Observations on mental alienation : and the application of its phenomena to the illustration of subjects connected with medical jurisprudence / by Thomas Y. Simons.

  • Simons, Thomas Y. (Thomas Young), 1797-1857.
Date:
1828
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on mental alienation : and the application of its phenomena to the illustration of subjects connected with medical jurisprudence / by Thomas Y. Simons. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    lion. The private mad-house, which he had formerly so much commended, now became the subject of severe animadversion ; he said he had there been treated with extreme cruelty, that he had been nearly starved and eaten up by vermin of various de- scriptions. On inquiring of some convalescent patients, I had found, (as I had suspected,) that I was as much the subject of abuse, when absent, as any of his supposed enemies ; although to my face his conduct was courteous and respectful. More than a month had elapsed before he pressed me for my opinion, proba- bly confiding in his success, and hoping to deceive me. At length he appealed to my decision, and urged the correctness of his con- duct during his confinement as an argument for his liberation: but when I informed him of the circumstances he supposed meun-» acquainted with, and assured him he was a proper subject for the Asylum which he then inhabited, he suddenly poured forth a tor- rent of abuse, talked in the most incoherent manner, insisted on the truth of what he had formerly denied, breathed vengeance against his family and friends, and became so outrageous that it was necessary to order him to be strictly confined. He continued in a state of increasing fury for more than fifteen months. There was a case which came under my cognizance, very nearly similar. The individual, a female, was always using various de- vices with the master and the commissioners of the institution where she was placed, to obtain her liberty, and when she found all her efforts unavailing, she burst forth with the vilest torrents of abuse. The cases which I have mentioned, will, I think, clearly and forcibly show the, great difficulty which sometimes exists in deci- ding on the state of mind of an individual, and the necessity of using great precaution in giving our opinions. For the life, the prospects, or the liberty of a fellow being are always in such cases at stake, and the ipse dixit of a physician will have great weight before a Court and jury; for, from the physician, in such cases, aid is demanded, and much dependence is placed upon his opinions ; his responsibility is, therefore, proportionally great. Nothing can be more awful than the punishment of an individual with death, for the commission of an act, the guilt of which he is, from his unhappy state of mind, unable to judge. Nor any thing more distressing than the imprisonment of a sane man, driven perhaps by rage and impetuosity of temper, to exhibit those sign6 which the inexperienced and rash may pronounce as the eviden- ces of madness, thus taking the most effectual method of produ- cing such a result. Strange as it may seem, cases of this kind, arising from ignorance of the physician on the one hand, and of designing men on the other, have occurred. It is astonishing, as we have frequently had to show, how natural madmen are on some points, what prodigious intellectual efforts they have dis-