The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1869-07-15
Gbt Gdrtklp Clarion.
TRIAL OF e. M. YERGER,
Before N Military Commission, for
She killing of Joseph G. Crane.
TWENTIETH DAY.
FRIDAY, July ID, 1869.

nineteen years was three and half years a
4Surgeon OF the army of Northern Virginia;
! haye known the prisoner for twenty-five
years; we have lived in the same town a
great many years; 1 have been frequently
associated with him. and have known his
family well; since February, 1866. / have
been his medical attendant and / do not
know of any one else who has acted In that
capacity my visits to his house have been
frequent; / cannot say how many times /
nave been there, but in the four and
q half years i have been his physician
ne has sent for me always when there was
necessity, and frequently when there was no
necessity; the prisoner has been a man who
would drink, but not to my knowledge, to
excess; have never seen him under the in
duence OF liquor, so as not to have his facul-
Ties perfectly under control; 1 never saw
him much excited by 1t to my knowledge; /
never saw him drunk or approximating TO
drunkenness; have never attended him for
any condition of body or mind, that could
attribute to excessive use of liquor, and he
has been during that time two or three
times, patient Of mine; think / under
stand mania potu very well well
enough to recognize it under all circum-
stances, and at all times; / do not profess to
he so conversant with mania generally, or
insanity; during my practice have had oc-
caslon 70 treat great many cases Of mania
portua, and think understand it; would
be very confident of recognizing it wherev-
er it might exist; il / should see a single
exhibition of violent conduct or delirium, l
am very sure that could say whether it re-
suited from mania portua, but might not
be able to say whether it was produced from
disease OF the brain; l am very familiar
with mania portua, but not so familiar with
ordinary insanity; man under the inhu-
ence of mania a portua Is never aggressive.
but his great desire 10 TO get out of the way
OF danger; l have heard and read of occa-
sional homicides being committed under the
influence of mania portua, but the circum-
stances that have been stated, invariably
hou han oh fhao
mania portua in apprehension of some
great danger, VIII seize a sword or knife, or
something of that sort, and will strike a
man down who is trying to holdhim he does
tito escape the greater, he simply wants to
throw every obstacle out ofthe way in order
to escape; 1t Is the great fear which impels
them to do it; never have seen case of
the kind; / have seen two efforts during
mania a portua, to commit suicide by par
ties who were under the impression that
they were to be publicly executed, and their
object was to escape an ignomnious death.
At the time Of the trouble at the prison
er's residence, testified to by witness Taylor
and Others, l was sent for by Mr.. John X.
Yerger, urging me to come over at once as
Edward Ieger was in a furious, uncOntrOlla-
BILE condition; could not go, and in about
y or of an hour afterwards he sent again,
with the information that George Yerger
had knocked Edward Yerger down, and had
probably killed him; went Immediately,
and when got there, whatever excitement
of the prisoner, etc., had subsidized, aud saw
Mr.. Yerger sitting at one side of his table;
Mr.. Anderson, his brOther-in-lAw, Mrs. An
derson, his sister, and probably one or two
other members of the family, and Mr.. Yer
ger was narrating the circumstances of being
knocked down, or of being attacked;
walked in without much ceremony, didn't
knock at the door, and as soon as / got to
the door, Mr.. Yerger recognized me he said
/ was telling Fulton and Mary Ann. mean |
ing Mr.. and Mrs. Anderson, of being knock
ed down, and of the difficulty with the
robber; he then told me that he was assured
OF the fact that there was robber in the
house, that he knew there was one, and that
he was looking for him, and that at last he
had encountered him in the hall, and that
he had broke at him and went towards him
with his knife to attack him, and that the
robber knocked him down with a chair; |
do not know whether it was a robber or a
murderer it was some such expression; he
told it in considerable detail, but that was
the substance of what he said; satisfied
myself that he was not laboring under the
influence of mania pOrta.
decided it in the first place by asking
Mr.. Yerger IL he had been drinking he told
me he had not; / ascertained from members
of his family, from Mrs. Anderson particu-
larly; also, from his wife, that Mr.. Yerger
had been for three or four days In the house
going down town scarcely at all, if at ALL
l don't know but he had been at home all
the time. Mrs. Yerger assured me that he
liquor in the house, with the exception of
some claret, and she hadn't observed him to
be drinking at all; being there profession
ally, l examined him, / do not know that
felt his pulse, or looked at his tongue, but |
criticised his manner, and l saw that he was
not under the influence ofliquor. 1t was per-
fectly unmistakable. lie neither was drunk
nor laboring under the results of long de-
bauch. l recollect distinctly, Just as l was
about leaving, they were afraid of another
outburst of this furious passion, and insist
ed that should do something for him, and
l suggested to Mr.. Yerger that thought he
ought to take dose of morphine; that his
nervous system needed to be Quieted. for he
was in the condition of n man who had en-
cOuntered rObber, and told him l would
give him dose of morphine in little clar-
ct, he said no, he would not take the NOR
phine, but he would take the claret If |
would give it to him; he drank a little clar- |
ct. and after that we chatted on Indifferent |
matters for the purpose of diverting his |
mind from the delusion, and | suggested |
that he ought to lie down and go to Sleep
He had not, when saw him, any symptoms |
of a man who had taken liquor and did |
not know how to account for his condition;
he did not deport himself as men do who are |
under the influence of liquor; such exhibit |
tions however might have proceeded from /
actual intoXication; if he had been under |
the influence of delerium tremens, during |
the time preceding my visit, in form SO
violent as to have affected his mind to the |
the extent indicated by the witnesses, and
with the delerium still upon him he would /
have exhibited traces of character to indi-
cate its existence beyond any rational doubt. |
/ made enquiry of Mr.. John h. Yerger
when met him immediately after breakfast
next morning, as to his condition, and he
replied, 20, he's all right"
The prisoner never to my knowledge, re-
ferred TO the matter afterwards; Ihave seen
persons with delirium tremcns who after
wards recollected distinctly, and had no hes
itation in speaking of the delusions under
which they labored, and would laugh at |
them, and would say how ridiculous it was
that they should be affected by such delu-
sions; in the case of other persons, l do not
know whether they would remember them
or not; it occurred to me that with the in
timacy between Mr.. Yerger and myself had
he In fact labored under the delusiOn, if it
had not escaped his mind, i thought he
would have mentioned something oft since;
had the impression that it was delirium
tremens from which the prisoner was suffer-
ing, should have so treated it Immediately,
for they are urgent cases; my mind was
made up positively that il was not Ddnid a
porta, and did not treat it as such; j have
not the slightest idea that he had delirium ,
tremens on the occasions referred to ofshoot- /
ing the boy, his conduct at the Freeman !
house, his conduct ON the trip to YaZoo and
back, his interview with Sorsby, his inter- I
view with Davis, and the occasion of killing !
the turkyeS; do not think delirium tremens I
would manifest itself in that way at all. he
could not possibly have had delirium |
tremens in Jackson without my knowledge: ,
/ do not think there has been finger ache in :
the house for the past four aud half years !
without my being called in to see it.; but !
for the recent Investigations in regard to !
the matter.I would not have been enabled to
account for the facts testified to by the wit {
nesses believe they are only reconcilable
to state of insanity; had no knowledge
prior to this trial of the facts here detailed,
except the time was called in; his sanity ]
had never been q question with me till very !
reeently-until or after the occurrence, for
which ne is now on trial; the first informa-
LII L. a