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Mr. Wyant's shot proved fatal to his antagonist, and his antagonist shot off Wyant's arm above the elbow.

This duel occurring in the Northern States instead of the Southern States, Wyant was tried for murder, and Dr. McFarland was called to testify to the charge of insanity, instituted in his defense.

This expert, of course, found him insane, as is his uniform practice in all such cases.

Thus Wyant's sentence of death was commuted to imprisonment in an Insane Asylum, as an incurable! A doom far worse than death. Yes, could I have my choice between death on the gallows, or life in an Insane Asylum, I would choose death without a moment's hesitation, now that I know, by experience, what life is in an Insane Asylum!

Put poor Wyant! was allowed no such choice; for by the verdict of Dr. McFarland, he was made his helpless prisoner; and although as sane as any duelist, he was compelled to be treated as a lunatic.

But in being put upon that plane practically, his aspiring, sensitive, manly nature rebelled. He claimed his right to be treated as a human being, not as a brute.

But this right was denied him.

And when his attendant, a young man of about his own age, would insist upon bestowing upon him this contemptible abuse, and would make no distinction between his treatment and that which he bestowed upon the maniacs in his ward, he could not suppress his indignant feelings as they would instinctively rebel against it.

But for poor, defenseless, one-armed Wyant there was no redress for grievances -- no tribunal of justice to appeal to -- no opportunity for self-defense, and no hope of there ever being a termination of his woes.

One day while he was walking out with his attendant and other patients he found the handle of a hatchet, which he slyly concealed in the armless sleeve of his coat, and took it to his ward, without the knowledge of his attendant.

One day, soon after, his attendant provoked him, as usual, beyond his power of endurance, when his long pent up indignation found vent in the energetic use of his hatchet handle upon the head of Dr. Bell, who so often had thus insulted him beyond his power of endurance. A single blow cut a gash into the forehead of Dr. Bell; when he was instantly disarmed, and the power was again all on the side of his attendant, and the weakness and dependence all on Mr. Wyant's side.

For, as a matter of course, if a patient hurts an attendant, 'tis a crime in Jacksonville Asylum, deserving the severest tortures the institution can inflict: but if an attendant hurts, maims for life, or even kills a helpless patient, 'tis no crime at all, not even a misdemeanor, so long as it can be concealed from outside knowledge, under the covert of lies and misrepresentation!

Mr. Wyant was, of course, reported to headquarters for punishment, where he was sure of getting it; for in the government of Jacksonville Asylum there is no such thing as mercy or pardon, however penitent the culprit, or however aggravated, was the temptation to resist tyranny by the instinct of self-defense.

The mode in which Mr. Wyant was punished for this act I give in the words of the witness, as found in the report of the Investigating Committee.

The witness, Mrs. Graff, formerly Mrs. P. L. Hosmer, was a directress in the sewing-room for four years and a half, and she testified that she had frequently known of cruel punishments inflicted upon patients; that the cases were so numerous she did not pretend to remember them all. Mrs. Graff says:

"That in the spring before she left the institution, the spring of 1861, the Doctor inflicted a terrible punishment upon a one-armed patient, who had been sent to the hospital after a trial for murder; that the punishment was for striking an attendant, Dr. Bell -- that the attendant was struck in the morning, and as she was going at night for water she met the engineer and porter going up stairs with chains and buckets of water -- that soon after she heard the voice of the patient, away up in the upper part of the wing, in the further corner, crying:

'Oh, Doctor! Oh, Doctor! Oh, Doctor!'"

She says she knows he was chained and punished with a shower bath, because she saw the engineer going up with chains, and that the patient afterwards had the chains upon him while she remained there -- and though she did not follow the porter and others, who had pails of water when they went up, she is well satisfied he was put into a shower bath. And she knows the Doctor directed it, because she went to the Doctor that night and asked him to pay her and let her go.

He replied, "perhaps you do not understand the case. I have saved that man from the gallows; and I witnessed the punishment myself."

Dr. Bell, the attendant who was struck, testifies to the same thing, being an eye-witness, and that he begged the Doctor to desist from such severity.

The Committee remark, "that the water and chains were applied there cannot be a doubt. The whole circumstances of the case appear revolting. And the justification interposed, that he might be thus punished because his life had been saved by the Doctor's testimony, is almost too shocking to be believed, and shows that the will which directed the punishment must belong to a man of iron, and the mind which could entertain such claims of gratitude must be fatally bent on mischief."