Aged thirty-six, London, admitted May 3d 1821. This wretched man
had been a working engineer, employed for many years under the late
Mr. Rennie. His malady commenced without any assignable cause, and
the derangement of his own mental machinery was discovered from the
wildness and absurdity of some of his operations. He purchased several
immense logs of wood to build a hen-house, which he constructed with
much labour; but when finished, although it was sufficiently large and
strong to contain several elephants, yet it could neither accommodate
or secure his poultry. While at work for Mr. Rennie, it was observed
that all he did for a considerable time was irregular and imperfect,
and finally he appeared quite deranged. He was brought to this
institution, and during the period he remained, confinement seemed
intolerable to him, and his invention was constantly at work to find
his way out. At doors, windows, privies, and every aperture, however
small, he attempted escape, in vain. His prayers and intreaties to
obtain the loan of the keys from the keepers were alike ineffectual.
He frequently attempted to squeeze himself through the interstices
between the iron-bars, and over the top of the iron-gate, leading
from the basement-gallery to the airing-ground, a width of about
five inches. It was soon perceived that this patient was paralytic,
and therefore he was discharged on the 24th of May 1821. He was
afterwards sent to a private asylum at Somers Town, from which he
soon escaped, and rambled about the fields, almost naked, for several
days, until he was nearly starved to death. His friends advertised a
reward for finding him, and he was at last found near Enfield, lying
in a ditch, in a miserable state, with no other clothing than his old
flannel drawers. He was brought home to his friends, but found to be
so unmanageable that he was sent to St. Luke’s hospital, from which
he was afterwards dismissed for the like cause of paralysis, which
procured his discharge from Bethlem. His wife, probably displeased at
his dismission, fancied that he had been cruelly treated in St. Luke’s,
and caused a statement of his sufferings to be inserted in some of the
newspapers; but whether this story was founded on the wild tale of a
lunatic, or whether the governors of St. Luke’s took the trouble to
investigate the charge, the writer is not informed.