Responsibility in mental disease / by Henry Maudsley.

  • Henry Maudsley
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Responsibility in mental disease / by Henry Maudsley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    LAW AND INSANITY. 1. Early legal notions of insanity-Lord Hale's dictum-Mr. Justice Iraceys wdd beast theory of madness-The trial of Hadfield • Erskmes declaration that delusion was the true character of insanity —The trial of BeUingham: Chief Justice Mansfield's dictum that a knowledge of right and wrong generally was the proper criterion of responsibdity—The trial of McNaughten • answers of the English judges to questions put by the House of Lords-A knowledge of right and wrong in reference to the par- ticular act at the time of committing it laid down as the true criterion of responsibdity—One exception to this rule formulating the question to be left by the judge to the jury-Assumption by the judge of the function of the jury—Criticism of the answers of the English judges by American judges—Uncertainty of result in English trials where insanity is aUeged—The dicta of American judges : cases of Boardman v. Woodman, State v. Jones, and State v. Pife-Articles of the French penal code and of the latest German penal code—Comment upon the right-and-wroug theory of responsi- bility. 2. Former legal views of testamentary capacity : cases of Cartwriglit v. Cartwriijht, Dew v. Clarke, aud Waring v. Waring—Recent American decisions—Judgment of the Court of Queen's Bench in the case of Banks v. Goodfellozu—Comparison of the law relating to testamentary capacity with the law relating to criminal re- sponsibdity. 1. Criminal Responsibility. Looking back at the strange and erroneous notions which were formerly entertained of the nature and causes of insanity, and considering what little observation was made of its manifold varieties, we cannot wonder that its jurisprudence was in a very defective state. At first