Monthly retrospect of the medical sciences : January to December 1849 / edited by George E. Day, Alexander Fleming, W.T. Gairdner.
- Date:
- MDCCCXLIX [1849]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Monthly retrospect of the medical sciences : January to December 1849 / edited by George E. Day, Alexander Fleming, W.T. Gairdner. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![meiit or otherwise, for any injury he might commit. And if the jury thought the act complained of was committed under such circumstances as to make the defendant liable, they would give by way of damages only the actual loss sustained.” The jury returned a verdict of two thou¬ sand eight hundred dollars. We do not know but this verdict was legal and right, but we have doubts. The law says, “ Whenever the death of a person shall be caused by wrongful act,” &c. Can an insane man commit a wrongful act in the sense that the law contemplates? Be¬ sides, insane persons, when unmolested, do not frequently commit heinous acts; but such persons are easily exasperated, frightened, and rendered furious. No doubt, in this case, Kelly thought he was defending himself against a mob, intent on killing and robbing him. In such cases we think the inquiry should be very strict, if those who thus suddenly pursue a deranged person through the streets are altogether in the right, and are acting with due deliberation, caution, and from proper motives. At all events, it is to be regretted that one of the first decisions un¬ der this new law should have the effect of taking the property from an insane person, who, labouring under the direst affliction of Divine Providence, rendering him in¬ capable of intentional wrong, committed an act for which he is not re.sponsible criminally: Such decisions must, in some cases, have the effect to strip the unfor- funate wife and children of the afflicted maniac of all they possess, and the maniac himself of the means of restoration, in order to pay—for what? that which has no calculable value—which cannot be estimated by dollars and cents. What guidance had the jury to enable them to determine that the damage in this case was two thousand eight hundred dollars ? Man, in this region, has no marketable value; and, as Jeremy Taylor says, “ death meets us everywhere, and is pro¬ cured by every instrument, and in all chances, and enters in at many doors.” How can we calculate in dollars and cents the value of that which is so uncer¬ tain as life?—Amer. Jour, of Insanity, and Dublin Med. Press, September 19, 1849. 332..—Illegal Hydropathic Practice.— Alleged Death from the Imprudent Applica¬ tion of Cold Water. — On Tuesday, the 19th of June last, an inquest was held on the body of Dinah Toothill, at the Angel Inn, Keighley, before Thomas Brown, Esq., Coroner. [In the face of the most convincing evi¬ dence of murderous treatment, juries con¬ tinue to outrage the commonsense of mankind by returning the hacknied ver¬ dict of “ Died by the visitation of God.” It would appear that the most powerful agents may he applied by the most illi¬ terate of quacks, so as to occasion death, and yet the proper charge of manslaughter must, as in this case, he permitted to fall to the ground. The case of poor Dinah Toothill strikingly illustrates the insufficiency of legal enactments for the protection of human life, against the lethal weapons of quackery, and affords another instance of the danger of abusing a natu¬ rally innocent agent. It was abun¬ dantly proved that a gross and fatal out¬ rage on female decency was perpetrated by a hydropathic adventurer, he having for days personally subjected his patient, while tnenstruuting, to the cold water “ cure,” (?) until death removed her be¬ yond the revolting scene.] Evidenee being adduced, in summing- up, the Coroner said that, in the whole course of his experience, he had never met with a more flagrant case than the one under consideration. He could not imagine any proceeding more repulsive to the feelings and more insulting to the de licaey of a woman than that of being taken out of bed and stripped naked by a man; and this being repeated five times a day, made the circumstance doubly gross. He then instituted a comparison between the case of the deceased and that of Miss Ca¬ therine Cashen. The latter was a patient of the notorious St John Long, who, by friction and the use of stimulating liquids to the hack induced inflammation, termi¬ nating in .sloughing, exfoliation of the spinal bones, and subsequent death. The friends of the lady brought an action against the quack, which was tried twice. In both trials he was found guilty, the judges deciding that “ an illegal practi¬ tioner exposing the person of a female for the purpose of applying his remedies was guilty of a common assault; and if death followed upon the administration of the remedies he was guilty of manslaughter.” He (the Coroner) in conclusion mentioned these facts, as they pointed out the law on the subject in a manner not to be misun¬ derstood. It was for the jury to consider the whole of the evidence, and frame their verdict accordingly. After a few minutes’ conference the jury returned a verdict of “ Died by the visita¬ tion of God.”—Dublin Med. Press, Sep¬ tember 19, 1849. 333.- Sudden Death from Mental Emo¬ tion.—A few days ago, a boy, attempting to procure some water out of the canal](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29348390_0239.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
