330

THE LANCET.

LONDON : SATURDAY, MARCH 29, 1862

THE LORD CHANCELLOR’S NEW LUNACY BILL.

IT has been questioned by great philosophical lawyers whe-ther a protracted practice at the bar is not a bad training forthe bench. The habit of ex-prxrte pleading-the constantstretch of every faculty to detect the weak points of an oppo-nent’s case, and to distort fact and argument to serve the

purpose of the moment-must, if long indulged, to some extent

warp the perceptive powers and blunt the judicial sense.

Great lawyers have indeed been known who have felt it

altogether uncongenial to their lofty sense of right to practiseat the bar. At any rate, it may fairly be questioned whetherit is expedient to make a judge of a man who has during morethan thirty years been moulding his thoughts and training his

powers to acquire the peculiar talents of a successful advocate.No one doubts the greatness of the abilities of the Lord Chan- cellor. But there must be few thoughtful men who have notbeen shocked at the recent displays of rancour approaching tomalevolence, and of the importation of old personal and pro-fessional jealousies, which have distinguished speeches fromthe woolsack, whence we look for words of wisdom and

moderation. Lord WESTBURY would certainly have made amore temperate if not a more able Chancellor had this objectof his ambition been achieved twenty years earlier in his

career. As it is, a certain taint of partisanship seems to leavenall his legislative measures, and a bitter tone of insult marksthe language in which he submits them to his compeers. His newLunacy Bill is a remarkable instance. In his speeches on thismeasure he has exhibited an amount of prejudice against a

profession, not less learned and certainly not less truth-seekingthan his own, that seems scarcely credible in the son of a phy-sician, and in a man who directs the proceedings of the most

august and deliberative body in the kingdom.The Lord Chancellor, in his Bill for Reforming the Conduct

of Lunacy Commissions, proposes to substitute " common

sense" for skilled sense as the basis of evidence touching theexistence of insanity. The value of common sense cannot be

too highly estimated. To it, as a standard, everything mustin the end be more or less subjected. It is par excelleiiee the

juryman’s faculty. It is, however, a very indefinite and a veryirresponsible quality; it determines by impulse, or at best byintuition. An appeal to common sense is often little better

than an appeal to Chaos. Everybody thinks his particularopinion the embodiment of common sense. Hence it is that

people in the serious business of life distrust their commonsense, and seek the skilled guidance of physicians, lawyers,architects, engineers, chemists, or sailors. And of all the

mistakes in life, few are apt to be so disastrous as that oj

following common sense instead of the doctor in importantquestions of health. And this is the mistake the Lord Chan-

cellor makes. He reasons in this way: " Is it indispensable" that persons should have studied in the schools of medicine,"listened. to lectures, and walked the hospitals, in order t(

"form a conclusion whether a man was or was not a lunatic

Yet by the existing law that was the very absurdity com

" mitted. Men were denied the power of forming a moral

"judgment as to a fact upon which every man of rational"judgment was competent to form an opinion."To a certain extent it may be true that any man is a com-

petent judge as to sanity or insanity. In the marked forms of

mania or of imbecility, the evidence may be clear to the mostcareless observer; and, although even in such cases there willalways be points upon which prudence and humanity will dic-tate the necessity of taking a medical opinion, the Master inLunacy or a common jury will suffice to settle the bare questionof lunacy. But as an instance of the inadequacy of " commonsense " in even the most palpable cases, it is but necessary toremind those who most confide in it that common sense cannot

be trusted in the very important question of the event orfuture progress of the disease. For example : it is proposed toget a maniac declared a lunatic, and incapable of managinghimself or his affairs. It may be an exceedingly proper anddesirable proceeding. But would it be so if it were probablethat this maniac was only suffering under a temporary cerebraldisorder which would be cured in a few months ? Yet what

man of common sense will venture to decide this point? Skilledwitnesses must be called in ; and the Lord Chancellor’s argu-ment is gone. For here is a confession, a proof, that insanityis strictly and truly a subject of skilled professional study; andif so to the extent of enabling one man better than another toforetell the progress and termination of a case, the presumptionsurely is just that the physician does know more of the natureand symptoms of insanity than those who are only struck bythe most obvious external manifestations.

