Report on the medical jurisprudence of insanity / by C. B. Coventry ; extracted from the Transactions of the American Medical Association.

  • Coventry, C. B. (Charles Brodhead), 1801-1875.
Date:
1858
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the medical jurisprudence of insanity / by C. B. Coventry ; extracted from the Transactions of the American Medical Association. 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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    1. Where original weakness or imbecility has lapsed into un- soundness of mind. 2. Imbecility supervening upon some disease of the brain, and manifesting itself particularly in a loss of memory. 3. Imbecility with confusion of ideas as of mind, and often attend- ed with a loss of memory. It is either primary, or secondary; and in the former may be consequent upon severe disease of the brain, epilepsy, intemperance, sexual excesses, onanism, and senility. In the second form, it may arise from previous mania, or other forms of unsound mind, and always excludes the idea of responsi- bility. 4. Imbecility remaining after the patient has recovered from an attack of insanity, as in other cases, the organ affected remains more or less enfeebled after an attack of disease, so that in most, if not in all cases of recovery from insanity, a certain degree of im- becility remains for a time, but does not excuse the responsibility of the agent. In point of capacity, imbeciles differ as much as persons in ordinary life. Whilst some approach in all external characteristics, the class of idiots, others, without a careful exami- nation, would pass for persons of ordinary or average capacity. Some will even manifest a high degree of capacity on some sub- jects, but total deficiency on others. Professor Lee, in his Notes to Guy's Medical Jurisprudence, says: We know an individual now in the fiftieth year of his age, who from an attack of disease when an infant has never been able to read or write, or to make the simplest calculation in figures, or to know one letter from another, or to have any notions of cleanliness; and yet he possesses an ex- cellent memory, and can repeat the contents of Webster's Spelling Book and the New Testament from beginning to end, from having heard them read in school, and can spell as well as most children of ten years old. There is in the asylum at Utica, a gentleman who has been there since its first organization, who had an attack of acute mania, whilst attending medical lectures in 1828; he now con- verses intelligently on most subjects, writes with considerable ability, and, being fond of declamation, speaks with much force and elo- quence, and yet has so little foresight or precaution—as I was informed by a former superintendent—that he would wander all day without taking a thought where he was to sleep or get the next meal. Every person conversant with the subject will recognize the truthfulness of the following description by Georget: In hospitals