Observations on Madness and Melancholy: Including Practical Remarks on those Diseases together with Cases and an Account of the Morbid Appearances on DissectionHaslam, John
Science
Observations on Madness and Melancholy: Including Practical Remarks on those Diseases together with Cases and an Account of the Morbid Appearances on Dissection
Haslam, John
Depression, Mental; Melancholy; Psychiatry -- Early works to 1900; Psychology, Pathological
J. P. a man, aged thirty, was admitted into the hospital, October 18th,
1800. It was then deposed, by the persons who brought him, that he had
been for eight months in a melancholic state; but they were unable to
assign any circumstances, which preceded his disorder, as a cause of his
disease. He had a large tumor on the throat which extended backward to the
neck, principally on the left side; the increase of this swelling, they
alledged, had much alarmed him, at the commencement of his melancholic
attack. During the time he was the subject of my observation, he was in a
very mopish and stupid state; if spoken to, he would sometimes give a
short answer, but ordinarily he took no notice of those who addressed him.
Some days he would walk slowly in the less frequented part of the
building; frequently he sat down for some hours in a corner. His appetite
was good, he ate the food which was brought him, but never took the
trouble to go for it, when serving out. In this state he continued until
April 2d, when he became more stupid, and could not be made to rise from
his bed. He did not appear to be in any pain, nor was he at all convulsed.
His bowels were regular. On the 5th he became comatose, and on the 9th he
died.
_Appearances on Dissection._
There was an excessive determination of blood to the brain, and the pia
mater was highly inflamed. On the inferior part of the middle lobe of the
brain, there was a gangrene of considerable extent, together with a
quantity of very foetid purulent matter.
This is the only instance of a gangrenous state of the brain which has
fallen under my observation.
CASE XXXV.
T. C. This person had remained many years in the hospital on the incurable
establishment. He had been a schoolmaster at Warrington in Lancashire, and
was a man of acuteness and extensive mathematical learning. As he became
very furious on the attack of his maniacal disorder, he was placed in the
Lunatic Asylum at Manchester, where he killed the person who had the care
of him, by stabbing him in the back with a knife.
The following is the account he gave me of that transaction, and which I
immediately committed to paper; as it conveys a serious and important
lesson to those who are about the persons of the insane.
"He that would govern others, first should be
The master of himself, richly indu'd
With depth of understanding, height of courage."
_Massinger's Bondman, Act I. Scene 3._
It ought to be more generally understood that a madman seldom forgets the
coercion he has undergone, and that he never forgives an indignity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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