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ONOGRAPH
MENTAL  UNSOUNDNESS
BY FRANCIS WHARTON
        PHILADELPHIA:




KAY AND BROTHER, 17 AND 19 SOUTH FIFTH STREET,




      EAST SIDE, FIRST STORE ABOVE CHESTNUT.




    LAW BOOKSELLERS AND PUBLISHERS.




           1855. 
 y
 boo

W3J54- wcr
  Entered  according to  Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by Kay and

Brother, in the  Office of the Clerk of the District Court of the United

States in and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
PRINTED BY HENRY B. ASHMEAD. 
ADVERTISEMENT.
  The following pages form  the First  Book in a  Treatise on
Medical Jurisprudence, about to be  published by the present
writer, in  connection with  Dr. Moreton Stille, of Philadelphia.
They are  issued in this  shape for private circulation only, and
this opportunity is taken, to  state the  indebtedness the writer
is under to Dr. James Paul, for the valuable notes received
from  him, comprising translations and  abstracts from  some of
the more recent French text writers; and to Mr. Charles Goepp,
for  similar aid in connection with the German Psychologists.

                                                 F.  W.
Philadelphia, June 10, 1855. 
 
A
MONOGRAPH
ON
MENTAL   UNSOUNDNESS.
ANALYTICAL  TABLE.
CHAPTER  I.
         MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS IN ITS LEGAL KELATIONS.

I. WHAT DEGREE OF UNSOUNDNESS INVALIDATES A CONTRACT OR WILL, \ 2.
      As to Lunatics or Idiots, \ 2.
      General legal principle is, that contracts or wills of idiots or lunatics will not be
          enforced,
      Cases where there is a sufficient degree of sanity to create responsibility for crime,
          and yet when a contract or will will be avoided,
      1st. Imbecility generally, and herein of fraud and compulsion,
          Fraud itself vitiates a contract, and in this  the contracting party's intellect
              becomes an essential item for consideration, \ 3.
          Lord Portsmouth's case, $ 3.
          Acts  and contracts of persons  of weak understanding will be held void,
              when such persons have been imposed upon by cunning or undue influ-
              ence, g 4.
          In cases of wills this is peculiarly the case, \ 5.
          The testator must have had  a disposing memory, $ 5.
          Over-importunity of controlling friends may destroy capacity, \ 5.
          The question in reference to contracts and wills does not depend upon mere
              subjective capacity, and hence no positive definition can be given, § 6.
          Idiocy, to make it a positive incapacity, must be shown to have been accom-
              panied with business disability, \ j.
          The question of capacity will be greatly affected by the reasonableness or un-
              reasonableness of the act attempted to be set aside, £ 8.
          The inquiry in many cases is, whether the testator or grantor had capacity
              or information enough to comprehend and disregard any attempt at
              fraud or coercion, \ 9.
          Difficulties in such cases from conflict of medical opinion, \ 9.
          A distinction is taken between the cases where  the court is asked to annul
              an  executed contract, and where it  is asked to execute an wwexecuted
              one, \ 11.
          Weakness of intellect, from extreme old age, works a disability, \ 12.
          But great caution  should be  exercised  in this  respect,  the object being to
              protect old age, not to render it still more defenceless, § 12.
          How far the deaf and dumb  are thereby incompetent, \ 13.
        1 
'■!>              MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS.—ANALYTICAL TABLE.

      2d. Partial Insanity, \ 14.
          Rule in this country is, that unless the contested act is the product of an
              insane delusion, it is not vitiated by it, $ 14.
          The present English rule, however, seems to be that the existence of an in-
              sane delusion destroys testamentary capacity altogether, g 15.
          Opinion of Lord Brougham on this point, \  17.
          Objections to this view, \ 18.
          Compatibility of hallucinations with sound disposing memory, § 19.
          Instances of existence of hallucinations in persons otherwise sane, \ 21.
      3d. Lucid Intervals.
          When habitual insanity is shown, the presumption is, that the act was com-
              mitted in an insane period, §  33.
          The  character of the act goes a  great way in  determining whether it  was
              committed in a lucid interval, \ 35.
      4th. Intoxication.
          When actually existing renders a  party civilly incompetent.
          A party, however, cannot use his drunkenness as a means of imposition, § 36.
          Difference in this respect between executed and unexecuted contracts, \ 37.
          In actions for torts, drunkenness is no defence on the merits.
          Drunkenness avoids a will when acted on by fraud or imposition, \ 38.

II. WHAT IS NECESSARY TO BE PROVED, IN ORDER TO DEPRIVE A PARTY
          OF THE MANAGEMENT OF HIS ESTATE, \ 40.
      When a party is incapable, the practice is to  appoint a committee, who take
          the alleged lunatic's place, $ 41.
      In what way the question of lunacy, under such circumstances, is tried, \ 42.
      General and not partial incompetency must be shown, § 42.
      The test is, is the respondent capable of managing his own estate? \ 42.
      What in such cases is required of medical witnesses, \ 43.
      The same process lies in cases of habitual drunkenness, § 44.
      The test here is, is there a fixed habit  of drunkenness ? \ 44.

III. WHAT DEGREE  OF UNSOUNDNESS AVOIDS RESPONSIBILITY  FOR CRIME,
          §45.
      The difficulties in this respect have arisen from mistaking dicta given in particu-
          lar cases for general and absolute rules.
      Ill consequences arising from looseness of citation, \ 45, n.
      The true doctrine is, that medical science is a part of the  common law of the
          land, and is to be treated as such, § 45, n.
      1st. Cases where the defendant is  incapable of distinguishing right from
              WRONG IN REFERENCE TO THE PARTICULAR ACT, § 46.
          Under this head fall cases of idiocy and amentia, § 46.
      2d. Cases where the defendant is acting under an insane delusion as  to  cir-
              cumstances,  which, if  true, would relieve the act  from  responsi-
              bility, or where his reasoning powers are so  depraved as to make
              the commission of the  particular act the natural consequence of
              the delusion.
          An act committed under a bona  fide belief of its necessity in self defence,
              will be regarded as if there really was such necessity, \ 47.
          And the gauge here is the defendants capacity, \ 47.
          An honest insane delusion is to be viewed in the same light, \ 48.
          But the delusion must  have been the cause of the crime in order  to excuse
              it, and not collateral, \ 49.
      3d. Cases where  the defendant is impelled by a morbid and uncontrollable
              IMPULSE TO COMMIT THE PARTICULAR ACT, \ 53.
          The doctrine of homicidal mania has been recognized by the courts of  this
              country, \ 53.
          Chief Justice Shaw, \ 53.
          Chief Justice Gibson, g 54.
          Chief Justice Lewis, \ 55.
          Chief Justice Hornblower, contra,  \ 57.
          The right and wrong test is impracticable as an absolute rule, § 60, 61.

IV. HOW FAR INTOXICATION AFFECTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR CRIME, \ 62.
      1st. Insanity produced by delirium tremens affects responsibility in the same
          WAY AS INSANITY  PRODUCED BY ANY OTHER CAUSE, \ 62. 
         MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS.—ANALYTICAL TABLE.             6

2d.  Insanity immediately produced by intoxication, does not destroy respon-
    sibility where the patient,  when  sane  and responsible, made  himself
    voluntarily intoxicated, \ 66.
3d.  While  intoxication is per se, no defence to the fact of guilt, yet when
    the  question of intent or premeditation is concerned, it is material for
    the purpose of determining the precise degree,  \ 70.
                            CHAPTER  II.


     MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS CONSIDERED  PSYCHOLOGICALLY.

Classification of Dr. Ray, \ 74.
      "     "  Flemming, \ 75.
      "     "  Ellinger, \ 76.
      •'     "  Present Treatise, \ 77.

I. GENERAL THEORIES OF MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS, § 78.
        1st. Psychological theory, § 79.
         2d. Somatic theory, \ 80.
   •     3d. Intermediate theory, § 81.
                Difficulties attending each of the first two, \ 82.
                Question as to moral responsibility of Lunatics, \ 83.
                Views of President Edwards, \ 84.
                Of Dr. Barlow, \ 85.

II. HOW MENTAL  UNSOUNDNESS IS TO BE  DETECTED, \ 86.
         1st. By whom, \ 86.
                Medical expert necessary for this purpose, § 86.
                Great skill and experience needed, \ 87.
                Dangers of an inexperienced examiner being baffled, § 88.
                Responsibility in law of medical examiner, \ 89.
                Importance of examiner adopting his manner to patient's condition,
                     I 90.
                Important that legal and medical officers should, in such cases, act in
                     concert, \ 92.
                Manner in which medical witness is to be examined on trial, \ 94.
         2d. At what  time, \ 95.
                (1.)  Time of act, § 95.
                (2.)  At trial,  \ 97.
                (3.)  At and after sentence, § 98.
         3d. By what  tests, § 100.
                (1.)  Physiognomy, \ 100.
                         Relations of the different features, \ 101.
                (2.)  Bodily health and temperament,  \ 102.
                         State of bowels, \ 102.
                         Physical disorganization, \ 103.
                         Insensibility to pain and cold, \ 104
                         Irregularities in action of senses, § 105.
                         Change in disposition, \ 106.
                (3.)  Hereditary tendency, \ 107.
                         Importance of this test, \ 108.
                         Admissible in point of law,  \ 108.
                         Opinion of Gibson, C. J., \  108.
                (4.)  Conversation and deportment, \  110.
                         Necessity of great circumspection in this respect, § 110.
                         Cases illustrating this, \ 111.
                (5.)  Nature of act, \ 112.
                         (a) Insensibility, § 112.
                         (b) Its incongruity with antecedents, § 113.
                         fc) Its motivelessness, | 114.
                         \d)  Its inconsequentiality, \ 115.

III. FROM WHAT  MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS IS TO BE DISTINGUISHED.
         1st. Emotions, \ 116. 
4              MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS.—ANALYTICAL TABLE.


                 1.) Remorse, \ 116.
                 2.) Anaer, \ 118.
                (3.) Shame, g 122.
                h.\ Grief, | 124.
                (5.) Homesickness, (Nostalgia,) g 125.
        2d. Simulated Insanity, g 127.
                Necessity for close examination, \ 127.
                Tests to'be applied, \ 128.
                Delirium most usually counterfeited, but the most difficult, § 129.
                Physiognomy and health to be examined, $ 130.
                Case to be compared with other recorded cases, §  131.
                Simulation not to be inferred from absence of a trace of insanity at
                    the examination, \ 132.
                Causes why such signs may be suppressed, § 132.
                Pretended insanity frequently turns into real, § 133.
                How examination is to  be conducted, \ 134.
                Patient to be brought into a succession of relations, \ 135-8.
                To be furnished with pen, ink and paper, and other methods of
                    examination, \ 135-8.
                Insania Occulta, features of, \ 139.
                Necessity of guarding against, \ 139.

IV. MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS, AS  CONNECTED WITH DERANGEMENT OF THE
            SENSES, AND DISEASE,  \ 140.
        1st. Deaf and Dumb, \ 140.
        2d. Blind, \ 141.
        3d. Epileptics, \ 142.
                Peculiar tendency of epilepsy to insanity, \ 142.
                Nature of epilepsy,  $ 143.
                Distinction between the several classes,  \ 144.
                Different stages of the disease, \ 145.
                Actions committed  during attack, not valid, \ 146.
                Rule as to intermediate stages, § 147.
                Tests laid  down by Clarus, § 148.

V. MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS, AS CONNECTED WITH SLEEP, g 149.
      General effect of sleep on the senses, \  149.
        1st. Somnolentia or sleep-drunkenness, \ 151.
        2d. Somnambulism, g 159.

VI. MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS, AS AFFECTING THE TEMPERAMENT,  § 163.
        1st. Depression, \ 163.
        2d. Hypochondria, \ 166.
        3d. Hysteria, \ 169.
        4th. Melancholy, \ 170.

VII. MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS, AS AFFECTING THE  MORAL SYSTEM, § 174.
        1st. General moral mania, \ 174.
               Effect of, \ 174.
               General symptoms, \  175.
               Illustrations, \ 176.
        2d. Monomania, \ 177.
               Doctrine of Mania sine Delirio, § 178.
               Difference of opinion  as to its existence, § 179.
               Tests to be applied to it,  \ 180.
               Tendency in this country to recognize its existence,  \ 183.
                 (1.) Homicidal mania,  \ 186.
                        Cases where Esquirol supposes it to exist, g  186.
                        Precautions necessary in its recognition, § 190.
                        Tests suggested by Dr. Ray, \  190.
                           "       "        Dr. Taylor, \ 190.
                         Dr. Mayo's objections to the entire theory, § 191.
                 (2.)  Kleptomania^—(morbid propensity to steal), \ 192.
                 (3.)  Pyromania—(morbid incendiary propensity), \ 195.
                         How far recognized in England,  g 197.
                         Necessary tests, \ 198.
\ 
               MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS.—ANALYTICAL TABLE.              5

                (4.) Aidoiomania—(morbid sexual propensity), § 199.
                (5.) Pseudonomania—(morbid lying propensity), \ 202.
                f 6.^ Oikeiomania—(morbid state of domestic affections), \ 204.
                (7.) Suicidal mania—(morbid propensity to self-destruction), \ 206.
                        Tendency to this in cases of melancholy, &c, \ 207.
                        Legal consequences in actions against life insurers, \ 208.
                (8.) Fanatico-mania, \ 209.
                      (a) Supernatural  or pseudo-supernatural demoniacal posses-
                              sion, \  210.
                          Testimony of ancient writers to this, § 210.
                              "     of the New Testament, § 211.
                      (b) Mental alienation on religious subjects, § 214.
                          Tendency of infidelity to insanity, g 214.
                          Conservative influence of Christianity, § 215.
                          Insane delusion the result of a departure from Christianity,
                              I 216.
                          Illustrations of this, \ 217.
                          Legal bearings of religious insanity, \ 219.
                (9.) Politico-mania, \ 220.
                        How far an epidemic, §221.
                        Causes likely to generate it, g 221.


VIII.  MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS, AS CONNECTED WITH INTELLECTUAL PROS-
            TRATION, \ 222.
        1st. Idiocy, \ 222.
                Nature of, \  222.
                Physical incidents of, \ 223-5-6.
                Cretinism, \  228.
        2d. Imbecility, \ 229.
                With  concomitant insanity, § 230.
                        Original, \ 230.
                        Supervening, \ 230.
                        Specious, \ 230.
                        With confusion of mind, \ 230.
                Without insanity, $ 231.
                Distinction between innocent and malignant imbecility, \ 232.
        2d. Dementia,  \ 234.


IX. MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS ACCOMPANIED WITH DELIRIUM, \ 235.
        1st. General Delirium, \ 235.
                (a)  Depressed delirium, \ 236.
                \b)  Maniacal delirium, § 237.
                (c) Delirium tremens, \ 238.
                (d) Puerperal mania, g 239.
        2d. Partial Delirium, \ 240.


X. MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS, AS  CONNECTED  WITH DELUSIONS AND  HALLU-
            CINATIONS, I 241.
        1st. General, § 241.
                Marked by general derangement of the perceptive faculties, \ 241.
                Various phases it assumes, \ 242.
                Tests  of Ellinger, \ 243.
                Effect of general delusion, g 244.
        2d. Partial, \  245.
                Delusions and hallucinations, \ 245.
                When there is no other sign of mental unsoundness, § 246.
                When mental unsoundness has made some progress, \ 247.
                In cases of drunkenness, &c, \ 248.
                In cases of developed insanity, \ 249.
                Causes of delusions, \ 250.
                Abercrombie's classification, \ 252.
                Hallucination in regard to  a change into, or a possession by, wild
                    animals, \ 253.

XI.  MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS, AS  CONNECTED  WITH LUCID INTERVALS, \ 254. 
6            MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS.—ANALYTICAL TABLE.

XII. TREATMENT OF INSANE CRIMINALS, \ 259.
     Necessity of separate places  of confinement in which insane criminals can be
             placed, \ 259.
         (1.) For Retribution, \ 260.
               In most, if not all, cases of crime resulting from insane impulse, there
                  is original responsibility, \ 260.
               Insanity, in most cases, the result of moral excess, \ 261-9.
               Qualified responsibility of lunatics, \  261-9.
         (2.) For Prevention, \ 270.
               Mischief to society if monomaniacs are suffered to go at large, § 270.
               Necessity of restraint, g 271.
         (3.) For Example, \ 272.
               Contagiousness of unchecked crime, § 272.
         (4.) For Reform, \ 273.
               Impossibility  of patient recovering when permitted  to run at large,
                  §273.
               Injury to the community from the want of secondary punishments,
                  the result being acquittals of dangerous parties, from an unwill-
                  ingness to see the severer penalties inflicted, \ 274.
               Ordinary penitentiaries inadequate, §'275.
               And so of ordinary lunatic  asylums, \ 276.
                          CHAPTER  I.

          MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS CONSIDERED LEGALLY.

   § 1. Three questions exist in which mental unsoundness becomes a
subject of inquiry in the courts of the United States :
   I.  Capacity to perform particular acts for  the disposal of property,
such  as  making contracts  or gifts, and executing deeds  or wills, in
which cases the question is  brought up by contesting the validity of the
particular act itself.
   II.  General business capacity, in which case the question arises upon
a petition to the chancellor or proper judicial officer of the jurisdiction,
for a  decree pronouncing  the  party to be incapable from lunacy or
habitual  drunkenness, of managing his estate, and transferring the cus-
tody of it to a committee.
   III. Responsibility for crime.
   In each of these relations the  tests of unsoundness are distinct.   In
the first  a very modified degree of incapacity will be sufficient, as  will
presently be seen, when accompanied with fraud,  imposition or  over
exercise  of authority, to set aside a  contract or to invalidate a will.   In
the second a much less  degree of general capacity is sufficient, than is
necessary in the third; for there must always be a number of cases in
which a party is morally capable of crime, and yet intellectually inca-
pable of business.   Keeping  these  facts in view, it is proposed to  dis-
cuss the  subject under the following heads:
   I.  What degree of unsoundness invalidates a contract or will.
       1st.  Imbecility generally, and herein of fraud and compulsion.
       2d. Partial insanity.
       3d. Lucid intervals.
       4th.  Intoxication.
   II.  What  is  necessary to be proved in  order  to deprive a party of
the management of his  estate.
   III. What degree of unsoundness avoids responsibility for crime. 
WHAT INVALIDATES A CONTRACT OR WILL.
7
 I.  What degree of unsoundness invalidates a contract or will.

   § 2.  With  regard to  lunatics or idiots, in the popular  sense, there
can be no question in this conneciion.   Upon them the law affixes its
visible  stamp, and by virtue of a commission of lunacy, (a) to be  con-
sidered under the next head, pronounces them incapable of transferring
property.   Nor to invalidate their acts  is it necessary that a decree of
lunacy should  have been  actually pronounced.   The  madman,  even
though his  madness be a  mere  temporary delirium,  cannot, by an
executory contract,(7>) bind himself either in  person or in property; and
consequently in such a  class of cases  the judgment of the law must
relieve him from responsibility.  In this respect the test is the same in
the criminal and the civil courts.   There are, however,  a large class of
cases in which, as has been noticed, a contract or a will will be declared
void, but in which  there is  a  sufficient degree of intellect to create a
responsibility for crime.   These may be ranked as follows :
   1st.  Imbecility  generally, and herein of fraud and compulsion.
   2d. Partial insanity.
   3d. Lucid intervals.
   4th. Intoxication.

     1st. Imbecility generally, and  herein of fraud and compulsion.

   § 3.  Of this an  illustration may be  found in Lord Portsmouth's case,
which has been too often erroneously  supposed by medical writers  to
sustain the position, that mere mental  debility is enough,  by itself,  to
avoid even the most solemn contract.   Lord Portsmouth Avas  married
for the second time in  March, 1813, to a young woman who was the
daughter of one of his trustees, the solicitor of the family, under whose
charge he was at the time living.   From earliest childhood he had dis-
played great weakness,  both moral and mental, being cruel, timid and
fickle in his management of his household, and exceedingly capricious
in his tastes.  Upon his arrival at twenty-one, however, his incapacity
was such,  as to induce his family to take steps to put him under
the charge of a committee, and at their instance  he joined with  his
father in  suffering common recoveries, and making a new settlement of
the estate.   It was not  disputed  that  he  mixed  in society generally,

  (a) A prior inquisition of lunacy is  competent, but not conclusive  evidence of inca-
pacity, (Whitenack v. Striker, 1 Green C.  R. 8,)  but even when the jury find  that the
lunacy was prior to the disputed act, and without lucid intervals, the finding may be
collaterally impeached. (Bannatyne v. Bannatyne, 15 Jur. 864; 14 English R. 581.)
  (b) It should always be borne in mind, that in point of practice there is a great dis-
tinction between contracts executed, (i. e.,  those  which have already been performed,)
and contracts executory, (i. e., those whose performance is sought to be enforced.)  The
latter a court will not in general lend  its aid to  execute, when the party sought to  be
effected was at the time a lunatic.  But on the other hand, when in good faith a party
makes a contract with a lunatic, supposing him to be of sound mind, and it is impossi-
ble  to restore the parties to their original position,  the contract cannot afterwards
be rescinded and the  purchase money or other consideration recovered back.   (See
Beavan  v. M'Donnell, 24 English Rep.  486; S. C. 9 Wels. H. & G. 310; Molton v. Cam-
roux, 2 Exch. R. 487, 4 Exch.  R. 17 ; see also cases cited, 9 Wels. H. & G. 314, n.)   See
post, §11. 
 8           MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS CONSIDERED LEGALLY.

 corresponded with his friends, and settled  his own accounts with his
 steward.  His  first  marriage  was in  1799, and took  place under his
 family's directions, with a lady several years older than himself, who it
 was understood took a general supervision of his affairs.  In the settle-
 ment made at that marriage the  father of his second wife was  one of
 the trustees.  The first wife died in November, 1813, and in February,
 1814 Lord  Portsmouth went down to London with his medical attend-
 ant  and beinn- left in his trustee's hands, a week afterwards contracted
 a second marriage to the trustee's daughter.  In 1823, not until after
 the birth of a child, which took place in 1822, a commission was issued
 to inquire into his lunacy, the result of which, after a long contest, was
 a finding that he was of unsound  mind, and had been so since January,
 1809.   The committee appointed under  this procedure immediately
 filed a petition in the Ecclesiastical court to annul the second marriage.
 Sir John Nicholl, in deciding  the  case  said,  " That  considerable
 weakness  of mind, circumvented  by  proportionate fraud, will  vitiate
 the fact of marriage, whether the fraud  is practised on  his ward
 by a  party who stands in the relation of a guardian, as in the  case
 of Harford  against  Morris, (c) which was  decided  principally on  the
 ground  of fraud; or whether it is effected by a trustee, procuring  the
 solemnization of the marriage of his  own daughter with a person of
 very weak mind, over whom  he  has acquired great  ascendency.   A
 person incapable from weakness of detecting the fraud, and of resisting
 the ascendancy practised in obtaining his consent to the contract, can
 hardly be considered as binding himself in point of law by such an act.
 At  all events, the circumstances preceding and attending the marriage
itself may materially tend to show the contracting party was of unsound
 mind, and was  so considered  and treated by the parties engaged in
fraudulently effecting the marriage.  In respect to Lord Portsmouth's
 unsoundness of mind, the case  set up is of a mixed nature, not absolute
idiocy,  but  weakness of understanding,—not continued insanity, but
 delusions and irrationality on  particular subjects.  Absolute idiocy, or
 constant insanity, would have carried with them their own security; for
in either case, the forms preceding, and the ceremony itself, could not
have been gone through without  exposure and detection; but  here a
mixture of  both, by no means  uncommon,  is set  up,—considerable
natural  weakness, growing  at  length from  being left to itself and un-
 controlled, into practices so irrational and unnatural as in some instances
to be bordering on  idiocy, and in others to  be attended with  actual
delusion—a  perversion of mind—a deranged imagination—a fancy and
belief of the existence of things which no rational being,  no person
possessed of his powers of reason  and judgment, could possibly believe
to exist.  *   *   *   It appeared  that in February, 1814, Lord  Ports-
mouth was brought to London  by his medical  attendant, and delivered
up to his trustees, Hanson being one and then in town—that day week
he was  married to  the daughter  of Mr.  Hanson.   The confidential
 solicitor of the family, one of the  trustees, who had a great ascendency
 over him, who owed  him every possible  protection, married him  to one
 of his daughters !  It is unnecessary to state  the jealousy with which
(c) 2 Hag. Cons. R. 423. 
        IMBECILITY, AND HEREIN OF FRAUD AND COMPULSION.       9

the law looks at all transactions between parties standing in these rela-
tions to each other.  The whole transaction will bear but one interpre-
tation: every part of it is the act of the Hansons!   Lord Portsmouth
is a mere instrument in their hands, to go through with the necessary
forms; the settlement  is begun in forty-eight hours after Lord Ports-
mouth's arrival in London !  The contents of that settlement; the mode
in which it was prepared; the concealment of the whole from the friends
and the other trustees who were in town, some in the same  house with
Lord Portsmouth, all these particulars bear  the same character.   The
necessary forms are  gone  through with, but in support of  these mere
forms, not a witness is produced to show that this nobleman was conduct-
ing himself as a  man understanding what he was doing, or  capable of
judging, or acting as a free and intelligent agent; nothing tending to show
he was a person of unsound mind; nothing in his conduct inconsistent
with unsoundness of mind;  every circumstance conspires to  prove that
he was the mere puppet of the Hanson family, and that the celebration of
this marriage was brought about by a conspiracy among them to circum-
vent Lord Portsmouth, over whom, they, and particularly the father, had
a complete ascendency, so as to destroy all free agency and rational con-
sent on his part to this marriage.  A marriage so had, wants the essential
ingredient to make the contract valid—the consent of a free and rational
agent.  The marriage  itself, and the  circumstances immediately con-
nected with it, do not tend to establish restored sanity; it was neither
'a  rational  act'  nor was it 'rationally done,'—the  whole  'sounds to
folly' and negatives sanity of mind.  The  Hansons, in the mode of
planning and conducting  the transaction, show that they treated and
considered Lord  Portsmouth as a person of unsound mind, and Lord
Portsmouth in submitting and acquiescing, and not resisting, confirms his
own incompetency.  Even if no actual unsoundness of mind, strictly so
called—if no insane derangement existed—if only weakness of mind—
and all admit that he was weak—yet considering the  passiveness and
timidity of his character on the one hand—the influence and relation of
Hanson, his trustee, on the other—and the clandes-tinity and other marks
of  fraud which accompanied the whole transaction—I am by no  means
prepared to  say,  that without actual derangement  in the strict sense,
the marriage would not be invalid—but in my judgment  Lord  Ports-
mouth was of unsound mind, as well as circumvented by fraud."(d)
   § 4. While, therefore, the learned judge  before whom this  case was
heard came to the conclusion that Lord Portsmouth was of " unsound
mind," the position was  broadly taken by him that weakness  alone,
when circumvented  by fraud, would be sufficient to invalidate even so
solemn a contract as marriage, and on this position his decision in part
rested.  Still more unequivocal was  the decree of the Privy Council in
dismissing an appeal from  the Court of  Chancery of the Isle  of Man,
setting aside two deeds, on the ground that the grantor in both of them
was of unsound mind at the time he  executed them, and that they were
obtained from him by fraud and undue means.  The evidence showed
that the grantor, an old man, feeble both in body and  mind, separated
from all his relations, without a friend to advise him,  and  surrounded
(d) Portsmouth v. Portsmouth, 1 Hag. Ec. R. 355. 
 10          MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS CONSIDERED LEGALLY.

 by those only who were contriving to get his fortune, conveyed away
 nearly all that he was possessed of, even the house he lived in, to persons
 not related to him, either in blood or connection: and all his estate in
 lease was to become the property of the same strangers after his death.
 The consideration of £100 was inserted for conveying away property
 worth £1400; and this was not to be paid to the grantor, but to_ his
 executor  after his death, without any interest  being charged on it in
 the  meantime.  Lord Wynford  in giving  the  opinion of the Privy
 Council said, that the law would  " not assist a  man who is capable of
 taking care of his own interests, except  in cases where he has  been
 imposed  upon  by deceit,  against which ordinary prudence could not
 protect him.  If a person of ordinary understanding, on whom no fraud
 has been practised, makes an improvident bargain, no court of justice
 can release him from  it.  Inadequacy of consideration is  not a substan-
 tial  ground for  setting aside a conveyance of  property.   But those,
 who  from imbecility of mind are incapable of taking care of themselves,
 are under the  special protection of the law.  The strongest mind can-
 not  always contend with  deceit  and falsehood;  a bargain, therefore,
into  which a weak one is drawn  under the influence of either  of these,
ought not to be  held valid, for  the law requires that  good faith should
be observed in all transactions between man and man.  If this convey-
 ance could be impeached on the ground of the imbecility of the grantor
 only, a sufficient case  has not been made  out to render it invalid; for
the imbecility  must be such as to justify the jury, under a commission
 of lunacy, in putting  his property and person under the protection of
 the Chancellor; but a degree of iveakness  of intellect far  below that
 which would justify such a proceeding, coupled with other circumstances
 to show, that the weakness, such as it was, had been taken advantage of,
 will  be sufficient to  set aside  any important deed."(e)  This same  view
 has been uniformly acted  on in the English and American courts, and
it is  expressed by Mr. Justice Story with his usual precision.(/) "The
acts  and  contracts of persons who are of weak understandings,  and who
are thereby liable to impositions, will be held void in courts of equity,
if the nature  of the  act  or contract  justify the  conclusion,  that the
party has not  exercised a deliberate judgment,  but has  been imposed
upon, circumvented or overcome by cunning or undue influence."(g)
   § 5. With even greater emphasis has  the same doctrine been an-
nounced  by courts of law in respect to wills.  Peculiarly liable as is a
dying man, even though his intellect  be of average strength, to have
his comfort destroyed, if not his purpose overturned, by those in whose
society he is placed, the policy of the law has anxiously sought for every
 safeguard by which such intrusions upon the sanctity of dissolution, as
 well  as upon the rights of families, can be deprived of motive.  " The
same memory for the  making of a will," agreed all the judges of Eng-
land at an early date, " is not at all times when the party can answer
to any thing with sense, but he ought to have judgment to discern and
to be of  perfect memory, otherwise the will is void."(A)  "He ought
to have a disposing memory," said Lord Coke,  "so that he is able to

  (e)  Blachford v. Christian, 1 Knapp's Rep. 73 ; Shelford on Lunacy, 272.
  (/) 1 Story Eq. Juris. \ 238.          (g) See  also 1 Fonbl. Eq. B. 1, ch. 2,-g 3.
  (A) Combe's case, Moore R. 759. 
                        IMPOSITION ON TESTATORS.                    11

 make a disposition of his  lands with understanding and reason ; and
 that is such a  memory as the law calls sane and perfect."(z)  While,
 therefore,  it ^ is  only  necessary  that  there should  be the  capacity of
 reasonable disposition, great jealousy has been  exercised for the cor-
 rection of  extraneous influence on the testator.   Thus wills have been
 set  aside when  they were preceded by  over-importunity of friends
 standing in confidential relations,^') where the housekeeper and physi-
 cian were  shown to have earnestly urged a non-natural scheme of dis-
 tribution ;(k) where the wife in fact dictated the will, the testator being
 at the time  unable to speak, she  pretending to  understand  him, and
 making herself the sole  devisee  for life, and imposing as a devisee  in
 remainder  a  fictitious  niece ;(l) where  one relation produced  the  disin-
 heritance of  another  by false representations as to his character ;(pi)
 where the testator was  old and  feeble, and  the  will was  made under
 the direction  and  to suit  the purposes  of  a colored woman in the
 family,(H.)  and where a husband exercised coercion.(o)  In short, when-
 ever the provisions of a will are inconsistent with  natural justice, it will
 require strong proof  of capacity and volition to  sustain it, and slight
 proof of undue influence or fraud to set it aside, (p)   Where a  presump-
 tion of imposition exists, e. g., from the fact of the  penman of the will
 taking a pecuniary benefit under  it, the courts exact "the most decisive
 proof of the complete absence of influence and excitement at the pre-
 paration and making of the asserted will,  and must  require unimpeach-
 able evidence  of unbiassed volition and  of clear capacity, and must
 expect it to be shown by instructions coming from the deceased him-
 self."^)  To authorize a will in  favor  of a wife, however, to be  set
 aside, the influence alleged to have been exerted must be shown to have
 reached  coercion,  destroying  the  husband's  free agency,(r)  or  fraud
 itself must be  proved.(s)   In ordinary cases also, it will not be enough
   (i) Marquis of Winchester's case, 6 Rep. 24; 2 Buls. 211. The same point is put with
 still  greater simplicity by Judge Washington:  "Had he a disposing memory—was  he
 capable of recollecting the property he was about to bequeath—the manner of distribut-
 ing it and the objects of his bounty."   (Stevens v. Vanclerc, 4 W. C. C. R. 262.)  Proof,
 however, of intellect having been impaired by disease, or of intellectual feebleness alone,
 will not avail by itself to defeat a will, when adequate capacity remains.  Sloan v. Max-
 well, 2 Green. Ch. 563; Andrews v. Weller, ibid. 604; Dunick v. Reichenback, 10 S. &
 R. 84.  The cases will be found enumerated in 1 Powell on Devises, 127; Shelford on
 Lunacy, 275-6 ; 4 Kent's Com. 566 ; 1 Jarman on Wills, 28.   See also Converse v. Con-
 verse, 21 Vt. 168; Home v. Home, 9 Ired. 99; Harrison v. Rowan, 3 W. C. C. R. 580;
 Grabil v. Barr, 5 Barr, 441; Denn v. Johnson, 2 South. 454; Kinne v. Kinne, 9 Conn.
 102 ; Ford v. Ford, 7 Humph. 92 ;  Howard v. Coke, 7 B. Monr. 655; Blanchard v. Nestle,
 3 Denio, 37 ; Modern Probate of Wills, 91.   In Scotland an arbitrary test is applied, it
 being there provided that no settlement or gift executed after the commencement of the
 disease of which a person dies, except those in the ordinary administration of the estate,
 shall be valid. If the testator survives sixty days afterwards, or has been to market un-
 supported, the will is validated.  Bell's Diet. " Death Bed."
  (/) Hacker v. Newborn, Style, 427.            (k) Hz parte Fearon, 5 Ves. 633.
  (I) Scribner v. Crane, 2 Paige C. C. R. 147.
  (m) Dietrick v. Dietrick, 5 S. &  R. 207; Nussear v. Arnold, 13  S. & R. 323; Patterson
v. Patterson, 6 S. & R. 55.
   n) Denton v. Franklin, 9 B. Monr. 28.     (o) Marsh v. Tyrel, 2 Hag. Ec. 84, 141.
   p) Brydges v. King, 1 Hag. Ec. R. 256; Goble v. Grant, 1 Green C. R. 629; Baker v.
Lewis, 4 Rawle, 356.
  {q) Dodge v. Meech, 1 Hag. E. R. 620; Barry v. Butlin, 1 Curtis, 637; see 2  Jarman on
Wills, (Am. ed.) 421.
  (r) Clarke v. Sawyer, 3 Sanf. Ch. R. 351; Gardiner v. Gardiner, 22 Wend. 526.
  («) Scribner v. Crane, 2 Paige C. R. 147.
 
 12          MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS CONSIDERED LEGALLY.

 to prove  mere influence, without proof  of  fraud or contrivance,^) or
 such coercion as destroys free agency.(u)   " Honest intercession and
 persuasion," " and fair and flattering  speeches," though abundantly
 proved to have been used, do not affect  the instrument's validity.(w)
 The fact of the paper being entirely in a party's handwriting gives a
 strong presumption of sanity, which is not effaced by proof of generally
 impaired intellect,  nor by the fact,  that when the paper is a will, in it
 omissions of property exist.(w)  The same presumption  exists when the
 testator has a distinct recollection, at the time of the execution of the
 will, of the terms he directed at the time it was prepared.(a;)
   § 6. It is obvious, therefore, that no fixed minimum  of capacity can
 be determined upon, which will  be necessary to sustain a contract or
 will.  While, on the one  hand, it  is clear that a madman or a drunkard,
 during the prevalence of the insane or drunken delusion is totally in-
 competent for such a purpose, it is equally clear  that perso* whose
intellects are abundantly strong  enough  to  create  an entire responsi-
bility for their acts in a  criminal court,(?/) will yet be held incompetent
to pass away their  property, when it appears undue influence or fraud
has been used upon them to produce an unjust result.
   § 7. The existence of idiocy, when that alone is set up, can be deter-
mined by comparatively simple tests.  If the pretended idiot  can be
 shown to  have  intelligently performed  acts of business  during the
period in which idiocy is claimed to exist, the allegation  of incompe-
tency falls, unless fraud or constraint be shown.   Thus  in a case deter-
mined in  Doctors'  Commons in  March, 1852,(2) Dr. Lushington  said,
 "Before entering  upon this  branch of the case, I must bear in mind
what the nature of the case set up in opposition to the will is.   I  must
repeat that it is  not lunacy—it is not monomania—it is  not any species
of mental disorder, the symptoms of which it may, at periods, be diffi-
cult  to detect; but the  case presented is that of idiocy or imbecility,
the characteristic of which is permanence, with little or  no variation,
though often, in case of idiots, it  does sometimes happen that there will
be a greater degree of excitement demonstrated than at other periods.
How is such a case to be met ?  I apprehend, to meet  it and  to show
that such a_ state of things did not exist at any given period, proofs of
acts of business are most important evidence.  Many acts of business
could possibly be done by a lunatic, and  the lunacy not detected; but
it  is scarcely possible to predicate  the same of  an idiot or lunatic, or
an imbecile person.  I  shall look,  therefore, in  the first  instance, to
the acts of business.  It  is proved  by Mr. Falkner, that the deceased
kept an account with Messrs. Tuckwell, at Bath, for four years,  from
 1818 to 1821, and during all that period, occasionally drew drafts, and
 all those drafts were paid to himself over the counter.   According to

  (0 Lowe v. Williamson, 1 Green C. R.  82; Blanchard v. Nestle, 3 Denio, 37; 1 Jarman
 on Wills, (2d Am. ed.) 36; 1 Williamson on Exs. (2d Am. ed.) 37.
  (u) Brown v. Mollison, 3 Wh. 129; Potts v. House, 6 Georg. 324; Woodward v. James
 3 Strob. 552; see 1 Jarman on Wills, (2d Am. ed.) 36.
  (v) 1 Jarman on Wills, (2d Am. ed.) 37.
  (to) M'Daniel's Will, 2 J. J. Marsh, 331; Fullock v. Allison, 3 Hag. 527.
  (x) Hathorn v. Emg, 8 Mass. 371.
  \y) See M'Taggart v.  Thompson, 2 Harris, 149.
  (z) Bannatyne v. Bannatyne, 16 Jur. 864, 14 English R. 581. 
COMPETENCY TO MAKE WILLS OR CONTRACTS.
13
the evidence, the deceased came himself to the counter, and there is no
proof of any one accompanying  him on such  occasions; he asked  for
the sum  he wanted;  the clerk filled it in, he signed  it, and took the
money.  Surely no idiot could have done this, for he must have exer-
cised thought to go to the bank, memory and judgment  as to the thing
required; and  moreover, his conduct and demeanor could not at such
times have been as described by the witnesses against the will, or, from
the glaring colors in which his imbecility is'depicted, it must have been
discovered,  and the business never could have been transacted  at all.
   *  *  *  I  consider these transactions, then, of first rate importance
towards solving all the difficulties of this case; for here,  after the lapse
of about thirty years, the court has the advantage of facts proved, with
the  dates duly affixed to them.   There is, I must say, not the least
evidence to show that in  any one of these  acts of  business the  de-
ceased was assisted  by any person whatever, the presumption  is the
other way;  and to put these acts upon the very lowest  basis on which
they can be placed,  they do utterly disprove  idiocy or imbecility.  I
will simply repeat what I  have already indeed  said, that  those who
are  afflicted with  lunacy, sometimes have the management  of, and can
manage, their pecuniary affairs—an idiot, never."
   § 8. It should be kept in mind, that the question  of competency is
intimately affected by the character of the act or instrument Avhich it
is sought to annul. A reasonable marriage, such as that of Lord  Ports-
mouth to his first wife, entered upon under the  advice of  his  family, and
to a person every way competent to secure his position and his charac-
ter from disgrace or injury, may be sustained; while an unsuitable one,
to a woman of  light character, will be set aside, when it appears that
it was  influenced by overpowering  authority or trickery.   A will,
making a just  distribution of an estate, will be held per se strong evi-
dence of disposing capacity, while one turning the testator's property
into an unnatural channel, gives at least some presumption to the con-
trary, (a)   This is broadly stated by Sir John Nicholl  in a  recent
case,(b) where  he declares, that where a will is traced into  the  hands
of a testator whose sanity is fairly impeached, but of whose sanity or
insanity at  the time of doing or  performing some act with relation to
the will, there is no direct evidence, the agent is to be inferred rational,
or the contrary, from the character of the act.(c)
   §  9. In all cases except those when the act sought to  be annulled
was committed during actual insanity, the question  is not whether the
party had a capacity  to do the particular thing intelligently, but whe-
ther he had capacity and information enough to comprehend and dis-
regard any attempt which may have  been made to coerce or deceive
him.   Precedents and  authority on this branch of  law, consequently,
must stand by themselves,  and cannot be considered as applying  to the
more important part of the present chapter, where this  subject of res-
ponsibility for criminal offences is considered.

  (a) Stewart  v. Lispenard, 26 Wend. 255; Means v. Means, 5 Strobh. 167; Roberts v.
Trawick, 13 Alab. 68; Couch v. Couch,  7 Alab. 519; Bannatyne v. Bannatyne, 16 Jur.
864, 14 English Rep. 581.
   b) Scruby v. Fordham,  1 Addams, 90.
   c) See generally 1 Jarman on Wills, (2 Am. Ed.) 69.
 
14           MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS CONSIDERED LEGALLY.

  Mr. Shelford's views in this point are worthy of grave consideration.
"One person," he  says, "seeing a testator in extreme age, or under
extreme sickness, thinks  that if he knows those about him, and  can
answer an ordinary question with respect to the state of his illness, or
his wants, such and similar matters render him capable  of giving effect
to a  disposition  by will, however complicated it may be, by the mere
formal  execution of the instrument; while another person may be of
opinion, that  though a testator, in the  ordinary management of his
affairs, can hold reasonable conversation,  can  fully comprehend all the
usual and  simple transactions of life, yet, if  he is unable to take  the
active management  of all his concerns, however involved those concerns
may be, or if  he is  liable to become confused by entering into intricate
transactions, he is totally  incapable, and cannot enter into a testamen-
tary  disposition, however  plain and simple it may be.   Now, when
opinions are formed  by such  opposite  standards, it is obvious much
contrariety will occur.  Sir John  Nicholl observed  that experience in
the Ecclesiastical Court teaches us, that evidence  upon questions of
capacity is almost always  contradictory, such evidence being commonly
that  of opinion merely; and this contrariety proceeds from the obvious
grounds, that of the witnesses, no two, possibly, have  seen the party
whose estate is deposed to, at  precisely the same circumstances;  and
that  each, again, of the several witnesses, no matter  how numerous,
measures, possibly,  testamentary capacity by his own particular stand-
ard.   These  sources of discrepancy, and  many more might be enume-
rated, are common to all cases of this description.   There is an addi-
tional source, when the transaction of which they have  to  speak is
remote, a circumstance sufficient in itself to account for no  inconsider-
able  degree of contrariety of evidence, even where the  witnesses have
to speak of facts merely, and not of opinions formed  and inferences
built upon facts, of which most of the evidence furnished upon questions
of capacity is commonly made  up.   If  the Court, therefore,  on ques-
tions  of capacity, is accustomed  to rely but little  upon such evidence,
so far as it is that of  mere opinion, but  to form its own  judgment from
the facts and the conduct of the  parties  at the time, it becomes it to do
so, more peculiarly when  much of the evidence not  merely consists of
opinions delivered long subsequently to  the  transactions which they
profess to have suggested them, upon loose recollections, too, and after
repeated discussions of the subject matter with interested parties."(d)
  § 10. The lowest test of capacity was  applied in a very much  con-
tested case  in New York, which is  cited  at  large by  Dr.  Beck, and
which excited great interest from the immense property at stake, and
the respectability of the parties.   It was there ruled,—and for the facts
it is not necessary to do more than refer to the pages of the report, or
to Dr. Beck's excellent summary,—that  where a female had been always
under the  control  of her  friends,  had  never attempted  to  transact
business, and  manifested intellect and  understanding   only to a very
low degree, a will executed by her in favor of a relative  with whom  she
had spent the latter portion of her life, which was in accordance with in-
tentions previously expressed by her, which was reasonable in itself, and
(d) Shelford on Lunacy, 277-8. 
            WHAT CONSTITUTES TESTAMENTARY CAPACITY.           15

the object of which she understood, was valid, though it did not appear
that she had given  previous  instruction for the  draft  of the will.(e)
The authority of the case, it  is true, is greatly weakened  by the fact
that it was decided by a vote of 12 to 6 of the Court of Errors of New
York, which, under the  constitution then in force, was  the Senate of
the  State, and  being chiefly a lay court, never possessed high  profes-
sional authority, and which  in the present instance reversed a decision
to the contrary of the late very able Chancellor.  Without regarding this
case, therefore, as of great weight, so far as the authority of the senators
who concurred  with  the majority are concerned, it  may  nevertheless
be  cited as a powerful illustration of the reluctance felt  in  both  the
professional  and  popular mind to overturn a will which in itself is in
accordance with common sense and proper feeling.
   § 11.  LTpon similar principles the  contracts of a person claimed to
be imbecile or lunatic, are to be tested. An  important distinction, how-
ever, is  to be noticed in this respect.   While on  the one  hand the
courts will not lend their aid to execute  or carry into effect a contract
entered into by an incapable person, unless, perhaps, for necessaries,(/)
where the fact of incapacity was known to the creditor; yet such is not
the  law when the incapacity was unknown, and no advantage has been
taken, particularly when the contract has  been in  part  executed.^)
" Where a person," says Pollock,  C. B.,(A) " apparently of sound mind,
and not  known to be otherwise, enters into a contract for the purchase
of property which is fair and bona fide, and  which is executed and com-
pleted, and the property, the subject  matter of the contract, has been
paid for and fully enjoyed, and cannot be destroyed, so as to put the
parties in statu quo,  such contract cannot afterwards be set aside, either
by the alleged lunatic, or those who represent him."(i)  It is true that
the  leaning of American authority was for some time towards the posi-
tion that the contracts of a lunatic,  executed or unexecuted, were per se
void, unless for necessaries  ;(j) but more  recently the justice of the  ex-
ceptions already noticed have been recognized.(k)   Nothing, however,
but a strong case of fairness, innocence,  and fullness of consideration,
can validate a deed when the grantor is insane.(I)
   § 12.  Testamentary incapacity does not  necessarily presuppose the
existence of insanity, in its  technical sense.  Weakness of intellect from
extreme old age,  whether arising  from great bodily infirmity, or from
intemperance, when it disqualifies the testator from  knowing or appre-
ciating the nature, effect, or consequences of  the act he is engaged in,
works a similar disability.(m)   Great caution, indeed, should be used,

  (e) See 2 Beck's Med. Jur. 828, &c.; Stewart v. Lispenard, 26 Wend. 255.
  (/) Chitty on Contracts, 112 ; Story on Contracts, \ 27; Addison on Contracts, 873.
  (ff) Molton v. Camroux, 4 Exch.  17 ; S. C. 2 Exch. R. 49.  See ante \ 2.
  (h) 2 Exch. 503.  '
  (i) See also Beavan v. M'Dowell, 24 English R. 486; 9 Wells, H. and G. 309.
  (/) La Rue v. Giltyson, 4 Barr,  375 ; Mitchell v. Kingman, 5 Pick. 431; Rice v. Peet,
13 Johns. 543; Grant v. Thompson, 4 Connect. 103;  Long v. Whidden, 2 N.  H. 435;
Fitzgerald v. Reed, 9  Sm. & Mar.;  Ccaver v. Phelps, 11 Pick. 304.
  (Jc) Beals v. See, 10 Barr, 56.
  (Z) Dcsilver's Est. 5 Rawle, 11;  Bonsall v. Chancellor, 5 Wharton R. 37.
  (m) Leech v. Leech, 11 Penn. Law J. 177. See in this connection Dr. Day's "Practical
Treatise on the Domestic Management of the Most  Important Diseases of Advanced
Life." T. & W. Boome, London.  1849. 
16    MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS CONSIDERED IN REFERENCE TO WILLS.

lest the existence of extreme old age should lead the medical witness to
presume consequent imbecility.  Against such a sequence the policy of
the law and the interest of humanity unite in protesting.   " It is one of
the painful consequences  of  extreme old age," very beautifully said
Chancellor Kent, in one of his earlier judgments, " that  it ceases to ex-
cite interest, and is apt to  be left solitary and neglected.  The control
which the law still gives to a man over the disposal of his property, is
one of the most efficient means which he has in  protracted life to com-
mand the attention due his infirmities.  The will of such an aged man
ought to be regarded with great tenderness, when it appears not to have
been procured by fraudulent acts, but contains  those very dispositions
which the circumstances of his situation and the course  of the natural
affections dictated, "(w)
  In  harmony with these views,  wills have  been sustained  when  the
testator  was eighty years of age,  very  deaf, and partially blind ;(o)
where he was of the same age, and was afflicted  with a palsy, so that he
could neither write nor feed himself ;(p) and when he was between ninety
and a hundred, and greatly debilitated, (q)   It is true that when in
old age the testator is shown to have been imposed upon  or coerced, the
will will be set aside; but this rather tends to strengthen than  invade
the sanctity of the testamentary privilege, (r)
  The same view is to  be taken of the bodily infirmities  peculiar to old
age.  If they produce mental debility, of course, they  work incapacity.
But their mere existence will not be  sufficient to  produce this  result.
As long as can be done so  consistent  with public justice, the  policy of
the law requires that the protection to old age, afforded by the right of
testamentary disposal,  should continue unimpaired; and  it is permitted
to cease only when actual wrong would be done  to third parties  by its
continuance, or where, by exposing the possessor to undue solicitation
or to imposition, it  proves an annoyance rather than  an advantage.
Nor is this rule  without its foundation in the results of observation.
The truth that the mind is not necessarily affected by  bodily infirmity,
is illustrated by numerous  cases, one of the  most striking of which is
that of Dugald Stewart, who when unable from  disease to take general
exercise, to use his right hand, or  to articulate  distinctly, composed
the third and fourth volumes of his Philosophy of the Human Mind.
  § 13.  While a person blind, or deaf and dumb, is fully competent to
make a will, the burden is  upon the party setting the  will up to prove
that the testator knew the contents  of the  will, and was not imposed
upon.(s)  It has been questioned whether a person who was both blind
and deaf and dumb, is  competent to  execute  any instrument requiring
consideration,^) though in a late South  Carolina case  the possibility
of a contrary view seems to be intimated.(u)  And however wisely such
may have been held to be the law at a time when to be deaf, dumb, and
blind was equivalent to being utterly deprived of the  avenues of per-
ception, such can hardly be considered to be  the case now, when to that

  (n) Van Alst, v. Hunter, 5 John. Ch. 148.
  (o) Lowe v. Williamson, 1 Green Ch. 82.      (p) Reed's Will, 2 B. Monr. 79.
  (?) Van Alst, v. Hunter, 5 Johns. Ch. 148.     (r) 1 Jarm. on Wills, (2d Am. Ed ) 53
  (s) 1 Jarman on Wills, (2d Am. Ed.) 48.      (t) Ibid.
  («) Reynolds v. Reynolds,  1 Spear, 75C-7. 
HOW FAR PARTIAL INSANITY DESTROYS CAPACITY.        17
unfortunate class a method of communication has been  opened which
may fit them to sustain and appreciate the relations of society.


                       2nd.  Partial Insanity.

  § 14. It was for a long time the law in England, and remains so still
in most of the American States, that proof of the existence of partial
insanity is insufficient to defeat a will, unless the will be its direct  off-
spring : provided that, at the time of making the will, the testator be
sane in other respects upon ordinary subjects.(v)  " It appears to me,"
says Mr. Justice Sergeant, in delivering an  opinion of the Supreme
Court of Pennsylvania  in 1839,(w) "that the only question in such a
case is, whether the person was  of sound memory and discretion, con-
sidering the act done in all its bearings, and judging of  the soundness
of the mind of the supposed testator by his conduct and declarations at
the time, and as connected with his  previous insanity, and the degree
of restoration of mind in the interval;  and that if the  erroneous  and
groundless impressions, received during the time of his  delirium, shall
retain their hold, (whether by some  physical derangement  of the brain,
or by some indelible stamp on the thinking faculties,) that person must
be considered still under a delusion—the effect continues, and it is only
by effects we can judge of the existence of the exciting cause—and if he
is under a delusion, though there be but a partial insanity, yet if it be
in relation to the act in question, it is well settled it will  invalidate con-
tracts generally, and defeat a will which is the direct offspring of  this
partial insanity."
  The converse of this  result, depending, however, on the same princi-
ple,  is illustrated by a case decided by Judge King, in Philadelphia, in
1851, remarkable  as being the last judgment of that eminent and clear-
headed judge, who was  then closing a judicial  career of twenty-seven
years' duration.   "A monomaniacal delusion," he said, "inveterately
entertained by a testator against one who would  otherwise have been
the natural object of his bounty, and shown to be the reason which has
excluded him from it, and to have had no other existence except in the
distempered imagination of the  testator, would  invalidate a will made
under such influence.   And for the very plain reason that a will made
under the suggestion of such an insane delusion, is not what the law re-
quires a will to be, the product  of a mind capable of reasoning rightly.
For although the  law recognizes  the difference between  general  and
partial insanity, yet if  the will has  been made  under the  influence of
such partial insanity, and as the product of it, it is as invalid as if made
under the effects of an insanity never so general.  Eccentricities of con-
duct, absurd opinions, or belief in things appearing to us  extravagant,
although they may be and are evidences of testamentary incapacity, do
not constitute it necessarily and in themselves.  A man may believe
in witches and witchcraft, as it seems this testator did, or  like him he
may have believed his  health to have  been permanently affected  by

  (v) Shelford, Lunacy, 41, 296; 1  Jarm. on Wills, (2d Am. Ed.) 58.
  (w) Boyd v. Eby, 8 W. 70.
       2 
18   MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS CONSIDERED IN REFERENCE TO WILLS.

slow poisons surreptitiously administered to him, and yet be competent
to make a will, where such will is  not shown to have some connection
with such absurd opinions or extravagant belief, and where the mind is
shown to be in other respects sound  and  vigorous, and the judgment
intelligent and clear.  This testator was upwards of eighty-three years
old when he  died, and consequently received his early impressions when
the belief in witches and witchcraft still lingered among  persons of a
much higher social position, and of much better education than himself.
Colonial America either inherited  from the mother country, or received
from the emigration of continental Europe, this absurd notion.   Penn-
sylvania did not so far escape the  general contagion as to make it very
surprising  that a man in the condition of life occupied  by the tes-
tator,  born  before  the  American Revolution,  should  have partici-
pated in it."(a;)
   § 15.  The English rule was for a long time  considered settled on
the same basis,  and was  set forth Avith great fullness by the  Prero-
gative Court, during Sir J. Nicholl's presidency.^)  The question there
was as to the  testamentary capacity of a gentleman named Stott, an
eminent electrician, who had an only child, against whom he had, with-
out cause, imbibed an uncontrollable disgust and  aversion,  which mani-
fested itself in acts of great cruelty and oppression,  and ultimately in a
will by which she was cut off in favor  of collateral relations.   Sir J.
Nicholl pronounced against the will, saying, " The deceased's state of
mind  at the time of making his will, is intimately, I think, connected
with his state of mind on the subject matter of his will—understanding
by this, the disposal, by will, of his property.  If the deceased were at
all times of  unsound mind  on the  subject  matter of his will, he must
have been of unsound mind at the  time  of making his will.  To suppose
the contrary would be to suppose the deceased both sane and insane at
the same time and on the  same subject;  a  supposition, I apprehend,
equally absurd in a legal  and moral point of view.  And, subject to
these  considerations, the question in the end to be determined, the point
at final issue is,—not whether the  deceased's insanity in  certain other
particulars, as proved by the daughter,  should have the effect of defeat-
ing a will, generally, of the deceased, or even  this  identical will—but
it  is, whether his  insanity, on the subject of his daughter, as, also proved
by the daughter,  should have the effect of  defeating, not  so much any
will, (a will, generally,) of the deceased, as this identical will—and to
the decision of that question I am  to be understood as solely addressing
myself in the following observations :
   "Now the daughter being in this case the sole next of kin, the de-
ceased's only child, it is quite impossible, I think, to  disconnect the
daughter from  the subject matter of his will, that is of his property__
they are subjects, in effect, identified.   Hence  the deceased's  insanity
on the subject of his daughter, generally speaking, being proved  at  all
times, in my judgment, it follows that his insanity, at the time of mak-
ing his will, is also proved, in my judgment—unless the contrary is to
be inferred from the will itself.   But the inference furnished by the

  (x) Leech v. Leech, 11 Pa. L. J. 179.
  (y) Dew v. Clark, 1 Addams, 279; 2 Ibid. 102; 3 Ibid. 79. 
HOW FAR PARTIAL INSANITY INCAPACITATES.           19
will itself, (and it is for this only that I refer to the disposative  part—
to the contents of the will  at  all,) is quite the other way.   For  the
prominent feature of the deceased's insanity, in respect to the daughter,
was aversion or antipathy to the daughter, so pleaded and so proved;
and the will is a will plainly inofficious, so far as regards the daughter,
being a will  by which she is, in effect, disinherited—disinherited, too,
in favor of parties nearly utter strangers to the deceased, (for so it ap-
pears,) though not remotely connected with  him by blood,  being his
sister's children.   Therefore it follows that,  in my judgment, the de-
ceased is proved, upon the  whole matter, to  have  been insane at the
time of his making this will: which was the daughter's case.   *  *   *
Had the contents of the will furnished a contrary inference—had the
will, so far as respects the daughter, been in all parts of it, an officious
will, the conclusion on this  head, and so upon the whole case, might
have been different; the very contents of the  will  would in that case
have inferred that however partially insane (insane on  the subject of
his daughter,) the deceased  might have been, generally  speaking, still,
that such partial insanity was not in actual operation at the time of his
making the  will,  in which respect the will  might have  been  valid.
*   *  *   It has been said  repeatedly by the counsel for the residuary
legatees, that this ' partial insanity' is a something unknown to the
law of England.   Now if it be meant by this, that the law of England
never deems  a person both sane and insane at one and the same time,
upon one and the same subject, the assertion is a mere truism, (as well,
indeed, in reason as in law,) and as such is incapable of being effectively
opposed.  At the same time, as no such sort of partial  insanity is set
up by the daughter, the case of partial insanity which  she has  really
undertaken to sustain, is at no risk from the truth  of that position, so
understood, being conceded.  But if,  by that position, it be meant, and
intended, that the law of England never deems a party both sane and
insane at different times, upon the same subject; and both sane and in-
sane at the same time upon different  subjects—(the most usual  sense,
this last, of the phrase 'partial insanity,' and the one in which I take
it to have been used throughout, by the counsel for the next  of kin,)
there can scarcely be a position more destitute of legal foundation;  or
rather, there can scarcely be one more adverse to the streams and current
of legal authority." The learned judge sustained himself by the authority
of Locke, who says,  " A man who is very sober, and of a right under-
standing in all  other things, may in one particular,  be as frantic as any
man in Bedlam;" and of Lord Hale, who expressly declares " there is
a partial insanity of mind, and a total insanity.  The former is  either
in respect to things, [quoad hoc, vel quoad illud insanire—some persons,
that have a competent use of reason in respect to  some subjects, are
yet under a particular dementia in respect of some particular discourses,
subjects, or applications], or else it is partial in respect of degrees ; and
this  is the condition  with very many, especially melancholy persons,
who, for  the most part, discover their defect in excessive fears and grief,
and yet are not wholly destitute of the use of reason."
  § 16. It is true, that when in the same case a bill of review was ap-
plied for to Lord Chancellor Lyndhurst, he limited with evident caution
his approval of the judgment of Sir J. Nicholl in such a way as to re- 
20   MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS CONSIDERED IN REFERENCE TO WILLS.

serve the question of partial insanity as above stated.   "I  have read
his judgment," he says,(2) "with great attention; and I collect from it
that his meaning is this: that there must be  unsoundness of  mmd to
invalidate a will,  but that the unsoundness may be evidenced in refer-
ence to one or  more subjects.  All that the  learned judge meant to
convey was, that it was no objection to the imputation of unsoundness,
that it manifested itself only or principally with  reference to one par-
ticular question, or one particular person."
  § 17. But in 1848, in a very remarkable case before the Privy Council,
an opinion was  delivered, without dissent, by Lord Brougham, as the
judgment of himself, Lord Langdale, Dr. Lushington, and Mr. T. Pem-
berton Leigh,  in which the notion  of partial insanity on one  point as
consistent with testamentary capacity, was explicitly repudiated.(a)  It
is true that the case was one  in which the same result could have been
reached even  on Sir J. Nicholl's  reasoning.   The testatrix, who was
advanced  in years, was excessively penurious and eccentric, was ex-
tremely irritable, wrangled with her servants to an excess, at times in-
dulged  in  very obscene conversation,  believed herself the object of
various amorous enterprises, and among others from Lord Melbourne,
and Lord J. Russel, who she  believed prowled about the house  as fish-
women.  All this, and more,  on Sir J. Nicholl's hypothesis, might have
been consistent with a testamentary capacity.   But in addition to this,
it was shown that the testatrix had  an insane delusion that her brother,
whom she disinherited, had joined the  Catholics, to whom  she  had an
aversion, and haunted her house, also in disguise.   Certainly, even on
the theory of partial insanity, this, coupled as it was Avith an inquisition
of lunacy, would have been enough to have vacated the will. But Lord
Brougham,  in  delivering the judgment of the Privy Council, went
further.   "The question being," he said,  "whether the will was duly
made by  a person of sound  mind or  not, our inquiry, of course, is,
whether or not the  party possessed his faculties, and possessed them in
a healthful state.   His mental powers  may  be still subsisting, no dis-
ease may have taken them away, and yet they may have been  affected
with disease, and thus may not have entitled their possessor to  the ap-
pellation of a person whose mind was sound.
  " Again, the disease  affecting  them may  have  been more or less
general; it may have extended over a greater or a less portion  of the
understanding, or rather, we ought to say, that it may have  affected
more, or it may have affected fewer of the  mental  faculties.   For  we
must keep always in view that which  the inaccuracy of ordinary lan-
guage  inclines us to forget, that the mind is one and indivisible ; that
when we  speak of its different powers or  faculties,  as  memory, con-
sciousness, we speak metaphorically, likening  the mind to the  body, as
if it had members or compartments, whereas, in  all  accuracy of speech,
we mean to speak of the mind acting variously, that  is, remembering,
fancying, reflecting, the  same mind in  all these operations being the
agent.  We therefore cannot in any correctness of language  speak of
general or partial insanity; but we may most accurately speak of the
mind exerting itself in consciousness without cloud or imperfection ; but
(z) 5 Russ. Ch. Cases, 163.      (a) Waring v. Waring, 6 Moore P. C. Cases, 349. 
HOW FAR PARTIAL INSANITY INCAPACITATES.
21
being morbid when it fancies;  and so its  owner may have a diseased
imagination, or the imagination may not be diseased, and  yet the  me-
mory may be impaired,  and the owner be said to have lost his memory.
In these cases we do not mean  that the mind has one faculty, as con-
sciousness, sound;  while another,  as memory or imagination is  dis-
eased ; but that the mind is sound when reflecting on its own operations,
and  diseased when exercising  the  combination  termed imaginary, or
casting the retrospect, called recollecting.
   " This view  of  the subject,  though apparently simple, and almost
too unquestionable to require, or even to justify a formal statement, is
of considerable importance when we come to examine cases of what are
called, incorrectly,  'partial insanity,' which would be better described
by the  phrase  'insanity,'  or 'unsoundness,'  always  existing, though
only occasionally manifest.
   " Nothing  is more certain than  the existence of mental disease of
this description.  Nay,  by far the greater number of morbid cases be-
long  to this  class.   They  have acquired a name;—the disease called
familiarly, as well as by physicians, 'Monomania,' on the supposition of
its being confined, which it rarely is, to a single faculty or exercise of the
mind: a person shall  be of sound mind, to all appearance, upon all sub-
jects save one or two, and on these he shall be subject to delusions,—mis-
taking  for realities the suggestions of his imagination.   The disease
here  is said to be  in the  imagination;  that  is, the patient's mind is
morbid or unsound when it imagines; healthy and  sound when it  re-
members.  Nay, he may be of  unsound mind when  his  imagination is
employed on some subjects, in making some combinations, and sound
when making others, or making one single  kind  of combination.  Thus
he may not believe all his fancies to be realities, but only  some or one.
Of such a person we usually predicate that he is of unsound mind only
upon certain points.   I  have qualified the proposition thus on purpose;
because if the being or  essence which we term the mind is unsound on
one subject, provided that unsoundness is at all  times existing on that
subject, it is quite erroneous to suppose such a mind really  sound on
other subjects.   It is only sound in appearance; for if the subject of
the delusion be presented to it, the unsoundness which is manifested by
believing in the suggestions of fancy, as if they were realities, would
break out; consequently, it is absurd to speak of this as a really sound
mind (a mind sound when the subject of the delusion is not presented),
as it would be to say that a person had not the gout, because, his atten-
tion  being diverted from the pain by some more powerful sensation by
]j|hich the person was affected, he, for the  moment, was unconscious of
his visitation.  It folloAvs, from hence, that no confidence can be placed
in the acts, or  in any act, of a diseased mind, however apparently ra-
tional that act may be, appear to  be,  or may in reality be.   The act in
question may be exactly  such as  a  person  without  mental infirmity
might well do.   But there is  this difference between  the  two cases:
the person uniformly and ahvays  of sound mind could not, at  the mo-
ment of the act done, be the prey of morbid delusion, Avhatever subject
was presented to his mind; Avhereas, the  person  called partially insane,
—that  is to  say, sometimes appearing to  be of sound, and sometimes
of unsound mind, would inevitably show his subjection to the disease 
22    MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS CONSIDERED IN REFERENCE TO WILLS.

the instant  the  topic was suggested.   Therefore, we can, with perfect
confidence, rely  on the act done by the former, because Ave are sure
that no lurking insanity, no particular, or partial, or occasional  delu-
sion does mingle itself with the person's act, and materially affect it.
But we never can rely on the act, hoA\Tever rational in appearance, done
by the latter, because we  have no security that the lurking delusion,
the real unsoundness does  not mingle  itself with, or occasion the act.
We are wrong in speaking of partial  unsoundness; we are less incor-
rect in speaking of occasional unsoundness:  Aye should  say that the
unsoundness always exists, but it requires a reference to the peculiar
topic, else it lurks and appears not.   But  the malady is there, and as
the mind is  one and the  same, it is really diseased, while apparently
sound;  and  really its acts, whatever appearance they may put on, are
only the acts of  a  morbid or unsound mind.  Unless this reasoning be
well founded, we  cannot  account for  the  unanimity with Avhich men
have always agreed in regarding as the acts of an insane mind those
acts, to all appearance rational, which a person does who labors under
delusions of  a plainly extravagant nature,  though there is nothing in
the act done, and  nothing  in  the conduct of the party while doing it,
at all connected  with the morbid  fancies.   If these fancies only affect
the party noAV and then;  if for some months he  is free from them,—
laboring under them  at other times, then  his acts apparently rational
would not be regarded as those of a person mentally diseased.  But  if
we Avere convinced that at the time of  doing the acts the delusion con-
tinued, and  was  only latent by reason of  the mind not  having  been
pointed to its subject, and  would have instantly shown itself had that
subject been presented, then the act is at once regarded as that  of a
madman.  Thus there have been many cases of persons laboring under
the delusion that they were other than themselves; have believed them-
selves deceased  emperors  or conquerors; others,  supernatural beings.
Suppose one, who  believed himself the Emperor of Germany, and, on
all other subjects, was apparently of sound mind, did any act requiring
mind, memory,  and understanding.   Suppose  he made his will, and
either did  not sign it (before signing was required), or, if he did, signed
it with his own name; but  suppose we were quite convinced that, had
any one spoken on the German diet, or proceeded to abuse the German
Emperor, the testator's delusion would at  once break  forth, then we
must at once pronounce the will void, but  as officious and as rational,
in every respect, as any deposition of property could be ; of course, no
one could  propound such a will  Avith any hopes of probate, if it  hap-
pened that Avhile making it the delusion had broken out, even although
the instrument bore no marks of its existence at the time of its concoc-
tion, it must always be a question of evidence, on the  whole facts and
circumstances of the case, whether or not the morbid delusion existed at
the time of  the  factum; that is, whether, had the subject of it  been
presented, the chord been struck, there Avould have arisen the insane
discord which is  absent, to all outAvard  appearance, from the chord not
having been struck.   The principles which have been laid down do not
at all differ  from  those on which the  courts have acted, which text
writers have construed, and which scientific  men, both moralists and
physicians, have  approved.   In the well known case of Dew v. Clark, 
HOW FAR PARTIAL INSANITY INCAPACITATES.
23
reported 3 Addams, 97, but also reported, with the great advantage of
the learned Judge's corrections, and published separately by Dr. Hag-
gard, we find Sir John Nicholl stating that mere eccentricity is not
enough to constitute mental  unsoundness, nor great caprice, nor vio-
lence of temper, but  that there must be an aberration of reason; and
he adopts a definition of delusion  given by the learned counsel in the
cause (now a member of this court), deeming  it well described  by the
expression that  "it is a belief of facts which no rational person would
have  believed."  Perhaps, in a strictly logical  view, this definition is
liable to one exception, or, at least, exposed to one criticism, namely:
that it gives  a consequence for a definition; and it may be more strictly
accurate to term "delusion" the belief of things as realities which exist
only in the imagination of the patient.  The frame or state of mind
which indicates his incapacity to struggle  against such an erroneous
belief, constitutes an unsound mind.   Sir John Nicholl  justly  adds
that such delusions are generally attended with  eccentricities, often
with violence, very often with exaggerated suspicions and  jealousies."
*   *  *  *   "The existence of delusions being proved, and their con-
tinuance proved or assumed, at the date of the factum, so that the Court
is satisfied of the testatrix then  laboring under their influence, it is
wholly immaterial that they do not appear in the will itself.   The party
propounding often approached this point  in argument, and repeatedly
adverted  to  the fact — perhaps we should  say the assertion or as-
sumption—that  this will betrays no marks of the alleged delusions, or
generally of  an unsound mind.   There was a manifest disposition to
lay down a rule that no person laboring under monomania, or partial
insanity, can be deemed intestable, unless the kind of insanity appears
on  the face  of  the will.  But there was wanting  the courage to lay
down a proposition which would at  once  have been rejected, and must
have been met with  the  question,   Could any court admit  to probate
the will of the man who said (in the case cited by  Sir John Nicholl in
Dew  v. Clark),  'I am the Christ,' although that will bore  no marks
whatever of  an  unsound mind, still less of the dreadful delusion under
which the party labored?"
   § 18.  It may therefore be considered as the present law of England,
that a person partially insane is incompetent, so  far as  the making of
wills  or contracts is  concerned, though as yet there has been no at-
tempt to adopt the rule in this country.   In fact  its practical operation
would be attended with many difficulties. It is true there are many cases,
such as that  just commented  on,  in which the particular monomania
overshadows  the entire intellect, or where it at least infringes upon the
peculiar province of testamentary capacity.   But it cannot be denied
that in practice,  cases of partial insanity or monomania frequently occur,
in which there is an inflection of reason so definite and appreciable, as
to make it impossible to exclude it from the general class of delusions,
and yet which  is found to be perfectly consistent  with right  reason,
and with recognized business capacity in other respects.   These cases
will briefly be noticed.
  § 19. In the first place may be  considered  that common  species of
hallucination by which the mind, on being presented with a particular
object, groups round it in a kind of reverie, the circumstances by which 
 24   MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS CONSIDERED IN REFERENCE TO WILLS.

 it is ordinarily associated, and then assumes these circumstances as sub-
 stantive existing facts.   This is familiar to every one in the common
 process of a dream.  " Thus," says Sir Walter Scott, " a dreamer hears
 a noise not sufficiently loud to awaken him entirely; at the same  time
 something accidentally touches him.  These impressions instantly form
 a part of his dreams, and adapt themselves to the tenor of the ideas
 that occupy his mind, whatever they may be.  Nothing is more remark-
 able than the rapidity with which the imagination furnishes a complete
 explanation of this interruption to sleep, according to the manner in
 which ideas are presented by the dream, even without requiring a mo-
 ment's respite for this operation.   For example, if a  duel is the sub-
 ject of the dream, the noise that is really heard becomes the discharge
 of the pistols of the combatants.  If an orator, in his dream, is making
 a speech, the noise becomes the plaudits of his supposed auditory.  If
 the dreamer is transported in his dreams to the midst of ruins, the noise
 appears that of the fall of some portion of the walls.   In  a word, an
 explanatory system is adopted, in which the rapidity of thought is  so
 great, that if we suppose the noise heard to be the first efforts of some
 one to awaken the sleeper, the  explanation, although  requiring a cer-
 tain train of deductions, is usually finished and complete before a second
 effort has perfectly awakened the sleeper.   There exists in the succes-
 sion of ideas  during sleep, an intuition so rapid, that it recalls the vision
 in which the prophet Mohammed saw all the  wonders of  heaven and
 hell, although the water  contained in the jar, which was upset when his
 ecstasy commenced, was  not completely emptied when he recovered the
 use of his ordinary faculties."
   § 20.  The  same process of association exists  in  many  temperaments
 when the faculties are awake, and the hallucination becomes so blended
 with the reality as to become part of the texture of actual consciousness.
   A vivid illustration of  this—though in this instance the hallucination
 was fleeting while  for the time entire—is cited from Wigan by de Bois-
 mont.(S)  "I was in Paris," says the former, " at  a soire'e given by M.
 Bellart,  some days before  the  execution of the  Prince of Moskowa.
 The usher, having the name of M. Mare'chal  aine, announced M.  le
 Mare'chal Ney.  An electric shudder  ran through the assembly, and,
 for my part I own that the resemblance to the prince was for a moment
 as perfect to my eyes as reality."
  § 21. An instance of  hallucination, produced by association, of a
 much more permanent character, occurred to the present writer. Hav-
 ing occasion to receive a  check  as a dividend, for an amount which Avas
 readily remembered, as it was the  same as had been  received on the
 same day for  several previous  years, he  deposited it, as he supposed,
 with the teller of the particular bank, which may be  called bank A.,
 where he kept an account.   It so happened that at the opposite wing
 of the same building, with an entrance precisely similar, stood another
 bank, which may be called bank B. He went by mistake into the latter
bank, and at once, supposing himself to be in the  former, he  invested
it with the same drapery which it would have had if his supposition had
been correct.   Not having his bank-book Ayith  him, he presented the
(b) Rational History of Hallucination, 106. 
         HOW FAR DELUSIONS AFFECT TESTAMENTARY CAPACITY.     25

check to the receiving teller, asking him to credit him with it, as a de-
posit.   It so happened that it had been his custom to hold a conversa-
tion in  reference to a particular matter in which they had a common
interest with the teller of bank A.  When some weeks afterwards he dis-
covered, on applying to bank A. for the entry in his own  book of the
deposit, that no such deposit had been noted by the teller, he turned
back to the particular day when the  check was  received, of which the
day and the  amount  was accurately planted on his memory, for  the
reasons already mentioned, and the actual fact of the deposit was brought
to his recollection, grouped Avith the hallucination that it was bank A.
that he had gone into—that it A\as the teller of bank A. whom he met—
and that the particular inquiry so frequently before put to  him in bank
A.  had  been put to him then.  The fact had been that on  forming for
himself an arbitrary and fictitious stand-point, he grouped around it the
associations Avhich would have attended the reality.   So fixed, indeed,
was his belief in the reality of the whole scene, that he Avould have tes-
tified to it under oath AYith as much positiveness as to any fact in his re-
collection.  It Avas not until some time  had expired that  his mistake
was discovered, and then only upon  his accidentally being in bank B.
and receiving an inquiry from the teller whether he meant to follow up
the isolated deposit hejiad made on the particular day.
   § 22. Dr. Johnson a0s confident that he heard his deceased mother's
voice crying "Samuel;"  nor was this hallucination ever corrected; and
yet no one would maintain that  he was incapable of making a will.
   § 23. Lord Castlereagh, a short time before his  very solemn death,
and under eArery sanction A\diich could exclude jesting, gave a narrative of
a supposed apparition, in which  he firmly believed, and which exercised
a material influence on his life.  When in  the  Irish Parliament, he
went to visit a friend at a castle in the north of Ireland.  Shown into
a dark and venerable chamber, Avhere there existed every material Avhich
would excite a superstitious imagination, having dismissed his valet, he
went to bed.  Hardly, however, was his candle extinguished when he
became aA\Tare of a glimmer  of light  in his room.   No  fire had been
lighted—the curtains were closed—and no  explanation affording  itself
of this phenomenon, he rose from the bed, when, to his surprise, on turn-
ing to the point whence the light proceeded, he perceived the figure of
a young and beautiful child, with a halo encircling its brow.  With per-
fect confidence in the reality of the object,  but believing it had been got
up artificially as a joke, he folloAved it until it nestled in the arch of the
great chimney, and at last sunk beneath the fireboard. The next morn-
ing he sought in vain for a clue by which the mystery could be dispelled.
It Avas  a subject  which his host evidently shunned.   On  putting the
question pointedly, hoAvever, Lord Castlereagh was informed that it was
true that such a spectre as that  had been reported  in former times to
have appeared under  the title of the "Radiant Child."  Once  again
the phantom appeared to the same noble and capable statesman—but no
longer, it is said, Avith a radiant crown.  This last appearance Avas not long
before  his own self-destruction,  and  yet, if the exterior alone was con-
sidered, Avhen he Avas at the height of his poA\Ter and glory. Certainly the
spectre  can  noAV be easily explained, because a man who is weak enough
to commit suicide, is not too strong to be haunted in a dream by an ap- 
26   MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS CONSIDERED IN REFERENCE TO WILLS.

parition of whose traditional reputation he had undoubtedly heard, though
the recollection afterwards escaped him.   And yet we have here a case
of an  hallucination so entire as to produce  partial insanity on  that
point, and perhaps to  have been a motive poAver in his  oavii suicide.
Still it would hardly have been maintained that Lord Castlereagh, than
whom no man of his day exhibited, Avhen in public life, greater coolness
or business clearness, Avas incapable, because of this single delusion, of
making a contract or will.
  § 24. It is immaterial, so far as the principle is concerned, whether
the hallucination be the result of a morbid imagination, as was the case
with Lord Castlereagh, or of imposition on the part of others.  In either
case, if the hallucination be groundless and absurd, the seizing upon it
by the mind as an item of faith, equally constitutes partial insanity.
  § 25. A butcher in full  health, many years ago,  as was related by
an eminent physician of Philadelphia, was on his way to the  city, when he
was met by a party of medical students, who determined to see what would
be the effect on him of an attempt to persuade him that he Avas affected
with the premonitory symptoms of a fever then prevalent.   At different
points, one by one, they accosted him Avith inquiries as to  what was the
cause of his paleness, of the livid state of his skin, &c, and  as to whether
he was aware that marks of the epidemic were on him, &c.  At first he
sturdily repelled the supposition,  but graduall^bccame frightened, and
at last returned home to be attacked by the very disease which had been
attributed to him.   Hearing that their experiment had been carried too
far, his tormentors set to work in earnest to undeceive him; but it was
too late.  " You are joking now; or you are trying to  cure a dying
man by a trick," was his reply.   " You were right at first; you  cannot
deceive me now by telling me it was a hoax."
  It was the firm  belief of Lord Herbert, of Cherbury, that a divine
vision had indicated to him the correctness of  a particular course of re-
ligious speculation which, on the faith of the  supposed  vision, he  pub-
lished, and which he made the basis of  his future action.   The  second
Lord Lyttleton was equally^persuaded  that  a divine warning had ad-
monished him of his approaching  death.  And  no less confident, though
less serious in  its  consequences, AATas  the conviction of Philip,  second
Earl of Chesterfield, of the reality of a  similar preternatural interfer-
ence.  One night,  in the year 1652, he saAv something  white, like  a
spread sheet, at the head of his  bed.   He tried to  seize it, but  it  slid
away, and disappeared.  His thoughts immediately turning to his wife,
who was at Networth, with her father, he hurried there, but was met by
a servant, with a letter from  his wife,  which informed him  that  pre-
cisely the same apparition had appeared to her, and had been the cause
of the journey of the messenger whom she had dispatched to inquire as
to his health.
   §  26. Abercrombie  gives an  illustration of habitual  hallucination
which at the same time was consistent with reason.   The patient, when
he met a person in the street, was uncertain whether the latter was a
real person or a phantom, though with close observation he was  able to
detect the dissimilarity.  The features of the real person would be more
decided and more  complete than those of the  phantom; but the power
of discrimination by this process was too uncertain to be relied on, and 
        HOW FAR DELUSIONS AFFECT TESTAMENTARY CAPACITY.      27   ,

the only test of which the patient felt certain was that  of the  voice,
footstep, or touch.   The phantom had none of these; the substance, of
course, had all.  He had the faculty of recalling his visions at will, by
powerfully  fixing his attention  on the conceptions  of his mind, but
while the hallucination could be invoked at will,  it could not be arbi-
trarily dispelled.  That it  was a hallucination, he was perfectly con-
vinced ;  and that it Avas entirely consistent with general reason was de-
monstrated by his clearness of head and business capacity.
   §  27.  A  recent case in  this  country illustrates the same position
Avith remarkable point.   A  merchant who had for years managed with
shrewdness and success  an  extensive  business,  became  thoroughly
imbued Avith  the spirit  rapping  and  spirit conversing hallucination.
Though  he conducted his business as well as those Avho were not thus
afflicted, his family conceived that this and cognate eccentricities made
him  a  fit subject for a commission of lunacy.  This he soon discovered,
and  laid his plans accordingly.  He had theretofore done a cash busi-
ness, and his punctuality and accuracy had Avon him  extensive credit.
He immediately proceeded to buy a large stock of goods from a number
of the  most sagacious business men within his reach, and gave long notes
in exchange.  " I do not knoAV how it  strikes you," was  the way he
broached the matter to his family, " but whatever may have been your
chances once, they are but  light now.   All I have to do is to subpoena
my friends to whom I have  just given my notes, and you may depend
upon it, they will not only  testify strongly as to their opinion of my
sanity, but will bring that opinion down to this particular hour."
   §  28. If  the principle announced by Lord  Brougham be correct, in
no one of the preceding cases could the party affected be considered as
possessed of testamentary capacity, or the capacity to contract.  " In-
sane on one  point, insane on  all," would certainly disfranchise multi-
tudes who  are now considered practically competent  to discharge  all
the business relations of life.   Of such a doctrine it is difficult to esti-
mate the perilous consequences.  A party who cannot be  compelled,
on the ground of lunacy,  to complete his own contract, cannot compel
others  to complete theirs, and the practical operations of society would
be therefore seriously deranged.
  §  29. The cases Avhich have just been noticed, comprise chiefly those
in A\-hich, while  the hallucination is positive, the  practical  inflection of
conduct produced thereby is slight.  This, hoAvever, cannot  be said to
be the  case with those instances in which  a supposed supernatural vision
or monitor is received as a guide on the most momentous actions of life.
Napoleon declared  on many  critical occasions that he was conscious
of the  preternatural vision  of a star, Avhich sometimes even appeared
in his  own  cabinet,  by which he allowed  himself  to be  guided.  Ber-
nadotte,  beyond doubt,  on one important  movement at  least, was
swerved from his course by the vision of an old woman.  Constantme
felt or  feigned a similar impressibility.    These cases, it is true, may be
suspected, but suspicion cannot be thus cast on the multitudes of brave
men  who were driven in border or highland contests  from the battle
field by a threatening Avraith, or Avho were encouraged to  the Avildest
sacrifices by the beckoning  of an imaginary finger or  the invocations
of a  preternatural voice. 
28   MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS CONSIDERED IN REFERENCE TO WILLS.

  § 30. There  are, however,  other  cases in which there  is a general
morbid derangement of all, or of a material portion of the organs.  To
these,  as Avell  as to the  great mass of  instances where  hallucination
forms  the ground work,  the observations of de Boismont,  on the case
of a man Avho supposed that he had sank all his Avealth at the bottom
of a well, apply Avith great force.   " It may be asked whether, in the
state of mind in which the patient was, Avhose history Ave have related,
he was capable of making a will.  This is a very difficult question ; but
its solution is not an impossibility.   When the conduct of the individual
does not depart from received usages, Avhen it is not controlled by one
of those false ideas that make him hate  his relations and friends  with-
out any motive, and Avhen he regulates his expenses prudently, Ave do
not think that Avhimsical actions, or words,  the results of an erroneous
belief, but having no influence on the prominent acts of his life, should
deprive a person of his civil liberties, and of the power of making his
will."
  §  31. Nor should it be forgotten  that the effects of such incapacita-
tion Avould  be most  cruel to the sufferer  himself.  Society is  prone
enough to make eccentricities and weaknesses the subject of contempt,
ridicule or insult.   The  courts should be cautious how, by taking away
the power to ensure respect, they thus increase the misfortune of a class
into which no  man can assure himself he may not fall—which includes
almost the whole  of those whose lot it is to reach extreme old  age—
and which  already carries  a  burden sufficiently heavy.  If such per-
sons cannot reAvard by their bounty those  by  whom they  are treated
with tenderness, and by whose means  their comfort is guarded, they
will lose, in most instances, the only means remaining to  them of self
preservation.   The law  which thus  deprives them  of their own means
of self support, should tender  them in return a refuge  by Avhich, by
public sanction, they could exact  that attention Avhich  their oavii influ-
ence no longer enables them to secure.   This, however, is certainly not
done now, nor could  it be done on  any  intelligible basis, without  con-
signing a large  proportion of the most efficient members of society to
an  asylum.  As society at present stands, the  only remedy seems  to
be  to throw the same tender  guardianship around the  feeble minded
and the eccentric, as in a passage already  cited has been so touchingly
invoked by Chancellor Kent for the old.
  § 32. In  this country, as has already been  seen, the law continues
to be, that a vein of partial insanity does not affect testamentary capa-
city, except where it enters into the texture of the will.  This has
been expressly held to be the case with  regard to mere eccentricities,
no   matter  how extravagant, such  as a belief in witches, or in the
loss  of  health  from the application of   slow  poison  surrept'tiously
administered.(c)   When they enter  into the subject matter of the will,
however, it of course falls.(d)   And a will, othenvise capable of  being
sustained, was upheld,  notwithstanding it  appeared that  the testator
believed in reference to a future state of existence that there  were
degrees of happiness therein correspondent to  and sympathizing Avith

  (c) Leech v. Leech, 11 Penns. Law J., 177 ; Lee v. Lee, 4 M'Cord, 183.
  (d) Johnson v. Moore, 1 Litt. 371. 
CAPACITY TO MAKE WILLS AND TESTAMENTS.          29
the circles of society on earth,—that  as a man stood in the latter, so
he stood  in  the former,—and that there  his  position would  be very
much determined by the  amount of property  which he had acquired
here.(e)

                       3d. Lucid Intervals.(ee)

   § 33.  Of course, a person who is actually at  the time a lunatic, can-
not bind himself civilly, and so far as  this, there is no ground for dis-
cussion.  When a party is  once proved  to have been at the time insane,
all question is at  an end.   The difficulty, however, is to the fact of
time.  Unless what in the courts has been called habitual insanity be
shown, i. e., such insanity as is, in  its  nature, continuous and  chronic,
the fact of the existence  of  a prior period of lunacy does not  suffice
even  to throAV the burden of proof on the party setting up competency.
The case, however, is otherAvise when such habitual insanity is  shown
to have existed; in which case the  presumption is that the  party was
insane at the time, and the  burthen is on those seeking to prove the
contrary.(/)   " If you  can establish," says Sir Wm. Wynne, as cited
by Mr. Jarman,(g) " that the party afflicted habitually by a malady of the
mind has intermissions, and if there was an intermission of the disorder
 at the time of the act; that being proved, is sufficient, and the general
 habitual insanity will not  affect it; but the effect of it is this: it inverts
 the order of  proof  and presumption;   for, until proof of habitual in-
 sanity, the presumption is, the  party agent, like all human creatures,
 was rational;  but when an habitual insanity in the mind of the person
 who  does the act is established, then  the  party who would take  ad-
vantage of the fact of an  interval of reason must prove  it."  And
 in a  recent Massachusetts case, DeAvey, J., said, " Neither observation
 nor experience shows us that persons Avho are insane from the effect of
 some violent disease, do not usually recover the right use of their men-
 tal faculties.   Such cases are not  unusual, and  the return of a sound
 mind may be anticipated  from the subsiding or removal of the disease
 Avhich has prostrated their minds.  It  is not, therefore, to be stated as
 an unqualified maxim of the law, 'once insane, presumed to be  always
 insane;' but reference must  be had to the peculiar circumstances con-
 nected with the insanity  of  an  individual, in deciding upon its effects
 upon the burthen of proof, or how far  it may authorize the jury to infer
 that the same condition or state of mind attaches to the individual at a
 later period.  There must be kept  in view the distinction between the
 inferences to be drawn from proof of an habitual or apparently con-
 firmed insanity, and that  which may be only temporary."(A)
   §  34. In  case  of idiocy, a slightly  different rule seems  laid doAvn.
 Thus, in a late case, the evidence showed  that the deceased was, in
 1815, placed in confinement as a lunatic, and there remained till 1817,

   (e) Gass v. Gass, 3 Humph. 278.
   (ee) See for the psychological view of this question, post, § 254.
   (/) Hoge v. Fisher, 1 P. C. C. R. 163 ; Whitenack v. Strykee, 1 Green, C. R. 8; Har-
 rison v. Rowan, 3 W. C. C. R. 580;  Gable v. Grant, 2 Green, C. R. 629; Stevens v. Van-
 cleve, 4 Wash. C. C. R. 262 ; Jackson v. Vandusen, 5 Johns. 144; Kelly v. Webster, 8
 Shep. 46;  1 Jarm. on Wills,  (2d Am. ed.) G5.
   (g) 1 Jarm. on Wills, (2d Am. ed.) 65.       (h) Hix v. Whittemore, 4 Mete. 545. 
30   MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS CONSIDERED IN REFERENCE TO WILLS.

when he was released.  In 1820, about which time he was proved to have
committed certain rational  acts  of business,(IJi) he made  a rational
will.   In 1822 he Avas again placed in confinement, and so  remained
till his death, in 1849.   In  1833 he Avas found,  on a  commission,
to have been of unsound mind,  without  lucid  intervals,  since  1815.
The will was sustained on  the ground that though it is otherwise with
regard to lunacy, yet when  idiocy is set up, it is disproved by contem-
poraneous intelligent acts  of business.(i)
   § 35. Where  no  extraneous influence  is shown  to  have been ex-
erted, the  character  of the act itself, as  has  already been noticed,
goes  far  to determine the  capacity  of the party  at  the  particular
time.  In a very late case(/)  Dr.  Lushington said, " In  the opinion
of a  very great judge, Sir William Wynne, in  the  celebrated case of
Cartwright v. Cartwright, he said Avhere  a  rational act Avas done in a
rational manner, such was the strongest  and best proof Avhich could
arise even as to a lucid interval.   Now, I cannot  say that I  subscribe
altogether to this observation of Sir William Wynne, for I do not, but
it is entitled to  great weight; and, to a certain extent, a rational act
done in a rational manner, though not, I think,  the strongest and best
proof of a lucid interval, does contribute to the establishment of a lucid
interval."

                          4th.  Intoxication.

