128

\ Art. IX.?WHAT CAN BE DONE WITH CRIMINAL LUNATICS ? This man has a code so rigid that scarcely may it he said that he would suffer maniac to live.?Dr. Hammond, quoted by Dr. Grissom in True and False Experts, 1878.

a

Epidemics may decimate and devastate whole communities, and yet have their uses and advantages. They may remove the useless, the feeble, the aged, the unfittest members, and thus provide a fair and ample field to those most fanciful of modern romancists?the Evolutionists?for producing, or rather growing, young, healthy, powerful, and productive successors. They may exact attention to the circumstances apparently favouring or regulating the spread of diseases, whether these be natural or artificial, quarantine or non-quarantine, local origin or importation, 'isolation or the new Russian mode of stamping out a plague by burning the villages or houses in which it originated or first appeared. They may excite a paroxysm of domestic, even civic, clearing and cleansing, of establishing new codes of and of initiating a zealous, scientific, and even wise law, police investigation into the laws of health, comfort, and all that promotes individual and general vigour, happiness, and intelligence. The course of moral epidemics presents many features of resemblance to this description. They assail and disturb classes or even races of men ; but they chiefly affect the excitable, the erratic, the eccentric, the nervous?all, in fact, whose system is so imperfectly constituted as to be intolerant of strong impressions, physical or psychical, and as to be incapable of resisting not merely the wear and tear of toil, responsibility, disappointment, success, but the light and gentle tenor of a calm and untroubled career. They may rouse legislators and philanthropists to a sense of impending danger, to the possibility of a whole nation becoming frantic, to the necessity of bringing all the forces which politics, religion, or other moral influences place at their disposal, into operation, in order to control or cure the prevalent delirium. They may have led to sustained and permanent efforts to neutralise the effects of vice, intemperance, misdirected education, and of that social deterioration which provokes and aggravates mental maladies ; and even to the institution of warnings and recom~ mendations, if not of positive rules, for the prohibition ^

WHAT CAN BE DONE WITH CRIMINAL

LUNATICS?

129

consanguine marriages, of trades which are inconsistent with moral or mental sanity, and with the duties and destiny of the

citizen, as amenable to the will of God and man. In former times such epidemics were frequent and formidable in proportion to the ignorance, the convictions and superstitions, the habits and manners, and, above all, the dominant temper and temperament of the time. Opinions, fears, fictions, delusions, became epidemic, and swept over Europe, prostrating those of divers lineage, language, and constitution, with a force like a tornado. Perhaps the most striking and instructive illustration ?f a sentiment becoming universal and unanimous over the hearts and conduct of enormous masses of men is to be seen in the preaching of the early Crusades, when the simple words of an aged priest, " God wills it," animated all semi-civilised Europe, and appears to have forced the actors against their interests, inclinations, and even convictions. In modern times such cataclysms became more rare, more limited in their range, less destructive in their ravages, and, consequently, less effective in the production of social improvements, or, it would be better to say, changes. Very recently we may have observed avarice, fear, fanaticism, widely disseminated, and displaying many of the characteristics of a national scourge; but, in our own day, when a a becomes prevalent, a crotchet theory, speculation, actuates classes or communities, and urges them on to the accomplishment of some common object, the completion of the movedent may assume the name and attributes, if not positively the nature, of public duty, patriotism, or philanthropy. Thus there have been magnificent outbursts of popular feeling against slavery, against the unequal operation of laws, and against the modes of interference with, and management of, those who can neither guide nor govern themselves : we allude, of course, in an especial manner, here, to the insane and the imbecile. There have been during the present century repeated instances of a general, if not of a national, outpouring of sympathy and active benevolence?in 1815 and 1847. Far be it from us to stigmatise such manifestations, or to undervalue the incalculable amount ?f benefit, mingled, it is true, with a modicum of evil and erior, which accrued, or may accrue, from such epidemics. But know ing that when such instruments escape from wise and cautious control?as must be the case when large bodies of men act in concert, but without any common principle, in ignorance, and, it may be, from a mere emotion of compassion oi indignation, that their operation must be indiscriminate and their influence inutile, or directly pernicious?it may be expedient to offer a few observations rather on what ought to be aimed at than what is proposed to be aimed at on future occasions. The PART I. VOL. Y. K NEW SERIES. -

130

WHAT CAN BE DONE

WITH

CRIMINAL

LUNATICS?

