The Press.
London, England, 1858-08-28 00:00:00

THE PRESS, AUGUST 28, 1858.

arges. lie stated that at Welshpool she was not
ein a state of sobriety ; and that some one had im-
properly conducted himself towards her. I frequently
saw Mr. Ruck at Moorcroft, but did not converse to
him about his wife. My practice is not to mention
to lunatics the subject uf their articular delusions.
1 endeavour, if possible, to letp those delusions die
away of themselves. I regret to have to speak in
such terms of Mr. Ruck, because he is a person
every one must like, but I consider that it would be
a cruel thing to remove liim from restraint. That he
entettains delusions of a most gross and insane kind
there can be no doubt; they are of a nature to
prompt him to dangerous actions. A man who
imagines his wife to be so grossly wicked is likely, if
a person of strong feelings, to make some attempt
upon her life, or under the influence of despair upon
Lis own. Mr. Ruck made statements to me about
Lis wife's misconduct so late as the 18th of June. I
remonstrated with him, and asked him what proof
he could give of it. [He gave a reason which cannot
he printed.] He added that it was sa notorious that
the very drovers on the road knew all about it. My
opinion of his insanity is founded, not on these state.
3uents only, but on his reserve with regard to his
delusions. In real cases of cure patients generally
express their surprise that they could ever have
entertained such hallucinations ; but Mr. Ruck
avoided the subject, and his reserve appeared to be
growing on him. I think it would decidedly be
unsafe at present to let him go at large.
Crossexamined by Mr. JAMES : I have seen Mr.
Ruck since June, and had conversations with him.
Since then I have not spoken on the subject of his
delusions with him. I think Mr. Ruck will recover,
and I think he would be better now if nothing had
interfered with the wholesome discipline and quiet of
the asylum. I think when a patient is decidedly
insane nothing can be worse for him than to attend
consultations with his counsel. I think Mr. Ruck
was not in a condition to take part in the proceedings
that have no doubt been had with reference to this
inquiry. lam a consulting physician at Itloorcroft.
I do not receive a salary, but consultation fees. They
are paid to me by the executors of my late lamented
friend, Dr. Stillwell, through whom I first became
connected with the asylum. I consider that lam
not " connected " with the asylum in the sense con•
templated by the act. I send male patients there
because I have no house myself for gentlemen. I
am not the regular medical attendant, and I am not
responsible for the treatment. During the last year
I have sent there, lam afraid, very few patients. I
do not recollect receiving either a letter or a verbal
communication from Dr. Stillwell to the effect that
there was no ground for detaining Mr. Ruck. I
never heard of his doing any act of violence; but a
man may be very dangerous, end yet may have never
committed an act of violence.
Reexamined by Mr. CHAMBERS: Habits of intern
perance will produce insanity. The first. test of
recovery from delusion is the patient's giving over all
that course of conduct which had resulted from it ;
afterwards he generally confesses that it was a delu-
sion. For instance, I had a patient who, when he
ree.overed, said to me, " I don't know how it was, but
whenever you called I thought you were the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury !" Mr. Ruck never made any
admission of his error. On the contrary, his delusion
appeared to grow upon him, and he used stronger
language in reference to it. I recommended Moor'
mutt because I have perfect confllence in that estab-
lishment. I consider flint Mr. Ruck is still insane,
liecause he has never manifested the slightest change
of feeling towards his wife, or desire to atone for his
gross and cruel suspicions respecting her conduct.
The inquiry was then adjourned.
THIRD DAY.

Oa Wednesday morning the inquiry was continued•
The :pace at the end of the hall devoted to the
public was thronged throughout the sitting. A con-
siderable part of the day was occupied with the
examination of the alleged lunatic himself, who
Mated what he had to say in a uniformly calm,
rational manner, entirely free from excitement or
extrsvaganco of any kind. He occupied a seat near
the foreman of the jury, and told his story in an easy
otl'-h,tu•l style across the table,—occasionally jocular,
when the matter justified it—addressing himself to
the Commissioner, by whom the examination was
chiefly conducted. At one time, on being asked
Incidentally if he was not happy to see his wife in
court on the preceding day, he replied that be was,
and manifested fur a moment a little natural emotion.
Dis examination lasted upwards of an hour, and,
although always self-pm sessed, he appeared to grow
the more collected the longer it continued.
Dr. Stillwell was the first witness examined, and
was followed by two witnesses named Weller and
brown, assistants at Moorcroft house Asylum.
Mr. Rucx, the alleged lunatic, was next called,
and, in answer to questions put by the Commissioner
!aid I have been present during the whole of this'
That is my misfortune, though it has not
disturbed me very much. I have heard the whole

