MEDICAL TESTIMONY AND EVIDENCE IN CASES OF LUNACY; BEING THE CROONIAN LECTURES DELIVERED BEFORE THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS IN 1853. WITH AN ESSAY ON THE CONDITIONS OF BY THOMAS MAYO, M.D., F.R.S. FELLOW OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS, LATE FELLOW LONDON JOHN W. PARKER AND SON, WEST STRAND. M. DCCC. LIV. ADVERTISEMENT. IN offering to the public these detached contributions to a very important subject, I am influenced by an impression, that in spite of the labors of many able men the subject itself is in an inchoate state; and that many similar tentamina must be made, before its condition will justify an attempt to embrace the whole. With respect to the Lectures now published, if they contribute to promote a clearer understanding between courts of Justice and medical witnesses, than at present exists, they will so far have achieved a desirable object. But in the course of my inquiries I have been led to certain conclusions, for which I cannot expect a cordial or immediate reception from either of these parties. And I propose to state in the outset, what these conclusions are; in order that my less adventurous speculations may be viewed as distinct from them, and tried for their own deserts. iv ADVERTISEMENT. The first of these conclusions concerns the ambiguous and, as I think, mischievous nature of some doctrines suggested by the term 'moral insanity' or certain synonymous expressions. The second arises out of the question, whether some offences of the insane ought not to be visited with some form of secondary punishment. The third of these conclusions is in favor of the extension to criminal cases of that practice which actually prevails in analogous civil cases, as in commissions de Lunatico inquirendo, of the examination of the party, whose mental state is in question, in presence of the Jury and the Court. 56, Wimpole Street, October 20th, 1854. THOMAS MAYO. CONTENTS. Legal Division of the Subject of Diseased Mind.-Lu- nacy, the Generic Term; Insanity, Idiocy, Un- soundness, being Species, varied by the Act of 1853.-Insanity considered in its Relation to Deli- rium; this having Two Forms, viz., Incoherency, or Inconsecutiveness, and Delusion.-Two Forms of Delusion, viz., Objective and Notional.-Cases illus- trative of the Application of these Forms of Deli- rium as Tests of Insanity. - Delirium Tremens legally considered.-Doctrine and Practice of the Law in Reference to Lucid Intervals.-Dr. Rae's |