seems to be opportune for such an attempt, as it has "become palpable, from the prodromes in many of our widely circulated and most trustworthy newspapers, even from certain of our medical periodicals, and from such sources as conversation and controversy, that the lunacy laws are again to be newly modelled, or muddled ; indeed, it has been reported that certain personages, high alike in legal and medical position and authority, have already been entrusted with the preparation of a programme of intended alterations or modifications. While we would earnestly hope that the opinion expressed by the distinguished President of the Psychological Association, Dr. Crichton Browne, in his address (Journal of Mental Science, Oct. 1878)?that our Specialty requires rest and repose?may be realised, it may be prudent to advert to what may be the scope, if not the substance, of the proposed changes, which may beforeshadowed in the address delivered by Mr. Millar, Q.C., in the This "Daniel come to Social Science Congress in 1878.* judgment," argues that, when lunatics are conveyed to private asylums, the chances of their liberation are in an inverse proportion to the truths of the accusation against them; that this patient, or victim, as he designates him, cannot escape from his gaolers except by a miraculous combination of circumstances, although he admits that false imprisonment, or the illegal detention of sane persons depends altogether upon tradition and rumour, and that no specific instance can be adduced; that nothing short of great acuteness on the part of friends and inquirers can compete with the contrivances of gaolers in preventing the real condition of the mind of their charge from beingascertained ; that even Chancery lunatics are ignorant of their right of appeal to the Justices, and are adjudged as of unsound mind on the private evidence of the Visitor ; and, lastly, that the same authority should be appointed to deprive criminals and lunatics of their liberty. Now, it is not at present our purpose to enter upon any defence of Private Asylums, nor to show that they cannot be dispensed with ; that while improperly conducted establishments of this class probably will be, as they should be, swept away, those under the care of physicians of upright character, extensive experience, and benevolent manners?who can bring all the sources and appliances of ample means, sound medical and psychological knowledge, and all the ameliorations for which we are indebted to modern views, to bear upon those committed to their care?are entitled to the fostering support of the State and of the public for the behoof of that very large number of affluent, cultivated, and refined individuals, who, in this country, would

moment

*

Law

Magazine

for November 1878, p. 83.

WHAT CAN" BE DONE WITH CRIMINAL

LUNATICS?

131

placed in a General Hospital for the insane. the animus by which the author is governed, we intend here to deal with another branch of his subject, as enunciated somewhat in the following manner. The only circumstances under which no false imprisonment could take place would be by a public inquiry as to the mental condition of the individual, conducted by a jury and judicial officer, or to give the opinion, in his own words, as it is formulated in one of his conclusions:? " No inquiry into the sanity of an alleged lunatic, whether by a Master in Lunacy or otherwise, ought to be held in private; in order to authorise the detention of any one as a lunatic, such inquiry ought to be public, to proceed exclusively upon sworn evidence, given by witnesses produced for crossexamination, and ought to be conducted by a competent judicial officer, assisted either by a jyiry or by sworn medical accessors at the option of the alleged lunatic, but in no case acting upon his own judgment merely. The cost of every such inquiry ought to be borne, in the first instance, by the person instituting the same, but he should be recouped out of the lunatic's property (if any), whenever the case was satisfactorily established." On pondering this scheme, inchoate and impracticable although it must be under the existing regime, regrets may arise that the unfortunate Mr. Dodwell had not been subjected to such a tribunal. But while, with many of our medical, even legal, compatriots, we cannot accept the wild extravagance of firing at a Master of the Kolls, whether with or without blank cartridge, in order to attract attention?foolish and fool-hardy although the act unquestionably was?as a proof of derangement; while many regard the procedure by which this apparently lifelong captive was examined without the protection or persecution of experts, as the case might be, as a misadventure of justice or law; and while we are by no means captivated by the course frequently pursued by experts, or by the practice of resorting to experts at all as at present pursued, we shall not enter into any discussion upon this case. In order to avoid even the appearance of local bias, or prejudice, and to eliminate the possibility of any suspicion that we are contemplating or speculating upon the issue of any special cases in this country, the venue of these observations shall be laid first in another Anglo-Saxon community, and there among a people, and there in a medical school distinguished for its wise as well as ardent pursuit of psychology. In America, Dr. Hammond, who is a physiologist of great energy at least, has advocated views which have not found much favour with his countrymen, as, for example, in discussing un-

not and could not be

Beyond exposing

K

2

132

WHAT CAN BE DONE WITH CRIMINAL

LUNATICS?

