Medico-legal relations of pellagra / by J.W. Babcock.

  • Babcock, James Woods, 1856-1922.
Date:
[1914?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Medico-legal relations of pellagra / by J.W. Babcock. 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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    i * takes a more comprehensive view of the subject in asserting that “Nothing is more capricious or variable than pellagrous insanity. Almost all pellagrins experience a special penchant to drown themselves, although others perish by strangulation, or throw themselves from high places, or, according to Soler, into the fire.” And he adds: “But it is not only against themselves that pellagrins direct their insane acts; under the influence of homi- cidal monomania they have other victims. Thus, then, pellagra is a malady in which, at an undetermined stage, the intel- lectual faculties are obliterated, abolished or obtunded. The patient does not properly judge his condition, his position, or his relationship to his environment; he commits the most reprehensible acts without motives, and this is the most convincing proof of his insanity. One who commits murder from personal interest, for rob- bery or from revenge, is not in the same category as one who com- mits homicide because of an accidental derangement of his mental faculties, and without an interested motive. This is the fundamental principle of all legislation which excuses the acts of the insane. * * * Thus pellagrins, who are attacked by well established pellagrous insanity * * * have obeyed a power, a force which they cannot resist, and, hence, do not come under the penalty of the law. This is the point of view which it is necessary to recognize regarding this grave question, which concerns the dignity of families, and the honor of justice.” To this may be added the opinion by du Saulle1: “Pel- lagrins, for example, who obey homicidal impulses, which so fre- quently accompany their insanity, have been condemned as murder- ers, and this with the consent of medical experts, or at least it is in accordance with the conclusions of their reports, that these unjust sentences have been pronounced.” Antonini,4 the Italian alienist and pellagrologist, has written that: 1 I11 pellagrous regions there are frequent cases in which it is possible to find in indicted persons some outward expression of pellagra, even when the examination is made some time after the actual deed or during the progress of the trial. * * * To the expert alienist it will not be difficult to establish his case in persons suffering from severe pellagra. Usually these facts will have been recorded by tlie examining physician who has sent the patient to an insane asylum. But pellagra may be present in an able-bodied farmer who has not felt the need of medical advice.”