Aged ..., Bath. This is a married woman, with a family. In a fit of
insanity she had cut out the tongues of two of her children. She
is very much deranged, but chiefly melancholy and desponding. She
holds very little converse with any person, dislikes company, and is
almost always alone. She never goes into the airing-ground with the
other patients, but sits on a box, moping within. At times, however,
she is in a different state, and speaks; but her insanity palliates
the dreadful crime she has been guilty of. She says she cut out her
children’s tongues to prevent them telling lies, and that if all
mothers would do the same, it would save much tale-telling, idle talk,
and mischief.