| Description Of Item | Illustration from the collection of Alexander Morison. Plate 58 of Morison’s 'The Physiognomy of Mental Diseases' (1840). Unsigned (Johnston).
'Portrait of T. J. D. aged 37, a widower.
This man previous to his disorder bore an excellent character; he was the father of a family, and was of studious and abstemious habits.
The propensity was so strong, that even before a number of persons he could not refrain from exposing his person and attempting to commit the crime; on account of his continually annoying other patients he was for some time kept secluded in his own room; previous to his being sent from home he had attempted to cut his throat, and had, in doing so, cut some of the nerves of his face, thereby producing a slight paralysis, which after some weeks disappeared.
The remedies employed in this case were purgatives, an emetic, a blister to the nape of the neck, the cold bath and camphor, of which eight grains were given three times a day for some weeks; under this treatment the disorder subsided, and he was cured within a year from its commencement.' |