On the scientific value of the legal tests of insanity : a paper read before the Metropolitan Counties Branch of the British Medical Association / by J. Russell Reynolds.

  • John Russell Reynolds
Date:
1872
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the scientific value of the legal tests of insanity : a paper read before the Metropolitan Counties Branch of the British Medical Association / by J. Russell Reynolds. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    44/60 page 40
    III. 1 now approach the question of mental capacity in its legal and medical aspects, and with regard to it will adopt the method already followed, of in the first place stating the legal dogmata so far as I can gather them, and then of examining their scientific value. The question maybe stated thus: What is the test of mental unsoundness to be applied to indi- viduals with regard to whom insanity is urged, for the purpose of either, on the one hand, depriving them of the power or relieving them of the burden of the disposition of property, or, on the other hand, of setting aside such dispositions, testamentary or other, that they may have made? With regard to many persons, there may be no difficulty whatever. The sanity of the majority is unquestioned ; the insanity of others is undoubted. But such cases rarely be- come the objects of legal inquiry. It is the doubtful, the intermediate cases, that give rise to questioning and dispute ; and by such cases the nature, criteria, and capacity of those who are recognised as ' partially insane' become the objects for investigation. What are the tests of partial insanity? and what are the legal relationships of the so-called 4 partially insane ? By the terms they have used and the actions they have taken, both professions—the legal and the medi- cal—have admitted generally the existence of partial
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3