The Washington times., 1922-04-30
Extraordinary Charges by Wealthy Mrs.
Mad-House Horrors in England Which
Charles Reade's Great Novel, and
Which DR.. Cowles
Declares Are
Untrue

"He further advises me that he has
undertaken in every possible way to dispel
these illusions with respect to his conduct
without the slightest effect upon her belief.
After examining the alleged incompe
tent in June, 1921. as aforesaid, | advised
that she go to Craig House, the sanitorium
OF which the said Clarence J. Socum is
resident physician. She accepted my ad.
vice. but refused to remain at Craig House
more than two weeks.
my diagnosis was and is that the said
Jean R. Melville was and is suffering from
paranoia, taking the form of fixed delusions
of persecution; her disease is fixed con.
diton, and whatever slight chance there
may be of improvement will be impaired
and probably lost II she be not placed
under some competent control. b. reason
of her disease she is unfit to look after
herself or her property for the reason that
in any given case she may be controlled
by the delusions incident to her diseas-
and at all times she is influenced by such
delusions.
Her condition is such that she is unfit
and unable to live al large in the outside
world. Complete freedom of action is dan.
gerOus to her and to others, for the reason
that in such cases of paranOia overt acts
of violence almost inevitably ensue She
will regard as prosecutor any person with
whom she is thrown in close contact and
she may regard as prosecutor. whom she
must punish. any person whom she may
casually see. In my opinion her mental
condition will be helped If she be denied
freedom of action and placed under some
competent control. In such cases freedom
OF action means merely a wider field and
scope for delusions, with increased mental
and nervous disturbance. with perhaps
fatal results to her or to some subject Of
her delusions."
So the two experts were thoroughly
agreed-Mrs. Melville was a dangerous
lunatic and would never get any better and
would doubtless get worse and worse
All that was sworn to last December by
those wise doctors-and here in Mauh.
only few weeks later this dangerous
lunatic goes on the witness stand in her
own behalf, and the jury couldn't find hide
nor hair of all that crazy stuff that shocked
the doctors.
There are two or three interesting things
in DR.. Goodhart's affidavit.
The various complaints which Mrs Mel
vile made convinced this good hearted doc
tor that they must be the chatter OF
crazy person. For instance. she said her
husband was away from home a good deal
and she had reason to believe was running
around with other women. But when Dr.
Goodhart, in simple. minded earnestness
asked Mr. Melville il this was true. and
Mr.. Melville denied it-why. then. here was
irst-class evidence that his wife must be
crazy, Of course, everybody knows that a
husband would instantly admit the full
truth OF his wife's accusation of running
around with other women unless they were
unfounded. So when an accused husband
denied his wife's charges, what better evi
dence can there be that the wife is
lunatic?
Another interesting point in DR.. Good
harts anidavit is his kindly advice to the
unfortunate woman that she go to DR.. Slo
Gums sanitarium. AS It turned out. this
was an excellent place to undergo exam.
nation by one of DR.. Cowles's friends.
VINO found splendid set of delusions TO
testify to.
But Mrs. Melville was not so crazy but
what she qualified her acceptance of Or
Goodharts advice and refused to remain
at Dr. Slocum's Craig House sanitarigm
more than two weeks Perhaps this was
another evidence of violent insanity which
may have influenced DR.. Slocum and DR..
Goodhart to feel that there was notn,ts
to do with such a woman but to have her
locked up somewhere for the rest of her
lie under some competent control"
In the course of the jury trial, which
resulted In the prompt decision that Ms.
Melville was perfectly sane. some cy
traordinary things were developed in the
testimony.
Mr.. Melville asserted that in March of
last year there was a little fire 1T the
Hotel Plaza, which ate into the suite oc>
cupied by Mr. and Mrs. Melville. At the
time of the fire Mrs. Melville was in the
room all alone, and was so shocked AVID
terrified that she was unable to find her
way out. As result of the fire she
was nervous and upset. Then II was that
Mr.. Melville suggested that 1t would be
a good thing for her to go around to the
Cowles Sanitarium and rest up and get
over the shock. She was nervous" and
seemed unreasonable" but he noticed no
dol