I 
THE ISLAND OF JAVA. 19^ 
arrival. One of them being stated by Dr. Le Dulx, in the 
5th volume of the Transactions of the Batavian Society, a 
work httle known in Europe, I shall use no apology for in- 
serting a translation of it. 
" On the 17th March, 1789, information was laid before 
" the GDurt of Justice that the Writer, Balthazar Van Vliety 
*' in a fit of madness, had plunged a knife into his bowels. 
" The Court proceeded to the place without delay, attended 
by the town surgeon, Lomhart, where they found the pa- 
tient, by direction of the surgeon attending him, bound 
" and in strong convulsions, particularly of the eyes. The 
" family being interrogated as to the origin of his complaint 
related that, four or five days previous to the act, the pa- 
" tient had a quarrel with a friend, which proceeded to a 
*' furious scuffle, when his antagonist, finding himself not a 
" match for the patient, in the moment of rage bit him in the 
" arm. The wound Avas bound up in the usual way, with- 
" out the least idea being entertained of the dreadful conse- 
" quences Avhich a bite thus made in the heat of passion was 
" capable of producing. Three days after this happened the 
" patient was attacked with fever, but still no particular 
" regard was had to the wound. The surgeon who attended 
" him observed that he was in a state of continued delirium ; 
" that he had a great antipathy to every kind of medicine 
" and, in particular, a strong aversion to water. On 
" the fourth day the surgeon, on entering the apartment, 
" found him stabbing himself repeatedly with a knife. With 
" some difficulty they seized and bound him dovvm on a sofa. 
" On the town surgeon being sent for, he oifered him a 
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