Criminal lunatics : a letter to the Chairman of the Commissioners in Lunacy / by W. Charles Hood.

  • Hood, W. Charles (William Charles), 1824-1870.
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Criminal lunatics : a letter to the Chairman of the Commissioners in Lunacy / by W. Charles Hood. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    ■’ r r- 16 t--. insanity, “ the crime being proved,” he be ordered to I be kept “in safe custody until discharged as the law. directs; ” for by this course his liberation or his-j residence in a prison or lunatic asylum would bej regulated by his antecedents, as well as his mentalj state, and general conduct. During the seven years from 1852 to 1858, inclu-] sive, 120 prisoners charged with murder, attempt to murder, or personal violence, have been acquitted onj the ground of insanity, of whom 79 were received into] the criminal establishment of Bethlehem Hospital. Ini several cases no symptom of insanity has been evinced! during the period of residence in the asylum. ThisJ statement must, it is anticipated, invite the question, If not insane, why were they acquitted ? The answenj to this inquiry must be that the jury acted upon thej evidence of the medical witnesses, who had formedi erroneous opinions of the cases. If this be a fain! conclusion, we are led to inquire whether the evidence of medical witnesses, “ experts,” as they may be inJ insanity, is always sure guidance to a jury. It is4 believed that the majority of the medical profession object both to the mode in which evidence is now I procured and now given in criminal cases; the soli- f citors for the prosecution and defence seek medicahj testimony not to elicit the truth, but to obtain a ver--j diet for their respective clients. Physician is pitted.! against physician, and surgeon against surgeon, while “specialists” (amodern and very undesirable sobriquet) are supposed to bring with them the clenching evi- dence produced by concentrated study or particular