, If we take the opposite case of latent or concealed insanity,

in which the greater part of a person’s conduct may be governedby some overruling delusion, but whose general behaviour mayexhibit, to the ordinary observer, nothing of the character ofinsanity, the danger of deciding without medical evidence isnot less serious. It would not be difficult to draw up a con-

siderable list of cases of persons charged for criminal offences,in which juries and lawyers, groping in the obscurity of com-mon sense, have seen no sign of insanity; but who, beingrescued from capital punishment, on medical testimony, haveat a later period given unmistakable evidences of madness.That these cases are not more numerous is accounted for bythe fact that, common sense prevailing, the manifestation of

lunacy has been anticipated by hanging the lunatic.Since, then, the common sense of mankind has determined,

in opposition to the dictum of the Lord Chancellor, to consultthe physician upon every point involving the treatment andprognostication of insanity, it must be the climax of absurdityto attempt to dispense with his advice in the primary questionsof the existence and peculiarities of that condition. No doubt

the Chancellor and Lord SHAFTESBURY may be able from their

experience to quote an ollcc podrida of answers given by medical men, which, taken apart from context or explanation,may sound ridiculous and absurd. But it is surely somethingworse than unfair to base upon exceptional absurdities an

argument for denouncing scientific evidence altogether. Great

lawyers and statesmen occasionally, like HOMER, nod. The

Lord Chancellor in this very matter has committed himself to

a transcendant absurdity, by attempting to impose upon juriesthe impossible task of deciding upon what the law defines as a

’ strictly medical question without the aid of medical skill.. What is the verdict in a Commission of Lunacy ? and what

331THE BELFAST BOARD OF GUARDIANS.-ON SPIRIT,-RAPPING.

the conditions upon which it must be founded ? The subject Iof the inquiry must be declared, firstly, to be of unsound mind-that is, as Master WARREN expressly defined it in the recentcase of 111 r. WIDHAM, "that there is a morbid condition of

mind;" and the second term, which affirms that he is incapableof managing himself and his affairs, is simply a declaratorysequitur upon the first, having no independent value.

Here, then, is the logical order of ideas upon which the lawitself is founded, utterly at variance with the procedure advo-cated by the Lord Chancellor. And this salutary condition itwill be impossible to preserve without medical aid. For surelycommon sense, if taught that insanity is not the result of dis-ease, will deduce unsoundness of mind from incapacity to

manage affairs, thus reversing the true order of reasoning, andsubstituting the vaguest uncertainty and confusion for a definiteand steady rule of action. Whether he succeed in carryinghis Bill or no, he will surely be defeated in the execution of it

by the overwhelming law of reason and necessity. Medical

evidence will as surely as heretofore be appealed to in courts ofjustice. If it be restricted by any other influence than the dis-cretion of opposing counsel, to that extent will the danger of

shutting out important evidence and of arriving at an erroneousconclusion increase. As for any effect which Lord WESTBURY’S

ill-considered clause will have in diminishing the costs of com-missions in lunacy, this very case of Mr. WINDHAM, under thepressure of which this measure has been concocted, sufficientlyillustrates that point. The limitation of costs is a question de-termined in no degree by medical evidence, but entirely by theextent of the alleged lunatic’s estate, and the moderation of thosegentlemen who may be said to pave the law-courts with oyster-shells. The inquiry before the Master lasted thirty-two days;and yet after the verdict many more days were spent beforethe Lords Justices by counsel alone in reiterating their argu-ments-of course to the further consumption of the molluscousclient. Nor are the proceedings at an end. Felbrigg, indeed,is gone; but Hanworth remains.

Again : in this very case, the jury were divided. Common

sense was baffled by the observation of the alleged lunatic.

