The Sun.
London, England, 1824-09-04 00:00:00

INSANITY AND DEATH FROM APPREHENSION
OF HYDROPHOBIA.

On Thursday evening last an Inquest was held at the Castle
inn, Birmingham, on view of the body ofjames Eades, whose
`death was attended with circumstances of an unusual nature. '
John Alcock, a painter, stated he had known the deceased far
14 or 15 years; he was the town-crier,. and dealt besides in dogs
and pigeons. About nine weeks ago he had been bitten by a
'dog, as he was administering to it medicine ; but he said it was
his own fault, as he was warned not to go too near it ; lie fur-
ther said he had been to a surgeon, by whom his finger had
been scraped, and afterward burnt at this time the deceased
had two fingers of his right hand wrapped up. Witness had
met the deceased nearly every morning since, in a spirit-shop,
where each of them had a glass. The deceased was frequently
in a state of the greatest intoxication, and was so as often as
be could afford it. About five weeks ago, witness saw him
at the end of Union-street, when he complained of being
unwell; lie said that people kept telling him he would go
mad, and many, under that impression, had refused to sit beside
him, lest he should bite them, " but," said he, taking hold
of witness's hand, "If I do, Jack, I won't bite you." A few
days after the death of a man in Thomas.street, from hydro-
, phobia, witness again saw the deceased at the end of New.
street; he seemed uncomfortable, and very much frightened;
he said to witness he could feel something in his hand more
than Aisne' ; that the doctors had told him he must have his
hand cut off; but that he would ore his life before he would lose
his hand. Notwithstanding this, the deceased kept up his old
habit of drinking spirits. On Saturday morning last, witness
met the deceased at Mr. Smitlea,- Tamworth Arms, in Moor.
street; be was crying, and caught hold of his hand saying—
" Jack, 'tis all over with me, will you come and help to carry
me to my grave?" Witmas tried all in his power to comfort
him, and the next morning, between eight and nine o'clock,
witness called on him ; he was then in bed; but his wife said
he WItS getting better. On Monday last he saw him again at
his bedside. lie began to talk very incoherently; so much
so, that witness thought lie was completely out of his mind ;
he said the rogues wanted to poison Inns; and then, lifting up
his hand, lie said, " Hew can I possibly live? lam part a
man, and part a beast." Having said this, lie threw himself
violently on the bed, and began to beat his head with his
hands ; lie continued very violent, and his conversation and
behaviour was that of a man raging mad. About 11 o'clock
Mr. Smith, of the Tamworth Arms, called; he became more
violent, and got out of bed, and snatched from the table what
he supposed to be a razor, but it was only the end of a fan ;
with it he tried to make a violent cut at Mr, Smith • he had
previously tried to wound witness with a pair of snuffers;l lie
also kept crying out, " that he could see the dog that had bit
him ;" and became completely outrageous. Mr. Smith said
he should be secured, and witness, under his direction, ap.
plied to Dr. Booth, who sent him to the work-house for a
strait waistcoat ; having procured one, witness returned, and
was surprised to see ban clown stairs with a man of the name
of Lewis, and his son.; having inquired the reason, they
told him he had been very quiet anti comfortable talking to hie
wife; in a minute after witness heard him making a violent
noise, upon which he went upstairs to -him, and found him
parading the room, with a candle and candlestick in his hand.
At that moment a child in a lower room began to cry, and he
desired his wife to go to it, but not be long away; she went for
that purpose: he came there, blew out the candle, and rushed to
the door ; his son slipped under witness's arm, and went down
stairs to procure a fresh light ; and witness, by getting outside
the door and pulling it close, prevented the deceased getting
out. In moment after, he heard the casement of the
window fly back, but nothing fall. He went back to the room
when the light was procured, and searched for the deceased.
Not finding him, he wenedown stairs,
and saw him running
down the yard. There were thirty or forty persons, amongst
who bad suffered th
them two watchmen, e poor man to run past
them; the watchmen took to the streets for safety. IVanesa
followed him, and was told he had leaped over a wall into the
premises of 31r. Attack, the butcher ; the wall was about six
feet on the outside, and but
three feet high on the other. Hay.
ing procured a Candle; he looked over the wall, and discovered
the et of the unfortunate man sticking straight up out of an
iron furnace or vat. 'Witness; with the assistance of others,
pulled the unfortunate man out. Ile was not then dead, but ex-
pired a few minutes afterwards. The vat was more than halt'
full of blood and water; when witness pulled the unfortunate
man out of the vat, a number of persons, Instead of lending a
oyfosujirsurieyl3—loahsvitiorbn'elglibeilb.e,idts.iuiliritton.n
helping hand, kept call* out, " Come away—take care of
preceding day. surgeon, knew teredetccheasfleeddi ocnuttlaiew2ayd
