Responsibility in mental disease / by Henry Maudsley.

  • Henry Maudsley
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Responsibility in mental disease / by Henry Maudsley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    with a feeling of sleep, without being able to go to sleep. Darin* the paroxysm, which lasted one or two days, he retained consciousness, and knew perfectly that if he com- mitted murder he would be guilty of a crime; and when he was put under restraint, he made contortions ^ and frightful grimaces, sometimes singing, and sometimes speaking in rhymes. When it was over, he cried, Unloose me. Alas ! I have suffered greatly ; but I am well out of it, since I have killed no one* Having thus briefly set forth the varying order of events in epilepsy complicated with mental disturbance, I shall now go on to say something more in detail of the character of the mental symptoms. They may be de- scribed under four divisions—the first including those which sometimes go before an attack of epilepsy, and are known as its prodromata or forerunners; the second division including those which, corresponding in the mental sphere with those slighter forms of epilepsy that are known as epileptic vertigo, or the petit mal, Falret describes as a sort of petit mal; the third including the more violent symptoms which would correspond to the regular epileptic convulsions, or the so-called grand mal; and the fourth including those symptoms of mental decay which follow long-continued epilepsy, and mark what is called epileptic dementia. First, then, with regard to the mental prodromata of epilepsy. As I have already said, some persons become * Other similar cases in which the cessation of epileptic fits was fol- lowed by attacks of mental epilepsy are related by Dr. Echeverria in a recent article on Epileptic Insanity, in the American Journal of Insanity for July, 1873.