DOCTORS DISAGREE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18235, 2 November 1933, Page 9

DOCTORS DISAGREE

QUESTION OF INSANITY AUCKLAND MURDER TRIAL

MORE EXPERT EVIDENCE ( pur Pres* Association.) AUCKLAND, last night. M re nv-'Cii nl evidence as to Lite insanity or otherwise of the accused was board in the Supreme Court this after-, noon when the hearing of the charge of muidcr against John Hubert Edwards was resumed. Dr. W. If. Horton said lie had examined the accused in prison. “As the result of my observation*, and the eoncm. ions 1 have diawn iram the evidence, I cons du ; .that the accused is, and has been for a number of years, ceit tiably insane,” said the witness. "It is proba le mat the accused has been subject to periodic attacks of mental excitement ana exaltation, with periodic states of mental depression, lasting f.r variable periods of time, and with lucid intervals, during which be was apparently leasonably sane. It is my opinion that tins man lias suffered from maniac depressive psychosis, which is a disease of the mind, ehuractei iscd by outbursts of mania and melancholia, with intervals of more or less sanity. ”

This concluded the ease for the de fence.

Called bv the Crown to .give evidence in rebuttal, I)r. 11. M. Buchanan, Hospital, said that lie had examined the superintendent of the Avondale Mental accused on eight different occasions. “1 am of the opinion,” he said,-"that the accused did know the nature'and quality of the act and that he knew that he was doing wrong. He is distinctly of the neurasthenic type. He enlisted in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in 1917, but he was classified unfit for active service, and did not go to the Front. He was then suffering from stammering and increased action of the heart, which is too rapid beating, and a very alarming symptom to people suffering from it. In some eases, they even' t,hink they are •ruing to die. In my opinion, he is not of the schixophcuic type, because I have never seen any siens of apathy or ind fferenee. Nor, when I questioned h'ni. was I able to elicit any hullucinations or delusions. He always had a sense of his own personality.” His Honor: What are the symptoms of a person suffcfigin front this di ease with the unpronoiineablo name* Witness: They g > into a dream state and live in a wo-1 I of phantasy, so that, to all intents and purposes, they are very imorin t'eable. In advanced cases, tluy will laugh when they arc 1 eiy sul and ry when they are very happy.” Witness did not agree that the accused suffered from a maniac depressive psychosis. Ho had a degree of emotional instability and alternating states of apathy and exuberance. But tho-o were poperties pertaining to many otherwise sane people. Judging from tiie evidence, the accused showccl.no s : gns of abnormalitv on the morn in •• ‘of the crime and. afterwards, lie had a full realisation of what he had done. That was indicated by the fact that he attempted to take his own life. The hearing was adjourned.