M'Naughten : a letter to the Lord Chancellor, upon insanity / by J.Q. Rumball.

Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: M'Naughten : a letter to the Lord Chancellor, upon insanity / by J.Q. Rumball. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    A LETTER, &c. My Lord, Your Lordship is about to introduce some measure into Parliament; for the better protection of the public from personal outrage; and for the definite treat- ment of Insane criminals. Late circumstances have excited the public mind upon this matter, to an intensity of thought which seeks some pilot for its guide; and it naturally turns to law makers, for information as to what, henceforth, is to be considered the state of mind, capable of arming a man’s hand against the life of his fellow, and at the same time, protecting him from the consequences of his act. It demands to know, what Insanity is; and how it is to be dealt with; and this it asks of the Judge, the Counsellor, the Philosopher, and the Physician. The confused evidence of the latter, as daily given in courts of justice, is but a practical expo- sition of the ignorance of the Metaphysician; and when Mr. Alexander told a late Lord Chancellor, that Insanity “ never was defined and never could be,” a late Com- missioner of Lunacy, (Mr. PhrUimore) must have learnt his lesson; for in my hearing, he declared that “ a man was not mad when he believed his delusion to be true!!!” It is also within my recollection, that Sir James Scarlet said, that every man was mad upon some point or other. Pope could not draw the line, tho’ he felt there was one— “ Great wit to madness is so near allied, That thin partitions do the bounds divide.” Whilst Shakspeare had -perfect mania, and not partial Insanity in view, when he makes Hamlet exclaim:— “It is not madness That I have uttered; bring me to the test, And I, tlie matter will re-word; which madness would gambol from.” If then, we look in vain to the Poet for information, we shall derive as little from the Philosopher. Locke (Bk. II., Chap. IX., § 13,) says, that “ madmen do not appear to have lost the faculty of reasoning, but