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1 Juries and Physicians on Questions of Insanity 1872

handle is hein.beal/jriesp0001 and id is 1 raw text is: JURIES AND PHYSICIANS ON QUESTIONS OF INSANITY. By R. S. GUERNSEY, EsQ, OF THE NEW YORK BAR. In relation to trials in courts of law, when the defence of insanity is interposed, the question has been frequ mtly discussed, or we may say urged, by physicians, as to the propriety and promotion of the ends of justice and humanity of having physicians only to pass upon the question instead of a common jury, as in other cases. In this discussion jurists have taken very little or no part, feeling satisfied, perhaps, that the law, as it now stands in England and America, in regard to such trials, is in a better form to ascerttin the truth and carry oit the design of all human laws-the protection of society-justice to all. There is in a late issue of the Journal of Mental Science, by Dr. Henry 2laudsley, the well-known author, an article which was re- published in the August, 1872, number of the Popular Science Monthly, that fairly presents the view taken by physicians on this very important subject. He says: The ground which medical men should firmly and consistently take in regard to insanity is, that it is a physical disease; that they alone are competent to decide upon its presence or absence ; and that it is quite as absurd for lawyers or the general public to give their opinion on the subject in a doubtful case as it would be for them to do so in a case offever. The reasons for the law as it stands on this question are too little known among all classes of the community.

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