The Sun.
London, England, 1829-06-09 00:00:00

BOW-STREET.

Yesterday George William Lester, a young man
dressed in the extreme of fashion, was brought
before the sitting magistrate, Mr. HALL; charged
with having stolen several squares of paint, the pro-

perty of Mr. Benjamin Strange, printseiter, 137,
Strand.

It appeared that the prisoner some time ago met
the brother and sister of Mr. Strange at the house
of a mutual friend, and became attached to the
young lady. About three weeks ago, he agreed to
board and lodge with the prosecutor, and having
taken up his abode at the house, several articles,
consisting of albums, prints, paints, &c. were missed,
and no person could account for their disappearance.
From some hints thrown out by the prisoner, the
porter and a young lad in the employment of Mr.
Strange were suspected, but from some information
which the prosecutor subsequently obtained, he was
induced to call at the house of Dr. Goold, of
Leicester-square, where he found a sealed packet,
containing among other things some cakes of paint,
which the witness knew to be his property. This
packet had been forwarded by the prisoner to the
apprentice of Dr. Goold. In consequence of this
discovery, the prisoner, upon his return from Ken-
sington-gardens, where he had been escorting Miss
Strange, was given into custody.
Miss Strange came forward, and appeared very
much distressed at being obliged to give evidence
against the prisoner. She, with great reluctance
stated, that a packet had been forwarded to the
prisoner a few evenings before, which be resealed
without opening, and sent it away again. She knew
nothing of what the packet contained.
Mr. Strange, addressing his sister, said, " Why,
Jane, you told me last night that you knew the pri.
soner took the things."
The young lady appeared very much confused,
but repeated her statement, which, however, was
not given upon oath.
Sir R. BIRNIE asked Mr. Strange if he had had
any previous knowledge of the prisoner before he
took him into his house.

Mr. Strange said he knew nothing of the young
man, but believing him to be respectable, he found
him in diet and lodging, for which he never paid one
penny.
Sir R. BIRME observed that it was rather sin-
gular on the part of Mr. Strange to admit a per-
fect stranger to his house as an admirer of his sister.
It appeared that the prisoner was determined to an-
ticipate the result which he looked for, and took the
freedom of a brother with Mr. Strange's property.
Mr. Strange said he. was now sorry he had been
so incautious.

'The prisoner, in his defence, said he was the son
of a respectable gentleman at the east end of the
town, and was bred up for the army; but his rela-
tives and he having quarrelled, he. was forced to
accept a situation in the office of an architect, which
he was to have gone to that morning; and as a part
of his duty would be to colour maps, he took the
cakes of paint in question with an intention of pay-
ing for them.
Sir R. BIRNIE here observed, that he had some
knowledge of the prisoner, and thought that Miss
Strange had reason to be grateful in having escaped
a conneiion which would not have turned out to
her advantage.
The prisoner was then remanded.
MARYLEBONE.

On Friday, night, Williamson, the constable of
Acton, applied to Mr. HOSKINS, for a warrant to
apprehend a young woman, who, under the follow-
ing circumstances, was suspected of having attempted
to murder one of her children.

