In such cases, as a rule, the finger-nails are the only
instrument used. There is a French case also quoted of a woman of
thirty-nine who had borne children in rapid succession. While
suckling a child three months old she became much excited, and
even fanatical, in reading the Bible. Coming to the passage, "If
thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, etc.," she was so
impressed with the necessity of obeying the divine injunction
that she enucleated her eye with a meat-hook. There is mentioned
the case of a young woman who cut off her right hand and cast it
into the fire, and attempted to enucleate her eyes, and also to
hold her remaining hand in the fire. Haslam reports the history
of a female who mutilated herself by grinding glass between her
teeth.
Channing gives an account of the case of Helen Miller, a German
Jewess of thirty, who was admitted to the Asylum for Insane
Criminals at Auburn, N.Y., in October, 1872, and readmitted in
June, 1875, suffering from simulation of hematemesis. On
September 25th she cut her left wrist and right hand; in three
weeks she became again "discouraged" because she was refused
opium, and again cut her arms below the elbows, cleanly severing
the skin and fascia, and completely hacking the muscles in every
direction.
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