but the wound dlit'ilientlolt)elriesittli°.
from one of his fingers which had been bitten by a dog On the
conse-
quence friorvitatscio)nersfid.omertliedbleinatte
of the deceased's intemperance; and- his continuing. to
perform his office of a batman, which kept it in a considerable
state of inflammation. The deceased called on him daily until
,u.7nualivay
the end of July, when the wound had healed niji at that time
the deceased had been under no appreliensi
o being liable to
the disease of hydrophobia, as lie used to st I
so frequently, Oust he thought the bitee bail been bitten
no dog would affect.
him, whether mmerely o f )Y
l
or not, and lie accede hve the
bitten part removed from the solicitude of others. Oa a Sataurday,
about two o'clock in the afternoon, the deceased applied to him
to have his finger removed, and said, if witness would not do
it,
he would apply to the heqiital ; witness told hint it was per.
fectly unnecessary. The finger was then very much contracted. into the palm of the hand, and his hand and liwollen and exceedingly painful. Te mud
The impressionariulv" )
on deceased's
mind that evening was, that he must die, and he begged that
he might not be smothered, but bled to death. Dr. Booth, a physician,
was called to attend the deceased t
on approaching mini with is fan, for the purpose of producing a
draught of cold air, or with a pitcher of water—the usual tests
where hydrophobia is easpected—he equally recoiled, but it
struck witness very forcibly that Its horror was to the individual
approaching him, and not to the fan or water. lie would not
attempt to swallow, open his mouth, or pay the least regard to
any question which was put to him ; it was, however, evident
that the draught of cold air, either from the window or the fan
and the sight of the water from a pitcher, did not produce any
convulsion, such as is caused in hydrophobia.' Perceiving this,
witness prevailed on him, after about an hour and a half, to
swallow some water, which did not produce any convulsive ac.
tion whatever; the next morning a very material clianpfe for
the better was observed. Ile spoke calmly, and said he felt the
most excruciating pain in the bitten parts, and along the course
of the arm and neck it was very evident lie conceived himself
to be suffering under hydrophobia, and perceiving this to be the
Impression on the deceased'a mind, he had endeavoured to dis.
sipate that impression, and to a certain extent succeeded. The
medical treatment of the man was accommodated to circunt.
stances, and he wax kept as quiet as possible. He continued
progressively improving until Monday morning, at 8 o'clock,
at which time there appeared a remission of every symptom,
and the tuie of his limbs and right arm was quite recovered....
If the disease of the deceased had been hydrophobia, that
would not have been the case. Water was offered him repeat.
edle to drink, which he swallowed without difficulty, totally
free from the spasms that accompany that disorder. At three
o'clock on Monday afternoon, symptoms of insanity were but
too perceptible; the &teased said " he barked like a dog;"
and when witness told him that he doubted it,thatit was a sud.
den drawing in of his breath, he proceeded to g.ive a specimen,
but it was nothing more than an imitation ; lie then said he
was of two species, half mart and half beast, and that he was not
fit to live. At nine o'clock the same evening, be was in an in.
creased state of excitation, anti with the greatest difficulty he
succeeded in composin hint ; the witness was of opinion his
disease was not hydrophobia, but that he was muttering under a
derangement of mind, of which the dread of hydrophobia was
the hallucination.
Mr. Ingleby further deposed, that he had opened the bead
and body of the deceased ; the blood-vessels of the head were
much loaded with blood, and there was an adhesion of brains
to the skull, but this appeared to have been of long standing;
the stomach presented a very mottled appearance, but was not
in the least inflamed ; the appearance of- the lungs were such
as would arise from death by suffocation.
After an able address from the Coroner, the Jury, under his
directions, returned a verdict of—" Accidental Death."

ASSAULT ox BAti.r.tprs.--On Monday night
(80th ult.), as the horses of James Browne, which were to
perforni.in Oscar and Marina, had left their stable for that
purpose, they were seized by virtue of an attachment from the
Lord Mayor and Sheriff's Court, for 101., at the suit of David
Gunning against James Browne. James Browne, and his
equestrian party, resisted the execution of the writ, and a
scuffle then ensued, during 'which one of the bailiffs, named
Shiel, had his ann nearly cut in two by a stroke of a broad. sword carried by some of the party. The other bailiffs, Turpin
and Coffey, were also severely cut and beaten with swords and
sticks. It was found necessary to remove Shiel to Mercer's
Hospital. The horses having been rescued, were introduced in
the piece for which they were intended. Yesterday the intbr.
mations of tibial were taken In Mercer's Hospital, by one of the
Magistrates of College-street Pollee-office, and Browne and
James (one of his party) were fully committed for trial at the
.Commission.—(Dublin Freeman's Journal.)