affairs _amount_ to evidence that he is of unsound mind; and he must be found to be so. Now there is a great difference between inability to manage a man's affairs, and imbecility of mind taken as _evidence_ of unsoundness of mind. The case of Charlton Palmer, in which this was very much discussed, was the case of a man stricken in years, and whose mind was the mind of a child;--it was, _therefore_, _in that sense_, imbecility, and inability to manage his affairs, which _constituted_ unsoundness of mind." The introduction of the term _unsoundness_, to denote a particular state of disordered mind, which is supposed to differ from idiotcy and lunacy, has been the source of considerable perplexity to medical practitioners; and, in my own opinion, opens an avenue for ignorance and injustice. The application of figurative terms, especially when imposed under a loose analogy, and where they might be supplied by words of direct meaning, always tends to error and confusion. When medical persons depose that the mind of an individual is unsound, (which character of intellect, if accredited by the jury, would induce them to find the commission,) they ought, at the same time, to define precisely what they mean by such term:--and the jury, when they "proceed to infer" this unsoundness, ought to be in possession of sufficient and well-defined premises, to warrant such inference. But where are these materials to be found? There is a strong presumption that this unsoundness remains an unsolved problem to the present hour, and it is exemplified in the difference of sentiment that prevailed on a late occasion,[B] between the most eminent of the medical profession; where the same opinions and conduct impressed certain physicians, that this nobleman was of sound mind, and others that his mind was thoroughly unsound: so that the jury were to _proceed to make their inference_ from the opposite testimony, deposed by the medical evidence, or to proceed to hold such evidence in little esteem from its contrariety on a subject which these physicians professed to illustrate. The term unsoundness, applied to designate a certain state of the human mind, hitherto undescribed, has not originated with medical persons; to them, therefore, we cannot refer for the solution of its import, and there can be no analogy between the definite unsoundness of animal and vegetable substances, and any condition of the intellect. Timber is said to be unsound, and although we may be little acquainted with the cause by which it is produced, yet its actual state of rottenness is evident:--a horse is unsound, in consequence of some morbid affection that can be pointed out by the veterinarian:--a dentist can detect an unsound tooth:--a physician, from certain well marked symptoms, concludes that the lungs or liver of an individual are unsound:--particular doctrines are held to be unsound, because they deflect from such as are orthodox,