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Instances of Double States of Consciousness – Dr John Elliotson

Sorgel was a poor, innocent, industrious youth, subject first to violent epilepsy, and then to paroxysms of second consciousness, in which he had delusions and ungovernable criminal propensities, the whole of which he was ignorant of upon returning to his ordinary state of consciousness, though in his morbid state he remembered the occurrences of his natural state.  On September 7^th, 1824, in a state of post epileptic consciousness, Sorgel murdered an old woodcutter in a forest, chopping off his head and both his feet with one of his own axes.  Returning from the forest, Sorgel told several people what he had done.  He said that he had drunk a felon’s blood, and that he was now quite well, as a felon’s blood was supposed to be a cure for the falling sickness.

The next day Sorgel was examined by the criminal court and repeated the same story; he was taken to see the body, and recognised it without the slightest air of embarrassment or remorse.  As an excuse for the murder, he repeatedly said that he killed the man in order to drink his blood and be cured by it.

This state of consciousness lasted a week.  He then returned spontaneously to his natural state.  On September 15^th the judges found him quiet; his conversation was coherent; his appearance and manner totally changed.  He did not remember anything about the murder, but supposed he must have committed it, since every one told him he had.  Of the period between September 7^th and 15^th, he only knew that ‘his head was very confused, and that he dreamt all manner of nonsense’.  He was acquitted of the crime, as not being responsible for his action at the time, and died a few months later in a lunatic asylum