The plea of insanity in criminal cases / by Forbes Winslow.

  • Winslow, Forbes, 1810-1874.
Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The plea of insanity in criminal cases / by Forbes Winslow. 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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    PREFACE. It has been the object of the author of this work to convey to the reader a correct notion of the present state of the law in relation to the plea of insanity in criminal cases. In order to effect this object, he has referred to all the established legal and medical au- thorities in which this topic is made the subject of consideration, as well as to the decisions, charges, and judgments of the most illustrious ornaments of the bench, in cases where insanity has been urged as an exculpatory plea. This subject, it will be readily admitted, is one of great interest and importance. The life of a fellow-creature is often dependent on the evidence given in a court of justice, when cases of this kind become matters of judicial inquiry. A person ignorant of the character and peculiar- ities of disordered intellect,— of the pathological condition of the human mind, — of its strange