242 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



prefers, and which, while it appeases 

 public indignation, disposes of the case, 

 and is supposed to end all difficulty. 

 But it is beginning to be seen that these 

 summary procedures do not put things 

 to rest. With every new instance of 

 this kind we are again confronted with 

 the perplexing problem of how far the 

 defective-minded and badly- constituted 

 are amenable to penalties that are pre- 

 scribed to the mass of the community 

 who are recognized as sane and respon- 

 sible. 



As we have said, insanity is a fact 

 of human nature — troublesome to de- 

 fine, difficult to limit, and often hard to 

 establish, but which must be met and 

 dealt with as a stern reality. Obscure 

 in its manifestations, profound and re- 

 mote in its causes as it often is, we are 

 liable to encounter it at any time, while 

 it is so serious a thing that prompt and 

 decisive public action is compelled to 

 be taken upon it. Its questions arise 

 continually in our courts, and have to 

 be passed upon by juries of citizens, 

 upon whose theories of the subject de- 

 pend the issues of life and death. And 

 besides these intrinsic difficulties in ar- 

 riving at correct judgments regarding 

 alleged cases of insanity, there are ex- 

 trinsic difficulties more formidable still, 

 for no subject is more overlaid with 

 public prejudice than this. While such 

 things as law, justice, civilization, and 

 Christianity, have asserted their suprem- 

 acy for thousands of years, it is only 

 within recent times — so recent as to be 

 still within the memory of men — that 

 the system of atrocious barbarity by 

 which the insane had been always and 

 everywhere treated has been brought 

 to a termination. But, while humaner 

 feeling and increasing enlightenment 

 have gained the victory, it would be 

 idle to deny that much of the ignorance, 

 prejudice, and superstition, which gave 

 rise to the old order of things still con- 

 tinues. There still survive the instinc- 

 tive distrust, antipathy, and repugnance, 

 toward the victims of mental disorder, 



as though their calamity were a disgrace 

 and reproach to the nature of humanity. 

 With such lingering errors in the pop- 

 ular mind, combined with a lack of the 

 information which science has fur- 

 nished, it is not surprising that we 

 should often witness outbreaks of pub- 

 lic passion so vehement as to affect the 

 administration of justice. The case of 

 James Freeman is still fresh in the mem- 

 ory of this generation. He had mur- 

 dered a whole family under circum- 

 stances of atrocity that ought at once 

 to have raised the suspicion that he was 

 not a sane man ; and, when brought to 

 trial in Syracuse, his appearance at- 

 tested him to be a half-demented brute. 

 That the State was saved from the dis- 

 grace of executing him as a responsible 

 criminal was due not to the intelligence 

 or humanity of the people of Central 

 New York, but to the noble intrepidity 

 of an eminent lawyer, who, with no 

 hope of reward, faced a storm of pub- 

 lic indignation by voluntarily under- 

 taking his defense. The evidence of 

 public prejudice in relation to this sub- 

 just is still further seen in the general 

 impatience that is evinced when the 

 plea of insanity is urged in capital trials. 

 No doubt this plea has come to be a 

 resource of lawyers, and is made the 

 most of without regard to justice, in 

 the defense of criminals ; but the license 

 of lawyers is a settled policy in the pro- 

 cedure of courts, and it is to be ex- 

 pected that they will strain and abuse 

 every plea that can be made available. 

 Moreover, as we have repeatedly said, 

 insanity is a fact, and from its nature a 

 cause of crimes the most inhuman ; and 

 while, in cases of suicide, mental de- 

 rangement is alleged by coroners' ju- 

 ries as almost a stereotyped cause, it is 

 not only proper but imperative to in- 

 quire if it may not also be a cause in 

 cases of homicide. This plea is not to 

 be ruled out or escaped as illegitimate ; 

 and the only rational course is to pre- 

 pare to meet it and deal with it intelli- 

 gently. 



