| Description Of Item | Illustration from the collection of Alexander Morison. Similar to plate 38 of Morison’s 'The Physiognomy of Mental Diseases' (1840). Unsigned [Alexander Johnston].
'M. M., an unmarried female, aged 50, labouring under Monomania with grief — she has been nearly two years insane — the death of her mother is believed to have brought on her disorder — she conceives that she has two large worms within her like snakes, and that her head has been screwed; she expresses her firm belief that she shall never die, and she is urgent in her entreaties to have her head cut off — to be opened alive, or to be buried alive, and to have quicklime thrown over her; her disorder is increased in warm weather. She has made several attempts to poison, to drown and to hang herself.
No remedies have been of any avail.' |