The man borrowed a knife from a comrade and cut off the whole external genital apparatus, remarking as he flung the parts into a corner: "Any----fool can cut his throat, but it takes a soldier to cut his privates off!" Under treatment he recovered, and then he regretted his action.
Sinclair describes an Irishman of twenty-five who, maniacal from intemperance, first cut off one testicle with a wire nail, and then the second with a trouser-buckle.

Not satisfied with the extent of his injuries he drove a nail into his temple, first through the skin by striking it with his hand, and then by butting it against the wall,--the latter maneuver causing his death.
There is on record the history of an insane medical student in Dublin who extirpated both eyes and threw them on the grass.

He was in a state of acute mania, and the explanation offered was that as a "grinder" before examination he had been diligently studying the surgery of the eye, and particularly that relating to enucleation.

Another Dublin case quoted by the same authority was that of a young girl who, upon being arrested and committed to a police-cell in a state of furious drunkenness, tore out both her eyes.

In such cases, as a rule, the finger-nails are the only instrument used.