubt, that a lunatic may imbibe a religious as well as any other hallucination, and yet be insane from a cause very contrary to religious.