Volume 1

A letter to the ... Lord Chancellor, on the nature and interpretation of unsoundness of mind, and imbecility of intellect / [John Haslam].

  • John Haslam
Date:
1823
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter to the ... Lord Chancellor, on the nature and interpretation of unsoundness of mind, and imbecility of intellect / [John Haslam]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    been the source of considerable perplexity to me¬ dical practitioners ; and, in my own opinion, opens an avenue for ignorance and injustice. The appli¬ cation of figurative terms, especially when imposed under a loose analogy, and where they might be supplied by words of direct meaning, always tends to error and confusion. When medical persons depose that the mind of an individual is unsound, (which character of in¬ tellect, if accredited by the jury, would induce them to find the commission,) they ought, at the same time, to define precisely what they mean by such term :—and the jury, when they “ proceed to infer” this unsoundness, ought to be in possession of sufficient and well-defined premises, to warrant such inference. But where are these materials to be found ? There is a strong presumption that this unsoundness remains an unsolved problem to the present hour, and it is exemplified in the difference of sentiment that prevailed on a late occasion,* between the most eminent of the medical profes¬ sion ; where the same opinions and conduct im¬ pressed certain physicians, that this nobleman was * Lord Portsmouth’s Commission.
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