and blood thirst, he advooffender?perhaps on Voltaire's principle, pour encourager les autres,"?but chiefly on the plea of justice to society, and that he is competent to know the effect of a poignard, a pistol, or garrotting. A very large number of their jurisconsults, especially Dr. Ray, whose work on the Medical Jurisprudence of Insanity is the best on the subject in the English language, advocate a more humane and enlightened course, and would shudder at the possibility of contributing to hang a lunatic by mistake, or because he was dangerous, or in virtue of a metaphysical crotchet. The same authority, while arguing most strenuously that all forms and phases of insanity should be recognised as symptoms of bodily

provoked murders,perverted affection,

cates the

punishment

of the

"

disease, and that the extent to which such conditions may affect the human responsibility should be examined and determined, in the first instance, by medical. men alone, offers many perspicuous and prudent objections to the mode in which this investigation is at present applied, and to the circumstances under which the inquiry is conducted. He demurs first as to the selection of scientific witnesses at random. He exposes the hurried and unfavourable circumstances?the cell of a gaol, the eve of the trial, the presence of warders, reporters, friends of the inculpated?under which the most delicate and difficult exploration must proceed. He denounces the custom of Retaining, as the transaction may be called, of hired experts on each side, and to giving viva voce testimony in court. He recoils from the cross-questioning, confusing, sometimes brow-beating, of medical witnesses, and all the display of forensic dexterity, which is intended to obscure the subject under consideration While admitting the admissibility of or to perplex the jury. experts in criminal cases, he warns them against system and system-mongers, and likewise against the difficulties and dilemmas suggested to them by counsel. He recommends the avoidance of particular indications; that the whole history, conduct, and conversation of the prisoner should be embraced ?even the delicate shades of disposition which can only be detected through long observation of mental and moral disease, in conjunction with a comprehensive knowledge of the healthy mind. He protests against reliance on definitions of insanity, against dealing with supposed cases, solitary symptoms, with the possible identity of crime and insanity, with any consideration except the evidence produced in court, upon which, whatever opinion is formed, should be expressed in scientific and modest terms. As moral insanity is-still a qucestio vexatcc, Dr. Ray advises that it should be avoided.* *

p. 30.

Medico-Chirurgical Review, July Passim.

187G:

''

Lunacy

in the United

States,

WHAT CAN BE DONE WITH CRIMINAL

LUNATICS?

133

Another contribution has recently appeared upon the subject Lunacy and its collateral issues, in the form of a pamDr. E. Grissom, Superintendent Insane Asylum, of North phlet by Carolina, Raleigh, now in circulation amongst us, and which was originally published in the American Journal of Insanity. Stimulated by the sanguinary treatment proposed by Dr. Hammond, and by the imminent dangers which threaten the life of an accused person, whether sane or insane, attending the existing arrangements in courts of law, lie has written in a strong, forcible, almost bellicose, style ; but has presented so important, almost appalling, an array of facts and arguments bearing upon the controversy, that an epitome seems calculated to bring us His preamble nearer to the conclusion which we have in view. the prindefined case the Chief In Justice is, of Rogers, Shaw, the in of language:? following ciples expert testimony " The rule of law, on which this proof of the opinion of witnesses who know nothing of the actual facts of the case is founded, is not peculiar to medical testimony, but is a general rule, applicable to all cases where the question is one depending on skill and science in any particular departments. For instance, an artist is called in, in order to deliver a judgment on a picture, a nautical architect on a ship, in general, it is the opinion of the which is to jury govern, and this is to be founded upon the proofs of the facts laid before them." Some questions lie beyond the scope of the observation and experience of men in general, but are quite within the observation and experience of those whose peculiar pursuits and profession have brought that class* of facts frequently and habitually under their consideration. " In taxing the present system with laxity and peril, he quotes Sir Fitzroy Kelly as having affirmed that the records of the Assizes show the execution of sixty persons in England during the present century, who are conceded to have been lunatics in the eye of the medical science of to-day." It is probable that the number cited is a random estimate, an unconscious exaggeration ; but it is certain, notwithstanding the principles of humanity and justice, and the precautions " leaning to mercy's side," which pervade our code in dealing with criminals of imperfect or impaired intellect, and especially with those who morally stand rather between than on either side of health or disease, that many persons have been sacrificed and others have escaped in consequence of the clumsy and unphilosophical mode of trial in use. In illustration of one of these propositions, he adduces the fate of Bellingbam, " a man whom nobody now doubts to have been insane, who committed his homicidal acton the 11th May, 1811, was tried, convicted, sentenced, executed, and his body placed on the dissecting table on the 18th, all within one week." of Criminal

131

WHAT CAN BE DONE WITH CRIMINAL

LUNATICS?

