268 Editors’ Table. [March, 
present time. Nutt, of Uniontown, Pennsylvania, was declared 
insane by a jury who knew him to be sane, in order to avoid the 
necessity of hanging him for a murder which they thought justi- 
fiable. Meredith, of Philadelphia, is declared sane, although his — 
nearest relatives testified to his monomania, and his written de- 
fence proved that their statements were correct. This was done 
to avoid the necessity of depriving the subject of the investigation — 
of his liberty. | | 
It is thus clear that our laws on this subject need revision 
They should keep in view the fact that the brain is liable to tem 
porary disorders like other organs, and that persons must not be 
adjudged “insane” because they have displayed insanity on om 
or more occasions in their history. Second, the question of 
“responsibility” should be subordinated to more easily under 
stood aspects of the question. Thirdly, undoubted insanity 
should not be considered ground for restraining liberty in sott 
cases, nor for escape from penalties in others. In explanation 
these points we reproduce here our remarks in the NATURALS! i 
for January, 1882, apropos of the assassination of President 
Garfield: sey 
“In the first place the present definition, which only “= ‘, 
insanity where the criminal is unable to judge of the consequent 
of an act, is certainly erroneous. Persons undoubtedly sae 
often act with deliberate design and great forethought. It m 
be a safe, though not a perfect definition of insanity, t0 P 
it asa state of mind in which acts are committed which in 
direct opposition to the plain and obvious interests, not y 
sons affected by the act, but of the actor. Here the Kear 
the ignorance of consequences is restricted to its tegi : 
the instinct of self-preservation, through which the rational sti 
has originated. It is another way of stating that the em ma 
or sentimental elements of character have so far overe ] 
rational as to cause the commission of self-destructive 
Under this definition an act of violence committed vite | 
society would not indicate insanity, while the same a a 
in civilized society, where means of detection and pu perst 
abound, would be properly regarded as that of an me 
“In such a classification, criminals are those vapa 
the rights of persons and property with a reas g 
of advancing their own interests thereby. J : 
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