Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Mental Illness, Crime, Religious Authority, Colleges

    Begs the opinion of the British judges, the Royal College of Physicians, and the Royal College of Surgeons in the case of a man sentenced to death for murder, who, according to his defence counsel, committed the offence under the influence of 'religious homicidal monomania', a judgement with which a committee appointed by the Real Academia de Ciencias agreed. Presents a newspaper report of the case that, in Punch's opinion, shows no evidence of monomania and expects that British judges will agree that the convict 'knew very well what he was about', and that the only 'monomania' was that lurking in the convict's Catholic 'premises'. Invites religious and medical figures, including Nicholas P S Wiseman, Forbes B Winslow, Daniel H Tuke, to discuss this case of 'orthodox Romanism or raving madness'.