And, in order to show that America, where the proportion of criminal to non-criminal Lunatics seems to be 1 to 46*03, or 2*15 per cent.,* has an equally sombre and sanguinary record, he mentions the cases of Cook at Schenectady, of Prescott in New Hampshire, of Baker in Kentucky, or of Maude in New Jersey?a man who had actually been confined as a

patient in an asylum and escaped therefrom,?and ironically points to the cases of Cornell and Wilcox, whose sentences being commuted, were confined, the one in Auburn, the other in Clinton Prison, in order to convince the public of the coincidence of insanity with murderous intentions and acts. Dr. Grrissom proceeds to assert that the condition of an insane person is At one now, and long has been, a matter of great difficulty. time it was held by the courts to be only such an overthrow of "

"

the intellect that the afflicted person must " know no more than the brutes " to be exempt from responsibility. As science progressed, the rule has been extended in modern times until it begins to comprehend within its saving influences most of tnose who, by the visitation of disease, are deprived of the power of self-government. Yet the law, in its slow and cautious progress, still lags far behind the advance of sound psychological knowledge and medical experience. He regards as a glaring and monstrous anomaly that individuals who are not experts?in other words, unqualified by scientific study or observation?are permitted to speak from their personal knowledge as to the mental condition of a prisoner. He contrasts with this rude expedient the practice pursued in France and Germany, where a criminal supposed to be of unsound mind is submitted, as a preliminary step, to a board consisting of experts, or is sent to an asylum, where both his physical and psychical state may be carefully watched, where his hereditary tendencies and personal history facts connected with his can be ascertained, and where all general character and conduct may be expiscated as to whether they are confirmatory or not of the plea set up. Such an innovation is very desirable, as it appears that, even in America, the functions of an expert have become a marketable and a profitable trade, and that cleverness rather than capacity, or an acquaintance with the diseases of the human mind, are the qualities chiefly in request. But in order to show that such an undignified course may be followed on this side of the Channel, he refers to the petulant remark of a Lord Chancellor, that medical witnesses invariably frame their opinion in harmony with the party from which they receive their pay; but he, at same time, adverts to the extreme caution occasionally exercised in order to restrict the evidence of medical men to facts, to the exclusion *

Provision for Insane Criminals, by E. C. Dewey, M.D., 1878.

WHAT CAN BE DONE WITH CRIMINAL

LUNATICS?

135

of mere opinions, and adverts to a trial in which Baron Alderson refused to receive the deposition of a physician who had drawn his conclusion solely from the evidence in court as to the soundness of mind of a panel. And he enforces the illustration by advocating protracted observation in preference to single visits paid for the express purpose of determining the mental health of an accused person. Such prolonged scrutiny is all the more essential, as cases often occur, and have been decided before legal judicatories where derangement was admitted to exist, but where the question at issue was whether the degree of the disease was such as to exonerate from the penalties of the law. It is quite obvious that where trivial or delicate shades of disease, or obscure departures from correct judgment are concerned?where the degrees of aberration are collected and measured by laymen, mingled perhaps with miscellaneous and extraneous matters, and presented, it may be, hurriedly, and for the first time, to an expert, and before he has even seen the panel?there is created a most difficult task, even where great acumen and clinical knowledge can be brought to bear upon the subject?in fact, a dilemna in which the ends of justice may be completely frustrated. Impressed by this conviction, paramount importance should be attached, in addition to signs merely mental, to the history of a criminal: what has been his parentage, education, and physical habits ; whether there has been recognised any great physical or moral change in the man, and, if so, whether it has been sudden or gradual; what is his organic condition ; and whether trophic degeneration of any character is discoverable; whether hereditary influences indicate hysteria, chorea, epilepsy, syphilitic diathesis, or other profound disturbance of the nerve centres ; what inconsistencies of opinion are in sharp contrast with his usual course of belief; whether there are inordinate ideas of grandeur attributed to his personal abilities or interests ; whether the bodily functions are performed with regularity, and he enjoys natural sleep ; and whether there is that due accord of mental and physical manifestations which long experience has shown to be in appropriate relation to each other in the several forms by which insanity has been recognised, and by which there have been efforts at its classification. Such features are best estimated by the jury when the expert is called upon to deal with theories propounded by the gentlemen of the bar, and when, whatever the amount of perversion, or deviation, there is little more to demonstrate the presence of disease than some affection of the will; for, although alienists may be convinced that whenever the volition is abolished so is responsibility, such is assuredly not the opinions of lawyers. When brought face to face with such subtle and delicate inquiries it

136

WHAT CAN BE DONE

WITH

CRIMINAL

LUNATICS?

