373 



LUNACY. 



LUNACY. 



374 



who has lucid intervals, but this distinction may also at the present 

 day be disregarded. 



Persons of unsound mind may inherit or succeed to land or personal 

 property either by representation, devise, or bequest, but they cannot 

 be executors or administrators, or make a will, or bind themselves by 

 contract. It is stated by Blackstone that the conveyances and pur- 

 chases of persons of unsound mind are voidable, but not actually void ; 

 this however perhaps needs some qualification, for a bargain and sale, 

 or surrender, &c., and also personal contracts made or entered into by 

 such persons, are actually void as against their heirs or other represen- 

 tatives, though it is true a feoffment with livery of seisin was voidable 

 only. [CONVEYANCES.] A person of unsound mind, though he after- 

 wards be restored to reason, is not permitted to allege his own insanity 

 in order to avoid his own act ; for no man is allowed to stultify him- 

 self, or plead his own disability (13 Vesey, 590), unless he has been 

 imposed upon in consequence of his mental incapacity (2 Carr. & P. 

 1 78; 3 Carr. & P. 1 , 30) ; and an action will lie against a lunatic upon 

 his contract for necessaries suitable to his station. The reader is 

 referred for information upon this subject to 1 Blackst. Cmnm., p, 297, 

 Mr. Kerr's ed. ; 1 Fonbl. Kq., b. 1, c. 2 ; Sugd. Poie., 295-6 ; 5 Barn. 

 & C. 170; Moody & M. 105-ti. Acts done during a lucid interval 

 are valid, but the burden of proving that at the time when the 

 act was done the party was sane and conscious of his proceedings, 

 lies upon the person asserting this fact. The marriage of a person 

 of unsound mind, except it be solemnised during a lucid interval, 

 is void. 



The degree of responsibility under which persons of unsound mind 

 tire placed with respect to crimes committed by them, as well as the 

 degree of unsoundness of mind which should be considered as depriv- 

 ing the party of that amount of self-control which constitutes him a 

 responsible agent, are in a painful state of uncertainty. As a general 

 rule it may however be laid down that where unsoundness of mind, of 

 such a nature as to render the party incompetent to exercise any self- 

 control, is established, criminal punishment will not be inflicted ; but 

 that he will be kept in safe custody during the pleasure of the crown 

 (39 & 40 Geo. III., c. 94, and 1 & 2 Viet., c. 14). On the subject of 

 criminal responsibility, and what constitutes unsoundness of mind in a 

 legal point of view, the reader is referred to the various treatises 

 on medical jurisprudence. The following remarks may however be 

 useful. 



In lunacy the question to be decided is not whether the individual be 

 actually of sound miud, though a jury on an inquisition held under a 

 commission of lunacy must express their opinion or finding in the form 

 that the alleged lunatic ia of " unsound mind" (In re J/olmc*, 1 Russell, 

 182); but though such must be the finding in order to make a man 

 legally a lunatic, the real question is whether or not the departure 

 from the state of sanity be of such a nature as to justify the confine- 

 ment of the individual, or the imposition of restraint upon him as 

 regards the disposal of his property. No general rule can be laid down 

 by which to ensure a right decision : but in all such inquiries it should 

 be kept in mind that insanity varies infinitely in its forms and degrees. 

 It should be particularly remembered that persons may be of weak 

 mind, and eccentric, and even be the subjects of delusions on certain 

 subjects, and yet both inoffensive and capable of directing pecuniary 

 matters. The individual's natural character should be taken into con- 

 sideration aa accounting for eccentricities of manner and temper, and 

 big education in estimating his ignorance and apparent want of in- 

 tellect ; and lastly due allowance must be made for the irritation and 

 excitement produced in a mind, perhaps naturally weak, by the inquiry 

 itself, and the attempt to deprive him of his liberty and property. 

 Confidence should not be placed in depositions or evidence founded on 

 short and inattentive examinations. 



Sometimes the madman conceals his disease, and with such remark- 

 able cunning and dissimulation that the detection of it is very difficult: 

 this is more particularly the case when the insanity consists in some 

 hallucination ; and here, unless the nature of the delusion be known, 

 it will often be in vain to attempt to elucidate by questions any proof 

 of unioundnega of mind. Those who are insane on particular subject* 

 will reason correctly on ordinary and trivial points, provided these 

 do not become associated with the prevailing notions which constitute 

 their disease. 



When insanity is urged as the ground of non-responsibility for a 

 criminal act, it has been erroneously held that the main point to be 

 ascertained is, whether the individual has or had " a sense of good and 

 evil," " of right and wrong." But this, though the doctrine of the 

 Erigliah law, it found incapable of practical application; and the 

 records of trials of this kind show that the guide to the decision has 

 generally been the proof, or absence of proof, that insanity of some 

 kind existed at the time of the act, although before and after it the 

 power of reasoning and the knowledge of right and wrong might be 

 retained. Thus, on the trial of Hatfield for shooting at George III., 

 Krskine argued that the existence of a delusion in the mind absolves 

 from criminal responsibility, if it be shown that the delusion and 

 criminal act were connected ; and on this principle Hatfield was 

 acquitted, I i f,,r life. Bellingham, however, who shot Mr. 



