Note 508 — OF IDIOTS AND LUNATICS.

Delirium, a word employed by the Romans, had its origin from the process of ploughing; for when the oxen deviated from the line to be pursued, they were said to be de lira, out of the track; and this figure was transferred to the deviations of the human intellect, when it erred from the established course. Delirium, says Dr. Cullen, may be shortly defined,—“In a person awake, a false judgment arising from perceptions of imagination, or from false recollection, and commonly producing disproportionate emotions.” It is of two kinds; as it is combined with pyrexia and comatose affections: or, as it is entirely without such combination; in the latter case it is named Insanity.