States of unconsciousness : irresistible impulses, epilepsy, treadaway.

Date:
[1878]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: States of unconsciousness : irresistible impulses, epilepsy, treadaway. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    of ignorance, a compromise ; but it leans to mercy’s side, and might be preparatory to a virtual acknowledgment that respon- sibility must be judged of by other standards than by impair- ment of the intellect, of the moral sense, or by the “ dark saying ” of non compos mentis. This measure, in conjunction with a preliminary and prolonged scrutiny in an asylum wherever alienation was suspected, or was about to be urged in exculpation, would confer great benefit in putting a stop to the unseemly antagonism of paid experts during legal proceedings, and of removing the opprobrium of banging lunatics as criminals, and secluding criminals as lunatics, to which our present system of judicature has been exposed. As some modi- fication of the Lunacy Law may be expected to flow from the report of the Parliamentary committee which has just com- pleted its labours, this appears to be an appropriate and critical juncture for bringing these important difficulties before the judgment of the public and the medical profession. In this article we have endeavoured to utilise, but not to criticise, the works of Dagonet, Des Impulsions dans la Folie et de la Folie Impulsive; Tardieu, Etude Medico-Legate sur la Folie; Echeverria’s excellent papers on Epilepsy in the American Journal of Insanity ; and other fugitive pieces. SpottistLooile cf Co., Printers, New-sired Square, London
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