   § 36. As has been already incidentally observed, intoxication, when
at the time prevailing, renders a party incompetent to make a contract
or execute a will.  It is true  that most  of the cases go on the  ground of
express or implied fraud, so far as acts inter  vivos are concerned; for it
is certainly only a little less  culpable to enforce a bargain made with a
drunken man than it is to make him drunk on purpose to secure  it.(k)
But the general position is well expressed by Pothier :(Z)   " Drunken-
ness," he  says, "when it goes so far as absolutely to destroy the reason,
renders a person, so long as it continues, incapable  of contracting, since
it renders him incapable of  consent, "(m)   So rigorously has this doc-
trine  been applied, that it  was even held that drunkenness  is a good
defence by an endorser of  a  note against an  innocent  and  bona fide
holder ;(n) though when a  man  is sober enough  to write his own name
correctly, it will require strong evidence of stupefaction or delirium to
induce a jury to sustain his irresponsibility against an innocent third
party.  But drunkenness, though it is a shield,  cannot be  made an
offensive weapon; and the law will not permit a  man to use his drunk-
enness as  a means of cheating  others.  Thus, a man who after buying
goods when drunk retained them  when sober, was  held responsible for
the price.(o)
  § 37. The distinction in this respect is thus  stated  by Vice-Chan-
cellor Stuart:  "The principles acted upon in Cook v. Clayworth were

  (M) See ante. \ 7.
  h) Bannantyne v. Bannantyne, 16 Jur. 864, 14 English R. 581.        (/) Ibid.
  (k) Parke, B., Gore v. Gibson,  13 M. & W. 626; 2 Greenleaf on Ev. \ 170; Pitt v.
Smith, 3 Campb. 33; Fenton v. Halloway, 13 Stark, 126.      (I) Obligations, N. 49.
  (m) See also Chitty on Contracts, 112 ; Story on Contracts, 27.
  \n) Sentance v. Poole, 3 C. & P. 1.       (o) Alderson, B.,  Gore v. Gibson, ut supra. 
           HOW FAR INTOXICATION AFFECTS CIVIL CAPACITY.         31

that a party being in liquor when he entered into an agreement, Avas no
reason for  the Court to  refuse a decree for specific performance, and
they pointed out the rule to be  acted on in these cases.  In Cory v.
Cory, and, subsequently, in  Nagle v. Baylor, the same  rule  had been
acted upon.  The course of  the Court  had been, in cases of  this kind,
that it Avould not assist a person who had obtained or wished  to get rid
of an agreement or deed on the mere ground of intoxication; but only
where any contrivance was used to draw him in to drink, or any unfair
advantage taken of his situation,  or  in that extreme state of intoxica-
tion which deprived a man of his reason, did the Court interfere.  The
Court was disinclined to interfere in such cases; and if a bill  Avere filed
to enforce an agreement and it appeared that no fraud had been used,
the duty of the Court was to dismiss the bill."(p)
   § 38. In actions, however, for torts (i.  e.  cases where the gist  is
personal injury), drunkenness is no defence to the merits.   Thus, if a
man is sued for injury to my property or person, it is no defence that
he Avas drunk at  the time, for the policy of the law is both  to redress
such  Avrongs and to discountenance intoxication.(q)   And the  plain-
tiff may  even  introduce the fact of drunkenness  as  an aggravating
item, when the question  is whether  proper care was used in avoiding
an accident.  Thus,  in a suit for injury to the plaintiff by  running a
sleigh against him,  a very  eminent American Judge, Gibson, C. J.,
said "the evidence of intoxication  ought  to  have been received, not
because the legal consequences of a drunken  man's acts are different
from those of  a sober man's  acts, but  because, where the evidence of
negligence is nearly balanced, the fact of  drunkenness might turn the
scale, inasmuch as a man partially bereft of his faculties would be less
observant  than if  he were sober, and  less regardful of the safety of
others.   For this purpose, but  certainly not to inflame the  damages,
the evidence ought to have been admitted, "(r)
   § 39. Drunkenness to  such an extent as to render a party uncon-
scious of what he is engaged in, or drunkenness even to a slight degree,
when its effect is to render a party subject to the influence of others,
avoids a will ;(s) though the mere fact of the testator being at the time
under the influence of liquor, will not suffice, unless consequent disa-
bility be proved, (t)  Long continued prior habits of intoxication also, will
not, of  themselves, afford a  presumption of incapacity, unless the tes-
tator was proved to  have been drunk  at  the  time.(w)   The reason of
this distinction between drunkenness and  insanity  is well pointed out
by Sir John Nicholl.  Insanity, he argued, may often be latent, where-
as there can scarcely be such a thing as latent ebriety; and, consequently,
all that is required to  be shoAvn, in ordinary cases, is the absence of
excitement at the time of the act done; at least, the absence of excite-
ment in any such degree as would vitiate the act done;  "for," he said,
"I suppose it will be readily conceded  that, under a mere slight degree

  (p) Stuart, V. C, Shaw v. Thackeray, 23 Eng. Reports, 21.
  (q) Ray. Med. Jur. 292 ; Co. Lit. 247(a); 4  Rep. 124 (b); 4 Bl. Com. 25.
  (r) Wynn v. Allard, 5 W. & S. 525.          (s) Shelford on Lunacy,  274, 304.
  (t) Shelford on Lunacy,  276; Starret v. Douglass,  2 Yeates, 48; Andress v. Weller,
2 Green, C. R., 604; Gardner v. Gardner, 21 Wend. 526.
  (w) Ibid. Black v. Ellis, 3 Hill, S. C. 68; Ayrey v.  Hill, 2 Addams, 206;  Shelford on
Lunacy, 276. 
32
COMMISSIONS OF LUNACY.
of that excitement, the memory and the  understanding may  be,  in
substance, as  correct as in  the  total absence  of any exciting  cause.
Whether, where the excitement in some  degree  is proved to have actu-
ally subsisted at the time of the act done, it did or did not subsist in
the requisite degree to vitiate the act done, must depend, in eacli case,
upon a due consideration of  all the circumstances of that case in par-
ticular ; it belonging to a description of cases that admits of  no more
definite rule, applicable to the determination of them, than the one I
have suggested, that I am aAvare of."(v)   Where the will was executed
under the influence of drink intentionally and fraudulently adminis-
tered, of course it falls, by the operation of a rule already noticed with
regard to contracts; but Avhere such is not the case,  actual derange-
ment of the reasoning faculties, arising  by undue excitement,  must be
shown.(w)   Certainly the effect would be most deleterious if the mere
existence  of excitement produced by stimulants  was held to vitiate any
act performed during its continuance.

II.  What is necessary to be proved in order to deprive a  party
                OF THE MANAGEMENT OF HIS ESTATE.

  § 40. In most of the  United States, as in England, process exists by
which, when  a party is incapable of the management of his estate,
whether from mental unsoundness or from habitual drunkenness, a com-
mittee may be appointed, to whom the custody of his property is com-
mitted. It would be out of place to set forth here the statutes by which
this process is defined and settled; it is enough now to notice the general
scheme of  practice  which exists in England, and which has been with
the exceptions of  only  slight  alterations of detail,  adopted in this
country.
  § 41. When  there is reason  to believe that a party, from unsound-
ness of mind or  habitual drunkenness is  incapable of managing his
affairs, a  petition lies,  generally from  any person interested in his
person or estate, for the issuing of a commission.   Upon the reception
of the petition, the  court directs a commission to issue to one  or more
persons—generally required  to be learned in the law—directing the
inquiry by commissioner and jury,  as to  the facts of the petition.  The
commissioner being thus authorized, directs a precept to the sheriff, com-
manding him to summon a jury, Avho, Avhen they meet, hear testimony,
—on both sides if desired—on the matter submitted to them, and after
being charged by the commissioner  as to the law of the case, return a
finding as  to whether, from  the  lunacy  or habitual drunkenness com-
plained of, the respondent is  incapable of managing his estate.  Should
the finding be  in the affirmative, the  court will appoint a committee
who will  take charge of the respondent's estate,^) subject however to
the absolute right (y) of the respondent to traverse  the finding,—i. e.,
to put in a formal denial of it, in which case the  question is determined

  (v) 1 Jarman on Wills, (2d ed.,) 54.
  (w) Wheeler v. Alderson, 3 Hagg. 602 ; 1 Jarman on Wills, (2d ed.,) 54-5.
  (x) See as to the practice in regard to the appointment and removal of committees
Black's Est. 6 Harris, 434; Hulings v. Laird, 9 Harris, 268.
  (y) Cumming in Re. 11 Eng. Law & Eo^. 202. 
COMMISSIONS OF LUNACY.                   33
 before a  court  and jury, in the  same way with  any contested fact.
 Whether the alleged lunatic really is capable of volition as to a traverse,
 and  desires that a traverse  should be entered, will be  determined, it
 seems, by the chancellor  himself  by personal  examination or  other-
 wise. (2)
   § 42. It will be seen that the point at issue under a commission of
 lunacy or habitual drunkenness, is  the general, and not the partial or
 particular incompetency of the party who is the subject of the  inquiry.
 It is  a matter  of some moment  also, that the  fullest  opportunity of
 examination be given.   When a  particular instrument is sought to
 be vacated,  or a particular crime to be excused, the testimony of the
 medical witness is necessarily drawn from but casual observation, made
 in most cases at a time when he had no reason to suspect the existence
 of the disease.   Great incentives  to  fraud also  exist,  and it is well
 known how acute must be the penetration, and how sharp the tests which
 are not sometimes baffled by the  simulation of mental  unsoundness.
 On the other hand, a commission of lunacy is executed with deliberation,
 after a calm and full review of the previous  life of the party under con-
 sideration.  Nor is he likely himself to aid the inquiry by any undue
 sympathy, for his interests and his pride are both enlisted in resisting
 his moral  and intellectual  disfranchisement.  It becomes, therefore, a
 simple test, Is the respondent  prevented  by mental unsoundness or
 habitual drunkenness from managing his own estate ?  If not,  no mat-
 ter how responsible he may be for crime, or capable  at particular times
 of making a bargain, the  finding must  be against him.   Upon a re-
 covery of competency, the commission,  on due cause shown,  will be
 superseded, (a)
   § 43.  " In commissions of lunacy,"  says  Dr. Winslow, "the witness
 must not only be prepared to give  an opinion as to the then  state of
 mind of the party, and competency  to take care of his person and man-
 age  his  affairs, but he  must be prepared  occasionally  to  pronounce
judgment as to a prior questionable condition of brain and mind.  The
 alleged lunatic may, under the exercise of undue influence, have previ-
 ously alienated his property by will, or been induced to  execute other
 important  documents.  The witness will be  called upon to depose as to
 the probable state of the brain at the time, and as to the length of  the
 alleged existing attack of insanity.   Well-marked symptoms of organic
 cerebral disease may be present, and it will  in some  cases be an impor-
tant point to decide, whether such a  condition of  physical ill-health
has not been  of  some years' duration, impairing  the mental vigor,
destroying  all power of rational conduct  and healthy  continuity  of
thought, and thus interfering with  a  right  exercise of the judgment
and affections in  the legitimate disposal of property. "(6)
   In  a case which attracted much popular attention at the  time,(c)
Chief Baron Pollock declared, that " no person ought to be confined in
  (z) Cumming in re. 11 Eng. Law & Eq. 202.
  (a) See Lackey v. Lackey, 2  B. Monr. 478; Matter  of Russell, 1 Barbour  C. R. 38;
Matter of Barbour, 2 ib. 97; Matter of Mason, 1 ib. 436; John Beaumont's case, 1 Whar-
ton R. 52.
  (6) Winslow on Medico Legal Evidence in  cases of Insanity, 129, 130.
  (c) Nottridge v. Ripley, before Chief Baron Pollock, sitting at  Nisi Prius, June, 1849,
reported in full in Journ. of Pscy. Med. vol. 2, p. 630.
       3 
 34                COMMISSIONS OF DRUNKENNESS.

 a lunatic asylum unless dangerous to himself and others." This dictum,
 which certainly is inconsistent Avith the necessities of medical practice,
 has  been combated  and exploded  Avith great ability  by very eminent
 psychological authority, (d) and has  not been followed by the current
 of American judicial opinion.  There arc necessarily cases Avhen the
 safety of property and the health of the  patient himself, require con-
 finement in an asylum, though there be no danger of violence to him-
 self and others, and  it is not likely that the existence of such cases
 will be again judicially questioned.   Whether the confinement, in any
 particular case, Avas proper or not, will be for  the court and jury, if an
 action of false imprisonment be brought, to determine specially.   And
 the  laAV in  such a case undoubtedly is, that confinement  is justifiable,
 if either the safety of the patient or others require it, or it is necessary
 for his restoration to health, (e)
   §  44. In  respect to drunkenness the law is, that while occasional acts
 of intoxication will  not justify a  finding  of "habitual"  drunkenness,
 yet on the other hand, it is not necessary for such a  finding that the
 party should be  constantly  in an intoxicated  state.   Thus recently in
 Pennsylvania, Knox, P. J.,  in putting the case upon a traverse  to the
jury, said,  "Neither was it  necessary to make out the case that  a per-
 son should be constantly in  an intoxicated state, that a man might be
 an  habitual  drunkard, and  yet be sober at times for days and  weeks
 together.   That the question Avas, had the traverser  a fixed  habit of
 drunkenness ?   Was he habituated to intoxication Avhenever the oppor-
tunity offered ?   The question is one  of fact for the jury to  find, but
 the court has no hesitation in saying, that the man who is intoxicated
 or drunk the one half of his time, should be  pronounced an habitual
 drunkard."   And in the Supreme Court, Rogers, J., said, " To consti-
tute an  habitual drunkard,  it is  not necessary that  a man should  be
 always drunk.   It is impossible to lay doAvn any fixed rule as to Avhen
 a man shall be deemed an habitual drunkard.  It must depend upon the
 decision of the jury under the direction  of the  court.  It may, however,
be safely said, that to bring  a man within the meaning of the act, it is
not  necessary  that  he  should ahvays  be drunk.   Occasional acts of
drunkenness, as the Judge says, do not make one an habitual drunkard.
Nor is it necessary he should be  continually  in an intoxicated  state.
 A man may be an habitual drunkard, and yet be sober for days and
 weeks together.  The only  rule is, has he a fixed  habit  for drunken-
 ness ?   Was he  habituated to intemperance whenever  the opportunity
 offered ?  We agree that a  man who is intoxicated or drunk one half
 his time is an habitual drunkard, and should be pronounced such. We
 also concur  with the court, that if the jury found the traverser to have
 been at the  date of the inquisition an habitual drunkard,  it was neces-
 sary to decide  whether he was capable  or incapable  of managing his
 estate.   His incapacity in that event is  a  conclusion of laAV.   It  is not

  (d) See a remonstrance with the Lord Chief Baron, touching the case of Nottridge v.
 Ripley, by John Conolly, M. D., 1849.  A letter to the Lord Chancellor on the defect of
 the law regulating the custody of lunatics, by Charles  Curten Cooper, London, 1849.
 Psychological Review, vol. 2, p. 564; ib. vol. 3, p. 14. A letter to the Right Hon. Lord
 Ashley, M. P., relative to the case of Nottridge v. Ripley, Dundee, 1849.
  (<?) Hinchman v. Ritchie, Brightly R. 143. 
              UNSOUNDNESS—RESPONSIBILITY FOR CRIME.           35

necessary to say, it is a  presumptio juris et  de jure; but, at least, it
throws the burden  of proof of capacity on the traversers.   Indeed, it
may be well doubted, Avhether his  management or  mismanagement  of
his estate is a matter of inquiry.   It is very certain, under  the act  of
the  13th  of June,  1836, proceedings  may  be instituted  against  an
habitual drunkard  who has no estate.   But this cannot be if the mis-
management of it be necessary.  It is well said, that there must be an
evidence of squandering  property, to support a proceeding to declare an
individual an habitual drunkard, else the object of the act in many cases
would be defeated.   For it is precautionary in its design, and hence a
disposition  of mind or  body which  might lead to  the  Avasting  of an
estate, is sufficient  to justify the enforcement  of its provisions.(/)   It
is indeed impossible that a man can be an habitual drunkard without
waste  or mismanagement,  as the very act  of drunkenness  is itself
waste.   In this case, even if required, the evidence was full and plen-
ary to this point, "(g)


    III.  What degree  of  unsoundness avoids   responsibility
                              FOR CRIME.

   § 45.  The difficulties that have attended the discussion of this branch
of the law of lunacy, have arisen from an attempt to reduce into an in-
flexible code, opinions Avhich  Avhile relatively true   in their particular
connection, Avere not meant for general application.   Thus, for instance,
when a defendant  in  whom there  is no pretence for mania or homi-
cidal insanity, claims to be exempt from punishment on  the ground of
incapacity to distinguish right from  wrong, the Court very properly
tells the jury that  the  question for them to determine  is, whether he
labors under such incapacity or not.   The error has been to seize such
an expression as this as an arbitrary elementary dogma, and to insist on
its application to   all other cases.  Or,  take the  converse, and sup-
pose the defence is merely homicidal insanity.   In such  a case it would
be very proper to tell  the jury that, unless they believe the  homicidal
impulse to have been uncontrollable, they must convict.  And yet nothing
would be more unjust than to make this proposition, true in itself, a
general rule to bear on such cases  as idiocy.    It is  proposed  to avoid
this difficulty by treating this question practically,  in  the only way in
which it can arise in the courts, and to consider briefly, not what is the
general limit of moral responsibility in the abstract, but in Avhat cases such
responsibility ceases to exist.(h)  These will be considered as follows :
   1.  Where the defendant is incapable  of  distinguishing right from
wrong in reference to the particular case.
  (/") Sill v. M'Night, 7 W.  & Ser. 245.         (g) Ludwick v. Com. 6 Harris, 173.
  (h) The difficulty in  this respect has been increased by the looseness with which legal
adjudications are cited  by even some of the more eminent text-writers.  In fact, while
the exigencies of  counsel and the duty of judges require a constant recourse to the text
books on this particular science, in making up such text books, the authorized law reports
have not been sufficiently relied upon.  Dr. Beck, it is true, in his valuable treatise, has
spread on his pages reports of several of the older cases, and the same line of authorities
has been more cursorily reviewed by others.  And even in the very recent edition of Dr.
Ray's work on this particular subject—" The Medical Jurisprudence of Insanity"—a work
as remarkable for precision of expression and elegance  of style as for general judicious- 
36
RESPONSIBILITY  FOR CRIME.
   2.  Where he is acting  under an  insane delusion  as  to facts Avhich,
if true, Avould have  relieved  the  act from responsibility, or Avhen, in

ness and accuracy—itis declared that "judging from the few cases that have been reported,
the course of practice in the English criminal courts has been in strict conformity with the
principles laid down  by Hale."   The  " principles laid down by Hale" are those which that
humane judge and laborious text-writer—who prided himself in having never, on specu-
lations of his own, advanced an  opinion or pronounced a judgment—had drawn from the
medical authorities of that day.   These principles have since then been greatly modified
both by legal and medical writers ; and it is to be regretted that either class, in reviewing
the matter, should confine themselves to the earlier  authorities,  and then  declare  that
the old law continues unaltered, "judging from the few cases that  have been reported."
The fact is that both in this  country and in England the cases " reported" on the subject
are not "few" but numerous; and if they had been  examined in  detail, it would  have
been found that they kept pace  with almost equal step with the advance of medical
science.  How far the latter  has kept pace with them may be estimated from the fact that
Dr. Ray—the author of the fullest and most recent work on this vexed subject—has, even in
his edition of 1853, cited scarcely a single volume of the thousands in which the authorized
reports of the American  Courts are published. It is true that several American cases are
noticed, and delicate shades  of opinion declared to have been settled by them, but they are
cited from the " notes of counsel," from " Niles' Register," from the  " Dollar Newspaper,"
and  from " Zion's Herald."  Were no authorized reports to be had, these references might
be received, though  even then with great allowances;  but  in two, at least, of the four
cases mentioned, authorized  reports, both in pamphlet and in aggregate form, have been
for some years before the public.  Of course, not even substantial exactness can be secured
by the  use of evidence not only so entirely secondary, but which at the time it was issued,
was  meant only for popular use.
  Of the mistakes arising from looseness of citation in  this respect, we may take as an
illustration Wood's case, which  is relied upon with much complacency by Dr. AVinslow,
in his late Lectures on Insanity, (p. 102,) to  show that in America  " a verdict of lunacy"
will  be recorded, under circumstances  which really  show  nothing more than vehe-
ment passion and morbid excitement.  In that case, which occurred in Philadelphia in
1838, a father shot his daughter in a paroxysm of rage, caused by her improvident mar-
riage.  The prosecution was abandoned  by  the Attorney-general,  under circumstances
which were not at all connected with the  defendant's sanity or insanity; and a verdict
of acquittal was rendered—not of lunacy—in the teeth of a charge from the very able and
humane judge—Judge King—who tried the  case, that  the  defence of insanity had not
been in any degree substantiated.  The verdict  is no authority whatever.  It was pro-
duced by circumstances very derogatory to public justice—it was received with unbroken
disapprobation by the entire  community—and it was in direct opposition to the charge
of the Court, instead  of being responsive to it.  Had the official report of the case  been
resorted to, the last fact, at least, would have been discovered.
  Some degree of the severity of the censure with which the common law has been visited
in this connection, will be abated by the accomplished gentlemen who have pronounced it,
when they consider these facts.  In fact,  when the nature of the Common Law—words
oftener used than understood—is considered, a much modified view will be taken.    The
common law has been defined to be statutes  worn out by time; it may more properly be
treated as the precipitate of the wisdom of all ages—all professions—all countries.   If a
question is to be tried involving the most delicate point of mechanics, the testimony of
experts is taken, and what they declare to be the law of philosophy, the judge declares to
be the law of the land. - If a  question of marine right is to be determined, the mysterious
laws of the sea are invoked—the  " sweet influences of the Pleiades and the bands of Orion"
—and as taught by science, they become part of the common law.  And so on a trial where
the question at issue  was whether a certain species of fish was able  to surmount obstruc-
tions by which a river in Maine  had been dammed up  by parties interested in the  soil,
it was  held that the  observations of scientific men, versed in this particular topic, were
part of the common law of the land for the specific case ; and that therefore naturalists ,
who had given attention to the  habits  of this fish  under such circumstances, could be
called to give their opinion on the merits.  (Cottrill v. Mason, 3 Fairf. 222.  See more fully
as to cases in which the opinions  of experts are evidence, post, \ 94.)  And the great works
of the masters in all professions  have become, also, part of the common law.  Even by a
judge of remarkable rigidity as a literal commentator on the older writers, this is freely ad-
mitted. " I consider the administrators of criminal law greatly indebted to them, (writers
on medical jurisprudence, &c.,) for the results of their valuable experience, and profes-
sional discussions on the subject of insanity;  and I believe that those judges who carefully
study the medical writers, and pay the most respectful but discriminating  attention to 
RIGHT AND WRONG TEST.
37
connection with such insane delusion, his reasoning  powers are  so de-
praved as to make the commission of the particular act a natural result
of the delusion.
   3.  When he is impelled  by a morbid  and uncontrollable impulse to
commit the particular act.
   After which will be considered,
   4.  The  relations of drunkenness to responsibility for crime.
   When other  cases arise in  which a sober  and  enlightened  medical
observation declares that there is no real moral  responsibility in the
patient, the same opinion will be adopted by the courts upon trial.
   At present the reported  cases  may be classed under the preceding
heads, to which attention is now invited.


1st.  When the defendant  is incapable of  distinguishing  right from
                 wrong in reference to the particular act.

   § 46.  Under this  head  may be enumerated  persons  afflicted with
idiocy or amentia, or with general mania.   It is certain that Avherever
such  incapacity is shown to exist, the Court will direct an acquittal; or
if a jury should convict in the teeth  of such  instructions, the  Court
will set  the verdict aside.   The authorities to this  effect are so numer-
ous,  that a general reference  to them  is all that  is here  necessary, it
being observed at the same time, that Avhile the earlier cases lean to the
position that such depravation of understanding must be  general, it is
now  conceded that it is enough, if it is shoAvn to have existed in reference
to the particular &ct.(i)
   To precisely this effect is the answer of the fifteen judges to the ques-

their scientific researches on the subject, will seldom if ever submit  a case to a jury in
such  a way  as to hazard the conviction of a  deranged man."  (Hornblower, C. J., 1
Zabriskie, 196.)   So that when in any particular instance, ignorance may be exhibited
or injustice done, it must be attributed, not to a want  of flexibility in the system, but to
an imperfect dissemination of truth by those  who have assumed its guardianship.
  Newspaper and other unofficial reports, in fact, however interesting, are of no legal
authority, and they should be to  a peculiar degree received with the same qualifications
which have been noticed as required by all nisiprius charges. What a judge tells a jury is
meant for a particular issue.  If the evidence should show an old grudge, his duty would
undoubtedly be, to say to the jury, that drunkenness must be left entirely out of considera-
tion.  If the defendant and the deceased were mere strangers, and the defendant in sud-
den passion, from what, to a man in his state of mind, would be adequate provocation,
killed the deceased, it would be proper to tell the jury  that  drunkenness in this case
would lower the case to manslaughter.  It is  plain, however,  that expressions directed
to a particular state of facts, cannot properly be severed from the context, and propounded
as absolute independent principles applicable to all cases whatever.  It is only by care-
fully marshaling the facts, that we learn what the opinions of  the judge  trying the case
really was, and even then  the position of the  Court, the  opportunities it has possessed
for revision and a consultation of authorities after argument,  and the authenticity and
accuracy of the report, enter largely into the question how far the opinion so expressed
is of weight.
  (i) 1 Inst. 247;  Bac. Abr. Idiot. Co. Litt.  247, (a); 1  Russ. on Cr. by Greaves, 13;
1 Hawk. cl. s. 3'; 4 Bla. Com. 24; Collinson on Lunacv, 573,  673,(re.); R.  v. Oxford,
9 C. & P. 533 ; Burrow's Case, 1 Lewin, 238; R. v. Goode, 7 Ad. & El.  536; 67 Hans.
Par. Deb. 728 ; Bowler's Case, Hadfield's Case,  Ibid. 480; 1 Russ. 11; 27 How. St. Tr.
1316 ; Com. v. Rogers, 7 Mete. 500 ;  7 Bost. Law Rep. 449 ;  Com. r.Mosler, 4  Barr, 267 ;
Freeman v. People, 4 Denio, 10;  State v Spencer, 1 Zabriskie, 196; State v. Gardiner,
Wright's Ohio R. 392; Com. v. Farkin, 3 Penn. L. J. 482 ; Vance v. Com.  2 Virg. C. 132 ;
M'Allister v. State, 17 Alab. 434; R. v. Barton, 3 Cox C. C. 275 ;  R. v. Offord, 5 C. & P.
168;  R. v. Higginson, 1 C. & K. 129 ; R. v. Stokes, 3 C. &  K. 185; R. v. Layton, 4 Cox,
C. C.  149; R. v. Vaughan, 1  Cox, C. C. 80. 
38                   RESPONSIBILITY FOR CRIME.

tions propounded to them by the  House  of Lords in  June, 1843—
answers  which Avere extrajudicially  delivered, and Avhich,  therefore,
though of weight as opinions,  are not binding as  authority.   "The
jury," they said, "ought to be told in all cases that every man is pre-
sumed to be sane, and to possess a sufficient degree of  reason to be re-
sponsible for'his crimes until the contrary be proved to  their satisfac-
tion ; and that to  establish a defence on the ground of insanity, it must
be clearly proved  that at the time of committing the  act, the party ac-
cused Avas laboring under such a defect of  reason, from  disease of the
mind, as not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing, or if
he did know it, that he did not know he was doing Avhat Avas wrong, "(y)

   2d.  When the defendant is acting under an insane delusion as to cir-
cumstances, which, if true,  would  relieve  the act from  responsibility,
or where his  reasoning poivers are so depraved as to make the commis-
sion of the particular act the natural consequence of the delusion.

   § 47. The answer of the English judges on this point is  worthy of
notice.   The question propounded to them in this respect, was, " If a
person, under an insane delusion  as to  existing facts, commits an
offence in consequence thereof, is he thereby excused':"'  "To AA'hich
question," they replied,  "the answer  must of course depend on the
nature of the delusion: but, making the same  assumption as Ave did
before, namely, that he labors under such partial delusion only, and  is
not  in other respects insane, Ave  think he must be considered in the
same situation as to responsibility, as if the facts with respect to Avhich
the delusion exists, were real.  For example ;  if under the influence  of
his delusion, he supposes another man to be in the  act of attempting to
take away his life,  and  he kills that  man, as he  supposes, in self
defence, he would be exempt from  punishment.  If his delusion Avas,
that the deceased had inflicted a serious injury to his character and
fortune, and  he killed him in revenge for such supposed injury, he
would be liable to  punishment."
   § 48. So far as the  laAV thus stated goes,—and  it is stated with
extreme  caution,—it has been ahvays recognized as  binding  in this
country.   Even where  there  is no pretence of insanity, it  has  been
held in one State,  that if a man, though in  no danger of serious bodily
harm, through  fear,  alarm, or coAvardice, kill another under the im-
pression  that  great  bodily injury is about to be inflicted on  him, it is
neither manslaughter nor murder, but self defence ;(k) and though this
proposition is too broadly stated, as is remarked  by Bronson, J., when
commenting on it in a recent case in  NeAV  York, and should  be quali-
fied  as to make it necessary that there should  be facts and circum-
stances existing Avhich would lead the jury to believe that the defendant
had  reasonable (in proportion to his own lights)  ground for his belief
yet  with this  qualification  it  is  noAV  generally  rcceived.(Z)   And,
indeed, as shoAvn  by Mr. Justice Bronson,  in  the case just noticed
after the general  though tardy acquiescence in Selfridge's case, where
  (./) 1 Car. & Kir. 134; 8 Scott, N. R. 595.    (k) Granger v. State, 5 Yerger, 459
  (I) Shorter v. People, 2 Comstock, 197-202, S. C. 4 Barb. 460; Monroe v. State, 5 Geo
85 ; State v. Scott, 4 Iredell, 409 ; People v. M'Leod, 1 Hill, 420; People v. Pine '2 Bar- 
INSANE DELUSIONS.
39
the same view was taken as  early as 1805 by Chief Justice Parker of
Massachusetts, and after the  almost literal incorporation of the leading
distinctions of the latter case in  the revised  Statutes of NeAV York, as
well as into the judicial system of most of the  States, the  point must
be considered as  finally at rest.   Perhaps  the doctrine, as  laid  down
originally in  Selfridge's case,  would  have  met  Avith a much earlier
acquiescence had not the supposed  political bias of  the court  in that
extraordinary trial, and the remarkable laxity shoAvn in the framing of
the bill and in the adjustment of bail, led to a  deep-seated professional
prejudice which, struck at even such parts of the  charge as were indis-
putably sound, (m)
   § 49.  In none of the cases  Avhich have just been noticed,  is the actual
existence of danger an essential ingredient, and certainly, as the inten-
tions of  an assailant are incapable of positive ascertainment,  such  a
danger can  never be absolutely shown to exist.   It is  true that when
the  point has  not been directly before  the judicial mind,  dicta have
been thrown out to the effect, that the danger must be such as to alarm
a reasonable man, but Avhenever  the requisite  state of facts has been
presented,  courts have not hesitated to  say that the danger must be
estimated,  not by the jury's standard, but  by that  of the defendant
himself.   Thus,  a very enlightened and learned  judge  in Pennsyl-
vania, one Avho would be among the last to weaken any of the sanctions
of human life, in a late case  directed the jury to take into consideration
 "the relative characters, as  individuals," of the  deceased  and the de-
fendant, and, in determining whether the danger really was imminent
or not, to  inquire "Avhether  the deceased was bold, strong, and of  a
violent and vindictive character, and the defendant much weaker,  and
of a  timid disposition."   And to the same effect will be found the cases
in the Supreme Courts  of Massachusetts  and Pennsylvania, to be pre-
sently more particularly noticed.
   §  50. If, therefore, a delusion  that a party is  in danger, whether
 such delusion be the result of insanity or of physical causes, is a justi-
 fication of violence adequate to remove the  supposed danger,—and the
 answer of the English judges on this point corresponds with  our own,—

 bour 168 ; Roberts v. Slate, 3 Georg. 310 ; Com. v. Rogers, supra. See generally Wharton
 on Homicide, 216, 7, 8, 9, &c, and  a very interesting series of notes in 7 Bost. Law Rep.
 (U. S.) 575, 689, &c.
   (m) In a former  work, (Wharton's C. L. 2d ed. 390,) the  present writer went into a
 critical examination of Selfridge's  case, and advanced the opinion that the verdict^ at
 least, as well as the preliminary proceedings, were inconsistent with a just appreciation
 of human life, and with the dignity of public justice. This view is by no means re-
tracted ; and the gradual development of the political  correspondence of those days
shows that an approval of Selfridge's course,—the shooting down by a  man of thirty of
a lad of  eighteen,  then an undergraduate in  Harvard College, because the latter
thought proper to suppose that the former, whose father he had just posted, might  be
ready to avenge the insult,—was  made a party test.  Indeed, John Adams (Cunning.
Cor. 70,) tells us that " the  great  political  parties in the State, were  arranged under
their respective standards on the simple question of the  guilt or innocence of an indi-
vidual under a criminal accusation."  But it is due to the excellent  jurist who pre-
 sided at the trial to say that, however, in the reception and adjustment of bail —two
 thousand dollars—he may have been influenced by those political heats to which even
 the bench in those times was subject, his charge is a fair statement of the  English common
 law, as adapted to our social condition.  And however great may have been the zeal with
 which the case has been assailed, it is now impossible to refuse to recognize it as having
 been largely and definitely influential in settling this branch  of American Jurisprudence. 
40
RESPONSIBILITY FOR CRIME.
it is difficult to avoid the conclusion, that a delusion as to the amount of
force necessary to obviate the imagined attack should be equally potent.
Thus, for instance, it is stated by the English judges, that if the party
is under an insane delusion that  the deceased is about to take his life,
and he kills him to prevent  it,  he is to be exempt  from punishment.
The gist of  this position  consists in the delusion.   If, therefore, by
an insane delusion, or depravation of the reasoning faculty, the defend-
ant insanely believes, either that the imagined evil is so intolerable as
to make life-taking necessary or justifiable in order to avert it, or that
while the evil is of a lesser grade, life-taking is an appropriate and just
way of getting rid of it, the same reasoning applies.  The principle may
logically be stated thus :—
  1. Any species  of insane  delusion  exempts  from punishment  the
perpetrator of an act committed under its influence.
  2. The belief, unfounded in fact, that  a party is in immediate danger
of his life from another,  may  be such a delusion.
  Or the belief that taking the life of another is the appropriate remedy
for a minor though imagined evil, may be also an insane delusion.
  3. Therefore, homicide, under such a delusion, is not liable to punish-
ment.^)
  § 51. The minor premise, it will at once be seen, may be varied, without
weakening the conclusion, by inserting in its place any insane delusion,
the existence of which would deprive the act of guilty  consciousness.
That an insane delusion, as to the value or meaning of human life, will
have this effect, even though the party himself knows when committing
the act that  he is doing wrong, and is violating  the laws of the land,
is  illustrated by Lord  Erskine, in a  well-known case :   " Let  me
suppose," he said, "the character of an insane delusion consisted in the
belief  that some given person Avas any brute animal, or an inanimate
being (and such cases have  existed), and that upon the trial of such a
lunatic for murder, you,  being on your oaths, Avere convinced,  upon the
uncontradicted evidence  of  one hundred persons, that he believed  the
man he had destroyed to have been a potter's vessel; that it Avas quite
impossible to doubt  that fact, although  to other  intents and  purposes
he was sane,—answering, reasoning, acting as men, not in any manner
tainted with insanity, converse  and reason  and  conduct  themselves.
Suppose, further, that he  believed the  man whom he destroyed,  but
whom he destroyed as a  potter's vessel,  to be the property of another,
and that he had malice against such supposed person, and that he
meant to injure him, knowing the act he was doing to be malicious and
injurious; and that, in short, he had full knowledge of all principles of
good and evil; yet would it  be possible  to convict such a person of
murder, if, from the influence of the disease, he was ignorant of the re-
lation  in which he stood  to the man he had destroyed, and was utterly
unconscious that he had struck at the life of a human being ?"(o)

  (n) It is important that by "punishment," as here used, should be understood such
punishment as is  inflicted on persons of sound mind.  It is essential, however to the
policy of the present more humane mode of treatment for the insane that, in all cases
where a party is acquitted on ground of insanity, strict confinement should be directed
in such  a way as will exempt the community from any probable recurrence of such de-
lirius outrages.  This will hereafter be more fully considered: post, g 259-276.
  (o) Winslow on Plea of Insanity, 6. 
INSANE DELUSION.
41
  Again: in  a case which has more than  once occurred within the
walls of a lunatic asylum, a man fancies himself to be the Grand Lama
or Alexander the Great, and supposes that his neighbor is brought be-
fore him for an invasion of his sovereignty,  and he cuts off his head or
throttles him.  He knows he is  doing wrong; perhaps, from a sense of
guilt, he conceals the body: he may have a clear perception of the legal
consequences of his act.  According to Mr. Wigan, such an association of
a consciousness of the objective guilt and consequences of  an act with
an  insane delusion, as  to  its subjective relation, is readily  explained
on the principle of the duality of the human mind; but however this
may be,  it is a matter in which all observers agree that the lunatic is,
in most instances, conscious of the civil and social relations of his con-
duct, (p)   Nor, even under the severe sanction of the  older English text
writers (who have, by their failure to reach this point, demonstrated
how dangerous it is, with our own imperfect experience, to attempt
to codify or dogmatize  the laws into a few absolute propositions), has
this truth evaded  the  practical recognition of the courts.  Thus, in
a case where it Avas proved that the defendant had taken the life of
another under the notion  that he Avas  set  about with a conspiracy to
subject him to imprisonment and death, Lord Lyndhurst, Avhile quoting
with apparent entire acquiescence, Hale's doctrine, as promulgated by
Sir  James Mansfield in Bellingham's case, thought it not too liberal
a sweep  for  him  to tell the jury  that  they might  "acquit the pris-
oner on the ground  of insanity, if he did not know, Avhen he committed
the act, what the effect of it was with reference to the crime of murder."
Certainly, without indulging in any levity, it might be readily imagined
that an acquittal would be easy enough  if it was necessary, in order to
create responsibility, that  the party should  knoAV the effect of it with
reference to a question whose meaning, even to the Court itself, appears
to have been enveloped in so much mist.  But there can  be  no doubt,
after careful  examination of the whole case, that the point Lord Lynd-
hurst decided Avas, that  a  man  Avho, under an  insane delusion, shoots
another,  is irresponsible when the  act  is  the  product of the delusion.
Such, indeed, on general reasoning, must be held  to be the law in this
country,  and such will it be held to be when any  particular case arises
which requires its application.   The fact that against this view militate
certain expressions—obiter dicta—in recorded opinions, as well as in the
answers of the English judges, will not prevent its practical recognition,
any more than  Lord Lyndhurst was prevented,  by the first class of
authorities, from advising the acquittal of Offord,  and aftenvards main-
taining that that acquittal Avas consistent with the very precedents now
cited against  it.
  § 52. The  delusion, however, must go to the root of the crime; or,
in other words, the crime must  have been the result of the delusion.
Dr. Casper^) has given us a pregnant illustration  of  this:  A mer-
chant, named Schraber Avas convicted  of cheating by false  pretences

  (?) Wigan on Insanity, &c, London, 1844, 65 ; Winslow, Plea of Insanity, 16; Ray.
Med. Jur. of Ins., \ 17 ; Siebold Gericht, Med. \ 219 ; Pinel Traite sur alienation mentale,
2d ed., Par. 1809, 156; Riel, Fieberlehre, 4  Bd. 396; Groos, Die  Lehre von der  Mania
sine Delirio, Heidelberg,  1830; De Boismont on Halluc, Phil. 1853, 506.
  (j) Wochenschrift, Nr. 31-32. 
42
RESPONSIBILITY FOR CRIME.
and false information, and was sentenced to imprisonment for six years.
On an application to the Court to reconsider the sentence, insanity was
set up, and it appeared that the prisoner either felt or feigned a belief
that  he Avas  a legitimate son of the late  Duke Charles of Mecklcnberg
Strelitz; which certainly if not a mere fiction, Avas an insane delusion.
Much  reason existed to believe  that  the Avhole  thing Avas simulated;
but,  independently of this, the Court was  clear  that as  the  mania, if
real, had no connection with his crime, it formed no ground for a revi-
sion  of the sentence.


3rd.   Where the defendant is impelled by a morbid  and uncontrollable
                impulse to commit the particular act.

   § 53. The questions propounded to the English judges related solely
to the doctrine of insane delusions;  and the replies, though containing
general expressions,  can hardly, even  in England, be  considered as
authoritative in a case where the defence is monomaniac impulse.  In
this  country, the  effect  of such a defence, as distinguished from that of
insane delusion, has been the subject of special consideration.   The
first  case in Avhich it was gravely considered is that of CommonAvealth
v. Rogers, before the  Supreme Court  of Massachusetts,  in the spring
of lS44.(r)   Chief Justice ShaAV—whose conservative tendencies on the
great sanctions of human life cannot be suspected—found himself, in
preparing his charge, embarrassed by the conflict between the dogmas
of the older judges and the necessities of the particular case, and there is
an evident struggle on  his part to preserve as much as he could of  the
letter of the former, and at the same time to establish a principle by which
the latter could be properly respected.  He begins—Ave cite from the au-
thorized report—by laying doAvn tAVO propositions  of great breadth.   " In
order to constitute a crime," he says, " a person  must have intelligence
and capacity enough to have a criminal intent and purpose; and if his rea-
son and mental powers  are either so deficient that he has no will, no con-
science, or controlling mental  power, or if, through the  overAvhelming
violence of mental disease, his intellectual  power is for the time  ob-
literated, he is  not a responsible moral agent, and is not punishable for
criminal acts.   These extremes," he  then proceeds to state, "are easily
distinguished, and not to be mistaken.  The difficulty lies between these
extremes, in the cases of partial insanity, where the  mind may be
clouded and Aveakened, but not incapable of remembering,  reasoning,
and judging; or so perverted by insane  delusion, as to act under false
impressions and influence'."  To such cases—to  those where the mind
is not "incapable of judging," &c, and  to those  where it acts "under
false impressions and influences,"—and to  such alone,  he applies the
"right and wrong" test; reserving to it a very small sphere  of action,
since the defence of insanity would  scarcely be  ventured Avhere  there
was  both a capacity to judge, reason, and  remember,  and a freedom
from false "impressions and influences." Taking up the particular de-

   (r) This case is reported with great fullness, in pamphlet shape, by Messrs. Bemes &
Bigelow, and is incorporated, in a condensed form, in the 7th volume of Mr. Metcalf s
Reports, p. 500. 
HOMICIDAL MANIA.
43
fence of monomania, Avhich was that advanced in the case before him,
he proceeds to state the law, with a liberality in entire accordance with
the Aveight of medical authority.  " This" (monomania) " may operate as
an excuse for a criminal act in one of two modes. 1. Either the delusion
is such that the person under its influence has a real and firm belief of
some fact, not true in itself, but which, if it Avere true, would excuse his
act: as where the belief is that  the party killed had an immediate  de-
sign upon his life, and under that belief the  insane man  kills  in sup-
posed self-defence.  A common instance is Avhere he fully believes that
the act he is doing is done by the immediate command of  God, and he
acts under the delusive but sincere belief that what he is doing, is by  the
command of a superior power, which supersedes all human laAvs, and
the laws of nature.  2. Or this  state of delusion  indicates, to an  ex-
perienced person, that the mind is in a diseased state; that the known
tendency  of that diseased state of the mind is to break out into sudden
paroxysms of violence, venting itself in homicide, or other violent acts
tOAvards friend and foe indiscriminately;  so that, although there Avere
no previous indications of  violence, yet the subsequent act, connecting
itself with the previous symptoms and indications, will enable an  expe-
rienced person to say, that the outbreak was of such a character that for
the time being it  must have overborne memory and reason;  that^  the
act Avas the result of the disease and not of a mind capable of choosing;
in short, that it Avas the result of uncontrollable impulse, and  not of a
person acted on by motives, and governed by  will."   *  *  *_  "Are
the facts of such a character, taken in connection  Avith the opinion of
professional witnesses, as to induce the jury to believe that the accused
was laboring for  days under monomania,  attended with delusion, and
did thus indicate such a diseased state of the mind, that the act of killing
the Avarden, was to be  considered as an outbreak or paroxysm of disease,
which for the time being overwhelmed and superseded reason and judg-
ment,  so that the  diseased  was not an accountable agent ?   If such Avas
the case, the accused is entitled to an acquittal."
  § 54. In the fall of 1846 a similar defence was  started  before  three
of the judges of  the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, then holding an
Oyer and Terminer in Philadelphia.   In his charge to the jury,  Chief
Justice Gibson—a most able judge, thoroughly disciplined in and wedded
to the common law, but at the same time  endowed with an energy of
perception and a delicacy of appreciation  Avhich  gave him a remark-
able zest  for  and a mastery over  collateral sciences — after, in  the
first place, vehemently repudiating  the doctrine that  partial  insanity
excuses any thing but its  direct results, and sliding, in  reference to
such cases, into the "right and wrong" test, proceeds:  "But  there is
a moral or homicidal insanity, consisting of an irresistible inclination
to kill or to  commit some  other  particular  offence.(s)   There may
be an unseen  ligament pressing on  the  mind, draAving it to conse-
quences which it  sees  but cannot  avoid,  and  placing  it  under a
coercion which, while its results are clearly perceived, is  incapable of

  (*) The charge was  oral, having been reported by the present writer, and but hastily
revised by the Judge  himself, which may account for the want of literal exactness in
this and other expressions. 
44
RESPONSIBILITY FOR CRIME.
resistance.  The doctrine which acknowledges this mania is dangerous
in its relations,  and can be recognized only in  the  clearest cases.   It
ought to be shown to have been habitual, or at least to have evinced
itself in more than a single instance.   It  is seldom directed against a
particular individual; but that it  may be so, is proved by the case of
the young woman who was deluded by an irresistible impulse to destroy
her child, though aware of the heinous nature of the act.  The frequency
of this constitutional malady is fortunately small, and  it  is  better to
confine it within the strictest  limits.   If  juries were  to  alloAV it as  a
general motive,  operating  in cases  of this character, its recognition
would destroy social order as well as personal safety.  To establish it as
a justification in any particular case, it is necessary either to  shoAV, by
clear proofs, its contemporaneous existence evinced by present circum-
stances, or the existence of an habitual tendency developed in previous
cases, becoming in itself a second nature."
   § 55. In  a still earlier  case in Pennsylvania, Judge Lewis, then pre-
siding in Lycoming county, and now Chief Justice of  Pennsylvania, a
judge by whom  the subject  of medical jurisprudence has received pecu-
liar and careful attention—recognized the same doctrine,  though Avith
even  greater  reluctance.   " Moral  insanity arises  from the existence
of some of  the natural propensities in such violence, that it is impos-
sible not to yield  to them.  It bears a striking resemblance  to vice,
which is  said to consist in an undue excitement  of the passions and Avill,
and in their irregular or crooked actions leading to crime.  It is there-
fore to be received with the utmost  scrutiny.   It is not generally ad-
mitted in legal  tribunals as a species of  insanity which relieves from
responsibility for crime, and it ought never to be admitted as a defence,
until it is shown that these propensities exist in such violence, as to sub-
jugate the intellect, control the will, and render it  impossible for  the
party to do otherwise than yield.   Where  its existence is fully estab-
lished, this  species  of insanity relieves from accountability to human
laws.  But this state of mind is not to be presumed Avithout evidence,
nor does it usually occur  without some premonitory symptoms indicat-
ing its approach. "(£)
   § 56. And, indeed, in all cases  Avhere clear  proof is  not  presented
of the existence of such a malady—difficult though it be  to secure—it
is important to keep in mind  the striking  observations  of Lord Broug-
ham, when the question was in  discussion in the House  of Lords.
" With respect to the point, of a person being an accountable being, that
was, an accountable being to the laAV of the land, a great confusion had
pervaded the minds of  some persons whom he Avas  indisposed to  call
reasoners, who considered accountability in  its  moral sense, as mixing
itself up Avith the only kind of accountableness  Avith Avhich they, as hu-
man legislators, had to do,  or of  Avhich  they  could take cognizance.
He could conceive of the case of a human being of a weakly constituted
mind, who might by long brooding over real or  fancied wrongs, work up
so perverted a feeling of hatred against an individual that danger might

   (f) The same view was, some years after, repeated by the same enlightened and able
judge; Lewis Cr. Law, 404; and by Judge  Edmonds, (2 Am. Jour, of Ins.); and Judge
Whiting, (Freeman's Trial—Pamph.) 
HOMICIDAL MANIA.
45
occur.  He might not be deluded as to the actual existence of injuries
he had received, but he might grievously and grossly exaggerate them,
and they might so operate upon a weakly framed mind and intellect as
to produce crime.   He could conceive that the Maker of that man, in
his infinite mercy, having regard to the  object of his  creation, might
deem him not an object for punishment.   But that man was accountable
to human tribunals in a totally different sense.  Man punished crime for
the purpose of practically deterring others from offending, by committing
a repetition of the like act.   It was in that sense only  that he had any
thing to do Avith the doctrine of accountable  and not accountable.  He
could conceiA'e a person whom the Deity might not deem accountable,
but who might be perfectly accountable to human laws."(it)
   § 57. Chief Justice Hornblower, it is true, in a charge, which bears the
impress of his single authority, not having been revieAved by the Court,
in banc, took still more decided ground, involving an emphatic disclaimer
of moral insanity in toto.  At the same  time he rejects in a manner
quite unexampled for its summariness, all the  old tests, and reduces the
inquiry to a point Avhich, after all, leaves the widest margin.   " In my
judgment, the true question to be put to the jury is, whether the prisoner
Avas insane at the time of committing the act;  and in  answer to  that
question there is little danger of a jury's giving a negative answer, and
convicting a prisoner A\-ho is proved to be insane on the subject matter
relating to or connected with the criminal act, or proved to be  so far
and so generally deranged as to render it difficult, or almost impossible,
to discriminate between his sane  and insane  acts."(v)  Had  the most
liberal doctrine of the test writers been given instead of this, the jury
could hardly have been allowed greater latitude.
   The great weight of American judicial authority, therefore, inclines
to the recognition of homicidal insanity as a distinct basis  of defence.
And, in fact, this concession is but a legitimate consequence of the posi-
tion  already generally noticed, and to be presently more  specifically
considered, that the testimony  of medical men is, on medical questions,
to be received by Court and jury as authoritative.
   § 58. When such a view is taken there can be no doubt of the result.
Those to whom the guardianship and study of the insane is committed,
unite in saying that  moral insanity is a distinct, well  known malady,
which arbitrarily impels its victim to involuntary crimes  which  he de-
tests but cannot avoid.  Judge Story, with his usual tenderness, refused
to alloAV the  conviction of a young woman who in a fit of puerperal
mania threw her infant overboard, though she was perfectly conscious
of the enormity of the act ;(w) and  what this humane and very able judge
did, in the teeth of the old dogmas, from the necessity of the case, the
modern psychologists  teach  to be in accordance with  experience and
right  reason.   The English and American writers, it may not be out of
place here to notice, are distinct to this  effect.(a:)
   § 59. Nor is the testimony of the Continental Psychologists less em-

  (w) Hans. Par. Deb. LXVII. 728.           (y) State v. Spencer, 1 Zabriskie, 196.
  (w) U. S.  v. Hewson, 7 Bost. Law Rep. 361.
  (x) Winslow on Plea of Insan. 35, 64; Rav's Med. Jur. 188, 192, 218; Guy's Med. Jur.
329 ; Rush on the Mind, 261; Wigan on Insanity, 81;  1 Beck's Med. Jur. 10th Ed.
774-5 ;post I 174—221. 
46
HOMICIDAL MANIA.
phatic, as will hereafter be more fully considered Avhen the general
psychological characteristics of insanity are considered.(y)  It is true
that more recent  observers have doubted the metaphysical accuracy
of the definition given in the older treatises—Mania sine dtlirio.  Thus
it is justly noticed by Schurmayer,(g) that it is contrary to all received
psychological theories to suppose that a particular passion or moral re-
lation can become depraved Avithout an intellectual inflection to some ex-
tent corresponding.   But be this as it may, there is a uniform recogni-
tion by all the authoritative writers of this particular species of insanity,
whether it be generally defined according to the popular English idiom,
as moral insanity or moral monomania,  or according to the phraseology
of Ettmuller as Melancholia sine delirio seuperturbatio mentis melancho-
lia sine delirio, or that of Pinel, as Manie sans dclire ; or Avhether  as by
the more recent and exact  authorities, it be  presented  rather through
the particular forms in which it exhibits itself, than through a positive
and absolute  definition.
  § 60.  The  limits of the present Avork will not permit a full considera-
tion of  the psychological and physiological  reasoning by  which the
absurdity as  well as the impossibility of the  right and wrong test is
demonstrated; and  less difficulty is  felt at this omission, as the task
has been performed with great ability by Dr. Ray, in the preliminary
views to his work on Insanity ; by Mr. Winslow, in his essay on the Plea
of insanity;  by Mr. Wigan, in his remarkable treatise on the Duality
of the Human Mind.  Tavo prominent points, however, cannot be passed
over:
  1. The " right and wrong test" can never be rightly applied, because
it rests in the conscience, which no human eye can penetrate.
  2. It is useless, even if possible, as almost every case of decided in-
sanity is accompanied with a moral sense.(a)
  § 61.  To the illustrations which are adduced of this position by Es-
quirol, de Boismont, Bay,  and Winslow, the present writer may be per-
mitted to  add one  within the  range of  his own experience.  A  man
named John Billman, who  had been  sent to the  Eastern  Penitentiary
of Pennsylvania for horse  stealing, murdered  his keeper under circum-
stances of great brutality,  and yet with so  much ingenuity as  to  elude
suspicions of his intentions, and  almost conceal  his  flight.   He  hung
a noose  on the outside of the small window Avhich is placed in the door
of the cells to enable persons outside to look in.  He  then induced the
keeper, in order to look at something on the  floor  directly at  the foot
of the door,  to put his head  entirely through.   The noose  was   then
drawn, and but for an accident, the  man would  have been  suffocated.
Notwithstanding this attempt, the same keeper was inveigled  into the
cell alone, a  few days  aftenvards, on the pretence of  Billman  being
sick, and was there killed by a bloAV on  the head with a piece of wash-
board.  Billman undressed him ; changed clothes Avith him ; placed him
on the bed in such a position as to induce  the general  appearance  of
his being there himself; traversed in his assumed garb, the corridor with
an  unconcerned air; addressed an apparently careless question to the

  (tf) Post \ 174-221.            («) Gericht. Medicin, Erlangen, 1850, 3 549.
  (a) Winslow's Plea of Insan. 6, 11, 19; Ray Med. Jur. 34, 5, 6. 
              CRIMINAL RESPONSIBILITY OF DRUNKARDS.           47

gate-keeper, and sauntered listlessly doAvn the street on which the gate
opened.   He was, hoAvever, soon caught; but his insanity was so in-
disputable, that the prosecuting authorities, after having instituted  a
careful and skilful medical examination, became convinced of his  irre-
sponsibility, and united upon the trial in asking a verdict of acquittal
on the ground of insanity.   He Avas then  remanded to confinement,
under the Pennsylvania practice;  and some time afterwards, when in
a communicative mood, disclosed the fact of his having several years back
murdered his  father under circumstances which he detailed with great
minuteness and  zest.  Inquiries were instituted, and it was  found that
he had told the  truth.  The father had been found strangled in his bed ;
the son had been arrested for the  crime; but so artfully had  he con-
trived the homicide, that  he Avas acquitted by means of an alibi, got up
by means of a rapid ride at midnight, and a feigned sleep in a chamber,
into which he had clambered by a windoAV.   Here, then,  Avas not only
a sense of guilt, but a keen appreciation of the consequences of expo-
sure, and  an abundance of evidence of long  harbored  intention  and
intelligent design.
   A still more emphatic illustration of the same sense of accountability
among lunatics, as a class, is to be found in an anecdote  related by Dr.
Winslow.(b)   When Martin set York Minster on fire, a conversation
took place among the inmates of a neighboring lunatic asylum, having
reference to  this  general  topic.   The  question was, whether Martin
would be hanged,  when,  in the course  of the discourse, one madman
announced to the others  a position, in  which they all acquiesced, that
Martin would not be hanged, because he was " one of themselves."  It
certainly will not be maintained that a consciousness of the  legal rela-
tions of crime,  such as this  remark exhibited,  confers  responsibility
where it does not othenvise exist.
     IV. HOW INTOXICATION AFFECTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR CRIME.

   The law in this connection may be summed up as follows:—
   1st. Insanity, produced by delirium tremens, affects responsibility
in the same Avay, as insanity produced by any other cause.
   2nd.  Insanity, immediately produced by intoxication,  does  not  de-
stroy responsibility, if the patient, when sane and responsible, makes
himself intoxicated.
   3rd.  While  drunkenness per se is no defence to the fact of guilt,  yet
when the question of intent or premeditation is concerned,  it becomes a
material item of consideration.
1st. Insanity produced by delirium tremens affects the responsibility in
        the same way as insanity produced by any other cause.

  § 62. If a  man who, laboring under delirium tremens, kills another,
is made responsible, there is scarcely any species of insanity which on
(6) Lectures, &c. 108. 
48            CRIMINAL RESPONSIBILITY OF DRUNKARDS.
like principles would not be subjected to the severest penalties of crimi-
nal law.  "It may be the immediate effect," says Dr. Ray,(c) "of an
excess, or series  of  excesses, in  those  who  are not habitually intem-
perate, as well as in those  who are;  but it  most commonly occurs in
habitual drinkers, after a  few days total abstinence from spirituous
liquors.  It is also very liable to  occur in this latter  class when laboring
under other diseases, or severe external injuries, that give  rise to any
degree of constitutional disturbance.   The approach of the disease is
generally indicated by a slight tremor and faltering  of the hands and
lower extremities, a tremulousness of the voice, a certain  restlessness
and sense of anxiety which the patient knows not how  to  describe or
account for, disturbed sleep, and  impaired appetite.   These symptoms
having continued two or three days, at the end of which  time they have
obviously increased in severity, the patient ceases to sleep altogether,
and soon becomes delirious.  At  first the delirium is not constant, the
mind wandering during the night, but, during the day, when its  atten-
tion is fixed, capable of  rational  discourse.   It is  not  long, however,
before it becomes constant,  and constitutes the most prominent feature
of the disease.   Occasionally the delirium occurs at  an earlier period of
the disease,  and may even be the first symptom of any disorder.   This
state of watchfulness and delirium continues three or four days,  when,
if the patient recov.er, it is succeeded by sleep, which at first appears in
uneasy  and irregular naps, and  lastly in long, sound, and  refreshing
slumbers.  When sleep does not  supervene  about this period, the dis-
ease is fatal; and whether subjected to medical treatment  or left to itself,
neither its symptoms  nor its duration are materially modified.  The
character of the delirium in this disease is peculiar,  bearing a stronger
resemblance than any other form of mental derangement, to dreaming.
It would seem as if the dreams which disturb and harass the mind during
the imperfect sleep that precedes  the explosion of the disease, continue
to occupy it when awake,  being then  viewed  as realities,  instead of
dreams.  The patient imagines  himself, for instance, to  be in  some
peculiar situation, or engaged in certain occupations, according to each
individual's habits and profession ; and his discourse and conduct are con-
formed to this delusion, with this  striking peculiarity, however, that he
is thwarted at every step, and is constantly meeting  with obstacles that
defy his utmost efforts to remove.   Almost invariably, the patient mani-
fests,  more or less, feelings of suspicion or fear, laboring under continual
apprehension of being made the victim of sinister designs and practices.
He imagines that certain people have conspired to rob or murder him,
and insists that he can hear them in an adjoining apartment, arranging
their plans and preparing to rush into  his room; or  that he is in a
strange place, where he is forcibly detained and prevented  from  going
to his own home.  One of the most common hallucinations is, to be con-
stantly seeing devils, snakes, vermin, and all manner of  unclean things
around him and  about  him, and  filling every nook  and corner  of his
apartment.  The extreme  terror which these delusions often inspire,
produces in the countenance an unutterable expression of anguish, and
in the hope of escaping from his fancied tormentors, the wretched patient
(c) Med. Jur. 438. 
DELIRIUM TREMENS.  WHEN A DEFENCE.
49
endeavors to cut his throat or jump from the window.   Under the in-
fluence of these terrible apprehensions he  sometimes murders his  AArife
or attendant, Avhom his disordered imagination identifies with his enemies,
though he is generally tractable, and not inclined to be  mischievous.
After perpetrating an act of this kind, he generally gives some illusive
reason for his conduct, rejoices in his success, and expresses his regret
at not having done it before."(cc)
   § 63. As far as concerns temporary  incapacity, therefore, delirium
tremens acts in the same way as any other delirium, and when complete,
destroys the moral as Avell as the intellectual responsibility.  The  only
question, therefore, is whether there is anything in the source from Avhich
it is derived Avhich requires that it should be exempted from the general
rule by which delirium forms  a good defence  to  an  indictment for a
criminal offence.  In the dicta of one or two of the older laAV writers,
this exception is  sought to be sustained on the ground that a drunk-
ard, in every stage,  is a voluntary demon, and  that he can no more use
his consequent mania as a defence, than can the man who kills another
by a  sword  allege that  it was the sword,  and not himself,  that Avas
the guilty agent.  But to this the answer is three-fold :(1) that delirium
tremens is not the intended result of drink in the same Avay that drunk-
enness is; (2) that there is no possiblity that delirium tremens will
be voluntarily generated  in order  to afford a  cloak for a  particular
crime;  (3) that, so  far as original cause is concerned, it  is  not pecu-
liar in being the  offspring of indiscretion or guilt, for such is the case
with  almost  every other  species of  insanity.    These points scarcely
need to  be  expanded.  The fact  is, delirium  tremens  runs the same
course with almost every other species of insanity known in the crimi-
nal courts.   It is the result, like most  other manias, of prior vicious
indulgence;  but it differs from  intoxication in being shunned rather
than  courted by the patient, and in being  incapable of voluntary  as-
sumption for the purpose of covering guilt.
   § 64.  Reason, therefore, undoubtedly teaches us that a person who
is incapacitated from moral  and intellectual agency, by reason of deli-
rium tremens, is irresponsible;  and  such  is the law,  as decided in  re-
peated  instances.(d)  Thus, in the  leading American  case, Story,  J.,
declared criminal responsibility not to attach where the delirium is the
"remote consequence" of voluntary  intoxication, "superinduced by the
antecedent  exhaustion of the party, arising from gross  and  habitual
drunkenness. However criminal," he proceeded to say, " in a moral  point
of  view, such an  indulgence is, and  however justly a party  may be  re-
sponsible for his acts arising from it, to Almighty God, human tribunals
are  generally restricted  from punishing  them, since they are not the
acts of a reasonable being.  Had the crime been committed  when Drew
(the defendant) was in a  fit  of intoxication, he would have  been liable
to be conATicted of murder.  As he was not then intoxicated, but merely
insane from  an abstinence from liquor, he cannot be pronounced guilty
of the offence.  The law looks to the immediate, and not to the remote

  (cc) See an interesting case of Oinomania in 8 Am. Jour, of Insan. 3.
  (d) U. S. v. Drew, 5 Mason, U. S. Rep. 28; Bennett v. State, Mart. & Yerg. 133; Corn-
well v. State, ibid. 14; R. v. Thomas, 8 C. & P. 820; R. v. Meakin, 7 C. & P. 299; Ren-
nie's case, 1 Lew. C.  C.  76; 1 Hale, 32 ; 1 Rus. on Cr. 7;  4 Black. Com. 26.
       4 
50
INTOXICATION NO DEFENCE.
cause; to the actual state of the party, and not to the causes which
remotely produced  it,  Many species of insanity arise, remotely, from
what, in a moral vicAV, is a criminal neglect or fault of the party ;  as
from religious melancholy, undue exposure, extravagant pride, ambition,
&c.  Yet such  insanity has ahvays been deemed a sufficient excuse for
any crime done under its influence."
   § 65. In a still earlier case of at least equal authority, the court told
the jury that if they "should  be satisfied  by the evidence, that  the
prisoner, at the time of committing the act  charged in the indictment,
was in  such a  state of mental  insanity not produced by the immediate
effects of intoxicating drinks, as not to have been conscious  of the moral
turpitude of the act, they should find him not guilty." (e)  And ex-
pressly to this very point is a  very recent case, where a federal judge
of high authority told the jury that if the defendant was " so far insane
as not to know  the nature of the  act, nor Avhether it was wrong or not,
he is not punishable, although such delirium tremens is produced by the
voluntary use of intoxicating liquors."  (/)

2d.  Insanity  immediately  produced by intoxication  does not  destroy
   responsibility, where the patient when sane  and responsible, made
   himself voluntarily intoxicated.

   § 66. There can be no doubt on this point, either on principle, policy
or authority.   Drunkenness, so long as it does not prostrate the facul-
ties, cannot be distinguished from any other kind of  passion.  If the
man  Avho is maddened by an  unprovoked  attack upon his person, his
reputation or his honor, be nevertheless criminally responsible,—if hot
blood  form no  defence to the  fact of  guilt,—it Avould be a most extra-
ordinary anomaly if drunkenness  voluntarily  assumed should have that
effect, independently of all extraneous provocation whatever.   If, as is
assumed,—or else  there is no  ground for the exception,—drunkenness
so incapacitates the reason as  to make it at least partially incapable  of
distinguishing between right and wrong, or else so inflames the passions as
to make restraint unsupportable, then comes in the familiar principle that
the man who voluntarily assumes an attitude or does an act Avhich is likely
to produce death in  others, is responsible for the consequences, even
though he had at  the time no specific intentions  to  take the  life  of
any one.   Thus, if a man breaking an unruly horse wilfully ride  him
among a croAvd of  persons, the probable  danger being great and ap-
parent, or if a workman out of sport or mischief, slide  a plank from the
top of a roof into a crowded street, or if a manufacturer deliberately and
knowingly leave in the cellar of an uninhabited house a keg of powder,
and death ensue, it is murder at  common law. (g)  And so it must also
be held that the steamboat captain who deliberately dashes his boat into
a crowd of  smaller  craft, so that  life is taken, is in like manner respon-
sible.   There can be no question  as to  this.   The man who voluntarily
arms  himself with  weapons of destruction, and then throAvs them hap-

   (e) U. S. v. Clarke, 2 Cranch. C. C. R. 158.    (/) U. S. v. McGlue, 1 Curtis, C. C. R. 1.
   (g) See Wharton on Homicide, 45, where these points are fully established. 
EFFECT. OF INTOXICATION ON CRIME.
51
hazard  among the innocent Or unoffending, without even the excuse of
specific malice or provocation, is at least as dangerous as the assassin
who picks out his victim in advance.  Against the last there may be
some checks,—against the first  none.   Caution may ward off the one,
or innocence escape it, but to the other the most innocent and benevolent
would  be as likely to fall Arictim as the most malevolent.   The mind
in the  last case may be inflamed with revenge,—that " Wild Justice," as
Bacon  calls it,—which  though no  defence,  is yet  capable  of  being
reached by  reason  and averted by care.   But  in  the former, the
motive is mere gross  sensual  indulgence, and the  blow cannot be re-
strained by strength, or  avoided by  inoffensiveness.
   § 67.  As a mere matter of legal policy, the same position holds good.
There  never could be a conviction for homicide if drunkenness avoided
responsibility.(gg)  As it is, most of the premeditated homicides are com-
mitted  under the stimulus of liquor.  The guilty purpose is at first se-
dately conceived, but there are feAV men whose temperaments are so firmly
knit as to enable them to enter a scene of blood, Avithout first fortifying
themselves for the task to be performed.  The head  dreads the heart's
cowardice, and seeks to  insure against it by drink.  It  will be found
in  fact that there is scarcely a case of violent homicide,  in which it
does not appear that the defendant  strengthened  his nerves for the
execution of  his guilty  plan by  drink; just in the same way that he
strengthened his hand by the fatal Aveapon.   If, therefore, drunkenness
imparts  irresponsibility,  there are not only but feAV convictions which
have heretofore taken place which are good, but there will be no convic-
tions at all for the  future.    If  the  assassin will not take liquor to
strengthen his nerves, he will to avoid conviction.   There  Avould be
no  species of deliberate homicide, under such a dispensation,  that would
not avoid punishment.   It would be the indeliberate only  that  would
be  made responsible.
   § 68  The tenor of  common and civil law authority to  this effect  is
clear.   Even the German text writers, who generally attenuate to so
wide and thin  a texture the  doctrine of moral responsibility, do not
undertake  to treat drunkenness  as  a defence.  Sir E. Coke scarcely
goes beyond  the tenor of civil  as well as  of common law writers,
Avhen  he says, "As for a  drunkard who is voluntarius  dcemon,  he
hath, as has  been  said, no privilege thereby,  but what hurt  or ill
soever he  doth, his  drunkenness doth aggravate it.   Omne crimen
ebrietas et incendit et detegit."(h)  And although now drunkenness can-
not be said to aggravate  a crime in a judicial sense, yet it is well settled
that it forms no defence  to the fact of guilt.   Thus Judge Story, in a
case already cited, after  noticing that insanity, as a general  rule, pro-
duces irresponsibility, went  on to say, "An exception is, Avhen the
crime is  committed by a party while in a fit  of intoxication, the  law
allowing not a man to avail himself of the excuse of his own  gross vice
and misconduct, to shelter himself from the legal consequences of such
crime."  Lord Hale says, "The third sort of madness is  that  which
is dementia  affectata, namely, drunkenness.   This  vice doth deprive a
man of his reason, and puts  many men into  a perfect but  temporary
(gg) See post, \ 92.
(h) Co. Litt. 247, a. 
52
INTOXICATION AS A DEFENCE.
phrensy;  but by the laws  of England,  such a person shall  have no
privileges by his voluntarily contracted madness, but shall have  the
same judgment as if he Avere in his right senses."(z)  And so Parke, B.,
a very authoritative English croAvn  judge,  said  to a jury in 1H37, _ "I
must also tell you, that if a man makes himself voluntarily drunk, it is
no  excuse for any crime he may commit Avhilst he  is so;  he takes the
consequences of his OAvn voluntary act, or most  crimes would go  un-
punished. "(/) And Alderson, B., said in 1836, " If a man chooses to
get drunk, it is his OAvn voluntary act; it is  very different  from mad-
ness which is not caused  by any act of the person.   That voluntary
species of madness  which it  is  in a party's  power to  abstain  from, he
must answer for."(A;)  In  harmony Avith this is  the whole current of
English authority.(I)
   §  69. In this country the same position has been  taken  with marked
uniformity, it being invariably held that drunkenness  is no defence to
the factum of guilt; the only point about Avhich there has been  any
fluctuation, being the extent to Avhich evidence of  drunkenness  is re-
ceivable to   determine  the  exactness of the intent  or the extent of
deliberation, (m)

3d.  While Intoxication per se is  no defence to the fact  of guilt, yet
   when the  question  of intent or  premeditation is concerned, it is
   material for the 'purpose of determining the precise degree.

   § 70.  Great caution  is undoubtedly necessary in  the application of
this doctrine, for, as has already been remarked, there are few cases of
premeditated violent homicide, in  AAdiich the defendant does  not pre-
viously nerve himself for the encounter by liquor, and there  Avould in
future be none at all, if the fact of being in liquor at the time is enough
to disprove the existence of premeditation.   The true view, therefore,
would seem  to be, not that the fact of liquor having  been taken is of
any value  at all  on  the  question  of  intent  or  premeditation,  but
that when there is  no evidence of premeditation aliunde,  and  where
the  defendant is  proved at  the time  of  the  occurrence to  be in  a
state of mental confusion  of which drink was the cause,  the fact of
such mental confusion  may be received to show  either that there  Avas
no specific intent to take life, or that there was no  positive premedita-
tion.   In the cases arising out of the statutes resolving murder into two
degrees, in which the distinguishing test is a specific intent to take  life,
this  position receives  several  pregnant illustrations.  Thus,  in  the
Philadelphia riot cases of 1844, where it was shoAvn  that bodies of men
were inflamed by sectarian and local prejudices, and blinded by a wild ap-

   (i) 1 Hale, 7; 4 Black. Com. 26 ; Wharton's C. L. (3d. edition,) 92 ; 1 Gabbett. C.  L. 9 •
 and see a very learned article in 6 Law Rep. (N. S.) 554.
   (/) R. v. Thomas, 7 C. &P. 817.
   (k) R. r. Meakin, 7 C. & P. 297.
   (I) Burrow's Case, 1 Lewin C. C. 75; Rennie's Case, 1  Lewin C. C. 76 • 1 Russel
 on Cr. 8.
   (m) U. S. v.  Clarke, 2 Cranch C. C. R. 158 ; U. S. v. M'Glue, 1 Curtis C. C. R. 1 • Kelley
 v. State, 3  Smedes & Mar. 518; Cornwall v. State,  Mar. & Yer. 147; Pirtle v.  State 9
 Humph. 663;  State r. John, 8 Ired.  330; State v. Turner,  1  Wright, 30- Schallerv.
 State, 14 Missouri, 502 ;  Wh. Cr. Law, (3d ed.,) 92 ; Wh. on Homicide, 369. 
HOW IT AFFECTS THE DEGREE.
53
 prehension of danger to such an extent as to make them incapable  of
 discrimination,  or of precise or specific purpose, it  Avas held that  they
 could not be considered as guilty of that species of " wilful and delibe-
 rate" murder which constitutes murder in the first  degree(w)  Precisely
 analogous to this is the case of  the drunkard, who in a fight slays an
 antagonist without any prior sober  premeditation.    In his intoxication
 he is incapable  of such mental action as the  term  "premeditates" de-
 scribes.   His mental condition  may be such as  to deprive  him  of the
 capacity to form  a " specific intent" to  take life, or to do any thing else.
 And yet at the same time,  at  common  law, the  offence would, strictly
 speaking, fall under  the head of murder, for it Avould possess  the  inci-
 dent of  malice,  and  Avould be independent  of  that  of provocation.
 Under  such circumstances the offence properly is to be ranked as  mur-
 der  in  the  second degree, and such has repeatedly been  decided by
 the courts.(o)
   §  71. The  same general view is taken as to the question  of intent.


   (n) Wharton on Homicide, 371, 2.
   (o) Com. v. Jones,  1  Leigh, 612 ; Com. v. Haggerty, Lewis' C. L. 403 ; Pirtle v. State,
 9 Hump. 434 ; Swan v. State, 4 Hump. 131; Penns. v. Fall, Addison, 257. In a very re-
 cent case in Tennessee, the Court  thus speak: " Upon the trial, there was evidence that
 the prisoner was intoxicated at the time he committed the homicide.  Upon  the subject
 of the defendant's intoxication told the jury that  ' voluntary intoxication is no excuse for
 the commission of crime ; on the contrary it is considered by our law as rather an aggra-
 vation ; yet if the defendant was so deeply intoxicated by spirituous  liquors at the time
 of the killing, as to be incapable of forming in his mind a design deliberately and pre-
 meditatedly to do the act, the killing  under such a state of intoxication, would only be
 murder in the second degree.'  It is insisted that his honor did not  state the principle
 upon this subject, as it has been ruled by this court. In the case of Swan v. the  State,
 Judge Reese, who delivered  the opinion of the Court, says:  ' But although drunkenness
 in point of law constitutes no excuse or justification for crime,  still, when the nature and
 essence of a crime is  made to depend by law, upon the peculiar state and condition of
 the criminal's mind at the time, and with reference to the act done, drunkenness, as a
 matter of fact, affecting such state and condition of the mind, is a proper  subject for
 consideration and inquiry by the jury. The question in such case is, what is the mental
 status ?  It  is one of  self-possession, favorable to a fixed purpose, by deliberation and
 premeditation, or did the act spring from existing passion, excited by inadequate provo-
 cation, acting, it may be, on a peculiar temperament, or  upon one already excited by
 ardent spirits ?   In such a case it matters not that the provocation was inadequate, or
 the spirits voluntarily drank; the  question is, did the act proceed from sudden passion,
 or from deliberation or premeditation?  What was the mental status at the time of the
 act, and with reference to the act ? To regard the fact of intoxication as  meriting con-
 sideration in such a case,  it  is not  to hold that drunkenness will excuse  cajjme, but  to
 inquire whether the very crime which the law refines and punishes, has been in point
 of fact committed.  In these remarks the Court intend to be understood as distinctly in-
 dicating,  that a  degree of  drunkenness by which the party was greatly excited, and
 which produced a state of mind unfavorable to deliberation and premeditation, although
 not so excessive as to render the party absolutely incapable of forming a deliberate pur-
pose, might be taken into  consideration by a jury, in determining whether  the killing
was done with premeditation and  deliberation.' The  whole subject was ably reviewed
by Judge Turley, in the case of Pirtle  r. the  State.  In delivering  the opinion of the
Court, in  that case,  the Judge says, at page 671:  ' It will frequently happen necessarily,
when the killing is of such a character as the common law designates as murder, and it
has not been perpetrated by means of poison, or by lying in wait, that it will be a vexed
question,  whether the killing has been the result of sudden passion produced by a cause
inadequate to mitigate it to manslaughter, but still sufficient to mitigate it to murder in
the second degree, if it be  really the true cause of the excitement, or  whether it has been
the result of premeditation and deliberation; and in all such cases, whatever few is able to
cast light upon the mental status of the  offenders is legitimate proof: and among others,
the fact that he was at the time drunk ; not that this will excuse and mitigate the offence,
if it were done wilfully, deliberately, maliciously, and premeditatedly; (which it might 
54
INTOXICATION AS A DEFENCE.
 Thus in an Ohio case, it was very properly held, that  when the charge
 was knowingly  passing counterfeit money, with intent  to client,  the
 drunkenness°of  the defendant at the time of the offence,  was a fit sub-
 ject for the consideration of the jury, there being no ground to suppose
 that  the  defendant  knew  the  money to  be counterfeit  before  he was
 drunk.(p)  And when the  defendant  was indicted for an attempt to
 commit suicide by droAvning, and it was alleged that she Avas at the time
 unconscious  of the  nature of her  act from  drunkenness,  Jervis, C. J.,
 said to the jury?  " If the prisoner was so  drunk as  not  to knoAV Avhat

 well be, though the perpetrator was drunk at the time,) but to show that the killing did
 not spring from a premeditated purpose, but sudden passion, excited by inadequate  pro-
 vocation, such as might reasonably be expected to arouse sudden  passion and heat, to
 the point of taking  life, without premeditation and deliberation.'  Here the Court ex-
 plicitly lays down the rule to be, that in all cases where the question is between murder
 in the first and murder in the second degree, the fact of drunkenness may be proved, to
 shed light upon the mental status of the offender, and thereby to enable  the jury to de-
 termine whether the killing sprung from a premeditated purpose, or from passion excited
 by inadequate provocation.  And the degree of drunkenness which may then shed light
 upon the mental state of the offender, is not alone that excessive state of intoxication,
 which deprives a party of the capacity to frame in his mind a design  deliberately and
 premeditatedly to do an act; for the court says that in the state of drunkenness referred
 to, a party well may be guilty of killing wilfully, deliberately, maliciously, and preme-
 ditatedly ; and if he so kill, he is guilty as  though  he were sober. The principle  laid
 down by the Court is, that when the question is, can drunkenness be taken  into con-
 sideration, determining whether the party be guilty of murder in the second degree, the
 answer must be, that it cannot; but when the question is, what were the actual mental
 state of the perpetrator, at the time the act was done, was it one of deliberation and pre-
 paration, then it is competent to show any degree of intoxication that may exist, in order
 that the jury may judge, in view of such intoxication, in  connection with all the other
 facts and circumstances, whether the act was premeditatedly and deliberately done.  The
 law often implies malice from the manner in which the killing was done, or the weapon
 with which the blow was stricken.  In such case it is murder, though the  perpetrator
 were drunk.  And no degree of drunkenness, will excuse in such case,  unless by means
 of drunkenness an habitual or fixed madness be caused. The law in such cases does not
 seek to ascertain the actual state of the  perpetrator's mind, for the fact from which is
 implied having been proved, the law presumes its existence,  and  proof in opposition to
 this presumption, is irrelevant and inadmissible.  Hence a party cannot show he was so
 drunk as not to be capable of entertaining a malicious feeling.  The conclusion of law is
 against him.  But when the question is, whether a party is guilty of murder in the first
 degree, it becomes indispensable that the jury should form an opinion as to the actual
 state of mind with which this act was done. All murder in the first degree, (except that
 committed by poison, and by lying in wait,) must be perpetrated wilfully, deliberately,
 maliciously, and  premeditatedly. The jury must ascertain as n matter of fact, 1h;it the
 accused was in this state of mind when  the act was done.  Now according to the cases
 of Swan >: the State, and Pirtle  v. the State, any fact that will shed light upon this sub-
ject, may be looked to by them, and may constitute legitimate proof for their considera-
 tion.  And among other facts, any state of drunkenness being proved, it  is a legitimate
 subject of inquiry, as to what influence such intoxication might have had upon the mind
 of the offender, in the perpetration of the deed.  AVe know that an intoxicated man will
 often, upon  a  slight provocation,  have his passions excited  and  rashly perpetrate a
 criminal act.  Now, it is unphilosophical for us to assume that such a man would in the
 given case, be chargeable with the  same  degree of premeditation  and deliberation  that
 we would ascribe to a sober man, perpetrating the same  act upon a like provocation.
 It is in this  view of the question, that this court held, in  Swan's case, and in Pirtle's
 case;  that the  drunkenness of a party might be  looked to by the jury, with the other
 facts in the case, to enable them to decide whether the killing were done deliberately and
 premeditatedly.  But his  Honor, the circuit Judge, told the jury, that drunkenness was
 an aggravation of the offence, unless the defendant was so  deeply intoxicated as to be
 incapable of forming in his mind a  design deliberately and premeditatedly to do the  act.
 In this charge there  is error, for which the judgment must be reversed. Reverse  the
judgment, and remand the cause for another trial."  Hale v. State, 11 Humph. 154.

                        (jo) Pigman v. State, 14 Ohio, 555. 
EFFECT ON THE QUESTION OF INTENT.
55
she was  about, how can you find  that  she intended to destroy her-
self V\q)   So again, AA'hen the charge was assault with  intent to mur-
der,  Patterson, J., said, "A person may be  so drunk as to be utterly
unable to form any intention at all, and yet he may be guilty of very
great A'iolence.  If you are not satisfied that the prisoners, or either of
them, had formed a positive intention of murdering the child, you may
find them guilty of an assault."(r)
   Beyond this the advance has been fluctuating.   The furthest step
taken was in  an  English  case, decided in 1819,(s) where Holroyd, J.,
is reported by Sir W. Russell, who adopts his opinion as text law, to
have said, that the fact of drunkenness might be taken into  considera-
tion to determine the  question whether an act was premeditated or
done only with sudden heat  and impulse.   This would make drunken-
ness an item in every question of provocation or  hot blood,  and Avould
of course open the way to the same  difficulties as to general policy,
which we have already pointed out in another connection.   In 1835,
however,  this case was expressly repudiated by Parks, J., who said, in re-
ferring to Holroyd, J.'s language, as just given, " Highly as I respect that
late excellent judge, I differ from him,  and my brother Littledale  agrees
Avith me.   He once acted upon that case,  but afterwards retracted his
opinion.   There  is no doubt that that case is not law.  I think there
would be no safety in human life, if it were to be considered  as law."(i)
But the very next year, Alderson, B., in a case of  stabbing, retraced
at  least a part of the retreat  Avhich had been thus so emphatically
sounded.   " It is my duty to tell you," he said, " that the prisoner be-
ing  intoxicated, does not  alter the nature of the offence.   If  a man
chooses to get drunk, it is his own voluntary act;  it is very different
from a madness which is not caused by any  act of the person.   That
voluntary  species of madness which it is in a party's poAver  to  abstain
from, he must answer for.   However,  with regard  to the  intention,
drunkenness may perhaps be adverted to according to the nature of the
instrument used.   If a man uses a stick,  you would not infer a mali-
cious intent so strongly against him, if drunk, when he made  an  intem-
perate use of it, as you would if he had used a different kind of weapon;
but ivhere a dangerous instrument is used, which, if used, must produce
grievous bodily harm, drunkenness can have no effect on the considera-
tion of the malicious intent of the party, "(u)  Perhaps this is doing no
more than reiterating the principle Ave have  already announced, that
when there is  evidence of sober premeditation, intermediate drunken-
ness cannot be received to  affect the question of intent;  but that, Avhen
there is no such evidence, it  can.   And  it Avould hardly be possible to
strain  farther than this the folloAving  charge, in 1837, by Parke, B.,
(to be distinguished from Park, J.,  Avhose opinion, tAvo years before, has
been just noticed)—" I must tell you, that if a man makes himself volun-
tarily drunk, that is no excuse for any crime he may commit Avlule he is so;
he must take the  consoquence of his oavh voluntary act;  or most  crimes
would othenvise be unpunished.   But drunkenness may be  taken into
consideration in cases where what the law deems sufficient provocation
  (q) R. v. Moore, reported 6 Law Rep., (N. S.), 581.   (r) R. v. Cruse, 8 C.  & P., 541.
  is) R. v. Grindley,  1 Rus. on Cr. 8, note n.        (t) R. v. Carrol, 7 C. & P., 145.
  \u) R. v. Meakin, 7 C. & P., 297. 
 56                  INTOXICATION AS A DEFENCE.

 has been given ;  because the question is, in such cases, Avhether the fatal
 act is to be attributed to the passion of anger, excited by the previous
 provocation, and that passion is more easily excitable 'in a person when
 in a state of intoxication, than when he is sober.  So, where the ques-
 tion is, Avhether words have been uttered  with a deliberate  purpose, or
 are merely Ioav and idle expressions,  the drunkenness of the person ut-
 tering them is proper to be considered.  But if  there is really a previ-
 ous determination to  resent a slight affront in a  barbarous manner, the
 state of drunkenness in Avhich the prisoner Avas, ought not to be regarded,
 for it Avould furnish no excuse.  You will decide Avhether the subsequent
 act does not furnish the best means of judging  Avhat the nature of the
 previous expression really Avas."(v)
   § 72.  The American cases present the same general result, depending
 in principle, if not in  terms, on the position  that Avhere the encounter
 Avas sudden, and  the  defendant, prior to such encounter, had  no  ma-
 lice  or old grudge,  intoxication  at the  time  of the  encounter,  can
 be taken into consideration, to ascertain whether the defendant, Avhen
 under  a legal  provocation, acted  from malice  or  from sudden  pas-
 sion, (to)   These cases have been arranged as follows, by a late learned
 writer, (a;)
   " In 1848 the question of intoxication was before the Supreme Court of
 Alabama, on an  indictment for  an  assault Avith intent to kill.  The
 Court Avas asked in that case to charge the  jury, that, " although drunk-
 enness does not incapacitate a man from forming a. premeditated design
 of murder, yet as it clouds the understanding and excites passion, it
 might be  evidence of passion only, and of a Avant of malice and design."
 This the Court refused, but told the jury that " drunkenness  could have
 no effect  in their consideration."   The  prisoner excepted, and on  the
 hearing in full  Court,  Chilton, J., declared that  it  Avas   a  general
 rule, that although drunkenness reduces  a man to a state  of tempo-
 rary insanity, it does not excuse him, or palliate  an offence committed
in a fit of intoxication, and  which  is the  immediate  result  of it; and
that if the prisoner had killed the deceased Avith  the deadly avcapon (a
knife) Avith which  he  stabbed  him,  in a state of intoxication, the crime
 would not have been reduced from murder to manslaughter by his in-
toxication, which  must be  presumed, in absence of contrary evidence,
to be voluntary ;  and the Court remark,  upon  the  cases of Penna v.
Nutall,(#) and Swan  v. The State,^) that there it  was important to
 ascertain Avhether the  homicide was that "wilful, deliberate, malicious,
 and premeditated killing," Avhich, by statute, constituted murder in the
 first degree.  The  mental  state required  for that crime, being one of
 deliberation and  premeditation, the  fact of the  prisoner's drunkenness
 Avas material, not as  an excuse for the crime, but  to sIioav it had  not
been committed.   The State v. Bullock.(a)   Possibly this case may have
 gone too far in refusing to allow drunkenness to be given  in evidence
 upon question of the intention.  The Supreme Court of North Carolina
 has declared the same laAV.   In 1848 a prisoner Avas indicted for mur-
 der.   One defence was drunkenness.  The judge told the jury  that
(v) R. v. Thomas, 7 C. & P., 817.
(w) See Schaller v. State, 14 Missouri, 502.
(y) Add. 257.       (z) 4 Humph. 136.
(x) 6 Law Rep., (X. S..) 550, kc.
(a) 13 Alabama, 413, A. D. 1848. 
EFFECT ON THE QUESTION OF INTENT.
57
drunkenness would not lessen the prisoner's guilt, if they believed him
sane  before  he became drunk.  A new trial being  moved for, on the
ground of misdirection, Battle, J. said, "All the writers on the crim-
inal laAV, from  the  most ancient to the most recent, so far as Ave are
aAvare, declare that  voluntary drunkenness will not excuse a crime com-
mitted by a man othenvise sane, while acting under its influence.  Even
the cases relied on by the counsel for the prisoner,  Rex v. Meakin,(6)
Rex v. Thomas,(c) all acknowledge the general rule; but they  say that
when a legal provocation is proved, intoxication may be taken into con-
sideration, to ascertain whether the slayer acted from malice  or from
sudden passion,  excited by the provocation.  AVhether the distinction is a
proper one or not  we do not pretend to say. It has been doubted in Eng-
land, Rex v. Carroll,(d) and it is a dangerous one, and ought to be re-
ceived with great  caution.  But whether  admitted or not, has no bear-
ing upon the present case.  There is not a particle of testimony to show
that the prisoner  Avas acting, or can be supposed to have  been acting
under a legal provocation; and there Avas therefore  no cause  for the
application of the principle for Avhich the counsel  contends.  The State
v. John.(e)   The case of Preble v. State,(/) is an important case on this
point.   The defendant  was indicted  for murder.   At the  time of the
commission of the offence he was intoxicated from  the use of ardent
spirits.   "And in relation thereto the Judges charged the jury, that
the fact of such drunkenness could not be  taken  into consideration, by
them, unless the defendant was so far gone as not to be conscious of what
he was  doing, and did  not knoAV right from  Avrong."   " Out  of this
charge," said Turley, J., "arises the  point  to be considered  by the
Court in this case, and  that is, how far drunkenness  in laAV is a mitiga-
tion or excuse for  the commission of offences.   This is no new question,
presented for the first time for consideration, but one of  the  earliest
consideration  in the law of offences; one  which has  been again and
again adjudicated  by the Courts of Great Britain and the United States,
and, as we apprehend, Avith a consistent uniformity rarely to be met with
in questions of  a  like interest and importance.   Upon the subject we
have nothing to discover ; no new principle to lay doAvn ; no philosophi-
cal investigation to enter into,  in relation to mental sanity  or insanity;
but only to ascertain how the laAV upon this subject has been heretofore
adjudged, and so  to adjudge it ourselves."
   " In  the case of  Cormvall v.  The State of Tennessee,(g) the able
Judge Avho delivered the opinion of  the Court, in speaking  upon this
subject, uses the folloAving very emphatic language :
  "A contrary  doctrine ought to be forced out of circulation,  if it has
obtained it, by every friend to virtue, peace, quietness and good govern-
ment.   All civilized governments must punish the culprit Avho relies on
so untenable  a defence;  and in doing so, they preach a louder lesson of
morality to all  those avIio are addicted to  intoxication, and to  parents
and guardians, and to youth and to society, than comes  in the  cold ab-
stract from pulpits.   To the justice  and correctness  of these remarks,
all who have had experience in the annals of crime can bear testimony.

