Medical jurisprudence / by Alfred S. Taylor.

  • Taylor, Alfred Swaine, 1806-1880.
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical jurisprudence / by Alfred S. Taylor. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    for a certain period. It commences with tremors of the hands, by which it is known from ordinary delirium, and restlessness ; and the individual is subject to hallucinations and illusions, sometimes of a horrible kind, referring to past occupations or events. The patients are often violent, and prone to commit suicide or murder, more commonly the former; hence they require close super- intendence. Persons labouring under this disorder are incompe- tent to the performance of any civil act, unless the mind should clear up before death. They are not responsible for criminal acts committed while they are labouring under an attack. Acquittals have even taken place on charges of murder, where there was de- liberation as well as an apparent motive for the act. Thus, then, although this disorder is voluntarily brought on by habitual drunkenness, the law admits it as a sufficient plea for irre- sponsibility ; while in a case of confirmed drunkenness, it rejects the plea. Why the mere circumstance of the one being a remote consequence, and the other not, should create irresponsibility, it is difficult to explain. A trial has recently taken place in which the evidence showed that the homicide had been committed by an individual while labouring under an attack of delirium tremens {Reg. v Simpson, Appleby Sum. Ass. 1845). The prisoner's mind had become unsettled from an attack of this disorder brought on by habitual drunkenness. In another case, the plea was also ad- mitted without difficulty. {Reg. v. Watson^ York Winter Ass. 1845.) SOMNAMBULISM. It has been a contested question among medical jurists, how far a person should be held responsible for a criminal act, perpetrated in that half-conscious state which exists when an individual is suddenly roused from sleep. There is no doubt that the mind is at this time subject to hallucinations and illusions which may be more persistent in some persons than in others ; but it is difficult to suppose, unless we imagine that there is a sudden access of insanity, that an individual should not recover from his delusion, before he could perpetrate an act like murder. A remarkable case of this description, that of Bernard Sckedmaizig, will be found in Marc (i. 56) ; and a trial involving this question occurred in England a few years since. A pedlar who was in the habit of walking about the country armed with a sword-stick, was awakened one evening, while lying asleep on the high road, by a man, who was accidentally passing, seizing and shaking him by the shoulders. The pedlar suddenly awoke, drew his sword, and stabbed the man, who soon afterwards died. He was tried for manslaughter. His irresponsibility was strongly urged by his eounsel on the ground that he could not have been conscious of an act perpetrated in a half-waking state. This was strengthened by the opinion of the medical witness. The prisoner was, however,