A treatise on the law of idiocy and lunacy / by A. Highmore.

  • Highmore, A. (Anthony), Jr., 1758-1829.
Date:
1822
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the law of idiocy and lunacy / by A. Highmore. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    that is drunken ;(</) but this sort of non compos affords no privilege to himself, or his heirs; and a descent does not take away the entry of the ideot. As lunatics are affected or governed by the moon, so epileptics were anciently called lunatics; because the par- oxysms of that disease seem to be regulated by the chang- es of the moon.(e) Mad persons are called lunatics from an ancient but now almost exploded opinion, that they are much influenc- ed by that planet:(/) a much sounder philosophy hath taught us that if there be any thing in it, it must be ac- counted for not in the manner which the ancients imagin- ed, nor otherwise than what the moon has in common with other heavenly bodies, occasioning various alterations in the gravity of our atmosphere, and thereby affecting hu- man bodies. However, there is a considerable reason to doubt the fact; and it is certain that the moon has no per- ceivable influence on our most accurate barometers.(g) One, made ideot by sickness, which lord Hale called de- mentia accident alis vcl advtnthia; and which he again distin- guished into a total and a partial insanity, from its being more or less violent, is such a madness as excuseth in criminal cases ; and though the party in every thing else be entitled to the same protection with an ideot, and though his disorder seem permanent and fixed, yet as he had once reason and understanding, and as the law sees no impossi- bility but that he may be restored to them, it makes the king only a trustee for his benefit without giving him any profit or interest in his estate(7»).—17 Edw. II. ch. 10.—1 Bl. Com. 304. Sir W. Blackstone defines a lunatic or non compos mentis to be one who has had understanding, but by disease, grief, or other accident, has lost the use of his reason ;(i) (d) 1 Inst. 247. (h) Hale P. C. 30. 3 Gwillim's (e) Galen de diebus ci-ilicis, 1. 3. Bacon Abr. 526. if) 3 Gwillim's Bac. Abr. 526. (i) 1 Bl. Com. 304. iff) Ree*' Cvclop.