Aged forty-six, admitted in 1818. This poor creature is a single woman.
Her malady has never yielded to medical treatment, notwithstanding all
the care and attention paid to her case, and she has ultimately proved
incurable. Her fancy, like most of the various patients under mental
derangement, has its peculiar turn. Her firm belief is, that she brings
forth a child every night; but that before the morning arrives, some
men, or “fellows,” as she styles them, come and take her child away.
The population of a desert would speedily flourish by the aid of a few
such colonists as this poor maniac supposes herself to be.
She imagines herself dreadfully ill-treated. The ruins of her memory
seem to be constantly haunted by recollections of former annoyances,
previous to her lodgment in this asylum, from the thoughtless and
unfeeling rabble, who are so apt to take delight in teasing and
imitating the poor wandering maniacs exposed to their mercy. She
fancies herself followed by crowds of mischievous boys, who mock,
torment, persecute, and throw stones at her; that she is most cruelly
teased by them, and that she is obliged to fight for her life every
night. She reckons that she has had above a hundred children; but
as she feels herself growing old, she hopes soon to have done
child-bearing, and that her pains and troubles will be speedily at an
end.
She thinks that one of the keepers is her husband, and sends many
messages to him by her attendant nurse, which she supposes are
regularly delivered, and is surprised at his unkindness in not
answering them. She remembers the marriage ceremony was performed with
a brass ring; recollects the wedding-feast, and threatens to sue her
unkind and negligent spouse for pin-money, or separate maintenance.
She is generally quiet, and has done no mischief; but sometimes she
becomes irritated from causes purely ideal; believes every person she
sees is mocking and reviling her; then her anger mounts to rage, she
foams at the mouth, is in a high state of agitation, and it becomes
necessary to confine her in her own apartment, where by degrees, her
anger subsides, and she again becomes tranquil, and is released.