PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION J. 3 Vi | 
able from English history were destroyed by endeavouring to 
teach it from 55 B.c. The last century and this would form 
ample material, our last struggle with France and England’s 
colonising worth being most essential. 
7.—CHILD CULTURE. 
By Mrs. C. E. Mirtwarp. 
8.—CRIMINOLOGY, FROM A MEDICAL STANDPOINT. 
By OR oe VEC ReERy: 
| Abstract. | 
THe responsibility of the individual is in proportion to his 
knowledge of right and wrong, and of the nature and quality 
of his acts; and also to his power of action in connection with 
such knowledge. There are, therefore, many insane persons 
who are in some degree responsible for their acts; and this 
degree varies from a point just below the standard of sanity to 
a point just above the irresponsibility of advanced dementia. 
Some criminals are not below the normal standard in respect 
to mental, moral, and control faculties; such can rightly be 
held fully responsible for their crimes. On the other extremity 
of the line are the insane, whose mental condition frees them 
from all responsibility. Between these extremes there are three 
groups :— 
Ist. Those addicted to the excessive use of alcohol, 
morphia, &c. 
2nd. The partially insane. 
3rd. Those whose moral and control faculties are not pro- 
perly developed. 
Persons included in these groups are not as fully responsible 
as those at the normal end of the line, nor as completely free 
from responsibility as those who are placed at the insane end. 
Much difficulty and confusion are caused by the present 
practiee of trying to force all persons accused of crime into 
one of two groups—to make them either fully responsible or 
quite irresponsible for their actions. Such division does not 
naturally exist, and any real reform must be based on a more 
perfect classification. Much of the conflict of medical evidence, 
now so often heard in our courts when the question of insanity 
arises, is due to the confounding of insanity and responsibility, 
and the arbitrary line drawn between this latter and total ir- 
responsibility. 
