Inebriety and criminal responsibility : a presidential address / by Norman Kerr.

  • Kerr, Norman, 1834-1899.
Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Inebriety and criminal responsibility : a presidential address / by Norman Kerr. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    detention in jail, and of a groundless and grave charge, while the deceased’s life might have have been saved, and his cure and restoration to society possibly achieved. Such predicaments are continually occurring, though only a few such cases come before the Criminal Courts. Now that a narcomaniacal condi¬ tion has been disclosed by medical investigation, the narco¬ maniac being impelled by an irresistible morbid impulse or crave to secure intoxication by some narcotic, the State should enact a measure for the compulsory seclusion and treatment for a sufficient period, of all such diseased inebriates as have been too paralysed in inhibition and in will to apply voluntarily for admission, in a genuine hospital for the treatment of the disease of inebriety. This measure ought to include provision for all inebriates who are unable to pay for their care and mainten¬ ance, and ought to cover cases of inebriety from alcohol, morphine, opium, chloral, ether, chloroform, cocaine, and other narcotic anaesthetics. Such an Act would be crime-preventive as well as curative, and prove in the end more economical than our present procedure. Inebriate Heredity. I. The Witnesham Murder. Alfred Dixon, aged 25, was charged at the Suffolk Winter Assizes, 1890, with the murder of his mother, (‘‘East Anglian Times,” December 3rd and 4th, 1890). The fact of the murder was admitted, and there was an agreement as to the circum¬ stances. The accused, who was living alone with his mother, after some words had passed between them, cut her throat in the front kitchen, took the body upstairs, changed his shirt, which was stained with blood, washed his hands, and wrote several letters probably shortly after midnight. Letters to his brother stated that, on their arrival at their destination, both his mother and himself would be at rest for ever. The medical evidence showed that death must have been instantane¬ ous. The prisoner was found next morning with a cut on the left side of his throat, and unconscious. He had taken poison (ferrocyanide of potassium) first, and according to the medical evidence, had probably been too weak to use the razor effectu¬ ally on himself. The prosecution admitted provocation from the deceased probably having been “maddened” (as the prisoner wrote) by the loss of her chain, and by her habits. The counsel for the Crown frankly recognised the “great step” which the prisoner took in the interests of his mother, who was addicted to intemperance, for whose sake he gave up his