Remarks on the principles of criminal legislation, and the practice of prison discipline / by George Combe.

  • George Combe
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks on the principles of criminal legislation, and the practice of prison discipline / by George Combe. 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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    answer to this question must of course depend on the nature oi the delusion; but maldng the same assumption as we did before, that lie (the accused) labours under such partial delusion only, and is not in other respects insane, we think he must be con- sidered in the same situation as to responsibility as if the facts with respect to which the delusion exists were real. For example, if, under the influence of liis delusion, he supposes another man to be in the act of attempting to take away his life, and he kills that man, as he supposes in self-defence, he would be exempt from punishment. If his delusion was that the deceased had inflicted a serious injury to his character and fortune, and he killed him in revenge for such supposed injury, he would be liable to punishment.* The sole distinction between these cases is, that in the first the accused acted logically on his delusion; while in the second he acted illogically, because a sound mind, assuming the facts to be real, would have prosecuted the defamer for damages, whereas the accused killed him. The second instance indicates, if possible, a wider extent of mental disease than the first: in it the act done under the delusion is more abnormal than that committed in the first, and shows the man to be more insane. But the error in the opinion of the judges is elucidated still more forcibly by the following case, which actually occurred. Eobert Dean, a weak, but affectionate and religious young man, fell violently in love with a young woman, and proposed marriage to her. She declined liis addresses; on which he resolved to kill her. Before finding a suitable opportunity, he met a httle girl of whom he had always been fond, but who was in no way connected with the ofl'ending object of liis love, and he killed Imr. He then gave himself up at a pohce station, confessing him- self to be the murderer of the child: he was tried, found guilty, and hanged. A cast of his head may be see in several Phreno- logical museums, and it sluows large organs of amativeness, destractiveness, and veneration, with no want of benevolence, but a low development of the intellectual organs. The facts indi- cated that the excitement of the amative organ occasioned by his disappointment in love had extended to other parts of his brain, and produced the insane manifestations described. While under sentence of death, he explained the motives of his con- duct in killing the child. He was of a very religious disposi- tion, and thought that if he killed the young woman, she might go unprepared into eternity, and incur eternal perdition; while the soul of the child, from its innocence, Avould bo safe ; and P XV ^^f^t?^'}'? ^]''''^f''g Evidence in Criminal Casoe. 12th edition. i'.V W. N. Walsby, Esq. p. Ifi. 1) 2