Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 36.djvu/97

Rh simulated. There are latent or concealed delusions which start into view when the appropriate spring is touched. There is the order in disorder of dissolution which can not be imitated. There are types of delusions and hallucinations which are easily recognized. And, above all, there are physical signs of disorder of the brain and nervous system which correspond with certain stages in the degradation of will-power.

To the expert witness in cases of insanity and crime these questions should, it seems to me, be put: Was the prisoner insane at the time when he committed the act of which he is accused? Was his insanity of such a nature and degree as to deprive him of control over his conduct? What are the grounds upon which you have formed these opinions? It would then remain for the jury, aided by the judge, and with the assistance of other experts if necessary, to decide on the validity of the grounds stated and on the weight to be attached to the opinions expressed.

Expert testimony, to be of the highest value, ought of course to be founded on an examination, or, better still, on repeated examinations, of the accused, made as soon as possible after the perpetration of the crime. But insanity is a chronic disease; and even when the expert has not seen the alleged lunatic until some time after his crime, he may still be able to say whether in the course of a disease still existing, or of the recent existence of which there are traces, such a criminal act was likely to crop up as part and parcel of the disease; and whether it is consistent with his experience and with the history of the act that the accused could not help it. When the crime was committed during a temporary paroxysm of madness or during an attack from which recovery has taken place before the examination has been ordered, it may still be possible for an expert to say whether the symptoms described to him form a true picture of mental disease or are only a spurious copy, and whether any wreckage still marks the course of a nerve-storm. Sometimes it will be impossible for an expert to make up his mind either one way or the other, and then it is his duty plainly to say so.

And now I have a practical suggestion to offer which would, if adopted, I venture to believe, do more to reconcile the great professions of law and medicine on the questions at issue between them respecting insanity and crime than any prolongation of those elaborate and sometimes highly spiced logomachies in which they have both indulged in the past.

What is wanted is a series of skilled and sustained observations on homicides who have escaped punishment on the plea of insanity, made by competent and unbiased authorities, couched in language understanded of the people, and published from time to time. And, in order that such a series of observations may be