Unsoundness of mind in relation to criminal acts / by John Charles Bucknill.
- John Charles Bucknill
- Date:
- 1854
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Unsoundness of mind in relation to criminal acts / by John Charles Bucknill. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.
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![relative, with whom he had previously been on the most affectionate terms, and it frequently occurs with mothers and children. In such cases the patient suffers under a strong homicidal impulse which he cannot control. And it has happened to me to hear a patient bitterly lament being under the in- fluence of such an impulse. This trial appears to have been conducted in a calm and temperate spirit, very unlike that in which its result has since been commented upon in the newspapers : it is seldom, indeed, that medical evidence has been more judiciously set before a jury. ]Mr. Izod, a surgeon who had attended the pri- soner professionally for several years, deposed, that in 1852, after childbirth, she had paralysis (hemi- plegia) with loss of speech and distortion of the face. That she had never entirely regained her powers, and that he had observed symptoms of disordered brain. Dr. Forbes Winslow said that paralysis may exist in some cases without actual insanity, but it is always symptomatic of a disease of the brain. Bleeding at the nose is a symptom of congestion of the brain, and is considered as an effort of the brain to relieve itself. During my interview with the prisoner in the gaol, I did not observe any symptom of insanity. Cases of temporary insanity resulting in a desire to commit murder or suicide are very common. (In re-examination.) I am](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21044302_0146.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
