iV^ir QUESTIONS IN MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE. 465 



this is not the result of accident and conditions. There are strong 

 reasons for believing that a slight change of surroundings both 

 mental and physical would explode the degeneration which exists 

 and bring to light insanity, criminality, or idiocy. Instances are 

 not infrequent of acts of lawlessness and crime in inebriates pre- 

 viously law-abiding and honest citizens. It was not the last use 

 of spirits which provoked the act ; this only exploded a condition 

 which had been gathering like a storm long before. The direc- 

 tion and form which this disturbance would take could not al- 

 ways be foreseen. 



The designing man who gives spirits and suggests crime and 

 wrongdoing is in peril of being the victim himself. He is prac- 

 tically exploding a state of insanity, and trusting that he may be 

 able to control it. 



The inebriate or moderate drinker who uses spirits to give 

 courage to commit some act makes the same blunder of suppos- 

 ing that he can paralyze the higher governing centers and still 

 direct and control the lower faculties. Where imperative ideas 

 and delusions already possess the brain, alcohol may intensify 

 them for a time, but confusion and uncertainty of thought and 

 act are inevitable. 



The claim that alcohol is used for the purpose of committing 

 crime should be a question open for evidence, and one to be con- 

 sidered doubtful until proved by facts that can have no other 

 meaning. Crime committed when under the influence of spirits 

 will be found as a rule to follow uniform lines and be very much 

 alike in methods of execution. If spirits have been used for the 

 special purpose of facilitating the commission of crime, very 

 wide differences will appear. No two cases will be alike, and 

 doubt and uncertainty will complicate the factors in every case. 



These are some of the many new questions coming into prom- 

 inence in the courtroom with increasing frequency every year. 

 The present obscurity and confusion of law rulings and medical 

 theories will be cleared away in the near future, when the sub- 

 ject is studied from the scientific point of view. 



L'Eleveur, of Paris, has a story of a heron in England which, having 

 lost its mate, sought consolation in constituting itself a kind of shepherd for 

 the village. It brought the cattle to the stables, and took upon itself the 

 supervision of the poultry, adjusting all the quarrels, and driving away 

 unruly members of the brood. It also assumed the charge of the horses 

 when they were harnessed, and at the first sign of restiveness restored 

 them to quiet by giving them a i^eck in the nostrils. One day, when two 

 calves had escaped, the heron, having tried unsuccessfully to drive them 

 back, remained near them and watched them till the men came in search 

 of them. 



TOL. LI. 36 



