Case CLXVIII

During the month of May, the commissary of police of the seventh arrondissement was called on to establish a murder. The culprit appeared deeply afflicted at his crime. He declared to the officer that he had struck M. M., because every one drove him to it; that he had no angry feeling against him, but wished to revenge himself on somebody. The evidence given by the witnesses proved that, after having labored zealously for seventeen years in a warehouse, he had suddenly quitted it, because offensive proposals were whispered into his ears, and he was exposed to ridicule; since then he believed himself to be pursued by gendarmes and police officers.

To the inquiry, why he struck M. M. with an iron instrument freshly sharpened, he replied: "I was pursued by evil-disposed persons, of whom one seised me by ike throat in ike Faubourg St Denis. Some months before, I observed five or six individuals walking behind me, and aaying:'He must be killed I he must be killed V I could not walk in the street without having my ears and feelings insulted; I was called assassin, thief, etc; it was for this reason that I sharpened the point of a file, for, I said, if they want to kill me, I must defend myself."

* Brierre de Boiemont, Medecine-L6gale (Annales Medico-Psycholog.), September No. 1843.

From the report, which we gave in concert with M. Ferrus, Soyei was sent to Bicetre, where he passed several months in a state of apathy. We learned on one of our visits that he had struck a knife into one of the attendants, although he had no complaint to make against him; the affair was related as follows: "Two months since, Soyea approached me with a very cheerful air; he had made but a few steps, when, looking at himself in a glass, he turned suddenly round on me, and struck me so violently with a knife in the left side that the blade was broken against a key, and some money which I fortunately had in my pocket. Whilst he was striking, and subsequently, he reproached me with having burned him, and also his wife and child. My opinion is, that he has hallucinations."

On being interrogated, Soyea acknowledged that he had formerly been insane, but had been cured. When spoken to about the attendant whom he had stabbed, he allowed that he had wandered for a moment; but added, "he burned me, and I reproached him; besides, he is always burning me." He afterwards spoke to the doctors of persons who jumped upon him, and of extraordinary things which he saw during the night.

No doubt could exist as to the mental condition of Soyez. It was under the influence of his fixed idea, and his hallucinations, that he had twice been incited to such serious actions; and the physicians decided that he was not responsible in either case; that it was due to society that so dangerous a person, whose cure was uncertain, should be placed in confinement. These resolutions were adopted by the attorney-general, and we recently learned that the mental disease of Soyez had increased and was considered incurable.*

These two examples suffice to exhibit the dangerous character of this form of disease. In fact, the greater number of crimes committed by the insane have been by melancholy hallucinated monomaniacs.

* Brierre de Boismont, Medecine-Legale (Annales Medico-Psychalo-giques), July, 1844.

We think it right to add to these observations of our own, the following, one of which appeared in the Droit, Bulletin des Tri-bunaux, and the other in the Annates d'Hygiene. The affair brought the crew of the ship Le Severe before the assizes at Bourbon. A circumstance which added greatly to the interest of the trial was, that the captain of the vessel, M. L., had, since his arrival in the colony, betrayed evident signs of mental alienation, and that without any reason, assigned or suspected, had fired twice on a peaceable citizen. A report of three physicians declared him to be attacked by homicidal monomania. The following is a statement of the facts: -