The defects of the lunacy law; a vindication of the decision of the Lord Chief Baron of the Court of Exchequer, in the case of Nottidge versus Ripley / by T. T. Wingett.

  • Wingett, T. T.
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The defects of the lunacy law; a vindication of the decision of the Lord Chief Baron of the Court of Exchequer, in the case of Nottidge versus Ripley / by T. T. Wingett. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    that time Mr Pollock. It is probable that the vague and undefined manner in which the statutes employed the term unsound mind, and the extra- ordinary latitude which he at this time discovered might be given to it—manifestly endangering the whole doctrine of civil liberty — made Sir Fred- erick Pollock feel the necessity of taking his stand upon ground where alone he found clear and unequivocal definitions, and within limits which —mirabile dictu—the medical literature of the times chalked out as safe and judicious; and it admits of little or no doubt, that, considering the high and safe ground which the Lord Chief Baron has taken in this individual case, until the laws are modified, not only will his Lordship lay down the law in a similar manner in a similar case, but every other judge will follow in his footsteps ; and the result will be that few cases of monomania, treated in lunatic asylums, will be able to bear the test which courts of law can and will apply to them. The statutes, be it observed, not giving us any definition of the term unsound mind, nor afford- ing us any criteria for judging of the propriety of confinement in a lunatic asylum, medical men and others have been in the habit, hitherto, of appealing to common sense, and have determined for themselves the degree and kind of mental unsoundness calling for confinement; but this decision in the case of Miss Nottidge has thrown