and perhaps it is the best that can be furnished. [61:A] It has been observed that the finding a commission is like signing the death-warrant of an individual: it certainly consigns his person and property to the management of others appointed by the chancellor. But it should be fully understood that this process is exclusively a process of law, and resorted to by the relations, or trustees for the insane person. The medical practitioner has no interest whatever in this legal instrument—on the contrary, he is generally a loser by the finding of the commission, which ordinarily implies (though improperly) a confirmed state of disease, rendering less necessary medical advice and attendance. In many instances, the insanity of the person is so clear, so evident and demonstrable, that it is immediately acknowledged by the commissioners and jury;—in such cases the medical practitioner has an easy duty to perform. There are however occasions where the state of the person’s mind involves considerable doubt, and creates much difficulty in determining: and in these equivocal and embarrassing circumstances, the skill and experience of the physician must furnish the documents and reasons for the decision of the jury. He is presumed, in consequence of his previous attendance on the patient, from the repeated conversations he has held with him, and from an attentive observation of his conduct, to be fully informed of the state of his mind: and as the commission is commonly granted by the medical affidavit of the party’s lunacy, it is a natural expectation that such medical evidence should be competent to prove to the extent he has deposed on oath. The gentlemen who compose the jury and whose province it is to determine on the lunacy of the party, may not be acquainted with the different species of insanity, nor possess any considerable knowledge of the physiology of the intellect; yet they are entitled, and fully able to exercise their judgment, their honest and plain sense, on those opinions and that conduct which characterize an insane mind, and which disqualify the person so affected from having the management of himself or of his affairs. It is the duty of the medical evidence to become acquainted with his prevailing opinions, and also with his propensity to act on them, to ascertain his capricious partialities and unfounded resentments:—and whether he meditates his own destruction, or seeks to take away the life of another. Either of these propensities originating purely from insanity, both for the safety of the patient and of the community claim the protection of the law. Although the commissioners and jury have a right to expect from the medical evidence a full developement of the patient’s condition of intellect, yet it has not unfrequently occurred that even medical persons have so widely differed concerning the mental state of an individual, that one party has deposed to his sanity, and the other