dēmēns

1. Amentia shows itself negatively and passively; dementia, positively and energetically. The amens is without reason, and either acts not at all, or acts without reason, like the idiot, ἄφρων; the demens, while he fancies that he is doing right, acts in direct opposition to reason, like the madman, παράφρων. Hence, amens metu, terrore; demens scelere, discordia, etc. 2. Insanus has a privative; vesanus, a depravative meaning. The insanus in his passion oversteps the measure and bounds of right, and gives one the impression of a guilty person; the vesanus, in his delusion, wanders from the right path, follows a false object, and gives one the impression of an unfortunate person. 3. Excors means of weak understanding in general, without the ability of reflecting and examining, in opp. to cordatus; vecors means, of a perverted understanding, without the ability of reflecting calmly, from the mind being taken up with one fixed idea. 4. Furor (fervere) denotes mental irritation, ecstasy, as raging, μανικός; delirium (ληρεῖν), a physical and childish remission of the mental faculties; rabies (ῥαβάσσειν, ἄραβος), a half-moral condition of a passionate insanity, as frantic, λύσσα. The furibundus forgets the bounds of sense, the delirus babbles nonsense, the rabidus will bite and injure when he can. 5. Cerritus and lymphatus betoken frenzy, as a demoniacal state, as possessed, cerritus or ceritus, by Ceres, lymphatus, by the nymphs; they may also be considered as derived from κόρυζα, mucus narium, and from λέμφος, mucus, as symbols of stupidity. (v. 89.)