The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1878-05-02

OPINION OF DIR. wM. A. HAMMOND
As to Voluntary Admissions Of Crlme-Qulckehed
COnsclences often Sign not Of Guilt but
Of Nervous and Mental Disorder.

| Ing on the confession recently made by Mrs. TIL
ton, said that II was not infrequently the case
that under any nervous strain woman would
persuade herself that statements nOtoriously I'M
true were well established facts These com
ments suggested that discussion Of the subject
by authorities on such matters would be timely,
and therefore DR.. William A, Hammond, the we'll
known professor of diseases of the mind and
nervous system, was interviewed last evening ON
the subject OF confessions Of guilt or ofienses as
the result of hallucination In persons predlsposd
TO hysteria. DR.. Hammond said the subject was
| one to which he had devoted good deal OF atten'
ton of late, especially as he had only recently
written book on spiritualism and nervous de-
rangement. In the preparation Of this work he
had investigated several cases Of remarkable
| self accusations, some OF which were very sur
prlslng especially to superficial observers To
the careful student however, these cases were
not matters Of astonshment and they would prob
ably always continue to occur from time to time
80 long as the human constitution was subject To
that form of nervous arrangement known under
the general head Of hysteria,
"Do you believe that persons who are perfectly
innocent sometimes accuse themselves OF crimes
on account OF the effect produced upon them by
those crimes having been seriously charged
| against them2"
"Noone can have any doubt Of that There are
many such cases on record. person who tells
falsehood and reiterates II often enough, In time
comes 10 believe that his own falsehood is truth.
So may weak and emotional person who has
been falsely accused time and time again Of com.
hitting particular crime at last imagine that
the charge is true and then may make contes'
sion of guilt. believe that 80 large majority
of these persons who make confessions Of the per-
petrahon of crimes are the victims of mental de-
rangement that l am strongly In favor OF an
amendment to the laws so thatno man or woman
can be convicted and punished on the strength OF
mere confession"
"Do you recollect at this moment any marked
case of selfaccusation2
"Many of them. For instance, few years ago
female patient of mine Informed me that she
had got up in the night ard gone to visit gen
tleman of her acquaintance who lived in a dis
tant part of the city and that she had remained
in his house all night On making thorough in
qulry 1t was proven beyond doubt that there
was not one word of truth in the story, She
hadn't left her house at all, and the gentleman
in question wasn't in the city at the time, have
no doubt that the whole series Of events as re-
counted by her had no foundation other than
vivid dream, and that the dream was result Of
the deranged condition of certain Junction.
We know that most children are incapable Of
discriminating between the phantoms of dreams
and actual events, and they are frequently pun
ished for lying when they firmly believe they |
have uttered the truth. l have often heard little
ones give the most cirGumstantial and serious
accounts of their interviews with fairies and
ogres, which accounts were clearly attributable |
to Dreams"
Can you name case which is OF general his |
toric interest" |
yes During the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries an epidemic of hysterical chorea with |
tatalepsy prevailed In many converts Of Europe, |
and many grievous wrongs were in consequence |
inflicted upon perfectly innocent persons, whom |
certain possessed persons accused Of having be- |
witched them. Louis Glnfridi, q priest Of Mar |
selles, apparently man of cultivation and strict
morality was accused of sorcery by two Ursuline |
nuns, named Madeline de Mandol and Louise |
Capel, The latter only nineteen years Of age. AT |
the time Of the accusation these women were |
suffering from hysterical attacks, accompanied |
with hallucinatio4s and illusions, all of which |
were ascrbed to possession by the devil who was
moved and instlgated by Louis Ganfridi AT
first the man denied the charges made against
him, and endeavored in vain to show by argu'
ment the true nature of the seizures. Subsequent
ly he confessed all that had been charged against
him and good deal more besides He had be-
come insane. He then declared that be had wor.
shipped the devil for fourteen years, and that
that demon had given him power to inspire with
amorOus feeling all the women he looked upon.
By this means he had succeeded In poisoning the
minds of no less than q thousand females, among
whom was Nine. de la Pallude, mother Of Made
leine, Gantridi was burned at the stake, and the
two Ursuline nuns continued to believe in their
hallucination. Several nuns who had been pres
ent at the proceedings againt the unfortunate
Ganfridl became subject to influences readily ca
pable Of producing the terrible disease. One of
the Sisters, Marie de sains, who was remarkable
for her many virtues, was now suspected of de-
voting herself to sOrcery and of being the cause
Of possessions of which the other nuns were the
victims For Que year she was kept in prison
without any formal proof Of her guilt being pro-
duCed, and at last she was positively accused by
three Of the sisters with having unlawful rsla-
Iions with demons. AT first the poor creature ap.
peared to be surprised at tlis charge, but sudden
ly she recanted her denial and avowed herself
the perpetrator Of such wicked and abominable
acts that 1t was difficult to understand how the
Of them had ever entered her mind.
Among other things she confessed to having con-
mitted numberless murders, to strangling innO-
cent children, ravaging graves, feeding on hu-
man flesh revelling in orgies of devilish atrocity,
lnheard of sacrileges, poisonings, and in fact al
most every crime that she could imagine She
escaped being burned at the stake, but W as strip
ped Of her religious character and condemned TO
perpetual imprisonment at Tournay"
Perhaps you remember" continued DR., Ham. |
nond "the case of Constance Emile Kent who
vas tried and convicted on her own confession
)f numbering her brother Francis Saville Kent.
The murder occurred at Wiltshire, England. In
S7l gave full history Of this case In a paper
which was afterwards published in medical
Journal Of this city. Francis boy four years
I'D, was found murdered in an clubhouse on his
athers premises one morning in 1860. The throat /
vas cut to the bone and there was wound in the
hest which penetrated to the heart The corpse /
vas wrapped in blanket belonging to the bed :
N which the child had slept the night before. A
piece Of flannel, such as women sometimes wear {
,ver the chest, was found under the body, aud
portion Of newspaper, which had evidently
'een used for wiping bloody knife that lay up J
IN the floor. The ownership of the piece Of fan t
lei could not be traced and nothing could be
discovered to indicate who had committed the
,rime. Mr., Kents family, including servants
consisted of twelve members. The murdered
,hild and younger one, besides the nurse, had
lept in one apartment each occupying sepa- q
ate bed. From all the circumstances Of the case I
t was evident that the murder had been commit. /
ed by one or more Of the inmates Of the house or
~ some person who had entered the house in the 4
daytime and remained secreted until the time of ]
he murder No blood stains were found In the )
louse, and the noise had been heard during the
light. 1t transpired that Constance had been
leard to express some dislike againstthe murder
d child and night dress Of hers was missing
The was arrested on suspicion, and, although she
he'd tears when sent to jail, she bore herself with
emarkable fortitude throughout the ezamina- 3
ion. Nothing being proved against her she was !
let at liberty, and for two years subsequent to her
.rrest she went to school. Then entering semi.
,onVentual order connected with the Church of Z