is

absolutely necessary that the expert should either have a reputation for familiarity with minute distinctions in psychology to fall back on, or should be able to show, 'while under inquisition, judgment, ability, and extensive experience. Dr. Ofrissom mentions, while discussing the quastio vexcita, whether epilepsy precedes or follows insanity, it is mentioned that in the case of an epileptic criminal who had a fit upon the day he perpetrated the homicide, and avIio was condemned and hung, that structural cerebral changes were found upon dissection. It has been advanced that if deliberation can be demonstrated to have taken place in a

lunatic before the commission of

a

crime, he should be held

subjected to punishment. Bnt Dr. Grissom, with everyother alienist, has been familiar with many insane homito be responsible and

cides who harboured revenge and malice for many years, and who wreaked their vengance upon the unsuspecting victim. A person so actuated and endowed with an ordinary degree ot reticence or duplicity might defeat the most cunningly devised efforts to expose his morbid tendency, unless these were extended over a long period and conducted by those who were familiar with similar examples of secretiveness. Deeply impressed by the cumbrous machinery at present in operation, and by the great disadvantages under which even the most enlightened and the most intelligent judges and juries labour,Dr. Grissom earnestly proposes that insane criminals should be remitted either to a body of scientific inquirers, or that they should be placed for a considerable time in an asylum where they will be associated with those recognised as deranged, subjected to hourly inspection by philosophical, thoroughly trained, and disinterested physicians, and where every test expedient may be employed in order to lay bare the innermost recesses of their mind, and to analyse and winnow peculiarities, oddities, and suspected delusions. But this wish and hope on the part of the medical profession in the United States has been to a certain extent realised, and has for several years been successfully worked in several states. Dr. Ray is doubtful as to whether medical witnesses should meet for consultation previous to their appearance in court; but this natural embarrassment has been summarily and satisfactorily settled by the Legislature of Maine, which has enacted that persons stated or suspected to be insane are to be examined in an asylum, previous to trial by medical men engaged in the study and treatment of alienation, who are not to be selected by the counsel on either side, and whose report is to be accepted in lieu of oral testimony in the witness-box, and in lieu of that partisan contention, and advocacy, and hard swearing, which we are sometimes accustomed to lament, and which is, perhaps, inevitable when medical men are placed in the position of counsel,

ultimately

WIIAT CAN BE DONE WITH

LUNATICS?

CRIMINAL

137

and

engaged to refute or defend certain propositions, and according to Dr. Ordonaux, and according to many of liis class of thinkers, drive a sordid and profitable trade.* In Massachusetts, a commission, including one or more of the asylum superintendents, decides upon the case of convicts, and their removal is governed, it is believed, by the Board of State Charities. These steps are, however, confessedly tentative and experimental, or, at all events, are very limited in extent, and it is now proposed to turn to the results ot such a practice in a country where it has received a full and fair trial, and where,

after the test of years, it seems to have been crowned with complete success. No attempt will be made to afford either a profound or prolonged, or even a brief or perspicuous, exposition of the law in France upon this subject, nor to draw further distinction or contrasts between what it has effected and what our own system has left untried, or even in the most remote manner imitated; our only object being to show the working of such an arrangement in respect to a few notorious cases as reported in the best known and best credited medical journal of Paris. Such a mode of showing what we regard as a grand and philanthroin advance of what has been scarcely thought of movement pical elsewhere, will inevitably be contrasted by our readers with the characteristics, if we dare not say defects, of our English procedure ; but we willingly relinquish the invidiousness of initiating the contrast. J. A.M., one of nine children belonging to a disreputable family, in which no alienation was known to have occurred, had received no education and had entered upon the responsibility of a servant at a very early age. Although she had occupied several situations before she became connected with the family of Serat, nothing peculiar was previously observed in her character, but while so serving, she was accused of having suffocated two children?one an infant, the other 4 years old. The prisoner, having been transferred from the gaol to the public asylum, gave in both places the same responses to the interrogatories addressed to her, describing in a detailed manner, without any manifestation of remorse, with perfect calmness and as if she were describing a common and indifferent event, the steps and stages of the double murder. The results of the medical observation were consigned to a report by Dr. Mordret, the medical man of Mans Asylum, of which the following are the conclusions :? " It cannot be asserted that no sense of moral responsibility existed in the accused when putting the children to death, but it was, at least, extremely feeble. I nm disposed to believe that .

*

.

.

True and False Experts, by Eugene Grissom, M.l)., LL.D., 1878.

Passim.

138 slie

WHAT CAN BE DONE WITH CRIMINAL was

partially

conscious that she

was

LUNATICS?

committing

a

crime,

fully able to appreciate its moral by the presence of any sentiment in

although

not

England,

be

consequences, nor enabled her nature to resist the homicidal impulse under which she acted. " In my opinion seclusion will be necessary, rather as a measure of public safety than as a punishment." M. was accordingly condemned by the judge to sequestration until she attained her majority.* " II. P., the natural child of her mother, assassinated her aunt by striking her with an iron bar, her parent being accused of complicity. Immediately after the perpetration both females were found kneeling before a crucifix in their cottage, the instrument employed having been thrown below the bed. Neither at that time nor subsequently did the daughter express any penitence, pertinaciously asserting that she was impelled by an evil spirit and by a bad motive. During the various legal interrogatories to which they were subjected, the mother and daughter having giving unequivocal signs of derangement, they were ordered by the Procurator of the Republic to be removed to the asylum, where they might be subjected to a more rigid examination. While under medical treatment, when examined together or separately, they adhered to their original declaration, and presented the signs of what Legrand de Saulle has designated the Mania of Double Alienation, or what would, in

pronounced

the

Madness of

Supernatural Agency.

