Insanity and crime : a medico-legal commentary on the case of George Victor Townley / by the editors of the Journal of Mental Science.

Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Insanity and crime : a medico-legal commentary on the case of George Victor Townley / by the editors of the Journal of Mental Science. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    It appears that all the metaphysical tests of insanity prove equally worthless in the balance of criticism, or the crucible of experience. How, then, it will be asked, are the difficult and arduous questions of criminal insanity to receive a practical solution ? If no rules can be laid down with respect to the quahty of mind which shall excuse, and that which shall inculpate the perpetrator of a criminal act, in what manner is murder to be distinguished from madness, felony from fatuity, crime from disease ? Truly by Medical Diagnosis, founded upon all the circumstances of the case; upon all the mental and bodily pheno- mena ; the history and the present symptoms; upon all those circumstances which enable a skilful and experienced physician to decide upon the existence or absence of disease of the brain affecting the mental functions.— Unsoundness of Mind in Relation to Criminal Acts. An Essay by John Charles Bucknill, M.D., Lond. &c. &c. 2nd edit.