Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 2.djvu/900

 ■WATEES V. CONNBCTICUT MUT. LIFE INS. CO. 893 �In law, a man does not die by hisownhand, althoughhe puts an end to his life, unless he commits the act which resulta in death with a knowledge at the time of ita moral character, and its consequence and effects. Nor does he die by his own hand if he is impelled to the act by an insane impulse which he bas not the power to resist. Observe, gentlemen, that I speak of an insane impulse. No matter how strong the im- pulse may be, or how wicked, if he be not insane, or if he bas the power to resist, and does not choose to do so, the person acting under it dies by his own hand. �1. Your first inquiry will be, did the assured take his own life? You will probably bave no dif35culty in deciding that question. Prom the evidence it will be proper for you to infer that he was attending to his ordinary business in the usual way, and was in good health, on the 19th of July, 1877; that leaving his home in the earlier part of the evening, and after making one or two calls upon friends, he disappeared from mortal sight. He was never seeu alive again, but was found the next morning upon the floor of the office of his place of business, dead, with QO marks of violence upon his person, and near him an empty glass, which had contained corrosive sublimate, and near to that the letter addressed to his brother in which he announced the fact of his intended self-destruction, and the reasons which impelled him to the course. Such circumstances leave no room for reasonable doubt that, physicially, he died by his own hand. �2. You are then brought, gentlemen, to the next inquiry, was he insane at the time of the commission of the act which resulted in his death ? �Your verdict hangs upon the decision of that question. And it is a difficult one, for it involves the definition of insan- ity, and the detection of its existence from the conduct of the individual. What is insanity ? It may be defined generally to be a disease of the mind. It is such a derangement of the mental faculties that the individual bas lost the power of reasoning correctly. But it differs so much in kind and degree that no precise definition can be given applicable to the vary- ing circumstances of every case. Medical meu whose studies �19* ����