An account of the late murder and suicide in Leicester : with the reasons why one of the medical men at the coroner's inquest gave his opinion that she was insane ... / by a surgeon.

  • Anderson, James, -1863.
Date:
[1849]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An account of the late murder and suicide in Leicester : with the reasons why one of the medical men at the coroner's inquest gave his opinion that she was insane ... / by a surgeon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    He got better at that time ; however he had another at¬ tack and been the inmate of a lunatic asylum; is again become sane, and at lull liberty. I attended a woman in this town sane, that previous to being married, supposed that she had puppies in her stomach, this absurd belief became such that it was found necessary to send her to the lunatic asylum here. Cases are on record—A butcher, who firmly be¬ lieved that he saw a leg of mutton hanging from his nose, therefore he was certainly mad ; a baker who fancied himself butter, and refused to go into the sun¬ shine lest he should melt; a painter thought that he was soft—he was so in mind—he thought he was so much putty, and that he could not walk without be¬ coming compressed like putty ; others have fancied themselves glass, and would not sit down, least they should crack. *Dr. Ferriday, of Manchester, had a patient; he fancied he had swallowed the devil, and would not discharge the contents of his alimentary canal, through a benevolent feeling, lest he should let him loose into the world. In the aforesaid cases the insane gave expression to their delusive minds, hut when the volition of the mind, (should an injury he infliicted) where the motives to action are delusions, the scrutiny into the exact pro¬ cession of thought which produced the motive, or excited the determination is bevond the reach of the medical praclioner. If it he supposed that the terror of example will prevent the sallies of the maniac (it is dining these sallies that murder and suicide are committed,) it is a lamentable mis’ake; his belief in the good of his prin¬ ciple, his faith in the right of his actions, are superior to arguments ; his motive cannot he controlled by reason nor baffled by the fear of punishment ; impressed with a belief in the truth of his delusion, he hinries forward to its accomplishment, and in the pursuit of the phan¬ tom cannot be diverted by the most awful consequences.