If the performance of a sane act by an insane person should be deemed valid, let the converse of the proposition be allowed. Many who have been of accredited soundness of mind have in some instances made such a testamentary disposition of their property as has astonished those who have survived them. Without apparent reason or provocation they have left their property away from their nearest relations to public institutions, officers of state, or to those with whom they were very slightly acquainted. Has this single act, independently of other concurring or collateral evidences of derangement, born the imputation of insanity? Would the uniform tenor of sane and consistent conduct, for many years, both prior and posterior to such act, be set aside for this individual deed? If it should, then long existing insanity ought to be overlooked by a single act of consistency. The reader must be aware that this is general reasoning, as no particular case has been the subject of discussion. The search has been directed to a broad and general principle, without prying into subtil distinctions;—it is reasoning as far as a knowledge of the human intellect, in its sane and disordered state, may be expected from medical opinion; but it presumes not to dictate to that constituted authority denominated law, which in all civilized nations, has been wisely established for the protection and happiness of the community. _Printed by G. HAYDEN, Brydges Street, Covent Garden._ TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES The following corrections have been made to the original text: Page 9: wanted the means[original has “sn” in inverted type] of direct information Page 9: subtil craziness[original has “crasiness”] of Hamlet Page 13: having gauged[original has “guaged”] his insanity Page 15: where he betrays[original has “bewray”] no derangement Page 18: gratuitous and groundless supposition[original has “suppposition”] Page 20: Is it[original has “is”] christian-like to deem him Page 36: These apparitions[original has “apparations”] were obtruded Page 54: although it[original has “its”] deserves the fullest consideration Page 58: where he perfectly recovered.[period missing in original] Page 60: witnessed only two attempts[original has “at-attempts” hyphenated across a line break] Page 64: state of the person’s[original has “persons’s”] mind Page 73: obstacle to its advancement.[period missing in original] Page 79: medical persons in[original has “person sin”] the treatment Page 89: if such term be[original has “he”] legally insisted Page 100: but the volition[original has “voli-lition” hyphenated across a line break] of a sound End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Medical Jurisprudence as it Relates to Insanity, According to the Law of Engl, by John Haslam