Weekly Trinity journal., 1873-11-01
CURIOsITIEs OFLUNACY.,

There are cases where blows on the
head have benefited the brain, and pro-
duced extraordinary changes for the bet
| ter. Mabilon was almost an idiot till, at
the age of twenty ysix, he fell down a
stone staircase, fractured his skull and
was trepanned. From that moment he
became genius. Doctor Pritchard
mentions a case of three brothers who
were all nearly idiots. One of them was
injured on the head, and from that time
he frightened up, and is now successful
barrister. Wallenstein, too, :hey say
was mere fool till he fell out of window
and awoke with enlarged capabilities.
A patient in all asylum was the victim Of
many delusions. He was paying off the
national debt, going into partnership with
Baron Rothschild, and forming a lodge
of female Freemasons. One day an epi-
leptic patient, irritated at being perpetu-
ally asked to buy imaginary shares. gave
him tremendous blow on the bridge of
the nose. From that time he improved
rapidly, and acknowledged that the blow
had a sobering effect, and had quite
knocked the nonsense out of him.
There is no doubt that this was the Sc
cret of that cruel old remedy for madness
the circulating swing, mentioned favo-a-
bly, by physicians of the last century.
This horrible swing was a small box fixed
upon pivot, and worked by windlass.
The "infexible" maniac was firmly
strapped in a sitting or recumbent post
ure. The box was then whirlcd round at
the average velocity Of hundred revolu-
tions minute, and its beneficial effect
was supposed to be heightened by revers-
ing the motion every six or eight min
utes, and by stopping it occasionally with
a sudden jerk, The result Of this swing
(Which occasionally brought on conclusion
of the brain) were profound and protract-
ed sleep, intense perspration, mental ex
haustion. and not unnatural horror of
any occurrence to the same remedy,
which left moral impression that acted
as permanent restraint. That the re-
suits were often beneficial we have indis-
putable evidence. -,-.- ...,
The cases of suspended consciousness
after brain injury are well worthy atten-
ton. A man who awakes out of sleep is
conscious of lapse Of time, and can gen
orally even guess its duration but the
man struck on the brain is often uncon-
scious Of any lapse. A man was struck
in the street, and was afterward delirious.
He was unconscious after the blow for
fourteen days. He was then delirious
and maniacal for ten weeks. When he |
became more tranquil they brought him |
to the asylum in a strait waist-coat. He |
soon recovered, but when he became
conscious he had clean forgotten the four
teen days. trance, and the ten weeks de-
lirium and maia. At the battle of the
Nile an English captain was struck on
the head by shot, and became uncon-
scous. He was taken home with the |
wounded, and remained in Greenwich
Hospital fifteen months deprived of sense
and speech. AT the end Of that period |
an operation was performed, and the
brain relieved from the pressure. lie in
stantly rose from his bed, and continued |
the orders to the sailors which had been
so abruptly interrupted fifteen months
before. DR.. Abercrombie gives an anal
ogous case. A lady was struck with ap-
oplexy while sitting at the whist table.
1t was Thursday evening when she fell,
and she lay in a stupor all Friday and
Saturday. On Sunday she suddenly re-
covered her consciousness; and her first
words were, "what are trumps ?" The
clock work had stopped at that point,
now the pendulum had commenced to
swing.