E. T. a man, aged thirty years, was admitted a patient, July 23, 1796. The
persons who attended, related, that he had been disordered eleven months,
and that his insanity shortly supervened to a violent fever. It also
appeared, from subsequent enquiries, that his mother had been affected
with madness.
He was a very violent and mischievous patient, and possessed of great
bodily strength and activity. Although confined, he contrived several
times during the night to tear up the flooring of his cell; and had also
detached the wainscot to a considerable extent, and loosened a number of
bricks in the wall. When a new patient was admitted, he generally enticed
him into his room, on pretence of being an old acquaintance, and, as soon
as he came within his reach, immediately tore his clothes to pieces. He
was extremely dexterous with his feet, and frequently took off the hats of
those who were near him with his toes, and destroyed them with his teeth.
After he had dined he generally bit to pieces a thick wooden bowl, in
which his food was served, on the principle of sharpening his teeth
against the next meal. He once bit out the testicles of a living cat,
because the animal was attached to some person who had offended him. Of
his disorder he appeared to be very sensible; and after he had done any
mischief, always blamed the keepers for not securing him so, as to have
prevented it. After he had continued a year in the hospital he was
retained as an incurable patient. He died February 17, 1798, in
consequence of a tumor of the neck. He was opened two days after death.
The tunica arachnoidea was generally opake, and of a milky whiteness: the
vessels of the pia mater were turgid, and its veins contained a quantity
of air; about an ounce of water was contained in the lateral ventricles:
the consistence of the brain was unusually firm, and possessed of
considerable elasticity: it is the only instance of this nature which has
fallen under my observation.