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The general term "ill health," under which thirty-seven cases are arranged, is so vague and indefinite, and it may include so great a variety of diseases, that it is suscepti-ble of but little comment of special application. In general terms, it may be supposed that almost any malady, if sufficiently prolonged, may impair the vigor of the body, act sympathetically on special organs, diminish the quantity or derange the action of the nervous fluid, and thus disorder the manifestations of the intellect.

The next series of causes are those which are arranged under the generic term "fever." Those are placed first whose predominant pathological effects are upon the circulatory and nervous systems; and those which follow, have, as a leading feature, disordered action of the liver.

Pure fever, unallied with a pathological condition of either the nerves or the liver, if, indeed, such a disease exists -- may, from the rapidity and force of the circulation, impair the functions of the brain, or, it may produce the same result sympathetically, through the inflammation of the mucous membrane of the alimentary canal.

If the disease be of the typhus or the typhoid form, in which the nervous system becomes most seriously involved, and delirium is frequently an accompanying symptom, it is easily comprehended that mental disorder of a more permanent character may ensue.

It is probable that of the thirty-one cases included under the general term fever, the disease in many or most of them, was of one of the specific forms afterwards mentioned.

In the bilious fevers, it appears to us, that the disordered action of the liver is the primary cause of insanity, when this disease results. Whether the disordered action of the brain in these cases arise from sympathy with the liver, or be produced by the condition of the blood, modified as that fluid is in its constitution, so far as regards the elements of the bile, is a question which we pretend neither to explain nor to understand.

Twenty-six cases were stated to have arisen from dyspepsia. The remarks already made upon this disease, preclude the necessity of any farther comment

Rheumatism and gout, undoubtedly, as a general rule, cause insanity by a metastasis to the dura-mater, the fi-brous membrane covering the brain.

Phthisis pulmonalis, or the true consumption, is not unfrequently connected with insanity, either as a cause, a concomitant, and possibly, in some instances, an effect. In the whole range of human maladies, there are but few cases more singular or interesting than those in which these two diseases alternate with each other in the same patient. The consumptive person becoming insane, the progress of the pulmonary complaint is arrested until he recovers from his mental disorder, when it resumes its march until stopped by another attack of mental derangement, again to progress, if that malady be cured, and again to be suspended if the patient should become insane. This singular alternation is probably in obedience to a general physiological or pathological law, that two important and active diseases can not simultaneously exist and run their natural course.

The deleterious effects of the sudden suppression of a natural secretion, or an accustomed discharge, whether natural, or artificial, are well known. Accustomed to a constant drain, the body is brought into a condition in which that drain appears necessary for the support of health. If it be suspended, the system becomes plethoric, or laden with matter unqualified to assist in the action of the different organs, and consequently an obstacle to the faithful performance of that action. The brain, in common with other organs, is affected, and consequently the manifestations of the mind disordered.

Some of the eruptive fevers, and particularly measles and scarlatina, are proverbial for the physical defects which follow in their train. Their results being thus unfavourable to the perfection of the body, it is not remarkable that they should, in some instances, disorder the action of the intellect. In the foregoing list, thirteen cases are imputed to them.

That mysterious and peculiar influence of the salts of lead, which, in some cases, produces cholica pictonum, a disease so common among painters as to have derived its name from them, is undoubtedly the same which, in cases, among people who are accustomed to work in those substances, originates insanity.

The case attributed to the inhalation of prussic acid, is that of a man engaged in the manufacture of fancy soap. If that acid were truly the producing cause of the disease, it may be supposed to have effected that result by the depression of the nervous power, its natural physiological effect.

The last ten items in the table of physical causes constitute a series of influences to which the female sex alone is liable. We have long held the opinion that in their sex, these are the predominating causes of mental alienation -- an opinion corroborated by these statistics. It will be perceived that of two hundred and eighty-five cases of females whose disease is attributed to physical causes, no less than one hundred and fifty-five are arranged in the series in question. The nervous system being more fully developed, at least so far as intensity of action is concerned, in females than in males, and the intimacy between the uterus and the other organs of the body being so intimate, so powerful and so controling as the observation of physicians shows it to be, there is lit-tle cause of marvel, that the causes in question should be so prolific of mental alienation. Dr. Rush appears to have correctly estimated the potency of these causes, and alleged the fact as an argument in support of the doctrine that women are more subject to insanity than men.