2 When interrogated as to the motives which had prompted her to act so wickedly, she burst into tears, confessing that, at certain periods, she felt her reason forsake her, and that then she was irresistibly compelled to the commission of a deed of which, when done, she bitterly repented. She was acquitted by a jury of all criminal (152) intentions." He also quotes a case from Gall, which Gall quoted from a German journal, of a certain Maria Franck, who was executed for "fire-raising. Within five years she set fire to twelve houses. She was of peasant origin, and an unhappy marriage induced her to try and drown memory in the oblivion to be got by intemperance. She once saw a fire, and "from the moment she witnessed this fearful sight she felt a desire to fire houses, which, whenever she had drunk a few coppers' worth of spirits, was converted into an irresistible impulse. She could give no other reason, nor show any other motive, for firing so many houses, than this impulse, which drove her to it. Notwithstanding the fear, the terror, and the repentance she felt in every instance, she went and did it afresh."" ? 227. Comment on last quoted Case. -In this case it seems far from certain whether the accused should have Medico-Chirurgical Review, July, 1836, p. 216; Ray, Med. Jurisprudence of Inauity, p. 133. * On the Functions of the Brain, vol. iv., p. 104. * See The Lord Advocate v. Gibson, 2 Broun, 332. An interesting case was tried at the High Court of Justiciary, Edinburgh, in the year 1855. A medical man, Dr. Smith, was charged with wilful fire-raising at the Haughs of Kinnaird, near Brechin. The defence in this case was that Dr. Smith was insane. There was no doubt as to the facts alleged in the indictment. Dr. Christison, in his evidence, said: "I have not seen him at any time in a state of insanity. I would think it very probable he may occasionally be in a state of insanity, notwithstanding the calm and quiet state in which I found him in prison. A medical gentleman sent to see him, and merely sitting and talking with him, would not, except by accident, discover any trace of insanity. The form of insanity I would expect in this case is unreasonable suspicion and strong feeling of resentment on account of imaginary injuries; but, of course, any form of insanity might arise, though the one I have mentioned is the usual form. A man under the influence of such delusions I would pronounce insane for the time." The jury found that Dr. Smith "committed the act of fire-raising mentioned in the libel, but that he was insane at the time of doing so." Cases of this kind are to be distinguished from pyromania properly so called. A man with a delusion resorts to many of the same acts that a sane man will, and when the fire is raised with the intention of revenging a supposed injury, the act, although an insane act, is not that of a pyromaniac. The whole of the evidence in this case will be found in the Journal of Psychological Medicine, April, 1855. High Court, 15, 16, and 17 Jan. 1855, 2 Irvine, 1. been held irresponsible. It seems to have been in her power directly to avoid the recurrence of the impulse by entire abstinence from alcohol. And if a man voluntarily and knowingly place himself in a position where he has no choice, but must commit a crime, he is properly regarded as voluntarily committing the act in question. To relieve Maria Franck of all responsibility, the defence would have 153 required to prove that she was not a voluntary agent at the time she took the stimulants. 228. General Remarks as to Pyromania.-Without dwelling longer upon this form of insanity, which is not by any means common-although a large number of cases occurred in Normandy in 1830-we may remark that in all cases it is important to ascertain whether the incendiary act has been committed upon the approach of menstruation, or in connection with its disorder or suppression. Inquiry should always be made as to the condition of the patient's nervous system, as to whether he is liable to involuntary muscular movements, tremblings, spasms, convulsions, or catalepsy. Together with those symptoms we may generally expect to find weakening or weakness of mind approaching to imbecility. At the winter assize at Leeds, (4th December, 1871,) James Wrighton was indicted for arson. It appeared from the evidence of a gentleman who had known the prisoner all his life that he had on one occasion attempted to set the workhouse in which he resided on fire; that he was of weak mind, but knew the difference between right and wrong. Pigott, B., left it to the jury to say whether the prisoner knew the difference between right and wrong, but laid some stress on the evidence of his being weak-minded. The jury returned a verdict of not guilty, on the ground of insanity, and the prisoner was ordered to be kept in prison until her Majesty's pleasure was known concerning him. PART V.-SUICIDAL MANIA. 229. Suicide and Insanity.-Many wise men have argued that under certain circumstances a man is entitled in Other cases will be found in Dr. D. H. Tuke's work on Psychological Medicine, and in Marc. See Griesinger, Syd. Soc. ed., § 129. BR. INS.