outbreaks of violence, but usually peaceable and diligent. The above-named gentlemen have visited him, and had long conversations, which have ended in each being confirmed in his own view. Dr. Hertz is now quite decided on his simulation, Dr. Reichart equally so on his insanity."

Dr. W. Jessen, in his criticism on this work (Ueber Psychische untersuchungsmethoden, All. Zeitsch. für Psych. 1855) has some observations upon the method employed respectively by the four examiners to ascertain the state of his mind, which (whether strictly just or not we do not venture to say) are instructive, and from which we may gather these methods themselves. He says:

"1. The method of Dr. Hertz is ancient, and was till recently the most in use. He sets before himself the question of simulation or real insanity, goes unprejudiced to the inquiry, but only considers the isolated phenomena, and sees in them reasons for and reasons against simulation. These reasons he compares and weighs, and thereby seeks to determine whether the evidence or counterevidence be the stronger. This method is bad, inasmuch as the examination of particulars has a tendency to put the whole state of mind out of sight and consideration; and this objection becomes ever more weighty, the greater is the acuteness brought to bear upon the examination. Hence the difficulty, and hence the hesitation expressed by Dr. Hertz. This method is justly becoming obsolete.

"2. The method of Dr. Böcker is coming more into use, although it is the worst of all. He also sets before himself the question of simulation, but seems to pre-suppose this, and only admits the idea of insanity when this fails in proof. (Many reasons are given at length, for repudiating this method, and much blame thrown upon the trial of experiments, as with chloroform, &c., in such cases,-upon the supposition of simulation.)

"3. The method of Reichart is strictly opposed to the last, inasmuch as he seems to pre-suppose insanity, and only to admit simulation on failure of proof of the former. It partakes of the error of the former method, in being amenable to influence from prejudice, but is a much more just and philanthropic method of inquiry.

"4. The method of Jacobi, in its essential difference from all others, is perhaps not readily comprehended, but is frequently, and perhaps exclusively, used by the highest authorities in psychiatry, as Damerow, Ideler, Jessen, and others. Jacobi does not make the question one of simulation, but founds it upon the condition of the mind generally (Seeleuzustand)-viz., whether this be sound or unsound. To decide this, he does not lay especial weight on any single phenomena, but upon the general mental aspect, which he then compares with the well-known and recognised forms of mental aberration. As he believed then, that the condition of mind of St. did not accord with any of these, and as it appeared to him, that all the symptoms were accounted for by the hypothesis of a perverse and neglected character, he declared him not insane. We believe, nevertheless, that St.'s state of mind comes under a certain form of derangement, and that Jacobi was in error; yet this error did not arise from the method, but from accessory circumstances. One source of error exists in the supposition that the classification of insanity made use of in this case embraced all possible forms, which is far from being universally acknowledged. Yet this system, when complete, promises not only to be the most scientifically perfect, but the most practically useful and simple in its application."

This question of simulation is now still further complicated; it is not merely, "Is A. B. of sound or of unsound mind?" but "May he not be of unsound mind, and yet dissembling insanity?" In the

Correspondenzblatt of January 31, 1856, we find a paper entitled, "Can the insane simulate insanity?" The writer appears to think those in the wrong who, on finding any symptoms of simulation, at once conclude on the absence of mental aberration. We see daily instances of attempts to conceal the mental and bodily condition, and, on the other hand, to feign the existence of pains and sufferings of various kinds.

"The question arises, then, 'Can the insane simulate, not only a bodily, but a mental disturbance? They can, and they do, if they conceive that the reputation of madness will be of service to them,-and because they, in their insanity, think themselves not insane. They place a mask of insanity over the already unsound mind.”

The writer concludes his paper by a reference to the case which we have detailed at such length.

"We cannot give a better illustration of our opinion than the case of Reiner Stockhausen, related by Doctors Böcker, Hertz, and Reichart. It is beyond all doubt that St. was a simulant, and therein we agree with Herz and Böcker; but he was also insane, and therein we are of the opinion of Reichart. The book is an extremely instructive one, and teaches clearly the important lesson, that madmen can simulate madness-that simulation and insanity do not necessarily exclude each other, but that they may and do often co-exist."

Dr. Damerow, one of the accomplished editors of the Allgemeine Zeitschrift für Psychiatrie, has some profound and excellent observations, bearing on this subject, with reference to the neutral ground. between sanity and insanity, in the October number of that able journal, p. 643. For the present, however, we must leave the subject.

Suicide amongst Children.

(From the Annales Medico-Psychologiques.)

