EDITOR'S TABLE. 



243 



Technically, this subject belongs to 

 physicians, as it is to their profession 

 that we are indebted for our knowl- 

 edge of it ; and they are also the par- 

 ties to whose intelligence and experi- 

 ence society must appeal in all obscure 

 and doubtful cases. But the subject 

 belongs, also, to the general public, in 

 a far more important sense, for citizens 

 not only have to share in legal proceed- 

 ings in which insanity is involved, but 

 they have to deal with it in its early 

 stages and its private management. 

 Nor is this all. As the past study of 

 mental derangements, from the scien- 

 tific point of view assumed by the 

 medical man, has contributed largely to 

 the extension of our knowledge of hu- 

 man nature, so there is no better meth- 

 od now of getting at that knowledge 

 than by considering the aberrant and 

 disordered manifestations of the human 

 mind. It is quickly found that mankind 

 are not to be sharply divided into two 

 groups, the sane and the insane — the 

 responsible and the irresponsible — but 

 that these states pass into each other 

 by degrees, so that men are to be 

 judged, as it were, by their position 

 upon a scale of organization, charac- 

 ter, and opportunities. Dr. Henry 

 Maudsley, a philosophic student of this 

 subject, and a distinguished authority 

 in the alienist branch of medical prac- 

 tice, has just prepared a valuable popu- 

 lar work * upon this question, which 

 contains just the information that needs 

 to be widely disseminated. The book 

 is a compact presentation of those 

 facts and principles which require to 

 be taken into account in estimating 

 human responsibility — not legal re- 

 sponsibility merely, but responsibility 

 for conduct in the family, the school, 

 and all phases of social relation in 

 which obligation enters as an element. 

 The work is new in plan and was writ- 

 ten to supply a widely-felt want which 



1 " Responsibility in Mental Disease," by Henry 

 Maudsley, M. D. {^0. 9 of the " International Sci- 

 entiflc Series '■)• 313 pages. Price, $1.50. D. Ap- 

 pleton «& Co. 



has not hitherto been met. It may be 

 strongly recommended to general read- 

 ers, and, as the important truths it con- 

 tains are not enforced in the prevailing 

 system of education, it should be espe- 

 cially read by young men as a prepara- 

 tion for the duties and responsibilities 

 of citizenship. 



If any suppose that the' questions 

 considered in the previous article are 

 not practical and pressing, we offer 

 them an additional fact. Since it was 

 in type, the State of New York has 

 undoubtedly hanged an irresponsible 

 maniac. Joseph Waltz was executed 

 at Catskill, May 1st, for a murder so 

 wanton and causeless as to raise a strong 

 presumption of mental derangement, 

 which W' as also confirmed by other cir- 

 cumstances. His keeper in the jail pro- 

 ceeded upon the same theory as that of 

 the Boston authorities in the case of 

 Pomeroy, and assumed that he was 

 sane. He had been frequently cau- 

 tioned against exposing himself to the 

 murderer, but always answered, "Joe 

 won't hurt me ; " yet the day before his 

 execution he broke his keeper's skull 

 with an iron bar. The existence of 

 homicidal mania is a well- recognized 

 fact, and there was the strongest pre- 

 sumption that this was an instance of 

 it. But, although the second attempt 

 to kill tended to confirm the evidence 

 of the first — that Waltz was of unsound 

 mind — the Catskill people, it is said, 

 turned out by thousands with the view 

 of breaking jail and lynching him, so 

 that the military had to be called on to 

 prevent the crime of public murder. 

 The only party who could have legally 

 interfered to stay the execution until a 

 more thorough inquest into the case 

 might be had, was the Governor at Al- 

 bany, elected by the help of the afore- 

 said mob, and, of course, " accountable 

 to the people," and he did not choose 

 to interfere. 



Waltz's brain was examined by the 

 physicians after his death, and reported 

 free from disease. It was unusually 



