Annals of medical history . olarge for him, and lackedall the externals neces-sary for dignity, yet heseems to have showndignity, at least thedignity of the rope was ad-justed to his neck hestood composed, un-flinching, a gesture as ofimpatience, at least on-lookers so interpretedit, he gave the signal tolet the drop fall. A cry,many cries of satiatedvengeance, greeted thefall which really wasonly a few inches anddid not cause instantdeath. The crowdwaited and watched andwhen several times thebody jerked convul-sively roars of angerbroke forth. The con-duct of
Annals of medical history . olarge for him, and lackedall the externals neces-sary for dignity, yet heseems to have showndignity, at least thedignity of the rope was ad-justed to his neck hestood composed, un-flinching, a gesture as ofimpatience, at least on-lookers so interpretedit, he gave the signal tolet the drop fall. A cry,many cries of satiatedvengeance, greeted thefall which really wasonly a few inches anddid not cause instantdeath. The crowdwaited and watched andwhen several times thebody jerked convul-sively roars of angerbroke forth. The con-duct of these people isa good example of whatto-day we call mob psychology, which is noth-ing more than imitativeness and an uncon-scious desire to follow a leader: individualinitiative and inhibition break down, indi-vidual opinion ceases or rather all succumbto the stronger will of the leader. It doesnot matter whether it is a street mob, or,in a democracy, a gathering of nature of its acts, good or evil, depends. Portrait of Dr. Robert Knox lecturing his picture was made by Edward Forbes, oneof his students. It appeared in the StudentsMaga, and was reprinted in Lonsdales Lifeof Knox. merely upon lucky or unlucky chance,whether saint or devil, wise man or knavehappens to control. In this case the mobwas justified in its anger, but its conductwould have been the same if the man hadbeen innocent. Not many years before inParis, another mob had cried for blood andmade obscene jokes and laughed as the tigerlaughs with a snarl and roared and sworewhen an innocent man suffered by the guil-lotine not for his sinsbut for his fathers andthe mobs fathers XVI went to hisgrave no more execratedthan Burke though bya larger number of lessrespectable people. Burke being dead themob wanted vengeanceon Dr. Knox. Their an-ger broke forth and onlythe police preventedmurder. The day after the ex-ecution Burkes corpsewas taken from thelock-H up house to the college4-
Size: 1264px × 1976px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookauthorp, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectmedicine
