Case CLXXI

On the 25th of November, 1840, Dr. Pearce author of several estimable medical works, was cited before the central criminal court for having fired at his wife with intent to kill her, and was acquitted on a plea of insanity. He was sent to Bedlam, where he has since remained, his fixed idea being that his wife desired his death, and had paid several persons to destroy him in some way or other, but chiefly, by always giving him a damp or wet bed. For some time he obstinately refused to quit the gallery in which his cell was situated.

In a letter, which he addressed to the manager of the hospital, Pearce rested his opinion on apparently very logical reasoning: "If," said he, alluding to the deposition of some of the witnesses, who stated that, at different times, they had felt his bed and had found it perfectly dry, "the simple act of putting the hand on a damp bed, or even the impression which a man may receive on lying down, be infallible, how does it happen that travellers are so often crippled with rheumatism, or lose their lives from having passed the night in damp sheets? In truth, the injury of which I complain is no illusion; it is a real fact, susceptible of proof, if my own evidence could be received, instead of being distorted by the falsehood of those in whose power I am. Assuredly, I should grossly deceive myself, if I affirmed that my bed is of straw, instead of wool; or if I professed to be a prophet, the pope, or Sir Astley Cooper; but I do not believe in such nonsense. My mind is healthy, calm, and capable of reflection, and I entreat you to distinguish between things impossible and those which are real. It is an all-important point in my unhappy position. It will perhaps be said that I have elsewhere accused persons of wetting my bed; it is true. In the insane asylum at Uxbridge, from whence I was brought here, my bed was almost constantly wet during three months, and I should have died, had I not taken the precaution to sleep on a large chest, which is now placed in the wareroom of the hospital, and in which I kept my clothing. Frequently, at this period, the thermometer was at eight and ten degrees below zero."

In this letter, Dr. Pearce desired to have a lock to his cell, in order to prevent this continual exhibition of ill-will; and it closed with these lines: "I implore you to have pity on my miserable condition. I have had some right to the title of gentleman, and have enjoyed the esteem of highly estimable persons. I am now, by a train of unhappy circumstances, imprisoned in a large hospital; torn from wife, children, and the comforts of social life, constrained to live with enemies suborned by the state, with beggars, and with madmen."

On being brought before the Committee appointed to examine the case, Dr. Pearce replied very rationally to the questions which were addressed to him. He declared that, since his marriage, which took place at Boulogne, he had been constantly ill-treated by his wife; and that, on one occasion, she had struck him. He complained of having been, against his inclination, an accomplice of Oxford, the assassin of the queen, to whom, however, he had taught French, and whose mind he had attempted to soften. Oxford had revealed to him particulars of great importance relative to the crime he had committed, which he, Pearce, thought it his duty to communicate to the Secretary of State. With this view, he had written, in Latin, a letter containing all the details; unhappily, it had been taken from him, and he did not know if it had reached the office in Downing Street. He also desired to make known how Oxford boasted of having deceived Sir A. Morrison, Dr. Monroe, and the jury in persuading them that he was insane.

Dr. Pearce added that this was what he wished to reveal to the Secretary of State. His letter was produced against him. The jury then proceeded in his examination. He persisted in saying his bed was wet, that deleterious substances were introduced into his clothes, and that a conspiracy existed against him. He drew from his pocket a small packet, which contained a piece of one of his shirts, and a snuffbox which also contained some other fragments; these he desired should be given to Professor Faraday, or some other celebrated chemist, to be analyzed. The jury decided that Dr. Pearce was deranged, and had been so since the month of October, 1840 (Britannia.)*

If we were not fearful of multiplying cases of this character, we could relate the history of MacNaghten, the assassin of Mr. Drummond, who was also persuaded that he was surrounded by evil-disposed persons who threatened him, and that he was surrounded by strange faces, †

It appears very probable that great political assassinations have been committed by hallucinated persons, and that in many cases, the impassibility of these persons under punishment has been the result of the diseased state of their minds, and of anaesthesia, so common amongst melancholy monomaniacs.

M. Bazin relates, in his Histoire de la Fronde, the assertion which Ravaillac made on his examination, that, some days prior

* Galignani's Messenger, 27th December, 1843.

† In a visit made in 1850 to Bedlam, MacNaghten was found in a state of imbecility, in the section of insane criminals. (The American Journal of Insanity, April, 1851, p. 354.) to the execution of his crime, hit feet gave forth exhalations of sulphur and flame, thus pointing out to him the purgatory of which heretics were worthy. On another occasion, he felt something springing about over his body. Several days before the consummation of the crime, he saw victims raised up into the air, and placed on either side of him. Finally, he added, that having seen the head of a Moor on a statue in a certain town, he had requested a painter to paint it for him, but that he found the head itself at the house of the artist, by which he concluded that Henry IV. was as black as a devil, that he could not be cleansed from his sins, and was damned eternally.*

Historical documents prove that Jacques Clement must be ranked with hallucinated madmen.

"Being one night in bed, God sent his angel to him in a vision, who appeared in a blase of light; and who, showing him a naked sword said.: 'Brother Jacques, I am the messenger of the Most High, come to certify that through you the tyrant of France must come by his death. Prepare yourself, then, for the crown of martyrdom will also be yours.9 Having said this, the vision disappeared and left him to his meditations. In the morning, Brother Jacques reconsidered the apparition, and doubtful as to how he should act, consulted a friend, who was also a priest (Father Bourgoing, prior of his convent), a scientific man, and one well versed in Holy Writ, to whom he candidly declared his vision, and inquired if it was unpleasing to God to kill a king who had neither faith nor religion."†

It is distressing to think how many persons have been sacrificed by similar madmen.

The young German who attempted to assassinate Napoleon at Schoenbrunn also had visions. He saw the genius of Germany, who told him to deliver his country. The outrages committed by hallucinated madmen are sometimes the result of a command which is given to them, or of a voice which speaks to them.

M. Bottex relates, in his Memoirs, that there was, some years since, in the hospital of Antiquaille, at Lyons, a hypochondriac attacked by hallucinations, who strangled his daughter in obedience to voices which commanded him to stop her breath.

* Bazin, Hiatoire de la Fronde, Proces, Examen, Confessions, et Negations da m6chant et execrable parricide Francois Ravaillac, but la mort de Henri le Grand, anonymous pamphlet, Paris, 1611,12mo. p. 35, etc.

† Diacours Veritable, fait par un Jacobin sur la mortde Henry III. This paper, printed at Troyes, in 1589, is found in the Journal de Henri III., by Pierre de l'Estoile. La Haye in-12 T., t iii. p. 455.

We read the following in the Journal d'Hufeland: "A Prussian peasant imagined that he both saw and heard an angel, who commanded him, in the name of God, to immolate his son on a funeral pile. He immediately ordered the boy to carry wood to a certain spot which he pointed out. The son obeyed; his father laid him on the wood, and instantly killed him. He was his only son."

Hallucination is sometimes the predisposing cause of a culpable action, the accomplishment of which is the result of an illusion.