DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70266#0312
2/6 kirby's wonderful museum.
he was under my care, that his hands and feet were spotted
with scales, which came off by friction, in white mealy
particles.
“ Until the month of July, 1802, Matthew Lovat did
nothing extraordinary. His life was regular and uniform;
his habits were simple, and conformable to his rank in society;
nothing, in short, distinguished him, but. an extreme degree
of devotion. He-spoke on no other subject than the affairs
of the church : its festivals and fasts, with sermons, saints,
&c., constituted the topics of his conversation : it was at
this date, however, that, having shut himself up in his.
chamber, and making use of one of the tools belonging
to his trade, he performed upon himself the most complete
general amputation, and threw the parts of which he had
deprived his person, from his window, into the street. It
has never been precisely ascertained, what were the motives
which induced him to this unnatural act. Some have sup-
posed, that he was impelled to it by the chagrin with which
he was seized, upon finding his love neglected by a girl, of
whom he had become enamoured; but is it not more reason-
able to think, considering the known character of the man,
that his timid conscience, taking the alarm at some little stir-
rings of the flesh against the spirit, had carried him to the
resolution of freeing himself at once, and for ever, of so
formidable an enemy ? However this may be, Lovat, in me-
ditating the execution of this barbarous operation, had also
thought of the means of cure. He had mashed and prepared
certain herbs, which the inhabitants of the village deemed
efficacious in stemming the flow of blood from wounds, and
provided himself with rags of old linen, to make the appli-
cation of his balsam; and what is surprising, these feeble
means were attended with such success, that the cure was
completed in a very short time, the patient neither experi-
encing any involuntary loss of urine, .or any difficulty in
voiding it. It was not possible that a deed of this nature
he was under my care, that his hands and feet were spotted
with scales, which came off by friction, in white mealy
particles.
“ Until the month of July, 1802, Matthew Lovat did
nothing extraordinary. His life was regular and uniform;
his habits were simple, and conformable to his rank in society;
nothing, in short, distinguished him, but. an extreme degree
of devotion. He-spoke on no other subject than the affairs
of the church : its festivals and fasts, with sermons, saints,
&c., constituted the topics of his conversation : it was at
this date, however, that, having shut himself up in his.
chamber, and making use of one of the tools belonging
to his trade, he performed upon himself the most complete
general amputation, and threw the parts of which he had
deprived his person, from his window, into the street. It
has never been precisely ascertained, what were the motives
which induced him to this unnatural act. Some have sup-
posed, that he was impelled to it by the chagrin with which
he was seized, upon finding his love neglected by a girl, of
whom he had become enamoured; but is it not more reason-
able to think, considering the known character of the man,
that his timid conscience, taking the alarm at some little stir-
rings of the flesh against the spirit, had carried him to the
resolution of freeing himself at once, and for ever, of so
formidable an enemy ? However this may be, Lovat, in me-
ditating the execution of this barbarous operation, had also
thought of the means of cure. He had mashed and prepared
certain herbs, which the inhabitants of the village deemed
efficacious in stemming the flow of blood from wounds, and
provided himself with rags of old linen, to make the appli-
cation of his balsam; and what is surprising, these feeble
means were attended with such success, that the cure was
completed in a very short time, the patient neither experi-
encing any involuntary loss of urine, .or any difficulty in
voiding it. It was not possible that a deed of this nature