Hallucinations.

  • Alexandre Jacques François Brière de Boismont
Date:
1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hallucinations. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    him. He complained of having been, against his inclination, an accomplice of Oxford, the assassin of the queen, to whom, how- ever, he had taught French, and whose mind he had attempted to soften. Oxford had revealed to him particulars of great importance relative to the crime he had committed, which he, Pearce, thought it his duty to communicate to the Secretary of State. With this view, he had written, in Latin, a letter con- taining all the details; unhappily, it had been taken from him, and he did not know if it had reached the office in Downing Street. He also desired to make known how Oxford boasted of having deceived Sir A. Morrison, Dr. Monroe, and the jury in persuading them that he was insane. Dr. Pearce added that this was what he wished to reveal to the Secretary of State. His letter was produced against him. The jury then proceeded in his examination. He persisted in saying his bed was wet, that deleterious substances were intro- duced into his clothes, and that a conspiracy existed against him. He drew from his pocket a small packet, which contained a piece of one of his shirts, and a snuffbox which also contained some other fragments; these he desired should be given to Pro- fessor Faraday, or some other celebrated chemist, to be analyzed. The jury decided that Dr. Pearce was deranged, and had been so since the month of October, 1840 (Britannia.)* If we were not fearful of multiplying cases of this character, we could relate the history of MacNaghten, the assassin of Mr. Drummond, who was also persuaded that he was surrounded by evil-disposed persons who threatened him, and that he was surrounded by strange faces.f It appears very probable that great political assassinations have been committed by hallucinated persons, and that in many cases, the impassibility of these persons under punishment has been the result of the diseased state of their minds, and of anaesthesia, so common among3t melancholy monomaniacs. M. Bazin relates, in hi3 Histoire de la Fronde, the assertion which Ravaillac made on his examination, that, some days prior * Galignani'a Messenger, 27th December, 1843. t In a visit made in 1850 to Bedlam, MacNajrhten was found in a state of imbecility, in the section of insane criminals. (The American Journal of Insanity, April, 1851, p. 354.)
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