of the evidence. I was in a confused and agitated
state of mind when I entertained these suspicions
about my wile. I was caught up and put into this
asylum at Moorcroft without having had any oppor-
tunity of investigating the circumstances. I merely
wished fur inquiry, and as soon as I had been satis-
fied that there were no grounds for my suspicions I
should have abandoned them. If I could have
spoken to my brother-in law, Mr. Fisher, there would
have been no occasion for my going to Moorcroft at
all. I had been drinking about the time 1 had these
delusions. 1 have not seen my wife since February
until yesterday. I was very happy to see her looking
so well ; and my mind is quite disabused of all these
impressions I had respecting her. From the state I
was in at that time I fancied that the gentleman
who got into the mail on the way to Welshpool
placed his band upon my wife, and I thought some-
thing was wrong. Since about that time I have not
been intoxicated ; but on Monday evening last, on
the occasion spoken to by the attemlant, I was a little
elated after dinner. As I got well, the suspicions
nearly vanished. I cannot say they were entirely
removed from my mind, and I wished to ascertain
if there were any grounds for them. I asked my
solicitor, Mr. Wainwright, to investigate the facts.
Though I was under those notions for a time, the
facts have been now investigated to my satisfaction.
The COMMISSIONER : What. means has your solicitor
taken to investigate the facts?
Mr. Rucx : Ample means, I believe ; and he took
a very long journey to do so. He made the investi-
gation at my request, and after ha told me the result
I said, "'That will do;' or something of the sort. I
could not disabuse my mind before that investigation.
The COMMISSIONER: That. investigation having
been made, you are satisfied ?
Mr. Rum( : Perfectly satisfied. The investigation
he made has satisfied me that my suspicions were
purely imaginary.
The COMMISSIONER: It would be satisfactory to the
jury to know the facts on which you have come to
that conclusion.
Mr. RUCK: I believe that the gentleman who
travelled with us to Welshpaol had not seen my wife
in the previous part of the morning. That was one
of my suspicions. I had also a suspicion that Mary
Jones came and lay by my side at Welshpool. It
turns out that Mary Jones was never at Welshpool
at all at that. time. Having felt those suspicions, I
could not rest. until I had satisfied myself that. they
were groundless. I was boand to investgate them.
Another circumstance is that I made a mistake about
the name of the gentleman who travelled with us in
the mail to Welshpool. I find his name is Bailey,
and not Peach, which I supposed it to be. It is pos-
eible in the excitement undee which I laboured that
I conceived many things true which were not. I can
only say that I don't think onytbing more of them. I
wished an investigation to he made at Reading when
I was there, but I was prohibited from seeing any of
my friends or writing to them. It was on the 11th
of June last that. Mr. Wainwright communicated to
me the result of his investigation. I have not seen
Mary Jones since I left her at my own house. The
children are an unfortunate affair. 1 don't know
Iwhere they are now. I have never seen the children
I had by her.
The COMMISSIONER : Do you think they are living?
Mr. Mice: Well, I suppose they are. She refused
to give me any information about them. She would
never say whether they were alive or what she had
done with them. She ought to have satisfied me
about that.
The CommtssrosEe . What was your motive for
locking her up ?
Mr. Rucx : On returning home on one occasion
she was so drunk that I locked her up until she was
sober, and wive her some tea. Mr. Wainwright did
not go into the matter of the childr. n. I was
induced by one circumstance to think that my wile
bad been unfaithful to me, and that. was when she
told one of the girls in the house that. she would do
the same by me as I ba.l done by her. 1 wrote a
most affectionate letter to my wife the day after I
went to Moorcroft. I wished to see her more than I
did at Moorcrolt, but the doctors would not allow her
to see me, on the ground that I was not well enough
to receive her, and I thought it useless any longer to
ask to see her. Besides, after 1 left. Reading I
requested her to remain there, hut instead of doing
that she went off about a fortnight afterward. She
also unpacked my luggage, although I had written
to her not to pry into my private affairs. I was very
much grieved by that.
The Commissmaxe : Why did you not communicate
to her that your suspicions had been dispelled?
Mr. Rucx : Because I had then got notice of this
commission, which I thought was a most cruel thing
towards me. If she had not issued this commission
and had allowed me to institute this inquiry, every-
thing would have been arranged satisfactorily. I
have lived in this country all my life, and I could
not understand that such a thing would have been
permitted as the sending me to Moorcroft in the wa)
in which I was sent there. I suspected my wife on

