“Hæmothymia” or a Prominent Motive in Murder

Abstract

The subject I have the honour of bringing before the society this evening is the" lust for blood" as an incentive to murder, and inasmuch as I confess that the title does savour somewhat of the sensational I have coined a word, hcelJlothymia, which may, I hope, be allowed to pass muster and to do duty as a fit heading for a somewhat unlovely topic. I venture to hope that this subject may be deemed worthy of consideration by this society because there figures in many medico-legal cases the statement, which at times becomes an excuse, that with the sight of blood the desire or the impulse which caused the assault is satisfied; that an irresistible craving for blood prompted the agent to attack his selected, or in some instances indiscriminate, victims; and that this lust for bloodwhich prompts the name of "human tigers" for this class of persons-is to be held as an extenuating circumstance in appraising the culpability of the prisoner. If, as I suppose, one of the objects of this society is the study of the psychological conditions under which civil and criminal offences are committed, the pre-