224 A. The following case of involuntary crime committed by a boy named Sörgel, in a state of secondary consciousness, is summarised from an account given in the paper by Dr. Elliotson, already referred to in 223 A (Zoist, vol. iv. pp. 172-79), being quoted by him from Anselm Ritter von Feuerbach's 1 collection of trials.

"Sörgel (says Dr. Elliotson) was a poor, innocent, industrious youth, subject first to violent epilepsy, and then to paroxysms of second consciousness, in which he had delusions and ungovernable criminal propensities, the whole of which he was ignorant of upon returning to his ordinary state of consciousness, though in his morbid state he remembered the occurrences of his natural state." On September 7th, 1824, in a state of post-epileptic consciousness, Sörgel murdered an old woodcutter in a forest, chopping off his head and both his feet with one of his own axes. Returning from the forest, Sörgel told several people what he had done. He said that he had drunk a felon's blood, and that he was now quite well, as a felon's blood was supposed to be a cure for the falling sickness. He also said that a year ago some one had buried his blood on the hill; that he had gone there and found the man who had done it and had killed him.

The next day Sörgel was examined by the criminal court, and repeated the same story; he was taken to see the body, and recognised it without the slightest air of embarrassment or remorse. As an excuse for the murder, he repeatedly said that he killed the man in order to drink his blood and be cured by it.

This state of consciousness lasted a week. He then returned spontaneously to his natural state. On September 15th the judges found him quiet: his conversation was coherent; his appearance and manner totally changed. He did not remember anything about the murder, but supposed he must have committed it, since every one told him he had. Nor did he remember having confessed to the crime, or having been shown his victim's body. He admitted having heard that the blood of a felon was a cure for the falling sickness, but observed that the man he killed was no felon. Examined again, September 28th, the axe was laid before him: he did not know it. Nothing new could be elicited. Of the period between September 7th and 15th, he only knew that "his head was very confused, and that he dreamt all manner of nonsense." He did not remember the substance of his dreams; only one or two circumstances remained with him, as that the judge had visited him in prison, and that some one had written at the table. He was acquitted of the crime, as not being responsible for his action at the time, and died a few months later in a lunatic asylum.

1 Feuerbach was for ten years President of the Central Criminal Court of a province of Bavaria. It was chiefly owing to his exertions that torture was abolished in the criminal procedure of that state; and he was the composer of a reformed code which was adopted in 1813, and formed the basis of reforms in other German States.

A somewhat similar case of the post-epileptic type was recorded by Elliotson in the Zoist (vol. i. pp. 340 - 49, and vol. viii. pp. 237-52) as having come under his own observation. The patient, a lad named Thomas Russen, having become blind, deaf, and dumb after an epileptic fit, was cured by "mesmeric" treatment. Three months later he had another seizure - apparently due to a remark casually overheard about deafness, dumbness, and blindness - and was again cured by "mesmerism," by Mr. H. S. Thompson.

Another case of a man whose secondary condition was characterised by violent criminal propensities was given in the Medical News (Philadelphia, U.S.A.), February 21st, 1891, in an article by G. R. Trowbridge, M.D., entitled "A Case of Epilepsy with Double Consciousness." This case is quoted in the Proceedings S.P.R., vol. vii. p. 256.