Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/475

Rh is evident that no testimony, statement, or confession of a person under the influence of spirits concerning his acts, conduct, or motives has any value or can be trusted unless sustained by collateral and other evidence.

A third question along this line of inquiry has also become prominent during the year: How far shall an inebriate, or man under the influence of spirits, be held liable for any acts or contracts, such as wills, marriages, or bargains?

The questions the medical man is asked are these: How far is the person in this state capable of appreciating the nature and consequences of his acts? Was his mind in any way impaired to that extent as to be unable to clearly realize his duty and obligations to himself and others? Was the act sane in its execution and reasonable consequences? These questions came up for an answer in the following cases: An inebriate who had drank at intervals for twenty years had made a will disposing of a large property, and had repeatedly mentioned its terms with pleasure and satisfaction. At his death it was found that he had made another will giving most of his property to the Freedman's Bureau for the education of colored children. He had been a very miserly man all his life, and this was an unusual act. The will was made after a drink period, and he seemed to the lawyer and witnesses sober and fully conscious of what he was doing. The medical men held that the use of spirits had not weakened his mind or rendered him incompetent to dispose of his property.

In a second case, a man who drank to excess at intervals bought a large interest in a traveling circus while under the influence of spirits. He seemed perfectly sane at the time, yet the act was unusual, and he sought to annul the contract, claiming that he was subject to undue influence.

The testimony of medical men as to the probable state of the mind when these acts were performed is the central evidence upon which the issue of each case must turn. The necessity of thorough scientific study of the mental condition of men who use spirits at intervals or continuously, and the application of all the facts that enter into the history of the cases in question, is imperative.

The question of premeditation in the drink paroxysms is a subject of much confusion in many cases.

The frequent instances where inebriates, in apparent possession of good judgment, go away and drink to great excess, displaying a degree of forethought and premeditation fully characteristic of all the ordinary events of life, are often very confusing to the ordinary observer. When the drink paroxysm comes all unexpectedly upon the victim, in some unforeseen state and circumstance, and he falls, it is apparent that he is suffering from