Life and trial of Dr. Abner Baker, Jr : (a monomaniac), who was executed October 3, 1845, for the alleged murder of his brother-in-law, Daniel Bates : including letters and petitions in favor of a pardon, and narrative of the circumstances attending his execution, etc. etc. / by C.W. Crozier ; trial and evidence by A.R. M'Kee.

Crozier, C. W.

Date:: 1846

Credit: Life and trial of Dr. Abner Baker, Jr : (a monomaniac), who was executed October 3, 1845, for the alleged murder of his brother-in-law, Daniel Bates : including letters and petitions in favor of a pardon, and narrative of the circumstances attending his execution, etc. etc. / by C.W. Crozier ; trial and evidence by A.R. M'Kee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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A lew examples will illustrate this in a satisfactory manner: A man by the name of Wood had indicted Dr. Monro, for keeping him as a prisoner, when he was sane. He underwent the most severe ex- amination by the defendant's counsel, without exposing his complaint, but Dr. Battie having came upon the bench by me, and having de- sired roe to ask him what was become of the Princess, with whom he had corresponded in cherry juice, he showed in a moment what he was. He answered there was nothing at all in that, because, hav- iag been («ei every boJy knew), imprisoned in a high tower, and being debarred the use of ink, he had no other means of correspondence, but by writing his letters in cherry juice, and throwing them into the river which surrounded the tower, when the Princess received them in a boat. There existed of course, no tower, no imprisonment, no writing in cherry juice, no river, no boat, but the whole was the in- veterate phantom of a morbid immagination. I immediately, cou- d Lord Mansfield, directed Dr. Munro to be acquitted, but this man Wood, being a merchant in Philpot lane, and having been car- ried through the city on his way to the madhouse, indicted Dr. Mun- ro over again, for the trespass and imprisonment in London, knowing that he had lost his cause by speaking of the Princess at Westmin- ster. And such, said Lord Mansfield, is the extraordinary subtlety and cunning of madmen, that when tie was cross examined on the trial in London, as he had successfully been before, in order to expose his madness, all the ingenuity of the bar, and all the authority of the Court, could not make him say a single word upon that topic which had put an end to the indictment before, although he had still the same indellible impression upon iris mind, as he had signified to those who were near him: but conscious that the delusion had occasioned his defeat at Westminster, he obstinately persisted in holding it back. '•This evidence at Westminster was then proved against him by the short'hand writer. Lord Eldon, since he has been Lord Chan- cellor, has mentioned from the bench, a ease which occurred to him while at the bar, illustrative of the difficulty that occurs in such cases. After repeated conferences, and much conversation with a lunatic, he was persuaded of the soundness of his understanding and prevailed on Lord Tburlow to supercede the commission. The lunatic, how- ever, immediately afterwards, calling on his counsel to thank him for his exertions, convinced him in five minutes, that the worst thing that he could have done for his client, was to get rid of the commis- sion.''

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