Welsh Journals

An autopsy was performed by Dr Price. His opinion, given at the inquest, was that the vomiting had led to the man's death. Price refused to comment on the role that the preparations sold to him might have had in causing this. The jury returned a verdict of manslaughter, and WJM was committed to the county gaol for trial at the Brecon assizes. Price was again involved as a witness in what was described as a 'brutal murder' at Ystradgynlais in 1859. He had been sent for on the night of the incident concerned, having been told that the bowels of the man who had been stabbed were 'protruding'. He found that the victim of the attack 'had an anxious countenance', and was in severe pain. There were several cuts on his body, including one that had exposed part of his bowel. As he was 'in great danger', Price asked for a special petty sessions court to be held, so that the man's account of those events could be recorded. He died a fortnight after the assault on him, and it was Price who carried out the post-mortem examination. He found that the intestines were badly decomposed due to the injury, the cause of death being the consequent 'inflammation and mortification'. At the inquest, the coroner explained at some length to the jury that the distinguishing feature between murder and manslaughter lay in the intention of the attacker. After a brief consultation, a verdict of murder was returned. When the prisoner was taken to Brecon Gaol, 'an immense concourse of people assembled to witness his departure'. The 'scene altogether was overpowering', with many of those who had gathered being 'affected to tears'.31 Psychiatric services The early history of psychiatry in Breconshire has not been well recorded. Mental illness shows no respect for social class or position, and there are problems that sometimes arise in dealing with wealthier patients. For many centuries, it had been recognised that the State had an obligation to oversee their business affairs if they were incapable of doing so themselves. With this in mind, a commission in lunacy (inquirendo de lunatica/idiota), would be set up to give an opinion concerning the subject's mental state. Information concerning seventeenth-century commissions in Wales is not plentiful, probably because few among the psychiatrically disordered had sufficient capital to warrant proceedings of this kind. Of the three known from Wales, one of the subjects was from Breconshire. The Gwyn family of Pantycored, Garthbrengi, had accumulated a great deal of wealth even by that early period, so that the affairs of Catherine Gwyn called for an investigation, which was held in 1697: Inquisition by indenture at the mansion house of Walter Prosser of the town of Brecon before Walter Vaughan, David Williams and James Harry appointed commissioners [who have been] directed to assess whether Catherine Gwynne of Pant-y-Corredd in the