THE COLONIST. Published Daily—Morning. Nelson, Tuesday, October 9, 1894. CRIME AND INSANITY.

Colonist, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8065, 9 October 1894, Page 2

THE COLONIST. Published Daily—Morning. Nelson, Tuesday, October 9, 1894. CRIME AND INSANITY.

At the meeting o! the Biitlah Medical Association at Bristol, on the 2nd of August last,' Dr Lionel W* atherly read a very interesting papar on " Tne Law in relation to the Criminal Responsibility of the Insane," and tha London 'Times' devotad an ariiole to the Bubjec 1 . In that ar iole, the law as laid down by the Judges ia 1843 was stated as follows :— " Tiiey declared that, notwithstanding that the party did the aot complained of, an aot in itself otiminal, under the influence of insane delusion with a view of redressing or avenging some supposed grievance or injury, or of producing some public benefit, he was, tevertheless, punishable according to the nature af the crime committed if he knew at the time of committing euch crime that he was acting contrary to law. If the acoused was conscious that the act was one which he ought not to do, and U as a fact, the act was at the same time contrary to the law of the land, he was punishable. • The jury ought to be told in all such cases that every man is presumed to be sane, and possess a sufficient degree of reason to be responsible for his crimes until the contrary be proved to their satisfaction ; and that, to establish a defence on the ground of insanity, it must be clearly proved that at the time of the committing of the act the party accused wa3 laboring under such a defeat of reason, fr^m disease of the mind, as not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing, or if he did know iS that he did not know he was doing what was wrong.' A person laboring under a partial delusion must be considered in tbe same situation as to responsibility as if the facts in respect of which the delusion existed were real.'. Dr. Weather! y as other eminent men of his profession had previously done, maintained that the law as laid down in 1843 was wanting in latitude, and was not in accordance with modern science. He urged that if it were proved to the satisfaction of a jury that the accused was certifiably insane, and, further, that the crime for which he stood charged wa3 the outcome of his mental disease, he should be entitled to their verdict, and at ones be placed under care and treatment. In the ' Times' article the position is thus placed :— " What is really desired by those who demand a change in the law is that, instead of speoifio evidence of irresponsibility in relation to the particular act in question, we should decide generally whether the man is sane or not, and then deduce from that general judgment the conclusion that he could or could not have known what he was doing in tbe particular case." The difficulty of deciding as to whether a man is insane or not is often rendered greater, inasmuch as the unf jrtunate person may at times be perfectly rational, even to the extent of being brilliant ; whilst at others the same individual may ee?m completely mad. In tbe article to which we have alluded, it ia poktad out that "By altering the present legal presumption we should inevitably encourage the tendenoy, already very well marked in medical oiralee, to regard all o im9 as evidence of mental disease." It is difficult to argue sgiinst the view that orima is evidence cf mental diseas?, for how, otherwi c, can we define Bani'v, Bat even though it be &dmi.tsd tha

all criminals are insanp, we fail to see that there ie any Bound reason why they should (•scape punishment for their crimes, for even the insane may be kept from evil-doing by fear of puni3bment.