Insanity and its treatment : lectures on the treatment, medical and legal, of insane patients / by G. Fielding Blandford.

  • Blandford, G. Fielding (George Fielding), 1829-1911.
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Insanity and its treatment : lectures on the treatment, medical and legal, of insane patients / by G. Fielding Blandford. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    504/524 (page 492)
    But in many who are demented from paralysis or epilepsy there may be no delusions, but an absence of mind and iii- tellect-a repetition of the same question, or the same story, or the same sentence, with entire forgetfulness of having asked such a thing before, and an equal forgetfulness of the answer received. You will be asked to sign certificates con-' cerning such patients to legalize their residence in an asylum or family, or to deprive them of their rights by a commission of lunacy, and you will, as I have said, have little difficulty m coming to a decision. Loss of memory is a morbid state far more perceptible and appreciable than the defective intelli- gence of the weak-minded youths I have last spoken of, and such patients demand care and personal attention in a way that many of the others do not. Of course, it will be for you to consider the extent and the constancy of this impair- ment of memory, and how far it would necessarily render a man incapable of managing his affairs. As, on the one hand, no person's memory is perfect, as we all at times forget a name or date, so, on the other hand, every man whose mind is not completely obliterated, or who is not uncon- scious, can recollect by the eye, or in some way, some- thing of past events, or those persons nearest and dearest to him, therefore, when you meet with imperfect memory the result of disease, and no other symptoms, you will have to decide whether the imperfection is sufficient to render the patient unsound of mind in the eye of the law. Sound mind, memory, and understanding, is the phrase lawyers use to indicate capacity. Does the patient before you possess all of these ? Clearly a man cannot manage his property who cannot recollect its nature or amount. If he cannot recollect whether he has a wife, or the number of his chil- dren, he cannot be considered competent to make a will. If he has so forgotten places that he does not know whether the house he is in is his own or another's, nor the name or situation of it, he cannot be said to be dwelling there of his