134 Insanity and Crime. 



insanity can be admitted, a large deficiency of self-control, 

 resulting from disease, should either be proved, or shown to be 

 reasonably inferred. In the celebrated case of Henriette 

 Cornier, described at length by Georget,* a mild, lively girl, 

 remarkably fond of children, became silent and melancholy in 

 June, 1825, and finally sank into a kind of stupor. In Sep- 

 tember she attempted suicide. In October she entered the 

 service of Madame Fournier, who could not dispel her dejection, 

 and the girl would only talk of her misfortunes in losing her 

 parents at an early age, and being ill-treated by a guardian. 

 On the 4th of November she persuaded a Madame Belon to 

 allow her to take her child — a little girl, for whom she had 

 always evinced great fondness — for a walk, and having obtained 

 possession of it, she cut its head off and threw it into the street, 

 in order that the passengers might be attracted, and know she 

 had done the deed. She stated that the idea had taken posses- 

 sion of her mind, and she was determined to do it. In such 

 cases there is no difficulty in arguing the existence of insanity 

 from the proof that the character of the patient had changed 

 in a mode quite contrary to the known progress of moral 

 depravity ; but a commission of distinguished French physicians 

 could not obtain proof of mental derangement by examining 

 the girl after the offence. A second commission made a similar 

 report, but added that their judgment could not be considered 

 filial if it could be proved that long before the 4th of November 

 her character and habits had changed. Finally a jury found 

 her guilty of " homicide without premeditation," and she was 

 sentenced to hard labour for life. In this case an injustice was 

 plainly done, because the court neglected to take sufficient 

 cognizance of the conditions that preceded the offence; and it 

 shows the necessity of inquiring into the previous life of an 

 offender before rejecting the plea that he is insane. 



In many instances in which tin- plea of insanity is set up, 

 the offence is one likely to spring from moral depravity. It 

 appears to haye been instigated by motives likely to rule the 

 conducl of wicked men, and it is in conformity wil h the genera] 

 behaviour of the offender. Under such circumstances the plea 

 of insanity is usually rejected, even though it can be shown 

 that the prisoner's ideas on many subjects are very absurd. 



But extreme discs OCCUr, in which ninny people would be dis- 

 posed to accepl the theory of insanity, although no disease 



could be shown. Pine! records a case,f in which the only son 



of a weak, indulged mother was encouraged in the gratifica- 

 tion of caprice and passion. The result was an ungovernable 

 dispo ition, bhat grew with bis years. Ee quarrelled savagely 



# It is cited by J!:iy, .Jurisprudence and Insanity, p. 198. 

 t Cited by Rny, p. 1GU. 