M. DURAND FARDEL states, that amongst 25,760 suicides observed in France from 1835 to 1844, 192 were under sixteen years of age1 in 134-19 each year. This number seems considerable: our ideas of suicide seem so incompatible with childhood, that we can with difficulty bring ourselves to look upon facts of this nature otherwise than as monstrous exceptions to general rule. The study of them will not be without interest and advantage.

We are left without further particulars of the above-mentioned cases, as to age or circumstance; but we have ourselves collected twenty-six examples of suicide in children from five to fourteen years of age.

One was five years old, two were nine, two were ten, five were eleven, seven were twelve, seven were thirteen, and two were fourteen years old. Seventeen were boys, seven girls, two not mentioned. Amongst twenty-two of them, ten were drowned, ten hung themselves, and two broke the neck. All the girls were drowned. Five of the twentysix failed in the attempt. Of these last, a woman, mentioned by Esquirol, who had thrown herself into the water at nine years of age, did the same at forty. M. Falret relates the history of a woman affected with suicidal melancholy from the age of twelve years; and of another who, from the age of ten, made frequent attempts at self

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destruction, which succeeded at forty-five. "I know at this time," says Gall, a young lady, well educated and well brought up, who, at the age of four or six years, when shut up as a punishment, tried to kill herself. She is always awaiting death. She considers it a misfortune to have relatives or friends, since death must soon separate them." We learn from these examples, that however long a time may have elapsed after a first attempt of this nature, there is always a fear of its recurrence. The inadequacy of the motive is often very surprising. One boy of nine years killed himself after having lost a bird; another, of twelve, because he was only the twelfth in his class at school. Sometimes the reasons are more serious. A boy of fourteen years was accused of having stolen a snare for birds, and threatened with imprisonment. He continued to work for a few days, and then hung himself. A child of eleven years old drowned himself, because his mother committed suicide.

In many cases of childish suicide, it appears to be in consequence of punishment or ill-treatment. A child of thirteen years, only son of parents in easy circumstances, was reprimanded and struck by his father. The next day he went to see his companions, and said—“I have been struck by my father: he will not do so again; I am going to drown myself." They laughed at this, supposing it to be a joke; but he effected his purpose, and was found twenty-four hours after drowned. A little girl, eleven years old, was promised by her father a reward if she executed her task well, but threatened with a severe punishment if the contrary. She left home early in the morning, and walked to the quay of St. Bernard. There she met a neighbour of her father's, who asked her where she was going; to which she replied, she was on an errand. All at once she threw herself into the river, but was rescued, after a determined effort to get under a boat.

A child of five years old threw himself into the Elbe, on account of his mother's ill-treatment of him. The suicides of children are almost always remarkable for their sang-froid and premeditation. It is certain that before puberty, the idea of death is not accompanied by that sentiment of horror which often, in more advanced life, preserves from suicide. Up to a certain age, children do not comprehend death; somewhat later, they scarcely feel the horror of it. We have seen many children die who were old enough to know that they were about to quit this life; yet we have never observed any expression of terror or despair. On the 7th of March, 1836, Henri Fournier, æt. 12, was sent by his mother for a watch, which he broke. He was sent to bed at 6 P.M. with a piece of dry bread. At 10 o'clock his little sister was sent to see if he was asleep; she returned with the answer that he was. At 6 o'clock the next morning a woman entered his chamber and found him hung. He had made a rope of two cravats, and hung himself to a nail in the wall, climbing up by a wardrobe. Every one bore testimony to his mildness and intelligence; he never complained of ill-treatment, except by once observing that he go punished whilst his sister was always pardoned.

The next case appears to have been without motive, so far as could be ascertained, further than that the boy's uncle had committed suicide a month before under circumstances very similar. Is it an instance

of that peculiar spontaneous impulse, called suicidal monomania? or is it merely the result of that powerful principle, imitation?

Benjamin Ricard, æt. 11, was sent by his father to gather cherries, instead of which he returned home, where he met his sister at the door, and told her he had come for a bottle for his father; she replied she had just broken the key in the lock, and did not know how to get in. He then got a ladder and mounted up to his father's chamber. After some unimportant events, he left the house, but soon returned, and having got quit of his sister, he traced some crosses on the wall, and wrote on the window-sill with charcoal, "o sadieu de Francois Benjamin Ricard, qui s'est pendu atacher au rido de sa mère." He then hung himself in his bed-room, where was found also a bottle of holy water. These circumstances are particularly noticed, because the uncle had before his suicide traced three crosses on the wall, and placed near him a bottle of holy water.

tune one.