  (b) 7 C.  & P. 297.    (c) Ibid. 817.  1 Russell on Crimes, 8.    (d) 7  C. &  P. 145.
  (e) 8 Jud. 330.     (/) 9 Hump. 663, A. I). 1849.     (g) Mar. & Ser. 147, 149 
58
INTOXICATION AS A DEFENCE.
It is only at the present term of the Court that avc have seen it proven
that an offender, a short time before  the perpetration of a horrid mur-
der, inquired of a grocery-keeper Avhat kind of liquor Avould make him
drunk soonest, and swallowed thereon a bumper of brandy.   We have
had three cases of murder, and one of an assault Avith an intent to murder,
before us at this term of Court, in every one of Avhich these are convic-
tions in the Circuit Court and affirmances in this;  every one of which
is of aggravated character, and in every one of which the perpetrator,
at the time of the commission of the offence, was laboring under dementia
affectata, drunkenness ;  an awful illustration of the necessity of holding
to the law as it has been adjudged  upon this subject.  There is, in our
judgment, no conflict of authority  upon this point of law;  every case
which may  have such appearance, being  a case of exception, on the
application  of  the  rule, or  a case  of no  authority upon the subject.
Lord Hale, in his work  before referred to,(^) says:  "If, by  means
of drunkenness, an habitual or  fixed  madness be  caused, that  will be
excuse, though it be contracted  by the vice and va ill of the party; for
this habitual or fixed phrensy puts  a man in the same  condition as if it
were contracted at first involuntarily.   And it Avas to this principle the
Circuit Judge was alluding, when  he  charged the jury in the present
case, that the drunkenness of the prisoner could not be taken  by them
into consideration, unless he Avere  so far gone as to be unconscious  of
what he was doing, and did not knoAV right from Avrong, in saying which
he put the case most favorable for the prisoner;  for a man may be  so
intoxicated as to be unconscious of what he is doing, and not to know right
from wrong ; and yet not have contracted an habitual and fixed phrensy,
the result of intemperance,  of Avhich Lord Hale is speaking above."
   § 93.  In Kelly v. State,(i) the same question came  before  the High
Court of  Error and Appeals of  Mississippi.   The  court below declined
to charge the jury that intoxication was evidence of intention in deter-
mining Avhether the killing Avas murder.  The prisoner Avas convicted  of
manslaughter only, but the court above in remarking upon this question,
lays down the law as well established,  that drunkenness is no excuse for
crime, although sometimes held proper for consideration, where the sole
question  is  whether the  act done  Avas premeditated or done only with
sudden heat or impulse,  which  might be as truly said of anger or any
other  excitement arising from  sudden  provocation or peculiar circum-
stances ;  but not much importance  Avas to be attached to it, as might be
conceived from the presumption  AA'hich Avas equally great that the design
might have previously  existed, and intoxication have been employed to
nerve the criminal to  the  commission of the crime: that the law dis-
criminates between the delusion of intoxication and the insanity Avhich
it may ultimately  produce.  If drunkenness,  they said, Avere to be
considered an  excuse for crime, there would be established a complete
emancipation from criminal justice.
   The same principle was recognized in this country in State v. M'Cante,
(j) being somewhat  differently applied.   The court here held " That if
a crime was committed upon a provocation, AA-hich, if acted upon instantly

  (h) P. C. pt. 1, ch. 4. See ante,  § 67.     (i) 3 Smedes & Marshall, 518, A. D. 1844.
  (j) 1 Spears, 384. 
EFFECT ON THE QUESTION OF INTENT.              59
by a sober man would mitigate his offence, evidence  of intoxication was
admissible upon the question Avhether  such  provocation was, in fact,
acted upon when the act Avas done.  If  a  man  uses a stick upon you,
you would not infer a malicious intent so strongly against him if drunk,
Avhen he  made an intemperate use of  it, as you would if he had used a
different kind  of weapon.  But Avhere a dangerous instrument is used,
AA'hich if used must produce grievous bodily harm, drunkenness can have
no effect on the  consideration of the malicious intent of the party."
   In a late case in Tennessee, already  cited,(7c) it was said by Turley, J.,
" The case of R. v. Grindley, decided at Worcester Sum. Ass., 1819, by
Holroyd, J., not reported but  referred to by Russell in his work upon
Crimes, page 8, and  noAV  insisted upon by the prisoner as putting the
Circuit Judge  in  the wrong  in his charge to  the jury,  and holding
different principles upon this subject, is expressly overruled by Park and
Littledale, judges, in  the  case of R. v. Carroll, (I) and if  it were not,
it is an anomalous case; and perhaps was not  intended or considered by
Holroyd to be  in conflict  with principles so well and so long settled.
The case as stated by Russell, holds that  ' though voluntary drunken-
ness  cannot excuse  from the commission of crime, yet when upon a
charge of murder the material question is whether an act Avas premedi-
tated or done only with sudden heat and impulse, the fact of the party
being intoxicated is a circumstance proper to be taken into consideration.'
Now, in relation to this principle as thus laid down, it may be  observed
that cases may arise, even of  murder at common laAV, in which it would
be proper to receive  such  proof as  explanatory of intention.  To con-
stitute  murder  at common law, the killing must have been done with
malice  aforethought;  the  existence of this malice  necessarily implies
the absence  of all circumstances of justification,  excuse  or mitigation
arising  from adequate provocation;  and this malice is either express or
implied: express, when it has been perpetrated by poison, lying in wait,
or other deliberate and premeditated manner; implied, from the nature
of the weapon, the Ariolence of the assault, and the inadequacy of the
proA^ocation.   It may become important  in  a  case to  know  whether
poison which has been imbibed was administered knowingly and design-
edly or accidentally.  And if it be wilful, which it is  in the case of a
medicine,  there being two on  the table, one a poison and the other not,
and the poison be administered,  is not the fact that the person Avho ad-
ministered it, was drunk at the time, legitimate proof for the purpose of
showing that it was a mistake which a drunken man might make, though
a sober one would  not.  This  Avould be, not  to protect him from the
punishment  for his crime,  but to shoAV that he had not given the poison
premeditatedly, and  therefore  was guilty of  no crime.   So  if the
question be, whether  the killing is murder  or manslaughter, the defence
being adequate provocation,  and it be doubtful  whether  the bloAV be
struck upon the provocation or upon an old grudge, it seems to  us, proof
that the prisoner was drunk when he  struck the blow is legitimate, not
to mitigate the offence but in explanation of the  intent, that is, Avhether
the blow was struck  upon  the provocation or  upon the old grudge;  for
the law only mitigates the offence to manslaughter,  upon adequate pro-
(k) Pirtle v. State, 9 Hamp. 663.
(0 X C. & P. 145. 
60
MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS PSYCHOLOGICALLY.
vocation, out of compassion to human  frailty;  and, therefore, though
there be adequate cause for such mitigation, yet if, in point of fact, one
avail himself of it to appease an old grudge, it is murder and not man-
slaughter ; and in all such cases the question necessarily is, Avhether the
blow Avas stricken premeditatedly,  or upon sudden  heat  and impulse
produced by the provocation, and the fact  of the  self-possession  of the
perpetrator of the crime is very material in  a conflict of proof upon the
subject.   If this be  the extent of the opinion of Holroyd, in the case
of Rex v. Grindley, Ave are not prepared  to  hold that it  is not  law.
But if  it be understood to hold that a  killing may be mitigated from
murder to  manslaughter in consequence of  the drunkenness  of the
perpetrator,  thereby making that adequate provocation in the case of a
drunken man Avhich could not be  so in the case of a sober one, Ave are
prepared to hold Avith Park and Littledale, that it is not law."
                         CHAPTER II.

     MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS CONSIDERED PSYCHOLOGICALLY.

   § 74.  " The various diseases included in the general  term insanity,
or mental derangement," says Dr. Ray, " may be conveniently arranged
under two divisions, founded  on tAvo very different  conditions  of the
brain;  the first_ being  a want of its ordinary development,  and  the
second, some lesion of its structure subsequent to its development.  In
the former of  these divisions, we have Idiocy and Imbecility,  differing
from each other only in degree.   The various affections embraced in
the  latter  general division may be arranged under  two subdivisions,
Mania and Dementia, distinguished by the contrast they present in the
energy and tone of the mental manifestations.  Mania is characterized
by unnatural exaltation or  depression of the faculties, and may be con-
fined to the intellectual or to the affective  poAvers, or  it may involve
them both, and these powers  may be generally or partially deranged.
Dementia  depends  on  a more  or less  complete  enfeeblement  of  the
faculties, and may be consecutive to  injury of  the brain, to mania, or
to some other  disease;  or  it  may be connected with the decay  of old
age;  These divisions will  be more conveniently exhibited  in the fol-
loAArmg tabular vieAV:

                                1. Resulting from congenital defect.
                                2. Resulting from an obstacle to the development
                                   of the faculties, supervening in infancy.
                                1. Resulting from congenital defect.
                                2. Resulting from an  obstacle to the development
                                   of the faculties, supervening in infancy.

                                Intellectual, \\ J*6"?™1-
                                            ( 2. Partial.

                                Affective,    \\ J*0"?™1-
                                            { 2. Partial.

                                1. Consecutive to mania, or injuries of the brain.
                                1. senile peculiar to old age."(a)
 Defective
development
  of the
 faculties.
Idiocy.


IlIUEC'ILITY.
INSANITY.
Lesion of the
  faculties
 subsequent
 - to their
development.
Mania.
Dementia.
(a) Ray on Insanity, 71. 
                          FLEMMING'S. CLASSIFICATION.                       61


   § 75. The following  classification of  Flemming,(5)  while less simple,
is very valuable both  for the delicate precision of its  analysis, and for
the important aid it affords to the nomenclature of forensic psychology:


I. INFIRMITAS.  (Geistesschwache.)  Imbecility, the characteristic being the diminution
      in psychical power.
          1st. As to origin.
                 (1.) Primaria seu  congenita,  (Syn.  Idiotismus.)  A defective  development
                       perceptible either at birth or infancy.
                 (2.) e morbo, arising from wounds on the head, brain or nervous fevers, or
                       epilepsy.
                 (3.) Senilis, arising from decrease in vitality in the extreme stages of old ngc.
           2d. As to extent.
                 (1.) Infirmitas, Achtricta.  Limited imbecilitj-, the characteristic being dim-
                       inution of particular organic powers.
                         (a) Dysmenia.  AVeakness of memory, the characteristic being the
                             feebleness  of the reproductive power of the perceptive faculty,
                              and the  symptoms, an inability to remember things either re-
                              cent or remote, distinctly or at all.
                         (b) Infirmitas adstricta surdo-mutorum.  Imbecility of the deaf and
                              dumb.
                         (c) Infirmitas adstricta coecorum.  Imbecility of the blind.
                  (2.) Infirmitas sj'arsa.  General weakness of mind, the characteristic being
                       the absolute or relative weakness of all the mental and moral func-
                       tions, and the  symptoms, obtuseness and feebleness of the perceptive
                       and attentive powers; feebleness of  comprehension, of ratiocination,
                       of imagination, of memory, in a variety of gradations.
 II. VESANIA, (Geistes verwirrung.)   Mental confusion, the characteristic being a depravity
       (depravation) of the psychical powers arising from excess or perversion^
           1st.  Vesania dysthymodes, or dysthymic, disorder of temperament, the characteristic
               being the depravity (depravation) of the psychical powers connected with an
               overpowering disturbance of the  temperament.   Symptoms; an  anomalous
               condition of the sensibility, the mental tone, the inclinations, and the impulses.
               The consequent deliria are the invariable effect of the dysthymia, and depend
               upon the prevailing feeling or sentiment.
                  (1.) Dysthymia transiton'a seu subita.  Sudden dysthymia, the  characteristic
                       being the suddenness and rapidity of its approach.   Symptoms; irri-
                       tability, proneness to agitation, irascibility, excessive disgust, fear of
                       death, extreme timidity, despair of happiness.   It  occurs frequently
                       in the Stadium prodromorum of cerebral affections and nervous fevers,
                        or of epilepsy  and the cognate complaints; and is sometimes, though
                        more rarely, accompanied by the sudden suicidal impulse.  It should
                        be observed that dysthymia  remittens sinks in the remission into the
                        mere dysaethesis.
                  (2.) Dysthymia  adstricta, or partial dysthymia, the characteristic being an
                        anomalous condition of particular states of feeling, inclinations, and
                        impulses.
                          (a) Atra, (the  Melancholia Lypemonia, of  Esquirol,) or gloomy
                              Dysthymia, the characteristic  being sadness, fear, dread, sus-
                              picion,  malevolence, homesickness, (nostahjia,) and the wild-
                              ness and  ferocity of  the intoxicated.  (Ferocitas et  morositas
                              ebriosorum.)
                          (b) Dysthymia Candida,  cheerful Dysthymia,  (Melancholia  hilaris,
                              Chtrromanie  Chambeyron,) the characteristics being hilarity,
                              recklessness of manner, raillery, proneness to see all things in
                              the most vivacious light.
                          (c) Dysthymia mutabilis, variable Dysthymia, the characteristic being
                              vacillation between the two foregoing  forms.
                  (3.) Dysthymia  sparsa,  (apathica,) general Dysthymia, (Melancholia Atto-
                        nita.)  The characteristics being,  apparent obtuseness, dull,  heavy
                        reveries and abstractions, prevalence of an indistinct sensation of dis-
                        comfort,  apathy to all extraneous impressions.
           2d. Vesania Annoetos, or Anoesia.   Disturbance of the understanding.   The cha-
                racteristics being the depravity (depravation) of the  psychical powers, with a
                controlling anomalousness of the intellectual faculties.  Symptoms, deliria of
                various kinds, with manifestations of Dysthymia, which, however, are merely
                subordinate.
                  (1.) Anoesia Transitoria, or Subita.  Sudden Anoesia.  The characteristics
                        being unexpected appearance and rapid subsidence.


                     (b) Psychiatriscb.es Journal, Bd. I. Hft. 1. p. 112. 
62            FLEMMING'S AND ELLINGER'S CLASSIFICATIONS.
                        (a) Anoesia efelre.  Febrile delirium.
                        ( b) Anoesia e potu nimio, (ebrietas.)   Drunkenness.
                        re) Anoesia ex affectu, madness caused by agitation of mind.
                        (d) Anoesia semisomnis. Confusion of mind in sleep.  Slcop-drunk-
                            enness.
                        (e) Anoesia Somnambida, or Spastica; Somnambulism.
                 S2.) Anoesia continue), chronic Anoesia.
                 3.) Anoesia remittens.   Remittent  Anoesia.
                (4.) Anoesia adstricta, partial Anoesia or Lunacy.  The characteristics being
                      delirium in particular intellectual departments.
                        (a) Anoesia ad sensationes.  Hallucinations, (deliria of the senses,)
                            (A'ar. afallacia sensuum et hallucinatio ebriosormn, derangement
                            of the senses consequent on excess of drinking.
                        (b) Anoesia ad cogitationes, eccentricity, fixed insane  ideas.
                (5.) Anoesia sparsa.  General Anoesia or  lunacy, the  characteristics being
                      Deliria  in every department of the intellectual  faculties.  Var.  a
                      Anoesia potatorum, (Delirium tremens.)
          3d. Vesania maniaca  seu  Mania.  The characteristic  being  a depravity (deprava-
              tion) of the  psychical  functions, with  a concurrent anomalousness of the
              emotional and intellectual faculties.   The symptoms  are  a violent and per-
              verse temper, inclinations and  impulses, with violent deliria, which mutually
              sustain and aggravate each other.
                (1.) Mania transitoria subita, sudden mania, the characteristics being a sud-
                      den  breaking out of mania without perceptible premonitory stages,
                      and without previous Dysthymia or Anoesia/  generally a crisis in
                      sleep, or transition to the second class.
                        (a) Mania subita a febre, (Delirium encephediticum,) sudden deli-
                            rium, with feverish symptoms of the brain and nerves.
                        (b) Mania subita a potu nimio, arising from and during intoxication.
                        (c) Mania subita ex affectu, mania caused by excessive agitation of
                            the affections.
                        (d) Mania subita epartu, mania connected with parturition.
                        (e) Mania subita e morbo oceidto, (vulgo)  Amentia occulta, which
                            also includes the previous species.
                (2.) Mania continua, permanent mania.
                (3.) Mania remittens, Remittent mania.  (Remark—Remittent mania in re-
                      mission  turns into Anoesia,  in some cases immediately into Dysthy-
                      mia.)
                (4.) Mania adstricta seu instinctica.  Moral Insanity.  (Mania sine delirio of
                      Pinel; Monomauie instinctive of Marc;  Mania affectiva;  Folie raiso-
                      nante;) the characteristics being insanity, apparently confined to spe-
                      cific morbid  impulses.  This class  is almost always connected with
                      the symptoms of Mania transitoria seu subita.
                (5.) Mania Sparsa, general mania is  the  characteristics being a depravity
                      (depravation) of both the moral and intellectual powers.


   § 76.   To Ellinger(c) we are  indebted for the following:

I.  Diseases of the affections, when the affections, sentiments and desires  are preponderatingly
      alienated,  while the intellectual faculties are affected  in an inferior or at least a secon-
      dary degree.
            (a) Melancholy, the prevalent type being  sadness,  depression, fear, dread  and
                despair.
            ib)  Phrensy, the prevalent type being mirth, mischievousness, anger.
            (c)  Volatility, (Launenhaftigkeit.)  Alternation between the two last mentioned
                phases.
II. Delirium, the sentiments and intellectual faculties are equally affected, and  both the sub-
      jective and objective relations alike distorted.
            («) (b) (c) Characterized by melancholy, phrensy, and the alternation of the two.
III. Diseases of  the intellect, where the affections take a subordinate part and the intellect is
      mainly disordered.
            (o)  Partial.
            (bj  General.
            (c)  Debility, including idiocy and imbecility.

   § 77. Without  attempting a  formal analysis, it is now proposed  to
consider the  several points in  which Psychology comes in contact with
the law of the land, in the  following order:—

   (c) Ueber die antropologischen  Momente der Zurechnungs fahigkeit.  Ludwigsburg,
1846. 
PRESENT CLASSIFICATION.
63
I. GENERAL THEORIES  OF MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS, \ 78.
        1st. Psychological theory, \ 79.
         2d. Somatic theory, \ 80.
         3d. Intermediate theory, § 81.
                 Difficulties attending each of the first two, \ 82.
                 Question as to moral responsibility of Lunatics, \ 83.
                 Views of President Edwards, \ 84.
                 Of Dr. Barlow, § 85:

II. HOW MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS IS TO BE  DETECTED, \ 86.
         1st.  By whom, \ 86.
                 Medical expert necessary for this purpose, § 86.
                 Great skill and experience needed, $ 87.
                 Dangers of an inexperienced examiner being baffled, \ 88.
                 Responsibility in law of medical examiner, § 89.
                 Importance of examiner adapting his manner to patient's condition,
                     §90.
                 Important that legal and medical officers should, in such cases, act in
                     common, \ 92.
                 Manner in which medical witness is to be examined on trial, §• 94.
         2d. At what time, \ <j5.
                 (1.) Time of act, \ 95.
                 (2/1 At trial, \ 97.
                 (3.) On  and after sentence, \ 98.
         3d. By what tests, \ 100.
                 (1.) Physiognomy, § 100.
                         Relations of the different features, § 101.
                 (2.) Bodily health and temperament, § 102.
                         State of bowels, § 102.
                         Physical disorganization, \ 103.
                         Insensibility to pain and  cold, § 104
                         Irregularities in action of senses, \ 105.
                         Change in disposition, \  106.
                 (3.) Hereditary tendency, § 107.
                         Importance of this test, £ 108.
                         Admissible in point of law, \ 108.
                         Opinion of Gibson, C. J., \ 108.
                 (4.) Conversation and deportment, \ 110.
                         Necessity of great circumspection in this respect, § 110.
                         Cases illustrating this, §  111.
                 (5.) Nature of act, § 112.
                         (a) Its insensibility, § 112.
                         (b\ Its incongruity with antecedents, § 113.
                         (c) Its motivelessness, §  114.
                         (d) Its inconsequentially, § 115.
III. FROM WHAT MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS IS TO  BE DISTINGUISHED.
        1st. Emotions, \ 116.
                 (1.) Remorse, \ 116.
                 (2.) Anger, § 118.
                 (3.) Shame, \ 122.
                 (4.) Grief, | 124.
                 (5.) Homesickness,  (Nostalgia,) \ 125.
        2d. Simulated Insanity, \ 127.
                 Necessity for close examination, \ 127.
                 Tests to be applied,  \ 128.
                 Delirium most usually counterfeited, but the most difficult, § 129.
                 Physiognomy and health to be examined, § 130.
                 Case to be compared with other recorded cases, § 131.
                 Simulation not to be inferred from absence of a trace of insanity at
                     the examination, \ 132.
                 Causes why such signs may be suppressed, § 132.
                 Pretended insanity frequently turns into real, \ 133.
                 How examination is to be  conducted, § 134.
                 Patient to be brought into a succession of relations, \ 135-8. 
 64                 ANALYSIS  OF MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS.

                 To be furnished with pen, ink and paper, and other methods of
                     examination, 3. 135-8.
                 Tnsania Occulta, features of, g 139.
                 Necessity of guarding against, \ 139.

 IV. MENTAL  UNSOUNDNESS, AS CONNECTED WITH DERANGEMENT  OF THE
            SENSES, AND DISEASE, \ 140.
         1st. Deaf and Ddmb, \ 140.
         2d. Blind, \ 141.
         3d. Epileptics, \ 142.
                 Peculiar tendency of epilepsy to insanity, § 142.
                 Nature of epilepsy, \ 143.
                 Distinction between the several classes, \ 144.
                 Different stages of the disease, \ 145.
                 Actions committed during attack, not valid, § 146.
                 Rule as to intermediate stages, £ 147.
                 Tests laid down by Clarus, § 148.

V. MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS, AS  CONNECTED WITH  SLEEP, \ 149.
      General effect of sleep on the senses, \ 149.
         1st. Somnolentia or sleep-drunkenness, \ 151.
         2d. Somnambulism, \ 159.

VI. MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS, AS AFFECTING THE TEMPERAMENT, g 163.
         1st. Depression,  § 163.
         2d. Hypochondria, § 166.
         3d. Hysteria, \  169.
        4th. Melancholy, \ 170.

VII. MENTAL  UNSOUNDNESS, AS AFFECTING THE  MORAL SYSTEM, \ 174.
        1st. General moral mania, § 174.
              Effect of, \ 174.
              General symptoms, \ 175.
              Illustrations, \ 176.
        2d. Monomania, \ 177.
              Doctrine of Mania sine Delirio, \ 178.
              Difference  of opinion as to its existence, §  179.
              Tests to be applied to it, \ 180.
              Tendency in this country to recognize its existence, \ 183.
                (1.) Homicidal mania, \ 186.
                        Cases where Esquirol supposes it to exist, \ 186.
                        Precautions necessary in its recognition, § 190.
                        Tests suggested by Dr. Ray, \ 190.
                          "      "        Dr. Taylor,  \ 190.
                        Dr. Mayo's objections to the entire theory, § 191.
                    Kleptomania—(morbid propensity to steal), \ 192.
                    Pyromania—(morbid incendiary propensity), \ 195.
                        How far recognized in England, g 197.
                        Necessary tests, \ 198.
                (4.^ Aidoiomania—(morbid sexual propensity), § 199.
                (5.) Pseudonomania—(morbid lying propensity), \ 202.
                (6.^ Oikeiomania—(morbid state of domestic affections),  \ 204.
                (7.) Suicidal mania—(morbid propensity to self-destruction), 3  206.
                        Tendency to this in cases of melancholy, &c, \  207.
                        Legal consequences in actions against life insurers  3 208
                (8.) Fanatico-mania,  \ 209.
                     (a) Supernatural or pseudo-supernatural demoniacal posses-
                              sion, \ 210.                                '
                          Testimony of ancient writers to this,  \ 210.
                              "     of the New Testament, \ 211.
                     (b) Mental alienation on religious subjects, \ 214.
                          Tendency of infidelity to insanity,  \ 214.
                          Conservative influence of Christianity, \ 215.
                         Insane delusion the result of a departure from  Christianity,
                              \ 216.
                          Illustrations of this, \ 217.
n 
MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS PSYCHOLOGICALLY.
65
                          Legal bearings of religious insanity, \ 219.
                (9.) Politico-mania, \ 220.
                        How far an epidemic, § 221.
                        Causes likely to generate it, \ 221.


VIII. MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS, AS CONNECTED  WITH INTELLECTUAL PROS-
            TRATION, \ 222.
        1st. Idiocy,  \ 222.
                Nature of, § 222.
                Physical incidents of, \  223-5-6.
                Cretinism, § 228.
        2d. Imbecility, \  229.
                With concomitant insanity, § 230.
                        Original, \ 230.
                        Supervening, § 230.
                        Specious, \ 230.
                        With confusion of mind, \ 230.
                Without insanity, \ 231.
                Distinction between innocent and malignant imbecility, \ 232.
        2d. Dementia, \ 234.

IX. MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS  ACCOMPANIED WITH DELIRIUM, \ 235
        1st. General Delirium, \ 235.
                (a) Depressed delirium, § 236.
                (b) Maniacal delirium, $ 237.
                (c) Delirium tremens, § 238.
                (d) Puerperal mania, $ 239.
        2d. Partial Delirium, \ 240.

X.  MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS,  AS CONNECTED WITH DELUSIONS  AND HALLU-
            CINATIONS, I 241.
        1st. General, \  241.
                Marked by general derangement of the perceptive faculties, § 241.
                Various phases it assumes, § 242.
                Tests of Ellinger, § 243.
                Effect of general delusion, \ 244.
        2d. Partial, \ 245.
                Delusions and hallucinations, \ 245.
                When there is no other sign of mental unsoundness, § 246.
                When mental unsoundness has made some progress, §  247
                In cases of drunkenness, &c, \ 248.
                In cases of developed insanity, \ 249.
                Causes of delusions, \ 250.
                Abercrombie's classification, \ 252.
                Hallucination in regard to  a  change into,  or a possession by, wild
                    animals, \ 253.


XL MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS, AS  CONNECTED WITH  LUCID INTERVALS, g 254.


XII. TREATMENT OF INSANE CRIMINALS, \ 259.
      Necessity of separate places  of confinement in which insane criminals can be
              placed, \  259.
           (1.) For  Retribution, \ 260.
                In most, if not all, cases of crime resulting from insane impulse, there
                    is original responsibility,  \ 260.
                Insanity, in most cases, the result of moral excess, § 261-9.
                Qualified responsibility of lunatics, \ 261-9.
           (2.) For  Prevention, § 270.
                Mischief to society if monomaniacs are suffered to go at large, § 270.
                Necessity of restraint, § 271.
           (3.) For Example, §  272.
                Contagiousness of unchecked crime, \ 272.
           (4.) For Reform, \ 273.
                Impossibility of patient recovering  when permitted to run at large,
                    § 273.
        5 
66           GENERAL THEORIES OF MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS.

               Injury to the community from the want of secondary punishments,
                   the result being acquittals of dangerous parties, from an unwill-
                   ingness to see the severer penalties inflicted, \ 274.
               Ordinary penitentiaries inadequate, \ 275.
               And so of ordinary lunatic asylums, \ 270.
           I.  General theories of mental unsoundness.

   § 78.  To  those who have examined that  portion of the preceding
pages, which treats of the legal relations of mental unsoundness, it will
he obvious that no hypothesis can be constructed which will meet with
exactness every possible future case.  No general definition has there-
fore been attempted, and it is sufficient at present briefly to notice the
three prominent hypotheses by which the cause, rather than the nature,
of mental unsoundness has endeavored to be explained.
   § 79.  1st.  The psychological  theory.   This  is based on  the assump-
tion that the primitive source of these diseases is in the soul itself, and
that the soul is that which  originally suffers, and imparts, when there
is sympathetic insanity, its  malady to the body.(<?)
   § 80.  2d.  The  somatic theory takes for granted that the soul itself, as
such, is incapable of originating a disease, but that the occasion of every
affection  of the mind is to be found in some abnormity  of bodily devel-
opment, and that  aberrations of mind are nothing more than disturb-
ances of  some  functions of  the soul, produced by bodily  abnormities.
This  theory  resolves itself  into various  subdivisions.    One party as-
sumes, that  while every mental disease  is  to be  deduced  from  bodily
causes, it is still to be  treated  as a self-existent  disease;  while others
maintain  that  there can be no  such thing as a diseased  state of the
mind,  and that what we usually  designate  as such, is nothing more
than a symptom of some bodily disorder.(e)
   § 81.  3d.  The intermediate  theory  attributes  to  the body  and the
soul alike originative influence, in the growth of mental diseases. (/)

  (d) See an exposition of this in  Dr. Henry Monro's " Remarks on  Insanity, its Nature
and Treatment."   London, 1850.
  (e) A very ingenious though unsound defence of the Somatic Theory will be found
in Mr. M. B. Sampson's " Criminal Jurisprudence considered in relation to Cerebral Or-
ganization." London, 1843.  Hobbes' famous theory drifts in the same direction.  The
result of this would be to make all restraint an injustice.
  (/) See a very capable sketch of these theories in SchUrmayer, Gerichtliehe Medicin,
§ 521, from which  this analysis is taken, and see  also particularly Dr. Rush's examina-
tion of the same points in his treatise on the Mind, pp. 12, 13, 14, and where that emi-
nent authority (p.  16) localizes madness in the blood  vessels of the brain.
  Feuchtersleben, in  his celebrated work, (Principles of Medical  Psychology, trans-
lated by Evans Lloyd, printed by the Sydenham Society, London,  1847,) may be con-
sidered as adopting the intermediate theory.   Insanity, he tells us, is not either a bodily
or a mental disease, bein<>- a disturbed reciprocal relation of mind and body.  Dr. Jamie-
son (Lectures on the Med. Jur. of Insanity, by Robert Jamieson, M.  D.) takes this same
view.
  Sir Benjamin Brodie in a late very interesting essay, (Psychological Inquiries &c. Lon-
don, 1854,) gives the following conclusive objections  to the  phrenological phase of the
somatic theory:—"Now there are two simple anatomical facts which the founders of this
system  have overlooked, or with which they were probably unacquainted, and which of
themselves afford  a sufficient contradiction of it.
  " 1st. They refer the mere animal propensities, chiefly to the posterior lobes and
the intellectual faculties to the anterior lobes of the cerebrum.  But the truth is' that
the posterior lobes exist only in the human brain, and in  that of  some of the tribes 
SOMATIC theory.
67
   § 82.  Independently  of the  pathological  difficulties  in the  way of
 the  somatic theory,  psychological research  testifies  most strongly
 against it.(g)  The mental and moral functions are the immediate pro-
 ducts of an independent sphere of organism,  and not to be explained
 by anything lying outside of  that sphere.   The brain and the nerves
 have only the physical part of perception and motion, and to some ex-
 tent the regulation of the functions to  perform; but the soul  can-
 not  otherwise be  considered  as  entirely distinct from  this  activity
 of the  nerves.   The  somatic theory,  which  confounds the two, will
 never be able to  make a.satisfactory distinction between palsy and im-
 becility, between convulsions and ravings, between sensuous hallucina-
 tions  and  insanity, (h)   The somatic theory fails entirely  in affording
 support  to  any  practical- system of therapeutics.   The  general  expe-
 rience of modern times confirms  the fact, that  medicines are of very
 little avail  against mental derangements, and  that the  most essential
 results are attained by a strictly moral  treatment, and  corresponding
 regulation of diet and  habits.(i)

 of monkeys, and are absolutely wanting in quadrupeds.   Of this there is  no more
 doubt  than  there is of  any other of the best  established facts in  anatomy; so that,
 if phrenology be true, the marked distinction between man on one hand, and a cat, or a
 horse, or a sheep on the other, ought to be, that the former has the animal propensities
 developed to their fullest extent, and that these are deficient in the latter.
   " 2ndly. Birds have various propensities and faculties in common with us, and in the
 writings of phrenologists many of their illustrations are derived from this class of ver-
 tebral animals.  But the  structure of the bird's brain is essentially different, not only
 from that of the human brain, but from that of the  brain of  all  mammalia.  In order
 that I may make this plain, you  must excuse me if I repeat what I said on the subject
 formerly.  In the mammalia the name of the corpus striatum has  been given to each of
 two organs of a small size compared with that  of the  entire  brain, distinguished by a
 peculiar disposition  of the gray and the fibrous  or medullary  substance of which they
 are composed, and placed under the entire mass of the hemispheres of the cerebrum.
 In the bird's  brain what appears to a superficial observer to correspond to these hemi-
 spheres is  found on a more minute examination, to be apparently  the corpora striata de-
 veloped to an enormous size ; that which really corresponds to the cerebral hemispheres
 being merely a thin layer expanded over their upper surface, and presenting no appear-
 ance of convolutions.  It  is plain then, that there can be no phrenological organs in the
 bird's brain, corresponding to those which are said to exist in the human brain, or in
 that of other mammalia.  Yet birds are  as pugnacious  and  destructive, as much at-
 tached to the localities in which they reside, as any individual among us."
  In his interesting work on Criminal Jurisprudence, Mr. Sampson adopts the views of
 the author of the " Vestiges of the  Natural History of Creation," and  ascribes every
 criminal action to some abnormal or  morbid  condition of the cerebral organization.
 This fundamental proposition is, that " every manifestation of the mind depends upon
 the confirmation and health of its material instrument, the brain; and as it is not the
 function of a sound and healthy brain to give rise to any other than healthy manifesta-
 tions, so no error of judgment can ever arise, but as the result of a defective condition
 of that organ."
  Mr. Hurlbut, an eminent counsellor, and one of the Supreme Judges  in the  State of
 New York, in his "Essays on'Human Rights and Political Guarantees," a work which
 is well  worthy of perusal, promulgates the same doctrine, which  on the other hand is
 very ably controverted by Dr. Hoods.—" Suggestions for the further provision of Crim-
inal Lunatics, by Charles  Hood, M. D.  London,  1854.   pp. 126, 127."
  (ff) Siebold.  Lehrbuch der Gericht. Med. Berlin, 1847. \ 194. L. Krahmer, Handbuch
der Gericht, Med. Halle, C. A. Schwetschke, 1851. \ 126.  Heinroth, Syst. der psychisch
gericht. Med. Leipsic, 1825.  Kant, Anthropologic, Kdnigsb., 1798. Metzger's Ger. Med.
—Abhandl.  Kbnigsb. 1803.
  (h) Legons Cliniques, sur 1'Alienation Mentale—par Falret. Legon 1, p. 8. Paris, 1854.
  (0 The most thorough  of the German advocates of the somatic theory is Friedreich,
particularly in his " Historisch, Kritische Darstellung de Theorien  neber das Wesen und
 den Sitz der psychischen  Krankheiten.  Leipsic, 1836. 
68
PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORY.
   § 83.  The  psychological  theory, at its first inception, split upon the
rock of  extremes,  in denying  the influence  of the  physical processes
upon mental diseases in  the face of  experience.   In  opposition to the
somatists it  was thought necessary to  exclude all natural  causes from
the explanation of the origin of  mental affections, and to ascribe them
to an act of  voluntary self-enthralment, which, in all cases, Avas to be
attributed to some prior  moral excess  or delinquency incurred, with a
knowledge of the  consequences.   But  a derangement of mind is  not
identical with sin.   For  though every vice, every sin, is an abnormity
of the  soul, yet every abnormity  of the soul is. not sin.  A lunatic may
be in a human sense  innocent of  positive guilt, and  on the other hand
the worst of criminals may retain his sanity.  It is impossible to ad-
here to  this  doctrine in practice, without reducing the  entire treat-
ment of  the  disease to a system of rewards and punishments; and  the
vagueness of the  idea of freedom and constraint, the impossibility of
distinguishing between the moral thraldom of the criminal and that of
the sick  man, will  throw  into  confusion the  entire  system of forensic
psychology.(j)   It is equally amiss to derive all diseases of the mind
from the passions,  although the latter may be important causes, and in
the more advanced stages, symptoms of insanity.(k)  At the same time,
as will hereafter be  very fully  shown,(kk) there is in the mass of cases
of insane convicts  such an  amount of  responsibility as to  require  the
infliction of a degree of punishment which, though different from  that
imposed  on the  sane, will yet be  accompanied with a corrective as well
as a preventive discipline.
   § 83.  The  truths  contained  in these opposing views  and theories,
could not fail to be appreciated and to lead  to efforts  at reconciliation.
The unity of man's being was  particularly looked to as  a  resolution of
the discord.   The  theories constructed on such a basis must of course
depend upon the  light in which  this unity of man  is regarded.   The
most eminent  European  authorities  now  tend to the conclusion  that
mental unsoundness  is a disease of the soul itself, but has its seat,  not
in the soul's intellectual but in its grosser spheres.(I)    And inasmuch—
according to  this theory—as this  lower  sphere of  the soul  has the cha-
racter  of thraldom, of a want of  self-control, mental affections are fre-
quently termed "involuntary aberrations."(m)
   " The  degree in which the operations  of the mind are dependent upon
its  material  instruments," (says  Dr. Carpenter,) "is  a question which
cannot be regarded  as conclusively determined by  scientific evidence
alone,  and it has  little  practical bearing  on  physiological research.

  (/) Etudes Medico Psychologiques.  M. Renaudin, p. 166.  Art. 30. Sur la responsa-
bilite Morale. Paris, 1854.
  Legons Cliniques, de M. Falret, p. 11, discours d'ouverture.  Paris, 1854.
  Manuel Complet de Medicine Legale per J. Briand.  Section Troisieme.  Article III
p. 560.  Paris,  1852.
  (k) Heinroth is  the leading representative of  the psychological theory.  See his
" Lchrbuch der  Scelenkrankhciien." Leipsic, 1818, and his " System der psychisch ger-
ichtlichen  Medicin," Leipsic, 1825.  Dr. Mayo, in his "Medical Testimony on Lunacy,"
goes some distance in the same direction; and  as has  been seen,  very justly argues i'n
favor of a  discrimination of punishment between the malicious and the unconscious in-
sane criminal.  Mayo, &c. 50, 51.
  (kk) Post § 259-276.           (0 See Schurmayer, Gerichliche Medicin.  \ 521.
  (m) " Unfreiwilliger Irrsein."  Schurmayer. 
CONNECTION BETWEEN BODY AND SOUL.
69
The doctrine usually regarded as having the best Scriptural basis—
that  the mind has an existence altogether distinct from that  of the
body—is attended with several difficulties, of which those arising  from
the phenomena of insanity are perhaps the most important.   On the
other hand, the opinion  held  by some, that mental phenomena are the
mere results of material  changes, appears to involve difficulties at  least
equal: among'which may be  noticed, the consciousness of personal
identity, preserved throughout the continual and rapid changes to which
the nervous system is subject.   The  assertion, however, that psychical
operations cannot be the result of material changes, is based,  on the
assumption, that we  know far more of the  essential character of  both
than is admitted  by  the  best  metaphysicians  to be the case regarding
either; this is a question which  scarcely comes within the boundaries
of human  knowledge.  Neither hypothesis is inconsistent with the re-
vealed doctrines of  the  immortality of the soul; though the  second
could not be made to conform to it, without the  additional supposition
that some refined form of matter, on which the psychical operations es-
sentially depend, has also an external existence.  All the upholders of
this doctrine seek a confirmation of it in the expression 'spiritual body,'
used  by an authority which  is all but  supreme.  The certainty of a
future existence, in which all that is corruptible shall be  done away, is
the great practical fact for the Christian.  On the mode of it the phi-
losopher may speculate, and  even though he may come  to the conclu-
sion that 'mind and  matter are logically distinct existences,' yet he finds
their operations so inextricably interwoven in the phenomena of man's
terrestrial life, that he cannot pursue either class by itself alone."
   To this may be added  the very high authority of Isaac Taylor, who,
in his  "Physical Theory of another Life," after pointing out how com-
pletely the question  whether the human soul is ever  actually or en-
tirely  separated from matter, is passed over by St. Paul as an inquiry
altogether irrelevant to religion,  continues:—" Let it then be distinctly
kept  in  view, that  although  the essential  independence of mind and
matter, or the abstract  possibility of the  former existing apart  from
corporeal life, may well  be considered as  tacitly implied in the Chris-
tian's  scheme, yet that an actual incorporeal  state of the human soul,
at any period of its course,  is  not  involved in the principles of our
faith any more than is  explicitly asserted.  This doctrine, concerning
what is called the immortality of the soul, should ever be treated simply
as a philosophical speculation,  and  as unimportant to  our  Christian
profession, "(n)
   § 84.  "Such," says President Edwards, the first metaphysician of
his country, and perhaps the first of his age, "seems to be our nature,
and such the  laws of the union of soul and body, that there never is, in
any case whatsoever, any lively and vigorous exercise of the will or incli-
nation of the soul without some effect upon the body in some alteration of
the motion of  its fluids, and especially of the animal spirits.  And, on the
other hand, from the same laws of the union of the soul and body, the
constitution of the body and the motion of its fluids may promote the
exercise of the affections, but the mind only that is the proper seat of

   (n) Carpenter. Mind  and Matter, by J. G. Millingen, M. D., M. A.   pp. 128, 129, 130. 
70
THEORIES OF THE SEAT OF THE SOUL.
affections.   The body of  man is no more capable of being really the
subject of love or hatred, joy or sorrow, fear or hope, than the body of
a tree,—or than the body of a man  is capable of thinking  and under-
standing.   As it is the soul only that has ideas, so it is the soul only
that is pleased or displeased with its ideas.  As it is the soul only that
thinks, so it is the soul only that loves or hates, rejoices or is grieved
at what it thinks of.   Nor are these motions of the animal spirits and
fluids of the body anything  properly belonging to  the  nature of the
affections, though they always accompany them in  the  present state,
but are only effects or concomitants  of the affections that are entirely
distinct from the affections themselves, and not essential to them; so
that an unbodied spirit may be as capable  of love  and hatred, joy or
sorrow, hope or  fear, or other affections, as one is that is united to  a
body."(0)
   § 85. There can  also he little doubt that  the soul, in this sense, acts
directly on  the  body, either with or  without the usual muscular or
nervous action.  A curious case, recorded by the late  Dr.  J.  Cheyne,
seems to favor the opinion that there may be a set of fibres conveying
to the brain a sense of general sensation, independent of the sense of
touch.  "We know an instance," says he,  "of  a remarkable delusion,
arising from complete loss of feeling  in the left side of the body, caused
by an attack of palsy, which first originated, and then  fatally termi-
nated in apoplexy.   In the morning the individual maintained he had
two left arms; and when  we  tried to convince him that he was under a
misconception, he promptly offered to produce the supplementary arm.
' There it is,' said  he, patting his left shoulder with his right hand.
'Well, then,' it  was asked, 'where is the other?'   On which, turning
round his head  with great alacrity  to show it, he seemed much disap-
pointed when he could discover but one arm, vehemently declaring that
'there were two  in the night.'Qj)  Here there must  have been general
sensation  in the  arm, or the patient would not have felt that he had an
arm at all;  but  when in the night he felt  but could not see that he had
an arm, and, on touching  the surface of the palsied limb with the other
hand, was sensible of no impression, he naturally supposed the real arm
to be existing behind  or beside the dead  substance  which he touched.
Between sleeping and waking, even in  health, we do not always reason;
and  here, probably, the reasoning power was somewhat disturbed by
the lesion of the brain.  If there should be a sense of this kind, it would
account for  the fact that pain is felt in palsied limbs which  are insensi-
ble to touch, as well as for those cases of insanity or idiocy where the
sense of touch remains, hut that of heat, or the pain ensuing  from  a
burn  is lost^g)


          II. HOW MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS  IS TO BE DETECTED.

   1st. By whom.   § 86.
   2d. At what  Time.   §  96.

   (o) Edwards on Religious Affections, p. 15.         (p) Cheyne's Essays, p. 60.
  (q) Barlow on Man's Power over himself to prevent or control Insanity. London W.
Pickering, 1843 ; Phil. Lea k Blanchard, 1846. 
BY WHOM ALLEGED LUNATICS ARE TO BE EXAMINED.        71
          1) Time of act.   § 95.
          2) At trial.   § 97.
          (3) At and after sentence.  § 98.
  3d.  By what  Tests.  § 100.
          (1) Physiognomy.   § 100.
          (2) Bodily health and temperament.   § 102.
          (3) Hereditary tendency.  § 107.
          (4) Conversation and deportment.   § 110.
          (5) Nature of act.   § 112.
                 (a) Its insensibility.  § 112.
                 (b) Its incongruity with antecedents.   § 113.
                 (c) Its motivelessness.   § 114.
                 (d) Its inconsequentially.  § 115.

                            1st.  By ivhom.
  § 86.  It  has already been stated  that the experience of medical ex-
perts,  like that of experts in  all other branches of science,(r) is part of
the common law of the land.  The illustrations of this principle are very
numerous.  Thus, if a question involving ship-building is the subject of
judicial investigations, the testimony of a shipwright as to the meaning
of terms of art, as well as to the general laws of the craft,  enters into
the basis upon which  the case  is  tried.   And if there has been any
difficulty in the reception of the result of medical experience, when in-
sanity is at issue,  it has arisen from that occasional conflict of opinion
among medical witnesses  which the highest professional authority have
lately  so entirely united in deploring, (s)
  § 87.  One or two illustrations will be sufficient to show the  import-
ance of a  skillful  medical examination.   " Delusions  are  sometimes
cunningly concealed for  a length  of time," says Dr. Winslow, "and,
notwithstanding we are certain that they exist, no amount of ingenuity
will induce the patient to disclose them, particularly if made aware of
the object  of  our visit.it)   I had been, recently, to  see a lady whose
insanity was manifested in a remarkable degree in  her every action;
but after paying her several visits  I found it  impossible to  induce her
to exhibit any one delusive impression or insane idea;  but no  sooner
had I left  the room, than her conversation and conduct became out-
rageously insane.   Many insane  persons are able to talk with apparent
rationality, but cannot write Avithout exhibiting their insanity.   I have
  (r) li C'est aux lumieres  et a la probite" des medecins que doit etre exclusivement re-
serve le droit de juger chaque espece de alienation mentale, et de donner aux tribu-
naux les seuls Clemens sur lesquels puissent etre raisonnablement fondes des jugemens
equitables."—M6d. L6g., M. Orfila, tome 1, p. 360.  Paris, 1848.
  (s) Lettsomian Lectures  on  Insanity.  By Forbes Winslow, M. D., D. C. L., late Pre-
sident of Medical  Society of London, &c. London. John Churchill, New Burlington Street.
Medical Testimony and Evidence in cases of Lunacy.  Being the Croonian Lectures de-
livered before the Royal College of Physicians in 1853. With an Essay on the conditions
of mental soundness. By Thomas Mayo, M. D., F. R. S. London, John W. Parker & Son,
West Strand.  1854.  Marc, Die Geisteskrankeiten, in Beziehung auf die Rechts pflege  I.
p. 8 ; and see also particularly Mittermaier's late very interesting essay, "Die tfteliung
und Wirksamkeit der Sachverstandigen in Strafverfahren," in " Archiv fUr Preussisches
Strafrecht."  Berlin, 1853.
  (J)----" Souvent meme il faut toute l'experience des hommes qui out fait une etude
particulie"re des aberrations mentales pour constater Vexistencc de la folic."—Manuel de
Midecine Ligale, par J. Briand, p. 542.  Paris, 1852. 
72
EXAMINATION OF ALLEGED LUNATICS.
examined, recently, one very remarkable case of this kind, in a clever,
well-read, and intellectual woman, whom I had occasionally to visit, (u)
I  never could detect the slightest aberration of mind  in  her conver-
sation, and  yet  almost invariably upon my leaving, she placed in my
hands a letter (which had  been written previous to my  calling), full of
the most absurd extravagances and fancies: accusing strangers, myself,
and members of her family of being engaged in deeply concocted con-
spiracy against  her property and life.   Several of these peculiar and
interesting cases are recorded,  and the medical man has been advised,
with the view of obtaining an  insight into the true condition of  the
mind,  to  open   a  correspondence  with the  supposed lunatic, upon
the principle that few persons  positively insane can, for any length of
time, write without exhibiting their  delusions, whatever amount of self-
control they are able to exercise over their thoughts and morbid ideas,
during protracted conversations.  It is essential for us to ascertain the
degree of knowledge possessed of the ordinary and every-day occurrences
of life.  Upon one occasion I was conversing with a person whose state
of mind was the subject of my investigation, and finding him  rational
and apparently  sane upon all  points, I questioned him as to who was
the reigning sovereign, without knowing  he had  any delusion on  the
point.   The person immediately started from his chair, exclaiming, in
an excited tone  of voice, " I am the sovereign l"(v)
   § 88. "I was requested," says the  same high  authority, "to see a
gentleman who was said to be suicidally insane.  Upon inquiry, I ascer-
tained from good authority that under the influence of most distressing
hallucinations he had attempted to hang himself.   The patient firmly,
earnestly, and apparently  with great  truthfulness, resolutely and  re-
peatedly denied  the fact.  He declared it was an  invention,—a pure
creation of the  imagination, originating with the family; that he was
happy,  subject to no depression, had a strong wish to live, and great
fear of death.   I examined him, in conjunction with another physician,
and neither of us could seize hold of the salient  point, or satisfy himself
that the man was actually insane.  But, we asked ourselves, what mo-
tive could his family have for thus misrepresenting the facts of  the
case ?   We  felt  quite assured, from the character of the evidence pre-
sented, that an attempt at suicide had been made; but the patient, with
an ingenuity which would have  reflected credit upon a nisi prius lawyer,
parried with great skill  all the questions, and  gave such prompt and
happy replies to our anxious interrogatories, that we were compelled to
admit  ourselves, for a time,  perfectly defeated.   By a  course of  con-
versation I drew the gentlemen's thoughts into a different channel; and
whilst my attention was directed  apparently elsewhere, I kept a close
watch upon all his movements.   I perceived, as I imagined, some kind
of instrument projecting from  his pocket.   He  perceived that my eyes
were directed to this, and he immediately expressed a wish  to leave the
apartment.  I at once said, "I  cannot permit you to do so until I know
what you have concealed in your trowsers pocket."  He at once mani-

  («) "Dans la folie raisonnante sans grand agitation, le malade peut paraitre devant
celui qui l'interroge avec calme, repondre tres juste a toutes les questions et expliquer
d'une maniere plausible les actions extravagantes qui lui sont imputces."—Orfila, tome
I. p. 396.  Paris, 1848.                 (v) Winslow on Medico Leg. Ev., 128. 
BY WHOM TO BE CONDUCTED.
73
fested signs of embarrassment and excitement, and rising rapidly from
his seat, endeavored to rush  out of the  door.   He was immediately
prevented from  doing so, and  his  pockets emptied, and a razor dis-
covered.  In his pocket-book a letter was  found, addressed to the coro-
ner, intimating to him that he  was pursued by an evil spirit, and this
impression had driven him to commit an act of self-destruction.  For-
tunately for our  own reputation and the patient's life, this providential
discovery was made.(w)   It may be necessary to see and examine the
patient on more than one occasion before the physician is satisfied as to
the actual state  of his  mind.   In cases of doubtful character,  I would
suggest that this course should invariably  be adopted, taking the neces-
sary precaution to recommend close vigilance during the interregnum.  I
I suggest this course, in consequence of my being acquainted with  the case
of a lady, whose removal from home was for a few days temporarily post-
poned, in compliance with the cautious and judicious advice of the medical
man, who admitted that he could not detect, according to his apprehension,
sufficient evidence of insanity to justify him in signing the certificate.
During  the interim she succeeded in destroying  herself.   In a few
instances we are justified  in  partially acting upon the representations
of the family and friends of the alleged lunatic.   If a delusion be de-
tected, it must be referred to:  and if the patient  has committed any
overt acts of violence, or manifested a suicidal disposition, it is our duty
to refer to  these facts, guarding  ourselves by stating  that we  derived
such information from parties immediately around the patient.  It is
important in all cases to specify the character of the existing delusion.
The expression of a belief  in the fact of delusive  ideas, and of the pre-
sence  of abstract insanity without a specification of facts, renders  a
medical  certificate invalid.   I  have often seen certificates  worded  to
this effect:  ' I have formed my opinions  from the fact of the party
being  insane,'—'being  under  delusions,'—'being excited,'—'being
violent.'  These generalizations should be carefully avoided:  the more
concise the account of the patient's condition, the closer will it be  in
unison with the expressed wish  of the Commissioners in Lunacy.   The
record  of one clear and unmistakable delusion is quite sufficient  for
all  legal purposes.   But  cases  do occur where no delusion can be de-
tected, and yet confinement may be absolutely necessary.  Under such
circumstances it  is the duty of  the medical man to enter more  into de-
tail as to the facts of the case.  Perhaps I may be excused for suggest-
ing, that in every instance of this kind, the parties should keep copies
of their certificates."^)

  (w) It is only in having, says Orfila, an acquaintance with the whole life of an indi-
vidual, in weighing and comparing  every fact, that, in some cases, we can pronounce
with certainty upon his actual moral state.  It is in interrogating the past that we ac-
quire a knowledge of the present.  The same author also states, that when an opinion
is asked from physicians upon the actual state of an accused person, they ought, in the
examination of his previous conduct, to understand what act is imputed to him, if that
should be necessary to  influence their opinion. In a report, they should not confine
themselves to a simple opinion upon the state of the person who is the subject of it, but,
of necessity, should go into details upon the facts observed, in order that the same piece
may be submitted to the examination of new experts.  The employment of all the means
indicated does not always lead to a positive result, and  sometimes we are to remain in
doubt.—Med. L4g., Orfila, tome I. p. 400. Paris, 1848.
  (x) Winslow on Medico Legal Ev. 152 ; see ante §  43. 
74
EXAMINATION OF ALLEGED LUNATICS.
  § 89. " Certain recent actions at law in this country," says Dr. Ilarts-
horne, " in which heavy damages have been incurred by parties charged
with arresting and detaining an alleged lunatic against the will and in-
terests of the latter, have led to greater circumspection, not only among
the friends of lunatics, in the procurement of proper medical certificates
and other forms required for the admission of insane patients into hos-
pitals, but among the medical advisers in  the preliminary examinations
of the patients, and the filling up of their certificates.   The principal
hospitals for the insane of  the  United States, have printed forms and
obligations, which are furnished to  the friends of patients to be filled
up and signed according to the law of the State and  the rules of the
hospital. • The form  of the medical certificate  generally requires the
patient to have been seen  and examined  by  the  physician signing, on
the day on which the certificate is dated.   In all cases the certificate is
expected to apply only to the actual condition of the patient at the time
of signing, and to be  used  without delay in order to be available.  The
medical certificate must always be accompanied by a formal application
for  admission of the patient, signed by a responsible guardian, near re-
lative, or friend.   These papers have also annexed to  them a series of
questions relating to the  past history and  existing condition of the
patient, the peculiar symptoms of the case, and  the probable cause of
the attack; which questions are to be answered by the friends and re-
latives, and the attending physician.   Some  hospitals  require  the sig-
nature of two physicians to the medical certificate, neither of them, of
course, being connected with  the  hospitals applied to.  The State
Lunatic Hospital of  New Jersey requires the medical  certificate to he
formally deposed to by two physicians before  a magistrate.   Patients
sometimes obtain their discharge on a writ of habeas corpus, by proving
their apparent  fitness to be at large,  but are generally removed by
friends or discharged when sufficiently recovered, at the discretion of
the superintendent.   We are not aware of any legal restriction in this
country on the liberation of insane patients, except in cases of homicidal
or otherwise dangerous lunatics, who have been confined by  order of  a
magistrate, or by a court of law.  Such patients can only be  released
by an  authority similar to that which first committed them.  There are
patients of this class now in durance at the Eastern State Penitentiary
of Pennsylvania,  and in different State Asylums."(y)
  § 90. It is well to keep in mind the suggestions of Hoffbauer in re-
gard to the importance of an adaptation, by the inspecting  physicians,
of his  own method of examination to the character of the subject.  The
uneducated and  the  refined, the bashful, timid, and retiring, and the
cunning, insolent, and hardened, the eccentric, the victim of fixed ideas,
and the lunatic, each requires a different  style of treatment.   He must
worm his way into the heart of the ignorant man by reference to objects
palpable to the sense, and  must address the man of education in the
spirit which animates him.   He must approach the bashful,  the timid,
and the morose  with cordiality and affability,  and exercise practical
tact, circumspection,  and adroitness, in conversing  with the cunning,
the hardened, and the insolent, impressing them with respect for his per-

        (y) Taylor's Med. Jurisprudence by Hartshorne, Phil. 1853, 561, 562. 
BY WHOM TO BE CONDUCTED.
75
sonal and mental qualifications.   On the whole, the tone of the subject
must regulate the tone of the examiner.   But where one style of treat-
ment is  found of no  avail, recourse may be had  to the opposite  one.
Where the patient sits immovable  as a statue, without  answering any
question addressed him,  which often  occurs in  cases  of deeply-seated
melancholy, further questions should not be asked, but observation alone
resorted to.(z)
   § 91.  That a man  is of sound mind, will generally be sufficiently
manifest to a prosecuting officer of discretion; but whether a man is
really, or only apparently deranged,  is a question which cannot be decided
with the certainty belonging to science except by a physician; nor is it
possible, without  a thorough knowledge of psychological medicine, to
pronounce upon the  influence  exercised by specific forms of disease
upon given actions.(a)
   § 92.  It should not be forgotten, however, that it is of much import-
ance in the  diagnosis  of  insanity, that the  proper legal and medical
functionaries should act in common.  AVritten explanations are here of
much  less value than oral intercourse, where a few words will often
suffice to remove a difficulty, to correct an error, or to supply an omis-
sion.  In visiting a deranged culprit for this purpose, the  prosecuting
officer should  always  invite  the physician to accompany him.   They
may then alternately converse with the accused, whereby both the mor-
bid and the criminal peculiarities of the subject will be clearly unfolded
to them both.   It is well established that a man of unsound mind will
act very differently, according as he views the persons before whom he
stands with fear, respect, or confidence.   It  is sometimes advisable to
invite the physician's  attendance at an official hearing, where, under
the semblance of a mere  occasional and unofficial companion, he  may
make a diagnosis the more accurate because unsuspected.
   § 93.  It is not to be denied that a lay observer, or an unassisted judge
or jury, may be able to distinguish a case of fully developed and clearly
manifested insanity; but, aside from the necessity of a knowledge of all
the particular relations existing between a given state of disease and a
given act, there can be no proper foundation for the infliction of punish-
ment in any case, where the judgment of which it is  the execution is
not based on the  greatest attainable amount of  certainty.  But  this
certainty can be no other than that which bears the seal of technical
science.   Nor will a juryman, if properly tender of his  conscience and
of  public opinion, base his verdict upon other evidence than that of
those best able from long training and close attention, to understand
the features of the case.  In some cases the  difference between a scien-
tific, or technical, opinion, and that of a layman, is not  so much in the
results attained, as in the guarantee afforded by the superior  attain-
ments and more minute expertness  of the man of science.  The decla-

  (z) J. H. Hoffbauer, Die psychischen Kraukheiten  in Bezug auf die Rechtspflege,
Berlin, 31.
  (a) Notwithstanding Regnault's elaborate disquisition, " Du degre- de competence des
Medicins dans les questions judicaires relatives aux alienation mentales," &t\, Paris,  1828,
and notwithstanding the occasional contemptuous remarks of Nisi Prius judges in the
hurry and irritation of trial, this position is  recognized, as has already been seen, by the
uniform practice as well as the recognized theory of the law.  See ante g 45, n. See also
Marc, die Geisteskraukeiten in  Beziehung auf die Rechtspflege, vol. I. 98. 
76
EXAMINATION OF ALLEGED LUNATICS.
ration of such a man is insured against the possibility of error  to  the
full extent of the protection of science in its present stage  of develop-
ment.   Pro foro this degree of certainty is sufficient, because it is the
highest attainable;  but the same cannot be  said of any other.(6)
  § 94.  The American authorities falling under this head may be con-
sidered as establishing the following points :
  (a.) Professional men,  experts  in psychological medicine,  who have
personally examined the party, may be asked whether he was insane or
not.(e)   Such, in fact, has been the uniform and  undisputed course in
practice in all cases where medical testimony is  taken  on this point.
The English rule is equally definite, (d)
  (b.) Even though the witness has not had the opportunity of personal
inspection, he may be asked for his opinion on an assumed state of facts,
or upon the evidence given on trial, (e)   In England this  position  has
been disputed, and though in one or .two earlier cases the Courts allowed
a greater latitude, yet now it seems to be understood that  the witness
will be restricted to the results of his personal  examination.(/)   But
notwithstanding this  retrogression, it may be maintained  without the
hazard of dispute that the rule as now settled in America is not only more
in accordance with a full investigation of the points in dispute, but with
the analogies  of the law.   It has  been already shown that  the common
law consists of the wisdom of this particular  age  applied  to the  exi-
gencies of the particular case; and in this sense it includes  not only the
decisions of the courts, but the opinions of experts on the  particular
branches to which their attention  has been devoted.(g)   Thus  the evi-
dence of persons acquainted with navigation is admissible upon the facts
as developed in evidence in cases  'of collision, (A) or  loss from  alleged
unseaworthiness ;(i)  of persons  conversant  with  handwriting  as  to
whether a. paper was forged ;(j) of seal engravers as to the  genuineness
of an impression ;(k) of artists, as to whether a picture is  an  original or a
copy ;(Z) of postmasters, as to the genuineness of a post mark ;(m) of sci-
entific engineers, as to the effect  of an embankment on  a harbor ;(n) of

  (b) Schiirmayer, \ 512.
  (c) Com. v. Rogers,  7 Mete.  500; M'Allister v. State,  17  Alab. 434;  Clark v. State,
 12 Ohio, 483.
  (d) R. v. Searle, 1 Mood. & Rob. 75 ; R. v. Offord, 5 C. & P. 168.  See  a  learned note
 on this point in 7 Bost. Law Rep. 692.   M. Briand, (Med. Leg. 552, Paris, 1852,) says,
 " Appeles £ faire un rapport sur l'etat moral d'un prevenu ou d'un accuse, les  medecins
 ne s'immiscent point alors dans les fonctions des juges ou des jure6s, mais ils eclairent
 la conscience des uns et des autres."  See also Manuel  de  Med. Leg. de M. Orfila, T. I.
 399.  Paris, 1848.
   (e) Com. v. Rogers, 7 Mete.  500; M'Allister v. State, 17 Alab. 434; Clark v. State, 12
 Ohio, 483; Com. v. Wood, MSS. Phil. 1836 ; Com. v. Mosler, MSS. Phil.  1845.
   (/) R. v. Wright, R. & R. 451; R. v. Frances, 4 Cox, C.  C. 57; Opinion of Judges,
postn. (r); though see contra R. v. Searle, 1 Mood. &Rob. 75; R. v. Offord, 5 C. & P. 1G8.
   (g) See on this point ante, \ 45, n.
   (h) Malton v. Nesbit, 1 C. & P. 70;  Fenwick v. Bell, 1 C. & K. 312  ; Thornton v. Royal
 Exch. Co. Peak, 25.
   (i) Beckwith v. Sydebotham, 1 Camp.  116.
   (j) Revctt v. Braham, 4 T. R. 497; Hammond's Case, 2 Greenl. 33; Moody v. Rowell,
 17 Pick. 490; Com. v. Carey,  2 Pick. 47; Lyon v. Lyman, 9 Conn. 55;  Hubley v. Van-
 home, 7 S. & R. 185 ; Lodge v. Phipher, 11 S. & R. 333.
   (k) Folkes v. Chadd, 3 Dougl. 157.                (I) Ibid.
   (m) Abbey v. Lill, 5 Bing. 299.              (n) Folkes v. Chadd,  3 Dougl. 157. 
ADMISSIBILITY OF MEDICAL TESTIMONY.               77
practical surveyors, as to whether certain marks were intended as boun-
daries or terriors ;(o) and of naturalists, as to Avhether the habits of cer-
tain fish were such as to enable them to overcome certain obstructions in
a river.;(p)  And so nothing is more common than to examine a surgeon
as to Avhether death resulted from natural causes, or from  certain arti-
ficial agencies which may be the subject of inquiry.(g)   On this princi-
ple the opinion of medical men as to whether particular symptoms, sup-
posing them to exist, constitute insanity, is part of the laAV of the case.
It should be observed, however, as the cases in the note show,  that the
witness is  not to be asked whether on  the  whole evidence of the  case
his opinion is that the patient was insane—for  that, indeed, Avould  be
taking the jury's  place—but whether if  a certain state of  facts be true
the inference of insanity would result therefrom, (r)


  (o) Davis v. Mason, 4 Pick. 156.                (p) Cottrill v. Mason, 3 Fairf. 222.
  (q) See cases quoted in Wharton on Homicide, 241-4;  and see also 1 Stark. Ev. 154;
Phil,  and Am. on Ev. 899; 1 Green, on Ev. \ 440.
  (r) See 3 Greenlf. on Ev. § 5. In answer to an inquiry by the House of Lords, whether
" a medical man, conversant with the disease of insanity, who never saw the prisoner pre-
viously to the trial, but who was present during the whole trial and the examination of all
the witnesses, can be asked his opinion as to the state of the prisoner's mind at the time of
the commission of the alleged crime, or his opinion whether the prisoner was conscious at
the time of doing the act that he was acting contrary to law, or whether he was laboring
under any and what  delusion at the time?" the English judges replied,  "We think the
medical man, under the circumstances supposed, cannot in strictness be asked his opinion
in the terms above stated, because each of those questions involves the determination of the
truth of the facts deposed to, which it is for the jury to decide, and the questions are not
mere questions upon  a matter of science, in which case such evidence is admissible.  But
when the facts are admitted, or not disputed, and the question becomes substantially one
of science only, it may be convenient to allow the question to be put in that general form,
though the same cannot be insisted on as a matter of right."
  In this country the present practice, when medical men are examined as  experts, is
to ask their  opinion as to a hypothetical state of facts.  If they happen to have been pre-
sent during  the whole trial, they may be asked their opinion as to  the  particular facts,
supposing them to be true; but the determination of the truth or falsity of the evidence
itself should be reserved exclusively for the jury.
   " The opinions of professional men on a question of this description," says Chief Justice
Shaw, in a late case, " are competent evidence, and in  many cases are entitled to great
consideration and respect.  The rule of law, on which this proof of the opinion of wit-
nesses, who know nothing of the actual facts of  the case, is founded, is not peculiar to
medical testimony, but is a general rule,  applicable  to all cases, where the question is
one depending on skill and science in any particular department.   In general, it is  the
opinion of  the jury which is to govern, and this  is to be formed upon the proof of facts
laid before them. But some questions lie beyond the  scope of the observation and ex-
perience of men in general, but are quite within the observation and experience of those
whose peculiar pursuits and profession have brought that class of  facts frequently and
habitually under their consideration.  Shipmasters and seamen have peculiar means of
acquiring knowledge and experience  in whatever relates  to  seamanship and nautical
skill.  When, therefore, a question arises in a court of justice upon that subject, and cer-
tain  facts are proved by other witnesses ; a shipmaster may be asked his opinion as to
the character of such facts.  The same is true in regard to any question of science, be-
 cause persons conversant with such science have peculiar means, from a larger and more
 exact observation, and long experience in such department of science, of drawing correct
 inferences from certain facts, either observed by themselves or testified to by other wit-
 nesses. A familiar instance of the application of this principle occurs very often in cases
 of homicide, when, upon certain facts being testified to by other witnesses, medical per-
 sons  are asked, whether in their opinion a particular wound described would be an ade-
 quate cause, or whether such  wound was, in their opinion, the actual cause of death, in
 the particular case.  Such question is commonly asked without objection ; and the judi-
 cial proof of the fact of killing often depends wholly or  mainly upon  such testing of
 opinion. It is upon this ground, that the opinion of witnesses, who have long been con-
 versant with insanity in its various forms, and who have had  the care and  superintend- 
 78                      MEDICAL EXAMINATIONS.
                                »

   (e.)  The better  opinion  also is that  Avitnesses, though not experts,
 who have  for a  given  time  had the  opportunity  of  observing the
 patient, may be asked their opinion as to his sanity, (s)  Such witnesses
 cannot, of  course,  be examined as to their opinions on a case stated,
 or on the facts developed in the case on  trial, but only as to the results
 of their personal observation, just in the same way that  a man plough-
 ing on the  shore  can be  examined  as to the fact of a ship striking a
 shoal before him, Avhen he  could  not be admitted to  prove the cause
 of the  disaster.   And, on this principle,  it has ahvays been held admis-
 sible to ask subscribing AA'itnesses as  to their opinion of the testator's
 sanity at  the time of  the execution of the  will. (?)


             2d. At what time examinations should be made.


   § 95. There are three  different times in Avhich the  conduct of the
 accused may become the subject of a forensico-psychological investiga-
 tion :  1,  at the commission  of the deed;  2, during the trial, and 3,
 after  sentence pronounced.   At  each of  these periods, the judge has
 a separate point of view from Avhich to regard the state of mind of the
 defendant, in each  the purpose of the inquiry is  different, and in each
 the interrogations  to be  directed to  the  physician  must be  modified
 accordingly, (u)
   § 96. In regard  to  the first point, the  questions to be asked the phy-
 sician should be, in general, Avhether  a diseased mental state attended
 the  commission of the act, wherein the disease  consisted,  and Avhether

 ence of insane persons, are received as competent evidenee, even though they have not
 had opportunity to examine the particular patient,  and observe the symptoms and indi-
 cations of disease, at the time of its supposed existence. It is designed to aid the judg-
 ment of the jury, in regard to the influence and effect of  certain facts, which lie out of
 the observation and experience of persons in general. And such  opinions, when they
 come from persons of great experience, and in whose correctness and sobriety of judg-
 ment just  confidence  can be  had,  are  of great weight, and deserve the  respectful
 consideration  of  a jury.   But the opinion of a medical man of small experience, or
 of one who  has  crude and visionary notions, or who  has some favorite  theory to
 support, is entitled to very little consideration.  The  value  of such testimony will de-
 pend mainly upon the experience, fidelity, and impartiality of the witness who gives it.
  One caution, in regard to this point, it is proper to give. Even where the medical or
 other professional witnesses have attended the whole trial, and heard the testimony of the
 other witnesses, as to the facts and circumstances of the case, they are not to judge of the
 credit of the witnesses, or  of the truth of the facts  testified to by others.  It is for the
jury to decide whether such facts are satisfactorily  proved.  And the proper question to
 be put to the professional  witnesses is this : If the symptoms and indications testified to
 by the other witnesses are proved, and if the jury are satisfied of the  truth of them,
 whether in their opinion, the party was insane, and what was the nature and character
 of that insanity;  what state of mind did they indicate; and what they would  expect
 would be the conduct of such a person, in any supposed  circumstances."  See  1 M. &
 Rob. 75; Com. v. Rodgers, 7 Mete. 5.
  (s) Clary v. Clary, 2  Iredell, 78 ; Clark v. State,  12 Ohio, 483 ; Grant v. Thompson, 4
 Connect. 203 ; Rambler v.  Tryon, 7 S. & R. 90; AVogan v. Small, 11 S. & R. 141; Morse
 v. Crawford, 17 Vt. 499 ; Lester v. Pittsford, 7 Vt. 158  ; Gibson v. Gibson, 9  Yerger, 329 ;
 Potts v. House, 6 Georg. 324; Colver v. Haslam,  7 Barbour, 374;  Baldwin v. State, 12
 Missouri, 223 ; De AVhitt  v. Barley, 13 Barbour,  550; Kinne v. Kinne, 9 Conn. 102;
 Norris v. State, 16 Alab. 776 ;  AVheeler v. Wheeler,  3 Hagg. 574;  and see 7 Bost. Law
 Rep. (N. S.) 696, where these cases are cited.
  (/) Chase  v. Lincoln, 3  Mass. 237; Poole v. Richardson, ib. 330; Rambler  v.  Tryon
 7 S. & R. 90; Buckminster v. Perry, 4 Mass.  593; Grant  v. Thompson, 4 Conn. 203 '
 Sheafe v. Rowe, 2 Lees R. 415; AVogan v. Small, 11 S. & R. 141.
  (w) See Schiirmayer, g 516, from whence this head  is generally drawn. 
AVHEN AND HOW TO BE MADE.
79
 the mental and  moral functions exercised and implicated in the perpe-
 tration, were of such a nature that either a, there Avas no consciousness
 of criminality and no freedom of volition, or b, the possibility of such
 consciousness and spontaneity was excluded,  or c,  both the one and the
 other Avere incapable of  ascertainment, and must be left in doubt.  The
 practice Avhich has lately groAvn up, of interrogating as to a conclusion
 of laAV, (e. g. was the defendant  capable of distinguishing right from
 wrong, or Avas he a free agent,) instead of as to a state of facts, (.e g. Avas
 he laboring  under mental disease, and if so, Avhat,) is not only false in
 theory, but pernicious in result.
   § 97. The second  period of time becomes of particular interest in our
 American Jurisprudence, from the fact that when a party alleged to be
 insane  is put on his  trial, if insanity be pleaded, the jury are specially
 sworn  to determine the  preliminary issue, whether the defendant  be
 insane  at the time of trial.  If the fact be found in his favor,  he is con-
 fined under  special  sanctions.  If otherwise, the  trial proceeds on the
 main issue.
   §  98. The third period of time, at which the state of a culprit's mind
 is open to medical  investigation,  is  after the  close of the  trial, and
 before  the execution of the  sentence.   A man of unsound mind is in-
 capable of understanding the justice of his sentence, or of recognizing
 a punishment in the evil  inflicted upon him.   In many cases also the
 evil  Avill aggravate his disease.  For all these reasons it is necessary to
 be  certain  that  a convict is so far in the possession of all his faculties,
 that the  object  of the laAV  in subjecting  him to  punishment  will  be
 ansAvered.  The interrogations to be  submitted to the physician are to
 be framed upon  this simple  principle; and  if is self-evident  that only
 such derangements  will  here come in question as are clearly manifest,
 and as  clearly  exclude the  possibility of the prisoner's understanding
 the reason of his punishment.
  § 99. It would be  a proper regulation to cause  every convict, before
 undergoing his  punishment, to be examined in body and mind by the
 physician, for the purpose of ascertaining his capacity for the ordeal.
 Even Avhere the general fitness  of the subject is undoubted,  there are
 frequently personal  defects which require attention in the treatment of
 the prisoner during confinement.   In several of the German States this
 precaution is observed—where a convict is found to be insane, he must
 be subjected to  the proper  treatment.   If a cure is effected,  the ques-
 tion Avhether he  is now able to sustain the punishment without danger
 of a relapse or other injury, is to  be decided by the forensic physician,
 upon a  careful investigation of all the symptoms and attendant circum-
 stances.
                          3d.  By what Tests.
                         (1.) Physiognomy, (v)
  §100.  "Close attention," says  Schurmayer, (w) "should be  first
  (v) The features of the face, says Falret, change at each instant or constantly preserve
the same  expression; the lips, the cheeks, the nostrils, the eyebrows, the eyelids, fre-
quently show convulsive  movement; it is  the same with regard to the muscles of the
eye, and  under the influence of these convulsions, the look is troubled, bewildered and
unsteady. Lemons Cliniques sur l'Alienation Mentale, M. Falret, huitieme lecon, p. 219.
Paris, 1854; see also Orfila, Med. Leg. I. p. 379.  Paris, 1848.
  (w) Gerichtliche Medicin, \ 529. 
80
TESTS OF INSANITY—PHYSIOGNOMY.
directed to the entire  exterior of  the subject, his posture, his motions,
his gestures, his eye, his words, his intonation, and above all the first
impression produced upon  his mind by the appearance of the physician.
What most distinctly characterizes a mental disease, and is never mis-
understood by a skillful physician,  is the physiognomy of such a patient.
The eye of a  madman is  the mirror of his soul.   He lacks the calm
unobstructed gaze peculiar to the sane,u ntouched by passion or excite-
ment." "Look," says Heinroth, (x) " upon the cunning leer of a lunatic,
the  savage glare of a maniac, the  lack-lustre  eyes of a splenetic, or
the  meaningless stare of an  imbecile;  such  things cannot be counter-
feited." (y)
   The form of the skull is often peculiar in every description of mental
disease, but is  particularly noticeable in the case of Cretins  and natural
fools.
   §  101.  The  expressions of the eje(z) and  of the nose(a) have  been
very capably  exhibited  by two eminent physiognomists.   The latter
feature has been examined with peculiar ability by Hoefling.(b)  "In
the apparently joyous  countenance of a laughing madman," he tells us,
" the upward  traction of  the sides of  the nose, nevertheless,  indicate
unmistakably the presence of pain, and  this expresses much of the phy-
siognomic  peculiarity  of  such unfortunates.(c)  In  like  manner the
simple unmeaning  smile of imbecility is marked by the form and shape
of the nose, Avhich, with its doAvnward, circular openings, and the ten-
sion of the skin on the peak, expresses a torpor, Avhile in  the laugh of
a  sane man the nostrils  contract,  and become elongated, without  a
departure  of the septum from its horizontal position."  The mouth of
the  simpleton  twitches with a constant  unmeaning smile, accompanied
with a low, inarticulate and thoughtless mumble,  and  the  imbecile is
almost always  found, sitting or standing, with parted lips.(d)   "With
many," says Schurmayer, "the mouth is  constantly  in  motion, as if
they were talking  to themselves.   In the paroxysms of mania there is
a convulsive distortion or contraction of the  mouth.   Receptivity for
certain external impressions  is  generally Ioav, particularly in the case

  (x) System der gerichtlich psychischen Medizin.  Leipsic, 1825, p. 343.
  (y) Drawings, very well  executed, are to be  found in Morrison's Outlines of Mental
Diseases.  London,  1829, and in Esquirol, Des Maladies Mentales.  Paris, 1838.
  (z) Loebels, Grundriss der Semiologie des auges. Jena, 1817, p. 27.
  (a) Hoefling, in Caspar's AVochenschrift,  1834.               (6) Ibid.
  (c) " To represent the prevailing character and physiognomy of a mad man, the body
should be strong and the muscles rigid and distinct, the skin bound, the features sharp,
the eye sunk; the color of a dark brownish  yellow tinctured with sallowness, without
one spot of enlivening carnation; the hair sooty black, stiff and bushy, or of a pale,
sickly yellow with  wiry hair."—Anatomy of Expression.  Sir Charles  Bell, London.
1844.
                "His burning  eye whom bloody strokes did stain,
                Stared full wide and threw forth sparks of fire;
                And more for rank despight than for great pain,
                Shak'd his long locks, colored like copper wire,
                And bit his tawny beard to show his raging ire."
                                   [Faery Queen, Book ii. canto 4, v. 15.]
  (d) Danz, Allgemeine Mcdizinische Zeichenlehre.  Heinroth's edition. Leipsic, 1812 p.
353. 
BODILY HEALTH AND TEMPERAMENT.
81
of impressions accompanied with pain,(e) of cold,  heat,  and certain
medicines."

               (2.)  Bodily Health and Temperament.

  § 102. Hereditary tendency to  insanity will  in a moment be  con-
sidered.  Under this head, it is proper to notice the importance of the
attention of the medical examiner being turned to temperament,  dis-
position, and age; in the case of females, to the development  of the
functions  of menstruation, pregnancy,  delivery, suckling, to mental
characteristics, powers,  and habits; to the condition in life and profes-
sion ; to the questions of rest and  exercise, sleep, and watching; to ex-
cessive evacuations, particularly if connected with sexual gratifications ;
to sexual abstinence; to bodily injuries, particularly in the head, in-
flammatory affections of the brain or its membranes,  diseases of the
heart, hemorrhoids,  obstructions of the abdomen,(/) and to  cutaneous
diseases.
   § 103.  To what extent insanity is  accompanied with physical  disor-
ganization, is illustrated by a case mentioned by Wigan in his remark-
able  work on the  duality  of the mind.(^)   "The gentleman  held  a
situation  in Avhich he had  many younger persons under him.  I pur-
posely leave the designation obscure.   He had risen to the head of the
office by long and  exemplary services.   He was a Avidower, and  had
had a considerable family, all of whom, however, died  in  their youth.
He exercised  a  parental  control over his subordinates, and was ex-
tremely respected by every one who knew him.   His salary was ample,
his excessive benevolence  had, however,  always kept him poor, but as
his style of living did not imply the expenditure of  more than half his
income, he had the  reputation of wealth.  Gradually,  towards the age
of sixty, this gentleman became garrulous and light in his conversation,
and the others in the office suspected him to have been drinking.  He
had many rebuffs from  the persons under his command, but this in no
degree changed the indecorous levity of his conversation, which had
formerly been remarkably dignified,  and  as reserved as was compatible
with  his  excessive  benevolence of  disposition.  Months and months
passed on, his language became gradually worse, and at last was of the
most depraved obscenity.   This shocked  and disgusted his juniors, and
 he was seriously threatened with exposure by  them.   The propensity
was checked  for a while, but after repeated offences and repeated for-
 giveness by the young men, they made a formal complaint to his supe-
 riors.  The offender was  taken  to  task very seriously, but, as the
 young men had given rather a lenient  representation of his conduct,
 he was  permitted  one  more  trial,  with the assurance that his  next
 offence would be followed  by dismissal.   There was soon an  opportu-
 nity  of putting  the threat in force, for  his conduct  and conversation
 became  more and  more  gross  and disgusting.   He was dismissed.
 Having made no provision, he suddenly found himself  utterly destitute,

   (e) Compare Friedreich, Handbuch der Allgemeine's Pathologie der psychischen Krarik-
 heiten. Erlangen, 1839, p. 121.
   (/) " Unterleibstockungen," Schurmayer,
   (g) A new view of Insanity, &c, by A. L. Wigan. London, 1844,  p. 81.
        6 
82
PATHOLOGICAL TESTS.
but did not make known his  position.  He packed a bundle of neces-
sary clothes, put in his pocket Avhatever  money and trinkets  he^ pos-
sessed, and wandered about the country without aim or object.   Every
one lost sio-ht of him for tAVO  or  three months, Avhen  he Avas found in
a remote  part of the kingdom literally dead  on a dunghill, Avhere it is
supposed  he had laid himself down for warmth; his money Avas gone,
and from  the state of the stomach and intestines, it is probable that he
had died of Avant of food as the immediate cause, but on examining the
interior of the skull, there Avas found extensive softening and disorgani-
zation of  the left  cerebrum, and the other was  not free from  disease.
He could  not have lived long; though, under proper care,  the  disease
would not have been immediately fatal, "(h)
  A diminution of sensibility, says M. Falret, in his late work,(z) is not
of common occurrence in mental diseases, its exaltation being much more
frequent.   It is proper, hoAvever,  to state that deranged  persons are
generally as sensible of temperature  and impressions as persons ordi-
narily are.   Lesions of the sensibility, however, are observable  in  all
kinds of insanity, and especially in those  cases in which mystical  ideas
are predominant, in demonomania  and  paralytic insanity.  General
insensibility has been  knoAvn to take away from some madmen the
sense of their own existence.   M. de Foville  cites the example of a
man who  thought he had died at the battle of  Austerlitz, at which he
received  a seArere AAround.   His  insanity  consisted in  his  inability to
recognize  and feel his  own body.    When any one inquired after his
health, it was customary for  him to reply, " You  ask  me  how father
Lambert is ? but father Lambert is no more, he was killed  by a bullet
at Austerlitz.   That which you see  here, is not him,  but a machine
which they have made to resemble  him, and which is very badly made,
so try and make another."   Never, in speaking of himself, did he say
"me," (moi,) but "that," (cela.)   This  man  fell several times  into a
complete  state of  immobility and insensibility, which  lasted  several
days.  Sinapisms and blisters applied to guard against these accidents,
neA'er produced the least symptom of pain. He often refused to eat, say-
ing :  " 9a n'avait point  de ventre."
  Esquirol was  unable  to  discover any sign  of pain  in passing a pin
through the skin of the arm of a demonomaniac, who asserted  that  he
no more felt anything,  and who imagined that his body had been car-
ried away by the devil.
  In  regard to anomalies of general sensibility associated Avith no illu-
sion, there are madmen Avho  appear insensible  to the ordinary causes
of pain.   Esquirol speaks  of an idiot  girl who Avas in the  habit  of
scratching a lump she had upon her cheek, and did not stop until she
had  perforated  it,  and after  having performed this perforation, she
enlarged the Avound by continually pulling at it with her fino-er.  We
have  often seen deranged persons  cut themselves in different parts of

  (h) Generally of all the causes of mental alienation, the most frequent, without doubt
are cerebral affections or some alteration of the encephalic organ, and perhaps we should
agree with Haslam in saying, that the primitive cause of mental derangement is always
to be found in these alterations.—J. Briand, Mid. Lig., p. 544. Paris,  18°52.
  (J) Lemons Cliniques de 1'Alienation Mentale, par M. Falret.  Septieme'lecon p 185
Paris, 1854.                                                     ' 
SENSIBILITY—HUNGER—PULSE.
83
the body Avithout appearing to suffer.   But the greatest phenomenon of
insensibility is the indifference with which persons afflicted with insani-
ty support cold.   They have been knoAvn  to  expose themselves  in the
open air, to sleep upon  the ground, flagstones and the floor, when  the
ice and snoAV caused persons warmly clad, to shiver.   And imprudences
like these  appear to have a less  dangerous influence upon the insane
than upon  others.  This fact, however, has been much exaggerated, and
in many instances the ordinary effects produced by cold, are observable
in the  deranged.   These unfortunates  are so exposed to freezing, that
in  many establishments there is  an express laAV to visit, morning and
evening, and wrap  in  flannel the feet of those Avhose condition causes
these dangerous consequences to be dreaded.(j)
   § 104. Hunger and  thirst are usually quite vivid, digestion varies,
while the boAvels are almost invariably obstructed.   The skin is usually
dry, rough, and inactive.  The presence of almost all persons of unsound
mind is distinguished by a peculiar specific smell.(k)  Others show them-
selves equally indifferent to heat.   There are some who Avalk and sleep,
entirely naked, in the  sun  upon  the  hottest  days, and who  can  look
fixedly, for a long  time upon this planet, Avithout  being dazzled by it.
   The genital functions are ordinarily preserved by the insane ; some-
times,  indeed,  their activity is  increased, although the mental disease
may not be of erotic origin.   This  super-excitation of the genital organs,
independent  of physical or  moral erotomania, is  particularly observ-
able in  agitated delirium;   whilst in despondent  delirium  they  are
inactive at least if  it have not love for a cause or  object.  The cases,
are rare, however,  where the sexual  organs  are attacked with  insen-
sibility or  impotence, except in  general paralysis.   The aptitude of
man and  woman for  the  venereal  act  and for  fecundation is  not
lost; only  in  insanity as in sound mind, the  rapid  succession of ideas,
the violence  or tenacity of  pre-occupations  foreign to amorous  de-
sires  are capable of bringing on an  inactivity of  the  genital  func-
tions.
   The pulse forms  no test.    M. Jacobi has instituted experiments in a
large  number  of cases  of the  different  forms of mental unsoundness,
indicating  at  the  same time  the  relative pulsations  of the several
arteries, auscultating  the heart, and  counting the  number of inspira-
tions and expirations.   The  attempt  to  deduce  a  fixed rule, however,
was in vain.   "I   had the vexation," he tells  us, "to see  that my
researches, so  conscientiously made, did not fulfil the end  I had pro-
posed ;  and I saw that it was impossible to establish the necessary con-
nection between  the different  pathological states  of the intellect and
feelings, and  the observations I  had collected on  the state of the cir-
culation, the   respiration, and the temperature of the skin, in  the
insane. (I)

  (j) " Dans  le plus haut degre de la manie les malades oublient leurs besoins, et sentent
a peine,  ou pas du tout, la douleur, lefroid et le chaud."—Manuel de Mid. Lig. M. Orfila.
Tome I. p. 377. Dr. Rush makes insensibility to the weather, particularly cold, a marked test.
  (k) Compare Hill's Essay on the  Prevention and Cure of Insanity. London.   1814.
p. 401.   Erhard in Wagner's " Bdtragen zur Philosophischen Anthropologic"  Vol. I.
Vienna, 1794. p.  111.  Milling's Mentis Alienationum Semiologica Somatica,  Bonn.  1828.
g 15. Burrow's Commentaries, p. 297.
  (Z) Jacobi Annales Medico-Psychologiques. 
84
PATHOLOGICAL TESTS—RESPIRATION.
   The secretions, and particularly the perspiration, are imperfectly per-
formed in the majority of insane cases.  In these cases there is a dry skin
of an unhealthy color, and the exhalation of a disagreeable smell.  They
do not grow  thin but even  become  fat, although  eating little, because
they perspire badly.  They urinate a great deal, and the passage of urine
is frequent as  is common in all nervous disorders.   Constipation is an
almost habitual attendant of the disease.
  Without being oppressed, the Respiration in the insane is very often
unequal, hurried, diminished,  interrupted, and  sobbing.   Their breath
is often fetid, and this accidental fetidity, an ordinary symptom of all
nervous diseases, frequently announces the  approach  of an attack of
melancholy,  mania, or hysteria, (m)
  § 105.  The  most interesting symptoms  are  found in the various ab-
normities of the  sensorial  system, as manifested in the excitement,
depression, or delirium of one or the other of the senses.  An excitement
or depression of the sensorial system generally keeps even pace with
the mental malady.  Before  the mental disease breaks out, and while
its advent is indicated by mental and moral excitements, an enhanced
excitability in  the  sensorial  system becomes perceptible, Avhich, how-
ever, where  the  psychical  energies are gradually exhausted  by the
recurrence and violence of the paroxysms, frequently turns to an  oppo-
site  condition, so  that  the  failing, obtuseness, or  loss of  one of the
senses attends the subsequent  progress of the  evil.   According to
Spurzheim,(w)  the  ear is  the sense, which,  of all others, suffers most
among the insane, and  there are more  deaf than  blind among them.
The deliria of the senses, which are either illusions,  or hallucinations,
are found in every form of the disease ; they sometimes  attack one
sense only, sometimes several, and sometimes, though rarely,  all the
senses at once.(o)
  Esquirol gives  it as the result of his experience(p) that Avhen the
alienation of the  mind  begins, and sometimes a  little earlier,  smell
and  taste have changed,  but the deceptions of the  ear and  the eye
generally characterize the  fancies  of  most  madmen.  The deliria of
smell are less frequent than those of the other  senses, those of taste
are of the most various  kind, and those of touch impress  the patients
with the existence of attributes  in  bodies other than those which they
possess.   These deliria  frequently  give rise to fixed ideas;  particu-
lar  postures, various attitudes and  motions,  are observed in almost all
madmen.   Guislain(g) comprises them under the name.
  § 106.  A change of moral  disposition is one of the first symptoms,

  (m) Lecons Cliniques de l'Alienation Mentale, par M. Falret. SeptiemeLecon. p. 185.
Paris.  1854.
  (n) Beobachtungen ueber den Wahnsinn.  Nach dem Englischen und Franzoesischen bear-
leitet von Embden.  p. 81.  See Med. Leg. M. Orfila. Tome I.  p. 358. Paris, 1848.  Or
He'd. Leg., Briand. p. 540. Paris, 1852.
  (o) For a full account of the illusions and hallucinations of the senses we would refer
the reader to the Legons  Cliniques sur l'Alienation Mentale de M. Falret. 3d, 4th, 5th,
16th lessons. Paris, 1854. Also to the Etudes Medico-Psychologiques sur l'Alienation
Mentale, par F.'E. Renaudin.  Chap. 8th, p. 388.  Paris, 1854.
  (p) Compare Hagen Die Sinnetaunschungen in Bezugauf Psychologie  Heilkunde,
und Rcihtspflege.  Leipsic. 1837.
  (q) Traite sur les Phrenopatpies.  Bruxelles, 1833. p. 240. 
SENSIBILITY—MORAL DISPOSITION.
85
 other than physical, with which the disease usually makes its appear-
 ance.   Extreme irritability, proneness to anger, suspicion, concealment,
 obstinacy  and  perverseness, are  common.   In  regard  to  the  affec-
 tions, various abnormal impulses and inclinations  are observed.   Fond-
 ness or  aversion  to particular  persons, without any  special reason;
 disposition  to  exercise  cruelty,  murderous  desires,  a wish to  com-
 mit  arson, or  to steal.(r)   Memory  is generally  good  in  reference
 to things  occurring during  the  disease,  or  to  persons  with  whom
 the  patient  was  then  connected,  but  defective  or  mistaken  as to
 things Avhich  occurred  previously, (s)   Of  the intellectual faculties not
 all  are uniformly in an abnormal state;  on the  contrary, some  func-
 tions occasionally improve,  thus  producing  a complex state of  mad-
 ness, on the  one hand, and of Avit, reflection, and  shrewdness, on  the
 other.(t)   Monomania  is also  included under this head.   There  is
 often a disposition to soliloquize aloud; and to laugh, without a visible
 reason.


                        (3.) Hereditary Tendency.(u)


   § 107. The teaching of observation on this point is that not  only does
 the existence of insanity in  the  offspring afford a violent presumption of

   (r) See \ 192. A deranged person, says Orfila, regards with indifference the dearest ob-
 jects of his affections, he thinks no more of them or holds them in such  aversion as to
 repel, injure,  and maltreat them.   Hatred, jealousy,  anger, wickedness, fear, terror, a
 disgust for life, a desire to destroy and kill, replace the most equal, calm, and softest na-
 ture.— Manuel de Mid. Lig.  M. Orfila.   Tome I. p. 382.  Paris, 1848.
   (s) A great many remember things which occur; and after  their recovery, they often
 astonish by remarks which they had made at a time when they seemed most completely
 deprived of their reason.—Mid. Lig.  J. Biiand. p. 540.  Paris, 1852.
   (t) See cases collected by Friedreich, Handbuch der allgemeiner Pathologic p. 189.  See
post, \ 113.
   (u) "Although at the first glance," says Renaudin, "man appears to possess an inde-
 pendent existence, isolated from his birth from those who begot him, although there  is
 but little apparent relation between his ripe age and  first infancy; it is not the less  true
 that behind the characters peculiar to his individuality, we can discover certain typical
 signs some of which betray his nationality and  others relate to his family.   These typi-
 cal signs are to be encountered not only in his physical organization, but are also found
 in his moral idiosyncrasies, and if tradition is of any force as  regards manners and  cus-
 toms, inheritance is certainly of great value as relates to the tastes and habits.  It is, in
 fact, manifested in the transmission from generation to generation of the most inveterate
 maladies, before which art is obliged to  confess its weakness ; and it is with difficulty
 prophylactic measures ward  off the sad result. In mental alienation also, experience
 furnishes us daily proofs  of this transmission, of which it is essential to study the mode.
  The question  whether  this transmission  is direct, or results from a predisposition
whose development is due to the influence of an occasional cause, or, in other words,
whether by itself it is an essential condition of  causality, is no longer doubtful, and we
now possess numerous examples  not only of hereditary transmission, but also of an
hereditary  accumulation  of the morbid predispositions.  This  is particularly the  case
in families where wedlock is  limited to a small circle of fortune and social fitness.  The
royal families of many countries  have not  escaped  this law.  We  see  generations of
insane succeed each other with an unyielding regularity, and there are families  which
in this relation seem pursued by a desolating fatality.
  Aside from idiocy and imbecility, which show themselves a  short time after birth, the
predisposition does  not ordinarily  show itself until the individual has reached a certain
development—that  is to  say, when all the  conditions of causality are reunited.  This
native predisposition does not suppose that those that preceded were insane, it depends,
above all,  upon  the conditions in which they are placed and which re-act upon the
phases of their existence. This predisposition is also progressive from one generation
to another; and it is in this manner that great social commotions and certain epidemics 
86
TESTS OF INSANITY.
its  existence in the parent,  but that its existence in the  parent  affords
the same presumption as to  its existence in the offspring.     ^
  In regard to idioci/, the facts are very striking.   " Suffice it to say,
we  are told by Mr. S. G. HoAve, chairman of  the  Massachusetts State
Idiocy  Commission, in a very luminous report, submitted in 1848, " that
out of  420 cases of congenital idiocy examined, some  information was
obtained respecting the condition of the progenitors of 359.   Noav in all
these 359 cases, save only four, it  Avas found  that  one or  the other or
both of the  progenitors of  the unfortunate sufferers  had, in some  way,
widely departed from the normal condition of health,  and  violated the
natural laws."
   The hereditary transmission of moral insanity is  equally well authen-
ticated.   "We have no  doubt," says a very eminent physician, "that
various immoral and vicious practices ought to be ascribed  to  insanity.
When  periodic insanity has shown itself in a large  family,  it is probable
that some members of the family will evince a propensity to thieving or
swindling.(v)   And when more children than one of the same parents,
bursting through all  the restraints imposed by carefully-instilled  prin-
ciples  and established habits, engage in  SAvindling transactions, it will
often appear, upon inquiry, that insanity has generally broken  out in
that family, "(w)   And the same high authority tells us that in families
where  insanity prevails with the progenitors,  he has known two, three,
or four children of the same parents become deranged.  One instance in
particular he dwells upon, in Avhich, among a  family of twenty persons,
the children of a brother and of two sisters, tender e afflicted with insanity.
   A late very  interesting table,   originally published  in  the  Lon-
don  Quarterly  RevieAv,(z)  and endorsed  by Dr. Winslow,(y) shoAvs  at
once the importance  of this inquiry:

contribute to the production of insanity, in leaving after them deep distress or in pro-
ducing a disordered exaltation.
  All causes capable of altering  the public health have a marked influence  upon the
immediate production of  insanity or upon the hereditary transmission of its predisposi-
tions.  The unhealthiness of dwellings, and insufficiency or bad quality  of food are so
many circumstances influencing  its production, and to which municipal governments
should pay serious attention.  It is on account of these and other analogous causes that
cretinism and idiocy are endemic  in certain localities, and that this influence is  exercised
not only on natives, but also upon those establishing themselves there.
  The mode of life of the parents, and the diseases thay have had are no less efficacious
in producing a predisposition to  mental unsoundness.   If insanity has existed in those
that preceded, the chances of a direct transmission are much more probable. This predis-
position is sometimes so marked  as to be in some measure the only cause.  Among the
circumstances most likely to produce an hereditary predisposition, we  should mention,
drunken habits  in the parents.  Many, indeed, are the cases of idiocy and imbecility
which owe their situation to this cause.   Many generations thus suffer the punishment
inflicted for the faults of one alone.
  The hereditary predisposition  presents numerous varieties in its evolution.  Many
members of the same family are  free from mental unsoundness ; and one only becomes
insane.  In another the inheritance shows itself  from  mother to  daughter as a conse-
quence of parturition.  This predisposition sometimes  consists only in the peculiarity
of character, which  drags the  man towards a precipice which  conducts irresistibly to
insanity."—Etudes Medico-Psychologiques, par L. F. E. Renaudin.   Chap. II.  p.'33.
Paris, 1854.
  (v) See post, \ 192.
  («) Essays on Partial Derangement in Supposed Connection with Religion.  By the
late John Cheyne, M. D.  Dublin,  1843.
  (x) No. 163.
  (y) Lectures, &c. 150.  See Rush on the Mind, 46, where this point is fully examined. 
Initials of
Criminals.
 Verbatim extracts
       from
Letters of Referee.
Observations  on degree of
  intellect, &e. by the Chap-
  lain when first seen.
School-master's Report
         on
   Leaving Prison.
State  of leaving tho Prison,
   as noted by Chaplain.
J. C.
R	L.
J.	n.
H	N.
J.	C.
D.	M.
J.	D.
AV. J.
 alias
AV. C. B.
AV. O.

A. II. L.
J.N.

W.N.

A. A.
  Mother touched with symptoms of
Insanity.

  Grandmother insane.

  Sister rather weak in mind.

  He and most of the family evinced
:ymptoms of insanity.

  Two sisters insane.

  His mother subject to nervous fits.

  One  of his family  (his mother, I
have every reason to believe) laboring
with insanity.

  Of a simple turn of mind.  Uncle in
Asylum.

  Skull fractured three years ago.


  Sister considered rather silly.

  Had become dejected and absent af-
ter  failure in business,  and showed
symptoms of insanity.

  Considered rather as an idiot.

  Almost irresponsible.

  AA'eakness of mind, made sport of by
fellow-servants.
Read imperfectly.

Only knew the alphabet.

Of the lowest kind.
  Of the  lowest  intellect,
did not know A, B, 0.
  Improved in reading and writing.


  Read well, wrote imperfectly, four
rules of arithmetic.
  Read and wrote well; Rule of Three.

  Read very imperfectly; write a lit-
tle ; learned a little arithmetic.

  Read well, wrote tolerably, 4 rules.

  Read and wrote well; Rule of Three.

  Read and wrote well;  four Rules.
Improved considerably.
  Improved in reading and  writing.
Rule of Three.
Of the lowest intellect,
did not know the alphabet..Rules.
  Very low in spirits.
Read  and wrote imperfectly; four
  Very  low degree of in-
tellect.
  Of very weak intellect.

  Low in spirits and intel-
lect.
Rend and wrote well. Rule of Three.



Read and wrote well. Rule of Three

Well educated previously.

Read and wrote well. Rule of Three
Improved generally.
  Very cheerful; improved in general
knowledge.
  Sent away incorrigible.


  Somewhat improved in general.

  Mentally, not morally improved.

  Improved in religious knowledge;
very cheerful.


  In Scriptural knowledge also.


  Improved in Scriptural knowledge.


  Cheerful.

  Much  improved  in  spirits;  found
comfort in religion.


  Improved in general knowledge.

  Rather improved mentally.

  Mentally improved.
00
-4 
Initials of
Criminals.
Verbatim extracts
       from
Letters of Referee.
Observations  on degree of
  intellect, <fec. by the Chap
  lain when first seen.
School-master's Report
          on
   Leaving  Prison.
State  of leaving the Prison,
   as noted by Chaplain.
00
00
F. AV. K.
 alias
A. K.

J. M. F.
R. B.
 alias
F. F. S. a Jew,
D. M.

J. M.
 alias
J. T.
C. J. C.
T.N.


R. R.

J. T.

J. S.
II.  C.
 alias
  L.

G. R.
  Uncle died in an  Asylum;  another
committed suicide.  Father and sisters
considered weak.

  Mother's brother reported to be im-
becile ; harmless if let alone.

  Not considered  quite correct in his
mind.  Aunt mad for a long time.

  Considered a simpleton.

  Uncle  killed himself in a fit of in-
sanity.

  Eldest brother exhibited symptoms
of insanity.

  Whole family eccentric, and very
weak in intellect.

  Uncle's intellect affected at times.

  Father died a lunatic.

  I have thought, and more I am sure,
that at times he  was not altogether
right in his head.

  The  prisoner's conduct, more espe-
cially his wandering propensities, are
irreconcilable with perfect sanity.

  He was not quite sound in mind,
and  sometimes not conscious of what
he was about.   His own sister destroy-
ed herself.
  Low  in  spirits.   Over
active  mind;  disliked his
trade.

  Of a low degree of intel
lect.

  Peculiar turn of mind.
  Low intellect.

  Low in spirits and intel
lect.
Good intellect.
Weak intellect.
  Low intellect; only knew
the alphabet.
  Ordinary intellect.

  More  than ordinarily re-
served and very dull.
  A good intellect;  appa
rently  much compunction
for sin.

  A very low-spirited man
Very well educated.
Read and wrote well. Rule of Three,
  Read well, wrote imperfectly, four
Rules.
  Read well, wrote tolerably. Rule of
Three.

  Well educated.
Read and wrote well. Rule of Three,
  Read well, wrote imperfectly, four
Rules.
  Read and wrote well. Rule of Three

  Read tolerably; wrote imperfectly
improvement very little.
  Could  read  and write well; consid-
erably advanced in the higher rules of
arithmetic; improvement tolerably fair.

  Could read and write very well;  con
siderably advanced in the higher rules
of arithmetic; intelligent; made fair
improvement.
Morally improved.
  Improved in general: was  recom-
mended to be master tailor on board
ship.
  Greatly  improved,  especially  in
Scriptural knowledge.

  Improved generally.

  Much improved.


  Improved generally.


  Improved generally.


  Improved generally.

  Arery much improved in general.

  On the whole rather improved.
  Improved very much.  Found peace
and comfort in the Gospel.
  Improved in spirits.   Found com-
fort in religion also, I think. 
AV. H.


ILL.


J. B.


II. B.


J. K.
W.  S.
 alias
  R.


W.  F.
J. A.
 alias
E. W.
AV. D.
 alias
J. B.

W. B.

J. D.
  His mother has evinced symptoms
of insanity within the last three years.

  His father was subject to fits.
  One  member of the family has ex-
hibited symptoms of insanity.

  I have known the person to have
fits when over-fatigued.

  lie received an injury in his head ;
from this time he became flighty and
unsteady.  His father  was in  some
measure  imbecile in both body and
mind.

  Have found him  a little insane at
times; he was  kicked by a horse in
the head.
Nothing at all peculiar.


A'ery low-spirited.


Ordinary.


Ordinary.
  A very active mind, but
most perverse.
  Read well,  wrote tolerably,  higherl   Improved very much, especially  in
rules of arithmetic.  Improvement tol-;the memory.  Gave himself to learn-
Ordinary.
  I knew him  to labor under severe   Good, but his constitu
nervous fever for several months, which tion  apparently weakened
I always  observed afterwards to cause by intemperance
a lowness  of spirits.  It  was about
eight years since.
Has not his senses perfect.
Half-witted.
  I fully believe  him to be at times   Clever, good,  but per-
insane.   His  maternal  grand-fathcrjverted and abused,
died insane.
  Very soft in many things.

  His grand-mother is in an Lunatic
Asylum.
Low intellect.

Ordinary, but very dull.
erable.
  Could read and write well; mensu-
ration.  Improvement tolerable.

  Read well;  wrote tolerably; knew
common rules of arithmetic.  Improve-
ment tolerable.
  Read well; wrote  tolerably ;  com-
mon rules  of arithmetic.   Improve-
ment tolerable.
  Could read and  write well; higher
rules of arithmetic.  Improvement tol-
erable.
  Could  read well,  write  tolerably,
knew the first four rules in arithmetic.
Improvement little.

  Read and  wrote well;  advanced in
higher rules of arithmetic.  Tolerably
improved.
  Could read well; made scarcely any
improvement.

  Was well  educated  on admission
was excused  from school.  Improved
himself tolerably by reading and pri-
vate study.
  Could scarcely read any.  Very lit-
tle improved.
  Read well; wrote tolerably;  foui
rules of arithmetic.  Improved a little
    hymns, chapters, &c.
  Very down-hearted, would have sunk
here, 1 think, but  for some religious
hope.
  Improved.
Very cheerful.
  Cultivated his mind assiduously, but
was very perverse to the last.
Rather improved.
  Very cheerful.  Much improvement
in every way.  Gave great attention to
religion.
Rather worse.


Not improved.



Rather worse.

Improved rather in spirits.
00 
90
TESTS OF INSANITY.
  Dr. Steinau, in his Essay  on Hereditary Disease, mentions a very
interesting incident bearing on this point.(.?:)  '' When I avus a boy, there
lived in my native toAvn an old man, named P----, who was such an
inveterate 'thief, that he went in the whole place by that name;_ people
speaking of him used no other appellation but that of The Thief, and
everybody then kneAV who  was meant.   Children and common people
were accustomed to call him by that name, even in his presence, as if
they kneAV not his other name; and he bore it to a certain degree with
much good-natured  forbearance.   It was  even  customary  for the
tradesmen and dealers, Avho frequented the annual fair in the place, to
enter into formal treaty with him;  that is, they gave him a trifling
sum of money, for Avhich he engaged not only, not to touch their pro-
perty himself, but  even to guard  it  against other thieves.   A son of
this P----, named Charles, aftenvards lived in B----during my resi-
dence there.   He was respectably married, and  carried on a profitable
trade which supported him handsomely.   Still he could not help com-
mitting many robberies quite Avithout necessity, and  merely from an
irresistible inclination.  He was several times arrested and punished;
the consequence  Avas, that  he lost his credit and reputation, by Avhich
he  Avas at last  actually ruined.  He died while still a young man, in
the house of correction at Sp----, where he had been confined for his
last robbery.  A son of this Charles, and grandson of the above men-
tioned and notorious P----, in my native toAvn, lived in the house Avhere
I resided.   In his earliest youth, before he was able to distinguish
between good and evil, the disposition to stealing, and the ingenuity of
an  expert thief, began already to develope themselves in him.   When
about three  years old, he stole all kinds of eatables within his reach,
although  he always  had plenty to eat,  and only  needed to ask for
whatever  he Avanted.   He  therefore was unable to eat all that he had
taken; nevertheless he took it, and distributed it among his playfelloAVS.
When  playing Avith  them, some of their playthings frequently disap-
peared in a moment, and he contrived to conceal them for days, and
often for  weeks, with a  slyness and sagacity remarkable for his age.
When  about fiAre  years old, he  began to steal copper coins;  and at the
age of six years, he began to  knoAV something of the value of money,
and he looked  out  for silver pieces; and in his eighth year, he only
contented himself with larger  coins, and proved to be, on public pro-
menades, an expert pickpocket.   He was early  apprenticed to learn  a
trade,  but his master being continually  robbed by him, soon dismissed
him.   This was the case Avith several other  tradesmen, till at last, in
his fourteenth year, he Avas committed to the house  of correction."^)
   A late  writer gives us the folloAving additional illustration: — "A
gentleman recently returned from NeAv South Wales told me," says the
author, " that he Avas present one day at a factory or  barrack, where
the convicts  are  kept until engaged by a  master, Avhen a gentleman
 came in,  and seeing a youth Avhom he thought would suit him, he said
to  him, ' Well, my lad, £oav are you ?'  'A London thief,' Avas the boy's
 reply, touching  his  hat.  'What  can you do?'  'Thieve, sir.'   'No

   (x) See Pathological and Philosophical Essay on Hereditary Disease, p. 19, No. 21.
   (y) tiacpost, \ 190-194. 
HEREDITARY TENDENCY.
91
 doubt of that,' said the interrogator;  ' but how were you brought up ?'
 'To thieve, sir,' was the  boy's answer.   'Nonsense !  What Avas your
 father?'   'A thief, sir.'    The  gentleman,  noAV, probably humoring
 the  conversation,  continued to  inquire concerming his mother and
 family, Avhen it appeared  that he had five  brothers and five sisters, all
 of whom in the same manner were thieves." (z)
   §  108.  "Nothing," says Mr. Hill, in his recent Avork on crime, "has
 been more clearly proved  than that crime  is, to a considerable extent,
 hereditary—crime  appearing, in  this respect greatly to resemble pau-
 perism, which, according to the evidence of the Poor-laAV Commissioners,
 often proceeds from father to son in a long line of succession." (a)
 He  adduces numerous cases in confirmation of the fact.  One of the
 most striking  applies to  the families  of  three brothers,  containing
 together fifteen  members.  Of these, no  fewer than fourteen Avere
 utterers of base  coin, while  the  fifteenth, who appeared to be an ex-
 ception to his kindred, was, at length, detected in setting fire to his
 OAvn house, which he  had insured for four  times its value.   Supposing
 each of those employed in uttering base coin to have passed only one
 piece a day and  to have  had a  career of five years' duration,  (which
 there is reason to believe is  about the average,) no fewer than tAventy
 thousand offences  might   have been prevented  by removing the three
 brothers  permanently from  society,  before they  became  fathers  of
 families."   The disposition to commit crime is often unquestionably an
 incurable form of insanity; hence, Ave read of persons Avho are all their
 lives criminals, and only  terminate one period of imprisonment to re-
 commence  another.  The case of a Avoman, is cited by Mr. Hill, Avho
 continued in a career of crime for twenty-five years; and that  also  of
 another woman, fifty  years of age, who had already been in  prison
 sixty-seven times.   Furthermore, he  refers to  another example, of a
 Avoman  Avho  had been in the police  cells, in Edinburgh, at least one
 thousand times, chiefly for acts of violence, (b)
  In a  legal as well as a  psychological view, the relevancy of evidence
 of hereditary taint has been very ably shown by a late eminent judge,(c)
 whose capacity as a mental observer  Avas not less than his  ability as a
j'udge.  On the trial of the issue,  the object of Avhich was to determine
 the validity of the  will of Captain Arrowsmith, the evidence Avas that
 the  deceased was a retired mariner  who  had attained a competence;
 the  plaintiff was his  sister,  his heir by  descent, as the last  of her
 father's issue; and the defendant, his housekeeper, Avas his devisee.
 The  fact in contest was his sanity.  There  was no evidence of practice
 or imbecility ; but the plaintiff's witnesses testified as to acts of sudden
 and  unprovoked  passion,  violence, Avildness, extravagance  and  eccen-
tricity ; and, in  order to corroborate the inference from  them, her
counsel offered the  deposition of Susan ArroAvsmith, the  widoAv of one
of the testator's brothers,  that the testator's father Avas insane toAvards
the  close  of his  life; that one of the  testator's tAVO uncles,  on the
father's side, was insane,  and the other imbecile;  that his  tAvo aunts,
on the  same side,  and their children, Avere insane;  that a son of one

  (z)  Old Bailey Experience, 34.
  («)  Crime; its amount, causes and remedies.  By Frederick Hill,  Barrister-in-law,
late Inspector of Prisons, 1853, p. 55.      (b) Ibid.       (c) Gibson, C. J. 
92
TESTS OF INSANITY.
of them  is in a  mad-house;  and that her own husband was mentally
disqualified  before  his  death.   The admission  of the  deposition was
opposed, on the  ground that the legitimate inquiry was into the state
of the testator's mind, not that  of another; and that it did not follow,
that because the testator's  father  and his  collateral relations were
insane, that he must have  been so too.  The point was  elaborately
argued on principle and authority, but the Chief Justice said:—"I
admit the deposition without hesitation, notAvithstanding the dicta of
Mr. Shelford, (d) and Mr. Chitty, (e) that  it is an established rule of
law not to admit  proof of insanity in other  members of the family in
civil or criminal cases.   Established !   When, Avhere and by Avhom ?
Certainly not by the House of Lords, in McAdam v. Walker, (/) the
only  case cited  for it, for the question there Avas avoAvedly dodged.
That high court would not shock common sense by affirming the order
of the Scotch Court of Session; nor would  it  gratuitously reserve it,
when the decision  could be safely put on another ground.   The au-
thority of a judgment appealed  from, and left in dubio, cannot be very
great.    Sir  Samuel Romilly's  argument  against the evidence was
rested on the fecundity and interminableness of collateral issues; and
Mr. Chitty  seems to have  had a glimpse of  the same idea, when he
said the course  is  to  confine the  evidence to the mental state of the
party.  But every new fact, though it open a new field of inquiry, is
not  collateral.   It may bear  directly  on the fact in contest; and
where it  does so,  it is not in the poAver of the court to shut it out.   A
collateral issue is such as would be raised by allowing a  party to put a
question  to a witness on cross-examination in regard to a fact palpably
unconnected with the cause, in order to afford an opportunity to dis-
credit  him by  contradicting him; but  does not  proof of hereditary
madness  bear directly on the condition of the mind, Avhich is the subject
of investigation ?  What if the  point had been ruled by  the chancellor
and  laAV judges  in the House of Lords ?  Profoundly  learned in the
maxims of the law, they Avere  profoundly ignorant of the lights of
physiology ; yet  free from the presumptuousness of Avhich  ignorance is
the foster-father,  they refused to rush on the decision of a question to
which  they  felt  themselves  incompetent.  Mr. Chitty fancifully puts
the solution of  questions of insanity on the doctrine of legal presump-
tions.   'As the imputation,'   he  says,  'is contrary to  the natural
presumption of adequate intellect, the deficit should be  established by
direct and positive evidence, and not  merely  to be  conjectural  or
probable proof.'  If that be law, a question of  insanity is the  only
one in Avhich positive evidence is required, and circumstantial evidence
to corroborate,  is rejected.   Why is evidence of an old grudge admit-
ted against a prisoner, as a remote proof of malice, if the remote proof
of hereditary  insanity may not  be given by him, to rebut it; and why
should the presumption of sanity be allowed to overbear the presump-
tion of innocence, the strongest of them  all ?   I admit that hereditary
insanity  will not  itself make  out a case for or against a member of the
family;  but to say that it may not corroborate what Mr. Chitty calls
direct and positive proof, without defining it, staggers all belief.  In a

  (d) Treat, on Lunacy, 59.     (e) Med. Jurisp. 355.     (f) l Dows. Par. Ca. 148. 
HEREDITARY TENDENCY.
93
measuring  cast it ought to prevail.   He says harsh conduct, bursts of
passion, or displays of unnatural feeling will not, of themselves, establish
insanity.   Be it so.   But  because the springs of such actions are con-
cealed, are they  never  to  be laid bare, and shown to be seated in the
blood.   When  it is admitted by Mr. Chitty  and Mr. Shelford them-
selves, that insanity is a discendible quality, they give up the argument.
There  can  be nothing unreasonable in referring wild, furious  and un-
natural actions, not othenvise accounted  for, to the abberrations of a
mind, the reflux of that of a crazy father.  Mr. Taylor, a distinguish-
ed lecturer on Medical Jurisprudence, in Guy's Hospital, London, says
that 'in making a  diagnosis of a  case of insanity, the first question
put is commonly in reference to the present or past existence of the
disorder in other members of the family.  There  can be  no doubt,
from the current testimony of many  writers  on insanity, that a dis-
position to the disease is  frequently  transmitted from parent to  child
through many generations.   M.  Esquirol has  remarked, that  this
hereditary taint  is most common of  all cases to Avhich insanity can be
referred.' (g)   M.  Esquirol  was,  in 1838, and  perhaps is still, the
principal  physician to  the hospital for the insane  at  Charenton, in
France, and a member of the  Royal  Academy of  Medicine at Paris.
His tables of insanity are held in high repute, by not only the physi-
cians of France, but of Europe.  Well  might Mr. Taylor say that
these things ought  to be borne in mind by medical jurists.   The know-
ledge attained by men, of a subject with which they have grappled all
their lives, ought surely to prevail against knoAvledge gleaned from the
hornbooks of  a  profession to which the gleaners  did  not  belong.
Strange that a source of information open to every one else, should be
closed to those who are to  pass on the fact.  Every  man has observed
that there are families through which insanity has been handed down for
generations; and why should the probability of hereditary madness be
excluded, when probabilities in other cases are weighed, especially Avhen
it is known  that a proclivity to theft, intemperance, lying, cheating,
and almost all other moral vices, are  as transmissible  as  gout,  con-
sumption,  deafness, blindness,  and  almost  all  other constitutional
diseases.   It  is  supposed  by the million, that insanity is a disease of
the mind,  not of the body.  Ridiculous !  If  it were, it  could never be
cured; for the mind cannot take physic, or be separately treated; yet
the statistics of the insane exhibit a  great number of cures, and the
time is fast coming, Avhen  insanity will be  considered the most manage-
able disease that flesh is heir to.   An objection to an inquisition Avhich
does not disclose the specific  nature of the ancestor's infirmity, might
stand in a different  light;  but testimony Avhich brings the fact of  mad-
ness home to him, ought to be received like evidence of family likeness,
which, though  less  reliable, was allowed to be corroborative  proof of
fraternity  in the Douglas Peerage  case, in 1767,  and again in the
ToAvnsend Peerage case, in 1843.  Lord Mansfield said, in the former,
that he had always considered likeness as  an argument of a child being
the son of a parent;  that a man may  survey  ten thousand people
before he sees two  faces exactly alike, and that in an  army of a hundred
(g) Taylor on Med. Juris. 502. 
94
TESTS OF INSANITY.
 thousand men, every man  may be known from another; that if  there
 should be  a likeness in feature, there may be a difference in the voice,
 gesture, or other  characters:  whereas family likenesses  run generally
 throuo-h all of these;  for  that in every  thing  there is a resemblance,
 as of feature, voice, attitude  and action.  Might  he have not added
 the diathesis of  the brain ?  He doubtless might, if the point had been
 mooted.   In  prosecutions  for bastardy,  the practice in the  Quarter
 Sessions  was, in my day, not  exactly to give the child in evidence, but
 to put it before the jury, sometimes by  the  prosecutor, and sometimes
 by the putative father.  But ancestral irregularity in the action of the
 brain is more  frequently transmitted  than  any resemblance  in  form
 or feature;  and it is difficult  to imagine  an  objection to ' evidence for
 it for purposes of corroboration.' "(h)
   § 109. Taylor thus sums up the  recent English cases on this point:—
 " In the case of Reg. v. Ross Touchet, 1844,  tried and acquitted on the
 ground of insanity, for shooting a man,  Maule, J., held that eAudence
 that the grandfather had been  insane may be  adduced, after it had been
 proved by medical testimony that such disease is often hereditary in a
 family.  It Avas also admitted in Oxford's case, the prisoner having been
 here tried for shooting at the  Queen.(i)    This  kind  of  evidence has,
 however, been frequently rejected, and it is not admitted in the laAV of
 Scotland.(j)   There can be no doubt, from the concurrent testimony of
 all Avriters on insanity, that a predisposition to the disease is frequently
 transmitted from parent to child through  many generations.   The
 malady may not ahvays show itself in such cases, because the  offspring
 may pass through life Avithout  being exposed to any exciting cause; but
 in general it readily supervenes from very slight causes. "(&)

                (4.) Conversation and Deportment, (kk)

   § 110.  One or two cases will be sufficient to show the importance of
 accurate observation in this respect:—
   A short time ago, a parish officer, from the neighborhood of Middle-
 ton, took a lunatic to  the asylum, pursuant to an order signed by two
 magistrates.  As  the man Avas respectably connected, a gig Avas hired
 for the purpose,  and he Avas persuaded that it Avas merely an excursion
 of pleasure on Avhich he Avas going.  In the course of the journey, how-
 ever, something occurred  to arouse the suspicions of the lunatic  with

  (A) Smith v. Kramer, 1 Am. Law Reg. 353.          (j) Law Times, Oct. 26. 1844.
  (/) Gibson's case, Edinburgh, Dec.  1844.
  (k) Taylor's Med. Jur., p.  555.              (kk) On this point see ante, \ 86-92.
  " In a great majority of cases," says Dr. Wood,  " insanity is produced  by exciting
 causes acting upon a predisposition to the disease.  Inheritance  is the most frequent
 source of this predisposition,—perhaps more frequent than all others put together.  Even
 a particular form of insanity is  often inherited; and it has been noticed that the attack
 is apt to come on at the same period  of life in the parent and his offspring.  The ten-
 dency to suicide not unfrequently descends from parent to child.  It is thought that
 children born before the occurrence of insanity in the parent are less liable to be affected
than those born subsequently."—Practice of Medicine, by Prof. G. B AVood M D vol
II. p. 672. Phila., 1849.
  According to the observations of Esquirol, more than a third (and perhaps the  half)
 of the persons who become insane, count insane persons  among their near relations and
thus at their birth bring on an hereditary predisposition to the disease — Mid  Lia
 Briand, p. 543. Paris, 1852.                                       ■-■*•> 
CONVERSATION AND DEPORTMENT.
95
respect to his real  destination;  but he said nothing on the subject,
made no resistance,  and seemed  to enjoy his jaunt.  When they ar-
rived at Lancaster,  it Avas too late in the evening to proceed to the
asylum, and they took up their quarters for the night at an inn.  Very
early in the morning the lunatic got up and searched the pockets of the
officer, Avhere  he found  the magistrate's order for his own detention,
AA'hich, of course, let him completely into the secret.  With that cunning
which madmen not unfrequently  display, he made the best of his  way
to the asylum, saw one of the keepers, and told him that he  had got a
sad mad fellow down at Lancaster, Avhom he should bring  up in the
course of the  day, adding: " He's a very queer fellow, and he has got
very odd Avays.  For instance, I  should not Avonder if he was to say I
was the madman, and that he was bringing me; but you  must  take
good care of him, and not believe a Avord that he says."  The keeper,
of  course, promised  compliance,  and the lunatic Avalked back to the
inn, Avhere  he found the officer  still fast asleep.  He aAvoke him, and
they sat down to breakfast together.   " You're a lazy felloAV to be
sleeping all day; I  have had a long  Avalk this morning," says the
lunatic.   "Indeed,"  says the  officer, "I should like to have a Avalk
myself after breakfast;  perhaps  you will go  Avith me?"  The lunatic
assented, and  after  breakfast they sat out, the officer leading the  Avay
toward  the lunatic  asylum, intending to deliver his charge;  but  it
never occurred to him to examine whether his order Avas safe.   When
they got Avithin sight of the asylum the  lunatic exclaimed,—"What a
fine house that is !"   " Yes," said the officer, " I should like  to see the
inside of it."   "So  should I," observed the lunatic.  "Well,  I  dare
say they will  let us through,—I will ask,"  Avas the response.  They
went to  the door; the officer rang the bell, and the  keeper  whom the
lunatic had previously seen,  made  his appearance,  with tAVO or three
assistants.  The officer  then  began to fumble in his pockets for the
order, Avhen the lunatic produced it, and gave it to the keeper, saying:
" This is the man of whom I spoke  to you about.   You will take  care
of  him; shave his head, and put a straight waistcoat on him."   The
■ men  immediately laid hands  on the poor officer, who vociferated loudly
that  the other was  the madman, and he the officer; but, as this  only
confirmed the  story  previously told by the lunatic, it did not at all  tend
to  procure  his liberation.  He was taken aAvay, and became so indig-
nantly furious that  the straight-waistcoat was speedily put  upon  him,
and  his head was  shaved, secundum artem.  Meamvhile,  the lunatic
walked deliberately back to the inn, paid the reckoning, and  set out on
his journey homeAvard.  The good people in the country Avere, of course,
surprised on seeing the  wrong man return;  they Avere afraid that the
lunatic,  in a  fit  of  phrensy, had murdered the officer, and they asked
him,  Avith much trepidation,  Avhat  he  had done with Mr.  Stevenson.
"Done  with  him?"  said  the  madman,  'Svhy, I left him at the Lan-
caster Asylum, as mad  as a  fury!" which,  indeed, was  not very far
from the truth;  for the wits of the officer Avere well  nigh upset  by his
unexpected detention and subsequent treatment.
   Further  inquiry was  forthwith made by his neighbors, and  it was
ascertained that the man Avas actually in the asylum.  A magistrate's
order Avas produced  for  his liberation; and  he returned home Avith a 
96
TESTS OF INSANITY.  NATURE OF ACT.
handkerchief tied round his head  in lieu of the covering which nature
had bestowed upon it. (I)
  § 111. A man mentioned by Pinel, Avho had been for some time con-
fined  in the Bicetre, was, on the Adsitation of  a commissary, ordered to
be discharged  as perfectly sane, after a long conversation in Avhich  he
had conducted himself Avith the greatest propriety.  The officer prepared
the prods verbal for his discharge, and gave it to him to put his name
to it, when he  subscribed himself Jesus Christ, and then indulged in  all
the reveries connected with that delusion.   Lord  Erskine gives a very
remarkable history of a man who indicted Dr Munro for  confining him
without a cause in a  madhouse.  He undenvcnt the most rigid exami-
nation, by the counsel  of the defendant, Avithout discovering  any ap-
pearance of insanity, until a gentleman came into court  who desired a
question to be put to him respecting a princess with whom he had cor-
responded  in cherry-juice.  He immediately talked about the  princess
in the most insane  manner, and  the cause was at an end. But this
having taken  place  in Westminster, he commenced another action  in
the city of London,  and on this occasion no effort could induce him to
expose his  insanity; so that the cause Avas dismissed only by bringing
against him the  evidence taken at Westminster.   On another occasion,
Lord  Erskine examined a gentleman who had indicted his brother for
confining him  as a maniac, and the examination had gone on for great
part of a day without  discovering any traces of insanity.  Dr.  Sims
then  came into  court, and informed  the counsel that the  gentleman
considered himself as the  Saviour  of the world.  A single observation,
addressed to him in this character, showed his insanity, and put an end
to the cause.   Many similar  cases, says Abercrombie, are on record.
Several years  ago, a gentleman in Edinburgh, who was brought before
a jury to be cognosced, defeated every attempt of the opposite counsel
to discover any traces of insanity,  until a gentleman came in court, who
ought to have been present at the beginning of the case,  but had  been
accidentally detained.  He immediately addressed the patient by asking
him Avhat were his latest accounts  from the planet Saturn, and  speedily
elicited ample proofs of insanity.(ZZ)
  M.  Orfila  states,  that deranged  persons who are  conscious  of
their   condition, and  Avho yet  preserve  some  control over  them-
selves, will answer  correctly  all  questions that  are  addressed  them,
and will not betray their condition if they have an interest in conceal-
ing it.(w)

                       (5.) Nature of the Act.

                       (a.)   Its Insensibility.

   § 112.  " In foro medico," as is well remarked by Schurmayer,(w)  " a

  (l) Manchester, (England,) Guardian.
  (II) Abercrombie on the Intellectual Powers, pp. 253, 254;  see also 3 86-92
  (m) Med Le"g.,  M. Orfila.  Tome I.  p. 396. Paris, 1848.
  (n) Gerichtliche Medicin, \ 522. 
PRESUMPTION FROM NATURE OF FACT.
97
 derangement of the mental faculties is generally to be presumed Avhere
 the consciousness, imagination,  or sensual apperception or  impulse,
 Avhen subjected to common and usual provocations, internal or external,
 respond in a manner different from Avhat they would in a normal state.
 But Avhether a certain  action, undergoing a criminal investigation, Avas
 the effect of a diseased mental activity of the subject, and  committed
 when he was not master of himself, is a question to be answered prim-
 arily from the indicia presented by the action itself, and then from the
 results of  an examination of the accused,  in reference to  his physical,
 moral,  and mental condition before, at,  and after the deed in question.
 Illustrations of acts whose insensibility can be received to  shoAV their
 irresponsibility or  incompetency of the actor, may be found in the old
 law cases of a legacy to the King of Siam, and of  an executory devise
 to  all  the  children in a particular parish Avho  should, in a specific year,
 be  born with moles on their faces.   The presumption of irresponsibility
 would,  of  course, attach Avith  great force under similar circumstances,
 to  criminal acts equally insensible, as in the case of the idiot who was
 found putting an infant brother into the pot to boil for dinner."

               (b.)  Its Incongruity with Antecedents.

   § 113. When a man of uniformly mild character boldly and openly com-
 mits a deed of blood,—Avhen a woman  of previous  purity gives Avay to
 lasciviousness,—when a long course of irreproachable honesty and exact-
 ness is  suddenly broken in  by  profligacy; or domestic peace, by unpro-
 voked ebullitions of violence, or by expressions of distrust  to those for-
 merly most loved or most trusted,(6) it is proper to consider how far un-
 soundness of mind may not be considered as the cause.  Illustrations of
 this species of  change will  hereafter be noticed in  other  connections.
 It should be observed that omission to fly is a very important  ingredient
 to make up this species  of presumption.(p)  It should be observed, also,
 that a man  of unsound mind  generally chooses the most injudicious
 time and place for the  perpetration of the  act, although the cunning
 and address with which an  offence Avas  committed, do not exclude the
 supposition of  derangement,(q)  and repels  with  indignation  every
 intimation  of his insanity;  in  many cases asserting that he committed
 the crime with  perfect  consciousness, and when entirely in his  senses,
 and disregarding all that is said to extenuate it.(r)
  M. Falret thus speaks of the  change of character, which is a pro-
minent  symptom of  commencing  insanity:—Sometimes  instead  of  a
simple exaggeration, it  is a veritable transformation that the character
undergoes.    Avarice gives place  to  prodigality, piety to  irreligion,
modesty to  obscenity, temperance  to drunkenness, the love of truth to
deceit, the  most tender and tried  affections  to indifference  and even
hate, (rr)
  (o) See also, Medicine Legale, par M. Orfila.  Tome I. p. 389.  Paris 1848
  (p) 2 Mittermaier Deutsch St.,  $ 12.  Wills on Circumstantial Ev. TO.  Best on Pre-
sump., 322.   AArharton's Cr. Law,  (3rd ed.,) 332, 333.
  (q) See M^d. L6g.  J. Briand.  p. 553.  Paris, 1852 ; and see ante, \ 60, 61
  (/) Compare Friedreich, Handbuch  der gerichtsaertztlichen Praxis.  Vol. I. p. 370.
  (rr) See ante, \ 106.
       7 
98         PRESUMPTION OF INSANITY FROM NATURE OF FACT.

  A frequent result is the neglect  of  the  duties  due to family and
society, disorder of  conduct  and  derangement  of affairs, and those
ebullitions of irritation and violence Avhich momentarily, and sometimes
for ever destroy the harmony existing between relations and friends.(s)
The changes of conduct observable, in the incubation of mental diseases,
are infinite, the deranged show a neglect or an unaccustomed zeal  for
their customary occupations, and for the cares and attentions of family,
and for social customs and duties.  Patients Avho Avere before sedentary
in their habits, indulge in long absences from their dAvellings.   Some
show an indifference and neglect for the persons  and things they loved
the most, and seek after objects which they did not like.   Others over-
whelm  you with  demonstrations  of  obligingness  and  devotedness.
Generally those thus affected  are absent  and forgetful,  they  do  not
remember what  they have done or  what they  were about to  do  an
instant before,  and  then seem much surprised  when these frequent
absences of mind are pointed out to them.   Their conduct abounds in
contrasts.   Those who were orderly become dissipated ; those Avho Avere
careful in  business,  noAV enter upon the most dangerous  speculations,
and they addict themselves to play,  drinking and sexual excesses, and
in  fact to all the vices which were before unknown to them.(ss)

                      (c.)  Its Motivelessness.(t)

   § 114.  " It is assumed or implied," says Dr. Taylor with great justice,
 "that sane men never commit a crime without an apparent motive, or
 one of delusive  nature  only  in the perpetration  of a criminal act.   If
 these  positions were  true it  would be very easy to distinguish  a sane
 from an insane criminal, but the rule Avholly fails in practice.   In the
 first place, non-discovery is here taken as a proof  of the non-existence
 of a motive;  while it is undoubted that motives may exist for many
 atrocious criminal acts without our being able to discover them—a  fact
 proved by the numerous recorded confessions  of criminals before exe-
 cution, in cases of which, until these confessions Avere made, no motive
 for the perpetration of  the  crime  had appeared to the acutest minds.
 In the case of Courvoisier, Avho was convicted of the murder of Lord
 William Russell, in  June, 1840, it was the  reliance upon this  alleged
 criterion before the secret proofs  of guilt  accidentally came out,  and
 led many to  believe  he  could  not have committed the crime;  and the
 absence ' of motive' was urged by his counsel  as  the  strongest proof
 of the man's innocence.  It  was ingeniously contended, ' that the most
 trifling action of human life  had its spring from  some motive or other.'
 This  is undoubtedly true, but it  is  not ahvays in  the poAver  of  man
 untainted with crime to  detect and unravel the motives which influence
 criminals to the perpetration cf murder.   No  reasonable motive was
    (s) See post, § 204.
    (ss) Legons Cliniques sur l'alienation Mentale, M. Falret.  8th Legon. p. 215.  Paris,
  1854.   Post, \ 204.  See ante, \ 106.
    (t) Medicine Legale, J. Briand.  p. 548-49. Paris,  1852.  Pinel, Alienation Mentale,
  p. 157. Etudes Medico-Psychologiques sur l'alienation Mentale, par L. F. E. Renaudin.
  Paris, 1854. Chap. 18th, p.  779.  See also Lemons Cliniques de Medicine Legale, M.
  Falret, Le5on 2d, p. 55-67.  Paris,  1854.  Also  Medicine Legale, par Orfila.  Tome
  I. p. 304,   Paris, 1848. 
             MOTIVELESSNESS AND INCONSEQUENTIALITY.           99

ever discovered for the atrocious  murders and mutilations perpetrated
by Cireenack and Cood;  yet these persons Avere very properly made
responsible for their  crimes.   On the trial of Francis  for shooting at
the Queen, the main ground  of the defence was, that the prisoner had
no motive for the act and therefore he Avas irresponsible; but he Avas
convicted.   It is  difficult to comprehend under what circumstances any
motive for such an act as this could exist; and therefore the admission
of such a defence would have been like laying doAvn the rule, that the
evidence of  the perpetration  of so heinous a crime should, in all cases,
be taken as  a proof of the existence of an irresponsible state of mind.
Crimes  have been sometimes committed Avithout any apparent motive,
by sane indiA'iduals who were at the time perfectly aware of the crimi-
nality of their conduct.   No  mark of insanity or delusion could be dis-
covered about  them, and  they had nothing  to  say in their  defence.
They have,  hoAvever, been very  properly held  responsible.    On the
other hand,  lunatics confined in a lunatic asylum have been known to
be influenced by motives in the  perpetration of crimes.   Thus they
have often murdered their keepers in revenge for ill treatment Avhich
they have experienced at their hands.(u)  Thus Farmer was acquitted as
insane,  while the clear motive for  homicide was revenge and ill-feeling.
In another case the act of murder was  perpetrated from jealousy.(v)
On the  whole, the conclusion with respect  to  this assumed criterion is,
that an absence of motive may, when there are other strong evidences
of insanity, favor the view of irresponsibility for crime; but the non-
discovery of a motive for a criminal act cannot of itself be taken as any
proof of the existence of homicidal monomania in the perpetrator.  It
is right to state, however, that the law invariably acts on the humane
principal, that the absence of  a sufficient motive forms a strong pre-
sumption of innocence—the presence of one is no proof of guilt, "(w)

                     (d).   Its Inconsequentiality.

   §  115.  Of this an  illustration may be found in the case of the mad-
man mentioned by  Hitzig,  who  occupied himself with incessant and
anxious labor in rowing an imaginary boat.  He never, alas !  reached
the shore towards which he so  toiled, until death released him from his
labors;  and the last pulse of life  was given to a tremulous, and, then,
scarcely perceptible movement of the spectral oars.


   III.  From what mental unsoundness is to be distinguished.

                          1st.  Emotions.(x)

   Briand says, that from  the  height of passion to madness is  but one
step, but  it  is precisely this step which impresses upon  the act  com-
  (u) See the  case of the Queen v.  Farmer.  York Spring Assizes, 1837.
  (v) Reg. v. Goule.   Durham Summer Assizes, 1845.
  (w) Taylor's Med. Jurisprudence, p. 578, 579.
  (x) See particularly Aristotle's delineation of the Passions in the Second Book of his
" Rhetoric ;" and see also L. Krahmer, Handbuch der gericht. Med. Halle, C. A. SchAvet-
schke, 1851, § 12G. 
100        FROM WHAT INSANITY IS TO BE DISTINGUISHED.

mitted a distinct character.   It  is important then to knoAV exactly the
precise characteristics  of the  passions  and  of insanity.   But  here
science fails, for it must  be admitted that Ave are unable to point out
the place A\*here passion  ends or Avhere  madness commences.(y)  M.
Orfila  draws the following distinction between a man acting under the
impulse of the passions and one urged on by insanity.   The mind is
always greatly troubled A\dien it is agitated by anger, tormented by an
unfortunate love, beAvildered by jealousy, overcome by despair, humbled
by terror or corrupted  by an unconquerable desire  for vengeance, etc.
Then,  as it  is commonly said, a man is no  longer master of himself, his
reason is affected, his ideas are in disorder, he  is like a madman.   But,
in all  these cases, a man  does not lose his knoAvledge of the real rela-
tion of things, he may exaggerate his misfortune, but this misfortune
is real, and if it carries him to commit a criminal act, this act is per-
fectly well motived.   Insanity is more or less independent of the cause
that produced it; it exists of itself; the passions cease with their cause,
jealousy  disappears Avith  the object that provoked it, anger lasts but a
few moments  in the absence of the one Avho by a grievous injury gave
it birth,  etc.   Violent  passions  cloud the judgment, but  they do not
produce those illusions  which are observable in insanity.   They excite
for a moment sentiments  of  cruelty, but they do not produce that deep
moral  perversion Avhich  influences  the  madman to  sacrifice, without
motive, the being he most cherishes.(z)

                            (1.) Remorse.

   § 116.  "When remorse," says Cogan,  "is blended Avith  the fear of
punishment, and rises  to despair, it  constitutes  the  supreme Avretch-
edness of the mind."(a)  And of all stages  of passion,  remorse is the
one most liable, Avhen the conscience is acute, to  be mistaken for insan-
ity itself.   Of this we  have a very melancholy case in  our OAvn local
experience.   A young gentleman of peculiarly nice sense  of honor and
keen sensibility, killed an intimate and beloved friend in a duel, hastily
forced on by his oavii undue susceptibility.  For twenty years he  has
never  ceased  to stride  to and  fro the chamber in Avhich  he has been
confined,  firing an imaginary pistol  at  intervals, and  then throwing
himself back Avith the acutest expression of misery.  In this instance
remorse  has run into madness.   In  others it has  made  but a slight
progress in that direction;  in others entire sanity and responsibility
remain.   And yet  in all  it presents symptoms Avhich it is Avell for the
forensic physician to examine in relation to their moral as well as their
psychical origin.
   Harpsfield, in his Ecclesiastical  History,  gives us the  following
graphic report of the dying Avords of Cardinal Beaufort, Avhich is a poAY-
erful illustration of the effect of this passion:  " And must I then die !
Will not all my riches saA^e me ?  I could purchase the kingdom,  if that
would  save my life.  What! is there no bribing  of death ?  When my
nepheAV,  the Duke of Bedford died, I thought my happiness and my

  (jj) Med. Leg. p. 551. Paris,  1852.     (z) Med. Leg. Tome I. p. 407. Paris, 1848.
  (a) Cogan on the Passions, Vol. I. chap. 2. sec. 3. 
REMORSE.
101
authority greatly increased :  but the Duke of Gloucester's death raised
me in fancy to  a level Avith  kings, and I thought  of nothing but accu-
mulating still  greater  wealth, to  purchase at  last  the triple crown.
Alas ! Iioav are  all my'hopes  disappointed!   Wherefore, 0 my friends,
let me earnestly beseech  you to pray for  me, and recommend my de-
parting  soul  to  God!"   A  few minutes  before his  death his  mind
appeared  to be undergoing  the tortures of the  damned.   He held  up
his  two hands, and  cried—" Away!  Away! why thus  do ye look at
me?"   This same scene in the Cardinal's  life is thus still more vividly
depicted by Shakspeare:


                       SCENE—The Cardinal's bed-chamber.

                    Enter King Henry, Salisbury and AVarwick.

       King Hen.   How fares my lord ? speak, Beaufort, to thy sovereign,
       Cardinal.   If thou be'st death, I'll give thee England's treasure,
                  Enough to purchase such another island,
                  So thou wilt let me live, and feel no pain.
       King Hen.   Ah, what a sign it is of evil life,
                  When death's approach is seen so terrible!
        Warwick.   Beaufort, it is thy sovereign speaks to thee.
        Cardinal.   Bring me unto my trial when you will,
                  Died he(6) not in his bed? where should he die?
                  Can I make men live, whe'r they will or no ?—
                  0 !  torture me no more, I will confess.—
                  Alive again ? then show me where he is;
                  I'll give a thousand pounds to look upon  him.—
                  He hath no eyes, the dust hath blinded them.—
                  Comb down his hair; look ! look ! it stands upright,
                  Like lime-twigs''set to catch my winged soul!—
                  Give me some drink; and bid the  apothecary
                  Bring the strong poison I bought of him.
        King Hen.  0 thou eternal Mover of the heavens,
                  Look with a gentle eye upon this wretch  !
                  0, beat away the busy meddling fiend,
                  That lays strong siege unto this wretch's soul,
                  And from his bosom purge this black despair!
         Warwick.  See, how the pangs of death do make him grin.
         Salisbury.  Disturb him not, let him pass peaceably.
        King Hen.  Peace to his soul, if  God's good pleasure be!
                  Lord cardinal, if thou think'st on heaven's bliss,
                  Hold up thy hand, make signal of thy hope.—
                  He dies and makes no sign; 0 God, forgive him!
         Warwick.   So bad a death, argues a monstrous life.
        King Hen.  Forbear to judge, for we are sinners all.
                  Close up his eyes, and draw the curtain close;
                  And let us all to meditation.(c)


    M. Guillon  relates the  following  remarkable case:  " The Chevalier
 r\e S----had  been  engaged in seventeen 'affairs of honor,' in each  of
 which his adversary fell.   But the images of his murdered rivals began
 to haunt him night and day: and at length he fancied he heard nothing
 but the wailings and upbraidings of seventeen families—one demanding
 a father,  another a son, another a brother,  another  a husband, &c.
 Harassed by these  imaginary  followers,  he incarcerated himself in the
 monastery of La Trappe;  but the  French revolution threw open  this
 asylum, and turned the Chevalier once more into the world.  He was
(b) Meaning the Duke of Gloucester.            (c) King Hen. VI. part ii 
102         FROM AVIIAT INSANITY IS TO BE DISTINGUISHED.

now, no longer able to bear the  remorse of his own conscience, or, as
he imagined^ the sight of seventeen murdered  men, and  therefore put
himself to death.   It is evident  that insanity  was the consequence of
the remorse, and the cause of the suicide.(d)
  § 117.  Schurmayer's(c) vicAvs on  this point  are of peculiar interest,
as indicating the conservative jealousy Avith Avhich the continental autho-
rities guard against that involuntary  dissimulation on  the patient's
part which  makes real, and yet at the same time responsible emotions
so difficult  to distinguish from irresponsible disease.   " Remorse," he
says, " often affects the mind so pOAverfully, as to assume  the appear-
ance of insanity.   The smothered self-reproach of  the criminal some-
times expresses itself in the shape of deep dejection, and sometimes in
that of petulance  and  irritability.  Almost  every defendant  Avho is
guilty, Avill be seen to lapse at least periodically into a deep reverie,
with the  eyes staring into vacancy.   The most consummate villains
alone are exempt from such  feelings.   Criminals generally endeavor
to suppress the voice of  conscience, because they fear  to be betrayed
by it.  But this very reaction is  perfectly legible in their faces, ges-
tures,  and general bodily condition.  Under these circumstances the
qualms of conscience  frequently assume the  appearance of disease.
The accused, particularly if in confinement, does not sleep  at night for
weeks, and consequently looks  pale and haggard,  loses his appetite,
and speaks with hesitation, and sometimes with trembling.   When this
condition  reaches  a point of great intensity,  the guilty is visited by
visions and hallucinations;  avenging angels  appear to him,  or evil
spirits, phantoms, or the shades of the dead and injured.   Add to this
a little superstition, and the victim is firmly convinced of the reality of
these apparitions, and  regards them as  punishments sent from heaven.
In the course of the trial itself,  these symptoms  are less perceptible;
and  generally the culprit hesitates  to  tell an official  person Avhat he
suffers  in seclusion, but  the struggle within frequently breaks out in
spite of his  efforts, or at least  interferes with  the coherence of his
speech.  In  such  cases a man, perfectly hale  in  mind and body, will
frequently talk at  random, or at least express himself in  so confused
and  stupid a manner as to induce doubts of his sanity.   It is remark-
able, that those Avho confess their guilt  are subject to  these  attacks
equally with those  who deny it.   It might be supposed that the crimi-
nals who  have made a public  confession, would experience a regene-
rating  sense of relief in  consequence of having removed a load  from
their minds;  but the confession  often precedes  the first sensations of
remorse, by directing the attention  to the moral and religious  aspects
of the  deed.
  " This proves that even a confessed criminal should  be treated Avith
great circumspection.  Instead of overwhelming  him Avith reproaches,
the victory gained  by his integrity over his fears, should be held  up to
himself as a restorer of self respect.
  " The more depraved order of  culprits do not allow their consciences
to drive them to despair, but only to petulance ; but even this frame of
mind sometimes goes so far as to  lead the subject to  do the most incom-

  (d) AVinslow's Anatomy of Suicide, pp. 53, 54.       (e) See Gericht. Med. § 519. 
REMORSE—ANGER.
103
prehensible things, such as asserting things against  reason, refusing to
answer, or causing constant trouble and vexation in the prison.   Such
persons are often greatly misunderstood, sometimes by ascribing their
offensive conduct solely to malice and spite, and sometimes by regard-
ing them as demented, when,  driven  by their chagrin, they lose all
reflection, and  say or do things to their OAvn injury.  The conscious-
ness of crime, coupled Avith the despair of expiation consequent upon
having denied it, produce an  internal schism Ayhich may result  in the
most singular and distracting phenomena.
   " A tolerably sure criterion of an aAvakened conscience is often to be
found  in the  desire of the  culprits  for some consolatory assurance.
Even those who  deny their guilt are generally anxious  to know how
they Avould be able to bear the  condition of a criminal,  sentenced ac-
cording  to laAV.   In  many cases  there is an exaggerated idea  of the
impending punishment, still further increased  by the imaginings which
haunt  the prisoners solitude.   When such erroneous notions come to
the knowledge of the examining physician, it is perfectly right in him
to correct  them, and the information thus imparted will generally pro-
duce a change of feeling Avhich must at once dispel every idea of mental
derangement."(/)

                            (2.)  Anger.

   § 118.  "Anger," says Archbishop Tillotson,(#) an authority not dis-
tinguished for undue  poignancy of description, " is a short fit of mad-
ness, and he that is passionate and furious deprives himself of his rea-
son, spoils his understanding, and helps to make himself a fool."    And
Dr. Cogan, while more  exact, is  not  much less emphatic: "Anger is
the strong passion or emotion, impressed or excited by a sense of injury
received or in  contemplation; that is, by the idea of something of a
pernicious nature and tendency, being done or intended, in violation of
some supposed obligation to a contrary conduct."(A)
   § 119.  "A morbid paroxysm of anger," Dr. Rush tells us,  " appears
in a preternatural determination of the blood to the brain, a turgescence
of the blood-vessels of the face, a redness of the eyes, an increased secre-
tion of saliva,  which is discharged by foaming at the mouth, great volu-
bility or a total  suppression of speech, agitations of the fists, stamping
of  the feet, uncommon bodily strength,  convulsions, hysteria, bleeding
at the nose, apoplexy and death.   Sometimes  this disease appears Avith
paleness, tremors, sickness at  the stomach, quick  respiration, puking,
syncope and asphyxia.   It is in this case generally  combined with fear,
and hence arises the abstraction of blood from the brain, and its deter-
mination to other parts of the body."(z)
   "Anger," says Dr.  Millingen,  "will vary in its  symptoms according
to  our temperament.   Thus we may observe  Avhat  is called red  anger
and pale anger.  The  first is of a violent and explosive nature;  it gen-
erally  affects the sanguineous; the circulation of the blood is acceler-
ated—the breathing is difficult and panting—the features flushed—the

    (/) SchUrmayer, Gericht. Med. § 519.        (<7) Works. Vol. I. ser. 4.
    (h) Cogan on the Passions. Vol. I. p. 113.      (0 Rush on the Mind, p. 332. 
104         FROM AVHAT INSANITY IS TO BE DISTINGUISHED.

swollen veins are visildy enlarged under the integuments—the eyes flash
fire,  and become injected with  blood—the lips  contracted  expose the
teeth—the voice becomes hoarse—the hearing difficult—foam will occa-
sionally issue from the mouth; in short, the features  assume the cha-
racter of mania, arising evidently from a congestion of blood  on the
brain; and under the violence of the paroxysm  the  angry man  will
know no restraint,  and is indeed, for the time  being, a maniac, indis-
criminate  in his fury and perfectly uncontrollable.   Such was the case
of Charles VI.  of France, who, being violently incensed against the
Duke of Bretagne, and burning Avith a spirit of malice and revenge,
could neither eat, drink, nor  sleep, for many days and nights, and at
length became furiously mad; as  he was  riding  on horseback, drawing
his sword and striking promiscuously every one Avho approached  him.
During this paroxysm of anger the violence of an infuriated man is such
that he will break and destroy every thing about him.   On this  subject
Dugald Stewart has  entertained a singular notion, and fancied  that in
these outrageous acts, the angry man thinks  that the inanimate objects
that he attacks  are alive.  The following  are his words:—' The dispo-
sition AArhich we sometimes feel,  Avhen under the  influence of instinctive
resentment, to wreak our vengeance upon inanimate objects, has sug-
gested to Dr. Reid a very curious query—Avhether, upon such an occa-
sion, we may have a momentary belief that  the  object  is alive ?   For
my own part I confess my inclination to answer this  question  in the
affirmative.'   Noav, with all due respect to the opinion of these psycholo-
gists, daily experience proves the fallacy of this doctrine; for, although
such furious persons may break and demolish pots and pans, bottles and
glasses, chairs and tables, they rarely expend their fury on bystanders,
who Avould not remain as quiet as crockery  or furniture, but have re-
course to retaliation,  with capital and  interest.   True, such men may
beat their  wives and their  children,  but  they are  more cautious  with
strangers;  and their outrageous conduct I consider as an indication of a
cowardly desire to seek revenge, rather than a resentful spirit to avenge
wrongs or insults; and these outbreaks are nothing more than a mani-
festation of power that mankind is ever proud of  possessing and display-
ing.   And I truly must again differ in opinion  with the philanthropic
Dugald Stewart, when he maintains that a man wishes to punish an
offender with  his own hands, owing to ' a secret  wish of convincing our
enemy, by the magnanimity of our conduct, how much he had mistaken
the object of his hatred.'   I must confess that I should feel much hesi-
tation in exposing myself to this chance of a  benevolent display of mag-
nanimity,  on the part of an  infuriated person."^')
   § 120. And a still higher metaphysical authority, Dr. Reid, likens it
to " a storm at^ea, or a tempest in the air."(A)  " It does not, therefore,
signify anything in the mind that is constant and permanent, but some-

  (/) Mind and Matter, by J. G. Millingen, M. D., M. A. pp. 326-7-8.
            (k) " Saepe, mihi hum amana? meditanti incommoda vitse,
              Spesque leves, trepidosquc, metus vanosque labores,
              Gaudia que instabili semper fucata sereno,
              Non secus ac navis lato jactata profundo,
              Quam venti violensque aestus canusque magister
              In diversa trahunt," &c.—Buchanan us.
  Montaigne (says Sir AYilliam Hamilton,) alludes to these  verses in the tenth chapter 
ANGER—REMORSE.
105
thing that is occasional and has a limited duration, like a storm or tem-
pest.   Passion commonly produces sensible effects, even upon the body.
It changes the voice, the feature, and the gesture.  The external signs
of passion have in some cases a great resemblance to those of madness;
in others to those of melancholy.  It gives often a degree of muscular
force and agility to the body, far beyond what it possesses in calm mo-
ments.   The  effects of  passion on the mind are not less remarkable.
It turns  the thoughts  involuntarily  to the objects related to it, so that
a man  can hardly think of anything else.   It gives often a strange bias
to the judgment, making a man quick-sighted in everything that tends
to  inflame his passion  and to justify it, but blind to everything that
tends to moderate or allay it.   Like  a magic lantern, it raises up scep-
tres and apparitions that have no reality, and throws false colors upon
every object.   It can turn deformity into beauty, vice into virtue, and
virtue into vice.   The sentiments of  a man under its  influence will ap-
pear absurd and ridiculous,  not only to other men but even to himself,
when the storm is spent and succeeded by a calm.   Passion often gives
a violent impulse  to the will,  and makes a man  do what he  knows he
shall repent as long as he lives.   That  such are the  effects of passion
I think all men will agree.   They have been described in lively colors
by  poets, orators  and  moralists in all  ages.(?)   But men have given
more attention to  the effects of passion than to  its nature;  and while
they have copiously and elegantly described  the  former, they have not
precisely described the latter."


of his third book, but without naming his master. He has  thus puzzled his commen-
tators.
                          "Nubibus Atris
                          Condita Nullum
                          Fundere pos'sunt
                          Sidera lumen
                          Si mere volvens
                          Turbidus Auster
                          Meseeat sestum,
                          Vitrea dudum,
                          Parque serenis
                          Unda diebus,
                          Mox resoluto
                          Sordida Cceno
                          A'isibus Obstat.
                          Tu quoque, si vis
                          Lumine Claro
                          Cernere verum,
                          Tramite recto
                          Carpere callem:
                          Gaudia pelle,
                          Pelle timorem,
                          Spemque fugato,
                          Nee dolor adsit,
                          Nubila mens est,
                          Vinetaque froenis
                          Hajc ubi regnant.—Boethcus.
 (T) Milton thus describes what Dr. Millingen calls pale anger:
              " Thus, while he spake, each passion dimm'd his face,
              Thrice charg'd with pale ire, envy, and despair,
              AVhich marr'd his borrow'd visage, and betray'd
              Him counterfeit."
 Thompson has also depicted the same state :
                          " Senseless and deformed,
              Convulsive anger storms at large, or pale
              And silent settles into fell revenge." 
106        FROM WHAT INSANITY IS TO BE DISTINGUISHED.

  § 121. Schurmayer very justly remarks that in practice, anger and
revenge afford much less  difficulty, because much more readily distin-
guishable from insanity than is remorse.  With the more depraved, ex-
perience tells us that that malignant hatred Avhich led to crime, is often
increased after the crime is  committed, and  is further aggravated by
displeasure at the unfavorable testimony  of Avitnesses.  The fury of
such miscreants is often directed against the judge, the keepers, and all
who  contribute to the execution of their sentence.  In the case of Car-
rigan, AA'ho Avas recently convicted in North Carolina for murder, so high
did this temper run, that the defendant,  immediately after the verdict
of conviction was rendered, dreAV forth a pistol, Avith Avhich he aimed a
shot  at the prosecuting attorney,  and then shot himself.
  In the fierce outburst of passion, it is quite possible to mistake a man
under such circumstances for a madman, particularly Avhere philanthropy
predisposes the mind to doubt, and science and skill  are not at hand to
correct the first  erroneous impressions.  But these  doubts will vanish
if the  examiner abstains from doing anything Avhich may still further
stimulate the passions, and preserves an imperturbable composure.   If
after this, a seArere reprimand is found, either at once, or after one or
two repetitions, to make a AA'holesome impression, and quell the  excite-
ment, there is certainly no  derangement of the faculties;  for a man
with mania, or under the ravings of  disease, will never be restored to
self-control by the voice of reason.  Where the man is very wild  and
debased, reproaches will not ahvays ansAver the purpose, and it becomes
necessary to menace him with coercion.  The manner in which such
announcements are received Avill also  suffice to remove all doubts of his
sanity.

                             (3.)  Shame.

  § 122.  The feeling of shame may also exert a very considerable influence
on the demeanor of an accused man, not  entirely lost  to this sensation by
a long course of vice.  Shame rises and sinks with the feeling of honor;
" shame is the disagreeable perception of the unfavorable opinions en-
tained of us by others."   Men of ordinary stamp, who value external
honor  far above the dignity of self-respect, can imagine no more dread-
ful fate than degradation in  the eyes  of the  public.  By injudicious
treatment such individuals may be reduced to a state closely resembling
insanity, particularly in  the form of melancholy, which will disappear
the moment a more judicious course is resorted to.
   It is not  necessary  for us, in  order  to  make out the similarity of
symptoms between insanity and excessive shame, to  find many parallels
to the story told by Dr.  Benton, and  cited without protest by Dr. Rush,
of a school-master Avho Avas accidentally discovered upon a close-stool
by one of his scholars, and Avho in  consequence became deranged.(m)
   §  123. Dr. Rush also tells us of an American Indian, Avho became
deranged and destroyed himself,  in consequence of seeing his face  in a
looking-glass soon  after his recovery from a violent  attack  of small-
pox.  The loss of one eye by an affray in a country tavern,  Avhich ma-
(m) Rush on the Mind, p. 38. 
SHAME—GRIEF.
107
terially affected  the beauty  of the  face, produced derangement in a
young man who  was aftenvards a patient in the Pennsylvania Hos-
pital.   There are other facts Avhich sIioav the depth of this attachment
to beauty, in the human mind, and the poignancy of the distress occa-
sioned by its loss or decay.   The once beautiful Lady Wortley Mon-
tague tells a friend, in  one of her letters, that she had never seen her-
self in a looking-glass for  eleven years, solely from her inability to bear
the mortifying contrast between her appearance in  the tAVO extremes
of her life.   A clergyman in Maryland became insane in consequence
of having permitted some  typographical  errors to escape, in a sermon
Avhich he had published on the death of General Washington.(n)
   A young gentleman  of considerable  promise, of high natural and ac-
quired  attainments, had been solicited to make a speech at a public
meeting, Avhich was to take place in the town in which he resided.  As
he had never attempted to address extemporaneously a public body, he
expressed himself extremely  neiwous as to the result, and asked per-
mission to withdraAV his name from the published list of speakers. This
wish was not, however, complied with,  as it was thought that Avhen  the
critical moment arrived he Avould not be found AYanting even in the art
of public speaking.  He had prepared himself with considerable care
for the attempt.   His name Avas announced from the chair: when he
rose for the purpose of delivering his sentiments.  The exordium was
spoken without any hesitation;  and his friends felt assured that he
would acquit himself Avith  great credit.  He had not, however, advanced
much in his prefatory observations Avhen he hesitated, and found him-
self incapable of proceeding.  He then sat down, evidently excessively
mortified.   In  this state he  retired  to a room Avhere the  members of
the committee had previously met, and  cut his throat Avith his penknife.
He wounded the carotid artery, and died in a few minutes.(o)

                             (4.) Grief.

   § 124.  Shakspeare very touchingly as Avell as naturally describes the
symptoms of that species of morbid grief which becomes monomaniac
by self-confinement and self-involution:
                " Grief fills up the room of my absent child;
                Lies in his bed, walks up and  down with me;
                Puts on his pretty looks,"repeats his words;
                Remembers me of all his gracious parts;
                Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form;
                Then I have reason to be fond  of grief ."

  "Physicians," says Dr.  Rush, "in their unsuccessful efforts to save
life, are often obliged to witness this  passion.  It is of consequence  for
them, therefore,  to be Avell acquainted Avith its symptoms and cure.  Its
symptoms are acute and chronic.  The former are, insensibility, syncope,
asphyxia,  and apoplexy; the latter are  fever, wakefulness, sighing, with
and Avithout  tears, dyspepsia, hypochondriasis, loss of  memory, gray
hairs, marks  of premature old age in the countenance, catalepsy, and
madness.   It sometimes brings on sudden death, Avithout any signs of

  («) Rush on the Mind, p. 40.          (o) "VVinslow's Anatomy of Suicide, p. 64. 
108        FROM WHAT INSANITY IS TO BE DISTINGUISHED.

previous disease, either acute or chronic.  Dissections of  persons  AArho
have died of grief, show congestion in, and inflammation of the heart,
with a  rupture of its auricles and ventricles.(oo)  But there are in-
stances  in which the sympathy of the heart Avith the whole system is so
completely disseA*ercd Avith grief, that the subject of it discovers not one
mark of it in his countenance or behaviour.  On the contrary, he some-
times exhibits signs of unbecoming levity in his  intercourse  Avith  the
world.  This state of mind soon passes away, and is generally followed
by all the obvious and natural signs of the most poignant and durable
grief. There is another symptom of grief which is  not often noticed,
and that is profound sleep.  I have often Avitnessed it, even in mothers,
immediately after the death of a child.   Criminals, we are told by Mr.
Akerman, the keeper of the Newgate, in London, often sleep soundly
the night  before their execution.   The  son of General Custine slept
nine hours the night before he was led to the guillotine, in Paris. These
facts, and many similar ones that might be mentioned, will serve to vin-
dicate the disciples of our Saviour for a Avant of sympathy with him in
his suffering.  They slept during  his agony in 'the  garden,  because their
"flesh  Avas weak," and in consequence  of "sorrow having filled their
hearts, "(p)
   Tears,  or the capacity to weep, form no test in this respect.   "How
often,"  very  beautifully says Dr.  Cheyne,(^?p) "have  we,  in passing
through this vale of tears, heard  the  folloAving  lament: ' Oh, that I
could only cry!  I  feel as  if it would so  relieve me!  There seems
nothing natural in  my grief.  I, who wept  so  bitterly for my father,
have  not  a single  tear  to  shed for my  child.'  This tearless state
sometimes remains  to the very  end of life;  and we  may  hear indi-
viduals, who Avere originally possessed of the liveliest affections, declare:
'Ever since  my  husband, son, or  daughter died, my  affections have
been  frozen, and my  eyes dried up.'   It is very generally observed,
when the  first bitterness of grief is overpast—when the more violent,
selfish,  or ecstatic stage  of the passion has had time to subside—that
tears will again begin to flow."
   One  distinction, however, may be relied  on with almost  certainty.
Grief may be, in  most cases,  relieved  by the counter-irritation of
some affection other than that wounded;  but insanity  never.   Bishop
Jebb, in  his  one hundred and thirty-ninth letter to  Mr. Knox,  very
touchingly illustrates this:  " Mr.  Wilberforce  one day proposed to
take me  out to  pass next Tuesday Avith our valuable  friend,  Mrs. II.
Thornton, at Clapham.  I most  gladly embraced the  offer.   She was
much affected, and spoke freely to  me about her feelings.   At first she
had been reduced to a state  of inert grief, which  would have made her
willingly  lie down in the same bed  Avith  him that Avas just  gone, and die
with him. A sense of affection and duty to her children soon roused
her from  this torpor, and she then felt, and continued many days to
feel, as if she were in heaven.  This   high-Avrought  feeling, however,
could not long remain, and  nature since has had its griefs and tears."
"On this passage," says  Dr. Cheyne,  "Ave Avould  offer  the folloAAring

   (oo) Late researches, however, indicate such cases to be very exceptional.
   (p) Rush on the Mind, p. 346, 347.
   (]p) Cheyne on Derangement in Connection with Religion, p. 107. 
HOME-SICKNESS—SIMULATED INSANITY.
109
short observation.  By the  'inert' state of her grief, Ave  understand
that, though  it was profound,  so that she willingly would have  died
with her husband, yet that it Avas Avithout its natural expression; there
was no Availing.   Then another affection was roused, and that assurance
of Divine  protection, which is the inheritance of the servants of God,
filled her mind with gratitude and joy.  Lastly, as the ecstasy subsided,
and when  her anguish was exhausted, nature had its 'griefs and tears.'
It is ahvays desirable that tears should come to the relief of the deeply
afflicted; and it is easier to allow the first gush of grief to  be over, be-
fore we attempt, by religious consideration, to moderate its poignancy."

                   (5.) Home-sickness (Nostalgia).(q)

   § 125.  This often assumes a shape hardly distinguishable from Hys-
teria.   Thus Goldsmith writes :—
                " The intrepid Swiss that guards a foreign shore,
                Condemn'd to climb his mountain-cliffs no more,
                If chance he hear the song, so sweetly wild,
                AVhich, on these cliffs, his infant hours beguil'd
                Melts at the long-lost scenes, that round him rise,
                And sinks a martyr to repentant sighs."

   "It is  remarkable," says Dr.  Rush, "that this disease is most  com-
mon  among  the  natives of countries  that are  the least desirable for
beauty, fertility, climate,  or the luxuries of  life.   They resemble, in
this respect,  in their influence  upon the human heart, the  artificial ob-
jects of taste which are at first disagreeable, but which from habit take
a stronger  hold  upon  the appetite  than  such  as are  natural  and
agreeable, "(r)
   § 126.  Nostalgia, as Siebold(s) tells us, develops itself principally in
that period of childhood approaching puberty.   When the  malady is of
long continuance, it runs into  voluntary starvation, sleeplessness, deli-
rium, derangement of the senses, together with the usual melancholy con-
sequences of unsatisfied desire.  Sometimes symptoms of Pyremania are
discoverable.   Thus Ave are told  of a girl of ten years who exposed two
children,  committed to her care, to the  flames,  under the  stress of
home-sickness, (t)

                       2d. Simulated Insanity.(u)

   § 127.  In every case, the examining physician will be led at once to
 inquire, Avhether the apparent  abnormal state of mind is real or feigned.

   (q) Orfila gives the following symptoms by which Nostalgia may be recognized: Pro-
 found sadness to which succeeds a gloomy melancholy, silence and a great desire to be
 alone, a great indifference for every thing which does  not recall the objects regretted.
 Spasmodic  contraction of the stomach, prostration of mind and body, marasmus, &c—
 Mid. Lig. Vol. I. p.  331.  Paris, 1848.
   (r) Rush on the Mind, p. 38, 39.
   (s) Gericht. Med.  3 213.                           n „  .   Q    .   +1    ,.  .
    OSee Jahrb.  des  Osterreich  Staates, 15 Bd.  1834.  § 597  fee  also  the  article
 under the head of Heimweh, by Jesse, in the Encyclop.  Yvorterb. der Med. Vvissensch.
 Band 25.   Berl. 1841.  \ 292.                                  .  .
   (u) In relation to simulated insanity, M. Orfila  says, that as there exists_m the world
 a very  false idea of  madmen the one who  simulates insanity, after this idea, will 
110        FROM AVHAT INSANITY IS TO BE DISTINGUISHED.

One thing, however, must not be overlooked, and this is that impostors
of  this kind are but very rarely able to keep up the character of the
disease assumed, with consistency, and Avithout involving themselves in
contradictions.   It is  important to adopt here  the  precautions pre-
scribed by Schurmayer,(v) to watch the  subject  most closely when  he
supposes  himself least observed, as at such times  he generally drops
his mask, AAdiich is  irksome to him.   In all such investigations the phy-
sician must never shoAV the most trifling sign of doubt or hesitation ;  he
must,  on the contrary, appear to know everything, in order to discover
everything, and must present a  firm and imposing front in all his inter-
course with the accused.   Where the  disease in  question is of  such a
nature, as, if genuine, to interfere Avith  or suspend sleep, it becomes
necessary to watch the  patient unobserved at night.  To subject him
purposely to mental irritation or excitement is improper, reprehensible,
and liable to cause harm.   Threats of painful medicines or operations
are admissible Avhere the  processes threatened are  really indicated by
therapeutics, but the execution of such threats must depend upon the
principles laid down in another part of this Avork,  in reference to the
tests applicable to feigned bodily diseases.
   § 128.  Schurmayer gives us  the following reasons for suspecting dis-
simulation or deception.
   1. When the party has committed some act, the punishment of which
he would escape by inducing a  belief in his aberration of mind, in this
case the comparison of the offence committed, Avith the form of  mental
disease assumed, will often suffice to confirm the suspicion, (w)
   2. When the  individual has  frequently expressed an  aversion to a
particular occupation  or profession it is  expected  to assume,  as, for
instance,  that of a soldier.
   3. When the  general character of  the party is open to imputations
of malice and deceit.(#)
   4. When it is impossible to discover any previous indications, physi-
cal or mental, of the pretended derangement of the mental faculties.(y)
   § 129.  The species of mental unsoundness most frequently imitated
by the vulgar as delirium—which, at the same time, is that which it  is
the most  difficult to sustain.   Sheridan, Avith his usual tact, hit  upon


perform, at every instant, contradictory and false acts; thus,  he will pretend  not to
remember his past actions, he will not recognize those whom  he knows very well, he
will not make a single correct reply to  questions that are addressed to him.  His features
will not have the  expression of  such a violent condition, he cannot for so long a time
prevent himself from sleeping, he will play the fool particularly Avhilst he thinks himself
observed, finally, his pretended malady will not have developed itself until he feared the
pursuit of justice; it will not have been preceded by that originality of character, by
those marked symptoms of moral disorder which are observable in the majority of cases
of insanity.—Mid. Lig., Tome I. p. 400. Paris, 1848.  See also Med. Leg.  J. Briand.
p. 396.  Paris, 1852.  See on this point, Principles  of Medical  Psychology, being the
outlines of a course of lectures by Baron  Ernest von Feuchtersleben, M. D.  Vienna,
1845.  Translated from the German by the late H. Evans  Lloyd, Esq.  Revised and
edited by B. G. Babington, M. D., F. R. S., &c.  London, printed for the Sydenham So-
ciety, 1847. p. 376.
  (v) Gericht. Med., \  392.
  (w) Compare Heinroth, System der psychisch gerichtlichen Mcdizin. Leipsic, 1825. p. 453.
  (x) Heinroth Medizinische Zeichenlehre.  Ausgabe von Danz. Leipsic, 1812. p  380
  (y) Friedreich, Handbuch der gerichtlichen Psychologie, p. 155. 
SIMULATED INSANITY.
Ill
this Avhen he made the mock-author in the Critic throw his heroine into
precisely this stage :—
              Enter Tilburina and Confidant, mad, according to custom.
  Sneer. But, what the deuce, is the confidant to be mad, too ?
  Puff. To be sure she is; the  confidant is always to do what her mistress does; weep when
she weeps, smile when she smile?, go mad when she goes mad.  Now madam confidant—but
keep your madness in the back-ground, if you please.
              Tilb.  . ■  . The wind whistles—the moon rises—see,
                   They have kill'd my squirrel in his cage!
                   Is this a grasshopper ?—Ha ! no ; it is my
                   VVhiskerandos; you shall not keep him—
                   I know you have him in your pocket.
                   An oyster may be cross'd in love !—who says
                   A whale 's a bird ?—Ha ! did you call, my love ?—
                   He 's here ! he 's there ! He's everywhere !
                   Ah me !  he 's nowhere !             [Exit.
  Puff. There, do you ever desire to. see any body madder than that ?
  Sneer.  Never while I live !
  Puff. You observed how she mangled the metre ?
  Dang. Yes—egad, it was the  first thing made me suspect she was out of her senses !
  Sneer.  And pray, what becomes of her ?
  Puff. She is gone to throw herself in the sea, to be sure; and that brings us at once to the
 scene of action, and so to my catastrophe—my sea-fight, I mean.

   It is much more easy to  counterfeit imbecility in its lower  stages, as
 inaction rather than action  is then required.
   § 130.  The physiognomy of mature madness, does not admit of imi-
 tation—though the case is otherwise with imbecility.   The demeanor of
 the  individual under threats, or  even under the application of painful
 remedies,  is a  criterion of inferior value, because skillful  imposters
 Avithstand the test, and  because  many who are really affected, particu-
 larly before the  disease has assumed a settled character, manifest fear
 and dread of such remedies, and retain, in  a considerable degree,  sensi-
 bility to pain.   The torpor  of the stomach and bowels under the use of
 emetics and purgatives  is equally unreliable, because the same condition
 is found unconnected with  unsoundness of mind;  of greater value is
 sleeplessness, which  a   deceiver will not long sustain after the fashion
 of lunatics, (z)
   § 131.  The  shortest  road to  certainty (a) is by comparing the case
 in hand with those recorded or experienced, and by a strict application
 of the inductive  tests.   Experience teaches  that the various abnormal
 conditions of the  mind have certain symptoms in  common, by means of
 Avhich they admit of being arranged in greater and smaller subdivisions,
 and finally of  being reduced to certain clearly defined forms and com-
 binations of forms.  Although every case, to  a certain extent, furnishes
 its OAvn rule, yet  this logical process will be of great avail in detecting
 dissimulation, on  the one hand, or groundless  imputation of insanity, on
 the other.   The more the phenomena of a case of alleged insanity subject
 to examination differ from  recorded observations, or the more a person
 of dubious insanity presents an array of symptoms  at variance Avith the
 form of the disease to which they ought to belong, the more reason  is
 there to  guard  against deception.(b)   At the same  time, it must be
 admitted, that the science  of psychical medicine has not attained such

   (2) Schiirmayer Gericht. Med. \ 533.  See also ante,  \ 100, 101.
   (a) Ellinger Ueber die anthropologischen Momcnte der Zurechnungsfaehigkeit, p. 97.
   (b) Mare, Die Geisteskrankheiten, &c.  Vol. I. p.  104. 
 112         FROM WHAT INSANITY IS TO BE DISTINGUISHED.

 a degree  of perfection, as to exclude entirely the possibility of  cases
 arising, Avhich would not admit of being  classed with any of  those
 already observed and noted.   At times they incline to mere moral per-
 versity, and are often treated as such for years; or the disease itself is
 not yet  clearly  developed;  or,  finally,  it has  apparently ceased, or
 arrived at a stage in which the patient is able to control and direct
 his condition,  as a drunkard his intoxication.(c)
   § 132. For various reasons, simulation is not ahvays to  be inferred
 from the  absence of a  trace of insanity at the  time of the investi-
 gation.^)
   1.  Patients, whose minds  are unsound on one subject only, have the
 poAver of burying their madness in their OAvn hearts, to such an extent
 as to betray no sign of derangement in the  course of the examination;
 because it is not necessary that the disturbance of one mental function
 should  impair the action of  the others.   There are many cases, Avhich
 have been in part noticed, and some of which will  appear in the course
 of the  folloAving pages, in Avhich the  sufferer is insane on one subject
 alone,  Avhile  all  the  other  operations of his mind proceed in  their
 normal manner,  so that any  one  unacquainted Avith the  fixed  idea
 Avhich controls him, Avould pronounce him perfectly rational, (e)
   2.  It is  established by experience, that lunatics, even when  their
 disease  is not that of  monomania, enjoy intervals in which their under-
 standing  has not only its  normal vigor,  but even  displays  uncommon
 poAvers.(/)
   3.  A genuine mental  disease may be  suspended or removed by the '
 very circumstance which give  rise to' the investigation, by  analogy to
 the cases  of madmen restored to health by great mental  and moral
 shocks, as well as of persons attempting suicide from melancholy or
 despair, who are cured of their folly by the impressions received while
 making the attempt, (g)
   § 133.  Another consideration which must never be lost sight of in
 investigations of the kind is this, that a pretended  mental disease may
 turn into  a real  one.(h)   A man who makes  every  effort  to appear
 deranged,  may be so much  affected by his efforts, that what he  pre-
tends may assume a reality in his mind, and he become in fact insane.(i)
 In conclusion, there is also a  class of cases in which genuine paroxysms
 of madness  alternate Avith pretended ones, which calls  for  especial
 caution  in  pronouncing upon  them.(y)
  § 134. There are persons  of unsound  mind, who,  in the incipient
  (c) Schurmayer, Gericht. Med. \ 533.
  (d) Compare Friedreich, p. 165.
  (e) Compare Wagner, Beitraege zur philosophischen Anthropologie.  Vienna,  1794.
Vol. I. p. 114. Perfect, Annalen einer Anstalt fur Wahusinnige.  Hanover, 1084. p.
 341.  Esquirol, Note sur la monomanie homicide.  Paris, 1837. p. 3.
  (/) Muratori, Ueber die Einbildungs Kraft.  Leipsic, 1785. Vol. II.  p. 8.  Reil's
Rapsodien, p. 76.
  (g) Etudes Medico Psychologiques sur l'alienation Mentale, par L. F. E.  Renaudin.
Chap. IX. p. 522.   Paris, 1854.
  (h) For an interesting essay on Monomania induced by Imitation, see 1 Am. Journ. of
Insan., 116.                               0) !bid. p. 172.
  (/) Compare Neumann, Die Krankheiten des Vorstellungsvermoegens. Leipsic,  1822.
p. 397.  And Pye, Aufsaetze, &c. aus der gerichtlichen Arzueiwissenschaft, Third series,
p. 219.  And see particularly Schurmayer, \ 535, whence the  above observations are
drawn. 
FEIGNED INSANITY.
113
stages of the disease  retain sufficient consciousness to endeavor, for
various reasons, to conceal their malady.   A continued attentive obser-
vation of such individuals will, however, suffice, in general, to  furnish
the data for a correct view of the case.   But even in cases  of confirmed
insanity, an  occult condition, so-called, may occur, in which the  mad-
man tries and manages to conceal his ailment, or rather his impulses,
fancies, and  feelings.   This is particularly frequent in lucid intervals
and in partial insanity.(k)  Under  such circumstances, in addition to
the maxims  adduced under the head of dubious cases, the following
suggestions will be found useful.   To interrogate the patient directly
to the point  is of very little avail, for if he  is anxious to conceal his
madness, any questions will inspire him with a suspicion  of the ques-
tioner which  must  frustrate all  such  efforts.  More circuitous  means
are preferable.
   1.  By bringing the patient into a succession of different relations of
life, and regarding .closely the effect produced  upon him,  some indica-
tions of  his fixed ideas may be made to escape him.  If the subject of
his lunacy is thus brought into question, by contradicting his views in
connection with it, the  perversion of  his intellect  will  be  doubly
apparent, (kk)
   § 135. 2.  Amelung's  advice is to  furnish the party with pen, ink,
and paper, and  induce him, under some pretext or other,  to write ; he
will not  be  able to refrain from setting down something  which will
throw more or less light on the nature of his derangement.
   § 136. 3.  Heindorf proposes that the physician should narrate the
patient's  own history, or  so much of it as he had learned  or could sur-
mise, to  the patient, as the history of the  physician;  this  is to enlist
the confidence of the patient and make him suppose a parallel between
his own case  and that of the examiner, so that the dulce habere socium
malorum may  elicit  circumstances which he  would  otherwise have
concealed.
   § 137.  4.  A similar proposal is to  associate the individual with an-
other, of equal  rank,  degree  of education, social  position, &c, with
himself,  as a confidant, as persons of this description generally display
more frankness  towards people of their own order, than towards those
whom they regard as above them.   This idea, however, it  will be easily
seen, is very difficult of practical application.
   § 138. Though patients of this  kind may conceal,  they can  never
deny their fixed ideas.  Many persons, says Heinroth, who, in a healthy
state, had no scruples in  telling  a large series of falsehoods, whenever
their interest required it, or a confession  of  the  truth would subject
them to  a disagreeable exposure, forget all this the moment they have
a  fixed  idea  to maintain.   Then  they overlook every advantage, and
stand at no absurdity and no disgrace.  To hold fast the fancy which en-
chains them,  is their only aim.   If the physician can discover this fancy,
he has but to ply the party with questions in reference to  it, to make

   (k) Friedreich, Diagnostik,  p. 38; and his Handbuch der gerichtlichen Psychologie,
p. 175.
   (kk) See ante, § 89-92. 
114
DEAF AND DUMB.
him betray himself, and, in many cases, disclose more than the inquirer
had ever thought of investigating."^)
  § 139.  In this view it is  peculiarly important  not to lose sight  of
latent insanity, or insania occulta.(m)  This term is used to designate
an  unsoundness  of mind Avhich becomes perceptible externally, and
consequently to others, only by the commission of a crime, the motive
of  which  is derived exclusively from the mental disorder.   The forms
it assumes may vary, as even furor transitorius may issue from insania
occulta.   Whatever difference of opinion exists as to the possibility and
the explanation of occult insanity, the  facts of experience compel us to
consider such a condition as possible.  But to detect and  substantiate
it in any given case will be attended Avith more or less difficulty, accord-
ing to the circumstances, and must be undertaken with reference to the
same criteria as were pointed out in regard to the furor transitorius.(n)


IV. Mental  unsoundness as connected avith derangement of the
                        SENSES, AND DISEASE.

                       1st. Deaf and  Dumb.(o)

  § 140.  The deaf  and dumb, where  their  infirmity is  congenital,  or
contracted  in  early infancy, are always  in an  abnormal  mental and
moral condition, owing to the absence of  hearing and  speech, the two
main faculties for the culture of the mental and moral man.(j)) For the
same reason, only this  description of the deaf and dumb comes under
consideration, and in every case the point of inquiry will be the degree
of development of the mental and moral powers ;  that is to say,  of  the
power of  understanding the consequences and the wrongfulness of  the
act committed.  What Avill always  exert great influence, is the question
whether the deaf and dumb person has received any, and Avhat instruc-
tion ;  where no  instruction  has  been efficient, there  is ahvays  great
reason to conclude that the psychological conditions  are  Avanting upon
which moral responsibility depends.(q)  The most difficult part of the
task is always the examination  of the individual, which, to lead to a
reliable result, requires the  assistance of  an adept,—that is to say, a
teacher of the deaf and dumb. In pronouncing upon such cases, it must
not be forgotten that the deaf and dumb have a peculiarly irascible dispo-
sition, and that many  of them, especially those whose features  are
marked by a  froward, morose, gloomy and  sinister  expression, and
more or less resemble those of the Cretins, are born with a tendency to
deceit, malice, cunning, duplicity,  and cruelty, (r)
   In regard to the form and  manner in which the intellectual con-
  (Z) See particularly Schurmayer, Gericht. Med. \ 536; and also L. Krahmer, Hand-
buch der Gericht. Med.  Halle, C. A. Schwetschke, 1851, § 126.
  (m) Friedreich, 580.                   (ri) Schurmayer, Gericht. Med. \ 553.
  (o) See an interesting treatise on this point, 8 Am. Jour,  of Ins., 17.  L. Krahmer,
Handbuch der Gericht. Med.  Halle, C. A. Schwetschke, 1851, \ 122.
  (jp) Friedreich Handbuch der Geritchtlichen Psychologie, p. 659.
  (?) See J. Briand, Med. Leg., article sur la surdi-mutite, p. 569. Paris, 1852.  See also
M. Orfila, M£d. L£g, sur la surdi-mutite\ Tome I. p. 460.  Paris, 1848.  Also Traite  des
maladies de l'oreille et de l'audition, par Itard, Vol. XL
  (r) Schurmayer, Gericht. Med., \ 562. 
DISEASES OF THE SENSES.                   115
 dition  of  the deaf and dumb  should be examined and  probed, Hoff-
 bauer and, after him, Friedreich have given a series of directions, sub-
 stantially  as  follows:  AVhere  the deaf and  dumb person is able to
 understand spoken words by following the motions of the lips, the in-
 quirer must  speak distinctly  and with  marked articulation, so as to
 enable the patient to see what he says.   Where oral examinations are
 impracticable or unsatisfactory, the scrutiny, if possible, must be made
 in writing, when  it becomes especially important to propound simple
 questions, intelligible to every one.  But they must not be such merely
 as the patient is  likely to expect  beforehand, for  these might be an-
 swered promptly and correctly;  not, however, because he has properly
 examined  into and understood their meaning, and properly concentrated
 in his own thoughts the answer he  returns, but because he considers the
 question as written down, without thinking further about it, as a request
 to commit  to paper that which perhaps would be his answer if he thought
 at all about it.   So long as these answers are correct or, if not correct,
 at least congruous, there  is room to  believe  that the questions were
 understood by the patient, and that he is able, to a certain extent, to
 make himself intelligible to  others by means of writing.   But the con-
 trary does nbt appear  if his answers are incongruous.   But if several
 ansAvers are incongruous, and particularly if it is found that a certain
 number of answers are constantly repeated, no doubt remains that  the
 individual, however capable  of tracing written characters, is not able,
 in the proper sense of the word, either to read or write.  Where it is
 necessary to converse with the deaf and dumb person by means of signs,
 and for this purpose to call in the assistance of an expert, the capacity
 of the latter must be so far taken into account as to obtain the assurance
 that he will speak and  interpret according to the intention of the judi-
 cial purpose had in view; for which reason, it will be important to in-
 struct the  interpreter fully on  this subject.  It may also be necessary,
 and is declared indispensable by some,(s) to employ  two interpreters at
 the  hearing.  It  may be said, in passing, that  such examinations  are
 almost always unsatisfactory in their results.   Itard is of opinion that
 the intellectual capacity of  a deaf  and dumb person should be tested
 by a written  colloquy,  and  that  if incapable  of taking part in such
 communications, he is to be  looked upon as lacking the necessary in-
 struction, and idiotic.  The  same high authority further remarks, that
 if a deaf and  dumb man denies having received any instruction, in the
 hope of escaping punishment  on the  score of  ignorance, the proper
 course is to accuse him of a graver  crime, and one of another character
 from that imputed  to him,(t) and that, on the whole, a deaf and dumb
 man who understands the  questions asked  of  him  in writing, is much
 the same as a  man entirely compos mentis.  Marc says that when the re-
 sponsibility of a deaf and dumb person who has  been taught to converse,
 is in question,  a hearing should be had, without any judicial preparation,
under the form of a conversation on general subjects entirely foreign to
the offence  committed, from which,  by an association of ideas, a transi-
tion should be effected to general questions of morals and social order.
  (s) Kleinschrod.                                               .
  if) If he knows how to write, he will have immediate recourse to this method, in orde r
to justify himself, and will thus show the whole range of his intelligence. 
116
DEAF, DUMB, AND BLIND.
   "There is  but little difference," says  Orfila, "between the unin-
structed deaf  and dumb and  the idiot, and such is the affinity existing
between these two  conditions of the intelligence, that  more than the
fortieth  part of the deaf  and dumb are afflicted with idiocy.  It may
be that  this mental incapacity is  the result of inaudition, or it may
depend upon  the same cause  that paralyzed  the  auditive sense.  It
should  be observed, however, that  the idiot is incapable  of learning,
whilst the deaf and dumb, on the contrary, can receive an almost com-
plete education.   Even if the uninstructed deaf and dumb  do not know
all the consequences of certain criminal actions, still they  are  not slow
in learning that these actions are  censurable, and  even that  they are
the subject of punishment."(u)

                             2d. Blind.

