Case 21, in Liman’s Zweifelhafte Geisteszuständen, is an analogous case (dementia after melancholia; offense against morals by exhibition).
(2) Dementia After Apoplexy.
Case 149. B., aged 52. He passed through a cerebral attack, and was no longer able to carry on his business as a merchant.
One day, in the absence of his wife, he locked two girls in the house, gave them liquors to drink, and then carried out sexual acts with the children. He commanded them to say nothing, and went to his business. The medical expert established mental weakness, resulting from repeated apoplexies. B., who, up to this time, had been wellbehaved, says he committed the criminal act because of an uncontrollable and incomprehensible impulse; and that, when he came to himself, he was ashamed, and sent the girls away. Since his apoplectic attack, B. had been weak-minded, incapable of business, and hemiplegic; but, soon after arrest, he made an unskillful attempt at suicide. He often cried childishly. His moral and intellectual energy in opposing his sensual impulses was certainly much weakened. No sentence. (Giraud, Ann. méd. Psychol. March, 1881.)
(3) Dementia After Injury of Head.
Case 150. K., when fourteen years old, was injured on the head by a horse. The skull was fractured in several places, and several pieces of bone required removal.
From that time K. was weak mentally, passionate, and ill-tempered. Gradually he developed an inordinate and truly beastly sensuality, which drove him to the most immoral acts. One day he raped a girl of twelve, and strangled her for fear of discovery. Arrested, he confessed. The medical experts declared him responsible, and he was executed.
The autopsy revealed ossification of almost all the sutures, remarkable asymmetry of the halves of the skull, and evidences of healed fractures. The affected hemisphere had bands of cicatricial tissue running through it, and was one-third smaller than the other. (Friedreich’s Blätter, 1885, Heft 6.)
(4) Acquired Mental Weakness, Probably Resulting from Lues.
Case 151. X., officer, had repeatedly committed immoral acts with little girls; among other things, he had induced them to perform manustupration on him, had exposed his genitals, and handled theirs.