52 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



Q. Will you state the physical symptoms ? — ^A. Probably the first would 

 be some disturbance of the vision, and motion of the eyeball. Speech may 

 be affected, and convulsions may occur. The hearing may be impaired. The 

 patient may die in convulsions ; but all these symptoms of brain lesion "may 

 exist without insanity, and such is generally the case. There is a distinction 

 between the cerebral symptoms accomjjanying Locomotor Ataxia and the 

 mental symptoms of insanity. 



Q. How do these symptoms make their appearance — slowly or suddenly ? — 

 A. Either they may be developed slowly or suddenly, according to the means 

 by which they are prodiiced. The sudden appearance of the disease is by the 

 sympathetic nerve, whereas the gradual development is through the medulla 

 elongata. 



Q. What value do you place upon the test of handwriting ? — A. The hand- 

 writing would not be affected unless the disease had advanced high enough to 

 affect the arms ; and when it did so rise, the arms would not be co-ordinate, 

 the same symptoms would appear in the arms as in the legs. 



Q. What conclusion would you draw from the fact that the patient wrote a 

 firm hand ? — A. I should say that the disease had not reached the upper por- 

 tions of the spinal cord. 



Q. In Locomotor Ataxia, does the disease necessarily affect the mental 

 power? — A. No. 



Q. In General Paresis of the insane, would you say that the person had 

 testamentary capacity ? — A. There are stages. When the disease is well 

 established, I should say the patient was entirely deficient in such capacity. 

 There are remissions in the disease in which the patient is apparently lucid, 

 but he is not to be depended upon even in these conditions. 



Q. What is the duration of this disease, usually ? — A. On the average, 

 three to five years. 



The law having with the combined assistance of the technical 

 evidence of medical experts and tlie common sense of a jury, became 

 apprised of the fact that the person under consideration is insane, 

 the judge or Court is left to its self to decide what follows. If in a 

 civil case under a contract or a will, the Court must say whether or 

 not there was sufficient capacity to perform the act in question ; if 

 in a criminal matter to decide how far the accused is responsible and 

 so punishable. 



The law of England and of this country, so far as I can make out, 

 is that the same rule in effect is applicable to both class of cases. 

 As may have been expected few cases are to be found on what is for 

 the most part a question of speculative law ; but Chief Justice Tyndal 

 and Sir James Hannen have both expressed themselves to the effect 

 that the same formula holds good in both cases. The learned Chief 

 Justice in dealing with a case of irresponsibility by reason of a 