   §  141. Blindness(v) can only come  in question here  when it is con-
genital or has  originated in early infancy, for  then only can it exercise
decisive influence on the mental and moral development.   In  general,
however, blindness is no reason to suspend the  personal responsibility of
an agent; the  defects of the  mental and moral nature consequent upon
it, are not diseases ; and the bearing which they have upon the degree
of culpability  ascribable to an act  committed  in violation  of law, must
be referred to the  discretion of the  court, as guided  by the circum-
stances of each case.(w)

                          3d. Epileptics.(x)

   §  142. Epileptics, from their nervous  susceptibility, and their ten-
dency to  mental alienation, should  be  regarded  with peculiar ten-
derness by those to whom is committed  the  administration of public
justice.   Nor  should  the idea  of  a recent recovery ever  exclude one
who has been  so afflicted, from that  protection which would secure at
least a patient investigation of the question of moral responsibility.
Recent investigations, conducted by men of eminent sagacity and great
opportunities of observation, have  led  to  the  conclusion that  epilepsy
produces  not  only general  mental prostration,  but anomalies  in  the
entire moral and intellectual |^stem.   And although the malady some-
times co-exists with  great  intelligence, yet  the  patient   retains,  not
only during the attack,  but for an indefinite period afterwards, but an
imperfect use  of his faculties.(y)
   § 143.  Epilepsy consists in periodical attacks of insensibility, accom-
panied with involuntary, convulsive, and  more or  less violent motions

   (w) Med. L6g. Tome I. p. 460. Paris, 1848.
   (?>) Schurmayer, Gericht. Med. 563;  and see L. Krahmer, Handbuch de Gericht. Med.
Halle, C. A. Schwetschke,  1851, \ 122.
   (w) Compare Friedreich, 676, where the  learning on this subject is collected.
   (z) See L. Krahmer, Handbuch del Gericht. Med. Halle, C. A. Schwetschke 1851 2 122;
 see J. Briand, M6d. Leg. p. 568. Paris, 1852 ; M. Orfila, M6d. Le"g. Tome I. p.  332.' Paris
 1848; M. Falret, Lecons Cliniques  de  Me"d£cine Mentale, p. 521. Paris 1854.
   Of) Boileau de Castlenau: De l'epilepsie dans ses rapports avec l'alienation' mentale,
 considers au point de vue m£dico-judiciare.  Annales d' Hygiene publ. et de M£d£cine
 l£g. Avril, 1852, No. 94.  Erhardt-Ueber Zurechnungsfahigkeit der Epileptischen. 
EPILEPTICS.
117
of the limbs.  That persons committing a violation of laAV while in this
condition, are entitled to the full benefit of all the considerations which
affect the responsibility of the agent, needs no argument after Avhat has
been already said on the subject of unsoundness of mind.  The  case,
however, admits of more difficulty when the question is, whether, in the
interval between the attacks, a state of mind does or does not exist cal-
culated to destroy or diminish responsibility.(z)
  § 144. It will be peculiarly necessary here, to make a division be-
tween the several  classes of epileptic diseases.  The infirmity is well
known to appear in very different degrees of intensity, under different
circumstances, and as it arises from different physical causes, it may be
considered as exerting different retroactive influences on the mind and
the body.   It may affect the intellectual faculties in a very subordinate
degree, as the cases of  men like Caesar, Napoleon and Mohammed suf-
ficiently prove.   The doctrine  therefore results, that in general epi-
lepsy, the usual presumption of responsibility applies to acts committed
in the intervals between one attack and another.  In epilepsy, according
to Briand, moral liberty is entirely suspended during  the attacks.  An
epilectic who commits a homicide during the height of  his disease, has
had  no criminal intention, and therefore cannot incur responsibility.
It is also unjust to throw upon persons, thus affected, all the  responsi-
bility of actions which they may commit immediately before or after
an  attack,  for  authors are agreed in thinking,  that whether  these
attacks occur frequently or rarely, the mind never fully recovers all its
power.
   § 145.  In particular  cases the responsibility of the  agent may be de-
stroyed,  where real symptoms of derangement present themselves, and
where it is possible or probable that the offence was brought on by such
abnormal state  of the  faculties.   The  higher  grades  of the disease,
where it is of long standing, and where the attacks recur at  brief in-
tervals, cast a doubt upon the psychical requirements of responsibility,
even where nothing is observed which expressly  characterizes an aber-
ration  of the mental faculties.   The stage which immediately precedes
an attack, the premonitory symptoms of heaviness in the head, dizzi-
ness, loss, of consciousness,  &c, as well as that which immediately suc-
ceeds an attack, and consists in a manifest disorder  of the  bodily and
mental functions of the subject, is to be treated  as connected with the
immediate attack.(a)
   § 146. The moral  requirements of responsibility are  satisfied when
the disease is not of great intensity, and where the  intervals show no
trace of an alteration  of  the  intellectual  functions  produced by  it,
and the  incitement to the act complained of is found not in the obtuse-
ness or ebullition  generally peculiar to such patients, but  in a selfish
motive, and where the execution of the act betrays forethought, reflec-
tion, and wilfulness.
   § 147.  Persons truly epileptic are easily excited to anger and revenge
on  the slightest provocation,  in  the  intervals  between their attacks.
Although these attacks do not always attain to such  a degree as  to de-
serve the name  of mental derangement, yet it should never be forgotten
(z) Schurmayer, Gericht. Med. § 565.
(a) Ibid. § 567. 
118
RELATIONS OF EPILEPSY TO INSANITY.
 that there is always a morbid predisposition to insane ebullitions, and in
 general  a morbid  irritability, which must  impair,  if not destroy, the
 moral responsibility of actions growing out of them.  And even Avhere
 a sentence of punishment is pronounced, it must not be overlooked that
 its  execution  may possibly exercise  a most deleterious influence on
 the health of the individual, by aggravating the  disease, and perhaps
 in forcing it into real insanity.   It is not advisable, therefore, to exe-
 cute a sentence of punishment upon an epileptic, without having submit-
 ted the case  to the examination of a  duly  authorized  forensic phy-
 sician.^)
   § 148. Different views, however,  have existed on this point.  Plat-
 ner(c) denies the responsibility  of any epileptic Avhatever.   Clarus(d)
 takes a ATiew more in harmony with those we have just advanced, main-
 taining the following propositions:
   1.  All actions and omissions which take place during  the  paroxysm
 of epilepsy, are neither valid nor the subjects of responsibility.
   2.  When the  attack of habitual epilepsy is succeeded by, or alter-
 nates with, a state of mania or imbecility, all responsibility is at an end,
 even  where this latter state is but transitory,  because no  human insight
 or experience can decide with certainty, whether the  patient, at that
 particular instant,  was in an entirely  sane condition.   On  the  other
 hand, there are no  reasons against the validity of civil acts done under
 such  circumstances.
   3.  Swooning, heaviness of the head, weakness  of memory, restless-
 ness,  enhanced irritability,  &c, which  precede or  follow the attack,
 destroy  as well the responsibility as  the  validity  of acts  committed
 during their continuance.
   4.  Where it is capable of proof, that  the epileptics,  in the intervals
 of their  attacks, betray symptoms of malice and obtuseness, justice de-
 mands that their faults should  be regarded as effects of the disease
 and that they should be  held irresponsible for acts committed in an
 ebullition of rage or other passion, while such condition should operate
 in mitigation where the crime presupposes forecast and reflection.
  5.  Where the signs of an altered state of mind are wanting both be-
 fore and after the attacks, the possibility still remains that these  signs
 continue undetected because of their minuteness,  and that patients of
 this description are less  able to resist sudden  impulses  than persons
 in good health; which would suggest a  mitigation  of  punishment  for
 actions of violent passion, but not for those involving reflection.
  6.  All these propositions only apply to idiopathic and habitual epi-
 lepsy ; not to isolated attacks, which ensue upon other  diseases,  and
 where no trace remains, after their cessation.
  7.  The diseases connected Avith epileptic symptoms, particularly hys-
 terical  spasms,  accompanied  with insensibility,  and  diseases of  the
 generic character of St Vitus's Dance, are subject to  the rules above laid
 down, under the restrictions mentioned in  the  last head, because  the

  (6) Schiirmayer, Gericht. Men. \ 568.
  (c) Quaest. Med. For. P. VI.
  (d) Beitragj zur Erkenntniss and Beurtheilung zweifelhaften Seelenzustaende Leipsic
1828.   P. 96.                                                   '       ' 
          MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS AS CONNECTED WITH SLEEP.       119

presumption of a  latent propensity  to ebullitions of passion is not, in
such cases,  vouched by experience.(e)

       V. Mental UNSOUNDNESS AS CONNECTED WITH  SLEEP.(/)

   § 149.  Under this general head  may  be grouped  Somnolentia,  or
sleep drunkenness,  (Schlaftrunkenheit,)  Somnambulism,  and  night-
mare, the two last of Avhich may be joined.^)   In the  forensic treat-
ment of such maladies each  case must  depend upon its  own circum-
stances, when it will also be important for the judge to consider whether
the person subject to such a disorder was  properly aware of it, and of
its possible  consequences, and able to  take  the precautions by which
those consequences might hafe been averted.
   § 150.  Sleep would  seem to be only a peculiar form of cerebral life,
and not a negation of the life of the brain, producing consequent fatigue,
exhaustion, or weakness ; it is not to be supposed that  the state of sleep
issues out of the intellect itself, but the intellect is diverted by the
peculiar change of the action  of the brain into  that state  of existence
which we call  sleep.   But  the intellect does not sleep ; nor can it ever
be said that its activity diminishes during  sleep; we merely cease to
perceive its activity.   But that the  activity which  involves sleep  may
also be morbid—abnormal—and connected with cramps or convulsive
symptoms, is not  to be doubted.   The centripetal action of the senses
is extinct during sleep, in dreams it  is half active, and produces isolated,
dim,  and hazy sensations,  forming the  usual  substratum of dreams.
Sleep is interrupted  by whatever terminates the peculiar  condition of
the brain upon which sleep depends; by the natural  expiration of the
state of the brain, by vivid and sudden impressions on the  senses,  and
by disagreeable sensations.   Now, in a certain morbid condition of the
brain this awaking is not complete,  and  does not restore  the waking
state with a full and correct perception of surrounding things—but an
intermediate state between sleeping and waking is produced, which re-
sembles intoxication, and is called the intoxication of sleep,  (schlaftrun-
kenheit.)    This  state admits  of  action, which is   directed  by  the
phantoms  of  the dream;  talking  in sleep being very nearly  allied
to waking, and  dreams  themselves being midway between  sleeping
and waking,  for in the depths of sleep we  no longer become con-
scious  of  dreams.(A)   The  nightmare  is  grounded upon  a morbid
   (e) Compare, on the responsibility of epileptics, Friedreich, " Handbuch  der gerichtlichen
Psychologic" p. 637, and Henke, " Abhandlungen aus dem Gebiete der gerichtlichen Medain."
Vol. IV. p. 1.
  (/•) See Me"d.  Leg. M. Orfila. Tome I. p. 456.  Paris, 1848; Med. Leg.  M. Briand,
p. 563.  Paris, 1852 ;  Renaudin sur L'Alienation Mentale, Chap. 6th, p. 255. Paris, 1854 ;
Lecon's Cliniques de M. Falret. Lecon 4th, p. 117.  Paris, 1854.
  (g) Siebold—Lehrbuch der Gericht. Med. Berlin, 1847, \ 196; L. Krahmer, Hand-
buch der Gericht. Med. Halle, C. A. Schwetschke, 1851, \ 115.
  (A) The following extract from the Medecine Legale, &c. J. Briand, is  very pertinent
to this point:
  "De me me  que, lorsque nous nous endormons, nous conservons  encore plus ou moins
longtemps l'idee  des  objets dont nous venons de nous occuper, et que  notre imagina-
tion nous les retrace souvent dons nos reves ; de menie aussi, lorsque des idees plus ou
moins bizarres, plus ou moins extravagantes, se sont emparees  de  notre  esprit pendant
le sommeil, elles ne  nous  quittent pas tout d'un  coup, quand nous nous reVeillons.
Pour peu que le re veil soit brusque, les premiers objets qui frappent nos  sens sont mo- 
120            SOMNOLENTIA, OR SLEEP-DRUNKENNESS.
aggravation  of  abnormal  sensations  in sleep  as colored by  dreams;
under certain external  circumstances,  and  certain  forms  of transi-
tion  into the  state  of semi-consciousness,  it may lead  to acts of
violence.   In examining such cases it is important to inquire  into the
existence of  abnormal physical conditions, such as plethora, predispo-
sition to congestions in the head or breast, actual congestions, diseases
of the heart, abnormal plethora, suppressed haemorrhoids, eruptions of
the skin, or other habitual secretions which have been driven in, nervous
affections of various kinds, impure air in the bed-room, a hearty meal,
or indulgence in ardent spirits immediately or  shortly before  going to
sleep.  Somnambulism is not a mere intensified dream, but inforo medico,
must be treated as a morbid independent state, and in a legal point of
view, every act shown to have been committed under its influence is to be
disconnected with voluntary moral agency, (i)

               1st. Somnolentia, or Sleep-drunkenness.

  § 151.  Sleep-drunkenness may be defined to  be the lapping over of a
profound  sleep on the domains of apparent wakefulness, producing an
involuntary intoxication on the  part of the patient, which destroys at
the time  his moral agency.   Under the name of Somnolentia,  which
was given to  it by Ploucquet and the consequent French writers, and of
Schlaftrunkenheit,  which  it  was  styled  by the German  School, it
became the subject of  general discussion at the  beginning of the pre-
sent century.   The first case in which the symptoms were unmistak-
ably observable, was  that  of Buchner. (j)  A  sentry, who  had  fallen
asleep during his watch, being suddenly aroused by the officer in com-
mand, fell upon  the  latter with  his  drawn  sword, with an attack so
furious that  the most  serious consequences were only averted by the
interposition  of bystanders.  The result  of  the medical examination
was, that  the act Avas involuntary and irresponsible, being the result of
a violent  confusion of mind consequent upon  the sudden involuntary
waking from  a profound sleep.
  § 152.  Shortly afterwards, occurred  the case of a day-laborer, who
killed his wife with a  waggon-tire, the blow being struck immediately
upon his  starting up from a deep  sleep, from  which he was forcibly
awakened.  In this case, there was evidence aliunde that the defendant
was seized when waking with  a delusion that a  " woman in white" had
snatched  his wife from his side  and was carrying her away, and that
his agony of mind Avas so great that his whole  body was  wet with per-
spiration.  There was no doubt of the defendant's irresponsibility, (k)
In  this country, the  case properly  would  fall under the head of
excusable  homicide by misadventure. (I)  In  point of  result,   these

difiespor ces idees antec£dentes, comme a la faible lumire'eede la nuit les objets qu
nous voyons sont alteres par les fantomes de notre imagination.  Nous sommes deja en
6tat d'executer des mouvements avec une certaine precision  que nos  sens ne sont pas
encore completement eveill6s: et "souvent ces mouvements se  rapportent non pas a
notre etat r£el, mais a celui dans lequel nous croyons etre, en melant aux ide"es qui nous
ont occupes les  sensations obscures des objets qui nous environnent reellement "  Med.
Leg. p. 563. Paris, 1852.
  (t) Schurmayer, Gericht. Med. § 561.        (/) See Henke's Zeitschr. 10 B. p. 39.
  (k) Wildberg's Jahrbuch, 2 Bd. p. 32.        (l) See Wharton on Horn. 210. 
            MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS CONNECTED WITH SLEEP.        121

cases vary  little from  an early English case, in which, though there
was no psychological question opened, there  were the same delusions
as to danger heightened by the same disturbance of mind as is produced
by a sudden waking up from a deep sleep.  The defendant, being in bed
and asleep in his house, his  maid-servant, who had hired the deceased
to help her  to do her work, as she was going to let her out about mid-
night, thought she  heard thieves  breaking open the door, upon which
she  ran up  stairs  to the  defendant,  her master, and  informed him
thereof.  Suddenly aroused, he sprang from his bed, and running down
stairs with  his sword  drawn, the deceased hid herself in the butlery,
lest she should be discovered.   The defendant's wife, observing some
person  there, and  not knowing her,  but conceiving she  was a thief,
cried out, "Here are they who would undo us;" and the defendant,
in the  paroxysm of the moment,  dashing into the  butlery, thrust his
sword at the deceased and killed her.(m)  The defendant was acquitted
under the express  instructions of the court, and the case has stood the
test of  the  common law  courts for over two hundred  years, during
which it has never  been questioned.   It is important to observe, how-
ever, that if it differs  from the two  cases  already  noticed under this
head, in the  increased naturalness of the  delusion  under which the
defendant was laboring,  it  differs from them in the  comparatively
longer interval in which his perceptive faculties had the opportunity to
arrange themselves.  Let it be supposed that it was the wife, and not
the husband, who had  slain the  deceased.   Under the circumstances,
the result would hardly have  been different, and yet in this case the
distinction  between her responsibility  and that of  the laborer who
killed his wife on the waking spasm,  is simply in the degree of proba-
bility of delusions,  which  in both  cases were unfounded.  If  in the
one case, this improbability was more  glaring, let it be recollected that
there Avas much less time afforded to the patient to compose himself to
a reasoning  state of mind.
   § 153. Much more recently, a case has occurred which has led to the
whole  question  being   re-examined and discussed.  A young  man,
named A. F., about twenty years of  age, was living with his parents
in great apparent  harmony,  his father and himself  being alike distin-
guished for their extravagant devotion to hunting.   In consequence of
the danger of nocturnal attacks, they  were in the habit of taking their
arms Avith them into their chamber.   On the afternoon  of September
1st,  1839, the father and son having just returned from hunting, their
danger  became the subject of particular conversation.   The next day
the hunting was repeated, and on their return, after taking supper Avith
the usual appearance  of harmony, the family retired  at about ten
o'clock, the  father  and  mother occupying one apartment,  and the son
the next, both father and  son  taking  their loaded arms with them to
bed.  At one o'clock, the father got up to go into the entry, and on
his return, jarred against the door opening into the entry, upon which
the son  instantly sprang up and discharging his gun at the father, gave
the latter a fatal wound in  the breast, crying at the same time,  " Dog,
what do you want here ? "  The father  fell immediately to  the ground,
(m) Levet's case, Cro. Car. 438; 1 Hale, 42, 474. 
122            SOMNOLENTIA, OR SLEEP-DRUNKENNESS.
and the son, then first recognizing him, sank on the floor crying, " 0 !
Jesus, it is my father."  The evidence was, that the Avhole family Avere
subject to great restlessness in their sleep,  and that the defendant in
particular Avas affected by a tendency to be easily distressed by dreams,
Avhich lasted for about five  minutes on Avaking, before their effect was
entirely  dissipated.   His own version of the affair Avas, "I must have
fired the gun in my sleep; it was moonshine, and we Avere accustomed
to talk and  Avalk in our  sleep.  I recollect hearing something jar; I
jumped up, seized my gun and shot Avhere I heard the noise.  I recollect
seeing nothing,  nor am I conscious of having spoken.   The night was
so bright that  everything  could have  been seen.  I must have been
under the delusion  that thieves had broken  in."   The  concurrent
opinions of the medical experts examined on the trial Avere, that the act
was  committed  in a  state  of Somnolentia or  Sleep-drunkenness, and
that it was not that of a free and responsible agent, (n)
   It  is important to  distinguish Somnolentia,  or Sleep-drunkenness,
which is a state which to a greater or less extent is incidental to every
individual, from Somnambulism, which is an abnormal condition incident
to a  very few.   The  experience of  every-day  life demonstrates how
much  the former enters into almost every relation.   Children,  parti-
cularly,  sometimes struggle convulsively in the effort  to wake  up,
which often is continued for several minutes.   The very exclamations,
" Wake up,"—" Come to,"—which are so common in addressing persons
in the  waking  condition,  are  scarcely necessary to bring to the mind
many recollections of cases  where the  waking struggle has been pecu-
liarly protracted.   Of course there are constitutions Avhere this struggle
is peculiarly distressing, just as there are constitutions in Avhich  the
tendency to sleeplessness is equally marked.   Dr. Kriigelstein tells us of
a merchant of distinction who had an irrepressible tendency to sleep in
the afternoons, and yet who, whenever he was Avakened up, Avas for a
few moments overcome with a paroxysm, over which he had no control.
Dr.  Meister himself, (o) relates the following  phenomenon:—" I  was
obliged to take a journey of eight miles on a  very hot summer's day,
my seat being with my back to the horses, and the sun directly in my
face.   On reaching the place of destination, and being  very weary  and
with  a slight headache, I  laid myself  down, with my  clothes on, on a
couch.   I fell at once  asleep,  my head'having slipped under the back
of the settee.   My sleep was deep, and, as far  as I can recollect, Avith-
out dreams.   When it became dark, the lady of the house came with a
light into the room.   I suddenly awoke, but  for the  first time in my
life, without collecting myself.   I  was seized  with a sudden agony of
mind, and picturing the object which was entering the house as  a spectre,
I sprang up and seized a stool, which, in my terror, I would have thrown
at the supposed shade.   Fortunately,  I  was recalled to consciousness
by the firmness and  tact  of the  lady herself, who, Avith the greatest
presence of mind, succeeded in composing  my  attention until  I  was
entirely awakened."

   (n)  Henke's Zeitschrift, 1853, Vol. LXV. p. 190-1; and see also a case of much greater
doubt in Klein's Annalen der  Gesetzgebung, &c. viii. B. Berlin,  1798 • and Mbllers
gerichtliche Arzneiwissen-schaft, Vol. I. 302.
   (o)  Henke's Zeitschrift, Vol. LXV. 456. 
            MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS CONNECTED AVITH SLEEP.        123

   § 154.  The existence of this intermediate state between  sleeping and
waking, and of the "drunkenness" by which it  is sometimes accom-
panied, is recognized by  even the older elementary writers.    Thus
Wendler(p) says:  " Discerni  autem possit  expergefactio  naturalis a
prgeternaturali.   Etenim somno sensim reficitur sensibilitas animi, quae,
cum in eum evehitur gradum, ut solemnibus pistoque  non fortioribus
excitamentis ad cogitandum  excitetur,  naturalis expergefactio est;
contra ubi facultate ilia parum aucta, insolita incitamentorum vis ani-
mum cogit ad   statum  vigiliae, prseternaturalem  hanc dicimus exper-
gefactionem."
   § 155.  The  following tests it is  important to apply  in  order to
determine the question of responsibility :—
   (a.) A  general tendency to deep and heavy sleep must be shown, out
of Avhich the patient could only be awakened by violent and convulsive
effort.
   (b.) Before falling asleep, circumstances must  be shown producing
disquiet which sleep itself  does not entirely compose.
   (<?.) The act under examination must have  occurred at the time when
the defendant was usually  accustomed to have been asleep.
   (d.) The cause of the sudden awakening must be shown.  It is true
that  this  cannot always  happen,  as sometimes  the start may have
come from a violent dream.
   (e.) The  act  must bear throughout, the  character of  unconscious-
ness.
   (/.) The actor himself,  when he awakes, is generally amazed at his
own deed, and it seems  to him  almost incredible.   Generally  speaking
he does not seek to evade responsibility,  though there are some unfor-
tunate cases in Avhich, the wretchedness  of the sudden discovery, over-
comes the party himself, who seeks to shelter himself from the conse-
quences of a crime  of which he was technically, though  not morally,
guilty.
   § 156. A late very intelligent observer, Dr.  Kriigelstein, has given
us a critical and extended observation of those cases in which crimes
have  been  committed in the supposed somnambulic state,  in which  he
draws the inferences that  this species of mania occurs chiefly, if not
entirely, with persons who  are  sound sleepers and are suddenly startled
by some violent  exterior cause, from a sleep  which, from indigestion or
other causes, has been already  disturbed and excited  by dreams of
peculiar vivacity.   Such cases are universally  marked with a want of
consciousness in the actor, and followed, when  he awakes, with entire
astonishment and then violent remorse, (q)
  § 157. Dr. Taylor, in his admirable treatise, (r) gives us the follow-
ing cases on the same point:—
  A pedler, who was in the habit of walking  about the county armed
with a sword-stick, was  awakened one evening, while lying asleep on
the high road, by a man Avho was accidentally passing, seizing him and

  (p) Dissertatio de Somno.  Lipsiae,  1805. p. 23.
  (q) Kriigelstein, Ueber die in Zustande der Schlaftrunkenheit veriibten Gewaltthatig-
keiten in gerichtsarztlicher Beziehung.
  (r) Med. Jur., 599, 600. 
124            SOMNOLENTIA, OR SLEEP-DRUNKENNESS.
shaking him by the shoulders.  The pedler suddenly awoke, drew his
sword and  stabbed  the  man, who  afterwards  died.  He Avas tried for
manslaughter.   His irresponsibility Avas strongly urged by his counsel
on the ground that  he could not have been conscious of an act perpe-
trated in a half-Avaking state.   This was strengthened by the opinion
of the medical  Avitness.   The prisoner Avas, however,  found  guilty.
Under such circumstances it was not unlikely that an idea had arisen
on  the prisoner's mind that  he had been attacked by robbers, and
therefore stabbed the man in self-defence.(s)
  Dr.  Hartshorne, in  a note,  tells us  that  a someAvhat similar case
occurred in Philadelphia, a few years back, in  which a man Avas shot
with a pistol by an  acquaintance, whom he had  suddenly aroused from
sleep, late  at night, in an  open market house.   The plea was, that the
deceased was mistaken for a robber when the  pistol was fired; but the
jury found a verdict of manslaughter.
  § 158.  Two persons, in  a case cited by Mr. Best, who had  been
hunting during the day,  slept together at night.   One of them was
renewing the chase in a dream, and imagining  himself present at the
death of the stag, cried out, " I'll kill him ! I'll  kill him !"   The other,
awakened by the noise, got out of bed, and by the light of the moon
beheld the sleeper give several deadly stabs with a knife,  in that part
of  the bed which his companion had just quitted.   Suppose a blow,
given in this way, had proved fatal, and the  two men had been shown
to have quarreled previously to retiring to rest!  But a defence of this
kind,  as is well remarked by Dr. Taylor, may  be unduly strained.
Thus,  Avhere there is  an enmity, with a motive for the act of homicide,
the murderer while sleeping in the same room may select the night for
an  assault, and perpetrate the act in darkness in order the more  effec-
tually to  screen himself.   In  the case of Reg. v.  Jackson,(t) it was
urged in defence that the prisoner, who  slept in the same room with
the prosecutor, had stabbed  him in the throat, owing to some sudden
impulse  during  sleep; and the case of Milligan,  above  given, was
quoted by the learned counsel, in support of the view that the  prisoner
was irresponsible for the  act.  It was proved,  however, that  the pri-
soner had shown malicious feeling  against the prosecutor and that she
wished him dead. The knife Avith which the wound had been inflicted bore
the appearance of having been recently sharpened, and the prisoner must
have reached over her daughter (the prosecutor's wife), who was sleeping
in the same bed with him,  in order to produce the wound.   These facts
are quite  adverse  to the supposition of  the  crime having been perpe-
trated under an impulse from sleep, and the prisoner was convicted.  In
another case, Reg. v. French,(u)  it was proved that the prisoner while
sleeping in the same room had killed the deceased, Avho was a stranger
to  him, under some delusion.   There was, however, clear evidence that
the prisoner was insane, and on this ground he was acquitted under the
direction of the judge.(v)


  (s) The Queen v. Milligan. Lincoln Aut. Assizes, 1836.
  (f) Liverpool Autumn Ass., 1847.
  (u) Dorset Autumn Ass., 1846.     (v) Taylor's Med. Jurisprudence, pp. 599, 600. 
MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS CONNECTED WITH SLEEP.        125
                      2nd. Somnambulism.(w)

  § 159. " Dreaming," says Dr. Rush, " is a transient paroxysm of deli-
rium.  Somnambulism is nothing but a higher grade of the same disease.
It is a transient paroxysm of madness.   Like madness, it  is accom-
panied with muscular  action, with incoherent or coherent conduct, and
with  that  complete  oblivion of both which  takes place in  the  worst
grade of madness.   Coherence of conduct discovers itself in persons
who are affected with it undertaking, or resuming certain habitual exer-
cises or employments.   Thus we read of the  scholar resuming his
studies, the  poet  his  pen,  and the  artisan  his  labors, while  under
its  influence, with their  usual industry, taste,  and correctness.   It
extended still further in the late Dr. Blacklock, of Edinburgh, who rose
from his bed, to which he had retired at an  early hour, came into the
room where his family were assembled, conversed with them, and after-
wards entertained them with a pleasant song, without any  of them sus-
pecting he was  asleep, and without his retaining after he awoke the
least recollection of what  he had done."(#)
   § 160.  A  late authoritative writer(^) gives us, in great minuteness,
a narrative of a young woman, a somnambulist, who, when twenty-three
years old, having been previously in good health and regular in her men-
struation, was seized with epilepsy in consequence of a  fright produced
by an attack of robbers.   She soon became the victim of somnambulism,
which manifested itself in all its ordinary incidents, such as deep sleep,
want of memory, and of firmness in her movements  when  under  its
influence.  While in  the somnambulic condition she had the habit of
concealing articles of various kinds,  the result of which  was that she
was charged with  theft.   Under the advice  of Dr.  Dornbliith she was
finally acquitted, and under his care was gradually restored to health.
   Dr. Upham gives us the following American illustration: "A farmer,
in one of the counties  of Massachusetts, according to the account of the
matter which was published at the time, had employed himself for some
weeks in the winter,  thrashing his  grain.  One night,  as he was about
closing his labors, he  ascended a ladder to the top of  the great beams
in the barn, where  the rye which he was thrashing was  deposited, to
ascertain  what  number  of bundles remained  unthrashed,  which  he
determined  to finish the next day.   The  ensuing night,  about two
o'clock, he was  heard by one  of the  family to arise and go out.   He
repaired  to  his barn, being sound  asleep and unconscious of what he
was doing, set open  his  barn doors, ascended the great beams of  the
barn Avhere  his  rye was deposited, threw down a  flooring, and com-
menced thrashing it.  When he had completed it, he raked off  the
straAV and shoved the rye to  one side of the floor, and again ascended
the ladder with the straw, and deposited it on some rails that lay across
the great beams.  He then threw down another flooring of  rye, which

   (w) E. L. Heim, vermischte med. Schriften, herausg. von A. Paetsch.  Leipsic, 1836.
 \ 336. L. Krahmer Handbuch  der Gericht. Med. Halle, C. A. Schwetschke, 1851. \  115.
 Siebold Lehrbuch der Gericht. Med.  Berlin, 1847.  \  196;
    x) Rush on the Mind, pp. 302, 303.
    y) Dornbliith, Geschichte einer Nachtwandlerin, Henke's Zeitschrift, XXXII. 2. 
126
SOMNAMBULISM.
 he thrashed and finished as before.   Thus he continued his labors until
 he thrashed five  floorings, and on returning from throwing doAvn  the
 sixth and last, in  passing over part of the haymow, he fell off, Avhere
 the hay had been  cut doAvn about six feet, to the lower part of it, which
 awoke him.   He  at first imagined himself in his neighbor's barn;  but
 after- groping about in the dark for a long  time, ascertained that he was
 in his oavu, and at length found the ladder, on Avhich he descended to
 the floor, closed his barn doors, which he  found open, and returned to
 his house.   On coming to the  light he found himself in such a profuse
 perspiration  that  his  clothes were  literally wet  through.    The next
 morning on going to  his barn, he found  that  he had thrashed during
 the night,  five bushels of rye, had raked  the straAV off in good order,
 and  deposited it on the great beams, and carefully shoved the grain to
 one  side of the floor, without the least consciousness of what he was
 doing, until he fell from the hay. "(z)
   "A man in this state,"  says  Falret, "has no  longer the same rela-
 tions with  the exterior world.  He enters  into movements which seem
 the result of the will,  since he avoids blows and falls with the greatest
 nicety; and  yet he does not seem to see,  or at least his sight appears
 very confused.  The mind  is evidently in  action, since somnambulists
 often Avrite things  which they were unable to do when awake; maintain
 conversation,  and perform  actions implying regular ideas.   And yet
 after the attack they preserve no remembrance of their thoughts,  feel-
 ings, or actions, as if consciousness had been entirely obliterated whilst
 it  lasted."(a)
   §  1G2. The views of Abercrombie have been so long the standard on
 this  point that we  cannot refrain from giving them here in full: " Som-
 nambulism,"  he says, "appears to differ from dreaming chiefly in the
 degree in Avhich the bodily functions are affected.   The mind is  fixed
 in the same manner as in dreaming, upon  its own impressions as pos-
 sessing a real and  present existence in external  things ; but  the bodily
 organs are more under the  control of the will, so that the individual
 acts  under the influence of  erroneous conceptions, and holds conversa-
tion  in regard to them.  He is also, to a certain degree, susceptible of
impressions from without, through his  organs of  sense;  not, however,
so as to correct his erroneous impressions,  but rather to be mixed  up
with them.  A variety of remarkable phenomena arise out of these pe-
 culiarities,  Avhich will be illustrated  by a slight  outline of this singular
affection.   The first degree of somnambulism generally shows itself  by
a propensity to talk during sleep,—the person giving  a  full and con-
nected account of what passes before him in dreams, and often revealing
his own  secrets or those of  his friends.  Walking during sleep is the
next degree, and that  from  which the affection derives its name.  The
phenomena connected with this form  are  familiar to every one.  The
individual gets out of  bed;  dresses himself;  if not prevented, goes out
of doors;  walks frequently over dangerous places in safety;  sometimes
escapes by a window and gets to the roof of a house; after a considerable
interval, returns and goes to bed; and all that has passed conveys to his

   z)  Upham on Mental Action, pp. 182, 183.
   a)  Lecons Cliniques de l'alienation Mentale, par M. Falret. Lecon 4, p. 121. Paris, 1854.
 
MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS CONNECTED WITH SLEEP.        127
mind merely the impression of a dream.  A young nobleman mentioned
by Ilortensius, living in the citadel  of  Breslau, was  observed  by his
brother, Avho occupied the same room, to rise in his sleep, Avrap himself
in a cloak, and escape by a windoAv to the roof of the building.   He
there  tore  in  pieces a magpie's nest, Avrapped  the young birds in his
cloak, returned to his apartment,  and Avent to bed.  In the morning he
mentioned the circumstance as having occurred in a dream, and could not
be persuaded that there had  been anything more than a dream, till he
was shoAvn the magpies in his cloak.   Dr. Prichard mentions a man Avho
rose in his sleep, dressed himself, saddled his  horse,  and rode to the
place of a market which he was  in the  habit  of  attending once every
week ; and Martinet mentions a man  who Avas accustomed to rise in his
sleep and pursue his business as  a saddler.   There are many instances
on record of persons composing, during the state  of somnambulism: as
of boys rising in their sleep  and finishing their tasks which they had
left incomplete.  A gentlemen at one of the English universities  had
been very intent  during the  day in composition of some verses, which
he had not been  able to complete: during the folloAving night he arose
in his sleep and  finished his composition, then  expressed great  exulta-
tion, and returned to bed.  In these common cases, the affection occurs
during  ordinary  sleep; but  a condition very  analogous is  met with,
coming on in the daytime, in  paroxysms, during Avhich  the person is
affected  in the same manner as in the state of  somnambulism, particu-
larly Avith an insensibility to  external impressions: this  presents some
singular phenomena.  These attacks in some cases  come on without any
warning; in others,  they are preceded by a noise or sense of confusion
in the head.   The individuals then become more or less abstracted, and
are either unconscious of any external impressions, or very confused in
their notions of external things.   They  are frequently able  to talk in
an intelligible and consistent manner, but always in reference to the im-
pression Avhich is present in their  own minds.  They in some cases repeat
long pieces of poetry, often  more correctly than  they can do in  their
waking state,  and not unfrequently things which they could  not repeat
in their state of health, or of which they were  supposed  to  be entirely
ignorant.  In  other cases they hold conversations Avith imaginary beings,
or relate circumstances or conversations which occurred at remote periods,
and  Avhich they  Avere supposed  to have forgotten.  Some have  been
known to sing in a style far superior  to anything they  could do in their
Avaking state; and  there are some well-authenticated  instances of per-
sons in this condition expressing  themselves correctly in languages with
which they were imperfectly acquainted.  I had  lately under my care
a young lady who is liable to an  affection of this kind, which comes on
repeatedly during the day, and continues from ten minutes to  an hour
at a  time.  Without any warning, her body  became motionless, her
eyes open, fixed, and entirely insensible, and  she became totally un-
conscious of any external impression.  She has been frequently seized
while playing  on the piano, and has continued  to play, over and over,
part of a tune with perfect correctness,  but Avithout advancing beyond
a certain point.   On one occasion she was seized after she had begun to
play from the  book a piece of music which was new to her.  During the 
128
SOMNAMBULISM.
paroxysm she continued the part which she had played, and repeated it
five or six times with perfect correctness;  but on coming out of the
attack, she could not play it Avithout the book.   During the paroxysms
the individuals are,  in  some instances, totally insensible  to  anything
that is said to them;  but in others, they are capable of  holding con-
versation Avith another person with a  tolerable degree of  consistency,
thouo-h they are influenced to a certain degree by their mental visions,
and are very confused  in  their notions  of external things.   In many
cases, again, they are  capable of going on with the manual occupa-
tions in which they had been engaged before the attack.  This occurred
remarkably in a watchmaker's apprentice mentioned by Martinet.  The
paroxysms on him appeared once in fourteen days, and commenced with
a feeling  of heat  extending from the epigastrium to the  head.   This
was followed by confusion of thought, and this by complete insensibility:
his eyes were open, but fixed and vacant, and he was totally insensible
to any thing that was said to him, or to any  external impression.  But
he continued his  usual  employment, and was always much astonished,
on his recovery, to find the change  that had taken place in his Avork
since the commencement of his paroxysm.  This case afterwards passed
into  epilepsy.   Some  remarkable phenomena are  presented by this
singular affection, especially in regard to exercises of memory and the
manner in which the old associations are recalled  into the mind;  also,
in the distinct manner in which the individuals sometimes express them-
selves on subjects with which they had formerly shown but an imperfect
acquaintance.   In some of the French cases  of epidemic "extase," this
had been magnified into speaking unknown languages, predicting future
events, and describing occurrences of which the persons could not have
possessed  any knowledge.  These stories seem, in some cases, to resolve
themselves merely into embellishment of what really occurred, but in
others there can be no doubt of connivance and  imposture.  Some facts,
however, appear to be authentic, and are sufficiently remarkable.  Two
females, mentioned  by Bertrand,  expressed  themselves  during  the
paroxysm very  distinctly  in Latin.    They  afterwards admitted that
they had some acquaintance with the language, though it was imperfect.
An ignorant servant-girl, mentioned by Dr.  Dewar, during paroxysms
of this kind showed an astonishing knowledge of geography and astro-
nomy ; and expressed herself in her own language in a manner which,
though often ludicrous, showed an understanding of the subject.  The
alternations of the seasons, for example, she explained by saying that
the world was set a-gee.   It was afterwards discovered that her notions
on this subject had been derived  from hearing a  tutor giving instruc-
tions to the young people of the family.  A woman who was some time
ago in the Infirmary of Edinburgh on account of an affection  of this
kind, during her paroxysms mimicked the manner of the physicians,
and repeated correctly some of their prescriptions in the Latin language.
Another very singular phenomenon presented by some instances of this
affection is what has been called,  rather incorrectly, a state of double
consciousness.   It consists  in  the  individual  recollecting,  during a
paroxysm, circumstances which occurred  in a former attack, though
there was no remembrance of them during the interval.   This,  as well 
MENTAL UNSOUNDNESS CONNECTED AVITH SLEEP.        129
as various other phenomena connected with the affection, is  strikingly
illustrated in a case described by Dr. Dyce, of Aberdeen, in the Edin-
burgh Philosophic Transactions.  The  patient was a servant-girl, and
the affection  began  with  fits of somnolency, which came upon her sud-
denly during the day, and from which she could, at first, be aroused by
shaking,  or by being taken out in the open air.  She soon began to
talk a great deal during the attacks, regarding things which  seemed to
be passing  before her, as a dream; and she was not,  at  this  time, sen-
sible of anything that was  said to her.   On one occasion she repeated
distinctly the  baptismal service of the  Church of England, and con-
cluded with an extemporary prayer.  In her subsequent  paroxysms she
began to  understand what was said to her, and to answer with a  con-
siderable degree of  consistency, though the answers were generally, to
a certain degree,  influenced by her hallucinations.   She also became
capable of folloAving her usual employments during the paroxysm ; and
at one time she laid out the table correctly for breakfast, and repeatedly
dressed herself and  the children of the family, her eyes remaining shut
the whole time.  The remarkable circumstance was  now discovered,
that during the paroxysm  she had a distinct recollection of what  took
place  in her former  paroxysms, though she had no remembrance of it
during the intervals.  At one time she was taken to church while under
the attack, and there behaved with propriety, evidently attending to
the preacher; and she was at  one time  so much affected as to  shed
tears.  In the interval she had no recollection of having been at church;
but in the next paroxysm  she gave a most distinct account of the ser-
mon, and mentioned particularly the part of it by which she had been
so affected.   This woman described  the  paroxysm as coming on with a
cloudiness before her eyes,  and  a noise in the  head.  During  the attack
her eyelids were generally half-shut: her eyes sometimes resembled those
of a person afflicted with amaurosis,—that is, with a dilated and insen-
sible state of the pupil, but sometimes they were quite  natural.   She
had a dull, vacant look ;  but, when excited, knew what was said to her,
though she often mistook the person who was speaking; and  it was
observed that  she  seemed to discern  objects best which were faintly
illuminated.   The paroxysms  generally continued about an hour, but
she could often be roused out of them;  she then yawned and stretched
herself, like a person awaking out of a sleep,  and instantly knew those
about  her.   At one time, during the attack,  she read distinctly a por-
tion of a book which was presented to her;  and  she often sung, both
sacred and common pieces, incomparably better, Dr. Dyce affirms, than
she could do in a waking state.  The affection continued to recur for
about six months, and ceased when a  particular change took place in
her constitution.
   We have  another  very remarkable modification  of  this  affection,
referred  to by Mr. Combe, as described by Major Elliot, Professor
of  Mathematics  in  the  United  States Military Academy at  West
Point.  The patient was a young  lady of  cultivated  mind, and the
affection  began with  an attack of  somnolency, which was protracted
several hours beyond the usual time.  When she came out of it, she
was found to have lost every kind of acquired knowledge.  She imme- 
130
SOMNAMBULISM.
diately began to apply herself to the first elements of education, and
was making considerable progress, when, after several months, she was
seized with a second fit of somnolency.   She Avas now at once restored
to all the knowledge which she had  possessed  before the first attack,
but without the least recollection  of anything that had  taken place
during the interval.   After another interval  she had a third attack of
somnolency, which left her in the same state as after the first.  In this
manner she suffered these alternate conditions for a period  of four
years, with the very remarkable circumstance that during one state she
retained  all her original knowledge, but during the  other, that only
which she had acquired since the first attack.  During the  healthy in-
terval, for example, she was remarkable for the beauty of her penman-
ship ; but during the paroxysm, wrote a poor, awkward hand.  Persons
introduced to her during the paroxysm, she recognized only in a sub-
sequent paroxysm, but not in the interval;  and persons whom she had
seen for the first time during the healthy interval, she did not recognize
under the attack, (b)
   § 162. Carus tells us in his lectures (Leipsic,  1831,) of a clergyman
who was a somnambulist, who would get up in his sleep, take paper, and
write out a sermon.   If  a passage did not please him, he Avould  strike
it out, and correct it with great accuracy.   We  are told by Steltzer of
a somnambulist who clambered out of a garret window, descended into
the next house, and killed a young girl who Avas  asleep there.(c)  As a
counterpoise to these, we have the case of a pre-assumed somnambulism
for the purpose of cloaking an intended crime, (d)
  A curious example of sonambulism, observed in a monk, is mentioned
by M. de Savarin, as related to him by the Prior of the convent where
it  happened, who was  an eye-witness of the occurrence.   "Very late
one evening the patient somnambulist entered the chamber of the Prior,
his eyes were  open but fixed, the light of two lamps made  no  impres-
sion upon him, his features were contracted, and he carried  in his hand
a large knife.   Going straight to the bed, he had first the appearance of
examining if the Prior was there.   He then struck  three blows,  which
pierced the  coverings, and even a mat which  served the purpose of a
mattress.  In  returning, his countenance was unbent, and  was marked
by an air of satisfaction.   The next day the Prior asked the  somnambu-
list what he had dreamed of the preceding night, and the latter answered
that he had dreamed that his mother had been killed by the Prior, and
that her ghost had appeared to him demanding vengeance, that at this
sight he was so transported by rage, that  he had immediately run  to
stab the assassin of his mother;  that a little  while  after, he awoke
bathed in perspiration, and very content to find he had only dream-
ed."  M. de Savarin adds, that if under these circumstances the Prior
had been killed, the  monk somnambulist could not have been punished,
because it would have been upon his part an involuntary murder, (e)

            (b) Abercrombie on the Intellectual Powers, p. 238, &c.
            (c) Steltzer, uber den Willen, Leips., 1817-8, p. 273.
            (d) Fahner, System der Ger. Arznei. 1 Bd. p. 43.
            (e) Physiologie du gout. Tome II. p. 3. Paris, 1834. 
DEPRESSION.
131
   VI. Mental unsoundness, as affecting the temperament.(/)

                         1st. Bepression.(g)

  § 163. By this term may be designated a condition, which continues
for a long time, even for years, without assuming the form of real aber-
ration of mind, but which derives peculiar  importance and significance
in matters  of  penal  jurisprudence, from the fact  that a criminal act
introduces the transition to a disordered mental state, inasmuch  as  it
makes its appearance as  the first  decisive symptom, which  is rapidly
followed by others. It develops itself in a diminished estimation of, self,
in a want of self-reliance  and peculiar morbid despondency.
  Dr. Johnson thus describes this  state in  Rasselas.   " To indulge the
power of fiction, and send imagination out upon the wing, is often the
sport of those who delight too much in silent speculation.   He who has
nothing external  that can divert  him, must find  pleasure in  his own
thoughts,  and must conceive himself what he is not: for who is pleased
with what he  is ?   He  thus expatiates on  boundless futurity,  and
culls from all imaginary conditions that which, for the present moment,
he would  most desire; amuses  his desires  with  impossible enjoyments,
and confers upon his pride unattainable dominion.   The mind dances
from scene to scene, unites all pleasures in all combinations, and riots  in
delights which  nature and fortune, with all  their bounty, cannot bestow.
In time, some  particular train of  ideas  fixes the attention; all other
intellectual  gratifications  are rejected; the mind, in weariness or leisure,
returns constantly to the favorite conception, and feasts on the luscious
falsehood  whenever she  is offended with the bitterness of truth.  By
degrees the reign  of fancy is  confirmed; she grows first imperious, and
in time despotic.   Then fictions begin  to operate as realities—false
opinions fasten upon the mind—and life passes in dreams of rapture
or of anguish."
   The celebrated physician Boerhaave was  once engaged in so profound
a  meditation  that he did not  close his eyes  for six weeks.   And,
in general, "any fixety of  thought may be  considered a monoma-
nia."^)  Pascal being thrown  down on a bridge, fancied  ever  after
that he was standing on the brink  of a terrific precipice, which appear-
ed to him an abyss, ever  ready  to engulf him.   So immutable was this
dread, that  when  his  friends conversed with him they were  obliged  to
conceal the imaginary perils with  chairs, on which they seated them-
selves, to  tranquilize  his perturbed  mind.   Archimedes, it  is related,
was heedless of the slaughter around him.   Father Castel, the inventor
of the ocular  harpsichord, spent an entire night in one position, rumi-
nating on a thought that struck him as he was retiring to rest.(^)

  (/) See Etudes  Me"dico-Psychologiques sur l'Alienation Mentale, par L. F. E. Re-
naudin. Chap. 2, p. 36. Paris, 1854.
  (ff) Krahmer, Handbuch der Gericht. Med. Halle, C. A. Schwetschke, 1851, \ 109 ;
Siebold, Lehrbuch der Gericht. Med. Berlin, 1847, § 208.
  (/<) Curiosities of Medical Experience. Second edition.  On Ecstatic Exaltation, p. 38.
Mind and Matter, by J. G. Millingen, M. D., M. A., p.  80, 81, 82.
  (i)  Morel gives the  following powerful sketch of primitive or simple depression.
(Traite" theorique  et pratique  des Maladies  Mentales, par M. Morel.  Tome I. p. 386. 
132
DEPRESSION.
   § 164.  " Depression of  mind,"  says Reid, "may be owing to melan-
choly, a distemper of the mind which proceeds from the state of the body,

Paris,  1852.)  As there exists a mania which shows itself rather  in insanity of action
than of mind, (manie instinctive,) so likewise there exists a state of melancholy without
delirium.  AArithout our often being able to instance other causes than those phenomena
which accompany the change from adolescence to puberty, from puberty to age, and
from  mature age to the critical period: at the happiest periods of life, we feel a vague
weariness, a motiveless fear, an  indefinable sadness, which sometimes is only transitory
and at others is  the starting point of the most serious disturbances.  It is, says Guislain,
a state of sadness, of dejection accompanied with or without the shedding of tears, with-
out any notable  aberration of imagination,  intelligence or feeling.   It is the heart which
exclusively suffers, but  soon this suffering of the heart shows  itself in a prostration of
all the intellectual powers, a state which absorbs all individual energy, and appears only
to leave the capacity of suffering.  Where is the man who has not experienced these
painful feelings; and if by an effort of reasoning we are  able to affix the form of con-
tinuity to  these  sensations, which are only sometimes fugitive, we will  have a perfect
idea of this intolerable state.  Madame de  Stael vividly touches on this in Corinne.
   " She  (Corinne) had taken such a horror for all  the common pursuits of life, that  to
take the least resolution, to give the least  order, caused  her an increase of pain.  She
was unable to  live  except in perfect inactivity.   She arose, laid down, arose again,
opened a book without being able to understand a line; often she  remained for hours at
her window, and then would walk with rapidity in her  garden.   At  another time she
would take a bouquet of flowers and try to make  herself  dizzy with their perfume.
Time,  a never ceasing pain, the  feeling of  existence pursued  her,  and she sought relief
in a thousand ways from that devouring faculty of thought which  did not now yield,  as
formerly, a variety of reflections, but one single idea, one  single  image, armed with cruel
points that tore  her  heart.   Every word was  found with  difficulty, and often she traced
words conveying no sense, words that even frightened her, when she attempted to re-read
them, as if the pain  of the fever was there written.  Feeling herself  then incapable of
turning her thoughts from her own  condition.  She  painted all that she had suffered,
but it was no longer in those general ideas, those universal feelings that find a response
in every  heart; but it was the cry of anguish, a long monotonous cry, it was misfortune,
but it was no longer genius."
  When  a like condition, says Guislain, is accompanied with anxieties, groanings, sobs,
a desire  to commit suicide, or any other determination,  it is no longer in its simplest
state.  *   *  I  on the contrary think that a like condition can continue in connection
with the above mentioned  tendencies.  How else could we explain those suicides with-
out name, those irregular actions  of  which we  see so  many  examples in instinctive
mania, the affection  which, above  all others, has the closest relation to melancholy?
In the greater number of cases, these forms are distinguishable less perhaps by the  di-
versity of the acts than by the nature of the depressive principles. We may readily admit
that instinctive  maniacs generally betray themselves by more  froward  deeds,  and  by
more sudden and more cruelly energetic and destructive determinations than the simple
hypomaniacs who rather turn against themselves their fatal homicidal impulses.  In the
first case also the depravity of the instincts is more often  connected with  the  organic
affections, a vicious education or a prior state of immorality, whilst in the latter class,
the impulses which  they themselves deplore  are the  harder to be understood, because
(1), the individual is generally placed in the most favorable  social condition;  (2), his
education has left nothing to be wished for, and (3), his delicate sensibility would never
cause the actions to which he is irresistibly forced  in this unfortunate unhealthy state,
to be suspected.
  This mental condition which I  have often had opportunity of observing, was strikingly
illustrated in the general state of a deranged female, who,  in 1842, was placed  under the
care of M. Falret at la Salpetrie're hospital.  The patient showed no insanity in her lan-
guage.  Gifted with high  intelligence and great tenderness of heart, belonging to a
family that had suffered misfortune, but who, in the time of their prosperity had neglect-
ed nothing for her education, Virginia Mac----A----e, who had courageously suffered
the reverses of fortune, and created for herself a new position, was unable to explain the
loss of her moral sensibility and the causes of an inexpressible sadness which left her
no other resource but tears.
  " The future," she  writes, " which  presents  hope to every reasonable being, offers  to
my mind  an abyss of evils which it is impossible for me to bear.   I want nothing; the
beings that I most cherish, I wish  their death, because I have always seen  that that
which  forms the happiness of others, is my affliction. I, the eldest, who should have
been the consolation  of the mother whom I  so much loved, have caused her nothing but 
AFFECTIONS OF THE TEMPERAMENT.
133
which throws a dismal gloom upon every object of thought,  cuts all the
sinews of action,  and  often gives rise to strange and absurd opinions in

misery.   When I experienced the incomprehensible disgust  for life, then, lying beside
her, I dared propose to her to set fire to  the bed, in order that we might die  together;
she whom I have seen lose her consciousness at the idea only of seeing one of her chil-
dren die, she who would still sacrifice  herself if she could return to  me the  force and
energy that are wanting, I have only the more discouraged, by constantly telling her
that we were entirely without hope.   The child also, who was formerly my delight, has
become an object of indifference.   The  night  is for me more sad  than  for a criminal
whom the laws have condemned to die, because he knows that his life will soon end;
whilst in spite of the despair of my soul, in spite of my disturbed sleep, I find myself every
day in sound health, and  yet without force  and without  courage.  The  beautiful sky
that God created to delight his children, serves only to sadden still more my thoughts.
I would wish to again become a child, to recover the innocence of childhood; why can-
not I feel that calm which is sometimes felt in the spring  immediately after the winter.
I compare myself to a poor woman who has  for a long  time  had nothing but the pro-
duce of her hands, whereby to raise up her  children, and who, in  spite of fatigue and
watching, does not abandon them like I abandoned my Marie.   I, who am only thirty-
four, who am  in full possession  of  strength and health,  and who  have  not power of
directing to any useful end the faculties imparted me by heaven."
  Such was the position of a patient who now presents us the example of simple melan-
choly without delirium.   In such cases we will observe  that this state, so full of agony,,
is often nothing but a period of transition  to  systematic delirium ;  and we will  also
remark the differences existing between this  primitive depression and the incubation of
mania, which  may, it is true, commence with depression and  finish with exaltation, but
which, in the greater number of  cases, betrays itself in an abnormal activity, and in the
development of intellectual aptitudes,  which  have not been before remarked in the
patient.  Here, on the contrary, all the  faculties appear overwhelmed by the depressive
principle.  The occupations they most cherished are insupportable to them, and the
intellectual labors in which they most excelled, they are unable to  perform.  The poet
loses his art, and the author his skill, the mathematician notes down false numbers, and
the artist and  the workman  no longer possess  their aptness for the performance of the
mechanical parts or manual  of  their profession.  Nor can it be otherwise.   AVithout
doubt, to write and think well we must be under the influence of some emotion, but this
emotion should  be true and not morbid.  Contentment  is necessary to every thing, and
the most gloomy poetry must be inspired by a kind of spirit, which presupposes both
energy and intellectual possessions.  True grief has no natural fecundity, that which
it produces is nothing but a gloomy agitation which constantly brings back the  same
thoughts.  (See Traite  Theorique et Pratique des .Maladies Ment. des M. Morel, tome i.
p. 336. Paris, 1852.)
  Melancholy, or " Alienation partielle depressive,"  as it has  been called by Falret, has,
as its name indicates, for its principal characteristic, a depression, slowness and prostra-
tion of all  the faculties  united with general  anxiety.  This fundamental disposition of
the sensibility and intelligence, produces in  the greater number of those thus affected,
a crowd of analogous consequences.  Every thing is viewed  by them  in a  distorted
light; all their relations with the external world are changed; they look upon every
thing with repulsion and antipathy; they bear with difficulty the  kindest remarks of
their relations and friends, and consolation itself irritates them.  In entire contradiction
to nature, the patient cannot retire within himself.   He finds  nothing within but anxie-
ty, doubt and mistrust, both of himself and others.  Every thing seems changed around
him.  He is often afflicted, and sometimes irritated by it, and thinks the alteration due
to those that  surround  him, rather  than to any personal  change.   Thence come irrita-
tion, anger and violence against himself and others.  He then abandons the world that
injures him, and sinks into complete inactivity.
  Frequently it is not only against  the world in general, but  against his best friends
that the patient directs his suspicions, his mistrusts and  his hatred.   To this general
state of depression, anxiety and gloominess succeeds.  After  this comes both  a physical,
and moral prostration, in which there is a more or less complete suspension of sensibili-
ty and intelligence.
  Whilst the  sensibility is thus  oppressed and affected, the will is equally enfeebled,
inactive and powerless.   Indecision and slowness of resolution are frequently to be met
with, to  such a degree as to  produce a total want of volition and incapacity of move-
ment.  We should note, however, under this head, two principal modes of reaction. In
certain  cases,  the  reaction is of  no effect;  the  patient  resembles a  statue,  being
insensible  and without  will.   At other times, on the contrary, he is shocked by every 
134                           DEPRESSION.
religion,  or in  other  interesting matters.   Yet, where  there  is  real
worth at the bottom, some rays of  it Avill break forth even in this de-
pressed state of mind.  A  remarkable  instance of this  Avas  exhibited
in Mr. Simon BroAvn, a dissenting clergyman in England, avIio, by  mel-
ancholy, Avas  led into  the belief  that his rational  soul had gradually
decayed Avithin  him, and at  last was totally  extinct.   From this belief
he gave up his ministerial function and would not join with others in any
act of worship,  conceiving it to be a profanation to Avorship God with-
out a soul.   In this dismal state of mind he wrote an excellent defence
of the Christian religion  against Tindal's "Christianity as old as the
Creation."   To the  book he prefixed an epistle, dedicatory to  Queen
Caroline, wherein he mentions "that he was once a man, but by the
immediate hand of God for  his  sins, his very thinking  substance  has,
for more than  seven years, been  continually  wasting  away, till it is
wholly perished  out of him, if it  be not  utterly come  to nothing."
And  having heard of her Majesty's eminent  piety, he  begs the aid of
her prayers.  The book was published after  his death without the dedi-
cation, which however, having been preserved in manuscript, Avas after-
wards printed  in  the "Adventurer."   Thus this good  man, when he
believed that he had no soul, showed a most generous and disinterested
concern for those who had souls.   As depression of mind may produce
strange opinions,  especially in the  case of melancholy, so our opinions
may have a very considerable influence  either to elevate or  depress the

thing that surrounds  him, and react strongly, it may be directly, through the violence
of a desire which betrays itself in action, or it may be indirectly, by an incessant instability.
A constant desire to complain follows, with groans and laments, which, when it arrivea
at its maximum, constitutes a grade of exaltation, intermediate between melancholy and
mania.   Intelligence is enfeebled, and  depressed like the sensibility and the will; the
capacity for the generation of ideas is enfeebled, their course is diminished, their  circle
narrowed.   The patient talks only of himself and his misfortune;  he utters monotonous
complaints, and sighs, or pronounces broken words.  Sometimes the need of expressing
ideas not being felt, he speaks only with difficulty, and sometimes even,  instead of an-
swering, he contents himself with a rude and silent  movement.   Sometimes, also, he
speaks a great deal and to every body, but it is only to speak of himself, to give  utter-
ance to the same complaints and the same  lamentations : he is morally what the  hypo-
chondriac is physically.
  . The physiognomy is concentrated and anxious, expressing dullness and stupidity, fol-
lowed by habitual, and sometimes entire  silence, and slowness  of  movement carried
sometimes to immobility.   These external signs correspond with the internal condition
we have just described, and form an exact picture of this kind of mental disease.
  Among the melancholies, in fact, some feeling a general anxiety, think they have done
a bad  action, have committed a crime, suppose themselves reserved for severe  punish-
ments, both in this world and the  other, and overwhelmed with scruples, they criminate
themselves for the most innocent actions of their lives, or imagine themselves possessed
by the  devil and abandoned of  God.  Others, in consequence of  the sentiment of mis-
trust which controls them, imagine themselves to be surrounded by spies or invisible
enemies, and according to their previous ideas, their education or the age in which they
live, think themselves under the  power of sorcery, magic, magnetism, the police, &c.
Others, entirely wrapped in their sadness, think themselves ruined, accused, dishonored
or even betrayed by their relations and  friends.  In a word, the  delirious ideas which
become the centre  of the greater part of the pre-occupations of the intelligence and of
the feelings, and which appear, at  first sight, to constitute all the delirium, are in reality
only the relief to the general condition which gives birth to them.  In spite of their infi-
nite variety, they all partake of the general character of the disease.
  There is not, then, in Melancholy, as has often been asserted, a concentration of the
attention, or even  of all the moral and intellectual powers, upon one sad idea, but a
general state of sadness and depression which shapes itself in one predominant idea, and
manifests itself by a  crowd of other morbid phenomena.  (See  Lecons Cliniques sur
l'Alienation Mentale, de M. Falret.  Lecon 9. Paris, 1854.) 
HYPOCHONDRIA.
135
mind, even where there  is no  melancholy.  Suppose, on  one hand, a
man Avho believes that he is destined to an eternal existence ; that He
Avho made  and who governs the world, maketh an account of him, and
hath furnished him Avith the means of  attaining a high degree of per-
fection  and  glory.   With  this man compare, on the other hand, the
man who believes nothing at  all,  or who  believes that his existence is
only the play of atoms, and that after he has been tossed about by blind
fortune for a few years, he shall  again return to nothing.  Can it be
doubted that the former opinion leads to  elevation and  greatness of
mind, and the latter to meanness  and depression?"^')
   § 165. "A pleasant season,"  says  Dr. Rush, "a fine  day, or even
the morning sun, often suspend  the disease.   Mr. Cowper, who knew
all its symptoms by sad experience, bears witness to the truth of this
remark, in one of his letters  to Mr. Haly.   'I rise,' says he, 'cheer-
less and distressed, and  brighten  as the sun goes on.'  Its paroxysms
are sometimes denoted  'low spirits.'   They  continue  from a day,  a
week, a month, a season, to a year, and sometimes longer.   The inter-
vals  differ—1, in being  accompanied with preternatural high spirits;
2, in  being attended with  remissions only; and 3, with intermissions,
or, in other  words, in correctness and equanimity of mind.   The ex-
tremes  of high and low spirits, Avhich occur in the same person at dif-
ferent times, are happily illustrated by the following case:   A physi-
cian in  one  of the cities of Italy, was once consulted by  a gentleman
who  was much distressed with a paroxysm of this intermitting state of
hypochondraism.   He advised him to seek relief in a convivial manner,
and recommended him in particular to find out a gentleman of the name
of Cardini, who kept all the  tables in the city, to which  he was occa-
sionally invited, in a roar of laughter.   'Alas! sir,'  said  the patient,
with a heavy sigh, 'I am that Cardini.'   Many such characters, alter-
nately marked by high and low spirits, are to be found in  all the cities
in the world. "(&)
   In melancholy the patient  on the one hand is fully convinced that
his notions and wishes ought  to be realized; but on the other he feels
the impossibility of affecting their realization.   He therefore makes no
effort to render possible the impossible  ; yet he cannot resign the ideal,
which he bears in his bosom; he loves  his fictions, or the objects of his
wishes so much, that he cannot  part with them.   Thus he consumes his
existence in  a monotonous grief;  he cannot take interest in any thing
except the object of his sadness.(Z)

                       2nd. Hypochondria.(m)

   § 166. When the  morbid despondency noticed under  the last head
extends to  the general tone of bodily sensations, a condition is produced

  (J) Reid on the Active Powers of Opinion, pp. 576.
  (k) Rush on the Mind, pp. 82, 83.            (I) Rauch's Psychology, 151.
  (m) See Krahmer Handbuch  der Gericht. Med. Halle, C. A. Schwetschke, 1851,
I  109 ; Siebold,  Lebrbuch der Gericht. Med. Berlin, 1747, § 208 ; See De L'Hypochondrie
et du Suicide.  Par J. P. Palfret.  Paris, 1822; Renaudin sur L'Alienation Mentale, p.
99. Paris, 1854. See also on this point  the following works: Confessions of an Hypo-
chondriac, or the Adventures  of a Hypochondriac in search of Health.  Saunders &
Otley, London, 1849 ; Review of same,  Journ. of Psychol. Med. vol. 3, p.  1. 
136
DERANGED TEMPERAMENT.
which we commonly  call hypochondria.   In  the  inferior  stages the
patient retains sufficient self-control to conceal and forget his condition,
and  proceed unhindered  in his occupations;  but in the  higher degrees
he becomes so absorbed in his bodily sensations as to  exhibit it in his
appearance and  conduct, disregarding  every effort made  to  raise his
spirits, and reducing all his reflections to the common machinery of per-
sonal questions and answers.(n)  As  this sort of selfishness increases,
the mind is often filled with envy, hatred, bitterness,  suspicion, and re-
venge towards others, and particularly towards those in Avhom the pa-
tient believes  himself to detect a want of sympathy, or even of respect,
or whom he regards as the authors of  his distress.   The result of this
is too apt to be a series of unjust surmises and accusations, personal ill-
treatment of others, and even murderous threats and assaults against
their supposed wrong-doers, as well as  the  commission of suicide.  In
the judicial scrutiny and consideration of  such a case, it is essential to
inquire how far  and for what length of time the attention of the patient
can  be directed  from his bodily feelings to  other objects;  what is his
personal opinion of his own condition; whether any, and if any, what
insane ideas possess his mind, and what is his general demeanor.  Where
the perceptive faculty Avas not so far involved in the progress of the
disease as to falsify the impressions of the senses, and deprive the con-
sciousness of the power of correcting them, the reasons are wanting for
deciding against the responsibility of the agent; but the judge, in pass-
ing sentence, will nevertheless take into account the  morbid impulse,
which was a subsidiary cause in the commission of the crime. (6)
   §  167. Sometimes, as we are told by Dr. Rush, the pain of a bodily
disease suspends, for a short  time,  the mental distress.  Mr. Boswell,
in his life of Dr. Johnson, relates a story of a London tradesman who,
after making a large fortune,  retired into  the country to enjoy it.  Here
he became deranged with hypochondriasis, from the want  of employ-
ment.   His existence  became finally a burden to him.   At length he
was afflicted Avith the  stone.   In  a severe paroxysm of this  disease  a

  (n) Ellinger, p. 105.
  (o) See the above views in SchUrmayer, Gericht. Med. § 542.
  The following description of the hypochondriacal character is to be found in the Me-
decine Legale de M. Orfila.  Tome I. p. 416. Paris, 1848.
  Hypochondriacs are  above all remarkable for their exaggerated fears upon the state
of their health—and the foolish ideas they give utterance to in expressing their suffer-
ings.  Their temper is  very unequal, they pass almost without motive from hope to de-
spair, from grief  to  gaiety—from bursts of passion to gentleness, from laughter to tears;
many are timid, pusillanimous, fearful, morose, irascible, restless, hard to  please, a tor-
ment and fatigue to every body.  They are easily moved, a trifle vexes and agitates
them, producing  fears,  torments, and attacks of despair.  The  greater  number show a
marked change in their affections, they are egotistical, the slightest motives cause them
to pass from attachment to indifference or to hate.  They are often susceptible of an exal-
tation or  depression of spirits, of a rapid succession of the most opposite ideas and emo-
tions, without the will  being able to  control the thought.
   But those thus affected have a very good judgment in whatever relates to their own
interests, and generally in every thing which is foreign to their health, unless the dis-
ease should finish in a total loss of reason, a thing which is of very rare occurrence.
It is only the character above described which renders hypochondriacs more likely to
yield to fear, and more easily moved to contract engagements ; suggestive and inveigling
measures exercise considerable influence upon their mind.  Finally, the jealous, suspi-
cious, irritable, headstrong character of hypochondriacs would be an extenuating cir-
cumstance, if, under a  first impulse, they should commit a reprehensible act. 
HYPOCHONDRIA.
137
friend sympathized with him.  "No, no," said he, "don't pity  me, for
what I noAV feel is ease, compared with the torture of mind from which
it relieves me."  A woman in this  city bore a child,  Avhile she  was
afflicted with this disease.   She declared  immediately  afterwards  that
she felt no more pain  from parturition than  from a trifling fit  of the
colic.  Where  counteracting pains of the body are not induced \>j na-
ture or accident to  relieve  anguish of mind, patients  often inflict them
upon themselves.   Walking barefooted over ground covered with frost
and snow was resorted  to  by a clergyman of great  worth in England
for this purpose.   Carden, an eminent physician of the 15th century,
made it a practice to bite his lips and one  of  his arms,  in order to  ease
the distress of  his mind. Kempfer tells us that prisoners in Japan, who
often became partially deranged from distress, used to divert their men-
tal  anguish by  burning their bodies with moxa; the same degree of pain,
and for the same purpose,  is often inflicted upon the body,  by  cutting
and mangling it in  parts not intimately connected with life.  But bodily
pain, whether from an accidental disease, or inflicted by patients upon
themselves, is sometimes insufficient to predominate over the distress of
their minds.  Dr. Herberden mentions an instance of a man Avho  was
naturally so afraid of pain, that he dreaded even being bled, Avho in  a fit
of Ioav spirits cut off his penis and scrotum with a razor, and declared
after he  recovered the natural and healthy state  of  his mind,  that he
felt not the least pain  from that severe operation.   A  similar instance
of insensibility to  bodily pain is related by  Dr.  Ruggieri,  an  Italian
physician, of a hypochondriac madman, of the name of Louvel, who fixed
himself on a cross and  inflicted the same wounds upon himself, as far as
he was able, that had  been inflicted upon our Saviour.   He was disco-
vered in this situation and  taken doAvn alive.   During the paroxysms of
his  madness he felt no pain from dressing his wounds,  but complained
as soon as they were touched, in the intervals of his disease.(p)
  Dr. Haindorft, in his German translation of Dr. Reid's " Essay on
Hypochondriasis,"  in alluding  to the possibility of a patient laboring
under hypochondriasis being able, by an exercise of  the power of voli-
tion, to control  his morbid sensations, justly observes, "  We should have
feAver disorders of the  mind if we could acquire more power of volition,
and endeavored by our own energy to disperse the clouds which occa-
sionally arise within our own horizon: if we resolutely tore the first
threads of the net which gloom and  ill-humor may cast around us,  and
made an effort  to drive away the melancholy images of  a morbid imagi-
nation by incessant occupation.   How beneficial Avould it be to mankind
if this truth Avere universally acknowledged and acted  upon, viz :  that
our state of health, mental as well as bodily,  principally depends upon
ourselves!"
                 " By seeming gay we grow to what we seem."

It was the remark of a man of  great observation and knowdedge of the
Avorld, " Only wear a mask for a fortnight, and you will  not know it
from your real  face."(^)

               (p\ Rush  on the Mind, pp. 90, 91, 92.
               (q) AVinslow's Anatomy of Suicide, pp. 169, 170. 
138
HYSTERIA.
   § 168.  A late French writer mentions the case of a rich peasant who
was possessed with the idea that he was bewitched, and who complained
to his  medical attendant  that seven  devils had taken up their abode in
his body.   " Seven,  not more?"  Avas the physician's inquiry.   "Only
seven," was the reply.  The physician  promised him to rid him of the
visitors*,  one each day, upon condition that for the first six he was paid
twenty francs,  but  for the seventh, Avho was the chief of  the band,
forty.   The patient  agreed, and was  subjected by the physician, Avho set
apart the fee for  charity, to a  series of daily shocks from the Leyden
jars,  the seventh and  last of which was so powerful as to  produce a
fainting  fit in the supposed demoniac, who, however, awoke from it
entirely  freed from his delusion, (r)
   Burns  suffered much  from  indigestion,  producing  hypochondria.
Writing to his friend, Mr. Cunningham, he says: " Can'st  thou not
minister to a  mind  diseased ?   Can'st thou speak peace  and rest to a
soul tossed on a sea  of troubles,  without one friendly star to guide her
course, and dreading that the next surge may overwhelm her ?  Can'st
thou give to a frame, tremblingly alive  to the tortures of suspense, the
stability and hardihood of a rock that braves the blast ?   If thou can'st
not do the least of these, why would'st  thou disturb me in my miseries
with  thy inquiries after  me ?"   From early life, the poet was  subject
to a  disordered stomach,  a disposition to  headache, and  an irregular
action of the  heart.   He describes, in one of his letters, the  horrors of
his complaint:—" I have  been for some  time  pining  under  secret
wretchedness.   The  pang  of disappointment,  the sting of pride, and
some wandering stabs of  remorse, settle on my life like vultures, when
my attention is not called away by the claims of society, or the vagaries
of the muse.   Even in the hour of social mirth, my gaiety is the mad-
ness  of  an intoxicated criminal under the  hands  of  an executioner.
My constitution  was blasted, ab origine,  with a deep incurable taint of
melancholy that poisoned my existence." (s)

                            3.  Hysteria, (t)

   § 169. Hysteria, which  only attacks  individuals  of  the female  sex,
or males having a feminine organization,  resembles hypochondria in its
mental and moral symptoms;  but the nauseous  and painful feelings
manifest  themselves  in convulsions, and the  alternation between the
different states of feeling is far more  abrupt, (u)

     SDemonomanie,  singuliere guerison.  Annales med. psychol. 1847.
     Winslow's Anatomy of Suicide, p. 147-48.
   (t) Siebold, Lehrbuch  der Gericht. Med.  Berlin, 1847, §  208; Krahmer Handbuch
der Gericht. Med. Halle, C. A. Schwetschke, 1851.  \ 110.
   (u) Schurmayer,  Gericht. Med., \ 543; Krahmer.   Handbuch der Gericht. Med.
Halle, C. A. Schwetschke, 1851.  \ 109.
   Burton, in  his Anatomy of Melancholy, has  described this state: " They  are soon
tired with all things; they will now tarry, now begone; now  in bed they will  rise, now
up, then they go to bed;  now pleased, and then again displeased; now they  like, by-and-
by they dislike all, weary of all.  ' Sequitur nunc vivendi, nunc moriendi, cupido,' saith
Aurelianus.  Discontented, disquieted upon every light occasion or no occasion, often
tempted to make away with themselves; they cannot die, they will not live; they com-
plain, weep, lament, and think they live a most  miserable life; never was any man so
bad.  Every poor man they see is most fortunate in respect of them.  Every beggar that 
MELANCHOLY.
139
                               4.  Melancholy.(v)


    § 170.  The state of depression undergoes a change, in consequence
 of Avhich the  complaints of bodily indisposition diminish, and the patient
 comes to regard his former sufferings as delusions, and his present con-
 dition as a healthy one.    When such  a person  is found  to have  com-


 comes to the door is happier than they are.  Jealousy and suspicion are common symp-
 toms of this misanthropic variety.   They are testy, pettish, peevish, distrustful, apt to
 mistake, and  ready to  snarl, upon every occasion and without  any  cause, with their
 dearest friends.   If they speak in jest, the hypochondriac takes it in good earnest;  if
 the smallest ceremony be accidentally omitted, he is wounded to the quick.  Every tale,
 discourse, whisper, or gesture, he applies to himself;  or if the conversation be openly
 addressed to  him, he  is ready to misconstrue every word, and cannot endure that  any
 man should look steadfastly at  him, laugh, point the finger, cough, or sneeze.  Every
 question or movement works upon him and is misrepresented, and makes him alter-
 nately turn pale or red, and even sweat with distrust, fear, or  anger."
   And thus says Charles Lamb :

                           " By myself walking,
                           To myself talking;
                           When, as I ruminate
                           On my untoward fate,
                           Scarcely seem I
                           Alone sufficiently:
                           Black thoughts continually
                           Crossing my privacy;
                           They come unbidden;
                           Like foes at a wedding,
                           Thrusting their faces
                           In better guests' places;
                           Peevish and malcontent,
                           Clownish, impertinent,
                           Dashing the merriment.
                           So, like the fashions,
                           Dim cognitions
                           Follow and haunt me,
                           Striving to daunt me;
                           In my heart festering,
                           In my ears whispering,
                           'Thy friends are treacherous,
                           Thy foes are dangerous,
                           Thy dreams are ominous.'

                           Fierce Anthropophagi,
                           Spectra Diaboli,
                           AVhat scared St. Anthony;
                           Hobgoblins, Lemures,
                           Dreams of Antipodes,
                           Night-riding incubi,
                           Troubling the fantasy,
                           All dire illusions
                           Causing confusions;
                           Figments heretical,
                           Scruples fantastical,
                           Doubts diabolical.
                           Abaddon vexeth me,
                           Mahro perplexes me,
                           Lucifer teareth me,
              Jesu! Maria! liberate nos ab his dires tentationibus inimici."—Miscellaneous
Poems, p. 6. " Ed. Moxon: 1841.   31 ind and Matter. By J. G. Millingen, M.D., M.A.  pp.76,
77, 78.
   (y) Siebold.   Lehrbuch der Gericht.  Med. Berlin, 1847.  §  208. Dr. Cheyne, rather
jocularly than otherwise, applied the term, " The English Malady," to that species of
melancholy which  is  most affected by  the weather and by other depressing circum-
stances.   This term has been  seized upon by Siebold, Gericht. Med. \ 212, Melancholia
Anglica, sive Autochira.  Fr. B.  Osiander, in  his  interesting volume on  Suicide,  dis-
cusses the same  topic.   Hannov. 1813.  8.  \ 207. 
140
DERANGEMENT OF THE TEMPERAMENT.
mitted an act forbidden by the penal code, it may be assumed, Avithout
hesitation, that his liberty of action is gone.   In the higher degrees of
melancholy, the various gloomy and morbid feelings are accompanied
by distinct  imaginings, Avhich take their character from  the sort of
agitation  in which the disease commenced, the  general opinions  and
character of the  individual, the pursuits which last occupied him,  and
the dread and bitter experience Avhich has produced  them.(w)   For all
these feelings  the patients  seek explanations, and find them either in
themselves (melancholia concentrica), or in surrounding things and cir-
cumstances (melancholia peripherica).   In the former case  they take
themselves severely  to task  for  small  or inconsiderable errors, or
declare, with an air  of so much conviction, calmness, and firmness, as
sometimes to mislead the judge himself, that they have committed great
crimes, as murder, &c, and  have  incurred, by  their  own inexpiable
fault, the displeasure of God and  of the world, and eternal damnation.
In melancholia religiosa they  ask to be tried and punished;  they com-
plain of the loss of Avhat is most dear to them, apprehend poverty for
themselves and their families in the future, or even imagine themselves
possessed by demons.   In mel daemonia, they  accuse other persons of
malevolence and persecution,  to which they ascribe their ailments.   It
is characteristic of the general  phase that the patient never sees  sur-
rounding  things as they are, but always  in a light corresponding to his
gloomy frame  of mind; frequently,  also, this false coloring turns into a
real  illusion of the  senses, particularly in the peripheric  form of the
disease, which is the reason that it so frequently ends in lunacy.   The
external  conduct of the patients, the manner in which they execute the
dictates of their wills,  is very various.   In melancholia attonita they sit
motionless and speechless;  in other cases, they can  hardly find words
enough to depict  their distraction; sometimes  they are perpetually in
motion—melancholia activa et errabunda.   In  peripheric melancholy
they scold and swear about their grievances, become noisy and excited,
and resort to violent means of resistance or revenge.  In this manner,
melancholy  often becomes the occasion  of murderous assaults,  and
sometimes murders of the most cruel kind, as Avell as of suicide.(a;)
   § 171.  In a mature case falling under this head, the motives are often
not  even present to the consciousness,  and the act is committed  in a
state of intoxication, blind frenzy, fury,  and confusion, preceded some-
times  by the  almost  imperceptible  symptoms  of   silent  depression,
sometimes by  the  traces broad and deep of havoc in the affective facul-
ties,  and accompanied often  by  a sudden  loss of self-control, visible
paroxysms of  terror, and a fancied pursuit by fiends, (y)   The transi-
tion from melancholy to mania is open to the simple explanation,  that
depression is the first  stage of psychical disease in general,  and contains
within itself the germs of all  other phases, (z)
   §  172.  In other cases there is  also an absence of conscious motives,
but in their place an uncontrollable restlessness, an  indistinct but over-

  (w) Schurmayer, Gericht. Med. \ 544 ; compare Ellinger, p. 108 ; Lecons Cliniques sur
l'alienation Mentale;  Falret, lecon 7th, p. 185.  Paris: 1854. Etudes  Medico Psycho-
logiques sur l'alienation Mentale.  L. F. E. Renaudin, chap. iv. p. 178.   Paris: 1854.
  (x)  The above summary is taken from Schurmayer. Gericht. Med. \ 544.
  (j/) Ellinger, p. 112.                    (z) Schurmayer, Gericht. Med. \ 545. 
MELANCHOLY.                        141
awing feeling  of dread, and an incessant  morbid approach of those
abnormal moral propensities Avhich will be considered under the next
head.  Ellinger correctly observes (a) that,  " impulses of this kind often
excite the most desperate struggles in the mind; evoke the most various
external means to overcome them; place the murderous  instrument into
the hands of the individual, from which reason wrests  it again; drive
him into solitude and far from the subject of the mad desire, and induce
him to give warning to the threatened victim; to meditate and to at-
tempt suicide;  and Avhen at last the fatal deed is nevertheless  accom-
plished, there is a calmness and a clearness in the manner in which he
anticipates the impending punishment, which to an unpracticed observer
must  exclude every idea of an underlying mental derangement.  Such
subjects  either  betray the ordinary symptoms of depression, or only
those incident to the specific propensity, which throws the conciousness
into a state of  distraction, and  fills the mind with fear  and dread.   In
either case, the impulse, whether preceded or not by a brief relaxation,
comes suddenly, in which case it will be found in connection with dis-
turbances  of the bodily functions, among  which may  be enumerated
cessation  of  the natural period or of other natural or ordinary evacua-
tions, rush of blood to the head, exhaustion  by loss of blood, protracted
nursing,  excesses,  epilepsy, approach of  severe attacks  of sickness.
The immediate occasion of the  act  may be the view of  a naked figure,
the sight  of an execution, of blood, of a murderous instrument or other
means of committing crimes, or the recital of such an occurrence; the
ultimate cause is found, according to Ideler, in the associations of feelings
and desires according to their contrast, and  the struggle and contradic-
tion thus  arising."
   § 173.  In still another order of cases, as Ave are told by Schurmayer,
the consciousness is not only in full possession of the motives, but the
act is conceived on the ground of a  chain of reasoning and executed
with a degree of arrangement  and  circumspection apparently insepar-
able from a clear state of the understanding.  Here, as will be seen
more  fully hereafter, the motives  are sometimes hallucinations, particu-
larly  of the ear, (voices heard) which give  commands to the  madman,
sometimes a wish to die without the courage to commit suicide directly,
but Avith the design of incurring  capital punishment by the murder of
others, (persons  the subjects of an old grudge, or such as are entirely
innocent,  as  children ;) sometimes the notion that the destruction of the
world is at hand, or that a terrible misfortune impends, against which
it  was necessary to protect the object of particular affection, which is
best effected by death.  In the  latter case, as will presently be more
fully seen, (b) suicide, or self-inculpation, is common, and sometimes a
vindictive feeling against the supposed  authors of the person's suffering,
which the mind often debates with itself for a length of time, until all
doubt is removed by some neAV hallucination, (c)
   Attacks of hysteria,  although in appearance bearing considerable
analogy to those of epilepsy, rarely  produce a state of  complete insen-

  (a) Ellinger, p. 114.                          (b) Post g 206-208, 247-253.
  (c) Schurmayer, \ 547; Ellinger, p. 116; Siebold, Lehrbuch der Gericht. Med. Berlin,
1847, I  208; Krahmer  Handbuch der  Gericht.  Med. Halle. C.  A. Schwetschke, 1851.
§110. 
142
DERANGEMENT OF THE MORAL SYSTEM.
sibility, and although  they may last  longer, they  never leave behind
them that bewilderment of mind.   HoAvever frequently they may occur,
they hardly ever produce mania or dementia, and therefore they rarely
exclude responsibility, (d)


    VI.  Mental unsoundness, as affecting the moral system.

                    1st. General Moral Mania.

  § 174. As depression is based upon an unduly subdued state of the
feeling of self and  a want of self-confidence, so the fundamental trait
of mania, considered in its present  relation, is an exaggeration of the
feeling of self and of self-confidence, (e) Unsoundness of mind rarely takes
this form at first;  it is usually developed from depression, the mistaken
idea usually reversing its  purport, while the impulses of expression in
some manner  overstep their normal limits, compelling  the will to act
in a  corresponding  manner.  Here the madman either makes constant
motions with his head  or his arms, or runs about until he is completely
exhausted, which might be called the madness of motion ;(f) or he vents
his humor in gestures and declamations, or the motive impulse  is con-
fined to  the tongue, and becomes morbid garrulity or madness of the
tongue.  This talkativeness is not  the effect of a superabundance of
ideas, but all the thoughts are uttered  hastily as they  occur, without
being shaped or sifted,  giving rise  to contradiction, incoherence, and
the semblance of a wandering  imagination.  If  in the end the malady
is imparted not only to the will but also to the sentiments, the unde-
fined impulse of action and expression receives the form and color of
chagrin and anger, which the  sufferer  supposes to be well founded and
directed  to real objects, and the disease becomes frenzy or fury, which
may take some specific form, as that of general destructiveness,  or of a
thirst for blood.  This also includes many unnatural cravings, such as
a desire to bite, or  to do something extravagant; a sort of  mental or
moral vertigo, which develops  itself  sometimes,  though more rarely in
the  propensity to steal.  In cases of this class it is  impossible for the
patient to resist the morbid impulse.   He has lost his self-possession,
that is,  the power of contrasting the necessary  consequences of the
action with his present position and its requirements,  and the calcula-
tions of prudence, as well as the impulses of conscience, are alike un-
heeded.  The morbid sentiment thus controls his entire perceptive fac-
ulty, admitting of no other perception in connection with the subject,
and cutting off  all reflection, all doubt of the fitness of the action and
its relation to the laws of the land.(^)
  § 175. In the lower stages of mania there is generally so much ex-
ternal self-control, and such a connection and logical consistency in the
ideas, that the process of mental evolution becoming  more compact and
rapid, produces a vivacity of combination, of memory, and imagination,

  (d) Briand, Med. Leg. p. 569.  Paris, 1852.
  (e) See Schurmayer, Gericht. Med.  § 548.
  (/) Compare Hagen in R. Wagner's Handwcerterbuch der Physiologic Vol. II.  p. 819.
  (g) Schurmayer, Gericht. Med. \ 548. 
GENERAL MORAL INSANITY.
143
that a layman is not easily induced to  suspect to arise from a disorder
of the reasoning faculties, particularly when external  circumstances
concur to furnish an explanation of the condition in which the person
is found.   This may throw difficulties  around the medico-legal consid-
eration of such a case, and under  such circumstances the true view in
those penal systems Avhere the correct principle is observed of graduat-
ing  the  punishment  of the  insane to  the degree of their freedom  of
agency and consequent responsibility, is to declare moral responsibility
in its common-law  sense to have ceased.   It happens that the offences
committed during and in consequence of mental aberrations of this de-
scription, are either petty misdemeanors, or of a nature to call for the
interference of the police  only, or resolve themselves into mere  civil
questions, or  into  objections  to  the  competency  of witnesses.   The
higher grades of mania involve far more serious considerations of re-
sponsibility for any action, which will presently  be  fully considered.(A)
  §  176.  " In this  form of insanity," says Dr. Ray, "the derangement
is confined to one or a few of  the affective  faculties, the rest of the
moral and  intellectual constitution preserving its  ordinary  integrity.
An exaltation  of the vital force in any part  of the cerebral organism,
must necessarily be followed by increased activity and  energy in the
manifestations of the faculty connected with it, and which  may  even
be carried to such  a  pitch as  to be beyond the control of any other
power, like the working of a blind instinctive impulse.   Accordingly,
we see the faculty thus affected, prompting  the individual to action by
a kind of instinctive irresistibility, and while he retains the most per-
fect  consciousness, of the impropriety and even enormity of his conduct,
he deliberately and perseveringly pursues it."(i)
  The following cases are  given us by Bay,  in which, this perversion of
the moral faculties was  accompanied in its latter stages by some delu-
sions, furnishing a striking illustration of this form of disease, as Avell as
its intimate connection with intellectual mania:—
  Col. M. was a man of superior intellectual powers, and moved in the
higher walks  of society.   He was a  lawyer by profession,  and was
appointed district-attorney in one of the south-western states by Presi-
dent Jackson, whom  he had previously served in a military capacity.
Towards  the meridian of  life,  his conduct  became so  disorderly and
boisterous,  that he was  often  confined in  jails or hospitals for the
insane.   On one of these occasions he cut off his nose, and subsequently
came to Boston in order to have it replaced by Dr. J. Mason Warren,
by means of the rhinoplastic operation, which proved quite successful.
While in Boston he made the acquaintance of Dr. Bell of the McLean
Asylum,  for the purpose, as he declared, of getting  his aid in obtaining
redress for the wrongs he had sustained in being placed under guardian-
ship, and confined in jails and hospitals, his object being not to retaliate,
but  to protect his  future  reputation.  The Dr. has  kindly furnished
such particulars of his  case as came  to  his knowledge from various
sources.   " I inferred that he was  naturally of a proud, arrogant, and

  QY) Krahmer. Handbuch der Gericht. Med. Halle.  G. A. Schwetschke, 1851. \ 110.
Siebold, Lehrbuch der Gericht. Med. Berlin, 1847.  \ 208.
  (j)  Ray on Insanity, 189. 
144
DERANGEMENT OF THE MORAL SYSTEM.
extravagant spirit, Avhich was kept  in  check, Avhile she  lived,  by the
discretion of his Avife.   He was  sensual but not intemperate, until his
nervous system  had become excited.   His peculiar theory Avas,  that
while he admitted that he had held—and, tOAvards the last of my inter-
ATiew, avoAved that he then  held—certain fanciful  notions Avhich Ave
might term delusions, if  Ave pleased, still ■ they were such  as did not
interfere with his right to entire liberty of action.  ' For instance,' said
he, ' I feel that  I am cousin  to  the  Duke of Wellington  and to Napo-
leon.   It seems ridiculous.  I can't make it out by any kind of proof.
I even laugh at it.  But still, I dwell  upon it  as a reality.   It  con-
cerns nobody else.  It  has in  it  no dangerous element.   Why, then,
should I be interfered with for  harboring a delusion, if you choose to
call it so, no more absurd than a thousand religious  sects feel them-
selves happy in resting  upon.'  He would often argue thus:  'I pro-
test  against  being called insane  on account of my  ideas.  For my
actions I am accountable.  I never yet claimed—I never will claim—
immunity  as  an irresponsible being.  I Avill permit no one to  set up
such a defence for me.   Try me by  the laws of  the land and the strict
rules  of evidence,  and I will abide by the result, as a good citizen ; but
I must have opportunity to argue  my own cause, and examine the wit-
nesses brought before me.'
   " He had  often been  arrested  for assault  and battery,  but  always
continued to  beat the  complainants, by his familiarity with legal pro-
ceedings, and by his quick perception of whatever made for or against
himself.   If, in his best estate, he had been counsel for another party,
he could not have managed the case  better than he did his own.  How-
ever wild,  extravagant, and  boisterous at hotels  and  such places, of
which he was the terror, as soon as he was in the atmosphere of a court
of justice, he bectme calm, dignified, and respectful, but tenacious to
the last degree.   For example, when carried before the police-judge of
New York, on a warrant, the printed form of  which  had been in use
for twenty years, setting forth that in  consequence  of insanity ' or
otherwise,' he was dangerous to  be at large, he, at once, advocated suc-
cessfully his constitutional right  to have the offence set forth specifically
and precisely.
   " He had most carefully considered  the extent of  his rights^—the
precise amount of force  justifiable in ejecting an unwelcome guest, or,
what  Avas a more common event, in resisting an  ejectment;  the  obliga-
tion of innholders to receive applicants, and  the value of proving the
first blow in  defence of  assaults.  On one occasion thinking the hack-
men and cab-men of New York were insolent and  exacting in regard
to the right of way, he  armed himself  with a heavy whip, took a good
witness by his side, and  drove through  Broadway in a strong carriage,
running against every charioteer who failed to give him his exact half
of the road.   This, of course, produced a collision of  tongues  as well
as wheels.   His peculiarly sarcastic language tempted a touch of the
whip  from some of his opponents, and  upon this, our  hero turned to
and  thrashed them within an inch  of  their lives.  They appealed to
the courts, but  his witness soon and truly proved  the aggression on
them.
   " While in the Pennsylvania Hospital  for the insane, and again, I 
MORAL MONOMANIA.
145
believe, while in the jail in Washington, he got discharged by means
of a writ of  habeas corpus, which he was allowed to sue out.  When
thus brought before the court, he argued his case upon the settled legal
doctrine, that an ability to distinguish right from wrong is the sole test
of sanity.   Of  course,  no judge could,  or did,  hesitate in  opinion,
that a gentleman who was able to make an elegant and an astute  argu-
ment on the  nature, origin, and protection of the rights of the subject,
could, by any means, be within the category of individuals intellectu-
ally incapable of discriminating between  right  and wrong.   In fact,
processes of detention  as a lunatic, held, in his case,  only until he
could get before  some tribunal.   And yet  when thus turned loose upon
society, he was a passionate, dangerous lunatic.   When  hard  pushed
by evidence  of extravagant and boisterous actions, he would attribute
the fact to his having  unfortunately  taken a little too much  wine,
(which Avas probably true  to some extent,)  comprehending perfectly
that an offence of  that  kind  would be followed by a much lighter con-
sequence—a mere  fine,  in  fact,—than  seclusion  as  a lunatic.   When
the self-mutilation was alluded to, he would most frankly attribute it to
his ignorance  of physiological laws, and allege that his lost organ,
being covered with blotches and carbuncles,  he cut it off, absurdly sup-
posing that nature  had a renewing power,  as in the groAvth of the hair.
   " After he became so wild  in his conduct  in Boston as to be a uni-
versal annoyance, I advised his friends  in Missouri to place him under
care as a lunatic.   They replied that the thing was impracticable; that
no institution had  been found able to  hold  him, and they would  not
arouse his vindictive feelings  by  any farther trials of that sort.   His
intemperate habits  increased,  and his delusions became  more palpable,
yet without affecting  his intellectual power.   The  idea  returned that
parts of his  face,  if removed, would grow again, and he  cut  out  the
cicatrix on his forehead whence the nasal flap had been taken.  Fortu-
nately death stepped in at this point,  and removed  a man whose fate
was so melancholy; for, under all the ravages of mental disease,  there
were traces of noble sentiments and lofty aspirations." (j)

                         (2.) Monomania, (k)

   § 177.  The  observation that, in many  cases of insanity, particular
impulses, such as  sexual appetite,  acquisitiveness, &c, attain a pre-
dominance, has led to the adoption of the term monomania,(l) which is
occasionally  subdivided  into  heads,  which will presently be noticed.
This, however, is only admissible in so far as it designates certain fixed
objects towards which the ravings of the maniac are directed, and which
supply the apparent motives of his actions; it is not to be supposed that
a single impulse is diseased, while all  the other functions of the  mind
retain their  healthy action.  While  the entire intellect enjoys  sound
health, there is nothing  in which a morbid desire of theft, murder, &c,
could originate, and such a phenomenon is a psychological impossibility,
and the assumption of such requires  a psychological contradiction.  A

  (/) Ray on Insanity, pp. 181, 2, 3, 4.             (k) See 4 Am. Jour, of Ins. 16.
                    (J) Schurmayer, Gericht. Med. \ 549.
       10 
146
MORAL MONOMANIA.
mania sine delirio, a mania without a morbid participation or disturb-
ance of the perceptive  faculties, is therefore out of the question, as a
desire to injure or destroy is impossible without an act  of  the mind by
Avhich this purpose is entertained, and as reason and understanding are
alike  disordered whether they insinuate a wrong motive for the morbidly
conceived  purpose of  the act, or whether  they entirely omit the sug-
gestion of any reason whatever, (m)
   § 178.  The  dispute about the reality and possibility of a mania sine
delirio continues, because the facts adduced in support of  this form of
unsoundness of mind are not  denied  as effective  causes, but are sub-
jected to  different interpretations of  their  psychological  significance;
different conclusions being  drawn as to  the kind  of hyper-physical
function producing  them.   Inasmuch as  a direct inspection  of the
condition  of  a mental or moral function is impossible, our knowledge
of it  being confined to the  result of  inferences from effects to  causes,
the first requisite, to avoid incorrect deductions, is  a severe analysis of
the fact from which the inference is  to be drawn.   This  fact consists
mainly in the statements and assurances of the persons concerned, that
they are conscious of the wrongfulness or unreasonable nature of the
act they are  committing, but that the  impulse  to commit it is stronger
than their will to resist. Is this really the case ?  May there not be a de-
lusion in the statements themselves ?  As it  is not the mental condition
obtaining immediately before and  after  the commission  of the  offence
which is  in  question, but that which obtains at  the moment  of the
raptus maniacus, we may not be certain that the indiATidual judges cor-
rectly, or is even competent  to judge correctly, of himself,  (n)
   § 179.  The mania sine delirio appears to have  been first mentioned
by Ellinger,  under the  name of melancholia sine delirio sive perturbatio
mentis, melancholia  sine delirio.   Pinel subsequently  called it manie
sans delire, after having made the  assertion, based upon  facts, "that
there are  madmen in whom there  is no perceptible alteration of the
intellectual process,  of the perceptions, judging faculty, imagination, or
memory, and yet a perversion of the manifestations of the will, in a
Iblind impulse to the commission  of violence, or  even of  bloodthirsty
rage,  without any assignable dominant idea, any delusion of the imagi-
nation, which could cause such a propensity."  Where there is no will,
but only a blind impulse, a perversion of the manifestations of the will
is not to be supposed.   The  results hitherto arrived at in the discussion
of this subject, may  be  compressed into the following three points :
   § 180.   (1.) Shortly before the  attack  self-consciousness may  be
present, and connected with  the impulse to the commission of violence;
and immediately after  the  attack, self-consciousness may return; but
it remains to be  proved,  that it  was also undisturbed  during  the
attack.

