| Publication information |
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Source: Philadelphia Medical Journal Source type: journal Document type: letter to the editor Document title: “Not a Case in Psychiatry” Author(s): Dercum, F. X. Date of publication: 19 October 1901 Volume number: 8 Issue number: 16 Pagination: 652 |
| Citation |
| Dercum, F. X. “Not a Case in Psychiatry.” Philadelphia Medical Journal 19 Oct. 1901 v8n16: p. 652. |
| Transcription |
| full text |
| Keywords |
| McKinley assassination (personal response); Leon Czolgosz (mental health). |
| Named persons |
| Leon Czolgosz. |
| Notes |
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“By F. X. Dercum, M. D., of Philadelphia. Professor of Nervous Diseases
in Jefferson Medical College” (p. 652).
The document below is one of six letters to the editor appearing in this issue of the journal, all of which are grouped under the collective heading “A Symposium on the Czolgosz Case.” |
| Document |
Not a Case in Psychiatry
To the Editor of the Philadelphia Medical Journal:
Dear Doctor:—In my opinion, the Czolgosz case
presents no points for medico-legal discussion. It is difficult to comprehend
how so revolting, so senseless and so useless a crime could be committed by
a person of normal mental make-up—difficult to understand how a young man born
and educated in this country could commit such a crime and still be mentally
sound. This thought doubtless filled the minds of the counsel for the prisoner,
for they caused the prisoner to be examined as to his mental condition by competent
medical experts, but the fact that these experts were not placed upon the witness
stand, permits of no other inference than that their examination furnished no
data upon which a theory of insanity could be based. Under these circumstances
the case of Czolgosz does not belong to the field of psychiatry, but to that
of the psychology of crime.