Some years ago, there occurred in the arrondissement of Montargis a double event, as inexplicable as the last related. Pierre Chaumeron, æt. 11, had been playing, on the 2nd of July, 1847, with two children of his own age, as cheerfully as usual. On their returning home, the two said they would call for him shortly to take a walk. In about a quarter of an hour they did so, but he was found hung to a nail in an outer wall, quite dead. It was impossible to account for this act by any past circumstances. He had never suffered any annoyance; he had been in his usual spirits and habits up to the time of the act. It is clearly ascertained that he had no vicious habits-no precocity of temperament. The cause of this suicide remained a mystery. A boy of the same district, aged 14 years, had followed Pierre to the grave, as a chorister. During the ceremony he was heard to say, "I must hang myself also," and it was laughed at as a jest, though an inopporFour days after the death of his young companion-he had been absent about a quarter of an hour from his parents, his father wishing to speak to him, sought and called for him, and ultimately found him hung to a nail in the wall, in a precisely similar place and position to that in the last case. There was no assignable cause for such a deed: it would seem to arise from the impulsive necessity to reproduce in his own suicide the circumstances which had so much affected his imagination in that of his friend. M. Durand Fardel dwells, after the detail of these cases, at considerable length upon some of the causes which may influence suicide in children; amongst which he ranks chiefly punishments, ill-treatment, and defective education. On the latter subject he urges especially a system of intelligent, and not mill-like, training; showing how necessary it is not only to educe those faculties which are inactive, but also to attempt judiciously to repress those which, by an abnormal vivacity, are likely to lead their possessor into evil. After commenting upon the production of suicide by punishment, he proceeds

We find, in the Comptes Généraux, that in the space of nine years, from 1836 to 1844, there were in France 132 suicides attributed to ill-treatment by parents. Special observations show that these cases occur in all ranks of society. Children are every where the same in

their affections and impulses; difference of condition has not yet had time to work the specific changes. Everywhere children are found who cannot support brutality, injustice, or even the absence of tenderThat children but rarely commit suicide is not for want of courage, but that the idea of death does not readily occur at this age.

ness.

"But," asks M. Fardel, "is there not a suicide a hundred-fold more sad than that which merely cuts off a life yet new? Children, in whom an evil system of education has once developed this spirit of resistance, this their only protest against the blind authority which oppresses them-these children are almost always ruined for the future destined for them. Whether the intelligence is arrested, or whether the tendency is to crime, all the instincts of oppressed feebleness develop themselves at the expense of the more generous impulses; and they afford to us examples of useless and vicious characters, which, under a more intelligent training, might have been the ornaments of society."

The Theory of Automatism, with the Manuscript of a Monomaniac. By M. BAILLARGER, Physician to the Salpêtrière.

(From the Annales Medico-Psychologiques.)

"IT is more than ten years since I propounded for delirium in general, and hallucinations in particular, the theory of automatism. The more I observe the insane, the more I am convinced that it is in the involuntary exercise of the faculties that we must seek the 'point de départ' of all delirium. As soon as cerebral excitement comes on, the subject of it becomes incapable of directing his ideas-the ideas impose themselves, and he is forced to submit to them. Drawn onward every moment by these spontaneous and involuntary ideas, he ceases to be able to fix his attention on anything. After vainly striving against this power which oppresses him, he generally comes to wrong conclusions; for instance, he attributes the suggestions which besiege him to another being. What adds to this belief is, that these ideas are often totally opposed to all which he has had in his sound state.

"We know that nothing is more frequent than conversations in dreams, and it is not surprising that there should be the same antagonism of ideas when the exercise of the faculties has become involuntary in the waking state. The resemblance is rendered more complete by the thought often appearing to be articulated internally. Hence sometimes the singular illusion of a voice in the chest or stomach. Their duality becomes distinct; there is double thought, and, as it were, two distinct natures."

The writer of the MS. which M. Baillarger gives in illustration of automatism, was a young man who, by severe study commenced rather late, and by onanism, combined with a naturally feeble and irritable constitution, had reduced himself to the deplorable mental condition set forth by himself.

The earlier pages of the MS. describe the more ordinary experiences of an extremely nervous temperament-shyness, uneasiness, and dread of all sorts of dangers. The first indication of duality is perhaps to be found in this expression-"I often used to see myself dead, and assisted in imagination at my own burial." The sight of a corpse produced a violent effect upon him, always preventing him from sleeping.

During the time of which I speak (from sixteen to twenty-seven years of age), I never went to rest without thinking of death-often convinced that I