| Description Of Item | Illustration from the collection of Alexander Morison. Plate 73 of Morison’s 'The Physiognomy of Mental Diseases' (1840), engraved by W H Lizars. Unsigned [François Rochard].
'Portrait of a female in a state of Chronic Dementia, brought on suddenly; it is said, by having been violated.
She never spoke or moved; nothing attracted her attention; her usual posture was the one represented. She exemplified one of those continually-repeated automatic movements alluded to, called by French authors — tic; in her this was a slight smacking of the lips.
No remedies were of any avail, and she lately died in the Lunatic Asylum at Hanwell in a state of chronic Dementia, having remained several years from the first attack with very little change.' |