Means: stimulants

It frequently happens that maniacs of the melancholic temperament are torpid and apparently insensible to every agent; their mental faculties seem immovably fixed, as if some vow bound them to apathy; they resist and resent every attempt to attract and arrest their attention. In these cases stimulants of various kinds have been found expedient, and often very beneficial; but they must be used with great caution and judgment, particularly those applied about the head; such as volatiles, errhines, and sternutatories. Medicines of this class, which are more usually applied externally, have been directed internally with great advantage; thus mercury, squills, mustard, horseradish, and cantharides.

C***
Practical Observations on Insanity, p. 148-149.