H. C. a woman, of about sixty-five years of age, had been admitted on the
incurable establishment in the year 1788. I have not been able to collect
any particulars of her former history. During the time I had an
opportunity of seeing her, she continued in a very violent and irritable
state: it was her custom to abuse every one who came near her. The
greatest part of the day was passed in cursing the persons she saw about
her; and when no one was near, she usually muttered some blasphemy to
herself. She died of a fever on February 19, 1797, on the fourth day after
the attack. She was opened two days after death. The tunica arachnoidea
was, in many parts, without its natural transparency: the pia mater was
generally suffused with blood, and its vessels were enlarged: the
consistence of the brain was firm.