Observations on mental alienation : and the application of its phenomena to the illustration of subjects connected with medical jurisprudence / by Thomas Y. Simons.

  • Simons, Thomas Y. (Thomas Young), 1797-1857.
Date:
1828
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on mental alienation : and the application of its phenomena to the illustration of subjects connected with medical jurisprudence / by Thomas Y. Simons. 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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    -.eii, u> bring her to trial; for if the Court found she was a perfect nonentity, and could not be tried for crime, it followed as a na- tural consequence, that the unhappy woman would be confined for life; whereas, if she was brought to trial, and it turned out the accident occurred in the way she described it, she would be immediately set at liberty. The Court found her a fit object ol trial.* This is certainly highly interesting in a medico-legal view. Since the humane and successful exertions of the Abbe Sicard, and others, in supplying this unhappy and afflicted class of our fel- low beings with a communication with external objects and man- kind through the medium of signs, their condition and education has wonderfully progressed. They have, therefore, been made capable of estimating right and wrong, and in all such cases the the decisions of a Court, I apprehend, would be similar to that just mentioned. I have thus given, as concisely and clearly as I could, the vari- ous degrees or characters of Mental Alienation, and will now consider, Secondly, The legal opinions on Mental Alienation, and the means of distinguishing between real and feigned, or partial Aliena- tion of mind. Upon this part of my subject, very little more can be expected than a transcript of the various legal decisions. It is true, I have presumed to question some decisions, but it is where I have been sustained by the doubts of high authority. That there are some, nay, many legal decisions in Medical Jurisprudence, at variance with medical experience, admits of no doubt; yet, the law decisions of men of erudition and profound reflection, after thorough investigation, should always be cautiously interfered with, even on medical subjects. A lunatic or non compos mentis, says Blackstone, is one who hath had understanding, but by disease, grief, or other acci- dent, hath lost the use of his reason. A lunatic is, indeed, pro- perly one that hath lucid intervals; sometimes enjoying his sen- ses and sometimes not, and that frequently depending upon the change of the moon. Under the general name non compos mentis, which Sir Edward Coke says is the most legal name, are com- prised not only lunatics, but persons under phrenzies, or who lose their intellects by disease ; those who grow deaf and dumb and blind, not being born so, or such, in short, as are judged by the Court of Chancery incapable of conducting their own affairs. This definition is certainly very vague and indeterminate. In the first place it has been, and is doubted, whether the moon has any influence. This opinion, it appears to me, arose from the fact of * For a more particular account see Beck's Elements of Medical Jurispru- dence, from whence this is taken.