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
B. S. a man, generally noticed by those who have visited Bethlem hospital
a few years ago. It was said, that an attachment to a young woman, who
slighted his addresses, was the cause of his becoming insane. He was
considered a very dangerous lunatic, and for many years was confined to
his cell. In this situation he employed himself in the manufacture of
straw baskets and table mats. The desire of money was the leading feature
of his mind, and the whole of his energies were devoted to its
acquisition; nor was he at all scrupulous as to the means, by which he
attained his object. Although repeatedly assured that he would never be
liberated, he disbelieved such information, and was persuaded, when he had
acquired a sum sufficient to purchase a horse and cart, filled with
higler's ware, that he should be released. The idea of becoming a trader,
on so large a scale, stimulated him to constant occupation. He employed
several lunatic journeymen to plat the straw for him, but they were poorly
rewarded. He generally chose for his workmen such as were chained, and
could not come personally to insist on the reward of their labour. He
commonly pretended that the platting was badly performed, and
consequently unsaleable; sometimes he would protest that he had settled
with them, but that they were too mad to recollect it; and if at any time
he did pay them, it was in bad coin. For many years he was unrivalled in
this trade, and, by every species of fraud, had amassed nearly sufficient
to set his plans afloat: when an unfortunate event took place, which
considerably reduced his capital. He had always a propensity to game,
which, from his skill and dexterity in cheating, was generally attended
with success; but in this science he was once over-matched. An insane
soldier, an ingenious man, became his intimate friend, and finding him
possessed of some money proposed a game at cards. The result was deeply
disastrous to the artificer in straw, who endeavoured to evade the
payment; but his friend stated it to be a debt of honor; and besides he
was a very powerful man, of a stern aspect, and not to be trifled with;
he was therefore compelled to tell down at once the slow accumulation of
several years. It was intended to make the soldier restore the property,
but he, conceiving that he had already derived sufficient benefit from the
hospital, went away in the night, without the formalities of a regular
discharge.
To fill up the measure of his misfortunes, when Hatfield, the maniac who
shot at his Majesty in the theatre, was brought to Bethlem, he, in
conjunction with a contriving cobbler, established a rival manufactory,
which shortly eclipsed the fabric of the old school, and by superior taste
rendered his further exertions unnecessary.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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