favourite, urged the business with an indecent and arbitrary heat. From the worst of the _Stuarts_, and the pedantic believer in witchcraft (for _maleficium_[258] was then used in this sense) such conduct was not extraordinary; in the present day we may boast with confidence that similar interference would be impossible. With these defects, the case of the Earl of Essex can be of little or no use to the medical jurist; and unfortunately we have no other which is reported with sufficient accuracy or authenticity; we say unfortunately, because though there may be much of good policy and correct feeling in the determination of our Civilians to conceal the detail of such cases from the public eye,[259] yet by drawing their line too strictly, they run no inconsiderable risk of totally excluding those lights of science, of which in so dark and intricate a subject they must necessarily stand in need. It is true that the ecclesiastical courts may have the benefit of medical evidence in every case which is brought before them, but this evidence will be necessarily imperfect, unless founded on previous study, and some knowledge of the points, to which the practice of the Court will require the witness to direct his attention. In France, where causes of this kind may perhaps have been more frequent, and where less reserve is used than suits our national character, several cases have been published, for which see the _Collection des Causes celebres_, and _Bayle’s Dictionary, tit. Quellenec & Parthenai_, with the references there given. We have stated that the defect of corporeal ability[260] may proceed from mental or bodily causes; of the former the instances must be exceedingly rare, and the latter are certainly not numerous: but the reader will find the information which he may require upon this subject in the following physiological illustrations. VARIOUS QUESTIONS CONNECTED WITH THE FOREGOING SUBJECTS, ELUCIDATED BY PHYSIOLOGICAL RESEARCHES. 1. OF AGES, ESPECIALLY THAT OF PUBERTY. As the period of puberty is intimately connected with the subject of Marriage, and as the age of an individual has many other important relations with civil and criminal transactions, we shall take this occasion to consider the several physiological points which the subject necessarily comprehends.