Seven jurymen at least thought him insane.

I’r is painful to have to record another instance of the

illiberal and short-sighted system of management adopted bythe Belfast Board of Guardians. Upon a recent occasion, as

upon the one not long since referred to by us, a Mr. TjMRNEYwas the gentleman to whom the medical profession stood chieflyindebted for more sneers and abuse than it befits us further to

notice. Suffice it to say, then, that the result of them was,that the person mentioned succeeded in having the medicalstaff of the " house" reduced to one resident and one visitingphysician. By this procedure, the paltry sum of £100 perannum might be saved-so, at least, it was supposed-to theUnion; this £100 being exactly one halfpenny per head forevery payer of poor-rates in Belfast. Being thus far successful,Mr. TEIRNEY next endeavoured to get the number of medicalofficers for the town districts lessened from six to three. The

accomplishment of this, said the poor man’s friend so sapientlyand philanthropically, " would be a boon to the sick paupers,"as more attention would be paid to their wants, these three

"gentlemen being required to give more of their attention to"their business....... These dispensary situations were gene-

"rally held to be touts for practice." Such a disgracefulattempt, however, was at once put down by a member of theBoard, who rose indignant at the aspersions cast by Mr.TEIRNEY upon the medical officers of the Union. To quotethe report in the Belfast News:-

" Mr. GREER must protest against any individual using suchlanguage about respectable men.

" Mr. TIERNEY.-Oh, hold your tongue, and go to the landof common sense, where you are not often." CHAIRMAN.-This language must not be used." Mr. GREER. - Mr. Chairman, if you allow this gorilla,

(laughter) to proceed in this manner, some other course willhave to be adopted towards him, and I would not be very longabout it.

" Mr. ADAMS begged to second Mr. Teirney’s motion. The

town could be well attended to by three men who would de-vote their entire time to it.

" Mr. TEIRNLEY.-If it was only to do away with the pre-scriptions and cough-drops, it would do a vast good, and be-the means of saving lives."The CHAIRMAN said such remarks were totally uncalled

for" "

After some further discussion, Mr. TETRNEY’s motion was

put, and we are happy to say was lost, as it deserved to be ;.and we cannot believe that the ratepayers have rightly con-sidered the question involved in the reduction of the medicalstaff of the house; or, if they have, that they will sanctionthe proceedings of their self-styled "economical" guardians.As the editor of the Belfast News properly observes, there is asensible economy which may be carried out with advantage in

every department of a great establishment, and a mischievouseconomy th.1.t is worse in the end than lavish waste. What

that of the Belfast guardians will turn out to be it does not

require much acumen to discover. If two medical men are-

required to do the woik of three, why one-third of the work,must be left undone or hurried over. The sickness that was

merely a "chill" this week becomes a fever next week fromthe want of attention; and the case that was a trifle to-daybecomes from neglect serious to-morrow, perhaps causing the-sacrifice of the stay of a whole family. The result to the Unionbeing, in these and analogous circumstances too well known in.the "Annals of our Parish"-that a widow and half a dozen

orphans are thrown on the rates for support, which consequence-might have been prevented by a little timely medical succour.The Belfast Board of G-uardians are evidently not the men of

’ Goshen.

Medical Annotations." Ne quid nimise’

THE SPIRIT - RAPPING IMPOSTURE.

THE darkness which blanches the plant world, and robs it ofits poisons, favours all the most noxious elements in the moralworld. IBIystery is the favourite medium of quackery, andt

secrecy its congenial atmosphere. So long as individuals canbe impressed and inspired with the wish to justify their ownperversion of intellect by making current highly colourednarratives of the imperfectly tested facts by which their ownconversion was effected, others will follow them in numbers, andthe circle of folly soon spreads widely. Publicity is a tolerablyeffective remedy for all these epidemics. Rumour magnifies;and colours like the air ; but printed statements made beforethe world, and dissected by merciless critics, are soon made o