Perceval under an equally powerful delusion, in consequence of the 



ater excitement in the public mind occasioned by the result of tljo 

 act, wan convicted and executed. In many instances homicide 



has been prompted, not by any insane hallucination or delusion, but by 

 a morbid impulse to kill. Here there is generally evidence of the feel- 

 ings and propensities of the individual having been previously dis- 

 ordered; of his being, in fact, the subject of moral insanity [INSANITY], 

 and judgment in such casea is aided by the absence of motive to 

 the act. 



A lunatic is, according to law, responsible for acts committed during 

 " lucid intervals," a term by which is understood, however, not mere 

 remissions of the violence of the disease, but periods during which the 

 mind resumes its perfectly sane conditions. In forming an opinion 

 concerning such lucid intervals, it is to be remembered that the ab- 

 sence of the signs of insanity must have considerable duration before it 

 can be thence concluded that the mind is perfectly sane ; and that 

 lunatics, when apparently convalescent, are subject to sudden and 

 violent paroxysms. 



One of the most difficult points to be determined is with regard to 

 the mental capacity of old persons, in whom the mind is confessedly 

 impaired. The decay of intellect in old age is first manifested in the 

 loss of memory of persons, things, and dates, and particularly with 

 respect to recent impressions. But it is not the mere liability to forget 

 names, &c., which will render the will of an old person invalid ; it 

 should be shown that in conversation about his affairs, and his friends 

 and relations, he did not evince sufficient knowledge of both to dispose 

 of the former with sound and untrammelled judgment. Many old 

 men appear stupid and forgetful, but when their attention is fairly 

 fixed on their property, business, and family affairs, they understand 

 them perfectly, and display sagacity in their remarks. 



The care and custody of idiots and lunatics form a branch of the 

 royal prerogative, and were formerly administered by the king himself. 

 Since the dissolution of the Court of Wards, the lord chancellor has 

 been specially appointed to exercise this power. [CHANCELLOR.] The 

 method of proving a person to be of unsound mind, for the purpose of 

 depriving him of the control of his property, and, where the circum- 

 stances require it, providing for the safe custody of his person, waa 

 formerly as follows. The lord chancellor, upon petition supported by 

 affidavits, and in some cases upon a personal interview also with the 

 alleged lunatic, when such a course seemed necessary, granted a com- 

 mission to inquire into the state of mind of the party, and if the jury 

 found him to be lunatic, or of unsound mind (one of which modes of 

 finding was absolutely necessary), the care of his person was committed 

 to some relation or other fit person with a suitable allowance for main- 

 tenance, who was called the committee qf the person ; and the care of 

 the estate was committed either to the same or some other person, who 

 was called the committee of the estate. [GUARDIAN.] The committee 

 of the estate was considered as a mere bailiff appointed by the crown 

 for the sole interest of the owner, and without any regard to his 

 successors ; but the court might order allowances to be made to near 

 relations of the party of unsound mind, and even to his natural child, 

 where the circumstances of the several parties justified and required 

 it, and would direct proper acts to be done in the management of the 

 estate, as repair of buildings, felling of timber which was deteriorat- 

 ing, &c. 



The procedure at present is essentially the same as formerly, but 

 much legislation has recently taken place on the subject, and now the 

 Act 16 & 17 Viet. c. 70, styled the Lunacy Regulation Act, 1853, has 

 consolidated most of the laws and provisions previously in force. 

 Under this Act the lord chancellor may appoint two Serjeants or 

 ' barristers-at-law, to be called masters in lunacy, who are to have and 

 execute all the powers, duties, and authorities formerly had and exe- 

 cuted by commissioners named in commissions in the nature of writs 

 De Lunatico Inquirendo. The masters conduct their proceedings 

 either separately or together under the orders and direction of the 

 chancellor. 



The chancellor also appoints three visitors, two medical and one 

 legal, whose function it is to visit and report upon the condition of 

 every lunatic of whom the court has the care. 



The lords justices of the Court of Appeal in Chancery may also, 

 by virtue of the Queen's sign manual, be entrusted with the care of 

 lunatics, and have the same jurisdiction as the lord chancellor. 



The term lunatic is only properly applied to a person who is found 

 to be a lunatic by the verdict of a jury under an inquisition. But the 

 term lunatic is also applied to those who, being considered lunatics, 

 are confined in lunatic asylums or hospitals without having been found 

 lunatics by inquisition. 



The subject of insanity and asylums for the insane has of late years 

 occupied a very large share of public attention ; particularly as an 

 opinion has prevailed that insanity is on the increase in this kingdom 

 beyond the ratio of population. The want of accurate information 

 renders this point doubtful ; but it is certain that more than 20,000 

 insane persons are in confinement in the public asylums and licensed 

 houses in England and Wales, of whom 16,000 are paupers. But as a 

 great number of patients are confined separately, or in the care of thuir 

 relatives, of whom no public returns are made, this number is probably 

 far below that of the persons insane in the country. 



Recent legislation has placed the powers vested in the commissioners 

 in lunacy on an entirely new footing, and has in many respects 

 modified the constitution of asylums. The Act 8 & 9 Viet. c. 100, 

 repeals 2*3 Wm. IV. c. 107 ; 3 & 4 Win. IV. . fi4 ; 5 & 6 Win. IV. 



