The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-12-16
SUICIDE AND SANITY.

physicians have put themselves on record as
believing that suicide is proof per Sc of insan-
ity, while two others, called in rebuttal by
the State, are equally positive as to the mega
tive. To be sure, none of these witnesses are
metaphyscists or psychologists, nor is it known
that they have entered deeply into the study
of what Mr.. Maudsley calls physiological
psychology" as set forth in his own treatises,
or Of those of Mr.. Balm, or the late DR.. W.
B. Carpenter. They are general practitioners
Of medicine, placed in the witness-box as
medical experts, and, as is we'll known, there
is no subject in legal medicine in which
medical men cut so poor a figure
in the witness box as in questions of insanity.
This comes in great part from the inherent
difficulties Of the subject itself-in part, from
the fact that not one medical man in fifty has
had sound training in logic as formal study,
or even in the classical and scientific courses
which constitute a good mental groundwork
and discipline for the medical profession.
There is, also, the lamer table fact that medical
experts are called and paid by either the de-
Tense or the prosecution, and are expected to
prove one side or the other They should be
called by the court for its own instruction and
that of the jury. They should be awarded a
fee commensurate with their knowledge and
education, and give unbiased opinions as to
the matter in hand.
Among the fundamental questions these
expert witnesses must have settled for
themselves, and had clear and pronounced
ideas about, before testifying to either the
mental state of Phillips at the time Of the
wife-murder and attempted suicide, or the
relation of suicide and sanity, are the follow
ing: Is suicide crimeY What constitutes
Insanity What is the history of suicide9
AS to history, the suicide has had many
defenders most able of whom were Hume
Gibbon and Madame de Stael. 1t was con-
sidered neither crime nor dishonorable,
among the ancients, notably the Greeks and
Romans. Demosthenes, Themistocles,
Marc Antony, Cleopatra, Hannibal and NTH
ridates-the two latter rather than be taken
prisoners-are among the lists Of suicides, and
also Cato rather than to live under the des-
potism of Caesar. Samson pulled the temple
down upon himself and died with the Philis-
tines. These are among the cases and mo-
~ boz 1oy b IL -,
spectability. Certainly these cases gave no
evidence of the ''insane neurosis" which pre-
disposes to suicide. In Cowper we have
despair, in Hugh Miller the excitement re-
sulting from his long contests with opponents
mainly theological, Of his views of geology
Depression, failure, delusion, intemperance
unrequited love, and various forms of disease
are among the often assigned causes. Suicide
is also, like measles, not infrequently epidem-
ic in character The first Napoleon had to
contend against it in his army, and in Yer
sailes, in the year 1893, there were 1900
Suicides number out of all proportion to
the population. Favorable opportunity is
factor, as the possession Of poison, the sight
pice. But there are numberless instances
where the act has been greatly pallated, and
seemed almost justifable; and, again, the ar
rangements for it have been carried out
so logically and sensibly as to dis
pei all notion of impulse or of
mental impairment. Suicide is most COM
mon, too, at the age of greatest mental
strength and vigor-from twenty to forty.
1t resembles insanity, however, in being
more common in the country than in the city.
1t may be said that in the general thought of
the community suicide goes hand in hand
with murder, and the two acts are, as in the
present case, usually committed at the same
time. But if it be regarded as crime, GER
tainly its punishment, when it fails of per-
Torrance, should be provided for in the
statute, which it is not. Phillips is on trial
for the murder of his wife, and not for the at
tempted murder Of himself.
And now to the question Of insanity itself,
which the medical experts in this and all sim
liar cases are supposed to have mastered.
Admitting that they are fair. good doctors,
who will not be biased by fee OF by the fact
that they are friends of either plaintiff, or de-
PENDANT, or counsel on either side; admitting
that they are really qualified insanity experts
and have made forensic psychological med
icine a speciality; that they know law
enough to determine the responsibility which
is the object of the contested mental capacity
that they know enough of psychology to discuss
analytically, the properties of the intellect