KFLCC Kingdom Law 2nd Ed.

633

INSANITY

INSANITY

larly called "St. Vitus' dance."— Puerperal in sanity is mental derangement occurring in women at the time of child-birth or immediately after; it is also called "eclampsia parturien tium." — Folie brightique. A French term sometimes used to designate an access of in sanity resulting from nephritis or "Bright's dis ease." See In re McKean's Will, 31 Misc. Rep. 703, 66 N. Y. Supp. 44.— Delirium tremens. A disease of the nervous system, induced by the excessive and protracted use of intoxicating liq uors, and affecting the brain so as to produce incoherence and lack of continuity in the intel lectual processes, a suspension or perversion of the power of volition, and delusions, particular ly of a terrifying nature, but not generally prompting to violence except in the effort to es cape from imaginary dangers. It is recognized in law as a form of insanity, and may be of such a nature or intensity as to render the pa tient legally incapable of committing a crime. United States v. McGlue, 1 Curt. 1, 26 Fed. Cas. 1093; Insurance Co. v. Deming, 123 Ind. 384, 24 N. E. 86; Maconnehey v. State, 5 Ohio St. 77; Erwin v. State, 10 Tex. App. 700; Carter v. State, 12 Tex. 500 ; 62 Am. Dec. 539. In some states the insanity of alcoholic intoxica tion is classed as "temporary," where induced by the voluntary recent use of ardent spirits and carried to such a degree that the person becomes incapable of judging the consequences or the moral aspect of his acts, and "settled," where the condition is that of delirium tremens. Settled insanity, in this sense, excuses from civil or criminal responsibility; temporary in sanity does not. The ground of the distinction is that the former is a remote effect of imbibing alcoholic liquors and is not voluntarily incurred, while the latter is a direct result voluntarily sought for. Evers v. State, 31 Tex. Cr. R. 318, 20 S. W. 744, 18 I* R. A. 421, 37 Am. St. Rep. 811; Maconnehey v. State, 5 Ohio St. 77. —Syphilitic insanity is paresis or progres sive imbecility resulting from the infection of syphilis. It is sometimes called fas being a se quence or result of that disease) metasyphilis" or "parasyphilis." — Tabetic dementia. A form of mental derangement or insanity com plicated with "tabes dorsalis" or locomotor ataxia, which generally precedes, or sometimes follows, the mental attack. As to insanity re sulting from cerebral embolism, see EMBOLISM; from epilepsy, see EPILEPSY. AS to chronic alcoholism as a form of insanity, see ALCOHOL ISM. General descriptive and clinical terms. —Affective insanity. A modern comprehen sive term descriptive of all those forms of in sanity which affect or relate to the feelings and emotions and hence to the ethical and social relations of the individual.— Involutional in sanity. That which sometimes accompanies the "involution" of the physical structure and physiology of the individual, the reverse of their "evolution," hence practically equivalent to the imbecility of old age or senile dementia.— Ma niacal-depressive insanity. A form of in sanity characterized by alternating periods of high maniacal excitement and of depressed and stuprous conditions in the nature of or resem bling melancholia, often occurring as a series or cycle of isolated attacks, with more or less com plete restoration to health in the intervals. (Kraepelin.) This is otherwise called "circular insanity" or "circular stupor."— Circular in sanity. Another name for maniacal-depressive insanity, which see.— Partial insanity, as a legal term, may mean either monomania (see infra) or an intermediate stage in the develop ment of mental derangement. In the former sense, it does not relieve the patient from re sponsibility for his acts, except where instigat ed directly by his particular delusion or obses sion. Com. v. Mosler, 4 Pa. 264; Com. v. Bar ner, 199 Pa. 335, 49 Atl. 60; Trich v. Trich, 165 Pa. 586, 30 Atl. 1053. In the latter sense,

ness; and in this sense an insane delusion is a fixed belief in the mind of the patient of the existence of a fact which has no objec tive existence but is purely the figment of his imagination, and which is so extravagant that no sane person would believe it under the circumstances of the case, the belief, nevertheless, being so unchangeable that the patient is incapable of being permanently dis abused by argument or proof. The charac teristic which distinguishes an "insane" de lusion from other mistaken beliefs is that it is not a product of the reason but of the imagination, that is, not a mistake of fact in duced by deception, fraud, insufficient evi dence, or erroneous reasoning, but the spon taneous conception of a perverted imagina tion, having no basis whatever in reason or evidence. Riggs v. Missionary Soc, 35 Hun (N. Y.) 658; Buchanan v. Pierie, 205 Pa. 123, 54 Atl. 583, 97 Am. St. Rep. 725; Gass v. Gass, 3 Humph. (Tenn.) 283; Dew v. Clarke, 8 Add. 79; In re Bennett's Estate, 201 Pa. 485, 51 Atl. 336; In re Scott's Estate, 128 Cal. 57, 60 Pac. 527; Smith v. Smith, 48 N. J. Eq. 566, 25 Atl. 11; Guiteau's Case (D. C) 10 Fed. 170; State v. Lewis, 20 Nev. 333, 22 Pac. 241; In re White, 121 N. Y. 406, 24 N. E. 935; Potter v. Jones, 20 Or. 239, 25 Pac. 769, 12 D. R. A. 161. As to the distinctions between "Delusion" and "Illusion" and "Hal lucination," see those titles. Forms and varieties of insanity. With out attempting a scientific classification of the numerous types and forms of insanity, (as to which it may be said that there is as yet no final agreement among psychologists and alienists either as to analysis or nomenclature,) defini tions and explanations will here be appended of the compound and descriptive terms most com monly met with in medical jurisprudence. And, first, as to the origins or causes of the disease: Traumatic insanity is such as results from a wound or injury, particularly to the head or brain, such as fracture of the skull or concus sion of the brain.— Idiopathic insanity is such as results from a disease of the brain it self, lesions of the cortex, cerebral anemia, etc. —Congenital insanity is that which exists from the birth of the patient, and is (in law) properly called "idiocy." See supra. — Cretin ism is a form of imperfect or arrested mental development, which may amount to idiocy, with physical degeneracy or deformity or lack of development; endemic in Switzerland and some other parts of Europe, but the term is applied to similar states occurring elsewhere.— Pella grous insanity. Insanity caused by or de prived from pellagra, which is an endemic dis ease of southern Europe, (though not confined to that region,) characterized by erythema, di gestive derangement, and nervous affections. (Cent Diet.)— Polyneuritic insanity is in sanity arising from an inflammation of the nerves, of the kind called "polyneuritis" or "mul tiple neuritis" because it involves several nerves at the same time. This is often preceded by tuberculosis and almost always by alcoholism, and is characterized specially by delusions and falsification of the memory. It is otherwise called "KorssakofFs disease." (Kraepelin.)— Choreic insanity is insanity arising from chorea, the latter being a nervous disease, more commonly attacking children than adults, char acterized by irregular and involuntary twitch ings of the muscles of the limbs and face, popu