The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1881-12-29
IN. Y. Tribune.1
Religious Insanity.

the asylum instead Of the gallows, i
another. There is a strange uncer
tainty Of opinion on the latter point
whether the law Of the land can safel,
excuse a self-supposed Abraham from
punishment for killing his Isaac
which; by the way, the real Abraham
in the account did not do. The orig
inal Abraham heard a cautionary
voice just in time, and killed ran
instead OF his son. Hence the inquiry
recurs, shall not whoever sets up the
example Of Abraham in support Of al
imaginary inspiration toward homi
eide be required to show that he fol
lowed the Scripture narrative con-
sistently throughout, changed the
course Of his weapon, allowed his first
selected human victim to go unhurt
and slaughtered some unfortunate
brute instead? Had Guiteau, when
standing in the depot, heard a sec 0nd
heavenly voice, and had he obedi-
emily thereto merely shot dog across
the street, we should make no obiec-
ton to an acquittal on the ground of
insanity.
The whole subject of religious in
sanity has had little instructive, au-
thoritative discussion. We recall but
two works protesting to make it their
| chief topic: Bingham's Observations
on the Religious DeIusions Of Insane
Persons, London, 1S41. and Cheyne's
Essays on Partial Derangement in
Supposed Correction with Religion,
Dublin, 1913. Both were written in
the very infancy Of modern knowl-
edge of mental disease, as a new posi-
ton! Both volumes are small and
diffuse, largely filled with matters
which a reader at the present day
would skip as elementary or disregard
as behind the times. They throw no
light on the question of responsibility.
But there are, scattered through the
general works on insanity, instances
of these religious delusions album
dantly sufficient to show that brain
disease sometimes produces them, and
they may urge the subject onward to
perpetrate almost any act Of violence.
Hackett, in Queen Elizabeth's time,
and Venner, in the reign Of Charles
H., raised seditions, each acting under
the delusion that he was diyinely
commissioned to assume the crown.
The poet Cowper wounded himself
somewhat severely with a pen-knife in
attempting to obey supposed COM
mand from Heaven that he should
kill himself. An Englishman with
out apparent motive, struck a cab
horse In the street with an axe; on
his trial it was found that he believed
himself to be Jesus Christ and did the
act in the desire to attract attention
to his supposed mission. An Eng
lishwoman drowned four of her chill
dren, acting under the suggestion Of
a "black, shadowy figure" that if they
were in Heaven they would be out of
danger, and that she could easily put
them into the cistern and thus secure
their eternal safety Martin, the in
who set fire to York Cathe-
dral, admitted that he knew the act
to be illegal, but said that he had the
command of God to do it. This case
is remarkable for the indications Of
sane methods accompanying an in
sane act. There was no doubt of his
he had been already twice
confined in an asylum. But it was
shown that after afternoon service he
in the church and, as soon
as alone, went up into the belfry,
where he cut off some eighty feet of
the prayer-bell rope, in which he tied
knots, forming a sort Of ladder by
which he climbed over the iron gates
of the choir. Having thus gained ac-
cess to the choir he struck light
with a flint and his razor, lighted a
candle which he had brought, and
thus set fire to paper obtained by
tearing up prayer-books, and which
he piled close to the carved work at
the archbishop's throne. He then
made his escape by equally ingenious
and methodical efforts. A young
Irishman dug out his eye and cut off
bis hand, imagining he was obeying
the command: If thy right eye offend
tnee, etc. In France, years ago, a
whole family, Dutartres by name,
fancied that they alone possessed
knowledged Of the true God, and
under imaginary inspiration perpe-
trated murders and other crimes. 4
French vine-dresser thought himself
commissioned to procure the eternal
salvation Of his family by killing
lhem, and did kill two Of his
children. For this he was put in
confinement as lunatic;
where, years afterward, he conceived
he project of offering an expiatory
sacrifice, in pursuance of which idea
ne cut the throats of two fellow
.unatics and wounded his keeper. A
was once sent to the
Bicetre to set at liberty patients whom
he should Judge to have recovered
from their lunacy, and he selected one
whose answers to numerous questions
gave no indication of madness. He
made written order for the mans
release; but on submitting this, In
lue course, to the patient for his sig
nature, the latter betrayed his delu-
sion by subscribing his name Christ"
Benvenuto Cellini, while in prison,
was impressed by hallucinatlons Of
the bodily appearance of Jesus, of
which he gave long, graphic de-
Loyat, in Venice, in imita-
tion Of the crucifction, contrived to
nail himself to a cross, and then to
sling it out at the window of his lodg-
ing room in full view Of the horrifed
church-goers. American examples
are not so numerous, but the case of
the father in Massachusetts, a year or
two ago, who slaughtered his daugh-
ter in imitation of the sacrifice Of
Isaac, will be well remembered.
Medical opinions differ from legal
as to whether delusions like these
should exempt the subject from Grim
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