yet, in the present times, our faith in the influence of the lunar aspects has considerably abated, and we employ the term lunatic as a familiar expres
sion, to denote a person of insane mind, without any reference to its derivation, or supposed ascendency of the moon, which my own observations have tended to disprove:—but as the phrase lucid interval is, in its legal sense, connected with lunatic, some investigation of its meaning becomes absolutely necessary.
If it were the real character of lunacy, after the visitation of the paroxysm, to leave the patient in the possession of an extremely sound mind, this disorder would be rendered much less formidable than we now consider it, and might in its effects be compared to those violent storms of thunder and lightning that purify the atmosphere and dispense salutary refreshment; and it is not improbable, that some, gifted by nature with mediocrity of talent, but of a philosophical turn and aspiring pretensions, might regard the occurrence of such paroxysm as a desideratum, rather than an evil, on account of the extreme soundness they would experience afterwards: it is moreover evident, that however degraded the lunatic may be in the estimation of vigorous and enlightened intellects, yet this depreciated object, by the enjoyment of occasional periods of bright understanding, has abundant cause
for taunt and triumph over the victim of unsoundness; whose state is "contra-distinguished from lunacy," and as far as has been hitherto ascertained, does not revel in the luxury of a lucid interval. But these vicissitudes of intellectual obscurity and lustre have no real existence;—they are not the offsprings of observation and experience, but the abortions of hypothesis and precipitate deduction. Lunatics, from the excitation of various causes, become at times more violent or desponding, and these exacerbations are often succeeded by tranquillity and cheerfulness, they are more tractable, and less impelled to urge the subjects of their prevailing delusions: but this apparent quietude or assumed complacency, does not imply a renunciation of their perverted notions, which will be found predominant whenever they are skilfully questioned. Inexperienced persons judge of the insane state from the passions or feelings that usually accompany this disorder, and infer its aggravation from the display of boisterous emotions or afflicting apprehensions: the medical practitioner considers these sallies as the mere concomitants of a perverted intellect. This view of the subject is justified by a fact, of too much importance to be omitted on the present occasion. Many lunatics, whose dangerous pro
pensities it has been prudent to control by a stricter restraint, and for a lengthened period, eventually become harmless, and are safely permitted to enjoy many indulgences incompatible with their former state: yet these persons retain their original delusions, although they have acquired the habit of arresting the impulses which these delusions prompted. It may therefore be inferred, that a lucid interval is equivalent to the complete recovery of the patient, and implies the absolute departure of all those delusions from his mind, that constituted his lunacy:—leaving him in a condition to sustain a thorough examination, not shrinking from particular subjects, nor "blenching," though "tented to the quick;"—and clearly perceiving by contrast the delusions that had prevailed, and the reason that has supervened.
The term INTERVAL, by which the duration of rational discourse and conduct is to be estimated, although of sufficiently precise meaning, is yet susceptible of the most extended signification; and we speak with equal correctness when we say the interval of a moment and of a thousand years. The time necessary to comprise a LUCID interval has not, to the best of my belief, been limited by me
dical writers or legal authorities; it must however comprehend a portion sufficient to satisfy the inquirer, that the individual, whose intellect had been disordered, does not any longer retain any of the symptoms that constituted his malady; and this presumes on the part of the examiner an intimate knowledge of the unfounded prejudices, delusions, or incapacities with which the mind of the party had been affected, and also deliberate and repeated investigations to ascertain that they are wholly effaced.
IMBECILITY.
There is another subject connected in a legal point of view with the nature of the human mind, and with the state of its morbid conditions, on which I respectfully solicit your Lordship's elucidation. In your Lordship's judgment of 1815, on the Portsmouth petition, it is laid down that "from the moment that (meaning this questionable and disputed unsoundness) had been established, down to this moment, it appears to me however to have been at the same time established, that whatever may be the degree of weakness or imbecility of the party,—whatever may be the de
gree of incapacity of the party to manage his own affairs, if the finding of the jury is only that he was of an extreme imbecility of mind, that he has an inability to manage his own affairs; if they will not proceed to infer from that, in their finding upon oath, that he is of unsound mind, they have not established by the result of the inquiry, a case upon which the Chancellor can make a grant, constituting a committee either of the person or estate. All the cases decide that mere imbecility will not do: that an inability to manage a man's affairs will not do, unless that inability and that incapacity to manage his affairs, AMOUNT to evidence that he is of unsound mind: and he must be found to be so."