  (m) Schiirmayer, Gericht.  Med. \ 549.
  (n) See, on this head, Principles of Medical Psychology,  being the Outlines of a
Course of Lectures by Baron Ernst von Feuchtersleben, M. D., Vienna, 1845.  Translated
from the German  by the late H. Evans Lloyd,  Esq.   Revised  and edited by B. G.  Ba-
bington, M. D., F.R. S., etc.  London: Printed for the Sydenham Society, 1847. pp. 224,
374, 292. 
TESTS BY WHICH IT IS TO BE TRIED.
147
    (2.) In the attack, at all events, the  power  of  self-control is to be
 regarded as suspended.
    (3.) Many of the cases classed under  the head of mania sine delirio
 are to be eliminated, an d referred to the categories  of morbid irasci-
 bility, of remittent and irregularly returning  and transitory mania, of
 depression and partial insanity, in which the  hallucinations impelling
 to the act are kept secret.
    § 181. As we have already shown, the present tendency of judicial
 practice  is, when the defence of monomania is  set up,  to tell the jury
 that if they believe that the act was committed  under an involuntary
 and uncontrollable insane impulse, the defendant is entitled to  an ac-
 quittal on this particular ground.(o)   It is  proper, however,  that the
 jury in those States in which there is provision made  for the treatment
 of insane offenders, should  make  a special finding, so  that the statu-
 tory  confinement  may be imposed.   The  importance of a  specific
 form of imprisonment for insane convicts, will be hereafter considered, (p)
 That  of the responsibility of monomaniacs, has  been noticed already, (a)
   § 182. It is proper to notice that the term "Monomania" is used by
 high authority in a wider sense than that given above.  Thus Dr. Tay-
 lor declares it to be that form of insanity in which  the mental aliena-
 tion is partial.   The delusion is said to be confined either to one sub-
 ject or to one  class of subjects.  One fact is well ascertained, that mo-
 nomania  varies much in degree; for many persons  affected with it are
 able to direct their minds with reason and propriety to the performance
 of their social duties, so long as these do not involve any of the subjects
 of their delusions.(r)   "Monomania," we are  told by  the  same high
 authority, "is very liable to be confounded with eccentricity; but there
 is a difference between them.  In monomania there is obviously a change
 of character—the individual is different to what he was; in eccentricity
 such a difference is not remarked;  he is and always has been  singular
 in his ideas and actions.   An eccentric man  may be  convinced  that
 what he is doing is absurd and contrary to the general rules of society,
 but he professes to set these at defiance.   A true monomaniac cannot
 be convinced of  his error, and  he thinks that his acts are consistent
 with reason and with the general conduct of mankind.    In eccentricity
 there is the will  to do, or not to do; in real monomania  the controlling
 power of will  is lost.   Eccentric habits  suddenly acquired are, how-
 ever, presumptive  of insanity, "(s)  Recently, however,  the entire theory
 of moral  insanity(t) has lately been combated  by  very able  writers,
 among whom may  be noticed Heinrich,(w) Leubuscher(v) and Mayo.(w)
   § 183.  On the other hand, this theory has, though no longer  receiv-
 ing uniform approbation in the land where it was first recognized,  met
 with an increased support in our own country.  It has been expressly re-
 cognized by two  of our  most eminent jurists, Chief Justice Gibson and

  (o) See ante, \ 53.       (p) See post, \ 259-276.        (?) See ante, \ 53—61.
  (r) Taylor's Medical Jurisprudence, p. 553.  (*) Ibid.  if) Pinel's Mania sine delirio.
  (w) Kritische Abhandlung Uber die von Prichard als  Moral Insanity  geschilderte
Krankeitsform.  Allgem. Zeitschr. fur Psychiatrie, V. Bd. 4 Hft.
  (v) Bernerkungen  liber Moral Insanity  und ahnliche Krankheitszustande. Casper's
Wochenschr. Nr. 59 u.  51.
  (w) Medical Test, and Ev. in Cases of Lunacy.  London, 1854. 
148
MORAL MONOMANIA.
Chief Justice Lewis, of Pennsylvania, who, at the same time, happen
to be among all recent American legal authorities, the two avIio  have
been most addicted to the study of diseases of the mind.(a:)   And Dr.
Ray, to whose skill, experience and capacity, too high a standard can
scarcely be assigned, says:   "In fact it has always been observed, that
insanity as often affects  the  moral  as  it does the intellectual percep-
tions.   In  many cases there is evinced some moral obliquity  quite un-
natural to the individual,  a loss of his ordinary interests in the relations
of father, son, husband, or  brother,  long  before a single word escapes
from his lips, " sounding to folly."   Through the course of the disease,
the  moral  and intellectual impairments proceed pari passu,  while the
return of the affections to their natural channels is one of the  strongest
indications of approaching recovery.   Such being the fact, it ought not
to be a matter of surprise that in some  cases the aberration should be
confined  to the moral impairment,  the intellectual,  if there  be  any,
being too slight to be easily discerned, "(y)
   §184. "The reality and  importance of this  distinction,"  says the
same author subsequently,  " which thus  establishes two classes  of
mania,  is  now  generally acknowledged by practical observers, among
whom it is sufficient to mention  Esquirol, Georget,  Gall,  Marc,  Rush,
Reil, Hoffbauer, Andrew Combe, Conolly, and Prichard, though  some
of them are inclined to doubt whether the integrity of the understand-
ing  is as fully preserved  in moral mania, as Pinel  affirmed.   Still, its
apparent soundness, and the  difficulty,  at least, of establishing the ex-
istence  of  any intellectual derangement, while the  moral  powers are
unequivocally and deeply deranged, render it no  less important  in its
legal relations, than if the understanding were unequivocally affected.
It is defined by Prichard, who has strongly insisted on the necessity of
assigning it a more  distinct and conspicuous place, than it has hitherto
received, as ' consisting in a  morbid perversion of the natural feelings,
affections,  inclinations, tempers, habits,  and moral dispositions, without
any notable lesion of the intellect or knowing and  reasoning faculties,
and particularly without any maniacal hallucination.'   It will be con-
venient, even if not  scientifically precise, to consider it under  two divis-
ions, according as it is general or partial, "(z)

   (x) See Note, § 53, 54, 55.               («/) Ray on Insanity, p. 166.
   (z) Ray on Insanity, p. 167.  Instinctive mania, (manie raisonnante of Pinel,)—we
 quote generally from Morel—includes homicidal and incendiary monomaniacs, &c.  Those
 thus affected seldom complain of being tormented with hallucinations of the senses, but
 are  subject to indefinable pains which betray themselves exteriorly in headaches, roar-
 ing  in the ears, dazzlings and indescribable sensations.  If we sometimes see in them
 perfect digestive powers or an exaggerated appetite, the opposite phenomena of want
 of appetite, depraved tastes, &c, are much more frequent symptoms.  They feel an in-
 cessant need of movement, an activity out  of all proportion with their physical forces,
'alternating with an insurmountable apathy. If, under certain circumstances, the absence
 of sleep astonishes us, we, on the contrary, often observe them in a torpid and almost
 death-like state.  Sometimes their  sensibility is so exalted that the whole exterior world
 becomes for them nothing but a source of pain, anguish, and irritability.  Sometimes the
 most unhappy sensations, and the most painful emotions do not seem to affect either their
 physical or moral nature.
   When these patients are brought into a court of justice they are unanimous in attri-
 buting the same motives to their  actions.  They accuse themselves of irresistible im-
 pulses, they are ignorant why they so acted, and in this respect are very different from 
CLASSIFICATION OF.
149
   § 185.  Monomania, as affecting  the moral  sense, will be considered
under the following heads:—
           (1) Homicidal mania (morbid propensity to kill).
           (2) Kleptomania (morbid propensity to steal).
           (3) Pyromania (morbid incendiary propensity).
           (4) Aidoiomania (morbid sexual propensity).
           (5) Pseudonomania (morbid lying propensity).
           (6)  Oikeiomania (morbid state of domestic affections).
           (7)  Suicidal mania (morbid propensity to self-destruction).
           (8)  Fanatico-mania (morbid state  of the religious feelings).
           (9)  Politico-mania (morbid state of political feeling).

those suffering from hallucinations or systematic madness, who astonish and frighten us
by the inexorable logic of their actions, who  express  only imperfectly shaped regrets,
who are indifferent as to the condition of their victims, as much as to their own interests,
and who are not able to say but that they will perform the same act again if the oppor-
tunity should occur.  In scrutinizing the  former life of such patients we must remain
convinced that the lesions of their intelligence, the disorganization of their instincts and
tendencies must be due to deep organic disturbances.   Hereditary influences, malforma-
tion of the great organ of the intelligence, certain diseases which may have changed the
general health, idiopathic  affections, arrests  of development; troubles at the  period of
puberty, or in the  normal phenomena  of gestation,  are so  many involuntary causes.
These causes are the more striking and palpable as the patients cannot always be excused
on account of a vicious education.  The malady with which they are  afflicted has some-
times attacked them in the  midst of the best social conditions, and when a  relatively
feebler intelligence and the manifestation of depraved instincts have early been remarked
in them ; conditions of system which have not always found their corrective in an appro-
priate hygienic treatment and education.  And this is why we have called this form of
mania, instinctive mania, because we see in it something so essentially connected with the
organic conditions, that it is impossible for us  to consider such  patients  as  other
than what they really are, viz., things deprived of their free-will and reason.  There  do
exist voluntary causes which produce identical consequences as regards the derangement
of the tendencies.  The subversive and selfish passions, debauchery, lewdness, drunken-
ness, and solitary habits, are of this class.  This form  of mania will be best shown in
the following case, of an  educated maniacal woman who was  irresistibly urged  on to
attempt the lives of her companions and relations :—
   The previous mode of living of Marie C, by no means explains the aberration of her
sentiments and the disorganization of her feelings.  Born of honest parents, who spared
nothing for her education, she  embraced, early in life, the profession of  teacher in a
small village.  She quitted  this  position, which was too laborious for her, and entered
as  domestic into a family, where she was treated rather as one of the household than as
a servant.   She remained  there eight  years, as  happy as  it was possible for one so
afflicted to be.
   " I do not know," she says, " how to explain my mode of life.  I never amused myself
like the other children of the village;  I  possessed a ridiculous, fantastical, capricious
temper, and I generally preferred  seeing evil done than good.  I was sometimes  extra-
vagantly gay but more generally I was sad."
   Question.—1' Had you any cause for being  so ?"  Answer.—" None.  My parents loved
me, if possible, more than my other brothers and sisters ; but I really took pleasure in no-
thing-  I have been a teacher, but that became very wearisome to me.  I have been
                          .....r n  '  ■ •■       n----il—   -- iU:---however I
that they wished to insult me."  Q.—" Have you suffered from violent gne
cannot truly say that I have suffered more pain than pleasure, it was only when my
brother was accidentally drowned that I experienced a great blow; but what is singu-
lar, I was not grieved at the idea of having lost him but at the thought of his dying un-
confessed."  <?.-<< Have you ever been dangerously sick ?"   A-" Six months after the
death of  my brother, I was attacked with a severe illness (typhoid fever).  Since that
time I have been very restless ; I get  up during the night;  I cannot  sleep^ The blood
rushes to my head, and the desire of doing evil then takes possession of me.  _ y.— Ex-
plain clearly all that you have done up to this  period?"  A.—" I used to arise at night
and go torment my sister; I used to  awake her  and draw her  to the foot of her bed. 
150
PSYCHOLOGICAL VIEW OF
   § 186.   (1.) Homicidal monomania (a) is not  to be  confounded, ac-
 cording to Marc, Avith the sudden  murderous  impulse with which mad-
 men are occasionally seized under the influence of revenge, or of some
 other passion which controls them; and it is, in like manner,  important
 to  distinguish  it  from delirium.   Esquirol understands  the term  to
 mean a partial insanity, distinguished by more or  less violent cravings
 of a murderous nature; and subdivides it into—
   (a.) Cases in which the  murder  is caused by a firm but insane con-
 viction—the monomaniac being carried away by an  avowed but irra-
 tional motive,  and  always  manifesting  conclusive signs  of a  partial
 insanity of the  understanding or the feelings.
   (b.) Cases in which the monomaniac  displays no perceptible disturb-
 ance  of  the understanding or  the feelings, but  is carried away by a
 blind instinct,  by an  inexplicable  something, which impels  him  to the
 commission of  murder.  As,  hoAvever, is very pertinently remarked by
 Schurmayer:  the distinctions and definitions of  Marc and Esquirol do


 Once I bit her very badly in the hand." Q.—" On these occasions were you conscious of
 any pain, had you no longer any appetite ?"  A.—" I suffered pain nowhere, except that
 my courses had stopped, and the physicians bled and put leeches on me to rectify that;
 but the more I was bled the more wicked I became, / only thought of evil, and I only
 wished for evil; so much so,-that I once told my sister to bring me an axe, to cut some
 wood with, and when  she  brought it I tried to split her head.  I ran after her, and if
 our parents had not interfered, I should certainly have  killed her.  As to appetite, I
 have always had too good a one; I eat like an  animal. I was in the habit of taking
 pieces of bread and carrots  from the troughs in our cow-stable.  I am never able to satisfy
 myself."  Q.—" If you had killed your sister, would you  have been much grieved ?"
 A.—"I think not; it would not have worried meat all.  In the same manner, when
 I was at the  hospital  of Remiremont,  I was always trying to kill somebody.   Once I
 grasped a woman so hard by the throat, that I should have strangled her if she had not
 cried out, and put  out her tongue so far as to frighten me.   I did nothing but dream of
 shedding blood ; I could have drank it.  Once I enticed  six old women into the dormi-
 tory, wishing to strangle  them;  I  commenced  with  one, but the others crying out
 obtained assistance.   I was confined alone, and as I could injure no one, I commenced
 biting my own hands (the signs of the cicatrices are still visible)."   Q.—" Do you hear
 voices commanding you to do these  frightful acts.  Explain how it is possible for a girl
well brought up to behave  in such a manner ?"  A.—" I hear no voices, but I am pushed
 on to such a degree as to be unable to stop myself from performing them.  When I am
at church, instead of saying prayers, I blaspheme.  They tried to  place rosaries and
images of the Holy Virgin in my hands, but I destroyed them.  I always am desirous of
 overturning whatever  is on the altar, and when I see any girl by my side saying her
prayers, I worry and pinch  her."                        '£*/
  With regard to the  two  months that Marie C. has been a«£'the Asylum, she did not
 exaggerate the  bad instincts that control her.  She has become the terror of her ward.
 We have been obliged to isolate her because she arises during the night, drags the other
 patients out of bed, and tries to strangle them.  She however works and occupies her-
 self; but suffer her to escape out of sight for a moment, and she leaves her work in order
to tear up that of her companions. Approaching them with a sympathizing manner, and
 under pretence of  seeing what they are doing, she twists their hands in her attempts
 to break their fingers.
  If  the strait-waistcoat is  put upon her, she finds means of  placing herself in  the way
 of every body,  and tries to trip up her companions and to bite, all the while deploring
 her situation and wishing to be delivered from it.  But even in expressing her regrets,
 her face betrays no emotion, she remains impassible and it is difficult to read upon her
 features any expression of the perverted sentiments which force this unfortunate to the
performance  of such deplorable acts,  &c.—See Traiti Theorique des Maladii Mentales,
par M. Morel.  Tome I. p. 310.  Paris, 1852.
  (a) Siebold's Gericht.  Med. § 219; Hoffbauer's  Psychologie, \ 122; Conradi's Com-
mentatio der mania sine delirio, Gott. 1827, 4; Conradi's Beitrag zur Geschichte der
 Manie sine delirio,  Gott. 1835 ; Artikel  Mania sine delirio, in  Jesse's Encyclop. AVbrterb.
 der Med. Wissench. Bd. 22.  Berlin, 1840, p. 410. 
HOMICIDAL MANIA.
151
not advance us in the field of forensic psychology a single step beyond
what we had already reached by means of the physiology of insanity in
general;  while their assumed homicidal  monomania falls, on the one
hand, into the well knoAvn rank  of mania, and is easily recognized and
considered  as  one of its accidental  manifestations, or,  on the  other
hand, draws into the  circle of its  definition every murder of which
the  author  is  in  a condition  to  assert, that  he was compelled  to
commit it by an  impulse which he found to actuate him.
   §  187.  But Avhether we assign to  homicidal  mania  a distinct  place
as a  peculiar morbid  impulse,  or whether  it is  to  be  treated as  a
mere  occasional and  eccentric  development of  ordinary mania, the
result is  the same in practice.(b)   It must be  recognized—under the
severest checks, it is true—as  an adequate defence; and no where  is
this  more  satisfactorily stated than  by the late Chief Justice Gibson,
and  by the present Chief Justice Leavis. (c)
   §  188.  The  inquiry arises,  if juries  are  to acquit  for homicidal
mania, what provision is to be made to protect society ?  Is not, after all,
capital punishment, or imprisonment for life,  the  best remedy for  a
class of men whose very essence it  is, as  declared by judicial sentence,
to destroy their fellow creatures ?   To this, as will  be more fully seen
hereafter,  the  answer  is,  that as  the  law  stands now, with  homi-
cidal, mania recognized  by  verdicts  of juries  rather than  the public
policy of the  land, the  consequences  are  certainly very mischievous.
But this  arises from  the very reluctance of  legislatures, and of those
recently engaged in codifying the criminal code, to provide against  a
doctrine which, after all, Avhenever the case  arrives, will be sustained
on trial.    Two eminent French authorities,  Brierre de  Boismont and
Aubanel, have  proposed the proper  remedy, which, in fact, has been
partially  adopted by  several of our legislatures,  e.g.,  Massachusetts
and Pennsylvania.  When  the  defendant is  to be acquitted  on this
ground, let the  jury certify  this  fact, and  the  defendant be  re-
• manded into confinement.   But let  that confinement be neither with
the  insane  nor the criminal, but  in  distinct apartments adapted  for
the  purpose of confining this entire class  of monomaniacs or insane
convicts, (cc)
   § 189.  Dr. Ray, among  all Anglo-American authorities, gives this
species of mania the widest sweep.   " It was first distinctly described
by Pinel," he  says, "and though  its  existence as a distinct  form  of
monomania was for a long time  after  doubted, it has subsequently been
admitted by the principal Avriters on  insanity—by Gall and Spurzheim,
Esquirol, Georget, Marc, Andral, Orfila,  and Broussais,  in France; by
Connelly, Combe, and Prichard, in  England;  by Hoffbauer, Platner,

  (5) See the remarks, on this point, of Dr. Forbes Winslow (Journ. Psch. Med.  vol. iii.
p. 290).
  (c) See ante, \ 53, 54, 55.  See an interesting treatise by Dr. Woodward, 1 Am. Jour, of
Ins.  322. See also People v. Kleim,  reported 2  Am. Journ. of Insan. 245; Abner
Baker's case Reviewed, 3 Ibid. 26; Trial of  Rabello, reported, Ibid.  41; an  Essay, by
Dr. Aubanel, on the same point, Ibid.  107; Report of Trial of People v. Griffin, Ibid.
227; Peoples. Sprague, 6 Ibid. 254; Com. v. Furbush,  9 Ibid. 151.  For an interesting
though desultory sketch of the law, see  Air. AVarren's Remarks on Oxford's and M'Naugh-
ten's cases, 7 Am. Journ. of Ins. 318 ; Black.  Mag.  for Nov. 50.
  (cc) See post, \ 259, 276. 
152
HOMICIDAL INSANITY.
Ettmuller, Henke, and Friedreich, in Germany; by Otto, of Copen-
hagen; and  by Rush,  in  this country.   It has received the various
appellations  of monomanie homicide,  monomanie  meurtriere,  melan-
cholic  homicide, homicidal insanity, instinctive monomania.  Esquirol,
in his valuable memoir, first published in the shape of a note in the
French translation  of Hoffbauer's work,  observes, that homicidal in-
sanity, or monomanie homicide, as he terms it, presents  two distinct
forms, in  one of which  the  monomaniac  is  ahvays  influenced by
avoAved motives more or  less irrational, and is generally regarded as
mad;  in the other, there are no motives acknowledged, nor to be dis-
cerned, the individual  being impelled by a blind, irresistible impulse.
It is with the latter only we are concerned, for the other is  clearly a
form of partial intellectual mania; but  as this division has not  been
strictly made by nature, cases often occurring that do not clearly come
under  either  category, the subject will be better elucidated by noticing
all the forms of this affection, and seeing how intimately they are con-
nected together, "(d)
   §  190. The same distinguished  authority  suggests  the following
tests:—
   I. In nearly all, the criminal act has been preceded, either by some
well-marked  disturbance of the health, originating in the head, digestive
system, or uterus, or by an irritable, gloomy, dejected, or melancholy
state;  in short, by many of the symptoms of the incubation of  mania.
The absence  of particulars in some of the cases Ave find recorded, leaves
us in doubt how general this change really is;  but a careful examina-
tion would, no doubt, often, if not always, show its existence where,
apparently, it has never taken place.
   II.  The impulse to destroy is powerfully excited  by the sight of
murderous Aveapons, by favorable opportunities of accomplishing the
act,  by contradiction, disgust, or  some other equally trivial and  even
imaginary circumstance.
   III. The victims of the homicidal monomaniac are mostly either en-
tirely unknown or indifferent to him, or they are among his most loved
and  cherished objects;  and it is remarkable how often they are child-
ren, and, especially so,  his own offspring.
   IV.  While the greater  number deplore the  terrible propensity by
which  they are controlled,  and  beg to be subjected to restraint, a few
diligently conceal it, or if they avow it, declare their murderous designs,
and  form divers schemes for putting them in execution, testifying no
sentiment of  remorse or grief.
   V. The most of them having gratified their  propensity to kill, vol-
untarily confess the act, and quietly give  themselves up to the proper
authorities, a very  few, only—and these, to an  intelligent observer,
show the strongest indications of insanity—fly, and persist in denying
the act.
   VI.  While the criminal act itself is, in some instances, the only indi-
cation  of insanity,—the individual appearing rational, as far as can be
learned, both before  and after the act,—in  others, it is followed or pre-
ceded,  or both, by strange  behaviour, if not open and decided insanity.
(d) Ray on Insanity, pp. 204, 205. 
tests by which it is to be tried.
153
   VII. Some plead insanity in  defence of their conduct, or an entire
 ignorance  of what they did;  others deny that they labor under any
 such condition, and, at most, acknowledge only a perturbation of mind.(e)
   More simple, though  scarcely less efficacious, are the indicia given by
 Taylor :—                     t
   1.  The acts of homicide have generally been preceded by other strik-
 ing peculiarities of conduct in the individual, often by a total change of
 character.
   2.  They have in many instances,  previously  or subsequently, at-
 tempted suicide,—they have expressed a wish to  die or to be executed
 as criminals.
   These supposed criteria have  been repeatedly and very properly re-
jected Avhen tendered as  medical proofs of insanity in courts of law.
 They are of too vague a nature,  and apply as much to cases of  moral
 depravity as of actual  insanity; in short, if these were admitted  as
proofs, they would serve as convenient shelter from punishment of many
 criminals.
   3.  These acts are without motive: they  are in opposition to all hu-
 man motives.   A man  known to have been  tenderly attached to his
 wife and children, murders them: a fond mother destroys her infant.(/)
   § 191. It would be improper, hoAvever, to pass from this head without
 giving place to the very decided protest, by Dr. Mayo, against the inde-
 pendent recognition of the propensity at all.  " I may observe," he says,
 "that the  theory of either moral or  impulsive insanity  is too liable,
 for anything that Dr. Pritchard  has suggested, to occasion the sudden
 outbreaks of the brutal character—a character under rapid development,
 at present, in the lower orders of the country, to find refuge under this
plea.   Such was the application of it which, some years ago, protected
the Honorable Mr.  Touchet from the penal consequences of a great
crime.  That gentleman put to death,  by a pistol-shot, the marker of a
shooting-gallery.  The  act was sudden, and there  was no apparent mo-
tive ;  but it was not performed under any semblance of delirium.   Mr.
Touchet was eccentric, and he was blase.  He fancied that he desired to
be hanged,—at the gallows he would probably have thought differently
—and he was reckless and brutal enough  to give himself a chance of
this fate, at the expense of the life of a fellow creature.  I have noticed
him since,  in the criminal department of Bedlam, insouciant and  indif-
ferent enough, but certainly  not  insane in any sense of the word that
Avould not  entirely disintegrate its meaning;  neither when we proceed
to consider the sense which the law intends to give to the expression of
the certificate—'unsoundness'—shall we find  this  epithet  at all  more
appropriate to Mr. Touchet's case, which was simply one of brutal reck-
lessness.  With  respect to the misapplication of the plea of insanity
to hysteria, we have the  case of a nursery-maid,  placed in Bethlehem
Hospital in 1846.   A trifling  disappointment, relative to an article  of
dress, had  produced in her  a wayward state of mind.   She labored,
at the time, under diminished catamenia.   An object to which she was
generally much attached  came in her Avay, namely, the  infant Avhom
she had nursed, and she destroyed it, as a fanciful child  breaks,  in its

  (c) Ray on Insanity, pp. 229, 230.            (/) Taylor's Med. Jur., p. 578. 
154
HOMICIDAL INSANITY.
moodiness, a favorite doll.   No  fact more nearly approaching to de-
lirium than the above, Avas stated  in exculpation or excuse at the trial.
But Dr. Pritchard's Avork on the different forms of Insanity, in relation
to Jurisprudence, Avas published  in 1842;  and, by 1846,  juries had
learned to convert the uncontrolled influences of temper into Avhat  he
terms Instinctive Insanity."
   " As an instance of this class of cases in which the judicial authorities
came  rightly to  a very different conclusion, I will quote  to you the
folloAving  one, from Sir Woodbine Parrish's last Avork on Buenos Ayres.
Having spoken of a  certain wind occasional in that climate, Avhich in
some persons produces peculiar irritability and ill-humor almost amount-
ing to a  disorder of their moral  faculties, he proceeds as folloAvs:—
" Some years ago, Juan Antonio  Garcia  aged between thirty-five and
forty, was executed for murder at Buenos Ayres.   He was a person of
some  education, and  rather  remarkable for the civility and amenity of
his manners; his countenance open, his disposition generous.  When
this vento-norte—this peculiar north wind set in, he appeared to  loose
all command over himself; and such became his irritability, that during
its continuance  he  was  engaged in  continual quarrels and  acts of
violence.   Before his execution, he admitted that it was the third man
he had killed, besides being  engaged in various fights with  knives.
When he arose  from his bed in the morning, he told Sir Woodbine's
informant, he was always aware at once of its accursed influence upon
him; a dull headache first, and then  a feeling of impatience at every-
thing  about him.  If he went abroad his headache generally  became
worse; a  heavy weight  seemed  to hang over his temples.  He saw
objects as it were, through a cloud, and was hardly conscious Avhere he
went.   He was fond of play, and if, in such a mood, a gambling house
was in his way, he seldom resisted the temptation.   Once there, a turn
of ill luck would so irritate him, that he Avould probably iusult some one
of the bystanders; if he met with any one disposed to resent his  abuse
they seldom parted  without bloodshed.   The relations of  Garcia cor-
roborated this account, and added that no  sooner  had the cause of
 excitement passed away, than he would deplore and endeavor to repair
the  effects of his infirmity.  ' The medical man,' says Sir Woodbine,
 'who  gave me this  account,  attended him  in  his last moments and
 expressed great anxiety to save his life, under the impression that he
 was hardly to  be accounted a reasonable being.'   'But,' he adds, 'to
 have admitted that  plea, Avould  have led to the necessity of confining
 half the  population  of the  city Avhen the wind sets in.'  I  quite agree
 with the  conclusion which this remark implies, as to the fate of Garcia.
 He was himself aware of the murderous instinct to which he Avas liable,
 and  of its exciting  causes.  Surely  when  such knowledge is in  the
 possession of the delinquent, he must be made responsible for the non-
 avoidance of exciting causes." (g)
   The subject of homicidal mania as  developed in the puerperal state
 will  be  considered in a subsequent section.(gg)

   (g) Mayo on Medical Testimony in Lunacy, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62.
   (gg) See post, g 239, ante, \ 53, 57. 
KLEPTOMANIA.
155
          (2.) Kleptomania.{h)—(Morbid propensity to steal.)

   § 192. Kleptomania, occurs not unfrequently as a symptom in mania,
 and the mental confusion incidental to it, and in depression and deli-
 rium, in which its consideration will involve less difficulty.   But where
 it occurs in  cases  of  concealed insanity, its discovery  is not easy.
 Ellinger (i) gives the folloAving practical directions :
   1. In the  earlier developments of mania,  kleptomania is an impor-
 tant symptom;  it will however be found accompanied, more or less, by
 other symptoms of  incipient derangement,  such as a general alteration
 in the accustomed mode of feeling, thinking, occupation and life of the
 individual, a  disposition  to scold, dispute and quarrel, to drink and to
 wander about busily doing nothing, and the bodily signs of  excitement
 (restlessness, want of sleep, rapid pulse, &c.)
   2. Kleptomania  continues  after the disease,  to all external appear-
 ance has ceased.  Here the disease also has not yet terminated, which
 can only be indicated by a return of the original state of thought and
 feeling.   (This calls for  a continued course of  observation by the ex-
 amining physician.)
   3. There are distinct but occult hallucinations at work.  These are
 to be assumed the more  readily, the more  bizarre and exclusive is the
 desire to steal, and  the more the objects to  which it is confined, are out
 of  proportion to  the property of the  thief; and particular attention
 should be paid to the  existence,  present or past, of other symptoms of
 insanity.
   4. Antomatic impulses, such as  the cravings of pregnant women,
 actuate the  perpetrators, which become the more  probable, the more
 strongly reason revolts at and  abhors the deed, the more inconsider-
 able and grotesque the peculations, the more promptly the stolen arti-
 cles are returned, and the more other morbid symptoms are apparent in
 the body and the mind when the deed is committed.
   " There are persons," says Dr. Rush, "who are moral to the highest
 degree as to certain duties, but who, nevertheless, live under the influ-
 ence of  some one vice.   In one instance,  a woman was exemplary in
 her  obedience to  every  command of the moral law, except one,—she
 couM not refrain from stealing.  What made this vice more remarkable
 was, that she was in easy circumstances, and not addicted  to extrava-
 gance  in anything.  Such was  the propensity to this vice, that Avhen
 she could lay her hands on nothing more valuable, she  would often at
 the table of a friend, fill her pockets  secretly with bread.  She both
 confessed and lamented her crime."  "Cases like this," says Dr. Ray,
 " are so common, that they must  have  come within the personal know-
 ledge of  every reader who has seen much of the world, so that it will
 be unnecessary to  mention them more particularly. ^ It would be diffi-
 cult to  prove directly,  that  this propensity,  continuing  as  it does
throughout a whole life,  and in  a state of  apparently perfect health,
is, notwithstanding,  a consequence of  diseased or  abnormal action in

  (K) See Med. Leg. M. Orfila.  Tome I. p. 364. Paris, 1848.—Etudes  Cliniques des Ma-
ladies Mentales. M. Morel. Tome I. p. 319. Paris, 1854.—See ante, \ 106, as to hereditary
tendency to steal.
  (i) I. a. W. P. 159. 
156
KLEPTOMANIA.
the brain, but the presumptive evidence in favor of this explanation is
certainly  strong.  First, it is very often observed  in abnormal con-
formations of the head, and  accompanied  by an imbecile condition of
the understanding.   Gall and Spurzheim saw in the prison of Berne,
a boy twelve years old, Avho could  never refrain from stealing.  He is
described  as 'ill-organized and rickety.'  At Hainau they were shoAvn
an obstinate robber, whom no  corporeal punishment could correct.   He
appeared about sixteen years of age, though he Avas in fact twenty-six ;
his head was round, and about the size of a child's one year old.   He
was  also  deaf and dumb, a common accompaniment of mental imbe-
cility.   An instructive case has been lately recorded, in which  this
propensity seemed to be the result of a rickety and  scrofulous consti-
tution.  Secondly, this propensity to steal is not unfrequently observed
in undoubted mania.   Pinel says it is  a matter of common observation,
that some maniacs, who, in their lucid intervals, are justly considered
models of probity, cannot refrain  from stealing  and cheating during
the paroxysm.   Gall mentions the  case of two citizens of Vienna, who,
on  becoming  insane, were distinguished in the hospital for an extra-
ordinary propensity to steal,  though previously they  had lived irre-
proachable  lives.  They wandered over the house  from morning  to
night, picking up whatever they could lay their hands upon,—straw,
rags, clothes, wood,  etc., which  they carefully concealed  in their
room."(y)
   § 193.  The individuality of Kleptomania,  (Stehltrieb,)  is  demon-
strated  by the remarkable degree to which it prevails among epileptics
of all classes and conditions.   Dr. Erhardt(&) enumerates many cases
where these unhappy sufferers have been possessed  with irrepressible
desires  to  appropriate  to themselves whatever they could secretly lay
their hands on, valuable or not.   And generally with regard to  the
moral responsibility of epileptics, it is important to observe, says  the
same judicious author, that even after  attacks have been for months
suspended, the mind  is in a Condition of disorganization which should
properly divert  from it the application of those severe rules which
apply to minds perfectly sound.(I)
   § 194.  Gall, says  Dr. Ray,  met  with four  examples of women who,
when pregnant, were violently impelled to steal, though perfectly up-
right at other times.    Friedreich gives the case of a pregnant woman
who, otherwise perfectly honest  and respectable,  suddenly conceived a
violent longing for some apples from  a particular  orchard, tAvo or three
miles distant.  Notwithstanding the entreaties of her parents and  hus-
band not  to risk her  character and health, and their promises to  pro-
cure the apples for her in the  morning, she started off in company with
her  husband, at  nine o'clock of a cold September night, and was  de-
tected  by the owner in the act of stealing apples.  She was tried and
convicted of theft, but subsequently a medical commission was appoint-
ed by the Supreme Court to examine  and report upon her case.  Their

  {j) Ray on insanity, 189, 190, 191; see ante,  \ 106.
  (k) Ueber Zurechungsf ahigkeit der Epileptischen.
  (I) See also Boileau de  Castlenau De l'epilepsie dans ses rapports avec l'alienation
mentale, consideres au point de vue medico-judiciare.  Annales  d' Hygiene publ. et de
Medecine Leg. Avril, 1852, No. 94. 
MORBID THIEVING PROPENSITY.
157
inquiries  resulted in the opinion  that she was  not morally free, and
consequently not legally responsible Avhile under the influence of those
desires peculiar to pregnancy; adding, that if Eve had been in the con-
dition of  the  accused when  she plucked the forbidden  fruit  from the
tree, the curse of original sin would never have fallen on the  race."(m)
  Fodere' tells us that he has often witnessed an irresistible propensity
to steal,  even in persons well educated, and who, during infancy, have
often been chastised for this vice.   They had conceived, in consequence,
the greatest horror for  it, yet, in riper age, could not prevent  them-
selves, when opportunity occurred, of indulging it.(rc)  " I had a female
servant," he  adds,  "who was a very good  Christian, very wise and
very modest, but who could  not prevent herself  from stealing in secret
from myself and others, even the most trifling things, though aware of
the turpitude of the action.   I sent her to the hospital as mad;  after a
long time, appearing to be  reclaimed, she was restored to  her place
among the other servants;  by little and little, in spite of herself, the
instinct  returned;  and  being distracted on the one  hand by the evil
propensity, and on the other by the horror which she felt of it, she fell
into an  access of mania, and suddenly died in the violence of a pa-
roxysm."
   " The propensity to steal  in magpies, and other domesticated  birds,"
says  Dr. Millingen,(o) " is  daily observed, and we have  numerous ex-
amples to prove that acquired instincts  become  hereditary in many
animals.   This fact is  illustrated  in various races  of dogs.   Roulin
relates that the dogs  employed for hunting deer in some parts of
Mexico,  seize the  animal by the belly, and  overturn  it by a  sudden
effort, taking advantage of the moment when the body of the deer rests
only upon the fore legs: the weight of the  animal thus thrown over
being often six times that of its antagonist.  The dog of pure breed
inherits  this disposition, and never attacks the  deer from before while
running; even should the deer, not perceiving him, come directly upon
him, the dog slips  aside and makes his assault on the flank; when as
other  hunting dogs, though of superior strength and general sagacity,
which are brought from Europe, are destitute of this instinct."(j?)
   Very  recently, (April 1855,) a trial, involving the defence of Klep-
tomania, has been the cause of much discussion by the London press.
Mrs. R., the wife of a  physician of rank  and  affluence, was detected
in secreting some French cambric handkerchiefs in the shop of a respect-
able haberdasher.    The jury were unable to agree, and  the Times, in
discussing the case, made the following statement:
   "It is an  instance of that not  very uncommon monomania, which
leads  persons, otherwise estimable  and well  conducted,  to pilfer arti-
cles of a trifling value, in obedience to the impulses of a diseased imagi-
nation.   The  fact is notorious, that many persons  of high rank and
ample means have been affected with this strange disorder.   Every one

  (m) Ray on Insanity, pp. 192-3.
  in) For other cases, vide Miinchmeyer in Henke's Zeitschrift, Vol. XLIX. p. 350; Diet.
des Sciences Medicales, Tome XIV. Art. Femme, p. 624, and Art. Grossesse; Prager,
Vierteljahrschrift, V. 30. Bd.  2, p.  121.
  (o) Mind and Matter, p. 22, 23.
  (p) Roulin, Annales des Sciences Naturelles, Tome XVI. p. 16, 1829; see as to heredi-
tary Kleptomania, \ 106. 
158
PYROMANIA.
 who is acquainted with London  society could at once furnish a dozen
 names of ladies who have been notorious  for  abstracting articles of
 trifling value from the shops where they habitually dealt.   Their modus
 operandi was so well knoAvn, that  on their  return  from their  drives,
 their relatives took care to ascertain the  nature  of their  paltry pecula-
 tions, inquired from the  coachman the houses  at which  he had been
 ordered  to stop; and, as a matter of course,  reimbursed the tradesmen
 to the full  value  of the  pilfered goods.  In other cases, a  hint Avas
 given to the various shopkeepers at Avhose houses those  monomaniacs
 made their purchases, and they were simply foreAvarned to notice what
 was  taken aAvay, and to furnish the bill, Avhich was paid as soon as fur-
 nislied—and, as a matter of course, by the pilferer herself, without any
 feeling of shame or  emotion of any kind."

          (3.) Pyromania, (Morbid incendiary propensity.)

   §  195. An independent  symptom of this kind may have as little sub-
 stantive  existence as homicidal monomania, but it will remain, never-
 theless  observable as a symptom of the  disease in  cases of  insanity.
 In investigating such cases, the following  points should be kept in view:
  (a.) In persons who have passed the age of puberty, whether there is
 not depression or partial insanity at bottom, Avhether the individual was
 not overcome and impelled to the deed by a nameless dread which he
 could not dispel, or  by some crazy notion before concealed.
  (b.) In persons just arrived at the age of puberty.  Here  the state
 of development  in general, and  in  particular that of the  mind,  of the
 whole body, and of  the sexual organs, must be accurately weighed and
 estimated with special reference to age and sex, education and mode of
 life  as experience teaches that the  irregularities of  every kind which
 here occur, (such as accelerated and impeded  growth, unusual prostra-
 tion  and fatigue of  the limbs, Avith painful sensations not produced by
 adequate visible causes, swellings of the glands, anomalies in menstru-
 ation, cramps and other nervous attacks, and  particularly irritations of
 mind ) exert the most important influence on the growth  and  increase
 of certain desires and inclinations, and easily impair  the power of self-
 control.   These transition states acquire a particular significance when
 accompanied by home-sickness, which, without necessarily  attaining the
 height of complete  melancholy, and when only beyond  the  ordinary
 degree of development, is sufficient  to mislead the poor tortured, half-
 groAvn child to the  last  extremes of action,—not to arson alone, but
 to murder,—particularly the poisoning of children.
  (c.)  Where the individual is yet in infancy.  Here, in the absence of
reason reflection,  and religious and moral culture, a childish curiosity
generally furnishes the motive, more  rarely,  a grudge, anger,  or re-
venge • but physical and mental or moral causes  may also be  at  work
independently or as auxiliaries, (q)  Tender years are sufficient, in such
cases, to exclude the idea of criminal responsibility, (r)
  iq) Uiinnger, xu. mo.
  (r) Compare on the subject of Pyromania, Casper, Denkwuerdigkeiten der medizinschen
Statistik und Staatsarzneikunde. Berlin, 1846, p. 251. 
MORBID INCENDIARY PROPENSITY.
159
  § 196. "A morbid propensity to incendiarism, or pyromania, as it
has been termed, Avhere the person, though  otherwise rational," says
Ray, "is borne  on by an irresistible poAver to the commission  of this
crime, has received the attention of medical jurists in Europe, by most
of whom it has been  regarded as a distinct form of insanity, annulling
responsibility for the acts to which it leads.  Numerous cases have been
related, and their medico-legal relations amply discussed by Platner,
Vogel, Masius,  Henke, Gall, Marc, Friedreich, and others.   In a few
of these cases the morbid propensity is excited by the  ordinary causes
of insanity; in  a larger class it is excited by  that constitutional distur-
bance which often accompanies the menstrual periods ; but in the larger
class of all, it occurs at the age of puberty, and seems to be  connected
with retarded evolution of the  sexual organs.  The case of Maria Franc,
quoted by Gall  from a German journal, who  was executed for  house-
burning, may be referred to the first class.   She was a peasant of little
education, and in consequence of an unhappy marriage, had abandoned
herself to habits of intemperate drinking.   In this state a fire occurred
in which she had no share.   From  the moment she witnessed this
fearful sight, she felt a desire  to fire houses,  which, whenever she had
drunk a few copper's worth of spirits,  was converted into an irresistible
impulse.  She could give no other reason nor show  any other  motive
for firing  so many houses, than this impulse which drove  her to it.
NotAvithstanding the fear, the terror, and the  repentance  she  felt in
every instance,  she  went and did it  afresh.  In other respects her
mind was sound.   Within five years she  fired twelve houses, and was
arrested on the thirteenth attempt, "(s)
  The extent to which this mischievous propensity exists can  only be
determined by a very careful examination of  local statistics.
  " There is another class of  incendiary fires," says a late number of
the London Quarterly Review, " which arise  from a species  of mono-
mania in boys and girls.   Not  many years ago the men of the  Fire
Brigade were occupied for hours in putting out no less than half  a dozen
fires which broke out, one after another, in a  house in West Smithfield:
and it was  at last discovered that they were occasioned by a youth who
went  about with lucifer matches, and slily  ignited every thing  that
would burn.  He was caught in the act of firing a curtain  in the very
room in which a fireman was  occupied in putting out a blaze.   A still
more extraordinary case took  place in the year 1848, at Torluck House,
in the Isle of Mull.   On Sunday, the 11th of November, the curtains of
a bed were ignited, as it was  supposed, by lightning;  a windoAv-blind
followed;  and immediately afterwards the curtains of five rooms broke
out, one after  another, into a flame; even the towels hanging up in
the kitchen were burnt.  The next day a bed took fire, and it  being
thought advisable to carry the bed-linen  into  the coach-house for safety,
it caught fire three or four times during the process  of removal.   In a
few days  the phenomenon  was renewed.  The furniture, books, and
every thing else of an inflammable nature were, with much labor, taken
from the mansion, and again some body-linen burst into a flame on the
way.   Even after these precautions had been taken, and persons had
(«) Ray on Insanity, pp. 197, 198. 
160
PYROMANIA.
been  set to watch in every part of the house, the  mysterious  fires
continued to haunt it until the  22d of February,  1849.   It Avas sus-
pected from the first that they were the act of an incendiary, and upon
a rigid examination of the household before the Fiscal  General and the
Sheriff, the mischief Avas traced to the daughter of the housekeeper, a
young girl on  a visit  to  her  mother.   She  had effected  her purpose,
which was perfectly motiveless,  by concealing combustibles in different
parts of the house."(0
  § 197. " This plea," we are told  by Taylor, "has  been already ad-
mitted in English Law,(w) but chiefly in those instances in which there
was strong reason to suspect intellectual aberration.  In one recent
case,(w) the prisoner was convicted on  the  principle that although of
weak intellect, she knew right from wrong.(w)  Among several impor-
tant trials in which this plea has been urged in  defence, the one most
interesting to  the medical jurist is that of James Gibson,  tried before
the High Court of Justiciary, Edinburgh,(a:) of A\\bich a very full report
will be found in Cormack's Edinburgh Journal, February, 1845, p. 141.
The prisoner was charged with setting fire to certain premises, and the
defence chiefly rested upon the allegation that he was in a state of mind
which rendered him irresponsible for the act.  The  medical evidence
was generally in  favor of the insanity.  The Lord Justice Clerk, (Hope,)
in a very elaborate charge to the jury, laid down for their guidance most
of the legal propositions Avhich have been already discussed under homi-
cidal mania.   He remarked that they Avere " not to  consider  insanity
according to the  definitions of medical men,  especially such fantastic
and shoAvy definitions as are found in Ray, whose  work was quoted by
the counsel for the panel, and in many other medical works on the sub-
ject.   He adopted Mr. Alison's  view that the consciousness of right and
wrong must be applied to the particular act, and not to  crime in the
abstract.  The duty of deciding on this question is with the jury;  it is
not to be delegated to medical men, and by relying upon their OAvn judg-
ment, their decisions would be nearer the truth than that of any body of
medical witnesses."   The jury negatived the plea, and the prisoner was
sentenced to transportation for  fourteen years."(y)
   An extraordinary instance of pyromania may be  found in the case of
Jonathan Martin, who fancied himself to be deputed from God to burn
down the Cathedral  of  York, in order  to do away with the heresies
which he supposed to exist in the church.(z)
   § 198. The following considerations, laid down  by  Ilencke, and
adopted by Marc, are recommended to us by the  additional authority
of Dr. Ray:
   1. To prove the existence of pyromania, produced by the sexual evo-
lution, the  age should  correspond  with that  of puberty, which is  be-
tween twelve  and fifteen.  Sometimes, however, it may occur, especially
in females, as early  as the seventh or tenth year, and, therefore, if  the


  (f) London Quarterly Review, January, 1855, p. 11.
  (w) See cases Med. Gaz. XII. p. 80.
  (v) Reg. v. White, Wilts Summer Ass. 1846.
  (w) See Ann d'Hyg. 1833, II. 357; 1834, II. 94.            (x) Dec. 23, 1844,
   Oj) Taylor,'s Med. Jur. 595.                           (z) Ibid. p. 595. 
MORBID INCENDIARY PROPENSITY.
161
symptoms are well  marked, we have a right to attribute them to this
cause.
   2.  There should  be present symptoms of irregular development;  of
marked critical movements, by means of which nature seeks to complete
the evolution.  These general signs are, either a rapid increase of stature,
or a less growth and sexual development than is common for the age
of the individual;  an unusual lassitude and sense of Aveight and pain in
the limbs, glandular SAvellings, cutaneous eruptions, &c.
   3.  If, within a short time of the incendiary act, there are symptoms
of development in the sexual organs, such as efforts of menstruation in
girls, they deserve the greatest attention.  They will strongly confirm
the conclusions that might be drawn from the other symptoms, that the
work of evolution disturbed the  functions of  the brain.  Any irregu-
larity whatever of the menstrual discharge, is a fact of the greatest im-
portance in determining the mental condition of incendiary girls.
   4.  Symptoms of  disturbance in the circulating  system, such as irre-
gularity of the pulse, determination of blood to the head, pains in the
head, vertigo, stupor, a sense of oppression and  distress in the chest,
are indicative in young subjects of an  arrest or disturbance  of the de-
velopment of the sexual functions, and therefore require attention.
   5.  For the same  reason symptoms of disturbance in the nervous sys-
tem, such as trembling, involuntary motion of the muscles, spasms and
convulsions of evTery kind,  even  to  epilepsy,  are  no  less  worthy  of
attention.
   6.  Even in the absence  of all other symptoms, derangement of the in-
tellectual or moral powers, would be strong proof, in these cases, of the
existence of pyromania. Of the two, the latter is  far the more common,
and is indicated by a change in the moral character.   The patient is
sometimes  irascible, quarrelsome, at others, sad, silent, and weeping,
without the slightest motive.  He seems  to be  buried in  a profound
revery, and suddenly starts up in a fright, cries out in his sleep, &c.
These symptoms may have disappeared and reappeared, or degenerated
at last into intellectual mania.
   7.  The absence of positive symptoms of mental disorder, as well  as
the presence of those which appear to show that the reason is sound, is
not incompatible with the loss of moral liberty.   The remarks of Marc
on this  point deserve to be quoted in full: " Even when, previously to
the incendiary act,  they have shown no evident trace of mental aliena-
tion, and been capable of  attending to their customary duties ; when, on
their examinations, they have answered pertinently to questions addressed
to them ;  Avhen they have avowed that they were  influenced  by a desire
of revenge ; Ave cannot conclude with  certainty, that they were in pos-
session  of  all their  moral liberty, and that, consequently, they should
incur the  full  penalty of  the crime.   These  unfortunates  may be
governed by a single fixed  idea,  not discovered till after the execution
of the criminal act.  Pyromania, resulting from a  pathological cause,
may increase in severity, as this cause itself is aggravated, and suddenly
be converted into  an irresistible propensity, immediately followed by
its gratification, "(a)

                     (a) Ray on Insanity, pp. 201-203.
       11 
162
AIDOIOMANIA.
  The theory  that  pyromania  (Brandstiftungstrieb) is often  a con-
comitant of the  first  development of puberty, has led to  a  series of
very interesting disquisitions by Landsberg.(J)

           (4.)  Aidoiomania(c) (Morbid Sexual Propensity.)

  § 199.  Marc gives the name of  aidoiomania to the excess  of the
sexual impulse, Avhich is called  satyriasis when  it occurs in the male,
and nymphomania, or uteromania, in the female.  This abnormal pro-
pensity occurs  as a symptom of  mania, lunacy, and depression,  as well
as of  imbecility with maniacal excitements, but  is also found coupled
with freedom of  reason and of  self-control; in which  case, of  course,
the responsibility  of  the  agent is  not  suspended.  How far  the
court, in admeasuring the punishment, is to allow for the circumstance
that the individual was carried away in an extraordinary manner by the
physical impulse and the external incitement, is a matter which  will be
considered in future sections, (d)
  § 200. " Morbid activity of the sexual propensity," says Dr. Ray, "is
unfortunately of such common occurrence, that  it has been generally
noticed by medical writers, though its medico-legal importance has never
been  so strongly felt as it deserves.   This affection, in a state of the
most  unbridled excitement, filling the mind  with  a croAvd of voluptuous
images, and ever hurrying its victims to acts of the grossest licentious-
ness,  though  without any lesion  of the intellectual  powers, is now
known and described by the name of aidoiomania.   We cannot  convey
a better notion of  the phenomena of this disorder, than by quoting a
few examples from Gall, by  whom it was first extensively observed and
its true nature discovered.   Its milder forms and early stages, A\Then
not beyond the control of medical and  moral treatment, are illustrated
in the following cases :—
   "A robust  and plethoric young man  came  to reside  in Vienna.
Having no liaisons, he was unusually continent,  and  was soon attacked
with  erotic mania.    Gall,  pursuing  the treatment indicated  by  his
peculiar views  of the origin  of the disease,  succeeded in restoring  him
in a few days to perfect health.
   " A well educated, clever  young man, who, from his infancy  almost,
had felt strong erotic impulses, succeeded in controlling them to a cer-
tain extent by  means of  equally strong devotional feelings.  After his
situation permitted him to  indulge without  constraint in the pleasures
of love, he soon made the  fearful discovery, that it was often difficult
for him to withdraw his mind from the voluptuous images that haunted
  (b) Ueber die Feuerschausucht, Hermann Vezin, (Aerztlichcs Obergutachten Uber den
Gemiithszustand der sich wegen Brandstiftung in  Untersuchung befindenen,); Honing,
(Die Lehre vom krankhaften Brandstiftungstriebe,); and Meding, (Ein Nachtrag zu dem
Gespenst des Brandstiftungstriebes).   See an interesting case of pyromania  in State
v. Greenwood, reported in 5 Am. Journ. of Insan. 237.
  (c) Siebold's Gericht. Med. \ 210.  An interesting case of Uterine Furor will  be found
in El. v. Siebold's Journ.  Vol. VI. p.  943.  See also a case in Henke's Zeitschr. 41,
p.  393. A very able essay on Nymphomania will be  found in Diet, des Sciences.  Med.
von Louyer.  Villermay.  Tome XXXVI. p. 561.
  (d)  Post, \ 259—276.  On the subject of monomania and its species, compare Fried-
reich,  "Handbuch der  gerichtlichen Psychologic" where the literature bearing on the
subject is to be found at large. 
MORBID SEXUAL PROPENSITY.                 163
it, and fix it on the important and even urgent concerns of his busi-
ness.  His Avhole  being Avas  absorbed in sensuality.    He  obtained
relief by an assiduous  pursuit of scientific objects, and by finding  out
new occupations."(e)
 ^ Pinel has related a very similar case: "A man had creditably filled
his  place in society till his fiftieth year.   He was then smitten with an
immoderate passion for venereal pleasures ; he frequented  places of
debauchery, where he gave himself up to the utmost excesses, and then
returned to the society of his friends, to paint the charms of pure and
spotless love.  His disorder gradually increased; his seclusion became
necessary ; and he soon became a victim of furious mania."
  §201.  "Many more cases like  these might be quoted,"  continues
Dr. Ray,  in commenting on the above, " particularly from the writings
of Esquirol, Georget, and Marc, but the above are sufficient  to illus-
trate a truth, as generally recognized as any other in pathology, and to
convince the most sceptical mind, that if insanity,—or, in more explicit
terms, morbid action  in  the brain inducing  a deprivation of moral
liberty,—ever exists, it does in what is called aidoiomania."(/)
  Under this  head may be considered those cases of morbid erotic im-
pulses which spend themselves on unnatural objects.  The more common
of these are those  which the  domestic history of classic antiquity makes
familiar to us, and which  St. Paul adverts to so forcibly in the first
chapter of the Epistle to the Romans.  To what extent these unnatural
passions were  carried is  illustrated by the paintings in at least one of
the exhumed chambers of Pompeii.   And recent trials have shown, that
if the same morbid developments are less numerous at the present day,
they are at least equally eccentric.
  Some years since the town of Leipsic was startled by the fact that a
number of young  girls had  been assaulted in the  streets, by a man
wrapped in a cloak, who struck  a  lancet in their arms, just  above
the elbow, and then vanished.   It  was a long time  before the perpe-
trator was discovered.   When he was at last detected and put on trial,
it turned out that  he had been impelled to these outrages by a morbid
sexual impulse,—that  the incision of the lancet had been accompanied
with seminal emission,—and that his whole existence had become ab-
sorbed in  the alternate excitement  and depression which preceded and
succeeded the  act.(#)
  The same state of facts was developed  in the trial in London of  a
man named Williams, for a similar  species of assault.(A)
  Still more startling were the exposures attending  the trial of a ser-
geant in  the  French  army, in 1848.  For some time previous, dead
bodies had been  exhumed and  had  been torn  to pieces  at or near  the
graves.   On  closer inspection the horrible fact was  disclosed that
sexual connection  had been  attempted with the female corpses.   The
guilty party turned out to have been a young man scarcely.twenty-
five, of prepossessing  manner and appearance, and otherwise respect-
able character.  The psychological features were the same  as in  the

  (e) Ray on Insanity, p. 195.                 (/) Ray on Insanity, pp. 196, 197.
  (g) Wharton's Cr. Law, (3d ed.) 383.
  (h) Lawyer's Magazine.  London, 1792. Vol. II. p. 351. 
164
PSEUDONOMANIA.
 preceding cases.   The act Avas preceded by uncontrollable excitement,
 and followed by great exhaustion, (i)
   Fodere tells us, that a young monk, Avho, in travelling, happened to
 lodge in a house Avhere  a young girl, who Avas thought dead, had just
 been laid out, and offered to pass the night in the chamber where the coffin
 was and to watch the dead.  During the night having uncovered it for
 the purpose of examination, and still finding in her countenance some
 traces of beauty, he determined to satisfy his lust, although the object
 was not in a  condition for exciting desire.   Nevertheless  he  satis-
 fied himself, and  departed early in the  morning.  The dead person
 came to life, however, the next day, and nine months afterAvards had a
 child,  to the great astonishment of  herself  and parents.   The monk
 about  this time arrived in  the  same place, and  avowed  himself the
 parent  of  the child, and  married the  mother after throwing off the
 vows, which he proved he had been  forced to pronounce.
   The  following  fact, taken from Brierre de Boismont,  shows a more
 permanent perversion and reveals a settled  pathologic condition:  A
 man was arrested in a small town for a  crime Avhich no one believed,
 but which,  however, was proved  at the trial.   A young  girl,  16 years
 old, belonging to one of  the first families of  the  town, had just died.
 A part of the  night had passed, Avhen the noise of a piece of  furniture
 falling, in the room Avhere the dead person lay, was  heard.   The mother,
 whose  chamber Avas next to  it, immediately ran there, and in entering
 saAV a man  escaping  in his shirt from the bed of  her daughter.   Her
 fright caused her to  utter loud  cries which brought around her all the
 persons  of the household.   They seized  the  intruder, who appeared
 almost insensible to every thing passing around him, and Avho ansAvered
 but confusedly to the questions addressed him.  The first idea Avas that
 it Avas a robber; but  his dress and certain signs directed suspicion in
 another direction, and it was soon perceived  that the young girl had
 been deflowered and  polluted several times.   It was proved that  the
 guard had been bribed, and soon other revelations  showed that this Avas
 not the first time the patient, who had received a good education, was
 in easy circumstances, and belonged  to a good family, had performed
 the act.  The trial proved, that he had frequently  before gained access
 to the  bed  of young dead women, and there given himself up to  his
 detestable passion.(j)


          (5.)  Pseudonomania (Morbid Lying Propensity.)

  § 202. " There are many instances of persons of sound understand-
 ings,  and some of  uncommon talents," says Dr. Rush,  "who  are
 affected witli this lying disease in the will.  It differs from exculpative,
fraudulent, and malicious lying, in  being influenced by none of  the
motives of any of them.   Persons thus diseased cannot speak the truth
upon any subject, nor tell the same story twice in the same Avay, nor  de-
scribe any thing as it has happened to other people.   Their falsehoods

 (i) Journal of Psychological Med.  Vol. II. p. 577.
 (J) See Renaudin sur les Maladies Mentales, p. 764.  Paris, 1854. 
MORBID LYING PROPENSITY.
165
are seldom calculated to injure any body but themselves, being for the
most part of a hyperbolical or boasting nature ;  but now and then they
are of a mischievous nature, and injurious to the characters and pro-
perty of others.   That it is a  corporal disease I infer from its some-
times appearing in mad people who are remarkable for veracity in the
healthy states of their minds, several instances  of which I have knoAvn
in the Pennsylvania Hospital.   Persons affected with this disease are
often amiable in their tempers and manners, and sometimes benevolent
and charitable  in  their dispositions.   Lying as a vice is  said to be in-
curable.   The  same thing may be said of it  as a  disease,  when it
appears in adult life.  It is generally the result of defective  education.
It is  voluntary in childhood, and becomes involuntary,  like  certain
muscular actions, from habit.   Its only remedy  is bodily pain, inflicted
by the rod, or confinement, or abstinence from food;  for children are
incapable of being permanently influenced by appeals to reason, natural
affection, gratitude, or even a sense of shame."(&)
   § 203.  "An inordinate propensity to lying," Dr.  Ray tells us, "is
also of no common occurrence in society; and  most of the readers of
this work have  probably met with instances of it in people whose morals
in other respects  were irreproachable, and Avhose education  had not
been neglected.   The maxim of Jeremy Bentham, that it is easier for
men to speak the truth, and therefore they are  more  inclined to do so
than to utter falsehood, seems,  in  them, to be completely reversed, for
they find nothing more  difficult than to tell the  truth.   In repeating a
story which they have heard from others, they are sure to embellish it
with exaggerations and additions, till it can scarcely be recognized,
and are never known to tell the same story twice alike.   Not even is
the slightest groundwork  of truth necessary, in  order to  call forth the
inventions of perverted minds; for they as often Aoav spontaneously,
in the greatest  profusion, as when based on some little foundation in
fact.  This propensity  seems to result from an inability to  tell the
truth, rather than from any other cause; as it can  be  traced to no
adequate  motive,  and is  often  indulged  when  truth  would serve the
interests of the individual better.  Like that last mentioned,  it is liable
to degenerate into unequivocal mania, of which it is sometimes a pre-
liminary symptom, and is also quite a common feature  in this disease—
a circumstance  which Rush considers as proof of its physical origin."(I)

        (6.)  Oikeiomania (morbid state of domestic affections.)

   § 204.  Of this,  in  its  general shape, Prichard  thus  speaks:—
" There are many individuals living at large, and not entirely separated
from society, AAdio  are affected in a certain degree  by  this modification
of insanity.  They are reputed  persons of singular, AvayAvard, and ec-
centric character.   An  attentive observer may often recognize some-
thing which leads  him  to entertain doubts of their entire sanity; and
circumstances are sometimes discovered, on  inquiry, Avhich assist in
determining his opinion.  In many instances it  is  found  that  there is
an hereditary tendency to madness in the family, or that several rela-
te) Rush on the Mind, pp. 262-264.
(I) Ray on Insanity, p. 193. 
166
0IKEI0MANIA.
tives of the  person  affected  have  labored under disease of the  brain.
The individual himself is discovered, in a former period of life, to have
sustained an attack of  madness of a decided character.   His temper
and disposition  are found, on inquiry, to have undergone a change,—to
be not what  they Avere previously to a certain time: he has become an
altered  man;  and this difference has perhaps been  noted from the
period when  he sustained some reverse of fortune, Avhich deeply affected
him,  or  since the loss of some beloved relative.  In other instances, the
alteration in  his character has ensued immediately on some severe shock
which his bodily constitution has undergone.   This has either  been a
disorder affecting the head, a slight attack of paralysis, a fit of epilepsy,
or some fever  or  inflammatory  disorder,  which  has  produced  a  per-
ceptible change in the habitual state of the constitution.  In some cases
the alteration in temper and habits has been gradual and imperceptible,
and  it seems only to have consisted in an  exaltation or increase  of pe-
culiarities which were always more or less natural  and habitual, "(m)
  Very often this domestic perversity is associated with the most com-
placent  benignity out of doors.   Zimmerman, whilst he was inculcating
and  professing the most serene benevolence, was, by his tyranny, driv-
ing  his  son  into  madness, and making  his daughter an  outcast from
home.   Goethe—no inapt observer of  human nature—says, " Zimmer-
man's harshness towards his children was the effect of hypochondria,—
a sort of  madness or moral assassination, to which  he himself  fell  a
victim after sacrificing his offspring, "(n)

  (m) Cited, Ray on Insanity, pp. 168-9.
  See Feuchtersleben's Views on this point.  Principles of Medical Psychology, being the
outlines of a Course  of Lectures by Baron von Feuchtersleben, M. D.  Vienna, 1845.
Translated from the German by the late H. Evans Lloyd, Esq.  Revised and edited  by
G. B. Babington, M. D., F. R. S., &c. London: printed for the Sydenham Society, 1847,
p. 204.
  (n) Dean  Swift's life furnishes a striking illustration  of  this  species  of derange-
ment of the domestic affections.  By the indulgence of this very morbid  tendency to
torture the object of his most cherished  love, he first succeeded in crushing under the
weight of despair a woman whom he really loved, and then, by the recoil, in subjecting
himself to that  most miserable of all fates, that of an insane old age.  Take, as a scene
in the first awful drama, the following narrative by Mr. Sheridan: " A short time before
Stella died," says he, "a scene passed between the Dean and her, an account of  which I
had from  my father, and which I shall relate with reluctance, as it seems to bear more
hard on Swift's humanity than any other point of his conduct in life.  As she found
her final dissolution approaching, a few days before it happened, in the presence of Dr.
Sheridan, she addressed Swift in the most earnest and pathetic terms to grant her dying
request, 'that, as the ceremony of marriage had passed between them, in order to put it
out of the power of slander to be busy with her fame after death, she adjured  him, by
their friendship, to  let her have the satisfaction of dying, at least,—though she had not
lived—his acknowledged wife.'  Swift made no reply, but, turning on his heel, walked
silently out of the  room, nor ever saw her afterwards during the few days she lived.
This behaviour  threw her into unspeakable agonies, and for a time she sunk under the
weight of so cruel a disappointment."
  No wonder was it that, when under the influence  of the remorse which was too late
awakened, his powerful sensibilities were aroused to the full consciousness of his guilt,
he would beat  his forehead  for night after night, and stride to and fro in his deserted
apartment, until at last the only change  became that from delirium to melancholy, and
from melancholy to delirium. Dr. Winslow gives us the following glimpses of the closing
scenes:—
  " The most minute  account of this melancholy period, founded upon the evidence
given by Mrs. Whiteaway, as well as upon the testimony of Mr. Dean Swift and others
who witnessed his bad condition, is  given by Dr. Delany:—
  "' In the beginning of the year 1741 his understanding was so much impaired, and his
passions so greatly increased, that he was utterly incapable of conversation. Strangers 
MORBID STATE OF DOMESTIC AFFECTIONS.
167
   § 205. Illustrations of this phase will  be found in the following sec-
tions.   At present it is sufficient to call attention to one feature, which

were not permitted to approach him, and his friends found it necessary to have guardians
appointed of his person and estate.  Early in the year 1742  his reason was wholly sub-
verted,^ and his rage became absolute madness.   The last person whom  he knew was
Mrs. Whiteaway, and the sight of her, when he knew her no longer, threw him into fits of
rage so violent and dreadful, that she was forced to leave him ; and the only act of kindness
that remained in her power was to call  once or twice at the Deanery to inquire after his
health, and see that proper care was taken of him.  Sometimes she would steal  a look
at him when his back was towards her, but did not venture into his sight.  He  would
neither eat nor drink when the servants were in the room.  His meat, which  was  served
up ready cut, he would sometimes suffer to stand an hour upon the table before he would
touch it;  and at last he would eat it walking: for during this miserable state of mind
it was his constant custom to walk ten hours a day.
  "' In October, 1742, after his frenzy had continued several months, his left eye swelled
to the size of an egg, and the lid appeared to be so much inflamed  and discolored,  that
the surgeon expected it would mortify; several large boils also broke out on  his arms
and body.  The extreme pain of this tumor kept him waking near a month;  and  during
one week  it was with difficulty that five persons could prevent him from tearing out his
eyes.  Just before the tumor perfectly subsided and  the pain  left  him, he  knew Mrs.
Whiteaway, took her by the hand,  and spoke to her with his former kindness :  that day
and the following he knew his physician and surgeon, and all his family, and appeared
to have so far recovered his understanding and temper, and the surgeon was not without
hopes that he might once more enjoy society and be amused with the company of his
old friends.   This hope, however, was but of short duration; for a few days  afterwards
he sank into a state of total insensibility, slept much, and could not, without great diffi-
culty, be prevailed on to walk across the room.  In this state of hopeless imbecility he
is said  to have remained silent a whole year.  In 1774 he spoke once or twice to his
servant, after which he remained perfectly silent until the latter end of October, 1775,
when he expired, in the 78th year of his age.'"
  Lessons enough, indeed, are  taught by scenes such as  these.   The madman howling
in anguish at one moment, and at another sinking into the lethargy of unrelievable de-
spair,—the mute but surpassing wretchedness of those broken hearts who were to receive
soon such terrible retribution in the fate of him to whom their own misery was  due,—
have a very solemn moral.  It is precisely such a moral that in these days we need.  We
are accustomed to look only at the grosser results with a frown, and  to tolerate, with
something like complacency, that dalliance with the affections merely which may  by any
construction be included within the limits of mere intellectual association.  Sentiment-
alism has a great deal to answer for in this respect; for  it utterly reverses the teachings
of nature,—treating real affections  as if they were shams, and shams as if they were real.
On the one hand, as Bulwer admirably illustrates it in Pelham, a China monster is treated
as if it were a child ; on the other, a child as if it were a China monster. Lady Pelham,
in eloping from her husband and child, turns back a moment to pick up from  the mantel
a favorite and very ugly Chinese figure which she had forgotten; and on her way back is
arrested.  But,  in point of fact, this power of destroying the natural affections is  as im-
possible in many cases as it is unnatural in all. The affections will, after all, often return as
tyrants, to lay havoc that  domain from which they were driven as exiles. There is a mys-
terious influence which spirit exerts upon spirit, which, in its moral aspects, is as infinite
as in its merely sentimental relations it is ephemeral and unsubstantial. What Dr. Mayo
tells us in the passage quoted in the beginning of this article is, alas ! a fact but now too
well established.  There  is no  insanity so permanent, so wretched, and so incurable, as
that which arises from a perversion of the home affections.  It is not  the victim alone
whose mind  is destroyed.   The perpetrator of the act himself, though it may be he was
led into it by mere want of self-control,  feels its  recoil.  AVhen he sees what he has done,
he sinks under the revulsion, if not into insanity, which, after all, is the mark of more
conscience than the mere trifler can be supposed to possess,—if not  into remorse,  which
darkens the rest of his days, at least into a state  of chronic frivolity which leads  him
through a contemptible old age, in which there is not enough of the man left to make the
Christian, to a certain and awful judgment.
  It is true that these sombre  results do not always follow.  AU temperaments are not
equally suceptible.  With many, impressions of any kind  are so light that they are  almost
immediately effaced.  Alas! however, for those the soil  of  whose heart is either thus
superficial or thus stony;  and alas! for the system that makes it so 1  Little prospect, in-
deed, is  there that when the earth has thus been desolated by fire and storm—when its face
has been baked and hardened—it will bring forth the fruits of the coming harvest. And 
168
OIKEIOMANIA.
is  thus  admirably sketched by Dr.  Mayo:  " Marital  unkindncss is
subversive of soundness of mind in the person on Avhom it is exercised;
and exercised it is in a thousand ways in this country, without violence
being had recourse to.  The state of the law, as  Mr.  Dickens avcII ob-
serves,  and terrifically proves, is unprotective of  Avives.  But the mis-
chief is not unavenged : and here the case of the husband retributively
commences.   Many men  are Hving in a state of continuous and ex-
hausting remorse, under the consciousness that this system of torture
is being carried on by them.  For when once the habit is formed, they
can neither shake it off, nor bear their self-consciousness under it.

                        ' Culpam poena premit comes.'

I need not speak of their retrospects, if they should  outlive the object
of their  tyranny, "(o)
   "A  very  common feature  of  moral  mania,"  says  Dr.  Winslow,
"is a deep perversion  of  the social affections, whereby  the feelings of
kindness and attachment that  flow from  the relations  of  father, hus-
band, and child, are replaced by a  perpetual inclination to tease, worry
and embitter the existence of others.  The ordinary scene  of its mani-
festations is the patient's own domestic circle, the peace and happiness
of which are  effectually destroyed by the outbreakings of his ungovern-
able temper, and even  by acts  of  brutal  ferocity.   Frederick William
of  Prussia, father of Frederick the  Great, undoubtedly labored  under
this form of  moral mania;  and it furnishes a satisfactory explanation
of  his brutal treatment of his son, and his utter disregard  for the feel-
ings or  comfort of any other member of his family.   About a  dozen
years  before his  death, his health  gave  Avay under  his constant de-
bauches  in drunkenness; he became  hypochondriacal, and redoubled
his  usual religious austerities.   He forbade his family to  talk  of any
subject but religion,  read them  daily sermons, and compelled them to

little chance is there that in the heart that has been made thin and superficial, by this
very system of  treating the affections as  things that do not exist, there will be mould
enough to produce either  the delicate foliage or the true fruit of refined home affections.
Burns' lines, whatever he may have meant, certainly reach to this :

                        "I speak not of the guilt of sin,
                          The danger of concealing,
                         But oh! it hardens all within,
                          And petrifies the feeling."

But, in point of fact, the world  sometimes  fails in its own work.   The heart cannot  in
every case be sublimated  into inanition or ossified into insensibility.  It is to  be recol-
lected that agents which God, in his all-wise purposes, has created for the object of sus-
taining and keeping in healthy activity the entire social system—which he has made
robust enough to supply all the relations of society, and energetic enough to supply its
impulses—cannot always  be volatilized in the crucible of conventionality in such a way
as entirely to evaporate.  Sometimes the elements so much misunderstood will assert their
power.  They may in many cases, it is true, be destroyed,—alas! for the heart when
such is the case,—but there will remain instances when they will rise and gather a storm
which human art cannot dispel. The perturbed spirit, if not sinking to the grave in very
weariness of life—broken-hearted, as the world calls it,—will be driven to  its account
under the Avenger's whip, amid the battle-shouts of passions which might once have
been made angels, but have now become fiends.  Such, indeed, are the sanctions by
which Jehovah the Just vindicates the honor and protects the integrity of His own great
purposes  for the moral and social government of His people.
  (o) Mayo on Medical Testimony in Lunacy, pp. 137,138. 
DERANGEMENT OF DOMESTIC AFFECTIONS.
169
sing, punishing with  the utmost severity any inattention to these exer-
cises.   The prince and his elder sister soon began to attract a propor-
tionate share  of  his  hostility.  He  obliged them to eat  and drink
unwholesome  or  nauseous articles, and even spit in their dishes, ad-
dressing them only in the language of invective, and at times endeavor-
ing  to strike them with his crutch.   About this time he attempted to
strangle himself, and Avould have accomplished  his design had not the
queen come to his rescue.   His brutality towards the prince arrived to
such a pitch, that he one morning seized him by the collar as he entered
his bed-chamber, and  began to beat him with a cane in the most cruel
manner, till obliged to desist from pure exhaustion.  On another occa-
sion shortly after, he seized his son by the hair, and threw him on the
ground, beating him till he was tired, when he dragged  him to a win-
dow, apparently for the purpose of throwing him out.   A servant hear-
ing  the cries of the prince, came  to his assistance, and delivered him
from his hands. ^ Not satisfied with treating him in the most barbarous
manner, he connived at the prince's attempts to escape from his tyran-
ny, in order  that he might procure  from a court-martial a sentence of
death;  and this even he was  anxious to anticipate by endeavoring to
run  him through the body with a sword.  Not succeeding -in procuring
his death by judicial proceedings, he kept him in  confinement, and
turned  all his thoughts towards converting him to  Christianity.  At
this  time, we first find mention of any delusion connected Avith his son,
though it  probably existed before.    In his correspondence with the
chaplain to whom he had entrusted the charge of converting the prince,
he speaks  of him as  one  who had  committed  the most  heinous sins
against God  and  the king, as having a hardened heart,  and being in
the fangs of Satan.   Even after he became satisfied with the repent-
ance of the prince, he showed no disposition to relax the severities of
his confinement.   He was  kept in a  miserable room,  deprived of all
the comforts and many of the necessaries of life, denied  the use of pens,
ink and paper, and allowed scarcely food enough to prevent starvation.
His  treatment of the princess was  no less  barbarous.   She Avas also
confined,  and  every effort used  to   make  her situation  thoroughly
Avretched;  and though, after a few years, he relaxed  his persecution of
his children,  the general tenor of his conduct  towards his family and
others, evinced little improvement in his  disorder, till the day of his
death, "(p)

     (7.) Suicidal Mania, (Morbid propensity to self-destruction.)

   § 206. " The most striking peculiarity of melancholia," says Aber-
crombie, " is  the prevailing propensity to suicide ;  and there are facts
connected with this  subject which remarkably illustrate what may be
called the philosophy of insanity.   When the melancholic hallucination
has fully taken possession of the  mind, it becomes the sole  object of
attention, without the power of varying the impression, or of directing
the thoughts to any facts or considerations calculated  to remove or pal-

  (p) Vide Lord Dover's Life of Frederick; Winslow's Anatomy of Suicide, pp. 233, 234,
235. 
170
SUICIDAL MANIA—
liate it.  The evil  seems overwhelming and irremediable; admitting
neither of  palliation, consolation or hope.  For the process  of mind
calculated to diminish such an impression, or even to produce the hope
of a palliation of the evil, is precisely that exercise  of mind Avhich, in
this singular condition, is lost or suspended, namely, a power of chang-
ing the subject of thought,  of transferring the attention to other facts
and considerations, and of comparing the mental impression with these,
and with the actual state of external things.  Under such a conviction
of overwhelming and hopeless misery, the feeling naturally rises, of life
being a burden, and this  is  succeeded by a determination to quit it.
When such an association has once been formed, it also fixes itself upon
the mind, and fails to be corrected by those considerations Avhich ought
to remove it.  That it is in  this manner the impression arises, and not
from any process analogous to the determination of  a sound mind, ap-
pears,  among other circumstances, from  the singular manner in Avhich
it is often dissipated;  namely,  by the  accidental production  of some
new impression, not calculated, in any degree,  to influence the subject
of thought, but simply  to give a momentary direction of the  mind to
some other feeling.  Thus a man,  mentioned  by Pinel, had left his
house in the night, with the determined resolution of drowning himself,
when he was attacked  by robbers.  He  did his best to escape  from
them,  and having  done so, returned  home, the resolution of suicide
being  entirely dissipated.   A  woman, mentioned,  I believe,  by Dr.
Burrows, had her resolution changed in the  same manner, by some-
thing  falling on her head  after she had gone out  for  a  similar  pur-
pose."
   § 207. " A very singular modification occurs in some of these cases.
With the earnest desire of death, there is combined an  impression of
the criminality of suicide; but this, instead of correcting the hallucina-
tion, only leads to  another and  most extraordinary mode of effecting
the purpose ; namely, by committing murder, and so dying by the  hand
of justice.   Several instances are on record in which this remarkable
mental process was distinctly traced and avowed; and in which  there
was no mixture of  malice against the individuals who were murdered.
On the contrary, they were generally children ; and  in one of the cases,
the maniac distinctly avowed his resolution to commit murder, Avith the
view of  dying by a sentence of law, and at the same time, his determi-
nation that his victim should be a child, as he should thus avoid the
additional  guilt of sending a person out of the  world in a state of  unre-
pented sin.   The mental  process in such a case presents a most inte-
resting  subject of reflection.   It appears to be purely  a process of
 association, without the power of reasoning.   I should suppose that
there  had been at a former period,  during  a comparatively healthy
 state of the mental faculties, a repeated contemplation of suicide, which
had always been checked by an immediate  conviction of its dreadful
 criminality.  In this manner, a strong connection had been formed,
 which, when the idea of suicide afterward came into the  mind during
 a state of  insanity, led to the impression of its heinousness, not by a
 process of reasoning, but by simple  association.   The subsequent steps
 are the distorted  reasonings of  insanity, mixed with  some previous
 impression of the  safe condition  of children  dying in infancy.  This 
PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTER OF.
171
 explanation,  I think, is strongly countenanced  by  the consideration,
 that  had the idea of the  criminality of  suicide been in  any degree a
 process of reasoning, a corresponding conviction  of the guilt of murder
 must have followed it.   I find, however, one case which  is  at variance
 with  this  hypothesis.  The  reasoning  of that unfortunate individual
 was, that if he committed murder and died by the hand of justice, there
 would  be time for making his  peace  with  the Almighty, between  the
 crime and his execution, which would not be the case if  he should die
 by suicide.  This  was a species of reasoning,—but  it was purely the
 reasoning of insanity."(q)


   (q)' Dr. Winslow, in his interesting work on Suicide gives us the following remarkable
 cases:  " The case  now  about to  be recorded, presents some peculiarly interesting
 features.   An English lady, moving in the first circles of society, went in company with
 her friends to the opera at Paris.  In the next box sat a gentleman, who appeared, from
 the notice he took of the lady, to  be enamoured of her. The  lady expressed herself
 annoyed at the observation which she had  attracted, and  moved to another part of the
 box.  The gentleman followed the carriage  home, and insisted upon addressing the lady,
 declaring that he had had the pleasure of meeting her elsewhere, and that one minute's
 conversation would convince her of the fact, and do away with the unfavorable impres-
 sion which his apparent rudeness might have made upon her mind.  As his request did
 not appear at the moment unreasonable, she consented  to see him a minute by himself.
. In that short space of time he made a fervent declaration of his affection; acknowledged
 that desperation had compelled him to have recourse to a ruse to obtain  an interview,
 and that, unless she looked favorably on his pretensions, he would kill her, and then him-
 self.  The lady expressed her indignation at the deceit he had practiced, and said, with
 considerable firmness, that he must quit the house.  He did so, retired to his home, and
 with a lancet opened a vein in his  arm.  He collected a portion  of blood  in a cup, and
 with it wrote a note to the lady, telling her that his  blood was flowing fast from his
 body, and  it should continue to flow until she consented to listen to his proposals.  The
 lady, on receipt of the note, sent her servant to see the gentleman, and found him, as he
 represented, actually bleeding to death.  On the entreaty of the lady, the arm was bound
 up and his life saved.  On writing to the lady, under the impression that she would
 now accept his addresses, he was amazed on receiving a cool refusal, and a request that
 he would not trouble her with any more letters.   Again  driven to desperation, he re-
 solved effectually to kill himself.  He accordingly loaded a pistol, and directed his steps
 towards the residence of his fair amorosa, when, knocking at the  door, he gained admis-
 sion, and immediately blew out his brains.   The intelligence was communicated to the
 lady, she  became dreadfully excited, and  a severe attack  of nervous fever followed.
 When the acute symptoms subsided, her mind was completely deranged.  Her  insanity
 took a peculiar turn.  She fancied she heard a voice commanding her to commit suicide,
 and yet she appeared to be possessed of sufficient reason to know that she was desirous
 of doing what she ought to be restrained from accomplishing.  Every now and then she
 would exclaim,  'Take away the pistol! I won't hang myself!  I won't take poison!'
 Under the impression that she would kill herself, she was carefully watched ; but not-
 withstanding the vigilance which was exercised, she had sufficient cunning to conceal
 a knife, with which,  during the temporary absence of the attendant, she stabbed herself
 in the abdomen, and died  in a few hours.  It appears that the idea that she had caused
 the  death of another, and  that she had it in  her power to save his life by complying with
 his wishes, produced the derangement of mind under which she was laboring at the time
 of her death; and yet she did not manifest, and it was evident  to every body that  she
 had not, the slightest affection for the gentleman who professed so much to admire her.
 Possessing, naturally, a sensitive mind, it was easily excited.   The peculiar  circum-
 stances connected with her mental derangement, were sufficient to account for the delu-
 sions under which she labored."  (Winslow's Anatomy of Suicide, pp. 59, 60, 61.)
   "A young lady of  considerable beauty was accosted in the street by a strange gentle-
 man.  She took  no notice at first of the unwarrantable liberty;  but on finding that he
 persisted in  following  her, she attempted,  by quickening her pace, to escape.  Being
 extremely timid, and having naturally a nervous temperament, she was much excited.
 The person in the garb of a gentleman followed her for nearly a mile, and when he saw
 that she was home, he suddenly turned down a street, and disappeared.  The young
 lady expressed herself extremely ill  soon after she entered  the house.  A physici in was
 sent for, who declared  his astonishment at her severe  illness, from a cause so trifling. 
172
SUICIDAL MANIA—LEGAL RELATIONS OF.
   § 208. As to Avhether  the representatives of a suicide can recover
against life insurers, on policies  containing the usual provisoes against
felo de se, there has been  great vacillation of judicial authority.   The
first English case  in which the question Avas mooted, Avas one decided
in 184o^~ in the C. B., and AA'as an  action  brought by the Executor of
the  insured, upon  a policy containing  a proviso, that  in case the  as-
sured should die  by his  own  hands, the policy should be void.  The
jury found that the deceased " voluntarily threAV himself into the Avater,
knowing at the  time  that he should  thereby destroy  his  life,  and
intending to do so;  but at the  time of committing the  act, he Avas  not
capable  of judging between right  and wrong."   A majority of  the
court (Tindal,  C. J.,  dissenting)  held that  under  the  finding,  there
could be no  recovery.(q)
   Shortly after  this, came  an action  on  a policy  Avhich contained a
proATiso  avoiding  it if  the assured should  "commit  suicide."   The
evidence was, that the  deceased died from the effects of sulphuric acid,
taken AAThen  he was of unsound mind.  Creswell, J.,  at Nisi Prius, told
the  jury  that  to bring the case within the exception, it must appear
that the deceased, at the time he "committed suicide,"  Avas a "respon-
sible being," capable of doing any act voluntarily.  The jury  found
for the plaintifl'.(r)   Subsequently, however, the  Court of Exchequer,
by a vote of four to two,  ordered a new trial, on  the ground that  the
plaintiff was not, in laAV, entitled to recover, (rr)
   In 1853,  hoAvever, on an  action on a policy Avhich was to be void if
the assured should "die by his own hand."  the NeAV York Court of
Appeals, held  that where the  pleadings exhibited the mere facts, that
the deceased died from " suicide by drowning himself, and so died by
his own hand,"  but that  at the time "he was of  unsound mind,  and
wholly unconscious of the act,"  the insurers were  responsible.(s)   It
was  very justly  said  by Willard, J.,  that  " it must  occur to every
prudent man, seeking to make provision for his family by an insurance
on  his  life, that insanity  is one of the diseases  which may terminate
his being.   It  is said  the defendant did not insure the continuance of
the  intestate's reason.   Nor did  they, in terms,  insure him  against
small-pox or scarlet fever;  but had he died of either disease, no doubt

During the following night, she manifested indications of mental derangement, with a
 disposition to  commit suicide.  A strait-waistcoat was procured, and all apprehensions
 of her succeeding in gratifying the propensity of self-destruction was  removed.  Some
 weeks elapsed before  she recovered.  To all appearance  she was perfectly well.  She
 had no recollection of what had transpired, and expressed herself amazed when she was
 told that she wished to kill herself.  Two months after she left her bed, she was missed.
 Search was made in every direction, but in vain.  After a lapse of two days,  she was
 discovered floating in a pond of water several miles from her home.  In her pocket was
 discovered a piece of paper, on which were written the following lines : ' Oh, the misery
 and wretchedness I have experienced for the last month, no one but  myself can tell.  A
 demon haunts me—life is insupportable.  A voice tells me that I am destined to fall by
 my own hands.  I leave this world for another, where I hope to enjoy more happiness.
 Adieu.'"  (AVinslow's Anatomy of Suicide, pp. 75, 76.  See a very interesting essay on the
 last sentiments of suicides, by Dr. A. Brierre de Boismont, translated  in the Journal of
 Psychological Medicine, Vol. IV. p. 243.)
   Of) Borradale v. Hunter, 5 Alan. & Gr. 639.
   (r) Schwabt v. Clift, 2 Car. & Kir. 134.
   (rr) Clift v. Schwabt, 3 Alan. & Gr. 437.
   (s) Breasted v. Farmers' Loan Co. 2 Am. Law Reg. 358. 
DEMONIACAL POSSESSION.
173
 that the defendants would have been liable. They insured the continu-
 ance  of his  life.   What difference can it make  to  them, or  to  him,
 Avhether it is terminated by the  ordinary course of the  disease in his
 bed, or  Avhether,  in a fit of delirium,  he  ends it himself?   In  each
 case,  the death is  occasioned by  a means within the meaning of the
 policy, if the exception contemplates, as I think  it does, the destruc-
 tion of  life by the intestate, while  a rational agent, responsible for his
 act.   It is competent, no doubt,  for the insurer so to frame his policy,
 as to exclude him  from liability  for a  death occasioned  in  a fit of
 insanity.   The parties have not done so in the present  case."   It is
 worthy  of observation, however, that the  force of this authority, like
 that of  its predecessor,  is broken by  its  having been  decided by  a
 divided  court.(s)

                         (8.) Fanatico-Mania.

