Observations on Insanity: With Practical Remarks on the Disease and an Account of the Morbid Appearances on DissectionHaslam, John
Science
Observations on Insanity: With Practical Remarks on the Disease and an Account of the Morbid Appearances on Dissection
Haslam, John
Mental illness
Having thus given a general account of the symptoms which I have observed
to occur most commonly in persons affected with madness, I shall now lay
before my readers a history of all the appearances which I have noticed on
opening the heads of several maniacs, who have died in Bethlem Hospital.
CASE I.
J. H. a man twenty-eight years of age, was admitted a patient in May 1795.
He had been disordered for about two months before he came into the
hospital. No particular cause was stated to have brought on the complaint.
It was most probably an hereditary affection, as his father had been
several times insane and confined in our hospital. During the time he was
in the house, he was in a very low and melancholic state; shewed an
aversion to food, and said he was resolved to die. His obstinacy in
refusing all nourishment was very great, and it was with much difficulty
forced upon him. He continued in this state, but became daily weaker and
more emaciated until August 1st when he died. Upon opening the head, the
pericranium was found loosely adherent to the scull. The bones of the
cranium were thick. The pia mater was loaded with blood, and the medullary
substance, when cut into, was full of bloody points. The pineal gland
contained a large quantity of gritty matter[1]. The consistence of the
brain was natural; he was opened twenty-four hours after death.
CASE II.
J. W. was a man of sixty-two years of age, who had been many years in the
house as an incurable patient, but with the other parts of whose history I
am totally unacquainted. He appeared to be a quiet and inoffensive person,
who found amusement in his own thoughts, and seldom joined in any
conversation with the other patients: for some months he had been
troubled with a cough, attended with copious expectoration, which very
much reduced him; dropsical symptoms followed these complaints. He became
every day weaker, and on July 10th, 1795, died. He was opened eighteen
hours after death. The pericranium adhered loosely to the scull; the bones
of the cranium were unusually thin. There were slight opacities in many
parts of the tunica arachnoides; in the ventricles about four ounces of
water were contained--some large hydatids were discovered on the plexus
choroides of the right side. The consistence of the brain was natural.
CASE III.
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