revive him by prayer and imposition of hands. Gast tried the moredirectly physical method of breathing on his head, and blowing into his ears and anus! When the police came two days after, they were found still praying round the body. In all these acts, they all stated themselves to be under the immediate influence and inspiration of the Spirit.

Official examination of Ziemke:

Charles Ziemke is a labourer, 29 years old, of an agreeable appearance. He speaks with much vivacity, and is quite clear and consecu tive in his conversation, so long as the subject of religion is avoided. But when upon this theme, a complete change is apparent; he speaks apparently under the belief that he is endowed with a high degree of the prophetic spirit. He acknowledges freely all the above facts. In 1848, he was a democrat; in 1849, he experienced a "strong desire for piety"-he prayed in the fields, and saw the "Holy Trinity," not with the bodily eye, but with the eye of the understanding. He then joined himself to the Apostolic Baptismal Society, and the sequel is as above related. In the oral examination, all questions referring to his external circumstances were intelligently answered.

Afterwards :

Why did you sell your farm?-By God's command. How was it communicated to you?-By my own mouth. What did you intend to do after that ?-God had told me that he would make me a prophet. What did you intend to do with the money ?-The Spirit informed me that my wife should have eight hundred dollars, which would keep her till the last day; the other two hundred I was not instructed about. What were you to do ?-The Spirit said that I and Carl Quardocus were to go to England, and preach the Word. How were your expenses to be paid?--The Spirit was silent on that point. In what condition were you when you received this revelation ?—I was in a trance in bed, as if dead; but my spirit was alive and active. What were the words you used in this state?-Hu! Hu! Huwäh! Huwich! I think this last was the name of the devil. How did the devil appear?—That is sacred; we will not discuss it. Why do you believe that you could drive out the devil from Gottlieb Quardocus and Koschnick by the means you employed?-God has revealed to me that the devil may be ejected by two processes: prayer for those who are humble; violence for those who resist the voice of God. When do you expect the "second coming?"-In three and a half years. Do you think it necessary to commit violence upon any one if God commands it?-Yes. Do you think it right, even if the law pronounces it crime ?-If the Spirit orders it; we must prize the orders of God more than human laws: God can order nothing wrong.

The whole examination was of like tendency.

Examination of the tailor Gast:

Gast, aged 41, appears of a quiet, peaceable, weak character, of limited intelligence, but seems quite rational, except on religious subjects. The following are a few of the questions and answers from which the state of his mind was inferred:

Why are you in the hands of justice?-God has permitted it. How did it happen that you maltreated Gottlieb Quardocus ?—I met him in the morning, and just as I was about to give him "good day," the "Spirit" forbid me to have anything to do with him. Afterwards the Spirit compelled me to double my fist, and threaten him, &c. &c. Do you know that you have killed Koschnick?-Yes! my hand has done it, but the Spirit of God guided it. If you had the circumstances to go through again, would you go even to the death ?-When the Spirit of God governs me, I have no more will, and I must accomplish what he tells me.

Examination of the tailor Carl Quardocus :

Carl Quardocus is about 35 years of age, of a mild and weak character, stammers a little, but that disappears when he speaks of religion, at which times he becomes excited. He has been addicted to a sort of enthusiasm from his childhood; has had visions and revelations. During his detention, he had prayed constantly to be enlightened as to the morality of the facts above related. A few of the questions and answers indicate the result.

Of what are you accused ?--The Spirit of God has revealed to me this morning that he acted upon Ziemke and Gast, when they maltreated my brother and Koschnick. How was this revelation made ?— Since I have been in prison, I have prayed, and asked why I am here. An internal voice has told me that the false Christian doctrine should be exposed by the death of Koschnick. Do you believe in the prophecies of Ziemke ?-Yes, because he has often spoken to me of my sins, and of my thoughts, which he could not know. Have you had ecstasies?-No; they only come to those who have the spirit of prophecy; the apostles and evangelists have only the revelations of the Spirit. Do you consider the murder of Koschnick, and the ill-treatment of your brother, as crimes ?-It results from the revelations of to-day that these things happened by the will of God, so that appearing before the legal powers, we might make known our doctrines to the world. It is culpable according to human law, nevertheless it is by the will of God. Do you consider all right and proper that passed in Ziemke's house?—If I must speak as a man, it certainly does not appear regular; but it all came to pass by the will of God.

