A letter to the Right Honourable Lord Ashley relative to the case Nottidge versus Ripley / by T.T. Wingett.

Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter to the Right Honourable Lord Ashley relative to the case Nottidge versus Ripley / by T.T. Wingett. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    The same “ frightful principle1' is deprecated by the two authorities: both adopt the same rule as the crite- rion for judging of the propriety of resorting to a lunatic asylum: but unfortunately for Sir Frederick’s comfort, “ time works wonders ;” the opinions which not long ago ran parallel, now diverge, and Dr Conolly of the “Indications” is not the Dr Conolly of the “ Bemon- strance with the Lord Chief Baron.” Compare the spirit of the foregoing passages with the following, from the 11th page of the “ Remonstrance with the Lord Chief Baron —“ There are gentler spirits, whose gloomy religious views, if fostered by the continued society of those among whom they originated, lead, by certain consequence, to self-destruction. If no one heeded their incipient malady before they actually became dangerous, it would often be too late to avert the danger. In this very case of Nottidge versus llipley, the circumstances were strikingly illustrative of the pecu- liar danger of leaving imbecile, visionary, and fanatical women at large, particularly if possessed of property.” I select one other passage from Dr Conolly’s “ In- dications.” Page 4d0.—“ Dr Haslam has related a singular case, at great length, without appearing, during the whole of the narration, once to have thought of the only question with which a medical adviser had any- thing to do. The case is that of a Mr Matthews, who, it seems, considered himself to be the special object of an- noyance from a mysterious gang, residing in some un- known apartment near London Wall, who, by their skill in pneumatic chemistry, were enabled to inflict upon him various kinds of torture ; of which kinds of torture, and of the persons inflicting it, he would give a very minute account. Sometimes they constricted the fibres of his tongue; sometimes they spread a veil beneath his brain, and intercepted communication between the mind and the heart ; they would afflict him with stone in the bladder ; introduce ideas at will to float and undulate in his brain; compress him almost to death by magnetic atmosphere; excoriate his