A case of self-mutilation by a soldier who was confined in the
guard-house for drunkenness is related by Beck. The man borrowed
a knife from a comrade and cut off the whole external genital
apparatus, remarking as he flung the parts into a corner:
"Any----fool can cut his throat, but it takes a soldier to cut
his privates off!" Under treatment he recovered, and then he
regretted his action.
Sinclair describes an Irishman of twenty-five who, maniacal from
intemperance, first cut off one testicle with a wire nail, and
then the second with a trouser-buckle. Not satisfied with the
extent of his injuries he drove a nail into his temple, first
through the skin by striking it with his hand, and then by
butting it against the wall,--the latter maneuver causing his
death.
There is on record the history of an insane medical student in
Dublin who extirpated both eyes and threw them on the grass. He
was in a state of acute mania, and the explanation offered was
that as a "grinder" before examination he had been diligently
studying the surgery of the eye, and particularly that relating
to enucleation. Another Dublin case quoted by the same authority
was that of a young girl who, upon being arrested and committed
to a police-cell in a state of furious drunkenness, tore out both
her eyes.
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