A farmer's man, on Wednesday night, as he was
going across a field in that parish for the purpose of
cutting tares, heard the half-stifled cries of au infant.
He went to the spot from whence they came, and
found one in a ditch, among stinging nettles and
briars, struggling under some long grass and dirt,
and he went into the village and fetched Williamson.
Williamson went back with him to the place, and
took up the child. There was a great deal of dry
dirt about it, and its eyes and mouth were nearly
stopped with some which had been turned into clay
by its tears. It was in convulsions, and its face and
hands were so discoloured that the people who saw
him carry it home, said he had found a negro child.
He sent for a woman to undress it, and put it into
warm water, and when she had taken off its bed-
gown, she cried out, " Good God! the child is
strangled." It had a piece of old black riband tied
round its throat, in a hard knot, so tight, that it had
cut through the skip, and he could hardly get the
blade of a penknife under it to separate it. He put
it into the care of a wet nurse, and, upon making
inquiry, he found that a young woman had been seen
that afternoon in the neighbourhood, with such a
child, and one older, and was heard to say she was
going into Berkshire by a waggon from Hammer-
smith. The child did not appear to be a month
old, but it had already been vaccinated, and Wil-
liamson, drawing a conclusion from that circum-
stance that it had been born in some workhouse or
lying-in-hospital, followed up his inquiries, until he
ascertained that one Ann Chapman, who answered
to the description of the woman, was discharged
from St. George's workhouse on Tuesday, after
having lain in three weeks, and had received a sove-
reign from the overseers to pay for her carriage to
\Vantage, in Berkshire; and he also discovered that
she cohabited with a young man at Hammersmith,
called Mat Varney.
A warrant NI as granted, and yesterday she and
Mat Varney were brought to the office.
Williamson stated to Mr. HOSKINS, that he met
the prisoner on Saturday night, about eight o'clock,
in the road to Starch-green, near Shepherd's-bush,
in company with Varney. He took them to the
George inn, at Acton, and several persons identified
her as the woman with two children, who was seen
there on Wednesday. During the examination the
female prisoner fell down in the dock ; she was
carried out of the office in strong convulsions, and it
required several persons to hold her. After she re-
covered, a chair was placed for her near the door,
and the case was resumed. They were removed
from the George-inn to the cage, and her mind ap-
peared so disturbed that two persons were appointed
to sit up with her.

Joseph Shepherd; a farmer's man, is acquainted
with the prisoner Chapman ; he worked in company
with her last harvest. Between one and two
o'clock on Wednesday afternoon he saw her in a
field near a pond, which is surrounded with osiers;
she laid a baby on the ground, and endeavoured to
hide it from him with her black whittle. He said,
you have got a baby there,—is it yours ? She said
no, it belongs to a woman who is gone to call at a
farm-house. He asked her to walk into Acton with
him. She said no, she had promised to wait till
the woman came back, The child was shown to
the witness,and he said it was the same.

The messenger of St. George's parish stated, that
when the female prisoner was put to bed, Varney
came to the workhouse to see her, and he said the
child was not his, and told her he should " cut it"
with her,—that is, break off his connection with her.
Varney did not appear to be implicated in the
transaction, and Ann Chapman was committed for
trial.

SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE.

LIVERPOOL.

SUNDAY, JUNE 6.--Hiih—water 53 minutes past
two o'clock.—Wind W.N.W.—Arrived the John and
Mary, --, from Antwerp ; Louise, Kafled, from
Copenhagen ; Mary M‘Giil, —, from Killala ;
, from Seville.

CLEARED OUTWARDS.—.The Lima, —_, for New
York ; Telegraph, for Philadelphia ; Aimwell,
Minn, for Quebec; Wm. Browne, —, fur Baltimore;
Wilhelmina Magdalena, Boer, for Elsineur ; Fennigina,
Periton, for Antwerp; and Britannia, Marshall, fur
New,York.

On the arrival of the Talbot steam-packet at
Dieppe, on Tuesday evening, the passengers, as usual, at-
tended the bureau, or custom-house, for the purpose of
being overhauled. On this occasion the corpulent ap-
pearance of one lady excited suspicion; and, on examina-
tion in the ladies' searching-room, several yards of flannel
were found pinned round her waist. Our unfortunate
countrywoman experienced the vexation of losing her
goods, and her husband the additional mortification of being
fined 80 franca the following dap..Brightcmi Herald

COLLtOE OP PHYSICIANS, JUNE 1.

CASE OF TIC DOULOUREITX, BY THE CELEBRATED

LOCKE.

