Importance of the study of legal medicine : a lecture introductory to the course on medical jurisprudence at the New York Medical College / by James Wynne.

  • Wynne, James, 1814-1871.
Date:
1859
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Importance of the study of legal medicine : a lecture introductory to the course on medical jurisprudence at the New York Medical College / by James Wynne. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    Tlie occasions when medical evidence is required in courts of law, in reference to insanity, are thus laid down by Dr. Forbes Winslow, in his Lettsomian Lectures delivered before the Medical Society of London, in April, 1852: 1st. Cases in which the plea of insanity is urged in the extenuation of crime. 2d. Cases where attempts are made to invalidate the legal opera- tions of testamentary dispositions of property on the ground of men- tal incompetence. 3d. When legal proceedings are instituted to invalidate a marriage contract on the plea of insanity and imbecility. 4 th. In commissions de lunalico inquirendo. 5th. Cases in which medical men are called upon to certify to the existence of insanity, justifying an interference with the person of the lunatic. Each of these subjects will be considered in subsequent lectures. For the present it may suffice to say, that cases in which testimony is required, especially where insanity is alleged in excuse for crime, have largely increased of late, owing to the views which some of the ablest recent writers on mental diseases have taken in regard to moral insan- ity, correct enough when confined within their legitimate sphere, and exhibiting both enlarged philosophical research and philanthropic sentiments, but frequently perverted from their original purpose to shield the worst of criminals from the punishment their crimes so de- servedly merit. The term of moral insanity was first introduced into the psychologi- cal nomenclature by Dr. Prichard, and derived great weight from the high authority from which it emanated. Dr. Winslow says, The phrase is generally repudiated in our courts of law; it has given rise to much caviling and disputation, and its adoption has unfortunately exposed the profession to great odium and obloquy, and has, I think, very materially damaged the moral weight of medico-legal testimony. It has been asserted that the term is used with the view of protecting the crimiual from just punishment, and of shielding vice, extravagance, malignity, debauchery, cruelty, crime, and brutality from the natural emotions of horror and disgust, with which such actions should be contemplated by every right-think- ing and well-constituted mind.* That this assertion is not without its force, the criminal records of the last few years bear ample testimony. This was the plea urged in * Journal of Psychological Medicine, vol. 7, p. 427.