--22 mere self-defence to kill himself. Hume, Rousseau, Madame de Staël, Montesque, Montaigne, Gibbon, and Voltaire, have all endeavored to show that circumstances might justify suicide; and one writer, Robert of Normandy, surnamed the Devil, not only wrote in praise of it, but, knowing how much more powerful example was than precept, actually killed himself! Many men of much nobility have committed suicide; and Isocrates, Demosthenes, Cato, Lycurgus, Codrus, and a great many more, have tried to get into the next world by a sort of private entrance. But although philosophers and lawgivers once thought that suicide was not to be condemned, and imagined that circumstances might arise under which it would be the most rational course to pursue, in the present day we are informed emphatically that "suicide is not the act of a healthy mind," and are assured that in all cases suicide is a proof of the existence of insanity. So Sir S. Romilly, Lord Castlereagh, Cotton, and Chatterton, were all mad according to recent medico-psychologists. Now, although the actual pleasure of living is, even in the midst of sorrow, very great "This world is very beautiful, O God! I thank thee that I live”— times do come when that thread of hopes and fears, sensations and sentiments, thoughts and deeds, which we call life, yields so little joy 1154in the meantime, and so little hope of "better to be had," that a very wise man might see reason to be hurled "Anywhere, anywhere, It may be better and braver to stay and bear the evils. It is nobler and grander to stay for the sake of others, that by your patience under suffering they may learn the great lesson of life to suffer and be strong. But the man who does not do the bravest thing he might do-the man who is not guided by the best and highest moral rules-is surely not mad.' Suicide is not sufficient of itself to prove that the person committing it was of unsound mind. Burrows v. Burrows, Hagg. Ec. 109; McAdam v. Walker, 1 Dow., 179; Chambers v. 9 Proctor, Curt. 415; Brooks v. Barrett, 7 Pick. 94. And we are warranted in believing that, although in many cases self-destruction is a symptom of diseased organism, yet in other cases it is a matter of healthy choice of possible good rather than positive evil. It is a choice which men make each day of their lives. Speculation is a choice of a possibility as against a certainty. Gambling is for the pleasure of playing with possibilities. Many motives are only "orders," and some of them are dishonored in time. Well, suicide may be the act of a healthy mind.' It may in all cases be a mistaken choice: it may always be wiser "To bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of." But a mistake is not a proof of mental unsoundness, nor is folly an indication of insanity. A colonel of the Prussian Hussars, having lost all he had at the gaming table, and not wishing to face the world that frowns so severely upon poverty, went home, made arrangements, married a girl that he had seduced, and then shot himself. A Greenwich pensioner who had his allowance stopped stabbed himself with his spectacles. In such cases there is no indication of the presence of mental disease. But although a man may destroy himself and still be sane, in a large majority of cases the act is done under the influence of insanity. And although in [155] some cases an attempt to commit suicide should be punished as a misdemeanor at common law, yet in very many cases the individual should, upon the ground of insanity, be held irresponsible for his act, and exempted upon that account from punishment. 230. Suicide the Result of Insanity.-When suicide is the result of insanity it may either be the result of profound melancholy amounting to disease, or from a perversion of 'One-sixth of 4077 cases examined by Brierre de Boismont he assigned, as regards their causes, to insanity, one-sixth to drunkenness, one-fourth to domestic troubles and wretchedness. See On Suicide," p. 100. "The suicide," says Aristotle, "does not undergo death because it is honorable, but in order to avoid evil." 3 See the charge of the Lord Justice Clerk in Yates' Case, 20 March, 1847, Arkley's Rep. 238, at p. 341. * Reg. v. Burgess, 1 L. & C. C. C. 258. those instinctive desires for self-preservation which are the very foundation stones of our mental constitutions. There may exist what has been called suicidal monomania, and selfdestruction may be had recourse to as a reasoned act to get rid of the awful load of unreasoned and unreasoning grief and despondency. Cases have come under the notice of almost every medical man who is in connection with hospitals for the insane in which patients have petitioned to be restrained from committing self-destrction. Individuals there are who are aware of their own weakness in the presence of temptation, just as those individuals who are liable at certain seasons to invasion by impulsive desires are aware of their impotency in the presence of that monarch motive which binds them to do his bidding, and so before the steed is stolen they try to shut the door. This is not the ordinary bravado shout of a boy who does not want to hurt himself, but makes a great show of preparations for instant death to frighten his relatives, and who, if he sees no preventive measures on the part of his friends, cries, "Hold me, or I'll shoot myself: I know I will." No, in the real cases of impulsive propensity to commit suicide a great number of circumstances will conduce to show that the person is really at certain times unable to control his actions, and the motive of the threat in the one case will distinguish it from the warning and demand for restraint in the other. 2231. Case of Suicidal Insanity.-Dr. Tuke quotes a case from M. Debreyne' as follows: "The patient, who was opulent, stated that he was perfectly happy, and free from any cause of suffering, with the exception of one circumstance which tormented him. This was the desire, thought, or violent temptation, to cut his throat whenever he shaved himself. He felt as if he should derive from the commission of the act an indescribable pleasure. He was often obliged to throw the razor away." 2232. Power of Suggestion.-As to the facility of the formation of such a sentiment as that just mentioned, we 1 On Suicide, p. 82. |