Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Mental diseases / by Charles F. Folsom. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Lamar Soutter Library, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Lamar Soutter Library at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
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![ply acting from strong impulse or emotion, and may be by no means insane. On the other hand, because a man knows right from wrong in the abstract, and can ordinarily behave well, tlie very characteristic work- ings of his insane mind are often seized nj)on as unquestionable proof of sanity, even when they admit of no other explanation to the skilled physi- cian than that of insanity. There is no doubt of the fact that the whip])ing commonly used in the treatment of the insane by the monks several cen- turies ago put an end to much insane conduct; and in insane asylums now, in spite of the best efforts of the medical staff to the contrary, a brutal, bullying patient is sometimes struck by another patient or an attendant in return for some unusually exasperating and cruel con- duct, with the result of making him behave well in the future. It is with reference to this class of cases that the crowd oftenest errs in its definition of insanity. Society claims a voice in the enforcement of the laws for its own protection, assuming to know who could control them- selves from crime and who not, and naturally wishes the standard of responsibility to be kejit high. Of course its sympathies and prejudices largely govern its voice in the matter. With precisely the same degree of insanity and the same power to con- trol their actions two murderers may be sentenced, one to death for an act where the motive and method were those of the criminal, and the other to an insane asylum for killing a person under circumstances which are not explainable by sane reasons. The Pocasset Adventist who sacrificed his loved child, as he thought, by the Lord's command, would prob- ably have been hanged if he had committed a crime similar to John Brown's, AVilkes Booth's, Orsiui's, or Guiteau's. Sometimes the accused gets the benefit of the doubt, and sometimes society, according to the view of the merits of the case taken by the judge in his charge or by the jury in their verdict. To the lawver insanity means only a condition of mind with reference to certain conduct. An insane man is simply non compos mentis. In- sanity is irresponsibility. The whole question to the lawyer is with regard to a certain act or series of acts. The lawyer's definition is nar- rower than that of the physician. In wills and contracts the course is usually clearer than when there is a question of serious crime, and even an insane person in an asylum may be a party to a valid contract or make a will that will hold in law. It is not necessary that a will or contract be such as would be made by a just man or a reasonable man, but simply that it fairly rei)resent the wishes and character of the man making it, uninfluenced by any insane delusion or prejudice caused by mental im])air- ment; that the will or contract in itself bear evidence of a correct ai)pre- ciation of the circumstances and conditions of the case; and that the mind be able to act independently enough, with a reasonable knowledge of the duties of the individual and the just rights of others. An unsound mind, as defined by the physician, would cover a large portion of the convicts in our workhouses and prisons to-day if they could be critically examined, but the lawyers and courts would not find many of them insane. A man is not insane in law unless his act is traceable to, or its nature has been determined by, mental disease allecting his free agency; in other words, unless insanity caused his act either wholly or in great part.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2119760x_0012.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
