An inquiry into the proper classification and treatment of criminal lunatics : a letter addressed to Samuel Trehawke Kekewich ... / by John Charles Bucknill.

  • John Charles Bucknill
Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An inquiry into the proper classification and treatment of criminal lunatics : a letter addressed to Samuel Trehawke Kekewich ... / by John Charles Bucknill. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    The writer confidently refers to the above cases, as proof that the most criminally disposed patients to be found in asylums, are not the so-called criminal lunatics ; and that the majority of the latter are as tractable and harmless as the average of insane persons, to whom the stigma of crime has never been attached. He adds one case more as an in- teresting example of a criminal propensity depending on disease of the brain, acknowledged by the patient to be wrong and wicked, and successfully resisted by a resolute effort of will. CASE XXII. An agricultural labourer of steady and industrious habits; has thought, talked and read much on religious subjects; two years before his admission he left the Church of England and joined the Independents; twelve months after that he became restless, gloomy, and reserved, irregular at his labours, and distressed about his soul. He was fully con- scious of his state, and had great hopes of being cured in the asylum. He had shown no disposition to suicide or vio- lence, but had the constant feeling that he must destroy some one. None of his relations had been insane. On admission he was twenty-six years of age, a fine powerful man, six feet high, with more than the average intelligence of his class. He was aware that his mind was affected, and said that his head was filled with vain and evil thoughts, and that the more he strove to get near the Scrip- tures the further he was from them ; he felt a strong desire to commit murder, which he struggled against and thought a temptation from the devil. His head was hot, and he had some pain in it, but was otherwise in good health. In the course of a month he improved greatly, but relapsed after a visit from his friends ; he however again improved, lost all his bad thoughts, and for some weeks laboured at spade- husbandry. Whilst thus engaged he one day came to the writer and begged to be taken from the garden and placed
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