The results of the legal inquiries and psychological diagnosis were: 1st, that the mother was not present when the murder was committed, but was joined by her daughter in the cottage after the fatal blow was inflicted; but that had she been present, her moral state was so feeble that she could not have been held responsible. " 2ndly, That P., the daughter, labouring under the delirium of persecution, under a consequent irresistible impulse, killed her aunt. " An alibi was proved in the case of the mother; who, having become perfectly tranquil, and able to recognise the real mental condition of her daughter, although retaining the superstitious belief so prevalent among our peasants, was set at liberty ; while the daughter, although displaying no hallucinations, was detained as a patient in the asylum on the ground that she is not yet restored to sanity." f III. The following report contains the whole of the procedure in the case of an individual accused of parricide. The family of the prisoner, consisting of six members, *

Annalcs Medico-Psychologiques, November 1878, p. 367. March 1878.

f Ibid.

WHAT CAN BE DONE WITH CRIMINAL

LUNATICS?

lo9

appears to have inhabited the country near Mauriac, living- in a cottage let to the grandfather of B. The father, a dipsomaniac, and latterly a Dement, was at first secluded for ten years in consequence of furious menaces against his father and children. The majority of the family were labourers, but one was

a travelling vendor of umbrellas. The victim had been a drunkard of bad character and cruel, extremely parsimonious, but living on good terms with his grandchildren, the eldest of whom was a drunkard. On the 7tli of February 1878, the milkwoman found the deceased lying on the floor of his cottage, with his head almost separated from his body by some sharp and bruising instrument, blood, &c., being observed all around. The wounds and surroundings convinced the neighbours that the murderer had been animated by great ferocity; it was found that a sum of money had disappeared from a press, the key of which was always carried by the old man?a fact showing that the assassin was familiar with the surroundings. Suspicions at once fell upon his grandson, B., who next day avowed himself to be the offender, and that he had stolen 400 francs. The atrocity of the crime, the insignificant temptation, and the previous correct conduct of B., suggested that, if he committed it, there must exist some defect or derangement of the mind, and accordingly medical experts were called in. On inquiry it was found that B. had been a spoiled child, and was well formed and healthy, and that his intelligence was clouded by taciturnity, laziness, and inaptitude. At school he was marked by sullenness and mediocrity. He did not join in the games of his companions, and was scarcely honest, but was regarded as a good boy. Frivolous and apathetic, the choice of a trade was difficult, especially as it was doubtful whether he could enter into the engagement of an apprentice. He was sent to Alsace in order to be taught umbrella making, but his uncle?his master?finding him dull, solitary in his habits, and that neither kindness nor other means effected any change, he was sent back to his parents as incapable. On joining his family, sullenness, and idleness, ill-temper were followed by attempts to poison himself by benzine, and to a priest whom he sent for he merely said the words, " Will Grod pardon me?"? and to a physician he appeared hebete, and denied all cause for his crime, except that he was a burden to all, and he was then regarded simply as a suicidal monomaniac. Detected preparing verdigris for a new attempt to destroy himself, he showed such irritability that a certificate of insanity was procured. His relatives deponed at this juncture, to his misanthropy, love of solitude, perfect sobriety and purity of manners, but limited intellect and disgust with his occupation. At this stage he complained of headaches, betrayed great hesitation and restlessness of manners. Rejected for ignorance

140

WHAT CAN BE DONE WITH CRIMINAL

LUNATICS?

postmaster with whom he wished to engage, B. re-entered religious community where he had formerly been a pupil. To the brothers he appeared amiable, timid, and disconcerted by his anticipated failure with the postmaster. He disappeared for a few days, but was quite tranquil on liis return home. On the 7th February seemed abstracted, but took food with family, went out to see the hemp dressed, pretended that he was about by