835

insufficient grounds, and now that my suspicions are
removed I am satisfied. There is no foundation
whatever for my suspicions that she was criminal
with other men. I made those charges under excite-
ment arising from drink. I had been quiet up to
within a week of my leaving Pantlludw, and able to
transact any business. I went to amuse myself in
shooting three or four days, and then the weather
changed. I druvo about the country to different
places to amuse myself, and took drink, and that
accounts partly for the state in which I was fotind.
I have very little doubt that Mary Junes tore the cot
and shawl. _

In reply to further questions put by the Commis-
sioner and the jury, Mr. Rack explained, among
other things, how the poisoning of the dog was as
accident. He denied the truth of the story told by
Mr. Thurston of his (Mr. Ruck) having kicked him
in the stomach, and he added that he had frequently
had to place Mr. Thurston on his pony, after leaving
the dinner table, and see him on his road home. He
(Mr. Ruck) had on several occasions expressed his
sorrow at the pain he had given her. He was in an
excited state all the time he was at Welslipool, and
bad a general suspicion that his wile had been un•
faithful to him. It was from the absence of evidence,
rather than from the investigation of particular
facts, that his mind bad been relieved. lie stated,
as a reason for giving Mr. Barnett in charge to a
policeman, that Mr. Barnett, when he came in
pursuit of hits. collared him in a ruffianly way. He
VMS now satisfied that. the suspicion lie had enter-
tained of Mr. Barnett poisoning his wine was an
erroneous one. He treated with contempt the story
told by David Arnold about his having offered Arnold
300/. to sleep with his wife, adding that the man was
a notorious liar. He continued to bay his (Mr.
Ruck's) property realized about 1.5001. a year, the
greater part of it being in Kent. He had expended
about 5001. in opening a slate quarry in Wales, from
which he expected a good return. He had not
entered into mining enterprizes without ascertaining
the opinion of competent men.
By the COMMISSIONER: He bad for some years
lived unhappily with his wife, and been in conse-
quence very wretched. He desired to be separated
from her, because he understood that she did not
wish to live with him.
Dr. Sutherland and Dr. Forbes Winslow were also
examined. The latter witness deposed that he saw
Mr. Huck on the 9th of /thy last at Moorcroft. He
saw him in tit . garden, and walked about with him.
He had had some previous information about his
malady. It was the best part of an hour before Mr.
Ruck would touch upon the delusions under which
he laboured, and then he said he would make a clean
breast of it. He said his wife's conduct bad been
so infamous thst he could not forget it. Witness
suggested that he might possibly be under a mistake.
He replied the facts were such as he could never
overlook, and that he never could live with her
again. He gave instances of his wife's infidelity, and
these Mr. Winslow repeated. Witness added that
after due inquiry lie could come to no other conclu-
sion than that bis delusions arose from his own dis •
tempered fancy, and lie did rot now think that they
had entirely passed from his mind. Besides, they
were of a nature likely to relapse if Mr. Itnek ever
again gate way to intemperance. He (witness) had
a gentleman once under his care who admitted to
him that all his delusions had vanished, and
expressed great regret that he had ever entertained
them. That gentleman was liberated by witness's
desire, and in less than three Jays he was found
with a carving knift secreted in his sleeve, and in
the act of going into e lonely part of the country. He
would suggest a different mode of treatment of Mr.
Ruck coupled with a little gentle supervision. He
could not take upon hiraszlf to recommend his
liberation, but by a little modification of treatment
it was probable he might recover.
Cross examined by Mr. JAMES : He thought
patients in an asylum ought to have frequent com-
munication with their friends, and that every facility
should be afforded for investigation into their mental
condition whenever it was desired.
By Mr. CHAMBERS : Ho would not recommend his •
liberation, but he would suggest a course of treat-
ment in which he was permitted every reasonable
latitude consistent with the state of his mind front
time to time.
Dr. CONOLIX was recalled, and stated that, after
hearing the evidence of Mr. Ruck, his previous
opinion of his mind was modified, but not removed.
He thought that lie was better, but he had expected,
after what be (witness) had stated yesterday, that he
would have entirely denied that he still entertained
his delusions.
Mr. RUCK was recalled and stated in answer to the
Court that his belief was that Miss Jones must have
torn the coat and shawl up when he locked her in
the room.
Mr. Sergeant BALLANTINE then summed up the
case on the part of Mrs. Ruck. lie submitted the
question the jury had to try was nut now what was
Mr. Buck's state in October or November last, bat