disappointments. She attempted to destroy herself in various ways, and was therefore obliged to be strictly restrained; but to others she manifested no evil intentions. When spoken to, she returned correct answers, although she never began a conversation. During the day she sat apparently sullen and abstracted, and seemed to take no notice of what was passing. After the elapse of three weeks, as she was sitting in her usual manner, she uttered a shriek, appeared for a few moments in a state of alarm and confusion, and suddenly recovered.—Of her repeated attempts at suicide she had not the slightest recollection.—When I visited her the following day she received me as a perfect stranger; and was not conscious she had ever seen me before; and during several subsequent interviews, in order to be certain of her recovery, I was persuaded she did not retain the slightest remembrance of any of the circumstances
of her malady. A third case of this nature lately occurred. A young man with hereditary predisposition to insanity, his mother and grandmother having been so disordered; in consequence of severe losses, was seized with a paroxysm of furious madness, which continued without abatement for four months. At the expiration of three months he had a considerable mortification on the lower part of the back, which required surgical attention during three weeks. When the sore was healed he was removed to another situation for the treatment of his insanity, where he perfectly recovered. After his complete restoration he neither recollected the asylum where he was first placed, the disease of his back, nor his removal to the situation where he ultimately regained his reason.
To the states of mind above described, the question of good and evil can in no way
apply; because these persons have wanted all recollection of their state, and of any act perpetrated; which implies that they were unconscious of any motive urging them to its commission; and which being unremembered, renders them incapable, as moral agents, of contemplating the Right or Wrong of the act previous to its execution. It is likewise well known, that even ideots, who are ordinarily tranquil, and apparently harmless, will occasionally burst into paroxysms of fury, and deal indiscriminate destruction to those around them, frequently without the slightest cause, and certainly without pre-meditation:—and whose inferior scale of intellect does not enable them to give a reason for their actions. These states have been mentioned that they may be recognized by the medical practitioner, and become known to the advocate, in order that he may apply them to the existing law.
Finally, it is necessary to observe that insanity may be counterfeited by the criminal, in order to defeat the progress of justice;—and with this view, may attempt to impose on the medical practitioner. During the course of my experience I have witnessed only two attempts of such imposture, and in both instances the deception was so clumsily executed, that it required but little knowledge of the disorder to detect it. To sustain the character of a paroxysm of active insanity would require a continuity of exertion beyond the power of a sane person;—they do not keep up the deception when they suppose themselves alone and unwatched;—the assumed malady then disappears, and the imposture is re-commenced when they are in the society of others. They are likewise unable to prevent sleep. If they endeavour to imitate the passive form of this malady, which is an attempt of considerably greater
difficulty, they are deficient in the presiding principles, the ruling delusion, the unfounded aversions, and causeless attachments which characterize insanity—they are unable to mimic the solemn dignity of systematic madness, nor recur to those associations which mark this disorder; and they will want the peculiarity of look, which so strongly impresses an experienced observer.
It now remains to treat of that morbid condition of intellect which requires the interposition of the law to protect the person and property of the party so affected.[61:A] The
general reasoning which has been adopted concerning insanity, in criminal cases, will equally apply to the present subject; but there are some particular considerations deserving attention in this part of the enquiry. The members of the medical profession have long and anxiously endeavoured to frame a definition of insanity, which is an attempt in a few words to exhibit the essential character of this disorder; so that it may be recognized when it exists;—these efforts have been hitherto fruitless, nor is there any rational expectation that this desideratum will be speedily accomplished. The Lawyer has taken a different view of the subject: he has been little solicitous to become acquainted with the physiological distinctions of disordered