We omit the most objectionable parts both of the history and of the phrases perpetually used by the accused concerning the most holy things.

After an elaborate analysis of the foregoing facts and observations (at too great length to be here quoted), Dr. Franz pronounces definitively upon the irresponsibility of the accused at the time of the criminal act. He considers them only fit for perpetual confinement in an asylum, as the resuming of their usual occupations would surely bring on a recurrence of these delusions and acts of violence. Of Carl Quardocus he gives a slightly modified opinion, considering him not so utterly lost to reason as the other two, yet in such a state as to be liable at any time, under favouring circumstances, to become as insane as they. They are all therefore condemned to perpetual confinement in an asylum,

Comments upon a Case of Murder.
By Dr. ZEISSING.

THE following case and opinion are extracted from Casper's Vierteljahrsschrift for January, 1856:

The last sitting of the "assizes" has unfolded to us the bloody picture of a horrible event, most melancholy in its motives, yet explicable, as it appears to us.

A man who, for nine years, had been a good citizen, an honourable, diligent labourer, a tender husband, and an affectionate father, is compelled, by incredible want and misery, to kill his wife and children. The family had long had nothing to subsist upon-bran soup, and on very extraordinary occasions bad coffee, were their entire food-the bread which they could beg was kept as a delicacy for the children. They had no work-they were in debt, and could get no more credit— and they were under notice to quit their miserable dwelling. The man comes home from a three days' book-hawking expedition, weary and exhausted, his pitiful gains swallowed up by the expense of travelling; his wife meets him, and paints in lively colours their misery, and the ill-treatment to which they have been subjected-she prays for death for herself and her children, as the only hope. He seems to resist some time-then falls the whole weight of their misery at once upon him-the most horrible of passions, despair, seizes upon him-finally, he kills his wife and children with a wooden roller. How he conducts himself afterwards, and especially at the judicial inquiry, has no effect upon the estimation in which his crime is held by the law. But the psychologist may accompany him on his dreary way; and viewing the human soul not ideally, but in its reality-not as theoretically it should be, but as it actually and empirically does present itself-he may find evidence, in the demeanour of the accused, that at the time of the act he was not responsible. Under the irresistible dominion of the despair which had compelled him to the crime, he first flies from the spot, half naked, then after a while returns, and again goes out to expiate his fault and fulfil his fate by dying of hunger. After six days of torment, the love of life revives in him; he is too fainthearted to kill himself, and he returns to the neighbourhood of man to beg. But this transient awakening was but the last flickering of his higher faculties; after a short time he confesses fully his crime, and then sinks into a state of the most profound and perfect apathy-nothing is left save the dull, heavy, sensuous consciousness of his crime. He is not capable of understanding or appreciating the whole enormity of the offence he has finished with himself, with the world, and with life.

For this cause, everything was indifferent to him-for this cause, he related with icy quietness the whole circumstances; and when asked if he preferred life or death, he said they were indifferent to him. In his utter prostration, he could not compare the profit or loss which life or death might bring him. He did not choose death, because he no longer knew that death would be the close of a wretched life; he did not choose life, because he could not see clearly that death would close for ever the hope and opportunity for repentance, and

would launch him into the dismal unknown and unseen. The law calls him a murderer, who deliberately and with forethought kills a man; it is called "manslaughter" if without such forethought. The first is punished with death, the second with perpetual imprisonment. To be a murderer in the eye of the law, a man must be in possession of his faculties, of his free-will (geistig frei). This freedom of will may be, (1.) limited, or (2.) entirely abrogated, by the dominion of a passion (leidenschaft); that is, he may be in a complete, although temporary, condition of irresponsibility, through a condition amounting to delirium or imbecility. The first case demands a modification of, the second an immunity from, punishment. Thus, has a man killed another whilst in the full exercise of his free-will, he is a murderer; was this free-will circumscribed and fettered by any passion at the time, so he has killed without reflection and forethought, and is only a "manslayer;" but was he at the time delirious or imbecile, he is irresponsible-there is no subjective criminal, the crime remains objective.

