A treatise on medical jurisprudence and insanity : containing chapters on imbecility, nervousness, mental deficiency, drunkenness, delirium, and mental diseases in general / By Issac Ray ... with an introductory essay by D. Spillan.

  • Ray, Isaac, 1807-1881.
Date:
1839
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on medical jurisprudence and insanity : containing chapters on imbecility, nervousness, mental deficiency, drunkenness, delirium, and mental diseases in general / By Issac Ray ... with an introductory essay by D. Spillan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    eumstances existing he must be convicted.* If, in using this language, the court had in view any cir- cumstance that might be deemed to be of a palliating character, it is not easy to see what it was, unless it were the pathological condition resulting from the injury of the head which rendered him peculiarly susceptible to the effects of ardent spirits. If the court actually did consider this a palliating circum- stance, it is to be regretted that its language was not more explicit on this point. It is very probable, that, in this case also, the jury were considerably influ- enced by the character of the exciting cause of McDonough's insanity. If it had been testified that instead of getting drunk, he was in the habit of at- tending religious meetings where warm and pungent appeals were addressed to his feelings; that the excitement thus produced, occasionally degenerated into a fit of madness, in one of which he killed his wife, the jury would have acquitted him without leaving their seats. Yet the essential condition of guilt would have been the same as in the case that actually happened. The voluntary use of a stimu- lus, as it is expressed by Dr. Beck, which he was well aware would disorder his mind, fully placed him under the purview of the law.':f It is not a satisfactory reply to this objection, that in the one case, the exciting cause is, in itself, of a commend- * Trial of William McDonough for the murder of his wife, p. 65. f Medical Jurisprudence, 627. In a subsequent edition of his work, however, the Doctor observes, that, in using the language above-quoted, he has probably expressed himself too strongly, and seems inclined to retract his approval of the verdict of the jury. D D 2