This has to do with the debate raging in Canada at the moment, after the death ofMr Robert Dziekanski. There are many questions and odd things happening with the so called "experts". You be the judge. It seems to be a very real problem in the US right now too. I will not use the name of the company in this diary...for my own reasons.....pale
I have read a few articles with quotes by a Dr Deborah Mash. That is one of the "experts" that the Big Scary Stun Gun company sends the media to talk to. I guess depending on where and what has happened with one of those mysterious deaths following the use of a stun gun.
They have been labeled as ‘In custody deaths" usually.
And this has come up many times, "excited delirium".
"Excited delirium" is not recognized by any medical organization. It has no category, it started appearing about the same time the stun guns did.
But Dr Mash has said that "excited delirium" was identified much earlier. And she has given full credit to, one Dr Luther V Bell.
I mentally filed that away for a while. But came back to it recently because I really wonder why the elusive Dr Bell was the first and the only one to talk about such a thing. 150 years ago. Whoa eh? Until the Stun Guns came along no one really noticed it. There was a bit of chatter until the 1950's....
Dr Bell was one.....interesting? fellow. To say the least.......If you care to read along, Ill just cover the history of Dr Bell. Trust me. It will get "interesting".
Asylum superintendents from the Eastern Seaboard, including McLean's Luther V. Bell, MD, 1837-1856 and 1857-1858), founded the Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane, now known as the American Psychiatric Association.
On the Concord Street side of the square Dr. Luther V. Bell built the house now the residence of Dr. Henry Lyon, and occupied it six or seven years, until his death, February 11, 1862, at Camp Baker, two miles from Budd’s Ferry, on the Potomac, where his life was laid down for his country.
Dr Bell actually died in the Civil War. He volunteered and worked as a surgeon. I have also found his obituary which is contained in the Library of Congress. In all of these aspects, it looks like he had an air of respectability about him. He was married to a Francis Pinkerton, and they had seven children, four of which survived. Tragic but not unusual for the time.
The McLean Asylum, was considered "humane" for its time. There was a huge shift right around then, (1840's) to better treatments, and less cruel methods of warehousing the insane. In a thesis paper I found online by Lucie O’Toole regarding the life of a woman, a prison and asylum reformist, called Dorothea Lynde Dix. There is a passage which includes Dr Luther Bell.
Dorothea’s next step was to visit the McLean Hospital in Boston. The hospital was a private institution for the insane. Upon arrival she went straight to Luther Bell, the director. Luther Bell was one of the leading specialists of mental disorders. His methods focused on humane treatment and therapeutic measures, rather than custodial care. Bell’s facility was an exception to other disgusting facilities. Seeing Bell’s facility gave Dorothea some hope, and she convinced herself hospital reform was not impossible.
Now, enough "normal" history. What is it about Dr Bell that the Big Scary Stun Gun company and paid "experts" found so interesting? It would be this passage in the American Journal of Insanity......Personally I think thats a funny title...... so classic and "quaint".....
"...patient's attacking anyone who
approaches him with blind fury. He will struggle in the utmost desperation, irrespective of the numbers or strength of those who may be endeavoring to restrain him. [There is] no disposition to yield to an overpowering force, noticeable in some degree in the blindest fury of the most intense forms of ordinary mania. . ."
(Bell, 1849, p. 101).
Dr. Bell also noted the following symptoms:
Mind appears to comprehend the fact dimly; Pupils are either
contracted or dilated; No tolerance to light; Anxious expression; Delusions are indefinite; Confused; Loathing of food. . .suspicious of food being filthy or poisoned; Low mutterings; Dull apprehension of impending danger. (Bell, 1849,
p. 100)
I wonder if they ever bumped into this other inclusion in the The Annual of Scientific Discovery? Because honestly?....
His other area of "study" was right at the beginning of the "spiritualist" movement.
DR BELL ON THE SO-CALLED " SPIRITUAL PHENOMENA."