A literary curiosity of great interest was laid be-
fore the meeting—a case detailed by the celebrated
Locke. This curious doeument was obtained by
Dr. C. M. Clarke, from Lord King, and presented
to the College. The original MS. was laid upon
the table, and consisted of a French Almanack,
bound up with a number of leaves which had been
originally blank, but which were filled with various
notes and memoranda in the hand-writing of Locke,
and, among others, the case in question.
It has often been doubted whether Locke ever
practised as a physician, but the question is now set
at rest. In Lord Grenville's pamphlet, entitled
Oxford and Locke, lie remarks that "in the printed
life of Locke, commonly prefixed to his works, we
are told that he applied himself, at the University,
with great diligence to the study of medicine, not
with any design of practising as a physician, but
principally for the benefit of his own constitution,
which was weak." His Lordship goes on to ob-
serve, that no such motive is ascribed to Locke
by Le Clerc, from whom our knowledge of his
private history is principally derived; nor, in-
deed is the supposition at all probable. Le
Clerc, however, asserts "that Locke never practised
physic for profit, though he was highly esteemed by
the ablest physician of his time." In proof of this,
we need only quote the following passage from Sy-
denham :—" Nosti preterea quam huic mete methodo
" suffragantem habeam, qui earn intimius per omnia
" perspexerat utrique nostrum conjunctissimum Do-
" minum Joanacm Locke; quo quidein viro, sire in-
" genio judicioque acri et subacto, sive etiam an-
" tiquis, hoc est, optimis meribus, vix superiorem
" quemquam, inter eos qui nuns sunt homines, reper-
" turn in cOnfido, paucissimos certe pares."
Lord Grenville says, that the assertion that Locke
had never actually practised, is " unquestionably er-
roneous ;" and the case which we subjoin proves the
correctness of his opinion.

Locke was called to see the Countess of Nor-
thumberland, who was the Ambassadress at Paris,
December 2, 1677. The case was evidently one of
tic douloureux. It is entitled convukio, and the
symptoms are thus described :—Acute pain over the
right cheek up to her car. In the intervals, pain in
the teeth. She was warned of the approach of the
fits by a throbbing she felt in the lower jaw, where
she had had a tooth drawn the previous summer.
The fits had been preceded by three or four days of
ordinary tooth-ache. There was no swelling, or in-
flammation ; no flux or rheum ; no external swelling ;
no indication for bleeding; besides which, that re-
medy had been tried some months before, without
effect.

" It being night," says Locke, " I thought at
present there was nothing to be done but to give
her ladyship present ease by some topical applica-
tion." He thought first of a blister, but paused till
he had made some more general evacuation. He
therefore ordered an opiate embrocation to the
gums, which gave her much relief. On the follow-
ing day (for the ease is related in the form of a
journal) he again deliberated about the propriety of
the exhibition of an aperient, but the extreme cold
weather made him conclude in the following manner.
" I apprehended that a purge, which I thought very
necessary, would be dangerous in such a season, be-
cause, if weak, it might cause disorder with very
little or no evacuation ; if strong, in so delicate a
constitution I could not tell how to venture; be-
sides that, I feared she might take celd in the work-
in•, which might increase the mischief."
The result of his prudent caution was, that lie
prescribed a drop of xthereton terchinthince on a
little lint, which she applied to the gap whence the
tooth had been extracted, but it did not allay the
pain, and he then ventured upon the purge, and gave
a mercurial one, which " wrought very well seven
or eight times."
After the operation of this medicine, he prescribed
an opiate draught, and during the following night
she enjoyed some sleep. With occasional exacerba-
tions, the fits upon the whole began gradually to
abate in severity. He describes most accurately
what we all know to be the truth in this cruel
disease, how various slight causes bring on the pa-
roxysm of pain; how touching any part of the
affected side of the body (even the foot of that side);
talking, or opening her mouth to eat, brought on the
twitches of pain. He reasons upon this strange
nervous affection very sensibly, considers what the
original mischief was, and' how far the extraction of
the tooth had to do with the increase of the malady,
and concludes that the root of the mischief lies in
some harm done to the nerve connected with the
tooth. The tooth itself, when it was drawn, was
found to he a sound one, and its extraction so far
from a remedy, that it increased the violence and
frequency of the fits. Locke continued in attend-
ance till December the lfith, a space of a fortnight,
when he pronounced the lady Ambassadress " quite
well."

