On the different forms of insanity : in relation to jurisprudence, designed for the use of persons concerned in legal questions regarding unsoundness of mind.

  • Prichard, James Cowles, 1786-1848.
Date:
1842
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the different forms of insanity : in relation to jurisprudence, designed for the use of persons concerned in legal questions regarding unsoundness of mind. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    state. As the condition of the insane is such as to render them incapable, so long as it con- tinues, of exercising civil rights, this disability has been provided for, and various regulations have been established, in order to secure their persons and property, and, as far as possible, the interests of their families from the contin- gencies to which they might be exposed. The objects in all such proceedings being the same, the same general principles have every where directed the legal provisions which relate to them, though some differences exist in the means adopted in different countries for at- taining the ends in view. By the jurists of some countries, it has been thought right to point out, with greater precision than elsewhere, the kinds and degrees of mental disorder and weakness which have been supposed to involve a suspension of civil rights.* In the en- deavour to attain this greater precision, it is obvious that a risk of serious mistakes has * The English law names only two classes of persons who are judged to be unsound of mind, viz., Idiotee, or natural, or congenital idiots, and Lunatics or madmen. In the French legal code, occasional references are made to three classes of persons, whose affections are termed respectively : Folie, D£mence, and Imb£cilit£, or Madness, Fatuity, and Imbe- cility.