But if the practitioner is to be pinioned by threats, or deterred by obloquy—if his skill is to be circumscribed by ignorance, and his experience subjected to wild hypothesis, and baseless conjecture; then, the enactment will be oppressive in its operation, and incompetent to meet the exigences of intellectual calamity—a bill, calculated to confirm and aggravate the horrors of madness—to invite suicide, and multiply murder.
JOHN HASLAM.
1st December, 1817,
51, Frith Street, Soho Square.
ON
Medical
JURISPRUDENCE,
&c. &c.
Medical Jurisprudence has been assiduously cultivated by the different nations of the European Continent; and many works of great value and esteem have been produced by foreign professors of medicine on this important subject. In our own country this department of medical science has been comparatively neglected.[1:A] It is not my intention, in the present tract, to enter generally on the
subject of Forensic Medicine: but to confine my investigation to that particular branch which relates to persons of insane mind, and who under the visitation of this dreadful calamity commit acts of violence which subjects them to be arraigned before the tribunal of Justice, or to have their property vested in trust by finding a verdict on a writ de Lunatico inquirendo.
[1:A] Vide an Epitome of Juridical or Forensic Medicine, by George Edward Male, M. D. a work of great excellence and scientific discrimination; also Tracts on Medical Jurisprudence, by Drs. Johnson, Bartley, and Farr.
Although of the utmost consideration, the extent of this enquiry would seem to be very limited, and contained in this simple question. Is the person accused, of insane mind? If he be insane he will be acquitted on the proof of his insanity—if he be not of insane mind, he must be treated as an ordinary delinquent. In those cases where the prisoner is so bereft of his reason, that any twelve men would not entertain a different opinion, where numerous evidences appear to testify to repeated acts of