The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1885-02-18
f MANIAS OF MADMEN.
THE MANY STRANGE FORMS OF IL.
LUsIoNAL INSANITY.
A Medical EXPORTS Experience-some
Representative Cases-Efiects OF
Solitary Confinement.

IA ~
Representative Cases-Efiects OF
Solitary Confinement.
"Illusional insanity! Why, certainly
there is such q thing" said DR.. d. u.
Richardson to a Philadelphia Times re,
porter. "Nothing more certain. And
no species of insanity is more easily or
more commonly feigncd. At the same
time the subjects of that variety of ma
| MIA are often the most difficult to prove
insane. I remember the case of q MAN
named Frank Devlin who was brought
to me. His family assured me he was
insane. I hal him in my charge for
several days, but failed to discover his
weak point until one day his son, l think
it was, came to me and told me that
Dcvlin had invented an internal machine
with which he hoped to blow up the
house in which an Objectionable neigh
Dor lived.
"Now, this neighbor lived in the same
house rs Devlin did, and was his own
lodger. 1 questioned him about this
story. He told me that the neighbour
was in d conspiracy with his (Devlin's)
wife, and that when he paid her for his
weekly board she gave it to him back,
and so robbed her husband. Mrs. Devlin
was quite an old ana and was held
in good estimation among the neighbors,
but they could one of them believe IN
Devlln's insanity.
consequently their Indignation at his
confinement became so troublesome to
her that she took him home. He had
not been home a week when one evening
the lodger was shutting up the shutter,
and Devlin, who was sitting on the steps,
drew a pistol and shot him through the
heart. When his trial came off | had to
testify. He called me to the dock and
whispered:
"'Now, don't you try to prove me in
sane, because I am not, you know
"'But they will hang you if l don't
"sOh, no. they won't; it was neces-
sary to rid the earth of such a man; they
won't hang me-
.Well, he was found insane, of course,
and was sent, l think, to Norristown.
To show how this kind of insanity may
be feigned, the case of Solomon squires
will do for an example. He followed
his wife 20 church and shot her in the
back. Insanity was set up as q plea,
but he was sentenced to death.
While awaiting the execution OF
his sentence his friends did oil
they could to procure q communication.
In the meantime he pretended to be suf-
fering from melancholia, refused food,
read his Bible from morning till night,
and went through all the usual symp-
toms. His sentence was committed. On
the day that the news was brought to
him he was sitting in the corner of his
cell reading, when the warder said:
"tSquircs, your sentence is commu-
ted
"He jumped up, flung the Bible 10 the
other end of the cell, and danced q jig
with delight.
"'I'd sooner spend two lives in a peni-
tentiary,' he cried, than be hanged
Emotional insanity is q common
cause of murder. l remember a case of
q man named Thaver. He had been
three times confined for mania.a-potu,
and was an habitual drunkard. For this
reason his wife left him and went to live
with her brother. One evening Yhayer
went to the house, asked her ii she would
return to him, and on receiving a reply
in the negative shot her through the
head. He was dazed and stupid when
taken to the police station, and showed
no consciousness Of having committed q
crime. His former employer was at
| first much incensed against him, as were,
indeed, the whole public.
Before he was brought up for trial,
however, his employer, who had reflected
on the case, and in consideration of for
mer services, and remembering many lit
tie occasions when his actions had sug-
gested some brain disorder, decided to
procure the best counsel possible to de-
fend him.
II was q witness. The prisoner was
found insane and acquitted. His old
employer did all he could for him, sent
him to Cuba and found work for him
there. But he was of no use; his brain
was quite gone. After q while he found
mis- way to Boston, where he died of de.
mentia in a hospital.
"Solitary confinement and the dark
cell2 Yes, sometimes it is productive of
insanity, but in how many instances does
the insanity exist before the criminal is
confncd2 That is where the difficulty
exists in making a diagnosis for q jury:
A physician may be perfectly convinced
of the insanity of the criminal but the alb
sence of proof renders him incapable of
convincing the jury. =,
1.-THE causes of insanity are varie1,
and the origin of the causes are equally
varied and obscure. A genuine lunatic
does not like to be thought one, but
careful questioning and patient observa-
ton will discover the weak place in nine
cases out of ten,
"In the tenth case the cleverest and
most skilful observer is often baif1ed, un-
til by some accident frequently the pa
tient develops the necessary symptoms
which goes to prove the wanting element
in his or her mental organ"