Year: 1874

"'Then may l ask why you have come
here?'


ITO ask your advice as friend, he
answered, drawing his chair nearer to
me, and, lowering his voice, to ask you
one question as friend and God-iear
ing man, and to which pray yon give
me plain yes or no


Go on


Feeling as | feel, shall be justified
before God in taking my own life? Will
it be deadly sin for me to do for myself
what L would do for mad dog?'


"'I repeat his words as he spoke them.
l cannot give you the faintest idea of the
solemn deliberation with which he put
this awful question. For some moments
could not say a word. Then started
up and told him that | would not answer
him yes or no-that it was not fair TO
ask me to take such responsibility.
Then he rose, too, and said he must re-
solve it for himself, and l saw plainly
which way it would go. Give me till
Tomorrow to think abou. it, said, de-
tanning him.


"FCome home with me; Pm not afraid.
You won't hurt me- l said.


"'I would try very hard not to do so
butt know myself. l cannot trust
myself. Don't you trust me-


"T will trust you; but I'll do more.
You are not armed, ] SUPPOSE


"'No,' he replied with shudder, mot
now.'


"I'll take care that you shall not be,
and I'll carry my Derringer in my pock-
ct On the first indication of homicidal
mania, l give you my word Ill shoot,
and I'll shoot straight l said this to
satisfy him, poor fellow! In his weak
state l could have laid him down like a
child 1t did satisfy him, and we went
home together. I led him to talk of our
old soldering days, and gradually got
him back to his wound. l made him
describe the first sensations of pain in
his head, and repeat all that his differ
ent medical advisers had said. l hap
pened to have a strong preparation of
hasheesh by me. / gave him dose, and
while under its influence, carefully ex-
amined his head. Now, the head, you
must know, does not fatten or waste away
in proportion to other parts of the body.
Still his had become mere skin and bone;
and this state gave me an advantage, per-
haps, over Others who had made the same
examination. At last I felt, or thought
! felt, faint twitching-a sort of alb
normal pulsation about two inches
above the left ear, it might be merely
nervous, but it might be the ball.


81 then set my mind to work and
thought the whole case over steadily. In
the first place, was that impulse to take
human life, of which my poor friend
had spoken, really uncomfortable? For
example, suppose that one day he did
take pistol 'oa purpose and go to that
young lady's garden-would he shoot
her? To suppose that the insane mind
never changes its purpose, or turns from
the fell completion of its purpose, is TO
say in other words that the insane mind
is stronger than the sane mind. If a
man with freshly broken leg were to
tell you he was going to run a foot race,
YOU would not believe him, because your
common sense revolts against the idea of


his running with disabled leg. But if
one with his brain disabled declares that


he is going to do something dependent
upon the action of his mind, common
sense does not always argue so we'll.
"In the second place, did my poor


friend, with his impaired means of judg-
ment, believe that the impulse was un-
controllable? Because if he did the end


would be the same so far as he was con-
cerned. He would sacrifice his own life


to protect that of others, though they
were in no actual danger.


In the third place, might not this story


of the impulse be mere Rretense to ex-
cuse the commission? Now, there are
no forms of madness more obscure in
their origin, more difficult to detect
; more persistent, and more fatal than su-
icidal mania, and as there have been nu.
merous cases in which persons who have
: destroyed themselves having carefully
prepared evidence tending to show thai
3 their death was accidental, why should
5 their death not be one in which the fatal
Il act was to be ESQ far as possible) justi
> fed?


I he No
$ there was either real or homicidal manis
e or fancied homicidal mania tending tC
!, suicidal, or simply the latter, was there
a possibility of cure?


GAS the three first questions rested fo


their solution on one set of facts, anC


the deductions to be drawn therefrom,


consider them together. A victim o


suicidal mania rarely, if ever, speaks o


suicide When a man says he is goin


to drown himself, you may generally di


rect him to the cars that will take hin


to the river side with the fullest convic
Is ton that he will not breakfast with crabi
Is If, in an exceptional case, suicide is men
1 toned, it will either be treated lightl
20 as an act that is not a crime, or the pa
u tient will be very earnest in his assui
ances that he would never commit i
~ Remembering my poor friends manne
IT. 1 noticed that he spoke of taking his ow
OF life with much more emotion than Il
VI evinced when he told me of the impuls
ou to shed the blood of others. His word
III Il must have human life; if I had had
f. pistol with me should have shot he
n some day soon I shall take a pistol c
Is purpose and shoot her; should murd
TX my keeper and go straight for that inn


cent girl were spoken as calmly as tn
Gu he said, Il owe five dollars, and must
of and pay it, and, at the same time wi


tone of deep commisseration for Il
to predestined victims. They were to d
IN for no fault of their own, but they we
Id doomed to death-if he lived. Whe