| Description Of Item | Illustration from the collection of Alexander Morison. Plate 92 of Morison’s 'The Physiognomy of Mental Diseases' (1840). Unsigned [Alexander Johnston].
'Portrait of J. K.; aged 32.
There is nothing peculiar in the external formation of this man; his height is five feet, nine inches, and the measurement of his head is of an ordinary description; the expression of his countenance is dull. As a boy he was of a dull, wayward, and mischievous disposition; was employed as apprentice to a shoemaker, but was never diligent; he is stated to have formed an acquaintance with three persons of bad character, in consequence of which he was led into vicious practices, and, when about twenty years of age, committed an abominable assault upon a boy, whom, upon threatening to discover it, he put to death by stabbing, in consequence, as he says, of one of those persons having told him to kill the boy, otherwise they should all be hanged.
He makes himself useful in cleaning the wards and mending clothes, but still evinces vicious propensities.' |