the

the school of the

from Alsace to his friends, and was seen 110 news That evening the crime was committed. Next day he delivered himself to gendarmes a prisoner; confessed himself the parricide, describing minutely the tragedy, and declaring that he was not impelled by a voice or by blood-thirst, but by a sudden impulse which became deeply rooted in his nature. Against this incentive neither legal, family considerations,nor the probable penalty availed anything: he must kill some one, hesitated as to the individual, but his choice was decided by seeing the servant of his poor relative. Entering the cottage, after a few words he destroyed his victim, in spite of cries and supplications, with a hatchet, which he found in the cottage. The theft was an afterthought. B. was unmoved during this recital. On the eve of the murder he dined in an inn, was eccentric, danced before a mirror, and throughout showed an unimpaired appetite. It is likewise narrated that after the deed he took food at an inn, purchased articles, changing a bill for 100 francs, and stating his name and place of abode. Subsequently he partook of brandy in several inns until he became drunk. It is obvious, from his inquiries for a carriage, that he intended to go away; but having been told of the death of his grandfather he became agitated, went into the country, and hid himself in a stack of grain in order to avoid the police, and a few hours afterwards gave himself up to their custody, having been heard previously to say that he preferred the guillotine to the temptations to suicide to which he felt himself exposed. In various examinations, he is sometimes pensive, incoherent; sometimes restless, demanding liberation in order to go to Africa; sometimes silent; sometimes talkative, demanding a book of natural history which he had left at home; then avowing his guilt, but declaring his innocence immediately afterwards. While in prison one of his companions saw him get up during the night, hold his head and move it to and fro as if in pain: to another he acknowledged his culpability, repeated the story as to the sight of the deceased's servant having suggested the crime, and spoke of his grandfather's funeral, his cottage, &c., with but little regret, and seemed to believe that after a detention of eight months he miu'ht return to Alsace. The to carry

more.

WHAT CAN BE DONE

WITH CRIMINAL

LUNATICS?

14 L

visit of medical men suggested to him the suspicion that they intended to prove him to be mad, but this he denied. In their presence he was reserved, shy, and worried; when alone he played like a child. A letter to his friends betrayed the same qualities, demanding food, but indicating no affection and no regret for the act which he had confessed, calling it merely a bad job. His manifestations were so odd and contradictory that he was subjected to the examination of two experts, but their report was so brief and unsatisfactory, that he was ultimately transferred to the prison of Clermont Ferrand, to the more immediate observation of Dr. Hospital, who made the following report:?" B., 19, muscular, head small, flattened behind, forehead contracted, no beard, skin feminine-like; physiognomy childlike and mobile, the aspect suggesting that of a maniac, idiot, or even imbecile; solitary, walks incessantly to and fro, murmurs, as if agitated by internal thought, but obeys mechanically, eats voraciously, and his manners are abrupt and repulsive; his voice and words rude and harsh, and only uttered in reply; is restless and spits constantly; may reply, but incoherently; forgets name and things which no lunatic ever forgets; pretends that grandfather lives, and that he has no knowledge of his death ; laughs, murmurs, moves lips, utters irrelevant words when pressed in the most solemn manner -y claims prison as his house, beats door in order to get out, is ignorant of several relations; moral impressions faint or null, and on speaking of his fate?of penal servitude, of the scaffold, &c.?no impression was made; reads and writes with difficulty, the latter incoherently. May 20. Insomnia, face haggard, manner more restless, sees in imagination Prussian military in a meadow, a recollection of what happened in Alsace." evidently Under circumstances so complicated and perplexing, the medical experts resolved that lie should be transferred to the asylum, where his conduct and conversation could constantly be subjected to examination, and where he would be provided with a guardian more trustworthy than his fellow prisoners. Pleased to return home, as he thought, by railway, he made no inquiries as to the presence of the gendarmes, entered the asylum without comment, fraternised with inmates of refractory gallery, and took no notice of former medical attendant. Plunged into a shower-bath, with the assurance that it would be constantly repeated until he became communicative, he confessed his crime to the attendant saying that the old man had lived long enough, that he had not thought of the consequences, but knew what he was doing; that no voice or other impulse had prompted the act, and that he had been instigated to simulate madness by some of his fellow-

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The accused repeated all this to the reporter next with a gay and careless air, promising to tax his memory for additional facts. Engaged in work, he was observed, when alone, to stop, gesticulate towards the sky, and so on, made no attempt; and a letter from home produced no emotion. The following is an account of repeated interrogatories :? " Q. Having resolved to speak freely, you confess this crime, and recollect its committal ? "A. Yes. The idea arose two or three days previously on seeing my grandfather's servant and recollecting the position of the axe. The money had nothing to do with it. The idea returned often. I neither repressed it nor thought of the conse-

prisoners. day, but

quences. "

