ILLUSIO

1 definition found

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  ILLUSION. A species of mania in which the sensibility of the nervous system 
  is altered, excited, weakened or perverted. The patient is deceived by the 
  false appearance of things, and his reason is not sufficiently active and 
  powerful to correct the error, and this last particular is what 
  distinguishes the sane from the insane. Illusions are not unfrequent in a 
  state of health, but reason corrects the errors and dissipates them. A 


  square tower seen from a distance may appear round, but on approaching it, 
  the error is corrected. A distant mountain may be taken for a cloud, but as 
  we approach, we discover the truth. To a person in the cabin of a vessel 
  under sail, the shore appears to move; but reflection and a closer 
  examination soon destroy this illusion. An insane individual is mistaken on 
  the qualities, connexions, and causes of the impressions he actually 
  receives, and he forms wrong judgments as to his internal and external 
  sensations; and his reason does not correct the error. 1 Beck's Med. Jur. 
  538; Esquirol, Maladies Mentales, prem. partie, III., tome 1, p. 202. Dict. 
  des Sciences Medicales, Hallucination, tome 20, p. 64. See Hallucination.