the Letter of the late Lord Chief Justice Cockburn. These comments mark what may be fairly called a new era in the judicial treatment of Insanity. Having had, as many readers of these pages will know, some special advantages in studying those forms of Insanity which are most frequently associated with Crime, I trust that I shall not be deemed presumptuous if I express my views on that and on some cognate subjects with some confidence. It will be seen that I have brought the facts and figures contained in the "Judicial Statistics" to bear on the question of the effect produced on sane and insane criminals by the Punishment of Death; and, in so doing, believe that I have cleared away a misconception which has exercised an undue influence on those members of the judicial bench, and those among the general public, who are most anxious to protect innocent and unoffending persons from deeds of violence and blood. On the theory of punishment, and particularly on the grave question of the retention or disuse of corporal punishment, I have also spoken with freedom, and with a confidence which experience has seemed to me to justify. That which I have seen to be essential to the maintenance of order in prison, and to the arrest of certain strange epidemics, such as self-mutilation and attempts at suicide, I cannot condemn, as some politicians do, when applied to the soldier and the sailor. It is because this punishment of pain, surrounded with proper restrictions, and patiently held in reserve, is eminently humane, just to the well-conducted, and very often the only instrument of reformation to the habitual offender against the needful rules of discipline, that I take this opportunity of advocating it; and I do so not the less earnestly because I believe that the outcry against it has originated in most unworthy motives, and derived almost all its force from the applause of crowds that must always consist in no small proportion of that numerous class of dangerous persons who have reason to fear that some day or other this punishment of pain may come to be inflicted upon themselves. These remarks on corporal punishment, which, as I have said, my prison experiences seem to justify, form but a short episode in the text of this work, in which, as I venture to hope, my professional brethren will find some novelty of treatment, some welcome contributions to our stock of facts, and, here and there, a theory or suggestion which my colleagues of the medicopsychological association may see fit to receive with favour. I may add that the cases which I contribute from my own experience do not fall short of a score; and that those which I quote on authority other than my own are given in so condensed a form as to render this work a larger storehouse of facts than, at first sight, it might be supposed to be. I have appended a sufficient Index, and a list of the principal works which I have had occasion to study or consult. 12, Gordon Street, January, 1881. WILLIAM A. GUY. TITLES OF WORKS REFERRED TO IN THE TEXT. "Inquiries concerning the Intellectual Powers and the Investigation of Truth." By JOHN ABERCROMBIE, M.D. Ninth Edition. 1838. "An Essay on Apparitions." By JOHN ALDERSON, M.D. (New Edition.) 1823. "Observations on the Nature, Kinds, Causes, and Prevention of Insanity." By THOMAS ARNOLD, M.D., Fellow of the "Medical Tracts, read at the College of Physicians between the years 1767 and 1785." By Sir GEORGE BAKER, Bart., M.D., F.R.S., F.A.S. Collected and republished by his Son. 1818. "On Hallucinations: a History and Explanation of Apparitions, Visions, Dreams, Ecstasy, Magnetism, and Somnambulism." By A. Brierre de Boismont, M.D. Translated from the French by ROBERT T. HULME, F.L.S., &c. 1859. "System of Physiology." In Three Volumes. By BOSTOCK. "Letters on Natural Magic, addressed to Sir Walter Scott, Bart." By Sir DAVID BREWSTER. K.H., &c. 1824. “Psychological Inquiries: in a Series of Essays." In Two Parts. By Sir BENJAMIN C. BRODIE, Bart., D.C.L., F.R.S. 1862. "Unsoundness of Mind in Relation to Criminal Acts." An Essay to which the first Sugden Prize was awarded, &c. By CHARLES BUCKNILL, M.D. London, &c. Second Edition. 1857. "A Manual of Psychological Medicine: containing the History, Nosology, Description, Statistics, Diagnosis, Pathology, and Treatment of Insanity, &c." By JOHN CHARLES BUCKNILL, M.D., &c., and DANIEL H. TUKE, M.D., &c. 1858. "Commentaries on the Causes, Forms, Symptoms, and Treatment, Moral and Medical, of Insanity." By GEORGE MAN BURROWS, M.D., &c. 1828. "Principles of Mental Physiology, with their Applications, &c." By WILLIAM B. CARPENTER, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S., &c. Third Edition. 1875. "Life of John Clare, the Northamptonshire Peasant-Poet." By FREDERICK MARTIN. 1830. "An Inquiry Concerning the Indications of Insanity, with Suggestions for the Better Protection and Care of the Insane." By JOHN CONOLLY, M.D. "Criminal Code (Indictable Offences) Bill (as amended in Committee)." Bill 170-year 1879. "Copy of Letter from the Lord Chief Justice of England, dated the 12th day of June, 1879, containing Comments and Suggestions in Relation to the Criminal Code (Indictable Offences) Bill." 232-year 1879. "The First Part of the Institutes of the Laws of England, or a Commentary upon Littleton." Authore EDW. COKE, Milite. Fifth Edition. 1656. Sect. 405, p. 247. "The Cyclopædia of Practical Medicine." Articles on Chorea, Epilepsy, Hysteria, Insanity, Somnambulism, and Unsoundness of Mind. By A. Crawford, J. Cheyne, Conolly, and Prichard. "Zoonomia; or, the Laws of Organic Life." By ERASMUS DARWIN, F.R.S., &c. Two Vols., 4to. 1794. "Mental Pathology and Therapeutics." By W. GRIESinger, M.D. Translated from the German. Second Edition. By C. LOCKHART ROBERTSON, M.D., &c., and JAMES RUTHERFORD, M.D. The New Sydenham Society. 1867. "On Insanity and Crime; and on the Plea of Insanity in Criminal Cases." By WILLIAM A. GUY, M.B., F.R.S., &c. "Journal of the Statistical Society," Vol. XXXII. 1869. "On the Executions for Murder that have taken place in England and Wales during the last Seventy Years." By William A. Guy, M.B., F.R.S., &c. (Read at a Meeting of the Nineteenth Annual Congress of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science, 1875.) "Journal of the Statistical Society," Vol. XXXVIII. "Essays and Orations, read and delivered at the Royal College of Physicians, &c." By Sir HENRY HALFORD, Bart., M.D., G.C.H., President of the College. Second Edition. 1833. |