   § 209. Using this term in its most liberal sense,  it maybe considered
 as including two things :
   (a.) Supernatural or pseudo-supernatural demoniacal possession.
   (b.) Mental alienation on religious subjects.
   § 210. (a.) Supernatural or pseudo-supernatural demoniacal posses-
 sion.  Whether or no the gospel narratives inculcate  directly the  fact
 of demoniacal possession is the subject of much discussion among com-
 mentators ; but, as will presently be seen, there is no doubt that profane
 history  unites in supposing such possession to exist.   The first point
 for us now to consider is the a priori probability of such interpositions.
 And it   should be  here  observed  that  in respect  to  the general
 policy of Divine  government,  it has been very ably  shown by  Ed-
 wards, representing  the  orthodox Christian school, and by Hume, re-
 presenting the deistical, that when the existence of the extraneous and
 objective power of sin as a demoniac influence is once admitted, it is as
 consistent Avith the Divine perfection that such influence should exhibit
 itself in  one Avay as in another.   The only question that remains to be
 considered, therefore, is that which Hume reserATed, viz: whether or no
 there is  such  universal experience against supernatural interpositions as
 to lead to the conclusion that they never existed.  And the affirmative
 of this proposition, as Dr. Campbell shows us, is beset with unsurmount-
 able difficulties.  To prove " experience to have been universal" it must
 be shoAvn that no man  ever  witnessed  a  phenomenon contradicting it.
 This, however, is a petitio principii,  for whether or  no such phenomena
 have been observed is the very point in controversy.
   §  211. The fact  is, to resolve  this question,  we must resort  to  the
 Divine policy of government as Avell as to human experience as a guide.
 And here Ave have  little difficulty in arriving at a conclusion Avhich har-
 monizes  as fully with an enlightened theology as it does Avith present
 psychical observation.  To the carrying on of the Divine government of
the  Avorld established  and  uniform principles  are  necessary,  Avhich,

  (s)  See Law Times, July 18, 1846, p. 342; Taylor's Med. Jurisprudence, pp. 592,593.
On the subject of verdicts of Felo  de se, see a very interesting article in the Journ. of
Psychol. Med. Vol. III. p. 19. 
174
DEMONIACAL POSSESSION—
whether relating to the physical or the moral world, are called the laws
of nature.  These laAvs, to adopt the definition in which both philoso-
phical and theological criticism unite, may be treated as the uniform
plan according to Avhich God exercises his power throughout the created
universe.  But then* if  in conducting  the affairs of vast governments,
God,  in  his infinite Avisdom—Avhich finite minds cannot measure—finds
in a special case as good  a reason for a deviation from this method
as there usually is for adherence to  it, then unquestionably the same
power that applied this law to the general line of cases Avould withdraw
it from the exception.   If, however, we reason from the nature of the
thing, we should conclude  such deviations to be very rare, and, in fact,
to be confined to those  great epochs when it  is intended that  an ex-
traordinary message is to  be communicated which it  is designed that
these deviations shall vouch.  For if they were made frequent, it is
plain  that they would cease to be vouchers.
  AVe come, then, to the question Avhether we have evidence from his-
tory that there has ever been such  a systematic deviation from the Di-
vine policy as is  implied by the entrance of specific  evil  spirits into
specific  human bodies, folio wed by a supernatural subjection of the will
if not by a merging  of  the individuality  of the latter  in the former.
There is little doubt that this was  taught  by the  ancient philosophers.
Plato begins by expressly asserting the existence of  demons, Avho, on
his  theory, are the sole supernatural agencies  by which the Divine
will operates  on the human heart,  uiv to Saipoviov  pita^v ion  6sov <ts
seat Ovrjtov. And again  'Epfiyvsvov  xal StartopOixsvov Qtoi$ ra rtap' avOpuirtuv, xoU
avOpvrtoif T'a rtapa Oiiov, tuv  psv ray  Ssqaiif xal Ovaiac;,  tW o« tag irti-td^iig
*e xal aaot|3as' tuv 6vaiZ>v.(f)   He tells  us  that demoniacs do  not  use
their  own dialect  or tongue,  but  that  of the demons  who  have  en-
tered  into them.(w)  Lucian  declares " the  patient is  silent:  the
demon returns the answer to the  question asked."   And yet  at  the
same  time it  would  seem  that the possibility of the cure of the de-
moniacs by medicine  was recognized,  which would scarcely be the case
if the malady was regarded as exclusively supernatural.   Thus we are
told, " Helleboro quoque purgatur lymphaticus error."(v) And Josephus
and the Jewish physicians speak of  medicines composed of stones,  roots,
and herbs, being useful to  demoniacs.(w)
  § 212.  With regard to the New Testament history, two views have
been  taken, each of which has the  sanction  of  great  authority both
for learning and for loyalty to the Christian cause. On the one hand, it
is urged that the language of the Gospel writers is express to the A'ery
point; on the  other, it  is  maintained that the accounts given by them
may all be understood as  exhibiting  no more than the phenomena of
certain  diseases, particularly hypochondria, mania, and epilepsy; that
the popular terms Avere used to describe these diseases, just in the same
way that " Possession,"  (Besessenheit) is now used by some of  the most
technical  German psychologists to describe the same thing;  and that
the sacred penmen  meant to  convey  no more  than that the patients

  (0 Plato, Sympos. p. 202, 203.  Lipsiae,  1829, p. 252.  See also  Plutarch, De  Defect.
Orac.  Farmer's  Essay on  the Demoniacs.
  (w) Plato, apud Clem. Alex.  Strom. I. 405, Oxon.
  (v) Seren. Sammon, c. 27, v. 507.                     (w)  Gittei, f. 67. 
QUESTION AS TO EXISTENCE OF.
175
were  affected with the  complaints which those phrases described, (x)
It may not  be considered out of place, however, to observe that the
excessive  theological liberality which, in  order  to accommodate the
sacred text to the  supposed  requirements  of science, resolves state-
ments of  facts into  metaphors and narratives into parables, is in this,
as in most other respects, insufficient to reconcile the captious, and is
unnecessary for the purpose of relieving the  sincere inquirer.  Those
who have gone  such great lengths in thus adopting the statements  of
our  Lord's treatment  of the  demoniacs  to the  supposed standard  of
modern medical  experience, would do well to observe  how unnecessary
their labors appear  to  one of the most eminent and experienced  of
modern physicians.  " We have heard these,  and similar  cases," says
Dr.  Cheyne, " accounted for  on the assumption of demonism, but we
never have  seen a  case of disordered mind, even when attended with
the  most subtle malignity, which could not more  easily be explained
upon natural principles.  We acknowledge the power of Satan, and it
may be as great as  ever in the dark places of the earth, which have
received  no benefit  from Christianity; but as there  are no rules for
distinguishing between the workings of the human mind, when  influ-
enced by bodily  disease—when yielding to its unrestrained propensity
to evil, and when acted upon by Satan, the  extent of Satanic agency
cannot be  known, nor  ought the mode  of its operation be  assumed
upon  conjecture.  It is one  of  the devices  of man's great enemy, to
have his  power, nay, his existence, denied by those who are his subjects ;
and we  can  only play  his game, and confirm  Sadducean  principles,
when we  allege of Satan what we cannot prove.   Probably nothing so
much weakened  the influence of Luther as his account of his conflicts
with the  devil.   The mind of the reformer yielded to delusions prac-
ticed upon it by his  senses ; and consequently many who are uiiAvilling
to admit  the power of  his judgment and the rectitude of his principles,
especially the minions of superstition,  and the  abettors of infidelity,
have  persuaded  themselves  that the master-spirit of his  age—with
whom the  Charleses, the  Henrys, and the Francises, were no more to
be compared than Ahab was with Elijah—was a dreaming and credulous
 enthusiast.   Those  who admit the authority of  Scripture are not per-
mitted to  doubt that  when our Lord cured the demoniacs, he  actually
 dispossessed them.   It could  not have been, as some have alleged, that
he merely removed epilepsy or  insanity.   Without  entering into  all
the particulars  of  the  discussion,  any Christian who  will read with
 attention the fourth and eighth chapters of St. Matthew's gospel, must
 reject the  hypothesis of Mode, that the demoniacs mentioned in the
 gospels  labored under natural diseases.   In the fourth chapter it is
 expressly specified  that our  Lord ' healed all  sick  people  that were

   (x) The  student is referred to a very comprehensive article on this point, by the Rev.
 J. F. Denham, of St. John's  College, Cambridge, in Kitto's Bib. Cyc. tit. Demoniacs, in
 which the arguments on both sides are very fairly exhibited; to Farmer's Essay on the
 Demoniacs ; to Jahn's Biblisches Archaologie ; to Winer's Biblisches Real Wdrtenbuch,
 art "Besessene;" to Moses Stuart's sketches of Angelogy, in Bibliotheca Sacra, 1843;
 to Bishop Burgess' sermon on Demonology, in the Phil, course of Lectures on Evidences,
 Phil. 1854  ; to President Appleton's discourse on the same ; and to a very brilliant though
 eccentric treatise, recently published, under the title of " The Apocatastasis Progress
 Backwards." Burlington, 1854. 
176
FANATICO MANIA.
taken with divers diseases  and  torments,' including  epilepsy,  Ave may
fairly infer,  'and those Avhich were possessed Avith devils,'  a  separate
class,  'and those which Avere lunatic,' or of  unsound mind.   In  the
eighth chapter, the same  distinction is observable between  casting  out
devils and curing  diseases:   sixteenth  verse, ' and  he  cast  out  the
spirits with his word,  and healed all that Avere sick.'   But the relation
which decides  the  question is  that of the  miracle  performed in  the
country of the Gergesenes. (y)  Before we can believe that the two men
who  came out of the tombs  were  maniacs or  epileptics,  it  must  be
proved that disease  is not merely a mode of animal life, but something
substantive and transferable from one class of beings to another—from
man to the lower animals." (z)
   § 213.  Without,  therefore,  any  further  attempt to  determine  the
question whether demoniac possession is taught as a fact  by history,
either sacred or profane, we come to the inquiry as to whether it exists
at the present  day.    And  we feel  ourselves  warranted  in  saying,
without any hesitation, that  in a  lego-psychological view,  Ave have  no
evidence of any such possession.  All modern phenomena can  be  satis-
fied by the recognition of the independent existence of that species of
mania  Avhich  causes an insane  belief  in the  patient that  he is pos-
sessed with a demon.(a)
   § 214.  (b.) Mental alienation on  religious subjects.
   As is well remarked  by Dr. Rush,(b)  in  Christian countries, depar-
tures from the Christian faith, (e. g. infidelity and atheism,) are  "fre-
quent  causes"  of  insanity, (c)    And the  same  is  equally  true  of


  (y) Matt. viii. 28.
  (z) Essays on Derangement in connection with Religion, by John Cheyne, M. D., F. R.
S. E.,  M. R. I. A., Physician General to His Majesty's Forces in Ireland.  Dublin, 1843,
p. 68,  &c.
  (a)  Schiirmayer, Gericht. Med.  \ 550.  For a case of supposed Demoniacal Possession,
see Journal of Psychological  Medicine, vol. iii. p. 262; Metzger's verm. Schrift. Bd. 3,
s. 217; Ces. Ruggieri's history of the self-crucifixion of M. Lovati at Venice, trans-
lated  by  Schlegel, Rudolst, 1807.   (In the latter case, the patient first cut off  his
own private members, and then crucified himself.)  Henke's Zeitsch. E-H., 11 s. 291—
(Two  Swiss girls,  who immolated  themselves.)  Henke's  Zeitschr. Bd. 47,  p.  447.
Pyl's essay, 6 Samml. p. 214. (Infanticide  by  a  demoniac.) Henke's Zeitschr. 27  Bd.
p. 330—(Periodical Demonio-mania.)   Demoniacal possession, as Siebold  (Gericht. Med.
\ 210) very justly remarks,  was  much more common in former days than the present,
and of this, to say nothing of the New Testament  period, illustrations may be found in
the many cases of witches, seers and  soothsayers, of the middle ages.—The Convulsions,
&c, of St. Aledard fall under this head.  See Hecker on the Dancing Mania, Berl. 1832 ;
Published also  by the Sydenham Society.   See also case, ante,  \ 584, note (z).  And
also a series of very curious and valuable articles on Pythonic and Demoniac  Possession
in Dublin Univ. Mag. for Sept. and  Oct., 1&48,  for March and  Dec,  1849,  and for
January, 1850.
  (b) Rush on the Mind, 64.
  (c) Air. AVinslow, in his late interesting work on suicide, gives us the following in-
stances of this: " It may be mentioned, as  a fact corroborating the opinion, that pro-
ductions of an infidel character have a tendency to originate a disposition to suicide, by
weakening the moral principles ; that when the celebrated and notorious Tom Paine's
"Age of Reason" was first published, the papers of the day recorded many cases  of self-
murder, committed by persons who avowed that the idea never entered their heads until
they had become familiar with the above-mentioned writer.   An individual  zealous in
the diffusion of Paine's principles, purchased several hundred copies of his work which
he most industriously circulated,  gratuitously, in quarters where  he knew the doctrines
of Christianity had already obtained a footing. A copy of the " Age of Reason "  ele-
gantly bound, was received by a young lady who was acting in the capacity of gover- 
RELIGIOUS INSANITY.
177
departures  in  the  direction of  ignorant and  fanatical superstition.
The former position  is  readily explained.   The  soul,  as well  as the
body, to  enable it to stand steadily, requires that the eye shall be  fixed
upon some  distant  and  external  point.   No man,  for instance,  can
succeed in standing on one foot if  he fixes his eye on his own person;
and he succeeds  in maintaining  his upright position precisely to the
extent  he is able to fix his eye firmly on a point in the distance.   And
in  a psychological  view this  is  readily explicable.   It is only by the
recognition of & future state that the soul can be effectually steadied in
this.  And it  is  precisely such a  system as the Christian religion de-
scribes,—one which affords a positive assurance of  immortal peace to
those who seize upon it for their  portion,—which, while it recognizes
that innate  depravity, which the heart is  but  too ready to testify to
from its own experience, promises divine aid in  the struggle—which
announces  the pardon of past sin by  a vicarious atonement, Avhile it
affords to the creature the aid and  succour in all his troubles, of a divine
friend  and yet  of a  human  example.
   "I envy no  qualities of the mind or intellect in others, nor  genius,
nor power,  wit or fancy," says Sir  H. Davy: "but if I could choose
what  would be most  delightful,  and, I  believe, most  useful to  me,  I


ness in the family of a gentleman of great respectability.  The lady had no conception
from whom the present came, and having heard of the book she felt a curiosity to become
acquainted with the doctrines which it inculcated.  The circumstance of her having re-
ceived the book was not mentioned to any member of the family with whom she resided,
and in the evening when she retired to her own room, she read it with great attention.
The family noticed, in a few weeks, a perceptible alteration in  the appearance  of the
young lady.  She became exceedingly thoughtful and contemplative.  Her health also
appeared sensibly affected.  The mother of the children whom she was instructing took
advantage of the  first opportunity of speaking  to her on the subject.  She expressed
herself very unhappy in her mind, but refused  to disclose the cause of her mental un-
easiness.  It was  thought she had formed an attachment, and  was suffering from the
effects of  disappointed affection.  She was questioned on these  points, but persisted  m
concealing the circumstances which had been operating so injuriously on  her mmd.
 The mental dejection increased, and the result was an alarming attack of nervous fever,
 of which she was cured by an able physician with much difficulty.  When convalescent
 she was noticed one day busily employed in writing, and when interrupted showed great
 anxiety to secrete the piece of paper on which she had been transcribing her thoughts.
 In the course of the evening  of the same day, a deep groan was heard to issue from her
 room.  The servant immediately entered,  when, to her great horror, she saw the gover-
 ness on the floor with a terrible  gash in her throat.  Assistance Avas directly obtained ;
 but alas! not in time to  save the life of the poor unfortunate girl.  On  searching her
 desk a sheet of paper was discovered, on which she  had  disclosed her reasons  for the
 rash'act.   She said, that from the moment she read the " Age of Reason," her mind be-
 came unsettled.   Her previous religious impressions were undermined; in proportion  as
 she was induced  to imbibe the doctrines  of Tom Paine, so she became miserable and
 wretched  From one error  she  fell  into  another, until she actually believed that death
 was annihilation ; and  although she appeared firmly rooted in this belief, she expressed
 herself horrified beyond all expression at  the bare idea of dissolution.  For some time
 nrior to her illness,  she had felt an impulse to sacrifice her life, but  had not the courage
 to perform the act.  After her recovery, she felt the impulse renewed with  increased
 strength,  until, with a hope of escaping from an accumulation of misery which was
 weighing her to the earth, she determined to commit suicide.  She also, in the document
 referred to, asked her friends to forgive her, and to take warning from her fate  -Vin-
 siow's Anatomy of Suicide,  pp. 87-89.  It has been asserted and remains uncontradicted
 Jhat Mr. Hume, lent his « Essay on Suicide," to a friend, who, on returning it told him it
 was a most exceUent performance, and  pleased him better than any thing he had read
 for a long time.   In order to give Hume a practical  exhibition of  the effect of  his de-
 fence of suicide,  his friend shot himself the day after returning him the  essay— Win-
 dow's Anatomy of Suicide,  pp. 31, 32.
          12 
178          PRESERVATIVE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY.
should prefer a, firm religious belief to every other blessing :  for it makes
life a discipline of goodness ; creates neAv hopes when all earthly hopes
vanish; and throws  over the decay,  the destruction of existence, the
most gorgeous of all  lights; awakens life in death, and calls out from
corruption and decay, beauty and everlasting glory."
   § 215.  The habitual practical  recognition and  adoption of such a
system as  this must  necessarily generate a sobriety of temper, Avhich
Avill of all others be the most  distant from derangement.  That the
reception of Christianity, Avhether real or nominal, should cure insanity,
is no more to be  expected  than that  it  should cure the small-pox.   If
it did—if a special miracle was wrought for  the purpose of destroying
the original characteristics of  each indiAidual, it  Avould not  only de-
stroy moral agency and hence break  up probation, but Avould  produce
an almost entire derangement of human affairs by obliterating the marks
of individuality, to say nothing  of identity.
   To the same effect are the following  just observations  of Dr. Cop-
land :  "It must not be supposed, from Avhat I have advanced,  that the
Christian religion is truly chargeable Avith causing insanity; it actually
has an opposite  tendency.  Mistaken  views,  excessive fervour, un-
founded fears, and various  feelings arising  from these  sources, are the
only causes of insanity in connection Avith religion.   Among those Avho
entertain just and sober  opinions on religious topics—who make Chris-
tian doctrines the basis of their morals, the governors of their passions,
the soothers of their cares and their hopes of futurity—insanity rarely
occurs.  The moral causes of derangement which would not fail of pro-
ducing injurious effects on  others, prove innocuous in them, for these
causes would  be met by controlling  and calming considerations and
sentiments, such  as would deprive them of intensity or neutralize their
effects.  Truly  religious sentiments  and obligations soothe the  more
turbulent  emotions, furnish consolations  in affliction, heal the wounded
feelings, administer hopes  to the desponding, and  arrest  the  hands of
violence and despair, "(d)
   And the testimony of  Dr. Cheyne,  who stood for many years at the
head of the medical  profession in Ireland, occupying the responsible
post in that kingdom of  physician-general to the forces, is equally em-
phatic : " Our experience of, and inquiries into the nature of insanity,
during a period of  forty years," he says, "  enable us to say, that such
cases as that Avhich we have just related," (those of insanity from mor-
bidity of the religious affections,) " are not in the proportion of one in
a thousand to the instances of insanity which arise  from wounded pride
or disappointed ambition."(e)  " True religion," he tells  us in another
place,"(f) is  a  preservative,  although not a complete  preservative
against derangement  of the mind.  We have no intention of concealing
that we have known  many instances  of insanity among  believers, but
it  was not caused by their creed.  We  have also  known  instances  in
which all sense of religion  has been permanently destroyed by  insanity.
Of such cases we would remark, that the believer has no right to expect

  (d) Copland Med. Diet., Art. " Insanity."
  (e) Cheyne on Derangement in connection with  Religion, pp. 178,  179.
  (f) Ibid. p. 146. 
RELIGION AS CONNECTED WITH INSANITY.
179
for his believing friend exemption from evils arising from the state of
the body, on which insanity always depends.  Let him moreover recol-
lect, that as total insanity puts an end to moral accountability, nothing
which may take place during a paroxysm of the disorder, can affect the
future happiness of his friend."
   "When fairly examined," says Dr.  Combe, "the danger is seen to
arise solely from an abuse of religion, and  the best safeguard is found
to consist in a right understanding of its principles and submission to
its precepts.   For if the best Christian be he, who in meekness, humi-
lity, and sincerity, places his trust in  God, and  seeks  to fulfill all his
commandments,  then he who exhausts his soul in devotion, and at the
same time finds  no leisure  or  no inclination  for attending to the com-
mon duties  of  his station, and who so far from arriving at happiness or
peace of mind, becomes every day the more estranged from them, and
finds himself at last involved in disease and despair, cannot be  held as
a follower of Christ, but must rather be held as a follower of a phan-
tom assuming  the aspect of religion.  When insanity attacks the latter,
it  is obviously not religion  that  is its cause;  it is only the absence of
certain  feelings,  the regulated  activity of which is necessary to the
right exercise  of religion;  and against such abuse a sense of religion
would, in fact, have been the most powerful protection.  And  the great
benefit of knowing  this is, that  whenever  we shall  meet with  such a
blind and misdirected excess of our best feelings in a constitutionally
—nervous or hereditarily—predisposed subject, instead of encouraging
its exuberance, we should use  every effort to temper the excess, to in-
culcate  sounder views, and to point  out  the inseparable connection
which the Creator has established betAveen the true dictates of religion
and the practical duties  of life,  which it  is  a part of his purpose in
sending us here  to fulfill."
   § 216. These views are not uncorroborated by practical observation.
It is not necessary to record the cases where mania, particularly that
of the suicidal cast, has been generated by an undue estimate of the im-
portance of this life's incidents as compared with those of the next.Q?)
On the other hand we may find a pregnant illustration of the converse
process  by  the fact mentioned in the thirteenth report  of the Hartford
Retreat, that two hundred and eight farmers, fifty-eight merchants, and
thirty-four day-laborers have been admitted into that institution to four
clergymen.(A)   And in a very capable pamphlet, published  in Phila-

   (g) Dr. Rush, after noticing the fact that 150 suicides having taken place  in Paris in
the year 1782, and but 32 in London, says, " It is probable the greater portion of infidels
in the former than in the latter city, at that time, may have  occasioned a difference in
the number of deaths in the two places, for suicide will naturally follow smaU degrees
of insanity, where there are no habits of moral  order from religion, and no belief in a
future state."  Rush on the Mind, p. 69.
   (h) The chaplain in the same report  states : " The usual  week-day services  in the
chapel of the institution, singing, reading the Scriptures, and prayer, have been performed
during the year.  On the afternoon of the Sabbath, there have been religious  exercises
similar to those in other Christian congregations. The singing is still conducted by a
choir composed of the attendants and patients, and adds much to the interest and value
of the services. In these various exercises the patients have engaged with gratifying de-
corum and solemnity. Strangers who for the first time are present at our worship in the
chapel, often express surprise at their apparent  devotion, and the stillness  and steady 
180
RELIGIOUS INSANITY—
delphia in 1850,  on this very point—a pamphlet which, though anony-
mous, is understood to have been AVritten by a gentleman of great ex-
perience in the discipline of  insane convicts, and to have been revised
and approved by the two very eminent principals of the tAVO chief Phila-
delphia lunatic asylums(z)—the history of what is  called religious  in-
sanity  is thus traced:  " The  unsubdued temper  of a child exhibits itself
in paroxysms of passion.  Every little  disappointment occasions violent
irritation.  This morbid impatience ripens  into  sullen discontent  with
all the allotments of life.  The unhappy creature persuades himself that
an evil spirit haunts all  his footsteps and rules his destiny.   This  con-
ception is easily made to assume a religious phase or association, and is
succeeded by settled gloom,  which the hospital register or  the neAvs-

attention with which they listen to divine truth. Indeed, it  is believed that few congre-
gations of the sane, in an ordinary state of feeling, exceed them  in these respects.
  " A sense of need opens a way for the gospel to the hearts of these sufferers.  The ser-
vice checks, for a few moments at least, the dark current of sorrow, calls the  wandering
mind away from its delusions, and aids in forming a healthful self-control.  A  sense of
propriety, the strong associations connected with such scenes in happier  days, and the
quiet of fellow worshippers, combine to restrain outbursts of feeling which they are often
unable to resist in their own rooms. And aside from these  influences of religious wor-
ship, who shall set limits to the great Physician of both soul and  body, in making the
gospel a means of moral renovation to the deranged mind ?
   " Increasing experience strengthens my conviction  that the distinguishing principles
of the gospel are no less adapted to the mind when disordered, than when in its normal
state.  In the former case, indeed, more care and a different mode  of  exhibition are de-
manded ;  but these principles unfolded calmly  and clearly, in the sober manner of the
Bible, will find as ready and intelligent and cordial a response in  a congregation of the
insane as in most others.
   " The full value of the gospel in relation to mental derangement, both as a preventive
and a remedy, is not, it is believed, fully appreciated.  Official reports show that cases
of insanity, in great numbers, result from causes against which the controlling daily in-
fluence of religious principle would guard the mind.  By checking vices which prey on
the body and mental feelings, such as envy, jealousy, inordinate grief, which waste its
energies, the gospel prevents diseases that result in insanity."                     »
   The fact that sound religious discipline exercises a salutary influence in assuaging the
malady, does not, of course, go to refute the position that unsound religious  excitement
may not have produced it; but it does show that a judicious presentation of the sanctions
of religion—even involving their most solemn features—is a conservative and not a dis-
tracting influence.  The reports of Dr. Kirkbride and Dr.  AVoodward are strong to this
point; and we cannot refrain  from adding to them the following testimony from Miss Dix:
   " That among the hundreds  of  crazy people with whom  her  sacred missions have
brought her  into companionship, she has not found one individual, however fierce and
turbulent, that could not be calmed by Scripture and prayer, uttered in low and gentle
tones.  The power of religious sentiments over  those shattered souls seems miraculous.
The worship of a quiet, loving heart, affects them like a voice  from  heaven.  Tearing and
rending, yelling and stamping, singing and groaning, gradually subside into  silence, and
they fall on their knees, or gaze upwards with clasped hands, as if they saw through the
opening darkness a golden gleam from their Father's throne of love."
   Armed with this  gentle influence, we are told by an observer, she  does not fear  the
violence of the madman. Well do we remember an instance that we heard from her own
lips, in which she entered the cell of a maniac,  against the remonstrances of the terrified
 keeper.  As she persisted in entering, the door was instantly closed behind her to pre-
 vent escape.   Alone she stood face to face with that wild man.  He raised himself in a
threatening attitude, and glared upon her with his fierce eye.   She opened the Bible,  and
 read the words of a Psalm.   After a few lines,  he bent his head to listen.  The look of
 rage  and terror passed from his countenance.  His eye grew less wild, and sent forth
 sweet, blessed tears, until the madman sank down at that  helpless woman's feet.  And
 as she finished, he said, Will you read those words again ?
   (i) The relations of Religion to what are  called " Diseases of the Mind,"  Phila. J. W
 Moore, 1850. 
REAL CHARACTER OF.
181
papers record as a case of religious melancholy, whereas it is  really a
case of ripe stubbornness.
   "AVe might readily illustrate our position by actual  cases of disap-
pointed ambition or affection.  As where one has aspired  to  high dis-
tinction, and has suffered a defeat so  unexpected and mortifying as to
unhinge the mind, it  is natural that he  should  assume some exalted
character,  and insanely supposes himself to be a king, or even the King
of Kings.   Or when the young affections have been so sadly  blighted
as to veil all the joys and hopes of life, and excite a  disgust for life
itself, we might expect that reason, overpoAvered by such a shock, would
lead the sufferer into some morbid conception of  herself, that would be
most congenial to seclusion and a renunciation of the world; and hence
she is very likely to assume  the  character  of the Virgin  Mary, or to
hold herself in readiness  for an extraordinary holy service as a com-
panion of some angelic potentate.  These are not fictitious  cases.  They
have had their parallel if not their counterpart in  many  lunatic hos-
pitals, and in neither of them, Ave apprehend, could there  be  found a
single feature to justify us in classing them among  cases of "religious
insanity,"  or in ascribing to religion  the remotest connection with their
unhappy state.
   " If in the instances just cited, and others  of like character, faith in
God had been a controlling  principle, the mind  would probably  have
stayed itself on Him, and its integrity would have  been preserved.
Have our  readers never known a lone woman, in humble life,  buffeting
courageously with the rising tide of disappointment  and  sorrow;—a
kind and faithful husband removed by death: the means of daily sus-
tenance straitened, perhaps almost to penury; a promising son proving
reprobate; a helpful and cheerful daughter deprived of sight, and  an-
other prostrate under the power  of  chronic  disease—have they never
known such an one in these or like circumstances reposing her trust in
her covenant God, and saying with the  afflicted  but not  despairing
patriarch,  ' Shall we receive good at  the hand of God, and shall we  not
receive evil ?'  Or in the Avords of one who knew the bitterness  of grief,

                    ' My lifted eye without a tear,
                       The gathering storm shall see;
                     My steadfast heart shall know no fear;
                       That heart shall trust in thee.'

   " It is not a superior mind, nor high moral gifts  that makes this ob-
vious difference.  It is that in the one case religion is inculcated, and
the mind entertains it as an infinitely pure and Avelcome system of di-
vine truth, embraces its sublime and often  mysterious doctrines as^ a
little child receives  the lessons  of paternal wisdom,  and esteems its
precepts as just and good, and worthy of prompt and cheerful obedience.
God's providence is regarded as directing and overruling  all; and  the
spontaneous language of the soul is, ' Though he  slay me, yet  will  I
trust in him.  Though the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit
be in the vines, the labor of the  olive shall fail, and the field shall yield
no meat, the flocks shall be cut off from the fold, and  there shall be no
herd in the stall, yet will I rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of
my salvation.' 
182
RELIGIOUS INSANITY—
   " In the other case a perverse, fretful, impatient spirit, indulged  in
childhood, falls, and is utterly cast  down in the first conflict with the
stern realities of life, and becomes the prey of fitful melancholy, if not
of settled mania."
   § 217.  The history of  religious insanity in this country goes a great
way to fortify the position that it is to a departure from the  gospel
system that most cases of what may be  called Dsemonio-mania  may  be
traced.  This is shown with peculiar ability as Avell as weight  of ex-
perience in the following passages from  the  pamphlet Avhich has  been
just noticed:
   " Passing over the many instances of such erratic and  fanatical ex-
travagances which history records, and to some of which the review be-
fore us alludes, we will glance at two recent and notable ones,  occurring
among ourselves, that Ave may the better judge whether religion  makes
men insane, or whether it merely fails,  in many cases, to bring them to
their right mind;  so that it may be said that they continue  insane  in
spite of all that religion can do for them.
   " A clergyman, in infirm health, sought to amuse his listless hours
by framing a puerile romance, after the manner of eastern fabulists,
with names, dates and localities, bearing no relation to sober history.
These writings, in some way, without the author's privity,  came into the
hands  of strangers.  In 1826, one Joseph Smith professed to have found,
in the town of Palmyra, N. Y., some brass plates enclosed in a box,  such
as is used for packing windoAv-glass.  Of these plates he  pretended  to
be the interpreter.   With a stone in his hat, and his hat over his eyes,
he dictated what a man, named Harris, wrote.  In consequence of some
dispute, Harris departed before the interpretation was ended, and one
Cowdrey took his place and completed the ' Book of Mormon.'   Smith
then avowed himself a prophet, and the  founder of a new  dispensation,
and gathered many disciples, who accompanied him to the state of  Mis-
souri, where they established a city and built a  temple.   We need not
pursue their adventures.
   "The contents of the  Book of Mormon, or the Mormon Bible,  were
neither more  nor less than the self-same tales of romance which the
invalid clergyman amused himself  with  writing.  A large number of
persons, however, embraced the delusion; many abandoned a profitable
business; some sacrificed large property, and  not a few were ruined
in  soul, body and  estate,  by putting  their trust  in this  barefaced
imposture.
   "It is perfectly obvious, we think, that a mind well  informed and
established in the received doctrines of the Christian faith, and endued
with but very ordinary discernment, would be proof against so bold  an
imposture.   If any intelligent and respectable persons joined the
Mormon ranks, that, of itself, shows either a predisposition to insanity,
which this  fanciful revelation was  fitted to develop, but with which
religion  has no  connection whatever;  or that there is a deficiency of
discernment,  or  a neglect or abuse of the reasoning  powers,  or a
morbid love of distinction and notoriety, to gratify Avhich  they are
willing to sacrifice all other interests.   If  a judicious, faithful parent
or Sunday-school teacher had given direction  to  their  inquiries and
furnished their minds with just and systematic, though exceedingly 
REAL NATURE OF.
183
simple, views  of the doctrines of revelation,  they Avould  have had
balances  whereAvith to weigh the pretensions of the new prophet, and
by means of these vanity and falsehood would have been made manifest.
   " At a somewhat later period, a man named Miller, (a Baptist minister,
as it is said,) professed to have had a revelation of  the precise day  on
which the second advent of Christ would occur, and when his people
would be called to rise and meet him in the air !  He and his deluded
apostles, or agents, went  from town  to town and from house to house,
'leading captive silly women,' and imposing upon the credulity of the
ignorant.  So  settled was the conviction  of many minds of the truth
of his predictions, that they arranged their worldly affairs in reference
to it, as an ascertained event, and made no contracts extending beyond
the designated  day.   Prosperous  citizens  sold  their estates, and  de-
clined the ordinary avocations  of life, that they might give themselves
wholly to the  business of preparation; and,  as the eventful period
drew nigh, many evinced the sincerity of their convictions by providing
what  they regarded as suitable apparel for an aerial flight;  and some
actually  assembled in  groups upon  summits which might be supposed
most  favorable  to an early  and  easy ascension !   The dupes of the
false  prophet were  counted by thousands.  Scores were committed to
insane asylums Avho  were crazed with excitement, or with disappoint-
ment ; and many within and without the charmed circle were doubtless
left to believe that all revelations are as idle and delusive as Miller-
ism.(A;)
   " AVe need not say how the plainest scriptures must have been wrested
from  their true  intent and meaning, nor  how  deaf an  ear must have
been turned to the voice of reason and common sense, before the mind
could haAre surrendered itself to such a fancy.   There is not a trace of
insanity, however, in any stage of the process.   It  is a  simple, volun-
tary subjection of reason to the influence of imagination or superstition,
instead of a childlike  submission  of all the  powers and faculties  of
body and mind  to the revealed will  of God.   And, although we may
admit that such  delusions have, in many instances, been the ostensible
cause of  insanity, as our hospital returns allege,—"revealed religion"
is no  more responsible for them than for paroxysms of  mania-a-potu.
It is because the  plain truths of revealed religion were misapprehended,
perverted or rejected,  that the  imposture succeeded, and the mind was
led captive by Satan at his will.  It is not strange that a vessel left to
itself,  on a stormy sea should, sooner  or later,  go to the bottom, or fall
into the hands  of wreckers. "(I)
  By the same able Avriter the following propositions are laid down:—
  § 218.  "I.  It is as unjust  to ascribe  cases of what is commonly
called ' religious insanity' to religion,  as their cause, as it would  be
to charge our insane  hospitals with originating or confirming the cases
which they do not cure.(w)

  (k) See an Essay on this point, in 1 Am. Jour, of Insan. 249.
  (1) Relations of Religion to what are called Diseases of the mind.  Phil. J. W. Moore,
1850.
  (m) The third annual report of the Ohio Lunatic Asylum very justly remarks in this
connection: — "There is no country where the subject of religion is more immediately
and forcibly brought home to the heart and conscience than in the United States.  It is 
184           PRESERVATIVE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY.
   " II.  There  is no such thing as religious insanity:  i. e. it cannot be
 said of religion, as  it can be  of grief,  or disappointment,  or  chagrin,
 that it causes insanity.

 one, too, upon which  every variety of opinion exists.  Unlimited discussion is in con-
 stant practice among all classes ;  and the feelings and apprehensions of our nature are
 much aroused, and frequently excited.  And it cannot be doubted that in many cases
 where persons are predisposed to this fearful disease by natural constitution, incorrect
 education, feeble health, and other circumstances, anxieties connected with the awful
 realities of eternity and the  immortality of the soul, have been the exciting causes of
 mental derangement.  But pure and undefiled religion, whose genial  influences  shed
 peace and joy over the path of our existence, and light us with elevated hopes to the
 prospects  of a happy eternity, can, in its unperverted results, have no such injurious
 effects upon the mind.   ' The caviler may accuse religion of producing insanity, but he
 does not  see  how  many  causes of insanity it averts;  how much comfort it affords
 to the weary and heavy laden, how effectually it buoys up the desponding, and how
 directly it points out to  the transgressor the way of pardon and peace.'*   As the result
 of some attention to this matter, we feel satisfied that the true remote cause of insanity,
 very frequently lies behind the religious  influences which  appear so conspicuous, that, at
 most, religion can  only be accused as the occasional or exciting cause of a disease whose
foundation is completely established in the system; that, in  a great many  of these cases,
 the mental derangement will be found mainly to depend upon ill health, or that peculiar
 debility and irritation of the  nervous system which so frequently follow various acute
 disorders  that severally try the organic structure, and, in not a few instances, so far is
 the disease of the mind from a religious origin, that it is clearly and properly chargeable
 to the indulgences of vicious habits.  It is  certainly a fact, that a maniac may imbibe
 a religious, as well as  any other extravagant delusion, and yet his  derangement may be
 occasioned by the  reverse of any thing like a religious  cause.  Some, indeed, never
 appear to speak seriously upon the subject of religion, only when they are crazy, and
 then it  would  seem as  if the anguish  of remorse had commenced a drill upon the dis-
 turbed and distracted conscience.   ' But the religious  only appear to  constitute the
 largest number  of exciting  causes  in  our annual reports;  for if we carefully analyze
 the tables, and faithfully consider those of intemperance, ill treatment, domestic trouble,
 jealous}-, masturbation, and perhaps several others, with a  fair proportion of the un-
 known, it will be found that vice predominates, and its-victims far exceed all  others."—
 Journal of Psychological Medicine, Vol. III. pp. 474, 475.
  On this  subject Morel says : "All the depressive forms are far from presenting  such
 symptoms.  There are certain melancholic patients who, with the external symptoms
 of sadness, feel a certain pleasure  in remaining concentrated upon their delirious con-
 ceptions.  They finish by believing themselves exceptional men;  the hallucinations of
 sight and hearing, frequent in them, tend to keep up these new ideas.  It is not unfrequent
 to see individuals who  were first  presented to our observation with  a delirium of
 humility, become, in consequence of the  systematization of their ideas, impressed with
 the belief that they are prophets, New Messiahs, &c.  The depressive form is then re-
 placed by  the  form accompanied  with excitement, and  we have regular maniacs to
 treat.  An old gendarme, pursued for a  long time by the blackest ideas, and thinking
 himself damned, is to day a maniac of  this description, (and these are often the  most
 dangerous.)  He thinks himself the husband of the Virgin, he sees and hears her, he
 receives her  inspirations, and as these  cannot separate themselves completely from the
 prejudices  he formerly  imbibed in  his terrors, he pursues us with his anathemas, and
 daily predicts for us the  most horrible end.
  " Another lypomaniac  who has spent all his  fortune in travelling to the most celebrated
 spots of Christendom, in hope of finding a relief for his exaggerated fears of Hell, is to
 day in a veritable state of exaltation, because the Holy Ghost has revealed itself to him.
 The  heavens are open to his looks;  the Apocalypse has no longer  any mysteries for his
 mind; if we attempt to  combat his follies, he overwhelms us with scorn and contempt
 and will not answer men, who only live in the lust of their  passions and in the corrup-
 tion  of the flesh.   Insane of this class have  been  called demonomaniacs, but they do
 not always  present themselves in  such a high state of exaltation.  The following is a
 case of lypomania, which would formerly  have been considered as a perfect example of
 demonomania: S----, is twenty-three  years  old, and the exaggeration  of his religious
 feelings has been the starting point of his insanity.  Two years ago S. still worked and
 talked ;  since  then  he will no longer do any thing, or answer any question.  The  hesi-
 tation that he showed in performing the  most ordinary acts of life, alone indicated his
*Dr. AVoodward. 
RELATION OF RELIGION TO SANITY.
185
   " III.  To inculcate the doctrines, as well as the precepts, of revealed
religion upon the  human mind, at the earliest period of its capacity to
receive  them, is  the  clear  scriptural duty of  all persons Avho  have  the
care of  children and  youth.


superstitious terror, and the excessive fear of offending  God that possessed him.  _ He
was  constantly reproaching himself for imaginary faults, and spent his time in fastings
that destroyed his health.   It often happened that he no longer wished to eat, and when
by the use of the douche  we compelled  him to  take nourishment, he  murmured in a
low  voice, "That Thy will, Lord, may be done; pardon them, they know not what they
do :  what happiness it is to die for Thy holy name."   A moment out of sight, and he
would place himself  upon his knees, and remain in that position entire days, wrapped
up in  his  fixed idea, and beating his head against the wall.   A year ago, I tried to
make him go to chapel, and was astonished at his opposition; he clung to the door and
made an  extraordinary resistance, notwithstanding his state of extreme  emaciation.
AVhen, to-day, they threaten to conduct him to chapel, when any one brings a crucifix
near him, or attempts  to make the sign of the cross upon him, his sensations are  shown
in a striking manner in the expression  of his face, and in his  gestures.  His face be-
comes flushed, he sighs profoundly, stops  his ears, and his resistance betrays itself in a
struggle, in which he  displays a violence  and an  energy of which one would not think
him  capable."  See  Etudes Cliniques des Maladies Mentales, par M. Morel.  Tome I. p.
391.  Paris, 1852.—Also, Etudes Psychologiques  sur l'Alienation Mentales, per L. F. E.
Renaudin.   Chap. X. p. 674.  Paris, 1854.
  " Religious monomania," says M. Renaudin, " which for a long time was thought to
be more common in women than in men, appears to divide itself equally between the two
sexes.  But it exhibits in its manifestations the influence peculiar to  the physical and
moral idiosyncrasy of  each.  The hysterical element in women plays an important part,
and the ecstatical state in them is more convulsive than in man;  and this explains to us
the reason why the devil figures more in delirium in that sex. The immunity of the Romish
clergy, socially speaking, from this form of mental unsoundness may be attributed to the
principle of authority that governs them,  which  they can sometimes evade, but from
which they can never  escape.  Besides the clerical life is an active one, and if it does
present something exceptional which separates it from men, the obligations of the minis-
try temper whatever danger this isolation may possess.  Communities of women, on the
contrary, present more numerous openings to this  disease, especially when they are sub-
mitted to the danger of a contemplative life.  This temper is not unlikely to terminate in
exhaustion and lypomania, or hysterical mania.
  In religious monomania  we meet with all the characters of active over excitement of
the general sensibility, and of the most energetic concentration  of psychical intuition.
It may or may not be complicated with the errors of the individual, and generally borrows
some traits from the affective sentiments.   If it reconciles itself sometimes with marked
intellectual  ability, it  ordinarily has  for  a starting point some  special  predisposition,
which  is  less properly  called a religious character than a vague and uncertain re-
ligiousness.
  The same acute though not always reliable thinker proceeds  to recognize a special
cause of Fanatico-Mania, arising from the distress of mind provoked by  the reading of
mystical works, or of  the wilder class of forced prophetical  interpretations, forming in
this  way the first step  towards the incubation of the disease.   Sometimes also as a con-
sequence of the impression of depressing  causes,  the  individual draws the resistance,
which  he  makes to the circumstances in which he may be placed, from misplaced fana-
tical assumption ; (e. g. that of spirit-rapping,) he reacts strongly against his own grief
or disappointment on this false basis, and active over-excitement is the result.  Fear and
remorse, when  acted against by the same  loose motives, lead to  the same consequence.
Fanatico-mania is frequently connected with either organic or dynamic affections  of the
chest or abdominal viscera. If there are among such patients any examples of longevity,
it is  when the  anaesthetic  ecstasy  is reproduced only at long intervals.  The system
with difficulty accommodates itself to this convulsive spasm, and  above all to the fast-
ings  and mortifications which are its habitual consequence ; and a proper maintenance of
the vital forces rarely resulting.   The  anomalies  of sensation are greatly  multiplied,
and the impressions received, apart from the period of ecstasy, are much more durable.
It is  especially amongst these monomaniacs that perversions of the affective feelings are
observable.   The real  and the morbid religious feeling may be in fact distinguished from
each other by the test of selfishness.  The man who yields to the false impulse has neither
family nor country;  provided  that he gains his salvation,  the rest is of but little import-
ance. If he wishes to control others, it is more through intolerance than charity.  Under 
186            RELIGION AS CONNECTED WITH INSANITY.

   "IV.  To  neglect  or delay such  an encouragement of the religious
sentiment, from any apprehension of deA'eloping a tendency to " cerebral
disease,"  is as unphilosophieal and fatal, as it Avould be to withhold all
food from a child through fear of strangling it, or destroying its diges-
tivc  organs.
   " Ar. The due apprehension and influence of religious truth, as revealed
in the  scriptures,  constitutes the  best  preservative against  mental
aberrations—especially such  as  are supposed to  originate  in moral
causes.
   " ArI.  The earlier the mind is brought under the supreme influence of
religious  truth,  the  more likely it is to retain its integrity, when the
exciting occasions of derangement occur."(n)
   An  additional illustration  of the truth of these positions is to be
found  in  the late  development of Spirit-Rapping.   Precisely to the
degree  in which the alleged Spiritual  developments  depart from the
dogmas of Christian Revelation, are they associated  with mental de-
rangement.  As long  as the "media" profess to be orthodox,  so long
do they keep within the bounds of right reason.  AVith them, however,
as with the Mormons, deviations from the moral law keep pace with devia-
tions from the divine.  Thus the cases of " spiritual marriages," of which
we have  lately  heard, have  been  preceded by  alleged supernatural
communications, vacating  the Scriptural  precepts.   And  a  careful
examination  of the  cases of  insanity produced by Spiritualism shows
that in each  instance, infidelity became a concomitant, (o)
   § 219.  Crimes committed under the influences of fanatical impulses,
such as  those which have been just mentioned, may be considered  in
the same  light as crimes  committed  in a state of drunkenness.  In the
latter  case,  an  individual who knowingly takes  intoxicating liquor,
cannot defend himself  on the fact of guilt by proof of his intoxication.
It is otherwise, however, when the guilty act  is  the immediate result
of mania-a-potu, in Avhich case the malady has assumed the shape  of a
substantive and permanent desire, and like any other delirium,  is to  be
treated as destroying responsibility.(oo)   In like manner, the voluntary
adoption  of  a religious  belief which includes among its incidents  a
known violation of laAV,  does not  relieve  the  party who  commits  such
violation of law under such influences, from responsibility.  If, however,
he sink into consequential delirium, and  then commit the crime, he is
irresponsible, (p)

the influence of this excitement, the voice of nature is not heard, and history bears wit-
ness  to the crimes which fanaticism has been led to commit.  Every affection, every
duty  is sacrificed  to this exclusive sentiment; and  whilst a well understood religion
enjoins love to  God and our neighbor, blind fanaticism produces selfishness."  See Re-
naudin sur l'Alienation Mentale. Paris, 1854, chap. x. p. 744.
  (n) Ibid.
  (o) See on this topic a most able but, in some respects, eccentric Volume, under  the
title,  •' The Apocatastasis, or  progress backwards, a ' new tract for the  times." Bur-
lington, Chauncey Goodrich, 1854," to which the reader  is referred for a very effective
exhibition of the absurdity of the whole Spirit-rapping system.
  (oo) See ante, \ 62-70.
  (]) See an essay on this point, 3 Am. Jour, of Insan.  166.—See also for a report of
Thorn's case, Ibid. 170. 
POLITICO-MANIA.
187
                       (9.)  Politico-Mania.(q)

   § 220.  " Psychical infection," to use the expressive term of, Ellinger,
is peculiarly operative in political relations.  Attempts at insurrections,
acts of laAvlessness against government, murderous assaults upon public
officers, become at times epidemic.  Marc illustrates this by the cases
in Avhich public conspicuous crimes have become contagious ; e. g., arson
and murder.   The tendency to  seditious violence is  generated by an
oppressive government bearing on  temperaments tainted with just such
an infection.
   § 221.  " Certain forms of goA7ernment," says Dr. Rush,  "predispose
to ^madness.  They are those in which the people possess a just and ex-
quisite sense of liberty, and of the evils of arbitrary power against which
complaints are stifled by a military force.   The conflicting tides of the
public passions, by their operations upon the understanding, become  in
these  cases a cause of derangement.   The assassination of tyrants and
their  instruments of oppression is generally the effect of  this disease.
That  madness is thus induced, I infer from its occurring so rarely from
a political cause in the United States. I have known but one instance of it,
and that was of a gentleman who had been deranged some years before,
from debt contracted by extravagant living.  In a government where all
the power of a country is representative and elective, a day of general
suffrage, and free presses, serve, like chimneys in a house, to conduct from
the individual and public mind all the discontent, vexation, and resentment
which have been generated in the passions by real or supposed evils, and
thus to prevent the understanding being injured by them.  In despotic
countries, where the public passions are torpid, and where life and pro-
perty are secured only by the extinction of the domestic affections, mad-
ness is a rare disease.   Of the truth of this remark, I have been satisfied
by Mr. Stewart, the pedestrian traveller, aat1io spent some time in Tur-
key, also by Dr. Scott, who  accompanied  Lord M'Cartney in his em-
bassy to China, and  by Mr. Joseph Rexas, a native of Mexico, who
passed nearly forty years of  his life among the civilized  but depressed
natives of that country.  Dr.  Scott informed  me that he heard of but
a single instance of madness  in China, and that was in a merchant who
had suddenly lost  £100,000 sterling by an unsuccessful speculation  in
gold  dust."(r)   With  regard  to Mexico  and China, hoAvever,  recent
observations show that these remarks should be greatly qualified.


VIII. Mental unsoundness as  accompanied  with intellectual
                            PROSTRATION.

                           1st.  Idiocy.(s)

   § 222.  "Idiocy," says Dr. Ray, "is that condition  of mind  in which

  (q) See on this point " Influence des Eve"nemens et des Commotion Politiques sur le
Developpement de la Folie.  Par le Docteur Belhomme.  Paris, 1849 ;" and a review of
the same in Jour. Psych. Med., Vol. III. p.  31.
  (r) Rush on the Mind, pp. 66, 67.
  (s) Krahmer, Handbuch der Gericht. Med. Halle, C. A. Schwetschke, 1851, § 110, 125.
Siebold, Lehrbuch der Gericht. Med.  Berlin, 1847, \ 200.
  See on this point the following works :  The Principles of Medical Psychology, being 
188
IDIOCY—
the reflective, and all  or a  part of the affective powers, are either en-
tirely Avanting, or are  manifested to the slightest  possible extent."(t)
The intellectual  and moral faculties, in cases properly falling  under
this head, are almost null, the effect being in most instances congenital,
and arising in all cases from want of development,  not from perversion
of the functions.   And the  development of the senses is almost equally
defective.(m)   The power of speech does not exist,  or exists only so far
as to enable the patient to articulate a few unintelligible monosyllables.
This incapacity depends sometimes on the imperfect conformation of the
organs of  speaking, sometimes upon those of hearing, but more fre-
quently on a deficiency in or want of the powers of imitation; so that
even Avhen the hearing and the  speech  are both entirely mature, the
patient  remains  unable to  do  more than  in  the  one case to shoAV his
knowledge of the existence of sound, and in the other, to give utterance
to noises not above, if equal to, those of the brute creation.   Taste and
smell are equally imperfect.   In many cases there is an  inability to
perceive  odors, and in most, nothing but the coarsest discrimination in
the selection of articles of food.  Wallowing in personal filth, devouring
even excrement with apparent avidity,  indisposition to eat  at all  unless
food be placed directly before the eye,  drinking urine with as little ap-
pearance of distaste as water, are incidents one or more of which are to
be found in almost every case of idiocy.   And the same  Ioav grade of
sensibility  and of flexibility is found  in  the purely physical system.
The nerves are almost  torpid.   Limbs  sometimes have been amputated
without apparent pain, and Esquirol even tells us of labor having been
undergone without the patient being  conscious of the  fact  or of its
meaning.  The arms are frequently of unequal length, and misshapen ;
and the limbs generally are crooked and feeble.  A careless and broken
gait distinguishes them  in most cases.  Even  the  eyes are defectively
hung, and seem incapable of poising themselves at  a right level.  And
in the lower class of cases there is sometimes so great a defectiveness
of  vision as to prevent  the  patient from  perceiving the  most  obvious
objects.   And even when the powers of vision and of motion exist, the
intellectual powers are sometimes so attenuated as  to make attempts to
reach a desired point, entirely abortive, though there be entire muscular
power for  such a purpose.
   § 223. While, however,  the reasoning  powers  are  almost entirely
defective, there  is sometimes a perceptible, though unequal, develop-
ment of the  moral sentiments.  Self-esteem,(v) love of  approbation,
religious awe, sometimes assume a supremacy over  the system, which is
the more marked because it is checked by no countervailing qualities.
Dr. Rush tells us of an idiot who spent his life in little acts of benevo-
lence to others,  though in  the dispensation of them, as well as  in all
other points in his life, he showed no reasoning powers whatever.  Re-

the outlines of a course of lectures by Baron von Feuchtersleben, M. D. Vienne, 1845.
Translated from the German by the late H. Evans Lloyd, Esq.   Revised and edited by
G. B. Babington, M. D., F. R. S., &c.  London. Printed for the Sydenham Society, 1847 :
p. 354.  Morel, sur les Maladies Mentales, Arol. I. p. 52.  Paris, 1822.
  And see a very remarkable report  by Samuel Kneeland, Jun., M. D.,  read before the
Boston Socfor Med. Improvement, Jan. 13, 1851; Am. Jour, of Aled. Science, 1851;
and a review of the same Journal of Psychological Med., Vol.  IV. p. 366.
   (0 Ray, \ 51.             (u) Esquirol, 466.             (v) Ray, \ 53. 
NATURE AND CLASSIFICATION OF.
189
ligious veneration and awe is sometimes developed to an exaggerated
degree, expended upon the most unnatural objects.  Vanity,—such as
that Avhich distinguishes some branches of  the brute creation,—finds
with them a pregnant place.   And Esquirol gives us numerous in-
stances in which the talent for thieving, and that to a very remarkable
extent, was found associated with entire vacuity of mind in all other
relations.  The same observation applies, though in a much less marked
extent, to the sexual propensities.
  § 224. The following useful classification of these beings is made by
Mr.  S. G.  Howe:                                     6
  " Idiots of the lowest class  are mere organisms, masses of flesh and
bone in human shape,  in which the brain and nervous system  have no
command over the system of voluntary muscles; and which consequent-
ly are  Avithout poAver of locomotion, without speech, without any mani-
festation of intellectual or affective faculties.
  " Fools are a higher class of idiots, in whom the brain and nervous
system are  so far developed as to give partial command of the volun-
tary muscles ; who have consequently considerable  poAver of locomotion
and animal action; partial development of the intellectual and  affective
faculties, but only the  faintest glimmer of  reason, and very imperfect
speech.
  " Simpletons are the highest class of idiots, in whom the harmony
between the nervous and muscular systems is nearly perfect; who, con-
sequently,  have normal powers of locomotion and  animal action; con-
siderable activity of the perceptive and affective faculties, and reason
enough for their simple individual  guidance, but not enough for their
social  relations, "(w)
  § 225. It does not take the  case out  of the definition of Idiocy, that
some particular faculty has been saved from the general wreck.  This
is often the case, particularly with music.   Thus there is at present in
the  Saltpetriere a girl idiotic to  an  extreme degree,  who  does not
speak, and cannot e\T<m dress herself.   HoAvever, her keeper  has re-
cently discovered in her a  decided taste for music.  She  often  can
repeat faithfully a whole passage of music  played  or sung to her only
once;  even if  the passage is left incomplete, in repeating it she will
terminate it in  the right key and tone.  A first rate performer on the
piano  was  brought  to  play to her, and  her  transports amounted almost
to frenzy.   At certain passages of rapid transitions from flats to sharps,
she  uttered  cries of transport, and commenced biting  her fino-ers to
calm her emotions.  She is an immense eater, and greedily snatches at
fruit;  but the moment she  hears  the  instrument, she stops  until the
music  has  ceased.
   Mr. Howe mentions an idiot, who had an astonishing  power of reck-
oning.   " Tell  him your age, and  he  will, in a very short time,  give
you the number of minutes."
   § 226.  The following statement by  Esquirol will throAV much light
on this phase of mental unsoundness :  " With each case  of idiocy Avhich
I have published in  this Chapter, I have also given the admeasurements
  (w) Second Report of the Legislature of Massachusetts, by the Commissioners appoint-
ed to inquire into the condition of Idiots within  the Commonwealth. By S. G. HoAve, pp.
147.  Boston, 1848. Senate Doc. 
190
IDIOCY—
of the head taken  during  life.   By bringing them  together Ave  may
compare  the means Avith the results obtained by my  young confreres;
time will not permit me to do it.  For those who are fond of those
kind of investigations,  I subjoin a table of the mean  results of admea-
surement of the head taken from a woman  in the enjoyment of good
health, and from plaster casts taken after their death, in the case of
thirty-six insane women, seventeen imbeciles and seventeen idiots.   In
the case of three idiots, whose heads Avere very small, the admeasure-
ments were taken from the crania.
TABLE OF CRANIAL ADMEASUREMENTS.
	c <U <2 S 3 o 5	i «5 m 3 ?*• O fet 5*. 3 ^1	2 S s o	£ a >	< o
AVonien in a state of health, Insane, Imbeciles, Idiots, Idiots. Microcephalous,	21.87 in. 20.82 20.19 19.92 15.07	13.30 in. 11.50 11.49 11.26 7.51	6.98 in. 6.96 6.69 6.85 4.88	5.29 in. 5.67 5.63 5.39 4.17	47.44 in. 44.95 44. 43.42 31.63
  From this table we learn: 1st.  That the circumference of the head,
according to admeasurements taken among women, enjoying the use of
their reason; from  insane women, imbeciles and idiots; diminishes in
an almost equal proportion from the women in the enjoyment of usual
health, to the idiot, deprived even of instinct.  2d. That the fronto-
occipital curvature diminishes in a remarkable degree from  the women
in sound mind, to the insane female: Avhilst no variation is  noticed in
the insane person to the imbecile, and a difference of but six millemetres
between the latter and  idiocy.   3d. That  the fronto-occipital diameter
is the same in the case of the women enjoying the use of their reason
and the insane women; and that there is a diminution of but six mille-
metres between the  insane person and the  idiot; while the difference is
enormous on passing to  the lowest degree of idiocy.   4th. That the
bi-temporal diameter is more  considerable in the case of the insane
women  and even the imbecile and idiot, than in that of a woman pos-
sessing  the ordinary degree of  intelligence.  5th.  That if  we suppose
that the sum of those four admeasurements, express the volume of the
brain; it follows that the volume of this organ, diminishing in the same
proportion with the intellectual capacity; that of the cranium would be
the expression of this capacity, "(z:)
  § 227.  "In that remarkable obliteration of the mental  faculties,"
says Abercrombie, *' which we  call idiocy,  fatuity or dementia, there is
none of the distortion of insanity.  It is  a simple torpor of the facul-
ties in  the higher  degrees, amounting to total insensibility to every
impression; and some remarkable facts are connected  with the manner
in which  it arises without bodily disease.  A man mentioned  by Dr.
Rush was so violently affected by some  losses in trade, that  he was
(x) Esquirol on Insan. Lea & Blanch. Phila., 1845. p. 473. 
NATURE AND CLASSIFICATION OF.
191
deprived almost instantly of all his mental  faculties.  He did not take
notice of  any thing, not even  expressing a desire for food, but  merely
taking it  Avhen it  was put into his mouth.   A servant dressed  him in
the  morning, and conducted him to  a seat in the parlor, where he re-
mained  the Avhole day,  with his body bent  forward and  his eyes  fixed
on the  floor.   In this  state he continued nearly five years, and  then
recovered completely  and  rather suddenly.  The account  which  he
afterwards gave of his  condition during  that period was, that his  mind
was entirely lost; and  that it was  only about two months before his
final recovery  that  he  began  to have  sensations and thoughts  of any
kind.   These  at first  served  only to  convey fears  and  apprehensions,
especially in the night-time.   Of perfect idiocy produced in the same
manner by a moral cause, an affecting  example as given by Pinel: Two
young men, brothers, Avere  carried off by the conscription,  and in the
first action in which they were engaged,  one of them was shot  dead by
the side of the other.   The survivor Avas instantly struck  with  perfect
idiocy.    He was taken home, where another brother was so affected by
the sight of him, that he was  seized in  the same manner;  and in this
 state of  perfect idiocy they were both  received into the  Bicetre.   I
 have formerly  referred to  various  examples of this  condition  super-
 vening on bodily disease.   In some of them  the affection was perma-
 nent; in  others it was  entirely recovered from."(a;)


   (x) Abercrombie on the Intellectual powers, pp. 273, 274.  As the different races of
 men, says  M. Renaudin, have a characteristic  physiognomy, and as  individuals reflect
 in their features the most salient points of their moral idiosyncrasy,  so the idiot in this
 respect presents a peculiar stamp, which the least discerning can recognize.  It is a type
 which can be distinguished  in all its varieties, even when the external conformation of
 the head does not differ much from the normal proportions.  But that which strikes us
 most in  this class, is the want of symmetry, not  only in the encephalic organ, but also
 in the other parts of the body, and if sometimes the physiognomy is deceitful in this
 respect, the other parts of the organism soon reveal to us the want  of co-operation in-
 dispensable to the complete development of  man.  It is rather by an observation of the
 whole constitution than of its separate parts, that the essential characters of this infir-
 mity are to be detected.  Idiots, generally, deceive in their age, which always offers at
 the different periods of their existence a ridiculous admixture of decrepitude and pueril-
 ity.  The  hypertrophy of certain glands, the  flaccidity of the tissues, malformation of
 external essential organs, absence of all proportion in the length of their limbs, difficulty
 and uncertainty in their movements which are almost convulsive, the retraction of cer-
 tain tendons, an arrest of development in the figure and in muscular contractility;—such
 are the  general  appearance that characterize the idiot in his external conformation.
 His mode  of living is in keeping with this degradation of  forms, and furnishes us with
 the means of perceiving some of the relations  existing between the physical  and the
 moral.  His language is scarcely rudimentary.  He does not think,  has nothing to say,
 and nothing  in him calls  for the  vocal motion.  When, however, this mutism is not
 idiopathic, he can be made  to articulate certain words, and his movements can be placed
 under some moral control;  but in undergoing this external influence, he still rests faith-
 ful to that automatism which is his principal characteristic.  It is always a material and
 instinctive impulse that controls.  The idiot shows, in the satisfying of his wants, a bru-
 tality in close connection with the irregularity of all his actions, and  the want of balance
 of his functions which all coincide with personal instinct.   He yields himself to onanism
 with a revolting cynicism; he eats with a voracity that  defies everything,  and which
 proves how obtuse his sensibility is, although he in fact  suffers more than any other
 the unhappy effects of climacteric changes.  Finally, in spite of the violence of certain
  appetites, the functions are so incompletely performed, that we must not be surprised to
  see these unfortunates very short-lived. If  on the one hand nothing  has wasted life,
  nothing on the other hand has vivified it, and  one  can easily conceive that it is extin-
  guished, since it is without essential nourishment and without object.       _
    The psychical element plays no part in such an organization.  External influence is 
192
IMBECILITY.
   § 228.  Cretinism  finds  no  place  in the  United States, and cannot,
therefore,  claim here extended consideration^?/)


                             2d.  Imbecility.(z)


   § 229.  Imbecility has perhaps as many degrees as  it has victims, and
yet it becomes the task of psycho-forensic  medicine  to assign a line of
demarcation within which the  judge is to declare the  responsibility of
the agent to cease to exist.   But this problem is only  so far capable of
solution as we are enabled to detect and recognize  the existence of im-
becility in general, and to estimate  its relation to  a  given action;  the
personal discretion of the tribunal must always have  considerable scope
in all cases near the boundary line.   In order to obtain  as firm a com-
mon ground as possible, it becomes  advisable to subdivide and classify
imbecility, particularly where it depends upon particular diseased con-

unable to develop it, since the somatic element is not in a condition to receive it;  and
as to spontaneousness, one can but with difficulty perceive the germ. So, when these
degraded beings, impelled by a brutal instinct, or obeying another's will whose instru-
ment they are, commit a culpable  act, all the world agree in not imputing to them any
moral responsibility.  (See Etudes psychologiques sur l'Alienation Mentale, per L. F. E.
Renaudin, p. 170. Paris, 1854.
  Idiocy, says M. Falret,  cannot, strictly speaking, figure amongst the forms of insani-
ty.   In this degraded state, man is fallen below the brute; he does  not even possess the
instinct of self-preservation.   It is necessary for charity not only to bring him the food
required for his nourishment, but to place it in his mouth, and  to protect him against
the mischievous influences which surround him, and against all destructive causes.
Instead of language, the exclusive appendage of man, since it is the expression of thought
in aU its development, the complete idiot only utters  certain harsh, savage inarticulate
sounds. Instead of that  firm, assured step which executes the exact command of the
will, the rough, disorderly movements  of idiots seem only phenomena of irritability.
Besides, they are often immovable, bent down towards the ground, and only execute a
kind of rocking movement, balancing forward and backward, to the right  and to the
left.  AVithout doubt  this is the extreme degree of idiocy, for  there are idiots less de-
graded in their organization, and consequently in their manifestations ; but unfortunate-
ly to this feeble development of the intelligence is too often joined either an absolute
want of character, or low tastes, incitations to a brutal lasciviousness, to robbery, pyro-
mania and ferocity, which they turn against themselves and against inanimate objects.
(See Legons Cliniques, de M. Falret, p. 243. Paris, 1854.)
  (y) The student, however, who seeks for particular information as to its character, is
referred to the following treatises:  Etudes des Maladies Mentales,  de M. Morel.  Tome
I. p. 64.  Paris, 1854.  Gedanken liber Kropf und Cretinismus als Beitrag zur Homato-
logie und Homonymie.  Von Joh. Mich. Huber,  Geritchswundarzt zu Ried in Tyrol.
Mit einer Abbildung.   (Medicin. Jahr.  des k. k. bsterr. Staats, Mai.)  Ueber den Cre-
tinismus in Canton Waadt in der Schweiz. von Dr.  H. Lebert, prakt.  Arzt zu Paris.
(Archiv fur physiologische Heilkunde ArII. B. 6 Heft.)  Notice of a remarkable disease
analogous to Cretinism.  By Hugh Norris ; Med. Times, Jan. 1848.  Les  goiteux et les
cretins de la Savoie;  Annales de Therapeutique, 1848. Mais, Ueber den Cretinismus in
grossen Sfadten und dessen Aenlichkeit mit dem in den Alpen.  Von  Dr. Behrend.
(Gaz. des  hopitaux,  1848.  Nos. 6  and 7.)   Cretinismus als  genetisch—contagiose
Endemie in Neudenau, &c.  Bad. Annalem  d. Staats-Arzneikunde, 1846.   Esquirol
Mental Maladies, &c, 481-2.   Sonsburg, ueber den Cretinismus.  AVurzb.,  1825.  Haii-
flser, ueber die Beziehung des Sexualsystems zur Psyche  ueberhaupt und zum Cretinis-
mus ins besondere.   AATurzb., 1826.  See also a very valuable  report on this point, by
Samuel Kneeland, jun., M. D., read before the Boston Soc. for Med. Improvement.  Jan.
13, 1851.  Am. Jour, of Science, 1851 ; and a review of the same in Journal of Psy-
chological Med.  Vol. IV. p. 366.  See also "A Physician's  Holiday, or a month in
Switzerland in the summer of 1848.  By John Forbes, M. D., F. R.  S."  London, 1848 •
in which the management of the Cretins is fully described.
  (z) Siebold, Lehrbuch  der Gericht. Med.   Berlin, 1847. \ 200.  L.  Krahmer, Hand-
buch der Gericht, Med. Halle; C. A. Schwetschke, 1851. \ 125.  Etudes  Cliniques des
Maladies Mentale, par M. Morel.  Tome I. p. 39.  Paris, 1854. 
IMBECILITY WITH CONCOMITANT INSANITY.
193
ditions capable of ascertainment and distinction.   In this respect we
distinguish, in  the first place,  imbecility with,  and  imbecility without
concomitant insanity.
   § 230.  Imbecility with  concomitant insanity presents the following
subdivisions:
   1. The  original imbecility which  has lapsed into  unsoundness  of
mind.   The  nature of the latter will determine in the first instance, in
how far the  patient is  amenable to the  penal laws  in a  given case;
but the fact of imbecility will always favor the psychological arguments
in favor of irresponsibility.
   2. Imbecility supervenes  upon the course of a mental disorder, and
manifests itself particularly in the form of  a failure of memory.   The
question  of responsibility will depend in this case, upon the same prin-
ciples as stated in the last preceding head.
   3. Specious imbecility, as in the case of melancholia attonita, and as
such will receive but  little attention at the hands of  the forensic
physician.
   4. Imbecility with confusion  of mind.  This is  found  side by side
with a  failure of  memory, and a more or less conspicuous incoherence
and inconsistency of the perceptions,  and a certain agility  and activity
of the super-physical life.  It is either a primary or secondary form, and
in the former case it may be consequent upon severe  diseases  of the
brain,  epilepsy, intemperance,  sexual  excesses,  and senility;  in the
latter case it may arise  from the various forms of mental unsoundness,
and may be considered  as always excluding the idea of moral respon-
sibility.
   5.  Imbecility remaining after the patient  has  recovered  from an
attack of  insanity.  It will never contain  a sufficient reason for sus-
pending the  responsibility of the agent, but may often  deserve the
attentive consideration  of the judge in the moulding of the sentence.(a)

  (a) In some  circumstances, says M.  Renaudin, the  idiotic germ is  less prominent,
nothing  tends to reveal it in  infancy, and the early years lead us to expect a normal
ulterior development. But it may happen that a severe disease, deeply affecting the organ-
ism, supervenes, or the subject may have been submitted to an intellectual labor above his
powers, and at a given moment an arrest of development, as much in the physical as in
the moral system, shows itself.  This condition sometimes supervenes even without the
action of any apparent cause and then  we can only attribute it to the influence of this
idiotic principle.  Instead of pursuing  the course marked out by the laws of nature, it
is arrested at a point  of development,  rarely transitory but most generally permanent,
which is known every where under the name of imbecility.  The physical organization in
imbeciles offers less abnormities than that of idiots; the  body  is straighter and if the
physiognomy is less repulsive and shows a little more regularity in its features, it ex-
hibits but little  animation. The feelings are seen in their rudimentary state in this class
of beings ;  they are susceptible of a more advanced education and when they belong to
a family of easy circumstances, they can be made to submit themselves to the habits of
a regular life.  The impressions they receive are sufficiently durable, providing they do
not overstep a sufficiently restricted limit.  They are susceptible of a certain amount of
memory, which in some cases reaches a very remarkable height.   Sometimes the ideas
they acquire are very limited and their intellectual spontaneousness is on a footing with
the small development of their physical spontaneousness.  Although less stupid than
the idiot, automatism is the characteristic trait of the imbecile.  He never gives the im-
pulse, he receives it; and it is  amongst the imbeciles that an asylum especially finds
valuable aids in its  internal service.   If the affective sentiments are but feeble, the
instinct of the  feeling of personality shows itself perhaps  in an absurd vanity, or in
a savage egotism in the satisfaction of wants whose stimulus is ordinarily very energetic.
Hence an excessive irritability that readily degenerates into mania, or a malicious cun-
        13 
194
IMBECILITY WITHOUT INSANITY.
  § 231.  Imbecility without insanity has  several gradations, all being
separate denominations;  the highest degree is called idiocy.  Next to
this  is imbecility  proper;  dullness, feebleness, stupidity,  are inferior
grades of a stunted groAVth of mind.  The reasons Avhich, in the higher
stages, exclude understanding and  self-control are the more potent, as
no education has been imparted here, or, if imparted, has  produced no
effect.  The lower stages  do not justify the physician in casting a doubt
upon the  existence of legal responsibility.   They are for the considera-
tion of  the judge alone, and are interesting in this point  of vieAv, be-
cause simpletons and fools often have a touch of malice, brutality, ill-
will, and mischief in their dispositions, and may be led, by teasing and
ill-treatment,  to vindictive  hatred, revenge,  and violent  outbursts of
anger.
  § 232.  The Emperor Napoleon hits  upon a very happy illustration
of the distinction between two of the above mentioned phases.   In one
of his conversations with  Las Casas, he said that there was such a thing
as ufolie innocente," and  ufolie terrible"—a fatuous state which is safe,
and one which is dangerous.  A fatuous person uunfou," of the first
kind, the  Emperor describes as reasoning Avith the proprietor of a vine-
yard in which he was trespassing, thus :   " Why, here are  Ave tAvo : the
sun sees us both ;  therefore, I have a right to eat grapes."   The "fou
terrible,"  he proceeds, "is he who cuts off the head of a man whom  he
found sleeping under a hedge; then hid himself behind it, in order to
witness  the surprise—embarras—of the body Avhen waking."
  " Of these half-Avitted persons," remarks Dr. Mayo, "the former in-
dulges a love of grapes, the latter a love of bloodshed:  the process of
thought in each case is  that of a deficient understanding,  Avhich could
neither  prevent the one from stealing grapes, nor the other from com-
mitting violence under the influence of  opportunity, but  rather for-
warded the crime by suggesting excuses."  "An idiot," says Dr. Hains-
dorff, "in the Hospital of Salzburg, appearing to be singularly insus-
ceptible  of fear,  an experiment  of an  appalling character,  and  of
appalling consequences, was made upon him, as a means of putting his
susceptibility  to  the test.    It was proposed to make the impression
upon him that he  saw a dead man come to life.  A person accordingly
laid  himself out as  a corpse, enveloped  in a shroud;  and the idiot
was  ordered to watch over the dead body.   The idiot perceiving some
motion in the corpse, desired it to lie still; but  the pretended corpse
raising  itself, in spite  of this admonition,  the idiot seized a  hatchet,
which unluckily was within  his reach, and  cut off first one of the feet
of the unfortunate counterfeit, and then, unmoved by his  cries, cut off
his head.   He then calmly resumed his station by the real corpse ;—a

ning, in order to obtain the thing coveted.  The imbecile has but few ideas ;  and as he
knows but littlcebandons himself to his impulses when fear does not control him. But
little capable of  distinguishing between good and evil, he may be a dangerous instru-
ment in criminal hands.  The imbecile commits a murder with coolness, shows often a
great depravity of tastes, and it is only an exception, if you can perceive in him any
rudimentary traces of the moral sense.  It is at this point that his intellectual aptitude
ceases, and we can easily understand how a like condition necessarily excludes all
responsibility.—Renaudin sur l'alienation Mentale. p. 173.  Paris, 1854. 
GENERAL IMBECILITY.
195
 strong illustration of the dangerous  hypothesis of harmlessness as con-
 nected with this state of mind. "(5)
   § 233. "Dr.  Rush says," we  quote  from Dr. Ray,  "that  in the
 course of his life he has been consulted  in three cases of moral  imbe-
 cility;  and  nothing  can better express  the true character  of their
 physiology, than his remark respecting them.   ' In all these cases,' he
 observes, 'there is probably an original defective organization in those
 parts of the  body which are occupied by the  moral faculties  of the
 mind,'—an explanation which will receive  but little countenance in any
 age that derives its ideas of the mental phenomena  from the exclusive
 observation of mind in a state of  acknowledged  health and vigor.   To
 understand these cases  properly, requires a  knowledge of  our  moral
 and  intellectual  constitution, to be  obtained only by a  practical  ac-
 quaintance  with  the innumerable  phases  of the  mind, as  presented  in
 its various  degrees  of strength  and  weakness, of health and disease,
 amid  all its  transitions  from brutish idiocy  to  the most commanding
 intellect.' "(c)


   (b) Mayo on Medical Testimony in Lunacy, pp. 93, 94.
   (c) Ray on Insanity, p. 90.
   In a course of clinical lessons delivered  at Bicetre, M.  Ferrus gives an account of  the
 different  intellectual  debilities  in a way that throws a strong light upon these difficult
 questions:
   Between idiocy and dementia, he says, there is a most striking analogy. In both cases,
 human intelligence is abolished; it no longer possesses the means of perfectibility.  But
 the analogy ceases in examining the producing causes.   AVith the idiot, deprivation of
reason is  congenital;  the demented, on  the contrary, arrives progressively at the total
loss of his faculties.  Dementia is the abolition of the intellectual faculties, both moral
and instinctive, supervening after  the period of puberty: it  is a kind of debility which
appears either in an  insensible manner or with the rapidity of lightning,—breaking,
more or less, all the connections which unite the man with the rest of the world.
  The characters of dementia are  sufficiently decided, so as not to  be confounded with
those of other mental affections.   In idiocy, the faculties of the mind have never existed,
or have been destroyed before their complete development.  In dementia, you may still
possibly see some traces of an intelligent past; but it betrays in vain its past perfection :
it is stamped  forever with the seal of feebleness and nullity, and destined to be extin-
guished by a kind of exhaustion of nervous influence.
   Stupidity consists  in an accidental, sudden, complete abolition of the intellectual,
moral and instinctive faculties, as well as of the movements.  It has for its cause a
sudden and violent physical or moral shock:  it is distinguished  from dementia by  the
rapidity of its appearance, the intensity of its  symptoms, their frequent remission and
 exacerbation,  and especially by the possibility of a complete  cure.—Ferrus, legons clini-
 ques faites a Bicetre.
  Dementia, says Esquirol, is  characterized by the  enfeeblement of the sensibility, in-
telligence, and will.   Incoherence of ideas ; want of intellectual and moral spontaneous-
ness, are the  signs  of this affection.  The man suffering from  dementia  has  not  the
faculty of properly receiving objects, of noticing their relations and comparing them, of
preserving a complete remembrance of them ; whence results an impossibility of reason-
ing correctly.   In dementia, he adds, the impressions are too feeble;  it may be because
the sensibility of the organs, or of the sensations, is weakened ; or it may be because the
brain itself has not sufficient power to perceive and retain the impression that is trans-
mitted to it.   From this it necessarily results that the sensations are languid, obscure,
and  incomplete. Individuals  in  dementia are not  susceptible of a sufficiently strong
attention,—objects only strike them in  an obscure  and false manner: they can neither
compare nor associate ideas, nor abstract  them; the organ of thought has not sufficient
 energy,—it is  deprived of the tonic force necessary to the integrity of its functions. Then
the most  incongruous ideas succeed each other, following each other without  connection
 and without motive: the  matter  is incoherent; the patient repeats words  and entire
 phrases without attaching to them distinct sense ; he speaks, as he reasons, without any
 consciousness of what he is saying.—(Esquirol de la demence, p. 221.)  The demented, in
 spite of the general decrepitude of  his organic functions, is not freed from the  laws of 
19U
DEMENTIA.
                              3d. Dementia.(d)


   § 234.  "This form of  Insanity," says  Dr.  Ray, "is attended by a
general enfeeblement of the moral and intellectual faculties, Avhich were
originally sound and Avell developed, in consequence of age or disease,
and is  characterized by forgetfulness  of  the past,  indifference to  the
present or future, and a certain childishness of disposition.   The appa-
rent similarity of this state  to that  of imbecility or idiocy, renders  it
necessary that they should be accurately  distinguished; for nothing
could be more improper or  unjust than to vicAv them merely as different
shades of the same  mental condition.   Idiocy and the  higher degrees of
imbecility are congenital, or nearly so, and  consist in  a destitution of
poAvers that  Avere never possessed."(e)
   "Dementia," continues the same  high  authority, "is distinguished
from general mania, the only other  affection Avith which it is liable to be
confounded,  by characters that cannot mislead the  least practiced  ob-

action and reaction.  There are  periods in his existence when the old phenomena  of
possession appear to be renewed.  When he is agitated, he cries and tears his clothes,
and may, perhaps, perform some  dangerous actions.  The hallucinations are often suffi-
ciently intense to provoke veritable attacks of fury; but this rage lasts but a little while;
it is appeased like the anger of a child.
  The demented from this excited state falls back  into his ordinary automatonism.  He
has no more any wishes, hate, or  tenderness; he holds the objects  formerly so dear  to
him, in the greatest indifference ;  he sees his relations and friends without pleasure, and
leaves them without  regret.  He  is not disquieted  by any privations imposed on him;
and pleasures obtained for him gratify him but  little.  What goes on around him  does
not affect him.  The events of life are as nothing  to  him, since he  is unable to attach
any remembrance, any hope to them: indifferent to every thing, nothing gratifies  him.
He  laughs and plays whilst other men are afflicted, and weeps when all the world  is
satisfied. If his position discontents him, he does nothing to change it.  His determina-
tions are vague and uncertain: he is a perfect automaton, that  has not sufficient energy
to be ungovernable:  his isolation is the more necessary, as he yields himself to  acts
which are the result of the abolition of conscience, and as he becomes but too often the
sport and the victim of those who wish to take advantage of his condition.—See Morel
sur les Maladies Mentales,  Tome I. p. 402.  Paris, 1852.
  Dementia, according to Falret, is a period, and not a true form of mental unsoundness.
Amongst the demented, who are only the chronic insane arrived at an advanced stage of
the disease, there are some who are agitated like maniacs, and some who remain motion-
less, like hypomaniacs.   There are others in whom are seen some predominant ideas,—
resembling, in this respect, monomaniacs; but it is difficult to classify them. If they speak,
their unconnected words have no relation, and convey no sense ; often even this is not
due to incoherence alone,  but to the absence of ideas:  it is  a flow of words without
thoughts.
  If they remain quiet and  silent, their countenances express  neither concentration  or
passion, but dullness and stupidity;  they seem, at  least  in extreme  cases, to be ciphers
both in  understanding  and character.  The observer, in fact, sees in them  only ruins:
he sees before him all the moral and intellectual elements in an almost complete state of
isolation from one another.  This separation is a kind of dissolution which  betrays the
radical blow that has been inflicted upon the psychical forces, and destroys all hope of
ever seeing these elements united and coordinate.   If sometimes a gleam of intelligence
sparkles in this chaos, and  in the midst of these ruins,—far from  consoling, it adds  to
the gloom, so manifest  is it that the  patient himself is neither its author nor its witness.
Every thing, in  fact, in dementia,  betrays an inability to form ideas, to experience
sentiments, to possess a will.  It  is  the tomb  of  reason, with the  exception of some
flashes that mark it, and which are, as it were, the  reflections of the ancient brilliancy of
the mind.—See Etudes cliniques sur l'Alienation Mentale, par M. Falret, p. 242. Paris, 1854.
  (d) L. Krahmer, Handbuch der Gericht. Med. Halle, C. A. Schwetschke,  1851 §  125 ;
Siebold—Lehrbuch der Gericht. Med. Berlin, 1847, \  200 ; and also see post, § 233, n (c.)
  (e) Ray on Insanity, p. 291. 
DELIRIUM.
197
server.   The latter arises from an  exaltation of vital power,  from a
morbid excess of activity, by Avhich the cerebral functions are not only
changed  from their healthy condition, but are performed  with unusual
force and rapidity.  The maniac is irrational from an  inability to dis-
cern the  ordinary characters and relations of things, amid the mass of
ideas that crowd upon his mind in mingled confusion;  while in demen-
tia, the reasoning faculty is impaired by a loss of its ordinary strength,
whereby it not only mistakes the nature of  things, but is unable, from
want of  poAver, to rise to  the contemplation of general  truths.   The
reasoning of the maniac does not so much fail in the force and logic of
its arguments,  as in the  incorrectness  of its assumptions; but  in  de-
mentia the attempt to reason is prevented by the paucity of ideas, and
that feebleness of the perceptive powers, in consequence of which they
do not faithfully represent the impressions received from  without.
  " In mania, when the memory fails, it is because new ideas have crowded
into the  mind,  and are mingled up  and confounded with  the past; in
dementia the same effect is produced by an obliteration of past  impres-
sions as  soon as they  are made, from a want of sufficient power to retain
them.  In the former the mental operations are characterized by hurry
and confusion ; in the latter by extreme slowness and frequent apparent
suspension of the thinking process.  In the former, the habits and affec-
tions undergo a great change, becoming strange and inconsistent from
the beginning, and the persons and things that once pleased  and inter-
ested, viewed  Avith indifference or  aversion.  In  the latter,  the moral
habits and natural feelings, so far  as they are  manifested at all, lose
none of  their  ordinary character.   The temper  may be more irritable,
but the moral disposition evinces none  of that perversity which charac-
terizes mania.
   " In dementia, the mind is susceptible of only feeble and  transitory
impressions, and manifests little reflection even upon these.  They come
and go without leaving any trace of their presence behind them.  The
intention is incapable of more than a momentary effort,  one idea suc-
ceding another with but little connection or coherence."(/)


      IX. Mental unsoundness accompanied with  delirium.

                       1st.  General Delirium.

   § 235. What distinguishes delirium from the delusions of the senses
is, that in the  latter  the sensational  faculties  are  really acted upon,
subjectively, though in an eccentric manner, while in the former the in-
terior reproductive activity of the brain predominates in the generation
of phantoms.(#) Consciousness is disturbed at the same time, and there
is incoherent speaking and action, as if it were a  Avaking dream.  Ex-
ternal objects are perceived indistinctly, or not  at all,  and on the whole
there is  the less delirium, the more activity there is in the  peripheric
nerves, for Avhich reason hydrocephalic children generally relapse into
delirium when they cease vomiting.  The external senses may, however,

  (/) Ray on Insanity, pp. 292, 293.
  (g) Haygen. Vol. II. p.  707 ; Schurmayer, &c. \ 555. 
198
delirium :
be at the same  time open to perceptions, and may convey them;  but the
patient is so controlled by his internal dreams as to act as if they  did not
exist.  Here there is, accordingly, a predominance of dreams, Avhich de-
prives the individual of the possibility of the power of maintaining a cor-
responding relation with the external Avorld.  Delirium may, therefore,
be defined as a state of dreams brought on, not by sleep, but by disease.
Like a dream, a delirium may become active, the beginning of Avhich is
the speaking delirium.   Where a crime  or misdemeanor  proceeds from
a  delirium,  there is no freedom of agency, i.  e., the action  is to be re-
garded as the product of a morbid state of mind.
   It is judicious  for forensico-medical purposes,  to distinguish  par-
ticularly the folloAving forms of delirium:
   § 236. (a.) Depressed Delirium, Avhich is both passive  and active.
   § 237. (b.)  Maniacal  delirium,  which   comprises several varieties,
depending upon the frame of mind by which it is accompanied.(h)

  (h) The most remarkable phenomenon of mental unsoundness (we translate from Morel)
is unquestionably delirium, whether it shows itself in words or deeds. Delirium, considered
as an essential symptom of insanity, should possess a type of continuity, should connect it-
self with lesions of a special nature, and should present altogether the elements of a certain
systemization  of the frenzied conceptions. This systemization alone gives to the delirium
which produced it, a particular stamp.   It shows off what has been called  the fixing of
ideas, and that logic peculiar  to the insane that leads them to the justification of the
falsest conceptions, and the most deplorable acts.   If it was otherwise, who could have
flattered himself that he had escaped insanity; for we have all suffered in a more or less
degree the phenomena of delirium.  We are delirious during fever, under the influence
of spirituous liquors, as also of some narcotics. Febrile delirium is a generic term  com-
prising the universality of abnormal phenomena that can in a more or less permanent
manner, in a given disease, hinder the association of our ideas, or that directs this  asso-
ciation in the way of producing illusions and hallucinations of all kinds.
  The word insanity is likewise a generic expression for pointing out the universality
of the abnormal phenomena which, under the united influence of physical and psychical
causes, can, in a more or less  permanent manner, pervert our manner of feeling and
seeing, or in other words, bewilder our understanding.
  In this point of view, febrile  delirium  and the delirium of madness are the same, in-
asmuch as deliriums are identical; but it is excessively important not to confound the
symptoms with the diseases that produced them.
  An individual suffering from an acute disease approaches the period of convalescence.
At the approach of night, or whenever he shuts his  eyes, fantastical apparitions besiege
him.  He himself recognizes that these painful impressions are the results of his fever;
or if he does not recognize it at the first glance, he receives the explanations of those sur-
rounding him.  He raves before sleeping, and it is not strange if he still raved under the
influence of the depression as  well as of exaltations of the organs of the senses.   Upon
awaking, he makes known to his relations and friends the fatiguing sensations that his
dreams have produced, and seems to search with eagerness for explanations to reassure
him.  As he returns to consciousness, the motives of his judgment become more certain,
the tumult of his bewildered senses is appeased, the nights are quieter, and when con-
valescence follows an ascending course, there only remains a vague and confused remem-
brance of the stormy scene through which he has passed
  Things, unfortunately, do not pass so when the delirium has  a tendency to  the per-
manent or chronic form; and  it is this which makes the essential difference  between
properly called febrile delirium, and maniacal delirium.  There may be a period when
these two deliriums possess the same external characteristics on account of the similitude
of the perverted sensorial phenomena; but when the phenomenon of delirium is produced
by a maniacal state, it is then  a situation which often passes unnoticed in the beginning,
but which, as a diagnostic element, it is of the highest importance to describe.
  This situation, so painful for the friends, first betrays itself in a perversion of the feel-
ings, and in a complete change in the character and habits of the patient.   He becomes
impatient and fretful; speaks  passionately,  and in an  unaccustomed tone.   He  often
loses the feeling of modesty, whatever may be his age or education.  His friends and re-
lations attribute these disgusting phenomena to the  effect of the primitive disease which
shows itself with all the characteristics of an ordinary febrile delirium.  But soon another 
general characteristics of.
199
   § 238.  (c) Delirium tremens.(i)
   § 239.  (d) Metnia  puerperarum, which  attacks women in  child-bed,
and is  sometimes distinguished, in addition to a high degree of violence,
by  leAvdness  and  shamelessness, and  more  rarely  by the  homicidal
mania, (j)

more disgusting phenomenon shows itself, and often without enlightening them.  The
care bestowed upon the sick person, the marks of the liveliest affection which are shown
to him are repulsed, sometimes with irony and disdain, and sometimes with passion and
fury.  In ordinary diseases the sick person  attaches himself with happiness  to  every
thing that tends to recall him to existence. He hears with emotion of the different stages
of his disease and of the delirium which was  its consequence; he speaks often  of its
causes, deplores its effects, and makes innumerable excuses for any malignant or obscene
words which may have escaped him during the delirium.  The patient, on the  contrary,
in whom the insanity is confirmed,  will not  admit that  he was delirious.  He sustains
the errors of his imagination, and takes them for realities.  The hallucinations and  de-
lusions of all sorts which he has  felt, and which still beset him, fortify him in  his mad-
ness. Still more, in this he systematizes his delirium, and whatever intellectual energy
is left, is employed by him in establishing upon the basis of a desperate logic, motives
for the new existence which he is just commencing.  Several authors, basing themselves
on the fact that the delirium of insanity is often found unaccompanied by fever,  (delirium
sine febre,) have thought that the train of  physiological phenomena that accompanies
the delirium of acute diseases, is sufficient  to mark out the difference between these
primitive conditions.  This appreciation, though very true on one  side, may  neverthe-
less lead us into error.   AVe willingly admit that the delirium  of  acute diseases  is ac-
companied with redness of the checks and turgidity of the face.  The expression is
troubled, and there are marked changes in the circulation.   The eyes are brilliant, res-
piration often painful, and the excretions involuntary; the language takes an  unaccus-
tomed accentuation.  The sick person expresses himself sometimes with vivacity; some-
times with great slowness ;  his sentences and his words are badly articulated ;  he speaks
sometimes to himself, and at other  times deep drawn sighs are the  only manifestations
of his soul.  But these phenomena are also to be met with in  the delirium  of insanity,
and especially in the first stages  of this disease.  See Etudes  Cliniques des  Maladies
Mentale, &c.  M. Morel.  Tome I. p. 124. Paris,  1852.
   (i) L. Krahmer  Handbuch der Gericht. Med. Halle, C. A. Schwetschke, 1851.  \ 116.
See also 7 Am. Jour, of Ins.364. See as to responsibility of persons so affected, ante,\ 36-38.
   Privation of stimulants, says Morel, and the employment of opiates, generally suffice to
restore reason to those persons who are generally not considered as insane unless afflicted
with a special affection known by the  name of dypsomania; even when the  fatal con-
sequences resulting from the abuse of spirits impress upon the delirium, which  is its con-
sequence, a form of continuity which has by some  authors been pointed out  under the
name of drunken madness.  Errors made in this respect may be productive of grave con-
sequences for those who are the victims of them.  The following is an example :
   In the month of Alay, 1850, there was brought to the asylum of Moreville, a sick per-
son, whom a physician's certificate  represented as a dangerous madman. We observed at
first in him a very great disorder of ideas, and  a peculiar difficulty of expressing him-
self.  The face was pale, and the lips agitated with convulsive movements, and there was
a general trembling of the limbs.  The employment of opiates and a bath soon removed
these appearances, and the next day we had a man in the perfect possession of his facul-
ties before us  The error in this case had arisen from the fact, that the physician's cer-
tificate had been given without a proper examination of all the causes necessary to a cor-
rect iudgment. If he had, indeed, gone back to the appreciation of the causes, he would
have found out that very grave dissensions existed between two brothers, of whom one
was this pretended  madman, who, endowed  with  a violent but feeble character, after
having yielded in the strife of discussion, ordinarily sought to console  himself in alco-
holic libations.  It was after having swallowed a too abundant ration that a family quar-
rel brought its contingent of trouble to the natural excitement that controlled him, and
resulted in delirium tremens, which, if it had been better appreciated in its origin and
effects, would not have brought  this person to an insane asylum, and compromised in a
certain degree his social position.  Morel  sur les Maladies  Mentale.  Tome  I. p.  146.

