POP ULAR MIS CELL ANY. 



4*5 



Madness and Crime. In an address on 

 "Madness and Crime," delivered some 

 months ago, Mr. Clark Bell called attention 

 to a condition of insanity under which crime 

 is sometimes committed which is not recog- 

 nized by the law and is not often taken no- 

 tice of by the courts. It is the condition 

 that exists when the man is perfectly aware 

 of the nature of the act he commits, and of 

 the fact that it is prohibited by the law and 

 is punishable, but is at the same time in- 

 incapacitated by mental disease from con- 

 trolling his own conduct. The most careful 

 discussion of the question has been made by 

 Sir James Stephen, who has proposed as a 

 solution of it the authorizing of juries to 

 bring in a special form of verdict where the 

 existence of such conditions has been proved. 

 It has also doubtless been the element of 

 the case which has often prompted Ameri- 

 can juries to bring in some of those singu- 

 lar verdicts which have caused remark as con- 

 trary to the law and the facts. In Mr. Bell's 

 opinion, " the time has come when legisla- 

 tors must face this question upon its merits. 

 The able and masterly manner in which Sir 

 James discusses it, the decisions in many of 

 the American States recognizing a different 

 test for responsibility, call for a settled law 

 both in England and America, which would 

 be in accord with the principles of justice 

 and commensurate with the civilization of 

 our age. . . . There is no doubt whatever 

 that the uncertainty of verdicts is largely 

 due to the popular conviction of the injus- 

 tice of the law as it now exists, and as it is 

 frequently construed by the courts. ... It 

 is a legislative and not a judicial question, 

 and must receive public attention commen- 

 surate with its great importance in the ad- 

 ministration of criminal jurisprudence." 



Sorghnm and Beet Sngar in the United 

 States. Professor H. W. Wiley, chemist of 

 the Department of Agriculture, in his report 

 on " Northern Sugar Industry," gives the 

 amount of sorghum-sugar manufactured at 

 the principal factories in the United States 

 during the season of 1883 at 726,711 pounds. 

 The factories are at Rio Grande, New Jer- 

 sey ; Champaign, Illinois; Sterling, Hutch- 

 inson, and Ottawa, Kansas ; and the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture. The largest and most 

 successful factory is at Eio Grande, near 



Cape May, New Jersey, where the soil and 

 climate appear favorable to the production 

 of the crop. A careful calculation leads the 

 author to estimate that the average amount 

 of sugar which can be obtained in market- 

 able form from sorghum is 4 - 75 per cent by 

 weight of the expressed juice, or 2'37 per 

 cent, or 46*4 pounds per ton, of the cane. 

 Besides this, two other sugars than the crys- 

 tallizable sucrose are present in the juice, 

 but they are not separable in solid form, and 

 enter into the molasses. This yield is pro- 

 portionately very large, and, if the produc- 

 tion of sorghum-sugar should be carried on 

 with success enough to make it a staple 

 crop, the product of molasses will be greater 

 than ordinary consumption can dispose of. 

 The only other uses to which the molasses 

 can be put will be as food for animals and 

 for distillation ; and the latter will be the 

 more money-making. Each gallon of mo- 

 lasses will give a gallon of commercial alco- 

 hol. Happily, this kind of alcohol is said 

 to be only fit for use in the arts. Professor 

 Wiley remarks that the fact must be ad- 

 mitted that the present production of sor- 

 ghum-sugar is not very encouraging after 

 thirty years of endeavor; but nearly all the 

 progress that has been made in it has taken 

 place during the last three years. The out- 

 look is better for the manufacture of beet- 

 sugar, which is pronounced an assured suc- 

 cess on the Pacific coast. The five years' 

 experience at the Standard Sugar Refinery, 

 Alvarado, California, is claimed to have 

 proved that beets raised in that State will 

 yield as many tons per acre and are as rich 

 in saccharine matter as any raised in Eu- 

 rope. During the season of 1883-84 there 

 were produced at this establishment l,027 y - 

 826 pounds of white refined sugar, whilethere 

 were still in tanks at the time of making the 

 report, in process of crystallization, 250,000 

 pounds more. 



Corrupt Legislation. The causes of the 

 defective and corrupt legislation which ap- 

 pears to be one of the crying complaints of 

 the present time have been reviewed in a 

 short pamphlet by Mr. Simon Sterne, who 

 also makes a general suggestion of a rem- 

 edy for them. The causes lie in the meth- 

 ods of procedure of our legislative bodies, 

 which are unsystematic, hasty, and uncon- 



