The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-12-16
ries approach SO near to madness, that no one

could pass rightly upon their condition.
There is no accepted definition Of insanity
among medical writers-no consensus of opin-
ion even among profe5sed alienists and neurol-
ogists as to what the term should include.
Insanity is a symptom rather than disease.
1t is not an entity, demon to be expelled or
a load to be got rid of. 1t is a sign of per-
verted function and structure, and each case
has natural history of its own. Hence the
difficulty of attempting expert evidence in
any given case, and the profound and general
distrust with reference to legal decisions where
insanity is an element of the trial.
Mr.. Maudsley, one of the ablest of medico-
forensic authors, says: cit is notorious that
the acquittal or conviction Of prisoner when
insanity is alleged is matter of chance, and
would not be more uncertain if determined by
tossing up shilling" and Taylor, equally
eminent in English medical jurisprudence,
declares that "the guilty are acquitted and
the innocent hanged in the sacred name of
justice after an intended impartial legal
trial" Judges of probity and ability that
cannot be challenged, able lawyers and
intelligent juries-all the elements that 60 to
make up eminently reliable courts of Justice
wrestle with this question Of what constitutes
insanity, and still their verdicts in many
cases do not command the respect nor conf
dence of the people, and not infrequsntly
shock the moral sense, and are totally shorn
of the force and influence that should attach
itself to the conclusions Of courts of justice
There is little gained by consulting judicial
precedents in insanity cases; they only render
the conclusions of psychical authorities confu-
sion worse COMPOUNDED.
Perhaps the definition given by DR.. Taylor
of all the criteria, legal, moral and intellect
ual, in their scope, contain the conclusion
which, in the interests Of safe and sound So
ciety, had best be held in prominence. He
says: "The terms insanity, lunacy, unsound-
ness Of mind, mental arrangement, mental
disorder, madness, and mental alienation, or
alteration have been indefinitely applied to
those states of disordered mind in which
person loses the power of regulating
his actions and conduct according
to the ordinary rules of society"
To be sure, the 'Erules of society" are mutable
and not fixed quantity, varying in different
times and localities. Some are abreast, some
behind and some in advance in all that per-
tains to morals and intellect of the age in
which they live, and yet we must have one
law for all. And how great must be the di-
vergence from the average to constitute insan-
ityg The method of determining in Indiana
is to call in two justices of the peace, two doc
tors, and such witnesses as these may require.
By this means people who We're only "eccen-
trio have been sent to our STATE asylum and
at once discharged.
The whole matter Of medical expert evil
dence in insanity cases needs revision. AS it
is now going it is a travesty on justice, and
turns forth the vicious to prey upon the law
abiding.
This man Phillips is murderer We are
compelled to hang such as measure of public
safety; that is all. By furnishing him we do
not establish scale of equivalents between
his perverted moral choice and the physical
suffering he should undergo. His own will
was the primary initiating cause which led
him to the act. He was not a creature of ne
cessity purely; his own volition counted and
weighed in the course Of events which led to
the murder of his wife and his attempted sui
eide. He should reap what he has sown,
and any evidence which goes to
break down the idea that he was not morally
responsible being is pernicious, and opposed
to the ordinary rules of society" If it is
expert medical evidence" all the worse for
medicine and all the worse for experts who
take upon themselves, out of their limited
knowledge of his previous history, the onus of
declaring that he was irresponsible for his
action, and give him chance of returning to
and devastating the moral order which judges
and juries are striving to uphold, and which
should be held in the highest esteem of medi-
cine, which, as profession, should be as just
as it is universally acknowledged charitable.
LABOR, organized and unorganized, through
out the country, is having hard time of it..
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