premeditated act committed in a state of delirium, connected with vertiginous but not with formed epileptic attacks."!

We have had opportunities of inquiring into the case of George Lawton, who was an inmate of the West Riding Lunatic Asylum up to the 24th of March, 1871, when he was committed by the coroner to take his trial for the wilful murder of attendant Lomas, at the assizes then being held at Leeds. Upon Monday, the 27th instant, George Lawton was placed at the dock to take his trial. Mr. Baron Cleasby was the presiding Judge. Upon the evidence of Dr. Crichton Browne, Medical Director of the West Riding Asylum, being taken, the jury were asked to return a verdict as to the capability of the prisoner to plead, and returned a verdict that he was incapable.

The circumstances of this case, as gathered from the depositions, are these: Lawton was admitted into the asylum in 1863, and suffered from epileptic fits of a severe character. During his residence in the institution he several times attempted to commit suicide, and shortly before the murder of the attendant, he had struck a fellow-patient in the face with a dinner knife. The deceased (Lomas) was principal attendant in No. 14 ward, in which Lawton had been placed. Upon the afternoon of Friday, the 24th instant, Lomas remained in the ward in charge of Lawton and three other patients, while the other attendants and their charges went out for a walk. About three o'clock an attendant in the airing court heard a cry, and, looking up at the second storey, saw Lawton striking violently at something on the ground with what appeared to be a stick. He hastened to the ward, and met a patient on the steps, who said, "He's killed, and he's killed," and upon entering the padded room, he found Lomas lying in a corner, with his skull fractured in many places. The room was spattered with brains and blood. Lawton was in the dayroom of the ward when he was first seen. He had a poker in his hand, and he said to the attendant, as he was about to enter, "I'll serve you the same if you come in here." That is the whole story. The attendant died ten minutes after the medical assistant was in

Falret, obs. x., p. 478, t. xvii., Archiv. Gén. de Méd.

attendance. The notes of the post-mortem examination upon the body of Lomas indicate that he must have been struck repeatedly with the utmost violence. The condition of the walls and roof of the room in which the murder was committed point to the same conclusion. During the whole of the Friday night succeeding the murder Lawton was restless and maniacal. He sprang out of bed whenever the attendants who were in charge of him turned their heads. The same excitement and restlessness continued during the forenoon of Saturday. Towards evening he became calmer, and could talk rationally concerning the crime he had committed. We had a long conversation with the patient upon the afternoon of Sunday, and came to the conclusion that at the time we observed him he was to all intents and purposes a sane man. He certainly was weakminded. But he described the whole circumstances of the murder with intelligent accuracy. He maintained that he had no ill-will to the deceased, that he did not know why he had done it, and that the deceased had always been very kind to him. When pressed he said he had seen ships and railways on the ceiling of his room before going to sleep; but we did not come to the conclusion that these were insane illusions. He confessed to having done many things to get rid of his fits: to have held his head under the cold-water-tap, to have gone without butter or beef for months past, to have drunk his urine, and all with a view to cure himself of epileptic seizures. He described his condition during the day previous to the murder. He had known that a fit was coming on, and had deposited his money and tobacco with the storekeeper, lest they should be taken from him by some other patient during the unconsciousness which was incident to the attack. He had felt a stiffening of the muscles of his limbs, and had, according to his (230)own account, had a severe seizure in the dayroom upon that day. His memory with regard to the occurrences of the morning of the Friday was not perfect. He sometimes said he remembered being spoken to while at dinner by the medical superintendent, and at other times he did not remember it. He said that he had refrained from taking meat that day, because he thought it would do his soul good. He said that he himself was a Methodist, but that he did feel better upon

the Saturday morning for the abstinence. With regard to the crime itself, he knew it was wrong. He knew that persons who were in their right mind and who committed murder were hanged, but he seemed to regard himself as exempted from punishment because he had fits, and because he sometimes did not know what he was doing. He said he knew swearing was wrong: he thought it more heinous than murder. He imagined that if Lomas was good he must have gone to heaven, and he said he hoped he had not done him any harm. He repeatedly asserted that he liked Lomas, the murdered man, and that he did not know why he had done what he had done. He spoke of having on a former occasion tried to jump through a glass-door, and having, before he was admitted to the asylum, laid himself down on the rails that he might be run over. He seemed to connect these acts, or the conditions existing when they were done, with the murder of his attendant, or the conditions which were present at the time of the commission of the crime. From the whole interview-from what he said, from his manner of saying it, from the muscular tremors which every now and then were observable in his limbs-we came to the conclusion that the crime for which he was to be tried was due to a simple suggestion arising during the stupid condition which succeeds an attack of epilepsy, and that the temporary imbecility was succeeded by epileptic mania, which was in its turn followed by a gradual restoration to the normal condition of health. In our presence, the patient showed that he was able to read, that he understood the simple rules of arithmetic, and that he was cognizant of the ordinary doctrines of religion in much the same way as other people of the same class and with the same amount of education are. There was considerable mental weakness, but it seemed to us to be of such a kind as would not have incapacitated the patient in any way, civil or criminal, had he been free from epilepsy.

