Amentia and dementia : a clinico-pathological study / by Joseph Shaw Bolton.

  • Bolton, Joseph Shaw, 1867-1946.
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Amentia and dementia : a clinico-pathological study / by Joseph Shaw Bolton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    Ambassador and the owner of all this property.” I here ask him to write his name and he writes “ Walter Charles Sir Ace. Sir Ace = One and only.” He is not an “ incuba.” He owns the whole world. “ My father is the only power in heaven. The Bible has never been righteously taught. I’m the only man of letters in the world.” He has now got “on top of Mephisto.” There is a lot about him (Mephisto) in the papers, and his extradition from America, and he is on tramp and a showman. At the previous asylum patient “ heard him in converse all day. He spoke to me by Secret Service and wished to create me chief of police and arranged to give me £2 2s. a week. His voice is everywhere. Everything in these buildings is a tractory, even the plaster on the walls and the paint—like the whispering gallery in Westminster Abbey.” Patient is known on the service privately as “Pistol bullets.” He is an “incube” and is the author of “ electropa- tion.” He electropates kings, cardinals, and even the Pope. He could open all the locks at the previous asylum at the same time. There are two pins in all the locks. They are Pullman carriage locks. The doors are opened and closed for what he calls his midnight service. During the above description the patient was obviously speaking largely in metaphor, with the design of impressing me. The last refer- ence, for example, is either to the alteration in the side-room locks which is made at bed-time, or to the hourly opening and closing of the doors by the night patrol. Patient is a shrewd, well-read, and well-informed man, and at times talks quite sensibly, but he is very unstable, and when he gets excited one does not know whether to marvel at his extraordinary and grotesque association of ideas, or to be disgusted with the foulness of his language. He frequently makes most apt and cutting remarks, even when one might suppose that he was totally incoherent, whereas he is largely showing off. On one occasion, when he quite correctly thought that a friend of mine was laughing at him, he suddenly turned on him with a torrent of questions. My friend time by time replied “No;” but eventually incautiously answered “Yes” to a question as to whether he knew some purely imaginary individual. The patient at once rapped out: “ Go and his then for a liar ! ” to my friend’s discomforture and the attendants’ amusement. He is a steady worker in a ward kitchen and a general favourite. He at times gets violently excited and abusive, but on the whole is amusing rather than troublesome, and he always has a genial word for anyone passing through the ward. Case 178.—M. A. C—, female, set. 44, single. No occupation. Certified 8 years on admission. A stout, dull-looking woman with a' small moustache and imperial. Forehead narrow and eyes close together compared with the rest of the face. She has a great idea of her importance. She says she was the matron’s maid and housemaid at C. H— and received 6d. a week and uniform. She was sent there by an old magistrate for refusing to pay her rates and taxes. In 1884 she left her home and went out as a housekeeper. In 1892 she returned and opened a shop for a butcher.