VICTIM OF DISEASE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20958, 22 February 1930, Page 21

VICTIM OF DISEASE.

CAUSE OF OFFICIAL’S LAPSE. A SUCCESSFUL DEFENCE. CHANGE IN MAN’S NATURE. _ That a dread disease had been responsible for an entire change in a man’s character, and had driven him to theft, was the defence recently successfully set up at the Old Bailey in what the Recorder, Sir Ernest Wild, K.C., described as a case “wholly exceptional and very sad.” In the dock was Edward Percy John Lodge, aged 59, assistant superintendent of the Battersea Post Office. Grey-haired, and wearing spectacles, Lodge trembled as he pleaded guilty to stealing two letters containing a £1 note and a 3s postal order. Mr Forester Boulton, who prosecuted, explained that Lodge had been 44 years the v Post Office service, and was receiving at the time of the offences a salary of £455 a year. Owing to losses of letters suspicion fell on him, and he was seen to pick up the two letters, walk to a quiet spot, and open them. When spoken to he said he had money troubles, and had been worried about his son’s illness. His son, a cripple to whom he was much attached, had died in .hospital after a long illness. Counsel added that -Lodge had an exemplary character throughout his long service. He joined up' at the outbreak of war, although he was 43, and had rheumatism and sciatica as the result of his experience in France, He would have retired next year on a pension of £237 a year, and would have received a lump sum of £587. r . His friends were thunderstruck when they heard what had happened. Dr James Purdon Martin, of Harley street, a specialist in nervous diseases, gave evidence that he had noticed Lodge when he came to Bolinpbroke Hospital to visit his crippled son. “I suspected,” continued the doctor, “that he was suffering from general paralysis of the insane. 1 advised a course of treatment, but he did not take it. After this offence I had him under observation, and found him in the early stages of this disease.” Dr Martin went on to explain that the disease was one in which the sufferer was attacked by a microbe and eventually became insane and paralysed. In the early stages the patient became emotional, irritable, and untruthful. As it progresed he became violent, and sometimes an incorrigible liar. He had often _ spent money freely, and had ■ the delusion he was a millionaire or the 'king. His sense of moral responsibility was greatly affected. The disease could be arrested, but the treatment was rather drastic and unless given by experts rather dangerous. He did not think it could be given in prison, but he was prepared to give it to Lodge in hospital. The Recorder observed that he was satisfied from his past honourable career that Lodge’s nature had been changed by the fell disease that had attacked him. They had heard that the trouble could be arrested, but he was convinced that the treatment necessary for this could not be given in prison. He would therefore bind Lodge over on condition that he placed himself under the direction of Dr Martin,

“There is every reason to hope,” the Recorder continued, “that this 'return ent will restore you to your norms! health and strength, and that you will be able to consider this incident as a nightmare and the dawn of a brighter day.” Thanking Dr Martin for his ance and humanity, the Recorder added that it was characteristic of the greit profession to which the doctor belonged.