Q. What was your object? A. As I failed in my business and in self-destruction, I wished to be guillotined. " Q. Why did you take the money and hide yourself ? " A. I remembered counting the money, and determined to take a little; then concealed myself; but returned to deliver myself up afterwards. " Q. Have you recalled the bloody scene in dreams ? " A. No, never. " Q. Why have you pretended to be foolish ? " A. I was advised by two prisoners to act so. " Q. Are you sorry for it ? " A. (Speaking as if sorry for a frolic.) Yes. I wouldn't do it again. " Q. Have you not thought of the despair or dishonour to your family ? " A. No. I only thought to carry the idea out. " Q. On the eve of crime, you visited your father. Had you any accomplices ? " A. I had no accomplices, and no suggestions from others. " Q. If desiring money, why not get it from your relative, who had been liberal ? " A. Money was nothing to me. " Q. Have you been moved by voices ? " A. I have never heard voices by night or by day. " Q. You expected an early discharge ? " A. I try to be content. " Q. Have you enemies ? "A. No. " Q. Are you a millionaire ? "A. No. " Q. Have you no fear of being damned ? " A. No ; never thought of such a thing." "

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Considering his previous education, his attempt to escape, his simulation of madness, and that he had a definite object in the murder, a non-medical witness would consider the accused as culpable. Such an observer would regard the act as that of a juvenile malefactor. After a full consideration of the facts and of the examinations of the accused, the experts have concluded that he is of unsound mind and the act is that of a madman. To deal with the first proposition: there was one madman and two eccentric drunkards in the family, proving the presence of that most powerful factor, hereditary taint, well marked even in this youthful offender, and which, as is often the case, is not manifested until moral delinquency appears. This element was likewise proved by his ineducability and those various eccentricities which betray a pathological condition in the youthful members of diseased families. Descriptions of such individuals are actual portraits of B. before his crime. He may be said to have been shipwrecked by his nondevelopment of puberty, and by one of those moral perversions which so often take its place. His symptoms were identical with those which have preceded similar homicides and suicides. The prevention of such outrages must often be attributed to surrounding circumstances, the act being the first symptom of insanity, or may have been preceded by suicidal attempts. Had B. been examined after his suicidal, and before his homicidal attempts, he would have been pronounced insane. Like a child, the deed at once followed the conception, lie having gone unarmed. Unprompted by delirium or delusion, the act was impulsive, and may have been long in preparation ; the design to kill in order to be killed, the choice of a relation as a victim, and the suggestive sight of the axe, are all proofs of its morbid origin. His cunning in entering by the back of the house coincides with that of many lunatics who ingeniously arrange and combine their plot, which may involve a, prolonged and frightful butchery. Thus a pusillanimous child became a relentless murderer, described the deed coolly, and secreted the himself. If not insane weapon used; stole, and then concealed he would have adopted all obvious and ordinary means of concealment and escape, and would not have paid out money, joined his companions, tried to go away, and committed other consistencies. His theft of only part of the money?the property of the family, indeed?was another proof of obscure sense and conscience. As to his concealment, even epileptics fly after crime. His cold passiveness during confession was a part of his Under supervision in prison, his attitude, morbid nature.

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expression, soliloquism, pervigiliam, jerking stolidity, were noted as reliable signs, while amnesia was noted as a partially reliable sign of aberration. The confession, extorted from him b}r the douche in the asylum, that he had pretended insanity by the advice of fellow-prisoners, does not affect his real condition, as many real lunatics have so confessed that they were simulating. His belief in such advice was a sign of credulity, and it is even doubtful whether advice was given. B. superficially, might appear, while in the asylum, cured, although his cure would probably not last beyond the day of his liberation ; but, to the experienced psychologist, his look, his gestures, his murmuring, his cunning expression, even, when lie supposed he was unobserved, liis indifference towards his mother and to the prospect of perpetual imprisonment, must be regarded as signs of alienation. The disease may be described as strongly hereditary, innate psychical weakness, weakness of intellect and emotions, absence of moral responsibility and of a conception of the effects of conduct, melancholia, and sudden impulse. The conclusions arrived at were :? insane before, during, and after the 1. That B. was murder. 2. That his antecedents foreshadow insanity. 3. The first prodrome was his natural character, the second suicide, the third homicide, and the consecutive proofs were the indications detailed. 4. All his symptoms are to be referred to impulsive melancholia. 5. He must be held to be irresponsible. G. He cannot plead in court. 7. Although ameliorated by seclusion, his disease might break forth anew. 8. He should be placed in an asylum for an indefinite time. Guided by this report the court issued an ordonnance de non lieu, and B. was detained in the asylum, is an assistant in the infirmary, where he attends to the most degraded patients, assists in the most disgusting operations, is humane, silent, stolid; when alone mutters, attitudinises. Has become obese and discoloured during detention.? Translated and greatly abridged from the " Annates Medico-Psycholoqiques" May 1878. P. 388. ,

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