Pa(7) "Thomicidal propensity," as we are told by Dr. Taylor, "towards their offspring,
 sometimes manifests itself in women soon after parturition. It seldom appears  before the
 third day, often not for a fortnight, and in some instances not until several weeks after
 delivery   The most frequent  period is at or about the commencement of lactation, and
 between  that and the cessation of the lochia.  According to Esquirol, it is generally 
200
PARTIAL DELIRIUM.
                               2d.  Partial.


   § 240.  This head may be considered as including Furor transitorius,
 mania transitoria, transitory ravings.(k)   By this, says Schurrnayer,(/)
 is understood an attack of frenzy, fury and raving madness, accompa-
 nied with more or  less  confusion of the  senses,  and of the thinking
 faculties,  and peripheric consciousness, which arises Avithout any per-
 ceptible, or from a very slight  external provocation,  generally lasts but
 a short time, hardly a few hours, and  after sometimes  leading  to the
 most serious consequences, leaves  but an indistinct trace in the memory.
 It is either the  opening symptom  of a disturbance of the super-physical
 faculties which  has  hitherto remained  occult, and now  first manifests
 itself, or it appears  in persons hitherto entirely sane, or in  individuals
 who have already suffered from pronounced insanity, particularly from
 melancholy, depressed delirium, lunacy and imbecility.  In the  latter
 class of cases, the question of responsibility presents no difficulties ; far
 more in the former, in view of the possibility that  the guilty act may
 have been the result of the outbreak of A'iolent passion.(U)  It will then
 be often  impossible to do more than  to set forth the possibility or pro-
 bability of  a furor  transitorius, which is effected by establishing the
 existence  of facts which may have caused it.   Such are epilepsy, irregu-
 lar development, gastric irritations,  disturbances of the menstrual  or
 hsemorrhoidal courses, or the secretion of milk, the  sudden dispersion
 of eruptions of  the  skin, sun-stroke, drunkenness, poison, violent agi-


 attended by a suppression of the lochia and milk.  The  symptoms do not differ from
 those of mania generally, but it may assume any of the other forms of insanity;  and in
 one half the cases it may be traced to hereditary tendency.  According to Dr. Burroughs
 there is delirium, with a childish disposition for  harmless mischief.  The woman is gay
 and joyous, laughing, singing, loquacious, inclined to talk obscenely, and careless of
 every thing  around. She imagines that her food is poisoned. She may conceal the sus-
 picion, and merely avoid taking what  is offered to her.  She can recognize persons and
 things, and can, though perhaps will not, answer direct questions.  Occasionally there
 is great depression  of spirits, with melancholy.  These facts are of some importance in
 cases of alleged child-murder.  This  state may  last a few hours, or  for some days  or
 weeks, and we are told by Dr. Hartshorne, the accomplished American editor, sometimes
 for months and years;  but it generally goes off within a few months,  if not earlier. The
 murder of the child is generally either the result of a sudden fit of delirium, or of an un-
 controllable impulse, with a full knowledge of the wickedness and illegality of the act—
 so that the legal test of responsibility  from a knowledge  of right and wrong  cannot be
 applied to such cases.  Mothers have been known, before the perpetration of the murder,
to request their attendants to remove the child.  Such cases are commonly  distinguished
 from deliberate infanticide by there being no attempt at  concealment, nor any denial of
the crime on detection.   Several trials, involving a question  of puerperal mania have
been decided generally in favor of the  plea within the last few years.  Dr. Ashevell has
 remarked, that undue lactation may give  rise to an attack of mania, under which the
 murder of the offspring may also be perpetrated.  (Diseases of AAromen, 732.)  Females
in the pregnant state have been known to perpetrate the crime apparently from some sud-
 den perversion of their moral feelings.  I  am not aware that a plea of exculpation on the
ground of insanity has been admitted  in this country under these circumstances.  (See
 case Ann d'Hyg, 1831, I. 374.)  For an able analysis of the present state of our know-
ledge on the subject of Puerperal Insanity, by  Dr. Reid, see Jour. Psychol. Med. 1884,
pp. 128, 284.  Taylor's Med. Jurisprudence, pp. 594, 595.  See as to the legal responsi-
bility in such cases, ante, \ 53-61.
  (k) Friedreich, Handbuch der gerichtlichen Psychologie, p. 591.
  (I) Gericht. Med. \ 552.
  (II) Ante,  \ 53-60. 
DELUSIONS AND HALLUCINATIONS.
201
tation,  anger, dread, fright,  deep shame, over-exertion  of  the  mind.
But Avhere no such  probable causes are to be discovered, the examina-
tion is  necessarily  confined to the statements  of the party, and the
immediate investigation  of his  intellectual  and moral  condition, the
principal point of attention being the search and scrutiny of the motives
of the  acts, and  the inquiry whether  or not they were  mingled with
hallucinations or illusions, and whether the act was not preceded imme-
diately  or for  some length  of time by bodily disturbances,  sleepless-
ness, restlessness, sadness,  &c.  Very great difficulties are involved in
those cases in which an  additional doubt arises Avhether the ravings
Avere not occasioned by the criminal act itself, the probability of which,
with a certain class  of temperaments, has been already noticed, (m)


X.  Mental unsoundness,  as connected with delusions  and  hal-
                          lucinations, (mm)

                            1st.  General.

  §  241.  Under this head will be treated that species of mental un-
soundness which is marked  by the continued and  controlling existence
of insane ideas, without being either accompanied with delirium or with
moral-maniacal  propensities to specific crimes.  It may be considered
as covering the same phase as the partial lunacy (partielle verrucktheit)
of Schurmayer, who declares it to consist in crazy notions, with only a
secondary participation of the affective  faculties, without damage to the
peripheric consciousness, and without a decided  weakness of the intel-
lectual powers.   The subjects of it have completely resolved  their indi-
viduality into their  madness, it is in their eyes an absolute  truth, and
all  demonstration and argument in opposition to it, are idle.  Persons
of this kind often suffer no mark of their inward disorder to mark their
external demeanor,  frequently speak  and act quite rationally about,
and  in matters outside of the circle of their hallucinations, and only suf-
fer the point of derangement to transpire when it is adverted to in conver-
sation or when they  have  occasion to write.  The malady may easily lead
to the gravest violations of law, for which reason it is of the greatest judi-
cial  interest.   Where  the  act  is  clearly the  result of  this morbid
condition of the mind, no legal responsibility can attach  to it.(n)
  This  species of  mental unsoundness appears less frequently as a
primary disease,  than  as a secondary result, developed out of  prior
disease, in the form of melancholy or otherwise.  When the general
expansive  and  depressive  affection of  the  sentiments  recedes,  the
confusion of the peripheric consciousness is  dispelled, the bodily health
regains  its equilibrium, the patient finds himself  endowed with a system
of affections and  perceptions to which he was before a stranger, but
which revolve round one or more manifestly insane stand points.
  § 242.  These various  fancies are reducible to certain  groups,  which

  (m) See ante, \ 116-118.
  (mm) For full  account of Hallucinations and Illusions, we would refer the reader to
Les Legons Cliniques de AI. Falret, Lecons 3, 4, 5, 6., pp. 95, 185.  Paris, 1854; also
Etudes Psychologiques par L. F. G. Renaudin, Chap. viii. p. 388.  Paris, 1854.
  (n) Schurmayer, Gericht. Med. g 556, ante, \ 47-49. 
202
DELUSIONS AND HALLUCINATIONS :
take their point of departure, (1.) in the relations of the individual to
the external world, to the supernatural, and to his own personality, or
(2.) in perceptive anomalies of depression and mania.
   The former Ariew admits the  following classification: crach-brained-
ness,(o) where the erroneous  notions relate to the objects and relations
of the  external world, and of the body of the individual; frenzy, where
they concern things beyond the reach of the senses, religious mysteries
and divine inspirations; folly,  (Narrheit,)  where the  identity of the
person has undergone a change, and  advanced  to a higher stage of
worldly honors.  In  the latter view, the subject matter of the delusion
generally depends upon the kind of erroneous notion which accompa-
nied the preceding stages of depression and mania.  The delusion itself
is of a depressing or elevating description.   The  depressive  form suh-
diAddes as follows:
   (a.)  Hypochondriacal delusions, Avhere anomalous bodily sensations,
—delusions of the sense of  touch,—suggest the idea, that  particular
parts of the body have been transformed, that there are parasitic ani-
mals in them, or injurious substances, which must be removed, &c.
   (b.)  Demoniacal delusions.  The patients declare and maintain, with
perfect self-possession and entire calmness, that  demoniac  beings or
other persons, living or dead, have their seat in their bodies.(oo)
   (c.)  Such delusions,(p)  called by Ellinger  " Concentric,"  as con-
sist in the delusion  that the personal reputation  of the  sufferer has
been  injured  by a real or  imaginary misfortune, that the infamy in-
curred has reached  the ears of the highest circles,—impressions  still
further confirmed by delusions  of the sense of hearing,—and that no
resource is left but either seclusion from all intercourse with mankind,
or restitution of good fame by some brilliant exploit.
   (d.) Peripheric delusions, in which the patients regard themselves as
the objects of a plot on the part of the authorities or of their relatives,
or of  some secret society,  surrounded by spies  and functionaries of
the secret police, watched and  dogged at  every step, injured bodily
and mentally in action and repose;  persecuted and endangered in life
and property,  or that they are beleaguered  by thieves, robbers, and
murderers, or that spirits hover in the  air  to  torment and disquiet
them,  &c.
   The elevating phase of this species of mental unsoundness, subdivides
itself,  according to Schiirmayer(j!?p):—
   (a.)  Religious delusions, which may be considered in connection with
daemonia-mania, already noticed,^) in  which the  patient  pretends to
stand  in a particular position, as regards degree and  distinction, in the
eye of God, to have been appointed  censor, prophet, reformer,  and
Messiah, &c.;  it is generally accompanied with hallucinations of  sight
and sound, and often leads to the most dreadful crimes.
   (b.)  Delusions of pride.  The patients suppose themselves called, by
their qualifications of person and mind, to the most important missions.
   (c.) Delusions  of  vanity.   The delusion here is a supposed descent

   (o) <•' A little cracked," to use Dr. Rush's popular synonyme, for what he at the same
time tells us is expressed by the Scotch by the phrase " having a bee in his bonnet."
   (oo) See ante, \ 210-219.                    (p) Ellinger, p. 132.
   (pp)  Med. Jour. \ 556.                     (g) Ante, § 210-221. 
CLASSIFICATION OF.
203
 from a princely lineage, elevation to a  higher social position, &c, the
 enjoyment of which, however, is destroyed by the machinations  of the
 envious and malevolent.
   (d.)^  Sexual delusion,  which is sometimes of a more intellectual,
 sometimes of a more carnal nature, is a state of mind in which the pa-
 tients suppose that, in consequence of their personal charms  or other
 advantages, either all people  of the opposite sex, or even persons occu-
 pying a higher rank, such as princes, are in love with, or betrothed  to
 them in spirit.   This is attended with many hallucinations, particularly
 of the sexual kind.(g^)
   § 243.  It is not to  be  denied that the proper consideration  of this
 species of mental unsoundness presents great difficulties, and the prac-
 tical suggestions of Ellinger(r) are indeed worthy of peculiar attention.
 He notices the following phases :
   "1.  An impression of having sustained wrongs at the hands of cer-
 tain persons,  against whom revenge is meditated and executed.   Here
 the diseased individual often  acts on  mature reflection, and in the full
 knowledge  that  he has no right to take revenge, and  of  the conse-
 quences which ordinarily ensue, and then it may occur  either that  he
 prefers undergoing the extremity of the law, and perishing  together
 Avith the  supposed wrong-doer,  to  remaining  longer exposed to his
 assaults, or that  he proceeds on  the ground of his known and estab-
 lished insanity, calculating to escape responsibility and punishment  on
 the strength of the indulgence accorded to his case.  Here there ap-
 pears in general  some ground to assume a moral responsibility, (rr)
   " 2.  An impression  that the patient is acting at the instigation,  or
 under the constraint of demons.   In this case it might become neces-
 sary to inquire Avhether, and in how far, the patient understood that
 the demands of the demons were wrongful, and that he was at  liberty
 to withstand them, and whether, and in how far, it was actually in his
 power to withstand them.
   " 3.  The patient imagines  himself beset by thieves, &c, and neither
 sure of his property nor of his life.   This may perhaps be treated as a
 case of self-defence, and all responsibility excluded.
   " 4.  The self-consciousness of  the patient is perverted, and he acts
 with that plentitude of power with which he is invested in vieAv of his
 position and  his  destiny, in religion, politics,  &c.   In this  case,  as
 under the third position, responsibility is out of the question.
   " But as a fixed idea never occurs in such isolation as is erroneously
 supposed, there being always a series of phantoms connected  into a
 system, the outlines of which it may be, perhaps, impossible to define
 with accuracy; as the entire  affective life has become altered and irre-
 gular, the general vieAvs of men and things having become distorted,
 and illusions of the senses being often brought to light by a  rigid scru-
 tiny, which entirely escaped the eye of the superficial observer;  as the
 action, re-action,  and intro-action of the psychical faculties is no longer
 measurable by the ordinary standard:  opinions  must be given with the
greatest circumspection and every possible reservation, whenever the con-
 nection or want of connection betiveen the illusion and  the deed is not
 perfectly evident."(s)

  (qq) Ante, I 199.       (r) p. 137.       (rr) See ante, § 47-49.       (*) Ibid. 
204
DELUSIONS AND HALLUCINATIONS.
  It is not easy to mistake between the error of a lunatic and the error
of a sane man.  The decisive point of difference between them is, that
in the latter  case, the action of the thinking faculties, from whatever
cause it be, only terminates too soon, and before the entire subject has
been thoroughly sifted, and that such  an error, after having been pro-
perly refuted,  can  only be maintained  by dint  of  obstinacy or indo-
lence.   In insanity, on the contrary, the error of the understanding is
occasioned by the  abnormal function of the perceptive faculty.   One
or tA\ro prevailing schemes of perception(ss) are  applied  to  almost all
other perceptions to Avhich they can be adjusted in any way, and thus
one and the same  tout ensemble of perceptions is continually repro-
ducing itself on the slightest provocation.  Here the chain of associa-
tions loses, in the eye  of the individual, its accidental, personal, and
contingent character, and,  by  its constant recurrence,  deludes  the
understanding with the idea  that the same connection subsists between
the  objects in reality as in the  imagination of the individual, until at
last reason herself is misled into seeing a necessary relation of cause and
effect in the perceptions which it finds  itself invariably associated.  The
individual is therefore compelled to think accordingly, and even if it is
sometimes brought, by instruction, to acknowledge its error, it is only
to relapse into  it, not so much from obstinacy, as because of  this  com-
pulsory synthesis of  the perceptive faculties.   A sane  man in error
retains the power of doubting, not the madman.   This condition of the
perceptive faculties is also the cause of the great indifference manifested
towards surrounding things,  of  the  dreamy manner and the illusions
growing out of it.   It is also a matter of  course that the perceptions,
by their constant recurrence, cease to  be mere perceptions,  but subse-
quently take rank as thoughts  and ideas, in consequence of  their con-
stant  action  upon  the understanding, and their  assumption of  the
form of propositions.(t)
  § 244.  Delusion may spread in  such a way as to cover the whole
surface  of the mind, leaving no  sound perception untouched.   It is
then distinguished  by the general want of connection and consistency
between the perceptions, and by the absence of any symptom  of positive
feebleness of the understanding,  in  spite of  the  disruption of the
thread of ideas and  the incongruous  juxtaposition  of the fragments.
Dr. Rush, in the folloAving report given by him of the conversation of a
patient  laboring under this phase,  very happily illustrates this  inco-
herence, and at the same time the occasional point by Avhich its intellec-
tual operations are  distinguished: — "No man can serve two masters.  I
am Philip, King of Macedonia, lawful son of Mary, Queen of Scots, born
in Philadelphia.  I have been  happy enough  ever since I have seen
General Washington with a silk handkerchief, in High street.  Money
commands sublunary things, and  makes the mare go;  it will buy salt
mackerel  made of  ten-penny nails.   Enjoyment is the happiness of
virtue.   Yesterday cannot be recalled.  I can only walk in  the night-
time,  Avhen I  can  eat  pudding enough.   I shall be  eight  years old
to-morrow.   They say R. W. is in partnership  with J. W.   I believe
(ss) Compare Hagen, Vol. II. p. 707.
(I) Ibid. p. 818. 
PARTIAL DELUSIONS.
205
they are about as good as people in common—not better, only on certain
occasions, when, for instance, a man wants to buy chincopins,  and to
import salt to feed pigs.  Tanned leather was imported first by lawyers.
Morality with  virtue, is like  vice not corrected.   L. B. came to your
house and stole a coffee-pot, in the twenty-fourth year of his majesty's
reign.    Plum-pudding  and Irish potatoes  make  a very good dinner.
Nothing in man is comprehensible in it.   Born in Philadelphia.  Our
fore-fathers were  better  to us than our children, because they were
chosen  for their honesty, truth,  virtue and innocence.   The Queen's
broad R originated from a  British forty-tAVO pounder, which makes too
loud a  report for me.   I have no more to say.  I am thankful—I am
no  Avorse  this season ; and that I am sound in mind and memory, and
could steer a ship at sea, but am afraid of the tiller.   *  *   *  Son
of  Mary,  Queen of  Scots.   Born in Philadelphia.  Born in  Philadel-
phia.  King of  Macedonia."(u)
   And Shakspeare gives, with equal truth, the following soliloquy of a,
madman,  in  whom  the depressing  rather than  the  elating phase  is
exhibited:

                 "AArho gives any thing to poor Tom,
                 Whom the foul fiend has led through fire,
                 And through  flame, through ford and whirlpool,
                 Over bog and quagmire, that hath laid
                 Knives under his pillow, and halters in his pew,
                 Set rats-bane by his porridge, and made him to
                 Ride upon a bay trotting horse over fom--inch
                 Bridges, and  to course his own shadow for a traitor."

   And  Lear, in language still more expressive of misery, thus com-
plains :
                   -----------------" I am bound
                   Upon a wheel of fire that mine own tears
                   Do scald like molten lead."

                        2d. Partial Delusion.(v)

    § 245.  Under this head  maybe enumerated, Delusions of the Senses,
 Illusions and Hallucinations.   A distinction is very properly drawn by
 Schurmayer, following in this respect the  general  current of  modern
 opinion, between illusions and hallucinations, the  former comprising
 mistakes in the  conception  and interpretation of  the  perception of
 objects  actually present,  while  in  the  latter, the  perception which
 originates in a  diseased action of the senses, appears to the  patient as
 if the  sensation were produced by a real external object acting upon
 fllP SGIlSGS.l *W)
    The  same distinction is  thus stated by Dr.  Taylor : " Hallucinations
 are those  sensations  which are supposed by the patient to be produced

   (u) Rush on the Mind, pp. 242-243.                                  .
   (vi See the very interesting discussion of this point by Feuchtersleben,—Principles
 of Medical Psychology, being the outlines of a course of Lectures by Baron Von Feuch-
 tersleben, M. D. Vienne,  1845.   Translated from the  German  by the late  H Evans
 Lloyd, Esq.  Revised  and edited by G. B. Babington, M. D., b. R. S., &c.   London,
 printed for the Sydenham Society, 1847, pp. 279-343.
    (w) Schurmayer, Gericht. Med. § 554. 
206
HALLUCINATIONS :
by  external  impressions, although  no material objects may act upon
the senses at the time.(.r)  Illusions are the sensations produced by the
false perception of objects."(y)   "When a hallucination," he proceeds
to say, " or an illusion is believed to have a real and positive existence,
and this belief is  not removed  either by reflection or an appeal to the
other senses, the individual is said to labor under a delusion ; but Avhen
the false sensation is immediately detected  and is not  acted upon as if
it Avere real,  then the person is sane."
   "As  a morbid condition of the  brain," says Sir Benjamin Brodie,
"may produce  the impression  of visible objects,  or of voices, which
have no real  existence, so it may also produce  notions of a more com-
plex and abstract character, and these may be constantly obtruded on
the mind,  so that the  individual is unable to withdraw  his attention
from  them, being, as it  would  seem,  as  much beyond the influence of
volition as  the muscles of a paralytic limb.   Thus, one person believes
himself to  be ruined  as to his Avorldly affairs, and  that he and his
family,  though  really in affluence,  are reduced to extreme poverty ;
while another is persuaded that he is in possession of unbounded wealth,
the consequence being that he is in danger of being ruined by extra-
vagance ; and a third, is under the apprehension of his being  accused
of some  dreadful crime, and  perhaps seeks refuge from his  fears in
self-destruction.  It is  more  difficult to escape from  the latter than
from the former class of  illusions, as the appeal lies not from one sense
to another, but to a more refined  process  of thought and reflection,
and the examination of evidence, "(z)
  We  may step for a  moment from the  strict line of discussion to
notice the striking remarks  on this point of the great Scotch metaphy-
sician.  " Several phenomena in human nature," says Dr. Reid, "lead
us to conjecture that, in the earliest period of  life, we are apt to think
every object  about us to be animated.  Judging of them by ourselves,
we  ascribe  to them the  feelings we are conscious of in ourselves.  So
we  see a little girl judges of her doll, and of her playthings.   And so
we  see rude nations judge of the heavenly bodies, of the elements,  and
of the sea, rivers and fountains.  If this be so, it ought not to be said
that by  reason and experience we learn  that certain things  are in-
animate, to which at first we ascribed life and  intelligence.  If this be
true, it is less surprising that, before reflection, we should for a moment
relapse  into  this prejudice of our  early years, and treat things as if
they had life which we once believed  to  have it.  It does not much
affect our present  argument,  whether this be or be not the cause why
a dog pursues and gnashes at the stone that hurt him ;  and why a man
in a passion, for losing at a play, sometimes wreaks  his vengeance on
the cards or dice.   It is  not strange that a blind animal impulse should
sometimes  lose  its proper direction.   In brutes, this has no bad conse-
quence ;  in men, the least  ray of reflection corrects it and shows its
absurdity, "(a)

  (x) See on this subject, remarks by Dr. Sigmond, Jour, of Psychol. Med.  1848. p. 585.
  (y) Taylor's Medical Jurisprudence, p. 552.
  (z) Psychological Inquiries,  &c. London,  1854.  p. 79.
  (a) Reid on the active powers of Malevolent Affection, p. 569.  See also Schurmayer,
Gericht. Med. § 554. 
CLASSIFICATION OF.
207
   "Hallucinations,"  says Ellinger,  "generally occur in  every form
of mental derangement, but chiefly  in the higher stages  of depression
and mania, in  deliriums, in lunacy and in  confusion of mind, and lead
to the  commission of crimes, particularly Avhen the patient Avas origin-
ally  not  without the  taint of  culpable  passions."(5)   For judicial
purposes it will be found advantageous to  arrange hallucinations under
the four folloAving heads :
   § 246.  1.  In individuals Avho show no signs of disorder  in their affec-
tive or intellectual systems, they will not operate to suspend the respon-
sibility of the agent;  but they  may become the motives of violations
of the law.(c)
   § 247.  2.  In individuals in whom  the  disease of the mind has made
some progress, but has not yet acquired a  permanent form; the victims
often make  no  secret  of them, and recognize them as  intruders into
the working of their thoughts ;  while in other cases, they keep them to
themselves.
   § 248.  3.  In persons who are in a state of total drunkenness, under
the influence of poison, or overpowered by sleep, where external con-
sciousness is entirely gone, and utter confusion  of the  senses obtains in
such cases the free power of self-control may be entirely  dislodged.
   § 249.  4. In individuals Avhose insanity is equally mature and mani-
fest, the absence  of  freedom of agency is not to be doubted; the res-
ponsibility of such persons inforo is, therefore, out of the question.
   §  250.  According  to Hagen,(c£) the cause of  the  delusions  of the
senses is either a mere  physical stimulus  which, acting upon the foun-
tain heads of  the sensational nerves in  the brain, produces eccentric
sensations, and induces the individual to incorporate his sensations into
an image, in which case it will depend upon the particular circumstances
of the case, especially on the mental and moral condition of the individual,
whether or not such apparitions are believed to  be genuine.  And upon
another hypothesis, suggested by the same author, the disease  is only
a strong morbid susceptibility of the brain to  eccentric sensations, Avith
which some fancy or other comes into such  a collision as to act as the
stimulating  cause of a paroxysm, bringing, at the same time,  a com-
plete phantom before the  external sense, just as in cases of convulsive
diseases,  St. Vitus's dance, &c, an  intended slight motion may bring
a convulsion into that particular system  of muscles.  Great care must
be taken,  however, not to include under  this head Avhat  is not really a
delusion of the senses.   If, for instance, a madman takes a person or a
black cat for the devil, there is no delusion of the senses.  On the con-

  (b) Ellinger.  p. 167.
  (c) Boswell says, " Dr. Johnson mentioned a thing as not unfrequent, of which he
(Boswell) had never heard before—being called, that is, hearing one's name pronounced
by the voice of a known person at a great distance, far beyond the possibility of being
reached by any sound, uttered by human organs.  An acquaintance, on whose veracity,
Boswell says, he could place every dependence, told him that, walking home one even-
ing to Kilmarnock, he heard himself called from a wood, by the voice  of a brother who
had gone to America, and the next packet brought the account of that brother's death.
Macbean asserted that this inexplicable calling was a thing very well known.  Dr. John-
son said, that one day, at Oxford, as he was turning the key of his chamber, he heard
distinctly his mother call Sam!  She was  then at Litchfield; but  nothing  ensued."
Winslow's Anatomy of Suicide, pp. 127-128.
  (d) Compare Wagner's Handwoerterbuch der Physiologic Vol. II. p. 811. 
208
HALLUCINATIONS AND DELUSIONS.
trary, in supposing the devil to have assumed such a shape, the maniac
only directs his madness to an object of which in itself he has a correct
perception.   Delusions also, Ave are admonished by Schurmayer, must
not be mistaken for confusion of the senses, Avhich consists in an entire
obstruction  of the conceptions, an incapacity to obtain adequate apper-
ceptions, and sometimes in an entire want of objective consciousness
and recollection.
   §  251.  The following interesting illustration  of  partial delusion  is
given to us  in Dr. Mayo's late work: " In a case to Avhich I Avas called
in by Dr. Monro, a few years ago, it was  our painful duty  to resist the
liberation of a patient, an old lady, Avhose confinement under certificates
had continued for sixteen  years.  For six  years  she Avas  described as
having been in a state, first of acute, and then of chronic mania.  For
many years, we learned, that she  had regained the power of conversing
consecutively and sensibly, indeed  without the smallest  evidence of
incoherent or irrational  remark, and such appeared  to us, her present
state.   The objections which existed to her being then considered sane,
if she had been insane up to the time we saw her, on the ground of her
advanced  age, weighed  on our minds, but seemed  insufficient.  The
evidence of  her  attendants,  who considered  her still insane,  on the
ground of occasional outbreaks of  temper, was that  of interested wit-
nesses.  She was a patient in chancery, and the visiting physicians had
become favorably disposed  to her enlargement, as a  sound-minded per-
son.    Now  the  question  Avas, in  this instance,  determined  in  our
minds,  by a discovery of a very remarkable notional delusion which
held its ground in her mind.   In a set of draAvers in this lady's bed-
room, and in certain trunks, there, to which we Avere conducted witnout
her knowledge, Ave witnessed  a large and very heterogeneous and dirty
collection  (dirtiness had been a symptom of her insane state) consisting
of old bottles, broken cups and saucers, brass knobs, bits of old string,
shreds of linen and cloth, small bundles of wood such as light fires, pieces
having been apparently picked up and tied together ;  a cup containing
dirty food of the most disgusting  appearance, which had evidently been
long there;  bits of valueless  stones, coals,  nails, &c.  This  accumula-
tion AArhich could not have been extemporized by the attendants to make
out a case, and of which accordingly the patient must have been long
aware, would have  occasioned strong  doubts  as to  her sanity,  even if
no prior grounds  of suspicion had existed;  but, carefully preserved by
one, Avho,  up to a recent date, had been  so far suspected of insanity
that she had not been set free by the visiting commissioners ; who was
in her seventy-first year, and therefore the less likely to have obtained
a cure, it became the opinion of Dr.  Monro  and myself,  a  conclusive
ground for resisting this lady's immediate enlargement."(e)
   § 252. Particular hallucinations are classified by Abercrombie under
the following heads:—
   1. Propensities of character, which had been kept under  restraint by
reason or  by external circumstances, or old  habits which had been sub-
dued or restrained, developing themselves without control  and leading
(e) Mayo on Medical Testimony in Lunacy, pp. 33, 34. 
            PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTER OF HALLUCINATIONS.       209

 the mind into trains of  fancies arising out of them.   Thus, a man of
 an aspiring, ambitious character may imagine himself  a king or great
 personage; Avhile in a man of a timid, suspicious disposition, the mind
 may  fix  upon some supposed  injury, or loss either  of  property  or
 reputation.
   2.  Old  associations recalled  into the mind, and  mixed up perhaps
 with more recent occurrences, in the same manner as  Ave often see  in
 dreaming.  A lady, mentioned by Dr. Gooch, who became insane  in
 consequence of an alarm from a house on fire in her neighborhood, im-
 agined that she was the  Virgin  Mary, and had a luminous halo around
 her head.
   3.  Visions of the imagination which have formerly been indulged in,
 of that kind which we call waking dreams, or castle-building, recurring
 to the mind in this condition, and now believed to have a real existence,
 I have been able to trace to this source of the hallucination.  In one case,
 for example, it turned upon an  office to which the individual imagined
 he had been appointed;  and  it Avas impossible to persuade him to the
 contrary, or even that the  office was  not vacant.  He afterwards ac-
 knowledged that  his  fancy had, at various times, been fixed upon that
 appointment, though there Avere no  circumstances that warranted him
 in  entertaining  any expectation of  it.  In a man,  mentioned by Dr.
 Morison, the hallucination turned  upon circumstances which had been
 mentioned when his fortune Avas told by a gipsy.
   4. Bodily feelings giving rise to trains of associations, in the  same
 extravagant manner as in dreaming.  A man, mentioned by Dr. Rush,
 imagined that he had a  Caffre  in his  stomach, who had got in at the
 Cape of Good Hope, and had occasioned him a constant uneasiness ever
 since.  In such  a case, it is probable, that there had been some fixed
 or  frequent uneasy feeling  at the stomach, and  that  about the com-
 mencement of his complaint, he had been  strongly impressed by some
 transaction in which a Caffre was concerned.
   5. There seems reason to believe that the hallucinations of the insane
 are often influenced by a certain sense of the new and singular state in
 which  their mental powers  really are, and a  certain  feeling,  though
 confused and ill-defined, of the loss  of that power over  their mental
 processes which they possessed when in health."(/)
   § 253. Hallucinations  involving  a belief that  the patient has been
 transformed  into various species of  animals have been at times almost
 epidemic.   Analogous to these is the belief that worms, frogs, or snakes
 have taken up their abode in the head or stomach, which consume the
 brain or entrails.   Men have fancied themselves pregnant, and imagined
 themselves shadows or corpses, or to be constructed of glass, butter, or
 wax.   At one time the belief  in a transformation into wolves or other
 wild animals became so prevalent as to acquire  a title to itself (Lycan-
thropia).   In cases of this last phase the disease became so uncontrol-
lable as to impel its victim to a close imitation of the wild animal itself,
falling upon other men and animals, and snapping at and  biting them.
Andral relates a case of a  child  of fourteen  years, who  tore wildly
(/) Abercrombie on the Intellectual powers, pp. 255, 256. 
210
LUCID INTERVALS.
about the fields, biting other children that came  in its way, and pro-
ducing the greatest consternation in the neighborhood.^)



 XL Mental unsoundness as connected with lucid intervals.(h)


   § 254.  Mental  diseases are not ahvays continuous, but they improve,
and alter  their form in  such  a manner  as  to exhibit abatement  or
cessation of  the  disease.   When, therefore, an illegal act has been
committed  by a  man at  such  a time, i. e. after the occurrence of a
manifest  disorder of his mental faculties,  the question  at  once  arises,
whether the mental alienation  has really ceased, or Avhether  it  is  not
still present in a slumbering state, and possibly influential in determin-
ing the act.(i)


  (#) Cours de patholog. Interne.  Tome III.   Paris, 1836. 8 p. 186. The curious will
find a very interesting disquisition on this point in AVierus's work De praestigiis diemo-
num, Lib. IV. c. 23.
  (h) L. Krahmer, Handbuch der Gericht. Med.  Halle, C. A. Schwetschke, 1851, \ 124.
  (?) The subject of  lucid intervals  has lately been investigated in a very  learned
treatise by Dr. Lehr (Die Lehr von den lichten Zwischenzeiten in Geritchtlich. Medi-
cinisher Beziehung.   Henke Zeitschrift, 3).  Two views of lucid intervals present them-
selves, which vary widely in their judicial relations, one of which (that espoused by Dr.
L.) regards them as  a suspension of the disease, while the other treats  them merely as
a temporary suppression of its manifestation.
  AVe condense from  M. Renaudin the following very interesting remarks on this point:—
  Lucid intervals is the name ordinarily given to the condition in which the insane per-
son is. placed at the  end of a strong delirious excitement, or when he awakes from a
profound stupor.
  AVe are generally led to believe the existence of a lucid  interval when delirious ideas
no  longer manifest themselves, and when the insane person shows himself accessible to
other pre-occupations, and thus appears to enjoy the full amount of moral liberty allowed
to him.
  It has been already said that the  approach of insanity is rarely sudden; and that
being  based, in some respect, upon a natural or acquired predisposition, it  is preceded
by  a period of incubation, that  paves the way for a  manifestation of the disorder often
long before its actual appearance. When a retrospective examination of the antecedents
of the disease is made, a proof is found of the latent advances which insanity makes.
  But under this apparent reason is concealed a disorder, which makes a sensible pro-
gression every day.   Irritability is developed; the regimen is irregular;  the  affective
sentiments are changed or perverted;  everything has become an object of contrariety:
delirious convictions  are organized upon the perceptive errors every day more numerous;
and finally insanity shows itself in a critical excitement, the more decided as the lesion
of sensibility has become more complete, and as the incubation is marked by a more or
less concentrated struggle.  The patient is then isolated ; irritating causes are removed,
and immediately the  over-excitement diminishes ; a calmness succeeds.  This  transient
remission, however, ceases as soon as the unhealthy influence  regains its  empire, and
we then see that which was called a lucid interval, was, in fact, but a transient remission.
   Continuity is essentially the characteristic of monomania and lypomania.  Either the
 insane person, by convalescence, advances to a complete cure, or he still remains affected
 with the original type.  Every intermediate situation is inadmissible, except when an
 incidental affection, causing a kind of metastasis, for the moment suspends or masks the
 madness.  Whenever it is not  a true crisis, it only causes a fleeting remission of the
 symptoms rather than  of the  pathological condition;  and the physician assumes a
 serious responsibility when, simply on the face of this apparent calm, he conceives the
 possibility of the patient's return to his family, where but too soon the causes will be
 found reunited that restore to insanity all its intensity.  It is in not sufficiently  resisting
 the desires of friends, that the physician paves the way for these returns, which are less
 relapses than the recrudescence of an uncured pathological state.
   But though, in an absolute diagnostic point of view, we  reject the lucid  interval; 
LUCID  INTERVALS.
211
   As  indicated above,  there  is,  strictly speaking, but  one  species  of
unsoundness of mind, and Avhat we term forms, are more properly stages

though, when the existence of mental unsoundness has been once shown, we do not
admit that the remissions diminish irresponsibility; we still think that the deranged can
perform certain acts with a perfect knowledge of cause, and can even exercise his intelli-
gence, provided that  he is placed under the influence of certain protecting conditions.
The regulating discipline of an asylum tends greatly to this result, and therefore it is not
astonishing if our insane can perform certain civil acts of a simple character, and may
consent to a division of property, or even authorize a marriage.  The legality of the act
is essentially subordinate to a previous appreciation of the extent of the delirium at the
time, and the relations existing  between the action and the delirious conceptions.  So,
though not admitting the existence of a lucid interval, we still believe that the madman
may be placed in a situation that permits him to appreciate the action demanded of him.
In a criminal point of view, this distinction cannot be established, since the action is a
logical consequence of the madness; and daily observation teaches us that it is during
these  moments of apparent sanity that  the maniac meditates and prepares the  most
dangerous projects, as much against himself as against others. The ingenious combina-
tion of means that the lypomaniac uses in order to obtain his object, is urged in vain as
proof of lucidity; since  the delirious conceptions, whilst rendering the premises false,
are far from always deranging the logical chain of the other intellectual operations.  We
should then consider the lypomaniac as an oppressed person who conspires against his
enemies, and as he is the most feeble, he calls cunning to the aid of his legitimate means
of defence.
  In the maniac,  especially in the paroxysm, we observe a disordered agitation, accom-
panied with such an amount of incoherence that the affected person appears to be rather
the sport of some strange motive power than the originator of  this extreme mobility.
There are times when even this storm is dissipated as if by enchantment. Dissimulation
becomes possible for a certain time; the delirium is in some degree suspended, and we
may be led to suppose a spontaneous return to reason. How often have we seen maniacs
cease to rave during the questioning of the judge, and  immediately afterwards recom-
mence their course of wanderings.
  The more vivid the excitement is, the more considerable is the expenditure of the vital
forces ; so that when  it has lasted a certain time, a period of  prostration arrives; but,
allowing a remission of  some somatic symptoms, still the incoherence of ideas is per-
sistent with other symptoms.  Sometimes the transition is rapid; and then, above all, is
it necessary to attribute the situation to its true causes, in order not to expose the ex-
aminer to an error of diagnosis.
  Periodicity is generally observed in mania; and it is then that  insanity of actions
must  be distinguished from  insanity of ideas.   Though  often united, still  they are
sometimes isolated from each other, or follow one another.   It is on this account that
the most extravagant acts sometimes correspond with  a  certain intellectual lucidity,
which at the first glance may impose upon us; and it is then that we observe persons
thus insane justify their actions by the most specious reasonings.  We must not, how-
ever, take this intellectual waking for a lucid interval; for, although masked, the  deli-
rium still continues.
  In other cases,  the madness is less intense.  All excitement has disappeared, and the
insane person answers all our questions so reasonably as to lead us to infer the existence
of a lucid interval; but the illusion is soon destroyed when, in pushing our examina-
tion, we weary him with questions : he becomes agitated; loses the thread of his ideas;
becomes  more and more incoherent, and so proves to us that he has had what scarcely
might be called a transitory remission.
  There  are cases where the  periodicity appears more determined, and where the con-
duct of the patient betrays no sign of the insanity which he formerly manifested.  The
lucid interval can perhaps be sometimes admitted under these circumstances; but it is
still necessary to  exercise some  caution in regard to the value of  these appearances.  If
the patient denies his situation; if he refuses to acknowledge the principal acts which
have characterized his paroxysm; if he seeks to attribute them to some foreign cause, it
is a proof that  the reason is not sound, and that  a paroxysm is always imminent; and
lucidity cannot  be admitted, since errors of perception and judgment still  exist.   This
observation especially applies to that kind of mania in which excessive irritability plays
the principal part; where the remissions are irregular, and the paroxysms are shown under
the influence of the slightest cause.   We  cannot, then, consider this momentary repose
of a permanent effect which is always ready to break out, as a lucid interval. AVe might
say as much of the period of prostration following a period of strong excitement.
  When  periodicity is complete, it is recognized at first by the appearance of  the pa- 
212
LUCID INTERVALS.
of one and the same disease.   This disease, however, may become fixed
for life at one or the other stage, or may-travel slowly or rapidly,  and
so to speak, imperceptibly from one stage to the other, if recovery does
not intervene.   We must therefore look for  criteria to prove that the
symptoms  observed are not those of  a progress of  the disease, but  of
recover//, for Avithout such criteria we should be induced to presume the
continuance of  the disorder.   The  folloAving suggestions,  given by El-
linger, and repeated by Schurmayer, are  important in  the considera-
tion and decision of such cases.   As a general thing, there is no reco-
very from mental unsoundness which has been attended with permanent
and general delusion: in the other forms it sometimes,  though  very
rarely, takes  place suddenly, the consequence of strong excitement,  as
a sudden outburst of rage, or even in sleep, Avithout any preceding phy-
sical or  moral  change.  Its  general  development,  hoAvever,  is slow,
being  marked with a gradual lessening of the affective  irritations, Avith
an increased coherency and consequentiality of thought,  with a return
of the natural inclinations and appetites, of sleep and nourishment,  and
with a disappearance of the physical anomalies.   Sometimes, however,
it  advances with a more fluctuating  step, agitated as it Avere with men-


roxysm, which  has, in some measure, a critical termination.  The lucid interval can
then be admitted, if there is a complete contrast between the two situations, if the pa-
tient appreciates them, and if the manifestation of each fit is shown by an approach which
is always regular, and which is always produced under the influence of the same causes.
It is, if we can thus express ourselves, a momentary cure, which  is prolonged for a long-
er  or shorter period of time,  and which often finishes by becoming a complete one.
  Finally, when the affection passes to the chronic state, the patient raves less, because
excitement fails him, and also because his will is in want of a regulating force.  Wc
cannot consider this as a lucid interval where the patient is unable to act except when
directed by another's mind.  AVhen mania passes into dementia, the transition  is some-
times shown by an apparent re-awakening of reason, which is, as it were, its last glim-
mer.  Generally, it is the mobility of maniacs which is most favorable to the action of
the derivations whose results sufficiently impose upon  the superficial observer so as to
cause him to admit the existence of a lucid interval.
  The stimulated attention of these patients fixes, for a moment, this  mobility, directs
cunning  towards the accomplishment of a project, where a personality is in play, and
we are often surprised with the address shown in organizing a plan of escape.  But,
in  spite of this incidental derivation, the maniacal temperament still remains the same,
unless, indeed, this transitory action of the mind should become a crisis.
  Dementia, where the psychico-somatic existence is  gradually extinguished,  is a ruin
in which  a trace of a better  time is sometimes found. If, occasionally, remembrances of
the past show themselves, this apparent lucid interval is no more than a retrospective
reasoning without  actual application. When,  instead  of being the termination of the
other forms,  dementia is primitive or idiopathic, the lucid intervals can be  sufficiently
clearly drawn, and the diagnosis  does not  present as many difficulties as in  the
other forms.  In fact, the demented cannot dissimulate; since, to do this, a reactive
power would be necessary, which in him is entirely wanting.  He cannot conceal his
incapacity under the mask of an energy whose absence is the principal feature of his
disease.  More submissive than the others to somatic influences, he is sometimes a prey
to an almost maniacal excitement; but if this is not critical, it forms an expenditure of
power resulting in pure loss, and making one more step in this period of prostration.
In a word, if the man lives for a moment in the past, he is as nothing in the  present;
and it is under privilege of this restriction that a lucid interval, provoked by some foreign
stimulant, but without root in an exhausted moral system, can be admitted.
   Hence we see that the lucid interval is of much rarer occurrence in mental unsound-
ness than is  generally thought. It is in mania that the periodicity of regular paroxysms
permits us to admit it; but  then,  also, it is still necessary to guard against being im-
posed upon by a remission of excitement, which is not that of the frenzied condition.—
See  Etudes  Physio-Somatiques sur  l'Alienation Mentale, par L. E. F. Renaudin, chap.
ix. p. 522.  Paris,  1854. 
LUCID INTERVALS.
213
tal  tides, the flood of each of which, however, falls below the high
water-mark of its predecessor,  while each ebb more  and more nearly
approaches the line of sanity.  To constitute a recovery, the patient, if
he has not acquired a more rational  constitution of his moral character,
must  at least have regained that  which he enjoyed before  the ap-
pearance of  the  disease:  he must  have  re-acquired a  taste for  his
former  occupation,  must  again  display his former inclinations  and
points of interest, must understand what  he remembers of his disease
when assisted by explanations, must speak of it  as of something to
which he is now superior,  must clearly see the erroneous nature of the
delusions under which he  labored, and must be really contented and
internally at peace.   But  if, on the other hand, the former  character
of the disease has only disappeared in part; if the old insane grudge
against  one person or another  is manifested; if there  is a smothered
rage,  or aversion to persons or things formerly cherished; if the alleged
convalescent refuses to acknoAvledge his disease in general or in regard
to particular points;  if he dislikes to speak  of it; if  his conduct is
marked  by unnatural  irritability, suspicion or  boisterous and immode-
rate joy, or  by other  anomalous  features, a perfect recovery has  not
taken place, although in  point of intelligence, formal and substantial,
not the slightest  anomaly is perceptible.(j)
  § 255. Where the patient's recovery from a mental disorder  is not
clearly  established, it may still be doubted whether an alleged criminal
act was committed under circumstances involving the full responsibility
of the  agent.  Whether  the malady was of long or short duration,
whether it was more or less intense, is here of no  decisive import, and
of equally little moment is the apparent reflection and preparation with
which the act may have been committed.
  The  different  kinds of improvement or interruption in cases of un-
soundness of mind, present various  features, which vary in accordance
with the duration and degree of abatement.
  1.  Intervallum lucidum, with a restoration of consciousness in general
and of insight into the past and present, but Avithout entire  clearness,
and Avith the continuance  of a more, though not entirely subdued tem-
perament.  The patient is  not yet the same as he was before the disease
overtook him.  If he was, he would have to be regarded as restored to
health,  and there would, in its strict meaning, be  no question as to a
lucid  interval.
  2.  Remission differs from a lucid interval only in degree, being gene-
rally  attended with a subsidence of  the external manifestations  of  the
disease,  not sufficient, however, to be mistaken for recovery.
  3.  Alternation is  the term  given to the change  from one form of
mental  unsoundness to another, particularly from  depression to mania
and the converse, not however from psychical to bodily, or from bodily
to  psychical manifestations.   Where for instance the  individual  has
long  suffered from morbid depression or elation of  spirits, this may gra-
dually decrease and give place to an apparent return of health,  which
hoAvever does not last long, but sooner or  later lapses into the opposite
condition, so  that depression tujjns into mania, and  mania into depres-
sion.
               (j) Compare Ellinger, p. 169. Schurmayer, \ 573. 
214
LUCID INTERVALS.
   4. Intermission, when the  disease recurs at  more  or  less regular
 periods, and the disease presents no anomalous symptoms.
   § 250. The restoration of moral responsibility progresses in corres-
 pondence Avith the progress of recovery.  In passing, therefore, upon
 a given  case, regard should be had, not only to the individual circum-
 stances, but also to the time intervening between the cessation of patent
 insanity and the commission of the offence.(k)
   § 257. On this  point Dr. Rush thus speaks: " The longer the inter-
 vals between the paroxysms of madness,  the more complete is the resto-
 ration to reason.   Remissions rather than intermissions take place when
 the intervals are of short duration, and these distinguish it from febrile
 delirium in which intermissions more generally occur.   In many cases
 every thing is remembered  that passes under the notice of the patient
 during a paroxysm of general madness, but in  those  cases Avhere  the
 memory is diseased as well as the understanding,  nothing is recollected.
 I attended a lady  in the month of October,  1802, who had crossed  the
 Atlantic ocean during a paroxysm of derangement, without recollecting
 a single circumstance of her voyage  any more than if she had passed
 the whole  time  in sleep.  Sometimes everything is forgotten in  the
 interval  of a paroxysm, but  recollected  in a succeeding paroxysm.   I
 once attended the  daughter of  a British  officer, who had been educated
 in the habits of gay life, who Avas married to a Methodist minister.   In
 her paroxysms of  madness, she resumed her gay habits, spoke French
 and ridiculed the tenets and practices of the sect to Avhich she belonged.
 In the intervals of her fits, she renounced her gay habits, became zeal-
 ously devoted to the religious principles  and ceremonies of the Metho-
 dists, and forgot everything she did and said during her fits of insanity.
 A deranged sailor, some years ago, in the Pennsylvania Hospital, fan-
 cied himself to be an admiral,  and walked and commanded with all the
 dignity and authority that  are connected with that high  rank in the
 navy.   He was cured and discharged: his disease sometime afterwards
 returned, and with it all the actions of  an admiral which  he  assumed
 and imitated in his former paroxysm.  It is remarkable that some per-
 sons when deranged talk rationally, but act irrationally, while others
 act rationally and talk irrationally.  We had a sailor  some years ago
 in our hospital, who spent a whole year in building and rigging a small
 ship in his cell.   Every part of  it was formed  by a mind apparently
 in a sound state.   During  the  whole of the year in which  he was em-
 ployed in this work, he spoke not a word.   In bringing his ship out of
 his cell, a part of  it was broken.   He immediately spoke and became
 violently deranged soon afterwards.  Again, some madmen talk ration-
 ally and write irrationally;  but it is more common  for  them to utter a
 few connected sentences in conversation, but not  be able to  connect two
 correct  sentences together  in a letter.   Of  this, I  have known  many
 instances in our hospital."(I)
  § 258. Mania frequently assumes a type in  which  the periods  of
return and of cessation  are marked Avith the greatest exactness and
reguhtrity.(w)  Medicus, in his  history of periodical  diseases,(w) tells us
                                   m
  (k) Schiirmayer, Gericht. Med. § 574.     (I) Rush on the Mind,  pp 162  163 164
  (m) Siebold, Gericht. Med. \ 217.         (n) Kailsr. 1764. 
TREATMENT OF INSANE CONVICTS.
215
of a girl who was subject  to a delirium Avhich  came on  every evening
at exactly the same hour, and  lasted three hours and a  half.  ^ Of two
women  attacked Avith periodical madness, one was deranged nine days
in each month, and the other two days.(o)


               XII. Treatment of insane criminals.

   § 259. The enlargement of the range of insane irresponsibility which
the preceding sections recognize, and particularly its extension to cases
of monomania,  (mania sine delirio,) makes the subject of the subsequent
treatment of the insane offender of very momentous importance.  EAren
if we adopt the severest legal tests, yet  when a case occurs of  an ac-
quittal, as it  sometimes must on  the  most stringent principles,  the
offender, who  in  this  case, on the  law's own assumption, is a mere
"animal," should be  no more permitted to  range the streets than
should a mad  dog or a mad bull.   But  in point of fact,  there  are  a
myriad of phases of mental unsoundness, none of which are consistent
with entire responsibility, and yet each of which  has its distinct degree
of moral culpability attached to it.  Rare, indeed, are  the instances,
where there is  not a consciousness  of guilt, which, though distorted or
faint, is, nevertheless, appreciable.  Still rarer are the cases  of ac-
quittal  where the insanity of the perpetrator is  so  abhorrent as to
exclude  it from  the  range of imitation  by those who  may  desire to
commit crime with  impunity.   And if these considerations be thrown
aside, there still remains the fact that insane  crime becomes  epidemic
when it becomes heroic; and that the only way to divest  it of this qual-
ity,  is  to subject it  to  that  wholesome  but homely  discipline  which
strips it of its sentimentality, and at the same time, destroys  its capa-
city for mischief.  In this view it  is recommended that  wherever such
provision do not  already exist, there should  be a separate penitentiary
establishment for insane offenders, where they  may continue to be con-
fined,  under the  severest  discipline consistent  with health, until  it
appear on evidence taken upon due notice to  the prosecuting authori-
ties, that the patient is entirely sane.   The propriety of such a  course
will appear by an examination of the subject under the following heads:
   (1.)  Retribution.
   (2.)  Prevention.
   (3.)  Example.
   (4.)  Reform.
   § 260. (1).  Retribution.   The  question here depends  on that  of
guilt.   Was the offender in any sense a moral agent in the act com-
plained of?  The  answer  presupposed by the  present inquiry, viz.,
that of the  relations of a person judged irresponsible on account  of
insanity, is, that he Avas  not.   And in a strict technical sense,  this  is
undoubtedly true.  The inquiry, however, may be pushed farther back,
and here  the  case of delirium tremens may be taken  as  an illustra-
tion.^)   Delirium  tremens,  even on the most stringent principles,

   (o) See also Henke's Zeitschr. 13 Bd. sec. 159.
   (p) This question has already been touched upon, and the authorities bearing upon it
have been noticed.  See ante, \ 62-70.  In opposition to the views expressed in the text 
216
TREATMENT OF INSANE CONVICTS.
 exonerates  its subject from the  penal consequences of a crime com-
 mitted under  its direct influence.  And yet it is clear, first, that deli-
 rium tremens is the  result of  a prior vicious indulgence;  second, that
 if the patient be permitted to Avander about when the delirium conti-
 nues, he will do further mischief, and, third, that if the offender escape
 in entire immunity, the example will  be likely to be  folloAved as a pre-
 text, if not  caught as a contagion.   And under' these circumstances
 what is to be done ?  It is plain that some species of confinement must
 be resorted  to; and that if such a method of discipline be applied, it will
 be, in a moral point  of view,  thoroughly justified by the  delinquency
 which was  the voluntary  cause of the diseased mental  condition under
 which the crime was committed.
   §  261. What has just  been  said of delirium  tremens  applies with
 greater or  less exactness to all  other cases  of  mental unsoundness.
 Insanity, which is  not congenital, or the result of accident or old  age,
 is, in most cases, the  result of causes which the patient himself might
 have averted if he had chosen.(pp) And particularly is this the case with
 that very species of mental unsoundness,—that of monomania, or moral
 insanity,—which is the cause  of  the  greatest difficulty in the  present
 connection.   This is  very admirably stated by Dr. Barlow in his pow-
 erful essay on this very point:
   §  262. " I have said that mental  derangement and madness  are dif-
 ferent things; thus, a person may fancy he sees others  around him Avho
 have no existence, as in the well known cases of Nicholai of Berlin and
 Dr.  Bostock.   This is a certain degree of mental derangement  while it
 lasts; but as both soon satisfied themselves that  these personages Avere
 merely the creation of a morbid physical state, they were not mad.  A
 man of  less resolution would have shrunk from the labor of convincing
 himself that he was fooled by  his senses, and Avould have insisted  that
 the  figures Avere real, and then he  Avould have been mad.   On these
 cases Dr.  Connelly  very justly remarks,  ' Let  any one  reflect  how
 Nicholai preserved his reason  under such visionary and auditory delu-
 sions for so many months; and Avhy the English physiologist, though
 visited with  the images which are so Avell known to be familiar Avith mad
 people, never lost the use of his excellent understanding.  The ready
 answer Avill  be, they  never believed  in their real  existence.  But why
 did  they not ?   And Avhy does the madman  believe in  their real exist-
 ence ?  The evidence of both is the same, the  plain evidence of sense.
 The explanation must be this.  The  printer of Berlin and the physician
 in London retained the poAver of comparison: they compared the visual
 objects of delusion, with the impressions of other senses,' and the per-
 ceptions of other persons,  and became convinced of  their unreality.
 ' This is  exactly what  madmen cannot do.   One  form of madness con-
 sists in  this very illusion  of sense, but it is conjoined with the  loss or
 defect of the comparing poAver, and the madman  concludes that  what is
 only an  illusion, is a reality.   But the illusion  is not the madness.'
 Thus, according to the opinion of this very able  judge, the affection of
 the brain which causes these delusions, is not madness, but the  want of
power or resolution to examine them is.   Nothing, then, but an extent

 will be found Air. M. B. Sampson's "  Criminal  Jurisprudence considered in relation to
 cerebral organization." London, 1843. See  also ante, § 79-85.
  {pp) See ante, \ 79-85, where this subject is discussed. 
MORAL RESPONSIBILITY OF LUNATICS.             217
 of disease, Avhich destroys at once all possibility of reasoning, by anni-
 hilating, or entirely changing the structure of the organ, can make a
 man necessarily mad."(^)
   § 263.  "A man  may labor under a mental delusion," and yet be a
 responsible  agent;  and if sanity or  insanity be in a  great many in-
 stances  the consequences of a greater or less resolution in exerting the
 power of reasoning still possessed, the same kind of motives which influ-
 ence a man in common life,  are still available, though they may require
 to be somewhat  heightened.   It is on this principle that the treatment
 of lunatics has been generally conducted.   Fear, one of the lowest, but
 also one of the most general of instinctive emotions, has been called in
 to balance the delusions of sense, and excepting  in cases where the
 structural disease is so  extensive as to deprive the man of all power of
 connecting cause and effect, it has been found sufficient to curb violence,
 and enforce a certain degree of peaceable demeanor towards the attend-
 ants.  And in this the insane  person  differs not from the cultivated
 man who is  left at liberty, whose self control rarely amounts  to more
 than the avoiding actions Avhich Avould have unpleasant consequences to
 himself.   Suppose an irascible man, incensed  by a false report, Avhich,
 however, he believes to be  true; he seeks his supposed enemy, and
 horseAvhips, or knocks  him down; he does not assassinate, because he
 fears for his own life if  he does;  for it is  clear that no  feeling  of duty
 has held his hand, or he would not have transgressed the laAvs both of
 God and  man  by thus  revenging himself.   The madman has the false
 report from his OAvn senses; wherein  do the  tAVO differ ?  Neither  has
 employed means within his power to ascertain the truth, and both are
 aware that such vengeance is  forbidden.  I can see no distinction be-
 tAveen them, save that the delusion of sense has, as a chemist would say,
 decomposed the character, and shoAvn how  much of the individual's pre-
 vious conduct Avas rational,  and how much the  result of mere animal
 instinct.   It would  be well  for  the world if  the  soidisant sane Avere
 sometimes to ask  themselves how far their sanity would bear this test,
 and  endeavor to acquire that rational self-command Avhich nothing but
 the last extremity of cerebral disease could unseat.   We do not  descend
 from  our high rank with impunity; and  as when  the matter has become
 organized, if the  process of change, occasioned  by the  vital force, be
 impeded  or arrested, the plant pines away and perishes; as, after  the
 organs of locomotion have been superadded, the animal debarred from
 the use of them, languishes and  becomes  diseased; so man, if  he give
 not full scope to the intellectual force, becomes subject to evils  greater
 than animals ever knoAV, because his nature is  of a higher order.(r)
   § 264.  " Neither do severe injuries from external causes, though, like
 paralysis, they might cause a loss of those faculties which connect man
 with the  world about him, necessarily disconnect him with the Avorld
within, so as to place him beyond his own  command.
   " A case has been communicated to me illustrative of  this.  A young
lad Avho had been carefully instructed in the principles of religion and
virtue, by the clergyman of his parish, aftenvards went  to sea.   When
he Avas about tAventy-tAvo, he unfortunately fell from the mast upon his
  (q) Barlow on Alan's Power over Himself, to Prevent or Control Insanit.v. London. AV.
 Pickering, 1843. Phila. Lea  & Blanchard, 1846.               (r) Ibid. 
218
MORAL RESPONSIBILITY OF LUNATICS.
head on the deck, and the injury to the brain was such that he was dis-
charged from the service in a state of imbecility, and sent home to his
parish.   He Avas then in possession of the use of his limbs and hearing;
but articulation was apparently difficult to him, and collected thought,
Avhich should enable him to speak connectedly, still more so; his sight,
too, Avas subject to a delusion Avhich made him imagine he saw gold and
silver coin strewed about on the ground; which, as  was  natural, he
eagerly endeavored to pick up.   He was now visited by the clergyman
who had been the instructor of his youth, who  in kind terms  assured
him he was under a false impression, and advised him to give no heed
to what he imagined he saw.   The poor  young man thanked him, and
promised to do  as he desired, and for a time abstained from attempting
to pick up the coin, but gradually the delusion  became too  strong for
his resolution,  and he recommenced.  Yet, after every visit from his
former instructor, he again controlled himself for a time ; and, if he did
not come, anxiously sought him at his OAvn house.   He died in a few
months,  but during the whole  time was  mild and submissive, seeming
perfectly aware that his mind  was disordered;  and,  like  a child who
distrusts his own power, seeking to throw himself on the guidance of one
whose kindness he remembered, and whose character he respected.  This
man was suffering  mental derangement  from injury of the  parts, but
was not insane; for the faculties left him were rationally exercised.(s)
   § 265.  " Cases of this kind have been  considered by some  as a pecu-
liar type of insanity.   By French authors  it is entitled manic sans
delire. Dr.  Prichard styles it instinctive madness. I am inclined never-
theless to refer such deranged propensities in some instances to a pe-
culiar and morbid state of sensation, and these will come under the head
we are now considering, consequently  the  desire is not irresistible,
though strong,  for we  see that  it has been successfully resisted; in
others I should refer it to the  second class, under  the head of ' In-
efficiency of the intellectual force,' and then it depends on the resolution
of the person so affected whether the morbid sensation shall be medi-
tated on and indulged,  and thus acquire fresh force, or whether by ex-
citing  other sensations, it shall be weakened and by degrees vanquished.
   § 266.  " There is no greater  error than to suppose that thinking about
a propensity which ought not to be gratified, will conquer it; on the con-
trary,  every hour of lonely thought gives it fresh force ; but let the man
plunge into business that must be attended to, or even a lighter  occupa-
tion, so it be an engrossing one; and  do this resolutely, hoAvever  irk-
some it may at first  appear, and the very repose thus given to the diseased
part, if there be disease, by throAving the whole stress on other portions
of the brain, will assist in effecting the cure.(t)
   § 267. " When a man has reached  mature age without making any
effort to render the brain subservient  to  the rational will, the  fatigue
and even pain  consequent on the endeavor to obtain the mastery over it,
is such, that few have resolution to undergo  it voluntarily.  Thus the
man subsides more and more into the animal, and is at last guided only
by those instinctive emotions which belong to the vital force  merely.
His passions assume a delirious violence, and he is only distinguished

   (s) Barlow on Alan's  Power over Himself to Prevent or Control  Insanity. London, W.
Pickering.  1843.  Philadelphia, Lea & Blanchard.  1846.            (t) Jbid. 
TREATMENT OF INSANE CONVICTS.
219
from the brute from the greater skill with which he pursues their grati-
fication.   There is no disease of brain, but it has been left unexercised
and ungoverned till it is as unmanageable as a limb that has been treated
in the same way.
   " Toes have been used  for writing and  other arts which are usually
performed by fingers; they are capable,  therefore,  of  such  use, but
those who have constantly worn shoes cannot direct one toe  separately
from the  rest, as  they can  the fingers.  Yet with much trouble this
poAver of  directing might  be acquired.   It is thus that the brain, un-
accustomed to direction from the intellectual force, rebels  against it,
and if this latter fails to assert its sway, it may justly be termed ineffi-
cient.  In a man thus  animalized, the actions differ from those of his
more spiritualized  fellow men,  who happily  are  more numerous; and
when they find no such motive as they would consider a sufficient one
for his conduct, they call  him mad, by way of accounting for it.  He
commits  a crime,  and  a plea of insanity is  set  up as  a shelter from
punishment.   I will give an instance.  It is recorded  by the elder
Pinel: ' An only son,  educated by a silly  and indulgent mother, Avas
accustomed to give way to all  his passions Avithout restraint.  As he
grew up, the violence of his  temper became  quite  uncontrollable, and
he was constantly involved  in quarrels  and  law-suits.   If  an animal
offended  him, he  instantly  killed it;  yet, when calm,  he  Avas  quite
reasonable,  managed his  large estate  with  propriety,  and was even
known to be beneficent to the poor; but one day, provoked  to rage by
a woman, Avho abused him, he threw her into  a well.  On his  trial, so
many Avitnesses deposed to the violence of his actions, that he  Avas con-
demned to imprisonment in a mad-house.'   Yet any choleric man who
does in his rage Avhat he is sorry for afterwards,  is as much insane as
this man was ; both are under the influence of the vital force.  A shock
to some nerve of sensation stimulates the sympathetic system ; the cir-
culation  is hurried,  and the blood floAving more rapidly through the
brain, gives an unusual activity to the motor nerves, the movements are
sudden and violent, the speech  hurried, loud,  and perhaps incoherent;
but the intellectual force knows the source  of these symptoms, and can
curb them by  resolute silence and inaction till the blood again flows at
its usual pace; if it does not, the man, for a time, is in a state of mania,
but is not the  less  responsible for having allowed himself to be  so.
   " Let us suppose another case; the thing is so constantly seen that
every one could quote examples of it.   A  man  unaccustomed to self-
control, becomes occupied  by one thought:—his ambition has been dis-
appointed perhaps, or a law-suit has plagued him, or he has been much
employed in some  engrossing pursuit.  Unable to regulate his  thoughts
at will, he finds the one which circumstances have made habitual, recur
uncalled for.  An effort would dismiss it, for every one Avho has studied,
knoAvs that he has had  to  dismiss many an  intruding thought,  and with
some effort, too, if he wished to make progress in Avhat  he has under-
taken ; but this individual has never been accustomed to make  any such
effort, and he knoAvs  not how to free himself from  the subject which thus
haunts him.   If it be an unpleasant one, he is wearied and worn by it;
but every day that it is not  driven off,  it assumes a greater  power, for
the part of the brain thus  brought into action is noAV by habit rendered 
220             MORAL RESPONSIBILITY OF LUNATICS.

more fit for use than any other :—he has not resolution enough to free
himself from his  tormentor by a determined application  to  something
else Avhich would require all his attention ;  he sits brooding over it, and,
when life has thus become irksome, he strives to terminate his  discomfort
by  suicide; yet here is no  structural disease; and if the man could be
persuaded to exert himself, he might be sane.   I will give an instance.
The master of a parish work-house, about thirty years of age, Avas sub-
jected frequently to groundless suspicions of peculation. Being naturally
a taciturn,  low-spirited  man,  these false  accusations  which involved
his  character, and consequently the maintenance of his family, preyed
upon his  mind,  and a profound melancholy Avas  the result, attended
by  the usual  symptomatic  derangement  of the  digestive  functions,
and  a  constant  apprehension that he had  done  something  wrong,
he  did not  know  what.  No  assurance  on the  part  of  those Avho
kneAV and esteemed him had any effect, and finally, after some months
of melancholy, he attempted to destroy himself.  He  was then removed
to St. Luke's hospital, whence, after  a year had elapsed, he  was dis-
charged incurable.   He was now placed in a private receptacle of the
insane, and  here suffered  all  the  misery  Avhich at  that time  pauper
lunatics were subjected to.  He  was visited at this place  by a bene-
volent man, who, seeing  his state, immediately ordered  him to be  re-
moved into the gentlemen's apartments, and paid for his maintenance
there.  In a few months afterwards he was visited by the clergyman of
his parish, who, on conversing with him, considered him sane. The man
begged to be allowed to rejoin  his Avife and family, and the rector, after
many difficulties  and some  threats to the parish  authorities, succeeded
in setting him free.  The man from that time Avas able to maintain  his
family by his trade of  shoemaking, for if ever a fit of melancholy came
over him, a threat from his wife that he should be sent back to the mad-
house Avas sufficient to  engage him to make an effort to resume his cheer-
fulness ; and he  remained to old age a  sane man.  Here the insanity had
been merely inefficiency of the  intellectual force.  Placed in  a situation
of  comparative ease, his mind had become  calm; the Avish to return  to
his wife and family, and the hope of it, kept up by the  visits of bene-
volent friends, did the rest: for, be it  observed, during the Avhole time
he  never felt himself abandoned.   The poor and the uneducated are the
classes which most usually suffer from  the inefficiency of the intellectual
force: it  is among  the higher ranks usually that its misdirection is a
source of insanity.   Among these, more distant objects of pursuit keep
the thoughts longer upon  the stretch toAvards  one point;  the organs
of  mechanical  memory are strengthened,  nay,  even strained  by  the
habit  of  learning much by rote,  while  the constant supply of learn-
ing ready-made, leaves  no  necessity  for the  more laborious  pro-
cesses of reasoning and comparison.  Hence we  not unfrequently find  an
elegant scholar, Avho can readily  quote the words and opinions of others,
unable himself to carry on a course of close argument, or to prove  the
truth of Avhat he advances. Whoever has moved in society, knows that
it is rare  to meet with any one who can  command his thoughts in con-
versation frequently to reject all that is not relevant to the  subject, so
as  to keep on the chain of reasoning unbroken.(u)
  (u) Barlow on Man's Power over Himself to Prevent or Control Insanity. London, W.
Pickering.  1843.  Philadelphia, Lea & Blanchard. 1846. 
HOW LUNATICS ARE TO BE DISCIPLINED.
221
  §  268.  "When  the mind is  thus exercised in remembering  the
opinions  of  others, thus unaccustomed accurately to examine its own,
what wonder is it if it should become prepossessed with some irrational
notion which cannot  be removed by reasoning, because the individual
man in his healthiest  state had never chosen so to exercise his mind;
or if, when a delusion of sense occurs, he should choose rather to act
upon it as truth, than to examine into the grounds  he has for believing
it  to be such.   It  is  a melancholy fact that a  great number of man-
kind are  in this estate as  regards  the faculties  most requisite to self-
control, and depend far more on the accident of good health, than the
exertion  of their own intellectual power, for their sanity.  I have heard
of more  than one  instance  of hard livers, as  they were termed, who
probably, in consequence of a slight affection of the brain from the un-
natural stimulus of Avine long kept up, became possessed with an opinion
that they were slighted by one or more of their friends;  and, resisting
all reasoning  on the  subject,  ended by destroying themselves.   Yet,
they were rational  on other matters of importance, and therefore it is
to be concluded, that, even on this point, they were capable of being
rational also, had they chosen to make the exertion.   It is  recorded of
Henri of Bourbon, son of the  great Conde, that at times he imagined
himself transformed into  a dog, and would  then bark violently.   Once
this notion  seized  him while in the king's presence;  he then  felt it
needful for him to control himself, and he did so :  for though he turned
to  the window, and  made grimaces  as if barking, he made no noise.
Had the king's eye been  upon him, it is  probable  that he  Avould have
avoided the grimaces also."(v)
   § 269.  " The indulgence of violent emotions," observes Dr. Connolly,
" is singularly detrimental to the human understanding, and it is to be
presumed, that the  unmeasured  emotions  of  insanity are sometimes
perpetuated in consequence of the disorder of brain originally induced
by their violence.  A man  is at first only irritable, but gives Avay to
his  irritability.  Whatever  temporarily interferes with  any bodily or
mental function, reproduces the disposition to be irritated,  and circum-
stances are never Avanting to act upon this disposition till it becomes  a
disease.   The state of the brain, or part of the brain, which is produced
whenever the feeling of irritation is renewed, is more easily induced at
each reneAval, and concurs with the moral habit to bring on the  parox-
ysm on every slight  occasion—other  vehement emotions and passions
effect the same disorders of the mind."(w)

                           (2.) Prevention.

   § 270. A very eminent American physician  tells us, that " no argu-
 ment should weigh, for a moment, with a court of justice, in favor of
 liberating such an individual (one  subject to  homicidal mania).   The
 fact that life has been taken, should overbalance all  motives to  send
 such person into society again, while  the delusions and estrangements

   (v) Barlow on Alan's Power over Himself to Prevent or Control Insanity.  London.
 A. Pickering. 1843.  Phila. Lea and Blanchard. 1846.  See ante, 78-85.
   (w) Ibid. 
222
TREATMENT OF INSANE CONVICTS.
of insanity continue; and, avc  add, not until montlis, if not years, of
peace, and freedom from excitement should have confirmed their entire
release from this dangerous form of disease."  "We recently attended
(says the same authority) " an interesting  trial  on  a subject of this
nature in a neighboring county in this  state.  An habitually peaceful
and worthy man was indicted for the most shocking murder of his Avife,
with an axe, and a horrible attempt upon the lives of  his children Avith
the same Aveapon.   The facts  Avere not denied, and  his  only defence
was, that of  insanity.  He was acquitted, principally upon  our testi-
mony as to the fact of his being insane  at  the  time the murder Avas
committed, of which we have not the slightest doubt;  but our astonish-
ment was only exceeded by our  alarm, Avhen subsequently informed that
bail had been admitted, and this afflicted, but truly dangerous man, Avas
permitted to go at large.  This ought not to be so.  Science and human-
ity may interpose for the life of the homicide, but society should ever be
protected from the effects of his dreadful disease.   The lunatic asylum
is their proper place; and it should be duly prepared for their reception
and detention."(a;)
   § 271. The man who, in an insane impulse, kills one  man, is more than
likely, under the same impulse, to kill another.   And, indeed, the several
facts of moral mania implies a chronic tendency to the particular crime.
This was agreed on all sides in  Hadfield's case Avhere the point Avas first
mooted:  "For his own sake," said Lord Kenyon, "and for the sake
of society at large, he must not be discharged, for this is a case Avhich
concerns every man of every station, from the king upon the throne, to
the beggar at the  gate—people of both sexes and all ages may, in an
unfortunate, frantic hour, fall  a sacrifice to this man, Avho is not under
the guidance of sound reason,  and therefore it is absolutely necessary,
for the  safety of society, that he should  be properly disposed of,  all
mercy and humanity being shown to the unfortunate creature;  but, for
the sake of the community, he must somehow or other be taken care of,
with all the  attention  and all the  relief  that can be afforded  him."
Hereupon the counsel for the Crown, and the  counsel for the defendant,
agreed that the safety of  the  community  required that he  should be
taken care of.  "It is laid doAvn in some books," said the former, (Sir
John Mitford, afterwards Lord Redesdale), " that by the common law,
the judges of  every court are competent to direct the confinement of a
person  under such circumstances."  "That may be, Mr.  Attorney-
General," interposed Lord Kenyon, "but at present Ave  can only re-
mand him to the confinement he came from;   but means will be used to
confine him othenvise in a manner  much  better adapted to his situa-
tion."   It avus then suggested by Mr.  Garrow (afterwards  a Baron of
the Exchequer) that " it would be  for  the benefit of posterity, if the
jury would state in their verdict the  grounds upon which they gave it,
viz., that they acquit the prisoner of this charge, he appearing to them
to have  been under  the  influence of insanity at the time the act was
committed.   There would  then," he  added,  "be  a legal and sufficient
reason for his confinement."^)   This recommendation was adopted by

   (x) Dr. Woodward, cited in 4 Journal of Psychological Medicine, p. 469.
   (y) Howell's State Trials, Vol. XXVII. p. 1354, et. seg. Suggestions for the future
provision of Criminal Lunatics, by W. Charles Hood, M. D.  London, 1854. pp. 16  17. 
EXAMPLE—REFORM.
223
the jury, who returned a verdict in these terms.  Thus originated the
form of verdict noAV commonly returned in cases of this description.

                           (3.) Example.

   § 272. The recorded cases are numerous in which the supposed irrespon-
sibility of lunatics has led to the perpetration of crime by the insane.
" They cannot hang him," Avas Avhispered about in the York lunatic asy-
lum, when the firing of York Minster, by a supposed lunatic, Avas under
consideration, "he is one of ourselves."   And one of  the most danger-
ous convicts in the Eastern Penitentiary,—one laboring under homicidal
mania in its most inveterate shape,—was constantly expressing his dis-
appointment at finding that notwithstanding his acquittal on ground of
insanity, he was to be continued in prison.   He had,  in fact, supposed
himself privileged by his disease to commit this particular crime.   And
even taking the strongest case,—that of the man AArho is possessed by a
homicidal mania which  equals  in  intensity the passion of particular
classes  of dogs  for  sheep's  blood,—we will have  strong  ground to
believe that such an instinct can be tutored.  Monomanias, in fact, are
epidemics, and spread precisely to the degree in which they are invested
with  sentimental  celebrity.   The Leipsic "Msedchen-Schneider," who
when charged Avith gratifying a morbid sexual impulse by striking lancets
in the arms  of  such young girls as he might meet in  a crowded  street,
never exercised this propensity except when  it was likely it would be un-
detected.  Shame and  the fear of punishment restrained him thus far,
but it was quite otherwise when he became  the object of a sentimental
curiosity Avhich visited him during his trial  and imprisonment with the
same attentions,—perhaps more,—which would have been paid to a Live
Mermaid or the Siamese Twins.  The monomania became an epidemic,
and would have remained so had  not an ignominious punishment been
affixed.

                             (4.) Reform.

   § 273. To permit a monomaniac  to go  at large, will be to give fuel
to his disease, as well as to supply it with victims—
                               " Mobilitate viget,
                       Viresque acquiret eundo;"

And to  nothing does this apply Avith greater force than that exaggerated
 state of the moral  system, which  has just  been discussed.   If  the in-
 dulgence in passion, even in a healthy mind, tends, as has been just
 shoAvn,  to derangement, it will readily be seen that no recovery can be
 effected while the patient is permitted  to  run at large, exposed to all
 the irritating influences of unguarded society, and gathering a momen-
 tum for coming  excesses from the  very liberty he is allowed in the
 present.
   § 274. Dr. Mayo thus well illustrates  the awkward position of insane
 criminals under the present administration of the law.—" It must be
 confessed that the  conditional responsibility which  the law, and, as I
 think,  the  reason of the case, attributes  to the insane, is not easily 
224              TREATMENT OF INSANE CONVICTS.

applicable in practice, either under lucid intervals, or under such other
phases of the insane state, as might seem to  justify it.   The  hnv Avill
remain  a dead letter, or Avill be continually ignored by the sympathies
of judges, juries, and I may add, of medical Avitnesses,  unless  some
practical distinction  can be arranged, Avhich may  enable the responsible
insane to undergo some loAver degree of punishment than that inflicted
on  similar  delinquents being of sound mind.  The position of many
such persons under capital charges, is at present anomalous.   They are
acquitted in defiance of the law, as laid down by the judges respecting
M'Nughten's case, because the punishment at present appertaining to
the offence would be  too severe; and then, instead of being consigned to
confinement  in a gaol, as a secondary punishment, they are consigned
to it in  an asylum,  as a  place simply of detention.  This becomes a
scene of severe virtual punishment to some of them, of gratification to
vanity and idleness to others;  those, meanwhile,  to whom it is a grieAT-
ance, as they do not  regard it in the light of a punishment, derive  from
it  none  of the  preventive  effects  of punishment  on  future  conduct,
while the public, for the same reason, find it equally unproductive of
good, as an  example to persons of  actually  diseased mind, or to that
large class of other  persons Avho  are drifting into disease under uncon-
trolled eccentricity. "(2)
  § 275. It  is impossible to carry  out  the  proper disciplinary  and
remedial measures in a penitentiary common to the sane and insane.  " I
am satisfied  of the fact," says Dr. Hood,  "that Criminal Lunatics are
more difficult to manage than other lunatics;  there is more irritability
of temper, and general restlessness about them;  they are cognizant of
the offences they lune committed, and being under the impression that
they  Avill never recover their liberty, they are less disposed to be con-
tented or happy.  They are also conscious that they are separated into,
and form a  distinct  class of patients, and this very circumstance  esta-
blishes  a species of  fraternity among them; for they are in constant
communication  Avith  each other, and their curiosity is naturally excited
to ascertain the circumstances connected Avith every neAV arrival.   They
thus  soon become acquainted with each other's history, Avhich is often
the cause of much  quarreling and mutual recrimination; the better
class  of patients are  unhappy at  being  associated with  the  inferior
order—criminals whose manners and language  are habitually of the
most  revolting description.  Hence, I conclude, that the fundamental
principle upon Avhich Ave should proceed,  in providing for the safe  cus-
tody, maintenance, and medical care'of our Criminal Lunatics, should
be  that of establishing a certain classification among them, founded
upon the degrees, or nature of the crimes which they may have  com-
mitted.   This principal conceded, we have then to consider the expedi-
ency or inexpediency of  organizing a State Lunatic Asylum for their
common reception;  the possibility, or impossibility,  of each  county
providing adequate  accommodation  in existing asylums  for  its  own
Criminal Lunatics;  and Avhether arrangements  might not be made in
prisons,  and houses  of correction, for the  medical treatment of  such
(z) Mayo on Medical Testimony in Lunacy, pp. 50, 51, 52. 
UNSUITABLENESS OF THE ORDINARY ASYLUMS.          225
prisoners as may, Avhile undergoing imprisonment  or penal servitude,
become insane."(a)
   On the other hand, the confinement of an insane criminal in an ordi-
nary lunatic asylum, is beset with still greater difficulties.   " It is," says
Dr. Hood,  " not  only annoying to other patients, but greatly disturbs
the  ordinary discipline of the establishment;  for be it observed, luna-
tics,  whether criminal or  non-criminal,  are capable of some degree of
reasoning;  and their conscious  incapacity  of  enjoying  this faculty to
its full extent, often recoils  painfully upon their feelings, and becomes,
in itself,  a source of irritation.   In  providing,  indeed,  for the safe
custody,  and  the  management of  the  insane of all classes, we should
proceed upon the  same principles as if Ave were legislating for profess-
edly sane persons;  because, the mind  is never  totally eclipsed, there is
always some lingering ray of light which the intact reflection may seize
upon with instinctive truthfulness."(b)
  § 276. If the vieAvs taken in the preceding sections be sound,—if, in
the  first place,  there are  inherent  difficulties  in the way of making
insanity  a ground  of defence on the trial of  a man,  avIio,  on  this
hypothesis is psychologically incapable of either tendering or preparing
any such issue ;(c) if, in the  second  place, the doctrine  of instinctive

  (a) Suggestions for the future provision of Criminal Lunatics, by AV. Charles Hood,
M. D.  London, 1854  p. 28-29.
  (b) Ibid. pp. 27, 28.
  (c) The absurdity of our present practice, in making insanity a personal defence, to
be taken or rejected by the alleged lunatic in the exercise of a volition which the very
nature of the  defence supposes him incapable of exercising, is fully exhibited by the
following case:—

             SUPREME COURT  OF THE STATE  OF LOUISIANA.

                     The Court met Monday,  April 9th,  1855.

  Present, their Honors Thomas  Slidell, Chief Justice; Cornelius Voorhies, A. M.  Bu-
chanan, A. N. Ogden,  H. M. Spafford, associate  justices.
        The State of Louisiana, Appellee,   |   .      from lgt Digtrict 0ourt  New

            t    i,  ^ a   n   ♦         I               0rleans-
            James Patton, Appellant.        J
               Spafford, Justice, delivered the opinion of the Court.

  Upon the trial of James Patton for the murder of AY alter Turnbull, the following bill
of exceptions was taken by the prisoner's counsel:
  Be it remembered, that on the  trial of this cause, on the 20th day of March, 1854,
after the  evidence  on the part of the  State was closed, and when the counsel of the
prisoner were proceeding to prove by the evidence of witnesses the insanity of the  said
prisoner, at the time of the killing set forth on the indictment, and a long time before,
and ever since the said killing, the said prisoner arose and objected to and repudiated
the said defence, and insisted upon discharging his counsel, and submitting his case to
the  jury without any further evidence or action of  his counsel in his  defence;  his
counsel opposed and  remonstrated against  the prisoner's being  permitted to do  so,
alleging that  they were prepared  to prove the defence by clear  and irresistible testi-
mony ; but the court overruled the objection of the  said counsel,  and permitted the
prisoner to discharge his counsel,  and refused to hear them further on his defence, and
gave the case to the jury without any further evidence or pleading on his behalf; to all
which opinion and ruling of said court the defendant's said counsel excepts, and prays
his exceptions may be signed, &c.
                                          (Signed)    John B. Robertson, Judge.
  There was a verdict of "guilty without capital punishment"—and, after the former
counsel had in  the quality of amici curice attempted to obtain a new trial and arrest of
judgment without success, the prisoner was  sentenced to hard labor for life in  the
penitentiary.
         15 
226       HOW OUR PRESENT SYSTEM SHOULD BE REMODELLED.


or moral mania be  allowed in legal theory the sweep Avhich is asserted
for it by medical experts, and Avhich in  this country at least is  conceded

   From this judgment the present appeal has been taken :—
   The sanity or insanity of the prisoner is a matter of fact; the admissibility  of evidence
to establish his insanity, under the circumstances detailed in the bill of exceptions, is a
matter of law, and the only  matter which the  constitution  authorizes this tribunal to
decide.
   The case is so extraordinary  in its circumstances that we are left without the aid of
precedents.
   In  support of the ruling of the district  judge, it has been urged that every man is
presumed to be sane until the contrary appears, and that a person on trial for an alleged
offence has a constitutional right to discharge his counsel at any moment, to repudiate
their  action on  the spot, and to be heard by himself;  hence the inference is deduced
that the judge could not have admitted the evidence, against the protest of the prisoner,
without reversing the  ordinary presumption, and presuming insanity.
   In criminal trials, it is important to keep ever in  mind the distinction between law
and fact, between the functions of a judge and those of a jury.
   It was for the jury, and the  jury alone, to determine whether there was  insanity or
not, after hearing  the evidence and the  instructions of the Court as to  the principles of
law applicable to the case.
   By  receiving the proffered evidence  for  what it  might be worth, the judge would
have  decided no question of fact; he would merely have told the jury, "the law per-
mits you to hear and weigh this evidence ; whether it proves any thing it is for you to
say."
   By  rejecting it, he deprived the jury of some of the means of arriving at an enlight-
ened  conclusion upon a  vital point peculiarly within their province, and, in effect de-
cided himself, and without the aid of all the evidence within his reach, that the prisoner
was sane.
   It is idle to say that the legal presumption, and the prisoner's own declarations, ap-
pearance  and  conduct on the trial, established his sanity to the satisfaction of  both
judge and jury;—for  presumption may  be overthrown, declarations may be unfounded,
and conduct and appearances may be  deceitful;  and  the  prisoner's  counsel, sworn
officers of the court, with their professional  character at  stake upon the loyalty of their
conduct, alleged that they stood there prepared to prove by what they deemed clear and
irresistible testimony  that the accused  was insane  at the time of the homicide, long
before, and ever since ;  so that  the sole inquiry now is, not  whether they or the Court
were right as to the fact of sanity upon  which we can have no  opinion, but, whether
they should have  been  allowed  to put the testimony they had at hand before the jury,
to be weighed with the counter evidence.
   If the prisoner was  insane at the time  of the trial,  as counsel offered to prove, he was
incompetent to conduct his own defence unaided, to discharge his counsel, or to waive
a right.
   Upon the supposition  that the counsel were mistaken in regard to the weight of the
evidence they wished to offer, as  they may have  been, still its introduction could do the
prisoner  no harm, nor could  it  estop him  from any other defence he  might choose to
make  on his own account; neither  could it prejudice the State, for it is to be presumed
that the  jury would have given  the testimony its proper weight; if, on the other hand,
the counsel were not mistaken as to the legal effect of this evidence, the consequences of
its rejection would be deplorable  indeed.
  The overruling necessity of the case seems  to demand that, whenever  a previous
soundness of mind and consequent accountability for his acts are in question, the rule
that he may control or discharge  his counsel, at pleasure, should be so far relaxed as to
permit them to  offer evidence  on those points, even against his will.  Considering,
therefore, that it would be more in accordance with sound legal principles and with the
humane spirit which pervades even the criminal law, to allow the rejected testimony to
go before the jury, the cause must be remanded for that purpose.
  It was  said in argument, on behalf of the State, that the alleged insanity was, at most,
but a monomania upon another topic, which could not exempt the prisoner from respon-
sibility for the homicide.
  The judge will instruct the jury in regard to the principles of law which govern this
subject, when all the  facts shall have  been heard.—At present, the discussion is pre-
mature.
  It is therefore ordered, adjudged and decreed that the judgment of the Court below
be reversed, the verdict  of the  jury set aside, and the cause remanded for a new  trial
according to law. 
         INSANITY SHOULD BE INQUIRED INTO AFTER CONVICTION.     227

 to it by the Courts; if, in the third place, it be right that the present
 system of  confinement of insane criminals be remodelled,—then it will
 become necessary  for those to whom the work of  legislation is commit-
 ted to amend the law so as to reserve the question of insanity to be de-
 termined by a competent tribunal after a conviction of the fact of guilt.
 For the following undeniable evils result from the present system:
    (a.) A tribunal  of, at  least,  but secondary competency  is charged
 with  the  determination of the  most  difficult and yet most momentous
 question to Avhich human observation  can be applied, (d)
   (b.) A subject is introduced into the question  of  guilt or innocence,
 as to  which no fixed judicial  rules can be laid down, and which really
 concerns only the character and the extent of punishment.
   (c.) A  fearful  confusion  takes  place  between  the  sane convict;
 the insane malignant convict,  who  requires discipline and is, in some
 degree,  morally responsible; the  innocent insane convict ;(e) and the
 lunatic, who is in confinement but is not charged  with crime:  for all of
 whom there is in some jurisdictions but one common method of discipline
 provided, Adz :  that of the penitentiary;  in others, but two,  that of the
 penitentiary and of the ordinary lunatic asylum.   The result of  this is
 acquittals in some cases, when there should be convictions; convictions in
 other  cases when there should be acquittals, and in almost all cases an
 erroneous system of punishment.
   The remedy for  these difficulties is one to which avc must come sooner
 or later, and for Avhich  the  common  law has been from the beginning
 always striving, and yet always losing from almost its very grasp.   It is
 to confine the inquiry before the court  and jury to the mere factum of
 the commission of  the offence; reserving the question of treatment to
 be determined  by a special commission of experts, to be appointed for
 the purpose of examining convicts alleged to be insane.  The proposition
 to be put by the court to the jury, under such circumstances, is not,  "Was
 the defendant capable of judging between right and wrong," a proposition
 Avhich no jury can determine, but, " Did he," as a matter of fact, " commit
 the specific act charged."  For whether he committed it as sane or insane,

   (d) Dr. Hood very justly remarks, "All human tribunals are fallible, and how, when
 this plea of insanity is raised, can we unveil the mind of the accused, and determine
 where  responsibility ends and irresponsibility begins ?  We may appreciate outward
 and visible signs but we have no mentometer, (if I may be allowed to coin a word) which
 will indicate  the  thoughts that may be  passing through the mind.  In medical juris-
 prudence the  diagnosis  between sanity and insanity is, in many cases, infinitely difficult;
 and it is upon this account that specialists  in this branch  of our profession so often
 come into collision with members of the bar, and draw down upon themselves occa-
 sionally animadversions from the judges on the bench.  There would be no difference of
 opinion between the two learned professions if we could  arrive at any fixed principles
by which we could explain the silent operations of the mind ; but this, so far as insanity
is concerned, is as impossible in law as it is in  medicine.  We may adjudicate upon the
overt act, but the motive which dictated  it will  very often  elude the most searching
examination.  But this  happens continually in  sane as well insane life."  Suggestions
for the  future Provision of Criminal Lunatics, by AV. C. Hood, M. D.  London, 1854.
  And we may add to this the testimony of a great poet on a kindred point:
               " May it please your Excelleney, your thief looks
               Exactly like the rest, or rather better;
               'Tis only at the bar or in the dungeon
               That wise men know your felon by his features."
  (e) See as to distinction between these, ante. \ 232-251. 
22S                HOAV INS ANITA*' SHOULD BE TRIED.

the result is, if the offence in point of law be indictable, that the safety of
societv requires that he should be placed in seclusion for such a period as
will promote the joint ends of personal reformation  and the preserva-
tion of,the well-being of the community at large.  If he be guilty without
the palliation of mental infirmity, certainly the severest penal code—with
the single qualification  of cases of murder in the first degree,—can ask
nothing more than  this.  If, on  the  other  hand, he Avas  at the time
laboring under mental derangement, in no other Avay can the extent of
his responsibility  be accurately  determined, and the proper degree of
discipline adjusted.  For this great question of sanity or insanity can
really be only determined by those to whose  daily and hourly care the
convict  is committed, and who have thus full opportunity of inquiring
into his antecedent as well as his present condition.  " Thus," to adopt
the language  of a late  very intelligent commentator,(/) " except a3
regards the curative course to be adopted,  on our view of the case, the
subtle  line of distinction  Avhich  there  have been so many  abortive
attempts to draw, betAveen  criminal and non-criminal lunatics is of no
practical importance, and the unavailing  search, unless  as a matter of
metaphysical speculation, may be abandoned as unnecessary.   In either
case, the person concerned,  Avhether called a lunatic, a criminal lunatic,
or an  ordinary  criminal, should be so  placed  as  to put it out of  his
power to inflict further injury, and to afford the most likely means  for
his cure."  And thus,  also, not only  will the sanctions of human life
and property be  protected from  the  recurrence  of those  monstrous
acquittals, by Avhich, under the  plea of insanity, the most  dangerous
criminals are suffered  to run at  large, but the interests of humanity
Avill be subserved by a proper discipline, as Avell as a just classification,
of those Avhose accountability is  diminished or destroyed.
(f) XXI. London Law Review, 364. 

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