ABSTRACT
The annals of mental diseases include numerous examples of this state of dissociation of the vital forces of cerebral activity. It is in the series of morbid phenomena peculiar to mental diseases that the processes of automatic activity generally present themselves with their most significant characters of intensity, and in the most diverse forms. In other circumstances automatic activity is exercised in a morbid manner within a comparatively limited circle, and only engages certain zones of the cortical substance, the others remaining comparatively unaffected; as we see for instance, certain cutaneous phenomena reveal themselves in patches, in little islets on the surface of the skin, leaving sound regions at intervals. A lady described by Falret uttered cries, committed all sorts of disorderly acts, and felt herself the more to be pitied, because she knew that they were acts of madness, but could not avoid committing them.
