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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    able character, while in the other, it is in the highest degree sinful and pernicious. Drunkenness in itself, is not by law, a crime ; and, though the moral sense of the community at the present day condemns even the moderate use of intoxicating drinks, it must be recol- lected that twenty years ago, and especially in the class to which McDonough belonged, such use was generally considered not only harmless but absolutely necessary to the bodily health. Had he not laboured under this peculiar irritability of the brain, it is not supposed that the bloody act would have been com- mitted or even thought of, so that McDonough was virtually convicted for the consequences of a bodily infirmity. § 338. V. The following case related by Georget presents us with another striking illustration of men- tal disorder excited by the use of spiritous liquors. Vatelot, a gendarme, while passing the Place Louis Quinze, suddenly struck the sieur Chardon with his sabre. The latter turned round, and seeing a stranger brandishing a sabre over his head, asked if knew him and what he meant. I know you, replied Vatelot, you are my enemy, and I will give it to you. At the same moment he aimed at him another blow, and after pursuing him a while with his drawn sword, left him. He soon met the sieur Bellon whom he struck on the head, and aimed two blows at the sieur Avenel who accompanied Bellon. The sieur Beaupied who ran to their assistance and another person who never injured him, he also threatened; and finally, observing a young lady standing at her door, he struck her over the head with his sabre and then fled. On the trial before the court of assizes at Paris, he denied the facts, and admitted that he had been drinking, but was not drunk. He was convicted of homicide committed