M'Naughten : a letter to the Lord Chancellor, upon insanity / by J.Q. Rumball.

Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: M'Naughten : a letter to the Lord Chancellor, upon insanity / by J.Q. Rumball. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    though his mind had never “ toppled o’er.” Talk to all upon any subject but that on which they are cracked:— “ Take any shape hut that, Ancl their firm nerves will never tremble,” but they will prove themselves to be as sound, as natu- ral, as conscious of right and wrong, as the healthiest mind amongst us. But again, I shall be told that the law recognizes this; and again I ask, does it act upon it ? Was it proved, or attempted to be proved, that in Bellingham, the desire to take life was an uncontrollable passion ? was he lashed on by a fury that would be sa- tisfied with nothing but a human sacrifice? or, did he not coolly and rationally, out of his evil heart, revenge- fully determine to redress his own wrongs ? did he not seek the life of his oppressor; (and, although he found it not, did he not shoot one of the party, and that its head,) and all this under the ordinary motives which influence malicious men? Was Oxford labouring under a delu- sion, terminating in homicidal climax? did he even pre- tend to be so ? was he, or was he not, perfectly aware that wrongfully to kill, was murder; that, in shooting at the Queen, he attempted murder; and did he deny, does he now deny, that, in the present state of the law, he who attempts to murder should be hung ? Save and except the paltry desire for notoriety or bread, had Bean any one justification for his real or pretended villainy? And, although Me Naughten is undoubtedly mad, ask him now,—now, that the fear of death is not before his eyes,—and if he tell you that in shooting Mr. Drummond, or in fancying that he had shot Sir K. Peel, he believes that he was justified ; that he did not know it would be murder, and, as such, deserve its recompense; then I know nothing of insanity. WHAT, THEN, IS THE REMEDY ? HOW ARE LUNATICS TO BE DEALT WITH? In considering this question, it will scarcely], be thought wandering from the subject, if I advert to the most proper mode of treating incipient insanity, be- fore dealing with it judicially. And, in order to do this
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