M. L. a woman aged thirty-eight, was admitted into the house June 11,
1796. From the information of the people who had attended her, it
appeared, that she had been disordered six weeks, and that the disease
took place shortly after the death of her husband. At the first attack
she was violent, but she soon became more calm. She conceived that the
overseers of the parish, to which she belonged, meditated her destruction:
afterwards she supposed them deeply enamoured of her, and that they were
to decide their claims by a battle. During the time she continued in the
hospital she was perfectly quiet, although very much deranged. She fancied
that a young man, for whom she had formerly entertained a partiality, but
who had been dead some years, appeared frequently at her bed-side in a
state of putrefaction, which left an abominable stench in her room. Soon
after she grew suspicious, and became apprehensive of evil intentions in
the people about her. She would frequently watch at her door, and, when
asked the reason, replied, that she was fully aware of a design, which had
been formed, to put her secretly to death. Under the influence of these
opinions she continued to her death, which took place on February 8,
1797, in consequence of a violent rheumatic fever. She was opened twelve
hours after death. There were two opake spots on the tunica arachnoidea:
the pia mater was slightly inflamed: there was a general congestion of
blood in the whole contents of the cranium: the consistence of the brain
did not differ from what is found in an healthy state.