2 320. Criminal Propensities developed during the Seizure. The danger that arises to others during the

An interesting case will be found in Dr. Russell Reynolds' Epilepsy, its Symptoms, etc., p. 207.

preliminary stage of an epileptic attack, and that which is present after the coma has passed away, cannot be exaggerated. But there is actual danger to others during the continuance of what is called the fit itself. Trousseau was consulted by a newly married couple. The lady stated that a short time after their union she had been suddenly awakened during the night by the strange movements of her husband. Suddenly she was attacked, and had it not been that she was succored by a servant, she would have been severely injured. The assault was repeated a few days before the physician was applied to, and upon the latter occasion the wife awakened in time, and, having lighted a candle, witnessed her husband's convulsions, and escaped from the fury which immediately followed. The patient was perfectly conscious of something having happened to him, of which he could give no account, and he admitted that frequently, previous to marriage, he had been subject to vertiginous feelings, which had been misunderstood by the physicians.'

2321. The Legal Relations of Epileptics.-These facts show that there is some necessity to consider the legal relations of those who labor under this disease, and show that there is a necessity for an intelligent adaptation of the principles we have already enunciated to certain cases of the disease which is under consideration. Now, we have seen the proneness of medical men to look upon every disease as, to some extent, depriving an individual of responsibility. We have had occasion more than once to remark upon the unpractical refinements of those persons who have made mental disease their study, and there is ample room still left for the censure of alienist physicians. Those who assert that all epileptics are insane,' and therefore irresponsible, err as much upon the one side as the Lord Justice Clerk (Inglis,) who said, "Disease of the brain is not insanity-disease of the brain is bodily disease, and insanity is mental disease, and no amount of bodily disease will justify you in pronouncing the persons insane," did on the other. But there are

Legrande de Saule La Folie devant les Tribunaux, p. 391.

Platner. Quæst. Med. For., p. 6. But see Clarus Beitrage zur Erkenntniss und Beurtheilung zweifelhaften Seelenzustaendu, Leipsic, 1828, p. 96.

some facts with regard to the capacity and responsibility of epileptics which require to be considered, While an attack of epilepsy lasts, the individual is clearly incapable of performing any civil act, and it would be as unjust to hold such an individual responsible for any criminal violence as to hold an individual who is laboring under the delirium of fever responsible for any [232 outrage which he might commit. But with regard to the premonitory conditions and the subsequent state the question is one of much greater difficulty. A very recent judicial decision bears somewhat directly upon this point.

322. Epilepsy may Incapacitate a Juryman.-During the trial of Walter Crabtree for the murder of his father, which took place at Leeds upon the 29th of March last, after the evidence for the prosecution had been led, a juryman took an epileptic fit, and was removed from the jury-box. A medical man was in attendance immediately, and upon being summoned to the witness-box by Cleasby, B., he said that "he was of opinion that the juryman in question was suffering from an epileptic fit, and that he would be unable to go on with the trial that day." He also said that he ascertained from the wife of the juryman that he had suffered an injury to his head some years ago, and it was to that injury his wife ascribed the frequency of the fits. In answer to a question put by the Judge, the medical man said a fit might come on at any time, and that it was impossible to say whether he would be in a condition to resume his duties upon the following day. After consulting with Mr. Justice Brett, the presiding Judge said he must hold the juryman permanently disabled, and the jury were discharged.'

323. Incapacity of Epileptics further considered.In this case we find an epileptic seizure incapacitating a man from performing one of his civil duties and from enjoying a civil privilege. Not only must the existence of this disease incapacitate a man from doing this one act or enjoying this. municipal privilege, but it must necessarily deprive him of

BR. INS.--30

1 Author's notes of the trial