, 1879-03-09
writer on the subject says. 1esseued the fra,

writer on the subject says, 1essened the fra.
quent difficulty OF choosing between "jnhn.
l,auitv to disease alni indulgence to cxisne.n
Again, remarkable feature il tile history ~
these cases is the misdirectcd force OF nnhl.
optnion. Tie public is properly and natura|ly-
enough cautious in receiving opinions where th..
fate Of human being (monstcr though be
morally bc) hangs upon the character Of src,.
opinions. Nevertheless, in the cases before n.
have not three OF them been decided by opinion
and opinion onlys Were they decided 5y t,,e
law? If so, BY what Law? II opinion, then.
has been solely Instrumental IN deciding 10 fo+
it is fair to assume that the case Of STEypvs
being OF the like nature. and making; tue same
plea, will be decided by opinion also. S;nre
them opinion is to he the arblter, let us see tn Il
that we inform ourselves as. to the rc!atiya
merits oi these opinions, whether there is M.
wisuom and justice in preferring the opinions Of
the highest medical authorities to the opInfon.
of men who, like jurymcn In general, are
neithcr~ experienced il mental diseases nor A.
ways uninauenced By prejudice or false symp,-
thy. II opinion is to decide, we doubt not the
public will say with Us. Let us have the highest
and the best.
Turn we then to ''Casper's Forensic NedL
cinc,'' Vol. 4 4,-probably the highest authority
in the world, who for twenty years was expert
authority in the highest German Courts,-who
Eavs: stThere fs no such peculiar species nt
mania, no so-callcd Mnpia Transitoria." He
claractcrizcs it as an uascfcnti1c and dangerous
term. He recognizes no insanity that is not the
result Of cause that experience has established d,
competent, He further explains that when an
7.,.uaturd7 crime Is eonptttd, as parents destroy
ing their children without any rational motive,
we are at liberty to assume insanity, though we
cannot discover competent cause, but, when
the crime committed is in Its character like The
criminal acts Of those who have done the same
even mania transitorta, Or Us late writer's put it,
emotional insanity.
BALFoUR Brown (London, 1879 allows this
class Of cases, Of momentary excitement render
ing the party irresponsible, viz: "Those who
hare been known to be wcak-mfndcd, aud IN
whom these outbursts OF violence are habitual,"
and he denies that solitary case Of such out.
burst in an otherwise sane and competent man
can be termed an act Of insanity.
OGsDoN (Aberlecn. Scotland, 1SiS) allows
that there is u division OF sentiment among
medical writers, but that none Of them who are
worthy Of being quoted {he docs not notice
uANMoSD} give any weight TO the possibility Of
those isolated acts for Duroose being charged 10
insanity anu responsibility. lie himself has no
sympathy with the mcrc;tul side Of the cues
tion, and is not believer in emotional insanity.
RAY admits Of the division OF moral INSANITY,
but does not admit OF its being nonentary; be,
however, gives no counteuancc to emotional H.
sanity as generally understood.
WHARTON and sT1LLE, the work most pop,t-
lar among legal men, utterly ignore anything
like what We understand as emotional insanity,
DR.. WILLIAM HAMMOND, Of New York, Is the
only expert We know Of who has done aught to
inculcate this vice in our courts Of q belief IN
emotional insanity. go