Feigned diseases, their detection and management / by George Wilson.

  • Wilson, George
Date:
1871
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Feigned diseases, their detection and management / by George Wilson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    try; when they belong to the better classes, there is nothing for it but to seek out some firm and judicious person who, for suitable remuneration, will take care of them, keep them out of mischief, and, while checking their vicious propensities, will try to discover and foster any better tendencies which they may have in them. The resemblance of these beings in moral character to the lowest savages, and even to monkeys, is not without interest.” I have quoted this passage because I believe it to be a scientific and accurate description of the psychological state of the great majority of our habitual criminals. They form a distinct class by themselves, and are fitter objects for well-considered reformatory influences than for punishment. Not that I think that punishment, when judiciously administered, is not attended by good and whole¬ some results, but it ought not to be applied indiscriminately, nor without taking into consideration the condition of mind in conse¬ quence of which any violent outbreak or serious breach of disci¬ pline has taken place. Such prisoners are subject to a real u mania of acts,” and it requires great care and tact on the part of all who have charge of them to treat them fairly and justly. Out of prison the law takes no cognisance of their inherited or acquired predatory disposition and insane temperament; they are regarded as agents wholly responsible, and punished accordingly. When they finish their sentences, they are again let loose on society, and, true to their nature, again return to their old habits. It is like discharg¬ ing lunatics from an asylum before they are cured; but the public has not yet learned to look at the matter in this light, and so both the public and habitual transgressors against its social institutions have to suffer from a policy which is as thriftless as it is near¬ sighted and unjust. The habitual criminal, I maintain, ought not to be liberated until the authorities have assured themselves that he is so far reformed as to be safely trusted with his liberty. As it is, however, at the close of every fresh sentence he is allowed full scope to propagate crime in two ways,—by the direct transmission of his criminal taint to his children, should he beget any, and by the force of his example or the pernicious influence of his teaching on the young of both sexes who may come within his reach. It may be thought that this is somewhat apart from the subject in hand; but in treating of feigned insanity, especially amongst prisoners, these pathological states of the criminal mind cannot be overlooked. While a comparatively large percentage of the habitual criminal class are acknowledged to be insane, imbecile, or i epileptic, and are therefore not subjected to the ordinary restrictions 1 of prison discipline, there is a far greater number who are liable to \ attacks of maniacal excitement, but who cannot on that account ! be excused from complying with the prison rules and regulations, j Female prisoners of a depraved character are notably prone to these attacks, and generally at the menstrual period; indeed, with