Dr. Algieri studied the interesting case and came to the diagnosis that
there was splinter of bone in the man's brain which had not been noticed
in the treatment at the hospital, and that this was the cause of the
epilepsy and demoralization of the prisoner. He trepanned a portion of
the skull around the old wound and actually found a bone splinter lodged
in the man's brain. He removed the splinter, and put a platinum plate
over the trepanned place to protect the brain. The man improved, the
epileptic fits ceased, his moral condition became as normal as before,
and this bricklayer (how about the free will?) was dismissed from the
asylum, for he had given proofs of normal behavior for about five or six
months, thanks to the wisdom of the doctor who had relieved him of the
lesion which had made him epileptic and immoral. If this asylum for
insane criminals had not been in existence, he would have ended in a
padded cell, the same as another man whom I and my students saw a few
years ago in the Ancona penitentiary. The director, an old soldier, said
to me: "Professor, I shall show you a type of human beast. He is a man
who passes four fifths of the year in a padded cell." After calling six
attendants, "because we must be careful," we went to the cell, and I
said to that director: "Please, leave this man to me. I have little
faith in the existence of human beasts. Keep the attendants at a
distance." "No," replied the director, "my responsibility does not
permit me to do that."

But I insisted. The cell was opened, and the man came out of it really
like a wild beast with bulging eyes and distorted face. But I met him
with a smile and said to him kindly: "How are you?" This change of
treatment immediately changed the attitude of the man. He first had a
nervous fit and then broke into tears and told me his story with the
eloquence of suffering. He said that he had some days in which he was