Year: 1874

Morbid Impulse.


| SOME SINGULAR INsTANCEs-A YOUNG MAN
WHO HAD MANIA FOR STEALING SHOES
THE BOY WITH THE WHITE EYE.


DR.. VIM. A. Hammond, of New York


read an interesting paper recently before
the members of the Medico-Legal Associa-


tion on morbid Impulse" that strange
physlc force which impells men to the COM


mission of crime when there would appear to
be no possible reason for it, The theme was


ably handled, and the essay was so little


burdened with technical nomenclature as to


be perfectly ineligible in all its parts to the


most unsophisticated of the Doctors audi


tors.


The lecturer instanced Us singular Illus


tration of the effect of the morbid impulse


the case of a man who while in his garden


with his little daughter felt a sudden and
almost irresistible impulse to murder her


with his spade. The afflicted father wrote


to the doctor giving in detail all his symp-


toms, and begging for advice. The reply


was: keep the morbid impulse under the
control of your will If YOU do not. and
should allow it to influence you, you will be
guilty of murder" The man was in every


way healthy, and this singular desire to
kill his fayorite child was conquered by the
exercise of the will. Another of the doc
tors patients, who was impelled to iniure
those near him, confessed, on examination,
that he did so under an irresistible impulse :;
that he was only for the time in such cOndi-
tion mentally that he took pleasure in do
ing harm to Others Not long ago young
man of good family became the victim of a
singular impulse. lie could not resist the
temptation to attack women in the street,
throw them down, and take their shoes from
their feet. When he was arrested and his
trunks were examined they were found to be
full of shoes of all sizes and qualities. When
asked what reason he had for his conduct he
could only answer that he acted under an
impulse that he could not resist. The young
man was of irreproachable character, and
was taken with this iniatuation at mo-
ment's notice.


DIR. Dixon reports the case Of a gentle
mans son at school who developed suddenly
an uncomfortable impulse to steal sheets and
blankets. Except for this popularity the
boy was held in the highest estimation. In
1924. n well-known citizen Of French city
killed two children in the woods in the pres
ence Of their mother. When placed in Jail
he attempted to kill his fellow prisoners and
to burn the Jail After a carefully-con-
Quoted trial he was found guilty of murder
and executed. The plea of insanity had
been entered in his defence, but it was en-
tirely disregaried. Many other cases were
cited from the jurisprudence of France,
showing the force of habit in causing men to
repeat certain crimes. One woman known
As a good, kind-hearted mother and neigh
b0r, murdered twenty-eight persons by poi
son before being detected another had
killed fifteen. In neither case was anv rea-
son assigned. The murderers were actu-
aaed by an impulse which had become Il
part of their physical being.


One of the most remarkable cases was
that of Jessie Pomsroy. 1.-THE boy with the
white eye" whose horrible brutalities per-
petrated upon little boys in Boston, marked
him as perfect fend. lie was only l i
years old when arrested. vet he had manned
a large number of children After serving
in the House of Refuge for year and five
months he was released, and within few
months afterward began his horrid work
again, bringing it to q close by the murder
of a little fve-year old boy whose body be
had cruelty mansled. When asked why he
had killed the child he answered that he did
not know "Whst should be done with
you - was asked II ought to be put
where | can't do such things''-an answer
it would be well for tender hearted jurors to
consider


The. lecturer cited great many other in
stances of the singular influence Of this NOR
bid impulse to do wrong. He attributed
the strange actions of this class Of people to
various causes. Epidemics of suicide and
murder were perhaps a. much produced by
the desire of imitation as by anything else.
One of his former fellow students recently
committed suicide by seyering the femoral
artery, method almost unheard of. With
in two weeks two other men killed them
selves in the same way. One of these was
Horace Wells the discoverer of anestheticS.


In closing, the Doctor laid it down as e.
Sential that certain monomaniaes should be
restrained; that those who act
under an uncomfortable impulse for pleas
ure, like POmeroy, should be treated Just As
sane criminals are for if We excuse crime
on the score of morbid impulse We shall
soon find courts unnecessary. The Plea Of
morbid impulse should be entirely disre-
garded by the jury.