On Monday, December the 20th, he writes in
his M.S.—

" Memorandum: that my lady Ambassadtice's
gums itched vehemently after the pain was gone,
and did so for several days after; and
.used to do so
for several years before any tooth was drawn."

OBSERVATIONS ON INSANITY.-BY SIR 11. lIALFORD.

After the above had been read,

Sir Henry Halford stated, that in consequence of
having understood that there was no paper for the
present evening (for Locke's case had only just been
received), he had hastily thrown together some ob-
servations on insanity. As there was sufficient
time left, he would read them to the meeting.
Sir Henry observed, that in the closet-scene in
Hamlet the following words occur
Ecstasy !
" My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time,
" And make as healthful music; 'tie not madness
" That I have uttered ; bring me to the test,
" And I the matter will reword—which madness

" Would gambol from."
The circumstance to which the Learned Presi-
dent particularly alluded, was the expression " I
the matter will reword;" and he proceeded to re-
late the following case, in illustration of the just-
ness of Shakspeare's " test." He was called, last
January, to a gentleman then iii a state of mental
derangement. A short time previous to his illness,
he had sent for his solicitor, and given directions
about his will. He stated his intention of adding
5001. a-year to his mother's jointure, and of leaving
various legacies ; adding, that his friend, the soli-
citor, was to be residuary legatee. The solicitor,
in the most honourable manner, told him that lie
could not consent to the last part of the arrangement
unless at the end of six mouths be continued of
the same mind upon the subject. In the inter-
val, he was attacked with mental excitement, for
which he was attended by Sir Henry Halford
and Sir G. Tuthill. One day, on asking him how
he did, he appeared calm and collected, and answer-
ed that he was very ill, and only anxious to settle
his affairs and make his will. Next day he repeated
the same expressions, in a tone and manner which
induced his attendant to comply with his request,
and the solicitor was sent for, who brought with him
a will drawn up according to the instructions he had
formerly received. This was read over to the gen-
tleman, and being asked, after each clause, if such
was his meaning, lie distinctly replied—yes, yes.
On going down stairs, Sir Henry observed upon
the unpleasant circumstance of the medical attend.
ants becoming involved in a deed which was likely
to become
theyecom shouldthee return to n subject o flitigation,, and
i and proposed
that apply
pply
Hamlet's
test, by ascertaining whether he could " reword his
will." With regard to several of the clauses this
was the case; but he stated that he had left one in-
dividual 10,0001. whereas lie had only left him
5,000/.; and on being asked to whom the residue of
his fortune was to go, he answered, " To the heir at
law, to be sure !" Being asked who was the heir at
law, he replied that he did not know. Thins, said
Sir Henry, he could not " reword" his meaning, but
" gamboled" from the matter.
The author then adverted to the fidelity of the

pictures drawn by. Shakspeare, so justly charade'
rued by' Johnson as the poet of nature. lie. Os°
alluded to the writings of the ancient poets, as cond.
taming many descriptions which might be recog;
nixed by an attentive observer. He had'hinisel'
seen two of the cases mentioned by Horace, WIT
.trated to the very life. One a man of high rtlP'
supposed himself present at a theatrical entail;
ment, and Sir Henry had heard him urging Garr'
to exert himself in the part of Hamlet, which 13°
supposed him then to be acting. The other cB
was that of a gentleman of large fortune who pot',
sessed himself of every thing he could get, bui
parted with nothing. He was brought from tile
Court of King's Bench, having refused to pay foe;
picture which he had bought, and which was valu,
at 1,5001. Sir Henry told the jury, that if thel,
would go to the gentleman's house, in Porthou
place, they would find 50,0001. worth of properoB
among the rest this very picture, with baby-house
and baubles strewed over his dining-room.
'I he paper was listened to with great interest, in
.
this was increased by the very animated manner
which it was read by the learned President.