The case of Luigi Buranelli : medico-legally considered / by Forbes Winslow.

  • Winslow, Forbes, 1810-1874.
Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The case of Luigi Buranelli : medico-legally considered / by Forbes Winslow. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    His condition, whilst in that institution, will he found fully detailed in the evidence given on the trial hy Mr. Henry, the surgeon who attended him, by Mary Anne Flower, and Elizabeth Naylor, the nurses of the ward in which he was, and in the statement of Mr. Shaw, who, though summoned by the prosecution, was not examined. It will suffice here to state, that the proposal to examine his fistula threw him into a paroxysm of terror, expressed with such exaggeration, both of words and manner, as to excite general obser- vation and the laughter of the other patients. All that could be found was a little hole in the skin, at some distance from the anus, which looked like the remains of a suppurated hemorrhoid. This little bridge of skin was divided, causing no pain, and attended with no more bleeding than would have followed the scratch of a pin. Buranelli, however, continued to insist that his urine passed in quantities through this hole, and perpetually teased his medical attendants to examine the wound, and so distressed the Nurses by his perpetual assertions, that his bed was swamped and swimming with water, and entreaties to be taken out of it, that they mentioned the subject to the Matron of the hospital. It appeared, also, that he would lie crying for hours together, complained much of pain in the head, and conducted himself so strangely, that they were led to talk about him to each other and to Mrs. Lambert, the so-called wife of the murdered man, who had accompanied him to the hospital, and expressed her belief that he was not right in his head. At the expiration of about three weeks, viz., on the 2nd of Sep- tember, he was discharged from the ward, but permitted to attend Mr. Henry as an out-patient; for that gentleman had been much struck with his gentleness, his great melancholy and dejection, and apparently forlorn condition. He continued in regular attendance as an out-patient down to the very time of the murder; but had no trace of fistula, or any other physical ailment for a period of many weeks, although his delusion as to the flow of water remained as strong as ever. On leaving the Middlesex Hospital he went to reside in Newman- street, in the house occupied by Lambert and the females Jeans and Williamson, and subsequently removed with them to Foley-place. It appears at this time he intended returning to Penshurst, but through the friendly solicitations of Latham, otherwise Lambert, he con- sented to occupy a room on the same floor with Mrs. Williamson, at three shillings a week, paying a very moderate sum as his proportion towards the expenses of the table. The singular influence he seemed unconsciously to exercise on all who observed his amiable and gentle nature, here was strikingly apparent. These people knew the condi- tion of his mind. They had tenderly ministered to his wants in the hospital, and pointed out to the nurses his mental condition, and the danger of his being left alone; yet when he was obliged to become an out-patient, from motives the most humane and disinterested, he was invited to make one of their household, and, from his first entering in September, until the day of his final departure from the house in Foley-place, about the 25th of December, there is no evidence to