| Description Of Item | Illustration from the collection of Alexander Morison. Similar to plate 22 of Morison’s 'The Physiognomy of Mental Diseases' (1840). Signed A J [Alexander Johnston].
'A. B., aged 37, a Lawyer,
In this patient the disorder had been noticed four months. His memory was much impaired, and he was infirm of purpose, easily made to give up any object he seemed bent upon accomplishing. He had a little hesitation in his speech, but walked with tolerable firmness.
He said he had been inventing machinery that would astonish the world; and that he was worth many thousands of pounds - although he had nothing. He had been purchasing a number of things of which he had no need, and could not pay for - hiring carriages, and throwing away the little money he was possessed of.
In the course of four months' treatment, by local detraction of blood from the head and purgatives, the symptoms were entirely subdued, and he now, after about a year’s interval, continues free from complaint, and follows his business.
This portrait was taken during the existence of his delusions.' |