Unsoundness of mind considered in relation to the question of responsibility for criminal acts / by Samuel Knaggs.

  • Knaggs, Samuel, 1829-1911.
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Unsoundness of mind considered in relation to the question of responsibility for criminal acts / by Samuel Knaggs. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    certainty; it is for him to investigate and control the ravages of principles which can be neither seen nor traced, otherwise than by the observation of the effect produced upon that complex piece of machinery the human body; to study a mechanism which he can understand, in unison with a prin- ciple of life which baffles comprehension; from the knowledge he has acquired, he endeavours to reason up to that which he does not possess; he finds obscurity in the origin and causes of diseases, as also in their progress and decline, and in the application of remedies much of dubious ground. The mind thus habituated to the contemplation of subjects of such practical import, though specula- tive tendency, demanding investigation as they do in an enlarged and philosophical spirit, acquires facility in seeking out and grappling with all the material difficulties investing the topic, which habit, although doubtless in accordance with the true genius of philosophic investigation, still un- questionably must be admitted to have a tendency to divert the mind from the practical considera- tion, which is really that which should be most attended to. When clouds of doubt are then, as we have seen, necessarily so constantly passing and repassing before the vision of the physician, can it be matter of surprise or wonder, that if he pro- perly appreciate his position, hesitancy and caution stamp the man? And it is no doubt owing to the widely different training to which these two sepa-