Ummm. This was an account Of Dr Bell's "research" into spiritualism, from 1855, just 6 years after his description of "excited delirium".
paper read by Dr. Bell, of the McLane Hospital, Mass., at the recent meeting of the Superintendents of Insane Hospitals, assembled in Boston.......
The Spiritualist movement was popularized by one case, one of the biggest hoaxes of the 19th century, and still talked about today. The Fox Sisters. Oh yes.........
The first recorded spirit-rapping began in America in 1848 with the playful efforts of Margaretta and Kate Fox to communicate with the spirits of the dead. Much to their astonishment, they succeeded in establishing a ghostly dialogue with the spirit of Charles Haynes. Using rapping noises as its means of communication, Hayne's spirit conveyed the message that he had been killed and buried in the basement of their home. When bones were found in their basement, what had begun as innocent fun became a sensation. From these humble beginnings, what came to be known as the Spiritualism movement took root and grew to international proportions. As a result of their spiritualistic activities, the Fox sisters were condemned and lived in constant danger. They were attacked by religious fanatics in their community, and besieged by angry mobs several times. They were also exploited, and eventually betrayed by their own sister, Leah, who was said to have been the beneficiary of most of the donations collected from those who came to the Fox sisters for spiritual counseling.
The Fox sisters became alcoholics later in life, and confessed. their Sister Leah, had spent most of the money that had come in from the "spiritualist" faithful. Margaretta and Kate drank the rest up. One sister recanted her confession shortly before her death, the other did not. They were both buried in Pauper's graves.
So back to Dr Luther V Bell........And his presentation to the superintendents of Insane Hospitals.....
He recounted a visit to a mediums home, and the levitation of a table and his insurance of safeguards against trickery. And the fact that he fully believed it had happened. Then this:
Dr. Bell then passed to the topic of responses to mental and verbal questions, and gave several narratives of long conversations with what purported to be the spirits of persons dead for twenty-five to forty years, in which every question he could devise relating to their domestic history and to events ^n it, known only to them and him, had been truly answered. Some of the subjects put mentally—i. e. without speaking or writing—had half a dozen correct replies, forbidding of course completely on any doctrine of chances....
snip
Dr. Cutler inquired how Dr. Bell supposed the raps to be made.The doctor admitted his entire inability to suggest how, any more than why the magnetic needle should insist upon turning toward the north instead of S.S.B. Dr. Bell remarked that there was a great number of very curious facts connected with the various branches into which these phenomena had run off, which he had not time to enter into the consideration of. He considered them all as of less intense interest that the great question of the veritable existence of the "spirits."
If you wish to read this whole very fascinating account, I highly recommend it. The language and style of this writing/recording is quite delightful to read. If one likes that sort of thing.
It is one thing to scientifically ask questions, and quite another to do what Dr. Bell appeared to be doing. And he did give presentations on "spirit rapping" elsewhere. This was not a one time occurrence.
Houdini spent many years at the end of his life debunking spiritualists, some say it was in the hopes of talking to his darling deceased mother. Dr Bell was looking at Spiritualism as a means of explaining his patients problems......
Our reports contain the record of many cases of insanity said to have been produced by it. It was important, whether true or false, or mixed, that its precise depth, length. and nature, should be studied out.
So there is the result of my little investigation. On its own, not so much. A different time, in an age of superstition. The Spiritualist movement gained a lot of momentum, and held the public fascination for many many years. Dr Bell actually sounds like he was doing what he thought was best, and was not in any way a bad person from what I can see in all of this research. He was a leader in that time of "humane" treatment of the mentally ill.
But was he, deluded? Gullible?
Totally. Completely.
When you put together all the pieces in the "excited delirium" puzzle.....A "spirited" beginning, (you can groan) and then the odd relationships of all its modern proponents, and the paid for "expertise"? It says a lot more.
The Big Scary Stun Gun Company has got dick all for legitimate evidence. And if you think that that's ok.....I have this bridge for sale?.............mail me, we will talk. Bring your chequebook.
I will even communicate with Dr Bell, so you can make sure I'm on the level......
Knock once for yes, and twice for no?..........
James Randi debunks Uri Geller and Peter Popoff.......good stuff.
