Dr. Guy on insanity & crime, and on the plea of insanity in criminal cases.

  • Guy, William A. (William Augustus), 1810-1885.
Date:
1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. Guy on insanity & crime, and on the plea of insanity in criminal cases. 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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    most dangerous, destructive, and expensive members of society; the most obtrusive and deceptive of all our unreal signs and marks of over-population and an overstocked labour market (for hosts of these people, professing starvation and an inabihty to obtain work, keep continually moving from place to place, and so reproduce themselves before the eyes of a credulous public). It is something, too, to have proved—may I hope to the satisfaction of others as of myself?—that society needs no longer to look with suspicion and distrust on those who would give free scope to the admission of the plea of insanity in criminal cases. From these feelings, I trust that the truth, as I believe it to have been set forth in this paper, has for ever set us free. The facts relating to our weak-minded criminals, as stated in the early part of this paper, seem to be specially worthy of attention. If carefully studied and taken to heart, as they ought to be, they would inevitably lead to great social and economical reforms. If suitable provision were made for the imbecile members of the great tnendicant-thief community by increasing the number and size of our lunatic asylums, the work of the poor law would be greatly simplified, and the cost of crime very largely diminished. Money enough might be saved in this way to defray the cost of a more efficient police both in town and country. There is assuredly much in our present social condition that is eminently unreal. It is quite possible that the existence of a large body of imbeciles tramping from place to place may give rise, as has just been stated, to a deceptive appearance of over-population, to diseases of which they are the carriers, to crimes which, but for them, would exist to a very limited extent. I he lunatic asylum is not only their proper place, but would be a truly economical sub- stitute, in a large number of cases, for the workhouse, the hospital, and the prison. *^* It will be seen that more than once in this paper, reference is made to illustrative curves. These were shown at the reading of the paper, but could not be conveniently inserted in the text. In the diagrams at p. 174, shaded blocks have been used instead of distinctive colours. 0 q