circumstances which constitute the conduct of the latter, we give the name of insane to the set of circumstances which constitute the conduct of the former. This man would not have been called mad because he believed the truth, but because he believed a thing which he had every reason not to [39] believe. A belief in a truth may be a delusion. A delusion is just a prejudice in the flesh.

254. Different Points of View of Lawyers and Physicians. It has been said that by madness "a lawyer means conduct of a certain character, a physician means a certain disease one of the effects of which is to produce such conduct." And it has been argued that these two different definitions may have caused the widely different conculsions at which the members of those two professions have arrived. But, perhaps, there is more ingenuity than truth in this description. Medical men infer the existence of disease from symptoms. Some of the most important symptoms which are indicative of the presence of mental disease are to be found in the acts and words of an individual. Even at the present time the greatest difficulty would be felt by the most accomplished expert in determinating the presence of mental disease without the cognizance of these facts, and a diagnosis would be impossible under such circumstances unless he had the advantage of viewing the expression which has resulted from the acts and thoughts of the individual, just as a certain precipitate results from certain kinds of chemical action. Seeing, then, that medical men infer the presence of the disease which they call madness from conduct of a certain character, and that lawyers, according to Mr. Fitjames Stephen, mean by madness "conduct of a certain character," although they really mean the something which underlies that conduct, the distinction drawn is rather apparent than real. The cause of the difference of opinion which has been described would more probably be found in other circumstances. That lawyers have been too apt to regard insanity as one simple disease, and the fact that thinking thus, and having as they believed found a good legal test for the irresponsibility of those who

1 Fitzjames Stephen's "Criminal Law of England," p. 87.

labored under it, they applied this test to other diseases as distinct from that to which it was in the first instance applicable, as toothache is from lock-jaw, may to some extent account for the slow progress which that profession has made towards a correct scientific knowledge of this most intricate subject. But lawyers are most conservative of law. When the Judges were asked whether capital punishment should be abandoned for the theft of the amount of five shillings they all said "No." We laugh at them now, and yet in other things the Judges of the present day are possibly quite as conservative. As a rule, perhaps, the opinion 40 of a man who has worked long and successfully under a certain system is almost valueless with regard to its faults or merits. Reformers are either men who have suffered under a system, or boys. These tendencies may have led to the tardiness of the legal profession to acknowledge more than one kind of insanity, and to a refusal, by its members, to acknowledge a test-which may with reason have been applied to the determination of the responsibility and capacity of those persons who labored under one phase of this disease-as utterly inapplicable to many persons who were affected with other kinds of insanity.

55. The Unscientific Study of Insanity as a Cause of the Slow Progress of the Medical Jurisprudence of Insanity. But, as we have seen, medical men are not blameless. Physicians with the amplest opportunities for observation have neglected to become thoroughly acquainted with the disease which it was their duty to treat. It is only in recent times that the pathology of insanity has occupied the attention of those who have the means of becoming acquainted with it. Should those careful researches which are at present being prosecuted in our large hospitals for the insane make the progress that the zeal of those conducting them gives us a right to expect, we may hope for better things in future from medical witnesses, and, as a direct consequence, we may expect a more intelligent recognition of undoubted scientific results upon the part of the legal profession. As yet, however, the knowledge of the pathological changes which take place in various kinds of mental disease is very limited.

And some anomalies have arisen in the progress of

the research which would seem to indicate results which would scarcely have been anticipated: we refer to the frequent discovery of structural changes in the brain which have given rise to no derangement of the functions of that organ, and in other cases the observation of disturbed functions without the discovery of much if any organic change.

56. The necessity for a Classification of Insanity.Some classification of the various kinds of mental disease is

absolutely necessary. And it is of more importance to those persons who look at insanity from the legal than to those who look at it from the medical point of view. However, there are very many occasions upon which medical men are called upon to give evidence as to the soundness or unsoundness of mind, and for those who are so called to bear testimony such a classification will not be without its value. Those occasions are likely to increase rather than to diminish in number, for a large section of the medical profession [41] seems to think that insanity is on the increase, and those who are of opinion that it is not, account for the apparent increase by the fact that in the more thorough and wide-spread diffusion of medical knowledge many diseases are now recognized as insanity which were not formerly regarded as belonging to that class of disease. When a man makes a will and dies, his relations who are not mentioned in it may dispute its validity. Was the individual, at the time he made his will, in such a mental condition as to possess a testamentary capacity? In such a case the Court of Probate will have recourse to the evidence of medical witnesses. When a man or woman contracts a marriage which is regarded by his or her friends as unaccountable, or which may, by the issue from it, deprive the said friends of a contingent reversion, the question as to whether the person contracting was sane or insane at the time, whether he or she could or could not give a valid consent-consent being the essence of a contract-will arise, and the evidence of medical witnesses will be required. So if a man squanders his money or commits a crime, the evidence of physicians will be requisite to determine the fact of his sanity or insanity. Besides, there are cases in which in

1 Powell. Contr., pp. 9 and 10. See Hardman v. Booth, 1 Hurl. & C., pp. 803, 807.

sanity is feigned, and it is necessary that medical men should be able to distinguish between the genuine and the simulated. Now, too, no insane person can be incarcerated in a lunatic asylum without the certificates of one or two medical men.' In all these cases it is necessary that the individual physician who is called upon to ascertain the mental condition of another individual should have a somewhat thorough knowledge of insanity, and all thoroughness and clearness is to be best attained by careful classification.

57. Of Classifications. Every writer who deals with psychological questions seems called upon to venture upon a new classification of mental diseases, and in consequence we find that there is really less clearness and less thorough comprehension in relation to this matter than would have resulted from the want of all classifications. In many of the classifications which have already been proposed, there are characteristics of excellence, but in none do we find thorough and exhaustive grouping. Much dispute has arisen as to the basis of classificatior, d it can easy be understood that while there is still doubt and dispute as to whai cght to be classified, there can be little that is satisfactory in the result. It may, however, be useful to the reader to have an opportunity of comparing some of these classifications, and we will give one or two of these, with the names of the authors who have proposed them. For all practical purposes, however, Lental diseases may be divided into two classes: 1st, into those which are dependent upon arrested development or diminished activity of the faculties; and, 2d, those which are due to some functional derangement or organic lesion in the brain or the nervous centres subsequent to what may be regarded as normal development. The former is marked by defective energy or inertness of mind, the latter by undue activity and excitement of the mental faculties. Perhaps the best practical classification of mental diseases for the purposes of those who would become acquainted with them in connection with the legal relations of those who labor under them is that which is given on the following page. It is somewhat the same, in its main features, as that adopted by Esquirol.

16 and 17 Vict.. e. 96, 8 4, 7.

BR. INS.-9