Mr. Bliss objected to this line of examination by the judge.
The Judge.—“I am entitled to, and in my opinion bound to, and I will put the questions.”
Witness then continued—
“Not possessing the poison would be a circumstance which would have prevented him. I believe, during the week, it was from unsoundness of mind that he was regardless of consequences.”
Mr. John Kitchen, superintendent of The Retreat at York, where the patients averaged a hundred, also agreed with the previous medical witnesses, that Dove was of unsound mind during the fatal week. He, however, admitted that “during that period he knew right from wrong, had some knowledge of the difference—some knowledge that he was committing murder—and that if found out he would be punished.” This admission he sought to explain away, on re-examination, protesting that what he meant was “that Dove knew he was killing his wife, but did not know he was doing a wrong act—that he would know in proportion as he knew the difference between right and wrong.”
Question by a juryman.—“Do you adopt the theory of Dr. Smith as to irresistible propensity in mania?”
Answer.—“In general terms I do.”
Question.—“Do you adopt it in this case?”
Answer.—“I do not. I account for the murder, if he committed it, on different principles. We have a man of deficient mental powers; besides that he is insane; he is liable to do any absurd, cruel, or vicious or irrational action that presented itself to his mind, as his life shows. Supposing him to be insane, I should apply the term vicious or malignant to him. We have heard, in evidence, that he was brought up by pious parents, put to the best schools, and was unable to receive the smallest amount of education. We see him carried away to do the most foolish things. Where he loves, he loves with a foolish intensity; and where he hates, he hates with a foolish malignity: and if a woman puts herself into the power of such a man as his wife, what has happened is just what might have been expected.”
To Mr. Overend.—“I think he knew right from wrong—that it was wrong to steal or murder. If he murdered, I should expect him to deny it in that form of insanity. In one form of insanity, impulsive madness, they own their crime. This case was only partly impulsive, and I should not expect him to divulge it. If he thought of this crime before he committed it, he would know it was wrong. He probably would learn it was wrong in his childhood. It is impossible to say when he committed the act he knew it was wrong. I don’t know when he would know it was wrong. I can give no opinion about it.”