The verdict of 'suicide whilst temporarily insane' : a legal contradiction / by R. Henslowe Wellington.

  • Wellington, Richard Henslowe, 1862?-1940.
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The verdict of 'suicide whilst temporarily insane' : a legal contradiction / by R. Henslowe Wellington. 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.

    3/22
    “SUICIDE WHILST TEMPORARILY INSANE:” A LEGAL CONTRADICTION.* . f I ^HE teaching of the Pagan philosophers was that “ death is a law and not a punishment,” and not, as the fathers of Chris- tianity taught, that it was “ a penal infliction introduced into the world on account of the sin of Adam.” The Pagan philosophers worked to abolish the terrors of death, whilst the work of “ the Catholic priests has been to enhance the fears and horrors and make it as revolting and appalling as possible,” and to escape such was only to be accom- plished b}^ subjection to their rule and government. The fear of death has ever been one of the many nuclei around which superstition has crystallised. Especially during the Middle Ages did superstitions crystallise in the form of “ visions of Purgatory and Hell, and conflicts Avith visible demons ;—like those mothers who govern their children by persuading them that the dark is crowded A\dtli spectres I that avIII seize the disobedient, and who often succeed in creating an association of ideas Avhich the adult man is unable altogether to dissolve.” The Catholic priests resolved to base their power upon the nerves, and, as they long exercised an absolute control over education, literature and art, they succeeded in completely reversing the teaching of ancient philosophy, and in making the terrors of death, for centuries, the nightmare of the imagination. The great difference between the teaching of the two schools, the classical and the Catholic, is seen in the position each took as regards suicide. Pythagoras forbade men “ to depart from their guard or station * A paper read before the Medico-Legal Society, London, Jane 14th, 1904.