TENDENCY TO CRIME.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 219, 15 September 1924, Page 13

TENDENCY TO CRIME.

A FORM OF DISEASE. , - AND BEAM FEVER. lioctors Save often declared, that crime and thV tendency- to- crime are-lorms of • disease. .■■•■•■" m But (states "A Student of Medicine" in the London "Daily Chronicle") rfc £as been left to the Ministry of Healta to publish officially the news that disease may actually turn a sober, well- ' behaved- young citizen into a criminal — and that, too, at a long interval of time after ihe disease in question has passed away. Many terrible charges have been - -brought against "sleepy sickness," but this, surely, is the most terrible of aIL The wonts of "the official memorandum are grave: " "The more important of the aftereffects are: Mental symptoms ... In all probability -these are dependent upon lesions of the cortex of the brain. - Irritabflity, -ma -nigral outbursts, hebetude, complete change of moral character, and self-control, lying and theft may. appear for the first time in the conduct of _ the victim of encephalitis lethargica {'sleepy sickness')." It is further pointed out that tßese-after-effects, may appear "after a variable latent period, ranging from some ■weeks to over two years," and that "do definite opinion can be expressed until after some years as to whether an attack.of the disease, however mild in appearance, may or may not result in serious sequelae." Thus there would appear to be fie evidence of an authoritative kind for :- ' the idea that many crimes of violence, •or sudden lapses from good behaviour, are in fact consequences of a "brain. fever 11 which occurred months before, and was of so slight a character as to be mistaken for "influenza," or even- a . Ever attack. - . , I . The law courts are bound to hear; 1 much of this matter, and it seems probable that doctors and barristers will soon, be at loggerheads again over this i new subject of dispute. In this case, however, the doctors will be on solid ground; they will be able to speak in ■ terms of physical disease, and so to avoid the subtleties of psychology." An irresistible impulse is one thing; an in- j flammation of the brain -jjaite another.