We get little assistance from the consideration of the state of mind before the deed; for, on the one hand, the law punishes not the mere intention or devising of a crime beforehand, provided it is not carried into effect, or attempted; and, on the other hand, it is psychologically imaginable that a criminal may have devised a crime, and, whilst in right mind, have avoided the commission of it, and yet may subsequently commit it under the dominion of passion. Premeditation is only punishable when it lasts up to the time of action.

If we place ourselves in the position of the accused, who could perceive no escape from starvation but a violent death for his familyurged by the prayers and tears of his wife-we may imagine sufficient cause for mental strife being aggravated to the deepest despair. But it appears perfectly incredible that a tender husband and father should suddenly kill his wife and children, unless at the moment of the deed his free-will was overpowered by an irresistible passion-despair. It appears incredible that he should, with the most icy indifference, relate all the facts without any trace of emotion, unless under the influence of a deadening of all the faculties of the soul. This boundless apathy also, in which he was sunk, gives certain indication of the state of mind at the time of the deed, for so complete a collapse can only follow so fearful an excitement.

(Dr. Zeissing concludes from all this, that the man was irresponsible. The jury did not take the same view; almost without consultation they pronounced him guilty of wilful murder. The paper-a very eloquently written one-concludes with some general remarks on the legal relations of mental disease. The editor in a note announces that he does not profess to be responsible for all opinions expressed in the Vierteljahrsschrift.)

We have given the above case in full, as affording illustration of the extreme views held in some quarters as to the extent of irresponsibility. The doctrines involved in it appear to us, however, to have a dangerous tendency, as virtually annulling the distinction which must be kept in view between madness and passion. Anger, jealousy,

drunkenness these may be cases of short madness; but it would be fearfully subversive of any order or law in society, were ungoverned passions to be accepted as a plea for unaccountability. Follow out these doctrines to their logical ultimatum, and any man may be acquitted who only makes his crime horrible enough to be incredible. In their judicial relations, too, they are fraught with danger; for, in spite of dialectics, men will ever think that there exists a line of demarcation between the disease which is inevitable and which confers immunity; and the passion or emotion, which is a matter of cultivation or education, a thing partly of volition and habit, and which in their eyes confers no extenuating privileges. If we then attempt to wash out this distinction, our testimony will not only not be received on this individual point, but will be discredited on those which are of paramount importance. REC.

The Causes of Insanity. By M. TRELAT.

IN the Annales Medico-Psychologiques for April, M. Trélat continues his inquiry into the causes of insanity, the first part of which was noticed in our last number. Under the head of "Accidental Physical Causes," he mentions several interesting cases, one or two of which are worth abstracting. The first is from Pinel :

A young lady, being over-heated, drank a large quantity of cold water, and continued sitting on the damp ground. The day after, there was severe pain in the back, rigors, fever. Soon after, lassitude, loss of memory, delirium; and at the ordinary period of menstruation, the febrile symptoms are renewed, followed by strange gestures, perpetual talking, and great disorder of the imagination. Recovery took place at another menstrual period.

Then follow illustrations of the effect of sudden falls and immersions in water-then that of blows. A student fell in skating, and struck his head violently-coma and long illness succeeded; the health was ultimately re-established, but the intellect never. Wounds from fire-arms are stated to have produced (as observed in the "Invalides" and at Charenton) either mania, or casually occurring and intermittent melancholy. Typhus fever and certain forms of convulsions are cited as prolific exciting causes. In a note to the fever cases, M. Trélat mentions in two cases the singular persistency of one illusion or defect. The one kept the idea long after convalescence, that he had long arrears of letters, stowed away in a box, to read. The other was the case of a student, who before his illness had been much engaged in archæological studies, and after his recovery had forgotten every vestige of the science. One day, however, all returned with the suddenness of a veil withdrawn.

The following observations are important :

'Accessions of mania or melancholy either during pregnancy or lactation are due, like the previous cases, to an accidentul physical cause. This is the most curable form of alienation. We need not be alarmed at the violence of the attacks. We have almost constantly under care young females, recently confined, or suckling some time, who pass through every phase of agitation the