THE PIMLICO MYSTERY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2337, 3 July 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE PIMLICO MYSTERY.

Dr iorbes Winslow, the eminent authority on insanity, contributes to one ot the English papers an interesting artioleon Aspects of the Pimlico Mystery." He is of opinion that Mr Bartlett's mind had becprue unhinged, and that he committed suicide, "He was hypochondriacal, with marked symptoms of raelancholia," Dr Winslow describes the latter as one of the mostdeplomble forms of insanity ever met with, and gives the following graphic description of its horrors: -

"Melancholic patients frequently imagine that th«y are possessed by animals or worms. This is one of the most characteristic symptoms which was to a certain extent lost sight of at this trial, but so common is it in melancholia that a special, name is givea to it—namely, "Melancholia metamorphosis." This is conclusive that it is a well dcfiaed and recognised form. It appears that Mr Bartlett could not sleep at night, and he was, doubtless, haunted day and night by his thoughts. In a case like the one under discussion friends and immediate relatives fail to grasp the real malady or to recognise the exact condition of the patient's mind, with health shattered, his mind unhinged by morbid ideas, delusions of an early death, that inevitable worm existing in his throat in imagination, that .condition of deepair and hopelessness being, as is customary m like oases, wrapped up in his own thoughts, One most important symptom present in all oases of melancholia, without one exception; in a desire for death. This is often latent in cases of this description, but there is no doubt that it existed in Mr Bartlett's. In oases of melancholia the desire to get out of this wretched world with all its sufferings and miseries is intense. The world appears a complete blank, all looks black and hideous in'the gaze of the melancholic; the days and hours pass heavily, the heart has no joy, no change of scene yeilds relief, unlesß forsooth it is that last awful chance—a self-sought passage to the grave. The mind broods in silence over its imaginary woes, and, reluctant to admit an intruder keeps its thoughts hidden up in a deceased imagination. Iu such a condition was Mr Bartlett. He had tried hard to struggle against it, but had failed. There ie no distinot evidence before us that he had actually avowed self-destruction, liut in melancholic patients this desijre is sometimes hidden and latent. The victim to the complain't often tries to struggle against this, but frequently the' desire is too strong for the efforts. Some openly avow this as their intention; others conceal their desire until some opportunity occurs. The act of suicide is generally impulsive, the brain is excited, the mind unhinged, the deed is done on the impulse of the moment, before the unhappy sufferer has time to consider the gravity of the act. Such, in ray opinion, was the case in the " Bravo mystery," Mr Bmvo taking prussic acid, and then suddenly,* recognising that his condition was a terrible one, seized the tartar emetic to make himself sick, taking, however, an excessive dose of this, succumbed to its effect-thus accounting for the large dose of antimony found after death. This is also my explanation of the « Pimlico mystery." I believe that the deceased, during the weary hours of. his last night on earth, while his wife, who had tenderley nursed him and watched over him. fell asleep from sheer exhaustion, Mr Bartlett, knowing that there were some strong poisonous medicine in his immediate vicinity, on the impulse of the moment, and without any premeditation, inbibed the fatal draught,