Aged about forty-five, admitted here about five years since. This
is a Cornish man, and comes from Penzance, where his insanity first
appeared; and he became so violent and unmanageable, that it was
thought necessary to confine him in a detached house, or crib, erected
purposely for himself, and in which he was chained like a bull, to a
post driven into the ground, and had no range beyond the length of
his chain. A woman was in the habit of attending him daily with his
food; and one day, when his derangement was at its height, he seized
his opportunity and murdered this unfortunate attendant. It has been
found by frequent experience that the severities adopted by timid and
unskilful keepers, in the provincial mad-houses, for the coercion of
insane patients, and the irritation thereby excited in the unhappy
objects of their care, tend much more to aggravate than to mitigate
their disorders.
When this unhappy patient was transmitted hither from Cornwall, he came
loaded with half a hundred weight of irons; and the very chain which
fastened him to the cart on which he was conveyed, and through the
bottom of which it was rivetted, might serve as the anchor chain to a
ship of considerable burthen. Even under such restraint, the keepers
who came with him approached him with as much apprehension and terror
as if he were a lion or a tiger.
His high paroxysms of insanity are, however, but periodical: but while
they prevail they are truly formidable, as he becomes extremely fierce,
vicious, and dangerous. Every person and thing that comes in his way is
alike the object of his fury; and man or woman, doors or windows, would
alike sustain the storm of his frenzy, if the utmost caution was not
exerted to restrain him. In this state he will exclaim, in a grumbling
tone of voice, “Oh, blessed Saviour!” but although he calls aloud for
forgiveness, during the continuance of his fit, he would destroy at the
same instant, if he could, his best friend. He has a powerful voice,
and is extremely vociferous on those occasions; but when his frenzy
abates he becomes calm, quiet, and obedient.
Of late he is never permitted to associate amongst the other patients,
who, in fact, are all afraid of him. When he walks out alone for
exercise in the airing-ground, he is always secured by the iron belt
and handcuffs; and when in the house, he is separated by an iron
railing from the others, though he is free from other restraints.